Oops : here’s a thread!

Here’s the thing: we all know women’s ministries can be a hot mess. If yours is, let me recommend the Bible Reading Challenge as a perfect O.K. Corral opportunity. No better line to draw, no better fight to have. #samepagesummer

If the women’s ministry exists to serve or “meet the needs” of women in the church, you have about ten minutes before someone is going to be embarking on a career of emotional manipulation. #needsnotmet

Does Paul make women in the church *feel* uneasy? Maybe they could all get together and talk about their feelings some more, and try to meet those needs. Everyone tries to make everyone feel better, and everyone walks on explosive eggshells around basic Christian teaching.

Somehow, magically, women who got into women’s ministry become afraid to talk about the Bible. Afraid to tell women to confess sin. Afraid to read aloud any Scripture pertaining to gender roles. Because they serve the other women’s feelings, and they fear them too.

Launch something like the Bible Reading Challenge into your women’s ministry, and you may quickly find out who has been fighting for the other team (once the emotional smoke bomb clears). You may also find that faithful women in your church break out tambourines.

Here’s why: nobody who has been leading book studies on the enneagram and soul searching with the ladies wants to switch to just reading God’s Word. It’s a perfect reality check. Do you love Jesus or not? Then you love His Word. #rethinkyourneeds

When women work to encourage one another to read the Word something beautiful happens. Women, shoulder to shoulder doing the work that God has called them to, and bringing one another along as we all pursue Christ. What does that looks like in practice? ...

It looks like women teaching one another to love their homes, their husbands, their children. It looks like hospitality. It looks like women who fear the Lord. It is culture building and transformative. It is the ministry of women to the church rather than to themselves. #joy

When we switched to focusing totally on encouraging the women in our church to be in the Word, Titus 2 situations happened much more often. Those things are actually a naturally occurring by-product of women being in the Word and talking about it.

Fairly often a new mom posts in the fb group that she is struggling to get her reading done. Tons of comments welcoming the baby, & saying “try listening” or “read while nursing, that’s what I do!” Sympathy, love, prayer- urging on.
#Titus2

On the women’s side of the Bible Reading Challenge we are not trying to teach the Word, we are trying to teach a *love* of the Word. We are not trying to make women into Bible scholars, we seek to make them into Bible lovers. #blessesthewholeworld

So if you think it might be time for some changes in your women’s ministry, I propose that you have that fight around the Word. Call your women to come to the Word, and gladly. The Word both divides and unites.

We live to serve Jesus, not one another’s emotions. #thanktheLord