"I Grew Up in the Church": How American Evangelical Women Tell Their Stories

by Bethany Ober Mannon

In 'I Grew Up in the Church': How American Evangelical Women Tell Their Stories, Bethany Mannon studies the diverse and complex voices of women who have influenced the contemporary evangelical movement in North America. Women across the theological spectrum document fractures in evangelicalism and intervene in those debates using personal narratives that circulate in print and online. Drawing on feminist rhetorical theory and histories of evangelicalism in the United States, 'I Grew Up in the Church' argues that these writers model alternatives to the conservative politics, rhetorics of certainty and combat, and rigid gender roles that have been hallmarks of the movement.

This book details the diversity of voices that comprise the evangelical movement orthodox evangelicals, ex-evangelicals, progressives, and leaders. By studying texts from 2008 to 2018, Mannon examines how women have responded to a decade when white evangelicalism waned in numbers and influence. She explores the rhetorical power that personal narratives hold for these various groups during that decade of decline. These voices show how, in a diversity of contexts within the evangelical movement, women speak against racism in their faith communities, navigate leadership positions, and pursue rhetorical activist opportunities in conservative settings.

'I Grew Up in the Church' will challenge and change readers' perspectives on American evangelicalism. The perspectives and stories of women from varying backgrounds uncover a side of the movement that is pushing back against deep-rooted power structures and redefining modern evangelical rhetoric.

285 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2024

Reviews

[Alex Strohschein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout Church history, it has generally been acknowledged that women have comprised the majority of Christians. That majority has been strained in the West in recent years and in her unique study ”I Grew Up in the Church”: How American Evangelical Women Tell Their Stories, rhetoric scholar Bethany Ober Mannon focuses on the years 2008 - 2018 and demonstrates how notable women within and outside evangelicalism communicated with and challenged the evangelical community (p. 8). Mannon suggests that the women she focuses on use rhetoric in ways that scholars often miss (pp. 16-17).

Authority in evangelicalism can be derived from practices including evangelism, preaching, biblical exegesis and hermeneutics, apologetics, and testimony. It is the last of these that Mannon homes in on and she connects testimonies to evangelical women’s personal narratives. Personal memoir and narrative are the key means by which these women disseminate their evolving convictions and theology. In a certain sense, personal memoirs narratives are written documents that continue in the long evangelical tradition of testimony; they also experienced a major surge in popularity in the early twenty-first century (p. 20). Indeed, as liberal Christian women like “Rachel Held Evans, Jen Hatmaker, and the other subjects of this book have argued…storytelling can be a more productive and faithful ‘defense’ than apologetics” (pp. 192-93). Mannon exhorts readers and scholars who may be irreligious to read religiously-themed texts nonetheless, quoting the African-American writer Joyceyln Moody (pp. 20-21).

Mannon rarely expands on her endnotes but she impressively includes many sources and voices in her book. In chapter one she provides a brief “rhetorical history of the evangelical movement in the United States,” citing dedicated churchmen like Mark Noll and Thomas Kidd alongside more liberal academics like Robert P. Jones and Kristin Kobes Du Mez. In chapter two she examines five conservative women - Trillia Newbell, Wendy Alsup, Hannah Anderson, Aimee Byrd, and Karen Swallow Prior. She focuses on these five because they:

form a distinct group of rhetors because of their ethe and goals. First, they explicitly adhere to orthodox theology. Second, they publish in establishment venues like Christianity Today or the Gospel Coalition, a stamp of approval from the male evangelical power structure. Finally, these rhetors locate themselves in conservative denominations…Whereas progressive writers might identify with a collage of doctrines or theologies, orthodox writers tend to claim denominational and institutional alliances (p. 78)

In this chapter Mannon brings these women into conversation with the misogyny, sexism, and abuse in evangelicalism. Many fundamentalist and complementarian pastors, church leaders, and scholars seek to silence women and curtail their ability to contribute meaningfully to the church. This type of toxic male chauvinism is exemplified in a scandalous figure like Mark Driscoll. Mannon writes, “When women respond to conservative rhetors with generous orthodoxy they use tactics that are likewise rooted in the authority of scripture but offer alternatives to combativeness and superficial biblicism” (p. 94).

