In my last post we worked through how to discover God’s vision for your ministry. (Be sure to go back and read that post if you haven’t already.)
Today we’re going to tackle how to communicate God’s vision for your ministry.
Once God’s cleared outlined His vision for your ministry you’re going to need to rally the troops and get them onboard!
You will need to share this vision with:
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Your Pastor
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Your Women’s Ministry Team
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The Women in Your Church
Depending on your audience you may want to modify your presentation a bit.
Let’s break it down by audience.
1. Your Pastor
If God’s vision for your ministry is taking your women in a different or new direction you’ll want to schedule a sit down meeting with your Pastor. He or she will want to know what your plans are and you’ll need his support.
If it’s nothing that your Pastor would find surprising or unusual, it may be that an email will suffice. Just be sure you keep them in the loop!
2. Your Women’s Ministry Team
It is critical that your women’s ministry team supports and prays for the vision God has given you for your ministry.
I don’t know the women on your team – but God does and so do you! Pray and seek His will about how to best share what He’s reveal to you.
It may be that you just sit down with them at the beginning of your next meeting and you share how you’ve sought God’s vision and specifically what and how He’s revealed it to you. Share with them the scriptures God gave you and any confirmation you received. Details will help those who are skeptical. (As you do this you are modeling for your team how to seek God’s will/vision.)
Give them time to process and respond. Share the vision at this meeting, but wait until the next meeting to talk about what you’ll do as a ministry. Encourage them to pray and spend time in God’s Word between now and then.
You could open it up to everyone seeking God’s vision and then coming together to share what He has revealed but let me caution you about a few things that might happen:
- Satan is given an opportunity to plant seeds of discord and/or a vision that’s not from God.
- Women who have a different vision that the majority can feel slighted, left out, and unheard.
- You’ll have to figure out what to do with the visions that don’t fit with the rest of the group.
- You could be outnumbered. Then what?
God has called and placed you in a position of leadership on your Women’s Ministry Team.
It is okay for you to seek His will for your women’s ministry and to share it with the group. If they have serious concerns, I have no doubt they’ll share them.
You’ll most likely find support and encouragement immediately after you share! (Ask God in advance to give the other women in your group the same vision. Ask Him to prepare their hearts and minds for what He has planned for your ministry.)
3. The Women in Your Church
You’re going to need to tread a little more carefully here. Remember that many of the women in your church don’t know how to look and listen to God. Learning to discern God’s will requires salvation and spiritual maturity. Some of your women have one and not the other. Some of them have neither.
You want to encourage them to look and listen to God without their “weird meter” going off the charts.
You also want to promote this as something your whole team has prayed about. Unity is important.
You may say something like, “Our women’s ministry team has spent a great deal of time praying and seeking God’s will for our ministry for this year. We are very excited to share with you that we will be focusing on women’s ministry events and activities on ________ this year.”
Be excited about what you share! Share what is necessary. You may find you don’t need to share every detail, but you may also find that it’s important to do so.
Our Fall Retreat wasn’t supposed to happen this past year and the story of how God brought it to fruition is important and impactful. Ask God what you should share. Ask your team for advice too.
We need to be more purposeful in how we approach and plan our ministries.
It’s not enough just to pick three of the most popular Bible studies and use them.
It’s not enough to do what everyone else is doing.
God has a plan for your women.
Your women have different needs than the women in my church.
Than the women in the church down the street.
God knows what they need and He will direct you when you ask.
Father God, I pray for all of us as we seek to discover Your vision for our ministries this next year. Lord, give us discernment as we spend time in Your Word. Help us to look and listen. Help us to grasp what it is You want us to know. Open our eyes to see clearly what it is our women need. Remove any ideas that are not from you. Go before us as we share Your vision with our Pastors, teams, and churches. Above all may You be glorified through the work we do. Amen.
You may also want to read:
Casting a Vision for Your Women’s Ministry – Part 1
One year ago: The Second Thing You Must Do In Your Women’s Ministry This Year
Two years ago: The Not-So Newlywed Game Script
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