We just finished the womens leadership forum in Nashville at Lifeway and it was awesome to meet so many of you who do the work of the ministry at the local church. I loved getting to talk with you and hearing your stories! Thanks so much for sharing and being so fun…this is one of my favorite things to do each year because I get to make so many new friends:)

Weren’t the speakers fantastic this year???? I thought Priscilla’s message was right on and then Mary Kassian brought such a powerful message that I am still trying to process some of that! I also thought David’s message this morning was awesome because it was so specific and practical–they were all just what I needed to hear…

I absolutely love doing breakout sessions and this year the group in the Testing 1-2-3 was so much fun. I hope that the info we covered was helpful and I hate that I felt like we ran out of time:( I really had a few more things to say and wanted to give a little more encouragement to each of you so if any of you read this then let me know and I will share with you a couple of resources that might be helpful!!!

blessings all,
rachel

The sermon series at our church right now is Confession. I have really gotten alot out of each week and the main thing that keeps convicting me is how much I agree with God about my sin. You see, to confess means to say the same thing about or to agree. That is stepping all over my toes because so many times I return to my sin because it does something for me or because I like it, in other words I don’t truly agree with God about it or I would be disgusted and avoid it.

My favorite analogy about this concept has to do with something that I really hate-onions. I don’t like them at all and so therefore I avoid them at all costs. I don’t buy them, order them in my food or keep them handy in my fridge. It’s my prayer that God will help me to feel the same way about my sin as He does and to avoid it at all costs (like I do onions).

When I can agree with God about the sin in my life then I can experience true confession and begin to live life in freedom.

well it took something really noteworthy to get me back on this blog. I have actually been very busy with some projects and writing on the blog we have set up for the book which is www.inourshoesthestudy.wordpress.com or maybe that is backwards but you can find it there.

Anyway, the thing that has gotten me back onto this blog is two-fold. One, my daughter kelsey has written for a blog that I’m impressed with and you can find that blog entry at http://josiahroad.com/blog/entry/key-chain-servant/…she went with me when i was speaking at a church in Kentucky this past weekend and the ladies just loved her. They also bought some keychains so she is much closer to getting that orphanage built in Haiti!

The second motivation for me is all that God is doing in some other areas of my life. Jennifer and I have gotten some invitations to come and share in relation to the Bible Study that came out this year and we are so excited about that. Tomorrow, Thursday Sept 17, we are doing a radio interview with Marnie Swedberg on blogtalk radio, so please pray for us and listen in if you want to:) you can find it online at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MarniesFriends/2009/09/17/Marnies-Friends and it is live at 3 eastern time….

In these tough economic times many churches and ministries are tempted to scale back on planning events so that it won’t put any added burden on women who are struggling to make ends meet. The problem is that this is exactly the time when we need to gather for fellowship and encouragement. Here is a “Top 10″ list that can help women’s leaders plan more effective events that are perfect for this tough economy.
1. Use your own members: Organize an event that uses your own members as the leaders. You can find different women who have specialities and have them lead small groups or you may have someone who would be able to teach a large group time. Look around and see who has a story to tell that others can relate to and go from there. You may want to gather several women and hold a panel discussion on a specific topic. be creative and allow God to direct you to the right women.
2. Reinvent the covered dish: Most often the cost of an event is largely tied up in the food. Keep costs down by either asking everyone to bring a dish to share or enlist a team of women to organize the different dishes you want to offer and let them designate who brings what. You could decide on a theme and plan the food around that.
3. Network with Other Churches: Find some other churches in your area and share or trade Bible Study materials with them. Your church could buy one study and theirs a different one then after you finish, trade studies.
4. Plan 1 night events: Schedule your next event on an evening so that your costs can stay low. You even start a little later so that everyone has dinner before arriving then offer a dessert fellowship after the program.
5. Serve Others: Remember that if the economic crisis has hit you hard then it has devastated many others. Organize your women to focus on helping others. Service projects are a great way to build strong bonds and show people the love of Jesus in a practical way. The bonus is that your struggles tend to diminish in the face of what others may be dealing with.
6. Start a Support Group: Offer the opportunity for women who have lost their jobs or who’s husbands have lost their jobs to gather for support and encouragement. Let your community know it is available and you may be surprised at the outreach it can become.
7. Get Out of the Church: Take your Bible Studies out of the church and hold them in different homes in the community so that people don’t have to spend much time or money on gas to be involved.
8. Decorate for Less: Womens’ events always have the issue of decorating. Go old school and use things you already have at the church or enlist different women to hostess each table and make decorating her table part of her duties.
9. Simplicity and Relevance: Don’t ignore the issues that people are dealing with but rather plan a event to specifically address them. Make it a brown bag night or just very simple in all details. Offer topics such as how to dress, dine, decorate on a budget. Consider inviting a financial specialist to speak on practical advice in troubling times.
10. See the big Picture: Plan your events to coincide with other large gatherings like just after church or when the youth or children are already doing something. Take the stress off of women who are worried about being all things to all people and who feel guilty for taking time out for themselves.
These are just a few ideas. Whatever you decide to do, don’t give up on ministry. Women need encouragement and support more now than ever before.
Rachel Lovingood is an author and speaker who also serves as a Women’s Ministry Trainer for Lifeway Christian Resources. She is married to a minister, has three kids and wrote “In Our Shoes”, a Bible Study for ministers’ wives which just released in February 2009. You can find out more details about Rachel’s ministry and speaking schedule at http://www.rachellovingood.com or her blog at http://inourshoesthestudy.wordpress.com/

I am so excited and I hope you know that Beth Moore is holding a Living Proof Live here in Nashville for Minsters’ Wives only. It is in March and I just know it will be such a powerful time of teaching and encouraging.

