S2S Sisters: "Intentional Discipleship: A NT Vision for Women in the Church" by Kristi Mast
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Our prayer is that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. Hi, welcome to Strength to Strength Sisters. It's so lovely to have you all here today. Strength to Strength Sisters is to encourage women to be catalysts in advancing the kingdom through biblical teachings, testimonies of faithful women, and thought-provoking discussions. I'm happy to introduce Christy Mass. She is going to be our talker today. We are doing our second intentional talk in our intentional series, and she's speaking on intentional discipleship, a New Testament vision for women in the church.
So welcome, Christy. At the end of her talk, we'll be doing, we'll be opening it up for questions and answers. So think of questions as the talk's going on. Jot them down. We ask that you turn your camera on if you're going to ask a question through Zoom. You're welcome to ask a question if you're calling in today. And the third option too is we do have a chat box through Zoom that you can submit a question that way if you like as well.
So a little about Christy. She was born in Virginia but spent most of her life in Hutchinson, Kansas, where she was part of a Center Amish Mennonite Church. As a young adult, she spent significant time working in semi-urban ministries in Kansas. Christy spent two years studying at Faith Builders in Guys Mills, Pennsylvania. Following her studies at Faith Builders, she returned to Kansas to teach a year of high school. During her time at Faith Builders, she developed a passion for God's Word as the most reliable source of spiritual formation and discipleship. This passion took her to Boston in 2019 to finish her bachelor's degree in biblical studies at Sattler College. While there, her passion for women's discipleship and the Word grew as she participated in an international community and dove into Scripture in her studies.
As a result of her studies at Sattler, she wrote a biblical study practicum that guides women through Scripture and teaches Bible study skills along the way. Daughters of Promise published the study in early 2023. Christy stayed in Boston after her graduation to work at Sattler College as director of student life. In her role there, she gets to dream about discipleship and shepherding young women, a match made in heaven for her. She fellowships with Followers of the Way in Boston and lives with her good friend Joy in a tiny apartment in a neighborhood that speaks more Spanish than English.
So I'm going to pray before I turn it over to Christy. So let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day. I thank you for this opportunity for us women and sisters in Christ to come together. Thank you for this technology that we have that we're able to do this. Father, I pray that the technology works well and does not fail.
Father, I pray that this talk would be your message that can come out to us and that it would create a call to action for us. Heavenly Father, I help that I pray that this would help us to live more intentional lives for your kingdom. Please, Father, use this platform to spread your message. I pray for Christy, give her clarity of thought as she presents your message, and may you bless this call. And I think and I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
All right. Hi, Christy.
Thank you all so much. Thank you, Christina, for that prayer and for the introduction. It truly is a privilege and an honor to be here with you all. I was looking at people that you've had in the past and that you have lined up for the future, and I feel like I'm standing among a large group of saints and a lot of women who have a lot more experience and have been disciples of Jesus for a lot longer than I have. So it's an honor to be here with you all. And to start out, I want to tell you a little bit about myself as a teenager. So sometimes I describe myself as a recovering feminist.
And I say that because as a teenager, I had really big dreams, and I didn't see how a traditional view of gender roles really allowed for some of those dreams. It seemed like there wasn't room for women to be world changers, and especially as somebody who loves to study and to learn and to teach passages like in 1 Peter and in Timothy that talk about, you know, women should be silent in the church and I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. Those passages really rubbed me the wrong way.
And I'm sure some of you can identify with that. They felt a little unfair, and it frankly seemed ridiculous to me that something as insignificant as my gender should shape my ministry and my vocational options. It seemed like to me at the time, right, that in this paradigm, men had all the opportunities for exciting things in the church and in the world, right? They could go be doctors and scientists and church planters and pastors and preachers while women stayed home and took care of the kids and cooked and cleaned so that men could get out and do the real work.
Well, obviously, I had a very reactionary perspective. And I have learned a lot along the way and grown a lot. And my understanding of women in the church and the New Testament vision specifically for women has shifted a lot. But I also think that sometimes the way that we talk about women's roles in the church can be discouraging or limiting to women in many ways.
As people who do say without any shame that men and women do have distinct roles in the church, there can sometimes be a tendency to see women's roles as narrower than they actually are, or worse yet, to release women of responsibility for their own spiritual growth and discipleship.
And I know that that is maybe a bit we're on the extreme side, but today I want to talk a little bit about some of the concepts that help me move away from a reactionary understanding of women in the church and towards a much fuller, more beautiful understanding of who we are as women and who we're called to be.
And I want to do this by first talking a little bit about our identity as children of the Heavenly Father and how that informs our life and ministry. And then to illustrate what I'm talking about, I want to do one of my favorite things ever, and that's just to take a look at some of the women in the New Testament and how we see them participating and serving in the church and the kingdom of God.
And my goal for you here is really simple. I just I really want you to leave here feeling freshly inspired to engage in the life of your local church. And I also hope that you leave with a little bit of curiosity about what God might be asking you to do in your life as a disciple that's maybe different from what you have always thought or assumed was your role.
So to get us started thinking here, I want to talk about a little bit about identity. And identity is a really big, knotty, complex thing, right? We all have a lot of different layers to who we are. And but I want you to think about your identity and when you think of who you are and how you would describe yourself, what are you at your core? What are the words that come to your mind when you think of your identity or how you would describe yourself to others?
Probably for many of us, words like wife or mother, student maybe, maybe an artist or baker, pastor's wife, counselor. There's all these different descriptions that often come to our minds when we think about who we are and what our identity is.
And I want to like I recognize that all of these things are really helpful descriptors, and especially when we're introducing ourselves to somebody else, our job or our family relationships do give context to whoever we're speaking to about who we are and what we do. But I want to challenge us today to think about our identity, especially when we think about our identity in the kingdom, that our primary identity shouldn't be a gendered word, that you're a wife or a mother or a sister or even that you're a woman, but that first and foremost, you're a disciple and a follower of Christ, and that that's the foundation, not that your femininity and your womanhood is on top of that.
And Paul actually makes this argument in Galatians 3. And I'm reading from the New King James here. I'm going to be switching back and forth a little bit between the ESV and the New King James. But he says in Galatians 3, "For you all are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female.
