I haven't been to the message board in a while and wow!, it's been changed. That's great!
For a refresher, I am a senior pastor's wife here in PA...loving my calling. I serve on our pastoral team and oversee various ministry leaders and mainly serve in heading up women's ministry, which I love. We have young children, so it's a balancing act!
I went to your church's website and took a peek at the women's ministry page. Can you explain what the Princess Luncheon outreach is about? This sounds wonderful!
The princess luncheon is our largest outreach of the year ~ what we put a bulk of our energies into. I named it such because the last few years, a message I preached, "God's Princess" really took off and seemed to resonate with a lot of women, and therefore, I decided to rename the outreach as such, but it just used to be "the June women's luncheon." Anyway, here's what we do...
Here I have 20 ladies hosting a table of 10 each...(themselves, and 9 friends ~ unchurched, is our goal) They deck out the tables in a certain theme...and bring everything for that table. Then, we also have the rest of the room decorated...it's very beautiful (there should be some photos of the luncheon on the web page, if not go to WM Help on the pastoring partners site and you will see some pictures from the luncheon and you can see a bit of the decor)
We have really good special music planned for the day, and I bring a message ~ something very powerful particularly geared for unchurched women. Last year we had 25 women saved. It was awesome!
The "finale" of the day is after our altar time...we open presents!!! I have a "prize team" who goes out all year and gets donations from businesses in the community. These can be things like hair & nail salons, overnight stays at hotels, dinners at restaurants, etc. They canvass for these gifts. Last year was my first year here at Northside (i've done this outreach for a long time in my previous church) but anyway, last year here at NS we had $15,000 worth of gifts that we gave away. It took us about an hour and a half at the finale to give it all away.
I've do have a training manual for both hostesses & prize team that I have created...and I could mail this to you for a small postage fee, but I have to be honest it would have to wait about a month...right now I'm in the throes of getting ready for our outreach which is June 5, and I leave this weekend to preach a conference. That's in addition to everything else I'm doing as a pastoring partner - the stuff we all do day to day. Let me know if you're interested in me sending it on to you at some point...
I would absolutely love to receive this training material! I can wait...no problem! I'm busy planning events too, so I wouldn't have time to read it. :o) I will email my address & information.
One more question: was it a problem for the women in your church or on your planning team to do the whole giving of gifts idea? To me it sounds awesome! I'm asking because for me it has been difficult in helping others understand that doing something like this is not wrong, but a way to serve. It's not all about just trying to lure women to events. At least that's what I think. Any tips on explaining this to people who are resistant? Many women I work with would feel that we keep the 'spiritual' things apart and not mix them.
I personally believe that anything I can do to lure women in...the more the better. I believe Jesus would want us to "lure people in" or whatever it took to reach them. ("i have become all things to all men so that I might win some...) I try everything I can possibly try to bring more ladies into our fellowship. Trust me, the gospel message is preached at these events...last year we had 25 saved. Although, I'd do it just to see one saved...in my opinion anything is worth getting a soul saved.
We put before our people the constant rally cry that we are here for souls -- that we exist as a soul saving station. It's all about keeping an outward focus. It's not a one time thing -- you have to constantly put this before the people. I am always talking to my ladies about bringing more ladies -- including, reaching out, it's all about loving people, not being in our "own little group."
I'll be praying that you can impart this to your women and start reaching out more...for His glory.
