Welcome to our blog! After our book, A Divine Duet: Ministry and Motherhood, was released in June, we found ourselves standing on holy ground–and new territory. The essays shared in the book stirred up more conversations about  living out two simultaneous calls and trying to honor both. Two workshops on the book, held at the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in June 2013, showed us that our stories called out other stories. There was far, far more to be said, prayed and pondered. The book was a beginning, the first step on the journey of honoring the divine duet to which God has called us.

The original purpose of the book was to provide safe space for women in ministry to tell their stories as mothers-who-minister and ministers-who-mother.  More women are entering ministry, especially in moderate Baptist life, than ever before; that’s simply an historical fact. But what this means for these women and the body of Christ is being worked out daily in our churches, institutions, homes and prayers.  This reality, its working out and reflections on what God is doing deserve both time and space. This blog is part of offering that.

The book’s twenty contributors cover just about every ministry setting and motherhood circumstance. We represent inner city and rural ministries, preachers and professors, chaplains in healthcare and on campuses, youth pastors, and education pastors, just to name a few. And we are step mothers, birth mothers, adoptive mothers, and those who mother other people’s children.  But we are just the tip of the iceberg.

This blog will allow us to share some of our perspectives, wonderings, insights and questions on anything from preaching ideas to preschool advice.  And it allows us to enlarge the conversation, welcoming in more voices and helping us honor one another’s stories. These blog posts aim to help us take seriously what God is doing in our lives as mothers and ministers. As we tell our stories, we put them out into the larger life of the church and the world, shedding light on this wondrous journey. Join us.

So let the blogging begin! And the honoring, the wondering and the claiming of this divine duet of ministry and motherhood to which we are called.