Sneak Peek: Introducing FireFall

A resourcing hub amplifying women in ministry and church leadership

Hello!
Long time, no Lent.

The last time I shared something as “A Creased Pamphlet” through Bread for Shepherds, we were wrapping up a collection of daily Lent devotionals.

I plan to share more through Bread for Shepherds in the coming months.

Right now, I’m launching a distinct newsletter called FireFall, amplifying resources by, about, and for women in ministry and church leadership, and I told Substack no, I’m not automatically enrolling you to it: that’d be like when people bought new iPhones and they came with a U2 album automatically downloaded on them. I love U2, but eurgh.

While I’m no U2, if you’re interested in the new weekly FireFall newsletter, please subscribe to it separately, I’m not foisting my egalitarian ways upon you.

Speaking of which. First things first:

Look.

I know FireFall might not represent your perspective. I respect that. I’m firmly convinced and convicted about where I land - but I also know, appreciate, and love people who conclude differently.

While I was pastoring a small church, one of the people in town I resonated with most? My Southern Baptist neighbor lady who became my friend. She lent me DVDs over the back fence, we drank tea and talked PBS, I preached on Sundays, she went to her Baptist church, and I really appreciated her then and still do now. I miss her.

If you’re not sure where you land on women in pastoral ministry, or you’re pretty sure you don’t support it, then if you’re not interested in FireFall, that’s fine. I do hope you’ll still feel free to read Bread for Shepherds whenever you like.

I just want you to know this, because we have a really…mousetrap-mechanism-tense-and-bursting-to-snap cultural moment right now: one step out of alignment with another person, and the metal bar springs down on someone’s head.

So if you’re skeptical or even flat-out against women in ministry, please just know - you’re always welcome. I don’t think you’re stupid, and you don’t have to be in the same place I am to hang around, grab a cookie, and listen in.

Now.

Here’s a sneak peek from an upcoming FireFall newsletter, for those who are interested:

FireFall is a resourcing hub amplifying the voices, ministries, and scholarship of women in ministry, church leadership, and the academy.

It’s more traffic roundabout with a coffee shop to the side than destination itself.

Specifically, FireFall encourages women in ministry by:

• Connecting across silos (denominational, geographical, a few linguistic).

• Amplifying over algorithms by linking and directing traffic to a variety of online resources (I arm-wrestled a search engine displaying complementarian summarized search results for certain key words). Linking to resources helps them rank. Amplifying the diverse voices of women in church leadership is important in part because women get cited less, and for better or worse, publishing contracts and keynote gigs often require online platform engagement benchmarks.

• Learning from what other women in ministry are struggling with or doing well - some challenges for women in ministry are universal, some shaped specifically by denominational, cultural, geographical, and historical factors.

• Boosting global connections. The global church is increasingly online, and research and historical archives are increasingly online, digitized, and accessible - much more so than when I was in seminary a mere *cough* years ago.

Each weekly FireFall newsletter will feature a curated assortment of multi-denominational resources for women in church leadership, pastors, seminary students, professors, and maybe your fine arts-teacher aunt who just likes to learn things.

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This Week’s Practical Tool for Women in Church Leadership:

Would it be meaningful to have a scheduled space to work on your sermon or research paper while other pastors are typing away, too? How might that melt a sense of isolation?

Enter Preacher’s Block, an initiative dreamed up by Dr. Jessica LaGrone, Dean of Chapel at Asbury Theological Seminary.

I love this innovative, practical solution for any and all preachers struggling to carve out sermon prep time…

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If you’re intrigued by this sneak peek, I hope you’ll subscribe.

Free subscribers to FireFall get a weekly Monday email linking to a variety of practical and scholarly resources by and about women in church leadership, as well as podcast episodes and videos from multiple organizations, denominations, and voices. If you want to know more about my broad “vetting” process, visit the “about” page here.

To comment or interact in community, I’m asking free subscribers to bump up to paid subscriptions. This will save us all a lot of hassle in comment moderation. Paid subscribers will also have access to original content that I’ll write and share.

• Please also note the homepage includes links on the right-hand sidebar, amplifying organizations that equip and empower women to follow God’s call into pastoral ministry.

If you want to keep hanging around for more Bread for Shepherds reflections and you’re not interested in FireFall, you don’t have to take any action, and this channel will return to its (irregularly) scheduled programming.

Grace, mercy, and peace, peace, peace, friends.

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