Just returned from a women’s retreat with Southside Baptist Church, and thought you might enjoy a couple of ideas I observed there. 

1)  Permeated theme.  My theme, “SHINE!”, was used everywhere! They prepared mini-skits for promotion in the church. For example, one lady arrives onstage laden with floodlights and Christmas lights and lanterns, etc. She states, “I heard they’re going to SHINE at the retreat, and I wanted to get a head start!”  There were stars and lights and candles everywhere–nametags, ceilings, notebooks, gift bags, entryway, etc. 

2)  Smile Prayer.  The team invited Sarah Bohrer and Heidi Hackney to lead worship–can’t beat that team!  Sarah also led a sun-up devotional time outside on the patio. Her conclusion was a time of encouragement and prayer like I’ve never seen before. She asked everyone to stand silently in a large circle. As they prayed for others in the circle, they were to make eye contact and smile as they prayed silently.  It was a very special time of silent (and personal) prayer for one another.

3) Photo Finish.  I’ve used this idea for staff parties, but it was absolutely perfect for a ladies retreat.  On the first evening of the retreat, the entire group was posed for a group photo. The next day, as ladies departed for home, they were presented with a small shine-themed gift, and a copy of the group photo. What a lovely surprise!  One team member’s husband took the photos and had copies made. If budget allows, you could even pick up cute frames at the dollar store for the photos. 

4) A visual promo idea. This church uses their group photos for its annual retreat promotion. They post a few group photos from previous years, labeled “Class of ‘02″ or “Class of ‘07″ and a caption, “Will you be in the ‘Class of ‘08′ Photo?”

Ladies’ retreats can be a great time of spiritual refreshment and growth, and can offer a fabulous opportunity for Christian fellowship.  Southside’s planning team did a wonderful job. It’s worth the effort!

Oh, you’re going to love reading this! It’s the story of a church who determined that they needed to update their women’s ministry, and how God immediately blessed their efforts to serve Him!! They jumped from a small group to an enormous women’s ministry.

Read every word. You’ll be inspired.

Note: I blipped off the names of ladies in the church and just put xxx.

————-

BEGINNING HISTORY OF LIGHT

FALL, 2008 

      On May 18, 2008, each woman in First Baptist Church, Canton TX, was asked to complete an extensive survey.  This survey was to determine special interests, desire for fellowship outside the church, extra Bible Study times and what the women were already involved in. 

      The first meeting to begin a program called LIGHT was held on June 27th.  The women present looked at the survey to determine what interests were the greatest and what would be offered during the Fall Semester. 

      LIGHT stands for “Ladies Involved in Going, Helping, and Touching.”  The program for LIGHT consists of 3 components:  Fellowship Classes (designed for “me”), a time of Coffee Fellowship and a Devotional (designed for “us”), and Ministry Classes (designed for “them”); hence, the “going, helping, and touching” aspects of LIGHT. 

      The Mission Statement for LIGHT is:  “to provide opportunities for women to know Jesus Christ, experience spiritual and personal growth, build Christian friendships, and ‘light their world’ with the love of Jesus through ministry.” 

      An overall theme was chosen—“Lighting Our World”—and a beautiful logo was designed to be used in all communication about LIGHT and to depict what the Women’s Ministry at First Baptist Church is all about. 

      The verses chosen for the ministry are Matthew 5:14-16 in which Jesus talks about our being light in a dark world.  The song chosen, “Go Light Your World,” was composed by Chris Rice.  

      The Leadership Team is as follows: 

            Women’s Ministry Coordinators—(2) 

            Fellowship Coordinator—

            Ministry Coordinator—

            Registration Coordinators—

            Luncheon/Special Events Coordinators—

            Publicity Coordinator-

      There will be DayLIGHT and NightLIGHT meeting on alternating Tuesdays beginning with DayLIGHT on September 9^th.  The same classes will be taught in both groups.  DayLIGHT will be from 9:30 A.M.– 12:00 Noon, and NightLIGHT will be from 6:30 – 8:00 P.M. 

FELLOWSHIP CLASSES AND TEACHERS for the Fall are  

            …Marriage Enrichment taught by xxx

            …Financial Management taught by xxx

            …Cooking Lite and Healthy taught by xxx

            …Love Crafts taught by xxx

            …Beginning Quilting taught by xxx 

MINISTRY CLASSES AND TEACHERS for the Fall are 

            …Barnabas led by xxx

.  …Hope Crisis Pregnancy Center led by xxx

            …Martha Ministry led by xxx

            …Homebound and Nursing Home led by xxx

            …School Mentoring led by xxx

      xxx has written the devotionals for LIGHT this year. 

