August 22, 2011 (Excerpt from the Women's Ministry Leader's Training Camp Series)

Playbook = a book that has all the plays that you use for your team, in one location

A playbook in football saves the coach a lot of time by recording favorite plays he uses a lot, by adding new things he’d like the team to try, and specific moves for various positions of the team.

In women’s ministry we need a playbook too. We need to be wise in our time by recording and gathering the moves or the events, activities, or Bible studies we know we’d like to use or try in our women’s ministry. A playbook can be very useful when it comes to women’s ministry leaders.

1.  Need a Method for our Playbook

The first thing we need to do to make our playbook is a method. You can keep all of your plays and information on the computer. You can copy things and print them out for file folders. You can copy things and print them out for a binder. Or you may like to just write things out and scrawl them down with plain old paper and ink.

My favorite way is basically all of those methods rolled into one. I keep some of my women’s ministry information in file folders. I keep some in a large binder. Other things I keep in smaller binders. Some information is in files on the computer. And yes, I do love my sticky notes for adding in hand-written things into my files and binder. All those bright little papers make me happy.

When I write out themes and devotionals or new pages to my website I do it all mostly by pen and ink and then type it. It’s just the way I like to work, so you will have to find your own method when it comes to putting together your playbook for women’s ministry. You may even end up trying several ways to try and keep your playbook before you find what is comfortable for you. There’s no right or wrong way.

2.  Put in Your Favorite Plays

Have information in your playbook of your favorite events and activities or copies of Bible studies that you know you will be using. If there are annual events your women’s ministry holds, each year should get easier by working through past mistakes and things that went great for you. Save that information so you know where to begin planning for the next annual event. Save information of who did what (who played what position) from previous years. Save things such as previous year’s schedule and program covers so you can cut down on starting from scratch and will also be able to improve from year to year.

3.  Put in Some Old Plays

There may be activities or events or certain types of Bible studies that you are not currently doing in your women’s ministry, but you have in past years. Keep that information in your playbook. You may want to go back to old plays from time to time.

Many times a church’s dynamics will grow and move around so you won’t have the same ladies or age group to work with as in the past. An old play might be just want you need to encourage your current group. Things change and so what might not have worked in the past, may work now.

4.  Put in Some New Plays to Try

If a team wants to win the football game, a coach has to change things up once in a while or the other team will know all their moves and what to expect. In women’s ministry we need to try new moves and plays once in a while to encourage and spark interest. Or we may need to try new things in order to improve how things are running. New moves may be required to spur your women’s group on to more godly living.

There are all kinds of reasons to try new things in women’s ministry. One basic one is that we don’t want our women’s ministry to be boring. When we do the same thing, hold the same events, and basically get our women’s ministry on a continuous cycle or repeating for too long of a time, then it goes to that boring level. We have to be aware that boredom can hurt our attendance and interest in the group. New plays have to be part of the game plan once in a while.

5.  Keep Statistics

Besides plays in our women’s ministry playbook, we will have statistics of the game. In football a coach keeps track of his team and how they will participate in the plays of the game.

We’ll need to keep track of attendance, budget, information about leadership teams and volunteers, reviews of events (what was the outcome, outreach?), and any information that will help us wisely put together the plays of the game or the agenda of our women’s ministry.

Conclusion

There are all types of places you can get information and plays from to put in your women’s ministry playbook. There are many sources on the internet. You may have previous experience that you can draw upon yourself or you may want to brainstorm with your women’s group to come up with things that would be suitable for your church ladies' group.

One thing that I do recommend is that you never put anything in your playbook that doesn’t align with the Bible or doesn’t align with your pastor and church leadership. There may be things you will need to get approved, such as special speakers and special music from outside your church. You may need to get approval of any purchased Bible studies or material that you choose to use. Be sure what guidelines you must follow before you add those things to your playbook.

As you go forward in your women’s ministry, you will find your playbook is a valuable tool.

Copyright ©2011 Julia Bettencourt

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