In the Name of the Gospel by Estrelda Alexander
Holiness and Pentecostal women who transformed the world for Christ
Aimee Semple McPherson
8 M U T U A L I T Y | Autumn 2009
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Te Holiness and Pentecostal movements that erupted aer the Civil In 1918, while still traveling and evangelizing, Etter War gave women new opportunities to preach the gospel with a ounded the only church she would pastor, the Woodworthreedom that was unprecedented in American religious history. wo Etter abernacle in Indianapolis. Te biblical eminist regularly experiences well-known to theHoliness and Pentecostal movements — deended women’s right to preach and encouraged them to go sanctication and Holy Spirit baptism — were understood to empower into the ministry. She called on women to, “let their lights shine, women, as well as men, without regard to ethnicity or class; to gi to bring out their talents that have been hidden away rusting, and them as the Spirit willed; and to release them to be ully engaged in the use them or the glory o God.” work o the Lord. Tese movements generally provided gied women Another woman who emerged during this period was Carrie Judd more reedom to minister than their sisters in other denominations, Montgomery, whose more than sixty years o ministry — rom 1880 giving them places as equal partners in preaching the gospel on the to 1946 — bridged both the Holiness and the Pentecostal movements. camp meeting and revival circuits, and as ounders o ourishing Aer being miraculously healed rom a debilitating spinal illness, congregations and denominations o every ilk and size. her testimony caught the Lay preacher Amanda Berry Smith addressed white camp attention o a community Kathryn Kuhlman meeting congregations as oen as those within her own black in Bufalo, New York, community. In the late 1800s, Smith traveled to England where she where she then developed beriended Hannah Whitehall Smith and Mary Broadman, which a ministry o writing led to invitations to preach throughout the United Kingdom as the and speaking on divine rst black woman international evangelist. Following this, she spent healing. Around 1880, at two years in India, working age twenty-two, she wrote Te Prayer of Faith, which with churches and holding meetings in large cities and was translated into our small villages. She then spent languages. A year later, almost eight years (1881– she began publishing riumphs of Faith: A 1889) helping with churches, Monthly Journal for the establishing temperance Promotion of Healing societies, and working to and Holiness, which she improve the status o women and education or children continued to publish or in Liberia and Sierra Leone. sixty-six years, until her Smith’s ministry in those death. Aer moving to countries was so prolic that, Caliornia and marrying at its end, amed Methodist well-to-do businessman missionary William aylor George Montgomery, who supported her ministry nancially, insisted that she “had done she established the House o Peace to provide respite or more or the cause o missions missionaries rom more than one hundred mission boards. and temperance in Arica Within the house, she served as pastor or the weekly worship Amanda Berry Smith than the combined eforts o services o Beulah Chapel. She also ounded Shalom raining all missionaries beore her.” School or Missionaries, a children’s home or orphans, and an Faith healer Maria Woodworth Etter began preaching in annual camp meeting at Cazadera, Caliornia. 1880 and was among the most amous Holiness camp meeting Montgomery associated with many prominent Holiness leaders, revivalists o her time. When she was nearly seventy years old, she including hymnist William Broadman; A. B. Simpson o the Christian held her largest revivals, drawing over twenty-ve thousand people on and Missionary Alliance (o which she was an active member); and multiple occasions. Her worship services were noted or supernatural William and Catherine Booth, ounders o the Salvation Army. Once maniestations like healings, exorcisms, miracles, glossolalia (speaking she received the baptism o the Holy Spirit, she never broke ellowship in tongues), trances, visions, and people being “slain in the Spirit.” with her colleagues, but continued her steady preaching schedule — Etter was also a prolic church planter who, throughout her ministry, now adding the Pentecostal theology to her message. In 1909, she ounded numerous new congregations by preaching a series o meetings and her husband embarked on a missionary trip around the world, to a community, organizing the converts, and placing someone in conducting revival meetings in Japan, China, India, and England. charge. By the end o a single one and one-hal-year period, she had Montgomery was also a charter member o the General Council o preached nine revivals and organized two congregations — one with the Assemblies o God. more than seventy members.
Famous prachr Maria Woodworth ettr calld on womn to, “lt thir lights shin, to bring out thir talnts that hav bn hiddn away rusting, and us thm for th glory of God.”
