Begin with prayer:
- Pray for the women God would have you ask to be on your team.
- Pray for the vision statement for your women’s ministry, a statement in line with your church’s vision statement. Having a vision statement is a framework for helping you see where the women on your team can fit within the ministry.
If you are starting a new Women’s Ministry team:
- Meet individually with the women God has laid on your heart. Listen to them. See if they line up with the needs of the team and can work together with others. They don’t have to be the most spiritually mature. They need to have a good reputation and connection with people in the church. They need to be women who have their head on a swivel, looking for ways to serve those around them.
- Try to find women from all different ages/stages/areas of the church. Avoid recruiting existing cliques of women. It’s okay to ask one woman out of a group (but not the one with the strongest personality) to see how that one could fit on the team.
- Don’t play favorites. Women pick up on this trait and will compete for the spot of favorite team member. It will destroy the team.
- Ideally your team should be an odd number of women, including yourself. Five is a good number. If your team is too large, it is hard to come to a consensus on decisions and more of a challenge to lead.
If you have inherited an existing Women’s Ministry team:
- Meet individually with the women and share the vision that God has going forward for the ministry. They may decide it is no longer an area of service for them. If so, consider that an answered prayer and move on. Don’t take it personally. Remember, this is God’s ministry.
- If the team you inherited needs more women, pray and add a woman or women from an area(s) of the church that isn’t currently represented on the team.
- Once you have your team in place, do a spiritual gifts survey and a personality survey together as a team. Discuss the results at your meeting. This helps the women get to know each other better and helps identify differences in their gifts and personalities. Knowing them will help navigate personality differences. Celebrate these differences and help the women see how God has knit the team together.
Pray and plan your calendar:
- As you begin to pray and plan your event schedule for the year, check your church calendar to make sure you are not conflicting with any other event. You want to draw as many in for the effort you are putting out. Work always in a flow with your church and pastor. The idea of Women’s Ministry is to compliment and build up the church.
- Try to vary your events so you have both social and equipping events. These days, younger women don’t want to waste their time. Make what you are planning count and be beneficial to the spiritual growth and maturity of your women. Relationships naturally happen with women when you get them together. Discipleship must be intentional. Help them discover their spiritual gifts, how to share the gospel, how to write out their testimony. Plan a missions event together like collections for pregnancy centers, back to school needs, or a clothing drive.
- Remember the five foundational components of Women’s Ministry: Glorifies, Grows, Gives, Gathers, Goes. Try to include these areas for balance. Here is the link to our website with details:
https://sbtexas.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/She_Stands_model_book_web.pdf
- Make the gospel central to all that you do. Share the gospel at EVERY event. The gospel is the only thing that sets our events apart from any other social gathering. There are lots of resources for learning how to share the gospel. Equip your team to be able to share the gospel and to share their testimonies. Lead by example.
General leadership principles:
- Jesus was a servant leader. His example is what we want to follow.
- Be a good listener. Remember, God gave us two ears and one mouth.
- Pray before you respond to commitment and to conflict.
- Always be working yourself out of your position by bringing someone along to take your place. This is mentorship. It may take awhile to discover who that person is. Pray, watch, and give it time.
- Be flexible and listen to the Lord daily for guidance.
- Remember, if you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. Be bold and try new things.
- Celebrate. Share good news of what God is doing with your team and with your women at your events. Start the fire and keep it burning.
