Accepting Her Calling-Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler 
by Noel Forlini

Calling is said to be that which summons us in the night, inviting us to chance adventure. It is a tool which shapes us for service, for God to work through us. Indeed, calling is the very voice of God. Carolyn Weatherford, now Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, accepted God's invitation to follow a journey of adventure at the age of twelve. Believing a call to serve is a call to prepare, Crumpler prefaced her 15-year tenure as executive-director of national WMU (1974-1989) with a commitment to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in all areas of her life. This commitment yielded transformation in her own life and was a catalyst for a new era in the life of WMU.

Crumpler grew up in the church and watched her parents model service. Her father was a deacon, her mother, an active WMU woman and Sunday School teacher. By the time Crumpler was 15, she also gave back to the church, leading GA's and teaching Sunday School. It was during high school, however, that God changed her notion of service dramatically.

In 1946, a state WMU youth worker visited their association and encouraged Crumpler's mother to take her to an associational youth rally to hear about a YWA (Young Woman's Auxiliary) event at Ridgecrest, North Carolina. After learning about the event, Crumpler boarded a bus with other young women from Florida. Though she had met one or two missionaries before, at Ridgecrest, she was surrounded by them. That week changed her life. "By the end of the week, I decided that God wanted me to be a missionary, and I made that commitment during the 'dedication service,'" Crumpler said. When she returned home, Crumpler's pastor said matter-of-factly, "A call to serve is a call to prepare," and he began to prepare her.

Another influence was her biology teacher, who resigned during Crumpler's senior year to attend the WMU Training School at Southern Seminary. The next year, Crumpler attended Florida State University and vacillated between teaching and working as a librarian following graduation. At the same time, Crumpler's church had a revival, and God spoke to her about her need to commit anew. She did—and began looking at seminaries. She settled on New Orleans Seminary and described her time there as a missions experience. As a woman Crumpler could not specialize in theology, so she took theology electives instead and applied what she learned in the classroom to ministry within the community. She did field work at Carver Center, a local goodwill center for African-American children. Her happiest experience at Carver was when a little boy nicknamed her, "Miss Wonderful" after she read a passage of Scripture that said, "His name shall be called Wonderful."

As Crumpler began to re-explore her call to missions, she hit several road blocks along the way. When a representative from the Foreign Mission Board (now, IMB) visited her school, he tried to dissuade her from pursuing missions alone. "Interestingly enough," Crumpler explained, "when I told him I was interested in foreign missions, he suggested I find a husband and seek appointment as a couple! The same thing happened when I met with the Florida Baptist executive—'Marry one of these preachers and come home to Florida.'" As graduation approached, Crumpler filed these incidences away in her mind. As she struggled with what she believed to be her call to missions, other opportunities arose, but none were specifically related to the mission field.

Perplexed, Crumpler took a job as YWA director at the Alabama WMU office in Montgomery. During a "school of missions" night, a speaker said, "If God has not told you not to be a missionary, He may be calling you to be one." Those words hit Crumpler like a bolt of lightening. It was one of those moments, one where a person sits in the church pews and feels the very voice of God penetrating her to the core. This "pew moment" prompted Crumpler to again address the issue of missions as God's calling upon her life. She didn't wait for long before an answer came—and the answer wasn't what she expected. She was diagnosed with hypertension, which meant she would never be appointed to the mission field. Crumpler decided to work with GA's in Florida for three years, directing summer camps, grading forward steps work, speaking, and leading conferences. Crumpler was then invited back to Alabama WMU to take a job as associate to the executive-director.

"And it seemed evident to me that my calling was not to the mission field but to remain in Woman's Missionary Union, in missions education and missions support. So, I settled in to my first love, WMU," Crumpler explained. After three years, she was invited back to Florida to assume the role of executive-director of Florida WMU. During this critical time, God prepared Crumpler for her hardest role yet, national-executive director. And after seven years of preparation, the opportunity came. In her new position, however, Crumpler walked into a battleground of social opposition.

Crumpler assumed this position in 1974, at the crux of the second-wave feminist movement. Some feminists believed WMU was outdated. On several occasions, Crumpler received flack for political views that didn't always mesh with her audience. When she spoke at a women's meeting in South Carolina, she mentioned she didn't hold to views espoused in the book, The Total Woman. The next day, headlines glared, "WMU Leader Smacks Total Woman." Crumpler also received a call from the wife of a leading Southern Baptist pastor, who said, "I don't mind being submissive to my husband." With characteristic moxie, Crumpler replied, "But why should I be?"

Crumpler's assertive leadership style was affirmed by mentor Juliette Mather. "The best words of advice I ever got when I assumed the task [of national executive-director] came from Juliette Mather, long-time young people's secretary for WMU, SBC. She said, 'Carolyn, stay in Birmingham enough for them to know who's boss; stay on the field enough so that people will know who WMU is.'" The concept of power in the hands of women was also forward-thinking for some conservative Christians, yet Crumpler embraced it, believing that power and passion are gifts from God.

Her views on power are derived from John 1:12—"as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become . . ." This notion of receiving power to become what God calls His people to be holds personal significance for Crumpler, who relied on God's power during her 15-year tenure as national executive-director of WMU.

Crumpler's passion was a motivating force behind her work. The aspect of missions Crumpler is most passionate about is personal involvement. "We can't always go overseas," Crumpler said, "but we can all go." This belief, sparked by a personal incident many years ago, has stayed with her ever since. "One of the most shocking experiences I had with this happened in the parking lot behind the old WMU building on 20th street. As I went for my car one day, the young man working there seemed so depressed. I asked him if I could help him. He said, 'Oh, I wish you could. You see, my wife is very ill. The doctors say she might not make it. I wish you could do something!'

"I wanted to pray with him—I asked him if he were a Christian, and he responded, 'No, I'm not. I always knew that you folks in that building were going out to tell people about the Lord. I wondered why you never told me.' As I witnessed to him that day, prayed for his wife, I wondered, too. I realized that we often stumble over the nearest mission field, on our way out 'to our mission,'" Crumpler said.

Crumpler's mission carried her from the parking lot at the WMU building, to all 50 states, to almost 100 countries where she visited and worked alongside missionaries. Some believe that Crumpler's greatest contribution may have been in public relations, communication in high visibility with pastors and other agencies. Crumpler was the first WMU spokesperson to gain a hearing via video tapes and audiotapes. Her tenure also included relocating the WMU office building to its current location, organizing Baptist Nursing Fellowship, the development of New Hope Publishers and Acteens Activators, and a host of other "firsts."

In 1989, Crumpler ended her formal mission work and married for the first time. Now, she spends time living out her calling in other areas of life. She serves on not-for-profit boards, as a pastor's wife, leads Women on Mission, directs Sunday School, visits sick and shut-in men and women, and serves as "grandma" to her four grandchildren, ages 11-18. Each of these accomplishments, however, is just outgrowth of a calling that began as a young child, a divine invitation that Crumpler readily accepted.