The Eowiggle

A missionary is not someone special, more gifted, or more holy than anyone else. In fact, many of us missionaries joke that God needed to take us to the mission field to teach us the hard lessons we could not learn at home because of our own stubbornness. Among missionary leaders, there is a saying that leading missionaries is like “herding cats” because of our independent streak. Missionaries can exude strength and courage, but as the years progress, I have noticed certain patterns of struggle that are unique to missionaries (and I’d venture to say much of this applies to those who are in full-time ministry, as pastors or church-planters). The first and biggest area of struggle is the coalescence of job and Christian life. My sister once said to me: "it must be difficult to be a professional Christian.” At first, I was set aback by her comment, but as I mulled over that expression, I realized that it is at the core of some of our twisted identity issues. On the upside, w...

Joyfully Spreading the Word: Sharing the Good News of Jesus Edited by Kathleen Nielson , Gloria Furman , Contributions by Shar Bell, Rosaria Butterfield , Gloria Furman , Camille Hallstrom, Megan Hill , Happy Khambule , Jamie R. Love , Rebecca Manley Pippert , Eowyn Stoddard You can be a part of the spread of the gospel in the world.  Here are theological reflections and real stories from women from across the world who are eagerly sharing the good news of Jesus wherever God has placed them—showing us just how possible it is to follow Jesus’s call to evangelism in our ordinary, everyday lives. I enjoyed writing a chapter on mercy ministry and how it connects to proclamation ministry. I won't say more...you'll have to get the book! Editors: Kathleen Nielson (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is an author and speaker who loves working with women in studying the Scriptures. After directing the Gospel Coalition’s women’s initiativ...

Archetypes, born in ancient Pagan cultures, were understood as universal abstractions that provided a general common understanding to an otherwise diverse fabric of life and particular application of gendered reality. The association of the woman with the earth and fertility, for example, is an ancient archetype common across cultures. Or take the 3 rd century BC Asian Yin and Yang principle, for example. It was an archetype for understanding the inter-connectedness and interdependence of the sexes. Incorporated as a way of explaining the deep psychology of gender, Carl Jung later called them primordial images, shared in a collective subconscious. The philosophical “archetypical” thinking of Plato was a further and significant development in the history of philosophy. Though he may not have called them “archetypes,” his concept of “ideas” or perfect forms of things was on a philosophical level what archetypes are on a psychological level. Kant, much later, but still building on ...