josephdutko.com

My AI Policy

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 18:49:21 GMT

This is an AI-Free Blog & Website

The use of AI continues to depress me. This is especially true when it comes to creative work of the heart such as art, music, and writing, where AI most noticeably cheapens the process and product.

I've previously written on my concerns in using AI for sermon writing .

So, although ideally this goes without saying, I want to ensure the reader that to the best of my knowledge no AI has been or will be used to produce content, written or otherwise, on this site.

I write (or edit the design of this site) simply for the joy of creating and the process involved. It doesn't really matter to me if a lot of people read what I write (and I'm sure they don't!).

For more on my concerns about AI and why I choose not to use it, as well as for why I'm still hopeful for the church in the age of AI, you can view my message below or find it here .

Book Launch: Pentecostal Responses to the Refugee Crisis

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 20:25:24 GMT

Watch the Book Launch!

Being a contributor to this volume has been a great privilege and wonderful experience. And we capped it off recently by getting most of the contributors together for a book launch, which you can watch above.

If you'd like to watch just my six minute presentation on the gender dimensions of displacement, followed by some Q&A, you can begin the video here . Thanks to my friend and fellow scholar Dr. Benjamin Crace for joining the discussion and responding to my presentation with a few questions.

See below for more ways to interact with the book and my chapter.

More information, links, and materials for I Was a Stranger . . .

1) Read my full chapter, "Going Mainstream(ing): Pentecostalism and the Gender Dimensions of Displacement." (used with permission from the publisher)

2) Previous post and excerpt from my chapter

3) If you're going to this year's conference for the Society for Pentecostal Studies at Baylor University, be sure to join myself and other contributors for a book panel where we'll engage the conference's theme by discussing "Reflections on the Practice of Prayer in Situations of Displacement."

My presentation is currently entitled:

“Are You My Mother?”

Reimagining Gendered Language in Pentecostal Prayer

The panel is currently scheduled for Friday, March 13 at 1:45.

Brief Book Summary:

Through an interdisciplinary lens, this volume bridges biblical-theological insights, political and ethical challenges, and practical strategies for action. From reflections on peacemaking and justice to firsthand accounts of ministry at the US-Mexico border, these pages offer a call to action for a faith community compelled to sustain a witness of peace-with-justice.

Whether confronting war, systemic injustice, or climate-driven displacement, this book equips Pentecostals—and all who care about the plight of the stranger—to embody radical hospitality in personal, academic, and ministry contexts.

Written by leading Pentecostal voices, it is a timely and transformative contribution to the Pentecostals, Peacemaking, and Social Justice series.

Buy the Book

You can purchase the book in all formats on Amazon or anywhere books are sold, or direct from the publisher here:

https://wipfandstock.com/9798385222148/i-was-a-stranger-and-you-took-me-in/

Special thanks to the book's editor and visionary, Dr. Lois Olena, for organizing the book launch, upcoming book panel, and providing the images and some other content in this post.

Best Practices for Adding a Second Service

Wed, 28 Jan 2026 18:05:26 GMT

Thinking of Adding a Second (or Third) Service? Tips, Considerations, and Encouragements.

One of the most difficult transitions a church can make is moving to multiple services. When done well, multiplying services has the ability to rally and unite a church together for an exciting kingdom cause. Or, if done or communicated poorly, it can divide, discourage, and drain the people of your church.

I don't claim to have done it well or be an expert on this in any way. I'm sure there are many fantastic articles and blogs on how to do this, but it's one of the questions I get asked the most about from fellow pastors. We're also currently exploring adding a third service so I thought it a good time to revisit what we learned about adding a second service.

By God's grace, our multiplication from one to two services was a positive experience that has led to health and growth in our church and, most importantly, reaching more people with the Good News.

Here's some of our story as well as tips and suggestions to help you if you're considering adding a service.

Our Story

I can't communicate the full story, but you can watch a 5-minute version of it HERE .

Our church, which had been around for sixty years, had always been a one service church and never had more than 80 people in average attendance before we arrived in 2015. The year before we arrived it averaged 48 people on Sunday mornings and was dwindling fast. So growth and expansion was new territory.

But as we consistently got into the hundreds, we started thinking ahead. Not counting COVID-impacted years, we have grown on average by 40% annually, so the writing was on the wall that we would soon run out of space in our fairly small (at that point) sanctuary. So, tip #1 is:

1. Plan Ahead

Even if it feels far away, you should start thinking about and planning (in faith) for when you will add another service. Hopefully you keep good statistics so you can monitor your growth trends. You should have a "trigger point" in mind already of when you would start moving toward adding a service. That obviously will depend on the size of your meeting space.

The well-known "rule" is that once you reach 70-80% capacity in your space, you are out of room. Because we planned ahead, we were ready to start moving as soon as we reached 75% capacity.

That doesn't mean you will immediately add a second service once you hit that capacity. In fact, I think it's a good idea for people to feel the discomfort of being overcrowded and experiencing the lack of space and parking for a few months. It will make it easier to convince everyone of the need (or you won't even have to convince them). But you'll already have been planning behind the scenes well before you hit that 70-80% mark because once you do, it's time to act fairly quickly.

2. Cast Vision & Encourage Faith

Almost nothing is more important than how you cast vision and communicate what's happening with your church.

As with all vision casting, the key is always starting with the "why" more than the "how." People will naturally want to know how we will do this or that (which we'll get to). But first you must convince them of why. Give the statistics, show the growth trajectory, and don't be afraid to communicate this is a regular part of being a Great Commission church. This should be the norm!

Frequently communicate that God is the author of the growth and will therefore be the author of the resources needed to support the growth. This is God's idea! God is adding the numbers and will supply the need. This is not something we have to do, rather it is something God is inviting us to participate in. If God is sending people, we need to make room!

The only alternative is to stop growing and to essentially turn people away.

People are willing to do things that are difficult, and even do them joyfully, if they find them meaningful and worthwhile. It's not convenient to move to multiple services, but the gospel isn't always convenient! Growing and multiplying is hard work and requires greater participation from everyone. But making new disciples is a part of the mission of the church and that goes hand in hand with growth. Comfortable Christians don't change history.

So make sure people's first question isn't "how will this affect me? Is this good or bad for me?"

For the most part the church will love growing, so speak into the vision of what's happening. Explain that this is not a loss, but a gain. This is like planting a new church and is something to rejoice about! We get to be a part of something groundbreaking. Which leads us to the next suggestion:

3. Focus on the Benefits

It's easy to focus on all the things that will be harder or might be lost in the transition to two services. But it's important to emphasize all the benefits and positives. There are so many, but here's just two examples of things to communicate to your church or your staff.

1) You can care for people better.

I find that about 200 people per service is the max I can do and still say hello to almost everyone, meet every guest, and be able to look out and see who's there and who's not.

Therefore, having multiple services of slightly smaller groups is preferred from a pastoral perspective. This applies to kids ministry as well where your leader to kids ratio will improve immediately.

But this also applies to the average parishioner. Going to two services keeps each service more intimate and keeps the "family feel" that people want from a church. I believe that it way better serves your church and community to have multiple services than to build a 1,000 seat sanctuary.

We're now a "big" church that almost 1,000 people call home, which is about 2-4% of our population depending on where you make the cutoff. But people constantly comment on the intimate, family feel that they experience here. We don't look, feel, or act like a big church.

2) Who Doesn't Love Options?!

If you want to serve your community well and reach people, the more options you give them the better. Most studies consistently show a church will experience almost an immediate 20-30% bump in attendance when they add a service. Why? First, I believe God responds to our faith and sends people. But on a practical level, having more time options helps.

Once we moved to 9am & 11am, many people commented how having an earlier service option would allow them to attend and still make it to their kids' soccer or baseball game, get to work on time, sleep in, go to their family outing, etc. I know the ideal is people prioritize and protect their Sunday mornings, but you have to be realistic about the culture we live in and what you can expect, especially from pre-Christians.

A great example is our Christmas Eve services. Over the years our Christmas Eve attendance has jumped from 78 to over 700 as we found the more options we gave people, the more people we reached. As much as I wish everyone prioritized corporate worship above all other activities on Christmas Eve, they are planning other get-togethers. Once we started giving people multiple options form morning to night, we were able to engage more people in the thing that matters most at Christmas: worshipping Jesus.

We live in a culture not inclined to come to church, so we should remove every possible barrier within our power. We likely have to work harder than any generation in Canadian history to make church a viable option for people. Embrace the challenge!

Those are some of the most important, big picture items. But here's some lists of other things to consider that I hope will help you and your church.

Communication Tips (to your church)

Create a "Frequently Asked Questions" document that anticipates people's questions or concerns and/or have a "town hall" style Q&A. This shows them that you're thinking things through and considering what people might be feeling or thinking. Bring them along on the journey!
Make it fun! I started creating a "Top 5" for each of the two services that comically highlighted the advantages of each. (sort of like this "Top 5 Reasons to Wear a Mask to Church" video we made during COVID - might as well have fun with it!). Or have skits or competitions leading up to the service addition.
Let them know the values and DNA of your church won't change, just the number of services.
Emphasize they will be the exact same service: neither one has more or less music, preaching, ministry time, prayer time, etc. (see practical considerations below).
Highlight the opportunity for volunteers to serve in one service and fully participate in the corporate worship in the other. That's not possible with one service and is a big gain that we've seen lots of people take advantage of.
Highlight the time between the services as a time to fellowship and encourage people to come early or stay late (if your parking can handle it! The general rule is about 3 people per parking spot). It's a great way to greet and get to know those who are in a different service.
Related, be sure to promote all the other ways people can stay connected and in close relationship such as life groups, serving together, prayer services, etc. People are often concerned about losing friendships, but there are so many more ways to connect outside of Sunday morning.
Promote that it will lessen the stress on volunteers (at least initially). Right now your greeters, kids workers, and coffee volunteers are serving a packed house and it can feel a little overwhelming or chaotic. Two services will initially provide an easier pace and softer entry point for new volunteers.
Come up with a catchy or memorable slogan that is Scripturally grounded. As a part of the vision launch announcing two services, I preached a message called "It Takes Two . . . to Reach the One" emphasizing Jesus' concern for the one (Luke 15, etc.). I know of another pastor who used John 12:24: " unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies , it remains only a single seed. But if it dies , it produces many seeds." There should be a gospel-infused, Scripturally-inspired picture of why you are multiplying. Help people's theological imagination come alive!
Overall, this is not a loss, but a gain. The only loss would be staying at one service, which would most impact those who are only moderately, casually, or not connected with your church. In other words, potential disciples! Those are the people who are likely to turn around if they can't find parking or a seat, or not even show up if they're running late because they know there might be no room left for them.

Communication Tips (to your staff)

Be up front that you know you're asking everyone to stretch for a season. It will be hard at first, but eventually you'll settle into a routine. Communicate that you'll do this together and walk alongside them.
Assure staff that you understand we'll have to cut back in some other areas or put some other projects on the back burner. Have a meeting with each staff member to help them focus their portfolio and create a safe space where they can honestly express concerns about their capacity. Work with staff on where the extra hours put into the extra service(s) will be given back. Friday/Saturday are our days off as staff. But one big change we made when we went to two services was making Monday a work from home day so that you didn't have to come right back after a long day. Also any staff who preach or lead music in both services automatically can take a half day off on Monday without asking.
The first service can feel like a rehearsal for the second. Don't let that happen! Conversely, don't lose focus or become too loose in the second service just because there's no time considerations. Bring the same focus and energy to each service no matter the size, feel, etc. Once you first multiply, it's likely one service will be quite smaller than the other, but avoid the temptation to be less focused--those people deserve the same energy from you!
Make sure everyone is on the same page regarding terminology. Make sure staff never say the church is going to "split" or "divide" into two services but rather "multiplying."
Prepare your team that you might lose some people and they may lose some volunteers. Change is hard for people. But moving forward, everyone who joins your church will only know two services and will embrace it.

Practical Considerations & Questions to Ask

When will you launch? Common opinion is to pick one of the built-in attendance bumps in the year such as Easter, late Fall, or January. Set a launch date far in advance and begin letting people know! As shown in the two slides above, we let people know for months it was "coming soon" and then eventually revealed a launch date.
What will your two times be? 9 & 11 is most popular because it tends to work and creates the most balanced attendance. Anything before 9 feels pretty early and after 11 quite late. Being a church that likes to allow space and time at the end for prayer, response, and ministry time, I find 90 minutes between times to be too short, but it works for some.
Will you rope off any sections in the lesser attended service?
Will both services be the exact same? My suggestion is to make sure it's a resounding yes so that people truly have two options and don't feel like one service is "less than." I know a lot of churches begin with one service being the "family service" with full kids program and the other no kids church in order to lessen the load on staff or volunteers. But I don't think that sets you up to continue to grow well, and consistency is key.
Preparing and adjusting your Church Management System (Planning Center, etc.) for two services, scheduling volunteers, etc. will be one of the more difficult transitions sometimes. Assign your best tech person to head up the job and make sure someone knows all the ins and outs of how it will work. If that has to be you as the Lead Pastor, embrace it and become the expert!
Create a rest and snack area for your volunteers who participate in both services (musicians, tech, etc.). There's not a lot of extra space in our building, so we just labeled a little corner of the kitchen the "two service volunteer rest/snack area" and kept it stocked with protein bars, waters, etc. It's a small gesture, but people appreciate it.
For most situations, adding your second service back-to-back in the morning is the easiest transition and allows you to utilize your volunteer resources the best. People are more likely to commit to one focused time for 3-4 hours than two separate time blocks (such as a morning and an evening). A third service, as we're now considering, may be a different story (see the "people love options" point above).
You will have to tighten up your services a bit. Where will you cut? This is a great chance to simplify your services and cut out unnecessary things that aren't essential but that you maybe did simply because you had time. And of course, you'll probably need to preach shorter messages !

Got more questions? Reach out and I'll help if I can!

VIEW ALL CHURCH LEADERSHIP POSTS

7 Songs or Albums on Death and Grief

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 19:35:33 GMT

"Apart from love, grief is perhaps the most universal experience -- arguably, even more so"

The above quote is from a review by Casey Gallenberger on an album I'll talk about below. Because grief is such a universal and difficult-to-explain experience, it's no surprise that we often turn to art in our grief as an attempt to express the inexpressible or describe the indescribable.

In a recent message on grief I turned to the arts, and specifically to music, to help try and communicate the emotions and mystery of grief.

You can watch that message here, which includes live renditions of two of the songs that are mentioned below.

I admit I’m drawn to songs or albums about death and grief and they’re some of my favourites (partly because I do have a slightly dark, melancholy, depressive personality! But also because some of the most beautiful and honest art comes out of our experiences of pain and loss and grief, which is a part of the redemptive quality of suffering).

So in no particular order, here's 7 of my favourite songs or albums about grief and death.

1. Mount Eerie, A Crow Looked at Me (Album)

So honest it's almost impossible to listen to. Probably the most uncomfortable album you will ever hear. You almost feel guilty for listening to such honest and raw emotion.

Phil Elverum (who is Mount Eerie) from Anacortes, WA lost his young wife to aggressive cancer, leaving him and his one-and-half-year-old daughter behind. He wrote the album in the same room in which she died, using mostly her instruments.

It begins with this brutally honest assessment:

Death is real / Someone's there and then they're not

And then later reflects on the cruelty and absurdity of death that:

I don't want to learn anything from this

(note for my Christian readers: this is a non-Christian perspective on death and may feel quite dark and hopeless to some)

2. The Gray Havens, "Over & Over" (Song)

By David Radford. It’s about his younger brother, who died after a battle with mental illness. Not surprisingly, he says it’s the hardest song he has ever written.

3. "It's Quiet Uptown" (Song) from the musical Hamilton

Probably one song on this list most are familiar with and more popular than most of the music I listen to. But I love this musical, and this is one of the most powerful songs or scenes from it, when Alexander is grieving the death of his son Philip and sings lines such as:

There are moments that the words don't reach
There is suffering too terrible to name . . .

And [we] learn to live with the unimaginable . . .

4. Benjamin Daniel, Home Enough For Now (Album)

Christian artist Benjamin Daniel writes an entire album about the death of his mother to horrible disease.

And even if I live to ninety-nine /

Every day in joy and mirth and wine /

Life is still as quick as it’s unkind /

We’re dying / Stop lying

(From the song "Adjustments")

In the song “Subaru Stevens at St. Francis Dam” he plays a voicemail from his mother that is almost unbearable to listen to in terms of the sadness you feel.

You can read Casey Gallenberger's review of the album , which contains the quote at the top of this post.

5. LN, "The Void / Melancholia Of Departure" (Song)

LN (who basically is Gary Murray) makes some of the saddest, most beautiful music ever. It's no surprise he has the most entries on my "40 songs at 40" list.

The whole album ( Monkeys & Spoons ) could probably be included here. Murray took a break from music for a few years to be the full-time caretaker for both of his disabled parents. After losing his mother, this return album was released not long after he also buried his father.

You told me once when days were grey, that someday you would leave . . .

But in the meantime, our lives will never be the same.

And I still hear you in the void, whispering goodbye,

it echoes through the night in the space you left behind . . .

But in the meantime, this heartache has to end.

6. Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell (Album)

I guess no surprise that this is likely my favourite Sufjan Stevens album. It was written as an attempt to grieve and make sense of the death of his mother.

Although "John My Beloved" appears on my top 40 tracks , "Fourth of July" is perhaps the song that grips me the most and I listen to over and over.

Too many amazing lyrics to choose from. Just listen.

7. Stavesacre, "Gold & Silver" (Song)

It's very much open to interpretation (as it often is with good art!) as to what this song is referencing exactly , but there's obviously grief involved. Also appears on my top 40 list as well as in the message on grief posted above.

BONUS TRACK Air Review, "H" (Song)

Like the good ol' days of CDs, if you've made it to the end of this listening journey, you are rewarded with a bonus track.

Doug Hale from the band Air Review (one of my faves), reflects upon losing his 7-week-year-old daughter, "H":

Seven weeks with H

Is all the Father gave

You're gone today

Though I don't understand the Potter's plan

I'll see you 'round the bend.

My only comfort while you're gone

Is that Jesus holds you 'til I'm home

I often write a music post around this time of year as somewhat of a "Christmas gift" to readers. I realize this is a slightly sad and depressing gift, but I hope it also blesses you in some way. So Merry Christmas!

4 Tips For Dying Well as a Christian

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 17:52:47 GMT

It is our Christian duty to plan ahead for our death

In our modern world and especially in countries like Canada where I reside, life expectancy is high and is only predicted to rise.

Therefore, we may think of death as some far off thing and not give it much thought, or we may just not want to think about or face the reality of it.

As Woody Allen once said: “I’m not afraid of death. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

As a church, we've been in a mini series on everyone's 3 favourite topics: Suffering, Death, & Grief! You can listen to each message HERE or on our podcast .

Parts of each of those messages cover the biblical-theological landscape of each topic, but each one also contains practical application.

For death, I'd like to offer here four pieces of hopefully super-practical Christian advice on preparing for our death and dying well (I give 6 in the actual message).

1) Set your affairs in order (have a will)

I have the unique experience or responsibility to often be involved in people’s deaths, which sometimes includes family affairs.

From that perspective, can I just say this: it is your Christian duty to set your affairs in order out of love for your family. It will make it so much easier for everyone and will be a gift to them.

Reduce the amount of items you have, and have a will that clearly indicates your wishes including financial (who gets what of finances and items), as well as your end-of-life and funeral or burial wishes.

Speaking of, what should those wishes be as a Christian that you might want to outline in your will? I don’t have a pithy way of saying this really, so I’ll just say

2) Have as much of a full-blown funeral as possible

I know it’s popular these days to say “I don’t want to have a service, I don’t want all the fuss or people to have to worry about that. I’ll be gone so I don’t care.”

But understand that a funeral is not for you, it’s for others. People need the opportunity to say goodbye and to come to grips with the reality of death.

It’s not enough to say “just have a party and a few drinks for me after I’m gone.”

And I would go beyond just a “celebration of life” which is more of a modern trend, to more of an actual funeral that honestly deals with the seriousness and permanence of death, as well as the specific beauty of the life you lived and the people you touched.

By funeral I don’t mean some elaborate or expensive service, that’s not the point; in fact, I recommend as simple as possible, but without emphasizing convenience over depth and meaning.

I simply mean have a Christian service that properly both mourns and celebrates one’s life, as well as consider a smaller additional Christian burial service. Speaking of that . . .

3) Consider bodily burial

I want to be careful here as I’m not saying this is so much a scriptural right or wrong.

But based on the scriptural teachings that our bodies will be raised, and the scriptural metaphor in 1 Corinthians 15:35-44 that the body is like a seed sown into the ground for our resurrection, I encourage you to consider a bodily burial when possible.

I believe it provides more closure and is honouring to the body that God has made. You might even want to consider a casket at the service and/or burial/graveside service.

Growing up in a heavily Roman Catholic population on the east coast, this is all I ever knew growing up, seeing my grandparents' or friends' bodies there in the casket, and it wasn’t until more recently and after I moved to the west coast that I encountered the more popular celebration of life. But I think those open casket experiences taught me a lot as a kid.

I understand the convenience and possible cost savings of cremation. But you may be surprised that a simple burial or so-called “green burial,” which I would recommend, is not too expensive.

I want to be sensitive here that not everyone gets a choice, situations vary, sometimes bodies are far from family, people have reasons for other decisions. I’m just saying consider it and think about it. Cremation is not wrong, but is there something better?

Another advantage of bodily burial, going back to the last point, is having some sort of graveside ceremony in addition to or as a part of a funeral or memorial.

(Just to put the reader at ease, I’m pretty sure every single memorial service I've done, probably 15 or more, have all been cremations, and I imagine most services in the future also will be, so it’s not like I'm saying don’t do that. I just want people to think through things and have good Christian reasons for doing what they're doing, whatever choice it is they make.)

Last, and very importantly:

4) Die in (Christian) community

There’s a certain oddness, but also reality, that often a large majority of people at our funeral won’t always be those we spent most of our life with, but rather those whom we were most recently in Christian community with.

I see this all the time, where at a funeral it is mostly people the deceased spent the last few years of their life with. But because they died in community, even though they've sometimes only been at the church for a short while, they are surrounded by a loving Christian community.

Part of what grieves or troubles me when Christians stop fellowshipping with the church, whether they get too busy or just don’t think it’s important or find it too inconvenient, is don’t you want people to surround you and be there when the tough times come? And that’s hard to do authentically if you haven’t been around and engaged.

You can’t just all of a sudden produce bonds that form over years of community.

We should always be ready for our death, and that includes making sure we’re in Christian community so that we can die well as a believer in Jesus and surrounded with our forever family, the church.

Excerpt from "I Was a Stranger and You Took Me In: Pentecostal Responses to the Refugee Crisis"

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 16:09:56 GMT

Excerpt from my chapter, "Going Mainstream(ing): Pentecostalism and the Gender Dimensions of Displacement"

A new book, edited by Lois E. Olena, was recently released as a part of the Pentecostals, Peacemaking, and Social Justice series (Pickwick Publications).

And for the next month only, it's 50% off direct from the publisher!

Simply go to: https://wipfandstock.com/9798385222148/i-was-a-stranger-and-you-took-me-in/ and enter code CONFSHIP at checkout for 50% off!

Additionally, the Kindle version is on sale for just $2.99 ($4.19 CAD) on Amazon until the end of November: https://a.co/d/5jwxCWK

I Was a Stranger and You Took Me In: Pentecostal Responses to the Refugee Crisis contains twelve excellent essays wrestling with what is perhaps the most important humanitarian crisis facing our world, the rise of forcibly displaced persons (or refugees, estimated to be over 115 million people).

If you're a pastor, Christian teacher or leader, work internationally with NGOs or charitable organizations, or are just a concerned Christian, you will find both inspiration and practical help within this work.

The book contains three sections: (1) Biblical-Theological Foundations, (2) Political, Ethical, and Missional Concerns, and (3) Practical Considerations.

My chapter kicks off the third and final section of the book by exploring how the growth and gender dimensions of the refugee crisis intersect with the growth and gender dimensions of Pentecostalism.

I argue that Pentecostalism is a crucial partner in engaging gender mainstreaming (which simply refers to the process of making gender equality a reality) among displaced people because it is uniquely positioned to create faster inroads for making gender equality a reality than the gender mainstreaming policies of other organizations.

In other words, I seek to demonstrate why Pentecostal gender attitudes matter in responding to the refugee crisis and argue that the egalitarian proclivities of Pentecostalism may situate it as a gender mainstreaming partner.

After an introduction, laying out the scope of the problem, and a case study, I offer practical suggestions and action steps for Pentecostal churches and organizations. I close with a personal reflection, included below.

The excerpt below is used with permission from:

Dutko, Joseph Lee. "Going Mainstream(ing): Pentecostalism and the Gender Dimensions of Displacement." In I Was a Stranger and You Took Me In: Pentecostal Responses to the Refugee Crisis , edited by Lois E. Olena, 147-168. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2025

Personal Reflection and Conclusion

I accepted the invitation to write this chapter because I believe in the subject’s importance. However, I struggled internally during the process of writing. Here I am, writing about forcibly displaced people from my beautiful and mostly affluent island community on the west coast of Canada. Who am I to be writing this to countries I have never been to or organizations in which I have not participated? I propose my pithy point for Pentecostals to “go mainstream(ing)” while displaced women are experiencing tremendous suffering and injustice. Furthermore, I write this knowing there are refugees and displaced people in my own area who need help. Over the relatively short period of writing this chapter, I received a call asking if our church has ideas or space on our property for tiny homes for Ukrainian refugees who are in desperate need of affordable housing. Shortly thereafter, I was contacted by a local politician asking if we could open our church facility as a warming center for “displaced” people in our area during a particularly cold stretch (which we did). On top of that, in an ongoing tragedy, young and often displaced indigenous women in Canada are five times more likely to die from physical violence than non-indigenous women. I had to honestly ask myself, “Am I wasting my time writing this when I could be using that time to help these people more effectively? Would the mental energy expended to write this chapter be better utilized filling out government forms for sponsoring a refugee family?” I don’t know.

But I take solace in this: I w holeheartedly believe that Pentecostal gender attitudes are a matter of life and death due to the intersection of the growth and gender dimensions of global Pentecostalism with the growth and gender dimensions of the refugee crisis. Furthermore, I understand, as this chapter argues, that religious beliefs can often make inroads into enacting change on the ground more quickly than government policy. The gender dimensions of forced displacement and the goal of gender mainstreaming may seem overwhelming or too big to make a difference. But it is important to remember that the first Christians were able to engage and transform a dominant culture that held views about and behaviors toward women that were far more hostile, abusive, and demeaning. And so, if one person’s life is improved (or even saved) because someone reading this recognizes Pentecostalism’s role in gender mainstreaming and acts on it, it might just be worth the effort.

This chapter began with a question: if Pentecostalism is rapidly growing in areas where the population of displaced people are also growing, then what, if any, should Pentecostalism’s response be to the refugee crisis? Recent studies argue that the gender dimensions of forced displacement are a crucial but often-overlooked factor in engaging and responding to the refugee crisis. Similarly, I argue that Pentecostalism and its gender dimensions are an overlooked and rarely mentioned player in the literature on forced displacement. Therefore, the goal of this chapter was to put these overlapping and intersecting factors into conversation with each other by examining the growth and gender dimensions of both global Pentecostalism and of forced displacement.

Government and non-government organizations cannot ignore the influence of Pentecostalism and its ability to make quick inroads to effect change, especially when it comes to gender equality. Similarly, if Pentecostals want to make a larger impact in ministering to refugees, they must be willing to partner with outside organizations in addressing the gender dimensions that cause unjust harm and suffering, and to engage the social dimensions of and collective responsibility to displaced people. In short, I argue that Pentecostalism should become part of the mainstream strategy for gender mainstreaming. Therefore, I call for Pentecostal voices and organizations to participate in gender mainstreaming efforts in places with high populations of displaced people as a way to respond to the Spirit’s call to enact gender equality as a part of a flourishing society. Progressive or regressive gender attitudes among Pentecostals may advantage or disadvantage displaced women. The takeaway challenge for Pentecostals is, will they be ready and willing to go mainstream(ing)?

Order the book at 50% off below by using code CONFSHIP or find the Kindle on Amazon for $2.99!

What People are Saying about The Pentecostal Gender Paradox

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 19:40:02 GMT

The book is now available in affordable paperback!

Special Discount for Website Readers:

35% off the paperback or e-book!

Enter code GLR AQ4 (with space) at checkout at bloomsbury.com:

United States

Canada

Here's a reminder of what people have been saying about the book (find full quotes HERE ):

"one of the most definitive scriptural and theological arguments for shattering the so-called 'stained-glass ceiling' once and for all"

Dr. Amos Yong, Fuller Seminary

* * * * *

a "well-articulated argument marked by notable originality . . . while also being remarkably accessible"

Dr. Daniela Augustine, University of Birmingham

* * * * *

"offers new and unique insights into the gender debate"

Dr. Joy Qualls, Biola University

* * * * *

"The most important book I've read on this topic in 20+ years"

Rev. Patti Miller, Lead Pastor in Montreal, QC

( see full review )

* * * * *

"I wish I would have had a book like this as a tool to help me earlier in my formation . . . I hope it finds its way into many pastors' hands and hearts"

Pastor Darcy Siggelkow

* * * * *

"An important tool for those who take scholarship and praxis seriously"

Dr. Linda Ambrose, Laurentian University

* * * * *

"a landmark for anyone studying gender issues within Pentecostalism"

Dr. Lisa P. Stephenson, Lee University

* * * * *

A "valuable resource" that offers solutions for change that are "accessible to all"

Duane Henry of Faith Today

( see full review )

* * * * *

"creative and thoughtful proposals . . . as a basis for women's full participation in the church"

Dr. Peter Althouse, Oral Roberts University

* * * * *

"As a Pentecostal woman in ministry, this book fills me with hope!"

Dr. Melissa Archer, Trinity Bible College

Guest Post: Well-Intentioned Leaders START with Gender Equity Polices. Wise Leaders END There.

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 22:26:38 GMT

Ellen Duffield Presents a Model For True Change

I am excited to share another guest post on the gender paradox blog by welcoming Ellen Duffield.

Want to share your story, insights, or ideas related to the gender paradox? Sub mit a proposal here .

