Recently at a YOU Lead women’s leadership training, we had a panel of leaders answering questions submitted by attendees. Several past and upcoming posts address those and try to help answer them. 

Today’s question is: In addition to prayer, how do you affirm whether you are moving down a path to which God has called you or if you are “seeing” affirmation because it’s what you want to do?

Wouldn’t it be nice if always, the handwriting was clearly on the wall and addressed personally to us by name?  But, if that’s the way God worked, I wonder if we would truly seek Him and study His Word for direction?

You might want to read this post from January 6, Women Finding Their Calling. Next, I’d do several things in addition to prayer:

 1.    Specifically ask God if He is leading you in this way.

2.    Confirm what He is telling you with Scripture.

3.    Ask the advice of godly women in leadership who know you and who will pray for you.

4.    Be in accountability with someone who will pray you through this decision.

5.    Don’t barge the doors down. God will open them, you will not have to beat them down!

6.    If you notice doors opening, ask God to confirm your next step. Even ask Him to close the door very obviously if it’s not what you should do.

7.    Continually seek to know HIM primarily, not just seek to know the answer.

8.    Know that sometimes God may open a door that doesn’t work out the way you thought. But if He opened and you obediently followed, then He may have something to teach you even if it is a difficult journey or if the door later slams shut.

9.    Continue to trust Him fully as you learn all He has for you as you seek His call daily as well as in the bigger picture of ministry!

Resources:

Is God Calling Me, Jeff Iorg

The Power of the Call, Henry T. Blackaby & Henry Brandt

Beautifully Gifted: Equipping Today’s Women for the High Calling of God, Angela Bisignano

Women Reaching Women, Chris Adams

This was originally posted in May last year, but I thought it was such a helpful reminder as we head into this new year and our desire to grow spiritually!

As you read today’s post by guest blogger, Shirley Moses, consider asking God who you might team up with as a leader in an accountability relationship. It is such a vital part of continuing to grow deeper in our walk as we serve and lead women.
 

One thing I have found that can stimulate our spiritual growth as a leader like nothing else is genuine accountability.  So what does this look like in one’s life?  It starts with giving another person permission to challenge, counsel, and correct you when necessary. Scripture is full of examples where God's people were willing to learn from, lean on, and listen to others so their relationship could go deeper with the Lord.

2. Listens with her heart.  You want an accountability partner who can listen to you from the heart. Look for a woman who takes time to listen to those around her.

3. Gives godly wisdom based on Scripture.  This woman will make bible study and her personal time with the Lord – a priority in her life.

4.Confronts you when necessary.  This comes from a heart which has your best interests in mind.

5.  Encourages you.  Each of us needs a balcony person in our life…someone who stands ready to cheer us on in our spiritual walk.

How do I find an accountability partner?

1.  Seek God's heart in this matter.  God uses different people in our lives to help us grow in our relationship with him.

2.    Go beyond your normal spear of friends to find your accountability partner.

3.  You might even look to women who are in a town close to where you live. It is so easy these days to communicate through emails, Facebook, and texting.  Then there is always my favorite way – face-to-face communication when time permits.

4.  Take action! Contact those women who God has laid on your heart and discuss the possibility of starting a group whose focus is growing deeper in the Lord through accountability.
   
Finding women you can grow in the Lord with is not always easy, but it is well worth the hunt.  We have an enemy - the Devil - and he is always looking for an opportunity to destroy the lives of believers. No one is immune from temptations.  We need others to help us stay on track in our spiritual walk.

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Romans 14:12

To gain greater insight into starting an accountability group, see the resource:

 Heart Friends- Beginning and Maintaining a Small Accountability Group

Shirley Moses is an author, Women’s Ministry Team Advisor at Hagerman Baptist Church in Sherman, Texas, and the Women's Ministry Consultant Women’s Ministry Consultant, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. She also serves currently as a .LifeWay Ministry Multiplier, helping us train women’s ministry leaders across the country. Shirley contributed to our leadership book, Transformed Lives: Taking Women's Ministry to the Next Level. She is also co-author of Heart Friends: Beginning and Maintaining a Small Accountability Group.

