WeConnect

WeConnect: A New Ministry for Young Women

Women’s ministry leaders in New England have observed that in recent years, women in their 20s and 30s are less likely to engage in Christian community than in years past. This observation has been confirmed by studies conducted by Barna Group, which found that 59% of young adults who grew up in Christian churches end up walking away from their faith and/or the organized church within their first 10 years of adulthood. In just the last decade, the number of unchurched Gen Z and millennials has increased from 44% to 52% and the gap is continuing to widen.

The need is great.

We at By Design Ministries feel a burden to reach these young women who feel disconnected from the church and from God. To that end, we are launching a new program called “WeConnect” that would help young women connect with God, the church, and each other. We want to see a new breed of young women leaders in the church who are passionate about bringing other women along to grow together in a vital and mature relationship with Jesus Christ.

In the first phase of the project we sought to discover young women’s personal reasons for disengaging with the church and to find out their needs and concerns. This phase involved research, developing a list of contacts in this age group, interviews, and surveys. The second phase involved collating/distilling the findings and then sharing the information with Christian leaders for the purpose of building a team of leaders who are interested in reaching out to this age group. The third phase will be the development of the plan and curriculum for this program.

Based on the findings regarding the program offerings that would meet the needs of the women, events could include small “Connect” groups, opportunities to serve and reach out to the local community, retreats, and an annual conference.

We hope to initiate a pattern so that once these young women are mentored and trained, they in turn will mentor and train women younger than themselves and be better equipped to reach their peers for Christ.

We at By Design Ministries care deeply about these young women, and we want them to have a real, vital, growing, loving relationship with God. We see God moving, and we are excited to be involved with Him in His work!

If you, too, are passionate about young women reconnecting with God and with the church, we want to invite you to get involved!

We’d love to have you help with the practical tasks of administrative work, networking, hosting, advising, and other areas. If you have a heart to serve, we need you!

This is the hard part. Wouldn’t it be great if finances were never a concern? However, with any ministry venture comes expenses. Maybe God is calling you to invest in eternal things by sharing the financial blessings that He has given to you. A monthly commitment (large or small!) or even a one-time gift would be much appreciated and would go far in this Kingdom work. It’s easy to donate online at our “Give” page. (And remember that any gift to By Design Ministries is tax deductible.)

Committing to pray regularly for By Design Ministries and WeConnect is perhaps the greatest gift you can give. If you would like to partner with us in this way, please contact us and we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop!

If you’d like to receive monthly updates on how the WeConnect ministry is coming along, let us know and we’ll add you to the list. You can also visit our update archives.

Thank you for caring about the spiritual health of this younger generation. We love them, too. We are excited to be embarking on this new facet of ministry, and we can’t wait to see what God is going to do!