Top 10

Top 10 Articles of 2019

I always enjoy the annual “year in review” articles and TV shows that run in abundance in late December, so I thought I’d contribute my own. Several Mailbag articles were among this year’s most popular, so I decided to make two separate lists, the Top 10 Mailbag Articles of 2019, and the top 10 non-Mailbag articles of 2019. Here are my ten most popular non-Mailbag blog articles from 2019:

Answering the Opposition:
Responses to the Most Frequently Raised Discernment Objections

There are also occasional comments and messages from women who are disciples of the false teachers I warn against, who take me to task for doing so. The same unscriptural accusations are raised again and again against me and against others who take a biblical stand against false teachers and false doctrine. Here, in no particular order, are the most frequently raised objections to my discernment work and my answers to them…


ย 10 Biblically Sound Blogs and Podcasts by Christian Women

False teachers. You canโ€™t throw a rock out the windowย these days without hitting one. But are there any โ€œgood guysโ€ out there who are getting it right? Discipleship, Bible study,and theological issues bloggers who rightly divide Godโ€™s word? You bet…


Christine Caine: Have No Regard for the Offerings of Caine

Unfortunately, Christineโ€™s teachings and some of her actions do not meet even these basic biblical standards, and it is my sad duty to recommend that you not sit under her teaching for the following reasons…


ย A Few Good Men: 10 Doctrinally Sound Male Teachers

Let me introduce you to a few of my favorite male authors of Bible studies
and other great Christian books and resources…


An Open Letter to Beth Moore โ€“ Timeline of Events

Since the discussion of the events and commentary surrounding the open letter have mostly taken place on Twitter, and many who have an interest in these events and comments are not Twitter users, this article is intended to be a timeline outlining the sequence of events, beginning with the publication of the open letter.


Living Proof You Should Follow Beth (No) Moore

For these reasons it is my sad duty to recommend that you not follow Beth Moore or receive any teaching from her or anyone connected to Living Proof Ministries.


Guest Post: Why I Left Elevation Church

I was part of Elevation Church for about six years. At the time, I thought it was the greatest church on Earth..


Going Beyond Scripture:
Why It’s Time to Say Good-Bye to Priscilla Shirer and Going Beyond Ministries

Should she repent in these areas in which she has broken Scripture and align herself with biblical principles, she would have no bigger fan than I, and I would rejoice to be able to point Christian women to her as a doctrinally sound resource. Until that time, however, it saddens me to have to recommend that Christian women not follow Priscilla Shirer or any materials or activities from Going Beyond Ministries for the following reasons…


ย An Open Letter to Beth Moore

We as female Bible teachers ourselves write this letter to you in hopes of receiving clarification of your views on an important issue: homosexuality.


Leaving Lysa:
Why You Shouldn’t Be Following Lysa TerKeurst or Proverbs 31 Ministries

For these reasons, plus her habitual mishandling of Scripture, unfortunately, I must recommend that women not follow, support, or receive teaching from Lysa TerKeurst or Proverbs 31 Ministries(including any writers or speakers affiliated with Proverbs 31 Ministries)…


What was YOUR favorite article of 2019?

Discernment

Amanda Bible Williams and She Reads Truth

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.


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)ย 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.ย 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).ย 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 theย Recommended Bible Teachers tab at the top of this page.


Amanda Bible Williams
Not Recommended

Amanda Bible Williams is co-founder and CCO (Chief Content Officer) of She Reads Truth (SRT), โ€œa worldwide community of women who read Godโ€™s Word together every day. Founded in 2012, She Reads Truth invites women of all ages to engage Scripture through curated daily reading plans, as well as online conversation led by a vibrant community of contributing writers.โ€ Amandaโ€™s co-founder of SRT is CEO, Raechel Myers. Amanda and Raechel have co-authored two books and collaborated on the She Reads Truthย Bible and theย He Reads Truth Bible.

I first learned of Amanda and SRT a few years ago through my friend Elizabeth Prataโ€™s excellent blog. Check out part 1ย andย part 2ย of her articleย She Reads Truth, IF: Gathering, and Women Bible Teachers.

Though SRTโ€™s โ€œWhat We Believeโ€ section boldly proclaims, โ€œwe believe Godโ€™s Word is Truth,โ€ Amanda has disregarded the Bibleโ€™s truths about false doctrine and the biblical role of women in the church by inviting female โ€œpastorsโ€ and false teachersย such asย Sharon Hodde Miller (more on Sharon here), Erin Rose, andย Lisaย Harper (more on Lisa here) to beย SRT contributing writers.

