Mimi Haddad

Reader's Choice Award Winner If God is calling women to lead, what's holding them back? Susan Harris Howell has spent years helping students investigate this question. In Buried Talents, she makes clear how gender disparity in leadership is directly connected to a larger, less overt issue: gendered socialization. Howell examines gendered messages people encounter inside and outside the church in each stage of life, showing how they often create misconceptions about who women are, what they're capable of, and how they fit into God's work. As these messages pull men toward leadership, they push women away from it. God's call to leadership doesn't come in a vacuum. It comes to particular people who have, from childhood through adulthood, been shaped by subtle forms of socialization. Using social science research and interviews to explain these forces, Howell offers psychological and practical tools for both women and men to make more balanced vocational decisions. A discussion guide and suggested reading lists are also included to help readers engage and apply the content. As opportunities for women continue to expand, too many still hold back in responding to God's call. Buried Talents provides compelling guidance for how we can remove obstacles that keep women from fully using their gifts.

Should women be allowed to lead in the church and the home? What does the Bible mean when it calls Eve "helper"? How do cultural beliefs devalue women? How can we foster women's equality in other cultures? These are just some of the questions answered in Is Women's Equality a Biblical Ideal? This five-part lecture series explores the biblical, historical, and social precedent for women's shared leadership in the church, the home, and the world. Topics include Old and New Testament evidence of women's leadership, women's leadership in church history, understanding power dynamics, and working cross-culturally. Originally developed for NGOs, humanitarian organizations, and Christian leaders to effectively promote the full gifting, vocation, and authority of women throughout the world, this lecture series and companion workbook make a wonderful resource for both personal and group study.

John Wesley promoted the ministry of women in early Methodism. Amazing women like Phoebe Palmer, Catherine Booth, and Frances Willard--founding figures in the holiness movement, the Salvation Army, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union--claimed biblical precedent for their groundbreaking ministries. They withstood the onslaught of criticism and hostility from those who thought they had stepped out of their proper sphere. Methodists have championed the cause of women and developed biblical, spiritual, and practical arguments for their ministry for two and a half centuries. More than fifty documents from the history of Methodism chronicle the tortuous journey leading to biblical equality in this family of churches. At a time when the ministry of women is under serious attack in a number of quarters, yet again, we all have much to learn from the witness of Wesleyan Christians who argued for women's ministry. This story illustrates how faithful women, when they knew they had the Lord's approval, stood ""like the beaten anvil to the stroke."" Courage. Defiance. Perseverance. Faithfulness. These qualities define the Methodist defense of women in ministry. ""Loud applause to Paul Chilcote for continuing his noteworthy vocation of recovering Methodist women's substantial presence, influence, and writings. In this latest volume, he recovers specifically their writings on the defense of women in ministry, from Mary Bosanquet in the eighteenth century to Georgia Harkness in the twentieth. His recovery work in this regard not only informs but also, and even more importantly, moves us now--in this present hour--to affirm boldly and unequivocally the full equality of women in ministry."" --Priscilla Pope-Levison, Southern Methodist University ""Discrimination against women in ministry is very much alive and pernicious as ever in its subtle and blatant forms. In the face of this enduring challenge, Paul Chilcote brilliantly chronicles centuries of biblical, practical, and spiritual defenses for women in ministry by famous and more obscured Methodists. At once scholarly, pastoral, and prophetic, this book is encyclopedic in its documentary scope and eminently useful to all who appreciate the 'extraordinary call' of God to ministry."" --Wendy J. Deichmann, United Theological Seminary ""'I do not believe every woman is called to speak publicly, nor more than every man to be a Methodist preacher. Yet some have an extraordinary call to it, and woe to them if they obey it not.' Mary Bosanquet to John Wesley, 1771] With such telling selections, incredibly exacting commentary, and engagement with the full range of pertinent scholarship, Paul Chilcote covers the long saga of women's campaign for recognition of such extraordinary calls."" --Russell E. Richey, Duke University Paul W. Chilcote is Professor of Historical Theology and Wesleyan Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ohio. He is author of more than twenty books, including A Faith That Sings (2016).

John Wesley promoted the ministry of women in early Methodism. Amazing women like Phoebe Palmer, Catherine Booth, and Frances Willard--founding figures in the holiness movement, the Salvation Army, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union--claimed biblical precedent for their groundbreaking ministries. They withstood the onslaught of criticism and hostility from those who thought they had stepped out of their proper sphere. Methodists have championed the cause of women and developed biblical, spiritual, and practical arguments for their ministry for two and a half centuries. More than fifty documents from the history of Methodism chronicle the tortuous journey leading to biblical equality in this family of churches. At a time when the ministry of women is under serious attack in a number of quarters, yet again, we all have much to learn from the witness of Wesleyan Christians who argued for women's ministry. This story illustrates how faithful women, when they knew they had the Lord's approval, stood ""like the beaten anvil to the stroke."" Courage. Defiance. Perseverance. Faithfulness. These qualities define the Methodist defense of women in ministry. ""Loud applause to Paul Chilcote for continuing his noteworthy vocation of recovering Methodist women's substantial presence, influence, and writings. In this latest volume, he recovers specifically their writings on the defense of women in ministry, from Mary Bosanquet in the eighteenth century to Georgia Harkness in the twentieth. His recovery work in this regard not only informs but also, and even more importantly, moves us now--in this present hour--to affirm boldly and unequivocally the full equality of women in ministry."" --Priscilla Pope-Levison, Southern Methodist University ""Discrimination against women in ministry is very much alive and pernicious as ever in its subtle and blatant forms. In the face of this enduring challenge, Paul Chilcote brilliantly chronicles centuries of biblical, practical, and spiritual defenses for women in ministry by famous and more obscured Methodists. At once scholarly, pastoral, and prophetic, this book is encyclopedic in its documentary scope and eminently useful to all who appreciate the 'extraordinary call' of God to ministry."" --Wendy J. Deichmann, United Theological Seminary ""'I do not believe every woman is called to speak publicly, nor more than every man to be a Methodist preacher. Yet some have an extraordinary call to it, and woe to them if they obey it not.' Mary Bosanquet to John Wesley, 1771] With such telling selections, incredibly exacting commentary, and engagement with the full range of pertinent scholarship, Paul Chilcote covers the long saga of women's campaign for recognition of such extraordinary calls."" --Russell E. Richey, Duke University Paul W. Chilcote is Professor of Historical Theology and Wesleyan Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ohio. He is author of more than twenty books, including A Faith That Sings (2016).