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Women's Ministries in Cross-Cultural Settings · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  I'm your host and today we are opening up a topic that usually
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  gets people shouting at each other on the Internet.
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  Oh yeah, this is one of those. But we aren't going to shout.
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  We're going to look at the text, look at history and see if we
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  can make sense of it. We're taking a theological and,
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  you know, a practical look at Christian ministry, specifically
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  through the lens of the Reformation.
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  That means high views of Scripture, the Westminster
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  Confession as our guardrails, and the glory of God as the
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  target. Is good to be here and you are
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  right about the noise level on this topic.
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  Today we are tackling the role of women in cross cultural
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  missions. It is a subject that is often
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  misunderstood, sometimes weaponized, but it is just vital
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  for the health of the Church globally.
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  And we are working through some really dense, excellent material
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  from biblical missions, principles, priorities, and
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  practices. We are specifically zooming in
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  on 2 chapters today, one by Betty Price on women's
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  ministries in cross cultural settings and another by Lisa
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  Lajorge asking the very specific question, should we send single
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  female missionaries to the field?
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  And these chapters are so helpful because they move us
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  past the the theoretical arguments we have in comfortable
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  seminary classrooms and drop us right into the dirt and grit of
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  real ministry. Yes, but before we get to the
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  stories, we have some credible stories today.
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  We need to set the theological stage.
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  Let's do it. Yeah, because in our circles in
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  the Reformed world, we don't start with feelings.
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  We start with the Bible. That is the rule.
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  The starting point for any discussion on church life,
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  whether you are in a suburb in America or a village in southern
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  India, is that the Bible is the final authority, right?
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  It is not cultural trends, it is not modern sociology, and it is
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  not even our own personal preference.
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  And that leads us to a specific framework that the source
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  material operates from, which is complementarianism.
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  Now I know that word raises hackles for some people.
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  It really does. It sounds like a way to say
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  second class citizens, so let's unpack that before we go
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  further. We aren't saying men are better
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  than women, right? No, and if anyone hears that,
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  they are hearing it wrong. Complementarianism asserts that
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  men and women are ontologically equal.
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  That's a big word. It is a fancy theological word
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  that means in our very being we both bear the image of God.
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  We are equal in value, equal in dignity, and equal in salvation.
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  There is no junior Holy Spirit for women, OK?
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  However, the position holds that the Bible assigns distinct roles
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  to men and women within the church.
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  In the family. It's about function and design,
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  not value. So the goal of this deep dive
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  isn't to re litigate the entire gender debate of the last 50
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  years. Definitely not.
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  We want to look at how that specific theology plays out when
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  you get on a plane and land in a culture that plays by different
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  rules. How do women exercise their
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  gifts? Is there a biblical
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  justification for sending single women to the ends of the earth?
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  And what happens when our biblical convictions clash with
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  a foreign culture? That is where the rubber meets
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  the road. Because you might have a
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  biblical conviction, but the culture you are entering might
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  have a completely different operating system.
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  Figuring out that puzzle requires wisdom.
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  And that is what Betty Price and Lisa Lajorge are helping us with
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  today. OK, let's start with the
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  biblical mandate. If we are looking for the job
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  description for women's ministry, where do we look?
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  We go to Titus chapter 2, specifically verses 3 through 5.
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  This is the primary text for what we often call women
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  discipling women. I feel like Titus twos become a
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  bit of a marketing term. You see Titus two groups or
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  Titus 2 TS sounds very quaint, very Victorian.
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  It does get branded that way, but when you actually read the
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  text, Paul isn't talking about hosting tea parties.
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  He is writing to Titus, who is organizing the church in Crete.
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  And we need to remember what Crete was like.
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  Oh, it was a rough place. A very rough.
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  Place the phrase to cretanize meant to lie.
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  It was a culture of dishonesty, violence, and gluttony.
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  So when Paul gives instructions here, he is giving a survival
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  guide for holiness in a hostile culture.
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  And he breaks it down by demographic.
