Sarah Bessey - Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women

Praise for Jesus Feminist

Lucid, compelling, and beautifully written. This book will encourage women everywhere to take their high place in Christ.

Frank Viola, author of Gods Favorite Place on Earth and From Eternity to Here

For some time now, feminism and Christianity have been bedfellows, but primarily in the halls of academia. What Sarah Bessey does is claim the voice of feminism for her own Christian faithan evangelical faith, no less! The result is a powerful and empowering narrative that both men and women will find compelling and readable.

Tony Jones, theologian and author of The New Christians

I love writers who are insightful enough to be cynical but choose not to be. I love books that help me see things Id never noticed beforein life, in myself, in others, in the Bible, in Jesus. I love writing that makes reading enjoyable and easy, because I know how hard it is to write that way. For these reasons and more, I love Jesus Feminist . Its not just a womans book. In fact, its the kind of book that will help both women and men see how unhelpful that distinction is.

Brian D. McLaren, author, speaker, activist

Its hard to navigate an extremely delicate and important issue with gentleness and intention. In Jesus Feminist , Sarah Bessey has clearly proven herself a master at the task. Bessey powerfully, yet gracefully, compels both genders to rethink the role and value of women in the Christian faith, and emboldens women to know and live out that intrinsic value within the Body of Christ. Jesus Feminist is a critically important work; a must-read for everyone in the Church.

Nish Weiseth, author of Speak: How Your Story Can Change the World

Sarah says she doesnt feel a call to preach, but she speaks with the fire and artistry of a great preacher. Her sermon is one of hope: though the Church has often ignored the voices of women or lumped them into one limiting category, a revolution is coming. Sarahs voice is prophetic and she will free other women to speak and act with power, love, and courage. And may it be a summons for men in the Church to speak less and listen a lot more.

Adam S. McHugh, author of Introverts in the Church

With grace, humility, and confidence (even in the unknown), Sarah Besseys Jesus Feminist masterfully humanizes one of the most controversial topics of the day. Bessey realizes that life, love, and faith cannot happen without community and the understanding that controversy is less about sides and more about being whole together.

Andrew Marin, author of Love Is an Orientation

If you never imagined yourself as a card-carrying Jesus Feminist, this book will give you second thoughts. Sarah Bessey makes her casenot as a fire-breathing debaterbut as a woman utterly captivated by Jesus who will stop at nothing to follow him. Her winsome writing made me laugh, cry, and stand taller as a woman. Unless Im mistaken, it should swell the ranks of Jesus Feminists too. Sign me up!

Carolyn Custis James, author of Half the Church: Recapturing Gods Global Vision for Women

Sarah Bessey is so gifted a writer, so smart and welcoming and humble, the Church might not even notice how often it gets kicked between its doctrinally sound traditions, where it hurts. But what makes Jesus Feminist so fantastic, so challenging, is Besseys ability to be both the friend who tells us the truth about womanhood inside our churches and the sage who shows us how Jesus embraced equality and how we can do it better. With Jesus Feminist , Bessey is a modern-day Moses, seeking to not only free a Church held captive by dogma but also to redeem generations of women who have been stifled and silenced far too long.

Matthew Paul Turner, author of Churched

Jesus Feminist is a book that needed to be written! With honest vulnerability and a strong biblical foundation, Sarah Bessey shares her very personal journey and insight regarding the roles and qualifications for women in ministry. This book is a call and an invitation toward freedom and accountability. With honor and high regard for men and women alike, it beautifully portrays the wonder of what can happen when we take our places together and walk out the gifts and callings that God has placed within us as His Church.

Helen Burns, author of The Miracle in a Mothers Hug and What Dads Need to Know about Daughters/What Moms Need to Know about Sons

I want to write like Sarah Bessey. What she does with words is extraordinary, and the topic shes chosen is so deeply important. Jesus Feminist is a beautiful, challenging, rich, gutsy book, an absolute must-read.

Shauna Niequist, author of Bread & Wine

Ive read countless books addressing the place of women in the kingdom, and I have never, ever read anything so lovely, so generous, profound, and humble as Jesus Feminist . If youre expecting anger or defensiveness or aggression, move on. If you are looking for intelligence and warmth and spirit, read this immediately. Regardless of where you enter this discussion, Sarah has created an astonishingly safe place to gather, discuss, process, and celebrate as women dearly loved by Jesus and created for his glory.

Jen Hatmaker, author of 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess and Interrupted: Relearning the Adventures of Faith

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For Brian

MTB

P oet Maya Angelou said, There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you. For women who bear the stories of patriarchy, freedom begins with the telling; it begins with those first tender words spoken out loud or written down on paper: When I was a little girl, I remember, Once.

I listen as these stories emerge around many shared tables, with dinner rolls and wine between us, the butter softening and the candles dripping as we talk into the night. A young seminarian shares the disappointment of speaking to an empty room the day she gave her first sermon in preaching class and none of her male classmates showed up. A pastor recounts the time she approached a lectern at a conference, only to see a man in the second row turn his chair around so he wouldnt have to face her. A funny, animated girl describes the relief she felt when she and her husband of ten years realized they could function as a team of equal partners, instead of imposing ill-fitting, hierarchal gender roles onto their relationship. A young mother quietly recounts the sexual abuse she suffered in the name of biblical submission.

I tell the story of standing before my high school youth group to give my first public testimony. Just sixteen, I breathlessly made my way through the familiar talelost to found, blindness to sight, wretch to born again. When I finished, I sat down next to a classmate, who turned to me and said, Youre a really good preacher, Rachel. Too bad youre a girl.

These stories are followed by groans, by laughter, by tears, by commiseration, by celebration, and often by sacred silence. They are being told in living rooms, sanctuaries, Sunday school classrooms, coffee shops, campsites, rural villages, city streets, and chat rooms all around the world. In the company of one another, women are finding their voices, telling untold stories, and singing freedom songs. A movement is underfoot, a holy rumbling. And things will never be the same.

In this movement of stay-at-home moms and biblical scholars, CEOs and refugees, artists and activists, Sarah Bessey has quickly become one of my favorite storytellers. I have followed her for several years now, and what I love most about her work is the quiet strength with which she goes about it, the way in which she proves you dont have to speak in anger to speak a hard truth. I think of Sarah as a big sister in the faith, a woman whose wisdom and maturity challenge me, but whose honesty and vulnerability remind me that shes walking by my side in this journey, one arm over my shoulder.