You are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." So Paul makes this argument. He says the most important thing, the foundation, is that you are in Christ. And he uses the language of heir or son, daughter to describe what the state of being in Christ looks like.
And we'll talk about a few of there's a lot of different words, right, that we could use to describe this identity. We'll talk about a few of them later. But for the sake of our discussion today, I want to use the word disciple as kind of the orienting term for us, that when we think of who we are in Christ, we think of ourselves as disciples.
And in this idea of disciple, right, is that of a follower and of a student. And I want to frame our discussion in this way because I think often when we think of women's roles in the church and the kingdom, it's easy for us to go immediately to the passages that talk about prohibition, right?
And about the passages that talk about prohibitions for women instead of going to the places that have prescriptions for all disciples. And I know for myself at least, that's how I grew up often thinking about it, starting with the prohibitions. And that led me to not only to this kind of reactionary position that I described earlier, but it also led me to have a lot of fear that I would do something wrong and that I would overstep the boundaries that were put in place for me by God. And I think some of that's good. But ultimately, for me, it was often paralyzing because I was so focused on what I couldn't do instead of what I could and should be doing.
And so that's a little bit of why I want to start with the understanding that we're first and foremost disciples. And every bit as much a disciple as Paul or Peter or Apollos or any of the people in the New Testament who faithfully followed after Christ.
And secondly, I think it's important to start here because I think it helps us understand that second only to Christ himself, you are the most important ingredient in your discipleship and spiritual growth. Your discipleship, your growth is not primarily the church's responsibility. It's not your husband or father's primary responsibility. It's not your pastor or teacher's primary responsibility. It's yours.
And at the end of the day, you're the one that's going to answer for the decisions that you've made and for the words that you've spoken or not spoken and the things that you've chosen. And as a disciple, no church community or marriage or work will answer for you.
Your own relationship with Christ as his follower is what will make you either rise or fall.
I think that the biblical submission and the ordering of the genders, as the scripture described, is a beautiful and a good thing. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't replace the agency and responsibility that you carry as a disciple of Christ.
So we've established that as the foundation, right? Your primary identity is a disciple of Christ. But what does that actually mean? First of all, who is a disciple? What makes up that identity? And what does a disciple do? And there's so, so, so, so many places that we could go here.
And I'm going to move fairly rapidly through some of these just because I really want to spend some good time talking about the women in the New Testament. But I think it's important and really exciting to look at some of these identities that the New Testament gives us as disciples, as followers of Christ.
Paul especially goes to great lengths to establish the identity of Christ followers and how who they are informs what they do and that everything that they do flows out of their really colorful royal identity as followers of Christ. And so at its most basic level, right, disciples are followers.
Jesus, when he first calls his disciples, Peter and Andrew and James and John, he says, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." And then they immediately leave their nets and they follow him.
And I think sometimes when I can get I don't know about you, but I can get overwhelmed with all the different commands and the things that I should be doing and maybe intellectual or theological conundrums that I'm in.
But it's so reorienting and gives a lot of security when we just remember we're followers. That was Christ's first command to his disciples. And that it's not on us to figure it out. It's on us just to follow where Christ leads. And I think what's so beautiful about followers is that they're people who recognize that they have deep need and they're hungry. They know that their life right now is not as it should be. They're hungry for something more, something better, something deeper. And that's why they're able to sacrifice and leave all behind and follow after Christ.
Paul also talks, as I said before, talks a lot about identity. And in 2 Corinthians 5, he talks about how we are ambassadors of reconciliation. So I'm going to go ahead and read this section. If you want to follow along in your Bible, feel free. I'll try to tell you. There's one passage especially I want you to follow along on, but I'll try to give you the references as we go here. So 2 Corinthians 5:17 to 20, Paul says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.
The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and then gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against him, and entrusting to us this message of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ. You reconciled to God."
There's so much packed in here, and I wish that we spend time digesting it and unpacking it. But the bottom line is you're an ambassador for Christ. As a disciple, as a follower, you're also an ambassador. You're the one who brings this message of reconciliation to the world. You, in the church, you are the plan for reconciliation of the world to God, of course, through Christ, through his work.
And so what do you do with this identity? I think out of this flows your preaching of the word, preaching of the gospel, bringing the good news to those who are in bondage. I think peacemaking flows so much out of this identity as a disciple who is a minister of reconciliation.
And also just bringing others into the work of Christ. These are all ways, right, that we, as disciples, live out our identity as ambassadors of reconciliation. Another thing that Paul calls us that goes along with this in 1 Corinthians 3 and then also in 2 Corinthians 6, he calls us God's fellow workers.
And then in 2 Corinthians, he says that Paul and the other apostles are working together with God and making an appeal to us, his audience. And I think this just kind of flushes out our understanding of how we're ambassadors, that we're not just ambassadors kind of sent out on our own on this mission apart from God, but we're actually joining arms with God, working with him to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth and to advance and enter into the work that he's already doing on this earth. And I think that's so, so comforting, especially when we see the work that is in front of us.
It is. It's impossible to do on our own, but we're not on our own. We're workers with God.
And I just want to look at two more identities quickly here. First of all, that we are priests and the temple of God. Or in some passages, it talks about us being God's house. And this is a personal favorite of mine. As Christina mentioned in the intro, I actually got to write a whole Bible study about this idea of what it looks like to be priests.
But I want to read a few passages here in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. Paul writes, "Do you not know that you're God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple."
And then also in Ephesians 2:19-22, Paul writes, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
In him, you also are being built together into the dwelling place for God by the Spirit." Especially when you look back at the Old Testament and see what the temple was, I think these passages come alive. Just two quick things. The temple was the place on earth where people come to meet God. It was also seen as God's footstool. So it was like this meeting place between heaven and earth where human beings could come and experience and encounter the living God.
And that's what Paul is or that's what Paul is calling us, that he's telling us, "You are that new meeting place between heaven and earth." And that when people want to meet God, they don't go to a building anymore. They come to the church and to God's people. And that is where they encounter God, which is, again, truly an astonishing identity for us as his disciples and followers.
