Keep on Believing!

God has a plan and a purpose for Women’s Ministries.

Posted January 9, 2012

In this next year we will feature women in ministry and ministry programs that are specifically for women. One of the hallmarks of The Salvation Army is its recognition of women as equal partners of men in the salvation war and co-labourers in the building of God’s Kingdom. The Salvation Army also acknowledges that equal does not mean same. The gifts, skills and talents that people use are always tempered with their unique blend of their nature and how those gifts, skills and talents have been nurtured. Science has proven that all humans are born with subtle and not so subtle differences in the blend of their temperament. This will colour the way a person will use their gifts, skills and talents. For instance true extraverts (outgoing and sociable people) will use their gift for teaching far differently from the way true introverts (reserved and shy people) would use their gift for teaching. In The Salvation Army equal opportunity is given for extroverts and introverts to use their gift of teaching. Science has proven that males and females are “wired” differently in how we use our brains. We do not approach life and life challenges in the same way, but in The Salvation Army both the female and the male approaches to life and life challenges are valued and we are given equal opportunity to participate. That is something to celebrate.

Questions for discussion

How has science proven that women’s brains work different from men’s brains?
How has science proven that all people have a different mix of temperaments that determines how they act and react? Is it nature or nurture?

While there are many things people, males and females generally have in common, there are some gender specific things that must be addressed. In the early days of The Salvation Army our major focus was to enlist and equip women and men to participate in the salvation war regardless of their gender, social status, or economical state. Once saved the scouring maid, the lady of the manor, the lawyer and the chimney sweep were given equal opportunity to preach the Gospel. The major requirement was the evidence of true salvation in word and deed. Women enjoyed a freedom in ministry they had not seen for centuries. The founders and early leaders of our movement encouraged and fed the flame of women in ministry. They also recognized that it is the tendency of fire to burn out unless it is constantly fed. In addition there were many things which threatened to blow out the flame of women in ministry, and those needed to be addressed. The challenge: how do you keep the flame of women in ministry fed and prevent it from getting blown out? The answer was to begin a specific focus on women, how to reach them, how to teach them, how to utilize them and how to keep them fired up for the sake of Christ. Using military terms like league and legion to mean section or groups was a natural. So in 1906 Florence Booth introduced the Home League.

Questions for discussion

What cultural barriers did women of the 1800s overcome to be able to minister the Gospel?
What were some of the ways women ministered the Gospel through the movement known as The Salvation Army in the 1800s?

Why call it Home League? By the early 1900s The Salvation Army movement recognized that while it was working hard to get people saved keeping them saved was also a challenge. It was becoming apparent that if the home environment was not a redeemed environment it was hardly possible for saved people to live saved lives. The home life became a big focus and it seemed natural that women would play a big part in the redemption of the home as well as the redemption of the community. It was never intended that women would be relegated back to the home and kept from the rest of the Army’s ministry. If you look at those early Home Leagues you will see uniformed and militant soldiers studying the Bible and taking those lessons to the home and to the street. (We are witnesses for Jesus in the haunts of sin and shame, in the lands beyond the sea, and home and in the mart according to song 832 of our song book.) It was also recognized that many of the early converts of the Army were not skilled in home making and needed to learn how to sew, clean, cook healthy meals, budget and parent. Teaching these skills also met needs of the women yet to be reached by the salvation message and opened doors for them to be reached. So calling the women specific ministry the Home League meant sense in the early 1900s. (Home – habitat, dwelling, abiding place, and League – confederation, union, group) Think of other groups which began around the time period of the late 1800 and early 1900s, League of Women Voters, League of Nations, Junior League.

Questions for discussion

Was it a good thing to organize the Home League?
What were the positive outcomes?
What were the negative results?

Over the years the gender specific focus of the movement and ministry changed, evolved and drifted. In the 1970s it became apparent that we needed to fan the flame and clean out the fire place. Women in ministry and specific ministry for women were far more than what had become a “women’s program” rather than a movement and ministry. The Home League had developed into a program with a lot of resources and branches into ministry. It had not transcended generational appeal. Part of this has to do with how women relate to each other as well as internal and external culture. Studies of how women relate in groups tell us that we will tend to become comfortable with the size of a group, its political and social dynamics, and will be reluctant to allow new women to join. Women’s groups work better in even numbers and are like linked loops rather than loops that are continually enlarged. (Home League Circle groups were an attempt to grow the influence of the main group beyond the first circle.) Women’s groups will become comfortable with an internal focus unless there is a dynamic to give it an outward focus. (Community projects, world mission projects and Home League Bazaars were the attempt to keep a balanced focus.) Outside cultural influences included the post world war political agenda to get women to give up their jobs and return to the home so the men returning from the battle field had jobs. Cultural propaganda of the thirties and the fifties was to paint the ideal place of the woman as a home maker. The Home League was happy to help these new homemakers. We drifted even further from the “win the world and the home for Jesus” idea to a “win the home for Jesus” type of focus. Internal culture was trying to preserve traditions, drifts, the program, the numbers and to complicate matters the drift that happened with the structuring of our organization so that the married woman officer had as her major focus a women’s program rather than a women specific movement or ministry.

Questions for discussion

What are the improvements of the way the married woman officer is viewed since the 1970s?
What are the improvements of the way the single woman officer is viewed since the 1970s?
Are there more or less women soldiers involved in our corps as local officers since the 1970s?
How do group dynamics affect the way women interact?
How do group dynamics affect the way we organize our women’s groups and outreach efforts?

Now in 2011 we are still on the journey our reformation. Do we still need a women specific focus to fan and feed the flame? I would say that science, culture, experience, and many other factors still say that yes, we need to address gender specific challenges of all our people. We also need to address age specific challenges. That is why we need to continue to flame the fires of ministry for children, youth, young adults, adults, middle aged, and aged adults. The knee jerk reaction to the natural drift that took place with the Home League was to throw it all out rather than keep the fire going and clean the fire place, add new fuel and fan the flame. The program was a good program, but it was not a good movement. The program had a fantastic ministry, but it was not THE ministry. The movement and ministry are about how women can be involved in the redemptive work of Christ in the most effective ways and effective places possible. In the home, the market, the haunts of sin and shame…where ever God places us. Women have equality in opportunity to work for God, but we are not the same as men. We have different challenges and will approach ministry in different ways. Most men do not have to fight for or remind the world they have equal opportunity, but women constantly face this battle and need affirmation and support. In general women tend to gravitate to groups. Men will work and play as teams, but joining groups are more of a challenge for them. Spiritual warfare language generally appeals more to men and is more likely to get them involved in church than the unity and peace approach that generally attracts women. What should the women in ministry movement of The Salvation Army look like ten years from today? You are the women who will help determine that outcome.

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