Danielle Strickland Tackles the Gender Controversies

Danielle Strickland has a new book and 6-session DVD study releasing in February with Thomas Nelson. We profiled Danielle in May of 2018. She’s spoken at Willow Creek and NorthPoint Community Church and at various conferences. This Canadian author has already written for Monarch, NavPress and IVP.

The book, Better Together: How Women and Men Can Heal the Divide and Work Together to Transform the Future releases in paperback on February 11th. The publisher marketing describes the book as follows:

We are currently at a strategic cultural intersection with relationships between women and men eroding. And it seems no one knows what to do. While it is good for women to expose their pain, what often happens is that they immediately blame the person at the other end of it, which sets up a never-ending cycle of accusations, denial, avoidance, and ultimately devastation for everyone involved.

This moment of discovery should not signal the end but instead become an opportunity to create a different world where men and women are better together.

Better Together is a beacon of hope in a challenging storm. It’s where thoughts can be re-channeled and hope rekindled as author Danielle Strickland offers steps toward a real and workable solution. Her premise is that two things are needed for change:

1) imagine a better world, and
2) understand oppression.

Understanding how oppression works is an important part of undoing it.

Danielle says, “I refuse to believe that all men are bad. I also refuse to believe that all women are victims. I don’t want to be just hopeful, I want to be strategically hopeful. I want to work toward a better world with a shared view of the future that looks like equality, freedom, and flourishing.

The video curriculum releases two weeks later on February 25th. Again, the publisher description:

This six-week video study takes on the most difficult issue our culture and the Church is facing today: gender division. Known activist and speaker, Danielle Strickland shows that we are stronger, freer, louder, and livelier in alignment with one another.

In a time when societal disruptions are rampant—have you wanted to cut and run?

Have you considered your own gender versus the opposite in a defensive way?

If we are honest, we all have. And that truth is where we begin to be set free. We are only as strong as our understanding of our differences—and they are many and varied and begin with each our fingerprint. But we were not created alone, or separately. We were in fact created of and from and in the image of the same God. Until God created man AND woman, he called everything he created ‘good.’ When he saw us together, he declared, “It is VERY good” Gen 1:1-31.

So how then, in a current state of division at every intersection of life, do we return to the flourishing of men and women together as originally intended?

In this six-session study, author, activist, and headlining international speaker Danielle Strickland will guide us through our differences and mutuality with a biblical lens and foundation. She will teach and inspire us to face the core challenge that drives all division—FEAR—and to change the story of our culture. We will transform and become examples of equality and equity as in the Garden of Eden where we were made better, together.

The video trailer for the study series, posted above, released just a few days ago.

 

 used by permission of Christian Book Shop Talk Blog

Friday Link List

Okay, I know what you’re thinking, “Shouldn’t the link list be on Wednesday?”  Well, these are a couple of longer items that bear closer scrutiny, and I didn’t want them to get lost in the list the day before yesterday.  So here goes…

• Left Behind Theology.  Not everyone agrees with it, but it dominates Christian publishing, most eschatological discussions, and last weekend’s non-rapture event.   Won’t we be “caught up to meet Him in the air”?  The Greek word apantesis more implies going out to meet someone on the way, the way you might walk out to the driveway to welcome the family you invited for dinner, or perhaps, the way the invited guests might line up on the road to meet the bridegroom in a Jewish wedding in Bible times.  Also, according to Matthew Dickerson, the references to Noah are key to understanding Jesus’ statements about the last days.  Check out the Christianity Today article, Who Gets Left Behind?

• Ever wonder what motivates some people to pursue the ministry ventures they do?  Pastoral callings are a little easier to understand, but callings to parachurch organizations are usually more complex.  In his continuing “five questions” series — though this one is actually nine Qs and As — Rick Apperson talks to Wess Stafford, the president and CEO of Compassion International.   Look… I know you guys aren’t big on clicking, but at least read the first question and answer, and I guarantee it will draw you into the rest of the article.  It’s a true survival story.   Check it out over at Rick’s blog, Just a Thought.