      An exciting aspect of LIGHT is the childcare.  GLO (God’s Little Ones) will be led by xxx.  The children will have curriculum- based childcare for both DayLIGHT and NightLIGHT.  Refreshments will be served and recreation led by xxx. 

      The CHAMPS program will be led by xxx.  This is a group of FBC retired teachers who have committed their time for NightLIGHT to tutor and mentor students whose mothers are in classes.  Bible Stories, memory verses, and basic skills and spiritual guidance will be offered.  There will be a time of tutoring and refreshments; and our Minister to Students will plan the recreation time. 

      Special group projects are planned for the year.  Before school began, xxx coordinated gathering school supplies for children of single mothers.  Forty students were supplied with bags.  xxx coordinated the committee and received 1000 recipes from ladies at FBC for our cookbook, Taste and See.  A Birthday Party for the residents in the Nursing Home is planned for September directed by the Women on Mission.  Collection of Thanksgiving baskets for single moms and collections of Christmas toys for Christmas are planned. 

      It was decided that the meetings for LIGHT should be held in the Chapel and in rooms in that building.  There was a great need for the Chapel to be renovated with paint, new carpet, and new accessories.  On Sunday, July 20^th, xxx presented the need at the end of the business conference asking for donated labor and funds to refurbish the Chapel.  Volunteers came immediately to the need; and on Sunday, September 7^th, the Chapel was dedicated to the Lord to be used for His glory.  The verse from Psalm 115.1 is very appropriate:  “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory for your great love and faithfulness.” 

      Because of the need for funds for Kickoff and publicity, xxx coordinated a garage sale at the church Family Life Center on August 22 – 23.  Approximately $2400 dollars were collected for the needs of Women’s Ministry. 

      A skit was presented in the morning worship service on August 24^th with xxx introducing the Fellowship and Ministry Classes through a “Taste and See” skit. 

      The date set for Kickoff for the Fall semester of LIGHT was set for Saturday, September 6, from 10:00 until 11:30 A.M.  This was a time in which booths of everything offered in LIGHT and the total Women’s Ministry Program were set up.  In addition to the booths set up for the classes were booths for Women on Mission, Helping Hands Ministry, Parent’s Day Out, upcoming Special Events, Legacy of Love Conference, Volunteer Opportunities, and Bible Studies offered on different days. 

      The theme for the Kickoff and for the year is “Taste and see that the Lord is good”  (Psalm 34.8).  Teri Sawyer from FBC, Tyler, was enlisted to be the speaker.  Kimberly Abbott, Sign Language Artist from Tyler, and Amy Chalker provided the special music, our theme song, “Go Light Your World.” 

      One hundred twenty-five women came for the Kickoff.  After viewing the booths and choosing where they wanted to be involved, the women heard the program and then took individual candles and lit them from one another and closed the program in prayer and encouraged the women to “Go Light Their World.” 

      The First Annual Women’s Conference will be held on October 18^th, 2008, with Amy Jones from Dallas and her ministry team, “The Journey of Sisters.”  The Christmas Brunch will be held on Saturday, December 6^thwith Chris and Diane Machen, recording artists from Plano providing the program. 
 

Note from Diana: I sent a note to Paula Hearon, the women’s ministry leader, complimenting her on including so many women in planning. Read this great response…

A note from the women’s ministry leader:

Thanks so much, my special friend.  I have tried to listen everywhere I am to really hear what women are saying about their strengths.  If they even mention in a tiny way some area of strength or willingness to get involved (even if they don’t know what I’m about to do!!), I have tried to plug them in.  I was at the house of a retired teacher the other day and she showed me the scrapbook she put together after her son died.  She said she loved to scrapbook—SO…she now has the project of beginning our LIGHT scrapbook!!  The key, as you so well know, is to inspire and let the Lord do the rest.  It’s truly amazing to watch.  There is a lot of untapped talent here.  I’m after it!!!
 
We decided to do DayLIGHT and NightLIGHT to involve as many women as possible.  It would work here because of being a smaller town.  We had 53 in NightLIGHT last Tuesday with visitors from other churches present (which is so much what we desire). The assurance to working women that the same things would be offered them as were the women during the day has been a real plus.  You have to give involvement opportunities, don’t you think?   This isn’t counting the workers we had in CHAMPS and GLO.  This is truly amazing, Diana.  I’ve never experienced anything like this before.  I just wish I had had what I have now earlier in our ministry.  God doesn’t waste any experiences though, and I would not take anything for my “training ground” with you at FBCG.
 
One of the sweetest ministries is our Barnabas Ministry.  A lot of the Night class went in there.  There were 69 names on the board of our church members with Sept. birthdays, the SS teachers,  and others, and every name on the board was written.  Women were carrying out their little envelopes to go mail the next day.  This class will be the one to gather goodies for college and military boxes to be sent, along with other activities.
 