And finally, I want to talk about how our identity as the children of God, right, as sisters of Jesus. And I think that last passage from Ephesians set us up well where Paul calls us members of God's household. And there's many, many other passages that talk about how we've been adopted into God's own family. But I want to actually use Jesus's own words here as he talks about his disciples.
In Matthew 12:46-50, and this story is recorded a couple of different times in the gospel, but it says, "While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, 'Who is my mother and who are my brothers?'
And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'" Jesus identifies more closely with the family of those who do the will of the Father than with his own blood family.
Sometimes when I read that passage, it feels a little harsh, especially when we think about how Mary, his mother, was a woman of obedience and faithfulness, that how in this moment, even her, he rejects in some way and in order to identify more strongly with us, his disciples.
So we talked a little bit about the kinds of things that we do that flow out of our identity. And I think this last story really captures it, right? Jesus's disciples do the will of the Father.
They do his words. And I think it goes without saying that in order to do, you need to know. And I could talk for a long time about how scripture is this beautiful gift that we've been given in order to know and understand God's will for us and what it looks like to live in the kingdom. But also, as disciples, as priests, as the temple of God, as his sisters and as daughters of the creator God, we also have a call to proclaim the gospel and to teach others as was given to us in the Great Commission. We have a call to care for the poor, especially our brothers and sisters in the church, and to work for the unity in the body.
And there's just, there's so, so, so much more. But all of it is rooted in our identity as disciples, as followers of Christ and people who are running after him. So these identities and these duties of disciple are good. But in order to make this a little more concrete, I want to take some time and look at the women, a few of the women in the New Testament, because I think when we look at them, we can see it's a lot easier to see what this looks like actually lived out and embodied and how they lived out their identity and life as disciples. So to do this, I want to start at the very beginning.
And that's with Mary and Elizabeth. I think it's really astonishing that the first proclamation of the good news that the Messiah was coming was to a virgin girl, to Mary. That good news was preached to a woman first. It was celebrated first by women and prophesied about and praised by women first in the New Testament. So if you remember in Luke, it starts out with Zechariah receiving a prophecy from the angel Gabriel about John. There's definitely hints of the coming Messiah in that prophecy. But Zechariah questions and then is punished as a result. He loses his ability to speak. But right afterwards, in contrast, angel Gabriel comes to Mary and she receives it, yes, with curiosity and with some trepidation or hesitation, but she receives it and it says, "Let it be to me according to your word," said, "I'm the servant of the Lord," and receives it with joy and with surrender.
And then she goes to Elizabeth. And Elizabeth, as soon as she sees her, breaks out into this prophetic utterance about what's happening inside of Mary. And Mary follows that in this beautiful song of praise to God who lifts up the humble and the lowly and brings down the mighty from their thrones and what's often been called the magnificat.
And I think it's I just think it's so beautiful and reassuring that the gospel comes first to women and that they respond with prophecy and with praise.
And they share it with each other. So moving kind of chronologically through the New Testament, throughout Jesus's ministry, there's so many women who exemplified great faith, sometimes actually in contrast to or as an example for men who were also there around Jesus. So in Mark 5:21-43, the woman with the issue of blood serves as an example of great faith to Jairus, who's a ruler of a synagogue.
She's this no-name woman, but yet her story is interjected into the middle of the story of Jairus and his daughter. And Jesus reminds, he commends the woman for her great faith and then reminds Jairus, "You also need to have great faith."
And then in Matthew 26:6-13, the disciples criticize this woman with the alabaster flask for her extravagant love. And Jesus rebukes them, saying that her story is one that will accompany the gospel wherever it goes. So these are just two examples of women in Jesus's life and ministry that were served as examples of great faith and put their faith into action with their words and with what they did.
I think it's also beautiful to look at the women who followed Christ wherever he went. So Luke 8:1-3 has these verses about some women here that I want to read. So Luke 8, starting with the first verse, "Now it came to pass afterward that he went through every city and village preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the 12 were with him and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for him from their substance."
So I don't know about you, but I definitely used to have the impression that as Jesus traveled around, it was mostly the 12 disciples who were with him. And then maybe there's kind of the riffraff rabble of the crowd that's just kind of there for the bread and for the healings. And they come and go. But Luke tells us that there's also this group of women that are following Jesus around that have also left everything and are following Jesus.
And I think in Acts 2, we see that there are also some other men that weren't among the disciples that were with Jesus from the beginning, following after him and learning from him.
And then it's these same women who were the first evangelists of Christ's resurrection. And again, I think it's so beautiful how the angel comes and preaches the good news of Christ's arrival, first to Mary and Elizabeth. And then at the end of Jesus's life in his or the beginning of his new life, there's also women there at the tomb who actually go and tell the disciples and proclaim the good news of Jesus's resurrection.
And I don't know exactly what all to make of that, except for that I think we as women have a vital role in gospel proclamation and that it's certainly not just something that the 12 apostles were meant to do. So these women, they followed and they cared for Jesus and his life. And they did so in his death as well. They were with the disciples watching the events and his crucifixion from afar. But then they made special note of where he was laid. They went home, they prepared spices, they rested on the Sabbath. And then that morning, the next morning, they came to care for him in his final resting place as they cared for him throughout his life.
And it was this act of love and of service for Christ that made it possible for them to become the first to know and proclaim his final greatest miracle and the completion of our salvation.
And as I was studying and reading through these, you know, these are familiar stories. But as I was tracing some of these threads throughout the gospels, it hit me for a first time that what was the relationship like between the 12 disciples and these women? Because they had all this shared experience together.
They were, you know, the faithful few who continued to follow Jesus through thick and thin and were there at his death and then shared the sorrow and the grief of all their hopes and dreams being dashed.
And then when the women come back and tell Peter and John, like, "He's not here, he's risen," they don't believe. They don't believe them until they go and look for themselves. But then the women are validated. And just all those ups and downs, I think I got a picture of what their relationship must have been like or that I have before because they shared so much together and went through a lot together.
So just kind of to summarize, just in Christ's life and ministry, we see women praising and prophesying over his birth. We see them serving as examples of great faith. They're following Christ everywhere that he went. They're caring for his physical needs. And they're also proclaiming the good news of the gospel to the 12 disciples, right, about Jesus's resurrection.
