Answering Lottie Moon's Cry: A Call for Dialogue On the Role of Women in Missions

What are biblical ways for a woman to serve in missions? Are these different from the ways a woman can serve in a sending church? Many churches accept a great divergence between home and abroad in women's roles. Even complementarian sending churches-with strong, wise, humble masculine leadership in the pulpit and in the home-sometimes allow a single woman to fulfill any role in missions as long as it is "over there" in a foreign culture.

Some contend that this divergence is necessary because there are not enough men on the field and, therefore, women must rise to the occasion. Longtime missionary leader George Winston suggests that it is simply a matter of good stewardship of the female workforce to encourage them to teach, lead, and shepherd in a missions context.¹ Mimi Haddad, president of Christians for Biblical Equality, is also opposed to any such divergence in the role of women. Based on her understanding of the fruitfulness of women leading missions in the nineteenth century, she argues for the ordination of women in sending churches.²

Daniel Akin draws attention to this historical divergence in women's roles in an exposition of Rom 12:1 included in this issue of JBMW. His provocative sermon provides an extended illustration of the missionary work of Miss Lottie Moon in nineteenth-century China. Undoubtedly, her biography beautifully demonstrates a life consecrated to God in amazing and sacrificial ways. Nevertheless her story raises challenging questions about gender issues in missions. Her biographer notes," Although she was committed primarily to teaching the women, and next in dealing with the children, she could not keep the men from listening from adjoining rooms."³ What should a complementarian missionary do if eavesdropping men are hungry to hear teaching from the Word of God? Should an exception to 1 Tim 2:12 be made in a foreign culture?

The challenge in China did not end when men were saved, but continued to crop up in the process of discipleship. Lottie Moon's letters describe being faced with the choice to either "do men's work or sit silent at religious services conducted by men just emerging from heathenism."⁴ On other occasions she would preach to men, against her wishes, in the face of compelling need:

There was a large crowd pretty soon in attendance, so many that the hall would not hold them and they adjourned to the yard. I hope you won't think me desperately unfeminine, but I spoke to them all, men, women, and children, pleading with them to turn from their idolatry to the true and living God. I should not have cared to remain silent with so many souls before me sunk in heathen darkness.⁵

If no men are willing to endure the privations of foreign missions, shouldn't women preach the gospel to men who are otherwise destined to a Christ-less eternity? Miss Lottie Moon faced the daunting task of reconciling the teaching of 1 Tim 2:12 with the crying need for gospel witness in light of the dearth of the male missionaries in many places around the world. Missions leaders are still confronted by such thorny questions today.

For example, consider two evangelical mission organizations with long track records of effective mission work Operation Mobilization (OM) and Campus Crusade. OM is celebrating fifty years of ministry and now works in more than one hundred countries around the world sharing the gospel and building up the church of Jesus Christ. Campus Crusade evangelizes on hundreds of college campuses and shows the JESUS film around the world. Both have tens of thousands of missionaries using innovative methods to advance the gospel and plant churches across cultures.⁶ They face the same gender challenges as Miss Lottie Moon, and even a cursory survey reveals many examples of new questions that need to be freshly asked and biblically answered. As a missionary leader, Bible scholar, or sending pastor, how would you respond in the following situations?

• For decades OM's evangelical ships have been plying the ocean to distribute literature, train young people, and share the good news of God's love. Certainly, women and men alike should be encouraged to join these crews to help people in need and evangelize from port to port. Yet, could a qualified woman serve as the captain of the Logos II, or would that be a pastoral role that the apostle Paul would limit for men? More commonly, could a woman train and lead one of the many evangelistic teams (which includes college men)that serves on such a ship?

• Crusade's Athletes in Action is building spiritual movements everywhere through the platform of sport.⁷ OM's Sports Link operates in more than a dozen countries, often explaining the gospel using specially-designed multicolored soccer balls.⁸ Certainly many women are gifted in both athletics and evangelism and should be encouraged to take part in Sports Link teams. Yet is coaching an evangelistic soccer team an ecclesial function that biblically should be reserved for men?

• ArtsLink at OM connects Christians with ways to use their artistic gifts "practically and most radically" on the foreign mission field to "build the church and reach the unreached."⁹ Analyzing such a parachurch function in light of scripture takes much more effort than asking whether or not a Sunday School superintendent needs to be a man. Dance can communicate across boundaries of culture and language, and OM uses dance evangelistically. Would it be more appropriate for a man or a woman to direct OM's dance ministry to train dancers to "use their gifts to worship and minister on the mission field."¹⁰

• Certainly, a woman can share her faith and explain the gospel to a man or woman in any context, but does that mean that a woman could coordinate and lead the campus evangelistic efforts of men throughout an entire country or region? Should the fact that these are both parachurch organizations allow a woman to lead a small group Bible study for men? In a parachurch organization, can women teach the Bible to men at large gatherings because it is not a local church?

• Mission work is not intended to stop with evangelism but hopefully continues with the discipleship of new believers and eventually the formation of house churches. If a local church is planted by a woman missionary in a foreign country, could that church continue to be led by female elders who are nationals? In cultures that have historically subjugated and shamed women, couldn't a newly planted church be led by women to demonstrate their new freedom in Jesus Christ?

This essay is not intended to immediately provide answers to these increasingly common questions. Rather, the purpose is to call missionaries, pastors, and scholars to engage in a humble dialog to find practical answers which are biblically faithful. In every way, this dialogue needs to be conducted with the brotherly love of Christians working together and making every effort to reach the lost. Along the way, we also need to avoid a narrow view of missions. Without a doubt God has given gifts to women to serve the church in foreign missions, and women should be encouraged and empowered to help carry out the great commission.

