I love planning Christian women’s events, and I’ve discovered I’m good at it too! Of all the women’s ministry events I’ve planned, my favorite by far is planning an amazing women’s prayer breakfast! I have some tips and ideas for planning women’s prayer breakfasts, and I can’t wait for you to read them!
Through the years, I’ve shared many tips and techniques on GodsyGirl.com on how to make your Christian women’s event spectacular!
Several emails asking questions regarding my event planning tips prompted me to compile all my tips, ideas, and resources into a book.
Simply called “Planning an Amazing Women’s Prayer Breakfast” you see how I share my “tried and true” processes for planning prayer breakfasts (and really any Christian women’s event for that matter).
I’m thrilled to share those details in this blog post called “Planning Women’s Prayer Breakfasts!”
You know, my first experience at my church was a women’s prayer breakfast. It was planned by an incredible woman, named Otealet Newman and her ministry team.
Although I’ve planned many events, there is nothing like a women’s prayer breakfast, in my opinion. It can change women’s lives through prayer and build lasting friendships.
Table of Contents – Planning women’s prayer breakfasts
Planning women’s prayer breakfasts
I’ve poured my passion for women’s prayer breakfasts into this book and know it will bless you tremendously.
From it you’ll learn how to:
- cultivate a vision for your event that will guide the planning process.
- design the event to be organized, purposeful, and Spirit-led.
- craft an agenda that is purposeful and intentional.
- market the event to attract women of various ages and interests.
- and much more!
This book answers your practical questions about planning a women’s prayer breakfast and inspires you to create an event the women will cherish for years to come.
Your first planning step
As with anything, pray before you plan your women’s prayer breakfast.
Seek direction.
After you have peace and clarity of vision, your next step in planning women’s prayer breakfasts is to define the goals, tasks, and timelines to ensure that the women’s prayer breakfast is organized effectively and touches the lives of the attendees in real and meaningful ways.
Often, God will lead you toward a broad vision from which to build. This is the overarching purpose of when you are a planning women’s prayer breakfasts.
The purpose tends to be more non-committal and intangible. The goal is appeals to emotional and spiritual sensibilities. There’s no measuring or no specifics when it comes to purpose. Your heart and soul dictate it.
Personally speaking, the purpose often comes to me before all the other planning elements. I think it’s closely linked to the initial unction you get from God to plan the event.
Sample purpose(s) could be:
- Bringing women closer to the Lord through prayer.
- Teaching about God’s purposes for prayer.
- Offering a chance for fellowship or making friends.
- Encouraging prayer partner relationships.
- Helping women feel loved, valued, and blessed.
The list could go on and on.
The over-arching purpose is a great marketing tool. Please share it in your promotional materials. Revealing that it positions the attendees as partners in your event’s success! More often than not, if they know what they are supposed to be getting from an experience, they will subconsciously work to ensure they get it.
From the over-arching purpose, you begin to craft your plan.
Start with your event’s goals – or desired outcomes – for the event. Goals could be anything from increasing your ministry’s mailing list to providing five ways women can improve their personal prayer lives.
It may seem tedious, but it doesn’t negate defining the goals. Few things are more frustrating to a group than executing a half-baked plan. Instead, invest the time to narrow your overarching purpose into actionable goals.
Good goals can be linked to metrics
The most effective goals are measurable. In other words, at the end of the event, you should have clear, quantifiable evidence the objectives were accomplished.
A few sample goals could be:
- At least 60 women attend the event
- To increase the women’s ministry mailing list by 20 women
- 25 women commit to prayer partner relationships with other women in the church
Although goals and objectives are often confused with one another, they are not interchangeable. Goals tend to be measurable, and objectives are the steps and strategies you take to make the goals happen.
Let’s think about objectives or how you intend to make the goals happen. For example, say your goal is to raise $200.00 for the women’s ministry. Your objective could be to sell 300 tickets at $10.00. This would cover event costs and secure the $200.00 goal. You could also have additional strategies such as an offering, donation box, or pledge card for future financial support. Your objectives help you reach the target.
