Hi, it's Rachel's husband Dan. She doesn't (yet) know I wrote this. She's actually taking a shower right now. She'll probably wish I didn't say that, but it's true. After already working through a sizable "To Do" list this morning Rachel is now "getting ready for the day" (that's a phrase we use a lot around here).

I thought I would take a couple minutes and tell you a few reasons why Rachel is awesome.

1) She's a great leader

Leadership is a responsibility that changes hands depending on roles, tasks and situations. When it's Rachel's turn to take the lead on something, I can always trust her to do a great job.

My wife's career decisions aren't simple little hobbies she entertains herself with. "Writer" and "Blogger" are two of many important roles Rachel embodies. These two in particular directly contribute to our income and livelihood.

Guess what? She does a great job.

2) She's passionate about other women succeeding

Rachel knows that women in leadership roles are in difficult positions. That's why she often writes for them and roots for them.  I'm proud of her for it.

If you don't think women deal with a double standard, especially in churches, you're probably a guy. I know because I'm a guy and for most of my life I didn't really give that sort of thing a second thought.

Watching how her critics have responded to Rachel over the last few months has been a revealing experience for me. I'm now convinced that all it takes to be "controversial" or "divisive" in our shared evangelical sub-culture is to relay slightly uncomfortable facts to a moderately sized audience while simultaneously possessing a vagina.

3) She's smart, kind, strong, feisty and gentle all rolled into one

• The mountain of research Rachel processes for each of her projects (or sometimes just a single blog post) is incredible.
• She's an encourager.
• She gets excited about other people's ideas and successes.
• She roots for the underdogs of life and she has a soft heart for the misfit.
• She's strong, but not calloused.
• She's impassioned when challenging an idea and gentle when challenging people.

These balances aren't easy to maintain but she does so with grace.

***

I say all of this because Rachel is my wife, my partner, and my teammate.

You don't hear from me often because most of what I do is behind the scenes. But today I wanted to state publicly so there's no misunderstanding:

I have Rachel's back and I'm doing everything in my power to make sure her voice is heard.

That's what teammates do.