Do you have a Bible study process? Natalie Eastman will help you study any issue for yourself.
I met Natalie over a decade ago in my DMin cohort. Each summer for three years we spent two weeks in class together at Gordon-Conwell Seminary. It is a great delight to introduce you to her and her book Women, Leadership and the Bible: How Do I Know What to Believe?: A Practical Guide to Biblical Interpretation.
Ministry leaders or anyone hoping to influence others through their faith need to understand the Bible study process. What you believe
should be born out of your own study, not solely because someone told you what to think on the subject, as well-intentioned as she may be.
Natalie’s book is purposed to help those who aren’t sure how to do that. Using the issue of women leaders in the church as an example, she goes step-by-step through the process of study.
Natalie recently answered some questions about her book.
Q: What inspired you to write Women, Leadership, and the Bible?
A: Over the course of my nine years in one church, whether I was on staff or acting as a volunteer, as I was initially for three years, I had many, many people of all ages ask me a question, sometimes in tears. They would ask, “What does the Bible say about women’s roles? What does God say about it?”
People asked these two questions in several ways, but this was the crux of it.
Despite my extensive ministry experience and ministry-related training, and my full-time staff position, I did not know.
More importantly, I did not know how to know. Like those of many other women, my six-page job description had no expectation for formal theological education or training. Neither was there any suggestion that I should pursue it to effectively teach the Bible to our young people.
I could only offer a flat reading of passages which I did not truly understand.
I could share our denomination’s position and perhaps the latest book, sermon, or other resource I had read on the issue. (Actually I may have skimmed it—or at least someone I knew had read it and told me about it). Often I shared feelings about it.
At best, I was offering them regurgitated information; at worst, misinformation. I meant well but had no idea how to interpret Scripture to find answers with any credibility, defensiblity, or integrity. And I had even less idea how to filter through the many voices “out there” in Christendom. Those voices conflicted on their interpretations and opinions, all claiming to be biblically correct and spiritually discerned.
Q: What’s the purpose of your book, Women, Leadership, and the Bible: How Do I Know What to Believe?
A: To teach women to study the Bible, interpret what they study, and understand what they’ve interpreted, along with how what they’ve learned impacts and guides their life.
The term “empowerment,” it seems to me, is vastly overused these days. Yet, admittedly, that’s exactly what I’m doing through WLB and Biblical Breakthrough!
I want to equip women with seminary-level tools by which they can study, understand, and interpret the Bible. And my desires is to then stuff them full of confidence through constant encouragement that they can do this. Ultimately, I hope to empower them to change from feeling paralyzed and possibly ignorant to confident, ready, and trained to engage and effectively apply God’s Word.
Of course I hope this empowers and encourages any Christian wanting to become more grounded in God’s Word. But my primary mission and calling is to and for women.
On an emotional level, I simply want to tell Christians, especially women, “You can do this.” This is not rocket science. Nor do these abilities rely on a special gifting of the Holy Spirit. These are learned skills. Anyone who puts their mind and effort toward the training can and will learn how to know what the Scriptures are saying, as well as what they’re not saying.
They can learn how to filter through the many voices “out there” that interpret God’s Word. The more they practice this Bible study process, the more they will see the difference between when someone’s giving their opinion about what God’s Word says and when they’re interpreting. Also, they will discover what to do with the many conflicting opinions and interpretations.
It can be done. People do it every day. And you can do it with greater skill and effectiveness, while still being sensitive to and filled with God’s very presence throughout the process.
Q: How could things change if every Christian woman were to read your book?
A: Just IMAGINE a world in which Christian women humbly, yet skillfully study Scripture to get clarity on their hardest biblical questions! And imagine women sifting and sorting through all kinds of opinions and interpretations as they use this Bible study process to consider what the Bible’s text says!
True freedom and self-confidence await the woman who engages the material in Women, Leadership, and the Bible. That freedom and confidence come from knowing and understanding not only what she believes, but why she believes what she believes. She will know she has formed her own thoughts, opinions, and interpretations using reliable, tested, and grounded methods, carefully testing her own and her community’s beliefs against Scripture. It is life-changing!
If women can engage their difficult life-issues with competent biblical integrity (and they can!) rather than relying exclusively on emotions, what others say, or the last book they read’s interpretation, as I did for so long, just imagine the difference this will make in their lives, their churches and, yes, the world!
Women (and men who learn these skills, too) can feel confidence before God that they are attempting to understand his Word as best they can, as they subsequently seek to follow and obey it.
Thank you, Natalie! I also have a heart that followers of Jesus study the Bible for themselves. My hope is that everyone who reads this will take steps to reach that goal for himself or herself.
