I’ve been involved in establishing women’s ministries since Chuck accepted the call to his first assignment as pastor of Wissahickon United Methodist Church in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. We were both only twenty-one years old! Most of the women in that local church were old enough to be my grandmothers – maybe even my great grandmothers. Yet they patiently and lovingly allowed me to “lead” them in a small group Bible study every week around our dining room table.
In our next church, Logan United Methodist in Philadelphia, I continued to teach Bible studies and develop a more active women’s program. One thing was clear, women loved being with women and we had so much to learn from each other. God kept me in the role of Bible study teacher in our next two churches, Red Lion United Methodist Church and Red Lion Evangelical Church, both located in Delaware. I began to understand more about how to grow a women’s ministry that focused on the specific needs of women but it wasn’t until I connected with Women in the Church of the Presbyterian Church America that I found a biblical framework that would drive the program of women’s ministry.
In the months to come, we will carry articles that will describe the doctrinal basis for women’s ministry but for now, this is the best way I can describe why we do what we do on our local church. We take seriously the promises God made to Abraham in Genesis 12 and Genesis 17 when He declared that He had chosen Abraham, a moon worshiper, to be His child. God promised Abraham that from that day forward, Abraham would never be alone – God would be with Him.
Along the pathway of life, God would reveal Himself to Abraham through the circumstances of every day living. God promised that out of Abraham would come a great family – the covenant family – and that each member of this family would receive blessings from God. But the promise didn’t stop there. Not only would the covenant family experience God’s blessings, but they would have the privilege of being a blessing to generations to come.
In Galatians 3:29, Paul makes an astounding declaration: “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Remember that every one of us pushes our thoughts through a grid and that grid determines our actions. This is the grid through which we push our thoughts about women’s ministry. All the promises God made to Abraham belong to every person who knows Christ as Savior. Therefore, as God’s daughter, I can be confident that God will never leave me alone. He is always with me. Every circumstance in my life is an opportunity to know Him better. He chose me as His daughter and by doing so, has placed me in a “covenant family.” As a member of this family, I have the privilege of connecting with other family members and the responsibility of cultivating that covenant community. I have the privilege of becoming a channel of God’s compassion by deliberating extending mercy to those around me.
So how does this affect the way we do women’s ministry? First, we see every program as a means and not an end. Each program is a tool for helping women connect with other daughters of the King for cultivating community and equipping women to become channels of God’s compassion in a fallen world.
When you intentionally plan your year through that grid, the program becomes genuine ministry.