9.16.2026

While visiting a craftsman colony on Saturday, I spoke with a really sweet church musician who ran a jewelry shop. She shared that a cousin had recently been fired from her decades-long church position at a  church after the congregation voted to become Southern Baptist. This cousin had worked in various capacities as a minister within that congregation, but despite her effectiveness, her ministry was no longer valid. 

How utterly ridiculous. 

I grew up in a church that recognized women’s callings back in the 1800s, and from early years I sat under the ministries of women who were powerful evangelists, pastors and teachers. Their love for the Lord and love for his word heavily influenced my own life and ministry. 

So for me it was no surprise to learn about the impact of women in ministry during the early years of Christianity. 

We don’t hear about them often. In the first four or so centuries after Christ, men were writers;  we call them the “Early Church Fathers,” and their writings give a beautiful picture of belief and practice during those centuries. But while these men were writing, there were many women who were actively serving. There are few records of women in formal positions of leadership, although there are mentions of women as apostles and deacons, but there were many other ways women ministered. 

In fact, it seems women were in the forefront of evangelism. 

Egyptian papyri indicate that in the early centuries Christian women were far more able to move around geographically than non-Christian women. These unsung heroes, often slaves, took the lead in establishing  Christian churches throughout Armenia and Georgia in what Andrea Sterk called “the missionary success of the lowly.” 

One 2nd century itinerant preacher, Clement,  found “a single, believing woman” living in a Syrian town. She was the only Christian there, holding her own in a pagan environment. Why was she there? We don’t know. We don’t know her name nor what happened to her. But she was the one witness to Christ in a community where she let her “light so shine.”

We don’t know why many of the early believers found their way into regions where no other Christians lived, but when they did, they founded congregations by simply being  faithful believers, embodying the teachings of Christ.  

Women’s roles in evangelism and early church planting really make sense when you think that the gathering place of the early church was the home. There was no privacy in those days, and the neighbors knew everything that went on – and gossiped freely with other neighbors (people haven’t changed). The mother was in charge of the household and had regular dealings with specific classes of people.  

Women might be whipped for speaking to men in public, but they certainly had access to slaves, children and other women, and this was how Christianity spread. When a non-believing neighbor’s children were sick, the women believers would minister to them and offer to pray for them. This was often a first inroad. Also, women were most often present with the dying and at childbirth, which made them a significant presence at times of greatest need. 

So, it shouldn’t be surprising that women made up the majority of believers in the first four centuries of Christianity. One pagan writer, Celsus, writing in the 180s expressed distaste that Christians formed groups that attracted “riffraff,” including women: “wool-workers, cobblers, laundry-workers, and the most illiterate and bucolic yokels.” For Celsus, they were the dregs of society and had no views worth listening to. Celsus wrote that while silent in public, women freely shared about Christianity in “the wool-dresser’s shop, or . . . the cobbler’s or the washerwoman’s shop,” and it was there other women were persuaded that Christianity was the best way of living.

The identity of believers would be revealed as relationships developed. Masters interacted with slaves, residents met neighbors, and above all, believers interacted with relatives and work colleagues. And the gospel spread because the Christians’ character and behavior in their daily interactions were the most reliable ways to communicate the attractiveness of the Good News to others and draw them to explore further. 

And that has not changed. 

Back in the 1980s, I was taught “guerrilla evangelism.” We approached strangers, often on a Saturday morning or in the mall, and confronted them with a memorized, ripped out of context, cobbled together string of scriptures, devised to force the hearer into making a commitment. There was no time for any serious understanding on their part and certainly no time for building any sort of relationship. 

It was the absolute opposite of what we find being practiced in the church and in the Bible. 

 “You are the light of the world,” Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:13-16. “A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” 

“You are the light of the world.” That’s everybody, men and women. Let your light shine!  

Blessings,
Pastor Terry