Girlsminister.com is celebrating it’s 5 year anniversary this month! To celebrate, we’ll be kicking out some of our earliest posts and also sprinkling in some new commentary that we’ve learned over our journey these last several years. It’s been a blast to get to meet people through the girlsminister.com network. (Shout out to Amy Pierson, who is now a dear friend that I met online. Who would’ve known that we would not only be fellow girls ministers, but we would get to journey together as new moms only weeks apart?!)

  I truly began this site as a resource and connection tool because I remembered my first day on the job and I didn’t have a girlsminister.com to go to.  I didn’t even have a list of girls ministers to reach out to!  So much has changed in my decade of serving as a girls minister and the biggest one is that THERE ARE GIRLS MINISTERS! The only big shift is, those girls ministers are reaching out and coming together to pray, resource, and encourage each other. There are now a host of other sites that are led by some of my personal friends. It’s great to have several places dedicated to helping those who minister to girls. I hope this little blog helps do that for someone out there. 

Well the first THROWBACK post is one of my earlier blogs.  It’s one of my “3 things you need to know” posts, and as I re-read it, I thought of those volunteers that are just getting plugged in to girls ministry and truly need to know these things.  For the veterans, I’m going to add one more bullet point. I’ll kick it out in this post and then you can jump to the link to re-read the 3 things I originally posted.  Thanks for reading and being on this journey of ministering to girls!

Original post: April 2009

3 THINGS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN MINISTERING TO GIRLS

I have a lot of lunches and coffees with adults who want to minister to teenaged girls. A lot of time, they haven’t thought through some important things before wanting to jump in. As a girls minister, I have to be protective of not only what curriculum comes through our doors into the lives of these girls but also who we are allowing to nurture, mentor and model Christ to these young ladies. As a result, I meet with each female leader that wants to be involved with the lives of girls. Here are 3 things I wish every person who wants to pour into girls lives would consider and think about before jumping in to serve:

1. What is my motivation to be involved with a teenaged girl or group of teenaged girls?

2. Am I willing to journey with a crockpot and leave the microwave?

3. Even Cyndi Lauper had to grow up—I know that “Girls just wanna have fun” but you will be having to model for teenaged girls not only how to have fun but what it looks like to be a Godly woman.

Click to read the whole article here

For the veterans, here is a thought I’ve had recently.  I’ve heard it said a lot about how “students need to be known”.  I think we’ve moved into an interesting time in social media that truly reveals how badly each person wants to be KNOWN.  As we minister to girls, it is going to be key to help them understand the difference between KNOWN and RENOWN. To be known, is to be “recognized, and familiar with”.  This speaks to our innate desire to be known by God.  We want to be known.  There is a switch though from wanting to be KNOWN…to wanting to be RENOWN.  Renown means famous.  I think we are living in a time where it’s not enough to be KNOWN…but there is a desire and push to be RENOWN. We have such outlets like social media that give students and really anyone, the impression that all it takes is just one TWEET or the perfect INSTAGRAM photo and VOILA…RENOWN.

So my addition to this article on the 3 things is to really challenge you as a girls minister to discover ways to help girls KNOW each other and push back against this RENOWN desire or entitlement push that is pervasive in our culture. Help girls celebrate community. Help girls understand that it’s only when their desire is to make HIM renown that they will experience that purpose they are pursuing.

Okay…that’s it for the new stuff.  Looking forward to continuing the conversation in 2013 with you!