Resources for Growth

Eager to Grow?

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• Your Women in Ministry Leaders

  The Women in Ministry team is composed of men and women who have committed to pray for First Presbyterian and to serve the women of our church. In order to press on in our mission, we have four teams: Prayer, Bible Study, Fellowship, and Service. At the core, each of these teams seeks to encourage women to count everything rubbish compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. We seek to equip First Presbyterian women to know God more deeply, serve him more wholeheartedly, and share our love of Christ with others. We are thankful for the gift of getting to pray for you and serve you in any way we can.

   

  2013-2014 Women in Ministry Vision Team

  Elders: Kathy Mullins and Benn Vincent
  Prayer Team Co-Leaders: Virginia Simeral and Jaime Carnaggio

  Bible Study Team Co-Leaders: Katie Forsthoff and Suzie Thompson

  Fellowship Team Co-Leaders: Amanda Posey Gowdy and Linda Grace

  Service Team Co-Leaders: Sharon Field and Lisa Head

  Administrative Assistant with Women in Ministry: Sherry McKinley

   

   

  2013-2014 Circle Leadership Team

  Co-Leaders: Pat Canfield and Kathy Mullins
  Moderator Coordinator: Carol Lazar
  Administrative Leader: Bunny Ferris 

  Circle Chairs and Co-Chairs

  Sue Spaht, Sharon Dixon, Helen Bowman, Ellen Fox, Ann McElveen, Eugenie Burglass, Mary Arceneaux, Linda Grace, Sandy Kleinpeter, Suzanne Booth, Pam Downing, Peggy Anderson, Elizabeth Rennhoff, Gerry Arnold, Sugar McAdams, Pat Canfield, Sandy Zwez, Vicki Lindrew, Jaci Gaspard, Meagan Greene, and Kristen Carney.

  Bible Moderators

  Mary Douglas, Shirley Pourciau,Virginia Simeral, Carol Lazar, Emily Malden, Katie Forsthoff, Laurie Adams, Pabby Arnold, and Lisa Head.

   

• Reading Resources

  Book for 2013-2014 Circles

  Loving the Way Jesus Loves
  by Philip Graham Ryken

  Book Suggestions for Devotional Life

  The All-Sufficient God
  by Martyn Lloyd-Jones

  Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence—Devotions for Every Day of the Year
  by Sarah Young

  Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name
  by Sally Lloyd-Jones

  Morning and Evening
  by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

  The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith
  by Tim Keller

  The Return of the Prodigal Son
  by Henri Nouwen

  The Screwtape Letters
  by C.S. Lewis

  Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions
  by Arthur G. Bennett (Editor)

   

  Book Suggestions on Marriage and Family, Finance, and Sexuality

  Desperate Marriages: Moving Toward Hope and Healing in Your Relationship
  Hope for the Separated: Wounded Marriages Can Be Healed
  by Gary Chapman

  His Needs, Her Needs
  by Willard F. Harley, Jr.

  How to Manage Your Money: An In-Depth Bible Study On Personal Finances
  by Larry Burkett

  Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying and Caring
  by Henri J.M. Nouwen

  On the Threshold of Hope: Opening the Door to Healing for Survivors of Sexual Abuse
  by Diane Mandt Langberg

  Sacred Marriage: What if God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?
  by Gary Thomas

  Sex and the Supremacy of Christ
  by John Piper and Justin Taylor

  The Silence of Adam: Becoming Men of Courage in a World of Chaos
  by Larry Crabb

  The Wounded Heart: Hope for Adult Victims of Childhood Sexual Abuse
  by Dan B. Allender

  Book Suggestions for Further Study

  According to the Plan: The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible
  by Graeme Goldsworthy

  Breaking the Idols of Your Heart: How to Navigate the Temptations of Life
  by Dan B. Allender and Tremper Longman III

  The Cross
  Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
  by D.M. Lloyd Jones

  Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters
  The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism
  by Tim Keller

  The End of the Beginning: Revelation 21-22 and the Old Testament
  by William J. Dumbrell

  The Four Loves
  Mere Christianity
  by C.S. Lewis

  From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to Biblical Theology
  by T. Desmond Alexander

  The God Who is There: Finding Your Place in God's Story
  by DA Carson

  Gospel Women: Studies of the Named Women in the Gospels
  Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony
  Richard Bauckham 

  Growing Your Faith: How to Mature in Christ
  by Jerry Bridges

  Keeping the Sabbath Wholly
  by Marva Dawn

  The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses
  by Vern S. Poythress

  Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense
  by N.T. Wright

  Spiritual Theology: A Systematic Study of the Christian Life
  by Simon Chan

  Surprised by Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels
  by Tullian Tchividjian

  The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament
  by Edmund P. Clowney

  When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What we Can While We Wait for God
  by John Piper

• Women in Ministry Resources

  What is Women in Ministry?

  We are women who want to know and follow Jesus, and we seek to encourage one another along the way. The Women in Ministry Team prays for and facilitates events and groups that are intended to foster this knowledge of Christ. All women are welcome to participate in Women in Ministry at First Presbyterian. We want you to invite your friends to our Bible studies and special events—the more, the merrier! May God be pleased with our love for one another and our unity in the faith.

   

  Our Vision, Mission and Philosophy of Ministry

  Our Vision: We desire God to lead women deeper in Christ and further into the world.

  Our Mission: We aim to participate in God’s transformational ministry of maturing his children in Christ through prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and service in our church, our community, and our world.

  Our Philosophy of Ministry: As a ministry arm of First Presbyterian under the authority of the Session, the Women in Ministry Team exists as a community of leaders to pray, plan, serve, and encourage the women of First to be:

  Joyful worshippers of God,
  Disciples of Jesus Christ,
  Humble servants guided and gifted by the Holy Spirit,
  Faithful witnesses for the gospel, and
  Peace-makers who bless Baton Rouge and the world with God’s life-giving love.

  Women in Ministry desires women to live like Christ—joyfully and sacrificially in the midst of a broken world—recognizing that as we actively participate in God’s kingdom ministry we will become more like him in the process. God has promised that he will transform us more and more into the image of his Son. On that glorious day when Jesus returns, we shall see him as he is, and when we see him we shall be like him! We hold out this hope to the world.

  Our mission is rooted in God’s promises for all believers. God takes delight in his image-bearers, both male and female. Throughout Scripture, God invites women to know him as Father and engage in his kingdom work. The Old Testament provides us with beautiful accounts of God’s grace to women and their responses of faith. Consistent with God’s heart for his daughters expressed throughout the Old Testament, Jesus welcomed women among his followers and affirmed their ministry to him and to others in the community of faith. Furthermore, Paul valued women serving alongside him and trained other early church leaders to do the same. Scripture consistently affirms the significance of men and women working together in partnership for the gospel as well as women specifically encouraging other women, and therefore we include both men and women on the Women in Ministry Team. In agreement with this Biblical vision, it is our desire that every woman grow more in her knowledge of Christ through prayer, studying his Word, fellowship, and engaging his mission in the world. We find that as women gather together in God’s name to bless him and one another, God blesses us with this growth in Christ.

  God has richly blessed our fellowship at First Presbyterian with a diversity of ages, life-stages, backgrounds, and gifts. Women in Ministry intends to foster meaningful unity among our women as well as connect our older women in mentoring relationships with our younger women. We celebrate mutually supportive intergenerational relationships and long to see God raise up another generation of women who worship God with lives adorned with the imperishable beauty of Christ-like gentleness and faithfulness. This is God’s work, and we are humbled to witness his redemptive and restorative presence in our midst. We depend upon his Spirit in all things and at all times.