The MOPS meeting is 10:00 to 11:00 in Cypress, TX at the Good Shepherd UMC. Join us.

Unpacking the Pastor’s Workload: 7 Tips for Women to Help Out

All hands on deck! The job is big and the pastor can’t do it alone. Women can help unpack the pastor’s workload and make a powerful impact in the lives of those in the community and the church. As I mentioned in the previous post, Partnership with Pastors, I have a desire to help the ministries of the church be effective in their mission. The following is part two of that post and lists seven tips for women ministering to women. Ladies, you can do this.

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1. Realize you have something to offer. A listening ear. Wise counsel. Party planning. Training expertise. Organizational skills. Bake and Take friendship talent. You can always offer relationship to women who need relationships.
2. Pray for a discovery of where you can help both in the community and in the church.
3. Look for opportunities to serve women by determining their needs
4. Communicate your availability and interest in helping your pastor reach the women of the church and community. Be sure to express your intentions of strengthening the church and families.
5. Ask the leadership, pastor, or women’s ministry leader, what needs they see and how your skills and talents can help meet those needs.
6. Learn the skills necessary to become more useable. Be teachable and always adapting to changes.
7. Believe that God can use you to make a difference in the lives of others. No task is too small to make an impact, nor too big for you to do your part.

You can make a difference. With so many needs in our communities and churches, you have a great opportunity to assist life change by joining others and partnering with pastors.

* photo from www.jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu.

The “little ole me” attitude keeps me from partnering with others to do big things, or try feats that could never be done on my own. Feelings like, “What can I do? Not much, I’m not trained.”  But partnering with pastors and other leaders with vision will build God’s kingdom and strengthen our families.

Faith and togetherness. Our weaknesses are made strong with God and others. I feel inadequate (no big secret), but with faith to trust and obey God along with joining others, amazing acts are completed. When I consider what faith and togetherness does in my life, it’s nothing short of a miracle.

When Lynn Snider, the Executive Director of South Baptist Texas Association, heard about my desire to partner with churches to reach women, he invited me to share at several pastor’s luncheons of the SBTA. I offered my assistance to make a difference in the lives of women in their community. Being a pastor’s wife, I understand the burden and workload of pastors and the benefit of women ministering to women.

Robin with Pastor Elmo Johnson and Anita Wood

At one luncheon I joined Anita Wood, SBTC Women’s Ministry Regional Representative and speaker at Capture Me! iGETitLIFE Women’s Event. We traveled to the 4th Ward in Houston and met Rev. Elmo Johnson, pastor of Rose of Sharon Missionary Baptist Church and president of UpLift 4th Ward Community Development. Anita and I offered our assistance to the pastors followed by an awesome prayer time and lunch at This is It Soul Food. We met some of Rev. Johnson’s members working and dining at the restaurant. His ministry is evident all over the 4th Ward. If you want to make a difference in the lives of people, seek out and learn from Rev. Elmo Johnson.

During each pastor gathering I offered:

•    Inspirational events for the community and churches
•    Women’s ministry training for leaders of women
•    Vision casting for the women of the church (to assist the pastor in counseling and ministering to women)

The pastors appreciated the counseling women vision and were eager to find that kind of assistance. My pastor-husband brought a godly woman, or most often myself, into every counseling situation with females. He found extra support for the lady in crisis, a “girlfriend” with which to pray and talk. This partnership lightens the pastor’s workload and frees him to focus elsewhere.

Look for future post Tips for Women Ministering to Women, Unloading the Pastor’s Workload

And the winner is… A drawing for an author-signed book was taken from the pool of early registrants of the Capture Me! September 2009 iGETitLIFE Women’s Event. Congratulations to Pam Moore of the Texas Hill Country.  She has won a free personalized copy of Vonda Skelton’s Seeing Through the Lies: Unmasking the Myths Women Believe.

