Tag: Womens Ministry

Book Reviews

Book Review ~ Reviving New England

Michelle Lesley

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I’ve said it dozens of times: I don’t write book reviews. But I’m fortunate that there are awesome, godly people out there who do, and who do a bang up job of it. So today I wanted to share a great review of the book Reviving New England. The review was written by my friend Rachel Williams over at danielthree18.com, and the book was written by my other friend, Nate Pickowicz, pastor, podcaster, and blogger extraordinaire. They are both lovely, doctrinally sound people I’m proud to know, so I’m certain you’ll enjoy both the review and the book.

Reviving New England 
(Why Women Ministry Leaders Should Read This Book)

by Rachel Williams

I ordered Nate’s book, Reviving New England: The Key to Revitalizing Post-Christian America, and I sit down to enjoy a treatise on the history of liberalism in New England, and what pastors in New England need to do today to turn the churches back to Christ.

Instead, I spent the majority of my time reading chunks of the books out loud to my husband, whispering, “YES!,” and underlining massive sections of it, realizing that every woman who leads women’s ministries across the United States (and beyond) needs this book.

Today.

Pickowicz does start the book with a brief history of the rise (and fall) of Christianity in New England. For those of you not students of church history, he does an excellent job of making this information relevant to today and fast-paced. (Trust me, I’ve heard my fair share of less-than-exciting lectures on this topic. He does a great job keeping your interest.) However, the history lesson is brief, and this is where the book becomes, in my opinion, necessary for women’s ministry leaders today.

The rest of the book is written for pastors and centers on how to preach the Word of God. He does a masterful job of navigating the problems in so many pulpits and offering real practical solutions to guiding the church back to sound biblical principles.

So why do I think women’s ministry leaders need this?…

Click here to continue reading.

Christian women, Podcast Appearances

Echo Zoe Radio Podcast Interview

Michelle Lesley

This week, I’ll be sharing a few of my favorite
articles from recent years. Enjoy!

Originally published May 10, 2016logo

 

Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with my friend Andy Olson as his guest on the Echo Zoe Radio podcast.

Click here to listen in

as we talk about women’s ministry, Bible study, discernment, and plenty of other great topics. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and follow Echo Zoe on Facebook and Twitter!

Mailbag

The Mailbag: I’ve been asked to teach a Beth Moore study…

Michelle Lesley

mailbag

 

I’m part of the women’s ministry leadership at my church. We did a Beth Moore study last year. A lot of things bothered me about it, but I kept my mouth shut because all of the women who participated loved the study. Now that I have read your article, and others, on the theological problems with Beth Moore, I understand why I had so many issues with the study. Today, I was given a copy of another Beth Moore book so that I could prepare to teach it in the fall. I can’t do it, and I feel like I’m the only one in my church who sees a problem with Beth Moore studies. How should I handle this situation?

I always want to be very careful about making definitive statements about how people should or shouldn’t handle specific scenarios with people I don’t know and circumstances I’m not familiar with. Instead, I’d like to share with you what I would do in a similar situation. I encourage you to think and pray about it and ask God to help you decide if this would be the wisest approach for your situation.

First, I would spend some serious time in prayer. I would pray for the the other members of the women’s ministry leadership, as well as my pastor and elders, and ask God to open their eyes to see, their minds to understand, and their hearts to embrace and desire biblical truth. I’d ask God to give me the wisdom to know how best to approach this situation and the right words to say. I would ask Him to make my motives pure, biblical, and loving.

Next, I’d gather the leaders group, or the main leader, or whichever people I felt were appropriate, and kindly, gently, and biblically explain the problems with Beth Moore. At some point before or after this meeting, the pastor or appropriate associate pastor or elders would need to be given a heads up as to what was going on.

Finally, I can’t tell you how often I hear from women who say things like, “My church is offering six small group Bible studies right now and they’re all using book studies (Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, etc.). I just want to study the Bible itself, but they won’t offer a class that just studies the Bible.” I would express that to the women’s ministry leadership during the meeting and, if they continued to insist on using a Beth Moore book, offer to teach a class on a book of the Bible as an alternative for women who might prefer studying the Bible itself. Churches usually like to be able to offer various options to their members.

I would also be prepared for strong opposition. While I would be hopeful that the women of my church would love Christ and His word more than they love Beth Moore, this, sadly, has not been my experience when dealing with diehard Beth Moore disciples. My experience has been that when you topple an idol, her worshipers will defend her at almost any cost.

