Indispensable Women of Faith

By C. Dennis Williams

Often, I tell my daughters, when interested in a man, wait for him to find you; for if he is God sent, then he is looking for you; and always remember to look at his shoes, because if he can't take care of his shoes, then he can't take care of you. 

Indispensable Women of Faith is a book that will categorize the imprints, bravery, and

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Release date: Jul 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781637690871

C. Dennis Williams

C. Dennis Williams earned his Doctorate in Preaching and Collaborative Partnerships, from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. He is a Senior Pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and has served as a seminary professor, presently he serves as the Chair of the Religious Studies program at Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas. He and his wife Yvette have three children and one Grandson, they reside in Dallas, Texas.

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indispensable women of faith

C. Dennis Williams

Trilogy Christian Publishers

A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Trinity Broadcasting Network

2442 Michelle Drive

Tustin, CA 92780

Copyright © 2021 by C. Dennis Williams

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) taken from The Holy Bible, King James Version. Cambridge Edition: 1769.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For information, address Trilogy Christian Publishing

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Trilogy Christian Publishing/ TBN and colophon are trademarks of Trinity Broadcasting Network.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Trilogy Christian Publishing.

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-63769-086-4

ISBN 978-1-63769-087-1 (ebook)

Praise for Indispensable Women of Faith

In a culture of continued misogyny and bigotry, Dr. Williams illuminates the lives and accomplishments of inspiring women, not only from the Bible but also from around the world. Kudos to Dr. Williams for writing such a vital and timely piece that will captivate any audience.

Misti Zablosky

PhD, LAT, DipACLM, CHWC

Assistant Professor, Program Manager Department of Lifestyle Health Sciences 

School of Health Professions FitSteps

University of North Texas

Health Science Center at Fort Worth

My grandmother, Louise Edith Escort, an indispensable woman of faith, was a life-long member of the United Methodist Church, St. James in Beaumont, Texas, and Jones in San Francisco. Her church membership was her rock for spiritual nourishment and the opportunity for my grandmother to exercise leadership skills in ways not available to her outside of the church because of her race and gender. This book is an incredible testament to all women of faith from biblical to modern times and to ordinary women like my grandmother, who, through their prayers, good works, and service, paved a way for me to become the first African American and first female president of my university. We stand on the shoulders of those who come before us, and this book is a must-read for learning more about these unsung sheroes. 

Dr. Lori S. White

President of DePauw University 

Greencastle, Indiana

Indispensable Women of Faith is a fresh new way to gain insight into the lives of women in antiquity juxtaposed to women of modern times. C. Dennis Williams uses his proverbial pen to reveal their stories while caressing them with honor and respect. His selection and treatment leave you thirsty. 

Helen Easterling Williams, EdD

Dean and Professor of Education 

Graduate School of Education and Psychology 

Pepperdine University 

Malibu, California

Indispensable Women of Faith takes me on a reflective journey back to growing up surrounded and nurtured by my village of strong, influential, and spirit-filled women. It is reminiscent of the community of women of faith who helped to shape me while guiding my upbringing and were indispensable to me along my life’s pathway. Indispensable Women provides a provoking spotlight on the lived experiences of like-minded women of faith from a historical and modern-day perspective employing their own individual life journey to illustrate dynamic parallels. It illuminates recollections of the praying grandmother and superimposes them with women of the biblical times. This book is an engaging and proverbial page-turner, drawing the reader in through easily relatable experiences.

Marva E. Brooks, PhD, RN 

Professional Faculty 

School of Nursing 

Washtenaw Community College 

Ann Arbor, MI

Women have long overcome oppression as they’ve made an everlasting impact on society. We need to look no further than the women of the Bible to see how God has used women of faith to fulfill His purpose. This book is an inspiration to all women: no matter the station in life, go forward fearlessly, emboldened by the Word of God.

Angela L. Brown, MD

Professor of Medicine

Vice Chair for Health Equity, Department of Medicine

Washington University School of Medicine

St. Louis, MO 63110

Indispensable Women of Faith is a book that will fill in the open spaces in the currently available literature. Women of the Bible and women leading in current times have unique experiences we all will learn from once the light is shown in the right direction. Dr. C. Dennis Williams is creating a space for the hard questions about women leaders and the impact of women on our world to be asked and perhaps answered. Leadership in our faith organizations, higher education institutions, and our military have been historically male. However, there are women leaders in these spaces, and their lived experiences must be part of our (male and female) analysis and leadership development. These three sectors of our world shape the experiences, values, and beliefs of all through our entire lifetime. Identifying who these women are and how they have arrived at their place of leadership will further expand the opportunities for additional women leaders to arrive in the future.

Kizuwanda G. Grant, PhD

Vice President, Institutional Programs & Senior Director of Compliance

Title IX Coordinator

Paul Quinn College

Dallas, Texas

Acknowledgments

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One of my earnest and consistent prayers is that I will always remain humble, and even as I was writing this book, I was continually asking God to keep me humble because humility never takes credit for success, but it always pauses to acknowledge and thank those who have played a vital role in our accomplishments. I would be both inept and hubris if I did not do this now, over a year and a half ago, the Lord placed on my heart to write a book that would speak to the gifts, influence, and indispensability of women. It was during a time when I felt that women were being used, taken advantage of, and were the topics of unbecoming conversations, I knew at that time that I need not to write a rebuttal but to write an affirming, laudatory book with a biblical perspective that would substantiate all of their endeavors.

