Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Missionary Pioneers: A Legacy of Women and Men Advancing the Gospel Together

By Mimi Haddad, Chelsea Dearmond and Mary Ann Nguyen
March 2007 As voracious students of the Bible, these nineteenth century Christians were dedicated to a high view of scripture. In fact, it was their respect for the authority of scripture that propelled them to new arenas of Christian service not only on the mission field, but also to areas of social action including abolition and universal suffrage. Holding scripture in high regard, they resisted any method of interpretation that undermined the authority of the Bible. They also opposed the proof text method of scripture that gave support to slavery and women’s exclusion from using their gifts on the mission fields. Rather, they sought to harmonize those passages that appeared in conflict with the whole of scripture regarding the equal value and dignity of every human being. Thus, they developed a whole-Bible hermeneutic that addressed gender and ministry from a gospel perspective. Here are a few examples:

1. Fredrik Franson (1852–1908) founded the Evangelical Alliance Mission and was a prominent leader of the Free Church Movement (now the Evangelical Free Church). He engaged women as part of his evangelistic outreach, and published his support of women’s leadership in an article entitled, “Prophesying Daughters: A Few Words Concerning Women’s Position in Regard to Evangelism.” Insisting that the whole of scripture affirms women’s public ministry, Franson held a Genesis to Revelation approach to understanding the ministry of women rather than concentrating on only two passages (1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34). He was troubled that anyone would establish a doctrine “on one or two passages in the Bible, without reading the references in their context.”⁵

2. A. J. Gordon (1836–1895), after whom Gordon College is named, was a prominent advocate of mission, abolition and women in ministry. Like others, Gordon put forward a whole-Bible approach to assess God’s intention for women in public ministry. His biblical study of women’s public ministry resulted in an 1894 publication entitled “The Ministry of Women.”⁶ For Gordon, Pentecost was the “Magna Charta of the Christian Church” as it demonstrated that women and all ethnic groups share equally in Christ’s new covenant community.⁷ Embracing a dispensational view of history, Gordon’s commitment to using the gifts of all people had a sense of urgency. In the new dispensation, those who had once been viewed as inferior by natural birth attain a new spiritual status through the power of the Holy Spirit. Women, along with all ethnic and social classes, have an “equal warrant with man’s for telling out the gospel of the grace of God.”⁸ God’s gifts no longer rested on a “favored few, but upon the many, without regard to race, or age or sex.”⁹

Gordon believed that Paul’s instructions in 1 Timothy 2:8–11 and 1 Corinthians 14:34 should be understood in light of biblical examples of women’s leadership, preaching and prophesying. He also questioned why Paul would prohibit all women’s public ministry after describing the propriety in which their public service should be conducted. According to Gordon, “All texts that prohibit a practice in one place, while allowing it in another, must be considered in the light of the entire New Testament teaching—the teaching of prophecy, the teaching of practice and the teaching of contemporary history—if we would find the true meaning.”¹⁰

According to Gordon, there is “no scripture which prohibits women from praying or prophesying in the public assemblies of the Church.”

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Dr. Mimi Haddad (left) is president of Christians for Biblical Equality and a founding member of the Evangelicals and Gender Study Group at the Evangelical Theological Society. She also serves on the board of directors for Global Women and is an adjunct professor at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She served as the convener of Issue Group 24 for the 2004 Lausanne Forum in Pattaya. Mary Ann Nguyen (middle) is pursuing her Masters of Divinity at Bethel Seminary in San Diego, California, USA. She and her husband are preparing to serve overseas. Chelsea Dearmond (right) is editor of Mutuality Magazine, a publication of Christians for Biblical Equality.