Whenever I hear of churches whom feel as though they cannot grow or properly do ministry due to space, I often think that that really isn’t a problem. If God is really in control, and He is, and He was aware of the church’s future constraints like space, land, finances, etc., which He was and is, then maybe that church needs to think outside of the box or at least outside its walls (novel idea!).
I know that it sounds cliché these days, but thinking outside of the box is as relevant as ever.
When we as a church feel as though we are not making an impact in our communities, it calls for thinking differently and doing church differently. One of the ministries at my church recently did something outside of the box, and I love it so much I wanted to share it with you women’s ministry leaders. Maybe it will inspire us to think outside of the box when it comes to our ministries!
For the past few years we have had a clothes closet at our church that was mostly created by one of our senior adult Sunday School classes. It has done really well, to say the least. The local schools call us when they realize children need clothing. People off of the street stops by to pick up some clothes. It has been a great little ministry. We have also been blessed with donations. So much so, the clothes closet has continued to take over more and more rooms in our church, just for storage. We had more clothes than we could possibly give-away, and good clothes, too!
Even though we were not experiencing negative issues (constraints) with this ministry, but the opposite, it did require that we think outside of the box.
One of the leaders of our men’s ministry came up with a genious idea. If we had more clothes sitting around than people coming to take them, then why not take the clothes to them??? As such, he and a couple of men built mobile racks that sit on the back of their trailers. Our clothes closet ministry then takes the clothes, hangs them on the racks and walks them down the streets of our more impoverished neighborhoods.
We invite people to come out and pick out whatever they like. We’ve had a great response to this method. As such, they now do this one Sunday every month right after church.
I got to go with them the last time they did this. We took this opportunity to pass out invitations to our VBS, too. (See how we piggy-backed one ministry initiative on top of another?!)
How can we think outside of the box with our own women’s ministries’? Maybe you’ve got some great ideas??? If so, please share them!
You may also like these idea starters for women’s ministry:
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Award-winning Author Gina Duke is a wife, mother and Director of Women’s Ministry at her local church where she has created a women’s involvement ministry called “Joppa”. Gina is also a speaker. With a B.S. in Organizational Leadership, she is able to bring a clear word for authentic Christian living. Through her book, “Organizing Your Prayer Closet: A New and Life-Changing Way to Pray” (Abingdon Press), she imparts 1 Peter 4:7 with the gift of structured prayer journaling. Ms. Duke also blogs and offers numerous videos and resources at GinaDuke.com. You may also follow her on Twitter and Instagram @TheGinaDuke.
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This is really inspiring Gina. Thanks very much for sharing. Will put it to work with some twists due to our environment.
Have a super blessed day!
Love
Great. Let me know what neat ideas you come up with within your church’s/ministry’s constraints. ~Gina
This is wonderful!!!! Good job ladies…. I loved this so much that I shared it on my own blog. You can see it here, http://everydaymissionaries.com/2015/01/28/19-friday-fav/. Keep up the good work.
Thanks, Jeannette! I love your blog’s name, Everyday Missionaries – I hope we are. Thank you for sharing my post with your subscribers! ~gina
Just found your sight via pinterest. We were just discussing ways to take God’s love to the streets and this is our answer. Thanks!
I am so excited to hear this. A group from church just did this again last week and passed out invitations to VBS. Praying this works well for your church, too!
This is great! Thanks for sharing! xo
Great idea I will try it thanks