Carolyn Custis James

If you think Synergy is in a holding pattern, think again!

The very name “Synergy” implies activity. Even when we “pause” to assess where we’ve been and gear up for where we’re going, Synergy momentum can’t be stopped!

So let me catch you up on what is happening as we ramp up from Phase I to Phase II.

First, many thanks for your strong response to our board’s decision to press the “pause” button temporarily after Synergy2011 to seek God’s guidance and build a strong foundation for what comes next. Your enthusiastic support for this decision and for Synergy’s next phase is a reminder of the importance of our network and just how much we need each other.

Here’s what’s been happening since our June announcement.

1)   We’re currently in the middle of moving forward with the four major strategies we defined:

• Synergy Board: Our new board chair, Susie Lipps, is doing an excellent job of leading the charge for board expansion and development.

• Fund Raising: We have our work cut out for us, but Sharon Denney and I, along with our board, are focused on fund raising and leaving no stone unturned. The photo above was taken recently when Sharon was in Boston from NYC for some face-to-face fund raising planning with me and strategic meetings in the Lexington area. The location of our meeting and Sharon’s insatiable desire to explore during gaps in the schedule (people who know her will understand) explain why we happen to be at the Minute Man National Park.

• Regionals: Even though we’ve temporary postponed booking regionals, initial conversations are already taking place for regional conferences in Los Angeles, Portland, and Boston.

• Phase II Infrastructure: We’ve taken a major step towards building an appropriate infrastructure by outsourcing our accounting and business operations to Mission Well in California.

2)   Small groups are piloting new ideas and developing strategies and resources that we believe Synergy can multiply nationally as we build a stronger more active network, facilitate strategic new initiatives, and mobilize more women for the Kingdom.

•  In Massachusetts, the Gathering for Hope was launched a year ago by Brooke Sulahian for women to educate themselves about justice issues and organizations and wrestle with the question: What can I do? This past Monday, a second Gathering for Hope was formed.

• Across several states, a cohort of women in similar ministry situations are fleshing out how to build bridges and move toward a Blessed Alliance in their churches.

3)  We are shortly to announce a new national initiative to engage the Synergy Network in stimulating conversations with significant thought leaders, such as Chai Ling, Andy Crouch, and others.

We can’t do any of this without God’s help and without your support.  Please keep us in your prayers. Consider becoming a regular Synergy supporter.  And definitely stay tuned for more details! (That’s one more reason to “LIKE” the Synergy FaceBook Page!)

Moving forward together,
Carolyn

Prospective readers of A Heart for Freedom (Synergy’s Book of the Month) should probably be forewarned that reading Chai Ling’s story runs the risk of being swept up in her passion for freedom and unable to sidestep your own responsibility to do something about what is wrong in our world. It’s amazing what one person can do, once she makes up her mind to act. I hope her book has that impact on all of us.

Chai Ling offers a rare intimate behind-the-scenes look at the Tiananmen Square student protest and the tragic aftermath as Ling recounts those history changing days—not as a journalist, but as a key leader of the student movement. With the growing significance of China in today’s world, her remarkable story gives us vital insight into this significant moment in China’s history and to the suffering, courage, and sheer determination that characterized the students in that movement.

I loved observing how Ling, herself, evolves and grows from start to end of this book and how her story bridges the old world of her foot-bound grandmother and the twenty-first century high tech world of Jenzabar. Born in China, Ling is a disappointment to her father for not being a son. Conditioned to defer to the men in her life (and her father heads the list) and to derive her meaning and value from their approval, Ling awakens to her own deep sense of calling in the Tiananmen Square protests and to her responsibility to do something about the suffering and injustice in the world—a responsibility that is reinforced and galvanized years later when she embraces faith in Christ.

She doesn’t airbrush her story, but is unflinchingly truthful about her own flaws and failings. Every situations she faces pushes her outside of her comfort zone—Tiananmen Square, life on the run, starting over on her own in a foreign country, launching a business, and her efforts today on behalf of China’s daughters under the government’s One-Child Policy. Ling doesn’t hold back. The results are seen, not only her achievements and the benefits that come to others, but also in her flourishing as a human being. I’d like to think her story will awaken that same sense of calling and urgency, the same refusal to hold back, in every woman who reads Ling’s story.

But perhaps the most unexpected message of this book centers on the subject of the One-Child Policy and abortion in particular. The statistics for China are not only alarming, but difficult to absorb—not just that every 2.5 seconds a baby is aborted, that 86% of Chinese women have had abortions (multiple abortions for 52% of women ages 20-35), or that abortions exceed live births 101 to 100, but that in the wake of all those government mandated abortions, every day 500 women in China commit suicide.

