I asked Martha Brooks, one of the leaders of the Women’s Ministry, to give an update and a preview into this upcoming season of women’s events.
Dear Cornerstone Family,
I’ve joked in the past about me always being up front, making the announcement, drumming up “business,” but in reality, the Women’s Ministry has an incredible team of women working behind the scenes—praying, planning, teaching—doing All The Things to push the women of Cornerstone towards Jesus. Two fairly new additions to the team are Rebecca Griffith and Rachel Taggart, who just happen to know each other from their “past” lives. They were an obvious choice to plug into Women’s Ministry somewhere, and Women’s Events fit the bill! In the church where they previously worshiped, they had an evening where they heard from other women within the body who could speak to a time when their life had a specific focus – a season, if you will.
It feels like our lives are a continuous changing of the seasons. We just get used to the way things are, and then suddenly everything is different again. When a change comes, our natural instinct is to go looking for someone who has been there and done that. Someone who can tell us the top ten tips and best books to read. Since the early 2000s, there has been a plethora of ways to get this information. We can just type “potty training” or “moving to Seattle” or “wrestling a python” into the google box, and literally millions of results pop up in seconds. Strangers who have been there, and done that, and are anxious to share their wisdom with the world via blog, Instagram, podcast, YouTube, and on and on.
Is this bad? Not really. Ten years ago, I needed all the best tips for potty training. Once I may/may not have asked the internet “What to do when your husband’s fantasy football league is making you crazy.” Recently my searches have been along the lines of “when is it wise for my teen to open a snapbook/facegram/tiktok/whatever account?” Sometimes I find exactly what I need, so, yay, Internet! But.
If you had asked my Grandmas for tips, they would have had a wealth of information to share, no google required. They worked at office jobs and reared families of five, had husbands who travelled, figured out how to make the ends meet, moved towns and started over. They both buried children, and one became a widow while she still had young kids. They could have written some blog posts sure to go viral with their titles: “How to have Five Children in Six Years and Remember All their Names” or “Disciplining Your Strong-Willed Son When He Abandons His Sister in a Rowboat in the Middle of the Bayou.” They had been there. They did that.
As I look around our church body, I see so many unique women in different stages of life, of multiple generations, doing life in all different ways. But one thing that I know is true about all these women: there are stories behind those faces. Every woman here has been there and done that for a particular season: had a marriage in crisis, cared for an elderly parent, been a full time CEO, been a full-time CEO of laundry, been sick, had a newborn, wished they had a newborn, known real fear, borne deep grief, grappled with disappointment. I want to hear from and be discipled by these women—the women in the Cornerstone church family.
Actually, that’s the way God designed it. We are each different parts of the same family, and we are each necessary (1 Corinthians 12). We are to teach the others in our midst who are coming along the path we’ve already travelled (Titus 2). And we are not to neglect meeting together (Hebrews 10:25). Facebook can be great, but let’s look into each other’s faces.
Join the Women’s Ministry as we embark on a season – a season where we share these “Seasons of Life.” Our first installment will be on the patio at Biscuit Love, October 22, at 6:30 p.m. We will enjoy sweet fellowship, drink coffee and eat desserts, and learn from women in our community who have been there and done that. We want to use these seasons for the glory of God—to use what God carried us through to encourage others in what they are walking through as we collectively strain forward to what lies ahead: the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Grace,
Martha Brooks