Women

Since the founding of the PCA, the Women in the Church have played a vital role in supporting the ministries of the various committees and agencies. Each year, a Love Gift presentation has been prepared and made available from the Christian Education and Publications office highlighting the particular project for the year’s designated offering. Contributions are sent to CEP’s Love Gift Fund during the year and presented to the receiving agency or committee at the annual WIC Leadership Conference dinner.

At this year’s conference, a check for $92,000 from the 2007 Love Gift was presented to Gary Campbell, President of the PCA Retirement and Benefits, Inc. The Love Gift will be used for RBI’s Survivor Assistance ministry. Upon notification of the death of a PCA Teaching Elder or his wife, Survivor Assistance will fund and immediately send a check for $1000 to the surviving spouse and any dependents regardless of their income to help alleviate immediate financial pressure that may accompany the death of a spouse.

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The 2008 designee is Christian Education and Publications. As a ministry of CEP, WIC has been instrumental in enabling CEP to move forward with its women’s, youth, and children’s ministries. The 2008 Love Gift, You Can See It in Their Eyes, carries forth CEP’s mission of making kingdom disciples who pass on the faith to the next generations. The six and one half minute presentation is available both in DVD and VHS format, along with supporting materials for distribution by the local church’s women’s ministries. Ideas and suggestions for using the Love Gift are also available from the CEP bookstore or the WIC office by calling 1-800-283-1357. Suggested ideas for presenting the Love Gift include during a monthly women’s meeting, a family night church dinner, a Sunday evening service, at the conclusion of the Sunday AM worship service, or a presbytery PresWIC event or retreat.

You Can See It in Their Eyes is a challenge to the church to keep front and center on its agenda the need to carry out God’s instruction to pass on the faith to the next generations. “From Generation to Generation” was the overarching theme of the 2006 WIC Denominational Conference, attended by over 4,000 women from across the church; and CEP, including its WIC ministry, continues to be committed to that task.

Visit the Love Gift website at www.pcacep.org/lovegift to preview the video, order a copy for your church, or to individually donate.

As the PCA grows, so do the opportunities for women in the church! The annual equipping event Christian Education and Publications provides for women in the church is the Leadership Training Conference. It is thrilling to see the great interest and diversity of age and regions that mark the attendees. The focus of Leadership 2008 was “The Big Picture: Our Purpose and Privilege,” with women from twenty-six states and two Canadian provinces in attendance.

Since this is a conference for PCA women in the church, we began by defining our context as women in God’s family, and by lifting high the King and His church. This year, Dr. Roy Taylor, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PCA, led the opening session. Dr. Taylor used I Timothy 3:14-16 to remind us that living as Christian women in the church is a symphony and not a solo. As Reformed, Bible believers, we are part of something bigger; we are part of the church universal and the church triumphant. As women in the church, we are to love, live, and take the Gospel message to a needy world in word and deed.

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Having women meet with others from their region played a central role in this year’s focus. The time spent in their eight US and Canadian regions were some of the most productive and appreciated elements of the weekend, according to the participants. In each region, representatives of the Women’s Advisory Sub-Committee (WASC), joined by CEP’s WIC trainers, modeled and equipped women for regional discipleship and community building.

Alan Johnson from Old Peachtree PCA in Duluth, Georgia, taught the joy and value of the “Centrality of the Word” in hearts and ministry. Workshops, panels, and woman to woman discipleship rounded out the rest of the weekend. Susan Hunt, former CEP Director of Women’s Ministries and current CEP WIC Consultant, ended this outstanding weekend calling the women to “Live out the Purpose and Privilege as Women in God’s Church.”

We were excited and encouraged to have PCA Ruling Elder Preston Hicks, from Lexington, KY, attend with his wife. In his local church, Tates Creek PCA, Preston is the liaison between the session and women’s ministry. (See his response to the conference below).

CEP, the 2008 recipient of the Women in the Church Love Gift, hosted the denominational dinner in which the PCA administrators and coordinators, their wives, and some staff joined the women in prayer for the PCA and its various ministries. This is a night that always elicits excited responses and this year was no exception – it is “our privilege!”

