Last year, Delight Girls Ministry had the great joy and responsibility of launching an entire ministry geared specifically toward teenage girls in 6th-12th grades.  I dreamed for years about what a girls' ministry might look like in my local church and spent all summer planning and recruiting a lead team to help launch when school started last Fall.  Launching a girls' ministry is no small under-taking, but it absolutely can be done by anyone who is called by God and passionate about ministering to teenage girls and their families.

There are a lot of ways to kick off a new girls' ministry, and ours took the form of a "Crazy Launch Party."  The forthcoming ideas are to be used once you have taken the crucial steps of praying about God's direction for the ministry, getting appropriate support, and recruiting and training a leadership team.  You also want to highly promote the launch party through social media (Facebook, Twitter, website, e-mail, texting, etc), personal invites, announcements within local churches and any schools that will let you in, maybe even good ol' snail mail...

We gathered a small team that was specifically responsible for the launch party.  First, you need a point person for each aspect of the party.  For example, we had someone in charge of the following:

-Environment/Decorations

-Food

-Media (Videos, Sound, Music, etc)

-Set-Up and Tear-Down

This took a lot of the weight off my shoulders and allowed me to be more of an overseer in all areas rather than just doing everything myself.  It also gave immediate ownership to the leaders in our ministry.

We didn't have a budget or any financial resources, so we had to get creative with the environment.  We set-up the room "in the round" with a small stage in the middle of the room rather than just chairs facing a plain stage.  This made a huge impact on helping the girls feel comfortable, close together, loved, and essentially like they were in a warm, loving environment.  We wanted the girls to be blown away when they walked through the doors and make them feel like this was something really exciting and important to be a part of, just for them.  To that end, we blacked out all of the windows into the room and locked the doors so that no one directly involved with the night could enter until time for the launch.  This built some positive tension and got the girls excited and wondering what would happen once the doors opened.  We also blacked out all the windows in the room using black paper so that we could get more creative with the lighting.  We quickly learned that you can do a LOT with lights to make a room's environment change often and easily.  If you have lights, use them!  We brought in all kinds of lamps and hung different kinds of lights from the ceiling using fishing wire.  If you need fun, creative, cheap ideas for lighting or lamps, just look on Pinterest...there are all kinds of variations.  Finally, we had several of our girls who are gifted in the arts paint canvases with our theme verse and name of our ministry, along with signs for each grade level that we have used in a variety of ways throughout the year.  We had a lot of chiffon and toile from past student events lying around and draped those on backs of chairs, along the walls, on the floor, etc.  We also brought in some super cute Ikea furniture that our children's ministry graciously let us borrow and scattered it around the room instead of having just chairs.  That made a huge difference in the comfort level of the room and made it seem more "homey."  Finally, we used candles wherever we could find a spot for them.  Over the past year, I have learned that less is usually more, so we have figured out that these few things - lighting, some special furniture, blacking out the windows/doors, and a set-up that they're not accustomed to seeing - really make or break our environment.  Whatever kind of space you have, know that you really can do a lot with very little money, using what you already have or using homemade ideas.  And hey, if you do have the money, by all means, use it!  We found that spending money on a few things that we would use for years to come really worked to our benefit.

We went all out in the food arena for the launch party.  We had leaders bring in different, creatives recipes we found online, like fruit and veggie kabobs.  The highlight was the Delight Candy Bar.  We had a leader whose daughter had a candy bar at her wedding and she brought in a ton of different-sized clear vases and dispensers.  We filled those with all the typical candies, like M&Ms, Hershey Kisses, and Starbursts, but we also tried to put in some fun favorites like Swedish Fish and rock candy sticks.  We bought a few packs of cellophane goodie bags and the girls went to town filling those up to eat throughout the night or take home with them.  The line was out the door!  One thing that was really important was that we wanted to provide a healthy option (fruit and veggie kabobs) because we knew we would be addressing the importance of good health and nutrition at some point during the year.  We also knew we had girls with special diet needs and wanted them to feel loved and included, even in this area.  Attention to those kinds of little details may seem overboard, but they can make a huge difference in helping a girl realize she was thought of in advance and that she is loved by her leaders.

