idea share: leading a women's group
>> March 11, 2009
Some of you lead a women's or girl's group at your church or in your community. There are probably a million ways to do this, but we want to know how you do it. Hopefully this thread will generate ideas for all of us to learn from.
Please answer these questions:
Is your group and ongoing group or does it have a start and end date?
What curriculum or plan are you using for study?
How often do you meet?
Where do you meet?
How many women attend regularly?
What is the age group or range of the women in your group?
Are the women "assigned" things to study between meetings (if so, please describe)?
What do you like most about leading this group?
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7 comments:
Okay, I have done a study with ladies and girls:
the girls study:
1. We take the summer off. And take the week of Christmas off too.
2. We go through different books together (currently one by Rebecca St James)
3. We meet every Wednesday night
4. At my house
5. there are 7 girls plus myself
6.they are 17-21 in age
7. They have daily reading in the book and scripture to do between meetings, with questions to answer.
8. I love the relationship building it brings. It takes awhile for people to let their guard down, but after about 6 months you really get into what is going on in each persons life! it's awesome!
now for the ladies study:
1. It only runs for a period of up to 10 weeks.
2. Usually a Beth Moore study or Kay Arthur, or something in depth
3. It's a weekly meeting
4. At a persons home in the group
5. There are usually about 6-8 people
6. Ages 30-45
7. there is daily homework usually takes about 30 minutes for 5 days of your week
8. It's amazing how personal the study gets. Sometimes you don't do the study cuz someone is hurting, so you spend the whole time in prayer with them! It's awesome, it's like you're sisters in the end (and really we are sisters now that I think of it, sisters in Christ). It's a time each person looks forward to! it's life changing for sure!
Yikes! There's so much here I could share! So, I'll do my best to comment briefly! First, I think beginning something has to be covered in prayer. The way I had envisioned my group to go has completely changed, and that's because God has formed it, not me!
1. I have done both... When I first started groups I did a "teaser" 6 week study. I think this is effective since it got people to know each other for a consistent 6 week time. Plus it allowed those that didn't want to continue a time to leave. Now we meet every other week, and it has grown tremendously.
2. Currently, Stormie's Power of a Praying Wife DVD series. Before this Jennifer Rothchild's Walking By Faith DVD.
3-6. We meet every other week at church. We offer babysitting which I think is vital! My group is mainly moms with younger school aged kids. (this was purposefully set in the conception of the group) There are about 20 some women that come.
7. There CAN BE homework, but most of the girls like the idea that they can just come and not worry about anything.
8. Again, I just love to see how God has changed my initial ideas to grow this group into something bigger and better than I intended. I also love hearing the stories of how the content is being applied within each life. People have felt very comfortable to being real with each other. It's great!
I'm currently teaching a class called "Practical Application of Biblical Womanhood," preparing women for mentoring relationships.
Is your group and ongoing group or does it have a start and end date? this is a six week class, leading into a longer mentoring program
What curriculum or plan are you using for study? I'm writing the curriculum based on Titus 2:3-5
How often do you meet? once a week
Where do you meet? at the church because we need a large enough room
How many women attend regularly? 15-18
What is the age group or range of the women in your group? 25-65ish
Are the women "assigned" things to study between meetings (if so, please describe)?
Not regularly
What do you like most about leading this group? the range of ages and experience really adds to the point of the group- for older women to teach younger women!
I am a PW... just found this site tonight and all I can say is YAY! The church my husband is assigned to is dying. We have no women's group. So... feeling like I was dying on the vine, I tried to start one. Um yeah. No one showed. SO now I have a small group of teens girls who are starving for food that only God can give them. None of these girls have been exposed to any church setting until now. Its been a long hard road... but its an awesome journey. Now, I have to continue reading this blog so I can pretend I had some fellowship today.
Blessings,
CeCe Garrett
I currently lead a monthly Friday night "women's prayerSpace", and in our last church I led a weekly women's bible study.
For the "prayerSpace" we do different types of hands-on prayer experiences, like praying through a series of prayer disciplines (praise/thanksgiving/confession/surrender/petition).
Another time we did a salt prayer, where each woman had a black plastic plate with salt in it. Each woman wrote a word with their finger in the salt, describing something they wanted to surrender to God - finances, relationships, anger, etc - and then poured a tiny cup of water into the plate, watching the salt-words dissolve as a representation of God taking their burdens away.
We meet by candlelight in the church lobby, and everyone brings their own floor pillow. About a dozen women aged 21-60 regularly attend, and some bring their young daughters to participate as well.
There's no study homework for the prayerSpace. Just bring your burdens, fave floor pillow and a candle.
My favorite part of it is feeling the renewing power of the Spirit among women of all ages who are worn out from the business of living life. Every time, someone ends up opening and sharing from their heart - it bonds women together that wouldn't otherwise interact. It's really beautiful!
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