Vonda’s book is filled with insight and humor. The rest of us can order our copy of Seeing Through the Lies to get a taste of the awesome time awaiting us at the Capture Me! Event. Vonda is the keynote speaker and you will be blessed by hearing from her in person.

Breakout sessions by other godly speakers include Renae Brumbaugh, Anita Onarecker Wood, Anne LeGare, and myself. We may even have a surprise missionary to speak to a young women issue — what God can do with the unmatched pieces of my life? Some breakout session topics are:

•    Hope? I NEED Hope! – Has all the chaos beaten you down? Discover what God says about hope, and sharpen your focus—gain new encouragement with the anchor of our soul – - hope!  Anita Onarecker Wood is an eyewitness to miraculous prayer. She was on the bridge with her first husband, Dick Onarecker, who prayed for Don Piper, as told in 90 Minutes in Heaven.
*    Morning Coffee . . . Caffeine for the Soul - Soul weary? Need a java-jolt? Grab a cup of coffee and discover practical keys for successful living. You’ll come away with a renewed spirit that will satisfy . . . all day long.  Renae Brumbaugh is the author of Morning Coffee with James, four other books, and a syndicated column. She makes hard truth easy to swallow. Need a little sugar with that?
•    Default Settings — Stuck in the Spin Cycle? – Worn out? “Why is my Christian life so hard?”  Your “default settings” may be set on the “spin cycle.”  Discover how to reprogram to the “vibrant colors” cycle God intends and get out of the wringer!  Anne LeGare is a former Army major. As a divorced, single mother with two small children, she earned two Master’s degrees. Remarried with five kids, she’s living proof that you can come out of the “Spin Cycle” and rest in the Lord.
•    Sacred Conversation: The Eternal Chat, IM, & Text – Learn to chat with God and join his amazing adventure. Discover how to make a difference and find healing, hope, and purpose. Robin Bryce is committed to engage, inspire, and influence abundant life and is the speaker and founder of iGETitLIFE. She’s found hope and life-purpose chatting with Jesus.

Don’t delay. Register online now or download form for this awesome weekend of inspiration, fun, and worship. Time and space is running out.

Oh, and Pam, look for your free book to arrive in your mailbox soon and thank you for registering early.

And BIG THANKS to Vonda for donating and personalizing her book for the drawing. She’s such a doll. You got to come meet her.

How do the successful deal with challenges? What is their strategy? And what can we learn from them? I look for people of passion, people who love God and have a single-hearted devotion to be and do all God wants. Vonda Skelton is one of those people.

I met Vonda years ago at a Christian leaders conference, and I’ve invited her to join us today. She is the keynote for Capture Me!, the 2009 iGETitLIFE Women’s Event, and the author of Seeing Through the Lies and the Bitsy series for children. She’s the mom of two and MaMa to a crew. Vonda lives with her husband, Gary, in South Carolina. You’ll fall in love with her feisty yet gentle Southern ways as she shares where she’s going and how she’s getting there. Join me as I glean tips for leading and living my life. Let’s get started and don’t forget to ask your questions or leave comments.

Robin: Vonda, what would you say is your mission, your purpose? Why do you do what you do?

Vonda: I know this sounds silly to some, but I do what I do because I can’t NOT do it. I’ve always loved writing, loved the stage, loved the creative process, but for most of my life I considered all that stuff just selfish self-indulgences. And even though I’d never done any of these creative things professionally, I found they always seeped into my life. They just appeared in my nursing school projects, neighborhood children’s parties, birthday party entertainments, children’s SS classes, children’s church or Bible School programs, and Christian Women’s Club leadership roles. I didn’t set out to be creative in these areas, it just crept its way in time after time. I’d be working on something and POOF! there it was—a skit, a song, a costume, a monologue. They wouldn’t leave me alone!

The day God revealed to me that He could take all those passions and interests and use them to bring Himself glory was an exciting day! For the first time in my life, I felt I was doing what I was created to do! So, to get back to your question, I do what I do to bring glory to God.

