Women Preachers: The Conservative Lawsonite Position

The woman's place in the church is one of the most contentious subjects in Christendom. Those denominations that ordain women are at odds, overtly or covertly, with those that do not. It is very fortunate for the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ to have in For the Defense of the Gospel a sourcebook from which its ministers, members, and other interested parties may directly discern the organization's original viewpoint on female clergy.

All of our writings up to this point should sufficiently show that it was not Bishop Lawson's intention to be oppressive. In fact, Lawson was quite progressive, licensing women to carry out their life's spiritual work in a time when most Protestant churches were still quite at a loss when it came to giving direction to women who believed they had a spiritual vocation. Lawson also understood that to transform Pentecostalism from a fringe sect to an effective soul-winning movement, there had to be social stability, strong work and family ethic, cooperation, and even some assimilation into mainstream Protestant culture.

More than anything, though, Lawson strove to be true to scripture. He conscientiously rebelled against practices in the church that he felt were too constrictive, and also decried worldly practices that he felt were too loose. Points taken from For the Defense reveal Lawson to be a both man of uncompromising scriptural conviction and a scholar of surprising scriptural indulgence.

In the sermon "A Woman Shall Compass a Man" (Defense, pp. 24-26, 35), Lawson is only six years departed from the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (1925), and his sermon is hard-hitting. (Some of this sermon has been touched on in a previous article.) In answer to claims that "men were failing God in these last days by not living clean," Lawson writes that "[e]xperience does not bear out the assumption," which he calls "absurd."

The the contrary, experience bears out that women fall in sin more than men; at least, as such, for whenever a man falls in sin, he usually falls with a woman. Wherein then are the women any cleaner than the men? Many times one man defiles four or five women, on the basis of percentage therefore, women fall four to one. In reference to all other ways of falling in sin within each sex ... the assertion of Isaiah, "All flesh is grass." (Defense, p. 25, par 4)

In other words, Lawson concludes that men and women are at least equally prone to sin, but "there is no doubt about" the fact that "women are the weaker vessels" (1 Peter 3:5-7). Because "God and His word cannot fail," Lawson is convinced that God "hath and will always have men ... whom He can use" (pp. 25-26).

Though women are not permitted to preach in the church, "otherwise they may teach, yea, they should teach both by example and good behavior, and in their services by doctrinal instrction among themselves" (p. 27), and he quotes from Proverbs 31, the well-known passage of instruction from the mother of King Lemuel. Nevertheless,

[f]or a woman to assume the role of leadership or equality with men, putting themselves as pastors and administering the rights and duties of the church and ministry, such as giving communion, baptising, [sic] burying the dead, marrying etc., is an error not so small. She ... has [not] any vestige of authority in the scripture. ... [S]he is forbidden by the apostolic rule and order ... to usurp authority in preaching. (Defense, p. 26, par 3)

Finally, the sermon ends with Lawson's appeal to the scripture's exclusion of women as biblical authors, apostles, bishops, and deacons, and admonishes women to forego "[t]he world's ways, and pride, and plaudits" and to "subject yourselves, not to the word of men particularly, but to 'the command of the Lord.' [Ref. 1 Cor. 14:37.] It is both your happiness and your honor to obey what is written" (p. 35).

If the words above seem a bit strident, then consider that the intensity of Lawson's convictions were not diminished some 26 years later when he published the ("article" [p. 196], or) sermon "Sinners in Zion" (1951), in order to show some of the errors believed and practiced by God's people." First and foremost (and, well, most) mentioned among these was

the encouraging and toleration of women as preachers and pastors, which is contrary to the laws of the New Testament church ... To circumnavigate the above prohibition, some use the reference, "there is neither male nor female in Christ" but [the Bible] states in II Cor. 6:18: " . . . And I will receive you and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." The statement in Gal. 3:28 ... means that we are one body in Christ. This doesn't mean that there is only one sex. (Defense, p. 196)

He continues,

Some try to confuse prophecy as being the same as preaching. Prophecy [however] is the free expression of the Spirit in foretelling things to come, and exhorting by testimony under inspiration, (I Cor. 14:2-3; Titus 2:1-6) But, preaching involves ordination, authority to baptize, marry, give communion, and execute Holy orders. This is limited to men only. (Defense, pp. 196-97)

Apparently, what Bishop Lawson meant by "women as preachers" is bound up in an understanding of what authority many of these women were assuming. Later in the sermon, Lawson says women preachers "should be rebuked and exposed as one of the sins of God's people in the church, for sin ... is the transgression of the law." Howbeit, even he allowed that women have some speaking capacity that could be utilized scripturally. He does endorse the idea of women prophesying, or "exhorting by testimony under inspiration."

Also, Lawson differentiated between spiritual matters and church administration. When asked if women should "keep silent in the church," Lawson responds that, while "[the] church is the mystical Body of Christ," in the church as a "sect" or "an organization, a woman may talk as much as she likes" (Defense, p. 424).

