WIC 101: This Resource Letter is a keeper. It is a foundation piece. It is WIC 101.

 WIC at the Assembly level gets many questions from representatives of local churches. The church situations vary, but the questions and the answers are essentially the same. For that reason, we are using this issue of the WIC Resource Letter to answer the most-often-asked questions: 

• Who is WIC?
• What is WIC?
• Why do we need a WIC?
• How do we start a WIC?
• How do we revitalize a floundering WIC?

The stated purpose of the PCA’s Women In the Church, which was approved by the first General Assembly, is:

“The purpose of the Women In the Church is that every woman know Christ personally and be committed to extending His kingdom in her life, home, church, community, and throughout the world.”

The foundation of this purpose statement is a covenantal understanding of the church. God has entered into a grace-relationship with us and bound Himself to us in covenant faithfulness. Our relationship with Him is personal, but it is not individual. The covenant is corporate. Our relationship with God puts us into the covenant community. We have covenant privileges and responsibilities in the community. We are to live with one another in a way that reflects our covenant relationship with God.

Everything done by the WIC ministry at the Assembly level is prayerfully and intentionally designed to help make this purpose statement a reality by providing training and resources to help local churches. Our goal is that every resource will be consistent with the doctrinal standards of the PCA. The remainder of this Resource Letter takes you on a step-by-step journey of how that is done. We hope this also gives you a model to follow, and a resource to adapt, as you design and implement a WIC ministry in your church.

We are driven by the WIC theme verse and by Titus 2:3 (on the sidebar). It is for Zion’s sake—the sake of the church of Jesus Christ—that we must not keep silent. Women must train women to reflect our redemption for Zion’s sake, for the sake of the King of the church.

For Zion’s Sake,
Susan Hunt
WIC Consultant

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch”
Isaiah 62:1


“Teach what is in accord with sound doctrine....Likewise, teach the older women ...Then they can train the younger women...so that no one will malign the word of God”
Titus 2:3-5

Step 1: A Look Back
Understanding our history helps us understand why we are where we are—and this helps us know where we need to go.

The WIC ministry is a part of CEP.
Charles Dunahoo is Coordinator of Christian Education and Publications. Georgia Settle was the first WIC Consultant. Her husband, Paul, was the first Coordinator of CEP.

Q. Georgia, who, or what, is WIC?
A. WIC is simply the female population
of local PCA churches. How their ministry/service is structured, or how they function together, is left up to each church. The CEP WIC office provides resources and training to help local churches, but we do not give guidelines/directives regarding organizational structures.
Sometimes people say, “We do not have a WIC.” Technically this would mean they do not have female members.

Q. Charles, when and why did the PCA establish the WIC ministry?
A. When the PCA was being formed, we recognized the importance of our mother church’s effective women’s ministry. Moreover, we believed that for the PCA to be effective in ministry, men and women would need to use their gifts in concert to build the church. Ministering to and encouraging women in ministry was important to us on the organizing committee.

Q. Georgia, how did the WIC ministry begin?
A. Before the PCA was formed women began to contact the office of the Steering Committee for a Continuing Presbyterian Church to ask for Bible study materials that were true to historic Presbyterian standards. That office printed and made available two studies prepared by Mrs. Don (Jean) Patterson. The same women began asking the Steering Committee for guidance regarding women’s ministries in the church. The Steering Committee sponsored a meeting of women in conjunction with the Advisory Convention in August 1973. At that meeting women were selected to bring a recommendation to the first General Assembly regarding a design for women’s ministry.

Q. Charles, why was WIC assigned to Christian Education and Publications?
A. Because the thrust of WIC is to encourage women in their own spiritual development and then to train and equip them for ministry in the church, CEP is the natural fit. It fits the overall design of the Christian Education and Publication’s purpose and reason for being.

Q. Georgia, what is the Women’s Advisory Sub-Committee?
A. The Women’s Advisory Sub-Committee (WASC) is made up of six women selected by the Christian Education Committee from different regions of the denomination. Their role, under the oversight and authority of the CEP committee and Coordinator, is to be in touch with the local churches of their region and to advise the CEP committee regarding needs and ministries of women. They work closely with PresWIC Presidents in their region. They also work directly with the WIC Consultant in planning and implementing training opportunities, materials and programs for women.

Q. Charles, what is the PCA’s position on the role of women in the church?
A. The macro position is that women are a vital part of the church’s ministry and though our standards do not allow the ordination of women, they are free to serve in all kinds of ministries. Therefore, gifted women are involved in every phase of the church’s ministry with the exception of ordination.
The micro position of the role of women varies from church to church. In organizing the PCA we tried to be as broad and as flexible as the Bible would allow. Recognizing the complex makeup of the PCA, we left many details to the local churches to determine.

Q. Charles, why do you think it is important for the PCA to have a WIC ministry?
A. Women have a purpose to fulfill just as men do, and ministry describes much of that purpose. Men and women must be equipped for the work of ministry. One of the ways that God accomplishes this is by leaders equipping women to train other women. While we must remember that the entire body is responsible to minister to one another, specialized ministries such as WIC also have an important role in the church. WIC is an effective vehicle for training women and implementing ministry in the local church.

