Reading List
BURIED TALENTS: Overcoming Gendered Socialization to Answer God's Call
Susan Harris Howell
If God is calling women to lead, what's holding them back? Susan Harris Howell has spent years helping students investigate this question. In Buried Talents, she makes clear how gender disparity in leadership is directly connected to a larger, less overt issue: gendered socialization. Howell examines gendered messages people encounter inside and outside the church in each stage of life, showing how they often create misconceptions about who women are, what they're capable of, and how they fit into God's work. As these messages pull men toward leadership, they push women away from it. God's call to leadership doesn't come in a vacuum. It comes to particular people who have, from childhood through adulthood, been shaped by subtle forms of socialization. Using social science research and interviews to explain these forces, Howell offers psychological and practical tools for both women and men to make more balanced vocational decisions. A discussion guide and suggested reading lists are also included to help readers engage and apply the content. As opportunities for women continue to expand, too many still hold back in responding to God's call. Buried Talents provides compelling guidance for how we can remove obstacles that keep women from fully using their gifts.
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RECLAIMING EVE: The Identity & Calling of Women in the Kingdom of God
Susan Burden, Carla Sunberg, Jamie Wright
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For many of us, it is Eve's sin that defines her. . . Truly when the church focuses the entire problem of sin and the destruction of relationships on women, we have a problem. As a woman, do you sometimes feel inferior, resigned to a self-image that seems second-best? Do you feel strong in your faith but wonder, how does God see me? Do you look around and realize you don't fit into a typical mold? Every daughter of Eve faces an identity crisis at some time in her life. And many of us wonder where we fit in on a regular basis. While writing Reclaiming Eve, authors Suzanne Burden, Carla Sunberg, and Jamie Wright set out to discover what scripture says about every woman's identity. What they uncovered will help women, no matter their stage in life, find the freedom to become all they can be in God's kingdom. Whether you feel discouraged and damaged or desire a greater understanding of your spiritual condition, this book will help you embrace your identity as one reclaimed by Jesus Christ. Learn not only how to live, but thrive as a child of God and a daughter of Eve.
EMBOLDENED: A Vision for Empowering Women in Ministry
Tara Beth Leach
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Throughout Scripture and church history, women have been central to the mission of God. But all too often women have lacked opportunities to minister fully. Many churches lack visible examples of women in ministry and leadership. Pastor Tara Beth Leach issues a stirring call for a new generation of women in ministry: to teach, to preach, to shepherd, and to lead. God not only permits women to minister―he emboldens, empowers, and unleashes women to lead out of the fullness of who they are. The church cannot reach its full potential without women using their God-given gifts. Leach provides practical expertise for how women can find their place at the table, escape impostor syndrome, face opposition, mentor others, and much more. When women teach, preach, lead, evangelize, pastor, and disciple, and when men partner to embolden the women in their lives, the church's imagination expands to better reflect God's story and hope for the world.
JESUS FEMINIST: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women
Sarah Bessey
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For centuries, the role of women in the Church has been a subdued one, with many limitations. The time has come, argues Sarah Bessey-who has been called an "accidental grassroots voice for postmodern and progressive evangelical women"- to take a new look at Scripture and challenge old assumptions. In Jesus Feminist, Bessey shares her spiritual journey, which ranges from growing up in a post–gender-debate home to learning about the worldwide struggles of women and the obstacles even a well-meaning church can pose. Through disarmingly intimate storytelling, she tells how she grew to understand the story of God and the vastness of his work through women. Never one to shy away from the hard questions, Bessey engages critically with Scripture and church practices that are often used against full equality and shares how following Jesus made a feminist out of her. Filled with beauty, hard truth, and brave vulnerability, Jesus Feminist urges the Church to stop asking "man or woman" as a qualification for ministry and to start helping everyone find freedom in the fullness, hope, glory, and work of Christ.