The 2009 Leadership Training Conference will be held at Covenant College, March 10-12, and will be followed by the 2009 Mercy Conference, jointly sponsored by Mission to North America and CEP, held at New City Fellowship Church, March 12-15. Look for more updates on www.pcacep.org as information for both conferences becomes available. CDs of the plenary sessions and workshops of the 2008 Leadership Training are also available. See www.pcacep.org for details.

Here is what some attendees had to say about this year’s conference. We trust these will encourage local church leaders, pastors, presbytery CE Chairman, and women’s ministry leaders as you evaluate the value of this discipleship event.

“I have been spreading the good news of God’s kingdom work through this [women’s] ministry work of the PCA. I am praying for other elders to participate in future meetings-the experience certainly enlarged my vision of the educational work (fostering and facilitating biblical thinking and covenantal living) of the WIC organization.” Preston Hicks, Ruling Elder

By Susan Beck

The strategy for this purpose, and for all of Christian education, is found in the Titus 2 Mandate, given to the pastor of the church. Biblical discipleship is rooted in God’s Word, sharing life-on-life and precept-upon-precept.

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be reviled.

Susan Beck, PCA teaching elder’s wife, was taught and encouraged to live out this purpose and strategy. Susan has been given multiple opportunities to be engaged in biblical discipleship relationships to the next generation.

Spiritual Mothering, Missions and Me

After 26 years in the PCA, 23 of which were spent as a church planter’s wife, I’ve heard just a little bit about the principles of Titus 2 and spiritual mothering. I always felt this is something I should do, not realizing that God was already using me.

When I was a young pastor-church planter’s wife, a friend and I co-led a study, Spiritual Mothering, by Susan Hunt. I readily accepted the concept that we can all be spiritual mothers, regardless of our age, all of us being older than somebody, but I had my hands full at the time with four daughters – the next generation! There was little time or opportunity to invest in other women. But God was planting seeds.

When Stephen and I moved to Toronto, Canada, to plant a downtown church, my heart beat especially for the university-age crowd. Although a quiet individual, I loved opening our home to groups. Saturday evenings saw our home crowded with up to 50 young adults from the “twentysomethings” ministry; we spent many evenings afterwards talking one-on-one. An ongoing stream of exchange students from around the world invaded my private space, and I noticed that many of those young women were looking to me for the nurture, stability, and warmth of a mother. The seeds were starting to sprout.

Five years ago, we made the decision to move to Germany, for Stephen to begin teaching at the Freie Theologische Akademie north of Frankfurt, the largest evangelical seminary in Germany, and the only one that adheres to the inerrancy of Scripture. Unlike our earlier move to Toronto, I accepted this move grudgingly, feeling angry and disillusioned with life. That motivated me to start a Bible study of Galatians with a close friend. Technology made it possible for us to “meet” regularly to chat online over issues related to the transforming power of God’s grace.

Strangely, the journey of breaking my heart brought me to a place of contentment in Christ that I had never known before. The Gospel poured water on the sprouts, and they grew. God prepared me to encounter this new culture with a new boldness in my heart and character.

Now I am understanding the will of God in our call to Germany: He has placed me in a setting in which 95% of my contacts are with younger adults and in which I am an “empty-nester.” He has placed me into a culture where a Germanic sense of orderliness and Lutheran pietism makes for a form of Christianity, often a mere outward “spirituality” (not unique to Germans!). Stephen and I are blessed to live at the seminary, which means I have easy access to 40 younger women who are preparing for Christian ministry, many of whom long for interaction with an older woman who has experience in ministry. I participate in a fellowship of an additional 40 student wives, with some one-on-one counsel. Our passion is for newly planted churches to sprout up all over the land of the Reformation that is in desperate need for a second Reformation (only 2.5% evangelicals), and on Tuesday nights my husband and I mentor numerous individuals and couples God has raised up for the future task. My experience as a church planter’s wife, combined with biblical principles, enables me to develop gospel-centered prospective church planters’ wives. (And if I ever run out of women to spiritually mother, there is a university of 35,000 students across the street!) God has pushed me out of my natural comfort zone and given me freedom and boldness through the gospel; the opportunities for spiritual mothering are endless.

