This past Saturday I had the opportunity to attend a “Women Reaching Women” training event put on by Lifeway with 6 other ladies from Bethel who are deeply committed to our women’s mninistry. We had a great time traveling to Fort Smith  and spending the day with each other. When I got home and began to tell Brandon a few of the things I learned and what “impacted” me; he immiedately said “you need to blog your take-away’s” so here we go: my take-away’s-

Women’s Ministry isn’t about filling up the calender. I’m sure we have been guilty of planning events so we can say “were busy, were doing things, look at our calender”. We were challenged to consider the needs of the women in our church and seek to provide opportunities to meet those needs.

Involving the uninvolved is more about identifying real “felt needs” of women and being able to look past the percieved barriers to their involvement. Many times women may feel uncomfortable, shy, insecure and just need one person to personally invest in them, sit by them, call them during the week. Each week at Bethel there are more and more faces that are unfamiliar to me. This is hard and sometimes it’s easy just to say “well you can’t know everyone”, but I feel more convicted to invest a little more of myself into reaching out to those “unfamiliar” faces instead of gravitating to my “comfort” zone of girlfriends. Jesus Christ is in it-He consistantly reached out to people on the “fringe”!

Finally, the most important thing I can do to be an effective leader in women’s ministry is stay in the Word. We heard from an incredible woman of faith, Karen Doyel. Karen shared about digging deeper into the Word of God. She was inspiring, sharing her testimony of God’s faithfullness to her and her family. I so often get bogged down in the “study” of God’s word as if I’m reading a difficult textbook that I’m trying to decipher. Karen renewed the idea in me that God’s word is an ongoing conversation He is trying to have with ME! When Karen picks up her Bible she says “what”? What do you have to say to me Lord?

I love working with women. I’m excited about what God is doing at Bethel and the creative, committed women I get to serve alongside. But most importantly I’m ever reminded that I will struggle and fail to connect with women and draw them to the Heart of God, when I’m not daily in God’s Word, seeking the Father in prayer and being satisfied in Him alone! I struggle with confidence in this area of ministry; however I’m taking the Father at His word-

Being confident in this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.-Phillipians 1:6