Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Missionary Pioneers: A Legacy of Women and Men Advancing the Gospel Together
March 2007 Gordon understood that interpreting scripture correctly works best when every Christian contributes to the discussion. To make important decisions as God’s people requires more that an understanding of Greek or Hebrew words. It requires prayer and dialogue so that the Spirit can work throughout the whole church as a “body of regenerate and sanctified believers.” He wrote that “To follow the voice of the Church apart from that of the written Word has never proved safe; but, on the other hand, it may be that we need to be admonished not to ignore the teaching of the deepest spiritual life of the Church in forming our conclusions concerning the meaning of scripture. It cannot be denied that in every great spiritual awakening in the history of Protestantism the impulse for Christian women to pray and witness for Christ in the public assembly has been found irrepressible.
3. Katharine Bushnell (1856–1946) worked as a medical doctor, scholar, missionary and activist. Her book, God’s Word to Women: One Hundred Bible Studies on Woman’s Place in the Church and Home, was written in 1919 and remains in print today. Bushnell’s commitment to the authority of scripture was clear. She asserted that “the Bible is all that it claims for itself. It is (1) Inspired, 2 Timothy 3:16; (2) Infallible, Isaiah 40:8, and (3) Inviolable, John 10:35. Indeed, no other basis of procedure is available for us.”11
Like that of A. J. Gordon, Bushnell’s reading of scripture was also informed by her observations of women’s leadership on the mission field. This led her to affirm a gift-based rather than a gender-based approach to ministry. She also insisted upon a whole Bible approach as an interpretative method with a particular focus on Genesis. According to Bushnell, in Genesis we learn that Adam and Eve were both created in the image of God, that Adam and Eve were both equally called to be fruitful and to exercise dominion in Eden, that Eve was not the source of sin and that God does not curse women because of Eve. Rather, it was Satan, not God, who inspired the domination of men over women. God bestows leadership on those who do what is right in God’s sight, regardless of their gender, birth order, nationality or class.
Bushnell affirmed a gift-based rather than a gender-based approach to ministry.
Bushnell determined that Paul affirmed the shared leadership of men and women, provided that leadership is neither domineering nor abusive (1 Timothy 2:12), that those who teach must understand and advance the truth concerning the gospel (1 Timothy 2:11–12; Acts 18:26; Romans 16:1–5, 7, 12–13, 15) and that when women pray and prophesy in public they are not disruptive, either by their clothing or through their chatter (1 Corinthians 11:5 and 14:34). Ultimately, Bushnell grounds her understanding of women’s status not in the Fall, but in Christ’s completed work on Calvary.
Bushnell insists that a correct interpretation of scripture as it relates to women’s social, ecclesiastical and spiritual status should be determined in the same manner as man’s social, ecclesiastical and spiritual status, based on the atonement of Jesus Christ. According to her, “[We] cannot, for women, put the ‘new wine’ of the gospel into the old wine-skins of ‘condemnation.’”12
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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. |