Women of the Spirit

Reflections of a North American delegate to the General Conference in Utrecht: How shall women respond?

To my sisters in Christ: Who knows whether we are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Nineteen hundred and ninety-five, the year of the Adventist woman. The North American Division seeks to open to us the door of ordination. The General Conference in session in Utrecht votes not to grant the request. Around the world, the focus is on us—women in ministry—women who love God's work. How will we respond?

Our response now has momentous implications for the world church—it could split churches around the world, or it could unite us in preparing for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the

latter rain just prior to Christ's coming. Who knows whether you, my sister in Christ, are come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

How shall we respond? "The greatest victories gained for the cause of God are not the result of labored argument, ample facilities, wide influence, or abundance of means; they are gained in the audience chamber with God," "when earnest, agonizing faith lays hold upon the mighty arm of power."

My dear sisters in Christ, as we think about our response in this crucial time of earth's history, let us prayerfully contemplate the counsel God has given through a woman He chose as His messenger.

"We cannot afford to let our spirits chafe over any real or supposed wrong done to ourselves. Self is the enemy we most need to fear. No form of vice has a more baleful effect upon the character than has human passion not under the control of the Holy Spirit. No other victory we can gain will be so precious as the victory gained over self."

"We need to beware of self-pity. Never indulge the feeling that you are not esteemed as you should be, that your efforts are not appreciated, that your work is too difficult. Let the memory of what Christ has endured for us silence every murmuring thought. We are treated better than was our Lord. 'Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.' Jeremiah 45:5. The Lord has no place in His work for those who have a greater desire to win the crown than to bear the cross. He wants men [and women] who are more intent upon doing their duty than upon receiving their reward—men [and women] who are more solicitous for principle than for promotion."³

Offended? How shall we respond to the stand of our church on ordination of women? Shall we be offended by the vote?

God has a better option. "Great peace have they that love thy law: and nothing shall offend them."⁴ If we feel offended by the General Conference decision, let us not react on the basis of our hurt feelings but rather seek the kind of love for God and His law that can protect us from those hurt feelings.

Necessary? Shall we insist that ordination is necessary to our effectiveness as women in ministry?

"Dear young friends, remember that it is not necessary to be an ordained minister in order to serve the Lord. There are many ways of working for Christ. Human hands may never have been laid on you in ordination, but God can give you fitness for his service. He can work through you to the saving of souls. If, having learned in the school of Christ, you are meek and lowly in heart, he will give you words to speak for him. Ask, and receive the Holy Spirit. But remember that the Spirit is given only to those who are consecrated,

who deny self, lifting the cross and following their Lord."⁵

Jesus did not contend for His rights. Often His work was made unnecessarily severe because He was willing and uncomplaining. Yet He did not fail nor become discouraged. He lived above these difficulties, as if in the light of God's countenance. He did not retaliate when roughly used, but bore insult patiently."⁶

Leave? In their disappointment some are asking, Shall we leave the church?

This temptation affects especially those who have worked long and hard for the cause of gender inclusive ordination. I believe that God in love "as given us the history of Israel with specific insights into this very question. Remember the General Conference session on the bank of the Jordan? Speeches were given for and against an issue. Heated debate followed. Finally a vote was taken, whose results clearly went against God's leading. Caleb and Joshua were faced with a decision. Could they stay with such an organization, or should they leave the church? I'm sure they were confronted with the option. Yet they chose to stay. They chose to suffer affliction with the people of God——forty more years of wandering in the wilderness. They chose to stay and serve——unrecognized, unhonored by the organization. God, however, saw their faith and honored them in due time.

Even if God had explicitly commanded that women be ordained as He did that the Israelites enter Canaan——even if the vote not to allow the ordination of women to the ministry were as much a denial of God's leading as was the Israelites' refusal to enter Canaan, we can afford to follow the example of Caleb and Joshua. We can afford to suffer affliction with the people of God. We can afford to take our stand in unity with God's chosen people through thick or thin. What do we risk in so doing——the possibility of never being ordained? Caleb and Joshua risked spending the rest of their lives with people who had tried to stone them.