Step 2: A Philosophy of Ministry

A philosophy is simply an overview of the reason we do what we do. It is a longer version of the purpose statement.

The WIC philosophy of ministry is grounded on woman’s helper design. “The Lord said, `It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him’” (Gen. 2:18).

The Hebrew word for helper is ezer. Throughout the Old Testament this word is used to refer to God. In discussing this word, The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament says:

The Lord is seen as the helper of the underprivileged: the poor (Psalm 72:12) and the fatherless (Psalm 10:14) . . . He (the Psalmist) is conscious of divine assistance at a time of illness (Psalm 28:7), at a time of oppression by enemies (Psalm 54:4), and at a time of great personal distress (Psalm 86:17).

This explanation of how God is our ezer gives insight into the helper design. Community and compassion are two of the ways God is our Helper. God enters into a covenant relationship with His people (community). He comes to our aid, comforts us, and is merciful toward us (compassion). This touches our souls because entering into nurturing relationships, and extending compassion to those in need, is part of our creation design. Our nurturing, relational strengths grow out of our helper design. Our design equips us to demonstrate community and to be channels of compassion in our marriages, families, churches, communities, and throughout the world. This does not mean that all women will express their design in the same way; it frees us to practice community and extend compassion creatively according to our gifts, abilities and circumstances. This concept has application to women as individuals, and it also gives definition to the purpose statement of Women In the Church. The WIC ministry should have the effect of bringing a deeper sense of community and compassion into the home, church, community, and world. The WIC task at the Assembly level is to help churches encourage and equip women for this mission. A covenantal understanding of the church demands this.

The Westminster Confession of Faith says:

All saints, that are united to Jesus Christ their Head, by His Spirit, and by faith, have fellowship with Him in His grace, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory; and, being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces, and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man.

Saints by profession are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification; as also in relieving each other in outward things, according to their several abilities and necessities. Which communion, as God offereth opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who, in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus (WCF XXVI Of the Communion of Saints, 1, 2. Italics added.).

“An holy fellowship” is the launching pad for ministries of compassion, and compassion is the grace-reality that draws unbelievers into the community of faith.

A biblical strategy for encouraging and equipping women to share their gifts and graces for the mutual good, and to maintain an holy fellowship, is found in Titus 2:1-5. The Titus mandate for women to nurture women should be the driving force of a women’s ministry because this is part of our covenant privilege and responsibility.

The goal is that each woman will “know Christ personally and be committed to extending His kingdom in her life, home, church, community, and throughout the world” and thus God will be glorified.

The WIC ministry is not project or event-driven. It is theology driven. The philosophy gives the guidelines for mapping out the specifics of the WIC ministry. Each project, event, and written resource is one point on the total ministry-map. To understand the purpose of any specific project, one must understand the philosophy of ministry and where a specific project fits on the map. The WIC ministry-map is just one piece of the total ministry-map of Christian Education and Publications, so it must always help to achieve the over-all objectives of CE/P. The map is on the next page.

Step 3: Ministry Map

The map shows where we have been, where we are going, how far we have come, and where we need to go next. No event or project should be planned just for the sake of planning an event or project. There should always be a purpose.

Since the beginning of the PCA, the WIC philosophy of ministry has been a work in process. As the philosophy has developed, so have resources to equip women to facilitate the philosophy. Some of the major roadmarks along the way:

1. Appointment of a Women’s Advisory Sub-Committee by the denomination’s Christian Education Committee. These women represent six geographical sections of the country.
2. The annual WIC Love Gift
3. Publication of a yearly study for women
4. An annual WIC Leadership Training Seminar. This is a training event for two representatives from each PresWIC, women on local church staffs who have responsibilities for women and/or teen girls, women on denominational staffs, student representatives from Covenant College, and student and/or student wife representatives from Covenant Seminary.
5. The WIC Resource Letter which is sent to all local WIC presidents, PresWIC Presidents, and pastors wives. This mailing includes The WICK which each church is asked to reproduce and use as a bulletin supplement for all women in the church.
6. The WIC Core Curriculum which enables local churches to develop WIC ministries based on the WIC philosophy. (More on page 6.)
7. The 1989 National WIC Conference which highlighted our “community” as PCA women.
8. The 1992 International WIC Conference which highlighted the need for ministries of compassion.
9. The 1994 Women In Ministry conference was designed to minister to pastors’ wives and women in ministry positions, to provide them an opportunity to learn and fellowship with others who share a similar calling, and to equip them to minister to others.
10. The 1995 Regional WIC Conferences were training events to teach women about our privileges and responsibilities in the church and to equip them for ministry. These conferences also helped develop a deeper sense of connectionalism in the various regions.
11. The 1997 Helpers By Design Conference for wives of Ruling and Teaching Elders and wives of Church Ministry Staff. The purpose of this conference was to explore some of the unique privileges and responsibilities of these women.
    
    Remember, the WIC ministry does not exist in a vacuum. It does not have a life of its own. On the denominational level, it is a department of Christian Education and Publications. So the WIC ministry map is just one part of the total ministry of CEP. In the local church, the WIC ministry is just one slice of the total ministry of the church. As with all other ministries, it is under the authority of the elders.