Women’s ministry in the church has always been about knowing God and knowing His word, sharing the gospel with the needy and broken, and caring about the welfare of the country in which one lives. Yes, at times we women have gotten distracted by the fun of tea parties and bazaars; but on the whole, the evidence is of women who want to serve the Lord with their gender, to make a difference in their community and generation, while continuing their first call of serving God in their homes and with their families.

Women’s ministry has existed throughout the centuries of Christian history, and it is here to stay. But in the first century it was a far cry from what we know today. In the early church, women were noted for being martyred. This is probably not the kind of women’s ministry most of us are interested in! I’m sure women prayed together, cared for each other’s families in times of illness, memorized and discussed the scriptures, and evangelized others during the first centuries of the church.

But the stories that survived are of the women who didn’t survive.

Vibia Perpetua, who died in 202 A.D., is remembered for her courage as she faced death in a Roman arena at the hands of a mad cow. Perpetua kept a journal of her arrest and imprisonment, along with her maid, Felicity. Perpetua recorded her attempts to reconcile her wealthy father to her situation, “He was the only member of my family who would find no reason for joy in my suffering.” [i] An eyewitness account calls it “the day of their victory.” [ii]Not really the way I think I would face such a trial! One cannot deny the intensity of their love for Jesus and their gratitude that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ.

Asceticism, often accompanied by visions or ecstasies, seems to have gradually replaced martydom, but this form of ministry similarly left few survivors as many starved themselves in an effort to know God better and to serve him with a clean heart. Being single for the sake of God became the exalted norm. Rather than marriage for women, as Paul had written in Titus 2:3-5 and I Timothy 5:3-15, women were influenced toward a life of unnatural self-denial.

By the fourth century, women scholars had begun to surface. One of these educated women was Marcella, who was born around 322 and lived to be about 85 years old. Her family of origin was wealthy and esteemed. She married but was soon widowed, and refused to remarry. She met Jerome and “sought him out to learn as much of the Bible from him as possible. She began a ladies’ Bible study in her home, and her house became a center for Bible study, prayer and psalm singing.”[iii] That sounds a lot like women’s ministry as we know it today!

Marcella mentored Paula, who was also very wealthy, even owning entire towns. After Paula’s conversion, she used her money for charity, founding convents as well as a church and a hospice while living a simple, self-denying life. She was an excellent scholar of the Scriptures, knowing Greek and Hebrew and able to sing the Psalms in the original Hebrew. In the convents she founded, the major work was the copying of the Scriptures. She, like Marcella, was a student and colleague of Jerome’s and he dedicated several commentaries to her.

In the middle ages, a document written by Dhouda enables us to see what went on inside the head of a woman of that time. Dhouda was from a noble family. In the Manuel she wrote for her son, she sought to influence him in how to live the Christian life in the world, rather than in a monastery. She included chapters on prayer, love, sublimity of God and false riches. Her instructions for her son show what her concerns were for him as he matured. Centuries later Christian women are still concerned for their children, and gather in prayer for them as part of women’s ministries.

Read More