ARCHIVE
November 2009
Okay, are you like most of the women's ministry leaders who are of the boomer generation, are you wondering why young adult women are sometimes not attracted to what you offer? Have you asked yourself, and your team, "how will we pass the baton of leadership and ministry to the next generation if they aren't involved now?" This is a question I, along with hundreds of other boomer age leaders are asking right now. We are seeking answers and praying that God will help us to willingly yet faithfully pass leadership to young adult women.
From Official LifeWay Research and the book Lost and Found, Stetzer, Stanley & Hayes we learn about four markers that are important to grasp as leaders if we want to reach the next generation of young women for Christ. Those are community, depth, responsibility and connection. Let's look at each of those in this post and take them apart further in upcoming posts.
1. COMMUNITY: Together is Better
Young adults made these exact statements when asked how they feel about church involvement.. "There's No Place Like Home", "We're Family", "I'm All Alone in a Crowd", "You Don't Fit, So We Don't Care", "You're Struggling. I'm Struggling, No Games." These comments tell us that many times young adults do not feel connected to others in relationships at church, but they desperately want to be. They want people to be "family" to them when they interact with Christian friends.
2. DEPTH (and Content): Let's Go Deeper
Often, young women will not be satisfied with surface theology. They want to truly understand the hard stuff of the Bible and of Jesus, and grapple with it. But, they want to interact in discussion, not be lectured. Some of their comments reflect this: "Let Me Safely Join the Conversation", "Help Me Find My Way". We must not make them feel less spiritual if they do not know the right lingo.
3. RESPONSIBILITY: Let's Make a Difference
Young adults today truly want to make a difference in their communities and their world. Involve them in God-sized tasks that will change lives and they will commit their time. Listen to their comments: "Wow me, befriend me, and let's make a difference", "I'm hungry to be challenged," "What are you selling? I don't want to join a country club. I want to join Christianity, a movement that draws me in," "There's got to be more than this-something more than just my little world." Show them how they can make a difference in their community and the Kingdom at the same time.
4. CONNECTION: Bring Us Together
Young adults are looking for mentors and friends of all ages who have gone through experiences they are about to engage. Older women think they have nothing to offer young women of today, but that is just not true. What life experiences have they had that would resonate with a young woman about to face it, or who is in the midst of it already? Help your older women discover their God stories and learn how to connect with other women through them.
Read more here: LifeWay Research Finds Unchurched 20-Somethings More Open Than Older Unchurched
LifeWay Research Uncovers Reasons 18 to 20 Year Olds Drop Out of Church
Complete research results for young adults.
And visit our young adult web site to find ministry helps and young adult resources at Threads.
How are you building community, depth, responsibility and connection among your young women? I'd love to hear your ideas. Watch for future posts where we will delve deeper into each of these issues and discover practical tips for reaching our young women.
I don’t know about you, but I am tired of seeing famous people modeling immoral life styles and being called heroes. Not that they don’t do some great things in their lives, but sometimes I get disillusioned and wonder if I could falling into sinful traps if I am not careful. I am reminded right away that I need boundaries and I need friends around me to help me walk in a way that honors God.
We all need friends to go to when we really want to share our heart with someone. As a leader, we want someone to ask the hard questions about life, about faith, about what is right and wrong.
Do you have someone you consider an accountability partner? Or perhaps you are in a small accountability group of women who challenge each other to live by God’s standards and to continue to grow in your walk with Christ. As leaders, it is essential that we have a built in set of “checks and balances” to help us walk in a manor that is worthy of our call.
I have a friend who has been an accountability partner for me for a couple of years now. We wish we had more face to face time, but we stay as connected as possible through email, facebook, twitter, and at church. We make special arrangements to spend extended time together just to check on each other, our families, our ministry, and our walk with the Lord. We both know that if we do not make this a priority, we too, could become careless about honoring God in our daily life.
There are many benefits of having an accountability partner.
• Matthew 18:20 talks about needing accountability when we need restoration “among brothers” (See Matt. 18: 18-20). We all need friends who will get in our face and speak truth when we are not living according to scripture.
• Proverbs 27:17 tells us “Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (HCSB) What does that mean to you? Do you want someone to “sharpen” you as a leader? We need one another to spur us on to be leaders with integrity and wisdom.
• Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says “Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their efforts. For if either falls, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to lift him up.” (HCSB) You benefit from having a close relationship with someone who knows you intimately and wants to see you grow in Christ and become the leader God has called you to be. If one of us falls, our “companion” can help us stand back up and walk once again. Proverbs is filled with advice about learning from the “wise”. Scan chapters 11 and 13 for some scriptures showing the importance of “wise counsel”.
Decide on what qualifications should you look for in an accountability partner.
5 Steps to Find an Accountability Partner
10 Questions to Ask Before Choosing an Accountability Partner
Set goals for yourself and your partner. Decide how often you would want to meet. Stay in touch also by email, facebook and twitter. Pray for each other continually.