There are countless ways for women to be involved in the greatest cause in the world, as John Piper relates, of "joyfully rescuing people from hell, meeting their earthly needs, making them glad in God, and doing it with a kind, serious pleasure that makes Christ look like the Treasure he is."¹¹ God has gifted women for a broad array of tasks that at the very least include personal evangelism, disaster relief, counseling women, drama and dance, literacy training, teaching the Bible to women and children, music composition and instrumentation, ministry to handicapped, hospitality, prayer, and countless others. All of these contribute to fulfilling the great commission, and gifted women should be encouraged to pursue all of these essential tasks.

Even so, biblical methods must always be used to pursue biblical goals. There are biblically-defined, complementary roles for men and women in the church and these should have some expression in every culture around the world. We must understand and respect biblical limitations without discouraging women from using their God-given gifts in the mission to reach the lost for Christ. Members of the staff and scholars associated with CBMW are always available to explore these critical questions with individual churches and missions organizations.

Specifically, this essay is an invitation for missionary leaders, sending pastors, and Bible scholars to submit essays, articles, and scholarly studies to JBMW and Gender Blog (the daily blog at CBMW.org). The goal is to work toward a consensus that will guide missionaries on the field, teachers who will train future missionaries, and pastors who will send and provide ongoing counsel to missionaries in the future. What important contribution does each group bring to this dialogue?

First, missionary leaders are needed to bring firsthand knowledge of cultures and practices from the front lines of the field. Understanding clearly the expectations and particular functions of a specific missionary task is critical to understand the situation biblically. We would appreciate the help of missionaries to ask and refine questions that are encountered on the field every day. This is not a task that can be successfully accomplished from academic offices or pastoral studies far removed from the rough and tumble details of daily life on the mission field.

Consider the previous example of the leadership of an evangelistic ship: Perhaps the captain might simply perform a straightforward nautical task of transporting missionaries and relief supplies on the high seas. This important position could be easily filled by a qualified woman. From another perspective, the captain could also be considered the spiritual leader of the ship's company with the pastoral responsibility of overseeing the whole evangelistic and discipling mission of the vessel. In this case serving as captain seems like an elder's role reserved for men. Nuances are significant, and prayerful wisdom is essential. For example, the former case might need to be reconsidered in the light of the fact that maritime law often allows the captain of a ship to perform marriages on board, which is a pastoral function.

Careful definitions of terms and roles will help us resist the temptation to pragmatism that places reaching the lost above biblical fidelity. If we accept that the Bible reserves some roles in missions for men, then extraordinary patience is required, and, ultimately, a trust in God to follow his methods in the face of a crying need for the gospel. It was a grievous error for King Saul to personally offer sacrifices for victory in battle rather than appropriately wait for the prophet Samuel to arrive (1 Sam 13:8-13). Is there ever a time when clear biblical expectation can be set aside (or even reversed) to plant a church or save a soul? Especially with respect to gender issues, we must seek the lost using biblical methods.

Second, scholars are needed to ensure that solid exegesis is coupled with sound hermeneutics to reach solutions that are both biblical and practical. This task of reconciliation does not require a compromise of biblical principles, but rather the prayerful analysis and application of scriptural teaching into a plethora of contexts that were not specifically addressed in the New Testament. Once we have firmly established scriptural teachings, then much fruitful work remains to be done in the area of application.

Several scholars have helpfully undertaken to define the appropriate roles for women in ministry, however, the focus has primarily been on local churches in the context of the United States.¹² The church of Jesus Christ would benefit from a new group of scholars willing to take a fresh look at these questions from a world-wide perspective.

In this process, we must avoid the temptation to develop a schema of grids and solid lines that smacks of legalism and does not respect the prayerful wisdom of local elders and ministry leaders. Sharp lines drawn from a distance often lead to critical judgments, self-righteousness, and strife between Christian brothers that will impede the overarching mission. Rather, we need to understand common biblical principles that can be pursued in the day-to-day aspects of missionary life on the field.

Third, pastors of sending churches also have a critical responsibility in this dialogue. Pastors need to inquire and understand how gender issues are worked out in the ministries of those sent from their churches. In 3 John 5-8, the apostle gives this exhortation:

You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God. For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

The pastor must ensure that people who are sent out for the sake of the gospel are sent in a manner that is worthy of God. The methods cannot be decoupled from the goal, or the result will undercut any churches that will be planted.

For this reason, pastors are needed to teach the next generation of missionaries and sending believers that the church of Jesus Christ is universal; there is not a Bible for sending churches that is different than the Bible that guides missionaries in foreign cultures. Paul taught about gender distinctions to be practiced in "every place" (1 Tim 2:8,9) and excluded gender-based practices the he does not teach:" nor do the churches of God" (1 Cor 11:16).There should be no divergence in the way women serve in principle, though cross-culturally there undoubtedly will be differences in practical application. Though there are myriads of ways to evangelize in different cultures, all methods can all be guided by and adhere to the same biblical principles.

While encouraging and empowering women to serve, we must not neglect to make every effort to raise up a generation of men, trained for missions, and prepared for privation, self-sacrifice, and even martyrdom. Men with a love of the Savior that creates in them a burning desire to see cross-cultural evangelism and worldwide worship. We need to respond to the century-old cry of Miss Lottie Moon, "Oh! that we had active and zealous men who would go far and wide scattering books and tracks and preaching the word to the vast multitudes of this land."¹³