When Minneapolis-based calligrapher and graphic designer Diane von Arx Anderson was invited to work on The Saint John’s Bible, the first handwritten illuminated Bible in 500 years, it did not ever cross her mind to refuse.

“Daddy, why does God only like boys?” My eight-year-old daughter surprised me with her theological question. We attended a conservative, evangelical church and she was in third grade in a Christian grade school—what were they teaching her?

Had somebody asked me in my early twenties whether I would like to go to a seminary and study theology, my answer would have certainly been “No.” 

The Junior Bible Quiz (JBQ) is a children’s discipleship ministry of the Assemblies of God that motivates kids to learn and love the Bible. We have taken the issue of gender accuracy and children’s faith development very seriously.

The new TNIV Bibles for women and men promise to help Christians gain an identity and maturity in Christ: the women’s Bible, entitled True Identity: The Bible for Women, includes the cover description, “becoming who you are in Christ,” and the men’s Bible, entitled Strive: The Bible for Men, says, “becoming the man Christ wants you to be.”

The following story comes from my own life. It celebrates God’s faithfulness to a daughter who longed for her mother to know the joy of encountering God’s Spirit in Scripture.

Yet, for many young women, a consideration of vocation can be limited by an inadequate and inconsistent teaching of the Bible. Too often, female students receive “double speak” from churches and Christian schools.