At your first meeting, when planning women’s prayer breakfasts, begin a brainstorming activity about the goals. Questions such as:
- Why are we doing this event?
- What do we want attendees to leave with?
- What needs to be in place (or happen) to ensure we meet the goal(s)?
- What role will music, poetry, testimonies, etc. play in ensuring we reach the goal(s)?
- What resources do we need to ensure we reach our goal(s)?
Again, pray about your focus for the Women’s prayer breakfast. After all, God knows everything about the women coming to the event before you even set the date. He knows what they need, their struggles, and what is going on in their lives.
He will guide you. Trust Him.
Define Success for Your Prayer Breakfast
After you conceptualize what your event will do, you’re ready to define objectives. Unfortunately, so many folks plan an event and dive into the details without knowing what success will look like.
Defining the success of an event can be a multifaceted process beyond mere attendance numbers. It bothers me that some people consider an event a success based solely on how many people attended it. You can have a crowded room full of women, but the event was disjointed, the themes were confused, or the event was just a good memory without any learning or retention (i.e., the women didn’t learn anything).
While the number of attendees is indeed one crucial metric, success can also be evaluated through various other means. It’s essential to consider the post-event evaluation forms to gather in-depth feedback from attendees.
These forms provide valuable insights into the overall satisfaction level, areas of improvement, and suggestions for future events. Additionally, leveraging verbal feedback from attendees can provide real-time reactions and allow for immediate adjustments or acknowledgments of well-executed elements. Balancing quantitative and qualitative feedback methods will ultimately help you assess the success of your event more comprehensively.
Promoting the Event
The first key to promotion is frequency. The second key is variety.
People must hear about your event several – if not many – times to remember it. Don’t just promote the event once or twice and then stop. Could you imagine Coke doing that? Even their brand isn’t strong enough to advertise the product once or twice. No, do it several times.
With that said, frequency is not the only factor. You have to promote the event in different ways. Use social media, face-to-face communication (i.e., table after church), telephone calls, emails, etc.
Frequently publicizing and doing it several ways is the key.
Once you have a plan for how often and how many ways you’ll market the event, you’re ready to think about quality.
Use an app like Canva to create professional logos and graphics to promote your event. It’s free and straightforward to use. You’ll need pictures. Use copyright-free photography. Some great resources are:
Free Images
http://www.freeimages.com/
PixaBay
https://pixabay.com/en/
Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/
When planning women’s prayer breakfasts, these are my top three sources for copyright-free images. The image on my book cover is from *Unsplash. Here is a sample graphic I created for a women’s tea at my church:
I purchased the graphic from DreamsTime. I didn’t list their site because they are not free. The above sources are free of charge. Free is always better…well, sometimes.
The next decision to make is how far wide to cast your net. Is your event only for the women of your church, or perhaps you want to open it up to other churches? Maybe you want women from the community to join you. Proceed how God leads you and have a plan for how many people you want to reach.
Marketing information to share
Design your marketing materials to answer your event’s general who, what, when, and where. For example:
Who is it for?
What is the event about?
When is it happening?
Where will it be?
In addition to the above, you may also include specific “to-do’s,” such as urging them to:
- Invite or bring a friend sentence
- Share the info via social media or tell others about it
- adhere to the registration deadline, if applicable
- get a prayer journal or paper on which to write
- pay the registration fee in advance or at the door
- bring their receipt or proof of payment
- coincide with the milieu or preferred attire of the event
Include as much information as possible in your marketing materials.
Food for the event
I won’t spend a great deal of time on the subject of food. Planning for food presents so many variables. I will say try to align your food costs with the registration fee for your event. For instance, if the food costs a total of $10.00 per person, then the admission fee for the event should be at least $15.00. The extra $5.00 can go to the ministry for future events or supplies.
Your women’s prayer breakfast should never leave the ministry financially weaker than before. That’s not good business and terrible stewardship.
Must-have supplies on the day of your event
Avoid the frustration of not having all the supplies for your registration table by using the checklist below.
Trust me, those last-minute runs to Dollar Tree for pens or receipts only stress you out on the event day. It’s better to plan ahead and have everything you need. Mentally walk through each segment of your event to ensure you have everything you need. Consider scenarios like a person bringing a child because they could not get a babysitter. This means you may have to accommodate another chair.
