When I'm leading a conference on girls' ministry, I'm confronted with that question. Sometimes it's spoken out loud. Most of the time, though, I see it in the body language and in the faces of the people in the audience. Some think, We have a student ministry. We don't need anything else. True, student ministry is crucial. However, creating a space for ministry specifically targeted toward girls is critical--for several reasons. Here are just a few:
• 75% of teen girls felt "depressed, guilty, and shameful" after flipping through a fashion mag for only three minutes.1
• 3 in 4 girls say they feel pressured to be "super girls". 2
• 1 in 3 girls who have been in a serious relationship were concerned about being physically hurt by their partner.3
• During the teen years, girls' self-esteem drops about twice as much as boys.4
You don't need statistics to convince you that ministry to teen girls is important. You wouldn't be reading this blog if you weren't worried about the future generation of women. Spend any significant amount of time with girls and you'll see that within them lies great potential. And great hurdles to overcome. We need girls' ministry to help girls navigate adolescence with as few scars as possible and to launch them into adulthood as confident women who love God and love others. We need girls' ministry because if we don't reach out to them, the Enemy will.
P.S. If you're already passionate about girls' ministry and want to persuade others, just show them these statistics. You're sure to win some folks over! ☺
1. The Truth About Real Beauty and Beyond Stereotypes: Rebuilding the Foundation of Beauty Beliefs
2. The Supergirl Dilemma: Girls Grapple with the Mounting Pressure of Expectations, 2006
3. Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU) studies for Liz Claiborne Inc., Technology & Teen Dating Abuse Survey 2007 & Teen Dating Abuse Survey, 2006
4. http://www.respectrx.com/archives/girl_stats_studies/factoids_girl_statistics_studi.html
If we were to truly invest in girl's ministry in the church today, our women's ministries would be completely transformed in years to come. Many of the struggles we deal with as adult women are issues that were never addressed in a Biblical manner as students. A healthy girl's ministry today provides our students with a confidence in who they are in Christ, developing in them the courage to walk by faith.