For more than a year, I’ve been dreaming of renaming our Women’s Ministry. 
Growing up in the church and being around a lot of different “women’s ministries,” it became easy for me to stereotype and label them as sterile, unwelcoming, cheesy, cliquey, or shallow. This didn’t hinder my attendance to events or studies, but sadly it did mean I walked in with a guard up.
My desire for a new name for our ministry began with a prayer for my own heart, for the Lord to rewire in me the natural pushback that is rooted in my own insecurity, for Him to soften the stereotypes that often get paired with women’s ministries.
So in asking for a new name, I was also asking for the Lord to breathe new life into this space so it can invite us all into something personal, authentic, and full of freedom to live as we are, where we are, and how we are.
With that said, after prayer and time, our new name is: Renewal: Ministry to Women at Pulpit Rock.
The word Renewal, according to Webster Dictionary, is the process of renewing, to make like new and strong again, to restore to freshness and vigor.
We are able to see the heart of this word in the book of Romans 12:2,
“Do not be conformed to this world (or the pattern of this world), but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (ESV)
I love how it’s said in The Message version,
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Gosh, isn’t that language beautiful?
Place everything before God as an offering.
Embrace what God has for you.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you get lost in it.
Fix your attention on God instead of fixing ourselves alone.
God brings the best out of you.
With everything in me, I believe this is God’s word for us as His daughters here at Pulpit Rock. This is a place to come find daily renewal. This is a place to find women in process, women who have different values and passions, and women who desperately (as much as we don’t want to admit) want and need an authentic and welcoming community.
You’re all invited to this renewal journey!
Let’s restore one another to freshness and strength and lets readily recognize what God wants and quickly respond so He can continue bringing the best out of us.
