“…in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”
Three retired women volunteered at CBE’s office recently. As they worked, they reminisced about their youth—a time when hearing from a female evangelist was not that uncommon! In fact, our eighty-year old friends remembered having heard the female evangelist team Stockton and Gould preach and sing at some of the most prominent evangelical churches in the greater Chicago area! The rest of us were amazed as they named the churches and places this team had preached and sung.
The truth is, most churches active in the revivals of the 1800s and 1900s gave female evangelists a platform. As teams like Stockton and Gould drew hearts to our Lord, the results were clear. Ministry worked best when it was gift-based, rather than gender-based. It was because Stockton and Gould were so gifted that they were invited to those churches throughout Chicago.
According to Scripture, God provides Christians with spiritual gifts. These gifts are infusions of God’s power in our life, equipping us for kingdom service. Because these spiritual gifts come from God, they are supernatural—an extension of God’s presence in our life. Because of this, they are accompanied by an accountability or responsibility before God for their use. For an excellent discussion of this topic, see Linda Belleville’s book, Women Leaders and the Church: Three Crucial Questions.
CBE wants to see the whole church use all of its gifts in leading the world to Christ. That is the motivation behind our conference in Toronto this summer, entitled “Sent to Preach the Gospel!” where world-renown evangelists, scholars and pastors will address the impact of restricting the gospel because of gender. Registrations are now open, but space is limited, so please make plans to join us today!
