About the author
Benjamin Lee Blankenship was born in Toledo, Ohio. When he was fourteen years old, his family then moved to the small East Tennessee town of Rockwood. Benjamin gave his heart to The Lord at a very early age. He heard the voice of God call him to preach at the tender age of seven. He then asked his mother what it took to be a preacher. She told him that it would take long hours of study and hard work. Due to fear, he would not profess his calling until age 14. After wrestling with feelings of inadequacy, he preached his first sermon a week before his 18th birthday.
The following year, Ben's Uncle Terry Smith was on his death bed. Terry was a very talented songwriter, singer and musician who had been with the popular 1960's group "The Mods" who won " The Battle of the Bands" in 1966. Ben fervently prayed to receive his uncle's gift of songwriting to be bestowed upon him. Upon his uncle's passing, Ben quickly discovered that The Lord had answered his prayer. He began writing songs under the anointing of The Holy Ghost. It was during that time that he felt a burden for groups to pick up his songs to be put out to radio. Due to being an unknown in the music industry, his dream wouldn't come to pass during that time. Because of rejection and unresponsiveness, Ben decided to form his own group so his music could be heard. His first group was called" No Doubts" which had a run of about 2 years. Shortly thereafter he formed "BEN*JAM" which produced multiple albums and sent several songs to radio. In 2018, Ben decided to put BEN*JAM in a semi retirement state due to the demands of pastoring at Benchmark Church. Ben has written well over 100 songs and several have been recorded by artists such as: Bob Smallwood and Caleb Howard with recording plans being made by Steve Warren, Dennise Nichole Dittman-Cook, Bryan James Hatton and others.
Benjamin's preaching ministry began with evangelizing in churches and nursing homes. This soon led to the pastorship of his first church in a small storefront in Rockwood, Tennessee. In January 2015, Ben began pastoring his second church, Benchmark Church where he is currently the pastor. During the spring of 2019, Ben felt inspired to do a " By Request Series" at church for Friday night services which led to the study of women in ministry. Upon completing many hours of Biblical research and scholarly material, Ben felt compelled to write this book due to the suppression and oppression of women in ministry have and are currently experiencing.