Wesleyan Women Ministers:

Our Daughters, God's Servants

Rev. Maxine Haines

            My husband and I were in a seminar on the ordination of ministers.  One chairman of a district Ministerial Development Board was speaking.  He mentioned a lady, whom I knew personally, that was nearing the completion of her service requirements for ordination.  She was a graduate of one of our Wesleyan Colleges.  "She'll never be ordained because she is obese.  She is just too fat," he said.  I quickly looked that crowd of men over—all were ordained and almost all of their bellies had "done lapped over their belts."  I heatedly questioned, "Then none of these men could be ordained because they are overweight?"  He stuttered around and finally said, "She has other problems also, and you know that we just can't have mediocre women preachers filling our pulpits."  By now my temperature had risen a few more degrees and I responded, "Man, do you know now many mediocre men preachers I have had to sit under in my life?"

            This morning, I want to share with you some stories of Wesleyan women ministers who have served God and the Wesleyan Church.  These are "our daughters, God's servants."

            Wesleyan women ministers have always been aware of the culture and social evils of their time. The Church also recognized "the times" and the need for laborers.  One year the Wesleyan Methodist Church recognized the work of Laura Smith Haviland of helping the black slaves escape from the South to freedom in the North and Canada as her district appointment—the same as pastoring a church.  Some women were given their district appointment to travel their conferences in preaching abstinence from alcoholic beverages, tobacco and drugs.  Some were appointed to hold rallies and fight to free young women from the "white slave" traffic.  And there was Mary Berg whose appointment was to rescue young girls and women from the clutches of prostitution.

            The Church has always believed that God "gave some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors/teachers." (Eph. 4:11).  One outstanding evangelist was Flora Burger Buck (Mrs. A.D.).  She was a gifted singer who led thousands of worshippers in song but her preaching under the power of the Holy Spirit resulted in over 10,000 converts.  Her ministry was short—only nineteen years in evangelism before her death but God honored her work.

            Long before the evangelical world used the term "planting churches," the Wesleyan Methodist and the Pilgrim Holiness churches were "starting," pioneering," and "planting" churches.  Many were started by women ministers.  Sometimes they were planted by conducting rescue missions for the dialects, prostitutes, and homeless.  Other times they conducted Sunday schools, Vacation Bible schools or cottage prayer meetings in an area where there was no holiness church.  But always there was the burden for the lost persons of a community that drove the ministers to prayer and fasting and then working to start a church in a new area.  Such was the case with Carrie Warburton.

Mrs. Carrie Beebe (Merton D.) Warburton

            Former DS James Bence described Carrie Warburton as "the leader" of the ministerial team of Merton D. and Carrie B. Warburton.  She was a woman of unusual energy.  When she saw a need she took care of it!  Her grandson, Ivan Kellogg, described her as a woman of great faith and obedience and a giant prayer warrior.

            Her recorded ministerial activity  began 1909 when she became the pastor of the Taylor, New York, church.

            Carrie (Beebe) was born December 11, 1875 in Odessa, New York.  She died January 12, 1968 at age ninety-two.  She was married to a young minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Church, Merton D. Warburton, December 24, 1894.  Three daughters were born to them, Edith (Pocock), Mary (Kellogg) and Ruth (Chamberlain).  Carrie was extremely interested in the welfare of her daughters.  She moved to Houghton, New York, so the girls could attend school there and for a time was employed by Houghton College.  During this time the Warburtons served the Delevan, Machias and  Holland churches until the girls graduated in 1916.

            Merton and Carrie did not always serve the same church.  When she was pastor at Groton, New York, he drove their ponies a distance of sixty-five miles and supplied the Herrickville, Pennsylvania, church.  When Carrie returned to the Taylor church for another five years, Merton drove the "Model T" to supply the Blatchley and then Berrytown, Pennsylvania, churches.

