This summer, I went back to counseling.

My bodies going through menopause – and I need some help navigating what to do when I feel estrogen angry? I also need help trying to figure out how to deconstruct some conservative evangelical beliefs I inherited while running a ministry. As one of my sage friends tells me, I'm not deconstructing; I'm just learning to change on the job. Working through my faith while speaking to yours is a serious business to me.

I'm aware of the power one holds who holds the bible and declares, "thus says the Lord.” That's a serious business. And I don't want to mess anyone up while I'm figuring out my stuff.

So this summer, I went on a hunt. I needed someone who could understand the unique dynamics of being a pastor. I needed someone who wouldn't talk Christianese to me or give me patten answers. I know my stuff, and I need someone who knew theirs. It took a few months, but I finally found this woman in Chicago. It turns out, one point in her career, she too had been a minister. I love it when Jesus does stuff like that.

She said two profoundly helpful things to me. I paid for them, but you are getting them for free.

Today we are talking with author and professor Kristin DuMez about her book Jesus and John Wayne. If you have been perplexed about how and why our conservative evangelical church leaders have been silent about Donald Trump's sexual exploitation OR his leadership style: of bullying, fear, and intimidation: Well, this is the podcast for you. You will walk away going, OH I GET IT. You may not like it, but you will get it!

Today we’re talking with Georgia Pellegrini. Perhaps you know her from her books, Food Hero’s, Girl Hunter, or Modern Pioneering. Or maybe you’ve seen her on Jimmy Kimmel Live or the cover of Shooting Sportsman Magazine. I met Georgia through mutual friends and thought, Hum, this woman is worth getting to know. Regardless, you will benefit from this conversation with Georgia about women, food, and faith.

On August 26th, 1920, the 19th amendment was officially ratified, giving women the vote. Today is the 100th anniversary of that historic day.

That amendment's fate lay in the hands of a 24-year-old young man.

Often women need men to step up if we are going to enjoy the blessed alliance, which is why we are talking with Dr. Rob Dixon today. We have many listeners who want to know how we get men to support women? Listen to Rob and learn.

God is not a divine rapist, he won’t’ force himself upon you.

He woos. He provides a space and place for us to flourish. This relationship Jesus is offering is unlike any other. His love is without limits, his is a love that informs and transforms us.

Does anyone need that? Ya, me too.

In 2005 I had the privilege of studying in Israel. While there, we hiked out to the place archeologists believe is ground zero for the Biblical Cana. Pretty cool, right?

But I have to tell you, the story of the wedding at Cana has always bugged me. Its place in John’s Gospel just didn’t make sense. If Jesus used events around meals to teach something, then what exactly was he doing here, water in wine? What in the world does that show you and me?

Are you feeling it?

You know the "I" m not sure how I'm going to fix it, feed it, pay for it, heal from it, - at the end of my rope and resources and my ICare button is broken feeling?"

Great, let's pull up to the table. It's a big table. In the story of the feeding of the 5000, Jesus has something to say to those of us who are weary!

We're in a series called the table. You know, the place we sit at and eat with others. Where we eat, when, what we eat, who we eat with, it all says something about us, doesn't it?

Our table reveals a lot about us.

That is true now, and it was true way back when in Jesus' day. And that's why Jesus did it—used meal times to challenge the social and religious exclusion of women.

It’s summer when we think about picnics, picnic tables, corn on the cob, potato salad, and Texas BBQ. The Table. It’s is a place people gather and eat, or noticeably didn’t. The table or the lack thereof communicates something about our family and upbringing; it was around the table that values and social norms imparted and social etiquette requested.

That social upheaval around the table was even more so during Jesus’ day. In antiquity eating around the table established boundaries around who was in and who was out. The seating arrangement enforced those boundaries.

The first-century church- battled the Gnostic teachings that invaded the culture. Gnostics believed that the material world was “not good,” including the body. One of the byproducts of this belief was the thinking that “what I do with my body doesn’t matter” therefore, sexual immorality isn’t relevant; it’s what my spirit does that counts. Paul countered the Gnostic teachings in 1 Corinthians and other places by arguing the created goodness of the body and its functions (including sexuality). We could say Paul had a holistic theology: mind, body, and soul. 

Today we discuss good Christian sex with Rev. Dieula Previlon. 