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  When he gets to the older women, he gives them a job.
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  They are to instruct the younger women.
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  It is a mentorship model, but look at the qualifications for
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  the mentor. Before they can teach a single
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  thing, they have to be something, OK?
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  Paul says. They must be reverent in their
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  behavior. The source material makes a
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  distinction here at contrast, reverent with silliness or
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  superficiality. Why does that matter so much?
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  Well, think about the context. Yeah, if you were going to
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  mentor a younger woman who is struggling, maybe her marriage
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  is falling apart. Maybe she is overwhelmed with
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  children. Maybe she is doubting her faith.
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  She doesn't need a buddy who is going to giggle and make light
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  of it. No, she needs someone with
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  gravity. Reverend here implies a kind of
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  sacred seriousness. Doesn't mean you can't laugh,
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  but it means you weren't frivolous.
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  You are marked by a sobriety regarding the things of God.
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  Then Paul moves to the tongue. They are not to be malicious
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  gossips. This is huge.
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  I mean, it's absolutely huge. If you are mentoring someone,
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  you are entering the vault. You are going to hear their
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  secrets. You are going to hear about
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  their husband's failures, their own sins, their anxieties.
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  If you are a leak, you disqualify yourself immediately.
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  It destroys trust. It destroys lives.
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  Notice the next one not enslave to much wine.
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  That feels very specific for a church instruction list.
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  It is, but think about the principle.
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  He was talking about coping mechanisms.
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  Life in Crete was hard. Life anywhere is hard.
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  The temptation to numb yourself, whether it is wine or today
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  maybe to social media or shopping or food, is real.
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  Paul is saying you cannot be a spiritual guide if you are
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  numbing yourself. You need clarity of mind.
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  You cannot be controlled by a substance if you were trying to
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  lead someone to be controlled by the Spirit.
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  And finally, they are to be teachers of good things.
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  So that brings us to the curriculum.
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  What are they actually teaching? Because I think we often assume
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  discipleship means we, you know, hang out and chat.
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  Paul actually gives a syllabus and it is intensely practical.
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  He tells the older women to teach the younger women to love
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  their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure
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  workers at home, kind and subject to their own husbands.
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  That list is well, it's a lot. Workers at home and subject to
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  husbands are prizes that get people canceled today.
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  They're countercultural phrases, no question.
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  But we have to look at the why. Paul doesn't just give this list
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  because he likes 1950s gender roles, which didn't exist in the
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  1st century anyway. He says do this so that the word
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  of God will not be slandered. That is high stakes.
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  You're saying the reputation of the gospel is on the line.
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  Absolutely. The reputation of the gospel is
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  tied to domestic faithfulness. How a Christian woman loves her
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  family and manages her home is a testimony to the watching world.
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  If the home is chaotic, if love is absent, if the marriage is a
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  war zone, the world looks at the gospel and says it doesn't work.
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  Why would I want that? It grounds the theology in real
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  life. It's not just what you believe,
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  it's how you live in your kitchen.
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  Precisely. Now, the source material brings
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  up a really interesting point about how this instruction
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  happens. We tend to think of discipleship
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  as one-on-one. Yeah, that's the standard model.
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  Me and you coffee shop open bibles, intense eye contact and
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  it is a valid model. But Betty Price points out that
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  Titus 2 doesn't limit us to that.
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  It can happen in intergenerational Bible studies,
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  small groups, or even through reading sound Christian books.
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  The method is flexible. The method is flexible, the
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  mandate is not. OK, so that's the ideal.
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  But now we take this to the mission field.
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  You pack up your Titus 2 theology and you land in Japan.
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  And the source gives us a specific case study from Japan
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  that I found fascinating because it shows how messy this gets.
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  This is a classic example of cross cultural friction.
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  You have a faithful older woman in Japan ready to do Titus 2
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  ministry. She is prepared.