Thank you, Diana, for all your inspiration and encouragement.

Take a listen to this radio interview about Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry on CDR radio, by Chad Bresson.

There’s a fabulous book review on Amazon.com about the book, too!  You can link to it or read it pasted below:

Most Helpful Customer Reviews (on Amazon)

Among the BEST Resource of Its Kind - Inspirational, Purposeful, Impactful, September 4, 2008 By  L. MCDERMEIT (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews    I recently purchased several (>5) books on getting a women’s ministry started or going again… and of all the books I purchased, THIS ONE is the one that provided me with the most inspiration and ideas. It truly contains “fresh ideas” and “creative plans”! Using this book as my guide, I put together a five-month plan to radically upgrade our church’s women’s ministry, and presented that plan to our pastor. We’ve been a small congregation that started growing rapidly, so we need to take our current women’s ministry to the next level and grow with our congregation — their needs and our church’s ministry needs. I’m in the process of implementing that plan with our pastor and the church staff — all of whom were impressed with the concise, thorough plan. I told them that this book provided the inspiration, ideas, and templates. As I read through the book, so much of it resonated with me — so many of the ideas and tips gave voice and validation to my own hopes and plans for reviving our women’s ministry. The easy-to-follow examples and templates for surveys, leadership position descriptions/duties, classes, ministry opportunities, and more helped me to quickly put it all together. Throughout the book, the author emphasizes that women’s ministries need to be more than social clubs. To truly be a WOMEN’S MINISTRY, it needs to be about ME, US (church and community), and HIM. A well-balanced women’s ministry more than meets each woman’s need for fellowship, it helps to cement life-long friendships, diversity, teamwork, and most of all, purpose — taking our rightful place as the body of Christ to minister to one another, to our community, and to our world. And it’s not as difficult as it sounds! The author has laid out sound biblical principles, spiritual advice (pray! get your pastor’s buy-in immediately), and ideas on how to apply these ideas and plans to every church, whether building a new ministry or reviving an existing one — for any size church!

What a fun weekend! I got to participate in Ohio’s state Baptist women’s retreat, leading a breakout class about Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry book. They had a huge crowd of joyful ladies, and the setting was gorgeous.

And I had the privilege of sharing at the annual Ladies Day at Eastern Heights Baptist Church in Jeffersonville IN. You wouldn’t believe what a lovely event they planned.

Over the weekend, though, several different women shared their own personal story of salvation with me.  One lady from another country told how, at an extremely troubled point in her life as an atheist,  she knelt and prayed for God to find her! Then, she said, “I met David Jeremiah!” She didn’t actually meet him; she found him on the radio, and proceeded to devour his teachings, prayed to receive Christ while sitting in her living room, and discovered that she needed to find a local church for discipleship and service. “So here I am!” she said.  An active, faithful member of the church, she continues to grow in her love for Christ.

They had a lovely setup for a book signing in Ohio, with sofas by a fireplace, and an opportunity to sit and visit with ladies who came.  Three different ladies told me about how they found Christ as their Savior. Three more amazing stories of a great God providing an eternal plan for an individual person. 

As I reflected on the weekend, many blessings could be listed, but the greatest one was hearing the life-changing story of how women found God’s salvation.

And after all that, Steve and I got to spend Sunday with our wonderful son in Ohio on his birthday. What a blessed weekend!

Here’s another email I received from a Women’s Ministry Leader:

——————–

“I have been reading your book “Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry” with great interest and I might even say relief.

You have so many great ideas. The Elders at my church asked me to officially take on the Women’s ministry at my small church. I have at times felt like I am totally out of my league and alone on this crazy path! Last year at one point I was in tears with my Minister’s wife not know what to do next…

and this summer I saw your book, Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry, in a book club flier and now I feel like I have a tool to give me some direction.Your book gives me a lot of excitement for possible events to try with our little group.

I don’t want our Ladies group to be a social club, or a craft group. I have been searching for ways to serve God in the community, and here your book has several ideas that maybe our small bunch can try this year.

My question is, you have a great name Light, or Night Light, and I was wondering is there any restrictions to using that name if we decide to? We are getting a bit tired of calling it “Ladies Group” every month! I think the name captures what I have been feeling for a long time, that a simple Women’s group can touch the community by being lights in the valley. (My answer to her question, of course, is “yes, go for it!”)

This month we are doing a tiny kickoff to explain about a Bible study our Pastor’s wife is leading, and our knitting group, and then I am going to hand out a survey to find out what ladies are interested in.  We are going to be a part of Samaratin’s Purse program, so I will send the ladies home with a shopping list and then in October we’ll gather to pack the shoe boxes. 

