Living the PW Purpose: Strategies and Activities
When we engage in action motivated by faith, we live out the PW Purpose consciously or unconsciously. The purpose of Presbyterian Women convicts us to
- Nurture our faith through prayer and Bible study.
- Support the mission of the Church worldwide.
- Work for justice and peace.
- Build an inclusive, caring community of women that strengthens the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and witnesses to the promise of God’s kingdom.
Below are some suggestions that can be used to carry out the PW Purpose. Remember there are many more!
Nurture our faith through prayer and Bible study
- Use the Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study.
- Subscribe to Hungry Hearts, Hungry Minds, a quarterly resource published by the Theology, Worship and Education Ministry Area.
- Increase daily prayer time.
- Make an extended and inclusive prayer list.
- Attend Sunday school and encourage others to attend.
- Attend Bible study groups.
- Attend prayer groups.
- Use the PW/Horizons Bible study resources found in Horizons magazine.
- Have prayer partners.
- Take part in a prayer chain.
- Prepare devotional booklets.
- Review books on prayer and devotional books and share with others.
- Encourage families to have daily devotionals.
- Sponsor church Bible reading; read the Bible in one year.
- Challenge youth and adults on Bible reading and study.
- Challenge everyone to bring Bibles to church.
- Use bulletins to motivate people to pray and study the Bible.
- Participate in and organize spiritual retreats.
- Help sponsor Vacation Bible School for children, families and women.
- Sponsor a coffee hour for gathering of small groups to study and pray.
- Hold a prayer vigil.
- Hold a shut-in for 24 hours for prayer.
- Make available a special prayer request box.
- Show you care with little things.
- Share information about concerns.
- Pray for family units in church.
- Seek out help from your pastor for your PW Bible study preparation. If your pastor does not work with PW Bible study leaders, seek out help from another pastor who does. Encourage your pastor to start helping.
- Have workshops on spiritual leadership and spiritual practices.
- Use Horizons Bible study and magazine for ideas for spiritual nurture.
- Use Make the Most of Your Magazine, available as a free download from for program ideas for your circle or group.
- Conduct prayer visitations for newborns who are ill.
- Create a homebound circle and have other circles send cards, provide birthday visits and secret pals and call members of the church who are homebound.
- Participate in small group Bible study.
- Hold a service luncheon with an offering once a week during Lent.
- Encourage everyone to hold a daily devotion during Lent using a Lent devotional book.
- Participate in worship and prayer services from Palm Sunday to Easter.
- Study hymns and the scripture on which the hymns are based.
- Help children learn the Shorter Catechism.
- Learn a new Bible verse each day.
- Pray for mission co-workers.
- Learn about different versions of the Bible.
- Plan a World Day of Prayer service and attend a service in your area. Planning materials are available from World Day of Prayer USA Distribution Center, (888) 937-8720.
Support the Mission of the Church Worldwide
- Engage in prayer and study using the PC(USA) Mission Year Book of Prayer & Study on a daily basis.
- Obtain copies of the PC(USA) Children’s Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study and introduce children to the resource through Vacation Bible School, children’s sermons, Sunday school and other programs.
- Order the PW Together in Service Manual for mission project ideas
- Participate in projects including Enough for Everyone,
Fair Trade, energy conservation, sweat-free products, responsible investing, NetWorkers or the PW Palm Project. - Take part in mission opportunities, locally or internationally.
- Nominate someone for the PW Global Exchange.
- Visit residents in a nursing home.
- Read to someone who is blind.
- Advocate for and serve people who are homeless.
- Subscribe to Horizons to be better informed about PW activities.
- Invite a missionary to speak.
- Participate in Crop Walk.
- Participate in the Fellowship of the Least Coin prayer movement.
- Make kits for disaster victims. Contact Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for information.
- Make blankets to give newborns as they leave the hospital.
- Collect 3 cents a meal for missions, put jars on tables.
- Allow space for Meals on Wheels at your church.
- Help feed people through food programs.
- Bring specific items needed for the church service center.
- Partner with local agencies that serve the needs of people who are poor, abused or incarcerated.
- Participate in or create new care projects for people who are homebound.
- Organize and/or participate in Christmas projects such as stocking trees, mitten trees, angel trees and local efforts.
- Sew and knit for newborns.
- Celebrate Christmas in July — collect underwear and socks for people who are homeless or in need.
- Participate in Beth-El Mission for migrant workers.
