Without Titles

This week marked the beginning of a new season of ministry for the ladies of TLC. Last year, Lori began a life group for women that started with just 12 and then grew to 30ish by the end of last year. For the first meeting this season, 55 women showed up to find out what the fuss was all about. Before the beginning of this season, the facilitators sat down and tried to pare down our goals and “begin with the end in mind”. During all of our discussions one of the aspects of why we loved this Lifegroup so much was that no matter what titles you carry with you, people seemed to naturally leave them at the door. It was so safe to just BE WOMEN. As a single woman, I often feel as though Christian Women’s ministries are mislabeled, so often they are primarily focused on wives and mothers. Singles ministries are also mislabeled as so often they are just pity parties for those who would chew off their right arm in exchange for a diamond. There has never before been a place where I have felt a connection with so many others simply because we are all WOMEN!!!

One of the ‘rules’ for our lifegroup is that when we introduce ourselves to the group, we are not allowed to use titles.

As women, we often hide behind our titles: Wife, mother, girlfriend, daughter, professional etc. I recall so many times when I have asked women about themselves and I get a recitation of WHAT they are as opposed to WHO they are.

Since I am not currently working, I don’t really have a title so I thought I wasn’t going to have a problem, but when I got up introduce myself I found it very difficult. Almost like a game of Taboo where you have to describe something but there are certain words that are “Taboo”. Often under pressure, all you can think of is what you CAN’T say!

As the night progressed I realized that I wasn’t the only one who was stretched in this way. Many of the women who spoke actually had to write something down because this was so out of the ordinary for them! You know what? In those few moments, I learned more about those women –some of whom I have known for a long time!- than in all the previous times we had spoken. I heard about what these women are passionate about, and what is important to them. I could hear murmurs in the crowd as people made connections to what the women were saying.

I love that we are ‘forced’ to go deeper.

When you strip away the titles… WHO are you??