Blog
Can You Spare a Cup? (Partnering in Kingdom Work)
Serving is a little sweeter with by design ministries. Support is a little closer, community a little tighter, and growing a little easier.And that’s why we exist. For you. For the sake of the Kingdom.
Every Day, by design
I was scrolling through Facebook but I wasn’t really seeing the screen. My mind was fully occupied by a problem for which there seemed to be no solution. I was busy envisioning various scenarios and playing out conversations in my head when something caught my eye. It was a quote from one of by design’s recent blog posts.
Zoom Lemonade
Online workshops always sounded like a good idea. It made sense for by design to share the training and resources that had previously only been available to women in New England, and we loved the idea of being able to expand our ministry around the world. But oh boy, it sure felt like a daunting task. With our staff already working crazy hours and our resources stretched to the limit, it just didn’t feel possible. So we put it off. For years. And then the pandemic hit.
Let Me Pray for You
We’re continuing our series with more of the information that came out of the Organic Mentoring Conference panel discussions. This post focuses on the question, "If you’re mentored by an older woman, what would make it work well, and conversely, what might hurt the relationship?"
Qualities of A Mentor
As mentioned in the last WeConnect Update, during the next few months I’ll be covering some of the information that came out of the Organic Mentoring Conference panel discussions. This month's featured questions: What qualities do you admire in older women? What would you look for in a mentor?
Life is Different Now
The interviews I’ve been conducting have indicated that young women who had a spiritual mentor during their teen or young adult years tended to retain their faith. This month's question: How is your generation different from your parents’ generation?
Leaving Church
Who is leaving the church? How does that differ from leaving the faith? What is their background? What are some of the factors that contribute to their choice to jettison the faith in which they were raised? These are some of the questions that we need to ask if we are to stem the flow of millennials leaving the church.
Communicate Jesus Better
Right or wrong, the term “Evangelical” has come to be associated with hate, intolerance, and power-mongering. How did this happen, and how should we respond?
Millennial Magnet
These are just a few of the comments that are representative of the whole. Again and again, the common denominator of what attracted a millennial to a particular church was seeing biblical truth and faith being lived out in their spiritual community and specifically, seeing God’s love active and alive within the people in their church.
Pursued By God
I know that many of you are praying wholeheartedly as you wait and hope for a young woman to return to the faith. Perhaps she’s your daughter, or a niece; a friend or former classmate. I hope you’ll feel freed and encouraged by this truth: it’s not up to us. We’re not going to win them with convincing arguments or good books or cajoling. But God, through the Holy Spirit, will win them with his love, in his timing.
The Season of Decision
Nearly every young woman that I have interviewed had a Season of Decision.Every one of the interviewees was raised in the faith. While they were growing up, most of them accepted their parents’ faith by default. Many of these women professed faith in Christ during those years, but I discovered that nearly all of them...
The Missing Relationship
During the interview process I am discovering that for many of the young women who left the faith, their experience growing up in the church never focused on a relationship with God. Despite the fact that many of the churches were Bible-believing and teaching churches, there was a disconnect.
Challenged to Ask Hard Questions
During the interviews I’m discovering that those who were encouraged, not just allowed, to think critically about their faith during their teenage years were more likely to stay in the faith. The key here, I think, is the word encouraged. Many of those who claim a vital relationship with God were, at some point, challenged by an adult to ask hard questions about God and faith. For example:
Keep Hoping, Keep Praying, Keep Loving
The interview process is in full swing at WeConnect, and we are gathering some great information and discovering some surprising trends. Perhaps you, like me, assumed that many of those who jettisoned their faith and left the church did so because they were unhappy/angry with the church or with people in the church. Our interviews are showing that