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Avoid 3 Communication Problems in Women's Ministry

Written by Betty Hassler

The following is an excerpt from Transformed Lives: Taking Women's Ministry to the Next Level, an essential resource for women's ministry leaders.

Transformed Lives: Taking Women's Ministry to the Next Level

We deal with communication breakdown every day, in everything from the simplest e-mail to face-to-face meetings. It's especially important to communicate clearly in a ministry leadership setting.

Consider three problems in communication in ministry leadership and what you can do to remedy them (taken from a chapter Transformed Lives):

1. Making assumptions without checking them out.

When you're assigning women's ministry tasks to a woman or group of women, a clear agreement on the task and the deadline does not guarantee that the other people understand your expectations.

Pay attention to details you're sharing with your team or volunteers about the task you have at hand. Have you asked for the quality you expect as well as the quantity? Have you clearly communicated the deadlines that need to be met? Does each woman working on this ministry idea understand her role?

Ask yourself if you made any assumptions you did not check out for accuracy. When you communicate instructions, invite the others involved to repeat them before you end the conversation.

2. Confusing silence with agreement.

When you're talking to your leaders or volunteers as a group, remember that many people hesitate to speak negatively about an idea in a group setting. It would be easy to mistake their silence as consent, but as a leader, you need to beware of that misconception.

After your time together discussing ministry issues, you might privately check with each woman involved to see what she thought of the ideas, etc., presented to the group. You will be more likely to get a true opinion and maybe even some other helpful ideas.

Without feedback, we won't know what our ladies are thinking. Maybe the nod of a volunteer's head simply meant, "I hear you," not "I accept what you said." It's always best to double-check to see if your perception of consent is accurate.

3. Expecting to be the exception to the rule.

Just because you're a women's ministry leader doesn't mean you're immune to some of the basic communication traps all of us fall into from time to time! Here are three communications issues where you might be tempted to think you're an exception to the rule:

Confidentiality: If you tell a secret, it won't be secret for long – period! When we put ourselves in the position of trusting another person to keep a confidence, then we have to assume equal liability if the confidence is broken.
Always trying to "fix" things for your ladies: Don't give advice unless it is asked for. As a women's leader, you'll be called upon to just listen at times. If you're asked for insights or advice, then pray and share as God leads. Otherwise, you will risk offending the other person.
Favoritism: Don't ask for favors that aren't available to everyone.

Want the full list of communication pitfalls to avoid, tips for clear and godly communication, and more women's leadership tips? Purchase Transformed Lives: Taking Women's Ministry to the Next Level today.