One of the hardest things to do these days is to get women, especially young women, involved in programs at your church. The fast pace of life makes time a very precious thing – not to be used for things that aren’t important. What is important? God, family, friends, work, and time to relax and have fun. There is not enough time to do it all, so women must pick choose the most valuable use of their time. To get women involved, then, we must prove that what we do is a valuable use of time – more worth doing than a lot of other things. We must accommodate them. If they can’t come to meetings because they have children, can we provide childcare? Better yet, can we involve their entire family in our activities? Some options and ideas to consider are below. The key is to evaluate the needs of your women and find ways to make missions fit into their lives!
Involve whole families in projects. Don’t take away family time! Incorporate it!- Consider alternative ways of meeting.
o Try having meetings during lunch times. Provide lunch to allow working women and women whose children go to daycare to come, meet and eat at the same time without taking them away from other things too much.
- Provide childcare if it is needed during projects and meetings.
- Provide younger groups and their leaders ways to be involved with older groups.
o Try having meetings during lunch times. Provide lunch to allow working women and women whose children go to daycare to come, meet, and eat at the same time without taking them away from other things too much.
- Promote the fellowship aspect of meetings and projects and build relationships.
o Consider having a Sunday lunch social after the worship service or a Wednesday night ice cream party, etc. when people are already at the church.
o Meals are especially great ways to fellowship – people have to eat! It also gives them a break from cooking and planning menus. You’ll be surprised at the response when someone says, “Anyone want to go to Wendy’s?”
- Incorporate Women’s Ministry aspects and use them to market the organization. Everyone can use some friends for fun, fellowship, support and encouragement.
- Always remember: once you can get someone to participate in a project, they will come back for more. Do whatever it takes to get them there the first time. Don’t forget to follow-up with them to maintain relationships.
- Offer a variety of project opportunities. People have unique likes and dislikes!
- Teach people how to plan, organize and do projects.
- Connect resources. Some people have money and no time; some people have time and no money!
- Have consistent, caring and capable leadership.
- Let young women lead at times. They are not your future; they are a part of your now!
It is important for WMU to be seen as a group of ACTION inside and outside the church walls.- Teach what missions is and explain the difference between missions and ministry.
- Promote, promote, promote. Don’t let anyone in the church be able to not know what their church’s WMU does. Flyers, blurbs about activities during service times, and joint events with other groups in the church are some ways to get attention.
- Use technology to your advantage! Consider online meetings via chat rooms; or consider communication via email or a website.
o Email can be used to discuss ideas and distribute newsletters or just basic information easily. It allows people to find out what they need to know on their own time – avoiding conflicts in schedules and avoiding a sense that people sometimes get that they went to a meeting that wasn’t worthwhile.
o Chat rooms allow people to stay home – saving them the time it takes to get ready, travel, and meet as well as eliminating the need for childcare.
o Yahoo! offers easy ways to communicate using the internet and email. www.yahoogroups.com is an incredible resource. This site enables you to have an “online community”.
o Some people are curious, but they are not curious enough to go to a meeting. Email gives them a chance to “check it out” to see if they’re interested without going out of their way.