Thank God For Women Preachers

Description

In the latter part of 2018 Pastor Benjamin Blankenship was tasked by the Holy Spirit to write a book regarding the Bible's egalitarian view on women within ministry. Throughout the entirety of scripture and history alike, there is a consistent pattern where God calls women to step forward and religion berates them. The book "Thank God for Women Preachers" acts to serve asboth a Biblical and historical marker of such. Like the man dying in the gutter whom the good Samaritan helped, there is an emphatic difference between being Pharisaical or Christ-like characters who crossed his path. Jesus told that the religious men (the priest and Pharisee) both looked on and felt suffering man didn't personally have anything to do with him. They each stepped to the other-side of the road ignoring his plight. In extreme contrast to this, the unlikely hero whom Christ praised, took compassion on this complete stranger who had been victimized. He went out of his way to help someone he'd likely not see again in this world. It cost him time, energy, personal supplies, and money. Yet, he had the love of God in his heart and empathized with someone he didn't even know. Thank God for Women Preacher not only goes to great lengths to establish the misappropriation, misinterpretation, and miscommunication of scripture within the Biblical canon which has done damage to women; but likewise there is an additional chapter that deals with the Biblical statutes for divorce (in detail). Like the woman's biology keeps her from meeting a falsestandard, the divorcee is also often oppressed or suppressed by sanctimonious self-righteous men. This book challenges the reader to ask "Who is my final authority?" When examining the Bible it's clear that the passages of scripture which are utilized to devalue women are several distorted through a long history of bigotry towards our female co-laborers in the faith.

Benjamin Lee Blankenship was born in Toledo, Ohio. When he was fourteen years old, his family then moved to the small East Tennessee town of Rockwood. Benjamin gave his heart to The Lord at a very early age. He heard the voice of God call him to preach at the tender age of seven. He then asked his mother what it took to be a preacher. She told him that it would take long hours of study and hard work. Due to fear, he would not profess his calling until age 14. After wrestling with feelings of inadequacy, he preached his first sermon a week before his 18th birthday. The following year, Ben's Uncle Terry Smith was on his death bed. Terry was a very talented songwriter, singer and musician who had been with the popular 1960's group The Mods who won The Battle of the Bands in 1966. Ben fervently prayed to receive his uncle's gift of songwriting to be bestowed upon him. Upon his uncle's passing, Ben quickly discovered that The Lord had answered his prayer. He began writing songs under the anointing of The Holy Ghost. It was during that time that he felt a burden for groups to pick up his songs to be put out to radio. Due to being an unknown in the music industry, his dream wouldn't come to pass during that time. Because of rejection and unresponsiveness, Ben decided to form his own group so his music could be heard. His first group was called No Doubts which had a run of about 2 years. Shortly thereafter he formed BEN*JAM which produced multiple albums and sent several songs to radio. In 2018, Ben decided to put BEN*JAM in a semi retirement state due to the demands of pastoring at Benchmark Church. Ben has written well over 100 songs and several have been recorded by artists such as: Bob Smallwood and Caleb Howard with recording plans being made by Steve Warren, Dennise Nichole Dittman-Cook, Bryan James Hatton and others.Benjamin's preaching ministry began with evangelizing in churches and nursing homes. This soon led to the pastorship of his first church in a small storefront in Rockwood, Tennessee. In January 2015, Ben began pastoring his second church, Benchmark Church where he is currently the pastor. During the spring of 2019, Ben felt inspired to do a By Request Series at church for Friday night services which led to the study of women in ministry. Upon completing many hours of Biblical research and scholarly material, Ben felt compelled to write this book due to the suppression and oppression of women in ministry have and are currently experiencing.