Ellen White and the Role of Women in the Church

Conclusion

Did Ellen White call for ordaining women as elders or pastors? No. Did she explicitly forbid it? No. She simply did not address it directly as an issue. But it also seems clear that she did not envision it. What she did envision is significant: apart from the matter of ordination, she urged a vigorous participation of women especially in personal ministry, one that is not yet being widely done and that the Adventist Church needs desperately. EWRWC 21.4

What difference would our adoption of Ellen White’s view of the role of women in the church make? It calls for no change in church structure or polity, yet its implementation would revolutionize the church’s practice. There would be a great increase in personal work being done, both by paid full and part-time workers and by volunteer laborers. If the work were done in the light of the spirit of Jesus, the women would show a power greater than that of the men. There would be an explosion in the numbers of people won to Christ and His truth through the gentle, appealing ministry of women. There would be healing in the home relationships, as godly women workers challenged men to reflect the self-sacrificing headship of Christ in their own relationship with their wives, and women to honor that headship as they would the headship of Christ. Families would be strengthened, and the church would make a start on the road to showing a world filled with hurting and broken families what a difference the practice of the Lordship of Jesus really makes. EWRWC 21.5