Instead of my usual rambling monologue recommending new books, I invited Sarah Griffith to join me! We talked about three new books, all focused on women of faith—from the biblical text to modern evangelicals.

A Woman’s Place Is in the Story: Seeing Women in the Biblical Narrative by Sandra Glahn

Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made by Kristin Du Mez

Esther’s Army: The Christian Women Who Power the American Right by Dr Katie Gaddini (Read Sarah’s review here)

Each one of these books is educational, informative, and an excellent resource to keep and share. Let me know your thoughts!

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Yesterday, my friend Seana Scott invited me to a lunchtime Live conversation about reading the Bible as a story. The premise: what was my story learning to read the Bible, and what would I tell a newbie—whether a new believer or someone just opening the Bible after a long time—to help them navigate the narrative sections of Scripture? What questions do we need to ask of the text, and where do we start?

I also offer a couple of resources that can help everyone’s study of historical and cultural backgrounds. This video was short and sweet, under 30 minutes!

What advice or ideas would you add? What sort of strategy helped you when you became a Bible reader?

Happy July, everyone! Enjoy this beautiful picture from our recent vacation. Sunrise at the Snake River Overlook in the Grand Tetons.

As promised, a few links…

Doctor or Doctor? How to Choose Between DMin & PhD by Matthew Kim, PhD, George W. Truett Endowed Chair in Preaching and Evangelism and director of the PhD in preaching program at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, TX.

DMin Videos on The Estuary

Books I’m Reading

Men of Virtue, by Zachary Wagner

Paul for the World, by Nijay Gupta

Love Like a Mother, by Elizabeth Berget

The Estuary with Kelley Mathews is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dr. Cynthia Hester teaches, writes, and speaks on topics of faith and women. In 2021, she founded Theology of Women Academy®, an online hub for equipping individuals with a comprehensive understanding of the spectrum of orthodox views on women in the home and church and enabling them to develop their beliefs—their theology of women. Seminary-trained, Dr. Hester, who received her DMin at Dallas Theological Seminary, is a contributing author to our award-winning book 40 Questions About Women in Ministry (Kregel, 2023). She writes for Engage at Bible.org, a women’s leadership blog, and authors Querying Questions, a popular bi-monthly newsletter.

To learn when enrollment opens for the Theology of Women Academy, sign up for the Querying Questions newsletter (only twice a month). You will get first dibs on enrolling.

In the meantime, find Cynthia on Instagram and enjoy her creative, informative posts that encourage conversations about women in ministry.

How does a doctoral program compare to a master’s degree? Which study tool is “magic” for doctoral studies? What question has she fielded often since graduating? And how did she inadvertently and unknowingly encourage me to make sure I was ready for my final presentation? All this and more in my conversation with my cohort colleague, Dr. Laurien Hook.

Dr. Hook serves on staff at a large church in the Houston, Texas, area as a director of adult ministries. That means she gets to teach Bible and theology classes at church for a living (dream job!). She also enjoys teaching as an adjunct professor for a local university’s theological studies program. We chatted about our experience at Houston Christian University, and Dr. Hook offered some sage advice for prospective students on what to think about when thinking about pursuing a doctoral degree.

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Welcome my friend and colleague Hannah McGinnis, a thoughtful, brilliant young scholar and former English literature teacher. She also traversed the winding road of her Doctor of Ministry with me every step of the way.

At 21, Hannah was diagnosed with cancer, and though she went on to teach, work in fundraising, and live a pretty normal life as a survivor, she senses a continuing stewardship of that experience. This has led to publishing her cancer story, starting a cancer retreat, and researching and writing on doing cancer ministry for her dissertation. Hannah loves story and is deeply convinced that our stories can encourage other believers as we navigate life's twists and turns and, ultimately, be used for God's purposes.

Feeling a call to steward her cancer experience, Hannah has produced a dissertation focused on helping people more effectively minister to cancer patients and survivors: Centering the Story of God and Remembering the Story of his People for Effective and Sustained Cancer Ministry

In it, she focuses on four key themes critical to cancer ministry: mortality, embodiment, lament, and community.

For more on Hannah’s life and ministry, check out her website. And check out Hannah’s memoir, What in the World Are You Doing with Cancer?

The Estuary with Kelley Mathews is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Dr. Beth Allison Barr joins me to talk through a fascinating book we both enjoyed: Excavating Women: The Archaeology of Leaders in Early Christianity, by Dr. Carina Prestes. What do inscriptions and art tell us about the participation of women in the earliest centuries of the church?

Doctor of Ministry graduates minister to the church in many unconventional ways. They may preach, teach, or administrate at churches, but they also may work as counselors, writers, professors, and more.

Today, I talk with my own DMin cohort-mate Susy Flory, who was already a NYT bestselling author before she began her seminary work. Unsurprisingly, Susy focused her research on writers—specifically, women authors from ancient times. For more insight into her dissertation, see my previous post (referenced in our conversation).

Find Susy on her own Substack account, her website, and in the bookstores.

She inspired a recent project, titled Jesus Was, as a collaboration with her master’s degree colleagues. I was delighted to endorse the book and then to talk with Susy about it.

Susy provided the following list of resources related to her dissertation topic:

Bruce, F. F. “Women in the Church: A Biblical Survey.” Christian Brethren Review Journal 33 (1982): 7–14.

Flory, Susy. “The First Named Writer in History: Enheduanna (2334–2279 BC).” Priscilla Papers 8, no. 3 (2024): 3–7. You can read it at the link above (free).

Haines-Eitzen, Kim. Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power, and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Moss, Candida R. God’s Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible. First edition. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2024.

Schniedewind, William M. Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes. 1st ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024.

The Estuary with Kelley Mathews is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome to my series exploring the Doctor of Ministry degree! Today I spoke with Dr. Nika Spaulding, who studied under Dr. Scot McKnight at Northern Seminary. Nika came to the program with pastoral experience, an ability to think and write well, and a solid dose of creative energy. We discussed her reasons for pursuing the DMin, why she chose Northern, and what her research entailed. Plus so much more!

You can find Nika at her website, which also includes links to purchase her Theology in 10 booklets and Bible-based card decks.

When I am introduced as Dr. Kelley Mathews, someone inevitably asks, “So what did you get your PhD in?” When I respond, “I have a DMin, a Doctor of Ministry,” I often receive a puzzled look and, “Oh, ok.”

Welcome to the first in my series exploring both the Doctor of Ministry degree itself and the journeys that took students into the program. I’ll be talking with a number of graduates to learn about their research, dissertations, and overall experience. Why a DMin? Highs and lows? What next? Where can we find you now?

But first, meet Dr. Lynn Cohick (PhD, UPenn), Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Director, Houston Theological Seminary (part of Houston Christian University). Dr. Cohick is a world-renowned scholar focusing on the New Testament and Greco-Roman culture. She has authored several commentaries on Ephesians and Philippians as well as books and articles on women in the ancient church. In her free time (ha!) she also serves on the Bible Translation Committee for the New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.

Dr. Cohick also founded the Center for Women in Leadership, which produces the Alabaster Jar podcast and houses the Visual Museum for Women in Christianity. And she served as my professor and program director.

In our conversation, Dr. Cohick and I discuss the difference between a DMin and a PhD, how the structure of a DMin program uniquely fits its purpose of equipping leaders to serve the local church body, and what prospective students can expect. Most of all, we agree that the DMin can strengthen and deepen the faith and capabilities of women and men who want to pursue practical solutions to problems within their field.

I hope you’ll be encouraged by our conversation and tune in to my future conversations with DMin graduates. They will release once a week during summer 2026.

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