Hillary walks through the doors of the church, with no church background and no personal experience with God. Those reaching out to her will later learn of her brokenness due to parental neglect, along with drug and alcohol abuse. In her brief 19 years of life, she has already experienced a string of unhealthy relationships, as well as an abortion at the age of 16. She is hungry for love, answers and help.

Barbara, a woman in her 60s, steps into a Sunday morning service with a live-in partner and a New Age lifestyle. She brings with her a jumbled mix of philosophies about God, vortexes, crystals and more. She has a hunger for God, but needs truth to set her free and wash away the lies and false religions that have shaped her beliefs.

Jennifer was raised in a wonderful Christian home. She has a deep personal commitment to Christ and a desire to serve in ministry and in leadership. However, she still needs friendship, mentoring, encouragement and accountability.

How does the church prepare to reach and disciple women today, with the myriad worldviews, brokenness, and needs they bring with them? Every church that impacts its community will minister to women who are on a journey of seeking truth, women who are new believers, and women in every stage of spiritual maturity. Our response as a church family cannot be one of pulling away from the messiness of our society today.

Christ Our Example

The Early Church experienced unprecedented revival, guaranteeing an influx of newly redeemed people with a plethora of idolatrous backgrounds, unhealthy habits, wounds that needed healing, and faulty worldviews that needed reshaping.

Christ didn’t retreat from the messy people of His day. He reached them in love, while refusing to deny the reality of their sins. He met them where they were and spoke of a better way of life, a life that would provide a way out of the sin and into a strong and eternal relationship with Him. The Church today must follow His example.

What Women Need

Women want a vibrant life in Christ, but they often start their Christian journeys crippled by confusion and heartbreak. To provide opportunity for healing and transformation in the lives of women, we must offer intentional and strategic ministry geared toward women of all backgrounds. The question is, how can the Church lead them out of their former lifestyles and ways of thinking, and into transformation through Christ?

Women want a vibrant life in Christ, but they often start their Christian journeys crippled by confusion and heartbreak.

A few needs of women are universal. Each one of us needs teaching in the Word of God (discipleship), love and acceptance (relationship that is real), and leadership that encourages and instructs us to walk out of sin and into a Christlike lifestyle (accountability).

Relational Ministry Is Foundational

Learning to exercise spiritual disciplines is crucial for sustaining a godly life, and that knowledge comes through discipleship. Those best qualified to minister to and disciple women in a relational way are women. No matter their age, location, background, or marital or economic status, women thrive best within healthy relationships that encourage them to experience everything God offers. Healthy, relational ministry is a key foundation.

In addition to these universal needs, women are looking for real help in the areas of their brokenness — not a glossed-over, Pinterest-style version of what it looks like to surrender our lives to Christ. They need Christian women who will authentically share from their own areas of struggle and mistakes, while not indulging their sinful choices.

True love calls us all to higher standards, while extending love unconditionally. We must intentionally offer and facilitate pathways for women to walk into greater freedom and truth. We can begin by offering studies and support groups in the specific areas of brokenness we often see today. For instance, we can provide resources for overcoming addictions, divorce recovery, healing from the pain of an abortion, establishing healthy boundaries, managing money, and so on.

Balance Relationship with Teaching

If the church offers events with only lightweight, fun activities, we run the risk of producing women with shallow spiritual roots. If we lean on the teaching of the Word of God without intentionally investing in relational ministry for women, we run the risk of head knowledge without application. Soon the back door will be swinging, as lonely, disillusioned women make an exit, looking for a place where they can connect and get help with their life-controlling issues.

To successfully build a ministry for women, we must fortify the core foundations of the Christian walk, while also intentionally providing pathways to inner healing and personal freedom. Women connecting with and leading women in these areas of focus through the power of the Holy Spirit will create a healthy culture for developing strong, mature women of God. Women joined together in these ways form a spiritually and culturally powerful and relevant group that God can mightily use.

This article originally appeared in the August/September 2017 edition of Influence magazine.