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  She is reverent. But she reported that the local
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  women didn't want to hear. From her They didn't want a
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  woman teaching them. No, they only wanted to listen
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  to the pastor. You have to understand the
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  cultural context of Japan. There is a massive respect for
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  authority for the sensei, the master teacher, and typically
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  that figures male. In that specific context, the
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  idea of peer-to-peer learning among women was seen as less
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  than Why listen to an older woman when you could listen to
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  the professional? So what do you do?
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  Do you force it? Do you say no?
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  The Bible says Titus 2. So you sit down and listen to
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  her. That is the temptation.
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  We want to fix it with a hammer. But the wisdom here, as Price
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  suggests, is patience. The pastor must teach the
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  passage clearly. He must publicly support the
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  Women to Women Ministry. He has to lend his authority to
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  it. Exactly.
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  He needs to say I am the pastor, but I cannot teach you how to be
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  a wife and mother the way she can.
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  But you have to wait for the church to mature.
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  You can't bulldoze cultural norms overnight, even if you are
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  biblically correct. You have to shepherd the people
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  into valuing what scripture values.
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  That's a tough balance. It's the difference between
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  being right and being effective. You have to play the long game.
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  You do? Yeah, absolutely do.
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  Let's move to another biblical text that frames this First
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  Timothy 3. This is usually where we go for
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  elder and Deacon qualifications. Right.
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  And in verse 11, Paul writes, women must likewise be
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  dignified. Now we have to pause here
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  because there is a massive debate among translators about
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  the Greek word gynecas. Because it can mean women or
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  wives. Correct.
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  It's the same word. So some translations say wives,
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  meaning the wives of the deacons.
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  Others say women, implying female deacons or deaconess.
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  And I'm guessing the source material doesn't solve that
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  debate for us today. It doesn't try to, and that's
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  wise. The point the author makes is
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  that practically for our purpose of defining character, it
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  doesn't matter how. So whether these are female
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  deacons or the wives of leaders, the character requirements are
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  identical. If a woman is going to be in
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  leadership or discipleship, she must meet these standards.
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  And the standards look very similar to Titus.
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  Dignified, temperate, faithful in all things.
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  Dignified means worthy of respect.
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  Temperate is that same idea of level headedness and faithful in
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  all things speaks to trustworthiness.
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  I want to circle back to the speech issue.
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  Though we talked about malicious gossip and Titus in First
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  Timothy. It emphasizes not being a gossip
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  again, and the source gives us another case study, this time
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  from Central Europe. And this one made me cringe
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  because I could see myself making this mistake.
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  This one resonates with anyone who has travelled.
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  You have a missionary wife in Central Europe.
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  She comes from a culture, probably American, where we tend
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  to soften our blows, right? We value being nice.
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  We value privacy. You don't air our dirty laundry
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  at all. She lands in a culture of blunt
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  speech. If people disagree, they say it
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  immediately to your face. And to her, that felt like an
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  attack. Exactly.
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  She felt it was a lack of love, but there was another layer in
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  that culture. Information was public property.
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  The concept of privacy was very different.
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  So the story goes that she shared a personal prayer request
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  with one woman. Yes, something deeply personal.
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  Maybe a struggle with her husband or a health issue.
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  She whispers it to a friend, assuming confidentiality.
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  And the next. Day.
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  The next day, the entire church knows people are coming up to
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  her asking about it. Oh, that is a nightmare.
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  I would feel so betrayed. I would feel like you people are
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  gossips. You are sinning against me.
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  And that was her reaction. She viewed it as malicious
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  gossip in the tightest sense, but the local woman viewed it as
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  news. Just information.
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  Or mobilizing prayer. In her mind she was helping.
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  She has a problem. So I told the body so we can
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  pray. So how do you handle that?
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  Is it sin or is it culture? That is the $1,000,000 question
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  In missions. The lesson for the missionary
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  was realizing that the intent wasn't malicious.
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  It wasn't intended to harm, It was a cultural norm of
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  information sharing. OK.
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  However, scripture does call us to discretion.
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  Colossians 4.6 says our speech should be seasoned with salt.
