Jennifer Rothschild

If you are considering commenting or sending me an e-mail objecting to the fact that I warn against certain teachers, please click here and read this article first. Your objection is most likely answered here. I won’t be publishing comments or answering emails that are answered by this article.

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This article is kept continuously updated as needed.

I get lots of questions about particular authors, pastors, and Bible teachers, and whether or not I recommend them. Some of the best known can be found above at my Popular False Teachers tab. The teacher below is someone I’ve been asked about recently, so I’ve done a quick check (this is brief research, not exhaustive) on her.

Generally speaking, in order for me to recommend a teacher, speaker, or author, he or she has to meet three criteria:

a) A female teacher cannot currently and unrepentantly preach to or teach men in violation of 1 Timothy 2:12. A male teacher or pastor cannot allow women to carry out this violation of Scripture in his ministry. The pastor or teacher cannot currently and unrepentantly be living in any other sin (for example, cohabiting with her boyfriend or living as a homosexual).

b) The pastor or teacher cannot currently and unrepentantly be partnering with or frequently appearing with false teachers. This is a violation of Scripture.

c) The pastor or teacher cannot currently and unrepentantly be teaching false doctrine.

I am not very familiar with most of the teachers I’m asked about (there are so many out there!) and have not had the opportunity to examine their writings or hear them speak, so most of the “quick checking” I do involves items a and b (although in order to partner with false teachers (b) it is reasonable to assume their doctrine is acceptable to the false teacher and that they are not teaching anything that would conflict with the false teacher’s doctrine). Partnering with false teachers and women preaching to men are each sufficient biblical reasons not to follow a pastor, teacher, or author, or use his/her materials.

Just to be clear, “not recommended” is a spectrum. On one end of this spectrum are people like Nancy Leigh DeMoss Wolgemuth and Kay Arthur. These are people I would not label as false teachers because their doctrine is generally sound, but because of some red flags I’m seeing with them, you won’t find me proactively endorsing them or suggesting them as a good resource, either. There are better people you could be listening to. On the other end of the spectrum are people like Joyce Meyer and Rachel Held Evans- complete heretics whose teachings, if believed, might lead you to an eternity in Hell. Most of the teachers I review fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum (leaning toward the latter).

If you’d like to check out some pastors and teachers I heartily recommend, click the Recommended Bible Teachers tab at the top of this page.

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Jennifer Rothschild
Not Recommended

Jennifer is “an author, speaker, Bible study teacher, wife and Mom. And, I happen to be blind.”

Jennifer habitually yokes with false teachers. She calls Beth Moore a “dear friend,” and has “teamed up with [Beth]…to lead national women’s conferences.” Beth wrote the foreword to Jennifer’s book, Lessons Learned in the Dark and endorsed Jennifer’s book, Me, Myself, and Lies on her own blog.

Jennifer’s conference ministry, Fresh Grounded Faith, features false and problematic teachers such as Lysa TerKeurst, Ann Voskamp, Liz Curtis Higgs, Karen Kingsbury, Angie Smith, and Sheila Walsh as regular speakers.

Among the other connections and yokings Jennifer has with these teachers (and others), which are too numerous to list…

Lysa TerKeurst has endorsed at least two of Jennifer’s books, Missing Pieces and God is Just Not Fair. Jennifer has been featured on Lysa’s Proverbs 31 website multiple times, including featuring her book Psalm 23: The Shepherd with Me as an online study.

Ann Voskamp (whom Jennifer calls a “dear, dear friend” in the introduction to a guest post Ann wrote for Jennifer’s blog) also endorsed Jennifer’s book, God is Just Not Fair, has appeared on Jennifer’s podcast, and is featured on Jennifer’s website multiple times (likewise Sheila Walsh).

Jennifer was a contributing author to the study, The Faithful, alongside Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, Kelly Minter, and Lisa Harper.

Jennifer is scheduled to appear with Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, Kelly Minter, and others at a 2020 LifeWay Women Live event.

Though the general posture of Jennifer’s teaching, conferences, and materials is geared toward women, Jennifer has no problem violating Scripture by preaching to men at her speaking engagements. Her website says she “speaks 25-30 times per year to groups – mostly women.”

And Jennifer’s Fresh Grounded Faith website clearly says on the FAQ page:

What if my husband or son wants to attend with me?
This is a women’s event and all of the facilities are structured to cater to women. On occasion, you’ll see a few men in the audience and that’s okay with us.

Karrie, who runs the instant chat feature on Jennifer’s website confirmed this when I asked about it: “We definitely have had men attend with their wives etc. We have no problem with that. As long as they know it is geared towards women. We even have men on the platform sharing in worship and in ministry.”

