On Faith and Sisterhood
The power of congregation and sisterhood creates a strong bond for women across the globe and practicing all types of religions. You don’t need to be an anthropologist to recognize that women are especially hard-wired for supporting and cultivating communities of other like-minded women.
Women’s groups at church and other religious organizations create a sense of belonging and encourage additional participation while reinforcing each person’s self worth. Many women’s faith groups involve various forms of volunteering and service to the congregation and beyond — from fundraising to send kids to vacation bible schools and camps, to rallying the troops to help serve a funeral meal to a bereaved family, to rounding up warm coats and school supplies for children in the local community.
If you have participated in a group effort with the women in your church, you know you gain more than just a good time spent with friends. Wisdom, shared experiences, inspiration and all kinds of parenting pearls are your reward for an afternoon in service with fellow sisters – I love the hours spent with friends doing good works.
Recently I organized an event for my church women’s group. The goal was simply to spend an evening getting to know each other a little better while learning a few fun, new skills. We called it a ‘Let’s Go Back To School’ event.
We met in ‘homeroom’ where everyone was given notebooks, pencils and a ‘schedule’. Our first class was Computers, we learned about our church’s new online system to look up information about the congregation, the activity calendar and list of phone numbers. Second we had an old fashioned ‘Home Ec’ class, where we watched the teacher demonstrate sewing a simple skirt. Then we headed off to ‘Seminary’ for a scripture chase competition. And we ended with ‘P.E.’ of course, where we learned to Zumba!
Dinner was called school lunch and served ‘cafeteria style’ complete with cafeteria trays, boxes of chocolate milk and hairnet clad servers.
It was a great evening and lots of fun, with the campy theme. However it was also a lot of work. There were 4 and 5 different instructors helping with each of the classes. And nearly 10 different people helping with the food preparation and set up. I didn’t have to do all the work but I did volunteer to organize it all.
Using VolunteerSpot was a great way to help alleviate the administrative work of planning a church event. Volunteers signed up to help on an online sign up sheet and VolunteerSpot sent automated confirmation and reminder messages to keep everyone organized. Even for my less techy members (yes, some still don’t have email), I was able to give them assignments manually and VolunteerSpot reminded me to give them a call when it was time for them to send in their potluck dish! Easy as ABC.
I proudly honor that special bond of women and faith and know that VolunteerSpot has my back when comes to organizing all our good works.
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In a former life, Carissa Rogers was a molecular biologist. In her current life, she is the chief researcher of parenting dos (and some don’ts), new recipes, and for spice she pretends to be a photographer. She publishes her good & crazy thoughts on GoodNCrazy.com. She has 3 crazy kids and one good husband. Find her on Twitter and Facebook.