A few of our students are incredible about all things media, and that is definitely not my area of giftedness, so we brought some of them on board to help with sound and video for the night.  A very talented friend of mine, Jordan, designed all of our graphics which made a huge difference when it came to promoting the launch.  We used a pre-made video by LifeWay and tagged our logo onto the end (they allow some videos to be used in girls' ministries), which saved us from having to create an entire video on our own.  There are a ton of videos on YouTube that you can use in girls' ministries depending on your topic, but the one we used was very powerful for garnering the interest of girls, families, and leaders who wanted to be involved.  We google "Free Countdown Clocks" a lot of the time instead of creating our own or purchasing them online.  There are times that we put that extra time and money into creating something new or purchasing something canned, depending on our needs, but for a successful launch on a dime and a minute, you can find all kinds of stuff online.

Finally, we used our leadership team for set-up and tear-down.  We eventually created a team specifically for set-up and tear-down so that we didn't exhaust our team with large group events, but for this first night, everyone was so pumped up and passionate that it was an all-hands-on-deck experience.  We put a TON of time into creating our first large group environment, which set the bar high for further events.  However, the more we have learned, the less time-consuming it has been.

As far as the agenda for the night, we did a lot of really fun things and were not very serious about much of anything except how much we loved the girls and were excited they wanted to be poured into throughout this school year.  We encouraged the leaders to interact and mingle with the girls as they came in, and they did a great job making sure each girl who came through that door knew she was loved.  After they grabbed a snack and found a seat, we welcomed them with some fun give-aways from Five Below and gave an overview of what we are all about.  This is a great time for introducing your ministry's mission statement, key verse, and overview of what the girls' ministry will offer.  It's not about convincing them that they have to be there - it's about creating something they want to be a part of on a regular basis.  We had a couple of senior girls lead some acoustic song worship and then I introduced the topic we would be discussing in small groups that month, which was "My Crazy Life" - an overview of all the topics we would be discussing all year - busyness, girl drama and friendship, self-worth, anticonformity, preparing for the hurt in life, guy/girl relationships, purity, and modesty.  Our goal was really just to convey that this was their space to just be a real teenage girl, baggage and all.  We didn't want them to feel like they had to clean up their act and put on their nicest church clothes (in fact, a lot of girls come in with their PJ pants on a regular basis :), but instead just come as they are and find the hope of Jesus amidst the messiness of their lives.  I didn't speak long - just about 15 minutes - long enough to give them a taste of what small groups (or whatever your ministry will offer) would offer for the next month or so.  We used a couple of videos to convey these messages and wrapped up with each of our leaders introducing themselves and giving a one-word description of their middle school selves.  And of course, what would a good launch party be without a crazy dance party at the end?  We cranked up the music and did all the classics - the Cupid Shuffle, the Cha-Cha, and looooots of Bieber.  It was a great start to the year seeing leaders, Moms, and girls laughing and dancing together.  Even the most timid girls had a blast because their leaders had already begun making connections and including them.  Dance parties quickly became part of our DNA as a ministry :)

So, it really all depends on what you're going for in your ministry for teenage girls, but overall, make a launch party FUN and something they want to be a part of and bring their friends.  Teenage girls have a ton of opportunities pulling for their attention, and we usually have to really develop those relationships and engage their attention in fun, creative ways in order to get to those deeper times of study in the Word and applying it for life change.

More than anything, you as a girls' ministry leader must convey your passion and calling to the ministry to your lead team and to the girls with whom you are working.  This comes across in those little details that make the big picture look inviting and special for all those teenage girls who are so worth the investment.  So now that you have the tools for a crazy launch party, what are you waiting for?  Pray, research the needs of the girls in your area, gather support from your church leadership, build and train a team of women ready to pour into teenage girls, and...Ready...Set...Launch!