Have you ever wished you could sit down in a casual coffee shop with one of our authors and speakers and chat? We are so thankful for the amazing women of God we have the privilege of working with regularly. And while we can’t all gather in our favorite downtown coffee shop, we want to give you the opportunity to know them a little more personally.
Every so often we’re sharing a fresh “coffee chat” with a member of the Lifeway Women family to give you the opportunity to get to know her a little better.
This month, get to know Julia B. Higgins!
Tell us about your process as you prepare to teach a lecture. Any favorite pens, locales, teas to drink, and music to listen to?
I find I study best in my office because it is comfortable, generally quiet, and provides a great sense of routine. I usually spend time reading various sources and formulating ideas on pen and paper with an old-school legal pad and blue Pilot G-2® pen before typing things up. While studying, I go back and forth between listening to white noise, or classical or jazz music. To stay motivated, I drink black coffee in the morning and switch to an herbal tea like orange and spice in the afternoon.
What is one of your favorite travel destinations? Is there somewhere you haven’t been that is on your wish list?
One of the most magical places I’ve been to is Salzburg, Austria, where the Sound of Music was filmed. I would love to go to Rome, Italy, to see the sights but also to get a taste of the food. I’ve heard their gelato is amazing!
You have a new course with Lifeway Women Academy on hermeneutics. Tell us a little about what you taught in this course.
I taught three different lectures: The Bible’s Origin Story, The History of Interpretive Methods, and Literary Context: Genres. In The Bible’s Origin Story, we discovered characteristics of the Bible, and how it is God’s revelation of himself to man. In the History of Interpretive Methods, we did a crash course on ways people throughout church history have gone about interpreting the Scriptures. And in Literary Context: Genres, we considered how a text’s particular genre might influence its interpretation.
As you worked on the content for this course, what were some new things you learned along the way?
While this course focuses on using the inductive method, which is borne out of the historical-grammatical method of interpretation, our team decided that it would be great to briefly teach another interpretive method called theological interpretation of Scripture (TIS). You can hear the discussion on that method at the end of The History of Interpretative Methods lecture. I really enjoyed studying for that portion of the lecture and learned that I can incorporate the five steps of TIS into my current way of studying a Bible text. If I do so, my study will be strengthened by making sure that my interpretation of a text falls within the bounds of how the community of faith (that is, the church throughout time and throughout the world) has generally understood the meaning of that text. This strengthens the inductive method because it prevents possible misinterpretations of a text by testing one’s interpretation through the grid of the community of faith.

Julia B. Higgins serves as Assistant Professor of Ministry to Women and Associate Dean of Graduate Program Administration at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She teaches in the Ministry to Women degree programs at Southeastern. Her passion is equipping women to teach the Bible and to serve the local church. She authored Empowered and Equipped: Bible Exposition for Women Who Teach the Scriptures (B&H Academic, 2022), co-edited The Whole Woman: Ministering to Her Heart, Soul, Mind and Strength (B&H, 2021). She is married to Tony, and they reside in the RDU area and worship at The Summit Church.