Flyer ready to print

Why am I always surprised by how long it takes to get something like a flyer ready to print? It seems it should be a simple job, but getting all the relevant information together, presenting it so that it makes sense (let alone is attractive!) and then getting rid of all the little typos …
At last the Flourish brochure is ready to go to print. It is going to be a great conference. I am confident that the main speakers (David Jones and Douglas Milne) will do a terrific job. The workshops all look absorbing (the brochure can only list a sample of the workshops). We are also planning some extended interviews with women who have fascinating stories. There is already plenty of interest in Flourish and we are looking forward to that building over the next few months. Keep an eye out for a print brochure in the next few weeks. If you want an electronic version let us know.

Flourish workshops

The WMPCA committee is working on Flourish for July and talking to people about doing workshops. There are heaps for great topics that are worth looking at and so many gifted people who can deal with them. The 'trick' is getting the right topics for the right people who are available for Flourish! It is great hearing the enthusiasm of presenters we've approached. When you ask someone about a topic and they come back with "this is such an important topic and I'd love to do it. You should know that I am quite opinionated about this!" - you've probably asked the right person.

It will be a few weeks before we can give the list of workshop topics and presenters. As a teaser, here are some of the topics we are talking people to. We are looking for topics on some of the key areas of church life and ministry, personal and life issues for women and church leadership and women's ministry. The workshops will probably have more interesting titles than these!

Evangelism
Small churches
One to one
Connecting with young women
Encouragement
Peacemakers
ESL
Developing ministry through PWA
Seniors ministry
Kid’s ministry
Music
Connecting with global mission
Disability ministry
Social Media
Craft Ministry
Counselling Women
Women's Bible Studies
Ministry to women in difficult marriages and in divorce
Hospitality
Writing
Health and Beauty
Marriage
Making decisions about work and ministry
Success in life and ministry
Keep growing
Infertility – treatment etc
Finances
Intergenerational women’s ministry
Teaching complementarianism
Teaching the Bible to women
Leadership style and structures
Training women
Consultancies
Multicultural Ministry
Building a women's ministry
Bridges between Leadership and Women's Ministry
Building a Mercy ministry

Consultation

It happened and it all ran well!

We had about 50 people together for a day at the PCNSW Church Offices in Sydney. The aim was to hear about what's happening in womens' ministry around the PCA and collect ideas for Flourish. It turned out that the day was also a taster for what we can expect at Flourish.

David Jones gave a wonderful study from Romans 16. He talked about the women who were part of Paul's ministry circle and are mentioned in that chapter. But his big point was not about women, but about God's people working together for the sake of the kingdom.

We then heard from each state about some of the recent developments in womens' ministry. Three points came through very clearly: each state is quite different in structures and issues; there is growing momentum in the four eastern states (and the ACT), and SA and WA where the Presbyterian church is small women's ministry has less energy. If was great for all of us to hear about what it happening in each state and the challenges.

Carmelina Read gave a great overview of what she thinks are the current developments and challenges in women's ministry. She talked about a growing desire among Christian women for serious Bible teaching and training - and a trend away from big events as a focus of ministry in churches , finding ways for women to train, helping men and women work together in staff teams and the need for an emphasis on all-member ministry for women (and men). All of this left us with lots of think and talk about.

I gave a summary of some of the theological debates about women and church life . I might give a longer version of that in another post.

We divided the consultation into groups and a committee member in each group listened as people talked about their concerns and insights and what they'd like covered at Flourish. We ended with a wide ranging list with lots of stimulating ideas.

The day finished with prayer.

Now the committee is sorting through all those ideas and working on a program and publicity for Flourish.

More news soon.

Flourish - 5 days to go

It's five days till Flourish starts and the conference looks exciting. We've got almost 190 people registered (I think it will go over that by the time we tidy up the details this evening). When we started planning for Flourish we thought it would be great if we could get 150 people, so the response has been bigger than we'd even hoped for. There are people coming from churches in every state of Australia and a mix of men and women and people from a range of age groups. It is going to be great to see them all together, and even more exciting to hear the conversations and ideas that come from the conference.

The Flourish committee meets by phone tonight to put the finishing touches on the preparation. Pray that things will go smoothly and that we will think of all the details that need to be covered so the conference runs smoothly. Pray also that the conference will be encouraging for all who come and that different perspectives on how we apply the Bible's teaching on men and women will be stimulating and not a cause of difficulty.

Flourish

I just discovered that I am signed up on this blog, so I thought I'd make a post!

The Flourish conference is coming together well, thanks to all the hard work of the committee and Gillian. Hopefully our brochures will be ready to go in the next few weeks and we can start sending them round.

In the meantime we'd love to hear from anyone (specially in the PC Australia) who has comments, resources or questions on women's ministry. Drop a note to us by email or add a comment here and get involved in the discussion.