Adventist Perspective on Women in Ministry

ADVENTIST PERSPECTIVE ON WOMEN IN MINISTRY
Pennsylvania Conference Pastor’s Meeting conducted May 3, 2010.

Dr. Richard Davidson from Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theology seminary presented.
Also, Elder Preston Monterrey, pastor in Erie, PA
And Elder Jim Wibberding, pastor at Lansdale, PA

Here are some succinct notes of my opening presentation.

What this day was NOT:
• A debate on whether women should be in ministry in the Adventist Church. The World Church has included women in ministry.
• The issue of ordination of women in ministry. That is a decision for the World Church meeting in GC session. The PA Conference fully follows the principles voted and followed by the World Church
• A referendum on whether there will be women in ministry in the PA Conference. The Conference Executive Committee has already made that determination – in full cooperation with the General Conference policy and Adventist Church history.

The approach used at this meeting included:
• Biblical study of God’s original approach
• Hermeneutical approach that gives bearing on the topic
• Continuation of the Biblical study, including the Old Testament, Jesus and Paul’s position
• Over-view, historical, practical and current considerations.
•

I shared a brief over-view of The Adventist History in regards to women in ministry.

Our Adventist Church was born out of mission,
and born for mission.

Communicating the message of the soon return of Jesus in the context of the 3 angel’s messages and the high priestly mediatorial work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary was and is the priority for our Church. Leading people to be disciples of Jesus is the natural outgrowth of this mission and is obedience to the Great Commission given to all Christians.

As the Adventist work went forth, there was no hesitation to accept and encourage any to take up the work, including women.

With the prophetic gift exercised through the ministry of Ellen White, our early leaders spent considerable study and effort demonstrating at the least, 2 premises,
1. The role of spiritual gifts.
2. That God was fully capable of calling a women to the prophetic ministry role, and that the spiritual gift given by God through her as a woman, was to be fully accepted and recognized and it was authoritative.

Foundational principles that guide and lead Adventists in this topic of study:
• The Protestant Biblical belief in the priesthood of all believers.
• Jesus Christ is our only High Priest and as such serves as the true priest in the heavenly sanctuary.
• Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and as such is the one who fulfills headship over every part of His church.
• God calls whom He will to ministry, and the church observes those who claim to have been called by God, and affirms that evidence of the calling has been demonstrated.
• Spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit, to whom the Holy Spirit chooses.

Over 20 SDA women were licensed as ministers during the period from the 1870s to the ending of the 19th century -- roughly through the end of Ellen White’s lifetime.

1878 ANNA FULTON MINNESOTA
ELLEN S. LANE MICHIGAN
JULIA OWEN KENTUCKY-TENNESSEE
1879 LIBBIE COLLINS MINNESOTA
HATTIE ENOCH KANSAS
LIBBIE FULTON MINNESOTA
LIZZIE POST MINNESOTA
1880 ANNA JOHNSON MINNESOTA
1881 IDA W. BALLENGER ILLINOIS
HELEN L. MORSE ILLINOIS
1884 RUIE HILL KANSAS
1886 IDA W. HIBBEN ILLINOIS
1887 MRS. S. E. PIERCE VERMONT
1893 FLORA PLUMMER IOWA
1894 MARGARET CARO NEW ZEALAND
1895 MRS. S. A. LINDSAY NEW YORK
1898 SAREPTA IRISH HENRY GEN. CONF.
LULU WIGHTMAN NEW YORK
1899 EDITH BARTLETT BRITISH CONF.
1900 HETTY HASKELL GEN. CONF.
MINA ROBINSON BRITISH CONF.
1901 CARRIE V. HANSEN UTAH
EMMA HAWKINS IOWA
MRS. E. R. WILLIAMS MICHIGAN
1902 MRS. S. N. HASKELL GREATER NY
MINNIE SYPE OKLAHOMA
1904 ALMA BJDIGG FINLAND MISSION
MRS. J. E. BOND ARIZONA
BERTHA E. JORGENSEN SOUTH DAKOTA
1910 PEARL FIELD NEBRASKA
MRS. URA SPRING NEBRASKA

--GENERAL CONFERENCE ARCHIVES AND SDA YEARBOOKS

More were licensed after that, right down to this present day. The above list illustrates that our early Adventist church incorporated women in ministry.

