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Preface

What if there was something new under the sun? What if we are

participating in changes that will someday define this period as a new era? Some would say we live in such a time. Certainly, church as we know it in the Western world is changing. I say Western world because many parts of Christendom around the world are flourishing, but change could certainly be reflected in the church worldwide.

Many Christian leaders are reassessing how Jesus understood church, how the early worshipers congregated, how we arrived at the forms of church we now attend. As leaders, men and women, we want to rise up to that challenge and discern what God is doing among us. In some traditions, some circles and some theological camps, women aren’t always encouraged to fully participate. This book seeks to inspire women to fully engage in that call—and to inspire men to challenge the women in their lives to rise up to meet God’s mission.

God could more expediently enflame a bush, give repeated Damascus-road experiences, or keep fleece dry amidst the dew. Instead, he chooses to share the journey in partnership with us. Even with our many foibles and imperfections and our inability to fully listen or understand, God patiently guides us along in his mission. As our hearts grow to understand more fully his heart, we also share in his joy. The Psalmist glimpses the fullness of this joy, reminding us that a single day in God’s presence is better than a thousand elsewhere (Psalm 84:10). God calls us to a lifetime of such days in his joyful presence. Every day we have the opportunity to experience God’s deep call and presence in new ways. As the people of God, we embark on that journey. We allow God’s Spirit to work in us. We learn from Jesus. We live more like Jesus. We lead like Jesus. All as his Spirit indwells ours. As we allow God’s story to live in our story, we are in a sense becoming his story. Jesus says, “remain in me, and I will remain in you” (John 15:4). The more we do, the more we have opportunity to live in the abundance to which God calls us (John 10:10).

That is not to say that we don’t routinely face challenges in our daily life—anxieties about family and friends, health challenges, financial irregularities, physical or natural tragedies, and even the minutia of daily routine and rituals. But how we invite God into those challenges can encourage us to a deeper understanding and revelation of his love. Furthermore, it can rewrite our story as one of transformation, inspiration, and adventure—as God’s story increasingly becomes part of ours.

In the 1980s teen-slacker classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the title character makes a profound statement: “Life moves pretty fast. [If] you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” As the rock group the Rolling Stones found out since popularizing the song Time Is on Our Side 40 years ago, life moves quickly. I’m not sure most of us grasp life’s speed until we are well into our 30s. I recall a conversation with my paternal grandmother when I was about 11—words that meant very little to me then. “You won’t understand this now,” she said, “but life is much shorter than you think.” Not that I’ve reached the age when she transferred this wisdom, but I get it. I’m now convinced that time moves more quickly every year that I live.

But take comfort. If you live in partnership with the living God, he promises to satisfy you “with good as long as you live,” even renewing your youth (Psalm 103:5 NRSV). That means that even if you feel that you have wasted time and it’s just too late, with God there is always hope. As long as he keeps us on this earth, we are invited to this privileged partnership. We are invited to allow his story to grow into ours.

If you feel that you are someone who has wasted time, consider St. Augustine. For over 30 years, he overtly resisted God’s grace, while his praying mother anticipated his eventual divine encounter. Today, he is considered one of the most-noted theological influences of Western theology among our Christian Fathers and Mothers. The apostle Paul was personally responsible for persecuting Christians and supported the stoning of Stephen (Acts 8:1). Paul admitted as much in his letter to the Galatians, saying that he was “violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it” (Gal. 1:13 NRSV). One might think that with his past, he would constantly be feeling regret and remorse, but his words to the Philippians are promising for all of us: “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead” (Phil. 3:13 NRSV, emphasis added).

What must have thrilled Paul even more was that his education, background, and life experiences all seemed to have moulded together so that his new life in Jesus became beautiful pottery. God used Paul’s abilities and experiences for his greater purposes. Paul lived in full partnership with God. We are invited to do the same. Wherever you are in your journey of faith, in your season of life, or in living out God’s call, it is my hope that reading Becoming His Story will be a journey of inspiration.