And I love, love, love these stories. But I think what's even more intriguing to me are the hints that we have of women's involvement in the early days of the church in Acts and also from Paul's letters. So if you read through the first few chapters of Acts, especially, it's just crystal clear that women were very much present and involved and active participants in these major events surrounding the founding of the church. So Acts starts out with kind of recapping the resurrection and then Christ returning back up into heaven. And then in Acts 1:14, it talks about how all the disciples and these women are gathered in this upper room and they're praying.
Presumably, they're just they're up there praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit. And in that time, they appoint the 12th apostle. And then shortly thereafter, the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost in power.
And women were there. They were present for all of that, these women who followed Christ. And then throughout the early chapters of Acts, Luke speaks a lot in gender-neutral terms about the followers of Christ. But also there's these different times where he specifically goes out of his way to name both men and women as those who were being baptized or even as those who were being persecuted by Saul.
Several times, he talks about how Saul was pursuing them and putting men and women into prison.
So I think that it's just crystal clear how active and engaged they were in the life of the church.
And they weren't just in Jerusalem. They were also in other cities as well. I think we all know the story of Lydia and how she responds to Paul's message. And she's the first in Philippi to be baptized and then opens up her home to host the church. And she's a vital part of this Philippian church becoming established. We have Priscilla and Aquila. And I often think these are this couple is one of the most the ones that I'm most curious about in scripture because they travel with Paul. They work with Paul. And it seems like they pack up and go quite frequently. They start out in Corinth, but then they travel around and they end up in Rome and might have even been part of planting the church in Rome.
And I'm so curious, did they have children? If they did, did they haul their children along with them when they went on these journeys?
How did they first come to faith? Who first converted them from Jews to Christians? What was their educational background? We know that they were well-spoken enough and understanding enough to take Apollos, who was a powerhouse preacher, aside and correct his doctrine.
And that they were together. They're always mentioned together, this husband and wife team that were powerful in the church, were church planters and missionaries. And in Romans 16, Paul even says that they risked their own lives to save his.
Okay. Last example that I want to look at here, well, actually maybe second to last, is Paul in his letters just kind of drops these names of these different women. And it's so, so, so intriguing to me. Some of them, and the way that he talks about them, it seems pretty clear that they're backbones of the church.
And some of them, it's clear Paul's met. Some of them, though, he probably hasn't even met, like some of the people that he mentions in Romans 16. Because at this point, Paul hasn't even been to Rome. So I want to go ahead and just read Romans 16:1 through 16. And if you want to open up and read along with me, and we'll stop and talk a little bit along the way. So he starts out Romans 16:1. He says, "I commend you to Phoebe, our sister," or sorry, "I commend to you, Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church in Kentria, that you may receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints and assist her in whatever business she has need of you.
For indeed, she has been a helper of many and of myself also." So I want to pause here. It's really intriguing to me the way that he speaks about Phoebe. He's commending her to the people in Rome. And so it seems like she was either the person carrying Paul's letter to the church there or else she was in some way accompanying the carrier.
But I'll just pull out one more thing he says about her. He says he instructs the Romans to assist her in anything that she needs. So it seems like Paul has sent her on this mission maybe to deliver the letter, but to do some other things, it seems like, as well, because he's telling them to assist her in whatever she needs.
And then going on, he says, "Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus who risk their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise, greet the church that is in their house.
Greet my beloved Ephenetus, who is the firstfruits of a chaia to Christ. Greet Mary, who labored much for us. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
Greet Amplius, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachus, my beloved. Greet Apelles, approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodian, my countrymen. Greet those who are in the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.
Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who have labored in the Lord. Greet the beloved Persis, who labored much in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine. Greet Asyncratus, Phlegon, Hermas, Petrobas, Hermes, and the brethren who are with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympus, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you."
So I realize this could seem like just a list of names. But I want to highlight the different women that are mentioned here. We have Mary, who labored much. We have Junia, who was in Christ before Paul. She suffered imprisonment, and she was well known to the apostles.
We have Tryphena and Tryphosa, who've labored in the Lord. Persis, who labored much in the Lord. We have Rufus's mother, which I was reading from the NKJV, I think, in ESV, other translations, makes it more clear that Paul is saying Rufus's mother was like a mother to him as well.
We have Julia. We have Nereus's sisters, who are all identified as saints.
Now, I don't know about you, but this list is so intriguing to me.
Clearly, these women are people that Paul's going out of the way to greet because their labor is in the Lord. They are builders of the church.
So according to Paul, we have women who are identified as couriers of Paul's letters, or laborers in the Lord. And we even have in 1 Corinthians 1:11, he says, "It's been reported to me by Chloe's people that there's quarreling among you." And so we even have a group of Christians who are identified by a woman's name.
So what's our takeaway from all of this?
What feels like we're kind of putting pieces together. There's all these clues. And what I hope is that this painted a picture for you of men and women's relationships in the earliest days of the church. When I look at the relationship between the disciples and the women who traveled with Jesus, there was much, much more that they had in common in their roles and pursuits and experiences than what was different.
And especially in and following the resurrection, they needed each other deeply. They spent hours in that upper room together, crying out to God and waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit together. And given that backdrop, it also makes sense to me that Paul had this kind of relationship with the women and men that he mentions by name in these letters. He was part of a church, a part of a group of people, and he desperately needed the work of these sisters who built him up and filled in the gaps and were foundational pieces in the churches of God across the expanding kingdom.
So I want to ask you, does this picture of brothers and sisters working arm in arm in close relationship and dependency reflect the function of the body in your own church, in your context? Are you somebody who'd be commended as a cornerstone in your church, a fellow laborer in the Lord, or an evangelist of the gospel?
And why does all this matter?
Now, as we wrap up, I want to return to the beginning. In the beginning, God said he created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Sisters, whether you realize it or not, your brothers in the church need you.
They need not just your hands, but they also need your heart and your head. They don't just need your body, but they need your wisdom and intuition and understanding. They need you every bit as much as Paul needed Phoebe or the mother of Rufus or Priscilla. And they need you every bit as much as Peter needed Mary.
