If we want to keep things the same and stay manageable then keep on doing the same things we’ve always been doing. BUT (there’s always a big but somewhere) if you want to shake things up. Get women out of their comfort zones and start seeing transformed lives then maybe it’s time to do things a little differently. At our last women’s event (which we made open to other churches) we invited our speaker to teach on Biblical womanhood and then we challenged all the ladies present to share their faith for 21 days. Biblical womanhood and evangelism. Really? That’s 2 kinds of tough subjects. They aren’t very touchy feely and there was more conviction than pats on the back BUT from that time forward we have seen more excitement and energy in our women. Ladies have been coming up to me at church to tell me about the last person they were talking to about Jesus and who they are looking to share with next. That’s exciting. I want to suggest that instead of avoiding teaching on the hard truths that when we, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, teach Truth, women will eat it up. They recognize it for what it is and they want more of it. Challenging women to live differently then giving them resources to help them will yield life change. One of the greatest reasons why we see our women returning to the same lifestyle even after strong conviction is that they have no idea how to put that truth to work in their lives. It’s our job to help them see how their faith connects with their everyday lives. As part of our 21 day challenge we created a devotional journal that they could use as a tool. Something to keep them moving toward the goal. It’s time to start raising the bar for ourselves and for our women. The world is after them like never before. Why should we sit back and accept the same old status quo kind of faith? Our God is bigger than that. Let’s believe Him for what He says He will do!!! The issue in this blog post today is one we all have and maybe are dealing with as women’s leaders: getting women to do more than attend something to life change and “doing” something with what they are learning. Read today’s post to see what one church did. Today’s guest blogger is Rachel Lovingood, author of In Our Shoes, as well as a minister’s wife and ministry leader at Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, TN. Check out Rachel’s personal blog here.
Do you ever look around your women’s ministry and wonder why it seems the same? Why the same ladies are doing Bible Study, going to events and living the same way?? This is a common issue in churches around the country and there are probably lots of good answers and reasons why this happens. Women are creatures of habit. We like to control our environments and keep things manageable. The problem with that kind of thinking is that it eliminates the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our midst.
Rachel is the Next Generation Pastor’s wife and a women’s leader at Long Hollow Baptist Church,Hendersonville, Tennessee, as well as a Lifeway Ministry Multiplier. She co-authored the Bible study for ministers’ wives, In Our Shoes: Real Life Issues for Ministers’ Wives by Ministers’ Wives. She uses her passion for Christ, her energetic style and her sometimes crazy sense of humor to encourage and teach women to find the answers they need from the only true source of wisdom—the Bible. She is a wife (of a minister), a mom (of three fantastic kids), a friend, a writer, and a teacher. Her experiences working in youth ministry as well as women’s ministry in various churches across the country have developed in her a deep love for women and a mission to help enable them to live victoriously in spite of the struggles they face.