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  So the missionary had to accept the culture's bluntness as not
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  sin while slowly teaching the biblical value of
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  confidentiality and discretion. That takes so much humility to
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  not just scream you're wrong, but to say OK, this is how you
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  operate, but let's look at what protects relationships best.
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  It requires realizing that your cultural definition of polite is
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  not the biblical standard, but the biblical standard of
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  trustworthy must be maintained. Speaking of relationships, let's
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  talk about when they break down. The outline brings us to
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  Philippians four and two women with great names, Euodia and
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  Sinchek. These are two women in the
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  church at Philippi, and notice how Paul describes him.
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  He calls them fellow workers. He says they struggled alongside
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  him in the gospel. These aren't casual attendees
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  who show up once a month. These are heavy hitters in the
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  ministry. They are in the trenches.
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  They had a problem. They were fighting we don't know
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  what. Maybe it was theology, maybe it
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  was methodology, maybe they just annoyed each other.
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  Could be anything. But it was bad enough that Paul,
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  in a letter that would be read to the entire church and
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  eventually the entire world for 2000 years, calls them out by
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  name. By name, he tells them to think
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  the same way in the Lord. That is a public call out.
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  Imagine sitting in church. The letter from the Apostle Paul
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  arrives. Everyone has excited and
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  suddenly he says Susan and Karen stop fighting.
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  It implies that their personal dispute was affecting the
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  harmony of the whole church. It was becoming a cancer.
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  Betty Price shares a story in the text that illustrates this
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  perfectly. She was at a Women's Ministry
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  luncheon. Yes, she was the guest speaker
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  and she gets invited to the leadership meeting before the
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  event. There are six women there and
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  the pastor and. That seemed odd to her.
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  Right. Usually the pastor has other
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  things to do than sit in the women's planning meeting.
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  So she asks, does the pastor have something to share?
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  Thinking maybe he has a devotional or an announcement.
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  And the response. The pastor's wife looks down at
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  the table completely embarrassed and says no, he has to be here
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  because two of these women can't get along and if he isn't here
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  to referee, they will fight. That is tragic.
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  It's pitiful. Here you have a man called to
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  preach the Word and shepherd the souls of the flock, and he's
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  reduced to being a babysitter because two grown Christian
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  women cannot resolve their conflict.
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  It shows that character, specifically being temperate, is
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  a qualification for leadership. If you cannot resolve conflict,
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  you become a liability to the ministry.
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  The lesson is that leaders must be self controlled and
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  persuadable. Unresolved conflict hinders
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  ministry. It stops the work.
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  And in a cross cultural setting, the opportunities for
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  misunderstanding are multiplied by 1000.
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  Exactly. You are dealing with language
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  barriers, different conflict styles, different expectations
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  of leadership. If you don't have a heart for
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  harmony, for thinking the same way in the Lord, you will blow
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  up the ministry. You will spend all your energy
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  fighting your teammates instead of fighting the darkness.
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  So we've talked about character, we've talked about conflict.
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  Now we need to define the boundaries.
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  We said at the top we are complementarian.
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  The source material is very clear about what women cannot
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  do. And we need to be precise here,
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  because this is where the accusations usually fly, right?
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  We need to look at the lines. According to the source and
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  based on First Timothy 2, the office of elder or pastor is
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  reserved for men. What are the distinct
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  responsibilities of that office? Because sometimes we think
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  ministry equals pastor. That's a great point.
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  The office of Elder is characterized by two main
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  things. Doctrinal teaching for the
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  gathered church and exercising authority over the congregation.
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  OK, so teaching and authority. That is the line, the oversight
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  of the flock and the authoritative preaching of the
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  word. Now the egalitarian argument,
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  the view that women can hold any office, often argues that Paul
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  was writing to a specific culture where women were
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  uneducated. They say Paul restricted women
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  because they didn't know anything yet.
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  They were uneducated in the 1st century.