I want to argue that you are a teacher and a leader.
No, I agree that the place for you as a woman is not as a bishop or elder in the church. It's not as one standing up and expositing the word on Sunday morning. But that does not mean that you're not a leader and a teacher in the church.
The great commission to make disciples and to teach them all things Jesus commanded applies equally to all faithful disciples, male or female. And if you're a mother, then it's your responsibility to teach your children, raising them up by your word and example, like Lois and Eunice did for Timothy.
And as a mother, it's all the more vital that you are regularly washed in the word, that you know and do Christ's commands, and that you preach his gospel every single day because you're living the most incarnational ministry that there is.
You have little heathens watching you every minute of every day. And I don't think any missionary has quite that level of intense scrutiny. If you're a single woman working or studying, as a disciple, you have a responsibility to preach the word to your coworkers and fellow students, to use the freedom of your unmarried life to invest in the kingdom and to build the church.
You're a teacher, but you're also a leader in these things. And it depends, again, on how you define leadership. If you define it as being the leader and the place where the buck stops, then no, I don't think that we as women are called to take that role. But if you define leadership as taking initiative and responsibility, then you're absolutely a leader in your church.
And it looks very different in different contexts, right? So here in a small house church in Boston, it sometimes looks like me teaming up with a brother in the church to plan events for our group, whether that's a Bible study or social event or an outreach event. Maybe for you, it looks like starting a conversation with your pastor about how to better disciple and train the young people in your church.
Or maybe it's working together with others to start an initiative to reach out to your neighborhood.
Leadership also looks like just opening your eyes to the spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of your brothers and sisters beside you and doing something about it. You don't need permission from your church leadership to take responsibility for the health and flourishing of your blood family. And you don't need it in order to take responsibility for the flourishing of your spiritual family either. They're your responsibility. God has given them to you.
So as we wrap up here, I want to remind you again that you are first and foremost not a wife or an employee or a sister or even a woman, but that first and foremost, you're a disciple, a follower of Christ, a student of him and his life. Everything you do can and should flow out of that identity.
Furthermore, when you think about the New Testament vision for women in the church, I hope that you think first of Elizabeth prophesying over Mary or of Phoebe on mission with Paul for the church in Rome.
And I want to leave you with this question. How is God calling you to discipleship? Where is he calling you to teach and lead and follow in the footsteps of Jesus for the flourishing of his body, the church?
Thank you all so much. I'll turn it back over to Christina.
Thank you, Christy. That was wonderful.
Yeah, I loved what you said. I struggled too when I first became a Christian. This was only about four years ago now.
And before I was a Christian too, actually, just the idea that the women have to stay at home and raise children and the men get to go out and do the stuff. And how wrong I was. And I've learned so much so far on my journey that we play a significant role in the kingdom and building the kingdom just because we can't be up on a podium preaching or doing some of the things that a man does. We play a significant role. And the kingdom wouldn't be where it is if it wasn't for women as well.
So thank you so much for your talk today. I'm going to open it up to a Q&A. So if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. We also have a chat box that you could enter questions into. If you're on Zoom, turn on your video, please, if you would. And if you're on a phone call, you can also ask questions that way.
Yeah. So are there any questions for Christy? As you think of that, I'll actually just read one that came in through the chat. It says, "Hi Christy. You mentioned that we as disciples are also to serve the poor. My question is, how do we women approach homeless people? How do we serve and proclaim the good news to them? Where we live, there are a lot of people living in the streets. When I drive places like to the store, it hurts me that I have a place to call home and food on the table, and these people stand at the corners and beg for it. Except giving them money or food, what are other ways we can serve them?
Thank you."
That's a very good question. And I'm sure that others of you could answer this better than I can. But it's a thing here in Boston too, of course. There's always homeless people. And especially with this, it's something like four degrees in Boston today. It's incredibly cold. And I've been thinking about this as well. I think I have struggled or a hard time staying warm in my drafty apartment. But I have an apartment. I have a heater to keep me warm.
I think one of the things that I've grown in the last couple of years is, and I think the question alluded to this, giving to those that ask. And whether that is I try to have a gift card to CVS or local stores that are on every street corner or some kind of food, or maybe it's just giving my time and interrupting my day.
But beyond that, I think there is only so much that you can do. Something that my family has done in Hutchinson, Kansas, where I come from, is started a place called the Coffee Corner where homeless people can just come in and get a cup of coffee. And so doing something like that, providing a place, a warm space, opening up a space that you have is huge, huge, huge. And there's been incredible community and church built through that. I'm sure there's also every city has established ministries that are reaching out to the homeless and to the poor. And getting involved there is always an option as well. But yeah, those are some of the things that come to my mind.
But it's hard. We do have to pick where we invest our time and energy. I think it takes a lot of discernment to know how we can best serve the poor, especially.
Looks like somebody has their hand raised.
I know that might have been an accident. Okay. So hello, my name is Dagma. I would like to add that it's important for these people to be seen, not to look to the other side, but to see them, to give them a smile, and to greet them, perhaps.
And I have contact to a few of those because I work as a pastor secretary, and I have to hand out vouchers. They can have food by these vouchers. But to be polite, and I'm from Germany, and I don't say the familiar du, but I say the polite form to address people. And I say, "Mr. and Mrs."
That's very important for these people to be seen and to be seen as everybody, not as someone who is on a lower level. You understand my English is not so good. No, absolutely. And I absolutely agree. I think sometimes, especially when we're so in Boston, the context that I live in, I do a lot of walking from place to place. And usually, I'm on a schedule, and I'm headed somewhere. And sometimes the most costly thing for me is to take time and, like you said, acknowledge their presence and their humanity and their dignity and give them the dignity of a conversation, even that's not about what they need, but more about who they are, who their family is, where they're headed, what they're hoping for.
But yeah, I love that. Thank you for adding that.
Hi, Christy. Hi, Janet. Thanks so much for sharing. I really, really, really appreciated it. I appreciate your heart and what you shared. I feel like there's so much work to be done. And I would love to hear what other people, what other women are finding, what work they're finding to do. And I found in my own little group of women that the young moms, especially, are so hungry for someone to come alongside and help. And I feel like I see so much work that can be done by women in the church and that can't be done by the men in just so many ways. And so I'm really thankful for what you're sharing with people.
