How to Run a Successful Women's Ministry for Your Church

Women love to spend time together. We are natural "socializers" and enjoy being a part of each other's lives. Women's Ministry is the perfect way to help women connect with each other, grow in their faith, help one another in times of crisis, and come together to make a difference in their community and the world.

That being said, my first advice is: do not attempt to do this all alone. Call your closest girlfriends and your BFF and plan a meeting over coffee, lunch or dinner to exchange ideas and see who is willing to be a part of the planning processes and who is willing to be an integral part of the ongoing women's ministry program.

There can be no demographic restrictions. Women of all ages, races, ethnicity, financial situation, marital and parental status must be part of your planning and programs. The more diversity you have, the more vibrant your women's ministry will be.

Much will depend upon the size of your church and the funding you may or may not have. Small churches will typically have an all-volunteer program with little or no funding from the church moneys. Usually the woman or women in charge of setting up and running the women's ministry are not paid a salary and aren't "on staff" in small to medium size churches. Most larger church organizations have an on-staff, full or part-time Director of Women's Ministry to oversee the program and be the liaison with the pastor(s). If you have the luxury of being a paid women's ministry director, you are truly a privileged person. If you are a volunteer head of the ministry, you are a special woman indeed!

There are a few basic programs you will want to begin with. First, and most obvious, are Bible studies. What these groups look like will be entirely up to you and your team to decide. They may be small groups of women who gather in homes to study the Bible. In a larger church, there are often more corporate-type Bible studies where hundreds of women attend at the same time.

Next you will want to decide what social activities you are interested in planning. You don't need to have tons of those, but several a year will be very important as a means to invite women who might be intimidated by the thought of a Bible study but who would like to get to know some of the women in your church or place of worship. How often, what will they look like, how much will they cost, how much will you charge - all issues you must address before putting anything into place.

Lastly, you will need some type of "outreach" programs that your women can be a part of. These can be ongoing or seasonal or even annual in nature. They can be a simple as a group of women who volunteer to cook and deliver meals to families in crisis or during a time of illness. Or they can be as complicated as running a fund-raiser to bring in money to help train oppressed women in AID-infected sub-Saharan Africa.

Whatever your goals for your Women's Ministry, planning and cooperation are key to reaching those goals.

Read more about the details of planning, organizing and implementing the many things you can do with your ministry right here in my Women's Ministry Lens.

Deciding what your Women's Ministry will look like when you first begin, and what you want it become in a year or two years or on into the future, will be critical to its success. So where do you begin?

First, you will need women to be on your planning and leadership teams. This can be one team or two, depending upon the size of your church. Make sure they are spiritually grounded and that at least one or two have been involved in leading Bible studies in the past. They will be your "trainers." The more experience your team has with the various components you want to incorporate into your Women's Ministry, the easier it will be to get things started and keep them moving forward.

Each team member be a trustworthy woman who understands the importance of confidentiality and agrees to keep what they are told in confidence to themselves. They must also be willing to commit to at least six months to a year of helping grow the ministry.

Ideally, your leadership team will be made up of women who love God and have a "servant leader's" heart. Even better would be having some ladies wiith experience as small group Bible study facilitators or leaders of ministries. They must all commit to praying for the ministry, the leaders, and the women who will become a part of your Women's Ministry.

You and your team must meet on a regular basis to evaluate and reevaluate how things are going, and to deal with any problems that may arise. Part of the meeting time needs to be spent ongoing planning, evaluating successes and failures, and praying for the ministry.

There are literally hundreds of Bible studies that you can choose from. There are studies of significant people in the Bible, women's issues, specific theological topics, or studies of specific books of the Bible. There are fill-in-the-blank workbooks and books with discussion questions at the end of each chapter or at the end of the book itself. The length of each study can vary from four weeks to 12 weeks, or even longer.

You can buy your books and/or workbooks directly from a bookstore in your area or order them from the Internet. We order many of our studies from http://www.cbd.com (Christian Books Distributors) because their prices are extremely competitive, they have a huge inventory to choose from, and are very reliable to deal with. You may also order directly from the book publisher but you will probably pay retail. You will also find many of the books you're looking for at Half.com (used or nearly new) and Amazon.com.

Your church may have an account established at your local Christian bookstore. That would be ideal. If not, see if you can set one up. There are Lifeway stores and Family Bookstores around the US where you can walk in and buy at retail prices. Both typically offer discounts and bulk pricing, as well as special pricing discounts for pastors and ministry leaders. Be sure to ask. You can also find small quantities of some of the books at national chains like Barnes & Nobles or Books-A-Million or Waldenbooks.

The cost of books and workbooks varies. There are books/workbooks as inexpensive as $5 or as costly as $25 or more for a retail-priced hardback.

