No matter how godly a male student minister is, he will never be able to teach a teenage girl how to be a godly woman. She needs a godly woman to do that.
Jimmie Davis, center, girl’s ministry director at First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, visits with her student ministry assistant, Jillian Lybrand, right, and student Emily Dalton, prior to the first session of the Girls’ Ministry Forum.Given that truth, churches need to have ministry devoted specifically to teenage girls led by godly women of several generations.
“Most churches have student ministries that are run a man,” said Pam Gibbs, director of girls’ ministry at LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. “Most of the programming is more masculine than feminine – camps, active events, loud things. That’s not a criticism in any way. It’s almost impossible to incorporate masculine and feminine activities in one group.”
Gibbs said she wasn’t saying that girls won’t enjoy camp and the crazy activities that student groups sometimes do. Of course they will. But girls need more. They need to form relationships with godly women, older than themselves, and learn from them.
That is where girls’ ministry comes in.
To prepare women and girls for ministry, LifeWay offered the second Girls’ Ministry Forum Feb. 25-26. About 300 women and girls attended, a 25 percent increase over last year’s forum.
Speakers and conference leaders included Sissy Goff and Melissa Trevathan from Daystar Counseling Ministries in Nashville; Emily Cole, Cindy Lumpkin and Gibbs from LifeWay; Jimmie Davis from First Baptist Church, Spartanburg, S.C.; Amy Pierson from Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Texas; Leslie Hudson from First Baptist Church, Dickson, Tenn.; and others. The Sonflowerz (sisters Elissa and Becca Leander from Colorado Springs, Colo.) led the music and worship times.
Jimmie Davis, considered by some as one of the pioneers in girls’ ministry, has been involved in girls’ ministry for more than 25 years.
“We, as women, have a responsibility to be involved in ministry to girls,” she said. “It’s unreasonable to expect men, no matter how well meaning, to do that.”
She said that while she knows it is not her job as girls’ ministry leader to be with every girl, it is her responsibility to see that every girl has a godly woman with whom she can have a relationship.
“Girls need the relationship with an older, godly woman,” Davis said. “They need to see women who have stood the test of time in their marriages, as mothers and as women of God. They need to see that it is possible to succeed in these areas.”
When ministering to girls, there will always be some drama, Davis said, but leaders can’t let themselves be sucked into that.
“It’s important that we put away our childish ways and put on the armor of God,” she said. “Girls and drama will always go together, but as women leading them in our churches, we have to help them learn to channel that emotional power in positive ways.”
Dealing with drama before it ever starts is the best way to keep from seeing issues escalate.
Gibbs said she was encouraged to see ministries specifically targeted to teenage girls as a growing trend in churches. “I see girls’ ministry at a place now where women’s ministry was 15 years ago. It’s growing.”
The next forum will be Feb. 24-25, 2012, at LifeWay in Nashville. – LifeWay