This Is Not a Women’s Group

Okay, it kind of is.

I’ve been involved in the church my entire life — born and raised, plus my parents were both on staff of our very large mega church in the midwest — and as a result I feel a bit of fatigue when it comes to church programing like YOUTH GROUPS and WOMENS GROUPS.

But at the same time, I see a need in my own life to know and be known by other women. And when I talk to some of you, I hear the same thing, because we have experiences and challenges that are unique to our gender, regardless of All The Things that makes us different.

Maybe our first order of business when we get together will be to rename ourselves something without the word “women” or “group” in it — something like The Astronaut Wives Club, only not specific to astronauts or wives or clubs that are exclusive.

Or maybe…

A Gathering of Females.

Or…

Real Talk With People of the Same Gender Who Are Not Men.

Or….

I Barely Made It Out the Door With Pants On What More Do You Want?

(Branding is not my core genius, as you can imagine.)

But this is what’s been on my mind lately: Spiderwebs.

Yup. It’s the time of year when we all do that special dance as we walk through a face-level spiderweb or wake up to a big striped hairy creature on the headboard above our pillow and you have to put on your glasses to realize it’s not actually a cat.

Spider season gets me thinking about the webs we weave inside our head.

What lies do we catch in our silken threads to wrap up and consume over days and weeks? How do we untangle ourselves from these lies and clear away the spiderwebs?

My desire for meeting up is to encourage each other, be real, and connect Jesus to our everyday thoughts and actions. We can do that for each other, which would be great, because I’m not an expert at this.

For instance, here are a few lies I trapped in my mind-web as I think about coordinating Lady Camp (nope, that name doesn’t work either):

• I have no idea what I’m doing.
• I will drop all the balls and disappoint everyone.
• People are going to find out I quote scripture mostly as, “It says somewhere in the Bible that…” because I can’t remember where anything is.
• Which leads to occasionally attributing a Grateful Dead lyric to scripture.
• Then I will be revealed as the fraud I am.

There you go — welcome to my web. I can’t wait to hear what’s trapped in your web!

Join me on Monday, September 28th at Denny Park Lutheran Church as we talk about the stuff of life and remind each other that “It’s in Christ we find out who we are and what we’re living for” (Ephesians 1:11, The Message).

6:00 Prefunk — Doors will open early if you’re coming straight from work or just want more time to hang out. Bring a dinner with you or mooch off someone who brings extra.

7:00 Main event (mud wrestling is postponed until further notice).