Who is By Design Ministries?

Mission

By Design Ministries is dedicated to the equipping and development of women for ministry that will advance the kingdom of God, with a special emphasis on the needs related to New England.

Our mission is to equip and encourage women to influence and serve others for Christ. We accomplish this through events, educational tools and classes, ministry resources, and by developing relationships that encourage and equip women to grow in Christ and increase their competency to minister to others. Women, properly trained and confident of their God-given abilities, are positioned to make an eternal difference. We are committed to the discovery, development, and deployment of women and their God-given design for kingdom service.

Impact

  • Over 7,000 women have attended our Women in the Word conferences.

  • Over 8,000 women have participated in our Leadership Training initiative.

  • Over 10,000 women are in touch with our ministry.

  • Over 120 leaders have been involved in our Together Group ministry.

  • Our first two educational kits on designing women’s ministries have been printed.

  • Our ministry has impacted women from over 400 churches, representing 25 denominations, plus scores of nondenominational churches.

  • Our website, social media presence, and e-newsletter reach thousands of women.

What Is the Significance of the Name?

Because of their strategic involvement in the home, workplace, and community, women are uniquely designed to be able to contribute significantly to reaching our world for Christ. God has created us for a purpose. Through our various roles, giftedness, and callings, we can make an eternal difference in the lives of those around us. This ministry is committed to assisting women in the discovery, development, and deployment of their God-given design for their lives.

Statement of Faith

Creedal Statement

We believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, and in its revelation of Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, Very God of Very God, being of one substance with the Father, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man and was crucified for us, under Pontius Pilate, who suffered and was buried, and the third day rose again.

We affirm:

  1. The Bible to be the inspired, authoritative Word of God.

  2. There is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

  3. The deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, His virgin birth, His sinless life, His miracles, His vicarious and atoning death through His shed blood, His bodily resurrection, His ascension to the right hand of the Father, and His personal return in power and glory.

  4. That for the salvation of the lost and sinful man, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is essential.

  5. The present ministry of the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life.

  6. The resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved to the resurrection of life and they that are lost to the resurrection of damnation.

  7. The spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Philosophy of Ministry

Vision Statement

We envision women who are committed to serving the Lord:

  • Continually connected to Him

  • Confident in His call

  • Compassionately reaching out to others

  • Courageous in adversity

  • Consistently bearing fruit

Our Core Values

The Bible – We believe that the Bible is inspired by God and is the pattern for all life and ministry. 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The Church – We affirm the importance and centrality of the local church. Acts 2:41-47

Identity – We encourage women to realize that they are created in the image of God, redeemed by Jesus Christ, and gifted by the Spirit of God. Genesis 1:27; Galatians 2:26-28; Acts 2:17-18

Lifestyle – We reflect God’s character in our attitudes and actions. 2 Corinthians 7:1; Titus 2:11-14

Development – We help women to learn and grow through partnerships and mentoring relationships. 1 Thessalonians 2:8

Diversity – We esteem the diverse expressions of the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13; 1 Corinthians 12:4-8

Outreach – We are actively engaged in expanding God’s Kingdom in the church and into the community and the wider world. Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19-20

Women in Leadership

By Design Ministries is passionate about helping women embrace a vision of being used by God to impact their families, churches and communities with their God-glorifying lives and ministry. It is our mission to equip and strengthen women who are servant-leaders in Christ’s church and whose lives are a catalyst for the advancement of the Gospel within their sphere of influence. Moreover, insofar as it is within our philosophy of ministry, we endeavor to work cooperatively with the community of faith to make Christ known. We acknowledge the theological diversity of churches’ views regarding the role of women serving in the local church; and, as an interdenominational ministry that supports and affirms the local church’s importance, we are careful to focus on the essentials of the Gospel. Thus, in so doing, we attempt to avoid creating disunity by endorsing a specific position on how the local church embraces or regards women in leadership. Each woman must prayerfully weigh the teaching of Scripture on this issue and give due respect to the precepts of the church where she has chosen to worship. Through the years, By Design Ministries has demonstrated a unity in ministry amidst the diversity of theological opinions on this issue. We remain united on uplifting Christ, and serving the local church through our training and equipping women to be servant-leaders.

