What Is the Place of Women in World Missions?
“What is the place of women in world missions? Jesus said, ‘You—and the word means all of you, male and female—are my witnesses. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.’ And there have been countless thousands who, without reference to where they came from or what they knew or who they were, have believed that Jesus meant exactly what He said and have set themselves to follow.”
—Elisabeth Elliot
One of the great joys of my life is coaching and mentoring women for effective engagement in launching movements to Christ. Yet I repeatedly encounter missed opportunities surrounding the lack of intentionality of equipping women in global mission.
Married women sometimes tell me:
“I felt called to the field. I came with a passion to labor alongside my husband. I don’t want to take over—I simply want to be involved. Yet my organization makes DMM training and coaching available only to men. Now that we have children, I receive the subtle message that my only role is to support my husband and care for our children.”
Single women describe a different—but equally painful—experience:
“Men leave us out of strategy discussions. We don’t have much in common with women on the team who have husbands and children. When we talk about ministry, some mothers seem jealous that we have ‘time’ for it.”
I have observed this repeatedly: a husband and wife arrive on the field longing to make an eternal impact. Yet when the wife is neither equipped nor given meaningful opportunities to contribute, her resulting discouragement may eventually become one of the reasons the couple returns home.
The problem goes deeper than missionary retention.
A local colleague once told me:
“Please tell Western women not to come if they aren’t going to make reproducing disciples. When they don’t, they model disobedience to the Great Commission!”
Her words are difficult, but they expose an essential question: What are missionary women modeling to the women around them?
Who Will Reach the Women?
In many cultures, men cannot appropriately interact with women outside their families. This is especially true among many Muslim unreached people groups.
Women are often the relational gatekeepers of their households. They shape family life, nurture relationships, and open—or close—the doors of their oikos: their household and extended relational network.
Who, if not women, will prayerfully seek Women of Peace who can open their households to the gospel? As new movements emerge, who will walk alongside the multiplying generations of believing women? Who will help equip them to become obedient disciples, leaders, and disciple makers who train still others?
If missionary women are not equipped to make disciples, an enormous portion of the population may remain relationally inaccessible.
Yet when discussing the training of missionary women, I sometimes hear mission leaders say, “We don’t want to burden women or make them feel guilty.”
Certainly, women should not be burdened with artificial expectations or ministry models that ignore their health, families, capacities, or seasons of life. But is the best solution to withhold training that could help them multiply?
Would it not be better to equip each woman to follow Jesus as a disciple who makes disciples—in ways appropriate to her gifts, calling, capacity, and season of life? Could we prepare her to participate meaningfully in launching a Kingdom movement—a Book-of-Acts movement—wherever God has placed her?
Stewarding the Calling of Missionary Women
Will the global mission community make the stewardship of missionary women a priority?
Will we equip women with both God-centric competence and God-centric confidence to become all God has called them to be and to do all He has called them to do—especially as catalysts for Disciple-Making Movements?
How can the Body of Christ best steward the gifts, callings, experiences, and potential of missionary women? How can we support, inspire, coach, and equip women to thrive and bear multiplying fruit through every stage of life?
These are not merely questions about creating opportunities for women. They are questions of stewardship, obedience, and access to the gospel.
Why Focus on Movements?
When this article was first published in 2016, Kent Parks, then president of Beyond, noted that the number of people without access to the gospel had more than doubled since 1980. In 1980, approximately one billion people were considered unevangelized. By 2016, that number had risen to approximately 2.1 billion.
The statistics may continue to change, but the underlying challenge remains: population growth can outpace traditional approaches to mission.
This unjust trajectory requires us to do something differently.
And, by God’s grace, we can.
Since the days of Jesus and Paul, the Church has repeatedly multiplied through Kingdom Movements that grew faster than the surrounding population. Women have often served in those movements. The twentieth century alone offers extraordinary examples of movements in China and Korea that were strengthened and fueled by the faithful service of women missionaries and local women leaders.
Women are not incidental to movements. They are indispensable participants in them.
Women as DMM Practitioners
All who follow Jesus—women and men alike—are called to delight in and declare the glory of God. We cultivate intimacy with Him, and out of the overflow of that intimacy, we learn both to be and to do in Christ.
As He forms the life of Jesus within us, we seek to see His life reproduced in others. Making multiplying disciples is both a privilege and a command for every follower of Christ.
Essential Kingdom Movement practices include:
- Abiding deeply in Christ and His Word
- Multiplying extraordinary prayer and fasting
- Seeking Persons of Peace
- Sharing God’s story and our personal stories
- Discipling Discovery Groups of new believers toward loving obedience
- Equipping emerging leaders
- Coaching disciples to train and reproduce still others
All of us (men and women) are to delight in and declare God’s glory, developing intimacy with God. Out of the overflow of this intimacy, we are to “be” and “do” in Christ and seek to reproduce Jesus in others. For all who follow Jesus, reproducing disciples is a privilege as well as a command.
Being a wife and mother is one of the greatest joys and privileges of my life. In highlighting opportunities for women to engage in movements, I do not mean to suggest that they neglect or shortchange their God-given discerned responsibilities within their families.
For me, life is integrated. It is more like a beautifully woven tapestry than a collection of separate compartments. As singles, as married: intimacy with God, disciple-making, and coaching are threads that the Master Weaver brings together for his glory.
The expression may change. The pace may change. The amount of time available may change. But the calling to abide in Christ, obey Him, and help others follow Him remains.
An Invitation to the Global Mission Community
The vast majority of missionary women I have encountered—single and married, younger and older, with children and without—passionately desire to make an eternal impact.
Let us not overlook them.
Let us not assume that their family responsibilities negate their callings, or that their singleness makes them peripheral to team strategy. Let us not withhold training out of fear that it might burden them.
Instead, let us listen to them, call out their gifts, invite their perspectives, and equip them to bear multiplying fruit in every season of life.
May we release women to become all God has called them to be: women who abide deeply in Christ, make reproducing disciples, equip emerging leaders, and help catalyze cascading Kingdom movements among the ethne.
The women of the nations are waiting.
Who will go to them?
—R. Nyman
An earlier version of this article was published in the January/February 2016 issue of Mission Frontiers on women engaged in Church-Planting Movements among unreached people groups. It was later republished by Beyond in edited form.
