I know you all have been on the edge of your seats to see this series come to a final conclusion. Me too. 🙂

Today we finish it up and look at the third question in our series. If you have missed the other parts, you can check them out here: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. We began by looking at who our people are in part 1, then we headed into the task of answering three questions. Those questions are:

1. What is happening in women’s military ministry with regard to Chaplains, Chapels, and PWOC? Churches? Para-Church organizations? Women’s networks?

2. How is the military changing with regard to women and what adjustments need to be made in women’s ministry?

3. How can all these ministries work together?
In this episode, we will answer question number 3 and then see what our big takeaways are for this entire discussion.

Each of the entities we discussed (Chapels and Chaplains, local churches, para-church ministries, and women’s networks) all have strengths. If we combined all of those strengths, we could do amazing things when ministering with and to military women. Pooling our resources would be phenomenal.

What are the strengths? Chapels and Chaplains have the people and access to marketing on installations. Local churches have facilities and many times childcare. Para-church ministries have resources that are relevant to military folks as well as experience being in the military for many of them. Women’s networks give those women a community outside the local meetings. They give women connection and encouragement on a regular, ongoing basis.

Working together would be a huge advantage. We could use the strengths of all of us, pooling our resources, and great things start to happen. This can be a difficult process. We have to build relationships. This can be most difficult with Chapels and Chaplains as they change out so frequently in comparison to others. As a community, we need to foster diversity, ask for input from each other, and get better at adapting to the transient nature of our military culture. We have to train others to lead.

Through this whole process, as we received input from those who have done military ministry for years, those who have just begun, and those who sat in the room as we brainstormed, we came away with a few big things. Below are our BIG TAKEAWAYS:

1. Join Forces
2. Foster diversity
3. Meet ladies where they are (this especially refers to women in uniform)
4. Large gatherings – both virtually and face-to-face for women to connect
5. Set the foundation of Scripture
6. Share resources and knowledge
7. Childcare!
8. Community networking

Women’s ministry in a military world is an ever-changing venue – and not just because they move frequently. In order to allow them to serve as well as to serve them, we have to be ever-changing as well. We need to build relationships between individuals and organizations/ministries.

What I love most about women’s ministry in the military world is that we can truly reach a world for Christ – because that is where we are, around the world. We learn and grow in our walk with Christ and take what God has taught us. God uses us where we are planted, and we impact people, families, and communities around the world.

It is an exciting time. We simply need to seek what part He would have us to play in His big plan.

So – what did we miss? What are you seeing where you are? What are your big takeaways from our discussion?

I would love your input. As we close out this series, any comments on any one of the five parts of the series will be entered to win a prize. Is it a bribe? Possibly. 😉 I would simply love to have your input as we grow our ministry and we seek to partner with others. Please feel free to comment and then to share with your friends.

Thank you for walking with me through this series. My prayer is that we see a bigger picture of what God is doing and then find what part He would have us to play in it. Cannot wait to see what He does with all of us.