History

The beginnings: In 1989 Beverly Weinhold, a widely respected Bible teacher and former InterVarsity staff member, pioneered the regional work of ministry to women in cooperation with Evangelical Association of New England (EANE, which is now Vision New England). She had two thoughts in mind: to help women grow in their faith, especially through the inductive study of God’s Word, and to train and equip leaders who can grow “Titus 2” women.

The first Women in the Word (WIW) conference was held in 1990 in Burlington, MA, along with the Coalition of Bible Study Leaders that met quarterly at the home of Joanna Mockler in Wayland, MA. In the fall of 1991 Maggie Rowe followed Bev as the Coordinator (Director); her leadership helped bring this ministry to maturity. Maggie’s experience as a teacher and pastor’s wife with regional connections helped root the ministry within the local church while expanding its regional impact.

  • 1992: First combined effort of EANE’s Women’s Ministries and the Ockenga Institute when the two groups jointly presented “Growing Women in Ministry” with Bev Weinhold as keynote speaker. The mailing list surpassed 200 this year.

  • 1993: Creation of the first New England Speakers Directory for Women’s Ministries, as well as the first WIW conference held south of Boston (Cape Cod), in keeping with the mission to move the conference each year to a different area of New England. Gail MacDonald was the keynote speaker.

  • 1994 – 1997: Maggie’s prayer letter expanded and led to the printing of the first Woman to Woman newsletter. “W2W” began as a regional resource but with increasing demand continued to expand its outreach. In 1995 the first annual Summit of Christian Women Leaders was held. Jan Carlberg was the keynote speaker that year for WIW, which continued to expand its outreach to women throughout New England. In 1996 a liaison was established between Christian women in New England and the “Galilee Women,” and ministry support was initiated for Bridges for Peace, an evangelical relief agency based in Jerusalem.

  • 1998: The WIW conference held in Maine sold out nearly two months in advance when First Baptist of Portland reached full capacity of over 650 women. The third edition of our Speakers Directory was published. Over 2,500 women were now on our regional mailing list, each added by individual request. Maggie Rowe announced her decision to retire as Director of Women’s Ministries.

  • 1999: In January Linda Moore assumed the role of Women’s Ministry Director. Linda, a former nurse and a musician, is also a pastor’s wife with extensive experience developing women’s ministry at the local level, helping churches effectively impact ministry throughout New England. Women in the Word expanded to two consecutive days and the attendance exceeded 1,100 women. 3,000 women were now on the mailing list.

  • 2000: Marked the 10th year of Vision New England’s Women’s Ministries. Over 1,000 women attended the WIW conference with Gail MacDonald as the keynote speaker. A website for Women’s Ministries was under development.

  • 2001: The Leadership Training for Women initiative was launched with 12 core curriculum classes along three tracks. These classes were held for the first time in conjunction with the Women in the Word conference. Three years later 12 additional classes were added. The ministry applied for and received a Day Foundation matching grant for the development and promotion of our Leadership Training initiative.

  • 2002: Bev Weinhold taught the first “Hot Topic” Forum on Abuse in the Church and Christian Homes. The fourth edition of our Speakers Directory was published. The ministry established a Peer Mentoring email initiative for women leaders.

  • 2003: We held a satellite Leadership Conference at Trinity Covenant Church in Manchester, CT. Over 1,000 women attended WIW. The first daylong Ministry Wives track was held in conjunction with WIW, with approximately 40 women participating. Two women received their Level One Certificate in Women’s Ministries.

  • 2004 – 2005: A fall leadership conference drew over 80 women leaders for two days of intensive training and networking. An Advisory Board was established. Serving on this board were Jan Carlberg, Nancy Frick, Janna Hoiberg, Joanna Mockler, Linda Moore, and Beverly Weinhold.

  • 2006: The annual WIW conference was preceded by a daylong Pre-Women in the Word Leadership Conference with 200 women in attendance. We modernized the Woman to Woman newsletter from a print format to an email distribution. The fifth edition of our Speakers Directory was produced.

By Design Ministries:

  • 2007: By Design Ministries became an independent entity when Vision New England discontinued all associations with its field ministries to focus solely on “evangelistic” efforts. In the interim period, as by design ministries transitioned to an independent nonprofit ministry, we were graciously included under the umbrella of Immanuel Church’s missions program.

  • 2008-2009: We began our newest ministry, Together Groups. By the fall of that year 11 groups were meeting across New England. Our first annual appreciation event for women leaders, Celebrate Together, was held. We started our weekly Summer Sampler newsletter series.

