Content - Gender Sexuality Category (2 new)

Listening to Women for the Good of the Church, Academy, and World

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 02:47:00 GMT

In this interview, IVP authors Carmen Joy Imes, Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young, E. K. Strawser, Nijay Gupta, Rob Dixon, and Sandra L. Glahn reflect on Women’s History Month and the importance of hearing women—and what we miss when we don’t. Gilmore-Young and Gupta are hosts of the IVP podcast Hear Women.

March is Women’s History Month. What does that mean to you (if it does)?

Carmen Joy Imes, author of Becoming God’s Family: Women’s History Month prompts us to think about the women who have shaped history. Women are often forgotten or sidelined both inside and outside the church, so devoting time to recovering their stories helps to rectify the imbalance.

Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young, author of Redeemer: I love the chance this month provides for us to celebrate the contributions of women. It’s important for the next generation and for all of us to see examples of women making history in a diversity of ways.

E. K. Strawser, author of Centering Discipleship and You Were Never Meant to Lead Alone: While I value the distinction this month is to American history, I have a complex relationship with it because most of the time, in the US, historical honoring happens from the lens of White American perspective. Even as a child, having immigrated from East Asia with my family to the East Coast, I had an awareness that Women’s History Month had to do with the accomplishments of White women, and women of color could have their stories told when it was time for Black History Month (or more recently now, in May, for AAPINH Heritage Month, which we share with both Mental Health Awareness Month and Jewish American Heritage Month).

Rob Dixon, author of Together in Ministry and Allies in Ministry: I celebrate Women’s History Month, but I also wish we didn’t need a month to intentionally honor women’s history. At least in part, the fact that we do speaks to the marginalization that women have had to endure in our society. And, as in society, so too (and probably more so) in the church. So, each March, as I set aside time to reflect on the contributions of women in the church and in my life, I recommit myself to do everything in my power as an ally to forge a more inclusive church.

Sandra L. Glahn, author of Nobody’s Mother and A Woman’s Place Is in the Story: For so long, history as taught has centered on political history, which tends to privilege men. This dynamic makes Women’s History Month a necessary course correction rather than a special favor. It’s a time for men and women alike to turn our attention to the women we have overlooked, erased, or underestimated.

Nijay Gupta, author of Tell Her Story: I recognize that my female colleagues deal with all kinds of obstacles in their work as scholars and writers. I also admit that my undergraduate and seminary studies focused heavily on the writings of men. We shouldn’t only read women during March (of course!), but a yearly reminder of these realities is good. March is a time to remind people—and for me to remind myself—of the great impact that women have had in history, and a time to support and promote women writers.

What have you learned about your voice since writing a book? About women’s voices?

Gilmore-Young: I have learned to have confidence in the sound and shape of my voice as God designed it. I am grateful for a diversity of women voices writing books. We need stories from women around the globe to help us understand our Creator and faith in a deeper way.

Strawser: Writing a book has been one of the most immeasurable gifts in my life—especially in a day and age where intellectual property for artists, creatives, and communicators is so easily confiscated by AI. In having written books on both discipleship and leadership now, it’s been a joy to know that sharing my own unique experiences in church leadership also includes my being a woman, a minority woman, and an immigrant woman. Through having written books, my unique voice isn’t left to be isolated—it’s made to be shared and resonate not just with other women but with other leaders in the church, both women and men, minority and majority, earlier settlers and newly arrived.

Imes: I’ve discovered that when I follow my instincts, both men and women benefit. My books are a blend of serious biblical scholarship and real-life stories and illustrations. Surprisingly, my books have resonated deeply not just with women, but with male pastors and men’s groups.

Glahn: My most recent book is A Woman’s Place Is in the Story. In terms of the early church, many Christian women took seriously Paul’s advice to aspire to the quiet life (1 Thess 4:11). Yet when we find very little about these women in the annals of the faith, we sometimes conclude that they weren’t doing much. Most of us have heard of the Desert Fathers but not of the Desert Mothers. Yet the Desert Mothers like Mary of Egypt would have seen our lack of knowledge about them as a win. They sought to be anonymous, so goal accomplished. The absence of a voice is sometimes a countercultural response to a world that pressures people to say “Hey! Look at me!”

Is there a woman’s story that has most impacted you? Why are you grateful to know it?

