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RevGals Friday Five + Company Girl Coffee = Summertime Friday Five Fun

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So, what’s up, Rev Gals and Pals [and Company Girls]?  How are you spending your summer?  (I know, some of you are in a different hemisphere and it may be chilly…sorry!)  Are you experiencing fire or floods or tornados?  Vacationing?  Working harder than ever?  Experiencing change?  Longing for change?

Share five things that are happening in your life, personally or professionally or some of each, in this season of life.

  1. My big summer thing are all the sinus headaches and migraines I’ve been having this year due to the funky weather Chicago has been having. I’m not the only one, and it looks like we’ll just have to tough it out.
  2. I’m determined to finish my novel this summer.
  3. We’re going on vacation in August to Las Vegas for the Magic Live convention. Hello pool, mojitos and lots of great magic.
  4. Trying to figure out how to grow more houseplants and herbs without using soil. Hydroponic units are expensive, and I’m thinking there has to be some sort of soil-less mix I can use in pots. I’ve been researching and hunting down viable options.
  5. Looking forward to my glasses prescription getting in. Hoping it makes working on the computer easier.

To found out what other RevGals are doing go here. And go here to see what the Company Girls are talking about over their coffee.

My Favorite Founding Mother: Abigail Adams

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This quote is taken from a letter Abigail wrote to John dated March 31, 1776.

I long to hear that you have declared an independancy–and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remeber the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of  the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.

That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in immitation of the Supreme Being make use of that power only for our happiness.

From The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family 1762-1784, p. 121

You can for more information about Abigail at AbigailAdams.org and the National First Ladies Library.

Wonderful Hymn: She Comes Sailing on the Wind

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I’m still waiting for my new lenses to arrive for the glasses and hopefully will be on the computer more sometime next week. My head was actually feeling decent today, and I had to time to visit some friend’s blogs to find that Suzanne McCarthy had posted this wonderful hymn, wondering if I knew it. I had not heard it before and loved it. Dear Ted: we can sing this one any time at church, just so you know.

SHE COMES SAILING ON THE WIND

She comes sailing on the wind, her wings flashing in the sun,
On a journey just begun, she flies on.
And in the passage of her flight, her song rings out through the night,
Full of laughter, full of light, she flies on.

Silent waters rocking on the morning of our birth,
Like an empty cradle waiting to be filled,
And from the heart of God the Spirit moved upon the earth,
Like a mother breathing life into her child.

Many were the dreamers whose eyes were given sight
When the Spirit filled their dreams with life and form.
Deserts turned to gardens, broken hearts found new delight,
And then down the ages still she flew on.

To a gentle girl in Galilee a gentle breeze she came,
a whisper softly calling in the dark,
The promise of a child of peace whose reign would never end,
Mary sang the Spirit song within her heart.

Flying to the river, she waited circling high
Above the child now grown so full of grace.
As he rose up from the water, she swept down from the sky,
And she carried him away in her embrace.

Long after the deep darkness that fell upon the world,
After dawn returned in flame of rising sun,
The Spirit touched the earth again, again her wings unfurled,
bringing life in wind and fire as she flew on.

COMMON PRAISE 656
Text and melody: Gordon Light; arr. Andrew Donaldson.©
Text and melody © 1987 Common Cup Company.
Used with permission.

Sorry for the Radio Silence

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The blog has been very, very quiet. There’s a reason for that: I had a two week sinus headache/migraine. I’m feeling better after changing sinus medicines, but the last couple of weeks were rough. The headaches were also caused by eye strain due to a significant change in my astigmatism. Until the new prescription comes in computer time is limited due to eye strain. I hope you had a better June than I did. I plan on being back for July and the new Customer Love challenge for that month!

Please remember:

To go take a look at my ebook–What You Didn’t Learn in Sunday School: Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down.

When you sign up for my newsletter, Shawna’s Newbies &  Deals over in the right sidebar, you get a free chapter of What You Didn’t Learn in Sunday School: Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down. You will only receive a newsletter from me when I have new products or am offering my list a deal. This is not a regular newsletter.


