A courageous woman of character, verve, and sacrificial commitment: that was missionary and author Elisabeth Elliot, who died June 16, 2015. In addition to her many accomplishments, she stands uniquely poised to help church leaders learn to balance the complementarian and egalitarian tensions within the church today.
She became well known in 1956 when her husband Jim and four other missionaries were tragically speared to death while trying to establish contact with the fierce Waodani (known as Auca or “savages” to the neighboring tribes) in the jungles of Ecuador. The incident made national news at the time and went on to inspire countless young missionaries to give their all to God. Elisabeth’s books—Through Gates of Splendor, The Shadow of the Almighty, and The Journals of Jim Elliot—are classics in the missionary biography genre.
Elliot was a leader in her own right. As a missionary, she had no choice but to take on certain church leadership roles that would not have been her preference in the American church.
After the love of her life was murdered, it would have been very easy for the broken-hearted Elliot to simply take her toddler daughter, Val, back home, and put the tragedy behind her. But she had a strong conviction that, instead of leaving, she ought to go back to the tribe that killed her husband and love and forgive them. She was joined by Rachel Saint, the sister of one of the other martyred missionaries, Nate Saint. Elisabeth and Rachel had an “in” that made this outreach potentially less risky: a relationship with two Waodani women who had left the tribe and who taught the missionaries the culture and language. Now better prepared, this time the missionaries were successful. Violence was avoided, the gospel was passed on to the tribe, and a church was established among the Waodani. Years later, this outreach bore more fruit when two of the killers of the missionaries baptized Nate Saint’s son Steve.
After her missionary service was complete, Elliot had a long and respected ministry as a sought-after author and speaker. She also spent many years with a radio ministry, “Gateway to Joy.” She outlived her second husband, Addison Leitch, as well; he died of cancer. Later, she married a third time, this time to Lars Gren.
Elliot was a woman of graceful rhetoric and strong opinions. The idea that Christianity fundamentally means taking up one’s cross and following Christ was at the heart of everything she believed and taught. This applied not just to missions, but to marriage and the role of women as well. Elisabeth was a strong proponent of courtship, the submission of wife to husband, and the leadership of men within the church.
And yet, Elliot was a leader in her own right. As a missionary, she had no choice but to take on certain church leadership roles that would not have been her preference in the American church. Ed Stetzer quotes her as writing this:
When my husband was killed by Indians, I found myself in some indefinable positions. There wasn't one missionary man left in Ecuador who spoke the jungle Quichua language. There was no one to teach the young Quichua believers, no one to lead the church, no one but women to carry on where five missionary men had left off.
The door to the Auca tribe had slammed shut for those men and was, to our astonishment, opened to two women. It didn't look to me like a woman's job. But God's categories are not always ours. I had to shuffle my categories many times during my last eight years of missionary work. Since coming back to the States, I've done it again. I've had a career of sorts, I've been a wife and housewife once more, and again I'm a widow.
Later, during her speaking and writing ministry, her third husband Lars Gren came along to support her in her ministry. On an episode of “Family Life Today,” Elisabeth reflected on how men have different gifts and how she had to get past comparing her different husbands with one another:
I was constantly comparing Jim Elliot to Addison Leitch. Jim could do a lot of things Ad couldn't do, Ad could do things Jim couldn't do, Lars could do a lot of things that Ad and Jim couldn't do, and so I was making these odious comparisons, and I opened my Bible and, lo and behold, it was staring me in the face—“men have different gifts, but it is the same Lord who accomplishes his purposes through them all.”
We cannot overlook the fact that though Elisabeth Elliot was not a pastor, many people—male and female—became missionaries and preachers of the gospel because of her witness. There are many places in the world that would not even have pastors and teachers without Elisabeth Elliot’s testimony and ministry. And yet, Elisabeth’s complementarian beliefs led her to put certain boundaries on her speaking ministry: she would not speak at a church on Sunday mornings, and she would only speak to mixed-gender groups if it was made that clear that the pastor was only temporarily handing the podium over to her and that she was under his authority.
Given Elisabeth Elliot’s complementarian beliefs and her ability to exercise strong leadership gifting within that framework, her life is uniquely poised to help both complementarian and egalitarian church leaders learn to balance these tensions in our own time.
Though Elisabeth Elliot was not a pastor, many people—male and female—became missionaries and preachers of the gospel because of her witness.
First of all, for those of us who are egalitarians, we must remember to honor and respect those true disciples who have taken up their cross and followed Christ. Though we may not share all of the same beliefs with some saints and leaders, we should look at the core of a person’s testimony and witness. Is the core of their witness the gospel and the self-giving love of Christ? Then we dismiss them at our peril. We can learn much from those who might have very different beliefs about the roles of men and women.
Second, for those who share Elliot’s complementarian beliefs, her life is a reminder that God (as she said) “shuffles” our categories. Even for those who are deeply convinced that men alone ought to take on the mantle of leadership in the Church, it is important to remember that we follow a God who lifts up the lowly and deposes the proud. God may be using an unlikely woman in a complementarian congregation to bear witness to Jesus. That woman may end up with a far greater reach and influence than any of the pastors or elders within the congregation. Consequently, it is important to maintain humility before God in one’s role of leadership and respect for how he may be working unexpectedly through the women of the congregation.
Finally, pastors and church leaders from both groups need to remember to seek the wisdom of older believers. As a young pastor in my twenties, I was convinced that my congregations expected me to know the answer to everything. The pressure to project confidence even where I felt none could have been somewhat abated had I been willing to more often sit at the feet of wise, older believers and ask their advice. God so often has his most mature saints hidden not in church staff positions, but under mantles of grey hair and obscurity. Their names may not be famous like Elliot’s, but their lives bear witness to their credibility as faithful disciples of Jesus. Not all leadership comes with the job title “Pastor.” And wise pastors recognize that the person who can teach and mentor them might just be the no-nonsense, grey-haired woman in the pew. A woman like Elisabeth Elliot.
Rebecca Florence Miller writes for Patheos Evangelical. She is also a freelance writer and editor.
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