Similarly, a person could transfer their registration to a friend because they could not attend. In such a case, you’d want to ensure you have blank name tags at the registration table. Planning eases tensions.
Here are the items I like to bring or plan to bring when planning women’s prayer breakfasts:
List of women who have registered
Pens/Pencils (Registration table/participants)
Stapler
Envelope walk-in money (if accepting walk-ins)
Receipt book
Scissors
Timed signs for speaker
Sticky notes
Decorative tablecloth (Registration)
Receipt book for “walk-ins” who pay onsite
Task sheets for each member of your team
Plain sheets of white paper
Extra pens for participants
Nametags for the volunteers and staff helping you
Flyers or cards promoting the ministry’s email address, social media, and website.
“Join the Mailing” list sheet or cards.
Simple post-event evaluation forms
Personal prayer request to leave on the table
Extra extension cord
Phone charger (just in case)
Bandages or first aid kit
Sewing kit
Managing the Speaker
You could begin your search for a keynote speaker by asking friends and contacts for referrals. A trusted local pastor might also be a good resource. Pastor’s wives typically have social networks and may be able to help.
A riskier path is the internet. If you find a speaker online, ask for references and get everything in writing.
Blessing the Speaker
Some speakers expect to be paid for their appearance. Be sure to ask. Other speakers are OK with an undefined “love gift.” Again, ask.
Other questions to ask a prospective speaker are:
- Have you been a keynote speaker before?
- How would you describe your experience and attitude toward prayer?
- Do you think it is important to interact with the audience? How would you interact with our ladies?
- Will you need internet? A projector for a PowerPoint?
- What can we do to ensure you are successful?
- Are you able to speak on prayer in one hour?
A Question of Doctrine
One sticky consideration is theology. Make sure the speaker’s beliefs coincide –and do not contradict -yours. Sometimes, disputable matters are not deal breakers. If your speaker believes in worship on Saturdays, she may be able to speak adequately on prayer without mentioning that matter. A speaker from a Baptist church can very well minister to women in a Pentecostal church while respecting theological boundaries. It’s touchy, but it all begins with communication. Be led by the Holy Spirit.
The P.O.C. (Point of Contact) for the speaker
Identify one person as the speaker’s point of contact to avoid confusion. Their job is to ensure the speaker has no barriers to success and is ready to minister when she/he arrives.
Having the point person communicate/reiterate to the speaker how long they have to share is a good idea. Even if you’ve told the speaker once, repeating it to them in several ways never hurts.
Other tasks for the P.O.C:
- Coordinate getting the speaker’s bio.
- Meet/Greet the speaker when she/he arrives.
- Lead her/him to their reserved seating spot.
- Have bottled water, a tissue, and a cough drop at the podium.
- Ensure audio/visual needs are met.
- Signal when time is running short/over.
Get Everyone Organized
For optimal effectiveness and efficiency when planning women’s prayer breakfasts, every part of your team must buy into the vision of the women’s prayer breakfast. Each person should be well-informed and have reached an agreement on its execution. They should embrace it with excitement and vigor.
They should embrace the vision, and each individual should know exactly what they are doing on that day.
With your team, consider your event and break each element into tasks, areas, or responsibilities. Ask individuals to volunteer to manage those jobs.
Some responsibilities or tasks to consider could be:
- Registration – Manages the entire process
- Technology –Arrange PPTs, Videos, Music, etc.
- Facilities – Hang signs, directs traffic flow, etc.
- Swag and takeaways secure items for drawings.
- Food Prep and Operations –work with caterer and food.
- Décor and Atmosphere – self-explanatory
- Point of Contact for Speaker – handles speaker confirmations and care.
- Music and Worship – identifies soloist and plans worship experience.
It takes a team. So, these jobs can be mini-committees that handle these areas or super-organized, committed individuals. Either way, clarity is critical.
Make expectations clear and ensure everyone has what they need to succeed in their prospective roles.
