That being said, I am on a blog review list run by the Mulnomah and WaterBrook labels of Random House, and could forward one of those invites on to you if you’re interested.

Wow, nothing shakes up the blog like a quick comment from the book’s author. I’m honored to have you drop by.

I’ll admit, I wrestled with whether or not to pull in the blog post, but I wanted to be able to grapple a bit with the thinking on women in leadership – a place where we obviously see things a bit differently. Sorry if that came across as unfair to the book. There is definitely can be a tension between the “what did women do?” (WDWD, as you term it) that we see in the NT and the 1 Tim and Titus passages. We’ve come down on different sides of that tension right now, but that’s OK.

If you ask my opinion on the elder “characteristics” vs. “rules”, I would fall on the side of the Church typically having gotten it wrong… but I’ll chew on it some more.

Thanks again for a helpful, thoughtful, book!

Fair enough. I don’t expect everyone to be convinced of how I use Story in the example of women in ministry, but I tried to explain it as I see it. I have only one little grump about this post: that elder stuff is about a blog I posted and not about the book. My contention, of course, is WDWD and whether or not churches are letting women do now what they did then. That, to me, is an argument we need to ponder.

On the “begging your pardon” … nice little touch. Yes, I can see how some might take my argument that way, but my point — isn’t it? — that the Church has not read those statements as rules, and Paul himself didn’t give the same list twice. So, it’s not just that folks don’t meet those items but that we — the Church — has not treated them that way. Maybe the church has been wrong all along? I consider that an option.

Anyway, I appreciate your fair review. I wish all could review books with your spirit.