* * * * *

“Gender is a topic about which people of outstanding character disagree. However, interpreters with integrity need to take responsibility for the theological trajectories of their conclusions and those of the networks with which they associate . . . A number of issues that face Christianity and the church in contemporary society are embedded in the issues of gender.” [1]

Even those who theoretically and theologically embrace women and men serving shoulder to shoulder in all aspects of life and ministry may struggle to actualize this vision. Many well-intentioned initiatives backfire, leading to greater polarization and defensiveness, not less! After years of observing this pattern in churches, denominations, and organizations, I began to wonder if maybe we were going the wrong way around the circle.

Let me explain. Recent backlash notwithstanding, many faith-based and other institutions have invested time and energy into the important work of creating spaces where both men and women can thrive. The issue is well researched. We know what needs to be done such as a minimum of 30% women at decision-making tables, [2] effective training programs, and leaders, budgets, policies, and practices that support this priority. Yet few initiatives are actually moving the needle.

Deep change takes . . . well, deep change.

The following model seeks to offer a helpful pathway. All models are flawed to some degree, but hopefully this model is helpful to you in some way.

Conviction

This 4 C’s journey begins at the top of the circle with conviction , with the difficult inner work of determining if this is a “go to the wall” issue or not. Galatians 2:14 describes a gospel defined by who sits at who’s tables. In Paul’s day, inclusion was measured at meals. To back away from this countercultural practice was to be ‘out of step with the Gospel.’ In our context, inclusion may more aptly include who is invited to what decision-making tables.

Our theological conviction may be augmented by a sociological one. We know that when a minimum of 30% women are at decision-making tables around the world levels of crime, corruption, and terrorism go down and levels of sustainable peacekeeping, access to clean water, education, and health care go up. Countless global organizations agree that if there were a small handful of levers that we could pull on that would make the most profound and lasting impact to people’s lives around the world, empowering and engaging women and girls would be near the top of the list.

We may also be motivated by a personal conviction rooted in our commitment to our daughters and informed by the startling news that a woman’s confidence peaks at age 9 (did you catch that?) and that our smartest, most well-travelled and most well-read women are most likely to see themselves as “other.”

Compassion

When we can say with conviction that this matter is so firmly rooted in our theology of God, the gospel, the kingdom, and concern for real people that we are willing to do the hard work of the next step, then it is time to move on. Compassion refers to the inner self-awareness work we each need to do as it relates to gender woundedness and the other-awareness work of listening that we all think we are good at but actually… well…

In my experience almost everyone wants to rush through this second step, but it takes discipline and humility to stay there long enough to allow the Spirit to change us.

Competencies

The third step of the journey involves developing new competencies, ways of relating and working that may feel foreign and even uncomfortable at first. In my current context in a seminary setting, this shows up as new approaches to learning. In almost every context it will include learning new ways of communicating, healthy boundary setting, and measuring impact. In faith-based communities it will also include learning how to truly model the self-giving, space-making work of kenotic community.

Culture-Shaping

Having taken this journey together we are now personally and corporately ready to talk about culture-shaping policies, processes, and practices. Sadly, many churches and organizations start here. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard “we tried having a woman on our board” or “we established quotas but that was a disaster” I might not be rich, but I’d have a lot of nickels.

With the best of intentions, Christian organizations move backwards around the circle only to discover that things like healing, reconciliation, reciprocity, and partnerships cannot be mandated, they must emerge from the deep dialogue of a community who have set their eye on wholeness.

* * * * *

This vision brings us back to conviction, and to our corporate calling as shalom-chasers. Walter Brueggemann says that Shalom is “an announcement that God has a vision of how the world shall be and is not yet . . . One way the community can say “no” to the vision and live without shalom is by deceiving itself into thinking that its private arrangements of injustice and exploitation are suitable ways of living (Jer. 6:13-14, compare Ez. 13:10, 16 & Amos 6:1-6). Shalom is the special task and burden of the well-off and powerful. They are the ones held accountable for shalom.” [3]

If, as Brueggemann suggests, Shalom comes only to the embracing community, then that excludes none. [4] And if the Gospel is indicated by who is at our tables, perhaps the hard work of going the right way around the circle is even more important than we realized.

[1] Cynthia Long Westfall, Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle’s Vision for Men and Women in Christ (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016), 314-315.

[2] “Some Effects of Proportions of Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women,” American Journal of Sociology, University of Chicago Press, Vol. 82, Nu. 5, (March 1977); A.M. Konrad, V. Kramer, & S. Erkut (2008). Critical mass: The impact of three or more women on corporate boards. Organizational Dynamics, 37(2), 145-160; C. Chesterman, A. Ross-Smith, & M. Peters, “The Gendered Impact on Organizations of a Critical Mass of Women in Senior Management.” Oxford Academic, 2005. https://academic.oup.com .

[3] Walter Brueggemann, Living Towards a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1982), 39-40, 24.

[4] Ibid, 16.

Paperback Version of Pentecostal Gender Paradox is Out!

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 17:49:55 GMT

30% off until Oct. 5!

After a year and a half of only being available in hardback, Bloomsbury/T&T Clark has now released The Pentecostal Gender Paradox in paperback due to healthy sales!

AND, it's 30% off for the next 30 days (until Oct. 5).

No code required.

Of course, you can still buy it anywhere else books are sold (Amazon, etc.).

Thanks for supporting and spreading the message of women in leadership for the flourishing of the church!

Spirit-Inspired Diversity in Leadership

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 16:34:21 GMT

Diversity in Leadership is a Biblical Must

Recently I gave a message from Acts 6:1-7 that teaches the importance of diversity in church leadership.

An Acts-type of Spirit-filled church will be moving in the direction of equal and fair representation in its leadership

And yes, I deal with why they chose 7 MEN and why it does NOT teach in any way that leadership teams should be made up entirely of males (in fact, quite the opposite I argue).

You can watch/listen to that teaching above or HERE .

I end that message focusing on our church's story.

An often overlooked component of church (re)vitalization is the connection with empowering women leaders in the church. This has been true throughout history and throughout some of the great revivals of the church.

So part of my prayer has always been that God would raise up women and men leaders in our church who adequately represent the makeup of our church as well as those we are called to reach with the good news.

Are we doing this perfectly? Of course not, we’re on the same progressive journey in some ways as the church in Acts, but with the help of the Spirit we’re trying.

Our church's story is very unique and, although we don’t promote it, it has received attention and we’re sometimes asked to share it.

I was recently asked by a leadership conference in Alberta to share examples of how equal representation of women in leadership in our church has been key to our growth in discipleship together.

It's included at the end of the above message, but also separately here if you only want to watch the 3-minute clip:

Remember that The Pentecostal Gender Paradox is now out in affordable paperback and is currently 30% off during September!

Review of Pentecostal Preacher Woman by Linda Ambrose

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 17:24:20 GMT

"Now more than ever, the stories of Pentecostal women leaders need to be told"

My review of Ambrose's new book on Bernice Gerard was recently published in Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.

I previously shared about the joint presentation of Ambrose's and my book at a recent conference and the powerful moment it led to, as well as my remarks in that session .

But this is my formal academic review of the book. For those who have access (library, subscription, etc.), the "official" publication of the review is available for download or formal citation HERE on Brill's site .

Review of Pentecostal Preacher Woman: The Faith and Feminism of Bernice Gerard , by Linda Ambrose. Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 47, no. 2 (2025): 310–13. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700747-04702003

Below is the text of the review reprinted here with permission.

Linda M. Ambrose, Pentecostal Preacher Woman: The Faith and Feminism of Bernice Gerard (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2024). xiv + 303pp. $37.95 paperback ($110 hardback).

Complicated. Complex. Controversial. Messy. Misunderstood. An enigma. Not easily categorized. Beloved. Hated. These are just some of the words used by Linda Ambrose, professor of history at Laurentian University, to describe the life and ministry of Bernice Gerard (1923–2008) in her groundbreaking biography Pentecostal Preacher Woman: The Faith and Feminism of Bernice Gerard. Through her ten years of archival research, conversations with those who knew Gerard, and study of her personal notes and belongings, Ambrose skillfully weaves together history, sociology, and theology to tell Gerard’s story in a way that few but her could do.

The ten chapters tell the story of four parts of Gerard’s life. Chapters 1–3 cover her early years of adoption and a childhood spent navigating the foster care and child welfare systems. This section can hardly be read without tears as Gerard experienced the trauma of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse that would dramatically shape her life as well as lead to her eventual conversion to Pentecostal Christianity. Chapters 4–5 chart Gerard’s remarkable rise from an “unwanted child” (Gerard’s own words) to a successful international writer and traveling evangelist who crisscrossed North America and the globe, attracting crowds who gathered to hear the gifted communicator tell her story.

After some of her travelling companions married and settled into domestic life, Gerard (who never married) shifted her attention to education and chaplaincy work on the campus of the University of British Columbia (UBC), the focus of Chapters 6–7. At a time of rising religious fundamentalism when it was atypical for a Pentecostal leader to embrace a secular education, Gerard defied convention. She dedicated herself to critical reading of scholarly and feminist literature on religion (which is also covered in Chapter 9). Despite retaining her conservative Pentecostal proclivities, Gerard’s willingness to consider other types of thinking paved the way for the wide following of her radio ministry. Chapter 7 is filled with intriguing stories of radio conversations that display Gerard’s “sharp intellect” and “deep mastery of media” (157) in engaging non-Christian callers on the topics of sexuality, Eastern religions, addiction, suicide, and more. The final three chapters ponder Gerard’s pastoral and political life. Chapter 10 describes her “short but colourful career in public life” (202) as a politician on Vancouver City Council and how her Pentecostal spirituality influenced her political engagement.

The first full-length biography of Gerard is a delightful read and a page-turner (I unexpectedly read most of it in one day!). Ambrose’s style is engaging and at times playful, such as when she enters an imaginary conversation with Gerard about footnotes (179). But that is not to say this isn’t the work of a serious historian. It takes a careful and thoughtful scholar to pull off a biography for a life as nuanced as Gerard’s, and Ambrose does it brilliantly. The life of Gerard cannot be oversimplified; there is more to this teetotalling Pentecostal woman with a puritanical appearance than first meets the eye, and Ambrose’s approach represents a masterclass on how to navigate the complexities of popular religious figures. She does not succumb to the temptation toward hagiography—refusing to present an “overly sanitized version of events” (10)—yet addresses the imbalance and “implicit biases and assumptions” in scholarship “that privilege progressive women to the exclusion of others” (13). Using a woman-centred approach, Ambrose allows Gerard’s voice and writings to guide the conversation and conclusions, believing that “women’s religiosity should be respected” and that “religious women should be heard in their own voice” (14).

Gerard considered herself to be a feminist, a label that confused both conservative Pentecostals and liberal politicians who couldn’t reconcile Gerard’s paradoxical relationship between her feminism and traditional religious views. But Ambrose deftly “allows” the socially-progressive feminist Gerard to coexist with the conservative Christian Gerard without explaining either away. Gerard’s social stances and alliances were messy, and Ambrose does not seek a tidy explanation, preferring to allow Gerard’s often-complicated views to evolve over time. Those on either side who would seek to anoint or use Gerard as an exemplary Christian moral crusader or as a model social progressive will be frustrated with Ambrose’s portrayal. Both stances would be an oversimplification of a complex life and legacy. With the progressive political crowd, Gerard is perhaps best known for her colourful and unpopular public protests against abortion, public nudity, and standards of decency in popular entertainment. But on the conservative religious side, Gerard was sometimes equally unpopular for her feminism, ecumenism, social justice work, and compassion toward lesbians and gays. She was also an unlikely forerunner for Pentecostal cooperation with Catholics. Gerard spoke of distinguishing herself from “conservative other-worldly evangelicals” (219) even as she was labeled as such by some outsiders. Gerard was too conservative for society at large and too moderate for dogmatic believers, and Ambrose wisely does not minimize the dissonance.

A potential disappointment for readers—and my main critique—is that for a book titled Pentecostal Preacher Woman, there is very little insight into Bernice’s life as a preacher and pastor. Chapters 8–9 are simultaneously the most interesting but also unsatisfying chapters of the book. In 1964, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) invited Bernice and her longtime ministry partner Velma McColl Chapman to become the founding co-pastors of Fraserview Assembly in Vancouver. Despite pastoring the church together for 21 years, Ambrose gives very little detail of Gerard’s pastoral life and calling. Chapter 8 importantly tells the story of how Gerard navigated the patriarchal systems of the PAOC and begrudgingly defended herself (and women’s ordination in general) as a woman leader to her national peers in the 1980s. But the chapter, the shortest of the six that cover her ministry vocations, contains only a few stories from General Conference episodes in the 1980s and left me wondering what her life as a local church pastor was like and how she was received within her congregation. The story of Gerard’s parish ministry life is largely untouched and untold. Although Ambrose did the admirable work of collecting twenty years of Gerard’s sermon notes, there are only occasional references to them and her voice as “Pastor Bernice” is largely absent in the book.

Similarly in Chapter 9, despite the extreme rarity of two women co-leading a church together (or a single woman for that matter)—a ministry model that “defied existing gender constructs” (189)—it is puzzling that Ambrose spends more time pondering the complexity of Gerard’s domestic arrangements with Velma than she does their pastoral life together. Although Ambrose argues that it is “highly unlikely” the PAOC will soon again see two women co-pastoring a church and that “gender was central” to their experience as pastors together (188, 199), we don’t get a lot of explanation or insight into how their pastoral relationship worked (only a brief job-like description of how they divided the responsibilities). The chapter’s stated attempt to explore their ministry model “through a critical gender lens” never fully materializes. Admittedly, this critique likely has a lot to do with my interest and role in pastoral ministry, as well as my academic research on women in pastoral leadership. Many readers likely will not mind or notice these absences. I’m a pastor-theologian and Ambrose is a professor-historian, which likely explains the difference in expectations for these chapters.

Even with this noticeable missing content from Gerard’s pastoral life, the contributions made by this biography far outweigh any shortcomings. Gerard’s life is a fascinating case-study that will appeal to many audiences and contribute to several fields. Scholars and historians (and even everyday participants) of Canadian Pentecostalism, women’s and feminist studies, religion and gender, politics, child welfare systems, and the local history of Vancouver and BC will all benefit from studying Gerard’s life. Additionally, Christian leaders who work as pastors, politicians, teachers, university chaplains, or social workers will all find plenty of material to reflect on in their vocational callings.

Perhaps now more than ever, the stories of Pentecostal women leaders need to be told. Despite being named British Columbia’s most influential spiritual figure of the twentieth century, receiving appointment as the first female chaplain of any faith tradition at UBC, serving as the first PAOC university chaplain—male or female—in Canada, being the first woman to ever officiate a Baccalaureate service at UBC, and acting as a spiritual mentor to the current General Superintendent of the PAOC (David Wells), Gerard remains far from a household name in Pentecostal, PAOC, or other circles. It’s a sad indictment on North American Pentecostalism that Gerard’s story as an influential Pentecostal woman pastor and leader remains an aberration. I can only imagine what Gerard would think that we must still defend women in Pentecostal leadership, a topic she herself said she was “bored” with and had “no time for” (17, 182). Unfortunately, it’s hard to imagine a single woman such as Gerard, or two women together such as Bernice and Velma, pastoring a large and influential PAOC church today as they did then. Hopefully Ambrose’s highly readable yet meticulously researched work will change that. As Ambrose exclaims toward the end of the book, “How I would dearly welcome the chance to chat with Bernice Gerard about all this!” (238).

Joseph Lee Dutko

Independent Scholar, Parksville, BC, Canada

www.josephdutko.com | joseph@oceansidecc. ca

Did Paul Say Women Should Remain Silent in Churches?

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 19:08:37 GMT

5 Possible Explanations or Meanings of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35

Our church has been working through 1 Corinthians together and it's brought up a lot of interesting topics to say the least. It's been "fun" (if that's the right word!) to wrestle with some tough texts about spiritual gifts, hairdos in worship, money, sex, worship preferences, bad theology, bad leaders, resurrection bodies -- you get it all in 1 Corinthians!

But of course the passage everyone wanted to know about was 1 Corinthians 14:34-35.

In case you're unfamiliar:

³⁴ Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. ³⁵ If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

Below is the message on that text which has been well received and engaged, even by those who have spent time studying the passage before.

One congregant wrote on our social media in response to the message:

"I felt validated [in church] for the first time in my life as an educated woman. Thank you."

What do I think is the most likely meaning or explanation of the passage? Take a listen!

The Gender Paradox is out in affordable paperback!

For limited time, use code GLR AQ4 (with space) for 35% off HERE

RELATED POSTS:

"Women in 1 Corinthians 11:2-6"

"Q&A on Headship and Submission"

VIEW ALL GENDER PARADOX POSTS

Marking 10 Years as Co-Lead Pastors

Thu, 15 May 2025 20:13:04 GMT

3 Things We've Learned About Church Revitalization

Last month we celebrated our 10-year anniversary since starting as Co-Lead Pastors.

Our church surprised us with this fun little video (along with a nice presentation and prayer time):

It's just wild to think of what things were like 10 years ago compared to now.

I don't have the time to relay the full story (although see the 5-minute history of our church below!), but the short story is we've grown from less than 50 people when we started--with only one person under age 55 and attendance in decline for 8 straight years--to a church that well over 500 now call home.

An easy snapshot comparison is Easter, which is usually an indicator of your church's max reach. In 2015 we had exactly 60 people . This year we had nearly 600, including over 100 kids. For years, our kids were the only kids in the church most Sundays!

One day I'd love to flesh out and expand our whole story and all that we've learned and experienced. It's a unique story as most church growth stories involve newer churches or church plants or satellites.

What I love about our story is that our church has been here since 1963, established in the community, but until recently had never cracked 80 in average annual attendance. So for nearly 60 years the church hovered between 40-80 people.

"For nearly 60 years the church hovered between 40-80 people"

Now we're seeing nearly 80 people just take part in our Alpha or new believer's course almost annually, or just that many kids on a Sunday. We feel so blessed to be a part of it.

Again, so much to say, but here is an ever-so-brief description of 3 important lessons or words of advice.

1. Think Big, Start Small

I've used this advice so much with our church, especially early on. A lot of churches have a lot of dreams and think big: "we could do (fill in the blank)" or "wouldn't it be awesome if we . . .". But concrete action steps to move toward those goals are often lacking.

We definitely dreamed and thought big together, but we didn't just talk or dream. We took steps, often very very small steps, that could move us toward entertaining bigger goals.

For example, yes we dreamed of actually having a kids program. But we didn't just talk about it and hope kids would show up and that we could all of a sudden run kids' church. We started by just putting a little kids/play area in the back corner of the sanctuary so that if a few kids did show up, it looked like we had thought of them and there was something for them to do. That was our "program." It wasn't much, but it was the best we could offer to start, and it worked!

Very similarly,

2. Change Things, Yes. But Do It In a Way (Most) People Can Handle

One of the things we're most proud of is that through all the early changes, we didn't lose a lot of people. Yes, we lost some who wanted absolutely zero change: nothing you can do about that. But for the most part we moved slow enough that it didn't alienate the people who were there.

For example, there were literally a thousand tweaks or changes that were needed in the building (I don't think I'm exaggerating). Trinkets everyone (I remember a Disney plate on display with a ceramic horse next to it at one of the display tables at an entrance?! So random!), a jar of Canadian Tire money labeled "missions" that had obviously been there for many years, weird plants everywhere, you get the picture! And those were just the small things.

But we didn't just come in and "clean house" overnight. It sounds funny (and maybe a bit sneaky!), but I would literally often just remove one thing a week early on so that it wasn't too noticeable or too jarring for people. Eventually the "change snowball" will pick up, but if you do it slowly enough at first and earn people's trust first, more people will hop on that snowball with you! Related . . .

3. Listen First, Then Act

People want--need--to be heard. We tried to always listen to what the people were saying before we acted. That doesn't mean we always did what people wanted, but we did always listen so that people felt a part of the process.

For example, we worked for over a year together on our Vision, Mission, and Core Values . Why did it take so long? Because we allowed pretty much every person to share what they thought God's calling on this specific church was. We took congregational surveys. We did a retreat with our board to simply pray, listen, and write down things or key words we felt the Lord saying. We spent months organizing the material and all the feedback, submitted many drafts to the board and other key leaders.

Could Hannah and I have written a vision statement and Core Values we liked in a few days and just went ahead and announced them? Sure. And I've certainly seen pastors do that (note: it majorly alienates people!). I've even been on church staffs where I wasn't a part of any discussion about the church's vision or mission before they were presented.

So even though we had to wait over a year to finalize these guiding statements or values and spent lots of our time on them, it was well worth the time because the buy-in was so high. And they have served us well over all these years (note: we recently added the Intergenerational Ministry core value as it would have been weird to have that early on when we weren't that!).

Concluding Thoughts

I have so many more thoughts. Honestly, this isn't my favourite subject to write about so I haven't done much on church health or growth. Part of that is because it can come across as being about yourself or your leadership.

This church's story is not about us or how we did all the right things: trust me, we did not do it all right! We made SO MANY mistakes. But the church allowed room for those mistakes and for us to all learn and grow together. Our testimony is mainly one of patience and perseverance more than anything.

The church's story and our longevity here is a testament to the people and their patience with us and with God's unfolding plan. Pastors lasting a long time in a church is as much a reflection of the congregation as it is about the pastors.

Lord willing (and thy will be done, whatever it may be), we're looking forward to 10 more years! Even so, Come Lord Jesus!

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Not Your Normal Academic Conference

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 17:47:44 GMT

A Powerful Moment at the Society for Pentecostal Studies

When people hear "academic conference" they might think of a bunch of stuffy eggheads trying to outdo each other to see who can sound the smartest. Or perhaps some dry, boring presentations that don't speak to real life issues.

Those stereotypes might occasionally be true, but certainly not at a recent meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies.

In my last post , I shared my opening presentation on ways to include more female voices in Pentecostal higher education. What I didn't share was what followed. Let's just say my presentation was by far the least memorable part of the session!

What followed was five powerful presentations and personal sharing about women's experiences in the church and academy by Linda Ambrose, Cheryl Johns, Kim Alexander, Susan Tam, and Dave Wells, all beautifully chaired and pastorally led with sensitivity by Joy Qualls.

It's impossible to capture what happened in those moments, and I also feel a lot of it was so personal and heavy and at times spontaneous that it wouldn't be right to share in this kind of forum. As one person said "If you were there, you know" (or I believe they posted it on social media as IYKYK, which this luddite had to look up to understand!).

One person called it a "sacred time" and someone else a "historic moment." Another said it stood out with only a few other sessions in their 15 years of attending the conference: "I was aware something bigger was happening than we had planned or imagined" they said.

Seeing a room full of academics weeping at an academic conference is not normal. I felt grateful to be in the room for a moment that was obviously bigger than any of us.

Both from presenters and those in attendance there were tears of hurt, repentance, and perhaps even some of hopefulness. Apologies were given and accepted. I've continued to hear stories from people of how the time profoundly impacted them and was such a meaningful moment in their lives.

It was encouraging to see some of the steps I recommend for male leaders actually happening in that room.

* * * * *

One of the main hurdles I face in talking about and promoting women's equal leadership and representation in church leadership is that many think it's no longer an issue that needs to be addressed.

I don't know how to say this less forcefully, but those who feel that way are simply not listening to women's stories and voices.

The stories shared from these women who have been in leadership for decades were not old stories. Most of them them were about recent events of being pushed to the margins or silenced in their churches or denominations.

I'm reminded almost daily of how much work is still to be done, as posts like this point out: Why Are We Still Talking About Women's Equality in the Church? (look for a similar post soon on some more recent reminders).

Women continue to report feeling "homeless" when it comes to the church or that church is not a safe place for them.

I'm glad to know there were many leaders in the room for our presentations, many of whom are involved in shaping future pastors and leaders. May God give us the grace to put into action the work of the Spirit begun in that room.

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Should a Pentecostal Education be a Feminist Education?

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 18:46:47 GMT

Including Female Voices in (Pentecostal) Theological Education

Note: This material is taken from my presentation at the Society for Pentecostal Studies 2025 meeting, where the theme was:

"MORE THAN A SONG”

Scholarship as Worship In the Church, the Academy, and the Public Square

The session was also a book panel discussion on my book and Linda Ambrose's book on Bernice Gerard. Here's the description from the SPS Program:

Much of the material from this presentation is edited content from my book The Pentecostal Gender Paradox: Eschatology and the Search for Equality ©2024 by Joseph Lee Dutko. Used by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing ( www.bloomsbury.com ).

Except for a few exceptions, footnotes are not included below for easier reading in blog layout. If making any citations or quotations from this material, please refer to the book pages 214-220.

* * * * *

Part of my task for this panel is to simply “set the stage” for our discussion on faith and feminism in Pentecostalism.

So this is a bit of a full circle moment, at least for me.

In February of 2014, I drove several hours roundtrip one evening to Trinity Western University in British Columbia to hear Linda talk about her beginning research on Bernice Gerard.

It was my first time meeting Linda (she probably doesn’t remember meeting me!). But we chatted, and I was inspired by her talk and shared with her my research idea--still very much in its infancy--on the relationship between eschatological beliefs and gender practices.

Well exactly 10 years later, in 2024, both of our books were published, and now here we are together.

Our title (“Faith and Feminism: Contradictory Convictions, Oxymoronic Opinions, and Paradoxical Practices in Pentecostalism”) combines a lot of the key themes, even phrases, from Linda’s work and my work, which in different ways seek to resolve or reconcile the paradoxical relationship or impulses between conservative religion such as classical Pentecostalism and feminism.

Said another way or more specifically, can you be Pentecostal and a feminist?

I believe both Linda’s work, through historical biography, and my work through a critical-theological transdisciplinary approach, both answer YES!

For those unfamiliar with the paradoxical impulses we’re talking about, let me read a paragraph from my work, which summarizes the scholarship on this, including the very foundational work some of these panelists (and our chair!) have done:

"The early rise and later decline of women in leadership reveals a tension within Pentecostalism: the capacity to encourage and to discourage egalitarian practices, or what Bernice Martin termed the Pentecostal gender paradox. Pentecostal scholars have alternatively articulated Martin’s argument as the competing impulses of liberation and limitation, ^[1] freedom and formalization, ^[2] affirmation and denial, ^[3] opportunity and constraint, ^[4] and exclusion and embrace ^[5] concerning women in leadership. ^[6] The conclusion among these authors is that these competing impulses lead to tremendous uncertainty, hesitancy, or ambiguity about the place of women in Pentecostal circles." (Pages 7–8)

So my work argues for a consistent and critical theological method and vision across historical, biblical, and practical Pentecostal disciplines, that I believe offers a (dare I say “final”) solution capable of resolving this Pentecostal gender paradox (a bold claim, I know, but you might as well go big!).

And that critical solution is what I call an eschatological authorizing hermeneutic.

But the conference theme/question here, which I’ve been asked to incorporate, is:

How might the academic task be considered worship? How might the academy inform worship?

So for my few minutes here I want to focus on how the way women are treated in the academy (and specifically theological education and classrooms) might impact worship practices. And I feel this is a very relevant focus for this setting as most are involved in teaching and higher education.

I want to ask the question: should (or can) a Pentecostal education be a feminist education?

Most of this comes from a section of Chapter 6 which is all about how an eschatological-egalitarian vision impacts our worship and praxis, such as denominational structures, the language we use in worship, the stories we tell in worship, the gendered embodiment of our sacramentality in worship, and more. And it also includes in the classroom, which is this section, called:

6.2 Theological Education: Forming an Eschatological Consciousness

This section's focus is on how to create an egalitarian educational experience congruent with a Pentecostal eschatology of gender so that future Pentecostal leaders are prepared to construct worship that participates in eschatological–egalitarian realities and lead in a way that reifies their eschatological convictions.

6.2.1 Eschatological Pedagogy: Incorporating Women’s Voices

An eschatological–egalitarian approach to Pentecostal education will equally incorporate female voices, interpretations, and stories into theological instruction and the building (and critiquing) of theory and practice. In other words, Pentecostal theological formation in general should be “feminist” in its most basic definition of considering women’s experiences for theological reflection. Keeping women and their thoughts, writings, and contributions at the margins of theological instruction is not consistent with the eschatological–egalitarian heart of Scripture or the Pentecostal movement. An Acts 2 understanding of the “last days” is that hearing all voices—particularly of both men and women—is integral to knowing and understanding God (Acts 2:17-18).

Despite its congruence with Pentecost-inspired thinking, embracing a feminist approach to Pentecostal theological pedagogy likely represents a major paradigm shift. But by ignoring feminist theology, Lisa Stephenson argues Pentecostals will continue to fuse “an ideology of Spirit empowerment with a hierarchical anthropology”; in other words, the gender paradox will continue to thrive in our worship practices. Feminist theology helps to expose the patriarchal tendencies of theology and ecclesiastical structures that silence women.

For example, systematic theology and its traditional order have been challenged by many feminist scholars as a male-centered epistemology. A change several feminist theologians have suggested or implemented is putting methodology and theological rationale at the end of a work, challenging its unquestioned status by overly systematic male theologians.

In her theological memoir, theologian Roberta Bondi (the first woman to attain tenured faculty status at Candler School of Theology, Emory University) reflects on her learning experience and how “theology was abstract, logical, propositional, and systematic, and so was its God.” She describes how she had to deconstruct her theological education, unlearning and relearning what Christian doctrines mean and do not mean to women in her time.

Many theological students like Bondi (whether male or female)—and let’s say Pentecostal theological students—have had a similar experience as the one Rosemary Radford Ruether describes:

Writings by women themselves or writings expressing alternative views to the dominant tradition have often been dropped out of the official tradition, and their remains have to be dug up through careful detective work. But the dominant male tradition about women is not hidden at all. It lies right on the surface of all the standard texts . . . and its message has been absorbed and taken-for-granted over the generations. It takes a new consciousness to go back and isolate this whole body of material as a problem rather than as normative tradition. . . . No professor ever taught me to recognize it as an “issue.”

For Pentecostals, I propose this “new consciousness” is an eschatological one, where the eschatological understanding of God’s plan for equality informs Pentecostal theological inquiry.