Here is a sample job doc for the chairs/committees/individuals:
Task List for Event Day
When I plan conferences, I like to give each person a list of what they will do on that day. It may seem a bit much, but effective communication prevents confusion.
Keep the list light and fun. Add a funny graphic or joke so it doesn’t seem to be what it is – a to-do list. Don’t let this be the first time team members see their tasks. They should be familiar with it during the planning meetings and have several opportunities to discuss it in meetings. The one you distribute on the event day should be more of a confirmation.
On the next page is an example of what I handed out to volunteers helping with one of my conferences. You’ll like this list. It is simple, concise, and clear.
There’s no room for “I didn’t know…” with this list. 🙂 As you’re planning women’s prayer breakfasts, make things as easy as you can for the volunteers.
Sample Task List for an Individual:
I pray you have plenty of help and can delegate some of the work. At the same time, I understand the ebbs and flows of ministry. One month, you can have tons of help only to find yourself scraping by with a devoted few the next month.
If you’re in one of those “scraping by” seasons and pulling off this event alone, just write yourself a detailed list of items to be done. You can do it.
Planning a women’s prayer breakfast on your own can be a rewarding experience. Start by setting a clear vision and purpose for the event deciding on its theme and goals.
Create a detailed checklist outlining tasks such as choosing a date and location, selecting speakers or presenters, planning the menu, and organizing prayer activities.
Reach out to your network and invite other women who may want to contribute or participate in the event. Utilize technology for communication, promotion, and online RSVPs, if needed. As the event approaches, set aside time for personal prayer and reflection, seeking God’s guidance for the breakfast. With thoughtful planning, clear intentions, and prayerful preparation, you can create a meaningful and spiritually uplifting women’s prayer breakfast all on your own.
I’ve pulled off events myself, so I know you can do it too!
A Sample Agenda
Agendas with times or time frames are helpful to get an idea of how long your event will last. But I have one warning: Don’t share it outside your planning committee.
Distributing a timed agenda (i.e., times printed on the plan) to the participants on the day of your event is rarely a good idea. They will watch that agenda closely and hold you to every minute without knowing what is happening behind the scenes. Someone will say something if the soloist goes over her allotted time of one minute.
It’s best they don’t know. Ignorance, in this case, is bliss.
Don’t believe me?
Let me share a personal experience. Years ago, I placed a timed agenda on every table during an event. I figured the people would like to know what to expect at specific times.
After one of the speakers blabbed ten minutes past her assigned time, she threw the entire morning miserably off schedule. Who did the participants blame when they evaluated the event – US! What did they expect – for us to turn off her microphone? Anyhow, I learned then: never print times or time allotments on agendas that people will see.
No, keep them with the planning committee and volunteers – not the participants.
After all this discussion about timed agendas, it’s only fair I show you a sample, right? These docs can be a blessing on the day of the event.
- Early Bird Arrival (7:45a – 8:00a)
Try to set up long before people arrive. If they see you do so, it robs them of the experience. Instead, open your doors only when the room is ready.
- Registration/Check-in (8:00 – 8:30a)
- Welcome and Prayer(8:00 – 8:05a)
Share housekeeping info, i.e., restroom locations, fire exits, and such. Set the tone. Be warm, upbeat, and enthusiastic – even if you must fake it.
- Praise and Worship (8:05 8:15a)
Transition the ladies into a mental place of worship. You accomplish this with an anointed soloist, a skit, a quiet time of contemplation, or a praise dance. - You’re gently shifting them from the previous stresses, struggles, and strain to a spiritually open, receptive place. Respect this time. Guard it, and don’t cloud it with foolishness.
Tip: strive to still and calm their spirits at the beginning of the praise and worship time. Then, transition them to faster-paced worship.
- Explain the dining process (8:16 – 8:19a)
How will they get their food? Will they be served, form lines on both sides of the table, or be called by individual tables? Figure out an expeditious way so you will not have people finished eating while others wait to be served.
- Time for food service (8:20 – 8:30a)
Have a plan for those waiting to be served. What could they be doing as they wait? Consider table games, conversation starters, icebreakers, soloists, testimonies, and introductions.