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M U T U A L I T Y | “Efective Change Agents”
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During the 1920s, Canadian-born Aimee Semple McPherson which rivaled what was unolding at Azusa Street. Ramabai, a poet was widely recognized as one o the most gied evangelists in the and scholar as well as religious leader, championed reorms or women United States. McPherson’s dramatic air and ability to attract and children among India’s poor and used her position as a high caste people rom all walks o lie assured that she made the ront page woman to leverage reorm or women within her society. Te impact o the nation’s most prominent newspapers at least three times o her work on behal o women was so great that in 1989, the Indian a week on average. Her legacy includes building the 5,300 seat government issued a commemorative postage stamp in her honor. Angelus emple, one o the frst megachurches in Each o these women le an indelible imprint on the shape the nation; ounding the International Church o o evangelical Christianity and a legacy that cannot be overlooked Florence Crawford the Foursquare Gospel (which today, with more by those with a serious interest in the history o the Holiness or than one million members, is perhaps the largest Pentecostal movements. Unortunately, as these movements— which and most inuential Protestant denomination were once denigrated as a haven or the poor and disinherited— established by a woman); becoming the frst have attempted to gain more respect and move into the mainstream, woman to broadcast a sermon on the radio and they have compromised or sacrifced their openness to the ministry receive a license rom the Federal Communications and leadership o women. Yet the undeniable impact o women’s Commission to operate a radio station; and labor in the name o the gospel is attested to, in part, by the act establishing LIFE Bible College, one o the earliest that many o the men who would later go on to be the leaders o Pentecostal institutions o higher education. Holiness and Pentecostal congregations and denominations came Faith healer Kathryn Kuhlman began to aith through these women’s ministries, or through the ministries her ministry by working in the tent revivals o o many others like them. In some cases, these very men would later her sister and brother-in-law beore beginning deny other women a viable place in ministry. itinerant preaching throughout Idaho. Once she Tough limitations on women in institutional leadership was given the opportunity to preach, her ministry continue, Holiness and Pentecostal women continue to carry out quickly exploded on the scene o American evangelistic ministries using the venues o revival and camp meetings popular religion. Kuhlman ounded the Denver as well as women’s conerences and conventions. In these arenas they Revival abernacle in 1935. Her radio broadcast, are able both to speak the gospel o empowerment into the lives o “Smiling Trough,” was carried on the CBS their Christian sisters and provide a pattern or other women to network and was heard on more than fy stations engage in viable ministry all while challenging stereotypes regarding across the country in the 1940s and 1950s. In the a women’s place in the church. May we learn rom and model their 1960s and 1970s, her weekly television program, boldness, persistence, and strong aith. “I Believe in Miracles,” aired nationally, reaching Estrelda Alexander, an ordained minister in the Church of millions — decades beore the term televangelist God, is professor of theology at Regent University in Virginia became commonplace. Tough she had come to Beach, Virginia. She also served as associate dean at Wesley aith in the United Methodist Church, Kuhlman’s Theological Seminary and adjunct professor of theology at ministry was non-denominational and attracted Trinity College, both in Washington D.C. Pandita Ramabai people rom a variety o Christian traditions. During the thirty years o her prominence, she was as controversial as she was popular, incurring criticism rom both the medical and church communities. Yet she continued flling auditoriums throughout the country with devoted ollowers who repeatedly confrmed the authenticity o the healings they experienced in her services. Other lesser-known but still extraordinary women arose rom every sector o society to aggressively assert their God-given call to preach the gospel and challenge existing understandings o women’s place in the church. Florence Craword worked closely with Pentecostal leader William Seymour at the amous Azusa Street Revival and was appointed by him to oversee and direct the many new Pentecostal mission churches that were orming along the West Coast. Later, she le Los Angeles to orm the Apostolic Faith Mission, a denomination which today has more oreign than domestic congregations. Ida Robinson ounded the Mt. Sinai Holy Church specifcally as a place or women to be ree to serve at all levels o institutional leadership. For the frst seventy-fve years o its existence, the denomination was led by women presiding as bishops. In the early twentieth century, Pandita Ramabai led an explosive revival in Mukti Mission in Puni, India,
10 M U T U A L I T Y | Autumn 2009
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