There are several other of Lawson's sermons and writings that show that he understood the ministry not as fundamentally having a gift or a position, but in being called to a place of spiritual authority that made it necessary for one to develop his God-given ministerial gifts. We lack the time and space needed to exhaust our available sources, but we can summarize our findings as follows: Bishop Lawson believed in women and their ministries, but fervently did not believe in there being any biblical support for women 'preaching' (that is, being the authoritative conveyors of biblical doctrine) or for women performing any sacerdotal functions, including baptism, marriage, communion, ordination (giving or receiving it), anointing with oil, and funerary rites.

Times and expectations have changed, however. A call to the ordained ministry is generally understood as a calling to preach, with all other duties being secondary. Additionaly, the traditional identification of the pastoral role as a patriarchal one has been on the decline for decades in mainstream U.S. churches, and women are finding a warmer welcome into pastoral and ministerial roles formerly filled almost exclusively by men. Though the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ remains truly Lawsonite in its licensing and ordination practices, some of her daughter churches seem to have found scriptural and historical precedent for the ordination of women and now have female ministers and elders. Many apostolic organizations are reconsidering their zero-sum stance against females in ministry, while others are becoming more and more conservative (more conservative sometimes than Lawson himself) in the face of a rapidly changing society.

Let us conclude this series with an article that examines the future of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as the Body of Christ at large, with regards to Lawson's view of the woman's role in ministry.

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: "... Compass a Man"

One of Bishop Lawson's early doctrines was that of women in ministry. Lawson left the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World because of his disagreement with the prevailing practices of that day in Pentecost; women were allowed both to preach and to pastor. Lawson was one of G.T. Haywood's Bible students: he was constrained to read nothing but the Bible, and to read it six times in a year. Paul's exhortations to the the Corinthians, to Titus, and to Timothy seem to curtail women's authority to minister, but the apparent contradiction between these scriptures and others that seem to affirm women's rights to preach and pastor was not thoroughly explored.

Moreover, there was much ignorance in Pentecost at the time. There were "not many wise" in the new movement, and members were often discouraged from seeking education outside of scripture, including religious education. Bishop Lawson, who eventually went on to found one of the first Pentecostal seminaries, rebelled largely against the fact that the word of God not being rightly divided, much on account of a poorly informed reading of scripture. For example, oft quoted was the scripture Jeremiah 31:22, which contains the phrase "a woman shall compass a man"; this was interpreted as saying that women shall one day equal and even outdo men in ministry. Lawson replied in part on this wise:

Jeremiah ... did not have in mind "women preaching or the church, for he did not prophesy concerning the church, neither did he see the church age or our times. He prophesied rather about Israel his people, their then present state, and the immediate going into captivity and despair, and their future restoration and glory. ...
This is what is really meant by "a woman shall compass a man;" [sic] Israel the woman, seeking and wooing her Lord, Jehovah; [sic] who heretofore had sought and wooed her to whom she had been unfaithful and adulterous, yea, she in her last days shall seek her Lord; shall "compass" Him ... (For the Defense, p. 24, pars 2 and 4)

Bishop Lawson's thrust here is how people interpret the scriptures. In addition, the incorrect reading of the word "compass" also figured into Lawson's argument against this reading of that scripture. In the "Practical and Perplexing Questions" section of For the Defense, he addresses this most directly:

QUESTION 12:

Is Jeremiah 31:22 an endorsement of women preachers?
ANSWER:

No! "Surpass" means "outstrip". [sic] "Encompass" means "to go around" [sic] "Compass" mean [sic] to turn about. The women (Israel) who were once pursued will become the pursuer. The man (the Messiah), the once rejected suitor will be sought after by the women. (See Sermon "A Woman Shall Compass A Man").

Bishop Lawson deplored those who used this scripture, armed with an incorrect understanding of the word "compass," as implying that men were failing God wholesale; that women were somehow purer and therefore more fit for the Master's use; that women would have to save the church; and, most of all, that God was Himself unable to keep men (and His church) from falling.

Many of the beliefs that characterized Lawson's doctrine about women preachers were common among theologians of the day. Appeals were made to women being the weaker vessels, to her ministry being confined to the home, and to the Bible's requirements of bishops and deacons to be "husbands." We shall omit to discuss those here. It is sufficient to realize that Bishop Lawson's doctrine of limiting women's authority to ministry was based on a strict reading of the Pauline scriptures; was developed out of a need to address a gap between the scripture and the practice of the day among his Pentecostal cohorts; and was further strengthened by Lawson's desire to separate himself from perceived doctrinal instability and general uninformedness in the early Pentecostal church.

However, we shall see that the Bishop was not without sensitivity to the the spiritual desires of women to be used of God for the saving of souls.