Starting a new ministry can feel like a daunting task. It is hard not to feel overwhelmed with what to do first, wondering if it will succeed, and then feeling uncertain if you are doing it right! These feelings are understandable. In three churches, I have had the opportunity to lead in women’s ministry. In two of those three ministries, I transitioned into an existing leadership role, and in the third, I opened a new ministry. Each time, I wondered if I was going about it wrong.

As part of the Calvary Chapel heritage, Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa has been a thriving ministry to women over the decades from Kay Smith’s Joyful Life, teaching the Bible and helping women grow in faith. Likewise, we at CGN desire to see women in our churches grow in Bible literacy and reap the benefits, which we list in our previous article, “Is Women’s Ministry Necessary?”. So, how does one go about starting a women’s ministry? Here are simple steps I have learned:

It is crucial to evaluate the season your church is in and to give thought to the timing of launching a new ministry. Do you have many new believers who are eager to get together and learn the Bible? Is your church busy with commitments? What type of obligations do the ladies in the congregation have, whether at home, work, school, etc. Would it be a good time to introduce a new women’s ministry?

As you assess the right timing, here are a few guidelines I have learned to use:

Pray

Seek the Lord’s guidance. Then invite one or two like-minded women to join you in praying for a ministry to start. Do not talk about it publicly until you speak to the leadership of your church, out of respect for their decision-making process.

Talk to the Pastor

Make an appointment and ask the pastor to discuss plans for this ministry with you. Explain what you feel God has put on your heart to do. Ask the Lead Pastor what his vision is for the church, and consider how a women’s ministry could help fulfill that vision. For example, if the vision for the church is to win souls and disciple people, a women’s ministry can help meet that.

Vision

Solidify your vision for this ministry, which means asking the question, “What would you like to accomplish in a women’s ministry?”

Leadership

The leader does not have to be the pastor’s wife, although that is often the pattern seen in our Calvary Chapel circles. If she is not called to this role, it is ok! It is a matter of gifting and calling, rather than a traditional way of fulfilling that leadership role.

Accommodation

Choose accommodating meeting places, times and frequency. I suggest taking breaks over summer and holidays to bring anticipation for the ministry, when a fall and spring semester begins! It also gives women a chance to join the group and for others to take a break, if needed, rather than seeing it as a lifetime commitment.

Plan

Decide what you will do in your meetings. This will determine if you have a Biblical and mature teacher who can “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). If such a teacher is not available, there are many materials available for your group to use: Bible teachings on video with discussion materials, books to read through together, breakfast and prayer time, or Scripture reads and discussion.

Invite

Make the invitation for women to join the ministry in the way that your church makes announcements. Put it on social media, the church website, request a pulpit announcement, print flyers and start talking to the ladies to inform them!

Begin

Have your first meeting! Provide a little hospitality and show appreciation for each woman who joins you. Start with introductions and a little explanation of what your plan is. Don’t be surprised if you are the only one talking at the meeting, as women may need some time to get to know the group and build trust.

There is no need to think about all these steps at the same time! Just focus on one task, and when that step is complete, move on to the next one. The women will be reached through the power of Christ!

The start of this ministry may be a small group, and that’s ok! Be faithful to them, teach them, and lay a solid foundation on the Word of God. Do not “despise the day of small things” as, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much” (Luke 16:10). The ministry will earn a good reputation if the focus is on God, and the women in your church will develop an interest in it. It is God who adds the increase, as 1 Corinthians 3:6 says.

Finally, do not hold onto this ministry as if it were your own. The women belong to the Lord, and it is His church you are serving. Keep praying as you lead, asking God to guide you, and be willing to adjust the ministry as the Lord shows you.

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Rosemary cohosts a new podcast for women in ministry titled “When She Leads.” Learn more about the podcast and start listening today! Have a topic for the show? Share it with us at whensheleadspodcast@gmail.com

I was recently blessed to be part of a pertinent discussion with a group of loving, caring, well-educated young pastors. We talked about some of the difficult issues facing the church today. Our culture is increasingly complicated, squeezing out God for the sake of other agendas. As I listened to these men share their concerns and their hearts, the reality of this burden weighed on me like a ton of bricks.

The problems we face today certainly aren’t new.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones wrote:

“As life in general becomes more and more complex, so religion tends to be affected in the same way. It seems to be assumed that if the affairs of men are difficult and complicated, the affairs of God should be still more complicated, because they are still greater. Hence there comes a tendency to increase ceremony and ritual, and to multiply organizations and activities. The argument is that it is ridiculous to assert that the vast problems of life today can be solved in an apparently simple manner suggested by those who preach the gospel in the old evangelical manner. The fact is, that as we get further away from God, life becomes more complicated and involved. We see this not only in the Bible, but also in subsequent history. The Protestant Reformation simplified not only religion, but the whole of life and living in general. The truly religious life is always the simple life.”

As followers of Christ, we must learn how to keep it simple.

