Organic Ministry to Women

A Guide to Transformational Ministry with Next Generation Women

Sue Edwards, Kelley Matthews

• Publisher: Kregel Publications
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780825475979
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

With Millennial and Generation Z women coming of age in our churches and society, new approaches to women's ministry are required to meet their distinct needs. Drawing on decades of experience ministering to women, authors Sue Edwards and Kelley Mathews explain how their Transformation Model can energize women's ministry for all generations and in multiple settings. Individual chapters are devoted to applying the Model, which is centered on Scripture and building relationships, to ministry in the local church, the college campus, and cross-culturally in missions. Organic Ministry to Women is packed with practical advice and real-life illustrations of how to implement the principles of the Transformation Model. Edwards and Mathews also profile numerous leading women's ministers like Jen Wilkin, Priscilla Shirer, and Jackie Hill-Perry, drawing wisdom and inspiration from their lives and ministries. Helpful appendixes provide additional resources including sample job descriptions for ministry leaders, a Bible study lesson, and a training guide for small group leaders.A revised and expanded version of New Doors in Ministry to Women, this updated edition takes into account the latest cultural and ministry trends and is an invaluable resource for current and future leaders in ministry to women.

PART 1

THE TRANSFORMATION MODEL AND WHY IT’S WORKING

Chapter 1

WHO IS THE POSTMODERN WOMAN?

The phenomenon of the generation gap reaches beyond familial relationships—mothers and daughters, grandfathers and grandsons—into the church body. Older women, content with their traditional, didactic method of Bible study, sometimes feel confused or threatened by the younger generation’s desire for a more organic approach, creativity, diversity, and spontaneity. “We know our way works—why change it?” they wonder. Older women sometimes ask me (Sue), “What in the world do these younger women mean by organic?” Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) adjunct professor Barbara Neumann explains the concept well in our book Organic Mentoring.

The organic movement started as a means to produce natural food but eventually grew into a belief system, one that is embraced by many next generation people. Organic elements shape their values and lifestyles in many ways. This belief system leads young people to a simpler, more natural and authentic way of life. It moves away from outside control, artificial ingredients, and synthetic products.

When we understand that the organic belief system also extends to the way Postmoderns relate to others, we begin to get them. Their relationships unfold naturally according to their own timetables. When we talked candidly with young women in our research, they all wished the mentoring process could be more “organic.” When they look at the way we traditionally structure mentoring, they don’t see organic. They see layers of additives that make the process feel unnatural. (Organic Mentoring, A Mentor’s Guide to Relationships with Next Generation Women, Sue Edwards and Barbara Neumann, Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2014, pp. 97, 98)

Younger and middle-aged women observe their mothers and grandmothers in church and say, “Boring! That is not for me.” They walk away from relevant truth because they can’t relate to an antiquated method. Many postmoderns believe they have little in common with the moderns—an unfortunate and potentially destructive misconception.

These labels don’t fit each individual. Many women in their sixties think like postmodern women. And young women who grew up in Christian homes often take on the attributes of modern women. But for the sake of our discussion, these labels work. They help us as we search for methods to bring the generations together.

DO YOUR METHODS REACH THE POSTMODERN WOMAN?

Many postmoderns view life from a different perspective than moderns—yet many women attempting ministry use obsolete methods that won’t work with young women. Highly structured formats, academic Bible teaching without application, and simplistic thinking don’t interest the digital generations. These women seek authentic relationships and “spirituality,” but not packaged in yesterday’s styles.

The postmodern woman wants transformation. She wants genuine relationships and deep spiritual experiences. She demands we address the complexities of life and refuses to settle for pat answers and superficial explanations, insisting that we take off our masks and get real. She wants substantial change—a new life that works.

Many hurt deeply and fear trusting anyone. These are the daughters of radical feminism. They come to the church searching for authentic community and family.

Many call several women “mom” and several men “dad.” Adults played musical chairs in their lives, so they learned independence for survival. They experienced the emptiness of isolation and are desperate to connect. And so they come to Jesus. We must seriously consider their needs as we plan our ministries. But we must understand the challenges as we seek to woo and win them.

BE ALERT TO THE CHALLENGES

Don’t Marginalize or Unnecessarily Offend Moderns

Imagine the results if we changed our methods to attract young women but lost the older women in the process. Our challenge is to embrace the postmodern woman while retaining the generations of women who came before her. Why? Because these earlier generations are our army of spiritual mothers. They will teach and train the younger women God is sending us. They will enfold postmoderns when the leaders run out of arms. Only a fool would fashion a ministry to the needs of one generation and forget the other.

Don’t Capitulate to the Culture

Aspects of both modern and postmodern cultures fly in the face of biblical truth. For example, typical postmoderns believe truth is relative. Secular education is founded on that premise, affecting every academic discipline. But the Bible teaches absolute truth. In our attempts to attract postmoderns, should we abandon teaching absolute truth because they resist? Absolutely not. That would be capitulating to postmodern culture.

But we can teach biblical truth using methods that appeal to postmoderns. How? By using more stories, images, and art—and by making the main points of our messages applicational rather than academic. Postmoderns aren’t impressed that we can conjugate Greek verbs. First, they want to know if our faith works.