There are several ways Pentecostal teachers can develop and teach this consciousness. For starters, they can introduce themselves and their students to feminist authors and thought. Ruether laments that “most male students and faculty still do not read [feminist] literature as a necessary part of their education and scholarship.” The theological world is just starting to come to grips with a history dominated by male readings and interpretations. Pentecostal educators should carefully choose textbooks and reading assignments, being aware of how women’s voices might be left out. (I give a few examples here, including my own where . . .)

For teaching a basic Introduction to Theology course at a Pentecostal university, I chose a textbook that was within Christian orthodoxy but that also incorporated feminist ideas, criticisms, and language into almost every topical chapter.

Hermeneutics or book study courses might suggest commentaries written by women for all classes and incorporate their insights into the classroom. Foundational courses on the Bible could require The Women’s Bible Commentary as a textbook or for inclusion in students’ personal pastoral/theological libraries, as it represents “the first comprehensive attempt to gather some of the fruits of feminist biblical scholarship on each book of the Bible."

But, reading the right theological textbooks is only half the battle. Women bring their own perspectives, experiences, insights, and questions—sometimes quite different than men’s—to theological and biblical discussion in the classroom and other academic contexts.

However, studies have revealed many gender discrepancies in theology classrooms. Women in these classes are more silent and passive than males, and research [has] . . . determined that professors talk more to their male students and treat males differently (and it’s likely true of pastors or denominations leaders as well). Therefore, there needs to be open and honest discussions about these realities in Pentecostal educational circles . . .

An eschatological consciousness that values the biblical hope for equality will correct the gender-based power imbalance in theological texts as well as in the classroom, while also seeking to construct new egalitarian ways of writing, teaching, and learning theology.

Just one example of incorporating feminist thought is Pentecostal teachers can reassess how eschatology itself is taught as a theological discipline. Feminist theologians have often been antagonistic or at least dismissive toward traditional eschatology due to its male-centered, individualistic, and otherworldly focus. However, a more praxis-oriented Pentecostal eschatology aligns well with feminist thinking, and it can also learn from it.

Eschatological hope that incorporates the voices and perspectives of women is less likely to focus on the self and more likely show concern for the condition of all humanity. A female-oriented eschatology might focus more on how to make the world more livable for the children and generations to come, moving pedagogical approaches away from abstract and systematic ideas and toward how theology can improve the lives of the marginalized, including women.

I then give some examples in my book of common feminist redefining or rereading of eschatology, and conclude with this:

Teaching eschatology with the inclusion of female voices brings more perspectives to the table than the classic definitions of eschatology used in most Pentecostal institutions, definitions historically dominated by male-influenced worldviews. Furthermore, presenting alternative eschatologies can lead to more women sharing their experiences of how they think about eschatology, the afterlife, and how it impacts their Christian living.

So this is just one of the many ways I suggest we can begin to convincingly resolve the current gender paradox within Pentecostalism and bring feminist thought into Pentecostal pedagogy.

Transition to Linda's Presentation:

But Linda’s work on Bernice, which by the way is a delightful read (I’ll have a glowing review coming out in Pneuma ), puts this paradox front and center in a lot of ways.

Despite Gerard being ordained for over forty years and having co-founded, with another woman, and pastored a vibrant church in Vancouver for over 20 years, she was still forced to defend herself as a woman leader.

Linda writes:

“it is understandable that as a woman in her sixties, with a lifetime of ministry experience to her credit, Gerard would feel weary and disrespected when she found it necessary to rise on the [general] conference floor [of the PAOC] to speak in favour of an initiative that could clear the way for more women to take up ordination credentials and do what she and countless other Pentecostal women had already been doing for decades” (169)

And Linda’s work is full of these illustrations of what she calls “messy contradictions” in Pentecostalism and in Gerard’s life (14) and the paradoxical relationship of her faith and feminism.

And so I’ll turn it over to Linda before we hear from our panelists.

* * * * *

Selected footnotes (from the book):

[1] Estrelda Y. Alexander, Limited Liberty: The Legacy of Four Pentecostal Women Pioneers (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim, 2008); Andrea Hollingsworth and Melissa D. Browning, “Your Daughters Shall Prophesy (As Long as They Submit): Pentecostalism and Gender in Global Perspective,” in A Liberating Spirit: Pentecostals and Social Action in North America, ed. Michael Wilkinson and Steven M. Studebaker (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2010), 176–8.

[2] Charles H. Barfoot and Gerald T. Sheppard, “Prophetic vs. Priestly Religion: The Changing Role of Women Clergy in Classical Pentecostal Churches,” Review of Religious Research 22, no. 1 (September 1980): 2–17. This article obviously precedes Martin’s and has been equally influential. Its context is more the early Pentecostal movement; therefore, it will be discussed in Chapter 2. Similarly, Frederick L. Ware discusses “spiritual egalitarianism” versus “ecclesial pragmatism” in “Spiritual Egalitarianism, Ecclesial Pragmatism, and the Status of Women in Ordained Ministry,” in Alexander and Yong, Philip’s Daughters, 215. See also Powers, “Pentecostal Hermeneutics,” 314.

[3] Pamela Holmes, “The Spirit, Nature, and Canadian Pentecostal Women: A Conversation with Critical Theory,” in Alexander and Yong, Philip’s Daughters, 187.

[4] Qualls, Forgive Us, 153. See also the observation of Diedre Helen Crumbley concerning “Pentecostal paradoxes that liberate the body in worship while constraining its sexuality” in “Dressed as becometh Holiness: Gender, Race and the Body in a Storefront Sanctified Church,” in Spirit on the Move: Black Women and Pentecostalism in Africa and the Diaspora, ed. Judith Casselberry and Elizabeth A. Pritchard (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019), 91.

[5] Cheryl Bridges Johns, “Spirited Vestments: Or, Why the Anointing Is Not Enough,” in Alexander and Yong, Philip’s Daughters, 170–1.

[6] It should be noted the starting premise for these Pentecostal scholars is the opposite of Martin. Whereas Martin sees Pentecostalism as a mostly patriarchal movement that sometimes surprisingly brings new freedoms for women, most Pentecostal scholars view Pentecostalism ideally as an egalitarian movement that often surprisingly restricts the ministry of women. Nevertheless, the important conclusion and consensus is that there are two competing impulses which create a paradox in Pentecostalism regarding gender and the role of women.

[7] These terms will be used interchangeably throughout my work to refer to the issue of women’s (in)equality in Pentecostalism.

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How Many Women Are On Your Church Board?

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 17:49:10 GMT

More Than Token Representation is Needed

Likely more than half of your church congregation is made up of women.

And yet it is not uncommon, even in churches that are affiliated with supposed egalitarian denominations (like the PAOC or A/G), to find a church board (or "council") composed entirely of men.

I sat in Pentecostal churches for years that preached the message of equal Spirit-empowerment of "both men and women" (Acts 2:18). But apparently that message didn't apply to church boards, as I only ever witnessed deacon or elder boards composed entirely of men, or perhaps with one "token" female representative.

Before sharing our current church's story, here are four common reasons women are underrepresented on church boards.

1. "We'd be happy to have a woman on our board, but that's not who the people nominate or vote in, so there's nothing we can do about it."

If it's important to you or the church, do something about it! Change your policy, change your way of nominating or voting, change your church constitution--do what needs to be done.

Many churches, at least in the fellowship I'm a part of, have recently moved to either a hybrid system of congregational voting and pastor or council nomination, or brought the decision completely within the church council.

The hybrid system allows the congregation to nominate and vote for half the board members, and then the other half are appointed by the current church board. This allows for the board to fill any gaps, whether gender, age, longevity in the church, etc. (a healthy board should have young and old, men and women, and both newer and veteran people from your congregation if they are to be a proper representation).

The other option brings the nomination process completely within the current board and then a list of names are submitted to the congregation for ratification.

A number of years ago we did the hard work of changing our constitution to ensure we could have proper and equal representation on our church board. It's doable, but in some situations will take some courage and boldness to make it happen.

2. "Women are too emotional"

You might think that surely I'm not serious that people still say this. I wish it weren't true, that I hadn't ever heard this or don't hear it. But unfortunately this is still the thinking of some male pastors or men in leadership.

Not too along ago I had a male lead pastor say to me somewhat proudly concerning his supposed "openness" to women being on the board: "I don't mind having women on my board, I just ask that they not let their emotions get in the way of their decision making."

What!? Have you ever been in a church board room full of men? I've seen plenty of emotions get in the way of decision-making. I've seen grown men get red in the face yelling at each other, standing up and shouting, needing to be physically separated from each other, and walking out and leaving in the middle of a meeting out of anger. But yeah, we gotta be careful that we not let too much female "emotion" on our church boards.

The other side of this is assuming emotion is bad. Everyone uses emotion as a part of decision-making; God has made us that way. The key is healthy emotion.

3. The Double Standard

As I'll explain below, in my current church we've had several years where we've had an all-female board, and normally a majority female board.

What always gets my attention is that when there's exclusively women on the board, there's almost always people that comment that "we need a male presence on the board." It feels not quite right or normal to them to have all women at the table of decision-making.

It may be true that a male voice would be good in those situations, but what strikes me as odd is that when there's an all male church council, it doesn't seem as big of a problem anymore that only one gender is represented. It feels more normal to people. We are simply still more comfortable with all male leadership than we are or would be with all female leadership.

4. Token Representation

As I say in The Pentecostal Gender Paradox, " Church leadership and decision-making must include the equal voice of women and men if it is to be an eschatological community. So-called 'token representation' of women is not the goal, but full and equal participation in church leadership."

Too many organizations are satisfied or feel their work is done in creating an egalitarian culture when a woman (or two) is added to the table. But this is just a small start toward the greater work that needs to be done.

Our Story

In eight out of ten years at our current church we have had a majority female-led board, including some years with a council of all women.

In that ten years our church has grown from less than 50 people to a church that over 500 call home. Which means a lot of big and important decisions have been made, including major financial decisions, renovations, and almost annual hiring of new staff, and so on.

I attribute a lot of our church's health and growth to these women and their wise decision-making. I had never seen a majority or all-female church board before. Admittedly, even as a passionate egalitarian, it felt a little strange at first. But it should be no more unusual than the all-male church boards and leadership we've accepted for decades.

For more suggestions on women having equal voice and representation in local church leadership, see pages 206-214 in The Pentecostal Gender Paradox .

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"Why are We Still Talking About Women's Equality in the Church?"

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Faith Today Magazine Reviews The Pentecostal Gender Paradox

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 16:29:45 GMT

Canada's Main Christian Magazine Offers Thoughts on The Pentecostal Gender Paradox

The latest issue of Faith Today (Jan/Feb 2025) chose The Pentecostal Gender Paradox as one of its four featured book reviews in both its print and online editions.

You can read the extended review by Duane Henry online , and a shortened review in the print magazine below. But here's a few highlights:

A “thoroughly researched” and “meticulous examination” of women in ministry that “expands the importance of women’s roles to a theological importance that many readers may not have considered deeply”

* * * * *

Dutko’s eschatological argument “should make anyone who wishes to apply intellect and scholarship to his point raise their awareness to the depth of his claims”

* * * * *

A “valuable resource” that offers solutions for change that are “accessible to all”

* * * * *

Reminder that the paperback is now available for pre-order for as low as $25 USD / $35 CAD for website readers if you pre-order here and use code GLR AQ4 (with space). Buy one for a friend and help get the message out to Let Women Lead!

Is There Room at the Table? A Review and Reflection (15 Years Later)

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 18:31:58 GMT

Reflecting on How Much Has Changed in Pentecostal Scholarship Over the Last 15 Years

Someone recently asked in a Facebook group if anyone had read the book Thinking in Tongues by James Smith.

I had, and so chimed in, and it got me thinking about this review I wrote "way back" in 2010.

It's been 15 years since the book and that review came out. It's amazing to reflect on how far Pentecostal scholarship has come in the last 15 years, with hundreds of academic titles released in dozens of special series by publishers, all dedicated to Pentecostal scholarship (including my own book as a part of T&T Clark's Systematic Pentecostal and Charismatic Theology series ).

But Smith's book was one of the first I remember as a young scholar as a part of a series, the Pentecostal Manifestos series launched by Eerdmans in 2010. The first few volumes included titans of Pentecostal scholarship such as Frank Macchia, Wolfgang Vondey, and Amos Yong. I remember feeling proud of the "mainstream" exposure Pentecostal scholarship was getting, and it encouraged me to write the review below for a student magazine where I was studying at the time.

Since the magazine that published my original review is no longer in print or available online, I thought I'd "reprint" it here on the blog (although it has been available on my Academia page for a while).

So, on the 15th anniversary of the book and that review, here it is, without edit from it's original wording in 2010 (so you may hear the voice of a much younger Joseph!).

* * * * *

Is There Room at the Table?: A Review and Reflection.

By Joseph Dutko

Smith, James K. A. Thinking in Tongues: Pentecostal Contributions to Christian Philosophy . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010. 155 pages.

James K. A. Smith’s new book Thinking in Tongues is the inaugural volume of the Pentecostal Manifestos series, edited by Smith along with Amos Yong. Smith, associate professor of philosophy at Calvin College and a visiting professor to Regent this past summer, seeks to give an “articulation of the elements of a distinctly Pentecostal philosophy” and explain “what that Pentecostal philosophy has to offer broader conversations” (xiii, xv). Therefore, Smith doesn’t aim to articulate a sectarian philosophy for Pentecostals only but is interested in making a Pentecostal contribution to Christian philosophy (xviii); he hopes that Pentecostals “can take a seat at the wider philosophical table” (151).

Chapter one lays the groundwork for the very idea of a Pentecostal philosophy, while chapter two unpacks the elements of a Pentecostal worldview. These discussions set up the philosophical implications of a Pentecostal worldview in relation to epistemology (chapter 3) and ontology (chapter 4). Chapters five and six then argue that Pentecostal spirituality and identity (especially glossolalia, or “speaking in tongues”) challenge, critique, and contribute to the dominant paradigms in philosophy of religion and philosophy of language.

Et Cetera asked me to not only give a brief review of this book, but also share some of my own reflections on being a (hopeful) Pentecostal scholar. As Pentecostalism enters its second century and second generation of serious scholars, it’s exciting to see a book and a series like this one by a scholar like Smith, who describes himself as a philosopher with a “Pentecostal imagination.” I can sympathize with Smith’s experiences of telling other scholars he is a Pentecostal, as opposed to others in the academic world who were once Pentecostals but (of course) abandoned that kind of Christianity when they became “serious” scholars. Smith speaks of the apparently “scandalous idea that Pentecostals can be thinkers” (xii).

In my graduate program in religious studies, I remember a class in which the professor went around the room and asked all of us what our tentative topics were for our master’s theses. My friend, the only other Pentecostal in the program, announced that he was writing on Pentecostal intellectuals. The professor quickly scoffed and made some sort of joke about it probably being a short thesis and that he might have trouble finding much to write about. Even here at Regent (where I only audit one course a term, but my wife is a full-time student), I have been surprised by the lack of knowledge and misconceptions about Pentecostalism by students and even by faculty on occasion. One professor (and I’m quite sure I’m not taking this out of context in any way) actually spoke of modern Pentecostalism as a fringe group. Of course the truth is that there are approximately half a billion Pentecostal/charismatic Christians (one quarter of all Christians worldwide), and tongues-speaking Pentecostals are the second largest family of Christians in the world behind Catholics. That’s not much a fringe group. In his course last term on the globalizing of evangelicalism, Don Lewis said (and he’s joined by others on this) that “in fifty years, Pentecostalism will be regarded as the most important religious movement of the twentieth century.” Martin Marty says that Pentecostalism has had a greater impact on Christianity than the Reformation. This impact has spilled over into the academic world with the Society for Pentecostal Studies and several academic journals dedicated to Pentecostal studies and theology. Despite its admittedly anti-intellectual past, Pentecostals are beginning to find a place at the academic table.

Pentecostalism is and has been transforming global Christianity, so we should expect it to influence Christian (and even non-Christian) scholarship. This is why a book and a series like this one is important. Smith’s work exemplifies the shift from an “in-house” mentality in Pentecostal scholarship—Pentecostal scholars focusing on Pentecostal issues for fellow Pentecostals—to a more outward and engaging scholarship that brings the Pentecostal worldview to issues that are not strictly Pentecostal. (For example, Smith says that philosophers of language, even Christian philosophers, rarely consider the theoretical implications of glossolalia in their work). Smith suggests that Pentecostal scholarship “is not just ‘evangelical’ scholarship + a pneumatology, but that there is a unique ‘genius’ implicit in Pentecostal spirituality that should yield a distinct and integral philosophy” (xiii). Hopefully books like this will inform non-Pentecostal scholars who may be unaware of Pentecostal scholarship and those who have overlooked Pentecostal ideas, spirituality, and identity in their works of scholarship. So we might be a little late, but please save us a place at the table.

What's Coming in 2025

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 23:40:34 GMT

Exciting News for The Gender Paradox and more in 2025

Almost exactly one year ago The Pentecostal Gender Paradox was released . A lot has happened over the last year with the book, including:

Excerpts from each chapter released
A surprisingly well-attended and watched book launch
Features of the book in newspapers , magazines , blogs , leadership sites , and more
Solid sales that have led to the upcoming release of a paperback version
And of course plenty of blog posts engaging examples of the gender paradox in church life, including this popular post

But There's Much More to Come in 2025!

Such as . . .

1. The Aforementioned Release of an Affordable Paperback!

This will bring the cost of the book down significantly and make it more widely available to readers. The book will sell for about $35 USD or $50 CAD, or as low as $25 USD / $35 CAD for website readers if you pre-order here and use code GLR AQ4 (with space). A great use of that extra Christmas gift money or Amazon gift card you've received :)

The paperback is set for release in late May or early June.

2. A Forthcoming Review of the Book in Faith Today Magazine

Canada's main Christian magazine will have a review out later this year! Other possible reviews are also in the works.

3. A Book Panel Discussion at the Society for Pentecostal Studies conference in March

My book, along with Linda Ambrose's new book on Bernice Gerard , will be discussed by panelists Kimberly Alexander, Cheryl Johns, Susan Tam, and David Wells.

The panel is entitled:

“Faith and Feminism: Contradictory Convictions, Oxymoronic Opinions, and Paradoxical Practices in Pentecostalism.” A Book Panel Discussion of Linda Ambrose’s Pentecostal Preacher Woman: The Faith and Feminism of Bernice Gerard and Joseph Lee Dutko’s The Pentecostal Gender Paradox: Eschatology and the Search for Equality .

4. A Chapter in an Important New Book Out This Year

I'm pleased to announce my chapter “Going Mainstream(ing): Pentecostalism and the Gender Dimensions of Displacement” in the forthcoming Wipf & Stock book I Was a Stranger and You Took Me In: Pentecostal Responses to the Refugee Crisis , edited by Lois E. Olena.

More details to come once an official release date is announced. The chapter will also be available in some form for free download later in the year. Subscribe to my e-newsletter to get the latest updates.

5. Lastly, I hope to announce some other exciting news by the end of 2025!

I hope readers will enjoy it!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and thanks for reading and all your support in 2024. And please check back in 2025!

Addressing the Pastoral Shortage (Part 2): 3 Statements for Future Leaders

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 03:48:28 GMT

We Need to Be Honest About the Sacrificial Call to Dedicate One's Life to the Church

(Read Part 1 on 3 Steps Churches Can Take in addressing the current and potential future pastoral shortage).

In order to both call people into ministry and get them to stay in ministry, there has to be a deep willingness to surrender "rights," sacrifice comforts, and above all cultivate a servant attitude.

If we're not honest with future ministry leaders about what it takes to survive in ministry, and we're not intentionally building leaders with the required character, then the predicted pastoral shortage will become a reality quite soon.

* * * * *

I’m getting to the point in my ministry where I’m starting to think a little less about my future and what is God’s call for me , and a little more about the future of the church, future leaders, and the call to give one’s life for the gospel.

That’s not because I’m old or done. I’m more energized than ever in ministry, and I still feel like I’m just getting started. But at the same time I’ve now been in church ministry for over 20 years, with the last 10 spent in a lead pastor role.

I’ve entered my early 40s (still young, I know!), but I can’t help but start to think more and more about future leaders, about someone being ready and available to someday take my place at our church.

And that's why I'm concerned that fewer and fewer people are hearing or heeding the call of God to give their lives to full-time vocational church ministry or missions.

As many as 600 pastors per year will be needed in the Canadian church over the next 12 years in order to replace those retiring.

Already we’re seeing unusually large numbers of pastoral vacancies and that vacancies are taking longer to fill than ever.

My wife and Co-Lead Pastor knows this well. In her role on a leadership team that cares for our network of 200+ churches across BC & Yukon, they frequently lament the amount of churches in BC that have been without a pastor for years, resulting in decline in both numbers and influence in their communities.

In my next post (part 3) I'll tell the story of our church, which was one of those churches.

But whereas the last post was a bit more of practical action steps, here I want to focus on the spiritual aspect of the shortage.

What we often find is young leaders are quickly disillusioned and disappointed after their first few years of ministry and are therefore leaving for other jobs. I know dozens of stories that reflect this reality, and the statistics back it up.

There are things churches can do to help , but there also needs to be spiritual preparation and realistic expectations for these leaders.

Ministry is really really hard.

Yes, I know lots of jobs are hard and have low retention rates. But there is something significant about the heart-work of giving one's life to the church, pouring out one's soul to and for others, and the hurt and disappointment that can come when things don't go well.

So we need to better prepare leaders for the realities of church leadership. Christian leadership is not meant to be glamorous. It's not self-made and not about status (1 Cor 4:6-10), but rather it's modeled after the humble service and sacrifice of Christ (1 Cor 4:1-2, 11-13). If that is not the model and motivation, leaders will not last.

If we are to address the shortage of Christian ministry leaders, it’s going to take a certain kind of intensity and dedication to the call.

Here's 3 statements from Paul in 1 Corinthians 9 that represent the leader's necessary call to surrender, sacrifice, and serve.

1) “put up with anything” (9:12): The Call to SURRENDER

Paul says “we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ” (9:12). In other words, and as much of 1 Corinthians communicates, Paul's personal preferences, wants, or needs take a back seat to the call to the gospel.

Unfortunately, I know of many leaders or pastors who leave the church when they're faced with the reality of lack of resources, long hours and low pay, and begin to realize that their pastoral life will not lead to a "big-time" platform with lots of notoriety.

Most pastors do their work in relative obscurity. Pastoring in most contexts is a pretty lonely job.

Future leaders need to have the attitude that they are willing to "put up with anything" for the sake of the gospel so that they don't give up.

2) "I would rather die" (9:15): The Call to SACRIFICE

Paul says “I would rather die” than let the gospel be misrepresented.

Paul wasn’t just using hyperbole here, he lived this. Earlier in 1 Corinthians 4:11-13 he gives the job description for Christian ministry:

The Job Description for Christian Ministry

¹¹ To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. ¹² We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; ¹³ when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

It’s why 1 Corinthians makes so much sense as a teaching tool for future leaders. In 1 Corinthians Paul is contrasting himself to Corinthian church leaders who want the good life, the prestige, the honour, the money, and notoriety, and Paul tells them repeatedly throughout the letter, "here’s what true Christian ministry is like."

As I meditated on these descriptions in chapter 4, I realized that everything Paul says he’s gone through is modeled after Jesus’ earthly life.

I made this little table to show the point. Perhaps church's could put it in church job descriptions, or Bible College's could slip it into diplomas at graduation!

Like Jesus, pastors often need to put to death things in our lives like a wealthy lifestyle, having material comforts, being financially secure, having to get the last word, returning harsh words with hard words, building ourselves up as something or someone important, etc. None of that matters when we follow the way of the cross and consider our call to serve others.

The resolve and willingness to sacrifice in these ways—which imitate Christ—would keep a lot more leaders in ministry for longer.

3) "slave to everyone" (9:19): The Call to SERVE

Of course the word here (δοῦλος) does not carry the modern connotation of slavery. Paul means—and it can be translated as—servant.

Paul's willing to be a servant to EVERYONE. It's easy to be a servant to the picture-perfect congregation a future pastor might have in their head: people we like and are easy to minister to, people who carry a similar vision for the church, people who treat us well, people with connections.

But that's not really who Paul has in mind here. In a paradoxical move, Paul uses his freedom in Christ (v. 19) to make himself free to be a servant to all, with no consideration for his personal preferences of whom he would like to serve.

* * * * *

Obviously my thoughts here are brief and I'm giving short thoughts on very complex leadership traits that require some nuance and disclaimers. But the point is if we're going to tackle the pastoral shortage crisis coming, it’s going to take people responding to the call to an intense, intentional lifestyle that is willing to surrender, sacrifice, and serve according to the vision of the New Testament.

Read Part 1

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Addressing the Pastoral Shortage (Part 1): 3 Things the Church Can Do

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 19:50:57 GMT

Fewer and fewer people are hearing or heeding the call to give their lives to full-time vocational church ministry or missions.

Yes, I know, we are ALL called to a life of ministry and we can all be ministers in our daily life and the situations God has called us to be in.

There’s been a massive emphasis over the last few decades, which has been extremely healthy, about understanding that all of life is worship, all our vocations are sacred to God, and we all have a ministry.

So yes, we want God calling people to be teachers, doctors, tradespeople, artists and artisans, public servants, politicians, stay-at-home parents, builders, engineers, academics, carpenters, care givers, hospitality workers, mechanics, and on we could go.

There is no sacred/secular divide , and we need Christians called and equipped in all of these sectors and vocations, and we’re all responsible to answer God’s call and whatever passions God has put on our heart and gifts God has given us.

I love teaching this idea and encouraging people in the work God has called them to and helping them see how their work can intersect with the heart of God and the kingdom of God.

However, as can often happen, the pendulum can swing too far in the other direction.

As we’ve emphasized the holiness and sacredness of all callings, we’ve maybe not emphasized or encouraged enough the specific call to give one’s life to God’s church in a formal, dedicated, vocational way.

The result is that we are facing a major pastoral shortage here in Canada , that if not solved, could result in the lack of gospel witness through the church in communities throughout Canada, and potentially even the closing of many churches, as has happened.

We’re seeing less and less people in Canada deciding to formally give their lives to the work of the gospel in a full-time, vocational way.

Bible schools are closing, enrollment is down, and young people are no longer even asking the question, “Is God calling me to a life in vocational ministry?”

In an article called “Waking up to the pastor shortage” Rick Hiemstra asks the question, "Why aren’t more young people going into pastoral ministry?" And he says:

“Declining social prestige and the cost of theological education are often mentioned.

What is less often mentioned is we seldom call young people into ministry anymore. This is a cultural change. Evangelical traditions historically have seen calling as coming from God through His Church, meaning churches had a role.

Now we tend to see your job . . . as something you discover for yourself . . . So we ask our children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” rather than “What might God be calling you to do?” And then he says:

“If society doesn’t suggest pastoral ministry, parents don’t and churches don’t, how do young people come around to discovering [the call to] pastoral ministry?”

So what can we do? Let me suggest . . .

3 Things Churches Can Do to Fix the Pastoral Shortage

1. We create healthy environments for future leaders to be called and sent out

Part of the reason fewer young people are going into vocational ministry is because they’ve watched spiritual leaders get beat up, burned out, and stressed out, all for very little money, and they say, “If that’s ministry, I don’t want that life.”

It’s not just that people aren’t entering the ministry that’s causing the shortage of spiritual leaders, but also that those that do answer the call aren’t lasting more than a few years.

Part of the reason I’m pastoring today is as a youth I was discipled in a very healthy, dynamic church where most of the pastors had been there for decades, and many of them are still there now 20 years later, because it’s a healthy environment.

And although I knew church ministry would be hard, and I saw how hard they worked, I also saw them treated well, develop true friendships with fellow staff and congregants, and embrace a calling they enjoyed living out.

Churches should make it hard for staff to want to leave!

I feel this way at my current church and I know other staff do as well.

We want to bring young people up in an environment where a life in pastoral ministry actually becomes an appealing consideration for them.

That doesn't mean pastoral ministry isn't very hard work (look for part 2 or 3 of this series for more on that), but a healthy and supportive environment of current leaders will result in more potential future leaders.

People, especially young people, need to see women and men joyfully giving their lives to the local church and asking, “I wonder if I might be called to do that?”

Second,

2. We financially invest

That church I got saved and discipled in put heavy investment in its kids and youth programs, including staffing, as well as offering programs and internships for young people to discover their calling.

Financial health in the church will create more opportunities for people to find places to use their ministry gifts and therefore consider a life-long calling in church work.

The rising cost in housing has been mentioned as one of the reasons for the pastoral shortage in Canada, so we need to make sure future pastors can realistically make a living doing what they’re called to do.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly,

3. We make space for people to consider and respond to God’s calling

The way I got called into ministry was during corporate times of being in God’s presence and being encouraged to seek God and ask God “what do you want from my life? I’ll do whatever you ask.” So many times I was challenged to "surrender all to God" as a youth.

We need to create opportunities for people to hear from God.

What was key for me was not just feeling called but then having people around me, including spiritual leaders, affirm and confirm that to me, saying “I sense God calling you to a life of ministry, to dedicated service to the gospel.”

We need to make space for people to hear the call and say “I can’t possibly do anything else with my life than live for the sake of the gospel, nothing else will satisfy.”

Recently in a church service, with some fear and trepidation, I actually made a call for people to come forward who were feeling called by God into some form of vocational ministry. I thought maybe no one would come!

But in both services the front was filled with people willing to open their hearts to the possibility of God calling them in a more formal way.

There are more complexities to the shortage, I realize, some of which I'll try to cover in some future posts. But healthy church environments, financial investment, and creating opportunity and space for calling are initial steps any church can take.

SEE ALL CHURCH LEADERSHIP POSTS

A Prayer of Dedication for a New Church Space or Building

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:00:04 GMT

I Couldn't Find a Good Prayer, so Decided to Write My Own!

We recently did a major renovation and change to our sanctuary.

For our official dedication of the space to the Lord, I was looking for a good congregational prayer we could pray together to formally dedicate it.

But I couldn't find anything that fit or that felt quite right for our church; a lot of the prayers were either overly formal, used archaic language, felt "stuffy" (to use a theological term), or honestly were just a little weird!

So, after about 20 minutes of searching and reading, I just decided to write my own (except for the last stanza of 6 lines which is edited and adapted from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals ).

The prayer can all be said together or have one person lead and everyone respond with the bold text . Of course, the prayer could be used for other spaces as well, not just a church.

