Ellen White and the Role of Women in the Church

4. Women as Pastors to the Flock

In the above statement from 1898, in which Ellen White says “There are women who should labor in the gospel ministry,” she describes that labor as we would the work of a Bible Instructor. She associated this work with care for (visiting) “the flock of God.” This statement may provide a key to a clearer understanding of a statement published two years later: EWRWC 6.2

All who desire an opportunity for true ministry, and who will give themselves unreservedly to God, will find in the canvassing work opportunities to speak upon many things pertaining to the future, immortal life. The experience thus gained will be of the greatest value to those who are fitting themselves for the ministry. It is the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit of God that prepares workers, both men and women, to become pastors to the flock of God. ¹⁵

The remainder of the paragraph describes the benefits of character and experience that will come to those who engage in the canvassing work. EWRWC 6.3

Some hold that Ellen White is here calling for women, under the preparation of the Holy Spirit, to become gospel ministers in the commonly-accepted sense of the term today, that is, the conference-employed, perhaps even ordained, leader of a local congregation. But is that how she used the term “pastor” in this passage? EWRWC 6.4

First, though “pastor” may be our common term, it was not Ellen White’s. Her common term was “minister.” Our laserdisc concordance of the published writings of Mrs. White shows that her usages of “minister,” “ministers,” “minister’s,” etc. (which include uses as verbs), outnumber use of similar words built around “pastor” by more than 50 to 1. Even so, by far the majority of her uses of these “pastor” terms simply designates the minister at the head of the congregation. EWRWC 6.5

But in some passages we find evidence of other meanings. In such statements the term “pastor” is often used in connection with “the flock.” The references show concern for nurture of God’s people, as a shepherd might show tender personal care for each individual sheep. One such reference where Mrs. White makes this nurturing connotation explicit is in the following account, written from Australia in 1892: EWRWC 6.6

Elder H used to live here and preach to the people, but he was not a shepherd of the flock. He would tell the poor sheep that he would rather be horse whipped than visit. He neglected personal labor, therefore pastoral work was not done in the church and its borders...Had the preacher done the work of a pastor, a much larger number would now be rejoicing in the truth ¹⁶

Other examples of this specialized usage of “pastor” may be cited briefly. In referring to ministers who have educated themselves as debaters, Mrs. White said, “In many respects men trained in this kind of school unfitted themselves to become pastors of the sheep and lambs.” ¹⁷ Speaking of ministers who devote excessive time to reading and writing, she says, “The duties of a pastor are often shamelessly neglected because the minister lacks strength to sacrifice his personal inclinations for seclusion and study. The pastor should visit from house to house among his flock, teaching, conversing, and praying with each family, and looking out for the welfare of their souls.” ¹⁸ EWRWC 7.1

Her concern for personal care for the flock is expressed again this way: “Responsibilities must be laid upon the members of the church. The missionary spirit should be awakened as never before, and workers should be appointed as needed, who will act as pastors to the flock, putting forth personal effort to bring the church up to that condition where spiritual life and activity will be seen in all her borders.” ¹⁹ In each instance here the concept of “pastor” is associated with personal work for the flock of God, even when it is done by “members of the church” rather than the minister. One who visits families, teaching them and praying with them, showing personal care and interest, is doing pastoral work. EWRWC 7.2

Second, the work of the Adventist minister in Ellen White’s time was quite different from the work of the “pastor” as we know it today. The ministers were largely evangelists, raising up a church in a place, getting it established, and then moving on to another place. The idea of a settled ministry whose duties were primarily with those who were already believers is a fairly recent innovation in the Adventist Church, developing in the 1930’s, 40’s, and especially 50’s. ²⁰ In the setting of such an itinerant ministry, Mrs. White’s term, “pastors to the flock of God,” at times denotes not so much an office as a function, performed in personal ministry to the sheep of Jesus’ flock. EWRWC 7.3

This is why canvassing is such a good preparation for ministry. It gets the worker out visiting in homes, doing personal labor, seeking to bring the lost sheep into the Lord’s flock, or (we might say pastoring the flock of God). It is a work that both men and women can and should do. But such a work does not necessarily involve appointment to the headship role of a congregation or ordination to the gospel ministry. EWRWC 7.4

Third, in a parallel passage a few pages later in the same book, Ellen White explicitly shows that her endorsement of canvassing as preparation for the ministry is based on its orientation toward personal ministry in the home: EWRWC 8.1

Some men whom God was calling to the work of the ministry have entered the field as canvassers. I have been instructed that this is an excellent preparation if their object is to disseminate light, to bring the truths of God’s word directly to the home circle. In conversation the way will often be opened for them to speak of the religion of the Bible. If the work is entered upon as it should be, families will be visited, the workers will manifest Christian tenderness and love for souls, and great good will be the result. This will be an excellent experience for any who have the ministry in view.

Those who are fitting for the ministry can engage in no other occupation that will give them so large an experience as will the canvassing work. ²¹

This personal work in the home, which is at the heart of the canvassing work, is the very method of labor for which Mrs. White said women were especially fitted and in which they could do a work “in the line of ministry” that men could not do. EWRWC 8.2

Fourth, elsewhere in this same volume Ellen White discusses the need for more ministers to be trained and enter the field. If at this time she had intended to open the regular ministerial option for women, one might well expect her to say so. But note the references to gender in the following statement: EWRWC 8.3

There is an urgent demand for laborers in the gospel field. Young men are needed for this work; God calls for them. Their education is of primary importance in our colleges, and in no case should it be ignored or regarded as a secondary matter. It is entirely wrong for teachers, by suggesting other occupations, to discourage young men who might be qualified to do acceptable work in the ministry. Those who present hindrances to prevent young men from fitting themselves for this work are counterworking the plans of God, and they will have to give an account of their course. There is among us more than an average of men of ability. If their capabilities were brought into use, we should have twenty ministers where we now have one. ²²

This view is reinforced later in the same volume where Section Seven, “Calls to Service,” opens with an article entitled, “Young Men in the Ministry.” ²³ Among numerous calls there for “men” and “young men” to enter the ministry, there is no mention of women being urged to join the ranks of the ministers, mention which we might well expect if it had been Mrs. White’s intention earlier in the volume to indicate that women as well as men were to prepare for the regular gospel ministry. EWRWC 8.4

So in the statement with which this section opened, in which Mrs. White said that “the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit...prepares workers, both men and women, to become pastors to the flock of God,” was she calling for women as well as men to be pastors in today’s sense of the term? Her use of the term “pastor” to describe a function as well as an office and her recognition that the two did not always go together leave open an alternative interpretation—that “pastors to the flock of God” designates those who exercise a personal ministry of visitation and instruction in the home. If one chooses to adopt the alternative explanation, then the statement is harmonious with other statements Mrs. White makes about the kind of work women are especially qualified to do, fulfilling a role that is complementary to that of men. It also harmonizes with her specifically male-directed calls for ministerial workers in the same volume of the Testimonies. If on the other hand one chooses to say that this passage does call for women to serve in the office of pastor, then one must account for the singularity of this statement—there are no other, different statements that make the same point in an unequivocal manner. EWRWC 8.5