Your planning team, a video, scavenger hunts, etc.
I like videos by Ben Courson – Hope Generation. His scripture videos are excellent to play during the “wait time.” Find him on YouTube.
- Eating and Fellowship (8:30 – 9:00a)
Keep the dining portion of the day your “low maintenance” portion of the breakfast. Interaction should be casual, organic, and natural – not forced.
You’ll need a plan for the introverts. This is where the conversations starters will come in handy.
- Interaction Check (9:00 – 9:05a)
Ask each table to shout out something they learned about someone else at their table.
- Introduction and Presentation of Speaker (9:05 – 10:05a)
Delegate someone to give signals to the speaker so she will know how much time she has. This usually looks like a person in the back of the room with sheets of paper with 15 minutes left, 10 minutes is left, all the way down to when 5 minutes remaining.
Note: It’s best to leave attendees wanting more than leaving them feeling like they are being held hostage by the speaker. More about managing your speaker later.
- Personal Reflection (10:00a – 10:10a)
Your event is only as good as it is helpful to the women attending. After the speaker, give them a moment to just…think.
Encourage them to ponder questions like:
- What did God say to me today?
- How do I feel about what God told me today?
- What is the Holy Spirit prompting me to do with the information I received?
- How will I begin doing it?
- When will I start doing it, and how will it look?
If you hand out programs, these questions can be printed on them. This would be a good time to ask the women to write in their journals.
- Group Reflection and Sharing (10:10 – 10:25a)
Allow the women to pair with someone at the event.
Remind them to respect the moment and avoid joking or giggling as they transition. Ask them to quietly find someone and share as much as they are comfortable with the other person. Then, ask them to pray for one another.
- Close (10:15 – 10:30a)
The closing is often the easiest time of the event. After prayer, I find the women’s hearts are open, and their spirits are sensitive. This is not likely the time for giveaways, raffles, or jarring events. Do those types of activities before the prayer and reflection. It will flow much better.
Planning women’s prayer breakfasts – The Post-event evaluation
Think of a speedy, non-intrusive way to get feedback about your event. Please keep it simple.
Consider something simple like:
Build a “following” with your event.
Be sure you find a way to capture the contact information of every participant. The best time to capture this is when they register. People can be a little “funny” about sharing their emails and information at or after the event. For this very purpose, I love PayPal and online registrations. If you can’t use either, have a sign-in sheet or something at the table when they register.
If you have their contact information, you can bless them again later. It’s all about ministry and building the Kingdom. All roads lead there… or should.
The important final step when planning women’s prayer breakfasts
Through the years, I have learned how important it is to meet with the planning team AFTER the event is over to discuss what worked, what didn’t, and what you might want to do in the future.
These events can spark tons of future endeavors!
Did your prayer breakfast present an opportunity?
Could a monthly prayer group develop from this event? Should we send prayer reminders? Should we begin a prayer-focused Facebook group for the women who attended? Maybe we should start a prayer blog with the ladies? The possibilities are endless.
Aside from thinking about future events, examine the conceptual success of the event. Ask your team questions like:
What were our objectives/goals?
Did we achieve what we set out to do?
How do we measure effectiveness – beyond the objectives/goals?
As you reflect on planning women’s prayer breakfasts, remember its “unmeasurable” elements. How people felt, the looks on their faces, and what people said to you in passing are great in
I pray your event is a massive success and meets the goals God leads you to create. Remember, there is no one formula for success. You seek God and allow Him to craft your event into the blessing He intends. Please subscribe to GodsyGirl.Com or WomensMinistryResources.com for updates to this document and inspirational blog posts to inspire, empower, and encourage you!
Thank you for reading, and best wishes for your event!
*Photo by Anjeli Lundblad on Unsplash
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GodsyGirl is a Christian lifestyle blog featuring Christian faith articles written by an ordinary Christian woman blogger, Christian inspirational podcaster, and a pastor’s wife. GodsyGirl is about Christian inspiration and living your fullest life as a fabulous Christian woman. Explore GodsyGirl.com to find articles on everything from daily Christian living to hair, makeup, and living your absolute best life!
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