Wednesday in the Word

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Ministry Philosophy

Criteria for evaluating a ministry

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Criteria for evaluating a ministry | WednesdayintheWord.com

While serving as the Director of Women’s Ministries for over 20 years, every January we had a “state of the ministry” meeting where we would focus on two questions:  1) What are we doing well? and 2) What can we do better?

But what criteria do we use to answer those questions?  Numbers do not always reflect an accurate picture.  A ministry can be growing while drifting from its purpose.  Similarly, numbers can be decreasing while growth among those who remain is increasing.  As my pastor frequently says, “More time with fewer people has greater kingdom impact.”

To sort that out we developed the following criteria for evaluating the success of our programs:

Equipping the saints, growth, and evangelism

  • Is the ministry primarily staff-led or lay-led?  (Lay-led is better in the long run.)
  • Does the ministry have a growth track that regularly equips the saints to do the ministry? (Lay leaders should always be training their replacements).
  • How many lay people involved in the ministry are being given real responsibility?
  • Why are numbers increasing or decreasing?
  • Does the ministry regularly present the gospel message?
  • Are those who are involved in the ministry actively inviting people to hear the gospel message?
  • Are people coming to faith and growing in their faith?
  • When people leave the ministry, is it because they are rejecting Jesus or seeking new ways to serve him?

Ministry Leadership and Oversight

  • Is the ministry primarily staff-overseen or elder-overseen?
  • Does the ministry have functioning elder oversight?
  • At the practical top of the team performing the ministry, is there one or many?  (One alone at the top can lead to burn-out.)
  • Does the ministry respect, encourage and strengthen the priorities that God has placed on those in the ministry?
  • Does the ministry respect, encourage and strengthen the relationships and authorities that God has put in place?

Ambiance

  • Is everything that is done, done for the glory of God?
  • Does the ministry attract those who are seriously interested in Christian growth and discipleship?
  • Is the ministry attractive and inviting?
  • Is the commitment of discipleship set appropriately high?

Teaching content

  • Is the teaching rooted in the Bible?
  • Is the teaching something that those listening don’t already know?
  • Does the ministry have a planned curriculum for teaching the whole counsel of God?
  • Does the teaching also show the Bible study method to confirm the authenticity of the message?
  • Does the message ‘feed the sheep’ (cause growth) or ‘beat the sheep’ (cause a try-harder perfectionism)?
  • Is the message “be perfect” or gospel oriented?
  • Is the teaching connecting with those being taught?
  • Is the teaching clear and practical? Or is the message couched in Christian jargon, vague or abstract?
  • Does the teaching excite those listening about Christianity?
  • Is the teaching of the ministry done by a group of people?
  • Is the teaching of the ministry reviewed and critiqued by a group with authority over the teaching?
  • How much real teaching and discipleship is happening in the ministry?
  • Does the message lead to changed lives when it is heard?
  • Does the message cause the listeners to grow in living their faith more fully?
  • Are people becoming more people of the Word?
  • Are people becoming more people of prayer?
  • Are people becoming more people of faith?
  • Are people becoming more single-minded in their identity are part of the household of God?

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Photo by Yeshi Kangrang on Unsplash

I’m Confused, You’re Annoying, and He’s Pig-Headed. To God be the Glory!

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Guest post by Kay Smith

In the world-according-to-me, most people ought to fall into one of two easily recognizable categories:

ChristiansNon-Christians
agree with and firmly believe all the clear and important tenets of the faith, and hold less clear tenets looselyare confused, inconsistent, or uncaring about their beliefs
can clearly and correctly articulate their beliefstherefore, are not very clear about their inaccurate beliefs
act in consistently kind, gracious, and otherwise godly waysact in ungodly ways
are almost always pleasant to be aroundare only occasionally pleasant to be around
because of the above qualities, are easily used by God to further His kingdom on earthobviously, can’t and won’t be used by God to further His kingdom


The problem with this scenario, of course, is its lack of correspondence to reality. But because some vague sketch of it remains in my subconsciousness, certain events still surprise me.

