Women Preachers: Missionary Work

We, the women of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that God has called us into holiness and sobriety, and charity, to rescue the fallen and administer any and all help, as we have opportunity, whether spiritual or material to the glory of God and to the honor and majesty of His great Name, now take our place in the ranks of the workers of our Lord to do our part in harvesting souls for Jesus Christ, as our Lord is coming soon to gather the precious fruits of the early and latter rain.

So begins the Preamble to the "Constitution of the Department of Women's Missionary Work of [the] Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ," organized in September of 1923. In the organization's Discipline Book, just above the preamble, are three scriptural references: Romans 16:1 (or 16:1-2, a reference to Phoebe, a female collaborator of Paul); Philippians 4:2 (sic, should be 4:3, where Paul enjoins the saints to help the women that worked with him, Clement, and others); and Titus 2:3-6 (sic, should be 2:3-5, which describes the teaching duties of older women; vs. 6 concerns young men). Taken together, these scriptures give a fairly modest, but conveniently flexible, framework for the missionary work of called women. While male ministers were to give themselves primarily to pastoral duties and evangelism, women were to augment the men's preaching ministry by whatever means they could (short of preaching), and were also to teach and set an example for younger women, especially as wives and mothers.

Missionary work, of course, did not have its beginning in the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is likely that Bishop Lawson was influenced by Bishop C.H. Mason, the influential founder of the Church of God in Christ. Though they differed in doctrine (Mason was, at least nominally, a trinitarian), the two were friends. Mason was very ecumenical in his fellowship, and as the founder of the first incorporated Pentecostal church, he had given credentials to ministers throughout the Pentecostal movement. Lawson, fairly broadminded and ecumenical, had great respect for Mason's administration of the church. They both agreed that the scriptures gave women a place in ministry, but that teaching, not preaching, was the appropriate focus of women's speaking abilities.

Mason further established a women's department under Mother Lizzie Woods Roberson (or 'Robinson'), based on Titus 2:3-5 (women, not men, are best suited to teach other women). Lawson's missionaries were not self-governed, but were under the authority of their local pastor or state overseer, who was more or less answerable to Lawson himself, during his administration. In both the Church of God in Christ and the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, women were organized in high-functioning missionary bands whose operations are likely traceable to the women's missionary societies of the Baptist church, to whom both men had ties.

Again and again in research, one encounters the confession that women who became missionaries in the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ had expressed some sort of calling to mission work. The most common work that one finds in reading biographies in COOLJC's The Contender for the Faith, in the International Missionary Department's Beacon, or in special publications (e.g., the IMD's Outstanding Women series), is work that characterizes what women do in general. Women sewed baptismal garments; cooked for the community; conducted prayer services; assisted with communion and church maintenance; taught life skills to girls and young women; counseled younger congregants and new converts; and helped the church meet its financial obligations. Examples include the late Mother Marie Robbins Dunlap, who zealously passed her baking skills on to the young women in her circle; Mother Clarissa Brown, who with her local missionaries supplied and maintained window treatments and altar cloths for their church; and of course, the late Mother Carrie Lawson, the consummate mother, homemaker, spiritual advisor, hostess, prayer warrior, cook, and first lady, who raised and trained the late Mother Grace Spellman beside her own four sons.

Here and there, however, there would appear women of unusual spiritual depth and gifting. Mother Lawson we have already discussed; yet there were many like her, women that chose to complement rather than compete, to supplement rather than supplant, and to transform Pauline limitations on female ministers into scriptural grounding for an expressly feminine brand of apostolic mission work. Let's examine the lives of a few such women.

Women Preachers: Mother Lawson

Although Bishop Lawson as not in favor of women preachers, he was not wholly unsympathetic to the fact that women's efforts were essential to the success of the ministry. Unknown to many, for instance, is the fact that his closest and most trusted advisor was a one-time woman preacher: Evangelist Carrie Fields, later to become Mother Carrie Lawson. Lawson met his soon-to-be wife during his evangelistic work in the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. She was at the time an evangelist, a female minister, from Leavenworth, Kansas. As Elder Lawson's views on church polity began to develop, to the exclusion of female pastoral duties, Mrs. Lawson apparently adjusted her ministry, phasing out her preaching ministry and concentrating on marriage and home life. Bishop Lawson suggested this when he responds to criticism from Bishop Smallwood Williams in the sermon "Ten Mistake Refuted":

As to my marrying a woman preacher, it is a poor argument for men to criticize a man's family relationship. I do not believe in women preachers or pastors. I never did, and I never will. However, I do not see where there is anything against me for marrying a woman who called herself a preacher, whom I understood would devote herself after marriage to home and husband rather than to the ministry. If such is not the case now, that was my conviction and mistake, and what I looked forward to when I married. (For the Defense, p. 274, par. 3)

Mother Lawson died 10 years before this sermon was delievered, but all written and oral accounts of her behavior support what her husband said. When they began to have children, Mother Lawson was known to sit in the back of the church during the services. Though an early participant in the Pentecostal movement, she was more active as a homemaker and hostess to Bishop Lawson's guests than as a church worker. Refuge Temple's annual picnic at the Lawson estate in Peekskills, N.Y., featured meals prepared with vegetables grown in Mother Lawson's garden.

There was one aspect of ministry in which Mother Lawson remained active: prayer. To the post-modern mind, this may seem of little importance. However, the whole of the Pentecostal movement, from Azusa Street to the birthing of Refuge Temple, began by prayer. Prayer was not considered something that just anyone did; indeed, speaking to God on behalf of others was a revered occupation, part of the mystique of becoming a cleric. Whatever Bishop Lawson may have thought of women preachers, he had tremendous respect for women who prayed. He had been saved and healed of tuberculosis through the prayers of an old woman, and though he expected the former evangelist to give up her preaching ministry, he encouraged her prayers.

Known in her time as "the praying mother of the air," Mother Lawson was the featured prayer during Refuge Temple's Sunday night live radio broadcasts. She would stand at the foot of the pulpit when the broadcast opened and wait to be escorted to the microphone by her husband or another minister. While Mother Lawson prayed, it is said that business in certain areas of Harlem would come to a halt. Drink orders dipped, and pool games paused: Mother was praying. She prayed for soldiers at war, for those in hospitals, for all that concerned WWII America. After prayer, she would step down from the pulpit and return to her seat.

Mother Lawson was an anomaly. She was obviously deeply spiritual, and can be viewed as an antecedent of the Department of Women's Missionary Work. However, she shunned the attention that came to so many other "mothers" throughout the Pentecostal movement. Sitting in the back of the church, she would clench her head with both hands, as though in pain. When once asked if she was sick, she answered, "I'm all right; I'm just praying that the message gets through." It is quite inconceivable that Bishop Lawson could have been successfully married to a woman who was not of such a high spiritual caliber.

All told, Bishop Lawson's relationship with his wife was unique. His dealing with other female ministers both within and outside of his organization is more revealing of his outlook on the woman's place in ministry, which is what we will examine next.