So you have given me a bump in the direction I was struggling to go!
Thank you for you encouraging book.  I am sure it was no accident that it appeared just when I was struggling!”

Go LIGHT your world, friend!

[poll id="6"]

Women’s ministry programs across the nation will begin their fall programs soon.

What does your group do to welcome ladies for the new semester?  Is there a special greeting? A kickoff event? A unique treat of some kind?  After you answer, please click “no messages” below and tell the rest of us a little about your women’s ministry kickoff.  

I’ll start…

I love receiving emails from women about how God is blessing their church’s women’s programs.  I’ve attached the heart of an email about a small church’s new women’s ministry program that will begin this fall.

As you read it, listen…Can you hear the excitement?  (”Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, [ Lit do it from the soul] as something done for the Lord and not for men.” Colossians 3:23)

____________

My Dear Friend,
 
Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined LIGHT and the extended Women’s Ministry could fall in place as it is here!  Because of your encouragement that it could be done in a short amount of time, I went for it—full force!!  Here are the results so far (I am so excited I can hardly sleep or do anything else but plan).
 
Here are the developments so far:
 
…All coordinators in place
 
…Logo designed
 
…Fellowship classes chosen and have leaders
 
…Ministry in place
 
…committee in full force to get school supplies for children of single moms
 
…cookbook committee in full force (to be used for fundraiser)
 
…greatest publicity
 
…plans to update the area where we want to have LIGHT
 
…Kickoff planned and speaker, musician and sign language artist confirmed
 
…October 18th all day women’s conference in place
 
…Christmas Brunch musicians and speakers confirmed.
 
…outside Bible studies planned
 
We are having DayLIGHT on Tuesday morning, and the next week, Tuesday NightLIGHT with the same programs to accommodate working women and so forth for 12 weeks.
 
We are providing a program at NightLIGHT called CHAMPS.  We have many retired school teachers in our congregation; so we are offering a program providing tutoring by the teachers, refreshments, and then recreation with our youth minister and his wife.  We hope to help many single moms with this program and encourage people to visit our church.  The coordinator is in place for this.  I am really excited about offering this and am going to suggest we offer it every Tuesday night.  We will use the term GLO for morning childcare.
 
Our overall theme is “Lighting Our World”  and the theme for this year is “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”  Cooking was the #1 interest from the survey; so our kickoff will feature the leaders with aprons and recipe cards to describe what their areas are about.  Our speaker is head of food services at FBC, Tyler and is a great motivational speaker.  She will speak with food as her topic.
 
The song we are using is “There Is a Candle” by Chris Rice.  One of our young ladies will sing while another signs.  At the conclusion of the Kickoff, they will do the song and all the ladies will light individual candles.  I get cold chills just thinking about it.
 
I bought your book for all the coordinators.  They are devouring it!!  You are absolutely a genius at putting it all together.  It is so well-written and easy to follow.
 
This is really way too long, but I just wanted to share it with you.  Please give advice about any of it.  You are my mentor.  I am so amazed at the excitement of the women to FINALLY be doing something for the Lord in the church.  To God be the glory.  It’s all about Him.
 ——————————

Now, this is a small church in a small town! Can you imagine what God can do through women’s ministry in YOUR church? dd

Debbie Hammond, wife of our North American Mission Board President, hosted a wonderful conference for wives of state leaders during the State Leaders Summer Meetings in Atlanta this week.  What quality leaders we have in our denomination’s ministries!

Months ago, Mrs. Hammond had invited me to share with these ladies at the conference.  Her team planned an adorable theme - “You Can Always Spot a Lady” - using ladybugs as a springboard to encourage these important leaders.  When my new book, Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry, came out, she told me how thrilled she was to find a little ladybug on the cover art. Did you even notice that little bug? Isn’t God good to work out small details?? 

Nice Surprise!

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mrs. Hammond provided a copy of my new book, Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministries, for each attender.  Pray for the spouses of Baptist state leaders across our nation. 

Almost every day I receive calls or emails or letters about my new book, Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry.  It’s exciting to watch how God is working in women’s ministries across our country.  I received this note in the mail:

“Diana,       I bought your book in Indianapolis, brought it home to use as a resource, but couldn’t put it down the fist time I cracked it open. So well written! Love the continuing story, and as always the creativity is truly inspired. So many people I want to sent it to!…”

What a great recommendation and encouragement! Pray that God will use Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry to challenge women to touch their world for Christ.

Chad Bresson, CDR Radio “The Path” - did an interview about Fresh Ideas for Women’s Ministry.

I believe this will link you to the interview: 

http://www.cedarville.edu/sbc/convention/media/audio/dianadavis.mp3