This past week, we watched helplessly here in Colorado as a massive wildfire swept through our community, devastating over 500 homes, killing two people and scorching thousands of acres. Our local, county, state and federal governments immediately launched an attack on this vicious blaze.

Evacuations were ordered and an organized exit from heavily populated neighborhoods ensued. Roadblocks were manned by local sheriff’s deputies and firefighters from municipalities across our region rallied together.

Every day, our sheriff, local and federal fire officials, and county commissioners demonstrated amazing discipline and trustworthy leadership.

New Life has been able to help by assisting the Red Cross as a shelter in the initial hours. Our volunteers and staff have been all over the region offering assistance to evacuees and to those who tragically lost their homes. All of our efforts will continue in the months ahead as people in our community are rebuilding their lives.

Hundreds of people who are grieving for those who have lost their homes have asked us how they can help. While much of our work will begin once the burn area is open for remediation, there are several opportunities for immediate assistance. Here are a few:

Disaster Assistance Relief Center is the primary center for most services offered to those affected by the Black Forest Fire. If you have a specific skill or service you want to offer, email bffvolunteer@elpasoco.com and the Center will do their best to connect you with actual needs that your service may help meet. Services may include helping to navigate insurance, truck/tractor use, greeting evacuees at the center, helping field calls, among other things. Email bffvolunteer@elpasoco.com to volunteer or offer a service to the Center.

Black Forest Animal Sanctuary needs help organizing donations, cleaning up from the fire, doing repairs, and bringing their own animals back, as well as additional shelter set-up help. They are also in need of hay. If you d like to donate, call 719-494-3934. To volunteer, ask for Tracy.

Tri-Lakes Cares is a great organization that has been extremely helpful to fire fighters, evacuees, and those affected by the fire. Not only has the fire affected many of their regular volunteers, but their hours have also expanded to meet needs resulting from the disaster. They are in need of volunteers for shifts to help sort and process donations, to distribute food and clothing, and help get items to firefighters and families affected, as well as other areas. Call 481-4864 ext 117 to volunteer.

You may drop off food and bring gift cards and/or money to the front desk at New Life Church from 9am-5pm Monday-Friday and during services on Sunday. For the next two Sundays, bring donations to the Black Forest Fire Relief Table located in the lobby. A list of preferred food items can be found in the lobby at NLC. Checks should be made out to New Life Church with “Black Forest Fire” written in the memo line. You can also give online at www.newlifechurch.org. For those giving gift cards, suggested stores include Target, Wal-Mart, King Soopers, Lowes, Home Depot, as well as gas stations, restaurants, clothing stores, etc.

Please continue to pray for all of those affected.

The following is a quick excerpt from my newest e-book, Let Her Lead, which just released. These few paragraphs explain why I tackled such an important topic.

Callie is twelve years old now, almost thirteen, making the ridiculously quick hop between girlhood and womanhood right before my eyes. Boys ease into puberty the way winter gives way to spring, as evidenced by my son, Abram, now fourteen. It’s subtle. It’s slow. It happens in fits and starts, flying under the radar most times. But girls? One day they’re a mishmash of giggles, pigtails and pink swim floaties, and the next day they’re full-on woman, see them flourish, hear them roar.

This transition has got me thinking not only about the twelve-year-old “woman” who now resides in my abode—and at five-foot-seven, Callie’s frame, at least, is precisely that—but also about the world she will inhabit once she enters adulthood for real. What kind of interests will she hope to pursue? What kind of friends will she choose to have? What kind of bosses will she wind up working for? What kind of people might she lead? What kind of faith community will surround her? What kind of man will she marry? (That last question leaves me blank. My daughter still wants nothing to do with the opposite sex, which is totally fine by me.)

But to my point: Given all the promise and potential awaiting Callie, how do I help prepare her for her future? And how do I prepare that future for her?

These are the central questions banging around my brain as I sit down to write this brief book. We’re going to have a conversation about a topic—women in leadership—that is touchy for many people, especially church people, but I’m not trying to be provocative here. I’m not trying to pick a fight. I actually want to defuse this topic that has been infused with such vitriol along the way by simply revisiting a few themes that have been sidelining women far too long.

But I also want to begin by admitting that, as a dad, I cringe at the thought that in ten or twenty or thirty years, my bright, capable daughter could have doors slammed in her face for the simple fact that she happens not to be male. If she is cut out to be a corporate CEO, then I hope she’ll be hired. If she is cut out to be President of the United States—perhaps even the first female one, if Hillary doesn’t get there first—then I hope she’ll be elected. If she is cut out to be a professor or a lawyer or an engineer or a horse trainer, then I hope she’ll be chosen there too.

And if she is cut out to lead within the church, then I hope she’ll be invited to lead.

If I were to boil down my desires, dreams, assumptions, and plans for the type of world that will embrace my daughter, they’d fit into two simple manifestos: Let her be her. And let her be heard.

This isn’t just my vision for the world ten or twenty years from now, when Callie is a bona fide adult. It is my vision today, here, in our present culture. There are 30- and 40- and 50-year-old women who want to engage in leadership now. What I want for Callie is the same thing I want for them: to be seen and heard, acknowledged and valued, loved well and led well…and learned from by both women and men.

What others are saying about Let Her Lead:

I am really glad that my friend Brady Boyd decided to write this book! So many books that deal with controversial topics try to score points or win a debate, but that isn’t what Brady does here. He simply wants to see what the Bible says about women in leadership. He deals with this very sensitive issue with understanding and love. What he finds is so encouraging; this is a book that everyone should read.  Greg Surratt, Lead Pastor Seacoast Church; Author of Ir-Rev-Rend

I am so gratified to know my friend, Brady Boyd, is standing with those in the larger Church community who see “women in ministry leadership” as timelessly intended by God, and thus, wholly consistent the Holy Scriptures—both Old and New Testament!  I urge leaders and other workers in today’s Church to read, be nourished hereby, and join in seeing the whole Body of Christ activated for ministry at whatever level of gifting or leadership the Holy Spirit has confirmed to be present by mature elders in their congregation and network. Jack W. Hayford, Chancellor, The King’s University—Dallas/Los Angeles