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  But now women have pH DS, they are CEO's, so the restriction is
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  lifted. It is a common argument, but the
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  source material rebuts that directly.
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  It points out that Paul doesn't ground his argument in the
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  education levels of the 1st century.
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  He grounds it in creation. He points back to Adam and Eve.
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  It's a theological argument, not a sociological 1.
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  Correct. The argument is that God's
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  design for men and women has not changed, regardless of whether
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  we are in a patriarchal society, a feminist society, or anything
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  in between. It is an argument from order,
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  not from competence. But, and this is a big but, that
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  doesn't mean women sit on the sidelines.
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  I think sometimes people hear no elders and they translate that
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  to no ministry. Which is a tragedy, a complete
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  tragedy. The scope of women's ministry is
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  massive. Well.
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  What does the source say is open?
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  The source Less Roles explicitly open to women.
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  Director of women's ministries. Director of children's
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  ministries. Missionaries both single and
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  married. OK, humanitarian roles like
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  nursing and teaching, administration, theology,
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  writing, the list goes on and on.
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  And there is a clarification on submission here that I think is
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  helpful because again, the caricature is that in
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  complementarianism every woman has to do what every man says.
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  That is, a distortion is a straw man.
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  Complementarianism does not mean all women submit to all men.
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  A woman submits to her own. Husband.
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  Her own husband, yes. And like all believers, men
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  included, she submits to the church leadership, the elders.
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  Hebrews 13.17 commands all of us to submit to our leaders.
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  So a single female missionary isn't walking around submitting
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  to every male she meets. She isn't subservient to the guy
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  at the grocery store. No, of course not.
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  She is under the authority of her ascending church and the
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  field leadership, just like the guys are.
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  It is about order in the church and the home, not a universal
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  hierarchy of gender. To prove the point that women
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  aren't sidelined, the source material gives us a list of
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  witnesses. This is a rapid fire tour of the
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  New Testament and it is impressive.
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  It is. It shows that the early church
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  was powered by women. You have Dorcas.
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  She was the compassion ministry expert, making garments for the
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  poor. When she died, the widows stood
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  around weeping and showing Peter the clothes she made.
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  That is a legacy of love for sure.
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  You have Anna. She is in the temple, fasting
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  and praying. She's a prophetess.
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  She's the one who proclaims the Messiah to Jerusalem.
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  She was an evangelist before the apostles were a servant or
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  deaconess of the church at Sencre.
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  Most scholars believe she was the one entrusted to carry the
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  letter of Romans to Rome. Imagine that responsibility
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  carrying the most theologically dense document in human history
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  in your bag, walking the dangerous roads to Rome.
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  Paul trusted her with his masterpiece.
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  Then you have Priscilla. I love Priscilla.
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  She and her husband Aquila are a power couple.
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  They're tent makers. They risk their necks for Paul.
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  But the key moment is with Apollos.
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  Apollos is this eloquent preacher.
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  He is on fire, but his theology is incomplete.
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  He only knows the baptism of John.
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  So what happens? Does Priscilla stand up in the
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  synagogue and shout you're wrong?
• 19:14
  No, that would violate the principle of authority and
• 19:17
  order. Instead, she and Aquila take him
• 19:19
  aside privately, and they correct him.
• 19:22
  They explain to him the way of God more accurately.
• 19:24
  That is such a crucial distinction.
• 19:26
  She possessed the theological knowledge, she used it.
• 19:29
  She corrected a male preacher, but she did it in a setting that
• 19:33
  honored the structure of the church.
• 19:34
  Exactly. Then you have the hospitality
• 19:36
  crew. Mary, Martha, Lydia, Nympha
• 19:39
  hosting churches in their homes. You have the Samaritan woman at
• 19:42
  the well. She becomes an evangelist to her
• 19:43
  her entire town. And the women in Luke 8 who
• 19:46
  bankrolled Jesus's ministry. So the biblical record is clear.
• 19:50
  Women are essential active and gifted.
