Fresh Ideas For Women's Ministry: Creative Plans and Programs that Really Work!

By Diana Davis

Picture this: women of all ages arriving in droves to the church building, excited that their weekly ministry together is about to begin.   Syndicated columnist and pastor’s wife Diana Davis knows this can happen wherever the women’s ministry program is purposeful, of top quality, and fresh.   Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry compiles her enthusiastic knowledge of church organization to help others with creating and sustaining a vibrant, outward-focused ladies’ program. Part resource book, part planning tool, it all adds up to a proven plan that joyfully blends discipleship, missions, fellowship, and special events with an emphasis upon hands-on ministry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BH Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9780805463958

Diana Davis

Diana Davis writes regular feature articles for several Christian publications and is a popular conference and retreat speaker. Her books include Fresh Ideas, Fresh Ideas for Women's Ministry, and Deacon Wives. Diana also travels extensively with her husband, Steve Davis, executive director for the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana. They have three adult children and live in Indianapolis.

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Introduction

So you're considering beginning or improving a women's ministry at your church? You've got the right book!

Whether yours is a megachurch or a minichurch, whether you want a weekly daytime program or a monthly event, whether you're an experienced women's ministry leader or a newcomer, you'll find oodles of fresh ideas that can be tweaked to fit the unique women at your church.

Women today are seeking something more. Forget the cookie-cutter sit and soak plan from the last decade. Women want to impact their family, their community, and their world for Christ. A vibrant women's program must be fast paced, well planned, purposeful, and top quality.

Within these pages you'll find hundreds of proven tips, checklists, and plans for a vibrant women's ministry. You'll find organizational charts, evaluation forms, and job descriptions. Special boxed notations are interspersed to assist small churches. And you'll enjoy the ongoing story of how the author helped begin effective women's ministry programs in two churches. Fifteen sequential chapters will discuss everything from getting started to year-end evaluations.

Women's ministry is not one size fits all, so some ideas in this book will fit your group perfectly; others will not. You'll find that you can easily adjust many of the ideas to fit your women's group.

So grab a pencil and a highlighter and get started. When you read an idea that excites you, circle it. If it inspires another idea, jot it in the margin. As you read, you may think of just the perfect leader for a ministry team or a great idea for promotion. Keep writing. If you see a suggestion that won't apply to your church, scribble through it. Use the book for brainstorming, for inspiration, for instruction. Use it as a reference book. Adjust the forms and charts to fit your women's ministry. Add your church name and make it your own. By the time you finish your first reading, you'll already be formulating parameters for a vibrant women's ministry to fit your church. (Many forms from this book are provided in downloadable format at www.dianadavis.org.)

But here's the most important instruction: Do it! Don't just study about it or dabble in it or talk about it. Seek God's direction in beginning or improving the women's ministry at your church. You're about to embark on an exciting adventure.

A Word from the Author

For the sake of illustration, I will share many examples in this book from a successful women's ministry at our church called LIGHT. No, I'm not suggesting that your women's ministry should look exactly like LIGHT. Your church's mission field is unique. Women at your church have different needs and distinctive qualities. As you begin to plan your women's ministry group, keep those distinctions in mind and formulate a women's ministry to fit your church. I am suggesting that you do something! I'm praying that in these pages you'll find many suggestions that can be applied to your church.

So what's the secret of LIGHT? It's in the name. The acronym LIGHT stands for Ladies Intentionally Going, Helping, and Touching. The emphasis of LIGHT is upward and outward.

The first hour of our weekly program provided an ever-changing variety of Bible, missions, and crafts classes. We called them fellowship classes, and our overall attendance soared.

Yes, women study God's Word and apply it to their lives. We often offered several choices of Bible studies—some with homework, some without. Some topical, others expository. Life-changing Bible study is a vital part of any women's ministry.

And, yes, women study and support missions. In fact, our missions organization in both churches grew larger than it had ever been, and our church's missions education and support was exponentially enhanced. With our upward and outward purpose statement, missions are held high.

And, yes, we did offer crafts classes. I must admit that I wasn't sure that was a great idea at the beginning. Was it holy enough for our church women's group? But I quickly reneged on my hesitations. A ceramics or scrapbooking class often served as a hook for disinterested or periphery church members and unchurched attenders. Many of those found the joy of Christian friendship and ultimately met Jesus as their personal Savior.

But the biggest emphasis and heart of LIGHT was in that second hour of hands-on ministry teams. Carefully screened to fit Matthew 25:34-45, each team focused on ministering to the hurting, the needy, the sick, and the lonely. Ladies chose from several teams such as nursing home, welcome ministry, benevolence, and hospital teams. Team leaders carefully planned and prepared for that ministry to fit the allotted hour, and women left LIGHT in awe of how much they'd accomplished that morning!

The church was impacted. The community was impacted. The life of every participant was impacted. And eternity was impacted—all because we changed our women's ministry focus from ourselves to our God. From our own church friends to our lost world. From a me mentality to a go ye mentality.

Now before you begin to yawn, let me rush to tell you that women's ministry is fun! I've never heard more laughter in a church building than at women's ministry. Face it. It's fun to make new Christian friends. It's enjoyable to attend a well-prepared class for personal or spiritual growth. And it's joyful to shine for Jesus!

As you comb through this book, we'll discuss preplanning, planning, implementing, and evaluating your women's ministry as a sequential, cyclic process. You'll put in lots of hard work up front, but you'll be amazed at the results. The chapters enumerate twelve important elements to help you design a great women's ministry.

Are you ready to add some life to your women's ministry? No matter how God leads you to minister through the women in your church, perhaps some ideas in this book can be adapted to enhance your program. Take this story and make it your own. I'm praying that your women's ministry will shine brightly and LIGHT your part of the world!

CHAPTER 1

In the Beginning

I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's

heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

—Philippians 3:14

My charming little Granny had the funniest sayings. In her high-pitched voice, she'd chirp, You girls are like two peas in a pod, or, Don't bite off more than you can chew. I can almost see her now, leaning out the back-porch door, hollering, Hold your horses, honey! She would draw out the word hold as if it had three syllables.

I'd be tearing out across the yard to go feed her chickens, and she'd say, Hold your horses, honey. Grab the chicken feed first. Or I'd be racing out the door, and she'd say, Hold your horses, Diana. You forgot your bag.

Sometimes, even today, I'll just get ahead of myself, jumping out ahead of the appropriate action. Oh, it's with the best of intentions. But jumping into deep water without thinking first can sometimes