The Executive Committee of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina (BSCNC) received a report at their May meeting concerning a new women ministry. The following is the report as presented on the convention website.
Phyllis Foy, Chair of the Women’s Ministry Task Force reported that they had made significant progress in shaping the overall direction of the ministry. The desire of the group has been to re-shape women’s ministry into a work where local churches would be empowered to build strong families capable of creating a legacy of faithfulness throughout their entire lifetime and beyond through faithful service in their roles as wives, mothers, and servants of the church of Jesus Christ. The name of the new ministry is Embrace: North Carolina Baptist Women’s Missions and Ministries. The task force has finalized their mission statement: Embrace
Foy explained that the focus of the ministry seeks to restore to the church of Christ a passionate commitment to the home and the well being of families as the biblical center of training and involvement in missions. “Families should not be separated when missions is at the heart of a home,” Foy said. “Our hope is that entire families might be able to participate together in mission projects which would bring honor to Christ and his church.” The task force will continue to work in preparation of a final report to be presented to messengers of the 178th annual session of the BSCNC. God’s call to minister to women, their families and future generations for the building up of the church. They identified three key goals for the ministry and completed an initial action plan for the first two years of the ministry. The ministry goals: 1) Engage women with the gospel of Jesus Christ; 2) Educate women to daily study and apply God’s Word in their lives; 3) Equip women to do kingdom work through service locally and globally.
It seems that there is some discrepency as to the recognition from the national WMU in releasing promotional material for our International and North American missions offering. In the latest meeting there was a letter presented to the EC that was addressed to Mrs. Foy from WMU Executive Director-Treasurer Wanda Lee to Phyllis Foy, who leads the North Carolina woman’s ministry task force. It clearly indicated that WMU would provide mission education materials through channels other than the state WMU. However, Mrs. Ruby Fulbright acknowledged that only educational materials will be given, but promotional materials for the International and the North American missions offering will only be distributed through the NC WMU organization. It is a shame, as it appears, that missions promotional material will be held hostage.
Also, I would encourage you to make plans now for the Women’s Prayer Evangelism Conference. (Click on the picture on the left to enlarge) There will be multiple Breakout session throughout Friday and Saturday. The following Breakout session will inform and inspire women as the groudwork is laid for this alternative women’s ministry. There may be some that are WMU Trublue but that is ok. From what I understand about this ministry they are not competing against WMU but merely offerring an alternative to WMU. This alternative is for those ladies that desire to make an impact through missions and ministries but feel the WMU has left them. If that is how you feel, you will not want to miss the following Breakout session. It appears there will be two times and I assume that the same material will be discussed at each session. You can download a complete schedule of the Breakout Sessions.
Embrace Women’s Missions & Ministry
Room: Spilman 2AB
Time: Friday, 9:00-10:00pmSaturday, 8:45-9:45am
This session is an overview of Embrace, a new ministry for women of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. We will share our philosophy of ministry, details of immediate plans and the vision for the future. This ministry provides a support system for women whose desire it is to be involved in women’s missions and ministries for the building up of the local church and the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ, teaching women to create a legacy of faithfulness.
