The Marcella Project

Today we engage with the author of No More Holding Back, Kat Armstrong, where we will focus on Mary Magdalene. Questions we will be wrestling with include:

In your book, you mention that the Great Commandment Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind isn’t gendered. Can you explain what you mean by that?

I want us to focus on “all your strength” for a minute. You ask the question, how strong is too strong. What do you mean by that?

Join the conversation.

Today we’re listening in on a conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well. I know, is there anything more to be said about this story? Well, there is.

When I see Jesus speaking to her, I hear him saying, “I see you. I see what happened. I see the injustice that’s been done to you and the death toll it’s taken. I’m not okay with that. I can restore you. Breath life back into you.” And that’s what he’s saying to us too.

Tamar is a woman in Israel, a princess with status, power, and position. However, her status was nothing compared to the status, power, and position of the men in her life. There she finds herself vulnerable, even lacking agency.

Gracie.

She lived down the road, came from an impoverished family, always wore the same clothes, short, high waters. She was one of the stops on our bus. There was something I liked about her, but I didn't want her to sit next to me. I'm ashamed to say it, but I was in the cool kid crowd, and I didn't want to be associated with Gracie.

As one of the cool kids, I had status. Gracie didn't.

Andy Crouch, in his book, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, one of my all-time fav books, defines status as "at its root is "where you stand" – is about your place in line."

Today we begin a series called Power, Vulnerability, and Leadership. These are lofty concepts, but as women, they impact us personally, don’t they?

So I’d like to see what God has to say to us about each them of them- power, vulnerability, and leadership - by digging into the stories of four women in the Scriptures. Today we’re talking about Deborah. God’s plan A.

Many of you are leaders, gifted leaders in your company, home, and community. The idea that a woman shouldn’t lead seems archaic to you, right? And we hear more and more how important it is for women to be at the leadership table. Forbes magazine stated, “Companies with higher female participation at board level exhibit higher returns and payout ratios.” The World Bank said women are the best investment for an economy. Study after study shows in developing countries, “...when women gain control over spending, less family money is devoted to instant gratification, like drinking and gambling- and more for education and starting small businesses.”

We have started to recognize that families, communities, and even companies fair better when women are at the leadership table – with men. the

In the conservative church, we are taught to be the ideal biblical woman. We hear sermons on how we are to be gentle and quiet in spirit, to submit, not to lead or teach men. And there are bible verses to prove it.

I used to think those teachings, that restrict, limit women, were based on the bible until I realized it wasn’t.

It’s also about sex, power, and gender constructs. That’s what I want us to talk about today, gender constructs. Don’t worry. I’ve got it on the calendar, and we’re going to discuss sex and power too.

https://www.amazon.com/Man-Enough-Jesus-Redefines-Manhood/dp/0310343372