WOMEN’S MINISTRY IN THE CHURCH: Older women should impact next generation, ministry leaders say

By Tammi Reed Ledbetter
April 14, 2005
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Older women should impact next generation, ministry leaders say

“Things are desperately wrong in our world and if we don’t take action, who will?” SBTC Women’s Ministry consultant Shirley Moses asked as she challenged leaders in local churches to take responsibility to disciple the next generation of girls. “We’ve got to reach behind us for the next generation and bring them forward, helping them understand what the church is really supposed to be doing.”

Former feminist Vicky Courtney of Austin agrees. “The women’s movement has failed young girls. Our culture has failed them. They long for rest in their souls,” she said in an interview with LifeWay Christian Resources. “We have the answer. We know the way.”

The mother of three children and director of Virtuous Reality Ministries described her book, “Your Girl,” as a survival manual advocating Bible-based living as the key to effectively engaging the culture.

Courtney points to God’s word for answers to gossip, jealousy and peer pressure. “Great is the investment in teaching our daughters that the Bible is a revelation of God. The most important factor when it comes to raising daughters who love God’s word will be modeling that we, ourselves, love God’s word.”

Chapters in “Your Girl” include motherhood, modesty, countering the culture, teen views on sex and three detailed primers on using the Bible, prayer and faith to “arm our daughters for battle,” Courtney said.

Two other Texas women have developed resources for discipling teenage girls, including Merritt Johnson at LakePointe Church in Rockwall and Barbara McKinney at MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church in Irving.

McKinney coordinates the efforts of 20 women who mentor teenage girls.

“Using Scripture as the standard for how to live our lives, the program is designed to teach young girls how to properly dress and act,” she said.

With only a third of the girls coming from strong Christian homes, McKinney said many don’t know the concept of family. She takes one of the girls home with her every few weeks to share dinner with she and her husband. Another mentoring woman takes the girl she is guiding to see a movie each week. Another pair bake bread together.

“You want them to see how you live day-to-day life,” McKinney said. The goal is to teach young girls to get their self-esteem from who they are in Christ as opposed to who they are in the eyes of the world or more specifically, boys. The program teaches them the importance of prayer, Bible study and Scripture memorization and holds the girls and the women accountable to one another.

Moses has asked McKinney to write about her mentoring ideas for use at future SBTC women’s ministry events.

LifeWay Christian Resources also offers a four-week girls Bible study in its Vital Skills series, titled “How to Be a Godly Woman.”

“We’ve got to help the next generation understand about purity, loyalty, compassion and mercy,” Moses insisted. She said she can’t think of anyone better equipped to do this than spiritually mature wo</