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Change Agents 9
Te Holiness and Pentecostal movements that erupted aer the Civil
War gave women new opportunities to preach the gospel with areedom
that was unprecedented in American religious history. woexperiences
well-known to the Holiness and Pentecostal movementssanctication
and Holy Spirit baptism were understood to empower
women, as well as men, without regard to ethnicity or class; to
githem as the Spirit willed; and to release them to be ully engaged
in the
work o the Lord. Tese movements generally provided gied
womenmore reedom to minister than their sisters in other
denominations,giving them places as equal partners in preaching the
gospel on thecamp meeting and revival circuits, and as ounders o
ourishingcongregations and denominations o every ilk and size.
Lay preacher Amanda Berry Smith addressed white campmeeting
congregations as oen as those within her own blackcommunity. In the
late 1800s, Smith traveled to England where sheberiended Hannah
Whitehall Smith and Mary Broadman, whichled to invitations to
preach throughout the United Kingdom as therst black woman
international evangelist. Following this, she spenttwo years in
India, working
with churches and holdingmeetings in large cities andsmall
villages. She then spentalmost eight years (18811889) helping with
churches,establishing temperancesocieties, and working toimprove
the status o womenand education or childrenin Liberia and Sierra
Leone.Smiths ministry in thosecountries was so prolic that,at its
end, amed Methodistmissionary William aylorinsisted that she had
donemore or the cause o missionsand temperance in Aricathan the
combined eforts oall missionaries beore her.
Faith healer Maria Woodworth Etter began preaching in1880 and
was among the most amous Holiness camp meetingrevivalists o her
time. When she was nearly seventy years old, sheheld her largest
revivals, drawing over twenty-ve thousand people onmultiple
occasions. Her worship services were noted or
supernaturalmaniestations like healings, exorcisms, miracles,
glossolalia (speakingin tongues), trances, visions, and people
being slain in the Spirit.Etter was also a prolic church planter
who, throughout her ministry,ounded numerous new congregations by
preaching a series o meetingsto a community, organizing the
converts, and placing someone incharge. By the end o a single one
and one-hal-year period, she had
preached nine revivals and organized two congregations one
withmore than seventy members.
In 1918, while still traveling and evangelizing, Etterounded the
only church she would pastor, the Woodworth-Etter abernacle in
Indianapolis. Te biblical eminist regularlydeended womens right to
preach and encouraged them to gointo the ministry. She called on
women to, let their lights shine,to bring out their talents that
have been hidden away rusting, anduse them or the glory o God.
Another woman who emerged during this period was Carrie
JuddMontgomery, whose more than sixty years o ministry rom 1880to
1946 bridged both the Holiness and the Pentecostal movements.Aer
being miraculously healed rom a debilitating spinal illness,
her testimony caught theattention o a communityin Bufalo, New
York,
where she then developeda ministry o writingand speaking on
divinehealing. Around 1880, atage twenty-two, she wroteTe Prayer of
Faith, which
was translated into oulanguages. A year later,she began
publishingriumphs of Faith: A
Monthly Journal for th Promotion of Healin and Holiness, which
shecontinued to publish orsixty-six years, until herdeath. Aer
moving toCaliornia and marrying
well-to-do businessmaGeorge Montgomery, who supported her
ministry nancially,she established the House o Peace to provide
respite ormissionaries rom more than one hundred mission
boards.
Within the house, she served as pastor or the weekly
worshipservices o Beulah Chapel. She also ounded Shalom
rainingSchool or Missionaries, a childrens home or orphans, and
an
annual camp meeting at Cazadera, Caliornia.Montgomery associated
with many prominent Holiness leaders,
including hymnist William Broadman; A. B. Simpson o the
Christianand Missionary Alliance (o which she was an active
member); and
William and Catherine Booth, ounders o the Salvation Army.
Onceshe received the baptism o the Holy Spirit, she never broke
ellowship
with her colleagues, but continued her steady preaching schedule
now adding the Pentecostal theology to her message. In 1909, sheand
her husband embarked on a missionary trip around the
world,conducting revival meetings in Japan, China, India, and
England.Montgomery was also a charter member o the General Council
othe Assemblies o God.
Amanda Berry Smith
Kathryn Kuhlman
Famous prachr Maria Woodworth ettr calld on womn to, lt thir
lights shin, to bring out
thir talnts that hav bn hiddn away rusting, and us thm for th
glory of God.