Feel free to use or arrange however you wish. Hope this helps the next person searching for a building dedication prayer!

PRAYER OF DEDICATION FOR OUR BUILDING & NEW SPACE

Almighty God,

we praise you for all you have done, are doing,

and will do in this space,

And we now declare this new space solely for your glory.

We dedicate this place; Come help us Lord!

In this place may God’s love be shared,

God’s will be found,

and may all who enter find true rest

and peace in Jesus.

We dedicate this place; Come help us Lord!

Within these walls,

may strangers be welcomed,

the lost be found,

crushed souls be consoled,

and the sounds of children always be embraced.

We dedicate this place; Come help us Lord!

Help us to remember that in this space

we gather in order to scatter,

we come in order to be sent,

and to bring your light, life, and love to the world.

We dedicate this place; Come help us Lord!

May God now bless this building from roof to floor,

from wall to wall,

from end to end,

from its foundation to its coverings

and may God’s Spirit alone

dwell within these spaces.

We dedicate this place; Come help us Lord!

In the Mighty Name of Jesus.

Amen.

5 Reasons to Preach 20 Minutes or Less

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 18:39:19 GMT

Are Your Sunday Messages Unnecessarily Long?

I'll start off by admitting I used to be on the other side of this "debate." I thought 15 minute sermons were a sign of a watered-down, seeker friendly, consumer-driven church that didn't take the Word seriously (young, idealistic Joseph!).

But over the years I've changed my mind and my approach. I now cringe a bit at my 45 minute (or longer!) messages from when I first started started regularly preaching Sunday mornings.

In an article from a few years ago , Mark Buchanan (who once regularly preached on Vancouver Island where I now reside) reflects on his many years of preaching. After nearly a decade away from a regular pulpit, he offers what corrections he would make if he could go back. And his first lesson learned is this:

"Many of my sermons were too long"

Mark Buchanan

Although he doesn't say it, his next three lessons learned also relate to preaching too long.

I agree with Buchanan and therefore offer here my own . . .

5 Reasons to Preach Shorter Sermons

1. Preaching is Not About Me

When I hear a 40 minute sermon, I can usually quickly identify 20 minutes of the message that were unnecessary and mostly about drawing attention to the speaker rather than Christ or the Word (think funny stories that are unrelated to the message or tangents that distract from the main point).

My first drafts of sermons are usually 35-40 minutes long because I tend to think I'm pretty important and have a lot of important things to say, neither of which are true!

When I then go through the editing process, most of the material that gets cut is stuff that really was more about me. Stories that would be fun to tell (but don't really add much), insights that show how smart I am but that no one will care about, or hobby horses that I like to talk about but aren't that relevant to the topic.

Forcing myself to a 20 minute message (which I often fail to do BTW, see below) eliminates a lot of the "me" from the message.

2. Make Time for Other Ways of Worship

This actually has a lot of connection with reason #1 above. Many preachers think their message is by far the most important part of a service or the most formational practice in the church. Sometimes it is, but certainly not always.

Preaching shorter messages allows time in the service to make room for other means of grace or ways God transforms people.

Music obviously is one (we've all been to a service where the music serves one main purpose: to get to the message!).

But here's a few other ways of worship that we practice and make time for at our church:

1) Times of listening. Almost every week we take time in our service to simply listen to what God might be saying. No prayers, no singing (but yes, soft instrumental music by the band like any good Pentecostal church!), just listening.

It's amazing what comes out of these times: people begin weeping, receive a Word from the Lord, feel the presence of God in a way they haven't before, or finally feel rest for their weary souls.

2) Make time to operate in the gifts of the Spirit . This is related to times of listening but not restricted to that. If you expect the spiritual gifts to be in operation, you have to be willing to make some time. I'll perhaps share more on how we do this in a future post, but feel free to contact me !

3) Hear from others in the congregation. We've done this in a number a ways over the years. We used to do live interviews on the platform with a member of the congregation, mostly featuring where they feel "God at Work" in their work and vocation.

We've now transitioned into video interviews called " Know Your Church."

4) Fellowship time. Truth is people stay longer after the service if your services are shorter. Like it or not, if you value those lobby connections and conversations, you'll preach a little shorter.

5) Response Time. Hearing the Word is only half the story of preaching. We must make time to respond to what the Spirit is saying through the text. Sometimes we post reflection questions on the screen after the message and leave time for people to journal, pray, read through the morning's Scripture again, and just respond in communion with the Spirit.

6) Lord's Supper. Related to the above, we almost always do Communion at the end of the service (after the preaching), and so want to leave space for unhurried time at the Table together.

7) SOAK time. Lastly, once a month we have our "Second Sunday Soak" which is an extended time of enjoying God's presence in worship, prayer, and reflection. To leave time for that (especially with multiple services), the message has to be short!

3. Simplify the Takeaway

As Buchanan says, "Many of my sermons were about too many things." Long messages tend to overwhelm people and make it hard to locate that "One Big Thing" you're trying to get across.

Shortening my messages forces me to ask the question "What do I want people to take away from this message?" and eliminates material that doesn't help answer that question.

4. Improve Your Delivery and Memorization

If you practice and rehearse your messages (and I hope you do), you'll know familiarizing yourself with 20 minutes of material is easier than 40!

A shorter message improves my delivery because I can memorize more of the material. This means I can often come off the platform (away from my manuscript) and connect more intimately with the congregation down close.

Leaving your notes and changing your location helps keep people more engaged (even if they still try to avoid eye contact with you!).

5. Save Energy and Mental Margin for Other Ministry

I'm being ultra practical here and this may not matter to some. But, if like me, you're majorly introverted and/or suffer from low energy or occasional exhaustion, shorter messages may help you be a better pastor (and last longer in ministry).

It's simply less energy expended (and perhaps wasted energy if you agree with point #1 above) that you can use to better care for people. If I preach shorter, I have a little more energy and margin to pray for people, chat in the lobby, write down notes after the service of people to follow up with, encourage staff, etc.

I wish I was full of energy!

I wish I was fully of energy. And I certainly pray for and do feel God's energy ( energeia ) working ( energeo ) in me mightily (Colossians 1:29). But susceptibility to depression, burnout, "crashing," or whatever you want to call it is my thorn in the flesh, and I have to be realistic about how much energy I can exert.

There are more reasons, but I don't want a post about shorter messages to be too long!

So now time for confession.

I don't always hit my goal of 18-20 minute messages. I do think sometimes that's okay. Occasionally you come to very complex topics or texts that truly do require a little more time.

Also, it's true that writing a short message is actually more work and takes longer than writing a long message.

I usually have way more material than I need. If I could leave it at 45 minutes, I'd finish my sermon way earlier in the week. Editing takes time and patience. Occasionally I just run out of time and energy and have to leave it at 23-25 minutes because there's other pressing things to do in the week.

But I believe for the most part shorter sermons are more beneficial for all involved.

"Should We Use AI to Write Sermons?"

"3 Questions to Ask About Our Preaching"

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Women in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 18:29:22 GMT

1 Corinthians 11:2-16 is known as one of the most confusing, complex, and hotly debated passages in all of Scripture.

Let's be honest, this text is a preacher’s worst nightmare. You have just a little bit of time to somehow explain and make sense of this convoluted passage as well as make practical application to people's lives.

Paul’s thoughts here are complicated, and there’s some unclear terminology, which is why Gordon Fee calls the whole passage “fraught with uncertainty.”

So we should approach this passage humbly. There’s a lot of mystery here. We don’t know exactly what caused Paul to address this subject matter, so the best approach is to focus on the big ideas and lasting significance of some of what Paul says here.

Focusing on the Big Picture

If we step back and look at the big picture (rather than expounding on the 12 possible meanings of the phrase “because of the angels” in v. 10!), then I think there are some profound and even prophetic teachings here, particularly with regard to women in the early church.

It should be obvious the practical application here is not about hairdos and head coverings, even if that was a big deal in Corinth, which is why Paul addressed it.

It's not that God has some preference for women or men to have short or long hair, it’s that some of these things could detract from the witness of the gospel in Corinth.

Paul's concern is making sure those within or outside the church are not caused to stumble (10:32), and the Corinthian church's apparel and appearance in their worship gatherings was apparently doing just that.

But Paul's hypersensitivity to how the church presents itself to the culture is what makes this passage so powerful and prophetic when it comes to women in the early church.

Some people completely miss the prophetic nature of the passage here, sometimes even interpreting it opposite of what I’m going to suggest.

The Meaning of "Head"

I’ll briefly go back to v. 3 because that’s where people get confused, where Paul says “But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”

A previous post on Ephesians 5 and a supplemental video to that already explained the most likely meaning of kephale , translated "head."

But a quick summary is that kephale here is related to ideas of "source" or "origin" rather than ideas of authority, leadership, or superiority. In contemporary language, think more "headwaters" than "head honcho."

There are a number of clues in this text (and others), including God being called the head of Christ (there is no hierarchy in the Trinity!), that tell us the meaning here can’t possibly be authority or leader over or superior.

Paul's Prophetic Message

But as is our purpose, I want to focus on the bigger idea here which is this: in the first century, women were widely considered to be inferior to men in almost every culture and place.

Furthermore, in both pagan and Jewish places of worship women were completely excluded from public worship and relegated to silence and quite often an entire separate section or even balcony as observers, treated as second class.

So it speaks VOLUMES that in a passage where Paul is clearly worried about the church not embarrassing itself, about not doing things that would be a distraction according to the surrounding customs and culture, that he promotes the equal public ministry of women in church gatherings.

For someone who has been teaching the Corinthians “do not cause anyone to stumble” (10:32) when it comes to grey/neutral areas of practice or behaviour, for someone who’s worried about what certain hair styles might communicate to non-believers, it’s downright scandalous and extremely telling that when it comes to gender equality in the church--an unpopular view in the first century to both Jews and Greeks--that Paul very much accepts and assumes that women will pray and prophesy and play a prominent role in public worship gatherings.

"Paul assumes that women will play a prominent role in public worship gatherings"

His concern is just about whether head or hair is covered/uncovered or short/long.

And Paul even dismantles the normal hierarchy and authority structures of the day when he says in vv. 10-12:

¹⁰ It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority ( exousia ) over her own head, because of the angels. ¹¹ Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹² For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.

Paul says the first woman came from a man, but that doesn’t give men any advantage or superiority because after that, all men were born of women!

Neither sex can claim authority or superiority over the other.

So Paul’s advice was simultaneously pragmatic and prophetic here.

In v. 10, Paul conceded women have the freedom to do whatever they want with their head and hair, but as has been his advice throughout the whole letter, he’s advising that we make our decisions out of love for others. Therefore, covering the head/hair is probably best in light of what it represents in Corinth (possibly prostitution).

Don't Overlook the Obvious!

But don’t overlook the obvious here that Paul was expecting women to be equally ministering in public!

In fact, in vv. 4-7 about proper attire or fashion in speaking in public worship, by word count (in the Greek) he actually spends slightly more words addressing women than men. If women weren’t supposed to be leading in the public worship gathering, as some still believe today, then Paul wouldn’t waste his time telling them how they should do it!

If women weren’t supposed to be leading in the public worship gathering, then Paul wouldn’t waste his time telling them how they should do it!

Paul’s consistent advice in 1 Corinthians is that there is no place for feelings of superiority in the Kingdom of God: whether men over women, free over slave, Jew over Greek, rich over poor, abled over disabled, and so on.

All attitudes of hierarchy and superiority have no place on the level ground of God’s egalitarian kingdom, and we should be expending our energy and effort to make that eschatological vision an earthly reality.

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50th Post: Highlights From the Past Year

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 19:26:05 GMT

Site Improvements and What to Look For This Fall

This site, mostly launched in preparation for the release of The Pentecostal Gender Paradox , is now just over a year old, and this is its 50th post!

Over the last year I've released chapter excerpts , book launch highlights , resources for church leaders , and a few posts that received wider attention such as this one .

As the blog library is built up, it was time to better organize for easier navigation. Two main improvements have been made:

1) The main blog page , which contains the most recent posts, now has the ability to load all posts from all categories (in chronological order). After seeing the 15 most recent posts, which load automatically, simply press "Load More Posts" to load another 15.

2) The five main categories (church leadership, theology, writing & education, personal & devotional, gender paradox) can now easily be separately viewed or filtered by clicking the name of the category at the top of the blog page .

So if you only want to view church leadership posts , you can easily do so.

Several other changes and improvements have been made, so go ahead and look around !

Coming in the Fall and Winter, I look forward to sharing more posts, including on preaching, leadership, and more gender paradox thoughts in lead up to the release of the paperback version in May!

Plus, look for more info soon on the release of a new publication in early 2025.

Thanks for reading, sharing, and supporting as we work together to build a more egalitarian church! Please stop by frequently!

Ministering in a Post-Christian Context

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 22:12:48 GMT

3 Stories that Illustrate the Challenge and Opportunity

According to the most recent census , the metropolitan area near our church is the least religious area in all of Canada. And our Province of British Columbia, as it has been, is considered the least religiously affiliated Province in Canada.

I minister in perhaps the least religious place in North America

Because of this, often the next generation’s exposure to the Christian gospel has been next to nothing. Here's just a few recent stories that illustrate the point:

1. "Tea-ology?"

While on a plane recently to Atlanta to present at a conference, I sat next to a young Asian Canadian with a PhD in beef engineering, who was also on her way to a conference on beef (and you thought theological conferences might be boring!).

She was a graduate of a fairly prestigious Canadian university, well-educated, and was working as a research fellow now at this university. In other words, she was quite smart!

As we were talking, she learned that I also have a PhD, and of course she asked in what, and I responded Theology.

She looked at me kind of blankly and repeated back to me “Tea-ology, like tea?”

So I clarified “theo-logy” assuming she just misheard me, but it quickly became apparent that she had no idea what I was talking about. I actually had to explain to this PhD what theology was. She seemed surprised that one could even get a PhD in such a thing (I guess I feel the same way about beef engineering!).

That’s certainly not the first time I’ve had to explain what theology is to someone; it actually happens fairly frequent.

2. "The Plus Sign"

A fellow pastor recently had a neighbour over for dinner. While sitting on the back deck the pastor pointed to his church, which can be seen in the distance, particularly the cross on top.

The pastor told the neighbour, "that building over there is the church I go to" and the neighbour responded, completely serious, "Oh, the one with the big plus sign on top? I always wondered what that building was.”

3. "What's the Bread For?"

A few months ago I was at the store picking up the communion bread as I often do on a Friday or Saturday before Communion Sunday. The store was out of unsliced bread, and so I asked the young university-aged woman in the bakery if they had any unsliced bread in the back.

She said they didn't, but told me about some other bread options. She could see I was really only interested in unsliced bread, and so, responding to my continued look of desperation, she finally asked "what do you need it unsliced for?"

I answered communion bread for church on Sunday, but she still looked puzzled. So I explained some more, "you know, the bread that's sometimes up front at a church for . . ." and attempted to explain the Lord's Supper to someone who apparently had never heard of such a thing.

5 Steps Toward a More Egalitarian Church

Fri, 12 Jul 2024 16:50:37 GMT

Don't Just Talk About Equality, Do Something!

Note: This post (slightly edited here) was first published as a special contribution to the Leadership Blog of the BCYD of the PAOC.

Some ways to move beyond debate about women in ministry and to start actually changing behaviours.

1. Attention Male Pastors: Read books, blogs, and commentaries by women!

It’s astounding how few books by women many male leaders have read. Take inventory of your library, especially your biblical commentaries and theological books. Does it represent an egalitarian church?

We have a policy at our church that when our preaching team teaches through a book of the Bible, at least one of our chosen commentaries must be by a woman.

Occasionally one is hard to find (as a result of the hurdles many women face in theological education), but there’s always at least The Women’s Bible Commentary , which every pastor should own.

The Pentecostal Gender Paradox includes citations of hundreds of articles, books, and biblical analysis by women.

2. Make Sure Women Regularly Preach

This sounds so obvious, but my experience (and research) demonstrates you can sit in many churches, including ones that are supposedly egalitarian, for years and never hear a women preach on a Sunday morning.

The best way to change the minds of your congregation about women in leadership is not to teach about it, it’s to let them experience the ministry of women, which benefits men and also encourages future women leaders because “If you can see her, you can be her.”

3. Regularly Preach About Women

Although #2 above is way more important, this matters too. I’m not just talking about preaching an apologetic for women in leadership (which should be done!), but featuring the women of the biblical text as well as in Christian history and the history of your specific tradition.

We do an annual “biography sermon” at our church and we’re sure to feature great women of the faith. Past messages include portraits of Zelma Argue , Aimee Semple-McPherson , and Julian of Norwich .

4. Include Women in Sacramental Acts (“Ordinances”)

When’s the last time you were led in communion by a woman? If you have to think, it’s been too long! Consider at least regularly having a woman and man co-lead the Lord’s Supper and having two people in the baptismal to baptize and perform the baptismal proclamations.

5. Require Equal Representation for Women at the Tables of Decision Making

This includes (but is not limited to) your pastoral staff and your Church Board or Council. In the 10 years of our Church Council, 8 have consisted of a majority female council, including all women at one point. We’ve also had several years where the majority of our pastoral staff were women. I always consider this one of the key factors in why our church has grown to 5x as many people over that time!

These are only 5 of the many ways we can move toward egalitarian churches. For more ideas and resources, visit The Gender Paradox Blog , read/preview the book , or contact me !

Church Staff Meetings: Outline, Best Practices, and Suggestions

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 19:12:38 GMT

The Weekly Staff Meeting Communicates a lot About Your Church's Values

When we accepted our first Lead Pastor position nearly 10 years ago, I had no idea how to run a staff meeting well (see suggestions below for how to prepare future leaders for this).

Some of my previous experiences were in slightly dysfunctional environments where staff meetings were often tense, and staff frequently left discouraged. I often needed to take a long walk after those meetings (to keep from resigning!).

Fortunately, when we started at our current church we didn't need to know how to lead meetings as the church was small and Hannah and I were the only staff; there wasn't even a receptionist or assistant. Therefore, those early "staff meetings" were me and Hannah brainstorming in our kitchen or living room!

But in subsequent years the church grew immensely and staff meetings have consisted of 4-7 people. So . . .

Here's 7 Best Practices or Suggestions for Church Staff Meetings (followed by a sample outline):

1. Begin in prayer and Scripture/devotional, but consider doing so separately.

Here's what I mean: you don't want your staff meetings to feel too long (see below). But if your devotional/prayer time takes 30 minutes around the meeting table, it's going to feel long; you're 30 minutes in and haven't even "started" the agenda.

At the same time, praying together as a team and sharing what the Lord is teaching/saying is essential, and you certainly want to go into staff meetings close to the Lord's heart and feeling encouraged.

So here's what we do: we separate our staff prayer time from the actual staff meeting by being together in the sanctuary for prayer for 30 minutes before our meeting.

The first 20 minutes or so are individual prayer as there's value in just being in there together, particularly in the space where we worship and lead people. Some people walk around, some lie on their face, some journal, some read, some cry and groan in the Spirit, whatever works!

Then we gather together in a circle for the final 10 minutes and pray with a particular focus or for particular needs, as well as for our meeting that day.

There's then a 5-10 minute break to do whatever you need before we gather at the staff table for the actual meeting.

Once a month we begin our staff meeting discussing a pre-assigned reading for professional development, either from a book or ministry website/magazine.

2. Rotate the Chair! (the person who leads the meeting)

The reason I had no idea how to lead a staff meeting is because I was never given a chance in my previous 10+ years on church staffs. The meetings were dominated by the Sr./Lead pastor.

A way to reflect an egalitarian church and shared leadership values is to rotate who leads the staff meetings. This gives everyone a sense of responsibility for preparing and for keeping the meeting moving along.

The person assigned to lead the meeting is also the person who leads the prayer time mentioned above.

How do you do this without adding extra administrative burden on yourself to organize who's leading?

We set up the rotation in our staff google calendar so that it's automated. For example, if you have 4 staff members you simply set up each person on an "every 4 weeks" recurring event on the day and time you meet as a staff.

That way no one needs to be reminded as it's always on the calendar.

3. Determine a definitive end time.

Staff need to know and have confidence that the meeting will end by a certain time so they can confidently plan the rest of their day, schedule other meetings, etc. (and not get too hungry!).

For example, we meet for prayer from 10-10:30, begin our staff meeting at 10:40, and have a set end time of 12:30.

We're usually done before then, but it's nice for staff not to have to panic that a meeting will go until 1pm when they have other things to do.

Having an end time will also keep you on task and disciplined, knowing you don't have unlimited time.

4. Not to too long but not too short.

Unnecessarily long meetings are the worst, but so are unnecessarily short meetings dominated by one person where no healthy discussions, dialogues, or even disagreements take place. Too short of a meeting may be a sign that staff don't feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions.

5. Only Discuss Agenda Items that Involve More Than Two People.

You've probably been in a meeting where a discussion breaks out between two people that has absolutely nothing to do with you or the entire team, and so perhaps you start answering some emails!

Most discussions for staff meetings should involve more than two people. If it's just between two staff members, they should meet together afterwards in order to keep the staff meeting moving along.

6. Use a Notes System to Avoid Lengthy Reports About People or Pastoral Care Issues.

Every Tuesday morning well before our staff meeting, all staff receive an electronic report where pastors have inputted all their updates and notes about what's happening in the lives of congregants so that we're all up to speed.

When a church gets beyond 100 or so people, it's simply not possible to discuss in a staff meeting all the pastoral care situations that need to be addressed. But a notes system still allows everyone to know what's going on and care well for people.

Your Church Managements System (ChMS) such as Planning Center or Elvanto/tithe.ly will have a built-in program for this.

7. Laugh as much as you can.

Some of our best moments together as a team have been in staff meetings!

If meetings are delayed by unnecessarily lengthy chatter, that's bad; if they're delayed by uncontrollable laughter, that's good!

Here's a sample outline:

Oceanside Weekly Staff Meeting Agenda

Devotional/Prayer (if no Tuesday Prayer)

(First Tuesday of the month book discussion)

Last Week Ministry Events/Sunday: Sunday, Kids/Youth, etc.

What went well (celebrations)?

W hat can we improve and issues arising (what didn’t work, what was missing or confusing)?

Staff (optional): One noteworthy report/news/update (Life

Groups, Family Ministry, etc.)

This Sunday/Week

Message (team brainstorming) & Scripture

Songs

Announcements

Segments

Media/Social Media (slides, videos, reels, e-news/website items)

Other Events This Week / Staff Schedules

People: Visitors/Newbies/Things to Know

New People/Connect Cards

Contact Assignments (this week and last)

People/Pastoral Care Issues (and People Missing)

Action Assignments (this week and last): cards, calls, visits, etc.

Facility/Setup Items & Issues

Other Items (New Business)

Calendar/Brainstorming/Thinking Ahead

Faith Goals & Long-Term Planning

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An "Easy" Solution to the Pastor Shortage

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 18:48:26 GMT

The Most Overlooked Answer to Empty Pulpits Is . . .

Over the years I've read countless articles about the upcoming pastor shortage. According to research, in order to replace retiring baby boomer pastors, North American churches will need to produce thousands of new pastors in the coming years (in Canada, an estimated 625 per year for the next 12 years according to this article ).

Where will these pastors come from, especially considering enrollment in Bible colleges and theological schools is declining and less young people are being encouraged to pursue a life in vocational ministry?

What amazes me every time I read these stories sounding the alarm of the upcoming pastoral crisis is no one mentions one of the most obvious solutions: empowering and encouraging more women pastors!

The shortage statistics particularly have to do with "lead" or "Sr." pastor roles, often solo pastorates. This is an area where women pastors are woefully underrepresented.

For example, in my own tradition (PAOC/AG), as of 2021, Assemblies of God women in the United States make up 27 percent of credential holders and 19 percent of ordained ministers. However, less than half a percent (0.49) of churches are led by a female pastor! (see The Pentecostal Gender Paradox Introduction Chapter (free preview) for more, and citation on page 10).

Thus, in attempting to solve this problem, most are overlooking half the population as a potential solution.

I say this is an "easy" solution in scare quotes, because in fact the work of overcoming male dominance and prejudice in this area is actually very hard work that takes effort and intentionality. I discuss some of the steps that can be taken here .

This solution will be especially hard in more conservative denominations that currently don't allow women in lead roles.

So if we truly care about the future of our churches, we'll do the hard work of identifying the easy solution to the shortage problem.

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Guest Post: Feeling "Hopeful" About The Gender Paradox

Fri, 31 May 2024 04:11:33 GMT

A Pastor Responds to Reading The Pentecostal Gender Paradox

I am excited to share another guest post on the gender paradox blog by welcoming Patti Miller and her thoughts on The Pentecostal Gender Paradox book launch and book.

Want to share your story, insights, or ideas related to the gender paradox? Submit a proposal here .

Note: These originally appeared as two separate posts on Patti's blog (go ahead and subscribe!) and are reproduced here with her permission. I don't personally know Patti, and her thoughts here were unsolicited, but we connected after she attended the online book launch and then read the book.

Part 1: The Book Launch

I had been invited to a book launch. It would be on the other side of the country in a different time zone, so it would be online and late at night. I’ve never been (nor wanted to attend) a book launch, and I’m not a night person, but this looked intriguing. An academic work, by a Pentecostal scholar, addressing the equality of women and men as a church-wide theological issue, not a secondary women’s issue.

The emotion was unexpected.

The author started sharing stories. I felt my stomach tighten. These were stories I knew, had heard so many times, from so many women. He made bold statements that made my heart pound in anxiety for him. After all, they were things I say in only the safest of places. He argued for a response that made me gasp in its breadth.

“He knows!” I thought. “He has listened. He sees. And he’s saying it right out loud.”

I cried - bawled - telling my husband about it the next morning. Waved my arms telling my colleagues about it at lunch, two of whom immediately went and watched it themselves.

I texted the link to ministry friends. One of them wrote back a few hours later:

“Watched the video. My heart is singing. Will buy the book, because any person who believes in me and my leadership that much deserves my money.”

Part 2: The Book

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a book . I finished reading it, finally. It took some time because it’s academic, and thus a slower read; but also because it’s a topic that impacts me personally, and I had to keep setting the book down to process my thoughts.

They were myriad, my thoughts.

I had determined that I would write something about Joseph Lee Dutko’s “The Pentecostal Gender Paradox” because I think it’s important. But when it came time, I couldn’t figure out what to say, in part because I couldn’t figure out who the intended readers should be. Academics? Fellow pastors? Those who disagree?

I texted a friend about it, and he asked me how I felt, now that I was done reading it.

I responded, “Hopeful”.

That response unlocked the words I wanted to say.

Next month, I will have been a pastor for 30 years. It took me several of those years to fully settle for myself that God had called me, a woman, to pastor; to believe that pastoring was not just a “Plan B,” kindly accommodated by God’s grace. During those years, I learned the various arguments and views, the questions of Greek translation and contextual uncertainties. I understood that intelligent people who love Jesus would come to a different conclusion than me; and I was ok with that. Nevertheless, I was confident and at peace that, ultimately, I was not wrong.

I have a rock on my desk that says, “not wrong”.

But all these years later, it’s a different world out there, and what used to be considered a secondary or even tertiary issue has become a primary one for some. The disagreements are often no longer gracious or nuanced, but reflect the polarization of so many other disagreements in our current climate. And it’s fine for me - 30 years in, I can handle myself - but my concern grows for those women who are young and/or new, and sometimes facing hostility I never had to face. My concern grows for my denomination, which needs pastors and leaders, female and male.

We need them.

So when I received the invitation to the book launch, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Was there something new to add to the conversation? There was indeed. From a Canadian Pentecostal pastor with a Ph.D., no less!

Simply put, Dutko reminds readers that Pentecostals are “last-days” people, always have been. Although we quote Joel 2 and Acts 2 every chance we get, it is not with a “back to the early church” mindset. It is with a “Jesus is coming back” mindset. We are future-oriented. We live for and point towards the day when Jesus returns, when all things are made right, when the “not-yet” becomes the “now”. We live prophetically as citizens of God’s kingdom, not in an attempt to “speed the day,” but in a determination to live now with the end in mind.

To live, as much as we possibly can, in a way that anticipates and celebrates how it all will be.

Dutko applies this eschatological framework of hope to gender equality. He does so unapologetically, unequivocally, with nothing held back. Like any good academic, he reviews history and existing literature; like any good academic, he builds his argument thoroughly, one piece at a time. However, unlike many academic works, his goes beyond theological conclusions, and drops a whole trailer-load of mics with practical applications for local churches as well as denominational structures. And then throws in a few massive global implications, just for fun.

And thus, I feel hopeful.

Jesus’ return, after all, is our hope, n’est-ce pas? Greek translations and contextual uncertainties aside, we aren’t aiming to be that first church in Corinth. (who are we kidding, they were a hot mess)

No. We’re living with the end in mind.

So.

If you’re an academic - Please consider adding or recommending The Pentecostal Gender Paradox to whatever library and curriculum is appropriate. It’s important.

If you’re a fellow Pentecostal pastor - Please consider watching the book launch video . You’ll get the overall idea, and then you can decide if the book is something you want to spend the money on. (I did. Immediately. When it was more expensive - even as an ebook - than it is now, I’m just saying.)

If you disagree - I mean, I doubt I’ll change your mind, and you definitely won’t change mine. Let’s co-exist with gracious kindness, shall we?

Even so, come Lord Jesus.

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Should We Use AI to Write Sermons?

Thu, 23 May 2024 17:52:00 GMT

Is the perceived benefit worth the cost?

Lately I’ve become more aware that a lot of preachers are using AI to craft their sermons, whether it be entire messages that they then edit, or inputting their initial draft or points to find different ways to say things. As is often the case, we are quick to adopt new technology without reflecting on the consequences or impact on our souls or the souls of others ( but thankfully some have been writing on AI’s implications for soul formation ) .

In a lot of ways, this dilemma is nothing new at all. Shortcuts to sermon writing have existed for decades. Pastors have been able to order or download entire sermon series complete with outlines, graphics, discussion questions, and more for a generation now. So, for those who have wanted to skip or short-circuit the sermon writing process, it’s not like it wasn’t possible before AI.

I’ve personally never done the above and I’ve yet to use AI (I don’t even know where to start!). Admittedly, I’m usually a late adopter (or non-adopter!) to new technology.

