Unsung Hero[in]es: In the Bible, What Did Women Do?

The Seventh-day Adventist Church, among many other Christian denominations, has been going through the issue of whether or not women should be ordained as pastors. There are already women pastors, my aunt among them, but millennia of patriarchal misogyny and male gender bias are hard to shake off. The senior pastor at my church, LLUC, has done a sermon series about some of the women leaders of the Bible in order to see what they and their roles may have to teach us about the topic of women's ordination. I wanted to write down the messages in order to remember them.

1. Deborah: Here Comes the Judge! (sermon video) – Don't limit the way God chooses to work. Don't think that God can or should only work in one specific way.
2. Huldah: Prophet to the King (video) – I think this one is something like, Listen to what God is saying regardless of who He's saying it through. God chooses to speak through whomever He wants. God's message is vital regardless of whoever is saying it, even if it's someone you wouldn't expect.
3. Miriam: In the Leadership Circle (video) – "Unsung heroes can have feet of clay." God can speak or work through flawed people. Just because a person is flawed, doesn't mean that God can't work through them or choose them to be leaders. Moses also made mistakes and was flawed, but people don't point to him and say that men shouldn't be leaders because of him. (I almost fistpumped in church when he said this. I definitely made that "sips tea" face)
4. Esther: Living with the If (video) – This sermon was given by a woman. The story of Esther should be sung and remembered because it shows us how to trust in God despite uncertainty and place our lives in His hands. We need to stand up for what's right despite our fear.
5. Priscilla and Junia: The Apostles' Colleagues – Today's church should look like the early church, with both women and men in its leadership and playing important roles.
6. Next week is Mary: A Woman's Place. Not sure yet which Mary it is.

I have loved this sermon series, not only because of the crumbs of representation for women that there is in the Bible and the way this shines a light on women leaders (even fewer crumbs for them), but because this is one of the ways my quiet, prefers-not-to-ruffle-feathers pastor shows support for women's ordination: by preaching from the Bible, the same place opponents of women's ordination turn to. This is simultaneously an ordinary sermon series on Bible characters and a Scriptures-supported feminist endorsement of women's ordination. I see you and I thank you.

Things I've found in the library where I work: Things found in books

There's a great blog called Forgotten Bookmarks, where people submit things they've found in books, either library or used books. This is mainly along those lines.

This made me laugh. So great. The paper's yellowing, as well as the font, indicates that this card is from several decades ago. I'm thinking mid-century, sometime before 1980 but probably after 1930.

This one was found in a religious book, I'm pretty sure, as it is a quote from SDA periodical Amazing Facts:

"God has preserved His word in miraculous ways throughout the centuries, using His faithful workers to spread the gospel even in the most dangerous times. An amazing narrative that will increase your faith for [the?] coming time of trouble." Amazing Facts Jan-Feb 2004

I'm not sure what the other text is for. "Great Deals"?

Love this. "I choose to love myself in spite of myself!"

Adventists are the original hipsters.

Oh, we were vegetarian/vegan before that was trendy.
We knew smoking was bad for you before it was widespread medical knowledge. We knew it all along thanks to Sister White.
I grew up on Arthur Maxwell's children's stories. Oh, you've never heard of them? Non-Adventists usually haven't.
Jewelry/coffee drinking is too mainstream worldly.
POTLUCKS LOL AMIRITE. Yeah, it's an Adventist thing; you probably wouldn't understand.
My favorite food is wheat gluten/Ceder Lake products/Fri Chik/Special K casserole/etc. Mmmm, Roma. I'm totally craving carob chips right now!
We live longer than everyone else because of our awesome lifestyles. My grandma is 134 years old and still goes to church 3 times a week/volunteers everywhere/lifts weights/runs marathons.
Kellogg's has Adventist roots. That's right, breakfast exists because of us.
Round Communion wafers and wine are so mainstream. We have square crackers and grape juice.
What am I listening to? They're the Heritage Singers; you've probably never heard of them.
You're eating a bacon sandwich at McDonalds??? Bourgeois sheep BADVENTIST!!!
Going to church on Sunday is too mainstream. Saturday church-going is where it's at. Everyone else is wrong; we have the TRUTH.
We did that whole "JESUS IS COMING ON THE 22ND!!!!! Oh, psych, He didn't come after all... It's because we didn't count right/a spiritual judgment not visible to us here on earth happened instead!" first, before Harold Campbell and all those other posers.

What Seventh-day Adventists believe
Hipster definition from Urban Dictionary