The Women’s Institute: Preparing Women to Serve

Lee Ann Spradlin

Lee Ann Spradlin has been in ministry with her husband Mike for almost 40 years. From local church ministry to church planting with the North American Mission Board, Mike and Lee Ann have served in Arkansas, Kansas, New York, and Tennessee in their many years of service to the Lord.

Lee Ann graduated from Ouachita Baptist University with a Bachelor of Music Education Degree and has worked as private piano teacher, church accompanist, music teacher of children’s choirs, church secretary, and as an adjunct women’s ministry instructor for Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary.

As a homeschool mom, she educated her three children through high school graduation, and all three received academic scholarships to the college of their choice.

Throughout the years of Mid-America’s existence, women have been trained for ministry. Although the type of training has evolved over time to meet the needs of the women who have come, the goal has remained the same: to prepare women to serve the Lord.

In the early days of MABTS the students were men who were called to preach, teach, or train for missionary service overseas. Most of the students were married and their wives usually worked to help put their husbands through school. Because many worked during the day, a Monday night class for wives was offered. The very first class was taught by Mrs. Pat Henderson, wife of Dr. Dick Henderson. Dr. and Mrs. Henderson had served in the pastorate and on the mission field for many years before coming to Mid-America to serve on faculty. As Mrs. Henderson shared with these ladies from her personal experiences in ministry, the women learned firsthand what they could expect as they looked forward to their own ministry one day after seminary. As the seminary wives class grew in popularity and as the role of the teacher expanded, a fall semester and a spring semester class were created and titled The Pastor’s Wife Class and The Missionary Wife Class. Several different faculty wives through the years taught these classes based on their encounters while serving in the church or on the mission field. These teachers loved the ladies who attended their classes and were excellent role models. They would speak and teach from the heart, sharing the wisdom their students needed to hear to equip them for ministries they would soon face.

About fourteen years ago, I was invited to assume the role of directing this class, along with Mrs. Susan Thompson (wife of Dr. Bradley Thompson, Academic Vice President and Dean of the College at Mid-America). Susan and I did not feel ready for this assignment in our early days of teaching, but we have grown to love this program and the ladies that the Lord sends our way. We have enjoyed walking beside many women through the years and equipping them for the work that they are called to do.

Since our program began when the Seminary was on the quarterly system, we wanted to make the change from offering only two classes to a variety of classes. The first year, we created four topics of study in our class, one per quarter. The complete program was known as The Student Wives Class, and everything was designed to train them for ministry in the church and on the mission field. Knowing that a typical student wife would be at seminary for at least three years, we planned a series of studies that could be taught over those twelve quarters. These studies would rotate every three years, along with any new ideas that needed to be introduced, and they would be taught by various women in ministry, from our local churches to our faculty wives. The women involved in the program grew mightily in their walk with the Lord, learned many of the skills needed to minister to others, met new ministry friends that they have maintained relationships with, gained prayer support for their concerns and needs, and were greatly encouraged.

As times changed at MABTS, the Seminary began to admit female students for different degree programs, and we were tasked with the job of including these students in some of our plans. The ladies always enjoyed back-to-school and holiday events, so we were easily able to include the female students in these. Faculty wives were encouraged to attend as well, to give them an opportunity to meet the ladies in the seminary family. Pretty soon a few of the female students chose to sit in on our Monday night classes because they wanted to learn along with us and meet other women for fellowship. Our non-credit classes made it more appealing to the students because they could join us when they had time without worrying about class requirements.

As our program gained interest, we began to look for new ways of advertising to reach student wives, female students, and alumni wives. One of the ladies who has given us good advice through the years is Mrs. Suzanne Grigsby, daughter of Dr. Gray and Mrs. Voncille Allison. Having served for years as a pastor’s wife before establishing a counseling ministry to couples with her husband Dr. Charlie Grigsby, Suzanne has been a great sounding board for Susan and me and has been available to teach in our class whenever we have asked. Suzanne recommended that we reach out to the alumni wives who live in the Mid-South area, because many times they feel isolated and need the ongoing fellowship and training we offer. What great advice that has turned out to be as even today, we will usually have alumni wives attending.

