For the Ladies: Minister

A Lifestyle Calling: The Home and Beyond

The Scriptural perspective of ministry for the woman (and, really, for any followers of Jesus) is more than a “full-time” ministry job at a church; rather, it is a lifestyle calling. According to Scripture, our whole lives are meant to be a form of worship to God, displaying Him to others. Our lives are also meant to be a conduit to minister to the world around us (2 Corinthians 5:16-19). We see this throughout the Scripture as we see that the woman’s role as minister is focused in her home with her family and extends through her home to her friends, neighbors, the city, and the world.

As we have seen in the homebuilder post (see, “For the Ladies: Homebuilder”), the home is the primary place she will pour herself out. She is creating a home not only through functional measures with functional outcomes but also spiritual measures with spiritual outcomes. There is both a tangible and an intangible reality to the home she creates. It is through her home that she ministers first to her family and then to those around her. The home as a center of ministry is often downplayed in our culture; however, the home is a vital source of ministry first for the woman’s family and second for others to be brought into the sanctuary that is her home.

The Home:

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue… (Proverbs 31:26)

Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. (Proverbs 31:23)

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her… (Proverbs 31:28)

For her family she manages their daily life, provides food for them, prepares their clothing, etc. She also pours herself out as a ministry to her husband through helping him by listening to him, encouraging, offering insight as God reveals, being a companion, offering her strengths to him, and being a lover to him. She then pours herself out in ministry to her children by loving them and by talking with them about their everyday lives, easily and applicably incorporating God’s truth into those conversations. She sees giving herself to and loving the people in her home as her primary ministry. She is always teaching about God through the way she lives, listens, and shares insights and truth. Because of the woman she is, she does not disqualify her husband from his calling; rather, she pours into him to help him be the man he was created to be. Her family affirms her because she was present in their home and lives.

Not only does the woman pour herself out to her family in her home, but she also opens her home as a place of ministry to others. She practices a lifestyle of hospitality and teaches others truth as they intersect with her life. The woman understands the value and importance of her home as a space for others to be brought into because she has created it as a sanctuary. Because of the importance she has placed on ministering first to her family, there is a unity and life among her family that she has facilitated. Because they are alive, thriving, and bonded, she is then able to invite others to participate in their life. The Gospel reality of her family becomes something that others can be brought into. She also knows when to scale back from bringing others into her home in order to minister to her family. There will be times when she will simplify the hospitality she offers and others she brings into her home as her family has greater need for care; then there will be other times where she will be able to bring many through her sanctuary of a home. It is important to not forget that our most important ministry as women is pouring ourselves into our home and family first and having our other ministries happen as an overflow of that first and primary ministry of home and family.

And Beyond:

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue… (Proverbs 31:26)

Older women likewise are to…to teach what is good… (Titus 2:3)

She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. (Proverbs 31:20)

What we see as specific ministry roles explained through the “womanhood” Scriptures are simply teaching others and serving the poor. These may be done either inside or outside the home and may be lived out many different ways. Women are not limited to these two ministry areas; rather, women do possess a variety of spiritual gifts and may function in many different ministry roles. For our purpose, though, the ones we see as an overflow of womanhood are the ministries of perpetuating wisdom through teaching others and of reaching out to the poor.

In order to actually pass along wisdom, one must possess wisdom. And in order to gain wisdom, one must develop that inner life with God (mentioned in “For the Ladies: Christian”). By gaining wisdom through being connected to God, the woman will then be able to teach wisdom, kindness and whatever else is good.

The woman who follows Jesus will also care for the poor in some capacity. This will take many different forms throughout the various seasons of the woman’s life. The principle, though, remains that throughout her life that she will continually consider how she can open her hand to the poor. My guess is that having an open hand to the poor was important to mention in the context of the womanhood Scriptures because a woman who follows God would have an understanding of being given much (grace, freedom, rescue, etc.) and would give of her self in response to all that she has been given. The woman also sets the tone of her own home and would primarily be the one to encourage her husband and children to give to and serve the poor.

Again, the woman’s areas of ministry are not relegated to passing along wisdom to others and to serving the poor; however, we see that these two areas are characteristics of and should be evidenced in all women who follow God.