Women Bloggers You Should Be Reading: Suzanne McCarthy

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I’ve followed Suzanne McCarthy’s blog, Suzanne’s Bookshelf for at least three years. First I have to apologize to Suzanne (as I do with most bloggers I follow) because I tend to be a lurker and don’t comment that much. I know that’s not what you’re supposed to do, but that’s how I am. I do a lot of reading, and if the planets are aligned just right, I leave a comment. Most of the time when I read Suzanne’s posts, I think: “This woman is freaking brilliant.” And she is.

Suzanne’s knowledge of both Koine Greek (the everyday Greek that the New Testament is written in) and Classical Greek is broad and deep. The woman knows her dead languages, and she knows how to communicate that knowledge, so you don’t have to have a degree in linguistics to understand what she’s talking about. She’s also a strong advocate for women’s full equality in the church and women in ministry. Suzanne was voted as one of the Top 10 Bibliobloggers in May. Congratulations Suzanne!

Suzanne has two current blogposts that I wanted my readers to know about it. The first one is about one of my favorite women in the Bible: Phoebe. Suzanne points out that one of the words Paul uses to describe Phoebe, prostasis, one of the early church fathers, Clement, uses to describe Jesus. She shows how this word is used for leaders in the early church.

Her second post is compiling lists from Bible Archaeology of the kind of work women did in the Bible to support themselves and their families, which included food preparation; carding, spinning and weaving wool and flax, as well as making tents, setting them up and breaking them down. (Again I highly recommend the book Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years by Barbara Wayland Barber.)

Go read the posts and explore Suzanne’s Bookshelf. You’ll find all sorts of goodies there.

 

 

RevGals Friday Five: Summer Reruns

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For the last two months I’ve had my nose to the grindstone getting Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down written and published. Now it’s time to have some fun. I’m part of a marvelous group of women called the RevGalBlogPals. It’s a blog ring for women in ministry and leadership positions in the church, women in seminary or college, and those who support them. Every Friday there’s always a fun meme to help us get to know each other and meet new people. Here is this week’s Friday Five.

Songbird muses: “It’s that time of year when the only new things on television are music/dance competitions (the 21st century answer to variety shows?). Yes, it’s the season of reruns.

This week the clock turned back to last fall and the Glee kids went back to school and still got “slushied,” and Michael hired his nephew on The Office, which was not something even he would be likely to repeat.

In honor of this annual Time Warp, please share five things worth a repeat. These could be books, movies, CDs, recipes, vacations, or even TV shows.”

Here are my reruns; things I can read, watch, or listen to over and over and over again.

  • Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. One of my favorite books. I reread it this spring for One Book One Chicago, and got to hear Neil Gaiman speak at the Harold Washington Public Library. I stood in line for three hours to make sure I’d get a good seat. I am such a fangirl.
  • Firefly and Serentiy. Wash and Zoe have what I consider to be the perfect biblical marriage. When River decided to fight, she decided when, where, and why. Female sovereignty at its best. Need I say more?
  • CSI:NY. I tuned in for Gary Sinise. I stayed for the rest of the sexy cast. The boyfriend/fiance of my main character in the novel I’m working on is based on Det. Don Flack. Yes, I know how fangirl pathetic this makes me sound. See 1st rerun.
  • Anything by The Cure. I’ve been bopping out and dancing to The Cure since the 80s, and I have no plans to stop. When I need a break I throw in one of my many CDs and become a Love Cat (YouTube video) bouncing all over the living room.
  • Little Women. This has been a favorite book since my early 20s. I don’t know why I didn’t read it earlier, but I’m glad I did read it. It’s one of those books I go back to again and again and again to visit old friends.

I’m also going to post this over at Home Sanctuary for the Company Girl Friday Coffee to start having fun with that group again too. Warning: when developing and launching a product, you will lose contact with everyone you ever met  online or in real life. Just so you know.

