Marva Dawn, LCMS Theologian

MARVA J. DAWN

Internationally renowned theologian, author, and educator Dr. Marva J. Dawn serves as Teaching Fellow in Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Under Christians Equipped for Ministry (CEM), she has preached and taught at seminaries, clergy conferences, churches, assemblies, and universities throughout the United States and Canada and in Australia, China and Hong Kong, England, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Madagascar, Mexico, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Singapore, and Scotland.

A scholar with four masters degrees and a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics and the Scriptures from the University of Notre Dame, Dr. Dawn is also a popular preacher and speaker for people of all ages.

She is the author of numerous articles and over 20 books, several of which have won awards and\or been translated into Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and other languages.

Marva and her husband Myron, a retired elementary school teacher, live in southwestern Washington State.

Saddleback Meltdown

Saddleback Church Hosted a Discussion,
Where McCain Mopped the Floor with Obama

I did not want to watch the Saddleback Church discussion for several reasons, but Mrs. Ichabod put it on and left it there. Obama speaks one word at a time, so he is either trying to remember his lines or suffering from too many years of pot. Yes, known potheads have this way of speaking in a slow, mechanical, wooden way - one word at a time.

McCain consistently answered well. Obama, who was on before McCain, was truly awful.

I predicted before that Hillary would be the nominee. Her name will be placed in nomination at the convention. It may be a long-shot, but the Clinton-friendly National Enquirer just obliterated John Edwards from politics. The file on Obama is several feet thick. Anything can happen with opposition research.

Women's Ordination in the LCMS

LCMS Leader Marva Dawn

From the Swede Files:

In the LCMS, we now have an officially sanctioned organization called the Women’s Leadership Insitute. In a newsletter about their spring/summer conference, held back in April, you’ll find the following:

Women are the very lifeblood of the church. Their leadership gifts in every aspect of the work of the church are needed today more than ever before, the Rev. Dr. Paul L. Maier emphasized in his two keynote addresses at the conference .

Speaking first on ¯Women Leaders in the New Testament and the Early Church, Maier, who is 2nd Vice President of the LCMS and professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University, reviewed the ¯whole cavalcade of women leaders who ¯spill out from the pages of the Old and New Testaments.

Precedents set both in the New Testament and the first centuries of the church are enormously important for the subsequent history of women’s leadership in Christianity, he continued. Despite the examples of women like Huldah, Deborah, Mary, Blandina, Paula, Helena and dozens of others, Maier noted that "Christianity has had a checkered record when it comes to involving women in the life of the church. One reason for this, he said, is that the church is also set in society, a society that did not even give women a right to vote in America until the 1920s!

It’s been a long road, Maier admitted in his second talk, ¯How Women Can Use Their Leadership Gifts in the LCMS, but progress has been made. Today ¯women may vote and hold any office in the church except that of the ordained ministry.

You can find this article at: http://www.wlicuw.org/Portals/wli/docs/Public/WLI_E-Letter_Spring_2008[1].pdf

Worth noting also is one of the presentersthe WLI conference held in June, a woman named Dr. Marva Dawn. Dr. Dawn’s presentation was “Empowered through Scripture for Leadership. For those unconvinced that this has anything to do with women’s ordination, a quick visit to Dr. Dawn's official website is recommended The site says she is “a popular preacher and speaker for people of all ages.” She is also the co-author of the book, “The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call.”



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