For example, a woman I’ll call Jill (don’t worry; you’re not her, and you don’t know her) is a Christian, but some of her theology seems wrong to me, and she has one particular obsession that makes it impossible for her to relate well to a certain group of people. And yet there she is, caring for sick people, babysitting their children, and taking in another woman who needs a temporary home. Is God using Jill to spread His love? It certainly seems so. Does this mean that Jill’s theology has improved (you know, to match mine) or that her obsession is lessening? Not a bit. God seems to be using her just as she is.

Another kind of problem frequently arises. I see some godly man, perhaps a pastor or other Christian leader with good theology, whose teaching I’ve really respected, and suddenly—BAM!—he’s acted in a very ungodly way, whether sexually or financially or through selfishness or a bad temper. And I wonder, “Does that invalidate all he’s taught because he’s not living according to the truth? Is any apparent godliness in his life a sham?” Or, “If the founder of a ministry neglected his family while he was pouring his heart and time into the ministry, does that invalidate the ministry?”

And then what about non-Christians who do good things that genuinely help people: feed the poor, encourage and comfort the sad, and so forth? Could God possibly be using them? What about when non-Christians financially support Christian ministries? Is God using them?

Because the Bible shows real people in the real world, it shows the same kinds of messiness that we see in the world around us, and it helps me wade through some of my confusion.

Can God use less-than-perfect believers without also perfecting them at the same time?

Read about Jonah and Samson. “Less-than-perfect” doesn’t begin to describe either of them. Jonah refused to do what God directly ordered him to do and tried to hide from God. (How’s that for screwy theology?) When he was finally forced to preach in Ninevah, Jonah did it sullenly and with a desire that no one would listen and that God would destroy the whole city. But, amazingly and confusingly, God used his reluctant messenger to bring the Ninevites to repentance.

Jonah, however, is a sweetheart compared with Samson. Samson never showed any concern at all for God or God’s people. He was really a spoiled brat and a bully whose main desire was for beautiful gentile women, a man who threw a violent tantrum whenever his desires were thwarted, a man who used his God-given strength for his personal benefit while shunning God’s commands. Even at the end of his life when he asked God for strength to kill the Philistines (only his second recorded prayer or mention of God), his motivation was personal revenge: “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes” (Judges 16:28). And yet God used Samson to free his people from that round of Philistine domination.

How can God use such men? Why doesn’t He find godlier ambassadors? One answer might be that sinners are the only kind of person God has to work with. But still, God could have made Jonah and Samson a little godlier, at least, before He used them.

So, let’s look at some of the Bible’s godlier heroes, men like Abraham and David. They both feared God and worshiped Him. Abraham is called the “friend of God,” and David is known as a “man after God’s own heart.” Both Old and New Testaments present them as examples of faith. But both had huge periods of ungodliness. Abraham didn’t trust that God would keep him alive if he admitted to being Sarah’s husband (even though God had promised him descendents, so God would have needed to keep him alive), so he handed his wife over to other men. Even the pagans rebuked him for such behavior. David’s Bathsheba-and-Uriah failure is his best-known, but he also had a few other spells of seeking personal revenge or glory, not to mention having multiple wives in direct disobedience to God’s command for Israelite kings in Deuteronomy 17:17.

Do their failures negate the good examples of Abraham and David? Apparently not.

Abraham is still cited in the New Testament as the faithful father of believing Jews and gentiles. The Bible clearly presents David’s sins and just as clearly presents his psalms for our instruction and encouragement. He is still the founder of the permanent royal line that culminated in Jesus.

What conclusions can we draw from all this, despite the obvious “God sure doesn’t do things the way I would”? In attempting an answer, three characteristics of God strike me: His power and His grace, both of which proclaim His glory.