She did one like this a couple of years ago and it was awesome. If you are in ministry you should definitely do all you can to be there. Just go to lifeway.com/women and you can find it under events for ministers’ wives.
Hope to see you there!!!!

I had the privilege of spending several days this week at the Women’s Ministry Natl Leadership Forum down at Lifeway and it was awesome. I absolutely love seeing women from all over the country who have a passion to serve the Lord and to reach and teach women how to know Him and love Him better.

Chris Adams and her team do such a great job with the whole thing. One aspect that I totally enjoy is getting to see people that I have met over the years from various churches and states..it’s like a really fun family reunion of sorts..(without weird aunt Myrtle who always says something embarrassing)..its really just a bunch of women who love Jesus and its great…

I also had a wonderful time meeting with other ministers wives who were there and we had a breakout session together…what an encouragement to have some time with other ladies who are walking in the same shoes as I am…

I talked to several people who are also on facebook and i thought it might be fun to have a group so we can all keep in touch …if you are on facebook, or if not sign up, you can go to my page and join the Forum Friends group so we can all continue to chat and encourage one another:)

I have to admit that I love football. There is nothing funner(not a real word but i like it) than watching football and eating all those favorite finger foods. At our house we all have certain of these foods that we like best and on good weekends I fix them all and the people just come in and out eating and visiting and cheering for whoever is playing at the time.

Today was especially fun because it is so fallish and I absolutely love having the windows open and getting that fall air. We were a bit disappointed (to say the least) in UT today but liking that new quarterback better anyway so maybe the season will get better. Sometimes it’s hard to be a fan but we still love the big ORANGE. We did our fair share of cheering for the commodores today also…very fun win for them and they are going to kill the vols:(

I’m so thankful for days like this where we get to enjoy our family and all the friends who come by. Something about fall just feels more relaxed and I’m all about that for sure…could be that I slept so late today but whatever:)

Do you ever have those times when there is so much on your mind that you really can’t write about anything? I realize this wouldn’t be a problem for many of you highly experienced bloggers but that is exactly where i am right now so when i can get things all worked out i will share something:)

Do you ever have those times where you feel like God has so much to say and you are just trying not to miss any of it? Lately, i am being challenged on so many levels but the most current one is in light of David’s sermon series “The Harvest”. How many times have i heard a sermon on evangelism? (zillions) and i’m always convicted to pray for the lost and to seek to build relationships with people who need to know Christ, and that’s a good thing, but something is a little different this time and i think it has to do with my personal efforts in evangelism.

Some people have evangelism as a spiritual gift, like Jeff, and not me, but that is not a reason to cop out when it comes to witnessing. We are all called to “go and make disciples” and there is really no excuse for not doing that. I have been guilty of coasting by on Jeff’s evangelistic coattails and making myself feel better by remembering that someone has to be doing the other things, and so on, but really i think i have overlooked so many opportunities to share or i have glossed over things by pointing out that i can witness by my lifestyle and thorugh my actions and i can pray for people …all true…but really, does anything take the place of just flat out asking someone where they stand with the Lord?

So many of us in the church (me included) spend much of our time learning more about the Word and studying it (and that’s good) but if we, me, tend to overlook having ‘those’ conversations with people then we are in danger of being ‘hearers and not doers’.

If you read this and feel the urge to reassure me that i have done a good job as jeff’s helpmate and that the gospel has been furthered because of things i have done, don’t. I needed the challenge that He has given and me, and maybe you do to, there is no reason why i shouldn’t be actively, verbally, consciously, constantly telling people about Jesus and inviting them to know Him too.

The times are getting desperate and people are buying more and more into the teachings of this world and its prince, we as believers need to be more and more intentional about sharing our faith and realizing that ‘the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few’…there is nothing like that feeling of being there when someone asks Jesus to save them….join me in asking God to give opportunities to share….its no time for slackers!

especially if you are a complete idiot like i obviously am (grin)…okay so this is what happened and I am soooo sorry for anyone who checked my blog and saw those pictures (if you didn’t then don’t ask) …i decided to start adding pictures to my blog because i have been hearing from people i haven’t seen in a while and i know that love to see other people’s family pics…and that’s where it gets interesting…

i organized some pics from our spring break trip to the beach and was going to put them as a slideshow and thought i needed to use flickr so i added that to my site but then couldn’t (i know how hard can it be?) figure out how to get the pictures uploaded so i left it and thought i would just call my online advisor, please take my call carrie, and worry about it all later…

today’s been a busy day and i never got around to even going online because i had to sub at the high school…i ran home and fixed dinner then headed to the Y to a spin class, feeling pretty good about all i had accomplished..then trish texted me while i was spinning sweating and trying to figure out the words to the songs that were playing…her text said something like “lol i just saw your blog and the picture of the naked pregnant lady beside the picture of satan was interesting”…now, i can’t get to a computer and trish is always busting my chops about something so i text back “ha ha” she replies “not kidding you have a flickr and pictures are popping up”

imagine with me my thoughts and feelings at that moment…by the way did i mention that i was also working on memorizing 1 Tim 4:7-8 “spend your time and energy on spiritual fitness. physical exercise is of some value but spiritual exercise is more important for it promises a reward both in this life and the one to come” (hey i did that from memory so i guess something good happened in spin!)

i couldn’t do anything but laugh…i bet the other people in there wondered what i was doing because we are dying to climb a hill and i’m laughing …but what else can you do???

anyway…got that off as soon as i got home and cracked up with trish who assured me that she only called as many people as she could to tell them to go see the pictures on rachels blog (with friends like that…) and she also said that if they had been really bad she would have called and gotten my password—hopefully that won’t be an issue anymore…i think i have learned my lesson…don’t try new things online till you know what they are and what they do when you aren’t looking

again –if any of you saw those please forgive me and watch out for real pictures coming soon