The way both of these responses are worded and presented seems to indicate that women preaching to men as a violation of Scripture is not even a factor to consider for Jennifer and her staff when it comes to whether or not men should attend Jennifer’s conferences. They aren’t twisting Scripture to defend allowing men to attend, it feels more like they don’t know Scripture prohibits women from preaching to men. The answer they have presented gives the sense of, “There may not be a men’s restroom easily available, and men might not like this conference because the swag and the content of the teaching will be pink and girly, but as long as they’re aware of those things and they still want to come, they’re welcome!”. This is troubling because, if Jennifer and her staff firmly stood behind Scripture on this issue, it would be very easy for the FAQ page and Karrie to simply say something like, “In compliance with Scripture, Jennifer does not teach men. Therefore, her conferences are restricted to women only.” But they don’t even make that small effort.

In addition to writing and speaking, Jennifer also runs a ministry to women in leadership, WomensMinistry.net, which, commendably, is geared toward women who lead women’s ministries in their churches (rather than toward women who unbiblically assume the position of pastor, elder, etc.). Most of the (free) information on the site seems to be practical help and tips for leading a women’s ministry, which, of course, is not out of line with Scripture. However, I did notice two things which gave me pause.

First, while the vast majority of the wording on the site led me to believe this ministry is about equipping women who lead women’s ministries, there were a few sentences sprinkled across the site that didn’t seem to make sense if this is all strictly about women’s ministry:

“If you are a woman in ministry leadership, including women’s ministry…” (What forms of “ministry leadership” are included besides women’s ministry?)

“[If] Your heart’s desire is to: See women, men and children come to know the Lord…Connect with fellow women’s ministry leaders and women in ministry.” (What does men coming to know the Lord have to do with women’s ministry? What does “women in ministry” mean, since she has differentiated it from “fellow women’s ministry leaders”?)

I don’t want to draw any definitive conclusions from these few statements. Perhaps it was just a poor choice of wording. Maybe “including women’s ministry” and “women in ministry” is referring to women who teach children or a work in a parachurch pro-life ministry or something like that. Maybe “see…men…come to know the Lord” means that leading women well will enable wives to share the gospel with their unsaved husbands at home. I don’t know. I just find it confusing and unclear, especially since Jennifer has no problem with men attending her conferences to be taught by her and other women.

Of greater concern than these examples of (hopefully) poor wording, is the Prayer Journal offered as a downloadable free resource. The text of the journal is based on the usual out of context misunderstanding of Psalm 46:10 (“Be still and know that I am God.” Indeed, many of the Scriptures in the journal are taken out of context and misunderstood.) and goes on to teach “listening prayer,” a form of the unbiblical practice of contemplative prayer:

“He wanted me to ‘Be Still’. He didn’t want me to just have a prayer time with Him where I was doing all of the talking. He wanted to have a conversation with me. He wanted me to “listen” to what He had to say.” p.3

Though the author does say, “I am not talking about an audible voice from the Lord, but a gentle whisper, or a still, small voice that you hear within your heart.” (p.3- this allusion to God’s “still small voice” is an out of context misunderstanding of 1 Kings 19:12), she includes in the journal a long section entitled A Guide to Listening to God (p. 17-18) with verbiage that completely contradicts her own statement:

…God continues to speak to me. Since that first time I heard God’s voice…It has been important when I talk to God that I listen as He speaks to me. It is a two way conversation…Prayer is a dialogue with God, not a monologue.

This section also includes quotes from Priscilla Shirer and Henry Blackaby.

In the section “Four ways to measure if God is speaking” only the first could be considered biblical (and only if you consider extra-biblical revelation to be a doctrinally sound Christian practice, which it is not). The others are completely subjective and feelings-based:
1. Does what you hear align with God’s word?
2. Confirmation is received through a worship service or Bible study.
3. A Christian friend listens, prays for you, and agrees with what God might be saying.
4. Personal experience, a “God Moment”.

Later in the journal, in one suggested prayer for the lost, the author presumptuously speaks for God, providing His “answer” to the prayer:

“‘Lord, I am overwhelmed with memorizing Bible verses to share with a lost person.’ (God’s reply) ‘Just tell them my words of John 3:16. Love, God .’” p.25

Jennifer may not have written the prayer journal herself, but offering it as a resource from her ministry indicates that she has read it, approves of it, and believes it will be helpful to the people who receive and use it.

One of my readers, Holly, commented on Jennifer’s study Hosea: Unfailing Love Changes Everything:

I picked up her Hosea study to do with two dear sisters in Christ. After one day of us starting, we were texting each other about unbiblical teachings in it.

The book came across as all God can do is love, He doesn’t have a choice, and weaving US into the story of Hosea and Gomer. We quit the study, and sent our books back to Amazon. Blessed are we, they gave us a refund.

The contemplative prayer is just like Lysa [TerKeurst] and Priscilla [Shirer].

Jennifer seems like a lovely person who has admirably overcome the challenges in her life and has a genuine desire for women to know and grow in the Lord, but with the unbiblical ministry relationships and theologies she holds, I cannot recommend her teaching, conferences, or materials to you.