145: How To Get Greater Buy-In And Better Attendance In Women’s Ministry

If you struggle with participation in women’s ministry or are ready for a whole re-start, we got you covered! 

In this episode, we identify the most common mistakes smaller churches make in women’s ministry and how to avoid the pitfalls of a lackluster program. 

From establishing a long-term vision to hosting the best planning parties, listen in to discover simple steps to develop a women’s ministry that meets needs, encourages visitors, and fosters a sense of community that keeps everyone coming back.

Get the Women's Ministry Bundle: www.smallchurchministry.com/womensbundle

Join our free Facebook Community: www.facebook.com/groups/smallchurchministry


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Transcript

Laurie Acker: 0:01

Hey, this is Laurie Acker, welcome to the small church ministry podcast. Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of the small church ministry podcast, where we share the wins, we share, the joys, we share the struggles, but not without the solutions. So I'm really excited to be talking today about women's ministry. If you struggle with participation, or maybe you're ready for a restart, or you're looking to create a better event programming, whatever it is, we are going to be identifying the most common mistakes that smaller churches make in women's ministry. Now I want to say this applies to you. Whether you have an established women's ministry, you're trying to get one off the ground, or you wish you had one, all of this relates because we're going to talk about how to avoid the pitfalls that lead to kind of a lackluster program or none at all, and what to do about it, from developing a long term vision to hosting the best planning parties, just listen in for the steps that that you're going to want to create the ministry that You love. Developing a shared vision is so important. Getting more women engaged is so important, building your team, we're going to cover it all. So the four most common mistakes we see in women's ministry, I just want to say that these are common in all size churches, but they have a much bigger impact on those with smaller ministries. They are common, whether your church looks like the one down the street or not, it's been such a joy to be relating with 1000s and 1000s of smaller churches over the past few years. Running this organization, our largest represented ministry really has been women's ministry. We have led four conferences specific with women's ministry, talked to over 100 experts in small church women's ministry, watching our Facebook community filled with 12,000 people, many of whom are in women's ministry, sharing their struggles. I gotta say, this is how we know that these mistakes are the most common, because every smaller church is very different. You know, we have tons of differences, different cultures, different leadership, different history, different denominations, different socioeconomic factors, different regions. We're living in, different countries, different states, etc. But the four mistakes I'm sharing today as well as their solutions. Fits your church and mine. It's so cool to find the commonalities when we also have so many differences. I'll be sharing a resource that also walks you step by step through these not just how to avoid the mistakes and overcome them, but to do the opposite and actually create the ministry that you really want to see. Now if you haven't heard yet, we have a special this week on a $29 resource that has a special bonus only this week, but it literally will be the best $29 you've ever spent on women's ministry, if you don't already have it yet that leads to long, lasting impact, not just in your church, but also on you as a leader or facilitator or partner in this ministry, and again, special bonus this week, I'll tell you about it at the end of the podcast, but let's kind of jump in now. One of my one of my biggest desires, is to see people serving in ministries that they actually love. I truly believe that being involved in small church, ministry, as a volunteer, as a leader, whatever role you're in, should be enjoyable. It should be something we look forward to. It really should be something we love. And what we see instead are too many women like dreading or being frustrated or feeling like failures or not good enough, having more struggles than solutions, and this is what we like, kind of stand against. Let's create the ministries that we love. It is totally possible, and this episode is going to help. So grab a piece of paper and get ready to take some notes. Unless you are driving or cooking, that could be dangerous, but if you're not doing those things, grab a piece of paper, you're probably going to want some notes on these four mistakes as well as the solutions. Now we see these things over and over again, these mistakes we see over and over again, and I want to say they are easily avoidable again. Let me say that easily avoidable with the amount of time that you have, which I know is limited, with the education or experience level that you have. It does not matter. These solutions are simple. They are intentional, but we've got to put them in our brains and in our hearts so we quit doing the same thing over and over again and wondering why we don't get different results. Okay, here we go. Top four mistakes. Let me. Run through them quickly, and then I'll spend a little time unpacking them and giving solutions. Okay, the first top mistake we see is jumping straight into programs or events, putting things on the calendars, whether they are Bible studies, fun events, outreaches, whatever, jumping straight to the programs and events without developing a longer term vision and strategy. Mistake number one. Mistake number two is spending too much time developing the vision mission and strategy without jumping to adding in some events and programs so we can actually enjoy being together. Okay? So the mistake number one is jumping straight to the events and programmings without spending time developing a vision. Mistake number two is spending way too much time developing that vision. Mistake number three is imitating things you see in other churches and just trying to drop them in or import them into your church. That does not work. I'm kind of betting you have tried it was successful somewhere else. You're like, Why didn't this work in my church? Okay, the solution is actually finding out what's going to work in your church. We're going to walk through that. Okay, so mistake number three is imitating other churches, other women's ministry, other events, and importing them into your church. And the fourth mistake is doing it alone. I know you might be thinking, nobody else will help, or very few will help. Don't worry, we've got solutions to that too. So let's walk through each one of these top mistakes and what to do about it. Okay, number one, jumping straight into programs events. Now I totally get it. It's not your fault. This is what we've seen. This is what we've seen modeled in ministry. When we ask people, What does your women's ministry look like? They usually say, Well, we have a monthly fun event, and we also have a Bible study. And we do this now and then we literally answer people like, what's happening in your women's ministry? Or, what do you do in women's ministry with our events? Now, can I just say we all know, I think you know that's really not the core. The core of of what we do in women's ministry is change lives. Is connections, it's relationships, it's deep. But our over emphasis on events actually waters it down and minimizes the impact we can have. Okay, so instead of jumping straight into events, if you're starting a women's ministry right now, if you're trying to rebrand your ministry, if you're trying to get one off the ground, if you're just trying to redo it or do better this year, events is not where you want to start. The solution here is developing a bit of a longer term vision and strategy that keeps you moving forward, that gets you across the lake instead of zigzagging all around, doing different things with little or no impact, or not the impact that you want. Developing that longer term vision, mission and strategy. Now we do see people trying to say, develop a mission statement. Okay? The mission statement is the tiniest part of developing a longer term strategy. In fact, you could have an amazing strategy without having a mission statement. Okay, so when we talk about developing a longer term strategy, you've got to be asking the questions that matter, giving it enough time, but not getting stuck there, involving other people in this process, not just one, two or three people. In fact, we like to involve history in the process, because God has moved through history at your church. Okay, so there's ways to do this. We can make it easy for you, too. Okay, let's get on to mistake number two. Mistake number two is spending too much time developing that mission statement or that vision or that strategy. Now it is important, but there's got to be a balance, and there's got to be a time that you get off the couch, right, that you get away from the meeting table. Because, quite honestly, developing that mission statement or that vision or the long term strategy, or even praying about where God wants you to go, really can often be a procrastination technique, and even subconsciously, keep you stuck because you don't want to move until you're totally sure. Now it is totally important to have a longer term strategy and mission. It's totally important for the longevity of your ministry, for the legacy. For a ministry that lasts longer than you we need to be doing more than putting events or even Bible studies on the calendar this year, the key is to be developing your long term strategy while you are doing things and events and programs that engage with women, that where you can enjoy being together and get connected. While you are in you are developing your vision and your strategy and even revisiting it. Okay, we're going to show you how to do that a little bit as well. And one of the keys is this, is that while you're developing that strategy, that you are doing events or programming that is easier, that's low cost and low prep. Right? Because, let's face it, you don't have all the time in the world to be devoting to your church that you would like to be able to devote to your church like, I know your heart, because you're listening to this podcast like, you want your church to have a bigger impact for Christ. You want your church to be reaching the community. You want your women's ministry to be doing all these great, amazing things and having phenomenal impact, and yet you've got a limitation on your calendar. We all do. That's why we do what we do here at small church ministry, because we want to help you do it easier in the time that you have, and we know it can be done. Okay, so don't spend too much time developing a vision and mission that you leave the connection and enjoying being together, you know, to the side, like we can't do either, or we've got to do both and and at the same time and make it easier. Okay, third most common mistake in women's ministry, imitating what other churches are doing. Now I get it. It is so nice to know what is working in your church, and that can help me. Okay, we see it on our Facebook community all the time. Women will say, Hey, what are your top Bible studies? What have you done this year? We'll see women saying, what works for you with community outreach. Now, this is good. This is good and healthy. What works for you, what is not good, is asking the question, What should I do in my women's ministry, we are stuck. What should I do? And looking to that other church or that other leader or that other volunteer to tell you what you should do, because it worked for them. That does not work. And here's why, you are unique. God made you unique. Your women are unique. The women in your church are not the same as the women in my church. Age wise, experience wise, maybe economic, socio, cultural, different, demographic things, trauma issues. Like, everyone is different. You're so different. The women in your church are so different, whether there's two or 20 or 200 the women in your community are different. God made it this way. So what works for me is not going to work for you. What works for you is not going to work for me. We can learn from each other, but we're going to have to do the tweaks. We're going to have to look at what needs we have. The women in our church have, the women in our community have and do a little bit of creative thinking on how to how to figure out how to meet those needs. Now I am not saying you have to develop the wheel all over again. We don't want to do that, but what I'm saying is there is tweaking, and we need to figure out what's really important. So don't imitate what's happening in other churches, you need to bring your women together, even the women who are not involved, get into their minds and their hearts to understand who they are and what they need. Easier said than done, yes, but when you can build trusted relationships and ask the right questions and bring them together in the right way where they don't feel intimidated and don't feel judged. That's when the beauty really happening happens when you can hear honestly and authentically the hearts of other people. We work through this a lot in the way that we design, our planning parties, our launch parties, things like that that you may have heard of already, that we do at small church ministry. It's one of the reasons we do that, because we know it's hard to figure out what they're thinking, what they want, what they need, because a lot of times we don't even know ourselves, and that's why we go through a process of helping you do this, so that you can develop the programming and the mission and the vision that God has for your church in your unique place, okay, that was mistake number three is imitating what other churches are doing instead of tweaking and designing what's going to work in your church. Okay. Mistake number four is doing it alone, or I will also say, even with a tiny core, okay, but because so many people are doing it alone, I'm going to hit that first. Doing it alone is not good. It leads to burnout. The solution is to stop doing it alone again. Maybe easier said than done, but we've got easy ways to work toward this. Okay? Quit doing it alone. Not only does it lead to burnout, but it also gives you a very narrow perspective on your group, on what you're going to do. So the ideas in a group always far exceed my own ideas. And I'm going to tell you right now my ideas are like crazy good, and I have, like, millions of them, okay, and I will still say my better ideas, my better processing and my better doing always comes in community, and so will yours. You have got to quit doing it alone, whether it's planning alone, shopping alone, setting up alone, teaching alone, you're the only teacher, the you're the only facilitator. You're the only one who's willing. I want to tell you, first off, it's not true, and Second off, that perspective is leading you to being very stuck. So quit doing it alone. The solution don't do it alone. Okay, start building different relationships, bringing others in, and if you don't have them right now, quit doing so much. Okay, so those are the four biggest mistakes with some general solutions. We're going to get a little more detailed in just a second. So I'm just going to go over those four mistakes one more time. Mistake number one, jumping straight to programs and events or emphasizing them over emphasizing them without having that long term foundation, that long term strategy, mission and vision. Okay? Mistake number two is spending way too much time developing or redeveloping the mission and vision, because I want to tell you, it leads to the loss of momentum in actually connecting with women and building relationships when we spend too much time developing a mission statement. I'm pretty sure you've probably been there, because I have. It almost takes the joy of the ministry away, because we're spending so much time planning and thinking and brainstorming and writing things down and having meetings that we are actually not doing ministry. You don't have to do that. The third big mistake is imitating other churches, patterning what they're doing, instead of actually looking and getting to know yourself, your women, the women in your community, and developing what is going to be important and what's going to lead to transformation for them. Fourth big mistake is doing it alone or even doing it with a tiny core, again, leads to burnout as well as a narrow perspective, as well as a lot of stuckness and frustration. So stop doing it. Okay. Now I gave you some easy solutions along the way, I'm going to give you an easier one, literally step by step, everything you need to work through all the processes I just talked about with the solutions I just talked about for $29 we have developed a women's ministry, foundations pack. We you've already seen testimonies. Probably, if you're in our Facebook community, people post about it a lot. Oh my gosh, we just did our launch party. It was amazing. I had no idea this was possible, and it's all in this women's ministry foundations pack for $29 literally, the best $29 you will have ever spent on women's ministry. And this week, if you grab it, there is a special bonus, because we are throwing in the ultimate Toolkit, which is actually 12, like fan favorite resources that we've developed over the last few years. You can totally go grab it at small church ministry.com/women, bundle. And if you grab it before Saturday at midnight, you're also going to get another resource, the ultimate bundle, which is another $19 value. You can grab it and see everything that's included at small church ministry.com/women, bundle. But I want to tell you why it is amazing and is going to lead you step by step through all the solutions we just talked about, there's several different things included in this. In the foundations pack. One is a foundations workbook. And when we talked about having a long term vision and strategy and not getting stuck there, this is the key right here. It literally asks all the questions. It has worksheets for you to share with other people. It talks about just strategic questions about the history of your church and also the history of you, why you are, where you are, why you are passionate or not passionate, about certain things. Where is God working? What's happening now? What do you want to see? It has a sheets in there to help you work through core beliefs and suggested ones so you don't have to start from scratch. And a special bonus in the foundations pack, which we put together after creating this is a promotional handbook which everyone should have. You know when people don't really know what's going on in women's ministry, or you wish they did this adorable, graphically, professionally put together handbook that you can.