Friday, April 10, 2009

interdenominational group for wives of ministers


So, being new to the whole "my husband is a full time minister" thing I have been in great need of some mentoring. I have so many questions about so many things and so many burdens to get off of my shoulders by sharing them with other ministers' wives.  

For the past 2 months I have been in the non stop thinking mode of "wouldn't it be nice to have a ministers' wives only club."  An all exclusive club for those strong women who so often times work tiresly behind the scenes with little to no recognition. Those women who feel they have no one to confide in for fear of their dirty laundry being spread out all over town. If your the wife of a minster you know what I mean.

About two weeks ago, after some deep prayer, I decided to pick up the oh so lovely Western Recorder (a baptist newspaper) that was lying on the table beside the couch. Roger, gets them in every so often and most of the time I throw them away before ever thumbing through them. However, for some reason, you could say it was God, I do, I thumbed through it that day. The first article that I came across was about a conference that was held for ministers' wives intitled "Between Us".  WOW!!! I got very excited, perked up and read through the article. The two women that held the conference were fellow ministers' wives who had gotten together to write a devotional book for ministers' wives intitled "In Our Shoes."  

The authors Jennifer Landrith and Rachel Lovingood "categorize minister's wife's into four descriptions"
  • A Specific Calling The women felt a clear, distinct call to ministry 
  • A General Calling:  The woman felt called to serve but didn't know specifically in what capacity

  • An Unexpected Calling: The woman was surprised by the call to ministry. maybe she married an accountant that later became a pastor. 
 
  • An Impersonal Calling: The woman sees the ministry as their husbands job. Often they resist the concept of partnering with their husbands in ministry.

After reading about this book and their categories I decided to research it a bit and ultimatly decided to BUY the darn thing.  The week before I actually bought the book I had decided that it would be a great tool to use during the "minister's wife's only meetings."  To my surprise, upon receiving the book from my lovely husband who made a random trip to the book store for me, I found a leaders guide section in the back of the book. The authors had placed that section in the book for those minister's wife's, like myself that had a yearning to start a group but had no clue about how to go about starting one.  AWESOME.  

But, I am a little freaked out. I kinda feel like Moses here "But Lord I stutter."  Of course I don't stutter but I am young and new to the ministry. I have the fear that the wives of ministers who have been in the ministry for 15 to 25 years will look at me and be like "what does she think she is doing.?"  So, I have wrestled with this and prayed a lot about it. But I have such a strong conviction that I just can't not do it because of my fear. 

My next step is to contact the wives that live in the community and have an informational meeting about the group. I want this to be a group in which everyone is a leader. I'm pretty excited!!!  So, well, here I go out to start an exclusive interdenominational group for wives of ministers.
 
Let's all pray :)

2 comments:

  1. It is SO important to have someone to encourage you and mentor you, even if it is in an informal way. I have 2 minister's wives who I consider mentors, although they probably don't know it. They have shared encouragement and wisdom with me over the years.

    I am trying to figure out what category I fit into. I think I started out in Unexpected, then I moved into Specific, and now I am probably in General...can't really say more about that without sharing way too much on the internet:) Some days I dream about being Impersonal-haha.

    Best wishes & blessings!

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  2. In the book the authors talked about those who fit into the impersonal feel like they have been invited to a bachelor party. Ha Ha. I sometimes would like to feel impersonal as well

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