Theology for Women

Evangelical women get a bad rap.

These days, the world conceives of evangelical women as little more than Christian Stepford wives. They look pretty, they obey their husbands, and they churn out babies like there’s no tomorrow. And if they’re really good, they’ll get their own reality t.v. series about what it’s like to homeschool 16 kids.

This is not, however, accurate.

Yes, some evangelicals fit that category, but evangelical women are far more courageous and independent than they are given credit for.

Recently I read an article in which Paige Patterson, President of Southwestern Seminary, wrote the following,

“The women of Southwestern are not wimps, and they are sold out to the task of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth…[they] are willing to go to the places where e-mails are sent home full of cryptic shorthand because publicly declaring the message of Christ could come at the cost of their lives.”

What’s interesting about this article is that Southwestern is a Southern Baptist seminary. What’s more, this Southern Baptist seminary has been the subject of much controversy due to its strict stance on biblical womanhood. Patterson does not, however, sound like the stereotypical woman-hater he’s often caricatured to be.

That said, while I myself have not always towed the Southern Baptist line, Patterson is right on. Yes, some evangelical women are just looking for a husband. And some women are submissive because they never really learned to think for themselves.

But you know what, that’s really true of just about every demographic.

The truth is that countless evangelical woman are going out into the world and risking their lives for the Gospel, some even without husbands! They consider their lives nothing for the sake of Christ, so they are going into countries where many other Christians are afraid to go.

Last time I checked, that wasn’t really a part of the “wallflower” job description.

But what is even more interesting is that women are actually trend setters in their risk-taking endeavors. At my own church, I can probably count on one hand the number of men who have gone on the mission field, but I’ve lost count of how many women have gone overseas. I say that not to make the men look bad, but to add that women aren’t simply waiting on men to do this important work. They’re taking initiative in fighting this good fight.

All of that to say, if you are an evangelical woman, the legacy being set for you is far more than the culture would have you think. Our generation is producing women who are heroes of the faith, women who are strong and women who will risk their lives for Christ. That is who we are, and that is where we are going.

So don’t you let anyone tell you you’re a shrinking violet. If the world wants to find a wallflower, kindly encourage them to start looking elsewhere.

Well I am back from spending 2 weeks on the other side of the world, and it was awesome! I tried foods I swore I’d never try (if you ever come across a fruit called durian, run far, far away as fast as you can) and I saw things I never dreamed of seeing. It was a fantastic mission trip in which God taught me a lot, and I am so glad that I went!

You know, mission trips are a funny thing. We go on them for a variety of reasons, but those reasons generally have something to do with obedience. We’re responding to Jesus’ Great Commission, or we’re challenging ourselves to leave our comfort zones for the sake of Christ, etc. But whatever the reason, we can always come home and pat ourselves on the back for acting in obedience to God. The trip may have been hard at times, but gosh we sure are good Christians for raising all that money and going overseas to speard the Gospel! God is surely so proud of us!

But as I look back on this trip, I feel quite the opposite. Yes, I went overseas and made some sacrifices to do so. Yes, I acted in obedience for the sake of Christ. Those are all good things. But this whole experience has showed me something about God and about myself that I cannot allow to be overshadowed by my valiant gesture to go a mission trip. What matters even more than sweeping acts of obedience and giant stabs at faithfulness is what we do in between.

Yes, I went on a mission trip. Hooray for me! But how did I treat my fellow teammates every day of that trip? How did I respond to others when they were getting on my nerves or I was exhausted from traveling? When I wasn’t in “ministry mode” with non-Christians, how did I carry myself when I let my guard down?

Not so good.

You see, I can be a totally awesome Christian for about an hour or two. When I’m meeting with non-Christians and sharing the Gospel, I can be so sweet and kind and sincere and loving. It’s really impressive, and I look like a really great disciple of Christ!

But those short acts of obedience pale in comparison to the larger picture of my faith. While God does ask us to make incredible leaps of faith, our lives are not defined by leaps, but by the accumulation of thousands of tiny steps. I may do something tremendously obedient every now and then, but those occasional gestures will not determine the overall trajectory of my life.

Picture it kind of like this: Say that you’re walking on a hiking trail attempting to find your way back home. You think you’re going in the right direction, but then you take a wrong turn. It may not be a major wrong turn–just a small enough turn to take you off the trail. Then you take another small, wrong turn, and then another, and then another.

Hours later, you realize the mistake you’ve made–you are WAY off the trail. So what do you do to solve the problem? You establish the right direction, and then head that way.

