“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
JESUS & WOMEN
Mercy’s Door approaches women’s ministry with a heart for equipping godly, spiritually mature women of faith who can pass on to the next generation of Christian sisters a love for the gospel and its impact on all areas of life.
The Scriptures are full of stories that show us that in Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension, women were dear to the heart of Christ and full partakers of His grace and participants in His mission.
In Luke 8, we observe that women supported the ministry of Jesus with their own means while He lived. He welcomed them as His disciples. Bound by the common experience of grace in Christ Jesus, these women truly participated in the ministry work of Christ.
Mark 16 shows how these women loved and were devoted to Christ in His death. We observe a heart to honorably tend to the body of Jesus by anointing it with spices after the crucifixion.
In Matthew 28, we learn that at the tomb, the news of Christ’s resurrection was entrusted to women first, as the angel commanded them to go and tell the disciples that He had risen.
In Romans 16, we read as the apostle Paul publicly honors several women by name, describing them with terms such as deacon, benefactor, co-worker in Christ Jesus, hard-worker in the Lord, and dear friend. They were clearly central to the early work of the Church in the age following Christ’s resurrection.
At Mercy’s Door, we long to see the beautiful legacy of the faithful sisterhood continue among us.
In Titus 2, Paul issues a mandate for seasoned women in the faith to come alongside other women in discipleship and care. We desire to support our sisters in obeying that mandate, for our good and the glory of God.
BROTHERHOOD & SISTERHOOD
THE ORTHODOX FAMILY VIEW OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
An appeal by Jen Oshman
RHYTHMS & GATHERINGS
The Behold & Become Women’s Ministry is carried out in three central arenas:
1.) Quarterly Gatherings. Each quarter, Mercy’s Door’s women gather for structured teaching and community. These gatherings are great opportunities to connect with women you may not know, receive Biblical instruction from other women in your church, and learn more about what it looks like to engage in ongoing women’s ministry in the upcoming season.
2.) Gospel Communities. It is not our intention that Behold & Become would be a substitute for what the Lord is doing through Gospel Communities, our central arena for discipleship and community. Instead, our ambition is for this ministry to enhance discipleship and community within GC. Once each month, every gospel community breaks out into male/female subgroups to foster deeper relationships with the other members of the group and to provide an opportunity for gender-specific discipleship conversations.
3.) Annual Retreats. Once a year, the Behold & Become Women’s Ministry invites any and all women of Mercy’s Door to gather for a weekend retreat featuring gospel-centered teaching, rest, and connection.
We encourage you to join our Facebook group to stay current on these gatherings.
LEADERSHIP
Kat Barton
Deacon
info@mercysdoor.org
Gospel Community
Women’s Breakout Leaders
Lucy Burton - Hunters Creek GC
Jo Radford - Green Mount GC
Bree Pannier - Scheve Park GC
Hope Ayers - Lincoln’s Landing GC
Rachel Katka - Rooted Student GC
Kat Barton - South Mascoutah GC
To contact any of the GC breakout leaders, select the associated Gospel Community.
Manhood & Womanhood: A Christian Perspective
At Mercy’s Door, we believe God that His perfect design is very good. He has made us, male and female, in His own image. We celebrate the complementary uniqueness of our design in the understanding that together, we display a fuller portrait of the image of our God.
To learn more about the historical complementarian Christian understanding of Biblical manhood and womanhood, we encourage you to read the following statements, which we hold to be helpful and true at Mercy’s Door.
The Danvers Statement (1987)
The Nashville Statement (2015)
CBMW Statement on Abuse (2018)
For further reading on the topic, check out:
Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood
John Piper & Wayne Grudem
“When a woman is absorbed with God’s glory, she will interpret her life according to His truth.”