What is Home Sanctuary and who are the Company Girls? It’s a wonderful community Rachel Anne Ridge created to help us make our homes sanctuary. You won’t find any Martha Stewarts here; just women who want their houses/apartments/condos to be homes, and Rachel shows how to do that.

It’s Friday. Take a break. Relax. Have some coffee, and tell me:

What are some of your favorite reruns? Who are some of your old friends?

The 1st Review of Women Who Didn't Shut Up & Sit Down Is In

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J. K. Gayle at Aristotle’s Feminist Subject has posted the first review of Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down.

J. K. is a wonderful advocate of women’s equality and women in ministry. He makes sure we have a voice in the biblioblogger web world as well as telling his readers what feminist theologians like me are blogging about. I’ve also met some incredible women through him like Suzanne McCarthy and Rachel Marszalek. Go read what he has to say about Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down.

Women Who Didn't Shut Up & Sit Down: More than an E-book

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Two weeks ago I let my baby out into the world: my first E-book, Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down. Now the E-book isn’t by it’s lonesome; in fact, it’s the star of two different packages. The first package is the E-book and four podcasts with Catherine Caine, Sandi Amorim, Lainie Petersen, and Mark Mattison. We talk about why interpretation of biblical passages about women is so important in today’s world. Whether we’re Christian or not (two of my interviewees aren’t Christian), the way these verses have been traditionally interpreted by Western Christianity effects women and their roles in the world.

The second package includes the E-book and podcasts plus two spiritual direction sessions. Have you been trying to figure out your place in the world? Are your dreams taking you into roles traditional views of women say you shouldn’t go? Are you confused about what you think you can and can’t do based on your sex? Then get the third package, and I will be happy to listen and help you discern what Godde might be saying to you. We’ve all grown up hearing that Godde doesn’t allow women some roles because we are women. It takes some doing to undo all those lies. Let me help.

You can go here to find out more about Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down along with the packages. (And don’t worry: if all you want is the E-book, there’s an option for that too.)

I’m available for interviews, podcasts, and guest posts: Email me .

Women Who Didn't Shut Up & Sit Down: Free Sample Chapter

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First I have to fess up. I got a little overzealous. I miscalculated how much I could do and how long it would take really to launch a new product. I also did not realize what a steep learning curve launching a new product and doing new things (like podcasts) is. And now I’m exhausted. And I still have a full schedule. I’ve pretty much been working non-stop the last two weeks on getting my baby ready to go and introducing her to the world. I still have an editorial meeting to go to this weekend, and three podcasts to record, edit, and post. And I realize I can’t do it. Two of my potential interviewees are also up to their own necks in work, and all of us need a chance to breathe.

All of that said: I will be doing four podcasts instead six for Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down. Two of them are already posted, and the other two will be posted next week. Tomorrow I’m taking off for Ohio to meet up with the rest of the editorial team on The Divine Feminine Version of the New Testament. I come back Monday, and I’m taking Tuesday off (and may be Wednesday). The last two podcasts will be posted on May 26 and 27.

But don’t worry: I leave you a little something to get you by until the next two podcasts. If you click the link below, you will be able to download a free sample chapter from Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down. “Bringing the Women of the Bible Out from the Shadows” will give you everything you need to study the women in the Bible on you own. I teach you how to use the technique I came up with to study these women and provide you with a “Recommended Reading” list on Bible dictionaries and commentaries that will help you understand the historical and sociological background of the Scriptures. There’s even a little cheat sheet to keep in your Bible as a reference. I hope it helps you get to know the incredible women who live within the pages of the Bible and helps you to stop putting limitations on what Godde can do through a woman just like you.

Sample Chapter: Bringing the Women of the Bible from the Shadows

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Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down is now for sale! Remember, if you sign up for my newsletter, you will receive a 20% discount on Women Who Didn’t Shut Up & Sit Down. This newsletter will only be letting you know about new products and discounts.