| Every year in December, the Christianity Today magazine staff gathers to review our work from the past year. It’s a chance for us to celebrate the important reporting, moving essays, and stirring designs that appeared in our pages and on our website. We think back to some of our most well-received projects, worthwhile risks taken, and lessons learned. As I looked at my notes about some of my favorite pieces that I worked on as an editor or enjoyed as a reader, I realized that many of them were by women and about women. CT Women and our earlier site, Her.meneutics, were formed as a way to showcase the work and perspectives of female writers. It has been heartening to see the fruits of those efforts of the years. Women’s voices have become a major part of how we cover a range of topics across the magazine. I wanted to highlight a few examples from 2019 for you here. This is among the most impactful stories I’ve ever reported. These 10 women—survivors, advocates, and leaders—have spoken up against abuse in their denomination, often at great personal cost. I am grateful for their willingness to share their stories with CT and am inspired by their faith, resolve, and hope for reform. I would also like to acknowledge photographer Melanie Grizzel who was able to capture such meaningful, beautiful images to go with the package. Survivor Jules Woodson was photographed at the spot of her abuse as a teen, Anne Marie Miller at the courthouse where she fought her perpetrator, and Megan Lively at the seminary where leaders once downplayed the offenses against her—yet all of them come out looking like the strong figures they are. I pray for more holy rumblings in 2020. I was anticipating Kate Bowler’s research into evangelical women in leadership for a few years before it came out this fall, and our friend Karen was finally able to ask her about the topic. This interview between the two of them—discussing how Christian women use celebrity, vulnerability, personal story, and consumerism to build their platforms—is so insightful. Kate, known for her research into the prosperity gospel and for her best-seller Everything Happens for a Reason, picks up on trends with a sociologist’s eye that will ring true for those inside the church as well: “Because these women are rarely credentialed in the way that male clergy traditionally have been, they need a story, a brand, a way to broadcast their authenticity … megaministry women have found that they could justify their authority on the grounds that they stood on the ultimate foundation of psychological insight—experience.” I could have read on and on. This was one of my favorite pieces to edit over the past year, in part because of how it came about. One of our designers at CT is based in Brazil, and he put me in touch with scholar and linguist Braulia Ribeiro as I was reporting on new attention around missionary involvement among isolated tribes in the Amazon. Braulia ended up passing along tons of her background info and research regarding indigenous missions, nearly 100 pages of text translated from Portuguese. In the midst of the document, I caught a bit of the story of her very first mission to a remote tribe, and at one point, I got goosebumps reading it. I asked if she’d be able to write a version of that story for the magazine, and that’s how we ended up with feature “We Set Off to Reach a Remote Tribe in the Amazon. Turns Out, They Were Waiting for Us.” I won’t spoil it for you. K. J. Ramsey has written for CT Women about living with an invisible illness (so many of you resonated with that piece!) and how her condition has shaped her relationships. Since then, She’s gone on to write a book all about faith and chronic illness, which comes out next year: This Too Shall Last: Finding Grace When Suffering Lingers. K. J. has also become one of our go-to writers on science and suffering. She wrote this wonderful piece this year: “Scripture and Neuroscience Agree: It Helps to Lament in Community.” It combines her experience with many sources pointing us the importance of not suffering alone. A beautiful lesson and a word of encouragement for the church. We featured plenty of wonderful book excerpts on CT Women this year, but as I mentioned in a previous newsletter, Sharon’s was the one that hit home in the midst of my people-pleasing, tension-avoiding, enneagram 2 heart. Her book Nice, like much of her writing, shares a message that seemingly so many of us are talking around but not enough are talking about. I love how fresh and faithful she is. I am quoting from this passage in an upcoming editorial in our next issue of CT, and I’ll share it here too: “I cannot follow Jesus and be nice. Not equally. Because following Jesus means following someone who spoke hard and confusing truths, who was honest with his disciples—even when it hurt—who condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and turned over tables in the temple.” Thanks for reading and sharing our work over the past year, and for your feedback to this newsletter. Let me know your favorites! And stay tuned for more great features in 2020. Kate |
