Microwave vs. Crockpot Ministry

Girls ministry blogs are popping up all over the place these days! I am so excited to see the excitement.  I remember my first days on the job and I would have paid a ton of money to someone who was doing girls ministry professionally to come and hang out with me.  There were just two or three of us that I knew of in those days.  

I never would have thought that I would ever be able to say the following phrase:  I am just now beginning my 14th year as a full-time girls minister.  And while I appreciate the “atta girl” I give myself when I say that, I know that there were a lot of days in between of those years that I wanted to quit.  There were a lot of days in between those years that I felt inadequate and still do. There were a lot of days in between of those years that I wondered when God would pick me to move to “greener pastures” like it seemed my co-workers or other girls ministry colleagues got to do. But it’s days like today when I receive a text from a now adult former student who only just recently became a Christ-follower that I truly know why I get to celebrate my beginning of my 14th year as a full-time girls minister. I get a chance to see layers upon layers of spiritual seeds be watered, grown, and then harvested and then…this is the cool part I wasn’t even ready for: I get to see girls now grown up into young women turning around and planting seeds!  

I know this is how disciple making happens– over time. But if we’re really honest, most of us want to see microwave ministry.  Girls Ministry is not a microwave.  Sometimes God allows us to see quick results, but I’m telling you as hard as it is to wait for the “crockpot” moments…the wait is worth it!  God’s glory is all over it!  And those moments often times don’t get seen when we jump all over the place.  We need a new generation of women to commit to staying in the lives of these girls and families.  What would it look like if you stayed committed to journeying with a group of girls until they grow up, get jobs, have families of their own and begin leading their own groups of girls?  This was how it looked in Titus 2! Communities were much more tight knit!  Girls didn’t just see the young college aged girls. They saw all ages of women and learned how to live in all ages and stages to glorify God.

When I first started as a girls minister, I remember getting in trouble at a school lunch by the principal for wearing a hat, because he mistook me for a student.  I actually was able to sneak into a few highschool year books because I looked just like a student.  Guess what…those days have passed.  I’m in a new season as a girls minister.  But this season is giving me such a sweet joy as I get to see girls I poured my life into and prayed over, begin to enter into their season of being a girls minister to girls.  

So while I see all these new blogs, I am excited, but I also want to say this:  Don’t sprint. Prepare for a marathon.  Prepare for a ministry that will last a lifetime in the same place.  God may move you on to other things. That’s okay!  Just lay the groundwork for a legacy that brings glory to Him and not a microwave ministry that brings shallow results.  

Here are a few ways to work towards a “crockpot” ministry:

1. Intentionality:  Fun stuff is fun.  Just make sure you have an intentional strategy to disciple girls.  Are you using a shotgun approach where you hope you hit the target sometime or are you clearly laying out the direction you are leading girls as they dig into God’s word on a yearly basis.  Take the time to do this. If you need help, please contact us, we have resources to help you know how to begin to do this for your girls.
2. Catalyst vs Entertainment:  I realized at one point that I was spending a lot of resources (money and time) to put together fun events that only a handful of girls were attending. Don’t try to fill up your calendar with events. This will wear you out and burn you up.  Think strategically. How can each thing you host be a catalyst to move your girls further down the line.  
3. PRAY:  I cannot say enough about this.  You only have so much strength, so much wisdom, and so much personality.  You aren’t going to stay in the trenches for very long if you pray a little a week.  Get a team of prayers around you. There will be days you won’t be able to pray. That’s when you call on your team of prayer warriors.  You will be attacked spiritually.  You have to have people that are praying on your behalf.  And YOU need to take days where you are not able to be reached and you are able to acknowledge that you are not the messiah.  If you fail to spend time praying and talking to Jesus about the girls and families you are ministering to, you begin to forget who it is that can SAVE and TRANSFORM the hearts of these girls.  You are not God.  You need to have a scheduled time each month to remind yourself all day to, “Be still and know that (He) is God.”