Helping Women Thrive on the Field
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STATEMENT
Women are valued co-laborers whose contributions are vital to the spread of the gospel among the nations. Sending churches and agencies should intentionally work to understand and tend to their specific needs through initiatives like intentional communication, resourcing and training, and encouraging their unique contributions to the mission of the church.
Kate began packing up her family’s suitcases again. As hard as it was to face another transition, her heart was full from time spent with supporting churches. Far from being unnoticed or an assumed part of the missionary equation, churches had gone out of their way to love, listen, and care for her in practical ways. People had asked about her joys, sorrows, and ministry as a wife and mom overseas. They now knew how to support her as she and her family returned to the field.
Becky struggled to find someone to listen to the challenges she faced on the field. Her sending church was happy to support her financially, but never seemed to have time for a call. Her mission agency relied on her team leader to care for her, but never checked on her directly. Sadly, her team leader took her work in evangelism and discipleship for granted and assumed she was doing fine. In reality, she felt vulnerable and isolated as a single woman in a culture that looked down on unmarried women. She wasn’t sure who she could turn to.
Which of the stories above do you think are more common among women on the mission field? An informal survey of missionary women showed that sending churches and mission agencies scored low in their care for women. Findings revealed that women (both married and single) often feel overlooked in the areas of training, development, and encouragement in ministry. Sending churches and mission agencies may acknowledge the importance of women verbally, but often fail to intentionally understand their specific needs or help them flourish in the missionary task.
How can sending churches and mission agencies improve? How can they provide better care and training for women and value and affirm their unique contributions? As a starting point, churches and mission agencies can take the initiative in three areas: intentional communication, resourcing and training, and encouraging women’s unique contributions to the Great Commission.
Intentional Communication
Communication with women can often fall through the cracks in the hustle and bustle of missions. Frequently, communication happens with a husband on behalf of his wife or with superiors for a single woman. Sending churches and mission agencies might intend to keep in touch with women, but meaningful communication becomes assumed rather than actual. In reality, assumed communication is often neglected communication, hurting a woman and her ministry. Sending churches and mission agencies can address this issue by taking the initiative to communicate more intentionally with women. Asking these questions might be a helpful way to start:
Do we know how the women we send are doing?
Do we know how these women are doing from talking to the women themselves?
When did we last speak with these women to care for them pastorally?
Are they receiving sufficient care in their ministry context?
Do they need further training to carry out their ministry?
What do we expect of married women we send?
What do we expect of single women we send?
Have we communicated these expectations and equipped women to meet them?
Do the women we send know how to access care when they need it?
The goal of asking these self-reflective questions is to motivate intentional communication with missionary women that goes beyond scratching the surface. Elders of a sending church have a particular responsibility to keep in touch (1 Peters 5:2), but connecting an individual or care group with a specific missionary woman might better ensure intentional communication doesn’t fall through the cracks. The individual or care group tasked with this communication should consider a woman’s season of life and how best to care for and communicate with her.
Mission agencies can also promote intentional communication by keeping sending churches informed and encouraging sending churches to stay in touch. Pursuing a relationship with a woman’s local church on the mission field is also crucial for assessing her situation and finding out how best to support her. Even so, sending churches should initiate with a woman’s mission agency and field church to share responsibility for ensuring intentional care and communication. Communication falters when it’s assumed someone else (whether sending church, mission agency, or church on the field) is adequately communicating with a missionary woman.
A lack of intentional communication has a snowball effect. Discouragement can lead to resentment or apathy; women may flounder instead of flourish; they may lack the care or training they need for ministry; feel overlooked; become confused, frustrated, and isolated; abuse may be left unaddressed; women and their families may end up leaving the field. This, and more, can negatively impact a woman’s family, team, church, and ministry. Intentional communication can reverse this trend and be the first step toward other initiatives in caring for women in the mission field.