As the Christmas season is upon us, sometimes as leaders we feel so overwhelmed with family, church needs, personal feelings, that we fail to enjoy the beautiful season God has given us to celebrate the birth of His son.  Read guest blogger Deb Douglas’ insight to help us navigate it well this year.

One little fitting on a hot water tank failed and my house is in chaos for the holidays. Sheet rock ripped from the walls, floors torn out, dust on every surface, and furniture moved to safer locations. I am battling down the overwhelming sense of panic wondering how my granddaughter’s first Christmas is going to match my dream Christmas in the midst of this chaos. Christmas as a minister to women is a challenge but when personal challenges mount on top, Christmas becomes a looming deadline rather than a joyful season.

I know God will use this Christmas season of chaos to teach me something amazing, but the obsessive person within me screams, “Lord your timing does not work with my schedule!” Honestly, I do not want to learn this lesson right now but I have no choice but to submit to God. Not just because He is all-powerful but because I have no other choice. This is beyond my ability to cope. I need Him to cope. I need Him to make it through a normal Christmas in ministry, but this year I will have to learn a whole new level of depending on Him. Depending is how I will survive.

Walking that fine tightrope of balancing ministry and family is stressful during a normal season, add in Christmas celebrations and it's precarious. I constantly must leave my time management at His feet. When I submit to Him, living out my call works. I’m still busy, but I make it through knowing He is at work.

As I write, personal chaos is impacting the ministry. I cannot be in two places at one time; it’s either church or home. My pastor is being understanding but my heart is not. “There’s people to see and ministry to do,” it screams but instead I am waiting on the arrival of another contractor.

Ministry would be much easier if God gave us everything we needed when He called us, but we would miss the joy of knowing that He is at work in us. It’s that joy that gets us through chaos, the faith of knowing He has worked in past and He will work through this circumstance too. Job got through His continual trials by being stubborn in his faith; circumstances or others did not sway him. I need to be stubborn in faith this Christmas.

How to be stubborn in my faith at Christmas?

1.     Pray! Pray for my mind to be focused on Godly priorities. Pray for my heart to be in tune to the joy of celebrating Christ’s birth.

2.     Look for and submit to the lessons God is teaching in the midst of a chaotic season.

3.     Continually remind myself to let go on my expectations.

4.     Seek forgiveness for my impatience.

5.     Determine to be joyful!

May your Christmas be merry, bright, and stubborn!

Dr. Deb Douglas,  is the Minister to Women, First Baptist Church, Bossier City, LA   and also serves as one of our LifeWay Ministry Multipliers. Deb launched her first women's Bible study at the age of 20. Her passion is encouraging and equipping women to serve. She is the Minister to Women at FBC Bossier City and a conference/retreat speaker, strategic planning consultant, and freelance writer.  Deb graduated from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary with a Masters of Arts in Christian Education/Women's Ministry and a Doctor of Education in Ministry degree from NOBTS. She is the wife of Paul,  mom of Jared and Katie, and mother-in-law to Emily.

How do you view your ministry life? Separate from the rest of life, or a part of the whole? I remember years ago when I was serving on a church staff in Tyler, Texas, a principle that God revealed to me: As Christians, we are either in full time ministry or we aren’t in ministry at all.   That was something He compelled me to share with other women from that time on.

Sometimes we feel guilty if we put family before ministry outside the home. Other times we feel like we are wasting time if we are just sitting in solitude. God created family, rest and recreation, and those are to be a part of our balanced life…a part of our “ministry calling”.

We cannot separate “ministry” from “life”. We have one life and it all involves ministry when we do it for His glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, ^“Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God’s glory.” (HSCB) (see also Colossians 3:17)

Certainly leading women, serving in student ministry, and singing in the choir is ministry…but so is preparing a meal for my family, calling my loved one I haven’t seen in a while, and even spending time resting when it is what God has called me to do for that block of time.

Never forget, whatever family you dwell in the same home with is your ministry! If they see you always on the go doing ministry for others, but they do not feel they ever get your attention, they may become resentful toward the church. Family is the highest priority on our ministry list.

Start each day offering God the WHOLE day from the time our feet hit the floor until our head hits the pillow again. Allow Him to show you moment by moment how you are to minister…then your whole life you are living out that “ministry calling” whether it’s gardening with a friend, teaching a Bible study, taking a walk with your daughter, or counseling a woman in crisis.