• Here’s a bonus item; someone posted this video yesterday as a comment to a rather old item here, but the video is new.  The soundtrack is Timothy Keller preaching, author of The Reason for God and The Prodigal God.  If you go to the source, there’s also a copy of the text, which some of you might want to keep on file.  [Note: Vimeo takes about three times longer than YouTube to load fully.]
  

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Songs with substance

If you check the right hand margin over at Christianity 201, you’ll see that all of the various music resources that have appeared there are now listed and linked alphabetically. Take a moment to discover — or re-discover — some worship songs and modern hymns from different genres.

Today’s links list lynx is a Canadian Lynx as photographed by Max Waugh. Click the image to link to the lynx. 

Pattie Mallette: Behind Every Great Teen Sensation…

Don’t worry if you don’t have a clue who Pattie Malette is, but chances are greater you’ve heard of her son, Justin Bieber. The Biebster is everywhere right now; his name being used to attract readers to all types of text media, and his image being used to do the same for visual media. I almost hesitate to mention him by name here.

But it’s not the first time. On November 24th, J.B. was mentioned twice in this blog’s Wednesday Link List.

• The blog On The Fence With Jesus, where a skeptical screenwriter and a Christian pastor discuss faith, asks the musical (pop music) question, Is Justin Bieber Really Religious?
• Bieber also talked about how his faith keeps him grounded in the madness of Hollywood and celebrity. He told the AP[Associated Press], ‘Like, I’m a Christian, I believe in God, I believe that Jesus died on a cross for my sins. I believe that I have a relationship and I’m able to talk to him and really, he’s the reason I’m here, so I definitely have to remember that. As soon as I start forgetting, I’ve got to click back and be like, you know, this is why I’m here.’”

Around the same time as Justin’s faith background became more public, the blog Bene Diction Blogs On ran a link to a Huntley Street interview with mom Pattie. The clip was from an interview done prior to the family move to Atlanta, and before Justin’s career had broken wide open, and it was therefore focused on Pattie’s story.

Justin was invited on set about a minute before the interview ended and didn’t get to say anything. If you know anything about the history of Canada’s daily Christian talk show, you know that historically it’s not unusual for them to have a guest and not let the guest get a word in edgewise. But I digress, and the day was about his mom’s personal story. But it means that technically speaking, Justin was on Canada’s faith-based television show, and it’s a video clip that his fan sites can never get enough of. I often wonder how many people have heard Pattie’s testimony as a result. The first of the four main interview clips is now up to over 46,000 views.

Then there was a Toronto Star cover story — Saturday issue, no less; in Canada the ‘big’ newspaper day is Saturday, not Sunday — prior to Justin’s Air Canada Centre concert and appearance on CBC Television with The Canadian Tenors where a reporter went to great lengths to tell the world what a polite, well-mannered and caring guy J.B. is. Character does count, and when a stagehand suffered a minor injury and Justin stopped what he was doing to make sure the worker was okay, the reporter noticed.

One my personal fears is that Justin might not be able to handle the fame and go the way of Miley Cyrus or Avril Lavigne, both of whom were raised by Christian parents, but both now living a life that obscures that background. Sure enough, mid-October, there was a story that said Pattie had hired a lawyer after only learning through the media that a book was in the works with HarperCollins.   And on the last day of the year, CTV News had an extended piece speculating as to how Justin would manage his career and personal life now that he is turning 17; a piece asking the questions many are thinking but afraid to ask out loud.

When Christmas rolled around, I couldn’t help but wonder if I dared repeat my usual blog post on the subject of the endless list of Cliff Richard‘s Christmas songs. I then connected the dots and realized that if I ever had the chance to speak to Pattie Mallette (or Justin himself) I would say this:  Get your hands on a copy of a biography of the early career of 1960s UK pop sensation Cliff Richard;  an example of someone who enjoyed amazing music industry success — even though he’s not as known on this side of the Atlantic — and maintained a strong Christian identity at the same time as his chart-topping hits.