Gupta: I recently learned about the Catholic nun and missionary known as Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917). She was a powerhouse of conviction and compassion, serving immigrants in the US. She was passionately dedicated to serving the marginalized out of devotion to Christ.

Glahn: In this cultural moment, two women in Exodus, Shiphrah and Puah, stand out. These women worked to keep the Hebrew babies out of the crocodile-infested Nile in defiance of Pharaoh’s orders. They probably trembled at the prospect of what could happen to them for civil disobedience—especially when they got summoned to give account to Pharaoh. Yet they did what was right anyway. These women, and those they directed, never knew they saved the baby whom God would use to save Israel. They surely died long before the eighty-year-old Moses insisted that Pharaoh “Let my people go.” Yet these women lived righteously in their small corners of the world. They probably felt powerless against the enormous crush of their slavers. These women never knew this side of eternity that their small, anonymous acts of righteousness would change the world—doubtless in answer to their own prayers.

Imes: One of my favorite women of history is Huldah, a prophet during the reign of Josiah (2 Kings 22). She is not the only prophet at that time, but men seek out her authoritative word from God when they want to understand the Scriptures. Her story reminds me that women have been contributing to faith and politics for many centuries.

Dixon: Biblical women like Deborah, Mary, and Priscilla have become heroines for me, but I’ll point to a secular woman whose life and ideals have helped shape me. Many years ago, I wrote my undergrad senior project on a woman named Mercy Otis Warren. Warren was the first woman who wrote a history of the American Revolution, and in the paper I explored her views of politics and gender, which called for a level of social inclusion that challenged her status quo. To me she’s everything I long to see both in myself and in the women in my life: principled, prophetic, and just a bit feisty.

Strawser: One of my favorite woman writers and storytellers is Dr. Isabel Wilkerson, the author of Caste and The Warmth of Other Suns. I love how she shares her story through the pivotal research she does on human hierarchy and that her writing was recognized with a Pulitzer Prize. She’s a woman of color in an academic and competitive field often consumed by men, and she laces her writing with love for both her husband and mother whom she lost in close time. Her words and research are a gift to humanity.

Gilmore-Young: I am deeply impacted by the story of Ruth in the Bible. The way she courageously navigated grief and stepped into a new chapter of faith and life continues to inspire me daily.

What do we miss when we don’t read books by women? What does the academy miss?

Glahn: Genesis tells us that it’s not good for a man to be alone (Gen 2:18). That suggests it’s also not good for a woman to be alone. Both male and female image God (Gen 1:26–27). So we need each other. Yet sometimes it seems that theology is the one sphere where people assume men are supposed to be alone. Why would we not want to hear from all sorts of imagers of God with eyes on the text?

When we read books written only by men or when professors provide bibliographies full of books written only by men, we miss the same thing that is lacking when we listen only to Western voices. Or North American voices. Or the voices of only one ethnicity or only one socioeconomic status. Revelation 7 provides a beautiful picture of the ideal state where every tribe and every nation retain their distinct identities. Would we want all animals in heaven to morph into canaries? No, we want the wolf, the goat, the leopard, and the lamb to lie down together. Diversity reflects the beautiful creativity of God. He invented it. We should embrace it, revel in it.

Imes: When we don’t read books by women, we miss insights that come from a wide range of life experiences—stories that reflect women’s embodied experiences and the strengths of interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches that are more common among women. Women have often been overlooked, and that marginalization has cultivated particular concerns for other vulnerable members of society.

Gupta: We miss profound learning! There are average male writers and great male writers. There are average female writers and great female writers. If there is some reason you are not reading women scholars, now is the time to make up for lost time! One thing I think about: mothers draw from a different life experience than fathers. Grandmothers than grandfathers. Women who have experienced a miscarriage than men who haven’t. We writers aren’t robots; we are humans, and every human is different. Reading across the spectrum of life experience can only enrich your learning.

If you could speak to the women who feel unheard and unseen, what would you tell them?

Gilmore-Young: We serve El Roi, the God who sees us in the wilderness places like he saw Hagar, Ruth, Esther, Mary and others. Your voice matters. Tell the story only you can tell.