God’s power is not just brute power-to-make-things-happen, but the power to use even sinful motives and actions to bring spiritual salvation, as in Ninevah, and physical redemption, as with Samson. What wonderful news! I don’t have to be perfect in order for God to use me, and neither do you or those other exasperating people. God can not only use you and me in spite of the fact that we’re generally sinful; He can use us when our motivation or attitude or actions are sinful at the moment! This should not lead us to be cavalier about our sinfulness. But imagine what it would be like to believe that God could only use a person who had perfect theology, a continual trust in God, total unselfishness, and love unmixed with any taint of pride, greed, or grouchiness. Either we would consider ourselves to be totally useless for God’s kingdom, or, if we saw a time when God did use us in someone’s life, we would think we must be pretty wonderful. Instead, no matter how aware we are of our own sinfulness, selfishness, mixed motivations, and theological confusion, God can still use us. As I often remind myself, if God can use a donkey (Numbers 22), then God can even use me—or you—or that other off-center guy.

For example, how many people initially came to Christ through ministries they now consider to be theologically weak? But God still worked through those ministries. I know people who were led to Christ by others who later abandoned Christianity. But God still used those people to spread His gospel. There are some people I think aggravating or spiritually or theologically inferior (I’m showing you my sinfulness) whom I’ve seen God use to spread love and hope and comfort and truth. What shall we say to all this? “To God be the glory.” The very phenomenon of God’s using such cracked vessels demonstrates His glory—His amazing ability to work with inferior products to generate life-changing results in others (sort of like MacGyver saving the day with only duct tape and three matches).

But in addition to God’s power to use sinners, we see His grace in forgiving them (us) and not letting their sins erase their moments of faithfulness. Again, consider Abraham; David; Peter, who denied all knowledge of Jesus but later became the spokesman for the apostles; Bathsheba, who also sinned but became the ancestor of Jesus; or Moses, who originally responded to God’s call with “send someone else” and many years later disobeyed and dishonored God enough to be denied entrance into Canaan—but not enough to lose his “friend of God” standing.

For us, whose lives are a mixture of truth and falsehood, love and selfishness, faith and unbelief, generosity and greed, that is good news indeed. Our moments (days, years) of weakness, sinfulness, or incorrectness don’t disqualify us from God’s continued commitment and grace if we are truly His.

The reality of God’s using and forgiving sinful human beings also reminds me to be less demanding in my expectations of other Christians. Do they slip? Yes. Do they have wrong perspectives and habits? Of course. Will they sometimes need to be reproved and corrected? Indeed. Will their sins be unforgivable or disqualify them from any future ministry or make them unusable to God? No. Those same blessings that are so dear to me must also be extended to others. Though I may disagree with my fellow-believer’s theology or view some of his actions as foolish, weak, or downright evil, that is no reason for me to despise him or to avoid him. Remembering both my own waywardness and God’s treatment of His other wayward creatures should encourage me to be gracious, forbearing, and forgiving, as He is.

Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another. Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. — Galatians 5:26- 6:1

To be judgmental is so easy; I need to remember that even if I try to be subtle about it (for example, I wouldn’t have fled from Ninevah; I just would have had too many other urgent things to do), I am far from perfect myself. I need God’s wisdom and insight to be able to appreciate God’s work in and through others’ lives at the same time that I see those people’s weaknesses.

So, neither life nor God fit my expectations. Life is much more confusing than I think it should be. God is so much more gracious than I think He would be, forgiving not just our “moments of sin” but also our sinful bents and tendencies (our self-righteousness, our laziness, our adoption of our culture’s values, our selfishness, our lack of submission to God, our rationalizations of our anger and pettiness) after we claim His name as well as before. And God’s power, wisdom, and ability to use such confused, aggravating, and stubborn creatures to do His work on earth are truly mind-boggling.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. –Romans 11:33-36

Kay Smith is part of the MSC/Gutenberg College community.  She received a degree in economics from Stanford University, after which she completed a two-year biblical studies program (Scribe School) at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California. Currently, she tutors students in math and English.  This article was first published on the Gutenberg College website and is used with permission.

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Photo “Holy Face Palm” taken by Tim Green and used here under Flickr Creative Commons.

Mary & Martha: A lesson for Women’s Ministry

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Mary & Martha: A Lesson for Women's Ministry | WednesdayintheWord.com
At first reading, the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible raises more questions than it answers. Why didn’t Jesus rebuke Mary for laziness?  Does he really scold Martha for feeding hungry travelers? If Martha had let her guests starve and instead had sat beside Mary at Jesus’ feet, would Jesus have multiplied fish and bread to feed the crowd? Does Jesus’ response imply he has a low view of domestic work, and what should  we do when people need to both eat and learn?

