Wednesday, October 05, 2005

whale rider, women and leadership

whalerider.jpg The 2002 movie Whale Rider is set in a small New Zealand coastal village. Yet the themes are universal. Dare I suggest the movie should be compulsory viewing for anyone interested in both the emerging church and the future of the church? … As the movie explores the struggle of a young woman to express her leadership, could we in turn dare to explore the place of women in the emerging church?

An article I wrote, titled Women and apostolic leadership and reflecting on women and leadership in relation to the movie Whale Rider and some New Testament data is now online here.

The short history is that I preached some of it as a sermon at Opawa, at Digestion, our evening congregation. Then I decided to blog it, because the issue of women and leadership is really important to me. Then Next wave editor Charlie Wear somehow caught a sniff of it and asked to use it. I added in a bit from the movie Whale Rider, to hopefully make a more accessible introduction and to add some more layers to the New Testament.

Somewhat ironically, there is also a review of my book, out of bounds church?, in the same next wave issue. Roger Overton is mostly complimentary (heck, “for anyone looking to find out what emerging church is all about, this is the book to read … a far more interesting read and a far more accurate description of what’s going on in emerging churches” [than McLaren’s Generous Orthodoxy] is high praise). However, in the out of bounds church review, Roger has a “problem [with] the way Mr. Taylor exegetes scripture.” That’s me. Mr Taylor 🙂 So I like the irony of being considered problematic around Scripture by Roger, yet offering something Scriptural the Whale Rider article at the same time, in the same issue.

Posted by steve at 10:35 AM

3 Comments

  1. Steve,
    You are a great sport…I finished your book last month [I think I told you I was reading it] and I really found it helpful, enlightening, a great read…I kind of felt bad that Next-Wave hadn’t done more with it…I ran across Overton’s review of the book on Amazon.com, read it, and thought it was pretty fair…So I emailed him and asked for permission to use it. As you know, he is one of the conservative, seminary student critics of the emerging church…So a positive review from him is “high” praise, indeed. I try to be inclusive with Next-Wave, giving an opportunity for lots of voices to be heard. I hope that the review sells a lot of books for you!
    Blessings…

    Comment by Charlie Wear — October 5, 2005 @ 4:15 pm

  2. steve,

    i did an assigment this week using a clip from whale-rider. i had to make a “sermon” using a video clip, so i chose the scene where paikea stands up in front of everyone and delivers a shaky, tearful speech dedicated to her grandfather who isn’t there. she tries so hard to win the love and respect of her grandfather. i’m so glad that i serve a God who will ALWAYS show up, and who i don’t have to “win” over. His love and grace cover me and my many imperfections!

    Comment by shannon — October 7, 2005 @ 10:13 am

  3. Steve,
    God bless you for this article! There are many, many Junia’s out here.
    Have you found Dr. Ann Nyland’s The Source New Testament with extensive notes on the Greek?
    Online books or purchase http://www.godswordtowomen.org

    Blessings,
    Kiki

    Comment by Kiki — October 10, 2005 @ 12:01 pm

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