Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Missionary Pioneers: A Legacy of Women and Men Advancing the Gospel Together
March 2007 She condemns the prejudice and interpretative bias noted throughout Church history so that women’s status was viewed through Eve’s sin, rather than through their full redemption and inheritance in Christ. By challenging misinterpretation and error in Bible translation, Bushnell established a theological foundation for women’s ontological equality, a foundation that today’s Christians continue to build upon.
4. Catherine Booth (1829–1890), cofounder of the Salvation Army along with her husband William, was a noted preacher and a tenacious inner-city missionary. Catherine and William committed their lives to Christian service among the poverty-stricken neighborhoods of East London. When evangelist Phoebe Palmer was criticized for addressing audiences of both women and men in her lecture series, Catherine wrote a defense of women’s preaching. Her pamphlet entitled “Female Ministry or Woman’s Right to Preach the Gospel,” is a concise and thorough survey of the biblical support for women’s public ministry.
Booth used a whole-Bible approach in interpreting 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34, stating that “If commentators had dealt with the Bible on other subjects as they have dealt with it on this, taking isolated passages, separated from their explanatory connections, and insisting on the literal interpretation of the words of our version, what errors and contractions would have been forced upon the acceptance of the Church, and what terrible results would have accrued to the world.”13
According to Booth, if women bring people to Christ, then they are gifted by God and should be supported by their church or denomination. She also warned that those who hinder women from ministry on the basis of their gender will be judged for keeping the gospel from reaching those whom Christ died to save. Booth recognized a clear link between affirming the biblical basis for gift-based ministry and furthering the work of evangelism.
Conclusion
In preparation for missionary service, nineteenth century women pioneers began enrolling in Bible institutes in record numbers. As a result, these women became skilled exegetes, a discipline that strengthened their missionary leadership and also provided the interpretive tools to assess the gender restrictions placed on them by the very churches and denominations that spent thousands of dollars supporting their ministries overseas. Their biblical studies gave rise to a method of interpretation that asserted gift-based ministry as an overarching biblical principle.
Christians today can celebrate the legacy of our nineteenth century evangelical mothers and fathers.
On this basis, nineteenth century Christians offered a serious blow to any biblical support for ascriptivism—ascribing value, dignity and worth to individuals based on their heritage, skin color or gender—thus challenging the long-held prejudice to women’s leadership. Their efforts not only fueled a massive expansion of the gospel on the mission fields, but also an activism in the areas of voting rights and the abolition of slavery.
Women’s able leadership on the mission fields fueled a whole Bible approach to topics such as gender, service and social action. Scholars such as Katharine Bushnell and A.J. Gordon insisted that gospel values must triumph over cultural prejudice, especially in regard to women and slaves. Thus, the leadership of women led not only to new centers of Christian faith, but to important social reform such as abolition and suffrage. Christians today can celebrate the legacy of our nineteenth century evangelical mothers and fathers whose devotion to scripture, evangelism and social action is one we are proud to follow.
Endnotes
1. Robert, Dana L. 2005. American Women in Mission: A Social History of Their Thought and Practice. Macon, Georgia, USA: Mercer University Press, ix.
2. Ibid.
3. Knowles, Charles O. 2002. Let Her Be: Right Relationships and the Southern Baptist Conundrum Over Women’s Role. Columbia, Missouri, USA: KnoWell Publishing, 85.
4. Bebbington, David W. 1979. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from 1730s to the 1980s. Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Baker, 3.
5. Hassey, Janette. 1986. No Time for Silence: Evangelical Women in Public Ministry Around the Turn of the Century. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA: Christians for Biblical Equality, 108.
6. Knowles, 85.
7. Ibid, 910–11.
8. Ibid, 911.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid, 913.
11. Katharine Bushnell. 2003. God’s Word to Women. Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA: Christians for Biblical Equality, 1.
12. Ibid, 169.
13. Catherine Booth, 1859. “Female Ministry; or, Women’s Right to Preach the Gospel,” in Terms of Empowerment: Salvation Army Women in Ministry. London; reprint. 1975. New York: The Salvation Army Supplies Printing and Publishing Department, 19–20.
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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. |