his November we completed our 16th LifeWay Women Leadership Forum and it was the best ever according to attendees! I always have a blast being with these leaders and hope you will attend next year! Click this link to find out dates.
We asked attendees to share their ministries that have been planned or have already been successful at connecting the generations. I will share those in several blog posts so you can see what is working. Please tell us what you are doing to connect the generations. Here are three more.
From Cinnamon: This year’s women’s retreat really focused on bridging the gap between the women of our two services. One service attracts young families while the other service attracts seniors. We had 50 women attend ranging from 15 to 70. We engaged the younger ones by offering options in our breakouts that included excursions. We engaged our older gals by having one of their own as a speaker. We also included breakouts that were interesting to them: women’s health issues (heart health and spiritually surviving cancer). Other options in our free-time were crazy hikes that might interest our young gals and prayer places that might attract our older gals. Our young 20’s gals were small group leaders of our teen group. I mixed the rest of our groups but made use of the wisdom of our older gals by making them group leaders. They needed training to feel confident but did outstanding. Worship is tricky but we try to include praise and hymns in every sessions worship (worship leaders sensitivity is crucial for this to succeed).
Ida Faye shares her Sweet Life Cafe and Legacy Café idea to purposefully engage generations: Sweet Life Cafe was a Friday night and Saturday at a retreat area. Legacy Cafe was a Friday night and Saturday at church. It was an overnight for the ones that wanted to spend the night. We had high school students to senior adults that attended. We set up a cafe atmosphere with the use of round tables. At each table we placed a variety of ages. Many of the ones that attended expressed to us these were two of the best events they had been involved in.
And finally, Karen shares this event called "Be His Hands and Feet”: This event encouraged women of all ages to live out their faith in our church, community, and world. The speaker encouraged Spirit-led service. There was a video featuring women of all ages from our church serving in many different capacities. The food was mission-trip style with beans and rice. There were photographs and statistics about world needs on the walls. Ministries from our church and community had tables along the walls to educate women on ways to serve through their ministry. Then, the women were encouraged to browse the tables and consider ways they might serve. The women were also given a $10 voucher (from the $10 price of admission) to support the ministry of their choice.
Keep sending ideas and I will keep sharing them on this blog.
Helpful Resources:
Women Reaching Women, Revised and Expanded version, Chris Adams
Lost and Found, Stetzer, Stanley & Hayes
Context, Threads by LifeWay
The Millenials, Thom Rainer & Jess Rainer
Respect: Meaningful Ministry with Baby Boomers in your Church and Community, Craig & Gandy
Essential Church, Rainer & Rainer
Simple Church, Rainer & Geiger
www.lifeway.com/womenreachingwomen
The Barna Group on-line, http://barna.org
Gen Trends, http://www.gentrends.com/
Scouting the Divine, Margaret Feinberg
No Other Gods, Kelly Minter
Interrupted, Jen Hatmaker
Sacred Roads, Heather Zempel
The Tough Sayings of Jesus, Michael Kelley
What Do You Do With Your Wait?, Mike Harder
Connect the Dots, Mike Hurt
unChristian, David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons
