Draft EFAC Women’s Network Resource:
Additions/subtractions are welcome!!
A. Women in Ministry
1. Alter, R. The Art of Biblical Narrative
If you want to get some feel for how Hebrew narrative works. (After all, Genesis 1-3 is narrative and is important in 1 Tim 2)
2. Beach, N., Gifted to Lead: The Art of Leading As a Woman in the Church: Zondervan
3. Beck, J R., Two views on Women in Ministry, Eds: Stanley Gundy & James R. Beck: Zondervan, (Revised Edition) 2005
Content is of varying usefulness. It has a scripture index in the back so you can look up what a particular contributor says on a passage without wading through the rest. Keener is good value on the 1 Corinthians passages. He has some interesting things to say on 1 Tim but I’m not sure he answers the opposing arguments. Belleville goes the ‘reconstruct the heresy’ route for 1 Tim.
4. Cunningham, L & Hamilton, Why Not Women? A Fresh Look at Scripture on Women in Missions, Ministry, and Leadership: Ywam Publishing / 2000
5. Custis James, C., When Life and Beliefs Collide: How Knowing God Makes a Difference: Zondervan 2003
6. Garland, D.E., 1 Corinthians Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: 2003
This has been recommended as preferable to Gordon Fee’s commentary. Garland has impeccable Southern Baptist credentials. He lectured at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary for 21 years. He ended up Professor of New Testament there and is now at Baylor. He has a somewhat un-Southern Baptist understanding of 1 Cor 11. In this section there is an extended discussion of the meaning of kefalh where he concludes by stating that the best option is prominent, pre-eminent. It is a particularly useful book because he argues closely from the text, brings in the culture and a range of scholarship on the issues. He also has the Southern Baptist background and yet rejects 1 Cor 11 as teaching hierarchy, and sees the authority in verse 10 as being the woman’s. As well as this it is a really good commentary overall.
7. Giles, K., The Trinity and Subordinationism: The Doctrine of God & the Contemporary Gender Debate
8. Husbands, M & Larsen, T., Women, Ministry and the Gospel: Exploring New Paradigms: IVP
9. Kassian, M. The Feminist Mistake
10. Keener, C.S., Paul, Women & Wives, Marriage and Women's Ministry in the Letters of Paul: Hendrickson Publishers 199
11. Ramsey, G.W, Is Name-Giving an Act of Domination in Genesis 2:23 and Elsewhere? The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 50 (1988) 24-35
His conclusion is no – it’s about discernment. Which seems to be the understanding in the Midrash of Adam’s naming the animals.
12. Schreiner, T., Women in the Church
A detailed exegesis of the 1 Tim passage from a complimentarian perspective. He interacts with a lot of the opposing arguments and is reasonably balanced.
13. Stackhouse, J.G, Finally Feminist: Baker Academic, 2005
The title is a bit unusual but it isn’t about feminism. Stackhouse is a theologian and the book reflects this. He does engage with Scripture but he also looks at principles. He also considers some objections to the egalitarian position and interacts with these. Good if you are weary from endless arguments about kefalh.
14. Ward, R., Growing Women Leaders ( CPAS, 2008)
A helpful overview from an evangelical Anglican perspective on how to nurture women’s leadership in the Church. Sections are women as leaders, ways women lead, issues women face. Available from Ridley Bookshop.
15. Winter, B.W, Roman Wives, Roman Widows: Eerdmans, 2003
If you want to get an understanding of marriage and associated issues in the first century this is good. It backs up Stackhouse’s argument about culturally acceptable behaviour.
16. Witherington III, B, Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: Apollos, 2006
Section on 1 Tim 2:11-15 is good. It comes down on the side of the prohibition being about teaching in a domineering fashion, but for some may not convince. Doesn’t really interact with other views much – just outlines them. Most useful bit is that he presents another way of reading vv13,14 that doesn’t require a reconstruction of the heresy. Good use of the Genesis narrative although there is a lot more that could be said.
