The State Convention of Baptists in Indiana (SCBI) partners with churches to discover and fulfill their next steps. Part of that strategy includes curating environments and resources in a specific ministry area where it will serve all our churches. Women’s ministry is one of those areas. With recent restructuring of our organization’s budget and staffing, we lost a dedicated staff person to lead in these cooperative efforts for women.

This change naturally raises the question of how the SCBI will serve churches in women’s ministry going forward. I am answering that question in this article.

Leadership

We are developing an SCBI Women’s Ministry Team made up of ladies from around the state who have experience in many different areas of ministry, like evangelism, leadership, missions education, and more. We believe this team of ladies will help empower and mobilize the women in SCBI churches to serve in the ministry to which God has called them. The SCBI will encourage and equip the Women’s Ministry Team as they continually serve Hoosier ladies by connecting with women all over the state, listening to and serving their needs, and gathering in various contexts and special events.

Transformed Women’s Retreat

We are looking forward to continuing the Transformed Women’s Retreat. It will look different but will still be strong. The Women’s Ministry Team will perpetuate the momentum this event has had to continue making it a helpful and desired event for ladies throughout Indiana.

Wives in Ministry

Our focus on wives in ministry will continue. This ministry is for a woman whose husband is in a ministry staff position, or for a woman who is in a ministry staff position herself in one of our churches.

The annual Wives in Ministry Retreat will be held in September this year and several touchpoints continue throughout the year to support these ladies.

The Wives in Ministry Road Trips have been, and will continue to be, a huge success as ladies go on outings together to connect through a fun activity and a meal.

The Wives in Ministry private Facebook group has been a great source of encouragement, venting frustrations, sharing resources, and prayer (at least that’s what I hear; they won’t let me in…). Many pastors’ wives do not have safe areas to talk freely about what they’re experiencing and how they’re doing, and I’m glad we can provide that continuous support through this Facebook group.

We reserved four tables for the SBC Ministers’ Wives Luncheon at the SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans. All four tables are full, meaning that 32 Indiana Ministry Wives will be encouraged as they sit together and are blessed by the program there! 

WMU Partnership

Our partnership with the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) is already strong, and we’ll continue to value the input and assistance of the WMU officers. WMU is its own auxiliary organization who loves the Great Commission enough to partner with state conventions. WMU helps us promote missions offerings (Lottie Moon, Annie Armstrong, and the State Missions Offering), equips our churches with missions education materials (and more opportunities), and allows the SCBI to be a sponsor of their Missions Lifeline event.

The WMU team is currently planning Missions Lifeline for Saturday, August 12, at Calvary Baptist Church in Seymour. Big announcement: missionaries Nik and Ruth Ripken will be there to serve Indiana Baptists. This event is not just for women—send your church members to ignite a missions fire in them!

We’re grateful for women’s ministry leaders and initiatives in churches, and we are excited to partner with you as we’re connecting for Kingdom advancement!