In chapters three and four she turns her attention to four liberal female writers - the late Rachel Held Evans, Jen Hatmaker, Austin Channing Brown, and Sarah Bessey (for a book with the subtitle How American Evangelical Women Tell Their Stories, it’s odd for Mannon to profile a Canadian author, even more one who celebrates being an outsider to American evangelicalism). Newbell and Brown’s inclusion gives voice to black women and in chapter five Mannon addresses three Latina ministry leaders. One seeming omission is a lack of charismatic women in this book (at least, none are mentioned as having obvious connections to a denomination like the Assemblies of God).

These liberal Christian women write winsomely and offer hospitality to those on the margins. For instance, Evans would encourage her social media followers to check out “transgender Christian writers or radically inclusive congregations” (p. 119). They chastise conservative Christians for being too dogmatic, too individualistic, too content with the status quo rather than seeking to transform culture through social justice initiatives. For many of them, evangelicalism is too inherently tainted by whiteness and patriarchy.

These writers use their personal narratives in ways that can prophetically challenge evangelicals but they are often harshly critiqued by fundamentalist and complementarian pundits like Denny Burk who complain they base too much of their argument on “mere” experience or who scold them for expressing doubt; “When biblical evidence and rational argument are the grounds of debate, evangelical communities disregard doubt that is genuine and generative. Or, in the case of queer Christians, certainty and combat perpetuate violence” (p. 136).

I have to admit, I found this book complicated to review because of how Mannon frames the discussion. Mannon does an effective job at showcasing how these women employ rhetoric but her outsider status to evangelicalism (p. 180) at times makes me disagree with how she frames these women in relation to evangelicalism. I often think scholars too quickly fold fundamentalism into evangelicalism; in Mannon’s case, I am skeptical that Evans, Hatmaker, Brown, and Bessey are actually evangelicals and that they would identify as such today (to be fair, perhaps these women were closer to the evangelical orbit from 2008 - 2018 but even within the ten years Mannon examines these women were clearly drifting away). I am doubtful that readers of Rebekah Merkle and Allie Beth Stuckey are reading Rachel Held Evans.

One of the continual refrains Mannon repeats is that evangelical rhetoric is marked by combativeness and a determined insistence on certainty (pp. 146-47). For a teacher of rhetoric, I am surprised Mannon neglects to include any testimonies from readers of the liberal Christian female writers who confess to becoming disillusioned with them because of their very avowal of uncertainty. Humility can be a persuasive element in devising an argument, but robust claims to certainty based upon the authority of Scripture can make one more impressive and trustworthy than a deconstructing exvangelical. I am appreciative of Mannon including some critiques by Tish Harrison Warren from her important 2017 piece “Who’s in Charge of the Evangelical Blogosphere?” but overall she is fairly one-sided.

I could go on, but I also realize my critiques are more about the theology and methodology of the liberal Christian women Mannon is studying. I think Mannon ably explores their rhetoric and the unique ways they navigating speaking into a Christian ecosystem that is often hostile to their challenges and their evolving beliefs, but given the trajectories of Evans, Hatmaker, Brown, and Bessey - and how much more approving attention they garner from Mannon - I don’t think this book lives up to its subtitle the way it could have if more of the spotlight was on the likes of Karen Swallow Prior, Beth Moore, Kathy Keller, Tish Harrison Warren, and Priscilla Shirer.

[Lark Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was originally published in the March 2026 issue of The Journal of The Evangelical Homiletics Society.