Amanda has appeared at several of LifeWay Women’s Abundance Conferences alongside the likes of Christine Caine, Jennie Allen, ย Lisa Harper, Lysa Terkeurst and Curtis Jones (Beth Moore’s son-in-law/pastor who allows her to preach on Sunday mornings) and others.

Amanda has been featured on IF: Gathering’s YouTube channel. Amanda’s and Raechel’s book, She Reads Truth, is sold on IF’s website.

On Twitter, Amanda has retweeted and/or shown public affinity for several false teachers including Beth Moore (tweet, tweet), Ann Voskamp (tweet), Eugene Peterson, and Rachel Held Evans.

In 2018, Amanda’s SRT partner, Raechel, was a featured speaker at the Inspired for Life Conferenceย alongside an advocate for female pastors and a social justice activist. (See article on Raechel for more details.) Amanda both attended and helped promote the event on Twitter:

For someone with such a well known ministry, Amanda has a very small online footprint, so it was difficult to find pertinent information on her for this article. She doesn’t seem to have a blog or website separate from the SRT website (which has minimal information about her). She doesn’t post often on social media, and when she does, it’s usually about her family, which, frankly, I find charming and refreshing. But that means there’s scant information on events she speaks at or participates in and her ministry associations with others. This could be a positive sign. Perhaps we’re not seeing online evidence of her, for example, preaching to men, because she’s not. On the other hand, perhaps she is associating with or following far more false teachers than we know of but she isn’t posting about it on social media, so there’s no evidence of it. It’s simply impossible to tell.

With so little information available on Amanda, and with very little knowledge of her own theology and handling of God’s Word, I want to give her the benefit of the doubt and withhold the label of “false teacher” until such time as more evidence is available that would support that label. That being said, I believe there is enough evidence that Amanda is sorely lacking in discernment that it would not be wise to follow her, use her materials (and certainly not SRT’s materials, considering their contributors), or attend her speaking engagements.

Furthermore, consider her ties to female “pastors” and false teachers. As I said in the introduction to this article, it is reasonable to assume Amanda’s doctrine is acceptable to these female “pastors” and false teachers and that she is not teaching anything that would conflict with their doctrine. If she were, they would not associate with her. If she were, she would not associate with them.

Favorite Finds

Favorite Finds ~ November 5, 2019

Oh my! We haven’t had a Favorite Finds article in far too long! Here are a few of my favorite online findsโ€ฆ

“Is it possible for us to undermine the gospel we preach through our ministry associations?”ย That’s the question Sean DeMars answers beautifully in his article What Does 2 John Have to Teach Us about Partnering with False Teachers? If you’ve ever wondered about how 2 John relates to us today with regard to handling false teachers, this is a great, brief, biblical explanation.

 

Who’s up for aย freebie? “Uncovering the lies we believe about all the earthly things that promise us peace, life, and contentment, Paul Tripp redirects our gaze to Godโ€™s awe-inducing gloryโ€”showing how such a vision has the potential to impact our every thought, word, and deed.” Thanks to our friends atย Crossway for this free download of Awe: Why it Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do.

 

 

“Letters to the editor often reprove magazines for publishing material they deem inappropriate. What if Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia was (sic) published in Christianity Today magazine next month? The responses might be something like this…” This one’s just for fun but painfully true to life.ย If Galatians Was (sic) Published Today… was originally published at Christian humor site, The Sacred Sandwich.

 

“The charred lump of scroll sat in an archaeologistโ€™s office, impossible to read without destroying it โ€“ until now.” It sounds like the introduction to a biblical historical novel that I would shamelessly lap up with a spoon, but this is real life, high tech Indiana Jones stuff, y’all. Scientists Finally Read the Oldest Biblical Text Ever Found. Watch, and read, how they did it.

 

This one’s a little goofy (so if goofiness and humor offend you, please don’t watch it.) But anyway, it’s a good, simple explanation that Philippians 4:13 doesn’t mean you can do anything you want. Like jump off a building and fly. And it might just put a smile on your face. I hope you lil chicken nuggets enjoy Context With Carll: Philippians 4:13. Jesus takes all kinds. And I’m glad, because that meant He could take me.


The resources listed above are not to be understood as a blanket endorsement for the websites they appear on, or of everything the author or subject of the resource says or does. I do not endorse any person, website, or resource that conflicts with Scripture or the theology outlined in the Statement of Faith and Welcome tabs at the top of this page.
Discernment

Sheila Walsh

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.


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.