I know there are a lot of arguments for the positive uses of AI in sermon writing, the church, or in theological education. I of course reserve the right to be entirely wrong on this and change my mind later!

But for now, here’s our preaching team and church’s policy on AI: we will not use or consult AI in any way at any point in our message writing or sermon preparation .

We’ve yet to finalize it, but we plan to put something like the following short disclaimer on our website:

“Our messages are written with love and aided by the Holy Spirit, not with AI.”

Does it sound a little pretentious? Maybe, but I think it’s important for people to know.

Why are we taking this position?

Using AI to craft messages is a slippery slope toward less or even non dependence on people and the Spirit of God.

Preaching is a regular gift of love to offer to those in the congregation. As I struggle and labour through a text and writing a message, as I ask God to help me find the right points or applications, I feel more alive than doing almost anything else in life.

Some of my most profound encounters with God, where I’m forced to my knees or begin to weep before the Lord, have been through writing a message. Is saving some time using AI worth sacrificing that?

Furthermore, my love for the congregation is increased when I write messages, as I think about them and their lives while crafting points or making applications.

AI is unable to consider the context and relationships with people I have in the congregation.

My Biggest Concern

My biggest concern behind using AI for sermon prep is losing the love behind writing a message, where we begin to treat a sermon as simply something that needs to be done and finished rather than a labour of love and of worship to God.

Writing messages is very hard work, indeed an art form, but entering into the creative process of trying to bring order out of what often feels like chaos is a way we reflect the image of God and join the work of the Spirit (Genesis 1:2).

In an insightful article “How AI Short-Circuits Art” , Jared Boggess argues cutting out the creative process in art diminishes the final product for the artist (and, I would argue, those experiencing the art).

He provides this commentary:

“In his theologically charged cookbook The Supper of the Lamb , Robert Farrar Capon argues that any recipe involving shortcuts inevitably diminishes the flavors and textures of a dish. Think of canned potatoes versus fresh potatoes peeled by hand and boiled at home. Capon says, ‘Technique must be acquired, and, with technique, a love for the very processes of cooking. No artist can work simply for results; he [or she] must also like the work of getting them.’”

If we don’t like offering the gift of writing messages for our local congregation and would rather use AI to quicken the process, perhaps we’re in the wrong vocation.

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Why Are We Still Talking About Women's Equality in the Church?

Thu, 02 May 2024 19:02:36 GMT

Because There's Still a Long Way to Go

A common misunderstanding about women's equality in the church is that this is no longer worth talking about. We've already solved this issue, right? Almost every denomination, including my own (PAOC or AG) that is slightly egalitarian now ordains women, and on paper they are "allowed" to do anything men can do. So we're all good now, sexism has been defeated in the church!

Well, the reality is there is still a LONG way to go, and relaxing our pursuit of equality in the church would be a dangerous posture to take.

Once you're aware of male dominance in the church, you'll see it everywhere.

It's not that I want to keep talking about this subject, it's that unfortunately we have to. In a great recent article on Vancouver Pentecostal pastor Bernice Gerard , Linda Ambrose quotes Gerard's 1988 autobiography, written at a time when women's ordination was still somewhat debated in the PAOC. Gerard declared,

"I'm not belligerent on this subject. I'm bored, bored as a black person is bored with explaining what's wrong with apartheid."

And yet we must keep explaining, keep working toward a more egalitarian church. Here's just . . .

5 Reasons Why We Must Keep Talking About Women's Equality in the Church and Intentionally Empowering Women

1. One of the largest Assemblies of God churches in the US thought it was okay to partner with Mark Driscoll

I don't like to unnecessarily call out churches or pile on when they make mistakes. I'm a pastor, and I realize we can't ALWAYS get everything right. You can find all the YouTube videos about this but I won't post them here.

I also understand an apology has been made by James River Church .

But when I first saw the promo for this "STRONGER" men's conference a year ago, I assumed it had to be joke. Surely, a Pentecostal church would not associate with a known misogynist? People in the church, particularly the women, would never put up with that, right?

I've researched and written about this church and know a lot of people there, including some pastors, so even though I thought about posting about this when the promo first came out, I didn't. Not sure it would have made a difference anyway.

But the fact that this influential AG church promoted this event for a year and there was not enough outcry to stop it shows how far we have to go in creating an egalitarian church culture.

2. The right of women to preach and teach is still considered a small issue by some

Certainly my goal is never to divide complementarians and egalitarians in the church. But the reality is it is a major difference, even if some want to downplay it.

I appreciate this recent article in Christianity Today by Gordon Hugenberger to try to bring the two together, but I have trouble with this statement:

"Complementarians and egalitarians are not as divided as some think. Their main difference concerns only the very narrow issue of the right of women to teach and lead men within the church with what may be characterized as an intermediate level of authority."

Many men and women would not consider that a "narrow issue" or "secondary issue" as Hugenberger calls it later in the article. They ( as I do ) would consider it a gospel issue.

3. Male authors still dominate, even in Pentecostal scholarly circles

A recent article on the trends in the fifty-year history of the journal Pneuma showed that 85.8% of contributions to the journal were by men and that articles in Pneuma written by males were cited nearly twice as often.

4. Women are particularly underrepresented in biblical studies and Bible commentaries

One our staff policies is to make sure at least one commentary we're using in our current preaching series is by a woman. But, especially for some books of the Bible, it's surprising how hard it is to find one sometimes.

In our current series on 1 Corinthians, I looked over 30 commentaries on major sites such as Amazon and Christianbook.com and couldn't find one full commentary by a woman (our default is to always at least consult the one volume Women's Bible Commentary ).

This represents a lack of women in biblical studies. The same Pneuma article cited above showed that only 15 out of 105 (11%) biblical studies articles in the journal were by women.

5. The default thinking for Lead/Sr. pastors is still male

This week I read an article by a very prominent evangelical pastor, not openly associated with complementarianism, who still referred to the pastor as "he" in the entire article. Another recent book by a PAOC pastor about church ministry assumed the entire way through the book that we're talking about men when we talk about leading churches.

On the flip side, I was recently encouraged by hearing of a church praying for their pastoral search and repeatedly using "he or she" in their hopeful prayer of finding a new Lead Pastor!

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Gender Paradox (in the) News

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 20:56:05 GMT

How it's being used, what's being said, and upcoming events:

The Pentecostal Gender Paradox continues to receive attention in a variety of contexts.

Here's just 5 recent ways The Gender Paradox is in the news and making an impact:

1) Featured in the local newspaper where I pastor

2) Being taught and used at a Seminary in Ontario

(a student in the class who happened to know one of the pastors at our church sent this photo!)

3) One of many social media posts about the book

4) I've been invited to speak on the book's subject at a leadership conference in Saskatoon in October

More details TBA.

5) Lastly, due to solid sales of the book, the publisher has announced a paperback version will be released in May 2025!

But remember there are several ways to order the hardback at discounted prices .

3 Questions to Ask About Our Preaching

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 16:54:53 GMT

Keeping the Focus on Christ Crucified

As a part of our 1 Corinthians series at our church, I recently preached on how to test the testimony of teachers/preachers , out of 1 Cor 2:1-5. That message was more about how parishioners can assess the teachings they're hearing and receiving.

But how can pastors test their own messages? I've slightly edited portions of that 2 Cor 2:1-5 message to answer that question for pastors and teachers.

1. What is my message calling people to?

Just like the Corinthians and the eloquent orators and entertainers of the day, we’re often drawn to entertain people more than call them to a crucified life.

Much like in Corinth, people often listen to the loudest voices or hold strong allegiances to their favourite Christian personality. They subscribe to someone’s YouTube channel, and the messages are cunning and sound convincing, but there’s no real substance to them and there’s certainly no call to Christ crucified.

What are we calling people to? Outrage, anger, or arrogance? Or the humility of Jesus?

Are we entertaining people or challenging them to live more in line with a life that resembles Christ crucified?

When it becomes more about the person speaking than what they’re speaking about, the testimony about God is compromised (see 1 Corinthians 2:1).

2. What is attracting people to my preaching?

People in Corinth were attracted to messages that tickled their ears and to people that entertained them. And Paul was feeling like his message of Christ crucified that he brought in weakness and fear and trembling was being pushed aside because it didn’t have enough flair, wasn’t fancy enough, wasn’t delivered in the right way, didn’t excite people quite enough, didn’t get the same applause or as many "Amens!"

Jesus Christ and him crucified will never be a wildly popular message that wins over a bunch of crowds or goes viral on social media. And because of that Christians with agendas that aren’t centred on the cross will always try to make Christianity about something else in order to win over the crowds of people.

"Jesus Christ and him crucified will never be a wildly popular message that wins over a bunch of crowds or goes viral on social media."

Staying faithful to Jesus and him crucified may not attract large crowds or give you a "platform" online.

In Corinth, there were persuasive teachers who knew how to appeal to the masses but whose message was deceiving and put the spotlight on themselves, their agenda, rather than on Jesus and him crucified.

And that’s the ultimate test. Is this message or teaching putting the spotlight on Jesus or something or someone else (i.e., myself!)?

This is why I believe so strongly in the local church and its importance, otherwise we leave Christianity in the hands of entertainers and celebrities, the appeal to the masses.

But true and humble Christianity won’t always be trendy or flashy. We’re not here to perform for an audience, we are fellow parts of the body.

And one thing we’ve hopefully learned with the rise and fall of so many Christian leaders over the past decades is that Celebrity Christianity has not worked; it’s been a big failure.

This is one reason a preaching team model is so important if possible, so that one person’s status or even influence doesn’t get too elevated in a church.

I love it when someone’s been at our church for several months and they just think I’m the youth pastor who speaks every once in a while. I think that’s great!

The last way to test ourselves and what we’re preaching:

3. Are we giving people information or transformation?

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power."

Paul’s basically saying, “it’s not about saying all the right things in the right way, it’s about lives being transformed.”

So we might ask “is this message just entertaining others, giving them information in a way that keeps their attention, or is it calling them to a life of holiness and transformation?”

When do people get hurt in the church or led astray? When they put too much faith in a human being, one person, and Paul refuses to let that happen.

Something we often pray in pre-service prayer or talk about is that we don’t care if people come to our church and don’t remember the church’s name or our names as pastors. What we want them to remember is that this is a place they encountered the power of God.

Instead of people in your congregation asking “what did you think of the message?” or “what did you think of the service?” (which is more about the person speaking, the presentation, a consumer mentality), teach them to ask “what do you feel God is saying to you through today’s message or service?” or “where do you feel God working in your life?”

Instead of people asking "What did you think of the message" teach them to ask "What do you feel God is saying to you through today's message?"

You see how one question is more human-centred or passive and the other is more God-centred and active; one more just about information, the other about transformation.

We don’t want people to leave saying “what a great service" or "what a great message” we want people to leave saying “what a great God! What a wonderful Saviour!” where they might not remember who spoke, who led the music, but just that they encountered the living God.

Here’s our desire at Oceanside and what I hope and pray for, that if someone says to one of our parishioners, “Why do you go to church at Oceanside?” they don’t say “I love the preaching” or “I really like the music.” It’s okay if those things are true, but our goal is that they would say “I go there because I sense the presence of Jesus. I’m transformed there and so are others.”

WATCH THE ENTIRE MESSAGE:

Excerpt from Ch. 6: "Participating in the Eschaton"

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:08:48 GMT

An Excerpt from Chapter 6

Over the last few weeks I've been releasing short excerpts from each chapter of The Pentecostal Gender Paradox to give you a feel for the work. And this is the last one!

Remember you can read the entire Introduction here .

Want to purchase? Info and discounts HERE .

Excerpt from Chapter 6:

"Participating in the Eschaton :

Toward a Pentecostal Eschatological-Egalitarian Praxis"

Note: footnotes not included in excerpt

Pages 227-229:

From section 6.3 "Corporate Worship: Participating in Eschatological-Egalitarian Realities"

The primary context for Pentecostal formation and doctrinal reflection is worship, and positioning worship as eschatological formation is the starting point for reimagining gender praxis in the church. The day of Pentecost in Acts 2 provides the template for eschatological pre-enactment praxis in worship. Awakening the eschatological imagination—that we are in the “last days” (v. 17)—leads to a call to eschatological participation in practices that mark the last days, which includes equal voice and participation for “both men and women” (v. 18). Therefore, where the Spirit is being “poured out” (vv. 17, 18) in the context of the gathered worshipping church (v. 1), people are being eschatologically formed and transformed into the embodiment of the future new humanity. Discovering this future in the present is a communal activity in which the freedom is given to experience and then declare that “this is that” (v. 16) toward which the church is moving. In this way, the acts and activities of the church, and specifically egalitarian acts, become “prophetic signs” and “pointers” to the coming kingdom of God.

These prophetic actions often contradict the past as well as the present in favor of anticipatory practices that are a “reminder of God’s future” as the church becomes an eschatological symbol of the new creation. The seduction of

returning to the “old age” for those who have entered into the new eschatological life of the Spirit is a common New Testament theme and one relevant to discerning worship practices. Instead of thinking from the perspective of a previous time and attempting to re-enact those practices, Pentecostal worship fueled by the eschatological imagination thinks from the perspective of the end of time for practices in the present time. As Warrington observes, there has not been enough awareness in Pentecostalism of how the Spirit may desire to transform our world by bringing eschatological issues to reality prior to the eschaton. It is in worship that Pentecostal churches receive the foretaste of what is to come and imaginatively participate in the realities of the New Jerusalem, including the equality of the sexes. Worship is where believers are formed; it “rehumanizes us” and becomes an apprenticeship for the final day and a space where “the boundary between the present and future is breached.”

For early Pentecostals, each worship service was a “rehearsal and anticipation” of the kingdom to come. As Castelo argues, seeing themselves as the eschatological people of God has carried both potential and peril for Pentecostals. Early Pentecostals saw themselves as starting “anew” as the church and looked for evidence of this newness in the eschatological markers of the lame walking, the blind seeing, and daughters prophesying. However, seeing themselves as a (forward) “movement” rather than a “church” caused them to not reflect ecclesiologically on their practices.

As Pentecostal praxis became slowly detached from the eschatological imagination and its egalitarian impulses, patriarchal forms of worship and liturgy began to dominate and still do.

Vondey calls this the “doxological divide,” where “although women are allowed to speak, shout, testify, sing, preach, pray, and prophesy, their voices are not always heard” as men still hold all the positions of power and influence (reflected by the word “allowed”), which shapes the way worship is conducted.

The way most churches use liturgical language, tell stories, and perform sacramental acts in worship is “heavily colored by the male experience.” These practices within the worship service must be corrected and eschatologically reimagined in order to find congruence with the eschatological–egalitarian vision of the biblical text. Smith argues that worship shapes us primarily through the “intertwining of embodiment, imagination, and story.” We are transformed, he suggests, through narrative, imagination, and ritual, which form the foundation for our liturgical practices. Any account of worship formation must attend to these three areas, and in particular to the imagination. Therefore, the following sections suggest how eschatological convictions may correct and construct gender praxis in these three areas in the way we eschatologically imagine God through the language of worship, tell God’s story in a way that is gender-inclusive, and eschatologically embody God’s presence through sacramental activities.

HEAR JOSEPH READ FROM THE BOOK'S CONCLUSION HERE

Book Launch Highlights, Feedback, and More!

josephdutko@gmail.com (Joseph Dutko) — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 23:45:51 GMT

The Book Launch is in the Books!

We had a great (and somewhat surprising!) turnout, and people also joined live online from coast to coast across the US and Canada. Here's one comment from the livestream.

"This is Amazing . . . Incredible. What an Approach. Thank you for this."

In addition to explaining the story behind the book and the argument, I did two selected readings about why resolving the gender paradox is so important on a global scale and in the church.

And there was some great treats and conversation afterwards!

The launch presentation is available online and now includes chapters for easy navigation, so go ahead and browse through!

Video Chapters

00:00 - Introductory slides and endorsements

14:15 - Introduction of Joseph

17:22 - Joseph's Welcome & Opening Remarks

20:55 - Leanne McAlister of ZOE Network

22:11 - The Story Behind the Book (and stories of women's exclusion)

29:48 - The Book Introduction and Key Terms Defined

34:33 - Reading #:1 "Why the Problem (and a Solution) Matters"

42:58 - The Argument (Overview)

50:15 - Reading #2: Action Steps for Leaders & Concluding Thoughts

1:01:20 - Questions

1:27:33 - How to Buy the Book!

What Others Are Saying About the Book

Excerpt from Ch. 5: "Pre-Enacting the Promise"

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 00:03:55 GMT

An Excerpt from Chapter 5

Over the last few weeks I've been releasing short excerpts from each chapter of The Pentecostal Gender Paradox to give you a feel for the work.

Remember you can read the entire Introduction here .

Want to purchase? Info and discounts HERE .

Excerpt from Chapter 5:

"Pre-Enacting The Promise :

Solving the Gender Praxis Problem"

Note: footnotes not included in excerpt

Pages 191-92:

From section 5.4.1 "Pre-Enactment: Dialectical, Experiential, Experimental"

Pentecostal gender praxis as pre-enactment of biblical eschatological–egalitarian promises recognizes the dialectical (or circular) nature of the hermeneutical process. Pre-enacting eschatological promises is not the result of a linear progression from biblical interpretation to definitive practices; rather it is an integral part of an ongoing dialectical process between experiential praxis and biblical interpretation. That is why this and the following chapter are a continuation of the previous hermeneutical chapters and could just as easily precede as proceed them. The final chapters are not the application of a hermeneutic; they are the other half of the ongoing dialectic between a biblically inspired eschatological imagination and community participation in those eschatological realities, which aids the interpretive process. A linear hermeneutical model, common in many hermeneutics textbooks (even in Pentecostal schools), starts with arriving at the proper interpretation of a text and then moves toward applying it in practice as the final step. In this scenario, a study of the biblical text alone is enough to arrive at the meaning of the text; the resultant praxis does not factor into the interpretative process and in fact the hermeneutical task can be considered complete without the actual experience of practicing the text. This linear approach can be simplified as a “the-Bible-says-so” type of praxis where the goal is a re-enactment of what the readers interpret from the Bible.

Pentecostals historically and in contemporary scholarship place much more emphasis on the dialectical feature of praxis in biblical interpretation. Study of the biblical text alone is not enough. This is particularly true, argues Johns, when discussing the gender problem. As a Pentecostal woman reading the Scriptures, she laments: “I need more than ‘the right interpretation’ to save me from despair. . . . hermeneutics alone cannot save us.” Johns then creatively exhorts that we must move “beyond ‘what the text meant’ or ‘what the text means’ into the realm of ‘what new world is being created by the text’ and ‘how are women to be found in this new world’?” Interpretation of Scripture is influenced and validated by experience through praxis and vice versa in a dialectical encounter.

"devoid of practicing the biblical text, we will not understand the meaning of the text"

Pentecostal scholars argue that devoid of practicing the biblical text, we will not understand the meaning of the text, for the same Spirit who inspires the biblical message also inspires practices in line with the s/Spirit of that message. In his five elements of Pentecostal hermeneutics, Roger Stronstad uses experience as a sort of inclusio in the interpretive process, where the study of the text is preceded by experiential presuppositions and ends with experiential verification. Applied to eschatological praxis, the more the readers participate experientially—and experimentally—in the unfolding eschatological drama within the text, the more they can imagine and understand the full promises contained within the text. In this way, an eschatological Pentecostal praxis can be considered more experimental or even playful as it sheds light on the possible meaning of the text.

Book Launch Event

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 22:17:58 GMT

Join online or in person Wednesday, March 6

6:30pm PST / 9:30 EST

I'm excited to share some the story behind the book, why I think the topic matters so much, and do a few readings!

If you're not in the area, join via livestream and set a reminder at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOi131vf1WU

Please visit the FB event page for much more information and daily updates.

Hope to see you there in person or online!

READ CHAPTER EXCERPTS

Can a Woman Lead Your Men's Ministry?

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 18:50:08 GMT

How Our Men's Ministry Flourished Under Female Leadership

For years our men’s ministry struggled to gain any momentum or consistency. Whether or not you believe a men’s ministry is necessary in a church, the reality is there were men in our church who wanted to connect with other men in an intentional fashion and under the umbrella of the church.

The men saw the women in our church regularly running women’s events and their own outreaches and Bible studies and coveted some of the same opportunities for fellowship.

But we couldn’t find any consistent leadership for our men’s ministry. Sure, I oversaw a couple of men’s breakfasts or work days here and there, and they were nice but were sparsely attended. No one afterward was necessarily saying “this was awesome, we need more of this!”

None of the other male pastors or leaders on our staff seemed to have a vision or burden for the men’s ministry despite regularly hearing from men in our church that they desired spiritual connection.

"if your men’s ministry is struggling, perhaps it’s because you’re not considering all your potential leadership options"

The turning point was when one of our female pastors decided to take the lead. She felt a grace from the Lord to step out and at least temporarily lead the men’s ministry, and as she did so, we watched as the Lord equipped her and empowered her to lead and gave her vision for it.

She gathered a team of men, met with them, brainstormed with them, set dates for events, recruited volunteers, and got things going.

Previously our men’s events had about 15-20 men. Since a woman started leading, we’re regularly having over 50 men come out and expecting as many as 75 this weekend. We began hearing from men that these were some of the best men's events they've been to and that they wanted even more.

Eventually the men’s ministry leadership was delegated to a group of volunteer men who emerged as leaders under the guidance of initial female pastoral oversight and leadership, and they are now doing a great job.

A few takeaways and reflections:

1) I must give the men in our church a lot of credit, especially the eventual leadership group that emerged, who humbly submitted themselves to the leadership of a woman. Of course, ideally (and biblically) we know this should be the norm, but we also know it is not, and so I applaud the men of our church for being different . There were brainstorming meetings about men’s ministry where it was all men with the meeting led/chaired by a woman, and there never seemed to be an issue.

2) A woman leading our men’s ministry wasn’t intended to make a statement. We didn’t intentionally set out to do it to be different or make a point. It’s simply the way an egalitarian church should function , namely, the knowledge that God can call anyone regardless of gender to be the leader of any ministry.

3) There was never a sense that because a woman was leading the men’s ministry that it was because none of the men were “stepping up,” as if a woman leading is an unfortunate concession. This is a common complementarian view, which interprets women in leadership as a sign that men aren’t answering the call. The only reason we now have men mainly leading the ministry is that the female leadership did such a great job equipping and empowering them to lead , which is how the church should function according to Ephesians 4:11-13. The pastor’s job ultimately is to step aside and allow others to lead after equipping them to do so.

So, if your men’s ministry is struggling, perhaps it’s because you’re not considering all your potential leadership options.

What Do Women Church Leaders Need Most?

Q&A on Headship and Submission

VIEW ALL GENDER PARADOX POSTS

Excerpt from Ch. 4: "Imagining the Eschaton"

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 23:27:40 GMT

An Excerpt from Chapter 4

Over the next few weeks I'll be releasing short excerpts from each chapter of The Pentecostal Gender Paradox to give you a feel for the work.

Remember you can read the entire Introduction here .

Want to purchase? Info and discounts HERE .

Excerpt from Chapter 4:

"Imagining the Eschaton :

(Re)Constructing the Eschatological Authorizing Hermeneutic"

Note: footnotes not included in excerpt

Pages 147-48:

From the section on Genesis 1-2, particularly regarding its hermeneutical priority:

The hermeneutical priority of Genesis 1–2 is clear in its context. The original—and eventually redeemed—order of creation in the first two chapters of Genesis holds priority over the fallen order of Genesis 3. Therefore, Scriptures that are in the service of restoring the creation trajectory should be prioritized over ones that uphold the fallen order . . .

Jesus provides an example of reading from the vantage point of eschatological texts on gender , particularly Genesis 1–2, for solving gender questions. In his teaching about divorce in Matthew 19:1-12, Jesus sought to break the power men used over women in divorce practices, which demeaned and disadvantaged women in the first century. The Pharisees quote Scripture and assume its authority to defend the patriarchal practice of divorce (v. 7). However, Jesus uses the hermeneutical strategy that some texts offer a clearer picture of God’s intentions than others. He uses the eschatological passage of Genesis 1:27 to argue that “from the beginning it was not so” (vv. 4, 8). Jesus claims that more culturally specific commands were temporary concessions that had more to do with the hardness of (specifically men’s) hearts than with God’s ultimate vision for male-female relations (v. 8). Jesus’ respect for the equality of male and female (Gen. 1:27) and the protection of women supersedes other quotations from Scripture used to legitimate oppression and social practices that support male domination. Despite a scriptural “command” (v. 7) that justified postlapsarian concessions to human fallenness, Jesus’ ethics of male-female relationship is not predicated on such concessions, even if canonized. Rather, Jesus’ understanding of gender and prescribed practices was based on a prelapsarian eschatological understanding. Jesus encourages practices in the present world that are in line with the eschatological plan laid out “at the beginning” (v. 4).

Page 162:

From the section on Galatians 3:28, particularly regarding the "in Christ" and the influence of Jesus' actions toward women:

As eschatological prophet par excellence, Jesus’ actions on gender matter, and it is his ministry and its eschatological trajectory that allowed Paul to imagine that “in Christ” there is no distinction between male and female in authority, status, or privilege. Jesus never said “do this” in relation to women or gender dynamics. However, it would be hard to explain the sudden boldness of the New Testament writers on the role of women, including Paul’s egalitarian vision in Galatians 3:28, outside of Jesus’ behavior. It would be nearly impossible for the gospel writers or early Christians to understand fully the equal status of women Jesus was pointing to with his actions. As inaugurator of the new creation, Jesus set the eschatological trajectory of imagining a world of equality. He took measured, realistic steps against the gender expectations of his culture, leaving room for “much more” eschatological imagining of the full inbreaking of his kingdom (John 16:12-15). Therefore, as we read the Gospels with an eschatological imagination, we are invited into participatory action that is analogous but not necessarily identical to Jesus. The goal is not to replicate the practices of Jesus or the New Testament, but to imagine further their ultimate trajectory and put them into practice in a way that transforms human relationships to reflect God’s eschatological plans and purposes.

Excerpt from Ch. 3: "The Loss of Eschatology as Authorizing Hermeneutic"

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 20:07:03 GMT

An Excerpt from Chapter 3

Over the next few weeks I'll be releasing short excerpts from each chapter of The Pentecostal Gender Paradox to give you a feel for the work.

Remember you can read the entire Introduction here .

Want to purchase? Info and discounts HERE .

Excerpt from Chapter 3:

"The Loss of Eschatology as Authorizing Hermeneutic"

Note: footnotes not included in excerpt

Pages 118-119:

From 3.3.2 Hermeneutics: From Scripture-Centered to Spirit-Centered

The eschatological hermeneutic of imagination and participation I propose promotes faithfulness to the biblical text and an unrestricted egalitarian vision. Some feminist scholars have argued that the only way to achieve full equality for women is to abandon Scripture because egalitarianism is simply too different from the biblical world. On the other end of the spectrum, some complementarians claim the Scriptures become “uncomfortable territory” for those seeking a full egalitarian position. However, neither of these positions represents the approach of early Pentecostals. Early Pentecostals emphasized the authority of Scripture, so much so that Land claims they were “suspicious of anything which did not have direct biblical precedent,” and they believed “if it was not in Scripture, then it should not be enacted.” They were also unapologetically egalitarian, primarily due to how their experience of the Word (especially eschatological texts) as guided by the Spirit led them in new directions. The waning of women’s leadership in Pentecostalism had nothing to do with Pentecostals’ desire to take the Bible more seriously or to interpret it more accurately , but it had everything to do with the type (or lack) of hermeneutic they used to read the Scriptures.

The supposed competing traditions of taking the Bible seriously, on the one hand, and the Spirit’s empowerment of women, on the other, have kept Pentecostals stuck in a cycle of “scriptural ambiguity.” But, as Cox proclaims, “Wherever the original Pentecostal fire breaks through the flame-extinguishing literalist theology, women shine.” For Pentecostals, Scripture does not stand on its own, a statement that sounds more controversial than it really is. Pentecostal hermeneutics involves the interplay between the Sprit, the Word, and experience in community. This emerging consensus on an authentic Pentecostal hermeneutic is nothing new. It was the early Pentecostals’ experience of the Spirit through biblical texts that led them initially to embrace egalitarian practices in community. Land summarizes well this early Pentecostal hermeneutic.

Salvation history was an ongoing history of revelation. The Bible was a closed canon but revelation continued because God was not yet all in all. Nothing revealed would be unbiblical, but it was beyond the Bible because salvation history had progressed beyond the first century. All that the Spirit spoke was scriptural, but not all that he spoke was in the Bible. It was not the role of the Sprit only to repeat Scripture.

Early Pentecostals were not just “readers” or “interpreters” of the Bible but involved participants who engaged their imagination with the text and participated in community. The task now for Pentecostals, and for the rest of this work, is to retrieve the early eschatological hermeneutic that led to the initial egalitarian thrust of the movement and present and apply it in a more critical, contemporary form.

Excerpt from Ch. 2: "Women & Eschatology in the Early Pentecostal Movement""

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 19:20:28 GMT

An Excerpt from Chapter 2

Over the next few weeks I'll be releasing short excerpts from each chapter of The Pentecostal Gender Paradox to give you a feel for the work.

Remember you can read the entire Introduction here .

Want to purchase? Info and discounts HERE .

Excerpt from Chapter 2:

"Women & Eschatology in the Early Pentecostal Movement"

Note: footnotes not included in excerpt

Pages 79-80:

2.3.1 The Egalitarian Heart of the Movement

In their introduction to their edited volume Women in Pentecostal and Charismatic Ministry, Margaret English de Alminana and Lois Olena say the achievements of American Pentecostal women have been “overlooked, marginalized, or rejected” despite the fact that it was women “who launched and carried Pentecostalism” in the early years. This “androcentricity” of Pentecostal history has led to “testimonial injustice” and “epistemic violence” toward women. Their book is a corrective effort from a female-centric perspective to hear the “overlooked feminine majority” from past and present within the movement. In her well-received book on women in the Assemblies of God, Qualls argues that

constantly omitting women from the story of Pentecostal history reinforces the current ambiguity women consistently face regarding their roles in the church.

