The mothers ministry at my church began back in 2016 when my oldest wasn’t yet a year old, and we’re now almost halfway into our 3rd year!
I previously wrote about starting a mothers ministry at my church here, and since then I also created a page to compile all the resources I’d been sharing on Instagram that proved to be encouraging to moms/leaders or helpful in planning some content. You can check that page out here.
Now that it’s been a well over a year since that first post on starting a mothers ministry (which was then a year into itself), I thought I’d fill you in on what we’ve been up to, what has been helpful, and what challenges we still face. At the end, please feel free to comment if you have anything to add, or have any questions. This is a safe place and I appreciate and welcome the input!
Meeting Space
Our church recently moved to a new campus, with newly renovated buildings and it feels like a fresh start. It’s been a long time coming, and it was not always an easy road, but it’s been a fruitful journey. Having this new space, customized for our needs (vs borrowed space in a movie theater or middle school), has been amazing for our meetings. We’re able to have the children in a room set up for them, with toys and chairs and snacks. This completely eliminates the need for me to set up and tear down so I’m able to get more out of our time together now that I’m not spending 30 mins on either end!
Childcare
I met with our executive pastor last fall (2018) and requested a budget, making us a bit more official. This was game changing, because not only am I not fronting the cost of coffee, fliers, etc, but part of our budget is also childcare. That has also helped with attendance, because now cost is no longer a barrier for moms! One of my connections at church put me in contact with two older ladies who work as childcare providers for one of the homeschooling networks in our area. Since they are available every other Friday during the school year, this was a literal answer to prayer and such a blessing to our ministry. These ladies are kind, love the kids, and treat this as a job: they are prompt, they communicate schedule changes weeks or months in advance so we can plan accordingly, they bring activities, and they help clean up. And, because they are the same two faces each time, they bring consistency and familiarity which helps the moms and the kids in their care feel comfortable and welcome. Most weeks, our childcare needs are kids 1-5 (younger babies are not required to stay with moms, but that’s how it’s worked out), unless the school age children are tracked out (if you’re not from our area, most public elementary schools in our district operate on a year-round calendar, so they’re in session for 9 weeks at a time and tracked out for 3, on a multi-track schedule year round). Our meetings are only 90 minutes, and right before lunch, so while it’s insanely helpful for us, it’s not a huge commitment to them. So far I’m loving this arrangement, and I’m praying it continues.
Ministry Goals
✔️Mentoring relationships & Spiritual growth for each of the mothers. Blessed friendships have absolutely come from this ministry and I am so grateful. I am continuing to pray for more mentors, more spiritual growth, and I’m confident the Lord will answer this prayer.
✔️ Gospel-centered parenting. This year we are going through the Risen Motherhood book. It’s 19 short chapters bringing gospel hope to the everyday moments, and it’s beautiful. There are discussion questions at the end of each chapter which are relevant even if some moms haven’t been able to read the chapter. Once we even did a round-robin reading of the chapter aloud and it only took 15 minutes! If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. My prayer is that this will guide us toward gospel-focused parenting for the things that bog us down in the daily grind.
✔️ Fellowship outside of our regular Friday meetings. This is a challenging one, but I’m keeping it as one of my goals!
✔️ Special events and speakers. Again, this is a challenge with scheduling and budgets, but there’s so much out there and I haven’t lost faith! Maybe this can be our 5-year goal: celebrate with a speaker or something!
That’s where we’re at so far. This update has been a long time coming, but I hope you enjoyed. Let me know what I might’ve missed in the comments!
The book looks great! I currently lead a MOPS group and am looking for something different next year. Do you simply have refreshments, read/discuss the book and pray? Any extras? Crafts? My hope and goal is to build deeper friendships and to grow deeper spiritually than what we are currently doing.
My old MOPS group did crafts and things, and we’ve tried that with our current group, but it’s only worked out on special occasions (we decorated mugs around Mother’s Day and Christmas, that kind of thing) because it just boils down to having too much for me to plan/execute. I definitely would be open to more of that sort of thing for the moms as we grow and our leadership team expands, but for right now the crafts for the kids are all planned/managed by the babysitters (and it’s all mostly coloring and songs anyway!) The refreshments have come and gone with the seasons. Starting at 10:30am and ending at 12 is weirdly between meals so I found most of our stuff was untouched, but we always have the option. I just hate wasting food!
I believe the Lord is leading me to start a new mother’s ministry in my community in Austin TX. I read your first post on how you started one and my heart is very similar to yours. Are you open to starting a chapter here or allowing others to use the name?
Hi, yay that is such great news! Gosh I’m so sorry I just now saw this. Three kids, and no brain cells. Pick whatever name you like, be creative! I live in NC so I can’t help you there but I’d definitely love to encourage you! Feel free to send me an email.
God has laid in my heart to start a mothers ministry and thank God he led me to your blog. Wow! I love your explanation on how you started yours. Welldone👍
It has inspired me so much that I willing to start by November. Thanks for sharing your story.
Please can I use the name “Mothers’ ministry”?
Thank you.
From Nigeria
Our church is looking to host a Moms group and I found your blog and it sounds like exactly what we are looking to start. My question is, what does one of your meetings look like? I see some things that you don’t typically incorporate, so I am just looking for ideas on how to fill the time.
Hi Natalie, I’m so sorry I’m just now responding. If you still have questions, feel free to email me and I’d love to share specifics back and forth! This ministry is close to my heart, but every set up looks different (and there’s no one right way to execute!). I’m no expert by any means but I would love to come alongside you any way that I can!