• 19:52
  They are not passive observers. Which leads us to the
• 19:55
  second-half of our deep dive. The specific question Should we
• 19:59
  send single female missionaries to the field?
• 20:03
  Apparently some churches hesitate on this.
• 20:05
  They do. They worry about safety.
• 20:07
  They worry about the lack of a husband's protection.
• 20:09
  They worry about role confusion. If she goes out there alone, who
• 20:13
  is she accountable to? Will she try to become a pastor
• 20:16
  because there are no men? But the source gives a
• 20:19
  definitive answer. The answer is yes.
• 20:22
  A resounding yes. And the theological rationale is
• 20:24
  twofold. First Galatians 3.
• 20:27
  Women are Co heirs of the gospel.
• 20:29
  They have the Holy Spirit, They have spiritual gifts.
• 20:32
  To bench them is to bench half of God's army.
• 20:35
  And secondly, the singleness advantage.
• 20:37
  This comes from Jesus in Matthew 19 and Paul in First Corinthians
• 20:40
  7. We often view singleness as a
• 20:42
  waiting room for marriage. We think, oh poor thing, she
• 20:45
  hasn't found anyone yet. But the Bible views it as a
• 20:48
  strategic advantage. A single person has undivided
• 20:51
  devotion if they are less distracted by the cares of the
• 20:54
  world, meaning the necessary cares of a spouse and children.
• 20:57
  If you are married, you have to care about your spouse.
• 20:59
  That is your duty. If you have kids, you have to
• 21:02
  protect them. Exactly.
• 21:03
  But if you are single, you could run into the fire.
• 21:06
  You can take risks a mother cannot take, and history proves
• 21:10
  this. The source gives us three
• 21:12
  historical case studies that are just giants of the faith.
• 21:15
  OK, we need to talk about Amy Carmichael.
• 21:18
  The AMA of India. Her story is wild.
• 21:22
  Amy Carmichael went to southern India in the late 1800s and she
• 21:27
  saw something that broke her heart.
• 21:29
  She noticed that little girls were disappearing.
• 21:31
  She found out they were being married to the gods.
• 21:34
  Which is a euphemism. A terrible one.
• 21:36
  It was religious slavery, temple prostitution.
• 21:39
  These children were being sold to the temples to be used by the
• 21:42
  priests and the worshippers. It was horrific abuse sanctioned
• 21:46
  by the religion and the culture. And as a single woman, she could
• 21:49
  do something about it. She began rescuing them and we
• 21:51
  weren't talking about filing paperwork.
• 21:53
  She was basically kidnapping them back.
• 21:55
  Really. She would dye her skin with dark
• 21:57
  coffee to blend in with the locals.
• 21:59
  She would go near the temples. She would risk her life to
• 22:01
  snatch a child away. Imagine the adrenaline A
• 22:04
  solitary Irish woman in a sari stealing a child from a powerful
• 22:09
  religious system. She became a mother, Emma, to
• 22:12
  hundreds of these children. She built a community called
• 22:15
  Donover. It wasn't just an orphanage, it
• 22:18
  was a sanctuary. She created a family.
• 22:21
  And because she was single, she could stay.
• 22:23
  She served for 55 years without a furlough.
• 22:26
  She never went back to Ireland. That is unimaginable stamina.
• 22:30
  And she couldn't have done it if she had to worry about a
• 22:31
  husband's career or educating her own biological children in a
• 22:35
  Western school system. Her singleness was her strength,
• 22:39
  she wrote. Can we follow the Savior far who
• 22:41
  have no wound or scar? She understood that suffering
• 22:44
  was part of the deal. Then we have Lilius Trotter.
• 22:47
  This is a story I didn't know as well, but it is equally
• 22:49
  powerful. Lilius was a Victorian heiress,
• 22:52
  she was wealthy and she was a brilliantly gifted painter.
• 22:55
  John Ruskin, the most famous art critic of the 19th century, saw
• 22:58
  her work. Wow.
