Women’s Devotion | April 2019
New
Here we are! It’s already April and we are experiencing the wonders of spring. New flowers, new leaves, a new season. The Lord spoke to me at the beginning of this year about the word new. Isaiah 43:19 tells us He is doing a new thing. He makes all things new. We are new creations. We have new mercies every morning! So what’s new in you? He also said that this year I will have new wine in new wineskins which means the old has to be destroyed. A new me, a new way of thinking and a new way of responding. The old has to go and new emerges! The following devotion will help us walk in the new thing!
Leading Ladies need to have two qualities – to walk in HUMILITY and to be TEACHABLE. Are we humble enough to be taught?
“A scoffer seeks Wisdom in vain [for his very attitude blinds and deafens him to it], but knowledge is easy to him who [being teachable] understands.” Proverbs 14:6 AMP
As Leading Ladies, we spend a great deal of time encouraging and teaching others but who do we receive from? (I’m humbled that you’d take time to read my little devotion!) Holy Spirit can speak to us through anything and anyone. The scripture above said that our very attitude can blind and deafen us to receiving wisdom. So the question is what is our attitude when someone tries to teach or share something with us? Are we open to receive from the least likely sources? My daughter taught me a lot through the years, especially helped me to loosen up! I greatly value her opinion on spiritual and natural issues. The Lord has given her such wisdom!
I’m also open to hear from other Leading Ladies who might have been in ministry for a shorter time than I have. I’m blessed with several mentors that I can reach out to and they give me scriptural advice, not their opinion. These ladies are not in my church, not even in my state. (The people you lead can’t be your friends. You might be wondering why…reach out to me and I can share with you what I’ve learned.) You need a woman that you can believe her motives are pure and you can receive from. There is always something to glean from others. My pastor used to say, “Eat the meat and throw away the bones!”
Most importantly, are you humble to receive from your husband, your priest? Not receiving from your priest is a reflection of not receiving from the Lord (Eph. 5:22). In my case, my husband is my pastor and my boss because I serve as the Women’s Ministries Director. It is difficult at times to not blur the lines. We make it a general rule to schedule ministry appointments in the office to keep our ministry relationship professional and respectful. It’s so easy for me to slip into wife mode! I have to make a conscious effort to humble myself and receive criticism and correction from him in the ministry. Learning how to humble myself and to be teachable has been key for my husband and I to flow in ministry together. Lord, help us as Leading Ladies to stay humble and teachable and may our responses to others be saturated with love!
Lorna Burch is married to her husband of 21 years, Raymond Burch, Jr. She was born in Germany and was raised in various places due to her father being in the Army. She has a passion for teaching the gospel, mentoring pastors’/ministers’ wives, and ministering to women in ministry alongside their husbands. Her mission in life is to support her husband in ministry. Lorna currently serves as Women’s Discipleship Director of New Jersey Church of God State Executive Office.Lorna is an ordained minister in the Church of God of Cleveland, Tennessee. She graduated with a master’s degree in Theology from Life Christian University in Lutz, Florida and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Biblical Studies. She is also a certified marriage counselor from Christian Life School of Theology in Columbus, Georgia and an instructor of Southeast Georgia Bible Institute in Waycross, Georgia, which began in 2016. In May 2017, Lorna earned an Executive Leadership nano-degree.
Rev. Lorna Burch has served as worship pastor and administrative pastor during their full-time lead pastoral service. She has served administratively during their tenure as the Black Ministries Coordinator in South Georgia for nine years overseeing 20+ churches and the first woman to be elected to the Youth & Discipleship Board in 2016 along with various regional/state committees and boards.
Lorna has served on the Executive Board of Directors on the Waycross-Ware Chamber of Commerce for a three-year term and on the Public Relations and Workforce Development subcommittee. She served as Treasurer for Chamber of Commerce for two years. She also graduated from the 2016 Leadership Waycross program.
Her hobbies include exercising, traveling, finding new places to eat and vacation, and most of all spending time with her husband.
They have three adult children: Whitney of Hazlehurst, Georgia; Jamal of Fayetteville, North Carolina; Keyara who serves as Communications Director for New Jersey State Executive Office and Youth Pastor of New Covenant in Plainfield, NJ; and many spiritual children.