I've actually shared your Bible study that you did with my little group of women that we meet with. And I think that's going to be a big blessing and give us something to talk about. And so I just wanted to say thank you so much for coming on today and sharing. I really appreciate it. I think the message is important. And like I said, I'd love to hear from others what they're finding, what work we're all finding to do. I think it's encouraging, so encouraging to hear what other people are doing in the church.
Yes, I agree. I would love to hear from others about what they're doing, what they're involved in. Especially I know if you're a mom with children, it can sometimes feel hard to know how to make time and space. But I would love to hear, yeah, what are the ways that others have been reaching out and doing the work of the gospel in their context?
Hi, Christy. I'm Mary Ellen, your mom, a very good friend. Anyway, in the passages where it talks about the women keeping silence in the church, I've always been challenged with the part that it says we should learn. And so I wonder if you have any thoughts to share about good ways to learn.
Yeah.
Are you thinking specifically in the context of the church service or just in the kind of broader context of the church community?
Oh, sorry.
I think it's a good thing to keep in mind when we go to church, to have our ears open to learn. But even in the broader context, what are some ways you would encourage women to learn?
Yeah.
I do think that studying the Bible in groups is just—it's hard to replace the learning that happens there.
Scripture before the printing press was never outside of the context of community. In the Old Testament, the way that you got Scripture was by going to the temple or to the synagogue and having it read aloud to you. And you always had somebody beside you that you could turn to and discuss with. And then in the New Testament as well, and even through the Middle Ages and the years of the church after that, reading wasn't something that everybody knew how to do, and they didn't even have access to the written scriptures. And so I think Scripture was designed to be interacted with on the group level.
And I think women's Bible studies are really good. But I think there's even something special that happens when the genders are mixed and when you're studying the Word together as a mixed group as well. I think each has their place. But I think men and women have a lot to learn from each other as they study Scripture. But I think that would be my biggest piece of advice or the biggest thing. One of the things that's been the most powerful for me is studying Scripture in the context of a group where it's not just me searching on my own, but where I'm working with other people to learn and understand.
Yeah, that's what comes to mind first. I was just going to hold up your Bible study that just came out. It's absolutely gorgeous. I haven't started it yet. We're going to do it with a group of women as well.
It's called Kingdom of Priests, a Bible study practicum. It was published by Daughters of Promise. So if you're able to get online, you can go to Daughters of Promise, and you can order them on that website.
How else can you order them, Christy, or is that just the best way to do it? That's the only way to do it at this point. It's not available through Amazon or any of those kinds of retailers. So yeah, I think that's the only way to do it is get it direct from the website there. But they ship out at least twice a week. They have a warehouse where they're—so it's a small business. It's a small company, but they took it beyond my wildest dreams in terms of the final product. Daughters of Promise did so, so, so much to bring it to life. And I'm so—yeah. Ray and the team there did a fantastic job.
Christy, I have a comment here that came in, and I will read it. This is from Jamila Kurtz. She's saying, "My heart is saying a resounding amen, Christy. You have definitely given us a call to action. I can say that as I have followed God's call to be a disciple and a follower of Jesus first, and then a wife and mother, God has opened amazing opportunities for me to fulfill the great commission to make disciples. I'm in my home, homeschooling my children every day, and God brings me who He wants me to love. I'm once again inspired to ask God what His will for me is in bringing the glory of heaven to this earth.
Many blessings. And I will add that God needs women who will say yes to Him and come alongside women and children who are hurting from trauma and abuse." Amen. Amen. Thank you, Jamila. It's so encouraging, inspiring for all of us.
I have another question here from the chat. She's asking, this is from Amanda. "Can you expound on this verse, please? 1 Timothy 2:12. But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Does this apply only to public worship, or where do you draw the line for women teaching others? For example, is it proper for a woman to expound on some Bible verses in an informal group setting with men present?" Yeah, it's such a good question, Amanda.
And it's one that I continue to wrestle with myself. Where I'm at now, I believe that this is in the context, even just given the verses that are around it. I believe it's in the context of a public worship setting. And specifically, I mean, we think of Priscilla as a great example, right, of somebody that, along with her husband, taught Apollos, who was a fully grown man who was a leader in the church. And so I think even that gives us a clue that this isn't talking about everywhere all the time, but likely in the ordered church service. But I'll be honest, Amanda, I was hoping that I would have more time to prepare for this topic and that I'd be able to dig into the nitty-gritty a little bit more on that because I don't feel fully satisfied.
I think sometimes when I look at passages like that, and then I look at the example of women in the New Testament, there can feel like there's some dissonance there, at least of how I've traditionally heard those passages talked about. And so I'll be honest, I have a lot of more work to do in really digging in and studying. But that's where I am right now of understanding that in the public context versus private.
If anybody else has something to add there, I'm all ears.
I've often been inspired in thinking about this question that was just asked here.
I don't know what all the answer is to that question either, but there's something that has blessed me about the story of Lydia, I think it was, when Paul met them by the river. Tell me if I'm getting these details wrong. But she came to him and she said, "If you have judged me to be faithful, come to my house."
And she initiated ministering to him. But you can tell by those words that she had a meek and quiet spirit, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, that's such a good example. That it's not about not initiating things. It's the way and the spirit. And that's evident in everything that you do.
So going back to what Janet said about some areas that women do service, Susie has a comment here. She says her work is in massage therapy. And she speaks to so many different women, and she feels unworthy of them sharing so many of their struggles with her. But she finds this rewarding experience both to give and to receive encouragement.
And then another question here from Alona. "How would you help women who are hurting from a loss of a family member or something like that in the church community?"
Again, I am confident that there's women here who have a lot more experience to answer this question.
I think so often I was actually just talking with a friend today about kind of the normal highs and lows of life that we all experience. And he's actually headed into a psychiatry residency. So somebody who's headed into mental health and caring for the really extremes of mental health. But I think one of the things that he said that I've been thinking about the last couple of days is how much listening and presence is powerful for grief and for pretty much anything, especially that's within the normal range of the human experience, things like grief, the loss of a loved one. And I think being present and available and listening is so huge. Answers often can do more harm than good, I think.