            In 1920 a tent meeting was held at Chambers, New York.  This town was a train depot with six daily passenger trains.  It seemed like a good place for a Wesleyan Methodist campground.  The Chambers camp was planted there at that time..  Carrie was never too busy nor too high on the social ladder to do menial tasks.  A "lean-to" shack with a cook stove served as the kitchen for the Camp.  Carrie and her daughter, Mary Kellogg, were among the ladies who worked in this kitchen in those early days.

            Carrie was a church planter.  She was instrumental in the organization of the Elmira, New York, church in 1925.  But her second church plant was a remarkable one.

            She carried on the vision of the preceding minister at Shady Grove and planted, built, and dedicated the Riverside Church now known as Victory Highway Wesleyan Church, one of the larger churches in the Central New York District.

            Carrie and Merton were pastoring Shady Grove, a  church located near Corning.  Shady Grove, a country church, would plant Riverview, a city church, in a mother daughter venture.  There was no church in Corning.  Carrie was challenged to get a Wesleyan church in this town.  She rented a church in Corning for a time.  Then she moved the small congregation to Riverside where she rented any building that was available, a grade school and a voting booth.  She held tent meetings on the main street that connected Painted Post and Corning.  Guest evangelists and persons skilled in various kinds of music were invited to help in these meetings and improve the quality of the tent meetings.  She conducted the mid-week prayer meetings in the church members' homes.  Shady Grove had their prayer meeting on Wednesday nights, Riverside had theirs on Thursday.

            On one prayer meeting night at Riverside, Carrie suggested that they needed to think about purchasing a building.  The country was in the middle of the Great Depression.  People did not have employment and some were working only a few hours each day.  That night the people prayed and when the vote was taken it was unanimous to build a permanent church building.

            How could they finance a new church?  An eleven-year old girl, Reva Lane, held up a dime and offered it as the beginning donation.  A lady donated five small city lots.  People were happy to work on the construction of the building even though they were not paid.  The basement was dug with a horse scoop pulled by a home-made tractor.  The exterior walls were laid of tile blocks that cost ten cents each.  Old theater seats were purchased for twenty dollars.  Carrie was "dead set against" the theater but she could use those seats!  A local electric company donated lighting fixtures.  Carrie conducted special services in the uncompleted church with the ceiling open to the rafters!  The new church was dedicated May 22, 1932.  An impossible task during the depression was led to completion by a woman minister.

            Carrie's extraordinary energy is revealed in this paragraph from her grandson, Ivan Kellogg.  "It amazes me that Grandma managed to mop the kitchen floor on Saturday nights and get Sunday dinner started; preach on Sunday morning at the Shady Grove morning worship and invite guests from the congregation to dinner at the parsonage.  After dinner, Carrie and her dinner guests would travel to Riverside for the 2:30 and 7:00 p.m. services.  Grandpa (Merton) would hold the evening worship service at Shady Grove."

            It was during this period of her life that she felt she must learn to drive a car so that she could adequately care for her churches.  She was fifty-four when she got her driver's license.

            She was active in the Woman's Suffrage Movement.  She was proud of her privilege to vote and used that privilege in the elections.  She was always very active in the Loyal Temperance Union and Christian Youth Crusaders.  She was in charge of youth meetings that were held in the church.  She was also involved in the "release time" classes for public school students.  She conducted these classes which were based on religious values and attended by students on a volunteer basis in the school usually after school hours.  Even after retirement in 1944, she was active in church work and continued her work with the Loyal Temperance Union and classes in the schools.

            Both, Merton and Carrie, solved many problems in their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren by prayer.  Ivan Kellogg believes God spared his life during WWII when almost all his company was killed because his grandmother was awakened from her sleep in the night and urged to pray for him.

            Carrie served either as the solo pastor, assistant pastor to her husband or he served as her assistant in eighteen churches.

            Carrie and Merton Warburton left a legacy of obedience to God, models of prayer life and the example of giving their all to the disposal of God for His use.  That pattern left impressions on their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren as they have followed God in Christian education, ministry, local church work and foreign mission fields.

            Another church planter was Vera Carter Close.