Sheila Walsh
Not Recommended

Sheilaย is a women’s Bible study and children’s book author, speaker, and singer. Sheila formerly co-hosted The 700 Club and TBN’s Life Today with James Robison. Life Today routinely features false teachers as guests, including Joel Osteen,ย Joyce Meyer, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Kim Walker-Smith (Jesus Culture),ย andย Beth Moore, among others. Currently, Sheila co-hosts two other TBN shows (also featuring a plethora of false teachers), Praise and Better Together.

Sheila habitually yokes in ministry and fraternizes with false and problematic teachers in other venues as well. Space does not permit me to list every incidence of Sheila doing so, but the following examples are representative.

In 2014, Sheila joined Beth Moore, Christine Caine, Priscilla Shirer, Victoria Osteen, and Lisa Harper for the Unwrap the Bible conference at Joel Osteenโ€™s Lakewood “Church.”

Sheila is aย contributor at Hillsongโ€™s web site, spoke at Hillsong’s 2015 and 2018ย Colour Conference, and has preached the Sunday sermon at Hillsong, saying, “I love ‘pastors’ Brian and Bobbie [Houston] so much…”.

She gave an enthusiastic Instagram recommendation of an event at which Bobbie HoustonChristine Caine, and Sarah Jakes Roberts (T.D. Jakesโ€™ daughter) were the featured speakers.

Sheila is one of the Women of Joy stable of speakers, which also includes Lysa TerKeurst, Lisa Bevere, Margaret Feinberg, Bianca Olthoff, Chrystal Evans Hurst, Christine Caine, Lisa Harper, Jennie Allen, Angie Smith, Karen Kingsbury, and Jennifer Rothschild. Sheila regularly speaks at WOJ conferences with these speakers.

Jennifer Rothschild’s Fresh Grounded Faith conference organization also counts Sheila as one of its featured speakers alongside Lysa TerKeurst, Angie Smith, Karen Kingsbury, and Ann Voskamp.

Sheila regularly and unrepentantly preaches to men including her aforementioned Sunday sermon at Hillsong, the Sunday sermon at another Hillsong campus, the Sunday sermon at Rick Warren’s Saddleback, a pastor’s conference she mentions in this video, the Sunday sermon at James River Church (which is co-“pastored” by a woman), the Sunday Sermon at NewHope Baptist Church, the Sunday Sermons at Emmanuel CC, and the Sunday Sermon at Transformation Church (also co-“pastored” by a woman), just to cite a few examples.

Interestingly, none of these events at which Sheila is preaching the Sunday morning sermon or otherwise preaching to or teaching men/co-ed audiences was listed on the calendar of events at Sheila’s website. She only lists women’s events she’ll be speaking at. As I continue to research evangelical women speakers, I’m seeing this trending more and more. Many only list women’s events they’re speaking at on their websites, and don’t list the events where they’ll be preaching the Sunday sermon or at co-ed events. It is only speculation on my part, so I’m not making accusations or assumptions, but as I keep seeing this happen, I can’t help but wonder if it is to hide the fact that they are preaching to men in order to maintain a semblance of being doctrinally sound, and to avoid reproof for this sin.

In addition to yoking with false teachers and preaching to men, I noticed a few other things while researching Sheila.

There is no clear statement of faith or gospel presentation on Sheila’s website, but the 2019 version of her home page of her website greets the reader in bold print withย GOD IS FOR YOUย (which she says is “her message”). Underneath, a caption says,

“Your destiny isnโ€™t determined by your history. No matter what youโ€™ve gone through or where youโ€™ve been, God is inviting you to take the next step.”

Below this caption are two clickable buttons, “About Sheila,” (which, as you might guess, links to a page with Sheila’s bio), and “Start Again.”

“God is for you!”, the subsequent caption, and “start again” might cause the reader to think that clicking the “Start Again” button will lead to a page outlining the plan of salvation, but it doesn’t. It links to the Aboutย page (2019 version) of Sheila’s site which gives eight steps to…I’m not sure what. It is definitely not the gospel. Nothing is mentioned about sin, repentance, faith in Christ for salvation, the cross, the resurrection, or anything else you might expect in a gospel presentation. Also, there isn’t a single Scripture cited.

I honestly don’t understand if this is supposed to be aimed at lost people or saved people (Maybe she’s addressing backslidden Christians? I can’t tell.), but either way, it’s not about what Christ did to save us or how He sanctifies us, it’s a works-righteousness litany of all the things you have to do to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and “start again” (whatever that means). And it lists all these things you need to do (“we have to change the way we think,” “step out in faith,” “rise above disappointment,” etc.) but it doesn’t explain how to do them. There’s no mention of repentance, placing your faith in Christ for salvation, studying your Bible, prayer, or joining with a doctrinally sound local church. She mentions “the hope we have in Him” but doesn’t explain what that hope is or how to get it, which, in a sad irony, leaves the reader hopeless.