Or better yet, a more recent example, consider Adam Young, who records as Owl City, and had hit with “10,000 Fireflies.” On his blog he writes:

As I’m so often reminded what a priceless gift my life is, I ache with everything in me to make it count, so that when I finally cross the finish line, I’ll hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

To me, there is no greater reward.

Of course, all of this weighs heavily on the spiritual scale, so allow me to be completely honest and say none of it is intended to be “crammed down the throat,” if you will. That is not my intention. This is what I wholeheartedly believe, and to that belief, I remain steadfast until He returns or calls me home.

One thing is certain:

When He comes for His own, He will have no trouble recognizing me… because my banner will be clear.

Young wrote that at the same time he recorded an off-album version of “In Christ Alone.”  But there is actually a worship song on his hit album too. In Meteor Shower he sings, “I am not my own; I have been made new…”

It can be done.

As I write this, I’ve clicked back to Pattie’s 100 Huntley interview. Hers was a life of stress, abuse and tragedy.  She has come so far, and learned so much. I think her potential influence in Justin’s life at this critical time can be so crucial to where his story goes. I can only end this the way the Huntley Street interview ended, encouraging you to pray for this family. Maybe some day I’ll learn why I was led to post this at this particular time.

Suppose I Were To Tell You…

I hesitated to write this.   Just three short weeks ago, I wrote about confession in general, and the website PostSecret in particular.    While it would have been more simple to devote that space to a discussion about why it is that we have this need to vent or get something off our chests, I wrote instead about the fact that this type of confession doesn’t really go anywhere beyond confession itself.   It lacks what we experience in a liturgical church service following the confession of sin:  The assurance of pardon.

Why am I returning to this subject?

Because this week blogger Mandy Thompson (who just this week, in the link list, we referred to as not that Mandy Thompson) offered her readers an opportunity to comment (in this case, confess)  anonymously beginning with the phrase, “What if I Told You…”

While this sort of thing may not be your preferred brand of reading — perhaps you consider it prurient or voyeuristic — I think that every once in awhile something of this nature bears reading; in this case for two very particular reasons.

First of all, these were Christian readers responding to the opportunity, not readers from among the general population.   In fact, a very noticeable percentage of them were pastors’ wives or pastors; something very reminiscent of Anne Jackson’s books, and her current Permission to Speak Freely book tie-in website.   Apparently, clergy families are in desperate need for an Ann Landers or Dear Abby page on which to bare their deepest hurts.

As we are all from time to time.

Secondly however, and this is why I’m linking to this today; at what I’m sure was  great personal emotional exhaustion, Mandy took the time to answer each and every response.   That’s with the number of comments closing in on 200.

What if I told you I’m impressed?

This is the blogosphere at its best.   When someone tells you that blogs are a waste of time, let them see what’s happening at MandyThompson.com, and then don’t miss some of her post-mail-avalanche comments that follow more recently.

If you’re a blogger, do you see what you do as a ministry?  Are there times someone left a comment that resulted in you taking on the role of counselor?  If you’re a reader, have you ever had a blog writer that you really connected with and received help from?    For either category, have you ever continued the dialog off-the-blog?

Wednesday Link List

The long hot summer is just about over, and the kids are back in school.    Time for a look at the pages that grabbed my attention this week, with a little help from our friend (at right) the links lynx.

• First of all, there’s a live event online tomorrow (Thursday September 9th) night:  A Night of Worship, streaming live from North Point Community Church at 7:30 PM Eastern, 6:30 PM Central.   To watch at home you need enough bandwidth to capture the live feed, and this website.
• When Chad Holtz isn’t busy pastoring a rural Methodist church, he’s busy confronting evil at the local Islamic Center.  Sort of.
  