Mrs. Vera Pearle Carter (Dewey Richard) Close

            Vera Carter was born  June 12, 1914 in Longton, Kansas.  She worked as a young girl at a "dime store" in Wichita, Kansas.  She often heard the Salvation Army Band as they played and sang on the street corner downtown.  "Whosoever will . . . 'tis the loving Father calls the wanderer home. . . whosoever will may come."  Vera's heart longed to come home.  On December 31, 1930, at age 16, she made her way down the aisle of the sawdust floor of the Friends Church and was marvelously saved by the blood of the Lamb.

            Vera graduated from high school and knew God was leading her into the ministry.  She had an outstanding singing voice and her music teacher was upset when Vera told her God was leading her to attend Bible School in Colorado Springs.  Her voice teacher tried to persuade her to seek a career in music but Vera wouldn't budge.  In exasperation the teacher declared she would never be known outside her county.

            Her father had a terrible temper and was a heavy drinker.  He made all kinds of threats and proclaimed he would kill her if he found out she had slipped off to school.  She certainly would not get a dime from him to pay her tuition.  Vera later would be described as having a strong will and determination which she had given entirely to God.  These traits were manifested in her determination to go to Bible school.

She worked at a store to earn money for her first semester and her mother cleaned houses and did "washings" for the rich people in Wichita to help her.  Another strong trait which she developed early in her Christian life was the effectual prayer of faith.  She had the money for school but no transportation.  She prayed.  Within two days she received a phone call from her pastor.  He and his wife were going to Colorado Springs.  Would she like to go with them?

            Vera packed her belongings in boxes and left for school.  Her father came home and found she had left.  In rage he turned all the pictures of Vera toward the wall.  He tried to strangle her mother but God intervened and prevented him from doing her physical harm.

            While attending Colorado Springs Bible College she formed a friendship and evangelistic team with Vera Howerton.  They became known as the "Two Veras."  They worked together for four years.  They sang in prairie schoolhouses and in established churches in the cities and villages all over the United States.  Their voices blended so perfectly that it was impossible to distinguish who was singing what part.  Their ministry resulted in many converts from among children, youth and mature adults.

            Vera's singing voice was an instrument used by God to convict and draw people to Him.  When she sang people longed to know the Person about whom she was singing.  Even after she retired, she would often be asked to sing at church.  Vera would call her good friend, Joy McDonald, on the phone.  Joy would place the phone by the piano and begin playing the song Vera would sing the next morning.  Vera in her home some distance away would practice for the service the next day.  Vera never had to warm up before singing.  She would simply clear her throat and begin singing.

            At first Vera ministered only by music, playing the piano and singing, but it soon became evident that churches could not support both singers and preaching evangelists.  In a telephone conversation with me she said she was pushed into preaching because of the financial crunch during the Depression.  The financial crunch might have been the "push" but God had given Vera the gift of evangelistic preaching also.  Many persons of all walks of life were led to Christ during those four years of preaching and singing.  Names like Gordon, Gilbert, Colaw, Beecher, persons who would become district superintendents and leaders in the Pilgrim Holiness and The Wesleyan churches, pastors in the Nazarene and Free Methodist churches and a bishop in the United Methodist church filled her pages of memories of persons saved or helped in her meetings.

            In one of those meetings, the evangelist was the new district superintendent from Oklahoma.  The pastor's wife was ill and Vera, seeing a need, took over the domestic chores of cooking and cleaning.  He watched her at work both in the home and in the church.  He observed how passionate she was about the Lord's work.  They fell in love and three months later, December 22, 1937, Dewey Richard (Dick) Close and Vera Carter were married.

            The marriage did not hinder this "God called" woman from service for her Lord.  Dick Close was the pioneer district superintendent in Oklahoma and Texas for sixteen years.  The call and passion of Dick and Vera Close was to plant churches.  During this time they were involved in planting some 14 churches during a fifteen-year period besides co-pastoring churches in Tulsa, Enid, Blackwell, Bethany and Hopeton, Oklahoma.  Vera's category/listing in the district journal was usually, pastor with D. R. Close and evangelist.  Sometimes she would be the solo pastor at a church.  For example in 1940, she served as the pastor at the church at Newkirk.  That year there was a note stating she had held fifty-six meetings, had thirty-three seekers and thirty-one persons were sanctified.

