I AGREE that we have many problems and challenges as ministers' wives. But above all else, let us emphasize the wonderful privilege we have in working for God along with our husbands. This is the greatest thing in the world!"
It was the young wife of a ministerial intern speaking. The women filling the room nodded in agreement. The occasion was one of a series of meetings held by and for the ministers' wives of the Ohio Conference of Seventh-day Adventists during the camp meeting session in June, 1968. These women enjoy the benefits of an active, purposeful organization.
During 1968 they were led by a steering committee consisting of Mrs. L. F. Kagels, Mrs. C. R. Beeler, Mrs. R. M. Jewett, Mrs. B. L. Raith, and Mrs A. H. Schleicher. They conduct a written forum for the exchange of ideas, sent out with the ministers' monthly newsletter. They also organize their own meetings, when ever practical, for the study of topics of special interest.
On the above-mentioned occasion the writer had the privilege of leading out in a series of discussions on the subject heading this article. The women of the steering committee took turns as panel chairmen, except Mrs. Schleicher, whose place was filled by Mrs. E. A. Trumper. Other workers' wives and prominent lay women served as panel members, along with Mrs. Philip Follett, the wife of the conference president, who sat with us every day of the series. It was generally agreed that this format was beneficial, since more people came prepared to share their ideas, their research, and their valuable experiences. Thus the entire group felt more involved.
Much Expected
Before launching into the direct discussion of the title subject, a few background high lights might be helpful. As ministers' wives we already know that more is expected of us than of the helpmeets of other professional men. Whether we think this is justified or not makes no difference. Consider some other callings. No one feels that a lawyer is a failure if his wife does not find it convenient to watch him present a case in court, or if she is not eloquently conversant with legal terms and procedures. Neither does one judge a physician's wife adversely if she declines to observe her husband perform surgery—quite the contrary! Similar examples hold true in the case of dentists, teachers, businessmen, et cetera. But just imagine a minister's wife not attending faithfully at church, prayer meeting, evangelistic efforts, or other related functions! Or consider the standing of a pastor's wife who is invited to discuss a religious matter, only to plead ignorance, or worse, lack of interest!
Like it or not, you girls who have married a minister have married much more than a man. You have married his calling. This fact is as divinely ordained as the calling of the minister himself. Because the minister's calling is a divine one, much more is involved than his success as measured by any humanly devised yard stick. To the degree that your husband's intense personal spiritual dedication is the essential element in his true achievement, to that extent your total involvement in his work is as important as his. This is a hundredfold more true in the ministry than in any other profession. It is a life-and-death proposition.
A New Day for the Minister's Wife
Of course we feel inadequate for this responsibility. At the same time we are inspired and thrilled. We know the inexhaustible re sources of God are at our disposal. Nothing can equal the importance of prayer and Bible study. Still, when we look for other helps along practical lines, a problem arises. The New Testament contains good counsel on married life in general, and has frequent references to the service done by lay women in the church, but no words for pastors' wives as such. From apostolic times we have to wait until the Protestant Reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries before we even encounter such a person as a minister's wife. Martin Luther pioneered in instituting a married clergy. Convinced that a pastor's Christian home life would be the best example for the flock, he almost ran a marriage bureau for ex-priests and ex-nuns. It was not so in the English-speaking Protestant world. So foreign was the idea of a married clergy in Great Britain that not until 1604 did the government grant legal recognition of such. The story is told that Mrs. Thomas Cranmer, wife of the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, was forced to live in such seclusion that she had to travel in a box with ventilating holes in the lid!
Even after some of these initial handicaps were overcome, it took almost 350 years before any author of importance addressed himself to the peculiar status and problems of the minister's wife. Our husbands' libraries may be filled with volumes written for their needs, from the lofty concepts of theology to pamphlets of practical suggestions on dress and pulpit demeanor. In view of our own weighty responsibilities it is unfortunate that only during the past twenty-five years have worth-while books been published for our special benefit, beginning with A. W. Hewitt's classic The Shepherdess in 1943. Even in our own Adventist literature, including the writings of Ellen G. White, we have to find most of our inspiration and admonition in the wealth of excellent general counsel on the role of Christian women in the home and the church. There is a great deal of priceless instruction for gospel workers in general, but only a few pages of volumes 1 and 2 of The Testimonies are addressed to wives of ministers as a special group. When other works by Mrs. White contain such counsel, you will usually find that it is a quotation from this original source.
The prejudices and inadequacies of early Protestant years may have contributed to a stereotyped image of the minister's wife, almost as stifling and confining as Mrs. Cranmer's traveling box. But our own century has flung wide open all kinds of doors where women never before dreamed of entering. One of the most rewarding fields of service is ours as ministers' helpmeets. To assess our unique position is both a duty and a privilege. Let us probe more deeply into the aspects of potential fulfillment for each one of us. Doing this reverently and prayerfully, we shall surely with God's help re-establish the joyous truth that our calling is indeed "the greatest thing in the world."
Other installments of this series will be printed in due course. The next one is titled "The Minister's Wife and Her Relationship to God."
