Are Lucifer and Satan the Same?

May 29, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

For six seasons, TV fans enjoyed the guilty pleasure of rooting for the good-looking, affable detective hero of the hit show “Lucifer.” Why guilty? Because the hero, Lucifer Morningstar, was actually the devil, that powerful angel tossed from heaven because—according to show notes—he was bored of being Lord of Hell. Friends talking about the show would joke, “It feels a little weird rooting for the devil!” Why Lucifer? TV Lucifer is cleverly named. Writers seem to have consulted the Bible.... Read more

Whimsical Watercolor Art Glories in God’s World

May 26, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

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Animals. Birds. Insects. Trees. Flowers. Childhood. Family. Melinda Whitten’s art will make you smile—and gasp. One of my desires for this blog site was that it include art of many kinds—poetic, wise, visual, audible, and more. I tend to focus on writing and books since that’s what I know best, but music and visual arts feed my soul, too. Today, we’re getting colorful and creative! Melinda Whitten captures the whimsy of God’s creation in the hand-drawn, customized watercolors she shares... Read more

Personalized, Professional Guidance for Your Book Proposal

May 16, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

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Are you wondering what a book proposal is, or have you attempted to write one? Are you hoping to publish a book, especially in the Christian market? Don’t know how to get started? Often, prospective authors get caught in a whirlwind of questions: Agent or direct-to-publisher? Proposal or query? Professional editor or friends who are good with words? When can I quit my day job? My friend Mary DeMuth, a multi-published author and literary agent, has put her years of... Read more

The Function of a Biblical Conjunction

April 18, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

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If the pen is mightier than the sword, the tiny conjunction just might be the mightiest weapon of all. On it, a sentence can expand or contract, emphasize or twist. Conjunctions connect and divide, turn and include. In the Bible, the simple one-syllable conjunction (even in the Greek and Hebrew) comes from God, so it holds the same power of an active verb or proper noun. What do I mean? First, a primer: conjunctions are words that connect clauses and... Read more

Good Friday: The Agony and the Irony

April 7, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

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Today the Christian church celebrates Good Friday, commemorating the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Each of the four Gospels tells the story of Jesus’s arrest, trial, torture, crucifixion, and burial—the specific details are slightly different but they correspond amazingly to one another. This morning I spent time listening to Matthew 27:27–56 on the So Much More podcast hosted by my friend Jodie Niznik. She split the passage into three sections and included time to meditate on each set of verses,... Read more

Students Protest Northern Seminary Board’s Stonewalling of Reforms

April 3, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

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As a doctoral student at Northern Seminary, I have been dismayed at recent events that have broken trust between the school’s board of trustees and the student/faculty population. Numerous articles have detailed the allegations of bullying that led to the seminary president’s defiant resignation. The board has proven stubbornly resistant to admitting their culpability in eroding trust, despite student efforts to cooperate with them in reconciliation, healing, and improved standards going forward. Students are questioning whether they can remain at... Read more

Why Low-Church Protestants Need the Church Calendar

March 28, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

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The church calendar looms large this time of year, as Christians worldwide prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter is the pinnacle of the church year, and it’s one of the two feast days that virtually every church, regardless of denomination, recognizes. The other, of course, being Christmas. Liturgical churches have been swathed in purple for the last month, somberly marking off time through the season of Lent. The forty days prior to Easter traditionally includes times of... Read more

The 40 Questions? A Peek at Our Table of Contents

March 13, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

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Having written articles based on chapters in our new book, 40 Questions about Women in Ministry, I’ve offered peeks into the content of the manuscript. What does the Bible say about women, who we are and what God intended for us, what purpose do we fulfill in his plan, and how do we use our gifts to serve him? These questions litter the landscape of church conversation, polity, and practice. They are highly personal for many women. And we believe... Read more

What Does the Ideal Man Have to Say about Women?

February 27, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

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The American evangelical church continues to discuss, argue, and fight about women. Not whether they have anything to offer, or whether they can serve in church, or what kinds of moms and sisters and daughters they may be. No, some folks still want to argue about exactly how much they image God compared to men. They want to limit their ability to serve God in certain ways. But if you are convinced God doesn’t put his fully-imaged Baby in a... Read more

Discovering Early Church Women Leaders in the Visual Record

February 15, 2023 By Kelley Mathews

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Were women involved in leadership during the early centuries of the church? Over the New Year’s holiday, my husband and I joined a group of my fellow graduate students in Italy for a two-week tour in which we searched for evidence of such women. Why go on location? Because the written record we could access from America is woefully lacking. Church historical documents are filled with information on noteworthy men. Those documents were also largely written by men and for... Read more