Resourcing and Training
There are vast resources and training for the Great Commission. However, many women on the field need help to take full advantage of them. The priority given to training men for church leadership can sometimes downplay or delay training women for gospel ministry. A woman’s season of life (such as being a mother of small children) can limit her time and ability to benefit from resources and training. Sending churches and mission agencies can serve women by taking the initiative in resourcing and training. Here are some suggestions:
Provide opportunities, funds, and childcare to enable women to attend training on the field or online.
Create regional networks of women for encouragement and training.
Help foster relationships between younger women and older, more experienced women serving on the field.
One positive example of this comes from the Middle East. Having served over twenty years on the field, a pastor’s wife created a network with other pastors’ wives throughout the region to train and encourage them in their home and ministry roles. Other women in this region have helped to organize and facilitate various workshops to equip women to study God’s Word and grow in theological understanding.
In another positive example, a sending church sent a short-termer to the mission field to provide childcare for a missionary mom of small children so she could devote more time to language learning. Another group of sending churches organized childcare and a VBS program so missionary moms could participate in the daily training and discussions at a missions conference.
For many women on the mission field, the problem is not a lack of resources or training but obstacles that prevent them from fully taking advantage of these. Sending churches and mission agencies can help women flourish in the missionary task by removing obstacles and promoting access to resources and training, thereby encouraging women in their unique contributions to the Great Commission.
Unique Contributions
The New Testament describes many godly women who contributed to and participated in spreading the gospel and strengthening churches. Priscilla, alongside her husband Aquila, partnered with Paul in gospel ministry as fellow workers in Christ (Acts 18; Romans 16:3). Timothy’s training in the Scriptures began under women in the home long before he met the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:14-15). Paul commended Phoebe, a church servant at Cenchreae (Romans 16:1), and went on to greet other faithful women in the final chapter of his letter to Christians in Rome.
Faithful women continue playing a vital role in missions today, making crucial contributions to church planting and the missionary task. Sending churches and mission agencies would do well to follow Paul’s example by acknowledging and encouraging their unique contributions, especially in these categories:
The ministry of single and married women
The wife’s support of her husband
The mother’s work in the home
Healthy churches encourage men and women “to do the work of the ministry” (Ephesians 4:12; 1 Timothy 3:8-13; Titus 2:1-8). Following a complementarian understanding of gender roles, women should be encouraged to pursue godliness, evangelism, discipling, caring for families, and raising up other women to do the same. Women on the field should also be encouraged to join theological discussions and the creation of team strategy. Acknowledging women's unique contributions based on their varying gifts and opportunities will encourage women to thrive in ministry.
We can’t imagine the gospel's spread in the Early Church without the unique contributions of women like Priscilla or Timothy’s mother and grandmother. The same is true in modern missions as we consider missionary biographies of single women such as Amy Carmichael or wives such as Ann Judson. Imagine trying to strengthen a church and evangelizing the next generation without the unique contributions of women.
Missions Thrive When Women Thrive
When women on the mission field are well cared for, valued, and given opportunities to be equipped and trained, their ministries have fewer hindrances to thriving. A married woman who thrives will benefit her husband and children in their home, the ministry, and the church. A single woman who thrives will help her team, church, and other ministry relationships. Reasonable care of women on the field does everything in its power to see women succeed in their work and ministry.
Without the care, support, and affirmation of sending churches, field churches, and mission agencies, women on the mission field can feel uncared for, unmotivated, and overlooked – as if their contribution to the Great Commission is unneeded for faithfulness to the missionary task. The missionary woman becomes discouraged, and the effect impacts her family, team, church, and field of service. There could also be a tendency toward the sins of resentment, gossip, divisiveness, bitterness, and apathy on the part of the missionary woman.
Although women's primary spiritual care and responsibility falls to their husbands (if married) and local churches on the field, sending churches and mission agencies can ensure missionary women thrive in their ministries by taking the initiative in communication, training, and encouragement. Sending churches should especially take the lead in ensuring these things don’t fall through the cracks. Church leaders and members can begin this process by asking themselves self-reflective questions, reaching out and building relationships with women on the field, removing obstacles to training, providing help where needed, and championing the unique contributions of women in the Great Commission.