If you have a question about: a well known Christian author/leader, a Bible passage, an aspect of theology, a current issue in Christianity, or how to biblically handle a family, life, or church situation, comment below (I’ll hold all questions in queue {unpublished} for a future edition of The Mailbag) or send me an e-mail or private message. If your question is chosen for publication, your anonymity will be protected

 

Guest Posts, Sanctification

Guest Post: God Is Not an Experience

Michelle Lesley

If your theology pretty much matches up with mine (as outlined in the “Welcome” and “Statement of Faith” tabs) and you’d like to contribute a guest post, drop me an e-mail at MichelleLesley1@yahoo.com,
and let’s chat about it.

rachel williams god experience

God Is Not an Experience
by Rachel Williams

 

Lysa TerKeurst recently posted this on social media: “I want to stop thinking of reading my Bible as an item on my Christian checklist & really experience God instead.” It was splashed across a pretty picture of a stylish woman sitting on a bench reading her Bible, and within a matter of hours, dozens of women I know had shared the picture with a remarks like, “amen,” “me, too,” and, “my heart’s desire.”

lysa t

Sisters, God is not an experience.

Disney World is an experience. Child birth is an experience. Living through a natural disaster is an experience. But God is not an experience.

God is holy. God is righteous. God is Creator, loving, personal, immutable, perfect, just. But He is not an amusement park ride waiting for us to hop on and try.

In Scripture, the word “experience” is used only in concrete fashion; it ties into things that people actually taste, touch, see, hear, or smell. It is a word used to describe people’s lives here on earth, and it has nothing to do with their relationships with God, unless it is describing judgment. “Experiencing” God is not a scriptural idea, at all. But let’s go ahead and look at how people “experienced” God in the Bible:

When the prophets of Baal “experienced” God on Mt. Carmel in I Kings 18, it was in the form of fire from heaven. They reacted by falling on their faces in fear. When Job “experienced” God in Job 38-41, his response was to retract all of his previously spoken words (and there were a lot of them), and repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:6). When Isaiah “experienced” God in a vision of the throne room of Heaven, he responded by saying, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). Isaiah was convinced he was going to drop dead because he had seen God in a vision.

Oh, I hear you arguing that I’m using “Old Testament God” examples. So what about Jesus?

In Acts, when Saul is on the road to Damascus, and Jesus appears to him to convert him, his reaction is to fall to the ground in fear (Acts 9:4). When Jesus is having dinner with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, Mary falls at His feet and washes them with costly perfume and her hair (John 12). At the death of Jesus, a Roman soldier became very frightened and recognized who Jesus really was – the Son of God (Matthew 27: 54). In Revelation, toward the end of his vision, John sees Jesus, and John, who had walked with Jesus as His most beloved disciple and knew Him incredibly well, falls down at the feet of the angel showing him the vision.

People fell to their faces when they “experienced” Jesus, too, especially near to and after His death.

God Himself says in Isaiah, “And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me every knee will bow” (Isaiah 45:21-23).

I question whether anyone truly wants to experience God. The Bible says no one can see Him face to face and live. I imagine what they really mean is that they want to hear from God, but Hebrews 1:1-2 tells us that, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”

God only speaks to us through His scriptures now, He does not speak to us audibly. If you want to know God, you actually need to read your Bible; you need to study the Scriptures, which is the exact opposite of what Mrs. TerKeurst was suggesting in her cute little meme. Second Timothy 3:16-17 promises that “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man (woman) of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Where do we find the Truth of God? In His Word.

Knowing God is simply a matter of knowing His Word. Reading His Word tells you His thoughts, gives you guidance, and explains His plans for you (Matthew 28: 19-20 is His plan for every believer, by the way). There is no “experience” that you are missing out on when you choose to read your Bible, pray, and read your Bible some more.

Sisters, reading your Bible? That is experiencing God.

Additional Resources:

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

Weak Women and the Idolatry of Personal Experience

Christian women, Podcast Appearances

Echo Zoe Radio Podcast Interview

Michelle Lesley

logo

 

Last week, I had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with my friend Andy Olson as his guest on the Echo Zoe Radio podcast.

Click here to listen in

as we talk about women’s ministry, Bible study, discernment, and plenty of other great topics. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and follow Echo Zoe on Facebook and Twitter!