Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women

Zondervan was kind enough to allow me to preview Carolyn Custis James’s latest work, Half the Church: Recapturing God’s Global Vision for Women. I’ve spent considerable hours poring over James’s text and the questions it raises.

Kristoff and WuDunn’s Half the Sky obviously incited in James a desire to inspire a Gospel response to the devaluing of women around the globe — she boldly begins by addressing the western church. “We’ve passed the point where the world of prosperity and privilege so many of us enjoy can shield us from the world of privation and atrocities, and there is no turning back.” And in reading Half the Church, no turning back is a *GOOD* thing – an opportunity for the fulfillment of God’s design for women to bear His image into the darkest places with courage and solutions.

“The world is a mess.” James reminds that minutes on the internet will reveal the need for a Gospel response to present day cultures.  Baby girls abandoned or killed because — because they were born.  Child brides as young as 8 years old.  Women brutalized for daring to speak out against cruelties to children or the infirmed. Girls ousted from state run orphanages at age 14 with no training or provision.

And folks, that’s my cleaned-up-non-offensive-in-case-you’re-squeamish version.

But offering that kind of Gospel response requires women to know their place in a whole new way. A Jesus way.

To this end, James holds the curtains back on the opening scenes of humanity in the first chapters of Genesis; she invites readers to reflect on God’s unique creation of both man and woman and His command to tend the garden together — be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue. Created in His image, Adam and Eve were to be reflections of God’s character and mission. Yes, this world and all in it, the sky and all above declare the glory of His splendor. “But the place God longs to see the clearest, fullest reflection of himself is in us.” And once here, on Earth, as one of us, Jesus “had to go” through Samaria to speak to a woman, received prostitutes and the demon possessed to show that women were of Kingdom value just as men.

Once women know they are Abba’s girls, they are equipped to be a part of the global fight. Where the enemy would seek to steal, kill, and destroy, God has invited His daughters as well as His sons to bring the Hope of Jesus Christ to the world. The Gospel isn’t just for the pew sitters here in North America and the homeless they feed once a month; it is “big enough for all of us, sturdy enough to survive the worst situations, and generic enough to frame our stories in any season, culture, epoch, anywhere in the world.” The Gospel isn’t a Western Civ project — it’s the work of an eternal God in and through every life that will ever live.

James elucidates women’s callings and identities in a powerful way. Through careful study of original Hebrew root words and examination of Old and New Testament Scriptures on the commands given believers (both male and female), she compiles a Biblical sketch of women that fleshes out their capacity to be active and proactive in the work of the Kingdom.

“One of the big obstacles standing in our way is an elephantine debate that has commandeered this discussion for years…So let’s talk about that elephant.” How active? Proactive? As in, leadership? How much leadership? How far? In what capacity? The slippery slope of gender roles in the church has long distracted the mission. James confronts the camps and brilliantly handles the Truth: “…I wonder if we aren’t investing inordinate resources and energies on contested passages instead of putting our full weight down on texts that speak to us with unquestioned clarity. Simply beginning with the two greatest commandments — to love God…and to love our neighbor….”

And this is where I insert my grappling and reflections.  I live in a peculiar cultural bubble.  I am a stay at home Mom. We homeschool our children. We attend a mainline Evangelical church. I teach part time in a Christian school. My husband works for a ministry. We have a home, two vehicles, slightly more than the US average number of children, we go through drive-thrus at will, we go on vacations.  My family is NOT representative of the majority world. It simply is not. And so, because we are so insulated, Carolyn Custis James’s writing has struck a chord.

My college degree firmly in one hand and my Starbucks cup in the other, James challenged me to think beyond what I’m living — beyond what I’m teaching my daughters. Absolutely, I want them to grow up and reflect God in all they do. I hope they will be called to marry (as I would like to be slap covered in grandbabies) and will proclaim His Name and recount His wonders to the next generation. But as James points out, ‘married, raising children’ only covers about 40% of the Western church *let alone* the rest of the world. How many single women are there? Having lost my heart to Nairobi, I can *easily* think of 7 girls there under 16 who were heads of their families after AIDS ravaged their homes.

James and I may come from different theological backgrounds, our processes and our conclusions may look more contrast than complement, but the absolute Biblical Truth she levels is inarguable. There is a world breathing sullied air behind the headlines and slideshows and “God swings wide the door of access to himself and welcomes them into the privilege of knowing him.”

And as His creation — as a woman — I am *commanded* to go and tell them with my words and through my actions.

I still live here. I grind my own wheat, I wear Birks but no makeup, I’m still a wife, a Mom, a homeschooler, and a Baptist. But if you notice the extensive highlighting in my copy of Half the Church, I’m challenged to live more transparently in the identity given by the One who made me and to step more fully into the commission He has given me on behalf of those with no voice, no provision, no power, and no hope.  My Daddy loves justice. And I’m grateful for Carolyn Custis James’s reissuing the call to be an integral part of what He’s doing to see His children free and His Kingdom come.

Want to read more? You can check out Carolyn Custis James and her other titles at Zondervan. And you could win a copy of Half the Church by leaving a comment below! Tell me what you think are some of the gifts women bring to the Body and the world. The winner will be decided by random selection on Saturday.

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