The Beginnings

Yesterday I shared with you how I was feeling lead to start a more focused outreach towards the girls in our student ministry and today I wanted to share with you how we arrived at the point where we are today (I know I said I would share about our first big event, I jumped ahead of the game - but that is coming).  Over the last 9 years that we have been a part of the youth ministry at our church I have always tried to be available to the girls and have spent one on one time when a girl needed a little extra love.  We've had our fair share of sleep overs and movie nights but God has been pressing upon me to step it up when it comes to making our meetings and get togethers focused on the main thing - following Christ.  I want our time together to have purpose and meaning and not just be an "event" or social gathering.  That doesn't mean we can't have fun, be social (because let's face it, us girls are built that way) and encourage fellowship but it does mean that each gathering is important.  When you look at the big picture, we don't get a lot of times when all of the girls in our youth group are gathered together so I want to take advantage of that time and really work on focusing on some serious girl related topics and how following Jesus trumps all of those issues.

So here is where I started, knowing that God was pushing me in this direction and not sure exactly where to go from there.  I knew the first thing I needed was a partner in crime, someone who had an equal desire for girls ministry and who I knew would be totally fun to work with - enter Erin.  I knew God had put her upon my heart and was preparing her too for just a ministry as this one.  Once I had this awesome woman of Christ come alongside of me, I knew that was the first big step.  Next, we took some time and gathered a group of girls from our youth group to sort of serve as a steering committee when it came to all things girls ministry.  They have great ideas, help us with the overall vision and are really awesome at reaching out to their peers.  We put this in front of the entire youth group and allowed the girls to volunteer to be a part of the group - aiming for a couple from each grade.  In the end, it took us talking to a lot of the girls to get them to jump in - but once they did they were all in.

I think if you are looking to start a girls ministry in your youth group having a group of girls join in and take leadership is very key.  They can do a way better job promoting than you ever could - an invite means so much more coming from a fellow student than from me or any facebook invite I could send out and they truly care about seeing their friends come into a relationship with Christ.  Their desire for their generation is just as strong, if not stronger than ours.  They have excitement, creativity and compassion for others and I have been so encouraged as I have watched them step up and take the reigns on a lot of this stuff.

After having a great ministry partner and gathering together a student led girls steering team the next huge thing is to be surrounded by an amazing group of women leaders.  Now, I know that this harder than just saying it.  That's why I am so very thankful for the women in our church who have stepped out and followed God's leading to become a part of our student ministry.  But honestly, there is no way that a girls ministry will survive unless you have committed women of God supporting it.  You need other leaders for so many reasons.  Different women offer different gifts, talents and abilities and with each woman you have have different life experiences that can help to relate to the vast array of girls that make up your ministry.  Relationships are so important - especially with girls- so having a variety of women from every season of life is a precious gift to any youth ministry.  We are so blessed to have a loving group of amazing women who make up our leadership team.

So I guess that's kind of how all of this girls ministry stuff came into being.  It started with a leading of God, who put all the right people into place.  None of this would be if it not were for God's doing and I think that is so crucial for any ministry.  Over the years I have thought about and considered starting something like this but I just didn't feel it was the right time - God had not prepared me yet.  But, when it is God's timing, there is nothing you can do to stop Him.  It's amazing to see all of the pieces come together and God receiving all of the praise.  Obedience in small things leads to obedience to larger things.  I'll be sharing more on this process and where we went from here.  Thanks for joining today!