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Explores how and why women from all backgrounds should be encouraged to use their valuable skills to enrich the church.
Many of us look as though 'we're fine'. And that's just how we prefer it, especially if members of a church full of people 'doing fine. Few of us want to stick out or be seen as disruptive. So we're reluctant to volunteer concerns or difficulties.
How different things might be if we had time and opportunity to share what we honestly think and how we really are!
Nay Dawson's book She Needs has done just this: she has given women the space and safety to share their actual experiences of church life. She never pushes a theological agenda nor does she claim to offer a programme for how to respond. She merely wants us all to listen to what so many have felt. This is not an easy book to read as a result. But it is important. As Mark Meynell (Langham Partnership) writes in his foreword, 'I'm sad this book had to be written. But I am equally sure that it did.'
Many people, men as well as women, will be very grateful to Nay for this helpful and challenging book.
A great book to read alongside this one is Graham Beynon and Jane Tooher's Embracing Complementarianism.
| Contributors | Nay Dawson |
|---|---|
| ISBN | 9781789744521 |
| Format | Paperback |
| First published | March 2024 |
| Dimensions | 129mm x 197mm x 9mm |
| Weight | 0.12 kg |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 112 |
| Publisher | IVP |
I remember as a young Christian on a ministry training course overhearing a conversation about the role of women in church. I thought to myself, “That’s not my problem.” I could not have been more wrong. By the grace of God, I was led to repentance. I have gone on to have the privilege of working alongside Nay and other women. They exceed me in character and contribution to God’s kingdom, without whom we’d all be impoverished. The triune God has made men and women to display together his beautiful goodness in his world. And it should matter to all of us how we interact and serve alongside one another. I’ve found Nay’s work in She Needs to be a helpful window into the painful experience of women of which I might otherwise have been ignorant. I lament my own failures and those that have been knowingly or unknowingly built into much of what we do. I’m challenged by the honest experience of women in the Church and inspired to do all I can to see, hear and honour women better.
I felt frustrated as the words fell out of my mouth for the umpteenth time, “We don’t invite women speakers because we don’t know many good female Bible handlers.” I wasn’t frustrated with the student who had asked the question, but with the culture of which I was a part and which I helped to perpetuate, which meant that gifted and godly women weren’t given the opportunity to develop or deploy their God-given abilities... Everyone who is called by God should be invested in to serve in the appropriate context for their calling. And so, the stories of women overlooked and under-trained need to be told. We must see and feel the struggle, so that those who are the gate keepers to opportunity might fling the gates open. I trust this book will do just that.
I enjoyed this book, having been a member of several churches in my lifetime which have focused on male leadership. Now I'm in my 70s I'm not looking for leadership roles, but I'm keen to support gifted younger women who want to serve in the church. Nay doesn't have all the answers, but she's very encouraging, and I hope male church leaders will allow themselves to be challenged by this book.
