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Every Mary Needs an Elizabeth: Training Women for Discipleship (feat. Joanne Kraft) · Real Life Theology Podcast

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Welcome back everyone to the Real Life Theology podcast. Today's episode features Joanne Craft,
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who's going to help us understand that faithful discipleship grows through training and that
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churches should equip and encourage women already in the seats to disciple younger women,
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as modeled by Mary and Elizabeth in the Bible. Here's the episode.
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Hey everybody, I am Joanne Craft. Men lead our churches, but women fill the seats.
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I'd like to tell you a story. About ten years ago when our four children were still little
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enough to go in the car with us everywhere we went, my husband and I decided to go visit the
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grandparents. And so as we were getting on the freeway, we were going up on the freeway on-ramp,
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and the on-ramp had a very steep incline. It was about 30 or 40 feet it went up. And
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so my husband, as he began to merge with traffic, we heard out of the left side here of the car
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we heard screeching tires and we saw a pickup truck cartwheel end over end
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going off the side of the freeway down the embankment disappearing below.
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Before my husband could even, I'm going to tell you, he had the car in park and he was out of
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the vehicle bolting down the freeway and he went over, he climbed over the fence, went over the
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embankment, and he disappeared below. Before my husband had even got to that fence, I was on 9-1-1
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with specific information. I said, hey we are westbound highway 50. We lived in California
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at the time. We are westbound highway 50. We're about a quarter mile from the on-ramp and we just
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witnessed a silver ford pickup truck look to be occupied by one male driver. He was in the vehicle
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cartwheeled off the freeway and you're going to need to send fire and ambulance to the front
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of the road below because he's not on the freeway anymore. I would love to tell you that my husband
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and I are just really cool like that because it was very cool because I got to see like Clark Kent
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turn into Superman and he looked really cute by the way. The truth is we aren't those people.
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We were trained to do that. We were trained for years to run towards the hurting. We were trained
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for years to know how to help somebody. My husband's a former police officer and I'm a former
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9-1-1 dispatcher. That means that we have a very dark sense of humor
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and that also means that we speak in a different language. We speak in police phonetics
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and we speak in police codes and what I mean by that is when our kids were little, let's say we
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were leaving church and I wanted to get an ice cream cone but I knew way better than to say that
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out loud with a car full of kids. So I would say to Paul, do you want to get an Ida Charles Edward
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Charles Robert Edward Adam Mary and if my kids like had their McDonald's tray and they were
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walking over towards that guy that looked like a kidnapper, I would say 207.
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Don't judge me, you have thought the same thing.
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It's important that we understand that that faithful living, that discipleship
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living comes from being trained. It comes from being trained and what I didn't tell you about
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this story was that after I got off the phone, my daughter Grace piped up in the back seat and she
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said, mommy we need to pray for that man. I didn't even think about that and I have to tell you as a
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parent and a lot of you understand this, it was just precious to know that Lord all of those mornings
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I did those devotions with the kids, all of those mornings that they didn't go very well,
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every time they'd leave the house with their little backpacks on, I would stuff just a teeny
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portion of God's Word into their hearts, a little bit of prayer and it mattered because to have a
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faith-filled life, we need to be faithful people. And I'll tell you it was very encouraging to me
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with Gracie because when you do those devotions, especially with parenthood, motherhood,
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you think they're not listening. It's hard. It's hard sometimes and living a faithful life
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doesn't always mean that your kids are going to, you know, be the next big thing for Jesus.
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But I heard a very cool thing and I shared this story actually last night with a mom in the
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audience whose son, whose prodigal came home, which is so cool. Praise God. It was awesome and I said,
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you know, I remember years ago I was at a Home Depot and there was a gentleman in the checkout
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and he had a cross on and I said, I said, wow, I love your necklace and he said, oh, I'm a Christian.
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And I said, me too. He said, do you know how I'm going to run to when I first get to heaven?
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I thought, well, this is a no-brainer. Jesus? And he said, no, I'm going to find my mom.