Imes: We live in a time with unprecedented opportunity to write for wider audiences without traditional gatekeepers. What you have to say is important and can make a meaningful contribution to your circle of acquaintances. Don’t wait until someone hands you a title or a platform. Just start saying what needs to be said.

Gupta: You are not alone! Find a community of support and encouragement. You could join a writing club (like RedBud) or go to grad school and connect with other students. We can do so much together. This March, I encourage everyone to read Carmen Imes’s award-winning Becoming God’s Family!

Strawser: In a funny way, I love knowing my mother’s story, and any time I have a moment to share it, I am overwhelmed with emotions. My mother’s American English is not that advanced, so I love retelling her story any chance I get because it’s worth telling. A woman’s story, our mothers’ stories, often go so unwitnessed, but being able to know it and bear witness to it helps to validate them as people of worth. It’s what the prophet Jeremiah did for the widows in the book of Lamentations—bearing witness to their crying out to God, and God hearing it. It’s actually what Jesus did too—it made the first witnesses of his resurrection women in a society and culture where a woman’s witness would not hold up in court. And I believe Jesus continues to validate women’s voices today.

Dixon: I am confident two millennia of women being marginalized in the church grieves the Holy Spirit. It grieves me as well. So I express my sorrow at what women have had and continue to have to endure, and I want to encourage women to keep pushing for change. The church needs the contributions of women to make it whole.

Glahn: Pursue Christ. The same eternal Lord who saw powerless, enslaved Hagar sees you. The God who raised up an orphan who had to hide her ethnicity from her own husband—that God used her to save a nation. This is not to say God’s plans for us are always big and bold. That aspiring to the quiet life that Paul mentioned—it’s underrated in our time. But God and the angels see everything you do in secret. He sees when you choose to deal honestly with shareholders, though everyone around you is fudging the numbers. He sees when your fundraising ethics adhere to a higher standard than those of others, even others in your own faith tradition. He sees when you pay your taxes with integrity. The midwives did their tasks faithfully, and they never knew the ramifications. Be like them.

We serve a Lord who got on his knees, girded himself with a towel, and washed dung off the feet of one who would deny him. Be like him. In short, I would tell women the same thing I would tell men. The fruit of the Spirit is what we aim for.

“God Gives Good Gifts to Everyone”

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 11:00:00 GMT

“God Gives Good Gifts to Everyone”

A Conversation on Greco-Roman Mythology and New Testament Studies with Sandra Glahn

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 15:08:00 GMT

A Conversation on Greco-Roman Mythology and New Testament Studies with Sandra Glahn

Being God's Image as a Woman in the Academy and the Church

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 12:00:00 GMT

By Carmen Joy Imes, Author of Being God's Image

What is it like as a woman in the world of Biblical Studies?

My experience in the academy has been largely positive. Sure, I have stories I could tell, like the faculty member who met with me when I was in seminary and wondered out loud which of his male colleagues would be willing to supervise a woman in the doctoral program. Or the colleague who accidentally referred to the faculty in our department as "the guys" or the other colleague who effused after a faculty hymn sing how wonderful it was to hear "all the men's voices." In moments like that, I feel erased. Invisible. The field of theology and biblical studies has long been one in which the vast majority of professors are male. Although more women have joined their ranks, we are still by far the minority. If my colleagues occasionally misspeak, it's understandable.

On the whole, I have felt well received as a student, faculty candidate, and faculty member, whether in the classroom, in the boardroom, applying for grants, or presenting at conferences. When I landed a tenure-track position, I found it so encouraging that my new institution recognized the value of the work I had been doing, counted time toward tenure, and committed to paying me fairly.

I don't share this experience to minimize or silence the voices of the many women who have felt sidelined, ignored, harassed, or even abused in academic contexts. Inequities persist in some form at many institutions, and we must continue to be vigilant about ensuring that women are fairly treated, fairly compensated, and taken seriously.

However, the more difficult venue for me personally has been church.

