Do you believe you are called as a girls minister to serve as the primary female role model for girls in your ministry?  I don’t!  I think it should be their moms.  But I do believe part of your role is to connect moms and daughters and strengthen their relationships.  After all, you see them for maybe 2 or 3 hours a week max.  Their moms see them everyday.  Your role is significant for a few years, but mom’s (hopefully) lasts a lifetime.  (Yes, I know we all have girls in our ministries who don’t have godly moms.  And yes, you do have a greater role to play in their lives.  But for most, a girl’s relationship with her mom should be stronger than yours.)

So this month we’re offering a bonus girls ministry idea – a way to encourage and strengthen mom/daughter relationship.  A recipe exchange is a low budget, easy to plan event that allows moms and daughter to spend time bonding while they whip up their favorite recipe together.  Then it gives them the opportunity to enjoy time with their friends sampling others culinary treats and collecting delicious new recipes to try together at home.  Plus they’ll see how to have fun together and hopefully they’ll learn truth from Scripture that applies to their relationship.

Simply ask girls and their moms to bring their dish and a few copies to of the recipe to share with others.  To ensure everyone gets to take home all of the recipes they want, provide cute recipe cards and pens for ladies to copy any recipes that might run out.  Since food is covered, you’ll just need to think about setup, décor, paper goods, and drinks.

Begin the time with a game much like the old game show “Newlyweds” where moms and daughters have to answer the same questions and see if their answers line up.  The prize can be a gift card for a coffee shop or paint your own pottery for a fun mom daughter date.

Then you can have a seasoned mom/daughter pair share truth from their relationship with the others.  Or you can split up moms and daughters and have speakers for each group.  The goal is to encourage moms and daughters to love each and Jesus more!