What Is and Isn’t the Role of Women on the Mission Field?
Knowledge and Discernment
Let's talk about women in missions. One of the real challenges on any mission field is that there's so much to do and there are not enough people to do it. It's really tempting in that kind of environment to start to lead with your perceived gifts instead of leading with the word of God. It's so important to remember that the word of God knows you better than you know yourself. A couple of verses can help frame this conversation. First let's go to Philippians 1:9, "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent..." There's a lot in there for a woman who's feeling pressured to go preach just because, I don't know, some of us are articulate. There's a lot in there. It says quite frankly that you are only going to abound more and more if you do so with knowledge and discernment.
Approve What Is Excellent
If you cross the line into thinking that your gifts are going to compensate for your disobedience to scripture then you are incurring God's wrath not his blessing. You do not want to do that, especially on a mission field. But also you must "approve what is excellent." That's going to bring us to Titus, especially chapter 2, which has a lot to say for both men and women on the mission field:
But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.
Your job is to adorn the doctrine of God. You do that in your life, and you do that in your life by showcasing what a Christian church, a Christian family of God, and a Christian family is in a dark and fallen world. If you are lured by Satan to use your gifts over clear obedience to God you will not be able to adorn the doctrine of God.
Adorn the Doctrine of God
The doctrines of God are found, of course, throughout the scripture but they are so beautifully articulated in the created order and in the creation ordinance where we learn that you are made in the image of God as a man or as a woman. For everything you do on the mission field that is your doctrinal boundary and it is true for mine as well as a pastor's wife here in the states.
What does that look like? What are women good at? Well, the things that women are good at are necessary for civilization! You must not in any way disparage what it means to be a nurturer, a caregiver, and a life giver. Let's not forget that the "Proverbs 31 woman" did have a job. What kind of job did she have? She had the kind of job that fed her household, that honored her household, that dressed her her husband in purple linen as he sat at the gate. So, what can you do? You can translate, you can teach literacy, you can teach other women, either by direct teaching or by example to love their husbands, to love their children. Without that we have no civilization, we have no mission field.