Praise Her at the Gates by Ken Wytsma

Ken Wytsma is a leader, innovator, and social entrepreneur respected for his insight and collaborative spirit. He is the president of Kilns College, where he teaches courses on philosophy and justice. He is the founder of The Justice Conference—an annual international conference that introduces men and women to a wide range of organizations and conversations relating to biblical justice and God’s call to give our lives away.

Ken is a consultant and creative advisor to nonprofits such as World Relief and Food for the Hungry. Ken is also a church planter and the lead pastor at Antioch Church. The son of a Dutch immigrant, Ken lives in Bend, Oregon, with his wife, Tamara, and their four daughters.

Ken’s first book, Pursuing Justice: The Call to Live and Die for Bigger Things, was recently released by Thomas Nelson Publishers. http://kenwytsma.com/pursuingjustice/

from Women's Liberty Bell Blog
As we pray for the victims of yesterday's cruel act of inhumanity, let us commit ourselves to conquering all forms of evil & fear with good, to building bridges of peace, and to working together to create a more just, humane world that honors the full humanity of all human beings around the globe, right here at our doorsteps & within our own homes.  

Tragedies have a way of clarifying deep within our souls the lesser from the "bigger things" of Life.  As people of faith, our task it seems in this generation--where our world has for centuries seen and continues to see the lesser side of religion--is without fear to look within and, with God's help, to courageously let go of anything & everything that builds walls instead of bridges and does not ring with the full spiritual & moral clarity of our north star ideals--the bigger things--of our faith and our shared humanity.  

Thank you Ken for your passion for the higher ideals of justice that lie at the very core of Biblical faith.  Thank you for this humble message within your own Christian community to not fall into the familiar exegetical traps which seek to prove loyalty to scripture by "putting women in their place".  Thank you for your solidarity in affirming the beauty and goodness of living fully into our shared humanity as male and female created differently, but equally in God's image.  

http://kenwytsma.com/2013/04/10/praiser-her-at-the-gates/

Praise Her at the Gates

Maybe this is controversial, but we need to make sure we’re talking sense and using biblical logic when we talk about women.

Here is the message, “Praise Her at the Gates,” from Antioch’s Proverbs Sermon Series. The title is taken from the last chapter of Proverbs and the exhortation to praise noble women at the gates of the city and in the public square.

May we all be found praising women at the gates!

Proverbs Part 6 | Praise Her at the Gates from Antioch Church on Vimeo.

"The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice" ~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ken is one of the leading forces behind The Justice Conference which took place this past February in Philadelphia. Check out the speaker videos http://thejusticeconference.com/videos2013.html including a few inspiring talks around the centrality of gender justice in the larger movement of justice by Sheryl Wu Dunn, Mimi Haddad, Chaig Ling, and Brenda Salter McNeil and others too numerous to mention.  Consider coming to the Justice Conference in 2014 and becoming part of this movement to keep bending the moral arc toward justice within our faith communities and within our world.  http://thejusticeconference.com/