Passage

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42 ESV)

Hospitality was a matter of honor

Most likely, the sisters did not know Jesus was coming, as he could not open his cell phone to call ahead, and ordinary people did not send letters announcing their arrival. Given given lack of refrigeration and modern food storage, Martha and Mary were probably not prepared to feed that many visitors, no matter how organized they were.

Yet feeding the travelers was necessary.   In the ancient near-eastern culture of Jesus’ day it was an honor and a responsibility to entertain guests. Hosts had to serve and guests had to eat, even if no one was hungry.  Hospitality was a matter of honor and matters of honor were not taken lightly.

When Jesus appears with twelve hungry men (and who knows how many other followers), social custom required the sisters to provide a generous meal. With little warning and no modern kitchen appliances, this task would be daunting even with both of them  — plus servants and neighbors — working together.

Mary’s choice

Yet Mary abandons her domestic duties in favor of the posture of a disciple — sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to his words.

And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. – Luke 10:39

Martha’s reaction

Understandably overwhelmed, Martha appeals to Jesus to send her lazy sister into the kitchen, accusing Jesus of indifference in the process.

But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” – Luke 10:40

Jesus’ Response

Surely, Jesus will chastise Mary for neglecting the social customs of hospitality, for leaving the burden of work to another and for slacking in her duties!  Yet while Jesus responds to Martha with compassion (the double use of her name),  he unexpectedly sides with Mary.

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” – Luke 10:41-42

At first reading, Jesus appears to contrast the many dishes Martha is preparing when one simple dish would do, perhaps chiding her for over-compensating in her hospitality.  While that is a possible explanation,  physical food is not the “one thing necessary;” sitting at Jesus’ feet is the one necessary thing.  From an eternal perspective, spiritual food is more necessary than physical food.

Spiritual food takes priority

From an eternal perspective, spiritual food is more necessary than physical. Martha chose to serve physical food while Mary chose to receive spiritual food.  Mary chose wisely.

But neither does Jesus condemn Martha’s service. To claim that Mary made the better choice does not necessarily imply that Martha made an evil choice.  Yes, hospitality is part of gracious service, but when Jesus comes to town, all of us should drop everything to listen.

In the long run, it is more important to be a good disciple than to be a good hostess.

Women’s ministry: Discipleship over hospitality

That emphasis on discipleship is the focus of a healthy women’s ministry. While meal preparation and service are valuable acts of kindness, they are not the reason to have a women’s discipleship in a local church.  Women’s ministry ought not to be personality-driven, program-driven or event-driven.  It should be theologically-driven.

The goal of a healthy women’s ministry is to provide opportunities for women to “sit at Jesus’ feet” together.

If, like Martha, you are overwhelmed by work, chores and responsibilities, I encourage you be more like Mary — make time to sit at Jesus feet and listen.  Find a good small group that provides both fellowship and time in God’s Word and join your sisters “on the floor”.  It is the better way.

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Are older women invisible in the church?

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WomaninPew-580

In the introduction to our study of 1 John, I referenced a July 2013 post on the Christianity Today Her.meneutics blog concerning how “youth focused Christianity may be sidelining the gifts of older women.”

Below is the section from which I quoted:

But one theme emerged that I hadn’t expected: women in the middle of their lives who felt invisible and ignored by the church, the same way they feel invisible or ignored in our culture.

These are women of my mother’s generation, maybe 10 or even 20 years on either side. I heard their hurt, sorrow, and stoicism about life within the church. In a sea of artful hipsters and energetic young people with self-promotion apparently engrained into their DNA, they feel invisible and overlooked.

One woman told me about how she had led worship at her church for years. But when a new young pastor was hired, he wanted a cooler band to get more young people in the door. First thing to go? Older women. “No one wanted to see middle-aged women on stage,” she wrote candidly, and so she was replaced with young women in their late teens and early twenties.

