Working Through Your Thoughts - Martha Stearns Marshall

1726-CA. 1793

In the mid-1700s, Martha Stearns Marshall preached alongside her husband Daniel, a Separatist Baptist pastor. But when Daniel was called to lead the Abbotts Creek Baptist Church in North Carolina, he ran into some trouble with his ordination process. Most other ministers disapproved of women preaching and praying before the congregation, and they gave Daniel grief for allowing it. Yet he was eventually ordained, and the congregation became accustomed to the husband/wife team.

There’s a story of a time when the Marshalls were arrested in Georgia. Some accounts say they were arrested because Daniel preached something that was against the Anglican church, the state church in the colony at the time. Other accounts say they were arrested for allowing Martha to preach. What’s consistent in the accounts is that while they were under arrest, Martha did not stop preaching. The constable who arrested them was so moved by Martha’s words that he became a Christian. It’s fun to imagine this woman, so sure of her divine calling to preach that she simply could not shut up about God, even under arrest.

Recently, in honor of this pioneering woman preacher, the Baptist Women in Ministry started the Martha Stearns Marshall Month of Preaching. Every February since 2007, the organization has invited Baptist churches to have a woman preach sometime during the month.

Perhaps you don’t share the calling—or the tenacity—of Martha Stearns Marshall, but here’s an interesting thought: If you were invited to speak before your congregation, what would you say? What thoughts about God could you share? What experiences could you relate? What Bible verses have challenged you recently? Having to prepare a sermon, whether for real or for fun, is an opportunity for anyone to work through what’s in her head about God and Scripture.

So how will you express these ideas? You could do so privately in a journal, but you could also share them with a Bible study group. Nowadays you could blog your God-thoughts, or perhaps tweet them. Martha Stearns Marshall could not be stopped from talking about God. Neither should we.

The word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.

Hebrews 4:12