Women told to press forward in taking risks

Women around the state were challenged to “risk it all for Christ” by women’s ministry leaders and well-known women’s authors during the SBTC Women in Ministry Forum, Feb. 1-2 at Mims Baptist Church in Houston.

Speaking from Genesis 11, Mary Kassian, distinguished professor of women’s studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, encouraged women not “to settle” in their ministry calling like Terah, the father of Abraham, who started out on a great adventure but failed to take the greatest risk of all.

Although he raised his family in Ur—a prosperous city in the Samarian kingdom—Kassian said Terah probably had roots in the city of Haran and named his eldest son Haran after this family home.

After Haran’s tragic death in verse 28, Terah and his family journeyed toward Canaan without making it to the Promised Land.

“They had only 280 miles to go to their destination, but something got in the way. Something distracted him, discouraged him, and prevented him from moving on,” Kassian said, suggesting that Terah could not get past the city that bore the name of his recently departed son. “When they came to Haran, they settled there.”

Pointing out that the Hebrew for Haran means “crossroads,” Kassian challenged the women to continue to press forward in the adventures of ministry without settling for convenience, comfort, or the familiar.

“We can settle in ministry. We can settle in our marriages. We can settle in our morals. We can settle in our standards, hopes, and dreams,” she said, pointing to Terah, who died in Haran. “We can get to that place where we settle, and we feel that pushing for God’s finish line isn’t worth the risk or the effort.”

Kassian asked women to emulate the example of Abraham, who was probably spurred on in his belief in God’s promises by the failed adventure of his father.

“He is the father of our faith because he pushed on, and he did not settle,” Kassian said, referring to the “rest of the story” as revealed in God’s promises to Abraham in Genesis 12. “Abraham followed and said, ‘I’m not going to settle. I’m going to go for that dream, that vision, and I’m going to take a step in the direction of the Promised Land. Are you going to step out and go on an adventure with God?”
Terri Stovall, dean of women’s programs and associate professor of women’s ministries at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, asked the women to consider if unbelief kept them from risking it all for Christ.

Using the story of the disciples’ failure to drive a demon from a boy in Mark 9:14, Stovall outlined two forms of unbelief that can keep believers from being faithful servants.

Basic unbelief—not accepting Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior—is the first marker of a faithless servant, Stovall said.

Second, the story indicates that “seeds of doubt,” demonstrated by both the father of the demon-possessed son and the disciples, can keep believers from risking it all for God’s glory.

“You might believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but every now and again you get hit by something that blindsides you…” Stovall explained, alluding to the desperation of the father in the story. “And you think, ‘I’m not sure if he’s going to be able to do anything with this. I do believe—help my unbelief.’”

“We [see] in this story, disciples who thought they could do it all … and Jesus comes back and finds it all a mess because they were faithless. We see a father who is so desperate and so convinced that Jesus could save his boy and when his disciples couldn’t do anything, all the sudden [he} began to have some doubts.”

Stovall referenced her own recent battle with breast cancer—a difficult situation in which she continues to walk today.

“…When you’re lying face down on a contraption having a biopsy done, or you’re being wheeled into surgery for the second time because they didn’t get it all the first time, or you’re on the radiation table for the 25th day in a row, little doubts begin to creep in,” Stovall said, quoting the fighting faith of the son’s father. “You say, ‘Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.’”

The power to overcome both forms of unbelief is also revealed in this account, Stovall added, pointing women to Jesus’ emphasis on prayer.

“These disciples had the program down; they just didn’t have the power down,” Stovall explained. “They didn’t have the connection with what would help them make the ministry God-like, God-sized, and God-powerful because they had decided to do it on their own, apart from him.”