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NEW BRAUNFELS?More than 420 women filled First Baptist Church of New Braunfels to capacity Jan. 23-24 for an SBTC Women’s Ministry Forum designed to equip them for ministry in their local churches and encourage them spiritually.
The women were divided among 10 two-hour learning labs, where common themes emerged as women’s ministry was discussed. The women’s ministry leaders were encouraged to develop in their churches new, biblically grounded leaders who represent diverse ages and abilities.
MINISTER AS A TEAM
In her session on “Best Form and Functionality,” Leslie Busbee, women’s minister at Houston’s Sagemont Church, offered three models of ministry for small, medium, and larger churches. Selecting a solid team is foundational to beginning a women’s ministry, said Busbee, who serves a church that averages 6,000 attenders.
“Jesus didn’t minister alone,” Busbee said, “and I believe we weren’t called to minister alone. You will burn out very quickly if you try to minister alone.”
Regardless of a team’s size, women’s ministry team members should be “loyal, dependable, godly and fun,” she said. “Your group should be very diverse. I am intentional about this on my team; we have singles in their 20s up to widows in their 80s.”
Once the team is assembled, Busbee said the purpose statement of women’s ministry must conform to the church’s overall mission.
“I need to know the mission statement of my church and everything I do needs to support this,” Busbee said. “You don’t ever want to be outside the umbrella of protection of your church. If I know I’m doing what God has called me to do, and my pastor has endorsed it, then I know I’m OK. Make sure your mission statement falls in line and everything you do complements the mission of your church.”
A HARMONY OF VISION
For medium-size churches, Rhonda Black, women’s minister at Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church in Allen, also stressed the importance of harmonizing women’s ministry goals with the pastor’s vision.
Black said Cottonwood seeks to draw people in the community to worship Christ and then place them in a small group. Once members are discipled, they are then released back into the community to serve as witnesses to draw others in. In an effort to not overload women with ministry requirements, Black said Cottonwood’s women’s ministries seeks to move women from immaturity to maturity instead of simply providing activities or programs.
To accomplish this goal, Black said the Cottonwood women’s ministry is simple. The group organizes one or two large annual events to reach women in the community and plug them into a fellowship and a Bible study.
Other “Encourage & Equip” labs taught leaders to develop ministries that disciple women for service and cast leaders into roles of effectiveness. Several sessions targeted specific needs, offering tools for Bible study preparation, recognizing gender differences in the workplace to effectively serve with men, equipping women to live missional lives, planning memorable and effective retreats, and discovering the value of transformative apologetics as a means of defending one’s faith.
Keynote speaker Pat Layton of Tampa, Fla., led a separate workshop on connecting the church to the mission field created by abortion.
Enrichment training addressed grace, forgiveness, spiritual disciplines, seasons of life, obedience, accountability and life dreams. Keynote speaker Kelly Minter of Nashville offered additional study in a small-group setting on discovering the roots of idolatry while Holly McLean of New Braunfels described how to extend God’s grace to women who have dealt with infertility.
Minter traced the lives of Rachel and Leah as recorded in Genesis 29 to describe the idols each woman worshipped in comparison to the resources women use today “to try and make life work without really engaging the heart of God.”
“I spent a little bit too long with my eyes so focused on all the idols I was trying to make work for me that I could not get to the fields. I wasn’t freed up enough to get to the harvest,” Minter recalled, citing Jesus’ challenge to recognize the fields
