Ministries Among Today's Women By Naomi Penner

Today’s modern woman becomes subjected to greater responsibility. The shift in responsibilities throughout history, have redefined the roles in which women portray. The article entitled: “Ministries Among Today’s Women,” writer Naomi Penner portrays the idea of how modern women today are fulfilling multiple roles as a mother, caretaker, student and entrepreneur (Penner 1). Penner’s claim possesses strong merit and a skillfully reasoned argument that is analyzed, with the support of multiple sources, of the burdens faced among today’s women in their attempts of incorporating church ministries into their already busy lives. According to Penner, factors that contribute to this are time constraint, the difficulty amongst church’s in constructing women’s ministries that are adaptable to their schedules, the quest for educational ministries of worth, and church capacity.

The time restrictions that women face today in balancing both a profession and a personal life, poses as an adversity within the church ministries that are self-limiting to distinct audiences and times. For this purpose, women encounter obstacles when attempting to exercise one’s faith consistently, in gaining spiritual stability or support. Women feel a personal dissociation with their spirituality because they are only able to attend church or a ministry a few times a month. Therefore, the friendships and connections made slowly fade due to lack of consistency in being present. Furthermore, church ministry times transpire early or late within the day, coordinators assume women have open schedules all day, not taking into consideration the busy agendas that each person may have. Excluding full time stay at home mothers, who have flexibility with time, single mothers wo...

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...f Penner’s article. The longing to create a women’s ministry that correlates to the needs of every women is a never-ending battle. The concerns of every woman will always be changing; keeping up with those, changes however, can be a complicated and tricky task which in return can “allow for church’s themselves to grow in creative ways when ministering to women” (Penner 5). The mothering roles in which women held in the past are no longer the same responsibilities in which women hold today. The issues faced by women can lead one to ponder what time does a woman have in today’s society to exercise one’s faith? The need and justification for diversity in women’s ministries is a result of the reality faced by many women, the reality in which women’s roles are ever changing and will continue to change as time passes on.