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He goes, because she prayed all her life for me and she never got to see this, this side of heaven.
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Oh, that was encouraging. So faith, faithful people raise faith filled livers of life.
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So I promise I'll get back to my story. I haven't forgotten, but I want to read you a portion of
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scripture that is near and dear to my heart and it's in the gospel of Luke. And it's a portion
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of scripture that many of you probably only hear at Christmas time, but I want to share with you
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my heart about discipleship. So when the angel Gabriel has told Mary that, you know, you're going
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to carry the savior of the world, as you can imagine, she has a lot of things going on in her
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mind, but we're not going to talk about that part. We're going to talk about the part where she,
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where does she go next with that information? Where does she go next as a lover of God?
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Where does she go? And I think it's so encouraging because Gabriel tells her,
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hey, your relative Elizabeth, she's pregnant. That's encouraging because he's pointing her
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really to her disciple maker because he's saying, hey, she's been where you are. She's a few months
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ahead. You need to go talk to her because she runs with haste. She runs as fast as she can
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to get to her. And I love that. So let me start in Luke chapter 1 verses 39.
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Now, Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste to a city of Judah
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and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened when Elizabeth heard
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the greeting of Mary that the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
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Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women and blessed is the
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fruit of your womb. But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
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For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb
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for joy. Blessed is she who believed for there will be fulfillment of those things which were
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told to her from the Lord. Now, Elizabeth pours into Mary. She doesn't say, hey, don't come in.
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My husband, hey, we're going through a crisis here. My husband isn't talking. We've had a rough time
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with the church. Or, hey, I'm six months pregnant and I'm kind of old. I'm not seeing anybody right now.
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She doesn't say that. Immediately she responds to Mary and she starts disciple making.
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She starts pouring into Mary and I love that.
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Mary responds by singing and Mary says, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in
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God my Savior. For he has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant. For behold, henceforth
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all generations will call me blessed. For he who is mighty, I love this, he who is mighty has done
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great things for me and holy is his name. That is so good. That's her response.
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It's important as we read through the Bible, Titus 2 is a very clear example
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of how the older women are to train up the younger women. Nowhere in the Bible, in Titus 2,
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does it say that older women only train up the younger women if you've got a seminary degree.
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Older women only train up the younger women if you are married. It doesn't say that. Single women,
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you don't get a freebie. It doesn't say older women only train up the younger women.
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If you're adult kids, reply to your text messages.
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Doesn't say that at all. It says that we're to teach the younger women.
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I have to tell you with Titus 2, one of the things that's very encouraging to me is to see the women
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in the audience today. I think a lot of times women oftentimes are in the children's ministry.
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And that's not that women don't, a lot of women love being in children's ministry. I had four
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children. I was in there a lot. But I am so grateful for a pastor and for a ministry like
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Renew that allows women to pour into women and seize other opportunities in the church
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that are needed for a woman to be there. Much needed. I love that. So back to my story.
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When my husband got down to the basis of the accident, he told me later, he said, you know,
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he said he lived. Oh, that was so cool. He said, but here's what was kind of sad.
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And I said, what? And he said, there were five or six men standing around. They didn't know what to
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do and they didn't know how to help, but they wanted to. So I gave him some things to do.
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And I thought, wow, that is so much like the older women in church. See, because research shows
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men lead the churches, but women fill the seats. There is a treasure in our churches right now.
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And I understand I have four millennials. I totally understand wanting our kids back in church,
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but we already have a treasure in our church. So we need to raise up those women to know that
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they're equipped and they're encouraged to reach out to the younger women. So that's what I'm
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saying today. I want you to be encouraged to go back and notice those women who may not be raising
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their hands because they don't think they can do it. They need pastors. They need men leaders
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to build them up. That's so, so important. Because what if that Titus II woman that's
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going to make the biggest difference in your church is sitting there already.
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Every, every woman needs a disciple maker in her life because every Mary needs an Elizabeth.
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We've got some great articles that release every day where we get to
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feature some really important topics. I hope to see you guys on the next episode.