FENTON, MI – We often refer to God as our friend because we know that He wants what is best for us. We confide in Him because we trust Him. In return God wants us to become friends to others. Friendship can be defined as “knowing the heart of another and sharing one’s heart with another.” We share our hearts with those we trust, and trust those who care about us. We confide in our friends because we have confidence that they will use the information to help us, not harm us. They in turn confide in us for the same reason.
Good friendship involves walking with one another down some hard roads, losses, a bad diagnosis, financial problems and much more. We need friends to help us remember what God has done for us and that He will be faithful. In similar fashion, the vision for Women’s Ministry is to develop a caring network of women devoted to Christ, through significant and deepening relationships with one another. Building friendships is key to the success of this ministry.
A Christ-centered focus on spiritual encouragement and growth is also an essential component to women’s ministry. The framework is currently being laid to begin a high impact mentoring program statewide to provide training for any woman who is interested in developing their leadership skills. Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) continues to help create a wide spread mission concentration on meeting the needs of each other in all seasons of our lives, and of those in our community and around the world. Look for further information to be forthcoming.
Any programs or events in which we offer will most certainly change, grow or re-focus as God leads, and gives passion and mission to individuals & leaders. The event programs, retreats and trainings that we offer are basically about women playing their part in making a difference, by responding to the brokenness in our communities around the state. They’re about celebrating together a good, loving and faithful God who has a plan and a purpose for each of us in bringing transformation to the settings that he positions us in. So along with great worship, teaching and ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, we will reflect on lives that are being changed in very powerful ways.
To begin 2019, we are excited to be offering the following women’s events:
January 5th - Mosaic: Broken & Beautiful at Warren Woods Baptist Church
February 15th-17th - ARISE: Women’s Missions Retreat at Bambi Lake, Roscommon
April 6th - Women: Servants of God at Central Bible Church, Clinton Township
April 13th - Women’s Conference with Courtney Veasey at Faith Baptist Church, Battle Creek
April 26th-27th - Titus 2 – Multi Generational Retreat at Bambi Lake, Roscommon
May 17th-18th - The Gathering: DREAM at Legacy Church, Novi
Who does God want you to Friend request? Who can you invite to some of these events? Who will you walk beside in the next year to love and share Christ’s love with? Find a new Friend, you will be glad you did, because you will love harder, laugh louder, live richer and become more than you could ever be without them. It’s putting your heart and your name in the hands of another person and saying, "I trust you with all of this," as they do the same. Follow His lead.
For more information about BSCM Women's Ministry, contact wmu@bscm.org.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sue Hodnett is the Women's Ministries/WMU Director for the BSCM. She attends Lakepointe Church in Macomb, MI.