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Monday, September 17, 2012

Women Leaders in the Bible

Over the next few months, I am going to be preparing some curriculum to teach a Sunday School class at my church about women leaders in the Bible.  While I have a lot of ideas as to what to include, I would love to hear from you what you think it should include.  In other words, if you were taking the class, what questions would you come in with and what would you want to know?

Edit:  One idea I am tossing around is that after doing a lesson at the beginning on the general idea of "leadership", is to then take different qualities/characteristics of leaders and use them in subsequent lessons.  For example, if "courage" is a characteristic, I would use that with a lesson on Esther.  What are your thoughts?

Update:
Update: I've made this into an 8-week study. Some of the topics are "Callings, Gifts, & Gender", "Prophets", "Jesus & Women", "The New Testament Church", "Leadership", "Recap and Reflection". Two of the others I don't have lesson titles for yet as I'm not totally sure what I'm doing in them. But progress is being made!

Source: instagram.com via Kelly on Pinterest

9 comments:

Joy Newcom said...

Cultural customs regarding women during the time period that those stories, books and chapters were being written - particularly regarding women's relationship to those in authority.

SJS said...

I think of the statement that well-behaved women rarely make history; most (if not all) of the women in the Bible were atypical in their time. Jochebed, Miriam, the Egyptian princess, Potiphar's wife, Rahab, Sarah, Tamar, Rebekah, Rachel, Bathsheba, Deborah, Abigail, Ruth, Hannah, Maacah, Jezebel, Athaliah, Esther, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Lydia, Priscilla, the widow of Zarephath, -- all of these went against the norm in some way. Some made 'right' choices, others were very wrong. As women we so often just want to be below radar. We're so aware of room dynamics, how other women perceive us, what others expect of us, etc. The tension between that social default and the choices women made in the Bible interests me. For format, there's a choice to be linear (gradually increase the 'stretch' into discomfort) or patchwork (each lesson can fxn more as a stand-alone, accessible to anyone at any time w/out doing the whole series and such). I also think a greater depth could be given from taking a couple women at one time -- Abigail and Hannah both made choices that went against their husbands; Esther & the widow of Zarephath made choices that defied logic, etc. A single choice doesn't impact me as much as portraying the heart struggle that resulted in that choice. Just a few thoughts. : )

Erin Eggebeen said...

I second the suggestion about cultural customs but also would add the historical context of the women and why what they did was so important.

Kelly J Youngblood said...

I had many of those women's names on my list, but you brought up some I hadn't thought of; thank you! I do like your idea about gradually increasing the "stretch" into discomfort. This is a church that denominationally has accepted women as leaders for some time (I don't know how long) however this particular congregation has never had women elders or deacons. All 3 pastors (male) are 100% supportive of women in leadership.

Kelly J Youngblood said...

Oh, since you mentioned Esther, this is worth a read:
http://rachelheldevans.com/esther-actually-purim-persia-patriarchy#comments-50576fd5e4b01fe6ef2396dc Also, I just figured out why "SJS" kept nagging at my brain ;)

Handsfull said...

When I'm listening to teaching about anyone in the bible - male or female - I get very frustrated if they're portrayed as one-dimensional. I sometimes think that we're so used to the stories and how they turned out, that we forget the uncomfortableness that the people in the stories must have lived with, just as we do in our own stories. They didn't know the end, anymore than we know the end of our stories.
They were people, just like us, who had to figure it out as they went along... which makes what they did all the more remarkable.
The people of the bible were almost all broken, sinful people, whom God worked through in amazing ways - they weren't born perfect, any more than we are.

Erin Eggebeen said...

Could you use several people as an example of that quality? For instance, do a lesson on courage then have Esther, Mary, and Rahab or whoever else you might want to use as a follow up lesson(s)? Then you could see how so many people showed each quality throughout the study. That would be interesting to me, at least.

Kelly J Youngblood said...

That is a good idea, thanks!

Kelly J Youngblood said...

Update: I've made this into an 8-week study. Some of the topics are "Callings, Gifts, & Gender", "Prophets", "Jesus & Women", "The New Testament Church", "Leadership", "Recap and Reflection". Two of the others I don't have lesson titles for yet as I'm not totally sure what I'm doing in them. But progress is being made!