Church Women

When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago.

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.

While many Catholics are aware of great female saints such as Catherine of Siena and Thérèse of Lisieux, a view persists that, over the centuries, women played a limited role in the development of Catholic traditions and institutions. In this innovative survey of Church history, Bronwen McShea demonstrates instead that faithful women have always been at the heart of the Church's common life, shaping it and the course of entire civilizations.

Biblical womanhood - the belief that God designed women to be submissive wives, virtuous mothers, and joyful homemakers - pervades North American Christianity. From choices about careers to roles in local churches to relationship dynamics, this belief shapes the everyday lives of evangelical women. Yet biblical womanhood isn't biblical, says Baylor University historian Beth Allison Barr. It was born in a series of clearly definable historical moments.

From the young Vietnamese girl who turned down freedom in order to share the gospel in her Communist homeland, to the Australian missionary who spread the message of forgiveness and healing across India after her husband and sons were burned alive, these women overcame Extreme adversity to become leaders and ministers of the underground church in Pakistan, India, Romania, the former Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, Nepal and Indonesia.

There is much at stake in God making humanity male and female. Created for one another yet distinct from each other, a man and a woman are not interchangeable — they are designed to function according to a divine fittedness. But when this design is misunderstood, ignored, or abused, there are dire consequences.

"I was one of 28 children born to my dad and his three wives. Indoctrinated to believe that the outside world was evil, and that I resided among the righteous, I was destined to marry a man chosen for me by the Prophet. I would then live in harmony with my sister-wives, bear many children, and obey and serve my future husband in this life and throughout eternity. But my innocence didn't last long." Flora goes on from there to tell the dramatic true story of how she ultimately escaped and has been rescuing women and children from the FLDS.

Poppy Bloom planned to finish her PhD and walk straight into a job at her university. But here she is, unemployed and living back at her mum's. She scores herself an internship at the hottest radio station in town, joins a netball team and renews her friendship with Leanne. Spending time with Leanne's gorgeous twin Tom is just a bonus. But life has a way of tripping you up when you least expect it, and Poppy soon must decide where her priorities lie....

Cooper Lee is at a crossroads. Her boyfriend of five years just left her for another woman, she's living in an apartment above her parents' garage, and her job as a copier repairperson is feeling a little, well, repetitious. Hoping for a fresh start and a new outlook on life, she joins the Bible study group at Hope Street Church. The last thing she expects while studying the Bible is a lesson in murder.

"This is, in my opinion, the best book on the complementarian / evangelical egalitarian debate. Buy a copy, buy copies for friends, lend it widely. It highlights the truth that the gospel sets the oppressed free. The Bible from cover to cover is good news for men and women." —Dr. Kevin Giles, author of What The Bible Actually Teaches on Women "Terran Williams develops a meticulous case that shows God’s moral compass always points to the unity of men and women, in creation, in the church, and in Christ. A terrific resource for anyone wrestling with this topic.” —Dr. Michael Bird, ...

In I Am a Leader, Angie explores the concept of "calling" as it applies specifically to women leaders - those women of influence both in Christian ministry and the broader world: What is calling? How do you discover it? And what does it look like to live out that calling practically amid a multitude of challenges? Thoroughly researched, theologically and biblically integrated, and uniquely personal, I Am a Leader will resonate no matter where you are on the calling journey.

Modern readers of the New Testament often notice its varying ideas about women. Some passages encouraged women to be submissive and remain silent. Yet in others, women characters owned property, headed households, or spoke with approval. Women in the New Testament World helps listeners understand this conflicting evidence. It argues that social norms of the time encouraged traditional feminine virtues. However, as Susan Hylen argues, women in the culture enacted these virtues in a variety of ways, including active leadership in households, associations, and cities.

Love, when shown the right way, is a beautiful and rare occurrence. However, when one isn't honest with yourself or the people around you love seems to go on the back-burner and chaos ensues. Carmon Wells has finally gotten her much-deserved happily ever after, or so it seems but with enemies lurking around every corner, Carmon will soon learn nothing is what it seems. Growing up in the church prepared her for a lot of things, but never anything like this. Will she make it out with her life and her love, or will she lose both in the process?

So I’ve had a baby. But motherhood isn’t quite how I imagined. I don’t live in a lovely cottage with roses around the door. I don’t know how to get Daisy to sleep. I don’t own a baking tray. And then there’s Daisy’s sh*tbag of a father... When Juliette has a baby, she knows her life isn’t sorted. Not by a long way. And most especially not with Nick, long-term boyfriend and father of her child. Far from living the dream family life, Juliette and Nick rent a city apartment and share a tiny, shiny elevator with executives and their takeaway Thai meals.

Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first Lo's stay is nothing but pleasant: The cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, and gray skies fall.

Family over everything – that’s the motto in the Carson family, and no matter how life has tried to tear them down, these five brothers always find a way to put family first – but is it all a lie? They present a united front, but each brother has enough lies and secrets to rip the family apart forever. In this first installment, you meet big brother Ace: the glue that holds the brothers together, but even the most noble man can’t say no to temptation. He’s living the dream, but will his happiness last when his “temptation” decides she wants to be his main? Mason is willing to ...

Hannah is 38 and the happily married mother of 11-year-old Luke. Her marriage is reassuringly stable and after 15 years she has managed to push the wild dreams of youth from her mind and concentrate on the everyday satisfactions of here and now. The first half of her life hasn’t been as exciting as she had hoped, but then, she reckons, whose has? When she succeeds in convincing husband Cliff to rent a villa in the south of France for a summer vacation with her sister Jill and gay friend Tristan, she’s expecting little more than a pleasant few weeks with her family.

When the invitation to attend the press opening of a luxury Swiss hotel—owned by reclusive billionaire Marcus Leidmann—arrives, it’s like the answer to a prayer. Three years after the birth of her youngest child, Lo Blacklock is ready to reestablish her journalism career, but post-pandemic travel journalism is a very different landscape from the one she left ten years ago. The chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva is everything Lo’s ever dreamed of, and she hopes she can snag an interview with Marcus. Unfortunately, he proves to be even more difficult to pin down than his reputation suggests.

Black women are the hidden figures in the church. Despite at times being rendered invisible, uninvited, and unprotected in a racist and sexist world, they are valued image-bearers and influential instruments in God’s redemptive plan. Church Girl invites you, as a Black woman, on a journey from the garden to the present day. Your unique story as a Black woman lies within the grand narrative of Scripture, and the message of the gospel is the light, lens, and love you need to help you see and live as God intends.

When the car sailed over the embankment carrying the four members of the pulpit committee, Mildred Budge called out, “Jesus saves.” The others heard it, but they were also experiencing their own quick flashes of insight. Liz, a serial widow, felt unsatisfied with her life. She wanted more. Sailing toward her death, she still did. Sam, who had turned the steering wheel that had sent them over the embankment, was looking forward to the crash. He wanted to feel it—the hard slam of collision. His hands held the wheel tightly, bracing for it. Jake smiled. He resisted holding Mildred’s ...