Why Women Are Crucial on Your Church-Planting Teams
In my 20 years of missions experience, I have read many books and engaged in my fair share of fiery discussions on the role of women in the home, church, and missions. This has been a hot topic for decades with a wide spectrum of beliefs even among Bible-believing Christians. But for me, it’s more than a controversial debate; how I and my leaders view the role of women has greatly influenced my Gospel work among the unreached. My ministry effectiveness has been greater due to leaders who value and support the unique contribution that women make in missions.
While we can allow for a spectrum of beliefs on women’s roles, we must be clear on one thing: Women are necessary in church-planting work! All church planters and missionaries should agree that women are a crucial part of not only our churches, but our church-planting and mission work, and should actively mobilize and encourage women in the missionary task. Women are crucial on church-planting teams for at least three reasons: it’s biblical; lostness demands it; and your church can’t be healthy without it.
It's Biblical
First, women are a crucial part of church-planting teams because it’s biblical. Both the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul teamed with women. Read the book of Acts and the epistles and write down every instance of a woman being used by God to further His Kingdom, and you will be amazed at the many powerful, diverse ways God used women! Remember how God powerfully kicked off the beginning of the Church on Pentecost by filling the 120 men and women with the Holy Spirit, using all of them to testify of the great things God had done, as a fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy that men and women both would be filled with the Spirit and used powerfully by God (Acts 2:4, 17). Priscilla served with her husband Aquila doing the same types of mission work as Paul … traveling to new places, sharing the Gospel, planting house churches, and moving on … even risking her life at times (Acts 18:1-19; 1 Cor. 16:19; Rom. 16:3-5). Lydia was the first in her family to be saved, after which her entire family came to faith! Lydia was the very first European believer recorded in the Bible, and she may have hosted the church of Philippi in her home (Acts 16:14-15, 40). Lois taught her son Timothy the Scriptures at a young age (2 Tim. 1:5, 3:15), and Timothy joined the Apostle Paul and became a powerful preacher. Junia was well-known among the apostles, and she served time in prison with Paul (Rom. 16:7). Many unnamed women were scattered due to persecution; some were dragged off to prison for their faith; others went about preaching the Word everywhere they went (Acts 8:1-4; 9:1-2). Everywhere the Kingdom was advancing in the New Testament, women were key players in the work.
Lostness Demands It.
Second, women are a crucial part of your church-planting plans because lostness demands it. There are millions of lost people in the world, half of whom are women. Missionary men have little to no access to these women. Who is going to reach the Muslim women who rarely leave their homes? Who is going to reach the millions of Hindu women who need to see and hear God’s love? It would be foolish to overly focus on equipping only men as missionaries and disciple-makers and overlook the importance of equipping women for this work as well. In fact, for all of my missionary career, our organization has had significantly more women serving as missionaries on the field than men, and these ladies are able to minister to people in unique ways that men cannot. If we are serious about reaching the millions of lost people around the world who need to hear the Gospel and be discipled, we must focus on empowering every believer, male and female, to be a part of this work.
Your Church Health Depends On It.
Third, women are a crucial part of your church-planting plans because your church can’t be healthy without empowering your women to be and do all that God desires. Every believer is a priest (1 Peter 2:9) with equal access to God and equal potential to be used by God. A church is as healthy as the extent to which every believer is equipped to be and do all God desires for them, even if the church has theologically trained elders preaching doctrinally rich sermons every week. One of the church elders’ main responsibilities is to equip the saints – men and women – for the work of ministry (Eph. 4:12). The men and women in our churches need the voices of godly women in their lives. Paul wanted Titus to encourage older women to teach younger women, acknowledging the special way women can speak into one another’s lives (Titus 2:3-4). Priscilla and Aquila came alongside the eloquent preacher Apollos to correct his preaching, and Apollos benefitted from Priscilla and Aquila’s knowledge of the Scriptures. God loves to use ordinary, Spirit-filled believers to expand His Kingdom. It is His desire for every believer in every church.
Let’s Not Just Give Women Permission; Let’s Empower Them for Ministry.
What could happen if our articles, books, and discussions on women in the church were focused on empowering, encouraging, and sending out women to do great things for God? Why do we instead focus on the things they shouldn’t do, or at best give them permission to do ministry with a good measure of caution? I have worked alongside and trained hundreds of women over the years in our church-planting work, and most women aren’t striving for a leadership position; they simply want to sacrificially, boldly serve their Savior, and they need others to encourage them, appoint them, and speak high expectations over them! Let’s challenge women to know and teach God’s Word, boldly share the Gospel, and make new disciples. Let’s recruit women to serve in hard places on the mission field and provide a team for them in those places. As we serve together, side by side as brothers and sisters on our church-planting teams, let’s treat one another primarily as family, caring for one another affectionately, following the example of our Lord and the Apostle Paul. Friends, see the Spirit-filled women in your church and send them out for church-planting work alongside the men because it is biblical, lostness demands it, and your church can’t be healthy without it. Let’s not just give women permission; let’s empower them for the Great Commission.