Breaking Free Ministries
A Search For Truth (Part V)
SISTAHS MAGAZINE                                               
In September, 1994, my wife and I lunched "Sistahs," a magazine for Christians black women. Even
though my main responsibilities for the magazine were bookkeeping, billings, mailings, editing and
promotion, I did write two articles in the section "Brother's Corner."  The reason I am quoting from
these three articles is because these autobiographies helped me to finally accept the calling of women in
ministry, even though it's not a popular belief accepted by most fundamentalist Christians. I am also
giving a third example form the book I used for the two articles.                          

The first article for the May/June 1995 edition of Sistahs was the "Life & Religious Experience of Jarena
Lee," born in Cape May, New Jersey on February 11, 1783:                                                  

Lee said the voice of God told her "Go preach the gospel." But she was not sure it was the voice of God
or Satan, because she knew Satan had the ability of deception. She immediately went to a secret place of
prayer, asking God to confirm His calling her to preach.     Lee said God confirmed His first calling by
the literally formation of a pulpit with a Bible lying on it.                                                           

Two days later, Lee visited Rev. Richard Allen, the head of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal
Church to tell him of her calling by God to preach the gospel. But he told her it was against the church
policy to permit women to preach in the church, but they could be exhorts and hold prayer meetings.
The it occurred to her, didn't Mary Magdalene, a woman, preach about the resurrection of Jesus (John
20:11-18)?  Once again the Spirit led Lee into prayer, and there appeared a man dressed in a white
garment, saying: "Thou shall never return from the cross." And from that day forward in 1807, Lee
never once doubted God's ability to keep her from falling during her ministry....                             
Lee had an opportunity to hear Rev. Richard Williams, a delegate to the first General Convention of the
A.M.E. Church in 1816, preach at Bethel Church. But after he had given his text, "Salvation is of the
Lord" Jonah 2:9), he hesitated for a moment; Lee immediately sprang to her feet and started
expounding the text. After she had sat down, she thought Rev. Williams would expel her from the
church, but instead, he expressed his belief that she surely was called by God to preach. 8                          
                                         
My second article appeared in our last issue of Sistahs, FALL 1995, was the "Memoirs of Julia Foote,"
who was born in Schenectady, New York in 1823:                                                                   

As days past, Julia felt the impression that God    wanted her to work in the vineyard;  this led her to
pray about the matter. As an angel appeared    before her with a scroll which read, "Thee have I chosen
to preach My gospel without delay."   One night as Julia was seeking the Lord to  remove this burden
from her, an angel again  appeared and said, "You are lost unless you  obey God's righteous
commands."  Two weeks     later, for the third time, an angel again spoke these words: "You have I
chosen to go in My  name and warn the people of their sins."  Julia     immediately said, "I will go,
God."  Julia soon faced opposition, but mostly from her local  pastor. He didn't only refuse to allow her
to preach in the local church, but didn't want her to be allowed to preach  anywhere else in  Boston. In
regards to this matter, Julia held a meeting in her home with various members in  the congregation.
Because her pastor felt she  had broken some church rule, Julia was  excommunicated. Julia later
submitted her grievance to the church conference, held in Philadelphia. But her complaints were not
even considered, but thrown under the table. 9

A third example of a black woman accepting the call of preaching was "Mrs. Zilpha Elaw," born in the
state of Pennsylvania around 1790:

In 1817, Zilpha, while attending a gospel camp meeting, a voice spoke to her and said: "Now thou art
sanctified; and I will show thee what thou must do." Afterward. as she appeared not to be on earth, she
prayed publicly. Many cam requesting he to present their petitions to God, thus began her "ministry of
prayer." Before the end of the gospel camp-meeting, the Holy Spirit revealed to Zilpha that she was to
be like another Phoebe [Romans 16:1-2, a colleague of Apostle Paul] who to visit families; she was to
speak to them about salvation, the state of their soul, and to visit the sick. This revelation confirmed
what he sister, after recovering from a near death experience, had stated a year previous. Her sister had
said she had seen Jesus, had been in the society of the angels, and that an angel came and told her that
Zilpha must preach the gospel.

Both of these revelations still did not move Zilpha to preach...It was nearly one and one half years later
before Zilpha attended the next camp-meeting. While the camp-meeting, a voice said to her, "Go outside
of the tent while I speak to thee." Immediately, Zilpha went outside of the tent, and began to speak, as if
involuntarily, exhorting the people. After Zilpha had finish speaking, she said, "I sat down and closed
my eyes; and there appeared a light shining round about me as well as within me, above the brightness
of the sun; and out of that light, the same identical voice which had spoken to me on the bed of sickness
many months before, spoke again to me on the camp ground, and said, "Now thou knowest the will of
God concerning thee; thou must preach the gospel; and thou must travel far and wide." This is my
commission for the work of the ministry, which I received, not from mortal man, but from the voice of
an invisible and heavenly personage sent from God...my ministry was commenced in the midst of
thousands who were both eye and ear witnesses of the fact.

After Zilpha returned home, she got the approval of all the ministers in the Methodist Society to preach,
but jealousy soon developed toward her among many of her local class members. She became a personal
witness to Matthew 13:57, "A prophet is not with out honor, saved [except] in his own country, and his
own house."10

I know you may not accept the above stories as factual as I once would not have, but I have come a long
ways since my cult background and traditional non-acceptance of women in ministry. In nearly every
ministry I have known, the men often emphasized women should not be in ministry, except teaching
children and women. This biblical debate continues on today. Even these ladies themselves, at first,
doubted their calling. These visitations were special cases under unusual circumstances. But we should
always keep in mind that many souls have been misled by satanic visitations; those who have, have often
started cult churches.

Christians may disagree on some biblical issues, but we are all part of God's body, His church. These
issues should not cause such major debates as they do in the church. All Christians must learn to accept
each other with love, as I have, coming from a church which once believed it was the only true church.    
                                              [Continued in "Part VI" (click)]