The Women of Neo-Pentecostalism
The heretic Montanus was the "father" of the prophetic movement of his day. He was the first person to allow women full and equal participation in ministry roles. He traveled with two women prophetesses who (along with Montanus) were proven to be false prophets.
Like their spiritual grandfather the early Pentecostal pioneers adopted and added to his heretical stances, including allowing women into ministry positions Biblically reserved by divine fiat for men only.
One of the reasons women had such liberty to minister in the roles Biblically reserved for men was due in large part to the holiness movement of the early 1800's. People who believed the heretical concept of the second work of grace, i.e. complete sanctification, taught that since they had come to this state of perfection the curse on women from the fall was removed. Finney, the pelagian, promoted the role of women in his meetings. Finney is well respected among Pentecostals and Charismatics, even though his doctrine was far from orthodox.
The following is only a partial listing of some of the more influential neo-Montanist women past and present.
| Mrs. Cardale |
| Miss Emily Cardale |
| Maria Woodworth Etter |
| Agnes Ozman |
| Lucy Farrow |
| Aimee S. McPhearson |
| Kathryn Khulman |
Mrs. Cardale was a member of Edward Irving's congregation in England and on April 30, 1831 she began to speak in other tongues and prophesy. Irving was impressed and did not exercise any restraint towards this member's activity. Soon Mrs. Cardale's sister Emily also began to speak in tongues and prophesy, and others followed them. The end result was that Rev. Irving was eventually excommunicated from the Presbyterian Church and he formed his own organization. He was defrocked not so much for the charismatic extremism but for his heterodox view of the nature of Christ, his Christology was aberrant. Irving's organization later began to promote to concept of restored prophets and apostles. Irving also believed that tongues and prophecy had divine origin and were truly revelatory in nature. As with Montanus, the role of the two women prophetesses became pronounced and set a pattern destined to be repeated over the coming years.
Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844-1924) is one of the more mystical of all the neo-Montanist women. She was a traveling evangelist, one of the first women to take this role in America and was initially part of the holiness/healing movement. In the 1880's she was known to go into trances and stand stock-still for hours and sometimes days. During these trance times people would come into her meetings and be miraculously healed or converted. In 1890 she reports people receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit as evidenced with the speaking in other tongues and people seeing heavenly visions. "The Holy Ghost was present in great power, with gifts, signs, and visions, following the laying-on-of-hands. There were visible signs of light and glory on the pulpit, and through the congregation seen by the natural eye by some" (Signs & Wonders, Harrison House, pg. 150-151). Sister Woodworth-Etter is possibly the source for many of the aberrant doctrines taken up by the New Order of the Latter Rain in the late1940's. She practiced the laying on of hands for healing (which is Biblical), delivering people from demons, and conveying spiritual gifts. Tremendous healings allegedly took place in her meetings, including the raising of the dead on certain occasions. Sister Etter started twelve churches, ordained twelve ministers to pastor these churches. In 1918 she built the Woodworth-Etter Tabernacle (humble huh?) in Indianapolis in which she served as pastor until her death. She must be counted as the "mother" of today's Signs & Wonders Movement.
Agnes Ozman (1870-1937) was a female student at Charles Fox Parham's Bible School in Topeka Kansas. In 1901 she made Pentecostal history by being the first member of this Bible school to speak with other tongues. When she got the "gift" it is recounted that she could not speak a word of English for three days! Many credit her experience with the initial flood of spiritual gifts being released into the Church, yet a careful reading of Church history proves that people had already been speaking in other tongues via Sister Etter's meetings some eleven years prior to Agnes Ozman's experience. However, it was a black man and woman named William Seymour and Lucy Farrow who were students at Parham's school who took this new experience with them to Los Angeles and from Azusa street the neo-Pentecostal movement was birthed.
The Women of the Azusa "Revival"
One aspect of the entire spread of Pentecostalism is the major role that women have played in starting it and promoting it globally. History has shown us that it was the Cardale sisters who convinced Edward Irving of the validity of their gifts. That it was sister Etter who helped spread the concept of speaking-in-other-tongues and transmitting that gift via the laying on of her hands.