Women's Roles in Church Ministry

I am fiercely committed to the church. I can't imagine life without the weekly rhythm of gathering with other believers to worship and be sent back into the world. I felt a call to ministry at a young age. At eight I offered my life to God as a missionary. At twelve I sensed an unmistakable call to missions. In my first year of college, I realized that God had gifted me as a teacher and first tried it out on adults in my home church. During my junior year, I had my first opportunity to teach a course at the college level under the supervision of my professor. I found such deep joy in doing so. For a long time, the desire to teach in the classroom made it relatively easy not to think about women's roles in church ministry. I didn't have to form a conclusion about what the Bible taught on that because I was called to the academy. Preaching and teaching required somewhat different skill sets; I was called to teach. In seminary, that began to shift. God began stirring in me a desire to invest more deeply in the church. A desire and willingness to preach began to flower in my soul. I began to realize that the gendered hierarchy present in many churches does not reflect the vision of Scripture for partnership in ministry between men and women.

My vocation is to study and teach the Bible. I do it all week long in the classroom, on podcasts, on YouTube, and by writing for the academy and for laypeople. But for most of my life, on Sundays, when I walk into the church service, I no longer have a voice. My place is in the pew, not on the platform. I listen to sermons rather than offer them.

On most Sundays, I have more theological education than the man in the pulpit. Depending on the passage, I may even have spent more hours poring over it, taking or teaching classes on it, reading about it, and considering its claims. At the same time, on any given Sunday, pastors around the world are sharing with their congregations what they have learned from my books or podcasts. To be clear, I'm not bitter about learning from men. I bring my journal to church every Sunday as a spiritual discipline. I find that the Spirit of God consistently meets me and speaks to me in some way through our services. But I, too, sense a call to bring the Word of God to the people of God. In my current context, and in most contexts where I have worshiped, it is either not allowed or it is so unusual that it would cause a bit of a stir.

Some of you are wondering, "Why not find another church?"

It's not so simple. A woman's role in the church is only one point of doctrine or practice that I care about. Many other things also matter to me. Finding a church in my neighborhood that has a high view of Scripture and allows both men and women to faithfully teach the Word is nearly impossible. For a variety of historical and cultural reasons, conservative theology usually goes hand in hand with a hierarchy between men and women. Conversely, the churches who tend to champion leadership roles for women are often more progressive in other areas as well, holding views that don't align with a high view of Scripture as our authority today. It doesn't have to be this way, but it often is.

So where does that leave me? As a woman trained in Biblical Studies with a lifetime of experience in ministry, I carry with me a longing for the full inclusion of women in every aspect of the church. For me it's not a matter of equal rights but of faithfully responding to the call of God and the empowerment of the Spirit. No one has a right to the pulpit. Only those called by God and equipped to rightly handle the Word of God should be entrusted with the ministry of preaching. Those of us who sense this calling from God but are prevented from responding carry ongoing grief.

In my current church context, women participate in many ways, including as worship leaders, deacons, Scripture readers, members of the prayer team, and service hosts. This last role includes giving announcements, leading in prayer, leading the liturgy, serving communion, and offering a public reflection or response to the sermon. I have loved the opportunity to minister to our congregation in this way. Our church benefits greatly from the thoughtful voices of many women.

Two weeks ago we were out of town on Sunday, but after the service the elder who preached sent me a copy of his sermon manuscript. On "Holy Name Sunday" he had based his sermon on my book about bearing God's name. He told the congregation about my work and how it had helped him. Greg supports the idea of of women preaching, but our church is still thinking through this issue. It was beautiful to read Greg's sermon but bittersweet for both of us. We're both left with the gnawing question: why is it okay for him to stand in the pulpit and talk about my research, but it's not okay for me to do so? What qualities or qualifications does he possess that I do not? What calling or empowerment does he have that I don't? What is the difference between us?

Testosterone seems an odd basis for ministry leadership.

Scripture's Testimony of Women in Church Leadership

It's true that we don't always understand God's ways. We're called to a life of obedience even when we haven't put it all together intellectually. But the practice of barring women from preaching seems to me to downplay Scripture's testimony of what women have contributed and will contribute to the church.

Drawing on the prophecy of Joel, Peter announced at Pentecost, "Your sons and daughters will prophesy . . . even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy" (Acts 2:17-18 NIV).

Paul is often cited as the one who prohibits women from speaking in church gatherings, but Paul is also the one who says that women should have their heads covered when they prophesy (1 Cor 11:5, 13). Paul assumes that women will contribute to the church by using their voices to declare the Word of God to the people of God. If Paul assumes this, why don't we?

In Romans 16, Paul greets many women who were involved in ministry alongside him: Priscilla, Junia, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Julia, Mary. He says, "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae" (Rom 16:1). Most scholars believe that Phoebe was responsible for delivering Paul's letter to the church in Rome. As a benefactor, she had invested deeply in the church. As Paul's ambassador, her role would have included the public reading and interpretation of the letter. Just as Jesus entrusted the news of his resurrection to a woman, Mary Magdalene, so Paul entrusted his teaching for the church in Rome to a woman, Phoebe.

Besides Paul, the other place in Scripture that people point to in order to justify a gender hierarchy is Genesis 3:16. But should we look to the consequences of the fall for our paradigm rather than to God's vision in Genesis 1–2? In Genesis 1, women are clearly the image of God, ruling alongside men with no hierarchy between them. No human was told to rule another. In Genesis 2, Adam's lack is resolved through the provision of woman as an ally corresponding to him.

Why would we ground our vision of gender relations in the fractured disconnect resulting from sin rather than in the chapters that present to us the world as God designed it to flourish?

If Paul is right when he claims, "In Christ there is neither male nor female…" then why would we keep trying to preserve the fall?

To take seriously the testimony of Scripture means to lean into God's vision of gender partnerships in which both men and women rule creation side by side, ensuring the flourishing of humans as well as the rest of the created world (Gen 1:26-28). It's to recognize that God creates the first woman in Genesis 2 as the first man's suitable ally, not his minion (Gen 2:18). It's to notice the parade of faithful women who led, prophesied, judged, and offered theological reflection to the people of God throughout the Old and New Testaments. It's to read Paul's statements about women's silence in context of the rest of his letters, where it becomes abundantly clear that female followers of Jesus partner with male followers of Jesus in every conceivable role in ministry.

Being in the academy has made it possible for me to read more widely and study more deeply on the topic of women in ministry than I would have if I had pursued some other career. That privilege has enriched my faith, but it has also made my participation in church more difficult in some ways. I've come face to face with a robust vision of mutuality in ministry that I find compelling. And I'm left waiting in this liminal space in which my understanding of God's intentions for the church are partly unfulfilled.

I know I am not alone.

The history of the church is a story that includes innumerable women who God has called to participate in gospel ministry. Some of them were able to respond unhindered. Others encountered opposition, not because they were ungodly but because they were women.

I treasure their stories, and I long for a world where character, not chromosomes, will be the determining factor in whose voices we hear in church.

This article was edited on 3/20/23 for clarity per the author's request.

A Conversation on Early-Church Women in Ministry with Nijay Gupta

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 14:53:00 GMT

Nijay Gupta is a passionate ally of women in the church and academy, and he has harnessed that passion into researching the lives and situations of women named as leaders and ministers in the Bible. His book Tell Her Story harvests those insights from the early church—with real implications for today.

How did your vision for this book arise?

Nijay Gupta: Several years ago, I did a blog series called "Why I Believe in Women in Ministry." I had been on a journey of study on the subject for about twenty years, and I had come to a place of strongly supporting women in ministry, so I thought I would write up some of my reasons. The series got a lot of engagement right away, and I ended up doing over twenty posts in the series. Tell Her Story grew out of that experience, knowing that people are eager to better understand the women who participated in and led the early churches.

What are some of your favorite, underappreciated facts from the life of one of the early-church women?

Gupta: Junia, a female Christian leader in Rome, spent time in prison! That's a fact that often missed and is a pretty big deal. We know prison was very rough for men (torture, disease, malnutrition, suffocation), and all the more for women who very rarely were imprisoned. For Junia to endure prison and then go back into ministry is astonishing. She was also older in the faith than Paul, and probably older in age as well. She represents an earlier generation of Christianity than Paul, imagine that! I tell my students that Paul might well have called Junia "Auntie" and undoubtedly admired her greatly.

If you could sit down with one of the women in the book, who would it be?

Gupta: I mean, how can you pass up a chance to talk to Mary, the mother of Jesus? I would love to hear her talk about that fateful angelic visitation, her difficult pregnancy and the neighbors looking at her with suspicion. Learning over time just how special this Jesus kid is. Raising him, disciplining him! But then following him, seeing him suffer and die. And importantly—helping to lead the early churches. Talk about a Lifetime Achievement Award!

What changes do you see these days in how your peers engage with questions of gender in biblical studies and the church?

Gupta: When I was young, it was often considered natural to prohibit women from ministry and to use stereotypes as justification for that: "women are too emotional, they can't preach, they are more gullible," etc. Fortunately I rarely ever hear anyone use those explanations anymore. More commonly, I hear some scholars just say, "Women are meant to focus on the home" or "women aren't called to pastor," and "that's just the way it is," or "that's what the Bible says." Tell Her Story is really meant to paint a picture of the early Christians in the Roman world where women were everywhere, and they were able to do just about anything.

After they read your book, what do you recommend next for a reader who's gotten excited about the topic?

Gupta: I recommend Beth Allison Barr's The Making of Biblical Womanhood, which covers many eras of Christian history, from early Christianity through medieval Christianity and into the modern era. Also, Discovering Biblical Equality, now in its third edition, is a massive resource that's kind of a mini-encyclopedia on women, the Bible, church history, and theology. Then, Holly Beers's excellent A Week in the Life of a Greco-Roman Woman. Her historical fiction helps readers walk in the shoes of a woman in the first century.

Anything you're working on that we should look forward to?

Gupta: Currently I am writing a book called Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling. I compare early Christianity to state and popular religions in the Greco-Roman world. It is amazing how deviant those Christians were. Today, in America, I feel like Christians either just blend into the background and offer nothing refreshing or attractive, or they stand out for being mean, condescending, and judgmental. The early Christians went all-in for this weirdo named Jesus. So, my motto is #KeepChristianityWeird! (I live in Portland, Oregon, let the reader understand.)

A Conversation on Christian Singleness with Danielle Treweek

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 16:30:00 GMT

What does church history—and the Bible—have to say about the meaning of singleness? In this interview, Danielle Treweek (author of The Meaning of Singleness) talks about the misconceptions our society and the church perpetuates about single people and offers an eschatological vision of singleness that is both hopeful and profound.

Your book The Meaning of Singleness begins by examining the place of singleness in both society at large and the church in particular. What do you think is the most common misconception about singleness?

Danielle Treweek: Sadly, singleness really is the subject of a lot of misconceptions in both of those spheres. But what I find particularly concerning and disappointing is just how many of society's misconceptions about singleness are echoed in the contemporary evangelical church.

On that topic, there is a lot to explore (four chapters worth, in fact!), but if I were to boil it down to the most common misconception, I think it would be that both society and the church see singleness as a state of "lacking." Lacking in love. Lacking in sexual fulfilment. Lacking in relational intimacy. Lacking in purpose. Lacking in possibility. Lacking in belonging. Lacking in authentic self-realization. Both spheres typically define and characterize singleness by what it isn't, rather than by what it is. Or, to put it another way, singleness is primarily thought to be the absence of good, rather than a good in and of itself.

In the book, you offer a robust retrieval of singleness—exegetical, historical, and theological. What did you discover that was the most surprising or encouraging during that process?

Treweek: When I started my exercise of retrieval, I already had a broad understanding of the general landscape of singleness throughout church history. However, I soon found myself surrounded by a diverse cloud of witnesses who challenged me with insights about singleness in the Christian life and community that I had simply not ever encountered before. That was enormously encouraging, exciting, and energizing! But, if I'm being honest, there were times when I also found myself a bit saddened and bewildered by it, too. Why was all of this new to me? How had I not encountered so many of these profound insights before? What could possibly explain or justify the contemporary evangelical church having forgotten our own amazingly rich theological, exegetical, and pastoral inheritance in this regard? It was really a double-edged surprise.

You also cast an eschatological vision of singleness. What do you mean by that, and why is that good news for the church?

Treweek: As evangelical Christians, we are generally eager to emphasize the eschatological significance of earthly marriage—namely as the "mysterious" foreshadowing of the heavenly marriage between Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32). And that's a good thing! But it turns out that our own Christian ancestors were just as eager (if not more so) to emphasize the eschatological significance of earthly singleness. Rather than seeing it as a life of lacking, they understood it to be a life of profound eschatological possibility. You'll need to read the book to find out all the different ways they perceived that to be true! But in summary, those who came before us honored singleness as a life situation that intrinsically called God's people to remember we live in this creation as those who are already citizens of the next.