Another woman told me she had very high levels of education, a seminary degree, a long history of teaching with many beloved students, but every teacher at her church’s education program was a young, charismatic man with half her education, let alone experience. The church’s “official” position welcomed women in ministry but in practice, it wasn’t actually happening. She believed it was because she did not fit the expected look or personality or gender of their education program.

Another woman shared about how she has welcomed the shift in the churches of her context towards women in leadership and ministry even though they are all young and beautiful with identical outgoing and big-smiling personalities. The glass ceiling remains for her because she doesn’t fit the preferred look or personality but she cheers on these young women anyway. Her view is that at least women are in public ministry now, in a way that the young women of her generation couldn’t be.

You can read the entire post “The Invisible Generation” by Sarah Bessey here.

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Photo Cogitation in the Chapel taken by Small-Realm and used here under Flickr Creative Commons.

Agreeing with Young Atheists

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When Larry Alex Taunton of Fixed Point Foundation explored why many American college students are atheists, the following “composite sketch” emerged:

  • They had attended church.
  • The mission and message of their churches was vague.
  • They felt their churches offered superficial answers to life’s difficult questions.
  • They expressed their respect for those ministers who took the Bible seriously.
  • Ages 14-17 were decisive.
  • The decision to embrace unbelief was often an emotional one.
  • The internet factored heavily into their conversion to atheism.

As I read Taunton’s article “Listening to Young Athesits: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity, I found myself agreeing with the young atheists. As a teenager I experienced the same journey — but with the opposite result.

While I did not grow up attending church and the internet did not yet exist, ages 14-17 were crucial for me; when I began searching, I found most churches vague, superficial, and avoiding life’s difficult questions; I respected those who took the Bible seriously; and emotions — or at least the acceptance and support of serious believers — played a part in my decision to embrace belief.

“Church became all about ceremony, handholding, and kumbaya,” Phil said with a look of disgust. “I missed my old youth pastor. He actually knew the Bible.”

Fortunately for me, unlike Phil quoted above, my high school pastor was not fired in favor of someone who would “teach less and play more”; And, in college I found a church that passionately tackled hard questions and difficult passages of Scripture.

Still, I find the same problems identified by these young atheists in many churches today. For example,

  • A large church asked if I would speak at their women’s retreat.  After listening to several of my MP3s, the Director of Women’s Ministries asked if I could “be more entertaining, tell more stories and drop all that Bible-stuff?” I declined.
  • I have an long “debate” with a pastor who is trying to persuade me that women’s ministries should not  focus on teaching the word of God, discipleship and fellowship because we are “over-taught.”  Instead, he argues, we should replace bible studies with activities like refuge outreach, soup kitchens, budgeting and parenting classes.  We continue to disagree.

My teenage spiritual journey ended in faith due to the grace of God and the willingness of other believers who took the Bible seriously to answer critical questions and to live like they believed the answers.

These young atheists have a point.  After all, if you were an atheist and most Christians you encountered rarely read the Bible and were largely ignorant of its content, what would you think?

Women’s Ministry: The view from 1852

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Sunday in the Park

Since I’ve been blogging on the Why Have a Women’s Ministry, I found this quote from a book published in 1852 interesting.

My Dear Young Friend:

A clergyman will, of course, have much and constant occasion to be in the company of females.  They form a most interesting and active part of every church.  Many things may be accomplished by their pious agency, which could scarcely be attained in any other way.  And happy, indeed, is that minister of the gospel, who, by wisdom, fidelity, prudence, and Christian delicacy, is enabled to conciliate the esteem, and to acquire and maintain the unlimited confidence of his female parishioners, and of other persons of worth of that sex, with whom he may be called in Providence to associate.

He who fails of doing this, cannot either be very acceptable or very useful; while he who succeeds in attaining it, not only possesses one of the most valuable pledges of permanent popularity, but also enjoys the advantages for doing good of the richest kind.

The female part of every congregation have, in general, an influence, which, while it cannot be defined, cannot, at the same time, be resisted.  And, for the most part, this influence, I believe, is as just in its ultimate award, as it is sovereign in its sway.