The Azusa revival proved to be no different. Pentecostals always speak of William Seymour but have neglected (for the most part) the essential role of women in promoting the manifestations of Azusa.
At the Apostolic Faith Mission on Azusa Street of the twelve elders six of them were women. Jennie Evans Moore, Sister Prince, Mrs. G.W. Evans, Clara Lum, Phoebe Sargent, Florence L. Crawford. Without doubt these were sincere godly women, however the New Testament has reserved the ministry position of the elder for men only. In historic Israel elders were always men. This injunction was carried over into the early Church (1 Tim. 1:1-3;Titus 1:6 ). These women elders held equal responsibility for examining ordination candidates for mission work. The point I want to stress is that from the onset the Azusa work was out of God's divine order for Church ministry.
Cited below are some of these women:
Lucy Farrow "became a key figure in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Azusa Street. The leader of a black Holiness mission in Houston, she has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit under Parham's ministry. . .Lucy Farrow had already been quite successful in leading other people into the baptism with the laying on of her hands." (Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, Stanley Burgess, Zondervan Publishing House, 1995, pg. 894).
Miss Mable Smith in 1906 she came to Chicago with a team from Azusa where she spread the message of Azusa.
Rachel A. Sizelove came to Springfield Missouri in 1907 after hands were laid on her and she was ordained. Springfield later became the home of the Assemblies of God Pentecostal denomination.
Florence L. Crawford spread the Pentecostal message in 1906 around the California area. She became very prominent due to her revival meetings.
Miss Ivey Campbell held meetings in Ohio is 1906 after her Azusa experience.
Jennie Evans went on to marry William Seymour, she was one of seven people who received the "Pentecostal blessing" at a home on Asberry Street prior to moving to the Azusa location.
Other Neo-Montanist Women of Notoriety
Aimee Semple McPherson is without doubt the most controversial of all the Pentecostal women. She got the baptism in 1907 and soon went with her husband to China, where he died. She came back to the United States and traveled as an evangelist. In 1919 she settled in Los Angeles where she built the Angelus Temple. She served as the pastor of the temple until her death in 1944. She is controversial because she faked her own kidnapping in order to carry on an adulterous affair in 1926. During the outcry against her over this affair she incorporated The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, which later grew into a large Pentecostal denomination. The Foursquare denomination exists today. Sister Aimee died of a barbiturate overdose in 1944.
Kathryn Khulman was one of the more flamboyant women ministers of recent times. She was known for her flowing gowns and dramatic movements and speech. She began ministering in 1923 and died of heart failure in 1976. She was known as a healing evangelist and teacher. She was an ordained minister under the Evangelical Church Alliance and she built the Denver Revival Tabernacle where she served as pastor until 1938. During this time she fell in love with a married man, who divorced his wife to marry Kathryn. Later Kathryn divorced him because the scandal attacked to her marriage stopped her ministry (and rightly so). She was a national radio preacher and is remembered as a leading figure in the Charismatic Renewal movement. Benny Hinn visits her mausoleum to get his anointing recharged at times and he holds his services in the exact same manner which sister Khulman did.
(The information above was obtained primarily from the Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, Zondervan Publishers, 1995 edition.)
Women Holding Major Ministry Positions Within the Charismatic Movement Today
Myrtle D. Beall
Marilyn Hickey
Iverna Thompkins
Roxanna Brant
Daisy Osborn
Agnes Sanford
Ruther Carter Stapleton
Gloria Copeland
Annette Capps
Jan Crouch
Tammy Bakker
Joyce Myers
Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements - Zondervan
Signs & Wonders - Harrison House Publishers
All Things Are Possible - Indiana Press
The Holiness and Pentecostal Movement in the United States - Eerdmans
The historical fact remains that Pentecostalism's origin and spread in large part is due to the activity of women. The question is does God bless and use people who are in direct violation of His Word? If women are not divinely sanctioned to serve as elders and pastors, can true blessings flow from them in these areas of ministry? Much of the rampant error today in the Charismatic Movement can be directly traced back to the activity of the women cited in this section.
©Copyright 1997 - 2002 Rev. Robert S. Liichow