Encourage-[en-kur-ij] to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence.
The enCourage Blog is weekly dose of encouragement in a world that is often filled with bad news. We offer life-giving entries each Monday and Thursday written by gifted women from across our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). You can subscribe below to have them delivered to your inbox. With hundreds of blog pieces, you can search on a variety of topics in the search bar above to read and share with friends. Christina Fox, a gifted author, serves as our enCourage General Editor. If you are interested in submitting a piece, you can contact her at cfox@pcanet.org.
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Women’s Ministry: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
MOLLY THOMAS|GUEST What a gift that CDM Women’s Ministry has been to me, our church’s women’s ministry, our presbytery, and our denomination. CDM (Committee on Discipleship Ministries) stands by its mission of connecting people to people and people to resources, and the trellis it has built to connect women is bearing abundant fruit across the nation and around the world. I grew up in the PCA but had never heard of CDM or the work they do. I first stumbled upon CDM the day that I had agreed to serve as the volunteer Women’s Ministry Director at our church. I knew I had stumbled upon a treasure trove of resources, but I hadn’t yet discovered the people. Registration had ended for Leadership Training 2024, but in God’s providence, He had a spot for me on the wait list. The theme that year was “A Covenantal Framework for Life and Ministry,” and for the first time in my life, I received a full overview of Covenant Theology and what it meant for me as a redeemed woman. Not only that, but God used the many speakers and facilitators there to show me that to be a Helper is a calling and a command, and that I had work to do in the Church!!...
A Testimony of Spiritual Mothering
STEPHANIE FORMENTI | CONTRIBUTOR I was a young mom to three children under the age of 5. We had recently navigated an international move far from my family and friends and absolutely everything was new. I couldn’t speak the language, I couldn’t drive, we didn’t have a backyard, and the food was really different. I was struggling. In my struggle, my husband and I committed to praying and asking the Lord to bring an English-speaking friend into my life. In His kindness, about two months later, a woman from the UK moved to our Brazilian city with her family and we met at church. Mary (name changed) was a little farther along in life and ministry than I was, loved Jesus, and had a warm and welcoming presence. So, when she suggested we meet up for coffee, I jumped at the chance. Over time, we started meeting regularly and those get-togethers became a lifeline for me. Speaking English was a welcome retreat after navigating daily life in Portuguese. Having an hour to sit in a cafe was a sweet respite from the busyness of caring for three young children. And this newfound mentor was fun and insightful. But more than anything else, these regular meetings became an important part of the growth and sanctification the Lord was already doing in this season of challenge because of my friend’s willingness to do three important things:...
Making Room: Raising Up Bible Study Leaders in the Local Church
KIM BARNES | CONTRIBUTOR I was a freshman in college, newly involved in campus ministry, when I fell in love with Bible study. Each week, I gathered with a small group of fellow students to study God’s Word with the help of an older student. None of us—including our leader—were Bible scholars. We were simply college students who loved Jesus and wanted to know Him more. At the end of that first year, I attended a student leader training conference. For the remaining three years of college, I co-led small-group Bible studies and discovered the joy of crafting questions that helped our group uncover truths in a passage of Scripture. I graduated from college nearly forty years ago, and for most of the decades since, I have led Bible studies, usually with small groups of women in my local church. I was not a Bible scholar in college, and I am still not one today. Most of what I know about Scripture has come not from formal academic training, but from decades of ordinary Bible study alongside ordinary saints. I don’t lead as a scholarly expert, but as a fellow learner. And you can lead that way, too....
A Warm Welcome
ELIZABETH STEELE|GUEST It was a cold and blustery January morning when my Marine-Corps-fighter-pilot-husband flew off for a seven-month deployment to the Western Pacific. We had been married for only three months as I gave him a tearful kiss goodbye and drove back home as a weepy mess. I wondered what in the world I would do to keep myself busy until he came back home in July. I had a part-time job working at a makeup counter working three days a week and was glad for something to do. But the truth is, I really longed for a meaningful way to serve the Lord and wondered what that was going to look like now that he was gone. I had left my work in Tennessee as a director of a residence hall and women's coordinator for Campus Crusade in order to marry Joe and was happy to do so. But I did love those jobs; I got to be around lovely college-aged women all day, teaching Bible studies, mentoring them in one-on-ones, and hosting folks in my little apartment on a nearly daily basis. Of course, it wasn't all rainbows and sunshine, but there was a lot of joy in it for me. It filled my cup to serve them as I served the Lord. But now what?...
Forming Better Questions for Decision Making
HEIDI MOSHER | GUEST Choices. Options. Paths. Each stage of life presents something momentous to consider—“what’s next” questions that demand decisions. This college or that? Should I date him? Marry him? How about a baby? How about another? Daycare? How will we educate these kids? College or career? Which college? Is it time to switch jobs? Time for new surroundings—if so, where? Should Mom be living alone? How should I best use my time in this new stage of life? Sometimes we must decide what’s next. What advice should we follow? Sometimes a child or a friend seeks our input on a decision. What advice should we offer? As Christian women, we turn to the Lord with our “what’s next” questions, acknowledge him (Prov. 3:5–6), ask for wisdom (James 1:5), and pray for peace (Phil. 4:6–7). We can even ask for doors to open or close (Col. 4:3) and trust the outcome (Prov. 16:9). And we search Scripture for guidance. We may not find the specifics we seek however. No Bible verse will reveal the exact college to attend or the name of the city to move to. Yet, the Bible lights our paths (Ps. 119:105)....
Caring For a Woman in an Abusive Relationship
CHRISTINE GORDON | CONTRIBUTOR Who was the first woman you knew in an abusive relationship? Maybe she was your college roommate or your older sister. Maybe your office mate spoke in hushed tones to the screaming voice coming out of her phone. Whoever it was, chances are you felt a mix of compassion and confusion as you watched. Victims of domestic violence often stay in damaging, dangerous marriages even as those who care for them beg them to leave. They stay for lots of reasons including the confusing power dynamics of abuse, a belief that leaving goes against their faith, and a lack of safe places to go. Some don’t recognize the marriage as abusive. Others think it’s their fault. Obviously, these women are the kind of people Jesus referred to when he named “the least of these” (Matt 25:40). They are the vulnerable, the voiceless, those without an advocate. And according to the 2022 PCA Report on Domestic Abuse, they’ve been deserted. Page 2496 reads, “All types of abuse create a forced separation in the marriage, just like physical abuse. And therefore all types of abuse qualify as a form of desertion.”[1] One of the ways we, the women of the church, can help is by holding these sisters’ hands as they go to their brothers to get help....
