Awakening…
In the fall of 2018 a group of women committed to the ministry of the church came together to discuss the challenges we each face. Some were paid staff, some were volunteer staff, some worked full-time in the world and volunteered for their local church. We all faced challenges.
The biggest challenge for all of us, we recognized, was the attack on our identity and our value. Church Staff felt isolated in the Christian bubble, overwhelmed by the needs of the people they serve, and unable to fully share their frustrations at the risk of discouraging others. Non-church staff felt less than, unheard, and unconsidered in the daily church administration, which affected their ministry, but they were unable to be present in the daily.
What all of us were feeling was undervalued, overworked, and tired. All of us had hearts that were fully in line with the vision and mission of our respective ministries, but the constraints of time, lack of focus on self-care, and fear kept us silent and lonely.
Forming the Circle…
During this season, a core group of women committed to caring for each other, offering a safe space, and being more intentional in the pursuit of walking with each other. Whether that meant encouraging, challenging, grieving along side, or celebrating, the key was regular intentional check-ins. As usual when people come together beautiful things began to happen, and hard things began to happen. Over the course of the following months a number of the women experienced an end to the ministries that had driven the need for the original conversation. Some roles changed, some resigned ministry positions, some stepped out of volunteer positions, some stepped more into ministry. In each of those transitions, there was so much room for the enemy to continue to speak the lies over each of us, but the beautiful intentional encouragement and support we had committed to, proved a lifeline in a season of transition.
A Heart for Others…
As 2018 came to a close, this incredible group of women realized that this is what most of the women we know in ministry are missing. A group of people to walk with, to process the unique challenges of ministry with, to seek and gain perspective with, a group of women committed to asking where is Jesus in this, even if it meant walking away from ministry or stepping into more.
We began to talk about resources women in ministry need, such as peer/mentor relationships, retreats, small groups, counseling, coaching, regular encouragement, Spiritual growth, and places to celebrate – and quickly realized the flaw in this system, in each of our ministries we were the ladies that would lead these programs, making the beauty of resting & receiving almost impossible.