Develop your leadership skills

Presbyterian Women provides an atmosphere that promotes the full growth and expression of individuals and their gifts. This nurturing environment develops women's gifts of responsible and visionary leadership, empowering them to serve not only PW, but also their churches, communities and the denomination.

For the 2006–2009 triennium, Presbyterian Women’s work for leadership training will revolve around three initiatives — leadership training materials, training PW synod leaders and the antiracism initiative.

Leadership training materials

Antiracism initiative

A workgroup has been created to develop a plan to implement the antiracism initiative in 2006–2009.

Leader Training

PW in the Synods are conducting leader training for leadership roles in Presbyterian Women. The training will include workshops that explore the responsibilities and best practices for each role in PW.

Download workshops that outline the work of PW leadership roles

• Cluster Leader
• Historian
• Justice and Peace Coordinator
• Mission Coordinator
• Moderator
• Search Moderator
• Secretary
• Spiritual Enhancement
• Treasurer

Download a PW moderator workshop presentation created by Churchwide Coordinating Team moderator Catrelia Hunter.
Note: This presentation may be altered to fit what is happening in your synod.

Contact your synod leader to find when your training is happening.

Racial Ethnic Dialog

The Racial Ethnic Dialog Group consists of 21 women, including white and racial ethnic members-at-large from the Churchwide Coordinating Team of Presbyterian Women and women from each of the six racial ethnic women’s constituency groups. The group seeks to honor the gifts of all people while finding ways to dialogue and work together as an inclusive caring community. Fully supported by Presbyterian Women, the group meets annually for two days. 

The 2006 meeting was held in January at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The 2007 meeting will be held January 26–27 at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Download leadership development bibliography

Develop your gift of leadership by reading recommended books or watching videos. and learn more about women and leadership, gender, group dynamics, strategic planning and much more.

Grants are available for leadership training

A grant from the Leadership Development Fund provides funds to allow women to attend training or events to develop and strengthen their leadership skills. Grants are available for individuals and groups or organizations attending a national or international event. Get information about the grants and download an application.

Ideas to help build community

Building community within a group takes intentional effort on the part of the members to build trust, respect, and understanding. Use these ideas to cultivate a level of trust, foster new relationships and enrich existing relationships.

Learn teachers' best tactics

Every teacher has a best practice, and participants at The Alabama/Mississippi Women’s Conference shared their tips for a successful presentation. Read their suggestions and incorporate one into your next Bible study group or presentation.

Evaluate today to plan for tomorrow

Planning and evaluation are necessary for the future of any organization. Whether your PW group is new or well-established, keep it strong and growing with regular evaluation of your current program in light of the changing needs of women in your congregation.

Planning a PW event

Here's a checklist to help you plan and resource your PW event.

If you are ordering items to sell in a resource center at a PW event, call Presbyterian Distribution Service, (800) 524-2612, and tell the representative the resources are for a PW group. You will have 30 days to return the unsold items and payment for items that sold.

If you've invited an individual to lead a workshop, speak, lead worship or provide other leadership for your event, you may want to consider giving an honorarium. Read guidelines for giving an honorarium.
Download the guidelines.

Contact Carissa Herold, PW marketing associate, to ask about and order our newest give-away items for your next event! Call (888) 728-7228, x 5322 or email Carissa.

Hymn Permissions

If your event includes singing hymns, you must ensure that your use of the hymns is fair and legal. If your group or event location has access to enough hymnals for each participant to have her own or share with those near her, you do not need to seek permission.

However, if you in any way reproduce a hymn or elements of it, you are required to seek permission from the copyright holder(s) of the hymn. Use of words and/or music in the following ways all constitute situations that obligate seeking permissions:

• photocopies
• inclusion in bulletin or worship aid and/or
• projection onto a screen. 

Devotionals

— Files marked with this icon can be downloaded in printable Adobe Acrobat format. This file requires the free Acrobat Reader. For best results, right-click the link (or click and hold for Macintosh), select "save target as" and save the document to your desktop for viewing and printing.