Dear Grace Family,
I was catching up with Charlotte Taylor on Tuesday about her time at a recent women’s ministry conference put on by our denomination. One of the tools she was given was the “women’s ministry diagnostic tool” which includes a set of 11 questions to help evaluate the health of women’s ministry in a particular church. Well, I immediately read the questions and was struck by the fact that if we replace the word “women” with “me” or “my friends and family,” these questions also help us evaluate both the health of Grace Pres as a whole, and the health of our individual commitment to the Lord. Furthermore, I think they serve as a great follow up to my busyness word from last week’s newsletter. If we need help figuring out what needs to stay in our lives and what needs to go, these questions can help us arrive at a conclusion. Take a look and spend some time coming up with the answers. I would even suggest making them visible at your house and consulting them often. It might not be pretty, but it’ll be beneficial!
1. Why are we doing this?
2. How will this glorify God by reflecting His character?
3. What is this teaching women about the Biblical perspective of my calling in life?
4. What is the teaching women about living covenantally and reflecting grace to one
another?
5. Does this activity or task flow from Scripture?
6. How will this build community among women?
7. How will it build community with other members, age groups, and ministries of
the church, presbytery, and denomination?
8. How does this extend the boundaries of the community to enfold those outside
the church?
9. How does this demonstrate the compassion of Jesus?
10. Will what we do and how we do it give life to our church or suck life from it?
11. How are we showing our answers to the above questions to participants in the
ministry so they understand why we do what we do?
Humbly yours,
Seth