Pentecostal scholars wonder why, despite Pentecostals’ treasuring of their spiritual experiences and telling of stories, the stories of the “foremothers” of the Pentecostal faith have failed to find a central place in the telling and writing of the Pentecostal story. Just one example of this omission of women in popular Pentecostal literature is Keith Malcomson’s book Pentecostal Pioneers Remembered: British and Irish Pioneers of Pentecost. Malcomson features twenty-six “Pentecostal Pioneers,” only one of which is a woman (Eleanor Crisp), and the front cover is a black and white photo of fifteen men. A different example is that while most histories of the Azusa Street revival consider Seymour the most influential and central figure, much of the primary evidence suggests Lucy Farrow may have be just as instrumental in bringing about the revival. These kinds of works and images reinforce the faulty notion that the Pentecostal movement was and is a movement led and dominated by men. In their 2002 essay, Cerillo and Wacker lament the “paucity of scholarly work on women in the pentecostal and charismatic movements.” Although much progress has been made in the last twenty years, providing historical revision of patriarchal interpretations of the movement and the “naming” of women remains an important and necessary step for any work on gender . . .

..........................................................................

Pages 84-85:

It is widely agreed that eschatology was central to, and perhaps even the best way to understand and explain, the rapid growth of the early Pentecostal movement and its beliefs and practices. Pentecostal scholars describe eschatology as the integrating core, central theme, primary message, ultimate concern, most prominent feature, primary framework, hermeneutical key, and driving force of early Pentecostalism.

Eschatology “permeates” the pages of Apostolic Faith, often side by side or intermingled with stories of women.

Pentecostal scholars have argued that almost all experiences and expressions of early Pentecostal congregations were in anticipation of Christ’s soon return and were interpreted within that framework. Although Spirit baptism and tongues are sometimes considered the central component of early Pentecostalism, many argue eschatology was more important: the outpouring of the Spirit found its significance mainly as a sign of the “last days” and “latter rain,” fueling the eschatological urgency of the movement. . . .

In order to propose an eschatological argument for the equal role of women and equal access to leadership positions for women in Pentecostalism, it is important to show that both eschatological and egalitarian tendencies were foundational to the early heart of the movement. The brief sketch above and overall historical evidence presented in this chapter opens the door for the potential of an eschatological resolving of the Pentecostal gender paradox because it proves an eschatologically authorized egalitarianism is consistent with the early heart of the movement. What was lacking for early Pentecostals, and what eventually contributed to the decline of both the prominence of women and eschatology, was the development and articulation of a hermeneutic that reflected this early eschatological authorization of women leaders.

Excerpt from Ch. 1: "Eschatology: Enemy of Equality?"

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 20:22:06 GMT

An Excerpt from Chapter 1

Over the next few weeks I'll be releasing short excerpts from each chapter of The Pentecostal Gender Paradox to give you a feel for the work.

Remember you can read the entire Introduction here .

Want to purchase? Info and discounts HERE .

Excerpt from Chapter 1:

"Eschatology: Enemy of Equality"

Note: footnotes not included in excerpt

Pages 34-35:

The topography of literature begins with the antagonistic view because it presents the most significant challenge facing an eschatological argument for women’s equality. It also is likely the most dominant view within feminist theology due to the pioneering work of Rosemary Radford Ruether in feminist systematic theology. The antagonistic view treats any traditional eschatology that looks to a future existence as incompatible with and dialectically opposed to present egalitarian ideals, arguing that eschatology suppresses the message of equality. The antagonistic view proactively seeks to expose and denounce eschatology as a threat and distraction to egalitarian goals and therefore attempts to remove it from any theology that promotes the equality of women.

The history of eschatology being employed to support the oppression of women dates back to at least the second century and the Gospel of Thomas, which advises that

“every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."

This eschatological understanding that women must transcend or overcome their femaleness to become spiritually fit for the afterlife is popular in early mystic writings and among some eschatologically driven modern mystical groups. Several orthodox church fathers also utilized eschatology as a way to dismiss the equal status of women. Fourth-century church fathers Augustine of Hippo and Gregory of Nyssa were some of the first to propose an eschatologically oriented understanding of gender, proposing equality for women in heaven only through accepting their subordination on earth. This history of eschatology’s relationship to gender, albeit brief here, has caused many modern feminist theologians, most notably Ruether, to hold an antagonistic view toward eschatology’s relationship with women’s equality.

In her widely cited book Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology, first published in 1983, Ruether makes the first full-scale attempt at a feminist systematic theology. This work became the foundation that all future feminist theologies built on and a standard work that any Christian feminist argument must still engage. It is also the first feminist work to write explicitly on Christian eschatology. Because of that, what she says about eschatology—and the antagonistic position her work takes—matters greatly and has been influential in how feminist theologians have approached eschatology, hindering its use as a viable approach to the gender question.

..........................................................................

Page 49-50:

Cheryl Bridges Johns is one of the most prolific and consistent voices on women’s equality in Pentecostalism. One of her most influential articles marks the first Pentecostal attempt to make eschatology central in the quest for the full liberation and participation of women in church life. In “Pentecostal Spirituality and the Conscientization of Women,” Johns, heavily influenced by Moltmann as well as Walter Brueggemann’s prophetic imagination, argues that our understanding of the reality of the future is the template we should use to live now through the power of the Holy Spirit. As this happens, we are “actualizing” God’s future in the historical present which leads to the conscientization of women and the ability to live out their eschatological-ontological vocations now. Johns seeks to offer eschatologically based “tangible signs” and “symbols of hope” for this conscientization, “which announce, in the present, God’s future for women and men.” In order to do this, she looks at biblical precedents and historical antecedents for “liberating memories” of our “unattained future.”

Some of Johns’s approach to these eschatological symbols is discussed more fully in later chapters of my work, but important here is Johns’s solution for the realization of conscientization among women, namely, to read the Bible eschatologically and recapture the eschatological urgency of early Pentecostalism.

She draws a connection—one that is usually overlooked—between the waning of women in ministry with the waning of the eschatological edge of early Pentecostalism.

She closes by claiming “it is the task of pentecostals to interpret our present in light of God’s future” and that Pentecostal spirituality “marked by an eschatological vision” is what will lead to the present experience of women’s equality through what Johns calls conscientization. Although this article is by her own admission brief, it has opened the door for a more in-depth look at an eschatological perspective on gender in Pentecostalism, a door nudged open further twenty years later by Lisa P. Stephenson.

..........................................................................

Page 53:

We can conclude there is no work, Pentecostal or otherwise, that is entirely dedicated to the relationship of gender to eschatology (or vice versa) and that follows an eschatological framework consistently in a way that resolves the complexities of the gender question. The consequence of the current feminist antagonism or ambivalence toward eschatology is it implies a choice: one must choose between participation in the this-worldly feminist quest for equality or the otherworldly male-driven eschatological imagination, for they cannot work together. Some antagonist perspectives even go out of their way to criticize specifically Pentecostal eschatology as part of the problem. All these works determine that a robust eschatological hope cannot adequately address the varied present-day concerns of women in the church nor act as an authoritative method for solving a problem such as the Pentecostal gender paradox. What the remaining chapters argue is that Pentecostal eschatology surprisingly emerges out of this mostly antagonistic history as a valuable dialogue partner in the quest to implement egalitarian ideals in the church. An eschatological resolving of the Pentecostal gender problem may be the authoritative and authentically Pentecostal method needed to finally end the gender debate.

40 Songs at 40

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 22:23:12 GMT

My 40 Favorite Songs at Age 40

LISTEN HERE

At the end of 2022 I turned 40, part of a monumental year in my life where I had my first sabbatical after 7 years of leading our church , successfully defended my doctoral thesis (now a book ), went "home" to Pennsylvania in the summer for first time in a decade, graduated with my PhD (in England, with an added trip to London), celebrated 15 years of marriage , and then capped it off by turning 40.

That was a lot of journeys--vocational, educational, relational--coming to an end or full circle, or whatever you want to call it.

Anyway, nothing tells the soundtrack of our lives like, well, a soundtrack!

And so for my 40th, I decided to put together the soundtrack of my 40 favorite or most impactful/meaningful songs, and I'm finally getting around to sharing it here (just a few days before turning 41!).

I guess a warning is needed that I've been somewhat known for my eclectic or "strange" (I call it sophisticated and beautiful) taste in music and fondness for obscure artists and songs.

RELATED POST: MY FAVORITE 15 ALBUMS

People often ask what "genre" or description describes my music.

While you'll find several genres included in this list and labels are always difficult with music that isn't radio-friendly cookie-cutter, the best categories are likely: shoegaze, dream pop, slowcore, indie, noise pop, and soul.

Words of description would be: atmospheric, haunting, ethereal, melancholy, dark (but hopeful), spacey, dreamy, emotional . . . I think you get the point!

This is music best played in the dark late at night while lying on your back or driving alone down a dark highway.

In no particular order, as it would of course depend on time of year, time of day, my mood, and so many other factors.

Note: Rather than link every song or artist, I simply refer you to:

"40 Songs at 40 " S potify Playlist

Additional Note (added November 2025): Since creating the list, a few songs (#1, #2, #25, #32) are no longer available on Spotify, at least in some countries (including the first two that kicked off the playlist!). However, in those cases I have linked to the Bandcamp tracks directly below so that you can still listen:

1. "Humm" - The Violet Burning

The opening lyrics are the perfect start to this playlist:

"Turn out all the lights and let's begin / Switch on all the dark and let the music spin."

The full album, Drop Dead (appropriately released on Valentine's Day), was frequently blasted on road trips with my then-girlfriend-now-wife.

2. "Tracing Paper" - Monarch

I'll be tempted to say many times throughout this list "this is the best band you've never heard of," so I'll just say it now about Monarch! Brennan Strawn's vocals and music are tragically mostly unknown and hard to find.

3. "If I Could Build Castles" - GM & LN

From what is probably my favorite Gary Murray/LN album, and yet probably his most unknown record due to being self-released, unlike his Velvet Blue Music releases.

How can you not get chills when he croons, "And what are these hands for / If not the curve of your spine?"

4. "Trophies" - Luxury

If you don't know Lee Bozeman and his many musical outlets including Luxury, you're missing out. This song is about marriage. Awesome bassline.

5. "Oh Girl" - Raphael Saadiq

A more well-known artist (to some). A throwback soul sound.

6. "Felicity, Darling" - Ester Drang

To be played loud and in the dark to allow the sounds to swirl around you.

This song might best sum up my musical proclivities as it combines shoegaze with dream pop and contains moments of quiet simplicity as well as loud walls of sound.

The buildup at 6:00 is one of my favorite moments on any song ever.

7. "Pillars" - Sunny Day Real Estate

From the "pillars" of emo, SDRE. I've always preferred this live version.

8. "I Was Born in Omaha" - The Gloria Record

Sort of a weird one from a band I have no idea what happened to. But the album was a staple in my 5-Disc changer during late nights in my college dorm room.

9. "Made for Jesus" - John Mark Pantana & Olivia Dyer

Great combination of vocalists.

10. "California" - LN

One of the main reasons I've still never been to California is so I can sing along on this song with truthful emotion!

11. "Like Water On a Glass Table" - GLASWING

Side project of Aaron Marsh of Copeland fame. Somehow the music fits the title.

12. "River On Fire" - Adam Again

The late, great Gene Eugene at his best. The liner notes to Worldwide Favourites simply states: "Our finest song. I believe that it's one of the saddest songs ever."

You had me at "saddest songs ever"! It's about his marriage breakdown and divorce to Riki Michele, who amazingly sings vocals on the track - whoa.

13. "Kolnidur" - Jonsi

One of if not the best concerts I've ever been to.

14. "I Hope Your Heart Runs Empty" - NeverEnding White Lights

Daniel Victor of Windsor, Ontario is the sole person behind the songs of NWL, and is the classic definition of tortured artist (read the liner notes on this album!). Years and years poured into this project.

15. "The Starflyer 2000 Reprise" - Starflyer 59

So, the actual song I want here is called "Starflyer 2000" from the 1995 Art Core Volume One Tooth & Nail sampler. But needless to say it's not on Spotify and nearly impossible to find (not the only song this was the case for on my list!).

But luckily I have the original CD so I can at least play it for myself and hear the lush vocals of Leigh Bingham (now Nash) singing this. This version doesn't compare to that one, but is still good enough to be on this list.

The liner notes for this song on that sampler simply say: "Finally a sad song to fall in love with with your sweetheart."

16. "Point #1" - Chevelle

Maybe a bit of a surprise, but representative of my hard rock phase. Had a blast at this concert (before Chevelle was known, in a tiny room) and still have the guitar pick Pete Loeffler tossed out into the mosh, which he signed for me afterwards.

17. "Twilight Eyelight" - Denison Marrs

The ultimate "spacey" music about space from the band with the spacey name.

18. "John My Beloved" - Sufjan Stevens

Probably the most well-known artist on this list. Like everyone else I like to say (or whine) that "I liked him and had his albums way before he became big time!"

19. "The Love We Had (Stays On My Mind)" - The Dells

I had to have been the only kid in my high school regularly blasting The Dells, The Delfonics, The Dramatics (why do they all start with D?) and other soul ballad bands.

You'll still find me regularly singing/mouthing out loud the part "But early this mornin' . . ."!

20. "It's All in Vain" - Redeemed

One of the newest artists and songs on this list, but one I'm increasingly enjoying.

21. "Pope" - Copeland

Welcome to the dream world of Aaron Marsh. Can't believe I don't yet have a physical copy of this album (one of the few).

22. "The War on Women" - Luxury

A song about the loss of innocence, regrets, and the sins of one's youth. Bozeman's album notes (this one is a mini book and can be found in PDF if you look around) are always an interesting read.

23. "Drunkard's Prayer" - Over the Rhine

Beautifully played and sung at our wedding by Laura and Todd Gummerman (of Mutemath & 21 Pilots)

24. "Sweetness" - Damien Jurado, Richard Swift

Jurado and Swift put out a record together of old soul classics!? How can it not be amazing? RIP Richard Swift.

25. "Save Your" - Monarch

Everything about this song is gorgeous. Monarch's music is amazing and the up and down emotions of the lyrics match the music:

"Once more I drag my feet through your will . . . / All my life I've been afraid / Tell me I'll be safe / Lord arrive, I am here / Bring the tide, drown my fear / Take the weight I've held so long."

26. "Good Man" - Raphael Saadiq

Sort of a fun one.

27. "It's Not Enough" - The Modern Post

Ecclesiastes-inspired song that captures the heart of that book nicely. We actually did this song as a part of our Easter message and service theme ! Not your typical Easter "song special" :)

28. "Pearls" - Sade

Had to have a Sade song on this list. Was hard to choose.

29. "The Ocean Plays The Saddest Song" - LN

The title says it all.

30. "Untitled #2 - Fyrsta" - Sigur Ros

Was hard to pick one Sigur Ros song, but "untitled" seems fitting.

31. "Gold and Silver" - Stavesacre

The hard rockers produce a stunning psalm-like lament with hope. Love the line "I'm praying for my prayers." I much prefer this slightly stripped down version from 2001's Collective more than the original from '99's Speakeasy.

32. "Seamonster" - The Violet Burning

Inspired by Micah 7:19. Bet you never thought of Jesus as a "seamonster," but this is the kind of artful creativity missing from most mainstream CCM.

I prefer the version from the "Experiment in Vibe" album, but can't find it on Spotify, which means you get the "bonus track" album reprise at the end here since this is the last song on Demonstrates Plastic and Elastic .

I have a lot of Violet Burning stories from concerts (and once hosted them myself for a concert at our church), including singing the extremely dark psalm of lament "Low" with them on stage.

But at the end of one concert (at the legendary, now extinct, Club Laga in Pittsburgh) I shouted out a request for this song. Pritzl proceeded to go over to an old piano or possibly organ and beautifully and spontaneously played and sang this song, and then personally thanked me afterwards for requesting it.

33. "Keep Shining" - Shad

Canadian rapper offers refreshing tribute to women in protest of misogynistic rap.

34. "Next Time Around" - Starflyer 59

For a while you could only find this song on 7 inch single, which only added to its lore.

35. "This Women's Work" (Live) - Maxwell

Beautiful cover of Kate Bush song.

36. "Dear Sarah" - GM & LN

Obviously I could have filled this list with even more LN songs. If these lyrics and vocals don't haunt you . . .

37. "Jericho Road" - Damien Jurado

A song from the ever-prolific Jurado from what I and most consider the best musical stretch of his career (his Maraqopa Trilogy). Love Swift's BGVs.

38. "I Don't Want to Live (In A World of Infinite Keys)" - Ester Drang

Couldn't have said it better myself.

39. "For You" - Cool Hand Luke

If you saw these guys in concert during their peak in the late 90s/early 00s, you know these were some seriously intense indie rockers. Usually played with their backs to the crowd so as to focus on the music (and the Lord) and not entertain.

40. "Thank You" - My Spacecoaster

A fitting end to my life soundtrack (in its own obscure way), for in/at the end, what more can be said?

Gender Paradox Book is Out!

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 18:00:55 GMT

Hardback Released Today, December 14!

What People are Saying About the Book:

"One of the most definitive scriptural and theological arguments for shattering the so-called 'stained-glass ceiling'"

Dr. Amos Yong, Fuller Seminary

"a landmark for anyone studying gender issues"

Dr. Lisa Stephenson, Lee University

"This book promises to make a significant contribution to the field of Pentecostal studies as well as make a broader theological impact in the academy and the church.”

Dr. Daniela Augustine, University of Birmingham

Read full and more reviews

Where to Buy:

Amazon (USA)

Amazon (Canada)

Direct from Publisher (Bloomsbury) . *Currently Cheapest Option* and even cheaper if:

Use code GLR AQ4 (with space) at checkout for 35% off! USA or Canada

Almost anywhere you buy books online including Barnes & Noble and Indigo/Chapters

Keep Up with the Latest Gender Paradox News:

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Questions about the book or purchasing?

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"Why is Your Book So Expensive?"

Fri, 08 Dec 2023 01:12:14 GMT

Ever Wonder Why Some Academic Books are So Expensive?

Unfortunately, one of the first reactions to my book ( out in one week wherever books are sold!) is how expensive it is.

The current RRP is $160 CAD ($115 USD) for the hardback and $144 ($103 USD) for the e-book, prices I have no control over.

Before explaining (and justifying?) the cost, I would first point out discounts are almost always available. Right now the e-book is 30% off until Dec. 10 and the hardback price is almost always reduced if ordering direct from the publisher .

See also "How You Can Pay Less" below for helps and special discounts for blog/website readers!

However, it’s a fair reaction, especially in these tough financial times. Can we really justify $100 for a book when we’re struggling to afford basic necessities?

But I think it’s important to understand why these kinds of books (i.e., academic, peer-reviewed books with reputable publishers) are so expensive, and even offer an apologetic (that is, a defense) for the price. So, here are:

5 Reasons a Book (and hopefully my book!) May Be Worth the High Price:

1. The Target Audience Will Buy It

Although I hope it’s only true to an extent, as I believe anyone will benefit from the book, the reality is the main target audience for an academic book like this is, well, academics!

That doesn’t mean academics have a lot of extra money to burn (they don’t!), but it means the main purchasers are going to be libraries, places of research, students in graduate-level courses (as a required text if the author is lucky!), and scholars/professionals in the particular niche field the book is written, many of whom may have access to book allowances or departmental funds.

The publisher knows these places will purchase the book (perhaps even multiple copies) right away no matter the price, especially if from a trusted and respected publisher.

So it’s hard to blame them for attempting to recoup the costs during the initial release of the book while it’s more expensive (and usually only in hardback at first).

But what costs are there to recoup? Isn’t publishing a book as easy as paying Amazon a few dollars to bind and sell it?

2. You’re Paying for a Lot More than just the Final Material Product

Consider the process that a book like mine goes through:

5-10 years of research
Consultation of over 650 sources, many of which are bought with personal funds.
As this is a published version of a PhD thesis, it has gone through tremendous scrutiny, many revisions, and received feedback from experts in the field.
The publishing process took about a year as a written proposal and sample chapter has to first be approved by the series editors, who are sort of the guardians before the manuscript is even considered by the publisher. Then it must be peer-reviewed by and receive recommendation from one or more experts in the field before finally being sent for consideration to the publishers' editorial board, who also must accept the proposal.
After/if being accepted for publication, the book then goes through a detailed and time-consuming production stage. This includes a project manager, professional copy-editing, typesetting, a professional proof reader, multiple readings and revisions (I’m having some PTSD just writing this!), and a marketing plan.

The author is then responsible for creating an index (unless they pay for one), which is a painstaking process, and then also works with the publisher on securing endorsements.

In summary, it’s not like a manuscript is uploaded and then published quickly with no questions asked! And at the end of the day, all these people need to be paid for their work. And the truth is:

3. Sometimes You Get What You Pay For!

I get it, in a day and age of cheap self-publishing and the ability to digitally publish in e-book/Kindle form, some aren’t willing to pay more than $9.99 for something to read.

But when it comes to self-publishing or very cheap publishing, how do I know or trust that a book is really worth my time? Sure, some writers are established enough to self-publish and still have high credibility, authority, and trust with an audience, but that represents a very small portion of writers.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m actually all for self-publishing. It’s great that people are writing and may even get to share their writing with an audience.

There’s tremendous personal value in going through the struggle of the creative process, trying to organize your thoughts or ideas into a coherent whole, and then getting to share it with the world.

It’s why I support personal blogging or self-publishing even if your contributions aren’t particularly original and your audience is small. We need to learn to think and write!

But often in life, you get what you pay for. Again, you’re paying for a lot more than just the physical product of the book.

And in a day and age where it’s hard to know what's really a legitimate or quality source, it’s nice to have the assurance that a work has passed the test of scholarly scrutiny and been approved by experts and trained professionals.

For certain books, especially research-oriented ones, there needs to be some element of "gatekeeping" that verifies a certain work meets an established standard and is worth reading and can be cited as a credible source.

With all that in mind . . .

4. Relatively Speaking, It’s not Really that Much Money!

The price you pay is relative. Is $100 really a lot of money for something someone poured years of their life into, and in the case of an academic book, tens of thousands of dollars of tuition to achieve appropriate credentials?

Is $100 or more for a book ever justified?

Isn’t the incredible time and effort put into a book, which you can own forever, worth the price of a night out to dinner, a pair of shoes, or a one-hour massage?

When you think of what has to happen to get a book to this point, the price can start to feel like a pretty good value for your money!

5. Critical Thinking Needs to Be Supported

Authors of academic books receive next to nothing in royalties. I think I get maybe 2%. So it’s not so much supporting the authors--although that’s important--but supporting the industry of critical thinking and higher learning. Peer-reviewed work is not just research sent out into the world on a whim because someone wants their ideas out there.

Although these kinds of books don’t usually make their way into the hands of many non-academics, the ideas in them certainly do . This is the so-called “trickle-down effect” of academia and its ideas.

-------------------------

A few other thoughts:

It’s (Often) a Trade Off Between Potential Sales and Career Goals

For academic writers, especially with their first book, it’s a choice they have to make. And it is a difficult one, and one I wrestled with.

Do you want to publish with a reputable academic publisher, be a part of a credible series , make sure your book gets into libraries and academic databases, ensure reviews in academic journals, garner respectability among your scholarly peers, and prove to future educational employers or universities that you can “pass the bar” of academic scrutiny?

Or, would you rather have the book be more accessible and affordable and get it into more hands in the short term?

It’s a tough call. There’s no right or wrong answer.

I sort of looked at it this way: I’m not sure how many academic books I’m going to write. I know I want to write, but future books may be less academic.

I’m currently employed in pastoral ministry and quite content. I don’t know if my future vocation is in academics.

So I saw this as a chance to make a contribution to the academic world, something I may not have the chance to do again. And, it may open up the possibility of an academic career if I ever decide to go that route (yes, I’m still trying to decide at age 40 what I’m going to do when I grow up!).

Still, you might say . . .

Those are Great Reasons, But I’m Still Not Going to Pay Full Price for the Book!

Again, understandable, and I don’t blame you. It may be too expensive for the average person and buying academic books isn’t for everyone and that’s completely okay. But….

Here’s How You Can Pay Less for the Book:

1) Use a Discount Code.

If you got this far in the post, you deserve a discount! For a limited time for website readers (not sure how long, but if you’re reading this try it) you can save 35% if you order direct from the publisher : use code GLR AQ4 (with space) at checkout.

2) Ask Me.

If you want the book but price is a deterrent, contact me and I will make sure it gets in your hands for whatever price you can afford. I want you to read it!

3) Wait.

I hate to say this as I’ve already waited years for the book to finally come out! But the truth is the price will come down substantially as time goes on. This is especially true when the paperback is hopefully released later. The price will likely be cut in half or more if you have the patience to wait.

4) Use a Library.

If you have access to any academic library database, you should be able to check out the e-book or hard copy (you may have to use inter-library loan in some cases). Libraries are the best!

At the very least, go ahead and READ A FREE PREVIEW!

For more on the book and to hear what people are saying, visit thegenderparadox.com

Our Need for God's Maternal Care

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 18:46:54 GMT

How the Prodigal Son Parable Teaches God's Maternal Tendencies

Since being published in August, my article "Mythoi, Monomyth, and a Missing Mother" on the Prodigal Son parable has become the most viewed article of the Special Issue on Hermeneutics in the journal Religions .

READ or DOWNLOAD THE ARTICLE

Previously I wrote posts introducing the article in general and then a more playful and "philosophical" post containing some supplemental material.

But I think one of the things that interests people the most is the thought of the "missing mother" in the parable and what it might mean. I believe the parable uniquely highlights and teaches our need for God's maternal care, despite the main figure in the parable being a Father.

The absence of a mother in the story and the maternal behavior of the father (see the article for more) have been interpreted both positively and negatively by feminist biblical critics.

Many studies over the last half century have focused on Luke’s favorable treatment of women, but some scholars criticize Luke for moving women characters to the margins and downplaying their leadership.

It's true women are placed in domestic spaces in Luke, such as the mini-parable within the parable right before the Prodigal story (see Luke 15:8-10). Some believe that's why the mother never appears in the Prodigal story, because her place is "in the home" and the prodigal story takes place outside the home.

However, others have interpreted the parable more positively for women and as promoting God's maternal tendencies. Part of my archetypal analysis of the parable is to highlight the son's need for maternal care and how the Father in the story meets that need.

I see the parable as equally promoting God's paternal and maternal attributes. As I say in the article regarding all of Luke 15 (which is one parable told three different ways):

"Jesus is the good shepherd, the good woman, and then the father who shows both paternal and maternal tendencies. Thus, Luke 15 is a well-balanced parable that promotes both the masculine and feminine characteristics of the Divine."

For example, rather than a domestic character, we can view the woman in Luke 15:8-10 as entrusted with and responsible for the family's finances. Her status, influence, and leadership in the community is evidenced by her ability to quickly gather everyone together for a celebration (15:9).

Similarly, it is perfectly normal to expect (in fact, perhaps more expected!) that the mother would be the one to be outside greeting the son in the Prodigal story.

There's a fascinating parallel scene in Tobit 11:9 when Tobias returns and his mother, Anna, “ran up to her son and threw her arms around him . . . And she wept.”

Thus, the "inside/outside" dichotomy that some argue for does not hold up. The Father is acting more like the Mother, and by acting in that space is communicating God's motherly and fatherly heart for God's children.

You may disagree, but I find it both fascinating and convincing!

For more, check out the article .

Video Resource: Q&A on Headship and Submission

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 19:40:02 GMT

More Thoughts Related to Ephesians 5 and Gender Roles

Hannah and I were recently invited by a church to unpack the meaning of biblical headship and submission according to Ephesians 5, which led to this message at our own church as well as this corresponding blog post related to Bible layout and translation issues surrounding Ephesians 5:21-22.

However, that message was not able to dive into some of the more practical and pastoral questions that arise out of this often difficult and confusing topic for many.

So we created a supplemental video (embedded above) to answer some of those questions, such as:

1. What do I do if my husband continually insists that I submit to him?

2. What about other Bible passages that seem to say women should not teach or that men are the authority?

3. If there’s disagreement between husband and wife, who gets the “final word”?

4. What then does it mean for a man or woman to be a “leader” in the home?

Hope you find it helpful! As always, for more resources on this topic:

VISIT THE GENDER PARADOX BLOG

Are Men God's Gift to Women?

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 19:46:59 GMT

For those who believe in "the greatness of masculinity" the answer is 'yes.'

A common phenomenon for pastors is that books are mysteriously left on their desk without note, name, or explanation.

I honestly don't know how it happens. Our office door is normally locked when we're not there or during services, yet books mysteriously always find their way onto my desk. There must be a Mark 2:4 style opening in my roof where people can lower them down!

Anyway, it's sometimes insightful as it gives a feel for what people in the congregation are reading (or want me to read!). Often they're getting rid of entire libraries and it's interesting to dig through what they've read over time.

Recently one book left on my desk caught my eye entitled God's Gift to Women: Discovering the Lost Greatness of Masculinity by Eric Ludy.

I honestly thought the title was a joke or using some type of sarcasm or tongue-in-cheek playfulness, but as it turns out it's dead serious.

The book really is about men (and a particular style of masculinity) being God's gift to women.

Lest we think this is some sort of fringe publication that no one ever read (it's actually published by popular Multnomah Publishers in 2003), I did some research and found this is a bestselling author of many books, most on similar topics.

I don't know nor had I ever heard of Mr. Ludy. Honestly, he strikes me as a soft-hearted guy trying to do good who has a heart and ministry to help fathers to raise up sons in a difficult world (part of his current ministry). And by no means is this a Mark Driscoll style of macho-masculinity being promoted.

Nonetheless, some of the statements are quite jarring and hard to defend as biblical. Ludy is "a huge fan of femininity" (I would argue he's a huge fan of his version of femininity) and is "convinced that true manhood . . . is nothing short of an awe-inspiring gift to womanhood" (pg. 10).

Ludy claims that women want men to "heroically protect" femininity "like a knight in shining armor" (182-83) and must train as the "protector of his family" (195).

The front cover actually has a picture of a knight in armor riding a horse and waving a conquering flag of some sort.

Modern femininity, he writes, "is in need of a champion," and the argument is that that champion is truly masculine men who are "defenders of everything beautiful and pure within the heart of a woman" (201).

Again, I'm not wanting to pick on brother Ludy here. He doesn't come across as prideful or purposely misogynistic in any way; I think he's truly trying to do what he feels is good and helpful for men.