The role of all ministers, during this time period, was essentially the same. Evangelism, teaching, discipling, establishing new converts.
Settled pastors, occupying a church or district in a stationary style, was rare and not encouraged. Thus, the women who served during this time period were fully leading the work as well as the men of the time.

Some have erroneously thought that women in Adventist ministry is a fairly recent occurrence, probably as a result of the influence of the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1970’s in the United States.
However, that view totally misses our Adventist heritage and history. To include women in ministry in the Adventist Church, including the pastoral ministry, is actually to re-capture our Adventist Heritage!

Our Pennsylvania Adventist Heritage is quite indebted to women in ministry.

Evangelist and Teacher of Ministers:
Jessie Weiss Curtis
1881 to 1972
A newspaper reported concerning Mrs. Curtis:
“Stirred with the desire to give the gospel to the people,
Miss Weiss secured a tent, and with the aid of two men
pitched it on the C. A. Straw farm, and people are
flocking by the hundreds to hear her.”
—Hazleton, Pennsylvania, newspaper article, 1927

At the conclusion of her first evangelistic series, Jessie Weiss presented 80 converts ready for baptism. The Drums, Pennsylvania, Seventh-day Adventist Church was born. In Beaumont, Tunkhannock, and Montrose in northeastern Pennsylvania, Jessie Weiss Curtis was the Holy Spirit's instrument to raise up congregations. She preached in tents, at the same time conducting countless Bible studies. After groups were formed, she raised money for and supervised the building of houses of worship.

Mrs. Curtis officiated at the first quarterly meeting and communion service held in the Tunkhannock Seventh-day Adventist Church on April 10, 1943. After the effort in Drums with its outstanding results, Jessie Weiss was recognized as a member of the evangelistic and ministerial staff of the East Pennsylvania Conference. She conducted many evangelistic series, usually in tents, and founded one church after another in northeastern Pennsylvania.

There is no indication that the people served by Jessie Weiss Curtis thought it was inappropriate to have a woman minister. In fact, as the years went on, they practically reverenced her.

The more we learn, the more it becomes understandable that the East Pennsylvania Conference presidents sent their interns for training to this experienced, effective minister. Elder N. R. Dower, formerly ministerial director of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, recalls that he started his work under evangelist Curtis.

In addition, conference administrators made a practice of sending ministers to work with Mrs. Curtis when they appeared to be drifting away on some point of doctrine or church authority. Sometimes a rehabilitation was effected, and the worker found his footing again as he associated and counseled with this wise and godly woman minister.

So today, we re-visit this topic of the Adventist perspective of women in ministry. For some, it may be a first visit, a discovery of what God is able and eager to do.

Just a couple of Ellen White statements, among many that are available:

“It is the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit of God that prepares workers, both men and women, to become pastors to the flock of God.”
Testimonies for the Church. 9 vols. (Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1855-1909, 1948

“There are women who should labor in the gospel ministry.”
Manuscript 43a, 1898.

Not a hand should be bound, not a soul discouraged, not a voice should be hushed; let every individual labor, privately or publicly, to help forward this grand work. Place the burden upon men and women of the church, that they may grow by reason of the exercise, and thus become effective agents in the hand of the Lord for the enlightenment of those who sit in darkness.
“The Duty of the Minister and the People,” Review and Herald, 9 July 1895, 25.

Finally, let us remember God’s prophetic vision for the last days as found in Joel 2:
“And it shall come to pass afterward
That I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your old men shall dream dreams,
Your young men shall see visions.
And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Joel 2:28, 29