Sarah Bessey
writer, speaker, recovering-know-it-all

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Christianity Archives | Sarah Bessey

On being a Christian and being a feminist … and belonging nowhere

Posted on January 24, 2017 by Sarah Bessey

  Well, hasn’t this been a … fun week? Jesus made a feminist out of me.  It’s true. I can’t make apologies for it, even though I know that Jesus plus feminist might be the one label that could alienate…

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Hi there, luv.

I'm Sarah.

Author of Jesus Feminist and Out of Sorts.

Writer and blogger. Sometimes preacher. Do-gooder. Recovering know-it-all.

Wife. Mum to four. Western Canadian: born and raised and forever.

Happy-clappy follower of Jesus. Feminist. Deconstruction friendly. Enneagram 9. Overly earnest.

Bookworm. Devotee of Doctor Who. Knitter.

Total hugger.

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  • I never have to wonder why mothers can be so kooky about their sons. 😍😍😍
  • Day 7: a recent discovery I can't stop talking about is the @sleepingatlast podcast episodes for his Enneagram songs. I loved the concept and the songs on their own but hearing Ryan pull every creative decision and motivation apart for us along with Ennegram guru/spiritual director Chris Huerertz's wise perspective makes this podcast one part therapy, one part art, and another part masterclass in how genius works. I've listened to 1, 2, and 5 so far. One of the dearest people in my life is a Type 1 and I BAWLED listening to the song and conversation (hi, Type 9 empathy off the charts here👋🏻). I can't seem to shut up about this to everyone I know who has also been shaped by the Ennegram so there you go. #10ThingsToTellYou with @laura.tremaine
  • Today in #10ThingsToTellYou: A defining moment in my life ... was New Year's Day 2012. That was the day I knew I was hearing from God and, against my better judgement, agreed to choose the word FEARLESS as my One Word for the year. A lifetime of people pleasing and approval addiction was about to be smashed. (Look at 2012 Sarah... so sweet how she has no idea how her life is about to be upended. Bless.) Almost everything in my life was reset by that year of fearless. That was the year I wrote the proposal for #JesusFeminist. The year I signed with an agent. The year I sent it out to publishers to reject or embrace...and learned how to hear "no" without dying. The year I wrote it. The year I dreamed up #OutOfSortsBook. The year I went to Haiti for the first time. The year I began to wake up to God's global dream for women. The year I began to speak the truth out loud to the powerful even if my voice was shaking. The year I finally stopped being controlled by criticism. The year I learned how to be misunderstood and misrepresented and...to carry on anyway. The year I returned to intentional Christian community after many years away. Yep, FEARLESS turned me into a church lady. Never saw that coming. The year I left my kids overnight for the first time. The year I quit my day job. The year I preached for the first time (cried the whole way through). The year I made some of the best friendships of my life and learned about the connection between courage and vulnerability. The year I aligned with dangerous women who still challenge me to this day. The year I grappled with every hidden insecurity and fear I had petted and indulged. Yes, that was a turning point and a defining moment in my life. I have never been the same since FEARLESS. I'm not fearless now...not by a long shot. But I am braver. And I am grateful. And I wouldn't change a single hard and impossible moment of it. (This pic was taken by @teenbug back in the day.)
  • Something I have mixed feelings about? Feel like being a bit less confessional and more vain today so....the blue streaks in my hair. 😒 I felt much more like "me" with white blonde there - took a risk with blue at the urging of a 22 year old hair stylist (note to self: trust not the youths in matters of hair and skinny jeans) and have felt vaguely uneasy in the mirror ever since. I think I may be Amy Poehler in Mean Girls: "I'm not a regular Mom; I'm a COOL MOM." 😂 #Almost40 This is 5 of #10ThingsToTellYou with @laura.tremaine
  • Something I am strangely good at? Strategic planning and organizational vision casting.📈🗒📥💼📁 I used to work in that lane years ago but even now I think that way. For an enneagram 9, an INFJ, a la-dee-dah creative, I am surprisingly business minded and I absolutely love it. Like, I adore when my writing friends want to talk about branding and publishing and book launches and numbers. I love quietly helping people figure out how to do their work well without selling their soul. I drive my publishers nuts with my enthusiasm for marketing plans and I want receipts on audiences. I adore white boards and flip pads. My writer friends are well acquainted with my notes of unsolicited advice on their projects. I am hardly happier than when I'm helping a non profit create a mission/vision/value statement and then creating their 5 year plan to close the gap between vision and reality. It is so fun! It is the best! I adore strategic planning. Strange but true. P.S. I am also strangely good at remembering - and saying in a pitch perfect accent - almost every single line from Austin Powers movies....baby. 🇬🇧🤦🏻‍♀️ #10ThingsToTellYou @laura.tremaine
  • Anyone remember this old header?? 😂 Today's #10ThingsToTellYou is "A thing that changed your worldview..." so many options - reading, travel, etc. But I'll say: blogging. 👩🏽‍💻 Yes, old-fashioned 2005-2013ish era blogging. I opened my first blog back in 2004 when social media felt shiny and new with possibility and we all used avatars/usernames. Bless. Not only did blogging help me to figure out that I wasn’t as alone or crazy as I thought or connect me with some of my dearest friends or discover my own writing voice or open the doors for my own vocation but it opened my eyes up to the stories that were so different from my own. Blogging was story-driven back then and listening to the stories of those who were often far from the church's historical theological and leadership structures, the ones whose voices were often ignored by gatekeepers and power-brokers, opened up my mind and my heart and changed the trajectory of my life and my worldview in so many ways. Through blogging, I learned to listen to those on the margins, those far from the powerful and celebrated. And I learned that my particular story wasn’t the single story, as Chimamanda Ngoza Adichie so eloquently said, let alone even the common one. Through blogging I made friends and found teachers who changed how I worship, how I read scripture, how I pursue justice at home and around the world, how I write, how I vote, how I mother, and even how I decorate. I know blogging is pretty much dead now and I understand all the reasons why but I still have a soft spot for those of us who got our start and found each other through this once-wild and fulfilling communal medium. Here's to the generation of bloggers - you changed me. P.S. Emerging Mummy. Honestly. Fix it, Jesus.

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