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If you enjoyed the Northpark Community Church women's ministry retreat promo, you'll love the men's fellowship video. With a bit of re-writing this would make a fun women's ministry promotional too.
Promote Your Retreat
with Fun Videos
NorthPark Community Church women's ministry put together this hilarious video to promote their retreat.
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Idea Depot
Share your ministry tips and ideas by emailing mentoringmoments@aol.com.
Women's Expo
We are doing a women's expo to showcase ladies in our church who have a business or home-based business. This will allow the women of our church and community to see what they make and sell. Everything is included, home baked goods to one lady who has a home and garden store. We are partnering the expo with a newcomers celebration for the women who have been in our church less than three years. We are basing the idea on the Proverbs 31 woman who not only cared for her home, but was also a business person. This event will allow our ladies to purchase gifts from other women in the church as well as help some of our small businesses that are struggling right now.
~ Page Hughes
Christmas Tablescapes & Trees
One thing we have done in recent years is to have an evening for our ladies where we do tablescapes and decorated trees. Women have time to view the beauty presented by our women. We serve snacks and have a time for visiting with one another. Afterwards we go to the worship center in our church for music. This year we are also having a sculptor come and sculpt to Christmas music. It is certainly more of the artsy kind of thing, but the gospel message is presented by the artists. We ask ladies to bring something for a mission project. It has been a wonderful kick-off to the holiday season and allows women to unwind and relax. ~ Page Hughes
Tailgating Party
It's football season, so plan a fun tailgating party at church one
afternoon. Show the game outside on a large projection screen. As a fundraiser
a women's ministry could have a 'by the slice' dessert sale along with popcorn.
Has your ministry hosted a tailgating party? Send us your pictures we'll post
them! Mentoringmoments@aol.com. ~ Kellie Renfroe
Ice-Breakers and Heart-Warmers by Steve Sheely for
Serendipity Small Group (1994, 125 pages) is an older book geared to
the needs of small groups. Many of the ice-breakers were rewritten in various
ways to make the book seem redundant. I found myself thinking how certain
ice-breakers could be changed a bit to make them better. This is not a book I would
purchase. Check it out of your local library. ~ Kellie Renfroe
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Website Highlight:
Sagemont Church
Kellie Renfroe
Lezli Busbee and the women's ministry board at Sagemont Church in Houston, Texas have put together a top-notch web site to showcase women's ministry. Easy to read and navigate, the site is a resource to women in the church as well as a community outreach.
How did Sagemont develop the site? Director Lezli Busbee says it was all about women's ministry working together with the webmaster. Her advice? "Research, research, research! Most great ideas, in my opinion, are born off other ideas (big or small). Therefore, search the web and look for things that you like about other websites. Begin to incorporate them one by one--don't overkill--every good idea doesn't have to be used. It is easy to adjust your site a little at a time. I am continually tweaking ours which keeps it active and alive."
A simple way to keep web pages active and alive is to steer clear of static pages--pages where the information is not routinely updated and gives no fresh information. Lezli accomplishes this by reviewing the site weekly with her assistant. "I offer a monthly newsletter and just a few months ago started using that as our home page so it will change every month. For a long time I had a welcoming letter--but I found I never changed it. This seemed like an easy fix for that--it was work I was already doing."
Check out Sagemont Church's women's ministry at www.sagemontchurch.org/ministries/womens
If you have a women's ministry website you'd like to see featured, send an email to Mentoringmoments@aol.com with the address.
Blogging for Jesus
Kellie Renfroe
The hottest internet trend now is blogging, even MMCW began a few months back (mentoringblog.mentoringmoments.net). It is cheap (blogs can be set up for free), easy to maintain, and effective in a variety of roles. What is blogging, you may ask? It is posting real-time articles, thoughts, journal entries, photos--you name it--on a web page. Readers are encouraged to comment on the postings and begin an online discussion.
Women are among the fastest growing segment of bloggers, posting on topics from motherhood to politics. Women's ministry leaders should take note of blogging as an avenue to engage women in spiritual conversations, develop friendships, and encourage unity. For a small church, a blog is an economical way to have current events on the web without the cost of a full-blown website.
To operate a blog, seek the volunteer help of a few women dedicated to keeping the blog current on a weekly basis. Enlist women within the church to write devotions, thoughts, share photos and testimonies to keep interest alive. Promote the blog through the main church website, weekly bulletin, women's ministry newsletter and, most importantly, by word of mouth.
Once the blog is up and running, begin posting submissions. Blogs should be set-up with safe guards to catch any inappropriate comments. What this means is every comment, photo, etc. made to the blog will be automatically sent to the moderator for approval or deletion. No comment or submission can be posted without approval when these settings are in place.
