Women's Ministries

I guess I feel I just need express my opinion about Women's Ministries (WM) and their role in the early 21st century church. I know it sounds academic, but, this is really merely my own personal ponderings. I may really be off the mark, so let me know if I need to change my view.

I have been intimately involved in WM for 23 years. I have started ministries, served as a team member, led them, and faithfully supported and attended organizations that others have built. I freely admit that when I first began the arduous task of building the first WM I would be involved with, I was young, at an adolescent church, and I had no experience in this area. Even with these obstacles, this group of women understood their need for community. Not just any community, but a sisterhood of like minded Christians who needed each other to encourage one another in our sojourn. We ministered together to others outside our church, met together to serve one another, and ultimately our church benefitted. Of course, this position was voluntary.

As the years have passed, our family has changed and so have the churches we have attended. I have served on a team or led the WM at every church we have belonged. The ministry that I remember with the most fondness was, suprisingly, not the largest church we joined (300). It did eventually grow to be rather large (1500 in attendance of each Sunday morning). I was paid staff at this church. I had a volunteer team of 8, and they had teams of their own that successfully engineered and executed their segment of the ministry with a creativity I could never have generated myself.

In my experience, and I will agree it is limited, most churches (of any denomination) do not have a WM staff position. The job of WM leader is expected to be filled by a volunteer. Most churches will express their desire to have a WM, but, realistically, if no one steps up to do the job, our churches will wait for someone to "feel" the need to organize activities for the women, especially since it is a volunteer position. Each volunteer tends to have their favorite activity to support, so as the leaders change, so does the personality of the ministry. Now, this is true of most positions, however, in ministry at a church whose foundation is the Bible, we really should have a cornerstone of Bible study for WM no matter who is in leadership.

So, now I must ask myself (and you) these questions:

*Why isn't WM a necessary component in our church?
*Is WM just a nice, additional activity for us to put in our bulletins on Sunday to show how much we have going on?
*If we are going to spend millions on our children and youth ministries (and I believe this is the right thing to do), will we be satisfied for these women to just drop their children off and leave our parking lot? (Our numbers say that this is happening)
*Why don't we find a professional WM leader and include that position on our church staff so we can have an effective ministry that affects over half our attendees, and, in turn, benefits our church as a whole? (On any given Sunday over half of the adults in attendance are women).

To conclude, I love my church. My desire is for us not to follow trends in the 21st century church, but to create them. Effective trends that will affect our world for Christ. That is why we are here.