And the other thing that I think of is I lost a good friend in high school. And one of the things that was so striking to me, my parents and I went to her house and visited with her parents the day of the accident, the day that she passed away. And there was a family there who was just doing all of the chores around the house quietly without being asked. They were emptying and reloading the dishwasher. They were taking out the trash. They were getting supper started. And nobody had asked them to do that. Nobody had told them these things need to be done. But showing up and doing some of those things, I think, is a powerful way to love and care for somebody, especially in the really, really raw moments of grief when you're not thinking about your physical needs at all.
But yeah, I would be so eager to hear others what has been helpful in your own experience. Yeah, Christy, that's just a great way for us to serve, too. Bringing a warm meal to someone, to a neighbor. It doesn't have to necessarily be someone in our church family. Of course, that's good and well. But just to our neighbors. And people typically love receiving free food, inviting them over into your home. It's something that you can easily do, have a cup of coffee or a cup of tea with them. Those are ways that we can serve while our children are still around and we're taking care of them.
Yes.
And here it's the same to see the grief and to show, "I see you, and I see your grief, and I see your pain." And sometimes we think we can't do anything or we cannot find the right words.
But then it's Jesus to speak through our mouths. And we just should be there, just be there and see this person. And don't do too much or talk too much because that could be the wrong thing. I think to be—what is the word? I think to be humble, just be nearby.
That is, I think, a good start. And then the things develop. Perhaps you're the right person. Perhaps you're the wrong. And someone else is the one who can help.
Yeah. That's good.
Thank you, Christy, for sharing today. I'm tremendously excited by your thoughts you shared. Oh, I find it so exciting. And I was thinking about the beautiful thing about all of this is that we all have such different personalities and such different gifts. And we can easily look at someone else and think, "You know what? I'm just not good enough. I'm not like that lady. I'm not like this sister." Whereas I feel like if we just humbly give what we have and what the Spirit shows us to do, altogether, we are Christ's hands and feet. And whether that's to the sister beside us or the homeless person on the street, that's the beautiful thing about Christ's body is that we have what we have and who we are, and we don't have to be someone else.
I think that's such a comforting thing to me. The other thing that excites me so much is recently in my devotions, I was reading in Mark 3 where Jesus was going around preaching or teaching and healing. And it said, "The demons cried out when they saw him. The demons cried out to him and said, 'You are the Son of God.'" And he warned them, "Don't say anything. Don't make me known."
And I wondered, "What did that actually look like?" But the thing that excited me so much about that is to think that this is the God I serve. He is my brother. To be a part of that, I don't know why that just overwhelmed me so much. And it just goes along with the excitement I felt today in hearing what you were saying about who we are in Christ. Oh, it's just so exciting. There's just so much power and possibility there.
Amen, Linda.
Yeah, when we actually look at who we are, what we're called, and all this before we've done anything.
It is. It's astounding.
And yeah, that Christ is our brother. He calls us sisters and friends. It's beautiful.
I have a question here from Michelle and Bree over in Australia. She says, "Yes, as Christy said, it's hard to be serving others and finding the careful balance between serving our own family. I wonder if there are any ideas or ways others have found that are helpful to find this balance and mark these boundaries."
So I don't know if Christy is single. She doesn't necessarily have that balance. So maybe there's a mother on here that would be able to share some insight. Not that you don't either, Christy. No. Maybe while people are thinking, though, I wanted to talk a little bit as I was thinking about this question and examples of women who I've seen do this so well. And there's a young mother. Her name is Lydia, who her husband is a student at Sattler. She has just one toddler. And she started a stroller gang, I think is what they call it, with ladies in her neighborhood. They live in a big apartment building. And just wherever she would go, if she would meet ladies in the park with young children, she'd say, "Hey, do you want to join our stroller gang?"
We go on walks together, and we hang out and talk to each other and support each other in mothering. And she has probably, I think it's anywhere from five to nine women who meet up regularly, and they go out, take their children, pack them up in their strollers, and take walks together and just talk and process and talk about, yeah, the challenges that they're facing.
So that's somebody that I was thinking about with this question of ways to incorporate your family into ministry and reaching out. But I know there's so much wisdom here, and I'm eager to hear from mothers who have experience with this.
I would say that I'm pretty committed to doing what I can do with my children and to doing it together. So I really appreciate that question a lot. And I happen to be a pastor's wife, so my focus is largely in the church. And my ministry is there. And one of the things I can do is reach out to the young mothers. And one of the things my children can do is reach out to the children of the young mothers.
And so we can do that together as a team. We can have young moms over for lunch, and I can have share time with them. My children can play with their little children, and that works out really well. And I think there's just—I would love to hear others' ideas too, but I think there's just a lot of ways you can reach out as a family to the needs that are around.
Christy, I wanted to also thank you so much for your talk that helped us to remember our identity in Christ first. And yes, with this discussion, also as mothers, knowing how important it is to raise our children in the Lord, but for them to also see that we are serving the Lord even above them. And so a couple of the things that I've been working on to go along with what Janet said as well, inviting people into our home, other young families, young mothers, and trying to encourage and teach or maybe do studies with them as well. But also maybe making meals together as a family to take to homeless shelters or to women that are in drug rehab programs.
And starting to do that a little bit here in our area to go when my husband's off because I can't take my children with me to talk to those women, but to maybe cook before I leave, and they could be a part of that. And then, yeah, to go when he's off and try to work with them where they can't be with me right there, but they're seeing that I'm active trying to reach out to others and evangelize and also to just be a comfort, be a listening ear.
And I know there's tons of other ideas as well. But yeah, definitely important for them to see us serving and active even beyond what we do for them and for the in the home, so. Thank you, Sarah. That's inspiring. And I like that there's a both-and there of you can bring your—it is. I think it's powerful to bring your children into ministry.
But it's also powerful that your husband makes space so that you can go and do some of those things that are harder for or not appropriate maybe for your children to come along on.