The look of a leader worth following!!

Robin: That’s awesome. I read a great book, The Dream Giver, about living and serving in the passions and interests that God places in us. Our life’s work becomes an act of worship. When you write or speak, how do you sense God’s pleasure?

Vonda: The best way I can describe it is that it feels like climbing up into a big ol’ cushy recliner, snuggling up to my Father, and hearing His heartbeat. I remember so vividly doing that with my daddy…and all would be right with the world. I love sharing His love, His grace and mercy, His forgiveness. I love that He can take my messes and use them for His glory. I love that no hurts are wasted in God’s economy.

Robin: That’s a comfy feeling, but doesn’t these same acts of worship become a chore at times? A drudgery? How does that happen?

Vonda: Oh, I know the answer to that one! It’s when I get too busy doing all the “stuff” of the ministry. You know, the bookkeeping, the letters, the contracts, the paperwork. It’s when I get away from my calling and have to work outside my area of passion and gifting. But it has to be done. I keep reminding myself that I’m sure Jesus didn’t enjoy everything He had to do to bring His message to the people.

Robin: Ouch. I guess you’re right. Jesus probably didn’t enjoy the cross. Since some things about your mission are enjoyable and others aren’t, how do you decide what you should do?

Vonda: That’s just it—there are too many things that I love to do, that I feel called to do. I love teaching God’s Word, love sharing stories of God’s grace and forgiveness, love sharing my mistakes in hopes that someone else can avoid them, love watching kids’ eyes light up when they realize they can write, love giving women the opportunity to laugh at my mess-ups of life, love letting women know that none of us has it all together but that we’re all struggling to live up to His calling and be who He created us to be.

Some say, “Just make a mission statement and don’t do anything that doesn’t fit that statement.” Great concept but doesn’t work in reality for me. Whether I’m speaking to a group of women or a group of writers or a group of kids, for me, it’s all ministry and it’s all good.

Robin: Sounds like your mission statement would have to include lots of inspiration and encouragement for others. What helps you determine you’re headed in the right direction and making progress? How do you evaluate your success?

Vonda: I don’t know that success is the word I would use because that has such a negative connotation in today’s society. Today’s success is measured by the paycheck, the notoriety, the name recognition. By those standards, few of us ever qualify. But when I look at what I know God has called ME to do—minister to women, writers, and children, I feel His nod of approval through the confirmation of those I speak to. I mean, how can I feel that I’m not on the right track when a precious sister comes to me and says, “Your message changed my life”?

Listen—it’s not me, it’s not my good works or anything I’ve done to reach any definition of success, it’s only through the story of His power, the demonstration of His love, that anyone can be changed. I feel like the woman at the well who went back to her town and said, “Let me tell you about a man who told me everything I ever did!” The Bible tells us many in her town were saved. Was it because of her? No. Was it because she was a great orator who knew the techniques of persuasion? No. Was it because she was successful by their standards? No. It was because of the message. His message. His grace. His love.

Robin: That’s a powerful picture. A struggling woman used to share God’s message. I’m curious. When setbacks come, and they always do, how do you deal with them? How do you get back on track?

Vonda: I just stay busy. I find if I have lots of different projects going on, I’m not so focused on the “success” of one particular one. So when I have a project that I just know is going to be the next Christy Award winning book, or the next Oscar winning movie, and instead it ends up in the rejection pile, I can whine to my close friends (who love me in spite of the whining) and then move on to the next project. But then there are those times…you know what I mean…those times when you get up and fall down and get up and fall down…and nothing seems to be working…and people won’t leave you alone so you can do what you know you’re supposed to be doing…when you feel pulled in a hundred directions and you think you can’t take another…uh…um…what was the question?

Robin: Hmm, I guess you might get a little frustrated when things don’t go your way, but you always return to your mission of inspiring and encouraging others. A mark of a good leader is not giving up when the road gets rough. Besides being remembered for faithfulness to your mission, is there anything else you would like to say?