My kids, raised in the '90s, experienced the purity movement that swept our evangelical churches. Remember the rose? Every time you have sex, you pluck a petal off until you only have a thorny stick to give your husband.

Today we are talking with Kristin Kobes Du Mez about the origins of the Sexual Purity Movement. Kristen holds a Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and is a history and gender study professor at Calvin College. Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics.

I didn’t grow up in a Christian home, or in the church, or around Christians, so you could say I had a secular worldview when it came to sex and sexuality. In some ways, what I learned from the secular world was more on spot, truth, than what I learned from the Christian community.

We’re starting a three-part series on sex. And today’s conversation is about what we learned about sex from our faith communities. And let’s be honest for many of us it’s wasn’t helpful, we might even say it was harmful. Ya, today we’re talking about that.

Today we engage with the author of No More Holding Back, Kat Armstrong, where we will focus on Mary Magdalene. Questions we will be wrestling with include:

In your book, you mention that the Great Commandment Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind isn’t gendered. Can you explain what you mean by that?

I want us to focus on “all your strength” for a minute. You ask the question, how strong is too strong. What do you mean by that?

Join the conversation.

Today we’re listening in on a conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well. I know, is there anything more to be said about this story? Well, there is.

When I see Jesus speaking to her, I hear him saying, “I see you. I see what happened. I see the injustice that’s been done to you and the death toll it’s taken. I’m not okay with that. I can restore you. Breath life back into you.” And that’s what he’s saying to us too.

Tamar is a woman in Israel, a princess with status, power, and position. However, her status was nothing compared to the status, power, and position of the men in her life. There she finds herself vulnerable, even lacking agency.

Gracie.

She lived down the road, came from an impoverished family, always wore the same clothes, short, high waters. She was one of the stops on our bus. There was something I liked about her, but I didn't want her to sit next to me. I'm ashamed to say it, but I was in the cool kid crowd, and I didn't want to be associated with Gracie.

As one of the cool kids, I had status. Gracie didn't.

Andy Crouch, in his book, Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power, one of my all-time fav books, defines status as "at its root is "where you stand" – is about your place in line."

Today we begin a series called Power, Vulnerability, and Leadership. These are lofty concepts, but as women, they impact us personally, don’t they?

So I’d like to see what God has to say to us about each of them of the- power, vulnerability, and leadership - by digging into the stories of four women in the Scriptures. Today we’re talking about Deborah. God’s plan A.

Many of you are leaders, gifted leaders in your company, home, and community. The idea that a woman shouldn’t lead seems archaic to you, right? And we hear more and more how important it is for women to be at the leadership table. Forbes magazine stated, “Companies with higher female participation at board level exhibit higher returns and payout ratios.” The World Bank said women are the best investment for an economy. Study after study shows in developing countries, “...when women gain control over spending, less family money is devoted to instant gratification, like drinking and gambling- and more for education and starting small businesses.”

We have started to recognize that families, communities, and even companies fair better when women are at the leadership table – with men.

In the conservative church, we are taught to be the ideal biblical woman. We hear sermons on how we are to be gentle and quiet in spirit, to submit, not to lead or teach men. And there are bible verses to prove it.

I used to think those teachings, that restrict, limit women, were based on the bible until I realized it wasn’t.

It’s also about sex, power, and gender constructs. That’s what I want us to talk about today, gender constructs. Don’t worry. I’ve got it on the calendar, and we’re going to discuss sex and power too.

If you were raised in the conservative faith tradition, then most likely, you were raised to be a received knower. And like me, you may have shifted out of that, but you don’t have words for it. So you’re probably wondering what is a received knower, or why does it matter?

In this episode, we dive into how we know what we think we know and what it means to be a critical thinker.

At 24, I got pregnant while living in a van. Yes, a van. Steve and I were newlyweds, and we weren’t doing well. It was either get a divorce or buy a van, travel the country and see if we still liked each other. Isn’t that what every Christian couple does when they have marriage problems, I think it’s why Steve and I were never asked to counsel engaged couples at our church!

So, I got pregnant while living in the van. And that took my life in a direction I had never envisioned. I never wanted to be a mom. I remember folding clothes one day on and thinking, “This is not how I thought my life would turn out.” Ever felt like that?