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Since 1986, I have
been the husband, manager, and booking agent for a beautiful woman named
Jennifer Rothschild. Since 1986 Jennifer has
traveled the U.S. sharing her music, and a wonderful story of God's faithfulness in the
midst of blindness. During the 90's there has been an overwhelming number of invitations
for Jennifer to either lead worship or speak at women's conferences and events. Of course,
because of my position as Jennifer's husband, and "seeing-eye dog", I
accompanied Jennifer to most of these events. As I tell my friends, I was the only male in
a sea of beauty! As a management professor, with a background in adult education and
conferencing, among other things, I began to notice that there were some conference events
that seemed to be well managed, some not so well managed...some spirit led, some where the
spirit fled...some creative, some not so creative. With my penchant for details, I began
to analyze why there were differences? I surmised rather quickly, that much of the reason
for the differences was not due to lack of motivation (the dedication and commitment to
serve was obvious), but instead the difference seemed to be the result of a limited
information and experience.
I began to ask myself if there was any single "clearinghouse" to exchange
information about the "how to" of women's ministry. As an avid internet surfer
and web developer, I discovered there were many web sites dedicated to women's issues and
concerns, but there was not a single "interactive" web site dedicated to serving
the needs of the women's ministry professional or volunteer. I believe God placed in my
heart a vision for publishing an interactive information source to serve women's ministry
leaders. Thus, with website programming tools in hand, I began creating a website where
women's ministry leaders across the globe could exchange information about one topic -
"what works" in women's ministry. In June of 1998 we launched WomensMinistry.Net.
Today, a growing number of women's ministry leaders are
visiting WomensMinistry.Net to find or submit information about womens ministry events,
ideas, resources, and people. Women are adding their conferences and retreats to our wmEventCalendar, adding their names and organizations to
the wmPeopleDirectory, purchasing resources from our wmBookstore, sharing "what works" in our
wmIdeaBank,
and signing up for our FREE wmE-Newsletter. Some
ministries and organizations are having us design and
host their websites; others are advertising
their product, ministry or service in our Newsletter and website. The response has been
overwhelming.
While I don't consider myself to be an expert or specialist on women's ministry or
women's issues, I do view myself as a "facilitator of information." With an
office manager, and a dedicated staff of volunteers, our goal is to become the premiere
site for finding and submitting women's ministry news and information. We can't do it alone
however. We need women like you to contribute information
to our web site and newsletter. We also ask the each of you tell a friend about
WomensMinistry.Net, and when possible, prominently display our address www.womensministry.net on your printed materials. Together, we will fulfill our mission
"to enhance the efforts of Christian women and organizations whose calling is to
evangelize, build-up, or mobilize women across the globe, for the sake of the
Gospel." To Him be the Glory for the great things He is doing.
Sincerely,
Philip Rothschild, Ph.D.
Founder and Publisher
publisher@womensministry.net |