But it was well worth the risk. God abundantly rewarded their sacrifice, and He will do the same for us. "It is those who perform faithfully their appointed work day by day, who in God's own time will hear His call, 'Come up higher.'"⁷

Our response. "There is not an impulse of our nature, not a faculty of the mind or an inclination of the heart, but needs to be, moment by moment, under the control of the Spirit of God. There is not a blessing which God bestows upon man, nor a trial which he permits to befall him, but Satan both can and will seize upon it to tempt, to harass and destroy the soul, if we give him the least advantage. Therefore however great one's spiritual light, however much he may enjoy of the divine favor and blessing, he should ever walk humbly before the Lord, pleading in faith that God will direct every thought and control every impulse."⁸

The recent vote on ordination is no exception. Whether it is a trial or a blessing, Satan can and will seize upon it to tempt and harass our people and to try to destroy unity with Christ and with one another. Around the world, we are being faced with his subtle temptations. The faith of someone in your home church may be hanging in the balances over this topic. May you and I have gained the victory over self in the

audience chamber with God when we next meet that precious soul. May our souls be in tune with the meek and lowly Jesus, the Prince of Peace, so that He can use us to bring peace to that troubled person. May we not be distracted or paralyzed while Satan is active to ensnare, deceive, and destroy (see Testimonies for the Church, 2:439). Instead, may we, like Esther, go to our King before it is too late and plead for the salvation of those who are about to be destroyed by the enemy of souls.

Right to Know. "The world has a right to know what to expect of us,"⁹ and our world church deserves a response from us, its women in ministry. Let us prepare our response carefully, remembering that "Only the work accomplished with much prayer, and sanctified by the merit of Christ, will in the end prove to have been efficient for good."¹⁰

May our church, and the world looking on, see that we, Seventh-day Adventist women in ministry, live above the miasma of self-pity and reactionary lashings-out, that we dwell in the higher plane of grateful, unselfish service for God and for the salvation of lost souls. May they see that, instead of leaving the church, insisting on ordination, or feeling unappreciated, as could be expected from women who do not know Jesus, we bear the credentials of true women of the Spirit——love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (Gal 5:22-23).

Our Commitment. I appeal to you, my sisters in Christ, to join me in the following commitment:

We will begin with personal heart preparation in the audience chamber with God. We will seek Him until we have gained the precious victory over self. We will stay there until the memory of what Christ has endured for us banishes every murmuring thought. We will let God's sweet Spirit fill every corner of our hearts until appreciation for our Savior takes the place of self-pity, until forgiveness takes the place of anger and resentment, until retaliation gives way to patience, until suspicion gives way to contentment and peace, and we are prepared to give Him all the glory for what He does through us.

We will not be conformed to the attitude that we "deserve" recognition, but transformed by a sense of the great privilege of giving glory to God. We will refuse to seek great things for ourselves, but lead the way in affirming our existing leaders, appreciating our male counterparts, seeking to lighten their burdens, lifting them up in our prayers, and in honor preferring them. We will refuse to join the murmurings of those who are allowing their spirits to chafe over real or supposed wrongs, and we will encourage them instead to seek and find the Spirit of Jesus who is meek and lowly in heart, so that together we can find rest to our souls.

We will throw ourselves as never before into the mission of taking the message of a crucified, risen, and sooncoming Saviour to those who have never experienced the peace of surrender to our gentle Jesus and the hope of spending eternity with Him. We will work for the salvation of unreached souls, seeking God for a fitness for His service, learning daily in the school of Christ, trusting Him to call us up higher when He sees we are qualified, or better yet, to save the recognition for heaven's hall of

faith with those of whom the world was not worthy, women who were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might receive a better resurrection (see Hebrews 11).

As we choose to respond in this way, we will find our own souls delivered from bitterness, our spirits in tune with our Savior, and our efforts blessed by His Spirit. Our Lord will be glorified, our church strengthened, and its members able to recognize the truth of what God inspired Ellen White to write more than ninety years ago: "The Lord has work for women as well as for men. They may take their places in His work at this crisis, and He will work through them. If they are imbued with a sense of their duty, and labor under the influence of the Holy Spirit, they will have just the self-possession required for this time. The Saviour will reflect upon these sacrificing women the light of His countenance, and will give them a power that exceeds that of men.... Their labor is needed."¹¹

NOTES

1. Gospel Workers, p. 259, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 203.

2. The Ministry of Healing, p. 485.

3. Ibid., p. 476.

4. Psalm 119:165.

5. The Youth's Instructor, Feb. 6, 1902.

6. The Desire of Ages, p. 89.

7. The Ministry of Healing, p. 477.

8. Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 421.

9. Evangelism, p. 179.

10. The Desire of Ages, p. 362.

11. Evangelism, pp. 464-465.

"Thy gentleness hath made me great." Psalm 18:35