- Send Christmas cards to prisons.
- Reuse old Christmas cards to make baskets for cookies.
- Attend meetings on local and presbytery levels to find out what missions are being supported by the church.
- Collect used stamps to be used for mission work.
- Have a workshop on aging and disability.
- Support college students.
- Support Christmas International House.
- Be a part of the Central American Task Force.
- Support Cents-Ability.
- Learn more about peacemaking.
- Support the One Great Hour of Sharing special offering.
- Take part in the Birthday Offering.
- Take part in the Thank Offering.
- Pledge to PW on congregation, presbytery, synod and churchwide levels.
- Support theological schools.
- Support Mission Haven.
- Establish a mission partnership with another church or global partnership with a church in another country.
- Support and visit Presbyterian Homes.
- Read a copy of Embracing God’s World: Involving the Congregation in Mission
Work for justice and peace
- Subscribe to PC(USA) Peacemaking Program’s e-newsletters and publications.
- Plan an antiracism education event with antiracism facilitators in your presbytery.
- Help children learn to solve problems without violence.
- Vote in local, state and national elections.
- Support a local or national spouse abuse network.
- Give to a local food pantry.
- Become aware of injustices and resources available within your community.
- Support Habitat for Humanity.
- Support Heifer International.
- Support children’s homes.
- Be a poll worker or take food to poll workers on Election Day.
- Support and participate in mission trips.
- Learn nonviolent conflict resolution skills.
- Volunteer at a rape crisis center.
- Take children of women prisoners to see their mothers on Saturday.
- Stay informed.
- Write to local politicians and congresspersons about issues of justice.
- Support shelters for battered women by giving time, devotionals and money.
- Start a prison support group (nurture families of prisoners).
- Support people who are being released from prisons.
- Be an ally to someone suffering from injustice.
- Offer to babysit children who have one parent in prison while their other parent goes to visit the prison.
- Support food banks and soup kitchens.
- Prepare food and send food to family members in need.
- Visit prisons.
- Host parties for the Department of Juvenile Justice on special days.
- Organize and train volunteers for community programs.
- Remember the Holocaust in hope that it will never happen again.
- Organize, attend or participate in Martin Luther King Day and Race Relations Day celebrations.
- Read Justice and Peace Links, an online newsletter written by Presbyterian Women about pertinent justice and peace issues and created by the Justice and Peace Committee of the Churchwide Coordinating Team.
Build an inclusive, caring community of women that strengthens the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and witnesses to the promise of God’s kingdom
- Adopt a person or couple unable to attend church.
- Plan weekly contact with people adopted.
- Help people who are ill — take food, provide transportation to the doctor’s office, etc.
- Get to know a young couple in your church.
- Invite someone who does not have a church home to come with you to a church service or event.
- Reach out to new church members by inviting them into your home or including them in social activities.
- Organize dialogue groups composed of women of diverse racial ethnic backgrounds to overcome barriers and increase mutual understanding.
- Offer a series of educational sessions using the PW DVD and study guide Becoming the Beloved Community.
- Intentionally create opportunities to get to know people of different cultural and economic backgrounds.
- Have a newsletter with scriptures and nurturing thoughts, share with whole community.
- Invite community, not just members, to special events at church.
- Participate in Habitat for Humanity building programs.
- Collect food items for food centers and soup kitchens.
- Volunteer to help at a food center or soup kitchen.
- Participate in a prayer chain.
- Invite women from other churches, including different races and cultures, to attend meetings.
- Host a breakfast between two services or between Sunday school and church and sit at tables with people you do not know as well.
- Intentionally invite young persons to special events, both inside and outside of church.
- Adopt a local school and help when needed.
- Visit people who are elderly and confined to their homes.
- Provide dinners for those in bereavement.
- Create and support rainbow groups to provide support for people who have suffered a loss through divorce, death or other circumstances.
- Start or participate in an angel ministry — write to prisoners for names of their children and their ages. Invite them to be a part of the ministry.
- Let people know they are always welcome to circles.
- Initiate or join a prayer chain and prayer partners program, bring in unchurched youth partners and keep in touch with them.
- Assign circles to college students to support through phone calls, emails and other forms of outreach.
- Create a scholarship fund for college youth.
- Help youth go to Christian camps and retreats.
- Support the PW Cluster Leader Program. Invite your PW Cluster Leader to join your Presbyterian Women at a meeting, worship or special event.
- Give daily smiles away.
