Hi all! Welcome to my first ever blog post. My name is Christin and I'm a first time blogger. I know - shocker. I'm not really sure what I'm doing, so we'll see if this works. Keep your fingers crossed.
Jon has kept y'all updated the last few months. I honestly forget that we have a blog.
It's finally becoming more cool out and I'm so excited! I love the changing of seasons. I could never live in an area that only has one season. I love them all, but I must confess that Fall and Winter are my favorites. It's kind of funny that I love the darkest months of the year when I'm pretty sure I have a little seasonal depression. You'd think I'd love the summer then... but you'd be wrong. I love the clothing we get to wear in the colder months like jeans, sweaters, hoodies, and flannel PJ pants. I love the smell in the air when the leaves are changing color and falling, or on the morning of the first snow fall. It's incredible. Every time a season begins to change I am in awe of God's amazing and beautiful creation.
Now to change the subject. (Like my transition?) I recently read an article on CNN about a Christian bookstore. Although I have never heard of this bookstore, it's apparently one of the biggest in the country. This Christian bookstore carries a particular magazine and when the most recent edition of this magazine came out... the bookstore pulled it from its shelves. Why? What was so bad about this magazine that the bookstore pulled it and wouldn't sell it? I'll tell you. This edition had several female pastors on the cover. Female pastors. The store pulled the magazine off the shelves because female pastors were on the cover. The owners of the bookstore chain do not believe that women should be pastors.
Now, I do not like the term feminist because I don't like the connotations with that word, but I basically am. I am a FIRM believer that women are equal in our society. Women are perfectly capable of pastoring a church, just like a man is. I don't understand churchs who have rules that women can't be elders, can't preach, can't achieve any level of leadership above teaching grade school Sunday School classes. Women can't teach adults? I know I am a leader and I thrive in leadership roles. God created me to be a leader in different areas. I used to be a teacher and I taught adults in some of my classes. I was a team captain in Mission Year on a coed team. Was that wrong? Am I disobeying God by leading in different areas of my life? I don't think so. I believe God gave me leadership gifts to use for His glory and I will continue to use them where He calls me to.
I believe that many women have been given gifts in many areas that may call them to work above (in a hierarchical structure) men and children. Is that wrong? Is that going against God? No. God calls women to leadership roles just as He calls men. If a woman can't teach an age above 5th grade, then should there be no female professors in colleges and universities? Should there be no head female chefs in restaurants? Should there be no lead female attorneys or judges? Should there be no women Senators or Representatives in the House? I believe that men and women are different, for sure, but both are created in the image of God. No person should take a position because they feel entitled to it or in order to prove a point. All people should do what they are good at and what brings them joy. If that's teaching Sunday School, male or female, then do it. If that's pastoring a church, male or female, then do it. Do what God created you to do and nothing less.
I realize I can get on a soapbox about these kinds of issues, and I know this sounds like a rant. Maybe it is. But I can't help but feel upset when I read these kinds of things. I am so glad I'm part of a denomination that accepts women and men at all levels of leadership.
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