Modernism also contradicts Scripture. For example, in the past, relationships and families have been sacrificed on the altar of modernity’s materialism. Dr. Alice Mathews, former Lois W. Bennett Associate Professor of Educational and Women’s Ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, comments:

Having done some useful course work and a lot of reading in my Ph.D. studies on postmodernism, I see many great dangers in modernism as well as in postmodernism. So I see myself as a “premodern” woman living in the midst of the ongoing assumptions of modernity and almost welcoming postmodernism as a way of forcing Christians to see how much we’ve bought into the culture of modernity in community-destroying ways. No, I am not postmodern. But nothing less than postmodern thought could force us to question the tenets of modernity which are in the air we breathe. I know that I bought into modernity for the first six decades of my life, and only in the last decade I have come to see how that ethos, modernity, has been at odds with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.⁵

Do you consider the needs of postmodern women in your ministry? If not, is it time for a change? But be careful not to capitulate to either culture or unnecessarily offend either group as you do.

AWAKEN TO THE NEED FOR CHANGE

To answer my calling I (Sue) have been forced to change. Why? Because it’s not about me—it’s about them!

I will never forget attending a women’s ministry conference at Multnomah Bible College and Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Before me sat a panel of Christian women, all under thirty, most of whom studied in the women’s ministry track. Several had grown up in Christian homes and the others came to Christ through youth ministry or in their early twenties. I listened intently as they answered questions that revealed a different worldview than mine. One raised in a Christian home expressed that she felt disenfranchised from her generation. But she also looked at the world differently from her mother. She felt caught between two worlds. Others identified with their generation and talked about their struggle to see life “biblically.” Each one challenged us to understand them and their lost generation.

A modern woman once asked me, “Why should I change? Why can’t the postmoderns change instead?” Former Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) student Amy Joy Warner has an answer.

For the Christian, Jesus Christ offers the ultimate example for approaching the postmodern culture. John, in his Gospel, clearly illuminates Jesus’s method when he writes, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (1:14). In Jesus Christ, God approached humanity in terms it could understand. In doing so, God established a pattern for those who would follow after Christ. God’s incarnation creates the necessity and appropriateness of a postmodern approach to Christian ministry. If we are to follow his example, we have no excuse for not accommodating ourselves to the postmodern culture in such a way that Christ is evident once again.

The postmodern women at the conference came to faith because someone reached out to them in terms they could understand. I left the conference knowing God was calling me to change the way I approached women’s ministry.

IS JESUS ASKING YOU TO CHANGE?

We need a different model because traditional models, as we have shown, don’t reach the postmodern world in which we now live. God loves this world and asks us to woo them to him. Jesus’s last words on earth are still our chief concern.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matt. 28:19–20)

God calls us to reach all nations, all peoples, all generations. As God brings these postmodern women into our churches, Titus 2:3–5 serves as the foundational text for ministry to women.

Background

After Paul planted churches, normally he left disciples behind to shepherd the new flocks. In Crete, Paul left Titus and continued to mentor him through correspondence. One of his letters included instructions to various groups. He wrote specifically concerning women:

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Titus 2:3–5)

Identify “Mature” Women

First, Titus needed to identify “older” women and delegate the care of other women in the church to them. The Greek word for “older” denotes the idea of being “advanced in the process.” In contrast, “younger” women carries with it the idea of being recent, or early, new in the process. These terms don’t necessarily mean chronological age but can also relate to spiritual age. This is important because younger women mature in Christ qualify for leadership. Paul was advising Titus to delegate and prepare spiritually mature women to shepherd other women.

Cretan women rarely enjoyed educational opportunities, but Paul instructed Titus to disregard this cultural norm, to find women who distinguished themselves by their love for the Lord, and to prepare them to minister to other women.

Paul’s letter to Titus expressed real urgency. In 2:1, he insisted, “You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.” The health and survival of the church depended on equipping its people, including women, and on growing both strong men and strong women, enabling them to persevere in the midst of a hostile Cretan environment. Paul’s words were not a suggestion but a command. Churches today include many fine ministries that are not specifically commanded in Scripture. Ministry to women, however, is mentioned clearly.

Titus’s Temporary Role

Titus’s role included priming the pump for women, getting the ministry off the ground. After Titus identified and equipped these “older” women, they would be ready to teach, train, and mentor the generation behind them. Imagine if Paul’s mandate had been common practice in all churches since the first century!

Paul provided guidelines to help Titus know how to identify women advanced in the process. Who is a Titus 2 woman? What core qualities did Paul elevate that we still need to value today? Of course, no woman reflects these values perfectly, but she should be seeking these attributes and should have achieved a measure of maturity before she’s trusted to lead others. Also, women who seriously desire to prepare themselves for effective ministry must intentionally develop these qualities.

Three Qualifications for Ministering to Women

First, Paul advised Titus to find women who were “reverent in the way they live.” We must live out our love for the Lord as a lifestyle, a real walk with God, no masks—what you see in public reflects who you are in private.

Next, Paul focused on two key negatives. The first: “not to be slanderers.” Do you struggle to overcome a loose tongue? Proverbs 13:3 instructs, “Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin.”

Don’t be like the woman who backed into another car. She wrote a note and put it under the windshield wiper of the damaged car ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part 1: The Transformation Model and Why It’s Working
• Part 2: Taking the Transformation Model to the Church
• Part 3: Taking the Transformation Model to the Campus
• Part 4: Converting the Transformation Model Cross-Culturally
• Appendix A: Sample Job Descriptions
• Appendix B: Sample Bible Study Lesson
• Appendix C: Training Guide for Small Group Leaders
• Appendix D: Conflict Resolution Covenant
• Appendix E: Women Student Fellowship Constitution
• Endnotes