VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 8/30/16)—American Baptist Women’s Ministries has a long history of producing excellent resources for ministry with women and girls. Magazines such as On the Way with American Baptist Women and Vital Woman Magazine complemented print resources produced in English and Spanish for the two-year program theme, leadership development materials such as The Guide, and AB GIRLS and G.I.R.L.S. program materials for girls in grades 3 through 12, among many other materials.
As the cost for producing materials in print rose, it grew increasingly more difficult to provide print resources at a price point accessible to American Baptist women. Therefore, the national board of American Baptist Women’s Ministries has directed the organization to resource their programmatic ministries using multimedia and digital technologies. These resources will be more readily available and affordable for women and girls, will be able to be updated more quickly, and produced in a more responsive timeframe than former print schedules would allow. Additionally, moving away from static print materials and towards dynamic resourcing allows women to more easily adapt the materials to their own settings, respond to the emerging needs of their ministries, and reflect a diversity of learning styles.
In the summer and fall of 2017, the 2017-2019 ministry focus materials will be available online as downloadable PDF documents and other multimedia files. An emphasis on annual mission focus themes is also resourced through the AB Women’s Ministries website, and the new G.I.R.L.S. program materials are available as a free download as well. The Guide series for leaders continues to be available for purchase on a flash drive, as are the Women of the Word Bible study series and the previous volumes of G.I.R.L.S. (originally produced on CD). Although there are still print resources available in the AB Women’s Ministries store, new resources will be produced in digital form.
“This is truly a win-win solution,” said Virginia Holmstrom, ABWM executive director. “Our aim is to resource congregations for ministries with women and girls. The print production cost factors had become an unfortunate barrier for us and for American Baptist constituents. I appreciate our board’s forward-looking decision to provide programmatic resources in a different way. In addition, AB Women’s Ministries will continue to offer interactive experiences around programmatic and mission foci; for example, we’re offering an online virtual mission encounter on October 3-7 as one interactive resource for the organization’s current ministry focus, ‘See . . ./Vean . . .’” Registration for the “See . . . the Suffering” virtual mission encounter is now open at www.abwministries.org/events.
To resource ministry with women and girls, visit www.abwministries.org. American Baptist Women’s Ministries is a Christ-centered ministry with a commitment to encourage and empower women and girls to serve God.
American Baptist Churches USA is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with approximately 5,000 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members, across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.