Gayla McKinney serves as a simulcast specialist for Lifeway. She, her husband Blake, and their three children live in Missouri where Blake serves as the pastor of First Baptist Church Lee’s Summit.
When Gayla’s not busy being a wife and a mother, she spends some of her time connecting with women’s ministry leaders in the midwest to tell them about Lifeway simulcasts. Read Gayla’s story of how the Lord used a simulcast to encourage and raise up a new team of leaders in her church.
Let’s be honest. If you are reading this, you are invested in women’s ministry. I’m right there with you! For over 20 years, I’ve had the privilege and responsibility of leading women toward a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s the best job in the world, and yet it’s one of the hardest. It’s all I know, and I never want to retire from it. However, let’s be honest one more time: we need to be raising up new women to take our places in ministry. Better yet, we need them to take THEIR places in ministry. For so many reasons, that’s easier said than done though, right? In the last three years, I’ve felt a very real call to teach younger women to lead and then step aside to let them do just that. One practical tool I’m using is Lifeway Women simulcasts.
I didn’t go looking for this wonderful teaching tool, but I’m so very glad that God exposed me to the opportunity. One year ago, we hosted Living Proof Live with Beth and Travis here in Kansas City. I’ll never forget that Beth spoke about how I could encourage other women to take the next step in their journey of faith. I was challenged! It marked so many of the younger ladies in my church that they wanted to share it with friends who had not been able to attend. They asked, “Could we host a simulcast?”
Our newly updated ministry had not budgeted for a simulcast, so I feared the answer was most assuredly “NO, we can’t afford it this year.” I was leading the women’s ministry then and hated that I would have to dampen their enthusiasm. One Monday, I had a phone conversation with one of the girls most excited and told her we would have to pray for a week about it. Honestly, I just wasn’t ready to squelch their excitement. On Tuesday, the church called to tell me that someone had given $1500 anonymously to the women’s ministry the PREVIOUS Sunday! God had answered our prayers before we’d even really begun to pray them!
So a group of eight young women (pictured above) who were rookies to women’s ministry jumped in over their heads and began to plan! They followed the simulcast manual precisely. In the midst of all the praying, promoting, planning, and meeting, they discovered gifts and passions they never knew they had! I DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING EXCEPT PRAY! It was so much fun to watch them! Now those young women are the backbone of our ministry to women at church. They are excitedly making plans for this year’s Living Proof Live simulcast and a host of other ministries. And each one of them has recruited a few friends to help! That’s ministry multiplication! And all I’ve done is pray. Incidentally, the whole process has also enlivened my prayer life. I’m no longer frustratingly trying to recruit women to take leadership positions, but I’m getting to watch God work in the lives of women who can’t help but share His faithfulness with their friends and families.
One more bit of honesty here as a women’s minister: sometimes I find myself consumed with the needs and activities of the women in my church and forget that I live in a larger community full of women who also have needs. I even ignore the fact that other churches in my community have vital ministries to women. Simulcasts have been a unifying tool in our city, allowing many churches to come together for worship and teaching. I truly believe that churches working together to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Kansas City might be the most exciting thing I’ve been a part of in years, and simulcasts have been a vital part of it. We love having Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Catholics, Pentecostals, Lutherans, and non-denominational women together! It makes it so much more fun when you’re at a ballgame, school function, or just the grocery store to see someone you know outside of your normal circle of friends! If your church hosted a simulcast, it would be the perfect way to invite your sisters in Christ over for the day and practice Philippians 2:2: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends.
Could a simulcast be the tool you’ve been searching for to teach new women how to lead? Could it be the tool that begins or nurtures true spiritual unity in your city? Lifeway provides just enough help to teach your group how to use a simulcast in your community but also allows you to personalize the experience. As they say, “It’s your party! Make it yours!” So host a party with a simulcast! I promise you, your women’s ministry and your community will be marked forever by the process.
