Sustainability in the Ministry of Alma Halse

Abstract

Scholarly research on the ministry of early Pentecostal women in Norway, are scarce. However, historical sources from the first half of the 20th century, bear witness to several prominent women ministers who spread the gospel all over Norway. Alma Halse (1907-1969) was one of those evangelists, who also pioneered a large social work in the north of Norway. What makes a woman rise, take on leadership, huge financial and physical risks during war and grate turbulence? Through her resilient leadership Alma Halse answered the needs and the challenges of her day. What qualities from Alma Halse’s ministry might shed light on today’s urge for sustainable leadership? Will the accounts of her life, help us respond to the arising challenge of equipping leaders with adequate skills for attaining wise and sustainable leadership? The aim of this paper is to explore literary and audible accounts of Alma Halse’s ministry, and more currant leadership literature to deliberate the questions raised above. This paper will argue that the virtues she exposed, nurtured by her faith and devotion to God, manifest the gist of what might be identify as wise and sustainable leadership. The paper will confer with autobiographies, books, newspaper articles and a tv-interview with Alma Halse, as well as leadership literature that explores the entities of such leadership. Pentecostal spirituality and issues of gender equality also ads insight to the context of Alma Halse and will therefore be considered.

Keywords

• Pentecostal spirituality
• woman ministry
• pentecostal history
• vitues
• leadership
• scandinavian pentecostalism