  • 2010-2012: The sixth edition of our Speakers Directory was produced. Two leadership curriculum classes on designing women’s ministries were published as “educational kits.” By Design Ministries established its presence on Facebook. We modified the “Summit” format to more of a “Retreat” format. Leadership classes were offered through partnerships with Monadnock Bible Conference in Jaffrey, NH. We continued to offer and expand our active Together Groups.

  • 2012-2013: By Design is recognized by the government as a 501(c)(3) organization. Networking with the Haitian community in Roslindale, MA, created helpful dialogue and mutual participation in each other’s events. Our leadership training classes reached 267 women this year. Sixty percent of the women attending our events were involved in women’s ministries, with the other 40% involved in other areas of service within their church or Christian organization.

  • 2014: The seventh edition of our Speakers Directory was printed. Our third leadership training class was published. We hosted a leadership training day in partnership with Indonesian churches in Dover, NH. We continued to offer leadership training classes in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Nearly 7,000 men and women have taken at least one of our leadership training classes since the program’s inception in 2001.

  • 2015: Three new staff members were added to our team. Kevin Cunningham came on board to oversee graphic design and video production, producing our annual newsletters and training videos. Pauline Morgan became our Together Group coordinator to help grow and strengthen these important support communities. And Kristi Stoughton became the Director of WeConnect, By Design’s new ministry geared towards young women. She also filled the role of website developer, creating a new website for By Design, and worked to develop our social media presence.

  • 2016: In addition to hosting local leadership training classes, we also hosted a large regional event on the topic of mentoring. Dr. Sue Edwards, co-author of the book Organic Mentoring, was our speaker.

  • 2017: We saw great fruit from our 2016 Organic Mentoring conference. Ladies are personally being more intentional about connecting and various churches are incorporating new strategies. Additionally, we created DVD’s from our Organic Mentoring Conference event and we have developed a team of four women who will be spearheading Mentoring Discussion Events at various churches. We’ve started the formation of a WeConnect core group of young millennial women. 7,363 women have taken at least one of our Leadership Training for Women classes.

  • 2018: We had the first live recording of two of our Leadership Training for Women classes. Over 7,500 women have taken these classes. We published the 8th edition of our Speakers Directory. We held our first Mentoring Discussion event at Centerpoint Church in Salem, NH with 80 women attending representing 14 different churches and we created a series of “Bridge Gen” articles for wide distribution. A new Together Group was initiated in the Greater Concord, NH area with Gail MacDonald as our speaker. We held overnight staff and WeConnect Millennial team retreats.

  • 2019: Our retreat with featured keynote speaker, Cynthia Fantasia, was sold out. We highlighted a Millennial Panel with our WeConnect Leadership Team and one of our gifted millennial women led one of our breakout sessions. In April, nearly 180 women attended a “Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, Satisfy Your Soul” event featuring Jan Carlberg and the Chick Band from Trinity Baptist Church in Nashua, NH. We held three Mentoring Discussion Events at churches in New Hampshire and Maine. 7,778 women have attended our leadership training classes.

  • 2020: Maggie Rowe, the previous director of women’s ministries for Vision New England, was our featured retreat speaker, which included a special Saturday evening event. Our combined attendance was 138 – a new record! Our WeConnect team of millennials organized and facilitated our evening event as well as lead one of our breakout sessions. Our mentoring class was presented at the retreat. The three general session talks and our Friday night panel discussion were recorded and made available for purchase. We held a Mentoring Discussion event at a new church partner in February and our Caring Connections training class later in that month.

  • 2021: The pandemic made in-person meetings a distant memory! Because of our gifted staff and board members, we were able to make the transition to virtual gatherings. Zoom became the platform of choice for our Together Groups as well as the 16 live teaching presentations. These recorded sessions significantly expanded our outreach on our YouTube channel. Our annual retreat was done virtually with 116 women from four time zones participating! In spite of the challenges we faced, our ministry involved 398 women from 150 churches. 40% were new to our ministry. Our leadership training for women initiative now stands at 8,069. Heather North was hired as Kristi Stoughton’s new administrative assistant.

  • 2022: Our scheduled retreat speaker, Carolyn Custis James, had to cancel at the last minute due to Covid-19 concerns. Unfortunately, the retreat also had to be canceled. Nevertheless, our Zoom class presentations went forward with the added bonus of having these featured on our By Design YouTube channel. Our “Double the Discipling” matching grant initiative from the Day Foundation was a blessing that resulted in much needed increased giving.