Vonda: Oh, how I want to pen words that will make a difference for eternity! I want heaven to be different because of my obedience to His calling. The money truly isn’t the focus. (Although I wouldn’t be OPPOSED to making gobs of money if God decided to send it my way! I mean, just imagine all the good I could do with a gazillion dollars! Wouldn’t that be AWESOME?!?!?) But I sincerely want to be remembered as someone who wrote the truth, shared the truth, believed the truth, and lived the truth. If I made a lot of money and achieved the world’s standard of success, but didn’t portray the Truth on the pages of my life, my life would have been nothing but a lie. And that, dear friends, would be true failure.

Robin: And we don’t want to be failures. Do we? Thanks Vonda. Can’t wait to be with you in September at Capture ME!, the iGETitLIFE Event.

Check out Vonda’s book, Seeing Through the Lies: Unmasking the Myths Women Believe, to find out how to live in the Truth.

Make a comment. What is your individual calling or sweet spot? How do you handle obstacles? What standard evaluates your success?

Related leadership posts: Stepping into Success, Successful Life and Leadership, 5 Tips to Lead a Successful Life

*picture from www.getentrepreneurial.com

Robin Bryce will bring the program at each Luncheon.

Monday, June 22

11:30 am 

China Ko!

5310 E. Sam Houston Pkwy

Just North of Woodforest Blvd

11:30 am – 1:00 pm

~~~

Tuesday, June 23

11:30 am

Rose of Sharon Baptist Church

1106 Valentine

Houston, TX 77019

(Just West of Downtown Houston)

11:30 am – 1:00 pm

~~~

Thursday, June 25

11:30 am

Ryan’s Steak House Conroe

1413 N. Loop 336

11:30 am – 1:00 pm

http://southtexasba.com/

Related event

• Speaker: Robin
• Date: Monday, June 22nd 2009 - Tuesday, June 23rd 2009
• City: Robin in Houston, TX
• Venue: South Texas Baptist Association Pastor’s Luncheon
• Country: United States
• Notes: Topic: Education and Inspiration for Women’s Ministry, offering training and resources.
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

• Speaker: Robin
• Date: Thursday, June 25th 2009
• City: Robin in Conroe, TX
• Venue: South Texas Baptist Association Pastor’s Luncheon
• Country: United States
• Notes: Topic: Education and Inspiration for Women’s Ministry, offering training and resources.
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

I’m feeling a little down today. Tired. Dirty contacts messing with my vision. Girls gone to camp. Feeling alone…

Too much to do. Too much strain in my faith (that God would use me). My turn to whine.

Girlfriend calls. Wants me to fix lasagna for the fellowship tomorrow night. I want to stay home in pj’s.

Writing? How can I do that when I need to call every women’s ministry contact in God’s creation on behalf of Capture ME! ~ iGETitLIFE 2009 Women’s Event. At least I’m not laid up in the hospital with a spinal leak like the iGETitLIFE coordinator. She just had a baby and the epidural caused spinal fluid leakage (pray for Jamie). And I want to whine!

(sigh)
Look. It’s like this. I obey God and still I have troubles. 

(picture from gizmodo.com)

I’m trying to not be despondent. I know God’s in control. I’m doing what he asked, but I just don’t see his hand at this time. My faith doesn’t require sight, but my sense of security sure likes it.

"If you will…firmly exhibit your faith at the precise moment, you can sometimes actually snatch victory from the very jaws of defeat… lifting your heart to God in a moment of genuine faith in Him can quickly alter your circumstances…He can turn defeat into victory in a split second, if we will only trust Him." ~Streams in the Desert

Going to cleanse my contacts for Firmer Faith and Clearer Vision.

Due to the response of Twittering Church, I’ve been questioning men to get their input on how twitter could help a men’s accountability group.

