March 2015

I have been going through the different types of excuses regarding women when it comes to women's ministry. On this page I will be covering those conflict excuses. As I have said before, I feel that understanding each type of excuse is important to our leaders when it comes understanding the daily issues in their women's lives.

Conflict Excuses

Conflict Excuses are those relating to conflicts and obligations that women may have in place that causes them to miss meetings and events. They may have standing meeting times of their own that are in conflict to the women’s ministry meeting and activity times.

These ladies may have children involved in activities such as band, Girl Scouts, FFA, or school related events that cause them to miss the women’s ministry activities.

These ladies may have night classes, community projects, book club meetings, and other obligations that they will attend other than a women's ministry meeting. Don't get discouraged about it. Just remember these activities are a part of these women's lives. These are the things that are important to them as people. Never dismiss what people think is important even if you don't think it is. It is important to them.

These are the type of excuses that leave little control in a leader’s hands. It is easy to just ignore these ladies with conflict issues, but don’t just leave it alone. Even though you may not be able to change schedules and circumstances, you can handle it well.

Look for these type of excuses as opportunities to share by conversation with these women what they missed out on at the women's ministry meetings and activities that these women couldn't attend. Share what devotional topics they missed that spoke to you, what activities and events that blessed you. Share little tidbits about those moments with these ladies. If you have handouts, make sure these ladies receive them.

If the excuses are children and activity related, ask questions about those children. Ask how they are doing. Be specific by naming the children and specific about whatever they are involved in doing whether it is music, ballet, sports, cheerleading, or whatever kept that mom busy.

Ask questions about that woman's activity or obligation that kept her away from the women's ministry function. Ask her how her function went. Ask her specifics and show interest in what they are interested in regarding their activities. After all, it's part of their life we are talking about here. Showing interest is a way of getting to know someone better.

Sometimes when you show that you care about someone and what they or their children are interested in, it can encourage them. Even if you don’t agree that they should miss the women’s ministry activities because of certain conflicts, you have no control over it, so just be nice about it. Be interested in these ladies interests. You never know how much a little care and concern can help someone.

Also, when you keep these ladies up to date with what is going on in the women’s ministry activities and events that they miss, it just might encourage them to check it out for themselves.

Copyright ©2015 Julia Bettencourt

Find all parts to this series in the Dealing with Excuses Index.

See more along this line in the Setbacks and Growth Index.

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