This was the big news this morning. And if my response is any indication, 50 women were very(!) surprised to find their pictures on the cover of the new issue of Christianity Today. Now we’re all looking forward to reading what’s inside.

Kudos to Sarah Pulliam Bailey and the other women at CT for succeeding in highlighting what we all know is just the tip of the iceberg of all that Christian women and girls are doing today!  

How could I forget, knowing that in a few hours I’ll be joining a group of incredible women in Colorado Springs who, before the weekend is over, will summit Pike’s Peak on behalf of the battle against sex-trafficking. This is just a warm-up for a planned climb on Mount Everest.

In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t read what’s inside the magazine. So what I say next is not in response to what I fully expect will gladden the hearts of Christian women everywhere and will, from this sampling of women, give our brothers a bigger picture of contributions their sisters are making for God’s kingdom and hopefully inspire us to do more. 

I celebrate what CT is doing for all of us, by highlighting a few. And I’m deeply honored to be included in the 50. At the same time, I don’t want to stop here. We all know we have a lot more work to do. Seems to me this is a window of opportunity for us to raise important questions and to open a conversation that can lead to significant progress for women and for men.

The question rolling around in my head is, What happens after this?

Is this just a nice round of applause for women in the church or will it inspire in the whole church an increased interest in the gifts God has entrusted to all his daughters? Will it leave us asking how the whole church can benefit from those gifts and taking steps to make that happen? Will it open the door for a wider discussion of pressing issues that are impacting the female half of the church—sex trafficking, domestic abuse, pornography, dysfunctional relationships between men and women in the church, to name a few? Will we see a more intentional effort among men in the church to collaborate with their sisters on every aspect of the mission God calls us to do together? Will this compel us as women and men to move toward the Blessed Alliance Jesus prayed we would become?

What happens next?

10/20/2012 Update:  See the full article here—50 Women You Should Know