Spiritual Mothering: Teaching and Living God’s Truth

Fanny Gomez is a pastor’s wife from the Dominican Republic who, in God’s
sovereignty, came across the Biblical Foundations for Womanhood books. Through interaction with Susan Hunt and the Women in the Church office, Fanny was encouraged to attend 2006 Leadership Training, thus leading to a Dominican delegation of eight women and a pastor attending the 2006 Women’s International Conference. Fanny has taught The True Woman, and under the full support and encouragement of the pastors, she spearheaded the development of a women’s ministry with a heart for teaching the next generation. The following is an excerpt from a letter Fanny wrote about the challenge of having an open and teachable spirit to the truths she has been teaching others.

“We have finished studying The Legacy of Biblical Womanhood. The women gave testimonies about the benefits in their lives after studying it. This is the third book of The Biblical Foundations for Womanhood series that I have studied, and I feel that I am personally making all these truths about biblical womanhood mine. I have such a burden about sharing all of these with my sisters in Christ. Please continue to pray for our women’s ministry; we need more teachers or spiritual mothers.

In July my husband and I are moving to Santiago, an hour and a half from here. My husband has been traveling almost every Sunday for three years to preach in a church that has remained without a pastor. He loves this church; they have been praying for him to be their pastor for years. Last September our pastors talked to me to find out my thoughts about this possibility. My husband had a big desire of moving there, but not me. I had my reasons (but I also didn’t want to move) and exposed them to our pastors. I told them I was willing to submit myself to their decision. September to December were difficult months. My husband was sad because my heart was not beating with his about this, and I was sad because I was the cause of his sadness. I had to apply all I have been teaching about my helper design. I had to admit I didn’t want to leave all I have had here for years: my church, my family (mother and brothers), my friends, my children’s school, my house….What helped me is thinking of the truth from The True Woman: ‘The way of duty is the way of safety.’ Finally, I told my husband, ‘Eric, I will go with you, not only because I have to submit to you, but because I want to serve the Lord where He wants me to go, and I know that my calling depends on yours.’ The Lord has changed my attitude, and I am willing to support my husband and serve God where He wants me to be.

So my husband and I will move as missionaries of our church to Santiago. The women’s ministry will continue, and we will continue to work together, but my Bible study will be with the women in Santiago. My spiritual daughters are sad, but it’s been so good not to have a personality-driven ministry. I told them they have to continue teaching these truths to the next generation. This is not my responsibility; it is our responsibility. We can’t stop raising our voices!”

Editor’s Note: Christian Education and Publications oversees and coordinates the women’s ministry known as Women in the Church. WIC has been a vital part of our ministry since the beginning of the PCA. Many things have and are happening as a result of this ministry. In 2006 CEP sponsored the WIC International Conference. The following is an interview with Jane Patete, coordinator of the WIC ministry. Her vision and leadership have were one of the keys in the ’06 conference as well as WIC’s effectiveness in our overall ministry.

1. Briefly state the purpose of WIC (Women In the Church) with CEP and the PCA.

The stated purpose of the Presbyterian Church in America’s Women In the Church, which was approved by the first General Assembly, is: that every woman know Christ personally and be committed to extending His Kingdom in her life, home, church, community and throughout the world.

Women’s ministry was designed to be an expression of the theology of the PCA. There were non-negotiables: the authority of God’s Word, a commitment to the theological standards of the PCA, and a commitment to work within the ecclesiastical structure of the PCA. We want women to love the church of Jesus Christ. We want to help women understand their rich and fulfilling role in the church in an un-ordained position. We want women to be confident that the study resources are soundly biblical. This is why the fathers of the PCA placed women’s ministry under the oversight of the Committee for Christian Education and Publications. CEP serves local churches by providing leadership training and resources for kingdom discipleship.

2. What are some ways CEP has provided leadership training and resources for women?

Our overarching purpose is to disciple leaders and equip them to disciple others. Specific resources that help us fulfill this purpose are: