Firstly, a big thank you to all of you who took part in completing the survey. It was designed with the objective to try and find out what ‘we’ as women, want from our ministry. It was so insightful to read all your comments and views and I believe has given us a clearer direction of how the ministry should move forward.
As a team, we have been discussing the implications and the associated changes that can be made to make the ministry fulfil the needs of our women.
One of the biggest changes that we would like to make would be to meet more regularly. At the moment we have three events per year, and we would really like to be able to meet once a month. It seems really clear from the survey that this is something that would be most welcome. We are proposing having one evening per month to start, with the occasional Saturday morning or afternoon. This will be a new and exciting concept for us, which we will trial for a few months.
Another area that really stood out, is a desire to get to know each other better. It was felt that there is just not enough time or opportunity on a Sunday morning to connect with other women. The over all consensus was that women want to make deeper friendships. The events that women seemed to enjoy and engage with most, were more informal gatherings that had freedom to allow for a time of fellowship, as opposed to formal day conferences.
It is going to be an exciting time for the Women’s Ministry as we move forward. The team have been coming up with lots of interesting thoughts and ideas. Obviously, the timing will be very much dependent on the rules of social distancing, but in the meantime, it is our hope that we can start to plan a ministry that will be the groundwork for women to go deeper with each other and God.
Until we are able to meet in person, we are planning on having a monthly Zoom get-together. The first one is booked for Wednesday 24 June at 8pm, when we will have a speaker come and talk to us. Please look out for the invitation!
Written by Loraine Hutton