What’s more, there is Christian-ish vernacular that lost people are not going to understand: “Walk with Him in the garden,” “Christ redeems every drop of our suffering,” “find your hiding place under the shelter of Godโ€™s wings”…I’m not sure I even totally understand what she means by all of these things.

And the entire “God is for you,” posture of Sheila’s message, writing, and speaking give the sense that God’s main function is to be your magic Band-Aid to make all your owies go away. Certainly, God loves us, helps us, comforts us, and wants what’s best for us, but God isn’t for us – to serve our every desire and salve our every hurt. We were made for Him – to glorify, honor, and serve Him.

Sheila’s blog posts – though they are blog posts, not Bible studies – reflect the current trend in women’s “Bible” study: personal stories from the author’s life with a few Bible verses sprinkled in here and there. Perhaps most of the Bible study books Sheila writes are in a different format and focus on the proper exegesis of Scripture (as I said, these are blog posts, not Bible studies), but if she writes all of her Bible studies in the same way and style in which she writes her blog posts, they should be avoided in favor of studying the actual Bible.

I have not had the opportunity to read all Sheila has written, but if the introduction and first chapter of her most recent book, It’s Okay Not to Be Okay,ย which is marketed as a “Bible study,” are indicative of the way she writes these studies, the style is, indeed, very similar to her blog posts: personal stories with a few Bible verses (some from the completely unreliable paraphraseย The Message) sprinkled in. (And the endorsement page of this book reads like a laundry list of contemporary false and problematic teachers such as: Lisa Bevere, Ann Voskamp, Christine Caine, Jennie Allen, Lisa Harper, Roma Downey, Bobbie Houston, and Karen Kingsbury.)

Furthermore, echoing her website’s ambiguous eight steps to…something, the first part of It’s Okay seems to muddle the line between saved and unsaved, sinner and saint. The thrust of this opening material and the theme of the book seem to be: “God’s love for you isn’t dependent on your striving for perfect behavior,” which is absolutely true, and something many Christian women need to grasp. However, in the midst of this “it’s okay to stop striving for perfection and rest in God’s love for you” talk, she refers back to the Fall:

The story continues in verse 10, when God asks Adam where he is: “He replied, ‘I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.'”

There you have it!
Shame.
Fear.
Covering up.
Hiding.
…and we’ve been doing it ever since.ยน

While a Christian striving for perfection rooted in fear of losing God’s love and a lost person’s willful disobedience may both be displeasing to God, they are not the same thing and should not be conflated in this way. It is right and good for a sinner to feel shame and guilt for rebelling against God, because she is guilty, she is covered with shame, until she repents and trusts Christ as Savior. But this is a completely different animal from someone who has already had the guilt and shame of all of her sin (including any lack of trust in God’s love for her) washed away by the blood of Christ, and who is striving to please Him, albeit imperfectly. It is concerning that Sheila does not clearly differentiate between the two.

Southern Baptists should be aware that, despite the fact that Sheila unrepentantly preaches to men, yokes with false teachers, and seems to be somewhat ambiguous on the gospel, LifeWay does carry her materials (alarmingly, the three currently listed are books for children and families), and she has been the featured speaker at women’s events at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, including the 2021 IMB/NAMB Send Conference, the 2025 Ministers’ Wives’ Luncheon

Sheila is a charming woman who lavishes great passion and love on her audiences, but, unfortunately, I cannot recommend her to you as a biblically trustworthy teacher you should follow.


ยนFrom chapter 1 of It’s Okay Not to Be Okay. Taken from Amazon’s free Kindle excerpt of the book, which has no page numbers. This quote looks to be a page or two before the end of the chapter.
Discernment

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.


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)ย 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.ย 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).ย 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 theย Recommended Bible Teachers tab at the top of this page.


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,ย 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 Walshย 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 bookย Psalm 23: The Shepherd with Me as an online study.

Ann Voskampย (whom Jennifer calls a โ€œdear, dear friendโ€ in the introduction to a guest post Ann wrote for Jenniferโ€™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 (likewiseย 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 โ€“ย 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 womenโ€™s event and all of the facilities are structured to cater to women. On occasion, youโ€™ll see a few men in the audience and thatโ€™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 womenโ€™s ministry…” (What forms of “ministry leadership” are includedย 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 withย 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 Journalย 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 didnโ€™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 โ€œlistenโ€ 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.”ย (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 entitledย 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 Godโ€™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 Godโ€™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 โ€œGod Momentโ€.

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.’ (Godโ€™s reply) ‘Just tell them my words of John 3:16. Love, God .’โ€ 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 doesnโ€™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.