• Greg at the blog, Lost in the Clouds posts an edgy response to the Christianity Today cover story Hipster Christianity by Brent McCracken based on his book of the same name.   Greg says “I’m sorry, but all of this is adding up to a sorry picture of our tour guide through the world of Hipster Christianity…”   I think he struck a nerve.
  
• Students at Belmont University are being handed cash to make a difference.    Donald Miller explains the $20 giveaway; but I wonder what they’d do if — after the manner of Matthew 25 — one of the students simply handed back $40?
• Carlos Whitaker doesn’t want attendees at the Catalyst Conference to be singing the songs he chooses, so he asks his readers to report the song titles they are connecting with at their churches.   So far, over 125 replies.
• Frank Turk, who probably doesn’t write a lot of music reviews, joins a number of bloggers who are noticing what can only be termed a “modern hymnwriter,” Matthew Smith.
  
• Andrew Jones lists five major game changers that revolutionized who he is today.  People in ministry, don’t miss this one.
  
• Thom Turner knows that baptism can be a divisive subject, but suggests there’s room for diversity even within denominations and possibly within local churches as well.
  
• If you missed the blog tour — actually it was more like a progressive dinner — for Anne Jackson’s Permission to Speak Freely (Thomas Nelson), you can still catch all seven excerpts by following the links, starting here.  Anne’s honesty will resonate with anyone dealing with various types of pain.
  
• Brian, a regular reader of this blog, invites you to join him and others in a week of prayer for Beja people — nomadic camel herders — of Egypt, Sudan and Eritrea.   Read more here.
  
• Our video link this week is a worship song you may not know by Willow Creek’s Aaron Niequist, simply titled Changed.
  
• U.S. Fundamentalist nutcase Terry Jones is determined to burn copies of the Quran on September 11th — I doubt even the U.S. President could stop this guy — so as of Tuesday night officials announced plans to quell access to his property through an identification checkpoint, so fewer people can see him do it.
  
• John Stackhouse has no problem with street preaching, but that’s usually in commercial areas, right?  What happens when the preachers invade a residential street?  That, he says, is going too far.
• Anglicans in Nova Scotia, not content with the annual “blessing of the pets” service, are having a “blessing of the techs” service for laptops, cellphones and mobile devices.
  
• This may be your church, or at least your church sign:  Grace Methodist Episcopal in New York, circa 1922; from Shorpy.com; a classic photograph site.  Middle picture is from the Gospel Mission in Georgetown, circa 1920; final picture is a storefront church from the “Black Belt” of Chicago in 1941 and where deciding where you’re going to eat after church isn’t an issue with the lunch wagon next door.   Click through any of the pictures to see the images in super-giant size.
  

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Homeless Teens: Life on the Street

I stood beside her coffin.  She looked she was sleeping.  I suppressed the urge to reach out and touch her.  I wanted to talk to her just once more. But she was dead — found in a construction site, in suspicious circumstances, of unknown causes.  She was poor; she was aboriginal; she was a street kid; there would be no further police investigation. I looked at her young face and remember the times we had share, times when I had hugged her, telling her I loved her.  She had come from a troubled and violent home.  Incest was a way of life for her.  Three months ago, she had given birth to a baby girl. Once she came to Evergreen particularly distressed.  She cleared a table with a sweep of her arm and grabbed a pen.  Then, with deliberate strokes, she put her heart on paper:  a striking scene of two friends sitting together on a bench.  When she left, she smiled and said, ‘This is the best time I’ve had in a long time.’ She had come to Evergreen the day she died.  Now she was gone forever. How very hard and short life is for some; how essential is the need to minister the Kingdom of God every moment, because that moment could be the last. I looked at her once more and through my tears, I said, ‘Good-bye.’ She was only 14 years old. ~from Prayer for the City, a quarterly publication of Yonge Street Mission and the Evergreen Centre in downtown Toronto, Canada.   Pray for the young people at Evergreen for whom life is hard and sometimes very short.  To learn more about YSM, click here.

