Vision of the Women's Ministry

Inviting, Not Selling

We are not about selling things to people. We are not commercial. Our mission is not to get women "hooked" on buying the next product, or the next seminar, or even Jesus Christ. We are not selling; we are inviting, knowing full well that only the invitation is within our responsibility and control. We are not fostering dependence, we are inviting exploration among a community of seekers in as safe a place as possible. We are not about commercialism or consumerism or my clothes and makeup are the nicest at this retreat. Nor do we believe money, business and commerce per se are bad; they are the foundation of our considerable material blessings. While commercialism is good for commerce, the blessings of the Spirit are not so directly attained.

We do believe that the spiritual and the material are inextricably linked - that God was made manifest in the flesh for a reason, that we are embodied to learn things and know things and do things, and our actions have spiritual as well as corporeal, material implications. We accept that we cannot make the Spirit come among us as we gather together. We accept the promise that "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there will I be." We work on articulating and creating a process, that is portable and robust in different geographies and with different leadership teams, that creates, that articulates and describes and holds gently in our combined, outstretched hands, the tentative, fragile, "it is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of a living God" experience that gets us as close as we can to the Spirit and intention of gathering in the name of Christ. We hold among us a process for separating from consumerism and inviting Christ to walk among us (acknowledging that in Christ there is no male or female and that during women's events Christ is embodied as women).

Ministering to Each According to Her Need

We know that Christ takes many forms in a women's event, ministering to each according to her need, capacities and situation. One woman awaits physical healing, another hungers for a call to a new job, another is grieving the loss of a loved one, another has romantic heartache, another just feels vaguely dissatisfied. (It does seem, especially at the beginning of an event, that divine dissatisfaction is part of what helps many women take time from frantic life to come to an event.) Therefore our events are flexible and relational, undergirded by biblical story but enabled by personal story and finally condensed or coalesced or transformed by our story together.

As far as possible, we try to give each woman the dignity of articulating her own story in her own way. We do not give advice, we do not try to fix things. In our hurried culture, advice is easy to come by, but being deeply heard - listened into being - is not. We try to give each woman the respect to know only she is responsible for her life; our intention is to be present to each other in a radical, undemanding yet highly attentive way. We want to give women the chance to speak without being interrupted. We want to give women the chance to speak before they have all the right words. We want to give women a chance to try out their voice in public but without having to assume the protection and armor of a public persona.

God Heals, We Set the Table

We want to heal hearts and minds and spirits but we accept that this is not our work but God's. We merely set the place at the table; whether each woman who attends chooses just to nibble, or have a full meal, or have comfort food or new energy food or just dessert, or hover in the doorway to the kitchen, is not in our control. We acknowledge that we are not in control of what happens for each other. We seek, more than anything else, an environment of gentleness, first of all.

We seek structures of interaction that aid communication and a sense of safety. We use creative exercises that are not cerebral to allow our authentic selves a chance to peek out and speak to us, and to learn from each other in a new way. We lead by modeling vulnerability in sharing ways that we have found meaning in the biblical text, and a personal experience of new learning that illustrates the theme. We also lead by modeling responsibility, not "dumping" by using the time in front of the whole group to process an issue in real time. The leadership team has a burden to help discern this with members of the team, particularly since everyone brings blind spots and biases as well as shining gifts.

Aah, the Refreshment of Celebration

On Saturday night we celebrate together, knowing that we were created for joy not suffering, knowing that fun is just as important a learning tool as tears, and that laugher can couch new perspectives. Also, we get tired of being so deep all the time, we need to kick back and dance a little. Eat a little chocolate. Share a backrub or two.

On Sunday morning we usually have the wrapup with our home groups (a better term I think than families, because families are often not good) and come together as a whole to worship, and to name what God has done for us this weekend. We claim the "ah hah" experience, the goosebump moment, the new glimpse of a different vision for some element of our life, the warmth of healing, the willingness to take a step towards letting go of something that is not good, the new connections with other women, the awe of being heard, the fragile beauty of being human, embodied, and at work in faith.

(Reflections by Kim Hollingsworth Taylor)