With more demands on their time now than ever, the women in your church are very busy. This phenomenon is not particularly new, but the pressures demanding women’s time and attention seem to increase daily. Many women balance not only the load of motherhood, marriage, housework, meal preparations, and grocery shopping but also the stress of career expectations, children’s extracurricular activities, and volunteering within their communities.

As a church leader, you may know how much is expected of them and want to equip them to face these responsibilities. You know the foundation of their lives must be a renewing and restorative relationship with Jesus Christ. You also know that the community of their local church can support them well. But when so much is vying for their attention, how can women find the time to dedicate to spiritual growth and ministry within the church?

To reach, encourage, and engage women with the ministry of your church, leaders must develop a discipleship-focused, relationship-based ministry for women. What does this look like? Here are five practical steps you can take to help cultivate this type of ministry for the women of your church.

To reach, encourage, and engage women with the ministry of your church, leaders must develop a discipleship-focused, relationship-based ministry for women. What does this look like? Here are five practical steps you can take to help cultivate this type of ministry for the women of your church.

5 Steps Toward Impactful Women's Ministry

1. Don’t overcomplicate it. 

Simple ministry is just as impactful. Your church may not have a large budget, but do not let that stop you from investing in your women’s ministry. Women don’t need grand events or expensive luncheons to connect. They’re really good at connecting if just given the time for uninterrupted conversation!

Give them the gift of time to develop friendships and direct their focus to gospel-centered discussions. Impactful ministry can be as simple as a Bible study at a coffee shop, a girls' night in someone’s home, or a dessert social. Don’t try to overplan or overfill women’s time. Just let them talk and find ways to direct the conversations toward what the Lord is doing in their lives.

2. Make it a team ministry.

People work well in a team, and women appreciate having others to do life and ministry alongside them. Find several ladies who are excited to work together to invest in the other women in your church. When women minister together as a team, they’re growing together and having fun. All ministers are better together.

As Hebrews 10:24 so aptly reminds us, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds...” Team ministry naturally encourages partnership within the leadership of your church.

3. Keep the ministry discipleship-centered rather than event-based.

When time is of the essence, it can be tempting to make events the feature of your women’s ministry instead of weekly groups. Events only require a few hours of time to attend, and it feels like the busy women in your church are more likely to commit to something one time.

However, a commitment of time is often better because it means more. Jesus called us to make disciples, and relationships built around disciple-making encourage growth and spiritual maturity with lasting effects. Teach women in your church to be disciples while making disciples. Let this be the philosophy upon which to build this ministry.

Events can be very successful to encourage women and introduce them to your church’s women’s ministry, but they often fall short of being able to deepen and sustain growth and community among women in the church. Instead, Bible study, prayer, and Gospel-centered conversations must be foundational ministry components for every ministry in your church. Then, your special events can draw upon the relational depth and spiritual enthusiasm that come from making disciples.

 4. Teach women to study the Bible.

Studying is the main obstacle I hear from women who want to grow in their walk with God. Women know they need to spend time in God’s Word, but sitting down to read it on their own might confuse them. They feel dependent on someone with more experience and education to explain the Bible to them, which creates an unhealthy dependency on others' wisdom to interact well with God’s Word.  Many women just don’t know where to begin in trying to understand the truth of God’s Word on their own.

Individual Bible study is one of the basic elements of making disciples and, therefore, should be one of our basic focuses for our women’s ministries. If you do one thing for the women of your church, teach them how to study God’s Word.

5. Teach women to teach others to study the Bible.

But don’t stop at individual Bible study. Teach women to teach others to study Scripture. If you haven’t noticed, women are influencers, no matter their vocation or responsibilities. Whether teachers, corporate executives, managers, administrators, or stay-at-home moms, women's lives are examples to others.

The women in your church are poised to make a distinct impact on the spread of the gospel message within their spheres of influence. Can you imagine what would happen if every church properly equipped and encouraged women to teach the Bible to their people?

One of the most powerful elements of discipleship is when you see disciple-making disciples at work. Teach and encourage them to teach others in their homes, churches, workplaces, and neighborhoods to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Tim. 3:15) and see what God does to multiply the work of the church.

Investing in your women’s ministry isn’t about resources as much as intentionally directing women in your church toward disciple-making and relationship-building. Titus 2:3 puts this into perspective beautifully, “Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live… to teach what is good.”

As women work out their faith in a gospel-centered community focused on living for the Lord, they teach others what is good and beneficial for spiritual maturity, personal sanctification, and building up the kingdom of God. Encourage and equip women to develop Christ-centered relationships, study God’s word, and train others to do the same. It’s that simple and impactful. And God will do the rest.

Melody Brackett provides general administrative support to the staff as well as helping with communications. She has served in vocational ministry as both a worship leader and women’s ministry leader for over a decade and holds a Masters of Church Music degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She ministers alongside her husband, Zach, the pastor of LifeBrook Church in Houston, and their three kids.

Photo by Alexandra Fuller on Unsplash