Jean Cheng Gorman currently serves as the Vice-President of Advocates for Covenant Clergy Women and as Associate Pastor at Covenant Grove Church in Modesto.  She is married to a wonderfully supportive physician and is a mother to three active children and a divinely-guided dog.

While doing research for a seminary paper on the ordination of women, I read an article written in 2009 by a professor who is devoted to God and passionate about truth.  Along with other points made against the ordination of women, he also argued that it was harmful to evangelism:

Getting men involved in church is particularly difficult. Why should we think that men who typically live in tension with their wives in marriage are going to subject themselves to the oversight of women ministers? To put the matter bluntly: in many marriages, wives try to control or at least change their husbands, and men refuse to be bossed. Unchurched men in particular are not apt to look favorably on ecclesial practice that puts women in the same position over the household of faith that they chafe against in their everyday home lives. They will simply avoid the church even more than is already and tragically the case. This may be a factor in the dramatic shrinkage of mainline denominations that has been underway for several decades.[1] Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Lisa Sundell Olsen has been a member of the BGE commission for 6 years. She is the senior high youth director at Covenant Church of Thomaston in Connecticut. Lisa and her husband, Reverend Timothy Olsen’s daughter Maja, will be getting married next month. Their son John Alrik is in his last year at North Park University.

One year ago, on Easter Sunday, my dad announced to our family “What do you think of a trip to Israel this time next year?” Shouts of enthusiasm and a few questions followed. On May 15th, eleven of my family members boarded El Al flight 002 to Tel Aviv from JFK. We spent 10 full days traveling, learning, seeing, hearing and tasting our way through The Holy Land.

We learned as much about the history, culture and politics as we did about the sites Jesus walked. Our guide, named Beja, told us a lot about the Israeli army and it’s people. We met many of them since they are everywhere. When we got to Haifa, Beja introduced us to a some women who were in the special forces of search and rescue. He went on and on about how difficult it is for anyone to achieve membership in this unit because of the sheer physical strength needed. I was so proud of these women and got my picture taken with one of them. Every 18 year old woman and man, if they are a citizen of Israel, joins the army for 3 years. Continue Reading »

Report This Post

Dominique DuBois Gilliard is a graduate of North Park Theological Seminary where he also served as an adjunct professor. Dominique currently serves on the CHIC council, is the director of the Journey to Mosaic Squared, and is an ECC pastor in Oakland California. In addition to his work within the ECC, Dominique is an active member of the Christian Community Development Association, serving on both the association’s national theology task-force and its faith and public education council. You can follow Dominique on Twitter: @@WEB_DuBois_Ture 

How does one best care for marginalized people, those who have been isolated from community, stigmatized by society, and even neglected or wounded by the Church? This question has dwelt within my soul. It has inspired me to study the Bible in deeper, more focused ways. It led me to seminary and while there, it lingered on. It led to me taking courses which explored issues of individual and social brokenness that bred marginality and isolation. I asked hard questions within these courses, inquires which could not be pacified by the prototypical Sunday school responses. I read, researched, and wrote on these issue, all in a diligent pursuit to answer this one question.

Along the way, I had a few revelatory moments, but I also became intrigued by a biblical character who I believe personifies everything I was wrestling with, the nameless Canaanite woman of Matthew 15: 21-28. While theologians have correctly articulated how her interaction with Jesus foretells the gentile inclusion into the mission and kingdom of God, this text has more to say to us than just this. First, a close reading of the text mandates that we ask a few questions; what are the scriptural implications of being a Canaanite, nameless, and the parent of a demon possessed child? Continue Reading »

Report This Post