Some studies offer DVD videos (a few still have VHS tapes for sale) or CD's of the author teaching and sharing wisdom from God's Word that coincides with each week's lesson or chapter. These DVD's and CD's range in price from $15 to $200. The pricing seems to be based on how new the study is, who the author and teacher is, how in-depth the study is, etc.

You won't have any problem finding good study tools. Your bigger problem will be paring down the list and choosing one. A big factor in selecting your study will be to make sure you know that the theology being taught is in line with what your church and pastor believe and teach. If you are in doubt, ask your pastor, a church elder, or someone who is thoroughly familiar with those beliefs to look over the study before you decide on it.

There are pros and cons to having Bible studies in someone's home.

Having a Bible study group in someone's home is a more intimate way to study God's Word with friends. The ideal number of women in a small group study is 6 to 10. If you have less than 6 group members and not all of the ladies know each other well, some of them may initially feel a bit intimidated about sharing their thoughts or asking questions. With 8 to 10 women, there are enough people in the group to keep the conversation going. Eventually the shy ones will begin to participate more.

Another reason for keeping the group at a higher number is because women are busy with husbands, children, jobs, and all of the tasks related to each of those responsibilities. This often impacts attendance as mothers must leave the children with dad or find a sitter; the kids get sick and mom needs to stay home; sports practices or games may interfere with her ability to come to group night. So having more women in the group insures that at least 6 of the 10 women will probably be at Bible study on any given night and a good conversation will happen.

Also, if the host home is that of a mother with children, she may become distracted or the Bible study may be interrupted by the kids. This is not necessarily a problem as long as the group members discussed the location and the fact that children would be home during the Bible study when the members initially decided to be a part of the group.

One solution to child care might be finding a couple of baby-sitters who will watch all of the children at a different home from the Bible study. Then the moms who use the child care workers can share the costs while not having to worry every week about finding a sitter.

One of the main reasons that Bible study groups with mothers of young children don't last long is the baby-sitting issue. If this is addressed up front, the group will likely flourish and continue for years.

Deciding on Days & Times

If you are running a Women's Ministry where hundreds or even thousands of women attend your church, then you will want to organize one or two weekly Bible studies that encompass lots of small groups who meet on the church campus for a single study. This is a really fun and exciting way to offer Bible studies for the women. It is also an efficient use of facilities and resources.

The church where I work as Director of Women's Ministry has hundreds of women - some who work and others who do not. So we offer the same Bible study on two different days and times. Tuesday mornings for the ladies who don't work and Wednesday evenings for the ladies who do. Each Bible study session lasts two hours. (Details about how to organize the actual groups and studies are in another post. on this lens)

Providing Child Care

At my church, we offer child care for children from infants through pre-k. Since Tuesday is a school day, there is no need for child care for elementary age kids. Wednesday nights is a family-focused night at our church, so there are special clubs & activities for elementary and middle school kids right on the church campus. It's the perfect night for a Bible study for moms. As you plan your on-campus studies, consider what other activities are going on at the same time that might make one night or day better than another.

I strongly recommend you strategically plan child care for your ladies. Finding volunteers can often be difficult. You might consider setting up a requirement that mothers who leave their little ones with the child care volunteers must also volunteer as a child care worker once (or twice depending on the number of women you have using child care) during each study semester. That way, everyone knows up front that they will have to take a turn but that they will be with their small group for the majority of the study.

Another option for larger churches is to hire professional child care workers and charge a nominal fee ($5 per child ? ) for each child they bring. Of course, in that circumstance the ladies should "reserve" child care in advance so you know how many workers to hire.

Another option, in order to avoid volunteer issues or charging for child care, is to require a mom to volunteer once a year for an entire month (once a week during that month). This can work very well if you plan properly.

Child Care Safety Issues

Whether you hire child care workers or you have regular volunteers or you use the moms, you will need to implement an identification and investigation procedure. Each adult who babysits the children must complete an application form that gives the church permission to run a criminal background check. Then the church must have a system in place to process the information and provide ID cards to the child care workers and/or volunteers. (Another article with details about how this can be done will be posted on this lens). This assures everyone that no known child abusers or convicted sex offenders have access to any of the children while on the church campus. I cannot stress enough the importance of this piece of your child care system.

Once you have the child care piece in place, the days and times determined, and the facility reserved, you're ready to organize your leaders and groups.

Women love spending time with other women - it's all about the relationships. A retreat is a great place for women to get away from their everyday life stresses and relax with friends. It also provides an opportunity for women to address life issues, learn how to have a closer relationship with God, or just enjoy not having to cook or make their own beds!

Planning a retreat is not as involved as you might think - once you know what kind of retreat you want to have. There are spiritual retreats, seminar-type weekends or just fun get-aways. Some retreats have celebrity speakers while others focus on quiet and meditation for the entire event.