In celebration of another year coming to its end, here are the top ten Mutuality Blog articles that readers engaged with most in 2025. This year, Mutuality Blog authors wrote about prominent Bible women like Priscilla, the humanity of Jesus, the effectiveness of the Billy Graham rule, and whether the church is truly safe for women. These authors poured their hearts out to us with the hope that women and men can flourish together as equals in the church, home, and world.
Read on for a countdown of Mutuality Blog’s top ten most-read articles in 2026! Sign up for Mutuality’s weekly emails to make sure you never miss a Mutuality Blog article.
10. Who Gets to Read Scripture at Church?
“I prefer a man to share Scripture with the congregation.”
I was startled by the admission. Was the worship leader serious?
I could not believe what I’d just heard. Normally, I would have a ready reply to such a statement, but words escaped me. We were almost finished with the pre-service worship practice, and the worship leader had just asked for someone to read a passage before the last song of that morning’s setlist. Before I could volunteer, the worship leader made his proclamation. . . read more.
By Marla Price | June 17, 2025
9. Priscilla and the Explosion of Women Church Planters Today: Women Church Planters Across the Globe
Does the Spirit of God regard gender when he chooses people to plant, care for, and lead churches? Something we see repeatedly is that the people with power get to write history. Since churches mostly have been led by men, it’s remarkable how many stories of women who play significant leadership roles have been erased from history—but thankfully, not from the Scriptures. In this series, I want to share with you some stories of modern female church planters in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa. Without their work, the fulfillment of the Great Commission would be significantly undermined. In Part II, I will discuss the evidence that Priscilla of the New Testament provides biblical precedent for female church planters and leaders. . . read more.
By Terran Williams | September 11, 2025
8. A Voice from the Well: Embracing the First Evangelist
The first Christian evangelist was a woman—an unlikely messenger, shunned by her own people, burdened by a history of pain, and known to modern people only as the “Samaritan woman” and “the woman at the well”. But it was this woman, broken and nameless, whom Jesus chose to carry his message. The Gospels record Jesus’s longest conversation, not with a disciple or a religious leader, but with her, in John 4. The legacy of the Samaritan woman should be honored for the bold witness it was. This was the moment when Jesus himself ordained a woman to proclaim the good news, making her the first to be commissioned directly by him to spread the gospel. . . read more.
By Dawn Sutherland | March 13, 2025
7. This, Too, Is Good.
When I was thirteen, my mom and I attended a women’s conference at our church. I can only recall two things from that event. The first is that my mom and I went to a bagel shop for a fun breakfast. The second is that the very well-known female speaker shared the story of how she and God decided how much she should weigh. Apparently, she and the Lord talked about it, she was given a number that she wrote down, and that was that. The speaker did whatever she needed to do to maintain this holy number. . . read more.
By Mallory Ellington | February 27, 2025
6. What Are We Debating, Anyway?
In 1993, Ronald Pierce wrote that the debate about so-called gender roles “has in a way chosen us rather than vice versa.”1 There are few times I have resonated so deeply with an academic article. Pierce described a sense of compulsion that he and others have felt to continually research the topic, recognizing it as one of the most important issues of our time—a sentiment that still holds true today. Though I don’t enjoy debate—truthfully, I’m quite conflict avoidant—I now read and write about few other subjects. . . read more.
By Aaron K. Husband | April 10, 2025
5. Christ Jesus, the Human Being
I still remember—albeit somewhat vaguely—being woken up by my father in the early morning hours of July 21, 1969. Peering sleepily at a grainy video signal on our black and white TV, I joined the approximately 500 million others who watched Neil Armstrong become the first human being to set foot on the moon. As he stepped off one of the lunar module’s landing pads onto the powdery surface, he uttered the now-immortal words, “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” Why the square brackets in that sentence, you ask? This seemingly insignificant addition found in most printed versions reveals the difference between what was broadcast, recorded, and first reported. . . read more.
By Neil Rees | April 3, 2025
4. “Never Be Alone with a Member of the Opposite Sex”: Is the Billy Graham Rule Effective?
In the context of #metoo, where numerous pastors and teachers have been accused of sexual misconduct and adultery and where many others are afraid of being so accused, the “Billy Graham rule” seems like an effective firewall against every sexual temptation and risk of accusation: Never spend time alone with a member of the opposite sex. In his autobiography, the great preacher recounts how he strictly applied this rule; his wife was the only woman allowed alone in his presence. He never found himself alone with another woman: not in a restaurant, nor in one-on-one meetings, nor as a traveling companion. He encouraged many men to follow in his footsteps, and some still insist on this rule today. . . read more.
By Marie-Noëlle Yoder and Thomas Poëtte | January 9, 2025
3. Healing from Hierarchy
A recent conversation with a professor at my new seminary shook me as he described an experience common to fundamentalist church congregants: chronic guilt. I was unsettled by how deeply I related because it was not until that moment that I had connected my nagging guilt with years spent in hierarchical family, church, denominational, and seminary environments. In the months that followed the conversation, I eventually realized that it was the safety of forgiveness I craved, without knowing how to extend it both to myself and to those who had nurtured the guilt. . . read more.
By Jazmine Lawrence | March 20, 2025
2. No, Sister, You Don’t Have a “Jezebel Spirit”
The church faces a huge crisis today. More and more (mostly) female survivors are courageously speaking out about the sexual abuse they’ve endured from pastors and other spiritual leaders. One deflection method used by guilty parties is pointing out the sin of other ministers so people won’t detect their own similar behavior. Another is crying, “I’m under demonic attack!” And within these deflections, an evil spirit named after a certain woman often comes up—a name which implies it’s the victim’s fault that she was groomed and manipulated by a man with power over her.
If you’re in Christian circles, you’ve probably heard “Jezebel”—“the J term”—the derogatory label often placed on women who break the spoken or unspoken rules about staying in their place. . . read more.
By Susanne Maynes | June 26, 2025
1. Is the Church a Safe Place for Women?
Well, of course it is, right?
I would have thought the church was a safe place, too, until the results came in from my research of over 2,800 women who worked in the church. I have compiled these results in my new book, Safe Church: How to Guard Against Sexism and Abuse in Christian Communities. The courageous women from the study have been on the front lines of Christian ministry—26 percent had been in ministry between 16 and 25 years, nearly 16 percent had been in ministry for over 25 years, and the rest have been working in the church between 1–15 years. These women know the church inside and out and can teach us something new if we listen to their experiences. Below, I summarize a few of the most significant statistical takeaways from this five-year research project. . . read more.
By Andrew J. Bauman | January 23, 2025