I was first introduced to Naomi Cramer Overton when she reached out to me inviting me to write about Euodia and Syntyche for the Every Woman’s Bible. As I’ve followed along with the preparation and launch of the Bible, I’ve been amazed by the vision and prayers that have gone into putting together such an ambitious project. If you’ve checked into the Bible, you know already how amazing it is. Now you can appreciate it even more when you discover all the many ways God was at work bringing it together.
Interview with Naomi Cramer Overton
Naomi, thank you for joining us today. If you would, give us a quick intro to yourself and your testimony.
I was delighted to share my story of coming to faith in Jesus in the front pages of the Every Woman’s Bible, so you might peek there for the whole story. I grew up going to church, but never “getting” the message. In fact, I’d read the Bible to myself at night and not understand it. But I wanted to know God and, as a little girl I prayed, “God, if you’re real. Help me know you.”
It was many years later, when I went to college that my prayer was fully answered. By then, I’d tried so many ways to be good enough to feel close to God. But that didn’t work!
I met some full-of-life Christians who lived next door to me in my freshman dorm. In time, I asked one of them and a campus ministry pastor to meet with me to talk to me about Jesus. They showed me several Bible verses and asked me where I was in my relationship with God.
I told them all the things I’d tried to start doing, or stop doing, to be close to God, but that I still knew I wasn’t close to Him. Then they showed me Ephesians 2:8 and 9 and the phrase “for by grace you have been saved through faith,” and that this was a gift that I could not earn or I would boast, made total sense. Spiritual scales fell away and I saw it–God loved me and reached out to me!
All this time I’d been reaching for God, and God was already reaching for me, through Jesus. That day I confessed I’d fallen short of God’s perfect love and justice (I’d sinned), believed that Jesus covered the gaps between my thoughts and actions and a holy God, and accepted Jesus as the one in charge of my life. February 5 of my freshman year at college was my first day of new life!
What first inspired you to create the Every Woman’s Bible?
The opportunity came as an invitation. The man who’d led the creation of the Every Man’s Bible, Steve Arterburn, reached out to me because he was seeking a woman to edit a different Bible he’d thought of for women. When he and our agent and I met with Tyndale House Publishers to propose some ideas for this “other” Bible, they thought about it and came back to us saying, “We think it’s time for the Every Woman’s Bible.” Steve was elated as he had wanted to see the Every Woman’s Bible created for over a decade.
So then, we needed to create an approach for the Every Woman’s Bible. I spoke with the general editor of Every Man’s Bible (Dean Merrill) and asked him how he did it. I thought I’d follow his approach of engaging 12 writers to craft the devotionals, etc., but the first contributor I reached out to–Patricia Raybon–challenged me to think bigger. She asked, “How are you going to have this Bible reflect ‘every’ woman? Twelve won’t do it.” Patricia challenged me to keep dreaming and, in time, I said, “What if we have 100 women contribute their stories, and invite readers to do the same?” Patricia said, “Now you’ve got it. And I’d be glad to write for that Bible.”
How long have you been working on this Bible?
I first had the conversation with Steve Arterburn in October 2019, so four and a half years ago!
What has been the greatest challenge?
Well, I’m not sure I’d call it a challenge–probably more like a miracle or several. Engaging women Bible scholars from all over the world was the hardest part.
First there was the “Genesis miracle,” when scholar Carmen Joy Imes used her vacation time and wrote the notes in record time, then the “Leviticus miracle” when scholar Jen Jones also beat some scholar-speed record, then we came to the section that included Joshua to Samuel and had no one. No one! I’d reached out to every scholar I knew. But, as we kept moving forward, several scholars jumped in to write the study notes for those books.
Then there was a lunch with Lynn Cohick, who was provost of Denver Seminary at the time. The day after she and I met, and she agreed to write the study notes for Paul’s letters, she sent an email to women Bible scholars all over the world. All of a sudden, I was working with scholars from India, Singapore, New Zealand, China, and more! And these were top-flight, award-winning scholars, some of whom led seminary deparatments and had edited Bibles. It was miraculous.
What makes Every Woman’s Bible different than other Bibles?
Well, first of all, I want to point out what makes it the same: God’s living and breathing word. Everyone I worked with at Tyndale and Dean Merrill (the general editor of Every Man’s Bible) kept pointing us to the same thing: God’s word is what is preeminent.
I think of this wrapping as an invitation. It’s an invitation to help people open that Word–many for the first time. We didn’t assume that someone had read the Bible before and I tried to edit it to use the plainest, least Christianese jargon I could. Jargon excludes people, putting a circle around those who understand it. It’s harder to say things with plain language, but I really tried.
For someone who was suspicious of the Bible, we wanted to help her get answers to those questions she might have about the text, things she’s “heard” the Bible says. We took a list published in U.S. News and World Report called “BIble passages women love to hate,” and assigned each one of them to a scholar or researcher. These are the “Perspective” articles in the Every Woman’s Bible and they are meant to help women lean into our most difficult questions about the Bible and faith.
In addition, there are sections at the beginning of the Bible suggesting how to approach reading the Bible and detailing things like how a verse is identified (e.g. Book Name Chapter:Verse). And suggestions of reading plans. There’s also my story of how I came to faith laid out plainly with the same diagram that someone showed me when I first came to believe in Jesus.