• 23:00
  He told her she could be one of the greatest living artists if
• 23:02
  she devoted herself to it. She offered to make her famous.
• 23:05
  She had the world at her feet. Fame, Fortune.
• 23:08
  Comfort. And she walked away from it.
• 23:10
  All of it. All of it she felt the call of
• 23:13
  God to the Muslim world. She went to Algeria, North
• 23:17
  Africa, a very hard place, a place where women were often
• 23:20
  invisible. What was her ministry like?
• 23:23
  It was a ministry of presence and hospitality.
• 23:25
  She opened a wayside home for travellers.
• 23:27
  But she didn't abandoned her art, she redeemed it.
• 23:30
  She wrote in illustrated gospel tracts that were beautiful.
• 23:34
  That's amazing. She realized that beauty was a
• 23:36
  bridge to the Arab heart. She was engaging the culture on
• 23:40
  a deep level. She studied the Sufi Mystics.
• 23:43
  She learned their language, their poetry.
• 23:45
  She wrote the seven I am Statements of Jesus to connect
• 23:48
  with the Muslim understanding of God.
• 23:50
  She mobilized dozens of workers to a region that was incredibly
• 23:53
  resistant. She died there.
• 23:56
  She gave up a legacy in the art galleries of London for a legacy
• 23:59
  in the Kingdom of Heaven. And finally, Mary Niemeyer, this
• 24:02
  one made me smile because it's just so physical.
• 24:04
  Mary Niemeyer served among the Navajo, the dying people in
• 24:07
  Arizona and New Mexico. She started at age 21.
• 24:11
  She served for over 65 years. 65 years.
• 24:14
  The description of her ministries just so active.
• 24:18
  She's doing home visits on horseback, riding through the
• 24:21
  desert canyons to find isolated families.
• 24:24
  But the detail I love is the basketball.
• 24:26
  She played basketball. She played basketball with the
• 24:28
  young women for 50 years. 50 years, So we're talking about a
• 24:32
  70 year old woman boxing out teenagers in the paint.
• 24:35
  Essentially, yes, and apparently she was good.
• 24:38
  She used sports to build relationships.
• 24:40
  But here is the kicker when her knees finally gave out and she
• 24:44
  couldn't jump anymore. Don't tell me she retired.
• 24:47
  She switched to rollerblading. No way.
• 24:49
  Yes, in her 70s on a reservation.
• 24:51
  That is a level of commitment and maybe a little insanity that
• 24:54
  you have to admire. But look at the impact.
• 24:57
  She is credited with helping preserve the Navajo language.
• 25:00
  She helped translate the scripture.
• 25:02
  She didn't just bring the gospel.
• 25:03
  She honored the culture. She loved the people.
• 25:06
  She became one of them. These women, Amy, Lilius, Mary,
• 25:10
  what's the common thread besides the fact that they were forces
• 25:13
  of nature? The common legacy is that they
• 25:15
  died on the field. They didn't pack up and retire
• 25:18
  to a condo in Florida when it got hard.
• 25:20
  They were buried in the soil they served.
• 25:22
  They were surrounded by local believers who called the mother
• 25:25
  or sister. And crucially, they paved the
• 25:29
  way for pastors. They didn't try to be the
• 25:31
  pastor. This is a key distinction a
• 25:33
  huge. One they did the evangelism, the
• 25:35
  discipleship, the hard, groundbreaking work so that
• 25:39
  churches could form and local men could eventually step up to
• 25:42
  lead. That brings us to today.
• 25:44
  The world has changed. We aren't necessarily riding
• 25:47
  horses in New Mexico anymore or snatching kids from temples,
• 25:50
  though human trafficking is still a huge issue.
• 25:53
  How does this look in the modern world?
• 25:55
  The principles are the same, but the avenues have expanded.
• 25:58
  We see the tent maker model. This is using a secular degree
• 26:02
  to get into a country that doesn't allow missionaries.
• 26:05
  Because you can't just get a missionary visa for Saudi Arabia
• 26:07
  or China. Exactly, but you can get a visa
• 26:10
  if you were a teacher. Tehsil teaching English is huge.
