Real Women Real Leaders: The Podcast Series

Delores Harris, director of the Biblical Counseling classes at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon, didn't consider herself a mentor until I contacted her asking if she would do an episode on mentoring for us. Everyone who knows Delores considers what she does as mentoring, but she hadn't thought of it in those terms until we began our conversations about this episode. Why hadn't Delores thought of it as mentoring? I believe it's because she sees what she does as relationship-building and discipleship. And it was through our conversations that I believe both Delores and I came to a greater understanding that Christian mentoring is just that--building a trusting, healthy relationship, and discipling.

Delores offers some wonderful insights into Christian mentoring from the points of view of both mentors and mentees in this episode. If your interest is piqued after listening, you will find many excellent resources on the topic available from a variety of sources. Simply type the term "Christian mentoring" into your favorite search engine.

Minister Carole Moore, former member of AB Women's Ministries executive committee, retired from her teaching career a year early in order to follow God's call to professional ministry and enter seminary. Now, having recently graduated, she has established a new grief ministry in the congregation in which she is serving.

In this episode, Minister Moore shares with us a little bit about her experience of God's call to professional ministry, especially via her background in women's ministries. She also talks with us about what led her to engage in grief ministry and the shape that it takes in her congregation.

If you would like more information on "Friends Helping Friends," Minister Moore's grief ministry, please contact the office of AB Women's Ministries at info@abwministries.org, or by calling 1-800-222-3872, ext. 2288.

In this last part of a three-part series, we're once again joined by popular Bible study leader and speaker Jan DeWitt. Jan is no stranger to fear! In the prior two episodes, Jan talked about being ready to wait on the Lord, then how to know when it is time to act. Here, she addresses the fact that often what prevents us from acting is our own fear. Drawing on her own experiences and scriptural insights, Jan provides encouragement and challenge to move beyond what blocks us from full commitment to God's will.

In this second part of a three-part series, Jan DeWitt discusses how to know when it's time to stop waiting and start doing. Following up on the previous episode about waiting on the Lord, Jan shares wisdom from her own life experiences about when God pushes us up to the edge and helps us to fly.

 

Jan DeWitt is a very popular speaker in the world of American Baptist Women's Ministries and beyond. She draws upon her experiences and her love of learning to help bring life to the Scriptures, helping us see more clearly how God's Word and our own situations intersect. Jan was planning to speak at the Northern California American Baptist Women's Ministries spring event when an unexpected knee surgery derailed her plans. Instead, she is sharing her planned messages with us in the next three episodes of the Real Women Real Leaders podcast series. So now women all over the country, not just in Northern California, can share in the experience!

This first episode in the series is entitled "Waiting on the Lord". Hear Jan's compassionate understanding of how difficult it is to wait, and to face our own fears, as God stretches us through our experiences.

Some hate business meetings and try to do anything they can to avoid them, some seem to think they should be the central core of a women's ministry program. In this episode, we discuss the pitfalls of various ways of approaching business meetings and some ideas for how business can be handled more effectively and creatively.

Internet resources on creative meetings:

"26 Ways to Make Meetings More Fun (and Productive": http://www.charliehawkins.com/articles/MakeMeetingsMoreFun.html

"Making Meetings Fun": http://www.getinvolved.wustl.edu/leadership/dictionary/MakingMeetingsFun.pdf

EffectiveMeetings.com (website devoted to helping you make meetings more effective--here are a couple of highlights)

Make Meetings Fun: http://www.effectivemeetings.com/meetingplanning/fun/meetinglite.asp

To Meet or Not to Meet: http://www.effectivemeetings.com/meetingbasics/tomeet.asp

Dawn Doerr, former national coordinator of AB GIRLS with American Baptist Women's Ministries, recently began work with the Girl Scouts USA in Iowa in a program with girls in detention centers. The girls that Dawn works with have been adjudicated into the Girl Scout program--they come from troubled backgrounds and enter the program with a variety of attitudes. Dawn shares with us her experiences in this ministry as well as makes connections to ministry with girls in the local church.

For more information about the Girl Scouts Beyond Bars and the Girl Scouting in Detention Centers programs, visit http://www.girlscouts.org/program/program_opportunities/community/gsbb.asp.

For more information about AB GIRLS, visit http://www.abwministries.org/girls

For more information about the new G.I.R.L.S. program resource  mentioned at the end of this episode, visit http://www.abwministries.org/store/product.cfm?pID=174 (see "Related Items" for links to Volume 1.)

It's spring--the perfect time of year to start thinking about summer--which is the perfect time of year to start thinking about the next program year!

This episode of our podcast series is full of encouragement and ideas about how to host a planning retreat with your leadership team. Setting a time apart to listen to God and seek God's will for your ministry is key to having an effective ministry. Listen in for some ideas on how to go about holding a meaningful and productive day-long retreat for envisioning the year ahead.

We could all use a little more help in achieving the ministry goals to which God has called us...but sometimes recruiting volunteers can be a difficult and painful process! What we may not realize is that there's a possibility...just a small one...that the way we're going about inviting people to help out might be working against us. It's easy to get caught up in the task of needing to find volunteers and forget about the fact that the people we're asking have some needs as well.

I confess--I haven't always done the best job at inviting folks to volunteer and the results often show that. But when I follow the "best practices" shared in this podcast, I have remarkably better success. Additionally, I've been on the receiving end of some not-so-effective attempts to invite me to volunteer for things--some of which I agreed to anyway and was later sorry that I had, others that I turned down almost as soon as the words were out of the person's mouth--for reasons that I explain in this podcast. On the more positive side, I've had other wonderful experiences as a volunteer that taught me quite a bit as well.

In this episode, I'm going to share with you some tips, tricks, and admittedly a few pet peeves that I've gleaned from years of experience as both an askee and an asker!

Annie Dieselberg and her husband Jeff are missionaries with American Baptist Churches USA, serving in Bangkok, Thailand. Annie serves with NightLight Ministries and NightLight Design Co., Ltd., a business-as-mission that helps women and girls find healing, dignity, and self-worth through employment in the jewelry trade. This episode is excerpts from our conversation with Annie when we visited NightLight during our trip to Thailand in February (see previous show notes).

AB Women's Ministries 3-year national mission focus on sex trafficking, Break the Chains: Slavery in the 21st Century, seeks to raise awareness and help fund ministries which serve women and girls coming out of a life of prostitution or those who are at risk for sexual exploitation. For more information, visit www.abwmbreakthechains.org.

For more information about NightLight Ministries and NightLight Design Co., Ltd., visit www.nightlightbangkok.com.

If you're interested in learning more about American Baptist missionaries overseas, visit www.internationalministries.org. For information about American Baptist home missions, visit www.nationalministries.org.