Link-O-Rama

Dallas' First Baptist Church Plans to Spend $130M U.S. on This Downtown Complex

• The Office‘s Rainn Wilson is not a believer, but he does ask a good question:   Is television an acceptable method of ministry to the masses.  Personally, I like what Billy Graham did — nothing on a weekly basis, but quality crusade coverage once per quarter.   Better yet, I think would be for a church to pour resources into an annual prime time special.   Read the replies at Soul Pancake.
  
• If you haven’t already, check out the podcasts featuring debates between A Christian and An Atheist.
• Brant Hansen at Letters from Kamp Krusty (also linked a few lines below) had a link to seven pictures — be sure to see all seven — in the London Telegraph showing a human fetus (or foetus, as the Brits spell it) developing in the womb.
• Perry Noble notes 15 signs that a church is in trouble.    #8 – Scripture isn’t central in every decision that is made!  … #10 – The people in the church lose sight of the next generation and refuse to fund ministry simply because they don’t understand “those young people.” Check it out.
• Speaking of churches in trouble, try to wrap your brain around the plans of First Baptist, Dallas, Texas; in spending 130 million dollars to build a Tower of Babel new sanctuary in the city core.  (See picture, above.)  Be sure to click the links to watch the series of seven or eight videos, especially “The Experience” and “Worship Center.”   To warm up, the insanity begins at Arthur Sido’s blog.
• TC Robinson blogs at New Leaven and suggests there are Five Deeply De-Christian Doctrines.  (Pastors love alliteration…)
• The blog, The Word from the Hood features a dramatic narrative of the life of Tina Barry and her attempts to learn her mother’s identity and reconnect with her siblings.    Her story takes about five minutes to read, but is well worth the time.
• This one is for seminarians and theology junkies, not mathematicians:  Stephen Manskar on understanding the role of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience — Teaching The Wesleyan Quadrilateral.  (See picture below.)
• If you’re a woman, or even worse (!) a SAHM, you’re going to love the story of what one Methodist pastor did.
• Here’s some quick wisdom from Chuck Swindoll that will only take 15 seconds, but will stay with you all day.
• This one is at the other end of the spectrum.  You’d want to allow a good 10 minutes or so to read this Boston Review article on Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and religion.
• Finally, on the lighter side, Brant Hansen at Letters from Kamp Krusty believes he has found what is truly The Best Christian T-Shirt Ever.

You'll want a degree in Theology, not Mathematics, to understand the Wesleyan Quadrilateral

How To Build a Link List on Your Blog: It’s fun!  It’s easy!  It’s really time consuming! 1) Each time you visit a link you want to share with other people, bookmark it to a short-list used just for this purpose.  Make sure you get the permalink for that particular post, not the blog in general, unless you think the whole blog is noteworthy.   This takes no time at all because you were already visiting those pages anyway. 2) Create a post and list the links and insert the actual URL in a keyword or phrase.   This takes a bit longer, especially when you’ve got 10 or 12 of them. 3) After you’re 100% sure that you’ve got all the right URLs in all the right places, you can delete the short-list and start building it again. 4) Don’t read your stats for that day’s post.  Sadly, a lot of people are interested in reading about various places you’ve been, but not interested enough to click the links.   So, if you believe in the quality of the links you’re recommending, keep at it, but don’t be disappointed if people are too busy to invest time in your recommendations.

UK Girl Given HPV ‘Jab’ Even Though The Consent Form Said “NO”

If you don’t want your daughter jabbed, or if she doesnt want to get jabbed, don’t send her to school on the day of jabbing because the permission form might not be worth the paper it is written on.

Read the entire story here. If you have an interest in this topic, be sure to read the whole article; you can leave comments on the original story.