Some examples of how ministries are using blogging:
Chapelwomen.blogspot.com
http://www.counterculturalmom.blogspot.com
http://lccwomen.blogspot.com
Mentoring Moments Chat
If your women's ministry has a blog, send the link to MentoringMoments@aol.com.
Around the World
in 80 Bites
Beba Schlottmann
Looking for a fundraising idea with a global emphasis? Look no further! Here is a great idea that could be used as a fellowship, outreach and/or fund raising activity.
The concept came from a need to reach our multicultural community and unify our church. We did not have a budget to work with, so it became a fundraiser.
Grand Idea: An international dinner open to the church and surrounding community.
Theme: Around the World in 80 Bites! (International, cross-cultural, global)
Goal: Fellowship, outreach, awareness, fund raising
Assignments: Assign each department in your church (ladies’ ministries, mens' fellowship, Sunday school classes, youth group, seniors group, etc.) a continent. Since there are only 7 continents, you can combine classes or groups. The seven continents include are Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
Each group is responsible for creating a menu and providing food for their assigned continent. They are also responsible for decorating their section and cleaning up afterwards. Encourage church involvement by recruiting servers, cooks, clean-up crew, and those who can donate items.
Allow guests plenty of time to sample dishes from each continent by limiting the number of entrees served.
Each of the seven continent sections should be decorated to reflect nations from that region. Volunteer workers dress according to their represented country. You will need hosts to welcome guests and go over their passport instructions, people to sell tickets and collect money, a photographer, and a Master of Ceremonies. Musical guests or special music would be a nice addition.
Donations: The committee in charge of the event should provide each team with a letter that can be taken to area restaurants and /or supermarkets requesting donations. Committees should provide team leaders with money to purchase items needed for food preparation in the event food donations are slim. In my experience, both donations from restaurants and supermarkets were given and some money was used to provide for an area that didn’t receive many donations. Sometimes restaurants will donate gift certificates; these could be used as door prizes throughout the event's duration. You will need to create either a power point presentation with the names of all the business that donated items or a program with a list of vendors/donors.
The Set up: Reserve a large room for the event (in your church or a community center).
The décor will resemble an old fashioned departure station with a hot air balloon as the main form of travel. Here guests will purchase their tickets and receive a boarding passport. Once inside they will stop by any of the continent stations and select any of the food they want from that continent. People working each station will stamp guest passports once they make their food selection. This means guests have now completed their travel to this continent. They will then move on to the next one continent. Don't forget to set up tables and chairs for guests to sit and eat!
The duration: Plan for about a 2 ½ hour event and at least 1 ½ hour before the event for set up and another 1 ½ afterwards for clean-up.
Ticketing: Tickets should be on sale ahead of time. Charging for the event is only necessary if you are using this as a fundraiser. Decide on a price for adults and another for children, 12 and under could eat free. You can still use the boarding pass if you decide not to charge. The idea of the boarding pass is mainly for crowd control. It is important for the success of the event that instructions are given before hand in regards to how they are to use their boarding pass. You want people to be able to enjoy each continent’s food and limit their trips to just one.
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Kick-Off Women's Ministry with a Dip Party
Page Hughes
Whether you are diving into a pool or just fun foods you will enjoy this summer time treat. Invite guests to come swimming. You don't have to own a big pool. You could even have a small children's pool and dip your feet as you soak in the sun. Ask each guest to bring their favorite dip and what they like to dip into it. Some suggestions could be spinach dip and Hawaiian bread, Carrots and ranch dip, chips and salsa or cheese dip. You can go to the sweet side by doing a caramel dip with apples or a cream cheese dip with chocolate chips and dip graham cracker sticks. If you have a chocolate fountain or a fondue pot you could provide the chocolate and ask guest to provide items to dip into the chocolate like fresh berries, marshmallows, graham crackers, gummie bears, or almost any cookie.
For decorations why not go with beach towels, pool toys, and bright vibrant colors. Have some fun beach music to set the tone.
After a while in the sun you may want to move in doors and watch a fun movie. Evan Almighty is a good clean movie that is about a man God asked to dip into faith. Your guest will laugh a lot, but you will also have the opportunity to talk about a real Bible character who had to choose to believe God over what the world was saying. In the end it saved both Noah and his family as they dipped (submerged themselves) into faith with God.
A fun take home favor may be a recipe of your favorite dip or even a prepackaged bag of the ingredients to be mixed at their convenience. Include the recipe and a kind word thanking them for coming.
I am going to use this party as a kick-off for our women's ministry this year. I am using the acrostic Dive In Please for the word dip. The women will be encouraged to dive into women's ministry this year. We will have sign-up areas for participation in upcoming events and plan to hold the party at a local neighborhood swimming pool. The movie will be shown at the end of the evening in the club house.