But say, for instance, that you decide to fix your problem by taking one running leap as far as you can in the right direction. Do you think that that one giant leap will fix your problem? Just because you made a giant corrective turn towards your destination, will you no longer be lost? No! Because you’ve just spent hours and hours going the wrong way, so it will take hours and hours of tiny steps back in the right direction before you have found your way home.

It is the same with faith. Obedience is not defined by the giant leaps of faith, but the accumulation of a million tiny ones. While I know God is pleased by my decision to go overseas, as well as my obedience in heeding the call to ministry, those actions are small in comparison to the day-to-day living of my life.

Do I pray every day? Do I spend time in the Word every day? Am I kind to my family, my roommates, or the people I don’t like? Am I intentional about sharing the Gospel here? Am I intentional about meeting new people and fostering Christ-centered friendships here? Do I gossip? Do I watch trashy t.v.? Do I exclude people because I’m too lazy to work toward a true vision of the Church? Or do I guard my tongue, watch what materials my mind consumes, and work to build up the Body of Christ in every way I can?

If you can’t answer all of those questions in a way that you know will please God, then you cannot deceive yourself into thinking that one mission trip, or even a career as a minister, will overcompensate. It is the small steps, not the large ones, that define us. That is the difference between selective obedience, and total surrender. So no matter how you spent your summer this year, and no matter how you intend to serve God this coming year, don’t forget to look at the small stuff. In God’s economy, that is what He’ll be looking at, so it’s time we measure obedience on His terms.

Since I’ve been in Southeast Asia I have done a ton of crazy stuff (ever eaten stingray??) and I’ve met some really amazing people. But of all the people I’ve met so far, one stands out among the rest, and for a very obvious reason. He is a student I met at a local university, and he is a male cheerleader.

Now as soon as he informed me of this, I was quite stunned. Given the religious standards of the country, you don’t exactly imagine male cheerleaders hopping around everywhere. But sure enough, here they are! He told me that the girls don’t wear quite as short skirts as American cheerleaders do, but other than that, they’re largely the same. They dance, they tumble, and the LOVE the Bring It On movies. He’s seen all four.

In fact, his team even went to Japan to compete in the Asian Cheerleading Championship. Did you ever even imagine such a thing existed? I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a Bring It On 5!!

As you can tell, this guy was a total free spirit. He even started a Free Hug Campaign (look it up on youtube if you’re not familiar). It didn’t go over that well given the religious culture, and he was disappointed, but he still tried, and I loved that about him.

Of all the people I have met so far, he has been one of the easiest to love right away. Even though he was a total stranger, he gave out love and kindness unabashedly, which made it easy to love him. I wasn’t afraid of being rejected, and that lack of fear set me free to love him back.

Unfortunately, that isn’t my normal response to strangers. I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to love people I’ve just met. In fact, I think a lot of Christians have this problem. We struggle to love people we don’t know, and it hinders our outreach tremendously. I have seen this in myself a lot this week. When I walk up to people I don’t know, I immediately feel guarded, fearing rejection. I am afraid to make myself look stupid by putting myself out there, so I am cautious and almost defensive. Understandably, people don’t respond well to such an approach. It makes them equally uneasy.

But there is an opposite, equally poor response that Christians have towards strangers, and that is to paint on a smile and be kind as an act of sheer will. We know we’re supposed to be loving, so we fake it. The result is a face that screams something along the lines of “Fake!” or “I’ve been brainwashed!” Our hearts aren’t feeling it, but we think we can fool people. Well we can’t.

The world can see right through us, and that is one of the lessons I have learned this week. There is nothing that can replace sincere, authentic love. We cannot fake it, and we can’t grit our teeth and bear through it. It’s got to be real.But if this kind of love can’t be faked, then how do we come by it? Well there are two ways, and the first and most vital method is through prayer. This week I have quickly realized that I can’t change the way I feel about people I’ve never met. But God can. God can change my heart to see complete strangers as my brothers and sisters, created in His divine image, and worthy of love. That doesn’t mean feeling warm and fuzzy about every person you cross on the street, but it does mean caring about what happens to them in a way that mirrors God’s heart for them.

And given that it is a God-like desire, it can only come to you from God. So you must pray for heart change.But the second step towards loving strangers is surrender. You must be willing to be a fool for Christ.

The thing I loved about my young, cheerleading friend is that he was not afraid to love people, and that set me immediately at ease. If he had acted defensive or guarded, I would have felt defensive and guarded as well. We set the tone for every interaction, determining whether it will be defined by unconditional love, or conditional acceptance. And given that reality, we need to love radically, risking rejection, but knowing that people are much more likely to respond to free love than they are to guarded apprehension.