I’ve had the pleasure of teaching 1 and 2 Corinthians at the Calvary Chapel Bible College this semester and have felt an urgency to prepare the young men and women in my class on how to deal with the current complexities that exist in the church. Paul must have felt the same urgency when He wrote this in 2 Corinthians 11:2-3: “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. For I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

There are two points from Paul’s words that will help us be effective Christians in a culture similar to the one in Corinth.

First, we should have a godly jealousy for others. We are not to have a human jealousy, selfish and destructive, but a godly jealousy, selfless and constructive. Godly jealousy does not consider itself but comes from a deep love and care for others. I love how Paul compared godly jealousy to a father betrothing his daughter to her future husband. The greatest privilege the father of a bride had in Paul’s day was getting to present his daughter as a pure virgin to her husband. Paul’s greatest desire was that the Corinthians would be purified and prepared for Christ’s return.

Secondly, Christ should be central in everything. The Corinthians made church more about the scene than about the King. Like so many churches today, they increased the ceremonies and rituals in their services and multiplied their organizations and activities, but neglected to keep Christ the central focus.

Christians today have more knowledge about Jesus than in any other time in history. If there is something we don’t know, all we have to do is Google it and be flooded with instant information. But all the information in the world about Jesus cannot guarantee a transformed life. Consider what happened with Adam and Eve in the garden. In Genesis 2:17, God warned them that “of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 3:1-5 says, “Satan came to Eve in the garden saying, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”’…Then he said, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”

Did you notice what happened? God made it simple for Adam and Eve, but Satan came along and complicated everything. Adding complexity to God’s simple commands is one of Satan’s main tactics. He knows complexity leads to distraction, and distraction leads to separation from God, Satan’s ultimate goal for us.

When Adam and Eve kept it simple by obeying God, they had perfect fellowship with Him. As soon as they became distracted by Satan’s temptation and ate the fruit, they experienced separation from God for the first time.

The tactics Satan used in the garden are the same tactics he uses today.

Why? Because they work. How do we as Christians overcome the complexities in our culture? There is one simple way: desiring to be in fellowship with Christ. This is our main calling as Christians. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:9, “God is faithful who has called us into the fellowship of His Son Christ our Lord.”

God’s desire from the beginning of time is that we would have fellowship with Him. He created us in His likeness and in His image for this very purpose. Why does He so greatly desire to have fellowship with us? Because He loves us.

Karl Barth was regarded as one of the greatest Protestant theologians of the 20th century. He had a greater knowledge of God than most. His influence expanded well beyond the academic realm into mainstream culture, leading him to be featured on the cover of Time Magazine. Someone once asked him, “What is the greatest theological thought that has ever crossed your mind?” He answered, “Jesus loves me; this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Keep it simple, saint!

Unity is a concept often discussed but rarely accomplished. Recently, I’ve seen it modeled well.

Earlier this month, I sat in a gathering with the leaders of Christian festivals from around the UK. They represent events with between 3,000 and 30,0000 in attendance. Our backgrounds are diverse: Pentecostal, Anglican, New Frontiers, Methodist, Calvary Chapel (that’s me, in case you were wondering), and more. Together, we are praying towards a John 17, Gospel-focused unity. This past weekend, I joined with church leaders from Wadebridge, Cornwall for the annual churches together service. We read from Matthew 5 and 1 Peter 2, spoke of the salt of the Gospel, sown into our communities, and the radiant light of the Gospel, reflected through His church. The joy of Christian fellowship was tangible.

As I write this article, earlier this evening I sat with 8 believers from 7 towns and 8 churches, joining together to serve in the name of Jesus in the Calais refugee camp. These 8 represent a true spectrum: 3 countries, 1 lead pastor, 6 women, 2 men, 1 Saviour. Their prayers centered around the calling and leading of the Spirit in their own lives and for this trip. The meeting began with this quote shared by my friend, Edme Brink: “Don’t pat yourself on the back for making a difference in someone’s life, if the difference wasn’t eternal.” Stirring words. Together, these men and women gather around what is eternal. It is right and necessary to rejoice in these gatherings, to celebrate the good and rejoice in the ways the people of God are simply together…the people of God. As the Psalmist wrote:

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

Amen. At one of these gatherings, a simple statement arrested my attention: “There must, of course, be lines to our unity.” It caught me off guard. I was so overjoyed with my brothers and sisters, with the widening kingdom vision, with the flow of creative ideas around cups of tea… (It’s England. Everything happens around tea), that I slightly rebelled against the statement. I have been turning it over in my heart and my mind, and my realization is that there is truth and authority in this statement. Our unity can only come, truly and faithfully, around the one King we claim. It’s easy to quote this verse: “Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). And forget that the context is that the unity of the Spirit is found in the clear and recognized, biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ: “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). Our true unity is not so we can feel good about ourselves. It is not simply to rejoice in how glad we are that we love each other. True unity holds to the lines: of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour, of God, the only Father, of the Spirit, the only true Comforter, of the Word of God, the only truth. Period.

It is when we rest in these things that we discover a unity that can carry a continuing witness to the world around us. Unity is a beautiful thing. We are commanded to it for Christ’s sake, not our own. Let our lives be a witness to the unity that holds to a strength and anchoring lines. “That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).