How then can we have more trained Bible instructors to give their full time to this weighty branch of God's service? Our women Bible teachers are fast vanishing. How can we turn the tide? How can we reverse the trend? How can we fulfill anew the counsel that has come to us from the Lord to make a much larger use of women in personal evangelism? Fortunately, we have been given a divine solution to this problem. We shall examine the remedies that are outlined in the Spirit of Prophecy writings.
Recognize the Service They Render
First, perhaps there needs to be a new awakening on the part of pastors and conference administrators to sense the large contributions our dedicated and qualified sisters can render to soul-winning endeavors in these last days. We believe that some meditation on the statements coming to us from the servant of God which we have already examined makes clear that these women can do a work to reach many souls more effectively than can the men. We believe God has clearly revealed that there should be many more full-time salaried women Bible instructors to reach the unsaved women.
It has been my good fortune to have associated with me in my years of evangelism many earnest and well-qualified women Bible teachers. I hold them in great admiration and in very high esteem. I have witnessed them preparing many splendid converts for baptism and for church membership. I have seen them carry on a personal ministry in the homes of the great and the humble, in the homes of the middle class, the poor, and the wealthy. It is my conviction that no successful Bible instructor is a financial burden to a conference, but a monetary asset. She will soon bring in enough tithe from new converts to pay her salary and expenses.
Perhaps it would not be out of place for me to pay my deep ministerial respects to some of these faithful women with whom it has been my privilege to share in soul-winning endeavors. Here are some of them: Miss Louise Kleuser, Miss Mary Walsh, Miss Vinnie Goodner, Miss Mary Saxton, Miss Mary Bierly, Miss Martha Ferree, Mrs. Ada Holly, Mrs. Ethel Hull Davis, Mrs. Lois Mays, Mrs. Giles Roberts, Mrs. June Schmidt, Miss Mary B. Lebedoff, Miss Dorothy Matthews, Mrs. Beatrice Smalley Hibbard, Mrs. Maud Davis Tegler, Miss Celia Green, Miss Laura Morrison, Mrs. Kathryn Brownell, Mrs. Ada La France, Mrs. Madge Robinson Smith, Mrs. Peter Dran, Miss Edith Jenkins, Mrs. Lucille Bailey Johnson, Misses Alma and Aimee DuBois, Mrs. B. Davidson. The list could continue, but there must be a stopping place. All of these will have many precious trophies to present to the Chief Shepherd.
Training Program in Our Colleges
A second way to secure more women Bible instructors is to give more emphasis to the training of such in our colleges and in our Seminary. "Our students are to be educated to become Bible workers, and the Bible teachers can do a most wonderful work if they will themselves learn from the great Teacher. . . . There is need of workers who will come close to unbelievers, not waiting for unbelievers to come close to them, workers who will do personal labor, and who will give clear, definite instruction. It should be the aim of our schools to provide the best instruction and training for Bible workers."—Evangelism, pp. 474, 475.
No doubt our schools will respond to this counsel if they hear a demand from the field for a revival and strengthening of this phase of the gospel ministry.
Train the Lay Women
A third way to secure more women Bible instructors is for our pastors to seek out from our churches women who have already demonstrated their ability to do this type of work and who by encouragement would be in a position to enter full time into this department of the Lord's work. Ellen G. White suggested that such should be sought out and that they should be paid a salary so that they might be free to give their major time to this worthy calling. She said: "I wish to create a fund for the payment of these devoted women who are the most useful workers in giving Bible readings. I am also led to say that we must educate more workers to give Bible readings."—Ibid., p. 477. It has been my fortune to help a few promising women to become fully engaged in the Lord's service, and they are still doing a good work.
Employ the Ministers' Wives
As a fourth method of adding to the ranks of our thin line of women Bible instructors I come back to the ministers' wives who are presently engaged in worldly enterprises. Many of these have been well educated in our colleges and have real talent. Some of these would be excellent Bible instructors if they could be encouraged to work at a sacrificial wage, to work for God rather than doing the mundane things in the working world, to go into the homes, and by Bible studies and prayer seek out other women who are looking wistfully to heaven for the bread of life. This is in harmony with the following counsel from the Lord: "When it is possible, let the minister and his wife go forth together. The wife can often labor by the side of her husband, accomplishing a noble work. She can visit the homes of the people and help the women in these families in a way that her husband cannot. . . . And let none feel that these women, who understand the Word, and who have ability to teach, should not receive remuneration for their labors. They should be paid as verily as their husbands. There is a great work for women to do in the cause of present truth. Through the exercise of womanly tact and a wise use of their knowledge of Bible truth, they can remove difficulties that our brethren cannot meet. We need women workers to labor in connection with their husbands, and should encourage those who wish to engage in this line of missionary effort."—Ibid., p. 491.
These are crisis days. These are the last days. What we do to save men and women must be done quickly. We need to use every possible means and method. Let us re-examine the divine counsel that has been given and raise up a group of women Bible instructors to do a work that men cannot do. Let us bring this God-ordained help to groping, benighted, confused but searching women who need to be gathered into the fold of Christ before mercy's door closes.