How has your experience as a single person informed your ministry?

Treweek: While my own singleness has obviously been important for the trajectory and shape of my work, I think it has actually been other single Christians who have most deeply informed my ministry in this regard. Walking in tandem with them; rejoicing when they rejoice; grieving as they have grieved; praying with and for them; empathizing in our shared disappointments; working through feelings of isolation; serving alongside them; exhorting them to keep trusting Jesus, and having them do the same for me. Ultimately, it's been their singleness that has most significantly informed my ministry.

What is your hope for those who pick up and read your book?

Treweek: One of my hopes is that those who read The Meaning of Singleness might be better equipped to love, respect, and value the single members of their church communities. And, of course, I hope it will encourage unmarried Christians (whether they be never-married, divorced, or widowed) to delight more and more in the intrinsic goodness of their singleness. But I also pray that those who read this book might better understand the vitally important and God-glorifying role singles have to play in the church's understanding of her own unique identity. I hope my book might help us all to better realize it's not simply that single Christians need the church, but the church who really and truly needs single Christians.

A Conversation on Motherhood and Academia with Nancy Wang Yuen and Deshonna Collier-Goubil

Tue, 16 Feb 2021 18:00:00 GMT

How do Christian women navigate the call to both the academy and motherhood? In their book Power Women, Nancy Wang Yuen and Deshonna Collier-Goubil write to other Christian academic mothers, combining research with personal stories to provide wisdom, encouragement, and solidarity. If you've ever wanted to hear from women on a similar vocational journey who come from different backgrounds, academic disciplines, and stages of parenting and career, this interview will be refreshing.

What motivated you to take on this project? Was there a specific circumstance or event that inspired the book?

Deshonna Collier-Goubil: I became a mom while in a full-time faculty position. In Christian higher education, our environments are very family friendly, but navigating new parenthood is still daunting. I wished there was a resource that spoke to my unique circumstances.

Nancy Wang Yuen: I want to give voice to and provide a resource for others struggling to balance motherhood, the academy, and faith.

What are some challenges that Christian mothers in the academy face that seem different from challenges that perhaps all or the vast majority of academic mothers face?

Collier-Goubil: At times a person's religious beliefs can prevent them from seeking assistance and discussing things we do not often discuss in the church, such as infertility and child loss, or when a faculty mom is the head of her household. A Christian woman experiencing infertility has to consider not only the personal and medical repercussions of her decisions but also the social and professional. Similarly, a faculty mom who is head of household has to navigate the historical territory of the church that calls for male leadership in all areas and aspects of life (depending on faith background). Being a pastor, faculty, or mom, including a mom dealing with depression, or a mom of an exceptional child—these are areas that we fail to openly discuss in many churches, so where do we leave a faculty mama to turn for assistance?

As you gathered stories and worked with contributors, what is one thing you learned (or a highlight of that process)?

Collier-Goubil: I have been so inspired by the creativity, resilience, and brilliance of our contributing authors. They have navigated rough terrain and still show up in class perfectly assembled, carrying grace and mercy for students, and with a lesson plan ready to go! Then a few hours later, they become a problem solver in chief, assisting their littles to navigate all sorts of issues that life throws their way. They truly are power women!

Yuen: I learned from the contributors to conceptualize motherhood, the academy, and faith not as different spheres vying for our attention but synergistic assets.

We're in the middle of a pandemic. Would you be willing to speak to the effects of this crisis on academic mothers in general or those you know personally?

Collier-Goubil: The moms I know personally are struggling. This pandemic has definitely affected all in a remarkable way. Faculty moms are burning the candle at both ends, so to speak, and trying to avoid burnout. It's a tough time for us all.

Yuen: Professor mothers who have to supervise or homeschool their children because of school and daycare closures are having a hard time finding work-life balance. At the same time, they also savor the slowing down of time with their children and families.

What is one message you hope readers take away from your book?

Collier-Goubil: We hope that readers find themselves, their colleagues, and faculty they supervise in our book. We hope that the stories of these powerful and faith-filled women will motivate us all to aspire to a higher-ed workspace that is more inclusive of the myriad pressures experienced by faculty moms.

Yuen: We want this book to be an encouragement for Christian professor mothers as well as a resource for all those who work alongside and supervise them.