Last week, women’s ministry leaders from around the country joined our team for the day. I had the privilege of spending a whole day with a small group of these women. (Super exciting for someone like me who spends most days “talking” to women through a computer!)
I learned so much from these women, and thought you’d enjoy hearing some of their insights:
Anne: . . . You’re in a spiritual battle, battling a spirit of rebellion. You war against it by love, by pouring out the love of Christ. Teach women who love the Lord to really pour that out and not to judge.
Brenda: Meet them where they are. Sometimes our expectations are so high. Loving them and walking alongside them is difficult because it requires a lot of time and energy. Accept and love them for who they are and where they are, and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work.
Evie: You only have to please one. I still struggle with the people pleasing thing, but that echoes in my head a lot. Accept the fact that you are who you are and minister out of who you are. That frees me up a bunch.
Rose: I want to fix them, but I’m not someone else’s Holy Spirit. I learned this with my children. Speak truth and grace into their lives.
Kim: A lot of times I have to think about when does God want me to speak, and when do I need to be quiet? When I get to talking too much, the girls shut me out altogether.
Linda: . . . I was expressing to my executive pastor that I feel so helpless in these situations. I just listen to these women and pray with them. There’s no easy solution. My pastor said, “Linda, that’s exactly what God’s given you to do.” That was so freeing to me!
Paulette: You won’t please everybody, so determine what the Lord and your leadership want you to do, and do that.
Ruthann: The thing for me is becoming a listener without an agenda. I’ve spent my life as the oldest of four telling people what to do. Even when I’m quiet, my mind is still going. I’ve had to work on training my mind to shut down. Authenticity draws women to women. Not having an agenda.
It did my heart good to not only learn from these women, but to see how much it meant to them to connect with each other . . . to realize that they’re not alone . . . to pray together, and share their struggles and insights with each other.
That’s what we’ll be doing more of at revive ’11. That’s why these women’s ministry leaders are so excited about attending the conference this November:
Do you think your women’s ministry leader could use some connection/refreshing with other leaders, too? If so, would you let her know about revive ’11?
And while you’re thinking about revive ’11, don’t forget to make plans to attend the True Woman ’12 Conference where we’ll join in Seeking Him Together!
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on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 8:19 am
I feel that I'm in a spiritual battle when I'm at home and I pray and pray that God helps me to love them with the love of Christ more especially since I'm not a soft person,lovey-dovey girl but always focused,straight and so on. And I too used to feel like I'm trying to change them at home and see what God says and apply it, but the Holy Spirit has helped and instead I pray for them and make sure that when I'm with them I conduct devotions and share from the word of God even though at times it's discouraging.
on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:24 am
There aren’t any plans that I’m aware of, but keep praying—I’ve always wanted to visit Africa!
I’m so grateful/amazed that God has given us the gift of His Spirit and that He wants to fill us and love through us. I just prayed Psalm 62:1-2 for you:
“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.”
You are not alone!
paula
on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:28 am
I want to remember that I can't please everyone, and that's not my focus anyway ... I need to please the Lord. And listening without an agenda; for a teacher, that's hard. But being authentic, transparent, and compassionate will go a long way toward drawing women to Christ.
on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 12:08 pm
on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Thank you for sharing this. I am not in women's directorial ministry, but I was deeply encouraged and challenged by the quotes from the various above women.
The Lord has been convicting me quite a bit about my judgmental and critical and really just prideful assumptions and criticism of other women--mainly, "How can you call yourself a Christian? How can you act like that? Are you ever going to get your life straight?" OUCH!
God could and has said the same things about me. I have a lofty view of myself (what I should not have according to Psalm 131), instead of meeting these women where they are, praying boldly for them, and getting out of the way with no agenda. LOVE LOVE LOVE! I need to get over myself and realize that but for the grace of God, there I go!
I have been deeply convicted from my study of Psalm 37 and 73 that I am getting my focus off the Lord and on to other people. I need to "go into the sanctuary of the Lord" and remember people's end. What matters most is my love for Jesus, which will flow out with a love for others instead of festering in my heart about people's lack of change.
It is GOD who does the work. THANK YOU for posting this. Glad to know that I am not alone in my thoughts, even though I am not in women's ministry.
May the Lord bless Revive 11 and the upcoming True Woman 11. I was deeply impacted and blessed by TW2010 in Forth Worth. Thank you, Paula!
on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 5:02 pm
on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 10:31 pm
on Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 9:34 am
on Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 4:26 am
on Friday, June 3, 2011 at 10:03 am
on Saturday, September 22, 2012 at 7:29 am