Event Planning Series

I am excited to announce the topic for the next series of post! This is something I’ve been wanting to talk about for quite some time.

I’m going to be focusing on planning for a large event, conference, or retreat. However, every post will include some tips that will apply to any size event or meeting that you host.

The goal of this series is to help you (and other women’s ministry leaders) create memorable experiences that help women embrace and grow their faith by interacting with God through His Word and with each other.

We want women to walk out the door encouraged, inspired, and better equipped to walk confidently as followers of Christ in this world.

Each post will have a specific focus. We’re going to cover all the angles – planning, prayer, registration, food, selecting a speaker, surveys, budgets, décor, and more.

Event Planning: Purpose, Content, and Benefits

Today we’re going to talk about three critical pieces of event planning: purpose, content, and benefits.

At the end, I’ll share a list of 5 questions to help you and your team define the purpose and benefits of your event.

Let’s start with purpose:

Every event we plan should have a specific, defined purpose and it should align with your women’s ministry mission statement.

Often when I ask leaders what the purpose is of an event they are planning, they respond “fellowship”. Okay, fellowship is a good thing and something I hope would occur at every event, but what if we offered more?

While there’s nothing wrong with hosting a craft night, luncheon, dinner, or a game night to provide an opportunity for women in our church to fellowship with one another, big events (and even small ones) need a Christian component.

My hope and prayer is that our women would want more than just fellowship at our events.

Let’s make sure they have time to connect with each other, but we also want to make sure there is a spiritual component to everything we offer.

We are not a sorority or a social club; we are a ministry of the church.

Women should be encouraged, and even challenged, by the Word of God.

Our purpose is bigger and broader than fellowship.

• Give them fellowship plus Jesus.
• Give them fellowship plus biblical teaching on an adult level.
• Give them fellowship plus the gospel.
• Give them fellowship plus worship.
• Give them fellowship plus prayer.
• Give them fellowship plus time to reflect in small groups on the biblical truth that was shared.

That brings us to content:

I often hear from leaders who have come up with or come across a great event idea that focuses around an animal, food, or other item. Bees, lemons, shoes, pearls, bows, flowers, and so on. They’ve planned the décor and menu before the biblical content.

Sometimes leaders will focus in on a popular verse, often not realizing it’s being taken out of context. Here’s a common example: Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10) is not an invitation to sit in silence.

I want to take a moment to explain, because this is a popular verse. This psalm is written in response to a crisis. The city of Jerusalem is facing life or death threats by nations and nature. There is chaos. The people know where to turn when trouble comes. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Verse 5 speaks to God’s help. Verse 10 reads, “ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” This is not an instruction to sit in silence or physically be still. One commentary states, “argument and opposition should stop and be still.” It’s a call to lay down your weapons, stop warring, and know that He is God and they are not. He will keep them safe and secure.

It can be tempting to copy an event idea we find online or hear about another church doing.

Before you copy and paste, I want to encourage you to pause and evaluate if the purpose aligns with your mission statement and the content will bring them closer to Christ.

Spend some time asking the Lord to give you wisdom to know what is best for the women in your church. It’s rarely a carbon-copy of what was done for the women at another church. Pull out the best pieces and tweak things for your needs.

If you’re waiting for me to tell you the theme or teaching focus for your next event, I don’t know your women. I don’t know what they need, but I do know that everyone needs the gospel. Everyone needs to know and understand God’s Word.

You don’t have to dress it up in pink to make it attractive to women or water it down. A good teacher will know how to lead them from the shallow end into the deep end.

Bigger events including retreats and conferences are a lot of work and take a lot of time to plan. They certainly aren’t required. You may be wondering if it’s even worth it.

Let’s talk about the benefits of big events.

Here are 7 benefits of big events:

1. Big events provide a shared experience for your women. For weeks, months, and even years to come, your women may reflect on or laugh about an experience at your event, retreat, or conference. For example: We still laugh about the rap song some of our senior saints helped with during our retreat recap. They ran out and grabbed sunglasses from someone’s car. I can close my eyes and still see two women I love dearly hamming it up.
2. Big events provide more opportunities for multigenerational connections. If your church is like most, your small groups or Sunday school classes are generally made up of people around the same age. We miss the wisdom from generations on both sides of our age group. We need Titus 2 relationships. Women looking for someone to disciple or someone to disciple them need opportunities to meet each other.
3. Big events allow you to share the same message with a larger number of women. There is unity is everyone learning the same content together.
4. Bigger events often allow for more time together. I love two and three-day events like retreats for this reason. Some women need time to get comfortable with a group before they share. Some women need concentrated time in the Word. Some women need focused time with other Christian women. It takes time for relationships to deepen. And when you have to travel, those hours carpooling are gold!
5. Longer events like conferences and retreats provide time for deeper teaching. Having 2, 3, or even 4 sessions on the same passage or biblical principle benefits everyone in attendance. There’s more time to unpack the content. The teaching can be done at a slower, more manageable pace.
6. Big events provide the opportunity for you to involve more women in the planning and production. We pull in lots of extra women to help with our annual retreat. Here’s a great example: We made the decision a few years ago not to use anyone from our team as a table leader. We know we have plenty of spiritually mature women in attendance who can handle the task. Many of our women want to help, and we’re happy for the extra hands.
7. Big events provide an opportunity for many of our women to worship together. There’s something sweet and special about the sound of a room full of women lifting their voices together in praise to the Lord. A get chills any time our worship team drops the instruments and vocals and lets the group lead.

Can some of these same benefits occur at smaller events? Some of them definitely can, but some of them can’t be replicated in a shorter fellowship event or activity.

Today’s Toolbox Task:

Here are 5 questions you may want to use to help you and your team define the purpose and benefits of your next event, no matter the size:

1. How does it support our ministry’s mission statement?
2. How will women grow in their faith?
3. What biblical truth do you want your women to remember?
4. What scripture verse or passage will our event focus on?
5. How will this benefit the women in our church?

We have a limited number of opportunities to connect with the women in our church each year. Let’s make the most of every opportunity!

Thank you for reading this post. Be sure to sign up for my email list here so you don’t miss the next post in this series on event planning.

You may also want to read:
Rethinking Fellowship: A Handbook for Hosting Meaningful Women’s Ministry Events (affiliate link)
Women’s Ministry Essentials (affiliate link)
Crafting a Solid Women’s Ministry Mission Statement
How to Select Your Verse and Women’s Ministry Theme for the Year
How to Select Your Women’s Ministry Theme or Scripture Focus