“The LORD is great and is highly praised; his greatness is unsearchable. One generation will declare your works to the next and will proclaim your mighty acts.” – Psalm 145:3-4
Psalm 145 is clear: God has entrusted every generation with the task of declaring His mighty works to the next. Yet knowing what that looks like in our current ministry context can often feel overwhelming, daunting, or even impossible. You’re not alone if you feel any of those things!
To make it less intimidating and accessible for every church, we have provided four simple ways that every women’s ministry can invite, include, and equip young women with what you’re already doing.
Four Ways to Incorporate Younger Generations into Women’s Ministry
1. Create Small Groups for Every Age and Stage
As ministry leaders, we get to set the stage and tone for how women of every age and stage engage with God’s Word within biblical community. Young women especially are eager to not only learn from women in a similar season of life, but they want and need women of every life stage. As you survey what groups you already have, this may be the opportunity to create small groups for young women or to relaunch a group for women of all ages. No matter the group, it’s important to ask the following questions:
- How does this group intentionally invite young women?
- How does this group’s hospitality make young women feel welcomed and valued?
- How does this group connect young women with other women beyond their weekly meeting?
- How does this group equip young women in their journey of knowing God and His Word?
These questions are a great reminder that you can offer the right “kinds” of groups yet miss out on the vital components of invitation, hospitality, connection, and discipleship within your groups. If you’re not sure how to answer these questions, ask two to three trusted young women how they would answer them. You won’t regret taking the time to examine where you might need to grow or change the way you offer women’s ministry small groups to the younger generation!
2. Offer Multi-Generational Events
Events can serve various purposes for the women you are ministering to. Whether an event serves more as the front door to welcome a woman in for the first time or more as the living room to further connect another woman into her already-established community, events are a unique opportunity to foster connection for everyone. When planned and executed intentionally, each event you provide can create the space for women to connect—to each other, to opportunities for discipleship and evangelism, to God’s Word, and to God Himself.
Often, the intent of a woman faithfully walking with the Lord and planning an event to serve other women is to cultivate an environment where women of all ages feel like they belong. But how do you know when an event is actually multi-generational? A truly multi-generational event not only invites women of all ages to be in the room for the event, but it also involves women of all ages in every part of the event. This includes dreaming, collaborating, planning, and executing in a way that represents the voices of women in every stage and season of life. To synthesize this idea into an easy phrase to remember, let’s further unpack the idea of “integration over invitation.”
Before an idea is pitched or a plan is made for the next event, stop and think about the voices who will pray alongside you and speak into the dreaming up of the event. Ask the Lord to bring to mind key voices of women in different life seasons and include them from the very beginning.
Yes, integration over invitation might mean taking extra steps of intentionality and effort to identify key voices and expand the team who speaks into the event. But integration over invitation also means that women of all ages have their perspectives represented and their needs included. Not to mention, you’ll find that each generation brings to the table creativity and innovation that you would miss out on if they weren’t actively involved! When the younger generation of women feel like they weren’t just invited to attend as a kind gesture but were thought of in the details to make them an essential part of the event, you get to be part of cultivating belonging as well as buy-in that will always be worth the investment.
3. Provide Serving Opportunities for All Generations
The Bible is clear that everyone is made in the image of God, meaning they have inherent value (Gen. 1:27). And every believer is uniquely gifted by God, meaning he/she has essential purpose (1 Cor. 12:4-27). God’s heart for the church is for all believers to use their God-given gifts, time, and resources to faithfully serve as well-functioning members of the body of Christ for the glory of God and the good of others. These are foundational truths that ought to inform the serving opportunities we offer and the ways we go about inviting others into serving.
When it comes to working to incorporate younger generations into women’s ministry, providing women of all ages with meaningful ways to serve aligns with God’s Word and helps these sisters in Christ flourish as they walk in their God-given callings. When recruiting volunteers, your messaging must be clear: having women of all ages serving alongside you in women’s ministry is not just nice to have but necessary.
What are all the ways for a woman to serve within the ministry currently? Do these roles effectively accommodate women in different generations to make meaningful contributions? What serving opportunities could be added or changed to ensure that multi-generational serving is the heartbeat of your ministry?
4. Listen, Learn, and Be Curious About Younger Generations
Finally, the best way to know how to incorporate younger generations into women’s ministry is by learning from them and leading alongside them. It’s easy to make assumptions or generalize what young women are looking for in a ministry, but the reality is that the best experts for your ministry context are the young women right in front of you.
This might start by finding one to two young women in your church to start a discipleship relationship with. Take them to coffee or show up to help fold laundry at their house. Use these opportunities to teach them the Bible and ask curious questions about their spiritual journeys and where they see gaps within the church for their generation.
Another step would be inviting young women into spaces where they can speak into or lead very specific aspects of your ministry. Whether it’s inviting them to a planning meeting for an event, serving on your women’s ministry leadership team, or bouncing ideas off them through a phone call, surround yourself with young women who are passionate about seeing their generation follow Jesus! The goal isn’t just to give them a seat at the table, but to give you the chance to listen, learn, and be willing to shape your ministry in a way that declares God’s goodness from one generation to the next.
To learn more from Amanda Mejias and Corinne Allen, check out their teen girls’ Bible study, This Is Friendship, as well as their podcast His Glory, Her Good. Plus, listen to Amanda and Corinne speaking about how to incorporate younger generations into women’s ministry on the Marked Podcast.
About Amanda Mejias
Amanda Mejias serves as the Lifeway Girls Brand Specialist and is the author of This Is Girls Ministry and co-author of the upcoming teen girls Bible study This Is Friendship. She is passionate about building relationships and creating resources that equip the local church. Amanda is also co-host of the podcast His Glory, Her Good, which was created to encourage and equip women in youth ministry. Amanda is wife to her wonderful husband, Brandon, and lives out her dream of being a working mom by the beach in Pensacola, FL.
About Corinne Allen
Corinne Allen is a follower of Jesus, wife, mom, sister, daughter, and friend who is wildly in love with Jesus and passionate about the whole gospel. Corinne loves serving the local church and getting to encourage and equip girls of all ages to rest in God’s love and to walk with confidence in the abundant life He has for them. Corinne is the co-host of the podcast His Glory, Her Good, a podcast for women in student ministry, and co-author of This Is Friendship, a Bible study for teen girls. She and her husband Grant are currently serving in student ministry at Long Hollow Church in Hendersonville, TN.
