WHAT is wrong with young, single Bible instructors? Plenty! For one thing, they are too young to have had any of the experiences in life that would qualify them to be sympathetic and understanding of people's problems. How can they give counsel and help to wives and mothers when they themselves have been neither? How can they enter into the sorrows and perplexities of others when they have lived too short a time to know much of sorrow or heartache?
And as for being single, the problems are insurmountable! Bible work is a lonely life with few professional peers, and most young people the Bible instructor's age are already married.
Add to that the matrimonial problem. If she is marriageable at all with pleasing personality and a lovable disposition she will certainly find her way to the altar after only a year or two of being in the work. That means, of course, that she will automatically be lost to the cause and the conference investment in her will be wasted. (If, on the other hand, she is not marriageable material, she certainly would not be a desirable risk for the Bible work.)
So, why train young women for this work at all? Really, would it not be better to direct them into other lines of service where their talents could be used to better advantage?
These are the reasonings and conclusions of some of the ministering brethren with whom I have discussed the matter of training young college-age women as Bible instructors. In some cases, no doubt, their observations have been based on experiences with dropouts from the work. We cannot entirely deny that there is some validity to their opinions.
When God Calls
What is wrong with young, single Bible instructors? Plenty! I think I am well qualified to know, for I was one of them. (I am thankful God doesn't expect us to be perfect before He calls us to His work.) My problem was that when I entered the work, fresh out of college, I was too inexperienced to know all these sound reasons for my not being able to do the job. I had a call from God and didn't wait to learn what men thought about it. Now that I am more mature, married, and hopefully wiser, I shall endeavor to say what I have wanted to say for a long time.
Almost all I knew about Bible work when I began was what I had learned from books. A few Bible studies in academy and college, an interest in soul winning, and what I had learned in classes was all the back ground for the work I had. I knew very little about the methods and techniques of visiting and of gaining decisions, et cetera. Those first few years were not very productive. (Though in retrospect, I must say they weren't wasted.)
Limited by Inexperience and Youth Inexperience and youth do have their limitations. But certainly this problem is not confined to any one profession. As a young Bible instructor I worked with young interns and their wives. I discovered they had problems too. We have had young ministerial interns within our family circle; we know some of the inner perplexities that the public never sees. But problems of youth and inexperience do not cause us to stop training ministerial interns, nor doctors, nor nurses and teachers. Should they then be legitimate cause for stopping the training of Bible instructors?
As for depth in Christian experience, maturity has its decided advantages. Yet in looking back I believe there was a freshness and enthusiasm in my youthful approach that may have been as effective in my witness for Christ as was the knowledge and experience of later years.
Youthful Talents an Asset
Those of us who have worked with young people know that the consecration and dedication of today's youth are as sincere and genuine as those of any generation. There are young women who through the power of God can make just as lasting a contribution to the work as can those with more maturity. True, they need guidance and training, but their youthful talents can be a great asset to the work of God. As surely as we send young women out to the mission field, or into the hospital ward, or into the classroom with our boys and girls, so surely can we trust our young women to go out into the homes and prepare men and women for the kingdom of God.
And what of the problem of loneliness? I would be the last to argue that the Bible work is not a lonely profession, especially for the single girl. But I would hasten to add that as a single person my life was fuller and richer than that of many of my peers whose jobs were less exciting and challenging than mine. More than one of my single friends has envied me my stimulating profession.
Ask any church school teacher or secretary or the young woman who accepts a mission appointment about the problem of loneliness. But would we discourage these women from accepting their challenge simply because they might become lonely or face certain dangers? Where is our spirit of sacrifice? How dare we discourage young women from answering the call of God to the woman's part of the gospel ministry (see Evangelism, p. 472) because there are difficulties to be met?
A Challenging Career
Shall we tell them that because they are female and liable to marriage there is no place for them in the Lord's work? God forbid!
In the first place, not all marriageable girls marry. Due to various reasons some fine Christian young women either do not marry at all or they postpone marriage till later in life. You may see such girls in conference offices, in the classrooms of our schools, and in our hospitals. Why then should we be shocked to see them out in the field as Bible instructors? What more rewarding or challenging career could a girl find to fill her life?
But suppose the girls we train for Bible work do marry. Is this cause for ceasing to train them for this work? Have we stopped training nurses because many of them marry? Have we stopped granting educational loans to prospective schoolteachers because they might marry? And what would happen to our schools, our hospitals, our conference offices, if we stopped training young women for these various careers? Just what has happened to the Bible work! There would be a terrible gap empty posts in the cause of God. Marriage need not be the end of a career. Many a woman, after her family is grown and gone from home, has returned to the career for which she trained. Some go back sooner. (Regardless of our personal views on the Tightness or wrongness of mothers working outside the home, the fact still remains that many, even of ministers' wives, find it necessary to help supplement the family income while their children are in school.) If a woman has had training as a Bible instructor why should she not find as much joy and satisfaction in that field as she might in some other career?
Excellent Training for Minister's Wife
Many young women who train for or plan to be Bible instructors marry ministers before they have opportunity to practice their profession. Are their time and training wasted? What better training for the high calling of being the preacher's helpmeet could there be than training for Bible work? Dorothy Pentecost in her book The Pas tor's Wife and the Church points out that every prospective minister's wife should have specific training for her role before marriage. She points out rather candidly that this might avoid some of the disasters that are so often seen in the ministry.
It has been my personal experience in the past few years as a pastor's wife that I feel as much involved in the work of God as I did during the twelve years I spent as a conference-paid Bible instructor. Soul winning and the interests of God's kingdom are the same whether we be a Bible instructor or pastor's wife.
"Woman, if she wisely improves her time and her faculties, relying upon God for wisdom and strength, may stand on an equality with her husband as advisor, counselor, companion, and co-worker, and yet lose none of her womanly grace or modesty. ... A truly converted woman will exert a powerful transforming influence for good. Connected with her husband, she may aid him in his work, and become the means of encouragement and blessing to him." Evangelism, pp. 467, 468.
Married or single, God has a place for women in His work today. What would I do if I were young and starting out in life again? I would be a Bible instructor, in spite of the odds!
"The Lord has a work for women as well as for men. They may take their places in His work at this crisis, and He will work through them. If they are imbued with a sense of their duty, and labor under the influence of the Holy Spirit, they will have just the self-possession required for this time. The Saviour will reflect upon these self-sacrificing women the light of His countenance, and will give them a power that exceeds that of men. They can do in families a work that men cannot do, a work that reaches the inner life. They can come close to the hearts of those whom men cannot reach. Their labor is needed."— Ibid., pp. 464, 465. (Italics supplied.)
What is wrong with single, young Bible instructors? Plenty! But thank God, He has not abandoned them and neither should men!
Let us not be overwhelmed with the problems of finding, training, and hiring young women as Bible instructors. We haven't closed our hospitals because there are problems, nor have we emptied our educational centers because there are perplexing obstacles. Nor should we discourage the training of young women whom God has called to this work. Rather, let us follow the blueprint and continue to encourage and educate young women, as well as the older ones, for this important task. Let women take their places in the grand finishing of God's work in these closing days of earth's history!
