Encouragement for Pastors’ Wives

The purpose of this conference is to focus our minds upon concerns peculiar to pastors’ wives. As we launch into our subject, we must begin by underscoring what I trust is a conviction of each pastor’s wife and of her husband. What conviction am I referring to? The conviction of the absolute authority and sufficiency of the Scriptures for everything pertaining to life and practice…

As we come to this subject, I am addressing it with the conviction that any pastor’s wife whose conscience is held captive by the Word of God believes that the Scriptures will afford us all the light we need. Luther stated this when he stood before the Diet of Worms and said, “My conscience is captive to the Word of God, I can do no other, so help me God.” I do not need to claim to be a guru with special inside knowledge of God’s will for pastors’ wives. You don’t need to have some other individual—male or female—become the expert to tell you the secrets to being an effective pastor’s wife. I hope we are joined together in this conviction: it is through the Scriptures that we will be thoroughly furnished unto every good work, even the good work of becoming a God-pleasing pastor’s wife.

—Excerpt from “Encouragement for Pastors’ Wives”