I’m still working on this. Big time. But it was humbling to learn this lesson from a practicing Buddhist. To be out-loved by a non-Christian was quite a wake-up call. So while I am here, I pray that I would truly learn what it is to love a stranger. Feel free to send some prayers my way, because I sure do need it!

Or at least their prisons are!

I just got back from my mission trip to West Virginia, and it was nothing short of INCREDIBLE. I learned more than I ever could have imagined! In addition to the many spiritual truths and insights that God revealed during the last several days, I also learned how to whip a large van around sharp mountain curves at dangerously high speeds, and I learned that I won’t actually die if I can’t use my cell phone for a week (we had to drive an hour from where we were staying just to get a signal).

But back to the spiritual stuff. Honestly, I don’t even know where to begin. I’m going to spend the next several posts reflecting on the various stories and revelations I happened upon, but until then, let me give you the details on how I spent my time so that you have a little bit of background.

To begin, I ventured into the middle-of-nowhere West Virginia with 8 students from UNC-Greensboro. We worked with a church in the area, and we spent the majority of our days in a federal prison for women. However, this was no ordinary prison–this particular facility was for women who had been pregnant at the time of their sentencing, and had since given birth. All of the women in this prison had children between the ages of 3 weeks to 15 months, and were raising them in federal confinement.

As a mission team, our job was to go in there and simply care for the women and their children–we did crafts, I played my guitar, we went on walks, we held the babies, and listened to the moms. We had a blast, and I was heart-broken to leave them behind. I feel as though I made some true friends there, so it’s difficult to leave when you know that they can’t.

But in addition to working with the women’s prison, we also spent some time at the medium security men’s prison, which was considerably more intense. A number of the men there had been convicted of very serious crimes, including some fairly heinous murders. But the crazy thing is that you would have never guessed it! Granted, I only spent time with the prisoners who were Christian (on Tuesday and Thursday nights we led some of the inmates in a worship service) but they were a remarkable testimony to the transformational power of the Gospel! Let me leave you with one story…

On Tuesday night I had the privilege of leading worship, so I stood in front of about 40 prisoners with my guitar and one of my students, and we sang. It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. While I stood up there I looked out at the group and saw tough men, covered in tattoos, grinning ear to ear, and bouncing their heads along to the music. Some of them had their eyes closed as they worshiped, and there was such joy on their faces!…in prison of all places! It reminded me of Paul’s words in Philippians–”Rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again, rejoice!” Paul wrote those very words when he was in prison. Clearly Paul, and those inmates, knew something I did not.

Afterwards, many of the men came up to shake my hand and thank me for coming. They spoke of their testimonies, when and how they got saved, and what a blessing it was to worship with me and my students. And as I looked into each man’s eyes, I did not see the face of a murderer–I saw the face of a prodigal son who was overcome with joy and humility at having been welcomed back by his father. I also saw the face of a brother…..and I mean that quite literally. I felt as if we were family. I guess we are.

One final thought. Jesus once told the disciples that a certain sinful woman “loved much because she’d been forgiven much.” Well these inmates loved much, and you could see it in their faces. Though they lived in a dark, dark place, the light of their faith was blindingly bright. It was a magnificent thing to behold.

So as I think back to the time I spent in a prison in West Virginia, I am humbled by the knowledge that I have brothers and sisters there. We may come from very different backgrounds, and our culture may label them as irredeemable, but I have more in common with them than some members of my own family. We are one in Christ. And while society may tell them that they’re without hope, God gave hope to the hopeless. I think those men and women understand the magnitude of that gift far more than I ever could.

For that, and many other reasons, it was a good week. More stories to follow…

Hey guys, I wanted to let you all know that I am gonna be out of town until next Friday, so I won’t be blogging during that time, but I would greatly appreciate your prayers. I’m taking a team of college students to West Virginia where we will be doing prison ministry. It’s going to be an amazing time for my students to learn what it truly means to reach out to people that the rest of the culture largely shuns. That said, I think we are all going to learn more about the very heartbeat of Christ. Hopefully we will all be transformed, as well as being a blessing to the inmates with whom we’re working.

In addition to that prayer request, I should also add that I will be driving an old, 15 passenger van through the snowy, winding mountains, so after you stop laughing at the visual of my tiny self behind the wheel of this humongous vehicle, please pray for our safety.

I look forward to telling you all about it when I get back!