Once again, our program has needed flexibility in the classes offered because as the student population changes, so does our audience. Single men, college students, online students, and COVID have challenged us to answer the call to train the women who do come to our school. However, preparing women to serve continues to be the mission that we believe God has called us to fulfill through our program now called, The Women’s Institute.

One of the primary goals Susan and I have is to meet the new students and student wives as they join our seminary family. We plan events and classes for a school year and always ask the Lord to bring those new ladies that need what we offer the most. We provide childcare for those who want it, snacks and meals, books for their personal library, prayer support, quality training, and scholarships for those women who are not able to afford our tuition of $30 per semester. We try to make it easy for any woman to come, whether she works full time, is a stay-at-home wife or mom, or is a student.

Our goal is to create an environment for these ladies where they feel wanted and safe, where they know they can confide in us, where they will learn much about the Lord that has saved them and called them to serve Him, where they can verbalize their fears and not be rejected but prayed for, where they can gain the confidence needed to serve in any setting, and where they can fellowship with like-minded women. With these goals in mind, we plan a program that will provide the women with the tools they need for a life of service to the Lord.

The first thing necessary after meeting a woman is to help her discern where she is on her journey as a believer. Taking a woman from where she is to where she needs to be is not always easy. It requires much time getting to know her, learning about her past, and understanding what she feels called to do. We cannot sit down one-on-one with all the ladies because our time does not allow for that in the classroom setting, but through outside appointments we are able to counsel and talk to the ladies, getting to know them a little better. One of the biggest needs women in ministry face is dealing with their past and finding out who they are in Jesus Christ through spiritual growth processes. Truly, they cannot be free to minister to others if they are not walking in victory with Christ. The classes we offer help women in many areas, including identifying lies we believe and how to deal biblically with those lies, learning how to control the tongue, knowing the spiritual disciplines that we need to incorporate in our daily lives and how to practice those disciplines, and how to walk in victory and not defeat. We do this through in-depth Bible studies.

Knowing how to become a leader in their churches and other fields of ministry is another need these ladies have. We offer classes that teach leadership skills based on biblical examples, conflict in ministry and how to resolve it, how to discover spiritual gifts and serve with them, becoming a woman of influence, building good relational skills, and learning to lead and thrive on the mission field.

An essential skill that women in ministry need to develop is understanding how to build a strong ministry that thrives. Our classes for this include how to build an effective women’s ministry and lead women, relationships and people skills, hearing from other local minister’s wives and gaining advice and tips from them, how to counsel others using the Bible, developing a framework for ministry, and leading others to serve in the community where you live.

As many women have participated in our program through the years, we have seen life-changing and rewarding moments take place. Whether a student comes to the Women’s Institute as a new believer, young married, single, more mature believer, a missionary currently stateside, or a wife entering ministry after many years of marriage, we have the joy of walking beside her, watching her grow in her walk with the Lord and in her ministry role. We have seen transformation take place as these ladies learn for the first time what it means to follow the Lord unconditionally, to understand the ministry call on her life and/or her husband’s life and how to accept it, to dig deep and study the scripture daily, to develop a strong and thriving prayer life, to manage time and keep their homes, to be good stewards learning to live on little, and to raise their children to serve the Lord.

We have been very blessed to include international student wives in our program through the years. These ladies are usually intimidated by the language barrier but have done extremely well as they attend classes and interact with others in the class. They have enriched our class by teaching us about their countries or allowing us to pray for them. When they return to their homeland, we know that a small part of what we have been able to teach them will go with them.

The Women’s Institute has been inviting local church ladies to join us in our studies for the past few years. We have had several women from many different churches participate with us, and we feel that in a small way, we are strengthening these ladies as we use our class to reach out to our community.

Mid-America Baptist Seminary has a rich heritage of training men and women for fifty years to go “To All the World for Jesus’ Sake.” The Women’s Institute plays a very small part in this work at our school, but we have seen wonderful results and received great feedback. It has been a highlight for me and is such a joy to know that I have had a spiritual influence on women who now serve all over this world, just as other women in ministry have had an influence on me.

To God be the glory, great things He hath done!