This is sixth in a series of posts from a meeting we recently we with a group of women’s ministry leaders and some young women/young women’s leaders together for dialogue. Read previous posts in this category first!
Sometimes younger women aren’t really too excited about what they perceive to be “women’s ministry”. In many cases that’s what their mamas did and they want to do it different! Nothing wrong with that, my generation did it different too. Some things to consider when you hear young women criticize the ministry, or just not engage in it:
· Challenge young women to take ownership in it to develop it into what will reach their generation.
· Have open discussions between older leaders and young women…honest, open talk and LOTS of listening on both sides. We realized that what we did in the room the couple of days we were dialoguing between older and younger leaders was not the norm in churches. It must become the norm to effectively connect these generations.
· We asked the younger women if they felt like older leaders discourage younger women from leading because they “lack experience” and the answer was YES.
· We must not only allow them to serve and lead, we need to resource them financially and personally to encourage them to develop as leaders.
· Be willing to “risk” investing in a new idea from a younger leader.
· Older leaders should be willing to help younger ones know how to present ideas, navigate change, deal with red tape, etc.
· Call out gifts and strengths you see in younger women as well as share expectations. Both challenge and encourage them to lead.
· If you are an older leader, commit to BRING a younger leader to a training event. Lifeway has several types to choose from: YOU Lead, Women’s Leadership Forum, other events. Other training events . Watch one of these web casts together: Lifeway Women Live
Watch for more posts with excerpts from our meeting!
Resources:
Resources:
Women Reaching Women
Transformed Lives
Lost & Found
The Millennials
Context
Leading Young Women category
Top 10 for the Generations category
YOU Lead
Women’s Forum
Other Training
LiveWay Women Live