A/G women seize new ministry opportunities

By Darla Knoth (2/29/04)

As Leslie Callaway looked across her church’s congregation on a Sunday morning, she realized many of the women were lonely and battling the impersonal nature of today’s culture. She wanted to give these women a sense of being loved. When she unofficially polled about 250 women in the church she discovered few experienced close relationships. In 2001, Callaway launched Mon Ami: A Gracious Fare, a ministry to women at First Assembly of God in Rensselaer, Ind., where her husband, Mark, is pastor.

“Our mission is to provide women a means of growth in the Lord by participating in ever-increasing circles of encouragement and outreach,” Callaway says. Mon Ami, which means “my friend” in French, is a ministry to communicate friendship. Any woman of the church who has been trained to participate finds another woman who needs encouragement and takes a formal tea party to that woman’s home. The woman being ministered to becomes a guest in her own home.

During the 45-minute tea, the woman ministering brings a decorated basket filled with a china tea set, tablecloth, tea and delicacies, packed in a sturdy basket. “Mon Ami depends on women who desire a means of expressing God’s love in an understandable way,” Callaway says.

The Mon Ami ministry is growing, including more women and making a noticeable difference in the women of the church. The atmosphere of the church has changed as women have built closer relationships with each other.

The ministry has expanded to include an outreach to career women built around a 45-minute lunch fellowship. Another new part of the ministry, targeting moms, includes serving a child-friendly tea. Each child is given a small paper bag decorated to look like a gift, containing treats and an inexpensive toy.

“The goal is to provide fellowship time by adjusting to the needs of women,” Callaway says. “Women are learning to be hospitable rather than entertaining.” The Mon Ami ministry has produced a ministry manual and training video to assist other churches in establishing the ministry. Mon Ami also reaches non-Christians, as women can present the gospel during the tea.

Bonnie Erikson of Peoples Church in Salem, Ore., has found another way to minister to women and build relationships. She began with a Seasoned Women’s Spa Day, in which 50 widows from the church attended.

“I wanted to give these women a time to be ministered to personally,” Erikson says. With the help of 40 volunteers, she set up the church activity center with stations for various spa treatments, including massage therapy, manicures, pedicures, facials, a color analyst and hairstylists. Fifty women participated in the first event.

Women from Church on the Hill in Vallejo, Calif., conduct an outreach to help meet physical and spiritual needs. Last year, 70 women and 60 girls from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, lifestyles and cultures were encouraged.

The church chooses women and girls from area churches, homeless shelters, safe houses and domestic violence groups, as well as single moms or schoolteachers to become “queen for a day.” Each “queen” is matched with a volunteer who meets with her prior to the event to get acquainted and shop for a new outfit for the chosen woman to wear the event day. Then the women are treated to a makeover, a catered luncheon and gift presentation. Girls are treated similarly with the addition of workshops addressing issues such as abstinence, self-esteem and peer pressure.

As Women’s Ministries director of Clinton Valley A/G in Clinton Township, Mich., Dawn McReynolds began mentoring women in the church. But last year she established the Aurora Women’s Center in Harper Woods, Mich., as an interdenominational center to make differences in women’s lives. Participants set six-month goals and take classes toward those goals.

“We believe that Jesus Christ showed us the perfect example to follow in changing people’s lives,” says McReynolds, who now attends Troy (Mich.) A/G, which also helps to provide mentors for the center.

Barnabas Connection, the in-house mentoring system, asks Christian women from the community to become mentors for women in the program. Clients undergo an intake and goal-setting process with the program director and the director of mentoring services. Next, a carefully chosen mentor who has been in a similar situation to the client leads the client through the program. Mentors will meet with clients at least once a month to go over the client’s action plan and to see how well the client is doing in her classes or where she needs help.

The Women’s Center facility can take eight women at a time in biblically based workshops each lasting 90 minutes, and offers up to 10 workshops per day. Teachers are volunteers from area churches, and subjects are divided into courses on such topics as relationships, self-esteem, résumé building, data entry, office relationships and skills, interview techniques, dressing for success, basic English and grammar skills, and a state-required finance course. The clients also can access a food pantry and receive four business suits after graduating from the center. All programs are free.

Once clients graduate from Barnabas Connection, the Aurora Women’s Center helps them determine readiness to attend Henry Ford Community College for free general equivalency diploma classes or college-level classes at the University of Michigan-Dearborn site. Clients can attend the university, which usually costs $15,000 per semester, for only $200 including books.

Another part of the program, Touch With Hope, is directed to single moms who want to save money toward down payment on a house, a small business purchase or to attend college. Touch With Hope is part of a ministry initiated by the national Women’s Ministries Department, in cooperation with Convoy of Hope. Through Aurora Women’s Center’s Touch With Hope program, clients attend church with their assigned mentor.

“We must be relevant to those we want to reach,” says Arlene Allen, national Women’s Ministries director. “Every born-again woman should have at least one ministry of serving others.”