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During the 1920s, Canadian-born Aimee Semple McPhersonwas widely
recognized as one o the most gied evangelists in theUnited States.
McPhersons dramatic air and ability to attract
people rom all walks o lie assured that she made the ront pageo
the nations most prominent newspapers at least three timesa week on
average. Her legacy includes building the 5,300 seat
Angelus emple, one o the frst megachurches inthe nation; ounding
the International Church othe Foursquare Gospel (which today, with
morethan one million members, is perhaps the largestand most
inuential Protestant denominationestablished by a woman); becoming
the frst
woman to broadcast a sermon on the radio andreceive a license
rom the Federal CommunicationsCommission to operate a radio
station; andestablishing LIFE Bible College, one o the
earliestPentecostal institutions o higher education.
Faith healer Kathryn Kuhlman beganher ministry by working in the
tent revivals oher sister and brother-in-law beore
beginningitinerant preaching throughout Idaho. Once she
was given the opportunity to preach, her ministryquickly
exploded on the scene o American
popular religion. Kuhlman ounded the DenverRevival abernacle in
1935. Her radio broadcast,Smiling Trough, was carried on the
CBSnetwork and was heard on more than fy stationsacross the country
in the 1940s and 1950s. In the1960s and 1970s, her weekly
television program,I Believe in Miracles, aired nationally,
reachingmillions decades beore the term televangelistbecame
commonplace. Tough she had come toaith in the United Methodist
Church, Kuhlmansministry was non-denominational and attracted
people rom a variety o Christian traditions.During the thirty
years o her prominence, she
was as controversial as she was popular, incurring criticism
romboth the medical and church communities. Yet she continuedflling
auditoriums throughout the country with devoted ollowers
who repeatedly confrmed the authenticity o the healings
theyexperienced in her services.
Other lesser-known but still extraordinary women arose romevery
sector o society to aggressively assert their God-given call to
preach the gospel and challenge existing understandings o
womensplace in the church. Florence Craword worked closely with
Pentecostalleader William Seymour at the amous Azusa Street Revival
and wasappointed by him to oversee and direct the many new
Pentecostalmission churches that were orming along the West Coast.
Later, shele Los Angeles to orm the Apostolic Faith Mission, a
denomination
which today has more oreign than domestic congregations.
IdaRobinson ounded the Mt. Sinai Holy Church specifcally as a
placeor women to be ree to serve at all levels o institutional
leadership. Forthe frst seventy-fve years o its existence, the
denomination was led by
women presiding as bishops. In the early twentieth century,
PanditaRamabai led an explosive revival in Mukti Mission in Puni,
India,
which rivaled what was unolding at Azusa Street. Ramabai, a
poetand scholar as well as religious leader, championed reorms or
womenand children among Indias poor and used her position as a high
caste
woman to leverage reorm or women within her society. Te impacto
her work on behal o women was so great that in 1989, the
Indiangovernment issued a commemorative postage stamp in her
honor.
Each o these women le an indelible imprint on the shapeo
evangelical Christianity and a legacy that cannot be overlookedby
those with a serious interest in the history o the Holiness
orPentecostal movements. Unortunately, as these movements which
were once denigrated as a haven or the poor and disinheritedhave
attempted to gain more respect and move into the mainstream,they
have compromised or sacrifced their openness to the ministryand
leadership o women. Yet the undeniable impact o womenslabor in the
name o the gospel is attested to, in part, by the actthat many o
the men who would later go on to be the leaders oHoliness and
Pentecostal congregations and denominations cameto aith through
these womens ministries, or through the ministrieso many others
like them. In some cases, these very men would laterdeny other
women a viable place in ministry.
Tough limitations on women in institutional leadershipcontinue,
Holiness and Pentecostal women continue to carry outevangelistic
ministries using the venues o revival and camp meetingsas well as
womens conerences and conventions. In these arenas theyare able
both to speak the gospel o empowerment into the lives otheir
Christian sisters and provide a pattern or other women toengage in
viable ministry all while challenging stereotypes regardinga womens
place in the church. May we learn rom and model theirboldness,
persistence, and strong aith.
Estrelda Alexander, an ordained minister in the Church ofGod, is
professor of theology at Regent University in VirginiaBeach,
Virginia. She also served as associate dean at Wesley
Theological Seminary and adjunct professor of theology atTrinity
College, both in Washington D.C.
rence Crawford
andita Ramabai