China is losing her daughters—both the little ones and the grown ones—at appalling rates. When you realize how much good one of China’s daughters is accomplishing, the loss of all the others is incalculable. Ling’s poignant discussion of the complex subject of abortion points us all (especially Evangelical Christians, of which she is one) to a more compassionately thoughtful and redemptive approach to this complex subject. For that, we owe her a great debt.

So read her story, if you dare!

Pierre-Édouard Frère (1819-1886)

As one who often struggles with prayer—fighting for words, for focus, confused and heartsick over many things—I took comfort this morning in the words of Patrick Gray.

Preaching a series on the prayer the Lord taught his disciples to pray, Patrick reminded us that when we pray to “Our Father who art in heaven …” there are two listeners in heaven who hear us and that Jesus, who knows all we experience, interprets our prayers. That even when we feel we have just prayed the worst prayer ever, heaven doesn’t drop our call. Instead, Jesus leans over to the Father and says, “What she is really trying to say is …”

This past summer, for the second time, I was the speaker for a week at InterVarsity’s Cedar Campus in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for their Leadership Institute. A whole week interacting with college students who are tomorrow’s Christian leaders.  And just like the last time I was there, this year I walked away with renewed hope having glimpsed what God is doing in the hearts and minds of this rising generation. They are on fire for the Lord, and that fire is spreading.

Which makes me look forward all the more to the opportunity I have Wednesday, September 7, to speak in chapel at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts.  Nice to have a speaking opportunity that doesn’t require a trip to the Boston-Logan Airport. Even better to be able to interact with more students about the message of Half the Church.

I’m bracing for another hope-filled experience. 

Several days ago, I sat across the table from Alice Mathews in a nearby restaurant. I had her all to myself for a leisurely (!) lunch. We were there for several hours. Afterwards I posted on Twitter and FaceBook,  

“Enjoyed a 4-hour face-to-face w/Alice Mathews. If you’re not jealous of me, you should be. What a wealth of wisdom!”

Right away, a bunch of FB friend admitted feelings of jealousy.  Anyone who’s heard her speak at one of our Synergy conferences surely felt at least a twinge. 

Well, I have just the cure. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (one of Synergy’s seminary sponsors) is again offering a D.Min. track in Effective Ministry to Women with Alice Mathews at the helm. Women in this program are guaranteed quality time with Alice. Doesn’t get better than that!

Having Alice as a mentor is reason enough to enroll, although the program speaks for itself, not to mention the other professors participating. This link explains everything you need to get started: http://www.gordonconwell.edu/doctor-ministry/Effective-Ministry-to-Women.cfm

Who knows? Maybe while you’re in the neighborhood, we can get together for coffee, and I can have a face-to-face with you!

This little ezer‘s story is shaking things up on the airwaves and proving once again that we dare not underestimate what God might do through one ezer—even a little one. Her story also brings to light a larger issue that needs to shake up our views of little ezers in other ways.

Rachel Beckwith heard from her church about the need for clean water in Africa. So when her 9th birthday approached, she opted to forgo the party and presents and instead set out to raise $300 to bring clean water to those who desperately need it. She came within $80 of reaching her goal.

Tragically, soon after her birthday, Rachel was killed in an auto accident. Her story was picked up by the press and is spreading. The impact of this precious little life is stirring others around the world to give.  Her starter fund has exceeded $1,000,000. Go to Rachel’s 9th Birthday Wish if you want to join this effort. Nicholas Kristoff’s article, “Rachel’s Last Fund-Raiser,” shows Rachel’s campaign for water is only part of the giving she did in her brief life.

Rachel’s story should leave us all wondering what this little ezer might have done if she had enjoyed a normal life span? Who’s to say where haircut donations to Locks of Love and $220 for clean water might have taken her had she lived to carry on as an adult what she started as a child?

I’m hearing from women who have been reading Half the Sky and Half the Church and who are moving forward to do something (and mobilize others) to address the suffering of women and girls in the world.  Rachel’s story is a reminder that all of us can help. A little creativity goes a long way. The fullness of Jesus’ gospel calls us to this.

Rachel’s story also reveals something that can be easy for grown-ups to overlook: the enormous potential of little girls to make a difference for others if only given a chance. What would the world be like if more little girls were encouraged to think about raising $220 to help others?

Beyond this, Rachel’s story puts in perspective just how monstrous it is that in today’s world 200 million girls are missing because they’ve been aborted, abandoned, or neglected. (See “It’s a girl!”) The horror of these deaths is bad enough. But look at one little ezer’s life and ask yourself how much the world has lost when 200 million little ezers are gone.  And what else goes missing when girls are denied an education or not cheered on to discover and employ the gifts God has given them?

