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This article explores the role and contribution of women in the church with a specific focus on Reverend Boiketlo T. Ngwako of the Revelation Blessed Peace Church in Botswana (RBPC). The paper examines the contribution and experiences of Reverend Ngwako in a male-dominated church in Botswana. Data was collected through personal observations and by attending church services, listening to the testimonies, preaching, singing, and prayers of members of the RBPC as led by Reverend Ngwako. Reverend Ngwako, the key participant, was interviewed to understand her role and contribution in the life of the church and to collect data on her views on a wide range of issues, such as politics. Content analysis of the data allowed the mapping of different themes of Ngwako's development as a minister of religion in the context of a male-dominated Christian leadership and cultural environment. The results suggest that the cultural environment and the biblical doctrines of the church have an impact on the development and ministry of a pastor. The study concludes that biblical doctrine is interpreted and understood in the light of Tswana cultural contexts, which continue to have an impact on her ministry, gender relations, and leadership style. Keywords prophetess, independent, catechist, bo-bashi, patriarchy, stereotype, baporofiti, barapeledi, Introduction This article examines the life of Reverend Boiketlo T. Ngwako, the first ordained female minister and prophetess of one of the fastest-growing African Independent Churches (AICs) in Botswana: Revelation [...]

The statistics around disaffiliation from the Christian churches should alarm every Catholic and every Protestant in our country. The mainstream Protestant denominations have been losing members at an astonishing rate [...]

What is the way out of polarization? And why does that question--along with the now-commonplace observation that society suffers from deepening divisions about everything from gun control to abortion to [...]

Wait... is this actually on the Incarnation? If you take up Athanasius's fourth-century classic On the Incarnation for your Advent or Christmas reading, you'll likely find yourself asking this very [...]

ON THE WAY FROM HOME her oncology visits, my daughter Clara and I typically rode unspeaking, with Audrey Assad or Sara Groves playing on the stereo. Sometimes, I would reach [...]

April 14, Maundy Thursday John 13:1-17, 31b-35 THE OLDER MEMBERS of the parish I serve have a long-standing practice of gathering monthly for lunch and fellowship. The meals are seasonal, [...]

It's a shiny, brand-new year. So let's talk about heaven! With one caveat: I'm not going to strip-mine a lot of theology here. My brain is too small to appreciate [...]

BEFORE THE OPENING CREDITS of the Netflix series Unorthodox, we see a detached wire dangling from a metal pole. It's a lonely scene within a dreary cityscape. Because we cannot [...]

IN 1997 I WENT TO NEW YORK CITY for the very first time. I had been enamored with the idea of the place for as long as 1 could recall, [...]

I USED TO WORK as a campus minister at Kansas State University. In that context, I worked with dozens of undergraduates who endured faith crises that were made immeasurably more [...]

I am a child of the church. In an early memory, I am 6 years old, half-asleep in the back of my grandparents' station wagon on the way home from [...]

Christ died for our sins, he was buried, he was raised--and he's been seen since. The game of 'If' is popular among children, and not a few adults indulge in [...]

May his memory be a blessing. I found myself repeating these words--a rabbinic phrase that originates in the Jewish tradition--to a Jewish colleague as we mourned the sudden and tragic [...]

April 7, 2024 Second Sunday of Easter Acts 4:32-35; Ps 118; 1 Jn 5:1-6; Jn 20:19-31 Seeing is believing. Is that today's theme? Perhaps. Folks hear today's Gospel and think [...]

'FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, thank God almighty I'm free at last!' These resounding words are most often remembered as the closing words of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I [...]

IN ANCIENT GREEK THEORIES of vision, Sight Was about physical touch as much as visual perception. Extramission theories imagined the eye sending out beams of light or streams of fire [...]

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 AFTER 16 YEARS OF ORDAINED MINISTRY, my Ash Wednesday experiences were vast and varied: imposing ashes on newborns in their mothers' arms at the rail next to [...]

February 4, 2024 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Jb 7:14, 6-7; Ps 147; 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23; Mk 1:29-39 Lots of people complain--and figure they've got good reason to do [...]

The present era, often referred to as post-secular, has in many places seen a resurgence in spirituality. Nevertheless, the contemporary quest for spirituality is unique in the sense that many people do not expect to have their spiritual needs fulfilled within the structures of organized religion, starting on a journey of their own explorations instead. Sociologists of religion, therefore, tend to employ the 'dwellers' and 'seekers' paradigm to account for this phenomenon. This paper will explore this phenomenon in the context of the Czech Republic, whose citizens are frequently characterized as distrustful toward institutional religiosity, through the lens of the recent World Council of Churches' affirmation on mission and evangelism, Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (TTL). For our purpose, the statement's emphasis on both 'transformative spirituality' and 'mission from the margins' will be of central importance. Using the notion of transformative spirituality as the energy engendered by the Spirit for the transformation of life and creation, it will be suggested that 'seekers' can be agents in God's mission of liberation, reconciliation, and transformation, despite their inability or unwillingness to identify themselves with the church as institution. Keeping in mind ethical considerations, the paper will not seek to make a case for a forced 'christening' of the seekers. Rather, it will argue that they can become partners in missio Dei, thus giving the notion of 'mission from the margins' a new, contextually relevant dimension. Keywords spirituality, mission from the margins, seekers, dwellers, sociology of religion, post-secular, Czech Republic, Together towards Life, Arusha, World Council of Churches, Exploring the Czech Religious Landscape The Czech Republic has long been commonly considered one of the most atheistic countries in the world. (1) Indeed, a number of international comparative surveys [...]