In the summer of 2000 we had two women's bible studies going during the day and an occasional baby shower for someone in the church. That was about it. It has been several years since anyone had tried to organize anything for the women of the church.

By Grace started with a handful of women who each held a different piece of a vision for a women's retreat. The theme would be "Purpose" and the retreat ended up being entitled: "The Search for Purpose".

After six months of prayer and planning we held our retreat at a local hotel. Our retreat was very successful. 27 women attended and the feedback was really positive. In case you are wondering, we were not at all discouraged by the numbers. Our room would only comfortably seat about 40 anyways. We knew that the first year would be small and believed that God would use it to teach us a lot for the next year. And He has!

We decided to draw speakers from our own church rather than try to finance an out of town guest. We have never regretted it. The messages that were shared were wonderful. Seeing women that they know well operating in the gifts that God gave them served as an encouragement to all those who attended.

The retreat was used as a kick off for a new, more organized women's ministry. We unveiled a new name "By Grace" and plans for the next year. We scheduled the same conference room for a monthly "Grace By Night - Ladies Night Out". We did this for two reasons. First, our church building is used every night of the week and secondly, holding the event outside of the church walls would be less intimidating to visitors.

At this writing we have held Grace By Night ten times (January was cancelled due to weather). It has been very successful! We have had anywhere from eleven to 42 women in attendance. Every month we see between 7 and 15 visitors! This exceeded our expectations!

Here are some of the topics that we have covered:

Personality Profiles
A Closer Look at Harry Potter
Improving Relationships
Cooking for 30 days in One Day

How Grace By Night works:

One person takes charge of the preparation of the night. Another person serves as Hostess. Additional team help with the meal preparation and other needs. Our Hostess makes everyone feel welcome and comfortable and also acts as the "MC" for the evening. We open with prayer & dinner. The menu is always changing and varies from simple to complex. We have a registration table where everyone signs up for the door prize (and gives us their address, phone number and email). All first time guests are welcomed for free. Everyone else drops a $5 bill in a basket.

We allow plenty of time for everyone to enjoy their meal. Sometimes we have an ice breaker or just ask everyone to share their name, it depends on how we are doing on time and what the speaker has planned.

The speaker is introduced and we settle in to enjoy what they have to share. Sometimes it isn't a message, sometimes it is a project or craft that they are demonstrating. For example, in December, we were able to acquire enough supplies for a large group to put together Christmas Potpourri Lights. Kelly shared a brief message about being a light to those around us and demonstrated how to assemble the lights and then everyone got creative with their own. It was tons of fun!

Some details...

We desire the women who come to Grace By Night to get a touch from the Holy Spirit and we foster an atmosphere of intimacy as much as possible. At the end of the evening the Hostess announces that ministry leaders are available for personal prayer if it is desired. It is not unusual for several women to take advantage of this offer.

We have a door prize every month and we have gifts for every first time guest. (A By Grace Mug full of candy!)

At least every three months we rent a guest room at the hotel to use as changing room space and invite all of the women to stay after for a dip in the pool or a soak in the hot tub. This is always a welcome treat for women who rarely get to enjoy some time to themselves.

We had to move in November of 2001 to a larger conference room at another hotel. Growth is good!

We printed an invite card (the size of a regular business card) that women can use to tell others about Grace By Night and we regularly encourage everyone to invite their friends and family!

We make reminder phone calls to all of the women of our church and we send out reminder post cards to everyone that we have an address for. Now that we have womenbygrace.com it provides us with another way to stay in touch with our women.