I am thrilled to share this beautiful cover by @ivpress for my forthcoming book about Christian hope in the "wilderness" of life as we now know it. And I'm hugely grateful to @esaumccaulley for writing the foreword! Preorder link in comments.
Today I preached on the book of Galatians and discovered that the man whose book changed my mind about women preaching happened to be in the congregation. His book was named after Galatians 3:28. And his ministry is a huge reason I am in the pulpit today.
My sister, a newlywed twenty-something, is also the residential caregiver for our grandfather who’s 92 today. He helped raise her after our dad died when we were kids; now she’s helping him finish well. There’s a lot of beauty in the world that isn’t on the news.
A post-Roe America should feel like a holy challenge: a beginning, not an end. How can we learn to be, as a society, pro-birth, pro-child, pro-woman, and pro-family? It might seem foolish to hope for that much, but new creation often breaks in through the foolishnesses of hope.
Once upon a time, I was a homeschooled Southern Baptist girl with a call to ministry. I thought that call meant foreign missions because it was the only category I had for ministry at the time. (Now I’m an Anglican priest.)
I'm a female priest in the ACNA. I have clergy friends in the REC (more conservative than me) and TEC (more progressive than me). Despite what social media portrays, ppl are not ideological avatars. They are complex creatures capable of charitable disagreement & friendship.
Whatever you make of Paul's qualifications for elders/overseers, it's pretty striking that he emphasizes gentleness, hospitality, and not quarrelsome or lovers of money. These qualities do not get enough air time in the Christian leadership economy.
Henri Nouwen left his prestigious position at an Ivy League school to live among handicapped people who could care less about his degrees. But while there, he wrote his most powerful books that people are still reading all over the world. The seed that dies bears much fruit.
My Baptist childhood taught me to love (& know) Scripture. My Pentecostal adolescence taught me to pray with expectation. My Anglican adulthood is teaching me to cherish the sacraments. These are all gifts. #ecumenicalmonday
Lately I’ve felt very discouraged about the state of the church, particularly its leaders. And tonight I realized this is why we start with Advent. Because the church can’t save itself; we aren’t the hero here. We need rescue & repentance. We wait for the renewal we can’t create.
I remain grateful for the zeal my Baptist background birthed in me, and I hope the future will hold more options for Baptist women who want to serve the church with their gifts.
This post has started getting comments again, mostly by people who don’t agree with each other. But I am always happy to see people discussing the important work of @PhilipBPayne
Today I preached on the book of Galatians and discovered that the man whose book changed my mind about women preaching happened to be in the congregation. His book was named after Galatians 3:28. And his ministry is a huge reason I am in the pulpit today.