Yeah. With regards to intentional discipleship too and us being mothers and discipling our children, it's the best way to disciple people, whether they are children or neighbors or whomever, is living life in front of them as well. So bringing our children along on our journey is a way for us to disciple them.
Maggie here has a comment with regards to listening to people. She says, "Presence and listening is the best for me who's going through grief." So she just wants to confirm that, yes, listening and just being there for someone, offering your time is very important. And then Amber says, "I like the phrase recovering feminist." And can you share anything that has helped you in this journey?
Yeah. So I think there was a moment definitely of just kind of surrender of saying, "This feels wrong to me. This doesn't feel right. But I'm going to choose to trust even if I don't understand." I'm definitely somebody who wants to understand and know all the ins and outs and the philosophy behind it before I really embrace something and accept it.
So there was definitely a moment of saying, "You know what? No, I trust that God is a good father and that this is for my good and not for my ill."
But I think also what was huge for me was reading these through the New Testament and taking note of the women kind of like we did today and how they were so actively involved and engaged in the life of the church and served as examples to men, served as coworkers.
They empowered Jesus himself in his ministry and seeing how much they weren't sidelined, as I think was kind of my impression.
But they were right there in the middle of it and in the thick of things.
I think also there's—I almost hesitate to give this book title because there's definitely things in it that I don't agree with or fully support. But there's a book called Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood by Amy Bird. And there were things in there that were really helpful for me. Again, I think she is definitely writing from a little bit of a reactionary place. But I don't know if you're familiar with—there's this tome of a book called Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. And it goes into great detail about what biblical manhood is, what biblical womanhood is. And I think it way overdefines what biblical manhood and womanhood look like. And I think that that is a danger that we're still in, that we can over-delineate the boundaries of what it means to be a man and a woman.
And so an example of this, a small example of this would be to say, "Oh, you shouldn't let your boys play with dolls because that's not manly," when really there's something beautiful and nurturing that might be coming out there. And that doesn't diminish their manhood. In fact, that makes it stronger.
So she's writing from that perspective of coming from a culture that really did over-define what biblical roles look like. So that was helpful for me. I think just realizing that there's a lot more—there's way more room for creativity and goodness than there are limits, if that makes sense.
C.S. Lewis, I can't remember the quote, but it's a concept from his book, The Great Divorce, which is kind of this allegory of heaven and hell. And he talks about how evil is just this tiny, tiny little splinter in relation to the whole of God's goodness and that there's so, so many more ways to be good than there are to be evil. The more evil you become, the more—just like everybody else or just like other evil people you are. But the more good you become, the more you become like God because you're stretching into that infinite space that is God.
So I feel like I'm rambling now, but even that concept was so helpful for me to see that there's truly infinite possibilities within the goodness that God has, that it's not this box and structure that's keeping me locked in.
I have another question here. It's with regards to teaching a man. She says, "Hello from Ontario. I had the privilege of learning scriptures more than my husband growing up. Sometimes he has questions and comes to me with them. The verses about not teaching men always come to mind. What is the right thing to do in this situation?"
It's interesting. I'm currently dating somebody who's been a Christian for about four years and grew up in a Hindu background. And
I, by contrast, grew up in the church. I had basically five years of Bible school in that I was studying in Christian colleges, which really emphasized scripture and the study of it. So I can identify with this question quite a lot because there are different times where my boyfriend, Josh, will be like, "Oh, I didn't realize that's in the Bible," or has questions about things.
And I think the second part of that verse about usurping authority is really helpful for understanding what the teaching is talking about. Again, as I said before, I think I have a lot of room to grow in understanding what exactly this all means and looks like. But I think kind of like—oh, I lost her name. Doreen said about Lydia.
She came in an invitational way and in a way that was not aggressive or certainly not in usurping authority. And I imagine that Priscilla, with her husband, Aquila, came in the same way to Apollos, not trying to knock him over the head with the truth, but saying, "Here, this is what we see and know," in a way that's much more invitational rather than in this mode of usurping authority. So that's some of my thoughts. I think it would be a disservice to your husband if you would refrain from sharing what God has taught you and what you have gained.
And I think that that's beautiful, and that's a good way that God has for you to grow together.
Yeah. Thank you, Christy. Isn't there a difference between giving advice to someone or to answer a question if one is asked?
Yeah, for sure. And I think there's also room for us to admonish our brothers, right, when we see them going, doing something that is not Christ-like because scripture tells us to exhort each other daily. And so I think that's also what makes me think that it's not like men aren't supposed to learn anything from us, but it's more in this—whether it's in the public church setting—but more in this authoritative kind of teaching or taking of authority over men that Peter is warning us against there.
I understand, though, that this isn't an easy question. It's not just crystal clear. And I realize that different people are at slightly different places on it, and I think there's room for that. Okay. Well, thank you so much for your time, Christy, and everyone else on this call as well.
We are so excited that we can come together and talk about God and His kingdom and learn together and encourage each other and be called to action as well. Next month is our third talk in our intentional series.
And sorry, I'm just going to share my screen here.
So it's on intentional forgiveness, keeping our spirits free and clear by Edith Burkholder. That's going to be on Saturday, March 4th. So we usually host our meetings the first Saturday of the month, and that's at 3 o'clock PM Eastern Standard Time.
So yeah, thank you, Christy. Would you like to close us in prayer, please? I would love to. Thank you all so much. This has been a rich time for me. And your engagement and questions have been thought-provoking and also inspiring to me.
So yeah, let's pray.
Father, thank you that you are a God who is close to us, a God who's with us, that you're not distant and far away, but that you're near to us. Thank you that you don't give us impossible tasks and then set us off to do them on our own, but that you are our shepherd who is a good shepherd who leads us in good paths.
God, I pray your blessing and your Holy Spirit's power over all these women here today, God. I believe with all my heart that we are all here because we want to be your disciples. We want to follow you. And so God, I pray that you would continue to nurture that desire in us and help us to live out of our identity as your followers, as your daughters, as sisters of our King Jesus.
Go with each one of us this evening, and I pray that we would love you more and more. Pray this all in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Thank you. Thank you all so much. I hope you feel better and stay warm in your apartment. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work.