My husband suggested creating “Rules of Engagement.” Obviously, since twitter is social, the opportunity to a small accountability group is available.

But before I make suggestions for “Rules of Engagement,” I want to describe how I could see twitter working for a small group.

I have a small group that can be mimicked.  My group is my family. My husband and two older children twitter along together. We set our “devices” to “on” so we can see what each other are doing when we post.

My husband may tweet something about being frustrated at work, or how he had an awesome lunch meeting with someone. My kids may tweet “About to take a hard test,” or “Not feeling so hot today.” One may say something funny. One may ask via direct message (dm) for a deep prayer concern.

We laugh making no response. We pray for something mentioned. We respond with encouragement. We direct message our love, concern, and jokes directly into their circumstances in real time. (On a side note, my honey and I send “love” tweets too. Maybe I should write an article on how twitter can help your marriage.)

“Devices” are our cell phones that receive text messages. Twitter sends their tweets to our phones as a text message and we can respond via text messages in three manners.

1. A straight forward response goes to any and all who look at your twitter page on the internet and not directly to the one you want to respond to. Okay, but has the opportunity to be confusing to others not following along in the conversation.
2. Using @twittername (placing the name of the twitterer you want to respond to after the @ symbol) sends it to your twitter page for all to see as well as a community notice of saying it to your intended person.
3. Using d twittername sends a personal message directly to your intended person without posting your message to the social network. (A glitch may accidentally happen in twitterdom. I don’t advise getting too personal here. It may be a way to say, “Hey, call me at ###-####,” or “I got your back on this one.”)

There are more advanced methods such as creating groups and using hashtags (#), but the simple texting method keeps our family digitally connected and involved in one another’s life. I believe if your group creates “Rules for Engagement” and commits to increased digital accountability, twitter will greatly enhance your group.

(Twitter just hit Time Magazine’s front cover. Twitter is changing our culture. I really think the church ought to be involved and engaged in such awesome conversations.)

Twitter “Rules for Engagement” for group accountability and encouragement.

1. Meet face to face regularly – Keep your regular meeting times. Smiles, handshakes, and the necessary “three pat” hugs shouts concern to a much greater degree than the digital connection. Twitter cannot replace this! (Incidentally, I applaud each and every man willing to invest in another man’s life in small accountability groups. My husband has been in and started several over the years.)
2. Keep the most personal discussion personal in the face-to-face meetings. Never know when you might slip and forget to “dm” that detail resulting in shouting something meant “secret” to all internet eyes. And Twitter may accidentally put a “dm” in the main stream for everybody to see.
3. Commit to be involved in one another’s life making an effort to be an encouragement. Don’t make all the tweets self-centered. Send out encouraging quotes, Bible verses, and tidbits of learning you’ve received from your life struggles, as well as the what’s-going-on-with-you kind of tweets. If you’ve read an interesting article online, send a link using the link shortening tool in TweetDeck along with a short description of the article for your group to read. (TweetDeck.com and other applications are free downloads for your computer to make Twitter even more functional.

 I welcome more input, especially from men who twitter and are a part of a small accountability group. Please respond for the edification of all.

Ready to win? We have opportunity to gain the encouragement we need to rise above, get over the hump, and get out of the slump. We’ll find inspiration to take charge of our lives. And it’s FREE! Let’s go, girlfriends.

On May 22-23, 2009, join Thelma Wells at her Ready To Win Conference in Garland, TX (Dallas area). It’s free! Register for your free tickets and get more information at ThelmaWells.com.

Thelma’s the real deal, an authentic Christ follower that’s been in the slump, at the bottom of the hump, and in need of rising up. She knows how to win in difficult situations. Come join in, if you’re Ready To Win. You’ll be blessed.

I’ll be there. Tweet me @RobinBryce, and we can have a Tweet-up for fun. if you’re unsure what Twitter is click Twittering Church? for links of explanation. Look forward to seeing you there.