 ... We must have women filled with the Holy Ghost and with power -- power to study and to think; power to wield the sword of the Spirit to the saving of life, as the skillful surgeon uses his knife; power to work under authority and to exercise authority, to project work and develop work.We must have women who have power with God and man ... (quoted in MacDonell, 97)

In 1906 the Southern Methodist leadership created the Woman's Missionary Council and merged the Mission Home Society with the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society despite frictions between the women leaders.At its first meeting in St. Louis, April 20, 1911, Belle Bennett served as its founding president.