Freda Kennedy

HI Marian
It's great to see a forum for Coffee Break! Coffee Break in the town of Brighton is a community oriented bible study, where women at all stages in their faith, from seekers to strong women of faith, from women in their 20's to women in their 80's, from pentecostal, to United to CRC to unchurched, come to a safe and loving place to learn and share and grow in their walk with the Lord.
We don't 'do' anything really different, what we do 'do' is pray and study together first of all as leaders. We study a different book each year and this year we read through 'Lead like Jesus' a wonderful book teaching us how to be servant leaders like Christ. We pray together as leaders prior to every session and are open to the Lord's leading and we try to lead like Jesus and serve in love. That is the strength of Coffee Break, women leading women to grow in their relationship with Christ.
In todays world women don't think they need each other, they think they can do it alone. When we finally do get together and share in a loving atmosphere of acceptance through Christ then great things happen. That is why Coffee Break is important. There are very few places today where women can get together and feel accepted, can share their concerns and can grow in their relationship with other women and with the Lord. The Holy Spirit does amazing things when we give Him room to work.
In Brighton, we intentionally focus on studying a book of the bible through the Discovery Bible studies, and this year have worked through Exodus. Who would have thought Exodus would have brought out so much discussion and heart to heart conversations.! We had an awesome year of learning God's character and faithfulness through the study of Exodus.
We also take time to invite community agencies such as Hospice and Samaritan's Purse to come and tell us what they do and then invite the women interested to participate in their organizations. So rather than the community coming in, we try to encourage our women to be part of the community.
The success of the Brighton Coffee Break however, is not in what we 'do' but rather in what the Lord does. For in the end its not us who brings the women, who transforms the women, who saves lives. All we can do is be the hands and feet of Jesus and show his love and tell His message.The rest is up to Him.

What a wonderful idea!  Thanks for sharing your event, Barb.  I love the passage you chose for your brunch.  It gets at the heart of the reason   we need to keep meeting together, that we may encourage each other on toward love and good deeds. Woman do need to keep meeting together for its in community that we are encouraged  and there are so many creative ways of doing community just as your brunch so clearly shows.  I'm glad to hear you will continue meeting together as women of faith and I hope your comment has encouraged more women to step out in faith and reach out in love to other women.