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Did God Break His Own Rules About Women In The Tanakh? (Old Testament)

“When a woman was the right person for the job, whether it was leading in worship, prophesying, exhorting, saving a nation from genocide, or leading soldiers into battle, God didn’t hesitate to use her. And the results were impressive.” ~Ruth Haley Barton

If God is against women in leadership (as some people think) then He has some “splainin'” to do! In this podcast episode, we discuss some of the women that God raised up to lead as read in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible aka the Old Testament). Miriam, Deborah, Jael, a mystery woman, Esther and the prophet Huldah.

Even though the Bible is written within a patriarchal worldview, God was able to work within our less than perfect ideals and plant an idea for something better, and He is still doing that today!

God raised up and installed some amazing women to lead His people, both men, and women, which leaves us with a decision to make, Either He is breaking His own rules about women in leadership, or those are the rules of a patriarchal system and He is trying to lead us out of that to something better!

While there are many books and vast amounts of scholarship on this topic, one very readable and approachable book you might want to pick up is called “How I Changed My Mind About Women In Leadership” (Alan Johnson General Editor)

This is a compelling collection of stories from some prominent Evangelical leaders.

Also here is a link to an article written by @rachelheldevans (Rachel Held Evans) that is a good overview as well:

https://rachelheldevans.com/blog/mutuality-women-leaders

I hope you enjoy the journey, and remember to empower the women in your life!

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Patriarchy Is Not God’s Dream

This episode is the first in a series of conversations about gender inequality. While this shows up globally, it reveals itself both blatantly and subtly here in the US. While not all churches and denominations teach a hierarchical view of men over women, many do, and therefore are a significant part of the problem continuing to widen the gender divide.

I interview my amazing friend Susan Chavez later in the teaching. Susan is the Executive Pastor at SVA and shares a fascinating journey finding her voice in a male predominated world.

In this episode we will look at Genesis 1-3 in order to get a renewed perspective that patriarchy wasn’t God’s dream, it was actually part of the curse which we have been freed from.