Defining MOxIE

Moxie is  quirky word Websters defines as courage, verve, energy, spunk, skill, and know-how.   If you’ve poked around my past posts,  you will quickly realize there was a time in my life  - not so long ago – I was a girl who had lost her moxie.    My career had taken an unexpected turn.  Ten years into marriage – I realized, “Um- this isn’t easy”.   And my faith – which had always come so easily – was faltering.    I needed a friend.   As I sat in our church of over 5ooo members,  I began to wonder who was the  woman I could turn to in that congregation that had been down the same road.   Was there someone who could tell me I would live and survive my current situation?  Was there someone who would pray for me?  Was there someone who could show me a way back to surer footing for my faith?  As I sat there that Sunday,  I couldn’t name one older woman in my church.

Now here’s the deal, I have been so incredibly blessed with smart, courageous, brilliant  older women who have taken time out of their busy schedules to give advice on my career.  From those experiences, I realized how much camaderie happened over a simple lunch.  How blessed I was by their experiences and advice.     I wrote a blog post about these special women back in the Spring.   Shortly after that blog post,  I happened to mention to someone at my mega church, “wouldn’t it be great if we had this network of women at church who just met and did lunch.  Having a relationship with an older woman a little further down the path… a path with career, family, and trying to follow Christ.  You know- Those connections that make this big ol place seem a little smaller – like my hometown church”    Well, that person said,  ”Indeed it would,  I’m setting up a meeting with you and one of senior pastors next week.  He is launching a new ministry called Sageworks  - a ministry for adults in the golden half of life  -  and this would be a perfect project”

Soon after that,  I met with Bill Parkinson and discussed what a possible mentoring program for women IN the church would look like.   He gave me a slight smile.  He asked me a few questions.  He said, “JoBeth – go for it!”     So, after two days of complete weeping (in a good way) – I started a fervent prayer that went something like this:   “God I have no idea what I’m doing or who I need, but you do.  So please,  just put them in my path”    And from that moment on –  everyday, I stand amazed at God’s hand.   A week after a meeting with Bill,   his wife Ann literally crossed my path as I was walking out of church on Sunday morning.  She grabbed my arm – told me Bill told her about me and she said , “I want to be part of this!     She is now my mentor, my precious friend, and my sidekick in organizing this project.

Last night, we had the privilege of sharing this vision of ministry with all of Sageworks – about 500-700 folks.     So now,  I’m sharing with you ….

MOXIE is now defined at Fellowship Bible Church as “mentoring others by influence and encouragement”

The purpose of moxie is to promote generational unity – connecting women of FBC Sageworks to share God given life experinces to encourage and counsel the younger generations of Christ Followers.    The MOXIE vision is to give women of FBC a stronger sense of belonging to the Church, to strengthen their walk with Christ,and to grow female leaders and mentors across all generations.

The way we hope to accomplish these lofty goals is my utilizing the committed women of Sageworks to connect to the women in the general FBC congretation and weekend attendees through mentoring at four different levels:

Casual Connection ( Life on Life)

Equip/ Skill Mentoring     —

Discipleship

Life Experiences

In January 2011,  we will host our first MOXIE Mixer – a time where women who want to mentor and women who want to be mentored will meet and greet.  From now until then there will be behind the scenes organizing of our MOXIE PROJECT ( my cutesy name of the committee) and a lot PRAYER.     So if you are the praying kind,  please keep this new project / ministry in mind.     If you are a woman in Fellowship Bible Church who has lived life – well we need you.   And if you are a younger woman who feels like you’ve lost your energy, courage, verve, skill … I know a place where you can find your moxie.

“ Even though we had some standing as Christ’s apostles, we never threw our weight around or tried to come across as important, with you or anyone else. We weren’t aloof with you. We took you just as you were. We were never patronizing, never condescending, but we cared for you the way a mother cares for her children. We loved you dearly. Not content to just pass on the Message, we wanted to give you our hearts. And we did.

“You remember us in those days, friends, working our fingers to the bone, up half the night, moonlighting so you wouldn’t have the burden of supporting us while we proclaimed God’s Message to you. You saw with your own eyes how discreet and courteous we were among you, with keen sensitivity to you as fellow believers. And God knows we weren’t freeloaders! You experienced it all firsthand. With each of you we were like a father with his child, holding your hand, whispering encouragement, showing you step-by-step how to live well before God, who called us into his own kingdom, into this delightful life.”     1 Thessalonians 2: 7-12   The Message

For more information on how to be part of MOXIE or if you have great resources or talents you want to share , please contact me at my email  bootsmcblog@gmail.com.   And fair warning – I’ll keep you updated on here from time to time on our progress.

Cheers and Grace Y’all!