This book will be divided into three sections: To Learn from Jesus; To Live Like Jesus; To Lead Like Jesus. Section 1 is about call and inspiration: to learn from Jesus. The discussion is guided by the Gospel of John, as in it, more so than the other Gospels, we are invited to observe how Jesus interacts with women.1 One writer says, “Jesus’ approach to women was in such contrast to that of his culture that we can assume a deliberate modeling of a new way of relating to women.”2

We are challenged to consider our formative, environmental, and cultural biases that hinder our full view when reading about the time of Jesus. In these stories, women were called personally by Jesus. How these women responded and interacted with Jesus gives us great insight into what Jesus aspires to for women. These portraits of Jesus and women offer deep theological significance.

The culture at Christ’s time was influenced by Roman, Greek, Qumranic, and ancient Jewish thinking. Each of these groups held distinct yet somewhat similar perspectives on women, adapting to new opportunities for female leadership differently. But as Jesus meets these women in John, he seems determined not to be limited by cultural norms.

Because of the boldness of Jesus’ mother Mary, we witness Jesus’ first miracle and learn about discipleship. Thanks to an unknown Samaritan woman, we get a preview of Jesus’ mission and then her personal commissioning to share about whom she encountered. In Martha, we have a powerful profession of faith articulating the identity of Jesus, followed by actions that convey her convictions about Jesus. When Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus anoints the feet of Jesus with perfume, we learn about costly followership. With the women at the cross in the final hours of Jesus’ death, we learn about being resolutely loyal and unwavering until the very end. We also see God including those who were within that close range in his declaration of the completion of his mission. From that we learn how abiding with Jesus entitles us to have firsthand communication about his work in the world.

And finally, thanks to the example of Mary of Bethany at the tomb, we have the example of an unrelenting leader, the one who receives the first communication after the resurrection because of her relentless pursuit of Christ.

Section 2 begins with women who led in how to follow Jesus. In Romans 16, we see that women are in leadership positions alongside of Paul. We see examples in Acts 21 of women teaching and prophesying.

The early church that took form after the resurrection of Jesus existed between the “the already and the not yet.” Victory over death had been accomplished, but the full consummation of that victory was still to come. But living toward that consummation seemed natural.

Men and women are equally called to serve as leaders. Unfortunately, church history and society have not always reflected that. Still today, in some denominational traditions, women are faced with obstacles to leadership. For new generations of women, who anticipate the world as their oyster, it seems odd and inconsistent to discover that cultural traditions or misperceptions will limit their opportunities within the church as part of the priesthood of believers. This results in competent, gifted women withholding their areas of giftedness in view of a perceived but misaligned obedience to Scripture. Or, talented, capable women might disregard Christianity altogether as the misconceptions in some churches taint their perceptions of following Jesus. Other women might have been raised in traditions that have excluded them from their true calling in the church.

Section 3 is about leading like Jesus. Jesus defines leadership. Much of leadership theory seems to draw from Jesus. The difference with Christian leadership is that it begins with our love for God—which is in fact the foundational premise for Christian leaders. Following the example of Jesus, leaders give power away as they discern vision and then see it realized. The same observational, prayerful discernment is necessary for the church to participate in what God is doing in the world. If we are in fact in a time of transition as a Christian movement, recommitting women to leadership will better position us to receive the full potential of God’s blessing for the church. Jesus invites followership to replicate his investment in others and multiply leadership. Leaders follow Jesus and then invest in the making of other leaders.

Regardless of your personal history, this book is for you. May you be inspired toward greater male/female leadership! As you learn, live and lead, experience how you can increasingly allow God’s story to live in yours—becoming his story.

1 For a more exhaustive study on women in the Bible, see Cynthia Long Westfall, Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016).

2 Karen Heidebrecht Thiessen, “Jesus and Women in the Gospel of John,” Direction 19, no. 2 (Fall 1990): 53.