The Preacher's Daughter

Finally she had enough of parachuting in. When a last attempt to negotiate a significant BGEA role failed two years ago, she says, "I cried into my pillow and said, 'Lord, if you've given me this burden and this vision, you've got to show me how to do it. If not, withdraw the gift.'" Soon after, she says, she began hearing from broad coalitions of churches in various cities willing to share the cost of her mini-Crusade. Billy has sent out a letter commending the tour.

Despite their ambition, the revivals offer elements--"a whole series of sidesteps," says Christianity Today's Maudlin--that minimize their challenge to male dominance. Lotz has chosen not to be ordained; she calls herself a Bible expositor not a preacher, and Just Give Me Jesus is technically aimed at women. But if she performs as she's capable, all that will burn away. Sometimes when she speaks, she acknowledges, "It's like the fire falls, and the Lord just pours out," as happened with the prophet Elijah. "If a man walks in the door," at the revivals, she asks, "why should we get all bent out of shape?" Addressing the ladies of Raleigh, she invokes John 20, where Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene at his tomb. "Jesus is telling Mary, a woman, to go tell his disciples, 11 men, her personal testimony with the risen Christ, and to give out his message," declaims Lotz. "When people have a problem with women in the ministry, they need to take it up with Jesus. He's the one who put us here."