New Book Chronicles History of Women Ministers in IPHC

Dr. Jeraldine T. Posey has written a timely new book, Let My Handmaid Speak: A History of Women in Ministry in the International Pentecostal Holiness Church from 1901–2011 (WestBow, 2011).    It is the first history woman in ministry within the IPHC and as such fills a crucial void in historical studies in Pentecostalism and modern Christianity.


The debate over women preachers has raged for centuries, but the argument has not been-and probably will not be-resolved. This book is not an addendum to that dispute. It is, however, an attempt to show some of the difficulties lady ministers have overcome to answer God's call to proclaim His Word.

The International Pentecostal Holiness Church, from its inception, has recognized women by admitting them to pulpits and allowing them to pastor churches. Lady ministers have also served successfully as evangelists and missionaries. 

However, the leadership of the denomination at a Solemn Assembly in 1996 acknowledged that the church had withheld from women places of honor and desired to release them to serve in leadership roles.Historically, women have gained ground only to lose it again, and even in our twenty-first century society, some still refuse to let God's handmaids speak.  

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SCHOLAR ADDRESSES EARLY PENTECOSTAL WOMEN PREACHERS

Women of the Good News: The Rhetorical Heritage of Pentecostal Holiness Women Preachers, CMT Press. Available via Amazon.com

Description: The first book to share interviews with women preachers of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church (IPHC), Dr. Welch explores rhetoric, gender, and religion in the biographies, autobiographies, and histories that detail what it means to be a Pentecostal woman preacher in Oklahoma. Archival materials provide a picture of Pentecostalism years before Oklahoma became a state in 1907, and a transcribed interview with the former Presiding Bishop of the IPHC, James Leggett, gives a contemporary view of what it means to be Pentecostal in the 21st century. A Christian scholar who grew up in the IPHC, Dr. Welch draws upon the field of rhetoric to use Jim Corder’s theory of generative ethos to illuminate the way identity is constructed on individual, collective, and spiritual levels. She shows the role place plays in the development of faith and character in her chapter “We are of this Place: Oklahoma and Ethos.” She concludes the book with an honest look at the administrative levels of the IPHC and ends with a note of hope for the future.

Kristen Dayle Welch (PhD, University of Arizona) is Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center at Longwood University, Farmville, Virginia, USA.