I’ll never forget finding out I was becoming a parent. In one moment, I felt overwhelming fear and elation. The joy of parenthood, a long hoped for reality, was met with the sense of responsibility in raising children. Children are opportunities to model and shape the future; an opportunity to pass along values while also seeking to break cycles and chart new paths.
Editor’s note: This is a CBE 2020 Writing Contest honorable mention. Enjoy!
Years ago, I told my daughter, “I’d never vote for a woman president because I believe women are wired to be more emotional and men are more logical.” I grew up watching westerns where women in danger fainted, screamed, tried to escape, or somehow bungled the situation. Of course this magnified the heroism of the cool, calm, and collected cowboy who saved the day. In my day-to-day life, all the leaders I saw were male; almost all the women I knew were tucked safely inside their homes.
Editor's Note: This is a CBE 2020 Writing Contest honorable mention. Enjoy!
I have known since I was eight years old that I was called to ministry, following three generations of women in my family who served as equal leaders in ministry with their husbands. I grew up and now serve in The Salvation Army, where women have shared full rights in ministry since its inception. Gratefully, there was never a time when I felt I would be unable to answer and fulfill God’s clear call in my life to preach the gospel and fully participate in any aspect of Salvation Army ministry.
Editor’s note: In the first of several conversations sponsored by CBE and our 2021 conference partners in the UK, CBE president Mimi Haddad asked three keynote speakers to consider the spiritual and social consequences of theological patriarchy: What is at stake, globally, when we talk about the power differential between men and women? How is this conversation woven into what God is doing in the world?
I attend a complementarian church.
In my defense, it is soft complementarian, and living in the South means traditional gender roles are the accepted norm here even outside of the church. But as a strong proponent of egalitarianism who regularly writes and speaks about the value of gender equality, I experience significant cognitive dissonance between my beliefs and my attendance at my church.
Editor's note: This is a CBE 2020 Writing Contest honorable mention. Enjoy!
I began studying for ministry when I was 34. My youngest child had just started kindergarten, and with a quiet house during the day, I began to dream about a career in ministry. My calling didn’t happen all at once but came to my attention gradually as I became more and more involved in various ministries at my church.
On March 25—with 65,000 new cases of coronavirus in the United States—my husband and I ventured from our apartment. He took his fishing gear in a backpack. I leashed the dog. We emerged into the cool evening as the sun rosied the sky.
That day, we’d begun the arduous process of calling family. To me, this felt right. I needed people to know. I could handle the sadness, but I couldn’t handle the secret. When friends texted to see how quarantine was going, I ached to tell them: I am not fine. I am not fine at all. But not because of this.
Good news about the church in Africa is hard to find. We hear that the continent is without hope — dying through war, famine and AIDS. But if the church is there, then God is there — and hope is, too.
When Dr. Anne Mikkola, a Finnish economist, was called to go to Uganda, she knew little about the country beyond the political turmoil that makes the news. Her calling came through a series of e-mails among friends involved in women’s ministry. One of those e-mails reached a “completely unknown man from Uganda” who said he was praying for Mikkola.
Editor's note: This is a CBE 2020 Writing Contest honorable mention. Enjoy!
Yet may I by no means my wearied mind
Draw from the deer, but as she fleeth afore
Fainting I follow.
—"Who So List to Hunt, I Know Where Is an Hind" by Sir Thomas Wyatt
Editor’s note: This is one of the Top 15 CBE Writing Contest winners. Enjoy!
I stood anxiously in the lobby looking for someone to talk to after church. I was relieved to have spotted my mentor, who is a prominent member of our church, across the room and walked toward her. We started talking about my desire to go to seminary. My mom had died six months earlier and I longed for maternal guidance on the subject.