People are looking for ideas.  What are other little ezers doing to make a difference?

http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_69.swf

I woke up Tuesday morning wondering, “What will the Stock Market do today?” and fearing the worst. Instead, my attention was diverted by a link I received from a friend to the video above.  It’s a trailer for the documentary, “It’s a girl!”

Amazing how quickly a 3-minute video can put things in perspective.

Who knew that words spoken when I was born or the joyous announcement at my daughter’s birth are, in some places, “the three most deadly words in the world.” I’m still trying to absorb the fact that each year China and India eliminate more girls (for no other reason than they are girls) than girls born in the U.S.  The loss of these precious lives and the trauma to their mothers is beyond appalling. But there are other serious consequences, for the resulting gender imbalance has a destabilizing effect on a culture leading to such things as an increase in violence and sex trafficking. 

Last week I met with Chai Ling, founder of All Girls Allowed, to learn more about what’s happening and her tireless efforts to get governments to act and to reach out to women who have suffered or are facing forced abortions or have courageously managed to keep their daughters. If you’re asking what you can do, Ling’s website is the place to go for information and ideas. The least we can do is to sign the petition asking President Obama and Congress to put pressure on the Chinese government to end the One Child Policy that is responsible for the deaths of millions of little girls. I hope you will do that.

Time to pack again!

This time I’m going to Ft. Collins, Colorado for the Campus Crusade for Christ 2011 U.S. National Staff Conference on the Colorado State University campus. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful part of the country.   

Monday morning, I’ll be part of a line-up of four speakers, including Dan Allender, Amena Brown, and Blair Burns.  In the afternoon, we’ll all be conducting some of the 2-hour Super Seminars. I’m excited to be doing mine on the Blessed Alliance, but am also going to wish I could attend theirs.

Afterwards, I am really looking forward to spending time with old friends and hope to make some new ones. Lots of Synergy friends will be there, which is a plus for me!

For those who haven’t yet heard, CCCI just announced a name change of their USA ministries to CRU—a name already used on many campuses.  To read their announcement, go here.  For the Huffington Post’s report on the name change, go here.  

Here’s hoping the weather is cooler in Colorado than it is here in Boston.  After days of incredibly pleasant summer weather, the heat wave has finally come to us.

CNN reported it as “the slap … heard around the world: Wendi Deng Murdoch putting herself between her husband Rupert Murdoch and a protester armed with a shaving cream pie.”

In a nanosecond the Internet was abuzz over Murdoch’s third wife—a championship volleyball player—whose latest spike was timed perfectly to protect her husband from a heckler. Previously criticized as a gold-digger for her marriage to the media mogul, Wendi’s recent actions have cast her in a new light, as a woman who loves her husband, takes responsibility for what’s happening, and moves instinctively (faster than the police) to defend him against an assailant.

And while all the world is talking, unless I missed something (and please correct me if I’m wrong), Christian blogs are strangely silent. We’re not talking about a woman who protects her man—especially in such a public and physically combative way.  But we need to talk about this because the issue is important and the stakes go much higher than a humiliating face full of shaving cream.

I wrote about this issue in Half the Church after telling the stories of twelve-year-old Reem Al Numery of Yemen and an Indian Muslim girl, Meena, whose story appears in Half the Sky.

Reem literally fought her way out of the marriage her father arranged with a thirty-year-old cousin who beat and raped her to consummate the “marriage.” Not only did Reem secure a divorce, her actions resulted in an international outcry that is changing things for other child brides in Yemen.

At the age of eight or nine and five months before her first period, Meena was sold to traffickers. But Meena was a fighter too. “Her distinguishing characteristic is obstinacy. She can be dogged and mulish…. She breaches the pattern of femininity in rural India by talking back—and fighting back” (HTS, 7). Her mulishness resulted in her freedom and ultimately the freedom of the children she bore during her captivity who were also being trafficked.

Here’s what I wrote in HTC:

“Are Reem and Meena allowable exceptions given their extreme circumstances, but for the rest of us, their kind of behavior is out of line? Are we definining a ‘wartime ethic’ for women where, in certain situations (life and death, for example, or in the event the men are absent) heavy lifting, strong leadership, and assertiveness are permissible, but are otherwise unnecessary, unnatural, and unacceptable? If Reem and Meena became Christians, would they be in for a major overhaul to eliminate their stubborn tendencies, or would we celebrate them as exemplary ezers, hold them up to our daughters for inspiration, and talk about them to our sons as the kind of courageous woman they should seek for a wife?”

So … will we remain silent, treat the Deng episode as an “allowable exception,” or can we find it in ourselves to praise a woman’s bold actions to protect a man as a courageous ezer-warrior moment?