Read more in the article written by Julie Woodruff: Building Accountability as a Women’s Ministry Leader: Building Accountability
For more ideas on starting and maintaining an accountability partner or small group see Heart Friends: Beginning and Maintaining a Small Accountability Group Heart Friends
by Margaret Kennedy and Shirley Moses, and read Margaret’s article Tips for Starting an Accountability Group
How are you handling the issue of accountability for yourself personally and in your women’s ministry?
One of my greatest desires as a follower of Christ is to run the race well, run to the end, and to pass the baton off to someone behind me. I think about my 6 (and one more on the way) grandchildren and if I am taking the time to invest in their lives adequately. Not being a stay at home grandmother that my daughters can call any time of the day or night (and not even weekends sometimes because of weekend training conferences), means I have to intentionally plan times that I am with them. This summer our oldest grandson went with me to
As I studied The Patriarch’s bible study by author Beth Moore about 4 years ago, I was reminded of how our sins can be passed down generation to generation. We’ve seen how generational sin is so common in our families, whether alcohol, abuse, or lack of commitment in marriage. Husband beats wife, son beats his wife. Our society is rampant with the devastation this has caused.
This year, due to several famous deaths in the country, I’ve wondered what made each person the way they were. Were their fathers loving or not present in their lives, did their mothers have an alcohol addiction, were they abused by a trusted friend or family member as a child? Sure, some of us become who we are by our own decisions and of course, God’s help, but what about what’s been handed to us by family or other close relationships.
Perhaps you have been a product of generational sin yourself. Maybe you are ministering to women in your women’s ministry in your church or community who fit this profile. BUT through the power of Christ the cycle can be broken.
On the other end of the spectrum we also see positive trends and traits passed from one generation of women to another. As leaders, let’s allow God to break the negative traits and develop positive ones that will influence a new generation of women…those who will grow in Christ and impact His Kingdom.
- Help women in your church become positive influencers by you first modeling what that looks like.
- Pray for and with women who are struggling with less than ideal past experiences.
- Guide them to II Corinthians 5:17—“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come” (HCSB). Help them to truly understand how Christ sees them...unblemished, worthy, loved.
- Show them how Christ can help them break the negative cycle and develop new traits that they can pass on.
- Model and show Christ’s forgiveness that makes them “white as snow” (See Isaiah 1:18)
- Be transparent about your own past experiences.
- Perhaps lead her to study Breaking Free, Living Free, or Living Your Life as a Beautiful Offering
We just completed our first ever Generations…The Unbroken Chain: Ministry Through the Ages training event at
God has raised us up for this time in history to influence the future of women living and serving in His Kingdom. What a responsibility and privilege! Let’s be faithful to the task!
I am excited to be posting for the first time on our new women’s ministry blog for leaders. Not only is it my prayer that this will be a helpful resource for you as a leader, but also so that I can learn from you.
Is women’s ministry going away??? Women’s ministry has been around for quite a while now, at least 20-25 years, although women’s work in the church has been around much longer. It appears we are in another turning point in ministry with women today. As young women grow in Christ and commit to ministry, I do not believe it’s going away but that it will look different. What an exciting place to be: serving in ministry while God is continuing to grow women and even doing a “new thing” that we get to watch and take part in.
When the term women’s ministry first surfaced, I was serving on a church staff seeking ways to effectively reach and help women grow and serve Christ. Many leaders at that time were not sure what to do or how to do it since not many churches were attempting new things. Through prayer, trial and error, and listening to the Lord, we began to color outside the lines and saw God do new things. It was risky doing it differently, and we didn’t always feel like we had permission to change the ministry direction, but it was well worth the risk as we saw women grow in the Lord and find their places of service to Him.
Since women’s ministry is not going away, how will you, as a leader, hand off to the next generation? Will you do it willingly, even if the younger generation does it different? Or will you hold tightly to the way you have been doing it for years? Keeping in mind, it’s not “our” ministry, we must let God develop the future, holding tight to biblical principles, but allowing the methods to change as needed.
Young women will not look like many of us in leadership today! What appeals to us will not appeal to them. But desiring the Lord and growing spiritually will keep us connected through all generations no matter what different approaches we must take to reach all women.
Recently Regina Gibson, our young women’s specialist at LifeWay, posted two web casts where she shared how to connect with young adult women in your church. You can view them here: Connecting with young women.
LifeWay has conducted extensive research on young adults and provides information they have gleaned regarding the younger generation and their falling away from church. You will find two helpful articles here:
LifeWay Research Finds Unchurched 20-Somethings More Open than Older Unchurched The New View of Young Adults.
In the future I will continue to deal with this issue and ask the question, “how can women’s ministry meet the needs of the next generation?”
Please share you experiences as you’ve tried to do things differently to reach the younger women for spiritual growth and leadership. I’d love to hear from you.
We are so excited to launch the Women Reaching Women blog at the National Women's Leadership forum November 12 - 14 here at LifeWay. You will not want to miss the photos that will be posted throughout the forum! Come back on Monday for new blog posts.