• 26:14
  Nursing is another one. A registered nurse can get into
• 26:17
  a village in the Middle East or Asia that a pastor could never
• 26:20
  enter. That's right.
• 26:21
  She can touch bodies, heal wounds, and speak the gospel in
• 26:25
  the process. She has access to the women's
• 26:27
  quarters that a male missionary will never see.
• 26:30
  The source mentions a really interesting example of a woman
• 26:34
  with a doctorate in biblical counseling.
• 26:35
  Yes, she serves as an associate Dean at a seminary in the Middle
• 26:39
  East. Now, some might ask, is she
• 26:41
  teaching men? Is that violating the First
• 26:44
  Timothy rule? Right.
• 26:45
  That's the question that comes up.
• 26:46
  But her specific role is training the women's students
• 26:49
  who will return to their home countries to do women's
• 26:52
  ministry. She is equipping the equipers.
• 26:55
  It's strategic. It is highly strategic.
• 26:57
  We have examples of orphan care in Asia.
• 26:59
  We have a story from Africa about a missionary wife who
• 27:02
  realized the church service was 3 hours long and there was
• 27:05
  nothing for the kids. Three hours.
• 27:06
  The kids were running wild or sleeping, so she started a
• 27:09
  children's Sunday school. Which sounds simple.
• 27:11
  But it was revolutionary. It allowed the parents to
• 27:13
  actually listen to the sermon, and it catechized the next
• 27:16
  generation. She wasn't preaching the sermon,
• 27:19
  but she was making the sermon effective.
• 27:21
  It seems like the goal is always the same.
• 27:24
  Support the church. That is the bottom line.
• 27:27
  Women's ministry is not a competition with men's ministry.
• 27:30
  It's not about power. It supports the elders.
• 27:33
  It facilitates the growth of the bada.
• 27:35
  It allows the pastors to focus on their primary calling, prayer
• 27:38
  and the ministry of the Word while ensuring that the women
• 27:41
  and children are being discipled effectively.
• 27:43
  So as we wrap this up, we have to look at the big picture.
• 27:47
  We have this rich history. We have this clear biblical
• 27:50
  mandate. We have the example of Amy
• 27:52
  Carmichael, who probably did more for the Kingdom than most
• 27:55
  of us combined. We do, and we have a challenge.
• 27:57
  Philip De Corsi has a quote. Join the endless line of women
• 28:00
  parading across the Bible. Now you go, girl.
• 28:04
  It's a bit colloquial, but the point stands.
• 28:06
  The point is vital. We in the reform camp love our
• 28:10
  structure, We love our order, we love our theology.
• 28:14
  And that is good. Order is good.
• 28:16
  But we must be careful that in our love for order, we do not
• 28:20
  inadvertently stifle the Amy Carmichael's of tomorrow.
• 28:24
  That is a provocative thought. Are we creating a culture where
• 28:27
  a young woman with a fire for the nation's feels like she has
• 28:30
  no place to run because she hears no more than she hears go?
• 28:34
  We need to be actively deploying them.
• 28:36
  They are powerful weapons for the gospel.
• 28:38
  We need to encourage them, train them, and send them fully
• 28:41
  supported, fully valued and fully clear on their mission.
• 28:45
  If I have a pastor, I should be looking for the single women in
• 28:47
  my church who have that gift and saying how can we get you to the
• 28:51
  field? Not you can't be an elder or so
• 28:53
  sit down. So if you are listening and you
• 28:55
  are that woman, or you are pastor who shepherds those
• 28:58
  women, the field is white for harvest.
• 29:00
  And the laborers, both men and women, are few.
• 29:04
  That's all for this deep dive into Reformed thinking.
• 29:06
  We hope this challenges you to look at the women in your church
• 29:09
  not just as members, but as vital partners in the Great
• 29:11
  Commission. Thanks for listening.
• 29:13
  Goodbye.