Creating Videos for Women's Ministry
Kellie Renfroe
Keep the excitement going in women's ministry with the use of media. While looking through GodTube videos for MMCW I came across an excellent women's ministry video created by New Life City Church in Belfast. Motivating and inspiring, this slide-show honors women in their congregation. Easily recreated using your own photos and favorite song, a video such as this will bless women in your church.
This is a perfect project for tech-savvy young women and would be marvelous for Mother's Day events or to host on your church website.
If you have put together a women's ministry video you'd like to share, send it to mentoringmoments@aol.com and you may see it here!
Top Women's Ministry
Websites to Visit
We're searching the web for inspiring women's ministry websites. This month's top three sites will give you creative ideas for your own women's ministry.
Does your women's ministry have a website you'd like to share? Send us your link at mentoringmoments@aol.com.
Dallas Bible Church www.dallasbible.org/adultsWomen.php
Christian Family Chapel www.christianfamilychapel.com/ministries/women/
Phoenix First Assembly of God
www.phoenixgirls.org/pages/welcome.php
Iron Sharpens Iron Retreat Theme
Molly Evert
This retreat outline is from a retreat I attended last year.
"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17
Breakout session topics: pursuing hospitality, authentic relationships, conflict resolution, forgiveness, feedback and problem solving, God's perspective on friendship, what mentoring has meant to us (mentor to mentee teams sharing), adapting to generational traits and differences, how to turn small talk into spiritual friendships, technology and building relationships, listening to hurting women.
Centerpieces a Hit at Conference
Kellie Renfroe
Andrea Nelson of Suwanee, GA sent us these adorable pictures of her take on our jean centerpieces. Andrea used the centerpieces at her church's Secret Keeper Girls event. Thank you, Andrea, for sharing your beautiful centerpiece photos with us!
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Divas In Denim
Kellie Renfroe
Create blue jean centerpieces by purchasing children's jeans (sizes 3T to 7) at Goodwill. Look for jeans with embellishments and shading variety. The above centerpiece made from a girl's blue jean skort.
Cut excess jean legs off and fold under. Stiffen jeans with a fabric stiffener, using a balloon in the waist band to keep the form as the jeans harden.
Decorate jeans with plenty of bling. Use bright colored bandanas and various styles of ribbon for belts. Complete centerpieces by using floral foam, moss, and flowers. To create the standing versions (perfect for welcome and food tables) place wooden dowels in legs anchored to a plastic baggie filled with sand and inside a plastic cup.
Thank you to Rosemary Peacock, creator of the centerpieces and Women on the Move ministry (Lawrenceville, GA) for sharing this idea. For a complete event plan for Divas in Denim see Mentoring Moments for Christian Women's July / August 2007 e-newsletter.
A Few of Our Favorite Things
Visit us on our blog
as we share our favorite things. From Rhonda Ellis' top five tips to
raising godly children to Christmas organization ideas, you're sure to
love this new series. Not only do we want you to check out the blog; we want to hear from you! Share your favorite things too! www.mentoringblog.mentoringmoments.net.
Mentoring Moments Chat!
We are excited about the addition of our blog, Mentoring Moments Chat.
Not only can you read posts from our staff, you can join in too! MM
Chat is the place to ask online questions, share a recipe, a book
review, or your favorite scripture.
We want to hear from you! Visit the blog
and subscribe so you can have the blogs arrive directly to your email
address. And, if you blog send your address to us -- we'd love to visit
you too!
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What's Your Group
Planning for 2009?
Share
your women's ministry ideas, photos, videos, questions, and wisdom and
see it printed here on MMCW! Bless other ministries with the creativity
the Lord has given you.
Email MentoringMoments@aol.com
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Contentment Podcast
Paul taught that "godliness with contentment is great gain." Yet,
Christian women often struggle to be content. In this challenging and
encouraging podcast, Molly Evert shares about her journey to
contentment in several areas which women will identify with, including
marriage, children, homemaking, body image and finances.
Contentment
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 | Designing Effective Women's Ministries
By Jill Briscoe / Zondervan
In Designing Women's Ministries, the authors share what worked for them and what didn't. They explain how to start where you are, with what you have, and how to do what God wants you to do. This book includes tips and techniques for establishing groups and programs that the needs of today's women. It also shows how to develop programs that are specifically tailored to your church and community.
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 | The Focus on the Family Women's Ministry Guide
By Gospel Light
You can successfully start, run and grow a women's ministry with the step-by-step guidelines in this manual. The essential principles in this guide were specially selected to help you lead a ministry that comprises women from different generations and backgrounds. This guide includes: reproducible forms and publicity aids, step-by-step instructions for starting a women's ministry, information about staffing and organizing your women's ministry, ideas for developing Bible studies and leading discussion, and much, much more. |
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Women
in Leadership
Guest writer Dr. Tim Elmore share the Top Excuses for Not Leading
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Books & Media
Mentoring Book Reviews
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