  • 2023: After a two-year hiatus from meeting in person, we held six in-person leadership classes. Our overall participation in our Leadership Training initiative now stands at 8,262. Another challenge developed again with our annual leadership retreat site. At the last minute, we hosted a one-day retreat at Immanuel Church in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, with Ellen Garland as our speaker. Over 70 women attended. We released the 9th edition of our Speakers Directory.

Board of Directors

Phyllis Bennett

In retreat and classroom settings, Phyllis is passionate to help God’s Word come alive in a captivating, life-transforming manner, enabling women to experience healing, new vision, and greater intimacy with Christ and others. As former Director of the Women’s Center for Ministry at Western Seminary, published author, adjunct seminary professor and retreat speaker, Phyllis loves shepherding women of all ages and life stages to their full potential for Christ. An inspiring communicator, Phyllis specializes in training women to exposit God’s Word and to write life- transforming Bible study curricula.

Krisie Brown

Krisie is a small group Bible study leader, encouraging women to dig deeper in God’s word and looking to build up the next generation of small group leaders. She has been a long time member of the Women’s Ministry Team at First Congregational Church in Hamilton, MA. She has also been drawn into teaching Sunday School and writing curriculum for Vacation Bible School. As a stay-at-home mom of three teenagers, she has also covered different positions of the parents’ associations at her children’s schools. Krisie loves to build up community and encourage relationships and prayer that help us do life together.

Christine Comeau

Christine Comeau lives in NH and has 2 daughters, two sons-in-law, and two grandchildren. Christine is the Director of Women’s Ministry at Rock Church, a multi-campus church located in Plaistow, NH. She has over 30 years of bookkeeping, business tax preparation, and non-profit treasury experience. Bookkeeping is her passion and she enjoys taking the stress out of that part of running a business.

Jean Marrapodi

Jean Marrapodi, PhD, CPLP, serves full time in Christian ministry; whether designing elearning, presenting industry conference workshops, volunteering with adult low-literacy students, or teaching Bible, all work toward the glory of God. Known for her high-energy, authentic teaching style, Jean connects with audiences for transformative learning. In the past 30 years she has led every area of church ministry (well, except men’s groups), but her passion is for teaching Bible. She lives in Mansfield, MA. Jean is also one of our featured speakers in the By Design Speakers Directory.

Karen Moniz

Karen’s childhood included dinnertime Bible quizzes, singing in nursing homes, and street evangelism. At 13, she accepted Christ as Savior. She’s been married to Dave for 30 years, and they have two grown children and two grandchildren. To celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary, Karen entered the Mrs. Essex County Pageant at the Topsfield Fair and won! Karen provides companionship to seniors and leads an evangelistic Bible study in a retirement home for women. Her motto is: Keep God big and keep looking up! Karen is also one of our featured speakers in the By Design Speakers Directory.

Linda Moore

Linda’s varied professional experiences as an ICU nurse, recording and concert artist, women’s ministries director, consultant, speaker, and worship leader have afforded her many opportunities to express her passion for God and His people. Linda is married to a semi-retired pastor and is the mother of three grown daughters and “Nana” to seven grandchildren. She is the former Vision New England director of women’s ministries, and is the founder and executive director of By Design Ministries.

Kristi Stoughton

Kristi is the Associate Director of By Design Ministries and the Director of WeConnect, the young women’s ministry arm of By Design. She is a native of New Hampshire, where she currently resides with her husband in a little lakeside cottage. They take great joy in their two sons, daughter-in-law, and baby granddaughter. As a speaker for women’s events, Kristi has a passion for women to know God’s love deeply. She loves to share about the joyful, exciting, heartbreaking, beautiful, victorious, rollicking adventure that is Life in Christ! Kristi is also one of our featured speakers in the By Design Speakers Directory.

Staff

Linda Moore, Executive Director

Christine Comeau, Bookkeeper and Treasurer

Margo Grant, Editor

Heather North, Administrative Assistant

Kristi Stoughton, Associate Director, WeConnect Director, Web Designer, Copywriter, Marketing Coordinator, Social Media Manager

Annual Reports

Please visit our Facebook page to view all of our event albums and photos!

Get Involved.

Ready to join us? Contact us today to learn more about By Design Ministries or to sign up for our mailing list.