From “Letter 12: Female Society, Marriage, etc.” in Letters on Clerical Manners and Habits:  Addressed to A Student in the Theological Seminary at Princeton NJ  by Samuel Miller, published 1852.

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Photo: “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat.

Breaking the Women’s Ministry stereotype?

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Breaking the Women's Ministry stereotype | WednesdayintheWord.com

Since I recently wrote on “Why have a Women’s Minstry”, this post on Her-meneutics The Christianity Today blog for women caught my eye: Why it’s Your Job to Break the Women’s Ministry Stereotype

Here are some thought-provoking quotes from the blog:

Emotional forms of ministry have their place, but women in the church are eager to move beyond emotion, and beyond the surface.

Blogger Emerging Mummy recently captured this sentiment in her impassioned post “In Which I Write a Letter to Women’s Ministry”:

But I’m here with you tonight because I want what the world cannot give me. We’re choking on cutesy things and crafty bits, safe lady topics and if one more person says that modest is hottest with a straight face, I may throw up. We are hungry for authenticity and vulnerability, not churchified life hacks from lady magazines. Some of us are drowning, suffocating, dying of thirst for want of the cold water of real community. We’re trying really hard – after all, we keep showing up to your lady events and we leave feeling just a bit empty. It’s just more of the same every time.

But she is not the first to express such concerns with women’s ministry.

Several years ago author Wendy Horger Alsup wrote a post titled “Pink Fluffy Bunny Women’s Bible Studies” in which she criticized the “emotional fluff out there masquerading as Bible study.”

… Women’s ministry, as a form, is in the midst of a massive shift. Many women’s ministries have responded to the outcry and evolved, but the stereotypes have not always changed accordingly. Rather than doing justice to the change, broad stereotypes have remained, further stigmatizing women’s ministry in the minds of female church-goers.

Nowhere has this stigma been more apparent to me than in my efforts to involve young women. In most of the churches where I have served, the 20-somethings have been all but absent from women’s ministry events. This younger generation has grown up hearing about “fluffy” women’s ministries, and the stereotype has become entrenched. Even when change is happening in their churches, many young women persist in the belief that all women’s ministries are inherently superficial. 

I’m happy to report that the PCA has been fighting this stereotype for years.  The first General Assembly adopted a philosophy and theology of women’s ministry which they continue to actively teach and explain.   We may quibble about how successfully we’ve implemented the vision, but at least the vision is theologically driven — not program, project or personality driven.   The theology provides the guideline for mapping the specifics of our programs and evaluating them.

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Why have a women’s ministry?

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Why have a women's ministry? | WednesdayintheWord.com

What is the purpose of a women’s ministry?

Soup kitchens, ladies’ luncheons, parenting classes and charity fairs all serve good causes, but they are not the reason we have a distinctive discipleship of women in the local church.  Not only is it important to have an intentional, deliberate approach to female discipleship, it is necessary for a healthy church community.

Why have a women’s ministry? In his letter to Titus, the apostle Paul includes instructions on proper church conduct.  After describing the qualifications for elders, Paul instructs Titus on what to teach older men and “likewise” to teach older women so that older women can teach younger women (Titus 2:1-5).

God created men and women differently.  While I’m sure that shocking truth did not just dawn on you, a wise church pays attention to the distinctive needs and temptations of men and women.  We recognize that some of those lessons are best learned and applied in single-sex groups. Having a deliberate, biblically-based, women’s ministry allows us to effectively address the different needs of women.

Women’s ministries exists to serve and minister to women of all ages

  • by teaching the Word of God
  • providing fellowship, evangelism and discipleship,
  • with the purpose of encouraging a deeper walk with Jesus Christ
  • as well as equipping women for ministry. 

The goal of women’s ministry is not to keep women busy with fun, fellowship or service opportunities, but to help women grow in faith.

Within that mission, Women’s Ministries strives to teach women to live and serve by balancing the educational and relational components on our programs.  If a ministry is purely educational, it is academic and cold.  If a ministry is solely relational, it is anemic and will collapse under the storms of life.  Just as a good team needs both offense and defense, biblical discipleship teaches the content of the covenant within the context of covenantal relationships.

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