As I looked for a publisher, I found Trilogy and The Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). I was then introduced to Rhett Harwell of Trilogy and TBN, and I informed Rhett that I literally grew up with TBN. I am from Santa Ana, California, and I know all about the late Paul and Jan Crouch. I was impressed as a young man that when I was called to the ministry that TBN was one of the first places that encouraged me in my pursuit of theological framework and training.

Rhett encouraged me to submit a few chapters of my book to see if it was something that they would be interested in. I did, and the rest is history; I am thankful beyond reproach that Trilogy and TBN agreed to publish my book, and I am glad to be a member of the TBN family. I am also indebted to Rochelle Stewart, who has served as my editor not just for this project but my last book as well; Rochelle is a computer specialist and works in the field of Information Technology as such, she has a way of taking my notes and chapters and making them look pristine before my final submission to the publisher. I also want to thank Peggi Coleman, my Executive Assistant, who not only helped to proofread this manuscript but navigated my office and calendar and used her administrative expertise so that I could write in between my preaching and teaching responsibilities as both a Pastor and a Professor.

As I was writing this book, I was reminded daily of how fortunate and blessed I am to serve as Lead Pastor to an extraordinary church. The Smith Chapel AME Church family has sat in the pews for the last nine years listening to my sermons, Bible studies, and always following my leadership, with confidence in my gifts, calling, and vision much of what I write, say, and teach goes to my congregation first, and I am grateful that they supported me through the maze of writing and publishing this book. In addition, I serve as a Professor of Religious Studies at one of the greatest HBCUs in the world, Paul Quinn College. One of the things that Professors do is write lectures and teach classes, and while doing both of these, I had to take time to write, read, study the personalities of the women in this book and exegete the scriptures that the ministries of these godly women were extracted from. I want to thank the college for giving me the time and latitude to complete this project. Finally, I am thankful and appreciative to my family; they have watched me over the last year or so spend hours in my study at home, writing into the hours of the night and sometimes into early morning, but they never complained, and in their own way they encouraged me to take the time that I needed to finish what I started, Thank You, to my wife Yvette, our three children Desiree, Faith, Calvin, and our grandson Jordan—I love each one of you very much.

I suppose that the hardest part of this writing this book is the fact that most of it was written literally in a pandemic, while many have died from coronavirus, and we have been in quarantine, and many companies have been on lockdown, but yet we were able to finish. It reminds me of the challenge of Indispensable Women of Faith: each one of them endured and made it through difficult times, and not even a pandemic could preclude the production of this book nor achieving the spiritual accolades that this book celebrates.

Introduction

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Indispensable Women of Faith

At the age of six months, I along with my twin sister were adopted into a wonderful family. That incredible act would lead to a wonderful relationship with loving parents who raised us in church and taught us the meaning and purpose of morality, resilience, steadfastness, and most of all respect, respect for cultures, diversity, God, faith, and women. As a young man, I did not grow up with the displeasure of disrespecting women; I never heard my father yell at my mother, I never saw any signs of mental or physical abuse, my father taught me to respect my mother and my sister. As I grew older into my mid-30s after consultation with my parents, I decided to pursue a journey in my past and locate my biological parents. I invested in an organization that helps children connect with their birth parents, and within weeks this organization had found my birth parents. After conquering my trepidation, I reached out to my parents, and my father was thrilled at the possibility of meeting me; my mother, however, was not. She avoided me, would not accept my phone calls, and continued with this kind of behavior until my biological sisters intervened; that’s right, my biological sisters. I discovered that I had two slightly older sisters, two and three years older than my twin sister and me. They were never told about the twins but always suspected that they had other siblings because of a picture of maternal twins that they accidentally came across when they inquired, as children, if the picture they found was of their siblings; they were told it was not.

Once I spoke with my father and arranged to meet him, he introduced me to my sisters, nephews, and nieces. They all took me to meet our mother, who had not seen me since I was six months of age, and when she saw me (I was forty at the time), she looked at me, took some pictures of me, then ran out of the house, and I would never see her again but would speak to her on the phone every day. A few months after our initial meeting, she passed away. My sisters and I have a great rapport; even though my biological sisters have not met their other sister, I still have a warm relationship with all of my sisters. My twin sister and I are extremely close, and I am close with my two older sisters. So as you can see, I have always been around women, but not just ordinary women, but women of faith. My adoptive mother was a woman of faith who was very active in her local church, and once I had acknowledged my call to the ministry, she encouraged me to go to school and would always tell me that ministry is serious and that if I was going to be a minister, then I had to be a good one. My twin sister is a woman of faith who was a member of the choir in one of the many churches I pastored, and was always proud of my work as a Pastor and would enjoy singing the sermonic selection in the choir prior to my weekly homily. My two older sisters are strong in the Word, live a life of probity and fidelity to the Lord, are active in their local churches, and are very careful never to sully their spiritual dispositions. Although I did not know her long, my biological mother was a strong