            During Dick and Vera Close's lifetime of service to the Church, they planted a total of seventeen churches.  Often Dick was credited for this great feat but he emphatically declared he could not have done any of this without Vera.  John D. Dunn, former director of the Wesleyan Investment Funds, recalled that Vera had also served for one month as district superintendent!

            Whenever they were conducting revival meetings or laying the plans for planting a new church, Vera would suggest that they "go visit the schoolhouses."  There were small rural schools all over the countryside.  Vera would put on a program for the children, telling Bible stories, playing the piano and singing.  The children would tell their parents and people came to the meetings and often a church would be planted.

            Vera's preaching was compelling and persuasive.  Those who heard her preach recall how she could bring fear into everyone's heart when she talked about "there was a certain rich man" from Luke 16:19-3l.  She was also gifted in giving the evangelistic invitation and with discernment in inviting persons to the altar on a one-on-one invitation.

            Her ministry with children was outstanding.  She made each Bible story come alive and the children felt the emotions and joys of those who were touched by the hand of Jesus.

            She was a great counselor and always gave a listening ear to those who needed her help.  She had the ability to draw people out and get them to reveal what was troubling them.

            Vera was also a woman of confidence.  During the Korean War a young man from the church where they were pastoring wanted to get married while he was home on leave.  Dick was out of town.  Vera decided she would perform the wedding and she did!  She played the prelude, sang the songs, performed the ceremony, played the postlude and organized the reception.  The "Oklahoma City Times" was so impressed with this event that they came out and took pictures and placed the story with a picture of Vera and the couple on the front page of the paper.

            Vera was a giant in many ways but she was also human and felt the emotional, mental and physical pain in the difficult places.  She suffered grief when she, Shirley and Beverly were involved in an automobile accident which took the life of Beverly.  Though she was grieving over the loss of her daughter, she taught Jo Anne, another daughter, to come face to face with death and grief and still believe in God and his mercy.  God's grace kept her singing.

            Vera was also a public servant.  She was a leader in the Women's Christian Temperance Union.  This organization worked against the legalizing of alcoholic beverages.  She organized the largest parade in the history of Oklahoma City for the "dry" politicians.  And they, the Prohibitionists, won.

            Vera was a family person.  She loved her husband, daughters and grandchildren.  On the flyleaf of her Bible she had written these words.  "Have tried hard to raise Jo Anne and Shirley to live Christian lives first, and to prepare them for life with education, second.  Many tears and prayers have ascended to the throne for guidance in their lives.  Not one tear was wasted—God bottled them all and poured them out in later life.  I do not regret having worked hard in the secular as well as ministerial world to aid them in their education."

            She never allowed her mind to be idle and she sought to better herself in order to serve God better by studying at various places where they pastored—Phillips University, Bethany Nazarene College and Northwestern State University—and even in retirement she took classes at the University of Colorado and at the Community College of Colorado Springs.

            Vera served as a minister for several different Wesleyan Churches, Tulsa, Enid, Blackwell, Bethany and Hopeton, Oklahoma; Lawrenceville, Illinois; Lima and Dayton, Ohio.  She was licensed in 1935 by the Kansas district of the Pilgrim Holiness Church and was ordained by that district in 1938.

            Vera was the mother of three daughters, Jo Anne Lyon, director of World Hope, Shirley, adjunct professor of music here at Houghton, and Beverly.  Jo Anne received from her mother musical talents of piano and voice but also those gifts of counseling, compassionate ministries and preaching.  Shirley has been blessed with the skillful talent of piano and gifted voice to sing not only hymns and gospel songs but has earned fame as an opera singer.  Beverly died as a result of an automobile accident in 1956.