In 2016, Beth Moore tweeted about her experience of sexual assault. Reading her remarks sparked the curiosity of rhetorician Bethany Mannon concerning the way evangelical women were using personal narrative as a rhetorical strategy. Her position as Associate Professor and Director of Rhetoric and Writing Studies at Appalachian State University as well as her prior research on activism in women’s memoirs provided the necessary foundation for, I Grew Up in the Church: How American Evangelical Women Tell Their Stories. This book argues that women use personal narrative to critique the nature and impacts of mainstream evangelical rhetoric.

Even though women typically have limited access to the pulpit, they still find creative and strategic ways to shift evangelical discourse. Mannon limits her research to women writing in the decade between 2008-2018, considered part of the “Golden Age of Blogging.” During this period, evangelicalism began declining in numbers, but women were gaining massive followings online because they were effective writers and skilled at building an audience. Evangelical women writers took advantage of the lower threshold for entry that online platforms provided and used it to create spaces of connection for diverse communities. As technology continued to increase the access lay people had to the marketplace of evangelical ideas, women had more opportunities to speak and write with authority, whether online, in person, or in print.

Mannon begins by making a case for studying evangelicalism as a movement with a distinct rhetoric. “Defining evangelicalism as a theology, historical tradition, culture, coalition, or political identity looks at belief, heritage, consumer markets, self-identification and voting patterns – all certainly important. Yet studying the rhetoric of a movement turns to the commonplaces evangelicals employ when they argue over positions and ideas, or the practices with which they construct individual and collective identity and values” (35-36). After defining terms and providing an overview of the rhetorical history of evangelicalism in the United States, she notes the points when evangelicalism’s rhetorical distinctiveness took shape. She identifies eight commonplaces: individualism, conversion, fear, divine providence, biblical authority, white supremacy, certainty, and combat. These distinctives are predominantly communicated through the five practices of evangelism, preaching, biblical hermeneutics, apologetics, and testimony. She maintains that “the commonplaces and practices at the core of the evangelical movement are ripe for women to use and reform” (29). When evangelical rhetoric is analyzed, the focus is often on sermons and public oratory, but Mannon pays attention to the impact of testimony through personal narrative.

Chapters 2-5 examine four different groups of women. Chapter two uses Mark Driscoll as a case study to show how conservative women like Wendy Alsup, Hannah Anderson, Aimee Byrd, Trilla Newbell, and Karen Swallow Prior used rhetorical dexterity to create a generous orthodoxy that shifted away from using the tools of combat, fear, and certainty. Chapter three explores Rachel Held Evans’ storytelling as verbal hospitality and how her rhetorical education in the apologetics movement left her unequipped to respond to the everyday concerns of real people. Chapter 4 studies progressive women like Sarah Bessey, Austin Channing Brown, and Jen Hatmaker as a “resisterhood” of women addressing gender roles, hermeneutics, and social justice. Finally, Mannon surveys women’s rhetorical leadership in para-church ministries through an examination of strategies utilized by Latina American writers.

Mannon’s intended audience is rhetoricians, and the Religious Communication Association awarded it their 2025 Book of the Year. As such, it would not serve lay audiences interested in a concise summary of women writers or a historical overview. However, homileticians will benefit from its call to consider how personal narrative is an effective rhetorical strategy. Mannon predicts it will have continuing relevance, “As personal narrative becomes an especially popular form, it challenges sermons as the primary genre of contemporary evangelicalism and lessens its role as the organizing event of evangelical culture” (65). This claim may be too strong as sermons will continue to hold relevance, however developing skill in other practices may be an important counterbalance to mitigate the outsized weight that sermons often are forced to carry.

Overall, this book is a thoughtful consideration of evangelical rhetoric. Mannon makes an important argument that evangelical rhetoric has a tone, flavor, and distinct commonalities. Differing from a sociological or theological analysis of evangelicalism, this treatment attends to the approaches evangelicals tend to take in making effective arguments. By contrasting the ways women challenged those norms, it provides a clearer picture of possible ways forward.