Resurrection is a weekend youth retreat hosted by the United Methodist Church that has been held in Gatlinburg or Pidgeon Forge for over 30 years. This is the first year that a woman has been the featured speaker to the youth attending this event. Her name is Rachel Billups and here are her credentials according to the Rez 2018 website:
Rev. Rachel Billups serves as Ginghamsburg’s Executive Pastor of Discipleship and as part of the preaching team. Rachel, an Ordained Elder within the United Methodist Church, holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Bible/Religion and History from Anderson University and a Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School. Rachel was also the first clergy resident for the United Methodist West Ohio Conference’s Residency Program. Before joining the Ginghamsburg team in July 2014, Rachel served as the lead pastor of Shiloh United Methodist, a multisite church in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Pretty impressive if you ask me.
Rachel spoke four times and the title of her series of talks was called "A Work in Progress." During these talks she addressed the continuing work God does in a believer's life (Phil. 2:1-6), lies we believe about ourselves (from the life of Sarah, 1 Peter 3:3-6), temptation (from the story of Jacob & Esau, Gen. 25:29-34), and sharing your faith story (from the life of Timothy, 2 Tim. 4:1-8). Rachel was a very engaging speaker and very knowledgeable concerning the Scripture. She shared several very personal stories that were impactful to her listeners.
But what struck me most is how hard it still is for a woman to speak. Now, I am basing my comments on a few conversations with a small number of people, but I believe these comments could have been common throughout the audience.
First of all, Rachel cried a couple of times while she was speaking. She had tears running down her cheeks, and she certainly was sincerely moved by the material she was presenting. The tears did not hinder her making her point. But some people said, "She's pretty emotional." It made me think, "Would we say the same thing if a man cried?" I have been in many services throughout my lifetime, and men have cried as they preached. I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone say, "He's pretty emotional." And I think maybe men are looked at with admiration for being able to share their emotions so freely.
During one of the sessions Rachel addressed body image. When we left, some of our group said they felt like she was mainly talking to the girls. As I was listening I felt this too, and I thought it would have been good if she had addressed issues boys might have with their body image. Boys may be overweight, but they may also be underweight, or they may not be very muscular or athletic. So I think criticism about this has some validity.
But so what if she was mainly speaking to the girls? Girls made up at least half of the audience, and likely way more than fifty percent. And how many times have I sat through services that included a weight-lifting strong man or men, or a man talking about football and using all sorts of sports related analogies? Did anyone say, "I think he's mainly talking to the boys."?
No. No one did.
Because we accept that as the norm in our church activities.
So I'm just here to say that I was really pleased with Rachel Billups being our speaker for Rez 2018. And I hope she's the first of many women who are given the opportunity to share with our young people.
I think it's about time.
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