It's that time of year again!  Pencils are being sharpened, teens everywhere are packing out malls buying new diggs ... and you are sitting in your office trying to plan your 2011 calendar so that your budget gets done on time.  Good times right?

Well, whether you have a supervisor or finance office breathing down your neck right about now or not, this is a great time to begin considering just what your ministry to the teen girls you work with will look like this next calendar year.  Which means that God, you and God's word are about to get some good quality time in ... and you may want to invite a big hazelnut latté along for the evening.

I remember when I was first asked to start a girl’s ministry at First Atlanta.  As is the case for most of us I’m sure, I had no idea what I was doing or going to do.  So, being the high-tech girl I am (wink, wink) I took my steno notepad, my bible and a pen to a local Barnes and Noble, ordered (you guessed it) a hazelnut latté and settled in a cozy spot for the evening.  I had been reading through Ephesians in my quiet time and, on that particular day, I read through Ephesians 4.  If you have your bible close, go, grab and read Eph. 4:1-16.

(If you don't have a bible close, here's the recap so you can track with what I am about to say: basically, Paul is telling the church at Ephesus that grace had been apportioned to each of them in the form of various gifting.  These giftings were given in order to "prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up."  The chapter goes on in verses 14-16 to explain why that is so important: so the people won't be infants tossed around by all the things they hear, but instead that they would in all things grow up in Christ.)

I remember excitement welling up and my heart pounding as I read through those words Paul penned so long ago.  It was Jesus speaking directly to me: 'Build your girls ministry on discipleship.  Connect the godly women in your church with the younger women who need to be trained up into the fullness of Christ ... because they have already been equipped with the giftings they need to accomplish this!'

The instruction was clear.  It was the "how" that I went to Barnes and Noble to pray through and write down.  As I sipped my latté and poised my pen to write it was God's faithfulness that met me and his instruction that flowed through my head, down to my hand and out on that sweet steno note pad.  What a great evening.

Am I saying that what I wrote on that steno was the inspired word of God, equivalent to scripture?  Of course not.  Am I saying that it was God's revelation to me for what He wanted His girls’ ministry at FBA to look like?  I most certainly am.  And if I am honest, I believe that it is the heart of God that each of our girls' ministries be built on facilitating discipleship/mentorship relationships, so that we steward well our time with these girls and equip them to be young women who aren't tossed around by the "scheming craftiness of men" and all the lies that an ungodly society sells.

So as you face this time of year again and may be feeling overwhelmed at the proposition of mapping out what the 2011 calendar year will look like for your ministry, here is my challenge to you:

Get excited. God is preparing to download to you all the new things He wants to do in you and in your ministry. As you meet with God in prayer, take some time to think through the elements that are currently making up your girl’s ministry.  Consider drawing a circle that represents your current girl’s ministry. Divide the circle into segments that represent the amount of time each element takes up. Pray over your circle and be willing to surrender it.  Ask the Lord to give you fresh ideas and new insight into how to facilitate discipleship not just happening, but becoming the base for everything you do within your girls’ ministry. Then write it down… and do it.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
See I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
Isaiah 43:18-19

P.S. If you want to know more about what I wrote on that steno note pad or how I set up discipleship as one of the main tenants of my girls ministry, click here.