Resource Guide for Women’s Ministry – A Book Review

Resource Guide for Women’s Ministry is a book which offers “practical and creative ideas for leading prayer groups, using your home in a hospitality ministry, beginning outreach programs, forming fellowship support groups, and much more.  The author, Linda McGinn Waterman, desires that every woman find God’s ministry for her life. God equips us for ministry through the unique experiences, circumstances and events of our lives.  He gives us the Holy Spirit to direct and empower us to to His work.

The book is geared more toward the individual and her ministry within the community or neighborhood rather than toward a women’s ministry within the church, although some of the her ideas may work in a women’s ministry group setting.  She encourages women discover God’s ministry for their lives.  She encourages us to look at the needs around us (the poor and needy, senior adults, caregivers, married couples, homeschool families, single parents, widows, etc.) and to find practical and creative ways to minister to them.  Some of her suggestions include:  prayer groups, one-to-one and small group discipleship, hospitality, planning a women’s conference and starting evangelistic outreaches such as Bible studies and luncheons.  For the woman who doesn’t know what her ministry is, the book includes a “personal inventory” for the reader to complete in order to help her identify her ministry “niche”.

The value I see in this book is that it gives an overview of the many needs that are all around in our community, and encourages women to not only be aware of those needs, but to find a creative way to minister to those needs.  Each chapter is filled with creative ministry ideas and real-life experiences of women who have found a unique way that they can be used as His instruments in a hurting world.