Designed by God for a Purpose
Our Mission
Christ's Church women are courageous women on a journey together
to seek Christ's purpose for life and to thrive in His intentional design for them.
In women’s ministry, we believe what the Word of God teaches: God has appointed gifted men to teach what is in accord with sound doctrine (Titus 1) and to proclaim God’s Word to the church. Our first and highest priority is to encourage our women to make it their first and highest priority to listen to and receive with joy God’s Word that is proclaimed each week in the pulpit ministry of the Word by our pastors and then to encourage one another to be women of the Word by being in God’s Word daily.
Our mandate and mission is based on the instruction found in Titus 2 that says:
“Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled” (Titus 2:3-5.)
We believe and remind our women that a healthy church is like the one Paul describes in Titus—pastors teach sound doctrine and older women teach younger women how to live according to that sound doctrine.
It has been said that “a pastor cannot do our part any more than we are called to do his part.” A pastor must teach sound doctrine and the whole counsel of God. We are then called to help other women live accordingly. In our discipleship training, Bob Kellemen has explained that we have the privilege and beauty of taking the public ministry of the Word to press the truths of that doctrine into one another’s lives— the personal ministry of the Word.
Destructive Consequences
Since the beginning of time, all the way back to Genesis, the enemy has been out to target and distort the Word of God. By enticing a woman with the promise that she could have more, she was deceived with the lie that what God had provided was not enough. These distortions and enticements are the same today as they were back in the garden. Consider this example of our culture saying this to women in this quote from a book that was number one on the best seller list:
“Girls, you come first and your happiness depends on you. You are meant to be the hero of your own story, you and only you are ultimately responsible for who you become and how happy you are. You should be the very first of your priorities. Never give up on your dreams or take no for an answer. So, if your husband or unplanned pregnancy gets in your way, it is good and noble to eliminate whatever gets in your way of that dream…” (Girl, Wash Your Face, Rachel Hollis).
The destructive consequences of this can be seen everywhere. This is in sharp contrast to Matthew 16:24 where Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Remnants of this distorted thinking are everywhere in the Christian culture though maybe not as obvious in Bible churches. Women are being bombarded with the message that self-love, personal comfort, and pursuing your dreams matter most…a very different picture than the Proverbs 31 woman.
Although we believe our ministry to women is more than Titus 2, we believe that one of our highest aims is seen in the reason given there—that we would be women whose lives would not revile the Word of God.
Our lives should show forth the beauty and power of the gospel. In all of our lives, in whatever our calling, married or single, we should be devoted to the glory of God. The fullness of God should overflow in our hearts and in our daily acts of love so that people might see our good works and glorify our father in Heaven.
Personal Ministry of the Word
Pressing the truths of sound doctrine of the public ministry into one another’s lives comes in many forms through various ministries. It may look something like this:
Helping our young girls to remember their identity is in Christ. We want to help them understand that you will never find your worth in social media likes, through endless attempts to enhance your appearance, or through relationship after relationship with boys in a constant attempt to find affirmation and acceptance. Her strength and dignity would be her clothing. Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain.
Helping a woman to suffer well in the midst of illness or to persevere in the midst difficult circumstances.
Encouraging one another to open our mouths with wisdom and with the teaching of kindness always to be on our tongues.
Helping one another to learn more about what it looks like to love our neighbors passionately. We could hold our arms out to the lonely as we see the Proverbs 31 woman reaching her arms to the needy. Perhaps we could help a single mom with childcare or open our homes up to neighborhood children. We could stand courageously for Christ in our schools or workplaces or wherever God has called us.
Helping a woman navigate through discontentment and discouragement when her marriage is not how she had dreamed.
There is great controversy in today’s Christian community on whether women should share public pulpit ministry of the Word. I often hear, “It’s time for women to have a voice.” I hope that the examples I have shared will encourage women to see that God has given them abundant opportunities to have a voice in their lives with one another. These opportunities given to women as outlined in Scripture are abundantly enough.