Halee Gray Scott - Dare Mighty Things: Mapping the Challenges of Leadership for Christian Women

Halee Gray Scott is a committed Christ-follower whose passion is that all humansespecially womenlive out their influence. She models a life that dares mighty things and inspires others to take up the challenge for themselves.

Elisa Morgan, speaker, author, President Emerita, MOPS International

Halee Gray Scotts timely book moves women beyond the gender debate zone to deal with the practical challenges women face in the often uncharted territory of ministry leadership. We need to get on with the work God is calling us to do and to call other women to join us. Dare Mighty Things is full of practical wisdom to help women leaders avoid the potholes in the road ahead that slow us down unnecessarily and cause avoidable casualties. This book is an important resource I will be recommending to women leaders I know.

Carolyn Custis James, author, Half the Church

Reading Dare Mighty Things, I felt that Halee Scott knew me intimately and urgently spoke the truth I needed to hear. Ive spent thirty years as a marketplace Christian leader, and now I serve as a nonprofit ministry leader. Ive never heard anyone articulate so vividly the challenges we face as leaders and how God would have us stand in the face of them. This book activated new resolve and passion for the mighty things God is calling me to do. It will do the same for you!

Tami Heim, President and CEO, Christian Leadership Alliance

Occasionally a book comes along with the power to inspire significant change. Dare Mighty Things qualifies, and I couldnt put it down. Halee tackles the key leadership challenges Christian women face today with researched insight, candor, and optimism. Over and over, I marveled at the wisdom of her beautiful young voice, calling women out of the shadows to experience the joy of leading for the Lord. I wish I could whisper these truths in the ear of every woman who wonders why she is here and how God wants her to spend her life. Dare Mighty Things provides a map that could revolutionize her world and rejuvenate the church.

Dr. Sue Edwards, Associate Professor of Educational Ministries and Leadership, Dallas Theological Seminary

Dr. Halee Scotts Dare Mighty Things is a much-needed book for all Christian women, especially women who sense a call to ministry work. Halee acknowledges and articulates obstacles of female leadership within the church, but she doesnt let us wallow there. She challenges us to redefine the meaning of leadership, to live with grit, to work hard, and to dare too much rather than too little. Dare Mighty Things invites women into the high call of living all out for Jesus and his kingdom work.

Dr. Jackie Roese, President, The Marcella Project

Finally someone has filled the need for a smart, savvy, and balanced resource for women in leadership. Women who often find themselves emerging alone are now part of the honest conversation Halee Gray Scott brings. As a pastor who has worked with women for more than a decade, I have been waiting years for a resource like this. Thank you, Halee!

Rev. Tracey Bianchi, Pastor for Worship and Women, Christ Church of Oak Brook

Halee Gray Scott dares women to discover how their lives matter, how they are gifted and called by God, and how they are needed as leaders today. She does not pit Christian complementarians and egalitarians against one another. Instead she finds points of collaboration: how women can be leaders, how spiritual gifts are not engendered, how all Christiansincluding womenhave a responsibility to exercise and steward their giftedness, and how churches have a responsibility to ensure that women are able to exercise their giftedness in freedom. Scotts book is soundly biblical and theological, critical and creative, inspiring and practically applicable.

Don Thorsen, Professor of Theology, Azusa Pacific University

I once heard a speaker say that many Christian women fall into the trap of trying either to lead like a man or be nice like a girl. Halee Gray Scott offers an alternative. She calls for women to live as women in Christ Jesus. From the table of contents to the very last page, this book is inspiring and instructive, especially to those women who can feel a sense of destiny inside them. If youre female and you want to live for God, then dare mighty things, because God created women to show his greatness.

Sarah Sumner, author, Men and Women in the Church: Building Consensus on Christian Leadership

ZONDERVAN

Dare Mighty Things

Copyright 2014 by Halee Gray Scott

ePub Edition December 2013: ISBN 978-0-310-51445-9

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Scott, Halee Gray, 1978

Dare mighty things : mapping the challenges of leadership for Christian women / Halee Gray Scott.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-310-51444-2 (softcover)

1. Christian womenReligious life. 2. Leadership in women. 3. LeadershipReligious aspectsChristianity. 4. Women in church work. 5. Christian leadership. I. Title.

BV4527.S284 2014

253.082dc23 2013036966

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Michelle Lenger

Cover photography:Veer, Shutterstock

Interior design: David Conn

Printed in the United States of America

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 /DCI/ 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For my daughters: Viv, spirited as a high wind, and Ellie, bright as the morning God has used you both, already, in a mighty way to heal places in me long devastated. Im so, so happy to be your mama.

CONTENTS

T hank you, Amy. Your wit and courage were the muse for all this, all those years ago. Im so proud of all you have accomplished.

Thank you, colleagues at Hermeneutics, in Redbud Writers Guild, and beyond. Your voices and wisdom illuminated my way.

Thank you, Katya. Your incisive, brilliant work made this book a better one.

Thank you, Sarah. Your faith and relationship with God have been a tremendous inspiration to me.

Thank you, Myrna, for seeing the end before it came to pass. A girl could never ask for a better soul sister.