But I can't seem to reconcile his picture of masculinity with the Bible. In fact, one of my main critiques would be the book has very little scripture or theology to back up any of his ideas about masculinity. In my opinion, his view of godly masculinity is much more culturally influenced by a Disney-eque romanticism of what it means to be a man and woman than it is biblically inspired.

Why am I writing about this? Well, as I said, this is apparently a bestselling author who mainly writes on this subject and apparently still has quite a bit of influence (and hasn't seemed to change his position or thinking on these topics from what I can tell).

And I've seen this kind of teaching be very influential in the church and make its way into all kinds of men's studies, curriculum for church men's groups, etc. And I simply don't find it biblically convincing.

I mean, if anything, the Genesis account portrays women as God's gift to men, rescuing him from his loneliness!

Most importantly, this is definitely a "men lead, women follow" type of paradigm for marriage and church leadership and structure, something we recently preached about, showing that's not a biblical model in any way.

Ultimately this perspective harms the church, it's witness in the world, and robs people of God's fuller vision of the co-equal partnership between men and women in God's kingdom.

Want to learn more about egalitarian leadership? My new book is out in digital format next week and hard copy can be pre-ordered now!

VIEW ALL GENDER PAR ADOX BLOG POSTS

The Most Important Submission in Ephesians 5 is . . .

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 20:25:20 GMT

How Male Bias in Bible Layout Influenced Interpretation of Ephesians 5:22

The e-book version of The Pentecostal Gender Paradox is out in 2 weeks!

One thing the book purposely does not do is wade into the waters of so-called problematic or controversial passages such as Ephesians 5:21-33 or 1 Timothy 2:8-15 and others like it such as 1 Corinthians 11 or 1 Corinthians 14:34-35.

The main reason is, as I argue, those passages become less relevant when understanding the hermeneutical priority of eschatological passages on gender.

The other reason is those passages have received SO MUCH scholarly attention, and great exegetical work and practical application already exists to help us understand and interpret them accurately. I refer the reader to many of those works in the appropriate places in the book.

However, most people in the pew have not been exposed to those works or in-depth analysis, so it's still needed and appropriate to teach on them in the church, which is exactly what Hannah and I recently did, which you can watch below or listen to HERE.

But the most important insight or place to start for those unfamiliar with the passage is to understand the relationship between verses 21 and 22.

vv. 21-22 say:

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.

Right away there’s something really important to notice here, and that is that v. 21 is the main thesis statement or heading of this passage and everything that follows is meant to be an explanation and fleshing out of v. 21.

And what do you notice about v. 21?

We are ALL called to submit to one another. Every Christian is called to submit.

You might be wondering, “why have I never noticed that before” or “why have I never been taught that?”

One reason is that unfortunately, due to male bias in Bible headings and layout—which are not original to the text by the way—historically, and until more recently, there was a heading break between vv. 21-22 in almost every Bible translation, as pictured below.

What this did is it disconnected the specific teaching in v. 22, that wives submit to husbands, from the more general admonishment in v. 21, as if v. 22 can stand alone.

And so what would happen, for example, is messages would get preached starting in v. 22. And here’s why we can say with confidence that v. 22 cannot stand on its own or be interpreted on its own:

The word submit (Greek, ὑποτάσσω) doesn’t even occur in v. 22! What?!

That’s a HUGE detail here that maybe you’ve somehow never heard.

The fact that the word submit doesn’t even occur in v. 22 but is only implied by v. 21 makes you wonder how Bible publishers ever decided to divide v. 21 and 22 with a heading. But the reality is men made all those decisions for centuries and at best weren’t being sensitive to how it would appear, and at worst were serving their own agenda.

But almost all Bibles today put the section heading before v. 21 because that’s what’s grammatically warranted, and you should be cautious with any translation that doesn’t (I won't mention them by name!).

The command in v. 22 is not an isolated teaching and certainly not a statement that can stand on its own in a vacuum. V. 22 is subordinate, must submit, if you will, to v. 21.

So perhaps the most important submission in Ephesians 5 is actually v. 22 to v. 21.

The most important submission happening in Ephesians 5 is the submission of v. 22 to v. 21!

This is significant because it proves the point that v. 22 is not a command that is to be only applied specifically to women. It is simply one of several selected examples, including for men, of the more specific command in v. 21 to submit to one another.

In other words, Paul didn’t sit down, inspired by the Spirit, and say “I want to talk about wives submitting to husbands, that’s really a core Christian teaching people need reminded of.”

No, his Spirit-led desire is to talk about mutual submission and love, and then, like any good writer, he includes some examples of how this might work or look like.

So a good way to think through this or translate this is to think of v. 21 as the thesis statement, the main heading or point that explains what follows it:

Thesis (main argument): “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (v. 21)

→ Point 1: Here’s how wives can submit to husbands (vv. 22–24)

→ Point 2: Here’s how husbands can submit to wives (vv. 25–32)

Restate the thesis: mutual submission (v. 33)

This is a literary device quite common in the Bible of what’s called an inclusio , meaning a section that ends the same way it begins, which is supposed to help you interpret the meaning of everything said in between.

So Paul talks about mutual submission at the beginning, and then rephrases it at the end, which tells us that everything in between is about the topic of those two bookends.

This is why translations such the New Living Translation (NLT) accurately translates v. 22 starting:

“For wives, this means” with the “this” referring back to the submission of v. 21 ,

and then v. 25:

“For husbands, this means,” again referring back to the thesis of v. 21.

So v. 22 is simply Paul giving one real-life application or example of the more general principle of mutual submission encouraged in v. 21.

So we can and should say:

Biblically, should the wife submit to her husband? Yes.

Biblically, should the husband submit to his wife? Also Yes!

Watch the video for more explanation.

Video Resource: Q&A on Headship and Submission

How to Write a Pastor Sabbatical Proposal

Fri, 27 Oct 2023 22:59:50 GMT

What Should You Include in Your Sabbatical Proposal?

My previous post on what to include in a church sabbatical policy has been one of the more popular and engaged posts on this site.

And the recent national survey of my church network (the PAOC) reveals why: out of 550+ pastors surveyed, 74% say their church has no sabbatical policy, and 90% have never taken a sabbatical.

90% of PAOC pastors have never taken a sabbatical

But having the policy is only half the battle. Eventually you have to plan for and take it! And a sabbatical is not the same thing as a vacation, so a proposal (as required in the policy ) is essential.

So, to help pastors create a suitable proposal, I'm making ours available in order to help you get started and know what to include.

It's a little personal and of course is originally written only for the small audience of our church council (board). But I'm making it public in hopes it will help jumpstart some sabbatical plans!

As you'll see, I decided to organize it by highlighting our plans for our spiritual, physical, mental, intellectual, and relational health and development.

Note: I've left out last names of any persons named.

DUTKO SABBATICAL PROPOSAL & PLAN

Start Date: April 1 (April 3)

End Date: Aug. 22 (first Sunday, Aug. 28)

Explanatory Notes:

16 weeks Sabbatical: April 1 to July 23

4 weeks vacation (20 days): July 24 to Aug. 22 (Aug. 1 holiday)

Accountability Partner: Dave (to check in with on sabbatical goals/progress)

Spiritual Director: TBD if applicable (see below)

Intro

First, we’d like to extend our deep gratitude to the church and council for allowing us this gift of a sabbatical to be refreshed. Our honest and deepfelt prayer is that our sabbatical will bear much fruit for the kingdom long-term, not just in our lives but for the church as well.

The following is a brief proposal of how we plan to bring health and refreshment to five areas: our spiritual, physical, mental, relational, and intellectual wellbeing.

Spiritual (spiritual renewal)

We are excited to slow down and attend to the health of our souls and interior life, and perhaps nothing in our sabbatical is more important than that. The last few years of intense growth and change in the church (including the constant changes of COVID-era church) have taken a toll on us and we can say without a doubt they have been the hardest and most stressful stretch of ministry we’ve ever had. This sabbatical couldn’t come at a better time in light of the past 2 years!

Although I’m unsure if I can commit to it until I get I feel for where I’m at on my doctorate, I will consider “enrolling” in a soul care course/mentoring such as: https://www.leadershipii.com/

At minimum, I hope to start working through the book The Sacred Slow: A Holy Departure from Fast Faith, which the above course is based on.

We plan to still attend a church regularly, both when at home and when traveling.

Physical (exercise, diet, sleep, rest/recreation)

For several years, I (Joseph) have been battling chronic fatigue, much of which I attribute to stress (see below!). I am hopeful removing some stressors will allow my body to heal and also lead me to learning how to better deal with stress.

We plan to continue our exercise routines and current healthy eating habits.

I also have some medical tests and procedures lined up or that I’ve been waiting for our sabbatical for.

Mental/Emotional (counselling, new hobby, engaging five senses)

We look forward to slowing down the pace of our lives so that we can more intentionally engage the five senses and assess our mental health.

I (Joseph) have been open about my nearly decade-long battle with depression, and I’m curious to test how much of it is related to work and stress and what that might teach.

Because counselling has not been that fruitful for me, I’d like to see if I can find time to meet with a psychologist to go a bit deeper. Ideally, I’d also like to use this time off to try and experiment (if feeling okay) decreasing or weening off some of my medications.

Intellectual (vocational development, study, writing, academic progress)

This is a big one and a major use of sabbatical time! One of the primary drivers of taking the sabbatical is to ensure I successfully finish my seven-year PhD journey!

During sabbatical I, Lord willing, will have the opportunity to defend my thesis, make required revisions, and submit for graduation. I hope to travel to England for one (or both) of those activities.

Working toward publishing the thesis is also a possibility during sabbatical, depending on how I progress on finishing, but the bigger goal is to rest and celebrate this achievement.

I doubt I’ll find time for this on sabbatical, but another goal once I’m done with my doctorate is to write more.

Either way, a plan ensuring I have the time and opportunity to write more when I come back is probably essential for my continued role as it’s a strong desire I have. Therefore, I expect some of my personal reflection time will be on discerning how my desire to write might be best used for God’s kingdom and how it fits in with current responsibilities.

Relational (family time/investment, travel)

This is potentially the biggest use of our time and we believe it to be extremely important to ensure that we can extend our time at Oceanside. We really miss our families (and of course COVID has made it even harder). We have not seen 3 of our 4 parents in more than 2 years and some siblings for much longer absences than that. Joseph has not been “home” in the summer to see family for over a decade. We plan to spend 1-2 months in the United States visiting family as well as finding recreation/vacation time.

And of course, once the PhD is finished, Joseph looks forward to making up for lots of lost time with the family!

Disengagement Plan (pre-Sabbatical)

We’ll began delegation of some tasks starting in January and continue through March (and much of this has already begun in 2021 in anticipation of the sabbatical). Staff will be trained in some weekly responsibilities such as weekly e-newsletter, social media posting, creation of order of service (including working weekly with music leader on songs), scheduling of some teams/volunteers, reviewing financials, payroll, communicating with commercial and residential tenants (and rent), and overseeing facility and maintenance, as well as all church accounts and business/service provider relationships (banking, suppliers, online accounts, etc.).

A few weeks prior (March 16), I will begin my out of office/sabbatical auto-reply as well as auto-forwarding my emails to Christiana so we can practice what issues might arise.

We hope to develop a tentative (but still flexible) Sunday/event schedule (like we always have) for the time we’re gone (through Aug.) so staff has a plan to work from.

Plan for Covering Work Responsibilities in My Absence

I am so grateful for Pastor Dave and Pastor Gavin to help lead our church as sabbatical fill-in pastors.

Here’s the tentative plan for dates:

Dave: 11 weeks, March 27 – June 12 (16 hrs/wk or 0.4 time)

Gavin: 11 weeks, June 12 – Aug. 28 (20 hrs/wk)

Sunday, March 27 Dave overlaps with Dutkos and transitions in (Gavin ideally there too)

Sunday, June 12 Gavin overlaps with Dave and transitions in

Sunday, August 28 Dutkos overlap with Gavin and transition back in

They will provide much of the preaching supply, as well as coordinating with the staff through staff meetings on weekly services as well as additional events throughout the time we’re gone (Good Friday, Easter, potentially occasional outdoor services in the summer, summer activities, church picnic, etc.)

Due to only 11 weeks each, they likely won’t engage council meetings or act as interim chair of the council. I will choose an interim chair from within the council. I will arrange with the council how often and when they want to meet in our absence.

Overall, we believe us being away will strengthen and grow our team’s sense of ownership and make the church healthier in the long term.

How I may be contacted

Of course we request we’re only contacted when necessary. However, we are happy to be contacted by phone if an issue is time-sensitive or via our personal email when needed:

Joseph email

Hannah email

Re-entry and Follow-up Plan

We plan to return on a Monday to allow us to ease in carefully and slowly. We will ideally overlap with the fill-in pastors on that first Sunday, Aug. 28, and they will preach.

This timeline should give us adequate time to plan for the Fall and for when things tend to pick up more at the church in early to mid October.

We’ll of course be very excited to re-connect with our staff and the church!

We’ll submit a written report to the council and accountability partner within one month of returning.

Again, thank you for trusting us with this opportunity. We are thrilled we have made it to this milestone of longevity and believe this will lead to more long-term health for the church.

With gratitude,

Joseph & Hannah Dutko

Free Book Preview is Out!

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 19:25:26 GMT

Read on for discount information as well!

I'm pleased to make available the very first preview of The Pentecostal Gender Paradox .

What's available in the preview ? Glad you asked!

Get a feel for the overall work, subject matter, and its arguments.

Acknowledgments

Okay, maybe not the most exciting thing, but a little window into who helped me and the book get to this point.

Full Introduction Chapter!

Read the story of the decline of women in leadership and the rise of the gender paradox, as well as why I propose eschatology as a solution to resolving the gender paradox. Also "zoom out" to why this subject matters on a more global scale.

And read the overall argument and outline of the work with brief summary of each chapter.

Index

View important terms covered in the work, see if the biblical passage you're doing research on is covered, etc.

You can also search for key words in the Intro chapter using the search box.

VIEW PREVIEW

Planning to order the full book? Click the "Buy Now" button on the preview site for special pre-order pricing.

If you're an e-book reader, the digital version will be released in one month. Pre-order Kindle on Amazon here.

Hardback to follow in mid-December.

Special Discount for Blog Readers! Save 35%!

Finding the book to be a bit too expensive? (I'll explain why in a future post, but the price is not set by me, of course!).

Click here or the image below and use discount code GLR AQ4 at checkout for a limited time!

Contact me with any questions.

5 Questions to Regularly Ask Your Church Staff

josephdutko@gmail.com (Joseph Dutko) — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 19:22:28 GMT

The Importance of Frequently Checking In with Your Leaders

As the co-lead pastors of our church, Hannah and I do monthly check-ins (what we refer to around the office as “monthlies”) with all full-time ministry staff. For part-time staff, it's usually every other month.

Although documented, these are somewhat informal in nature and are a way to keep “short accounts” and check in on the overall health and wellness of the pastor, as well as to facilitate personal growth in their ministry.

These meetings are primarily for care, coaching, and tracking progress on previously stated goals.

Monthlies are 30-60 minutes and may vary in approach and scope from being purely social in nature (an informal walk or meal together checking in on the pastor), to setting and tracking goals, to prayer and spiritual care.

The content of the discussion is flexible and varies, but to help the staff member prepare and to guide our time together, we ask the following 5 questions (well, really more than five, so more like 5 areas of discussion).

Our 5 "Check-In" Questions

1. How are you feeling/doing (life and job) – spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally?

2. What’s one thing that’s been exciting and energizing for you as pastor? What’s one thing that’s been difficult or draining? (i.e., What are you loving? What are you not-so loving?)

3. Assessment of work and main areas of ministry (by staff member and supervisor): what’s going well and what can be improved?

4. What are some tangible goals (dates, numbers, completion, etc.) we can set?

Short-range (by next meeting or close)

Mid-range (2-6 months)

Long-range (6+ months)

5. Please tell us one way we can improve to better serve you and help you to thrive? Is there one thing you would recommend we consider doing differently? If you’d like, also tell us one thing we are doing well or that you like.

Last (but certainly not least!) question: How can we pray for you?

VIEW ALL CHURCH LEADERSHIP POSTS

Archetypes, A Posteriori, and the Ache of God's Heart

josephdutko@gmail.com (Joseph Dutko) — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 19:03:25 GMT

Who is the Undeposited Depositor?

I recently posted about one of my latest publications , which applies archetypal criticism to the Prodigal Son Parable in Luke 15. That publication is a literary and somewhat psychological analysis of the parable (not theological).

But just for fun (and for people of faith with a more philosophical bent!), what might that analysis say about God, and how might it increase our faith?

According to Siroj Sorajjkool, an archetype is “deposited in the nature of human beings. It is there a priori and will continue to influence our thoughts, feelings, and actions.” [1] If archetypes are indeed “deposited in the nature of human beings,” then the question may be asked, “who put them there?”

Using a posteriori arguments we may say that there must be a depositor or the Undeposited Depositor, that is, God.

The purpose of the parable of Luke 15 is to show that the heartbeat of God is to reach lost sinners and that God has great joy in doing so. The parable is an important one because it potentially addresses one of the most important questions we can ask, namely, "What is God like?“

Why did Jesus use archetypal symbolism in this parable?

If God has chosen to speak and to reveal God's self through Jesus, then we should expect that Jesus would purposely tell this parable in a form which transcends boundaries of time and place and that would have the ability to reach the deepest places of our hearts. By telling the parable of the Prodigal Son through the use of archetypal symbolism, Jesus ensured that the story of God’s heart for lost sinners would forever be told and embraced throughout the centuries and in different parts of the world.

Myth critics such as Joseph Campbell and others argue the power of literature is in its symbols and patterns that we unconsciously respond to deep within our psyche. According to Carl Jung, the true artist “is that person who is in such possession of the ‘primordial vision’ that he or she has the ability to employ these archetypal primordial images to communicate the experiences of the unconscious to the conscious in the form of art.” [2]

If God created and deposited these primordial images, then why should the Christian be surprised to find the incredible and complex monomythic structures ( as explained in my article ) in a parable told by Jesus, the master communicator?

Because he knew it would be one of the most important parables he told, Jesus purposely used universal symbols that transcend time and place. For people of faith (who believe God is pretty smart!) this is not so hard to believe.

VIEW ALL THEOLOGY POSTS

[ 1] Siroj Sorajjkool, “Ontology and Spirituality: A Jungian Perspective,” Pastoral Psychology 46 (1998): p. 274.

[2] Carl Jung, Collected Works (20 vols.; London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953-79), quoted in Randolph Tate (2006), Interpreting the Bible , p. 24.

Guest Post: Seeing Through New Eyes

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 17:48:24 GMT

What biblical and doctrinal insights emerge when we see through the eyes of women?

I am excited to share what I hope is the first of many guest posts on the gender paradox blog by welcoming Julie Walsh. Want to share your story, insights, or ideas related to the gender paradox? Submit a proposal here .

I’ve often seen that women can “have a voice” in certain arenas—as long as they don’t upset the status quo by suggesting anything that might disrupt the main understandings, which were developed by men. This, I believe, is one reason why women remain caught in the so-called “gender paradox” that Joseph describes. Until women and men are open to considering the new ideas that women see concerning Christianity, this gender paradox may continue. These new ideas may be disconcerting, though.

For instance, as a PhD candidate in Renewal Theology, I enjoy examining theological areas related to women in areas such as Exegesis and Bible Translation, Biblical Intertextuality, Historical Theology, and the Doctrine of Scripture.

Below is a brief example of seeing each of these four areas "through new eyes."

Exegesis and Bible Translation

I recently published a co-authored academic, peer-reviewed paper arguing for a translation of Ephesians 5:33 that Bible translations have not used: “Indeed, as for you individually, each husband among you must love his own wife as himself so that the wife may respect her husband.”

Biblical Intertextuality

There are important intertextual references in the New Testament that refer back not just to men like Moses, Isaac, and David, for instance, but also to women such as Deborah and Jael .

Historical Theology

I do not believe that Christian egalitarianism is a new development in Church history. Women have been saying the same things about the Bible and Jesus’ equal treatment of women and his equal opportunities for women for as long as women’s writings have been kept and their ability to write was unhindered by persecution or illiteracy. Katharine Bushnell, writing in the early 20 ^th century is one example . Margaret Gibson is another .

Doctrine of Scripture

Respecting the God who inspired the Bible involves understanding that God chose women prophets to speak and lead for him and recognizing that their words are included in God’s holy scriptures for us. ( My presentation of a shortened version of a paper on this is here. ) This fact alone has ramifications for the home, church, and world.

Such ideas may especially cause a person disturbing feelings if they challenge that person’s current understanding of the proper relations between men and women. Perhaps only those who are courageous enough to consider that their teachers and culture may have been gender-biased will be able to see beyond exclusively male interpretations and theological understandings.

VIEW ALL GENDER PARADOX POSTS

6 Egalitarian-Leaning Books that Won't Scare Off Your Complementarian Friends

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 19:11:42 GMT

Orthodox and measured arguments for egalitarianism that a complementarian won't immediately dismiss

Here's a common situation I encounter:

A complementarian-leaning friend, pastor, or parishioner wants to know why our church supports women in ministry leadership and an egalitarian worldview. How did we (or could we) biblically come to this position?

Knowing this is an area of research for me, they reach out asking for good book recommendations to help explore the topic further. They are genuinely curious, even if they've always embraced "traditional" gender roles within the church.

"What's a good book I can read that explains your egalitarian position?"

Often the context is that someone in their own church or circle of friends is an egalitarian and wants to know why their church or pastors are opposed to women in leadership, which sometimes causes the church leadership to consider the other side of the debate.

One recent situation was an independent church whose board was opening up the topic for discussion and considering changing their official written position of male-only leadership. Knowing we have women pastors who lead and preach, they asked for resources that back up our church's position.

There are lots of great blogs, websites, articles, magazines, and more on the topic, which I'll likely put together in a future post. But often (especially those a bit older) the specific ask is for a book, a lengthier and thorough treatment of the subject, something reputable from a well-known author or publisher.

These are amazing opportunities that I approach with great care (and a little fear and trembling!). I want my fellow friends, churches, and leaders to embrace an egalitarian position. I don't want to mess up this chance! But I know they won't respond to a "radical" or "feminist-driven" argument, even if I personally think they are great books or perfectly orthodox and biblical.

So what are some "safe" books you can recommend to your complementarian friends that are well-argued, accessible (not overly academic), take a measured approach that won't scare them off, and fall within the boundaries of evangelical theology? Do such books even exist?! Yes!

I've only included books I've actually read. I'm aware there are some other great books that would fit this category, but I don't like to recommend something that's not on my shelf and I haven't read myself.

Of course I like to think my book could make this list, and it's part of the reason I wrote it, but aside from that, here are (in no particular order and a mix of newer and older books) . . .

6 Egalitarian-Leaning Books that Complementarians Might Consider Reading

( Although I could offer my own summaries and comments on each, I'll simply link to the book's page where you can view its contents, reviews, etc. )

Women in the Church: A Biblical Theology of Women in Ministry by Stanley Grenz and Denise Kjesbo
Discovering Biblical Equality: Biblical, Theological, Cultural, & Practical Perspectives (compilation of essays). Curiously the subtitle of previous editions was Complementarity without Hierarchy . It's obvious why they changed it as it's an egalitarian-leaning book, but the old subtitle sort of proves my point that this is a book complementarians might find palatable.
Partners in Christ: A Conservative Case for Egalitarianism by John Stackhouse
Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian: A Kingdom Corrective to the Evangelical Gender Debate by Michelle Lee-Barnewall
Women, Authority, and the Bible: Some of Today's Leading Evangelicals Seek to Break Through a Critical Impasse (compilation of essays)
Paul, Women, & Wives: Marriage and Women's Ministry in the Letters of Paul by Craig Keener

I hope you'll pick one or two, get them on your shelf, and lend them out to those genuinely looking for answers. If you think this is a helpful list, please consider sharing this post using the social buttons below!

VIEW ALL GENDER PARADOX POSTS

New Publication! Mythoi, Monomyth, & a Missing Mother

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 22:07:33 GMT

What Does a Missing Mother Add to the Prodigal Son Parable?

I have a new publication out and it's a bit of a fun (and strange!) one.

The article began with this question: why is the Prodigal Son Parable in Luke 15 one of Jesus’ most famous parables and why does it seem to have the ability to elicit profound emotions or responses regardless of historical time, place, and culture?

Why does the Parable of the Prodigal Son carry such powerful and enduring appeal?

What's its "secret?"

My hunch or hypothesis was that the parable has enduring attraction because the overall structure of the story has a familiar feel to it, a pattern that occurs elsewhere in other popular literature throughout history.

In telling the story in a certain way, could it be that Jesus was intentionally appealing to a deep layer of the human psyche and to what is elemental to the human experience? Is this why we gravitate so easily to this story?

I plan to do a couple of posts with supplemental material to the article in both the theology and gender paradox blog categories, but I hope you enjoy it in its published form.

You can read it online or download/save a nice PDF here:

https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14080997

Note: This article is Open Access, meaning (unlike some other academic article publications) it is available for FREE !

5 Prayers for Children from 1 Samuel

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 17:00:14 GMT

How to Pray for Kids According to 1 Samuel 2-3

These prayers were birthed out of our church's series and teaching on 1 Samuel . There were a surprising amount of insights on women and children in this book, several of which I will highlight soon on The Gender Paradox blog . But for now, just wanted to share these 5 prayers you can pray for and over children, whether your own or someone else's.

What do Women Church Leaders Need Most? Opportunity!

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 23:40:26 GMT

Thoughts from Cathie Ostapchuk

In a recent podcast interview with Faith Today (Canada's main Christian magazine), Cathie Ostapchuk talked about how to encourage and mobilize Canadian women to lead in the church.

She believes one of the most needed things for women leaders in the church is OPPORTUNITY. In short, she says that it doesn't matter if we have the possibility of opportunity for women on paper (such as in policy) if we don't provide actual opportunity for women in practice.

Women, she states, don't just want to be welcomed into leadership environments, but wanted there. And in order to understand their calling, they need lots of opportunity:

"If you don't have opportunity to lead the executive team at the church in a meeting, a strategic meeting, then how do you know what's in you? How do you get the feedback?"

Among other suggestions, here's 4 tips she gives for churches (my summary):

4 Ways to Change the Environment for Women Leaders at Your Church

Invest in the development of your female staff
Highlight your female leaders
Tell positive stories about your female leaders
Ask female leaders to lead staff in leadership meetings

One of the ways we do #1 and #4 at our church is to rotate the chair of the weekly staff meeting among pastoral (and sometimes even non-pastoral) staff. That way female and junior staff receive regular opportunities to lead and chart the course of meetings, and not just when the lead pastor is away!

Ostapchuk ends with this thought right before quoting Acts 2:18:

"Every time there's been a spiritual awakening, women are called up into ministry and spiritual leadership. It is one of the signs of revival."

It's what I refer to in The Pentecostal Gender Paradox as an "eschatological authorizing hermeneutic," which tends to be the preferred (even if unarticulated) hermeneutic during times of revival.

You can listen to the podcast, visit Cathie's websites, and read the print article all from this page .

Does being egalitarian lead to better mental health for men?

josephdutko@gmail.com (Joseph Dutko) — Sat, 19 Aug 2023 02:35:11 GMT

New Research Says They Could Be Connected

An often overlooked part of patriarchy is how it harms not just women but men as well, particularly men's mental and physical health.

Analogously, new research suggests that a more positive egalitarian attitude may potentially improve men's mental health.

"New research suggests that a more positive egalitarian attitude may potentially improve men's mental health"

A new study spearheaded by the University of British Columbia (shout out to Vancouver, BC, and my alma mater Regent College on the UBC campus!) shows a potential correlation between men's views on gender roles and their wellbeing.

From a biblical perspective, this comes as no surprise. If God's intended plan for women and men is co-equal partnership (as Genesis 1-2 portrays, see chapter 4 of my book !), then any deviation from that distorts the ideal relationship and (as all sin does) impacts our mental health.

You can read the full study here or read a more accessible summary here .

I’m a Formatting Nerd, and I’m Okay Admitting It

Wed, 10 May 2023 02:19:27 GMT

I have a confession to make: I love formatting. I love the rules of formatting. I love the intricate details of a footnote, making sure I get every part correct—the order, the abbreviations, the commas and colons. It’s a beautiful thing, and I truly feel God’s pleasure when doing it!

I know there are software programs out there that can do these things for yo u now, but why rob yourself of the joy of learning how to do it yourself?!

In my book , I manually formatted all 1,400 (approximately) source footnotes and the 500+ bibliographic entries. It was a labour of love!

If you’re an academic or more technical/scholarly writer, this is the blog category for you ! Here I’ll occasionally give tips for formatting, preparing manuscripts, putting together an index, let you know the latest changes to the Chicago Manual of Style , and more. It's a nerd paradise. I know you can’t wait, and neither can I, so check back regularly or subscribe below to geek out on style!

Does Your Church Have a Sabbatical Policy?

Wed, 10 May 2023 02:16:37 GMT

Hannah and I recently had our first ever sabbatical, a wonderful gift from our church after seven years of leading. Although sabbaticals are becoming much more common as churches try to protect leaders from burnout, I am also aware of lots of pastors whose churches do not have a sabbatical policy. Many of them have reached out to us to ask about ours.

So, here is our policy that we wrote in conjunction with our church council that seeks to help and protect both the pastor and the church. Hope it helps!

SABBATICAL LEAVE

Purpose

It is the church’s intent that after each seven (7) or more consecutive years of service in this church, the pastor be provided a paid sabbatical leave for the purpose of ministry enrichment. However, a sabbatical is not automatically granted, and the council reserves the right to decline your request at the time in light of the prevailing circumstances. The sabbatical is not to be viewed as an extended vacation but an opportunity for the pastor to step away for a period of time in order to be spiritually, physically, mentally, and professionally renewed and refreshed.

The Sabbatical is not just a reward for longevity of service. More importantly, it is an opportunity for those who have given consistently of themselves in teaching and ministry to be replenished so that they might continue to lead the congregation and serve the Lord in their calling upon return.

Proposal

At least three months prior to the desired sabbatical dates, the pastor should prayerfully submit a plan for personal renewal and growth which reflects the purpose of a sabbatical and explains how the sabbatical will enhance the ministry of the pastor and further the mission and vision of this church. The proposal may include a combination of plans for study, travel, relaxation, family time, writing, and personal goals. Please ask for an example of a Sabbatical proposal.