We also wanted it to be an invitation to so many (many!) women who are super busy and overwhelmed, anxious and isolated–whether because their jobs and families are taking more out of them than they think they can handle or because, in many cases, because of sorrows in their life and mental health challenges like anxiety and depression that make them feel stuck. For everyone in that situation, there are devotions geared to meet them in their felt needs (these are called Come Close), and the variety of writers was intended to help everyone who opens the Bible feeling alone find someone she can relate to.
Finally, there’s the woman who’s ready for a next step–she can lift her head and ask, usually if she’s a young adult up to midlife, “God, what is my purpose?” If she’s in midlife she’s asking, “What am I here for now?” And in later seasons, “What am I here for, still?” So we went deep into purpose, with the “Image” articles, that help us live out our mission in our four core relationships–with God, our family and friends, our workplace/community/school/church, and our form of unique contribution.
In addition, each of the 66 books of the Bible has a summary phrase that answers, “What does this book tell us about God’s mission and ours?” And thers’s a center section called “What Is My Purpose?” to go deeper.
And every woman relates to stories, which is why we included the Identity features, that imaginatively dive into people of the Bible and some of the names of God.
So you see, each of the special sections offered in the Every Woman’s Bible is offered as a gift saying, “Here, you might want this. I hope it helps you open up this book because it’s so, so worth reading.”
Tell us about the purpose section in the middle of the Bible.
I’d love to! There are so many messages out there about ways to discover what we’re here for and how to thrive. I happened to have done my doctoral research by learning from people who really do flourish, and studying their stories of how they got that way. I was also privileged to work with a leading research firm (Barna Research) doing six focus groups and a nationwide survey of more than 600 people who all were living a “call to extraordinary purpose.”
For something as important as discovering what your purpose is and how to live it, it’s important to know what really works and matters. Why not learn from God’s pattern in the Bible and in people’s lives today what really “sparks” us into life? It’s a three-step pathway that I call Believe-Belong-Become and each step has things to discover. And the way to move deeper is to take action. “We don’t think our way to purpose. We act our way to purpose,” I learned. But underlying it all is the fact that it’s usually a friend–either a person who takes us by the hand or a sense of direct 1:1 relationship with God–who Befriends us, and that’s what empower us to start our purpose (and faith) journeys.
Who are the Bible contributors?
Over 100 women from all but one continent of the world! They are Bible scholars, which is what the writers of the study notes all have in common. For the rest, I prayed hard to have as much cultural, vocational, racial, age, and ability diversity as possible so that “every woman” might find someone she relates to.
The contributors include a mom of a blended tribe of nine, a world-class elite marathoner, a young women with autism, a few survivors (and thrivers) after violence and abuse, a few founders and leaders of nonprofits and church denominations, writers, a physical therapist, a lawyer, a foreign policy advisor, a social entrepreneur, a Ukranian war refugee and ministry leader, a mother who has a mom’s heart about the violence in Ireland, a native American who just finished her doctorate, a native Alaskan who was adopted by an Anglo family, a person who works for Facebook in Latin America, a healing prayer minister, a member of the Oxford team for faith and animal ethics.
Oh my goodness, I could go on and on! One thing I love is that a lot of the contributors are passionate about speaking and writing so that those exploring faith can understand–to meet women “where they are, as they are.” Many of these contributors come from varying family and professional backgrounds but volunteer with Stonecroft ministries. Anyone reading this who wants to learn more about faith and God can find more at stonecroft.org/know-god and anyone reading this who needs prayer can go to stonecroft.org/pray and someone will pray for you.
What do you hope women will get out of the Bible?
I covered this in my looooooong answer above! It’s an invitation, an embrace to say “no matter who you are, what you’re experiencing, or what you’ve done or not done, you are welcome here!”
What is your vision for the Bible?
The logo pictures it very well–this interweaving of strands that, together, create something strong and lovely. My vision is for a global community of women where every woman in every place has a personal invitation, a friend reaching out to her saying, “You matter, and your story matters and I want to hear it. And together, I’d love for us to discover God’s call on your life for more–for extraordinary purpose.” This isn’t just about the Every Woman’s Bible–it’s about every Bible. So I’m cheering for every Bible on the market to get into more hands, more heads, and more hearts.
While I can’t see what’s happening for other Bibles (but I’ll keep praying) I have seen a glimpse of that vision becoming reality as women on every continent have accessed the Every Woman’s Story (everywomans-story.com) website. There are also two podcasts: the 365-day Bible reading journey and the Every Woman’s Story with Stonecroft Ministries podcast. And there’s been a circle of people praying for women around the world to open up God’s word–in this Every Woman’s Bible or in any Bible–and find her story in God’s story. If you are a woman, then we’ve prayed every Friday morning since March 31, 2023 for you!
Anything else?
Prayer led me to you, Sharon. I love that God had led you to want to write for a Bible and then out of the blue someone you’d never heard of (me) emailed you, asking if you would write for the NLT Every Woman’s Bible by Tyndale. That’s not only an example of another of God’s miracles that wove throughout this Bible, but it provides hope for “every” woman that God cares about us and our dreams!
Let's chat! What are your thoughts?