Shannon Baker
New Orleans Seminary
Women who pour themselves out in prayer, personal testimony and in the investment
of relationships will be richly rewarded, speakers emphasized at this years
Womens Leadership Consultation in New Orleans. They also will impact others.
Women who pour themselves out in prayer, personal testimony and in the investment
of relationships will be richly rewarded, speakers emphasized at this years
Womens Leadership Consultation in New Orleans. They also will impact others.
“God is using women today to influence other women to
him,” said consultation Coordinator Rhonda Kelley, wife of New Orleans
Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelley and adjunct professor of
womens ministry.
“As examples of Christ, we can touch the lives of women
personally and biblically. … Christian women today have the opportunity to
influence generations through the power of prayer and one-to-one ministry.”
More than 200 women from New Orleans and other states attended
the recent annual consultation, held this year at New Orleans Seminary. The
theme was “Share Life – the life of a woman … poured out into others,”
related to the Titus 2 idea of equipping women to reach women.
Prayer is essential for women to know what Jesus wants them
to do with their lives, stressed Fern Nichols, founder and president of Moms
in Touch, International, a ministry uniting moms to meet for weekly prayer for
their children and schools.
God will instruct his children in the way they should go if
they keep their eyes focused on him, Nichols explained. If not, women will begin
comparing themselves to other women in ministry, she warned.
“Stay in the lane that God has for each of us. We need
to be rooting for each other and not putting each other down.
“Never, never, never put each other down,” Nichols
said. “Instead, pray. God will change your heart for that person. When
you start praying for her, there will be a change in you, not in her. Leave
her for Jesus to handle.”
Prayer is important for every ministry to survive, Nichols
noted. “Bathe everything you do in prayer,” she said.
Women who are ministry leaders must serve as prayer catalysts,
Nichols said. In addition to spending personal daily times and occasional extended
times of prayer, she suggested that women gather together to pray corporately
at least once a week. She encouraged women to have spontaneous times of prayer
and to have personal intercession teams as well.
“Prayer is the establishment of a vital contact between
the soul and God himself through the person of Jesus Christ,” Nichols emphasized.
“Why not pray?”
Nichols encouraged women not to get bogged down in the questions
of prayer to the point that they do not pray.
Nichols listed several questions that often distract the woman
who wants to pray – Do I have enough faith? Am I sure all my sins are confessed?
I havent really prayed in a long time; will God really listen to me? Is
it really Gods will?
“Oh my goodness, just pray!” Nichols urged. “Satan
wants to get us so confused, but God will help you work it through when you
start to pray.”
Nichols reminded women they must resolve to pray. “Even
when you dont feel like it, pray. Even when you dont understand
all that is involved, pray. Even when you dont see the consequences you
expect, pray.”
Nichols outlined seven key reasons for Christians to pray:
nBecause prayer brings God glory. The Bible says the
prayer of the upright pleases God – and every time prayer is answered,
God is glorified, Nichols explained.
nBecause Jesus commanded prayer. Even the prayers of
the most ignorant person has power, Nichols said, citing Jeremiah 3:33 in which
God commands his followers to call unto him and he will show them great and
mighty things.
nBecause prayer gives hope. In the book of Hebrews,
God says he rewards those who earnestly seek him, Nichols noted.
nTo have fellowship with God Almighty. “The sovereign
Lord and creator of this earth is our dad – and children naturally want
to talk to their dad,” Nichols related.
Jesus is asking if he can come in and have dinner with his
followers, she continued. “He wants to join us in our lives. He wants to
cradle me in his arms. Theres just something in my soul that compels me
to talk to him.”
nTo follow Christs example. What better model
and mentor for prayer is there than Jesus, Nichols asked.
nBecause prayer is vital to spiritual maturity. “You
become like the person you spend the most time with,” Nichols said.
nBecause prayer defeats Satan. “The greatest ploy
of Satan is to keep us so busy doing wonderful, godly things that we dont
spend time with God,” she said, using the circus hoop-spinning act as an
illustration. Christians run back and forth to keep all the hoops spinning and
end up being overwhelmed, she explained.
On the other hand, prayer will defeat Satans attempts
to distract Christians, she said. “The message is this: God hears our prayers,”
Nichols said. “They are power over Satan.
“(So) Why arent we praying?”
In addition, women were urged to engage in personal testimony,
sharing the gospel and themselves with others.
Janet Thompson emphasized that mentoring is one way of investing
ones life in another. Thompson is director of the “Woman to Woman”
mentoring ministry of Saddleback Valley Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif.
“Mentoring is simply teaching what somebody already has
taught you so you can help train the next generation,” said Thompson, author
of “Woman to Woman: How to Start, Grow and Maintain a Mentoring Ministry.”
Titus 2 instructs older women to train younger women, Thompson
pointed out, asking consultation participants if someone had taught them not
to slander or be a gossip or how to live a reverent life.
To those who raised their hands, she added: “Congratulations.
You are now all the older women. What are you to do?
Thompson urged the women to go and teach “what is good,”
as the Bible directs. “The younger generation wants us to be involved in
their lives. What they are asking is for us (spiritually more mature women)
to walk alongside of them and to gently guide them and to gently lead them.”
Thompson stressed the importance of passing on the love of
Jesus to the next generation by citing how the church of Ephesus lost its first
love. Like women in ministry today, the church was so busy doing the work of
the church, they forgot the reason for the church – to love Jesus Christ,
she said.
If women who are more spiritually mature do not teach the younger
women how to love Jesus, then they also will forget, Thompson emphasized.
Jesus did not save people so they would grow more mature, she
continued. “He saved us so that we would reach out and touch somebody else
and they would learn to touch somebody else so the kingdom would grow.”
(BP)