A Woman's Place

"As this excellent book evidences, a woman's place is throughout the culture. Indeed, where women are not present the world lacks itsfull depth. Katelyn puts words to what I've seen each year through the female entrepreneurs we support -- women bring unique stories, competencies,convictions, and a holistic way of seeing life that all of us need to truly flourish."

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Katelyn Beaty; Foreword by Christine Caine

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The managing editor of Christianity Today and founder of the popular Her.meneutics blog encourages women to find joy in vocation in this game-changing look at the importance of women and work.

Women today inhabit and excel in every profession, yet many Christian women wonder about the value of work outside the home. And in circles where the traditional family model is highly regarded, many working women who sense a call to work find little church or peer support.

In A Woman’s Place, Katelyn Beaty, print managing editor of Christianity Today and cofounder of Her.meneutics, insists it’s time to reconsider women’s work. She challenges us to explore new ways to live out the Scriptural call to rule over creation—in the office, the home, in ministry, and beyond.

Starting with the Bible’s approach to work—including the creation story, the Proverbs 31 woman, and New Testament models—Beaty shows how women’s roles in Western society have changed; how the work-home divide came to exist; and how the Bible offers models of women in leadership. Readers will be inspired by stories of women effecting dynamic cultural change, leading institutions, and living out grand and beautiful vocations.

Far from insisting that women must work outside the home, Beaty urges all believers into a better framework for imagining career, ambition, and calling. Whether caring for children, running a home, business, or working full-time, all readers will be inspired to live in a way that glorifies God.

Sure to spark discussion, A Woman’s Place is a game-changing look at the importance of work for women and men alike.

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A Woman’s Place

CHAPTER ONE

Made to Reign

Every human being is made to work. And since women are human beings, every woman is made to work.

On the surface, these two statements are fairly unremarkable. Scripture as well as human history tell us that all people in nearly all times and places have labored to provide for themselves, their families, and their communities. And most women in our Western context work for pay for many years if not for life.

But dig deeper, and these statements—especially the second—elicit follow-up questions. Of course women are human beings, but what about gender differences? What kind of work does God give women to do? What if some women don’t want to work? What about the value of unpaid work, especially motherhood?

I wrote this book to answer these questions—to help women (as well as men!) explore God’s invitation to women to labor for his honor, for their own enjoyment, and for others’ benefit. I hope this book helps readers think about how to respond to that invitation. But before we explore how we work, we need to establish why we work.

For Christians, a good place to start is the Bible. In Chapter 3, we will look carefully at the Genesis account. Today, many sermons we hear about Genesis 1–3 focus on marriage and sexual intimacy, but in fact, the first pages of Scripture have a lot to say about work as well.

In this chapter, though, we start with a psalm (and not because that’s where you land when you casually flip open your Bible).

Crowned with Glory And Honor

Psalm 8 is first and foremost about God: his majesty, glory, and power. But it is also about humankind: their majesty, glory, and power, a reflection of the God whose image they bear. In Verses 5 and 6, we read:

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings,

And crowned him with glory and honor.

You made him ruler over the works of your hands;

You put everything under his feet.

These verses come to us from King David, who ruled for forty years over the people of Israel. But David is not describing just himself or just kings. And he’s certainly not just describing men. When David says “him,” he means “man” or “mankind.” Which means that, in this passage of Scripture, David is describing all humans.

That means he is describing you.

In order to let this truth sink in, read these verses again. But this time, replace the word “him”—which here means “mankind”—with your own name:

You made [Katelyn] a little lower than the heavenly beings,

And crowned [Katelyn] with glory and honor.

The words inspire me to praise God for creating me to reflect his glory. God created the expanse of interstellar space, yet he hears me when I pray? There are currently 7.1 billion people on earth, yet he knows my own thoughts and desires better than I do? Like David, I marvel, Who am I that you are mindful of me?

You made [Katelyn] ruler over the works of your hands;

You put everything under [Katelyn’s] feet.

Verse 6 is even harder to grasp than Verse 5. And to be honest, it makes me squirm a bit. As a modern Westerner, far from the world of kings and queens, I’m uncomfortable with the idea that I am a “ruler.” As a citizen of the United States—where everyone, in theory, is equal under the law—I’m uncomfortable with the thought of having power over other people. As a woman, I’m uncomfortable with power itself, because powerful women make us very nervous. And clearly not “everything” is under my feet.

But when I consider how I spend the majority of every week—as an editor overseeing the publication of a national Christian magazine—Psalm 8:6 starts to makes more sense. I do have rule, as weird as that sounds. With a red pen as my scepter, I survey countless words and thoughts. I protect what is beautiful and true and correct what is ugly and false. When a new issue comes out, I survey its boundaries, wondering if we should explore new terrain in the next issue. And in one sense, everything in the magazine is under my feet—meaning that when one of our readers is upset with our rule, the protest goes to me.

Psalm 8 helps us to remember a bedrock truth about why we work. We work in order to live into God’s purposes for all of us: to reign over all of creation as his image bearers and representatives on earth. God intended all humans not just for relationships (with him, with others) but also for reigning—over every inch of creation. And whether you currently work full-time or part-time; whether you work out of a deep sense of calling or simply to make financial ends meet; whether you spend your days studying to earn a degree, or caring for small children, or managing a large staff; whether or not you even want to work, this truth is for you: You are called to “make something of the world.”I To take your time, talent, resources, and community and create something good, something of lasting worth, usefulness, and beauty that will glorify God, make meaning out of chaos, and bless your neighbors.

So this is why we work, in the broadest sense of the word. Before paychecks, promotions, and personal enjoyment, we work in order to properly bear the image of God.

Our world comes to us because of the work of people before us.

The World We Inherit

Take a moment to survey the room you are sitting in. Look at the items in it—a chair, a computer, a smartphone, a stack of books, a cup of coffee. Look even at the walls, the…