17. The Bible and Women’s Ministry: Acorn Press Limited
18. Rosie Nixon, Liberating Women for the Gospel (Hodder & Stoughton, 1997.
A book to challenge, among other ideas, the view that only men should lead church planting teams. In her largely historical study, she discusses women as preachers, as evangelists, publicly an within their family, as church planters, as thinkers and decision makers as well as discussing women and gender difference.
19. The Genesis Rabbi
B. General Ministry:
1. Brain, P Going the Distance: Matthias Media 2006
2. Marshall, C Passing the Baton: Matthias Media
3. Raiter, M Train Yourself in Godliness: Matthias Media
C. Mentoring:
1. John Mallison ‘Mentoring To Develop Leaders’ (Scripture Union & Open Book) 1998. Revised edition with study notes and new material recently published. Accompanying Mentoring Trainer’s Pack with an extensive range of resources, released on CD Rom in 2005.
See http://www.johnmallison.com/
2. Robert Clinton & Paul Stanley, Connecting (Colorado Springs: Navpress) 1992Exceptionally helpful at exploring the mentor dynamic.
3. Robert Clinton ‘The Making of a Leader:’ Recognising The Lessons and Stages of a Leader (Colorado Springs: Navpress) 1988
Clinton has also authored this insightful book. This encourages leaders to explore the impact their story has upon who they are and how they function in ministry. He identifies the patterns God uses to develop a leader and the connection between character and leadership competency. Also looks at your current leadership (style, decisions, relationships….) and the shape and direction of future ministry.
4. Sophie De Witt ‘One to One - A Discipleship Handbook’
Focuses on mentoring and discipleship in a University context where young leaders are new or young Christians seeking to develop strong foundations to persevere in the faith and in serving in leadership.
5. Tim Elmore ‘Mentoring – How to invest your life in others’ (Singapore: Equip) 2001. Acrostics are used to develop some very useful material for teaching in this area.
6. James Lawrence ‘Growing Leaders’ (Oxford: BRF) 2004
The author has subsequently developed this into a 12 month course for local churches where mentoring is an essential part of the programme.
7. Thomas Nebel & Steven Ogne ‘Empowering Leaders through Coaching – Logbook’.
This provides some helpful insights for new mentors. For example:
* Preparation questions, A framework to keep the session focused
* An approach called ‘the GROW technique’
8. *Carson Pue ‘Mentoring Leaders: Wisdom for Developing Character, Calling and Competency’ (2005)
This work on mentoring is written by The President of Arrow Leadership Ministries (Canada & North America). It reflects his passion, practical experience and commitment to invest in the lives of emerging leaders. It outlines a ‘mentoring matrix’ which provides a framework for mentors seeking to encourage emerging, growing and emerged leaders to persevere in fruitful Kingdom ministry.
9. Martin Sanders ‘The Power of Mentoring’ (2005) Newly published resource. A trainer in the Canada/USA Arrow program and inspiring speaker at the Australian Arrow Conference 2004. It covers motivation for mentoring involvement - approaches and skill building - implementation strategies.
10. Walt Wright ‘Mentoring: The Promise of Relational Leadership’ (UK: Paternoster) 2004
* Resources that contain a series of insightful questions to explore in mentoring sessions
D. Web
Women mentoring women – an initiative of Robyn Claydon, Senior Associate for Women in World Evangelization with the Lausanne Movement.
www.churcharmy.com.au The Church Army in Australia (evangelist training) have an online training workbook in mentoring
www.arrowleadership.org MQ (Mentoring Questions) is a monthly email from Arrow Leadership Ministries (USA/Canada).
www.mentoring.org Exercises that may be adapted if you are developing training courses in mentoring – follow the links. This is a secular tool worth reviewing. It covers some very basic material.
Christians for Biblical Equality An international organisation of evangelicals with a Melbourne Chapter devoted to supporting women at all levels of leadership throughout the world.