The proposal should be done in consultation with the Lead Pastor(s) (or council in case of the Lead Pastor), and must include the following: start/end date, accountability partner, and plan reflecting an appropriate balance of physical rest, personal recreation, family investment, intellectual stimulation, and spiritual renewal.

As this is paid time away, funding for the sabbatical is usually not included, but may be requested and will be considered in some cases based on the merit of the proposal and its benefit to the church. However, the pastor may use all or part of their professional and personal development benefit for/during their sabbatical.

Length

A maximum of twelve (12) weeks for all pastoral staff and sixteen (16) weeks for Lead Pastors will be considered with appropriate proposals. An additional two (2) weeks may be requested for each subsequent sabbatical at Oceanside.

Up to four (4) weeks of vacation time may be applied to the time away in order to extend the sabbatical if desired. This should be communicated in the proposal and proper protocol for requesting vacation time should be used.

During and After

While on sabbatical, the employee will not seek outside employment or income-generating ministry. The employee will continue to receive full base salary, medical benefits and pension benefits, but would not be eligible for expense reimbursements such as phone, mileage, etc.

An accountability partner preferably from within the church (but in some cases approved by the church) should be proposed (or will be assigned) to periodically check in with the pastor on how the sabbatical is going and progress on plans and goals.

After a sabbatical, a written report must be submitted to the immediate supervisor, council, and accountability partner (if different) within one month of returning to work, reporting on all set sabbatical plans and goals along with other unplanned experiences contributing to one’s sabbatical. A time to debrief with the supervisor will be scheduled.

Upon return from paid sabbatical leave, a one-year minimum continued employment commitment is expected. If an employee leaves this church before one year has passed, the remuneration during the sabbatical leave must be paid back at a pro-rated amount.

Why a Blog (by a man!) Dedicated to Women in Ministry?

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 22:55:01 GMT

I get asked all the time (by both women and men) why I’m so dedicated to this topic, why I wrote a book on it, and why I continue to talk about it. After all, I am a man and this is an issue for women to worry about, right? My response is always the same: more than a women’s issue, this is a theological issue that influences how we think about all kinds of other topics, including “who is God?” and what is God’s ultimate plan for the church and world?

Isolating women’s equality as a topic of importance only for women does a great disservice to the church. As I say in my book on the gender paradox, “Both women and men are harmed by and need to seek liberation from patriarchy, male dominance, and any theology or praxis that is less than fully egalitarian.”

There are lots of great blogs, websites, organizations, books, videos, and more that strive for a more egalitarian church. My hope is that this one, partly because it is hosted by a male, will reach some people that haven’t paid attention to this issue before or haven’t been exposed to these other great resources that are primarily hosted, written, or led by women.

Want to help shine the light on the situation women face in the church? Have a painful story to share on what it’s like being a woman in ministry or a positive story of empowerment in your church? We need to hear your voices! Please consider contributing a guest post for consideration. And subscribe to the blog below!

The PAOC’s New (“Refreshed”) Statement of Essential Truths: Two Thoughts

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 22:17:54 GMT

After a lengthy seven-year process, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) recently approved and released its “refreshed” Statement of Essential Truths (SOET).

The story dates all the way back to 2009 when Superintendent David Wells asked District Superintendents and Bible College Presidents and Deans to identify the main theological/doctrinal issues facing the PAOC. Out of that meeting the Theological Study Commission was born, which would eventually lead to official committees working on refreshing different sections of the then-called Statement of Fundamental and Essential Truths (SOFET). I was a part of some of those original discussions and committees in 2010 and then slowly dropped off (or did they drop me?!) as I busied myself with my doctoral thesis.

The document is significant as it’s only the third major version of the statement (the others in 1928 and 1980). It has been met with mostly rave reviews, and I know from talking with many of my American friends in our sister Assemblies of God fellowship that they are quite jealous of our refreshed statement and would like to see a similar “refresh” in the U.S. It is a much more hospitable document able to accommodate a wider range of views without compromising the “essential” truths.

In short, I love it and am extremely grateful for the work so many put into it. The committee also released a wonderful and free e-book commentary on the refreshed statements. From a pastoral perspective I feel way more comfortable sharing the new SOET with prospective church members than the previous version, especially those coming from other traditions.

The statement is noticeably and wisely concise, avoiding too much detail or unnecessary wading into muddied or controversial theological waters. A statement on the “essentials” can’t possibly include or even allude to every important issue. That said, what fun would it be if we didn’t offer some brief thoughts or critique? I have many (as most theologians probably would), but want to focus on just two:

(note: I did humbly submit these comments to the committee for formal consideration, both in writing and at times verbally at some of the various meetings about the SOET over the years)

1) On Spirit Baptism

The statement rightly mentions “This experience is available for everyone, male and female, of every age, status, and ethnicity.” One of the drafts along the way alternatively said “regardless of gender, class, ethnicity.” I would have added the word "ability" as well.

The message of Pentecost and Spirit Baptism is equal participation, and there are documented cases of deaf people speaking in tongues and (more common) of "manual glossolalia." As a movement that I believe cares deeply about including people with disabilities, I think this is an important message to consider so that we don't imply exclusion to those with a speech disability in any way. Some may argue the word “status” covers this, but the Scripture references in the Statement don’t support that angle. I think adding one word would have gone a long way.

2. On Restoration (Eschatology)

In my opinion this is by far the most improved section and most important changes made to the Statement. It avoids potentially polemical, confusing, or even unbiblical vocabulary on the “end times” and also intentionally dances around committing to any eschatological system or pre-determined timetables. It also thankfully avoids any kind of dispensational thinking (present in the previous SOFET), which I and others have argued is completely detrimental and antithetical to Pentecostal thinking.

However, it still almost exclusively treats eschatology as only referring to future events, with no bearing on how to live responsibly in the present. To me, this seems contrary to how extensively the NT treats eschatology as a practical doctrine that changes the way we live.

I think it would be helpful to have even just a brief phrase or clause somewhere articulating that our eschatology makes a difference for how we live in the present (without prescriptions for behaviour, which I know the SOET purposely avoids). This would keep it from the (misleading) accusation that our eschatology is only an other-worldly belief that makes no claim on present practice. Just one brief phrase would open the door for people to think about the ethical and pastoral implications of our eschatology (without having to outline them in the statement).

The section begins with "Our great hope" and almost every major theological work on hope in the last half-century gives major emphasis to how our eschatological hope transforms the present (just two of many examples are Moltmann's foundational works Theology of Hope and The Coming of God ). For me, based on the current state of scholarship on eschatology—including from Pentecostals—I feel this was a major missed opportunity.

But all in all, the refreshed SOET is a job well done!

Why this Website? Five Reasons

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 21:47:32 GMT

(And scroll down for ways to fully engage this site)

Let’s be honest, the last thing the world needs is another blog or website. There’s more information, thoughts, and opinions out there than anyone could ever want or need.

Furthermore, to be completely honest, I’m not all that comfortable with a personal website and establishing any kind of personal “brand” or platform. There’s a lot of danger in a site where one’s image can be carefully crafted and controlled, and where someone can appear much more important than they really are (spoiler: I'm not very important! I'm a pastor of a mid-sized congregation in a fairly small town, and I'm a mostly unknown scholar and author. This site is not trying to convince you otherwise!).

Update: My AI Policy (why I don't use it).

So why in the world launch a blog or website?

It’s certainly not because I have anything new to say for “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). The more education you have, the more you realize everything has already been said. Long gone are the naïve days where I thought I actually had something original to say.

But here’s 5 reasons I’m launching this site and why others should consider doing the same:

1. Simply for the joy of writing

There’s a strong case for doing what you love and offering it to others as a gift, even if that audience is very small. I’m a writer and I love writing. Sure, some pastors or writers get a larger audience in one week for a topic they spent 10 hours on than I’ll get for an entire book I spent 5 years on! But who cares? I write because I feel called to do it, love it, and sense God’s joy in doing it. If others find it helpful that’s great, and I rejoice in any way my writing might bring more health to a local church or leader.

2. There’s nothing new to be said, but there are new ways of saying it

Although there’s barely anything new to say in the world, there is a way to say something in a way that is unique in its context or arrangement of material. Ideas need to be regularly re-articulated in fresh ways that might introduce people to something in a new way.

3. For those I know and who know me

Disciples aren’t made in masses or through a blog from a leader you don’t know. They are made in the mess of local communities with leaders you can look in the eye, visit in their homes, and know over time through the ups and downs of life.

Just as you should shop local and worship local, there’s something to be said about reading “local,” by which I just mean someone whom you know or shares your context. So this site is especially for those I know and who know me, such as fellow pastors and academics whom I'm privileged to know.

4. As a personal discipline

It’s true that the world doesn’t need any more books or blogs, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be written. The benefit to the world is not so much in people reading it, but you writing it. There’s personal challenge and growth in being able to critically think through issues, organize and articulate ideas, and engage the overall creative process, skills that will ultimately bless others in your everyday life and help you as a thinker and leader.

5. To own your material (i.e., instead of social media companies)

Why not just post your thoughts on social media? Well, why would we want to hand over our material to social media companies to own forever and do what they want with? What if they decide to take it down or what if the company itself shuts down ( social media is dying , after all)? Owning your own website is the best way to protect your intellectual property.

The more people are learning about how these companies control our content, the more personal blogging is making a comeback and may have the potential to make the internet a better community than social media has.

I hope you enjoy the site! And if so . . .

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Faith in the Midst of Doubt

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:54:51 GMT

Note: this is one of a few archived blog posts I carried over from my old site just for fun and to preserve some “history.” It may or may not reflect current thoughts or feelings. This post is from January 2012.

I struggle with doubt. I have struggled for many years, and for years I’ve asked God to take it away from me. I guess you could say it is my thorn in the flesh. But why is it so hard for me to talk about? I know that I’m not alone in these struggles—many pastors and Christian people struggle with doubt—but why do I hear so few talking openly about it, especially those in leadership?

One reason I have become more comfortable with admitting this struggle lately is that I have come to see it as a grace in my life. In the midst of my doubt, I actually find myself being drawn closer to God and exercising faith in the midst of doubt. The paradox is that doubt seems to somehow strengthen my faith. As many have said, when God seems most absent from us He is often doing His most important work in us.

"when God seems most absent from us He is often doing His most important work in us"

To me there is nothing more painful than wanting so desperately to believe, but having to almost daily struggle to do so. I’ve often found comfort (if that’s the right word) in this popular quote by Flannery O’Connor: “I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe.”

What I’ve found when I open up about these struggles is that so many feel the same way. So I’m hoping this brief “confession” will be a small start in helping people (especially those in my own church community) become more open about doubt and the other things we wrestle with.

When we become aware of and admit our own struggles, we often become more compassionate in helping others deal with their specific struggles. And this is certainly a big part of what the church is all about.

The Rhythm of Sabbath

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 01:49:54 GMT

I finally understand how the Sabbath flows into and impacts the whole week. In the past I treated the Sabbath as something that only influenced one day of my week; therefore, I don’t think I was tapping into the rhythm of Sabbath that God really intended. Let me explain by looking at the day before and the day after the Sabbath for me right now:

Friday

Lynne Baab writes in her book on Sabbath that “true relaxation on the Sabbath requires preparation” (85). Baab explains that when she lived in Israel she could feel the anticipation of the day of rest as people prepared their meals, finished all their grocery shopping, cleaned the house, and finished all their work so that they could experience true rest on the day ahead. Preparation and anticipation are key factors in experiencing the fullness of the Sabbath.

Whereas I used to leave things for the Sabbath that needed to be done but perhaps weren’t officially tied to my work, now I try to finish everything possible on the day before. For me, this means doing all my errands, grocery shopping, going to the gym, finishing laundry, cleaning up the house, taking care of emails and phone calls, and anything that I consider to be “getting something done.” I even go as far as laying out my clothes and all materials I need for Sunday morning, which is my “back to work” day.

Just as the Israelites had to gather twice as much manna the day before the Sabbath, so we might have to work a little harder to prepare ourselves for the Sabbath. The result of all this is I look forward to and enjoy the Sabbath more than ever–it truly becomes a day of holy freedom.

Saturday: Sabbath

Sunday

Sunday is my longest and most exhausting work day of the week. Baab makes a case for thinking of Sabbath as being the first day of the week: “Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day, so their first full day on earth was the seventh day, the Sabbath . . . They didn’t begin to work until they had rested in God’s presence” (97).

Since being more intentional about how I prepare for and observe the Sabbath, I’ve found myself having more energy, more joy, and a better perspective as I work from early morning to late at night on Sunday. I previously dreaded the feeling of the physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion I experience on Sunday, but somehow it doesn’t seem as bad anymore, and I feel less spent at the end of Sundays than I used to.

The Sabbath has become “a discipline that seems to splash grace over the other days of the week as well” (Baab, 99). The first couple days of my work week are spent looking back at the Sabbath and reliving its joy. The days leading up to the Sabbath are spent in preparation and anticipation of what lies ahead. This rhythm of time that the Sabbath creates is an important and often overlooked element of God’s plan for the Sabbath.

The Pastor

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:42:14 GMT

I recently started reading Eugene Peterson’s memoir The Pastor, the story of his formation as a pastor and how the vocation of pastor formed him. Peterson, a pastor for fifty years, is easily one of the best and most influential pastors of our time, so it’s important that we listen to what he has to say.

One of Peterson’s biggest concerns is that “The vocation of pastor has been replaced by the strategies of religious entrepreneurs with business plans” (4). Peterson says that so many pastors have quit or been dismissed due to the cultural assumption that all leaders are people who “get things done” and “make things happen.” He admits that this is one component of pastoral work, but “the pervasive element in our two-thousand-year pastoral tradition is not someone who ‘gets things done’ but rather the person placed in the community to pay attention and call attention to ‘what is going on right now’ between men and women, with one another and with God—this kingdom of God that is primarily local, relentlessly personal, and prayerful ‘without ceasing’” (5).

A large part of the pastor’s assignment is “to pay more attention to what God does than what I do, and then to find, and guide others to find, the daily, weekly, yearly rhythms that would get this awareness into our bones” (45). The way of understanding the vocation of pastor is “a way that can’t be measured or counted, and often isn’t even noticed” (5).

"There is tremendous pressure upon pastors to produce in ways that can be measured"

And yet, there is a tremendous pressure upon pastors to produce in ways that can be measured and can be counted. In order for the pastor to pay attention to what God is doing and then call attention to it among the people, he or she must be afforded the time and freedom from the pressure of “getting things done.”

There is a growing amount of evidence that clergy suffer immensely from burnout, as this New York Times article discusses . But as Jeffrey MacDonald points out in his response to that article , it’s not so much that pastors work too much that causes burnout (although that’s true), but the fundamental problem is the pressure on the pastor “to forsake one’s highest calling.” As consumer-driven religion gains popularity and becomes the expectation of the people, the pastor is forced to abandon his or her calling of helping people to grow spiritually and the pastor therefore becomes more unhappy and unhealthy.

One of my professors often reminds students that the ministry can easily become making sure everyone is in the right place at the right time—what he calls becoming “the director of the circus”—instead of helping people discover the inner life, the movements of the soul, and calling others to lay down their lives and follow the way of the cross.

For me, it’s never the long weeks that involve pastoral care, moral counsel, study, and sermon preparation that lead to burnout. The burnout comes from the long weeks that consist mainly of “directing the circus,” of planning events that are primarily meant to entertain people (couched in language of “promoting fellowship”) and the pressure to give people what they want rather than to challenge them with what they need.

The weeks I feel like giving up are the ones where I feel like what I’m doing has very little to do with what I am called to do and have a responsibility to do as a pastor.

May God grant pastors the strength to hold fast to their primary calling, and may He grant people the grace to see their pastors as spiritual shepherds, not religious entrepreneurs.

Sabbath & Grace

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 01:34:59 GMT

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about two subjects: Sabbath and grace.

Many think that observing the Sabbath goes against God’s grace because it sounds legalistic, as if we’re earning God’s favor. But in reality, the exact opposite is true. The Sabbath teaches us grace, because through it—through resting from work, from striving, from serving—we realize that nothing we do will earn God’s love.

When we never stop to rest, we are in danger of thinking our actions trigger God’s love for us. But when we stop and slow down, we take the time to realize we are greatly loved by God apart from what we do.

"We are greatly loved by God apart from what we do"

In her book Sabbath Keeping, Lynne Baab discusses grace and says:

“Our worth comes from being loved by God, not from what we do . . . We slide into legalism when we move toward the belief that we will be saved by what we do, when we think a particular behavior will earn God’s approval. Grace teaches that there is nothing we can do to make God love us any more than he already does. Yet we humans are constantly tempted to believe God will like us more if we do certain things.”

Sabbath is not just a day off, it’s a way of life. To rest, to Sabbath, to stop, so that we can identify and receive the daily graces God gives to us.

Five Social Media Suggestions

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 01:28:36 GMT

Two of the main spiritual dangers of social media are obsession/addiction and narcissism. Most young people (and lots of older people as well) check social media before they even get out of bed and constantly throughout the day. Some have even admitted missing their phone while in the shower! The link between social media and an increase in narcissism has been well documented. Social media sites can foster a selfish, inward focused, all-about-me mentality. We can easily become obsessed with cultivating our online image.

With these dangers in mind (and there are many more), here are five social media suggestions to help keep a healthy balance:

1. Practice a Social Media Fast

Don’t look at your social media accounts for one or two weeks and see what you notice about yourself.

2. Have a Social Media Sabbath

Have a day each week where you take a break from social media. At the very least, have a night where you rest from the social media world.

3. Be Careful With the First and Last Parts of Your Day

Instead of checking social media first thing in morning and last thing at night, read the Bible, pray, or just read a book (for the Bible’s advice on the first and last parts of our day, see Psalm 5:3; 92:1-2; 119:55). Guard the bookends of your day.

4. Don’t Separate Your Worlds

Realize the virtual world is an extension of the real world. You can’t be a Christian everywhere in your life but not online. Sin is sin, whether online or in person. Gossip, arrogance, jealously, and other sins are still sins even in the virtual world.

5. Give Priority to Real Relationships

Studies are showing that the upcoming generation is dangerously lacking in social skills. People talk to people more online than they do in person. Make sure you are spending more physical time with your family and/or spouse than you are online in social media.

The problem is not using the technology. The problem is using it without reflection and without pause to think about what it is doing in our lives. As Christians, we should not just blindly jump into something and never pause to reflect on how these technologies impact our lives.

Sleep

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:10:53 GMT

Sleep is in the news again. Every few months or so a new study comes out reminding us of the importance of sleep. We all agree we need more sleep and that we are a sleep deprived culture, but do we see getting enough sleep as a spiritual issue? Do you have a healthy theology of sleep?

I recently came out of one of my busiest stretches in recent memory. During this time, I frequently sacrificed sleep in order to get more work done. What I noticed about myself was not good: easily agitated, inability to make decisions, lack of compassion, low patience, and just an overall struggle to produce quality work. In summary, it was hard if not impossible to do well the things God has called me to do; I could not be the kind of Christian I wanted to be without proper sleep. This is a problem.

"Do you have a healthy theology of sleep?"

I was reminded of an article I read a few years ago by renowned writer Lauren Winner. In it she reminds us to consider “sleep as part of faithfulness” and that the answer “sleep more” may be one of the best answers to what Christians can do for the common good. She writes, “not only does sleep have evident social consequences, not only would sleeping more make us better neighbors and friends and family members and citizens. Sleeping well may also be part of Christian discipleship, at least in our time and place.”

In the end, like so many choices in the Christian life, sleep is a matter of trust. God has apparently designed our bodies to need at least 8-10 hours of sleep. When we refuse to put value on sleep, we are making a statement that other things such as work, productivity, and often entertainment, are more important than other Christian values that require adequate sleep. As Winner says, “a countercultural embrace of sleep bears witness to values higher than ‘the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things.’”

Why We Need Young Adult Pastors

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 01:07:40 GMT

It’s widely accepted by sociologists that young people are taking longer to reach adulthood. This phenomenon is often pejoratively referred to as “failure to launch,” but as it becomes more common and accepted it is more positively stated as “emerging adulthood.”

In her New York Times article “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” (which I highly recommend reading), Robin Marantz Henig describes the traditional five milestones that define the transition to adulthood: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying, and having a child. These five milestones were once completed by most people by age 30 or earlier, but nowadays—mostly due to cultural changes—that is rarely the case. Therefore, the 20s has emerged as a distinct life stage same as adolescence or adulthood. So the question is, how does this change the way we approach 20-somethings in the church?

It was once expected that after students exited their youth groups, they would join in the life of the “main church” and slowly begin to fit in with the rest of the adults as they get jobs, marry, and become grownups. But with this apparent new life stage, that model no longer seems effective. Churches are rapidly losing people in their 20s because they are not meeting the needs of this group and many times are not even aware of the needs. Twenty-somethings are too old for youth group, but the adult services at the church don’t speak their language and aren’t concerned with the same issues.

Jeffrey Arnett, a psychology professor at Clark University, says that emerging adulthood is a time of identity exploration, instability, self-focus, uncertainty, restlessness, and ambivalence. As Henig explains, just as social institutions have adapted over the last century as adolescence was recognized as a new developmental stage, it might also be time to adapt to the new stage of emerging adulthood. So what should churches do?

Unfortunately, one common response to this issue is to simply add on the responsibility of the young adults to some already overwhelmed and burnt out pastor. Usually either the youth pastor is asked to also oversee the young adult group or an associate pastor adds on the 20-somethings to his or her portfolio.

The problem with this is it fails to recognize these emerging adults as a group that needs significant time and care. The result is that many feel like I do, wanting (and needing) to dedicate full-time attention to the 20-somethings in their church, but unable to because of all the other responsibilities. Furthermore, pastors are often frustrated with their young adults who often appear aimless, overly dependent, and self-indulgent. Part of the reason pastors feel this way is because they are likely to be the exceptions to the trend, completing all or most of the five milestones at a younger age and somewhat skipping the emerging adulthood stage.

It certainly is debatable whether the delay to adulthood is a good or bad development in society, but either way pastors and churches need to be more understanding and sympathetic to these changes. For most 20-somethings, this stage is a period of exploration, questioning, and possibilities, and they are often forced to look outside the church for the right environment to help them develop, connect, and figure things out.

Just as youth pastors or adult ministries pastors have become the norm, young adult pastors are now a necessity in the church. It’s time for churches to wake up and begin to put their time, money, and resources toward helping 20-somethings make a positive transition from adolescence to adulthood. If we don’t, we are in jeopardy of losing them.

My Favorite 15 Albums

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:50:57 GMT

A friend recently asked me to list my 15 all-time favorite albums. These certainly aren’t my opinion on the greatest 15 albums of all time, they’re just my personal favorites that I have the most connection to and that are most meaningful to me. So, in no particular order (it would be impossible to rank them since it would depend on my mood and the season in life), here are my top 15 with some brief comments.

1. Starflyer 59 – Fell in Love at 22 (EP)

The first Starflyer album I ever bought (I have since bought 18 more!) and one of the first indie Christian albums I ever heard. This EP showed me that there are Christians out there making awesome music and introduced me to a whole new world of artists. Coincidentally, I really did fall in love at 22.

2. Luxury – Health & Sport

Certainly the only album I own that contains 42 footnotes in the lyrics! Some haunting songs on this album.

3. Sigur Ros – ( )

Yes, the name of the album is ( ). Hard to choose one Sigur Ros album, but this was the one that began my love of them. It’s mostly in Hopelandic, their made-up song language.

4. Ester Drang – Goldenwest

Lay on your back in the dark with surround sound and you’ll be transported to another universe. “Felicity, Darling” is one of my all-time favorite songs.

5. Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It

After indie stuff, my next love is soul music. This is somewhat of a “throwback” album.

6. The Great Fiction – Screaming Through the New Speak

Picked this up for $5 after seeing them on the “fringe stage” at a music festival. Great sounds and lyrics.

7. LN – Dirt Floor Hotel Part 1 & 2

I couldn’t decide between part 1 & 2 so I picked both! The whole LN collection really belongs on this list. One of my favorite voices of all time.

8. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

One of the first biographies I ever read as a kid was a 400+ page biography on Marvin Gaye. Also one of the first vinyl albums I bought, which helped turn me on to vinyl in high school.

9. Monarch – The Grandeur That Was Rome

I’m pretty sure I made this band famous in college by playing this album for all my friends.

10. The Gloria Record – Start Here

This was always in the 5-disc changer when I pulled all nighters in college.

11. U2 – Achtung Baby

The second CD I ever bought (all cassettes before that). The first CD was The Cranberries, No Need to Argue, in grade 5.

12. Sufjan Stevens – Michigan

Almost impossible to get sick of this album.

13. The Violet Burning – Drop Dead

Hard to pick one album from the VB library. Probably the best band you’ve never heard of and one of the most underrated Christian bands of all time.

14. Sade – Lovers Rock

How can you not love Sade?

15. Over the Rhine – Drunkard’s Prayer

The title track was sung at our wedding.

Still in Love

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:43:03 GMT

Hannah and I recently celebrated our three-year wedding anniversary. Coming into marriage I had high expectations, especially because I’m a bit of a romantic. Three years in, I can honestly say that my expectations have been exceeded—marriage is even better than I had hoped.

I’m not sure I know all the reasons marriage has worked out so well for us. Many friends have really struggled through their first years of marriage, and some sadly were divorced by the three-year mark. Obviously, the number one reason is God’s grace and faithfulness to us and his hand upon our relationship. Here are some other reasons marriage has been such an enjoyable experience for us:

1) A spiritual and intellectual connection. Basically, we have similar goals and vocational interests. We’re both ministers, and we both love to teach and to learn. We met in Hebrew class, and our first dozen or so dates were translation dates!

2) Fitting our roles to our strengths and interests rather than pre-determined roles. We don’t have a stereotypical marriage when it comes to responsibilities. For example, I do all the grocery shopping and Hannah does anything that involves holding a tool because we each enjoy doing those things.

3) Setting aside time for each other. This is not easy and we certainly fail at times, but we try hard to block out a day or night to spend focused time with one another. This involves the discipline to say no to other things, which can be tough. But I try to always remember that I can’t be a leader to others if I don’t first take care of my own marriage.

4) Savoring and appreciating the little things. One of my daily prayers is “Lord, help me to savor and appreciate all the little things about Hannah and let my appreciation for them grow.” This makes a huge difference. It’s always easier—especially in marriage—to focus on the 10% flaws rather than the 90% good in a person. This prayer helps me not to forget all the great things that made me fall in love at the beginning.

josephdutko.com

My AI Policy

This is an AI-Free Blog & Website

Book Launch: Pentecostal Responses to the Refugee Crisis

Watch the Book Launch!

More information, links, and materials for I Was a Stranger . . .

Brief Book Summary:

Buy the Book

Best Practices for Adding a Second Service

Thinking of Adding a Second (or Third) Service? Tips, Considerations, and Encouragements.

Our Story

1. Plan Ahead

2. Cast Vision & Encourage Faith

3. Focus on the Benefits

Communication Tips (to your church)

Communication Tips (to your staff)

Practical Considerations & Questions to Ask

7 Songs or Albums on Death and Grief

"Apart from love, grief is perhaps the most universal experience -- arguably, even more so"

1. Mount Eerie, A Crow Looked at Me (Album)

2. The Gray Havens, "Over & Over" (Song)

3. "It's Quiet Uptown" (Song) from the musical Hamilton

4. Benjamin Daniel, Home Enough For Now (Album)

5. LN, "The Void / Melancholia Of Departure" (Song)

6. Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell (Album)

7. Stavesacre, "Gold & Silver" (Song)

*BONUS TRACK* Air Review, "H" (Song)

4 Tips For Dying Well as a Christian

It is our Christian duty to plan ahead for our death

1) Set your affairs in order (have a will)

2) Have as much of a full-blown funeral as possible

3) Consider bodily burial

4) Die in (Christian) community

Excerpt from "I Was a Stranger and You Took Me In: Pentecostal Responses to the Refugee Crisis"

Excerpt from my chapter, "Going Mainstream(ing): Pentecostalism and the Gender Dimensions of Displacement"

﻿ Personal Reflection and Conclusion

What People are Saying about The Pentecostal Gender Paradox

The book is now available in affordable paperback!

Guest Post: Well-Intentioned Leaders START with Gender Equity Polices. Wise Leaders END There.

Ellen Duffield Presents a Model For True Change

Conviction

Compassion

Competencies

Culture-Shaping

Paperback Version of Pentecostal Gender Paradox is Out!

30% off until Oct. 5!

Spirit-Inspired Diversity in Leadership

Diversity in Leadership is a Biblical Must

Review of Pentecostal Preacher Woman by Linda Ambrose

"Now more than ever, the stories of Pentecostal women leaders need to be told"

Did Paul Say Women Should Remain Silent in Churches?

5 Possible Explanations or Meanings of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35

Marking 10 Years as Co-Lead Pastors

3 Things We've Learned About Church Revitalization

1. Think Big, Start Small

2. Change Things, Yes. But Do It In a Way (Most) People Can Handle

3. Listen First, Then Act

Concluding Thoughts

Not Your Normal Academic Conference

A Powerful Moment at the Society for Pentecostal Studies

Should a Pentecostal Education be a Feminist Education?

Including Female Voices in (Pentecostal) Theological Education

How Many Women Are On Your Church Board?

More Than Token Representation is Needed

1. "We'd be happy to have a woman on our board, but that's not who the people nominate or vote in, so there's nothing we can do about it."

2. "Women are too emotional"

3. The Double Standard

4. Token Representation

Our Story

Faith Today Magazine Reviews The Pentecostal Gender Paradox

Canada's Main Christian Magazine Offers Thoughts on The Pentecostal Gender Paradox

Is There Room at the Table? A Review and Reflection (15 Years Later)

Reflecting on How Much Has Changed in Pentecostal Scholarship Over the Last 15 Years

Is There Room at the Table?: A Review and Reflection.

By Joseph Dutko

What's Coming in 2025

Exciting News for The Gender Paradox and more in 2025

But There's Much More to Come in 2025!

1. The Aforementioned Release of an Affordable Paperback!

2. A Forthcoming Review of the Book in Faith Today Magazine

BONUS TRACK Air Review, "H" (Song)

Personal Reflection and Conclusion