As highlighted on its website, the PCA’s Committee on Discipleship Ministries (CDM) “affirms their conviction that women’s ministry has the opportunity to extend God’s Kingdom into our homes, churches, communities, and even throughout the world.” Toward that end, CDM has created a wealth of resources to help local leaders create, build, and sustain healthy women’s ministry.

The first two books are recommended as foundational resources for women’s ministry leadership development and are available via the PCA bookstore:

Women’s Ministry in the Local Church: A Complementarian Approach by J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt (2006)

Why should a church have a women’s ministry? That’s the persistent question Susan Hunt, former PCA director of women’s ministries, found herself asking after leaving a church that ordained women as elders.

This book offers a clear, theologically sound response to her question. It also presents a practical approach to building a healthy, functioning women’s ministry as a means of strengthening Christ’s church.

In addition to answering the “why” question about women’s ministry, the authors provide a complementarian perspective to each of the following questions:

• Who is responsible for the women’s ministry in a church?

• How does women’s ministry relate to the other ministries in a church?

• What are the tasks of women’s ministry?

• How does a church implement a biblical approach to women’s ministry?

“Women’s Ministry in the Local Church” is recommended as a study for all women in the church to work through together and has its own leader’s guide with discussion guides.

Life-giving Leadership by Karen Hodge and Susan Hunt (2018)

Having established the “why” for women’s ministry, Susan Hunt partnered with Karen Hodge, current CDM women’s ministry coordinator, to unfold the “how” of complementarian leadership.

Given that the concepts of “women” and “leadership” when paired together can be perceived as problematic, the authors point toward Jesus as modeling a different kind of leadership.

The book includes practical insights and personal illustrations designed to encourage and equip women to:

• Think biblically and lead covenantally

• Find our confidence in Christ, not ourselves

• Set our purpose on eternal goals instead of specific tasks

• Reflect Jesus, not agendas

• Lead with prayer and wisdom

• Seek covenantal community

• Submit to God and the complementarian leadership of the church

Word-Filled Women’s Ministry: Loving and Serving the Church edited by Gloria Furman and Kathleen B. Nielson (2015)

Karen Hodge often says that women’s ministry is to be “Word-based and relationally driven.” This book, published by The Gospel Coalition, contains 10 essays by women, all from within a complementarian context.

Essays focus on the centrality of God’s Word in ministry, contexts for women’s ministry — from the local church to a global reach — and specific issues such as the Titus 2 mandate and a biblical view of sexual wholeness.