Let Her Lead

A Twelve-Week Study

Two short verses have kept women out of the pulpit for nearly two thousand years. "Let a woman learn in silence with all submission." "I do not permit a woman to teach." They are usually read first, and every other text is then bent to fit them.

Let Her Lead begins somewhere else. It begins in the garden, because two sentences cannot be read rightly until the whole story they belong to is known.

Across twelve weeks, the study traces that story from Genesis to the empty tomb. It opens with the image of God given to male and female together and the garden as the first sanctuary, where both served. It follows the forfeit in Eden, the appointed line of Seth, and the offer at Sinai, when God invited all Israel to be a kingdom of priests. Then comes the golden calf, and with it a narrower, male-only priesthood under an administration added because of transgression.

The second half of the study shows what Messiah restored. As the eternal High Priest, He brought a new covenant, a new Temple, a new Sacrifice, and a new Priesthood. Most readers accept the first three as fulfilled but treat the fourth as still frozen in place. The study asks why, and follows the restored order into a royal priesthood where Priscilla teaches, Phoebe serves, and daughters prophesy.

Only then, in the final week, does the study turn to the two verses. It reads them in full, in their own setting, and shows that they fit the great story rather than overturning it.

Each week includes plain-English Key Term boxes, questions for reflection, weekly readings, and a memory passage. A glossary closes the study.

The door in the garden was never meant to stay shut. This study shows who opened it.