Taylor Foster chose to assist Candace McDowell, the head of her church's Pillars Girls Ministry, in planning the Pillars Girls Conference as the subject of her senior project. They planned breakout sessions around themes of living, loving, and learning. Taylor helped promote the conference through various media and mailing postcards. On the days of the conference, Taylor arrived early to prepare and ensure everything ran smoothly, though some issues arose like unexpected large attendance and bathroom problems. While the experience showed Taylor's weaknesses in organization and time management, it reinforced her passion for girls ministry and seeing its positive impact on young women.

1. Taylor Foster
Mrs. Corbett
April 7, 2012
7th period
Second only to my parents, girls’ ministry has made the largest impact on my life. Part of
being in girls’ ministry means understanding how to communicate effectively with well, girls! In
essence, being involved in girls’ ministry, requires multiple skill sets speaking, teaching, and
planning. I chose girls’ ministry as the subject of my research paper, because it is something I
feel is important because it impacts the lives of young women in a positive way. I have been a
part of my girls’ ministry as a student for more than four years now, and I wanted to explore the
different aspects of this ministry as a career. My paper details the preparations needed for girls
ministry, and the benefits to girls who are involved in it. It also directly fed the knowledge I
needed for the Pillars Girls Conference
The first step of my senior project involved choosing a project facilitator; this was
absolutely the easiest part. Candace McDowell heads up the Pillars Girls Ministry at First Baptist
Canton, where I attend church, and was the original planner of the Pillars Conference. I chose to
assist her in planning this event because she heads up the Pillars Girls’ Ministry at First Baptist
Church of Canton , and because I knew that out of all my project facilitators, she would be the
most cooperative regarding my ideas, and the most supportive when an idea failed, or if I wanted
to go into a different direction. With her help, as well as several other ladies, the Conference
went off almost without a hitch.
The steps following the choosing of my project facilitator were more difficult. The
second thing that Candace and I figured out was what to plan for the breakout sessions. The

2. breakouts were going to center around the themes of live, love, learn and were small group
sessions with one leader, and around twenty girls. The fifth grade through college aged girls
would be encouraged to attend the live and love breakouts; the love breakouts involved
Biblically based wisdom for friendships and relationships and the live breakouts taught on Godly
living. The learn breakouts were designed for the older women who might attend the conference
to inform them about girls ministry, and the trial and error process of having a ministry dedicated
for girls at a church. These breakouts would also hold leadership seminars headed by Candace
and cofounder of Pillars Ministry, Lana McNair. Candace and I combed through the applications
for different breakout leaders from across the southeast. Ultimately, we chose about twenty
breakout leaders and their sessions based on their knowledge, biblical basis and whether their
ideas would fall into the breakout categories of love and live. The next step was determining the
schedule of the conference. We decided the best idea would be to kick off the conference with
worship, then afterwards hold the first breakout session, from which there would be a list to
choose. The next day would kick off with worship again then go for two breakout sessions; after
this would be lunch, another breakout session, and ending worship.
After this, we decided to start promoting the conference. I began by listing our event on
dozens of radio stations, ordering post cards, flyers, and handouts. Candace handled writing a
personal letter of invitation, while I made calls to radio stations from all around the southeast, as
well as magazines, and found other forms of free promotion. The next step was to start inviting
churches personally to the conference. I took 400 post cards and addressed them to send out as
far west as Arkansas and as far north as Kentucky. I was then put in charge of maintaining the
Facebook webpage, as well as a Tumblr.

3. In December, after two hundred post cards, as well as the personal letters had been sent
out, early bird registration opened online. Our next step was to wait until we began to receive
online responses, and in the meantime, do heavy promotion within First Baptist Canton. After
the registrations began to come in, Candace and I tossed around the idea of doing a video for
promotion, and making it go viral. That night, I typed up a script, and sent it to her. I was leaving
town and unfortunately was not involved in the actual filming of the video. However, I was able
to review the product in its stages of production, and the first week in January, it was finally
uploaded. I began posting it to my friends’ walls on Facebook, my personal Twitter, Pinterest,
and Tumblr; several other girls and leaders did this as well. The first night we generated more
than three hundred hits. Because of this video Victory 91.5 radio out of Cumming, Georgia,
approached us about doing an on air announcement regarding the conference. I sent the rest of
the post cards out, and began doing things around the church getting ready for the first night of
the conference.
The two days before the conference involved setting up the narthex for the vendors, the
worship center for the band, the breakout rooms for the breakout leaders, and putting out signs.
The first two days the volunteers were Candace, Sydney Driver, Penny Bennett, and myself. We
set up most of the work before the other forty volunteers arrived. The day of the conference I
arrived at the church at eight o’clock and began to make preparations; the first step was to double
check the breakout rooms for any flaws, then move furniture around to make room for the
vendors. After that there was a small break, where the core group of leaders and I discussed and
prayed about the goals of the conference. After our break, I made coffee and lemonade, and
began to set out the food made for the volunteers that night- all of this was set up in “the green
room”, where breakout leaders, volunteers, and the band could relax. As the volunteers began to

4. arrive, I stationed myself in the green room to greet and to tell them where they would be
stationed. The entire night I ran around between different places to make sure everything was
running smoothly.
However, a few problems occurred. For one thing, the first night, we had more than
expected come to the conference; originally there were about one hundred and fifty signed up.
By the end of the night that number had reached two hundred. The registration tables were not
arranged in a way as to ease traffic, so there was a large buildup of people at the desks, and it
was hard to move around. We also did not have good communication between all of our
volunteers. I wrote down that we needed walkie- talkies, but amidst getting the conference set
up, I forgot to get them, and so that first night I spent running around delivering messages and
taking care of individual problems. One such problem that arose was not one that could have
been avoided however- unbeknownst to the team the bathrooms were going to be unusable.
There ended up being a sewage backup for one of the bathrooms, and while we were trying to
unclog the toilets, sewage began to seep up from the drain in the floor. This leaked to the
downstairs, where there were several breakout rooms located, and thus needed to be moved. I set
three of our volunteers on calling the senior pastor of the church, blocking off the bathrooms, and
calling a plumber, while another two team members plus I went downstairs to set up the breakout
rooms in a different location. Fortunately, while this was going on, the conference was in the
middle of the worship session, so we finished this task without causing much upheaval. The total
of all the people at the conference was slightly over two hundred and fifty people, including
volunteers and attendees.
I learned a lot about myself during the course of this event, and the months beforehand in
preparation. For one thing, I learned that I do not have strong time management skills, or

5. organization skills. I tend to procrastinate until the last possible second to get things done, and I
also lose things in that process. However, I developed positive leadership skills, as well as ways
of dealing with pressure. I also found that I am good at pinpointing others strengths and putting
them to good use. One of the most important lessons I learned was that I do NOT want to pursue
a career in event planning- it is a job for someone who is extremely organized, and likes to stay
that way. I did find though, that I have a passion for girls ministry, and seeing the girls come out
of the conference glowing was one of the most rewarding experiences over the course of this
project. I loved knowing that I made a difference in their lives, and knowing they might have a
better understanding of their place as a woman and in regards to Christ. Girls’ ministry is
definitely something I am interested in pursuing as I found it to be rewarding, as well as
challenging. Thank you for your time. Are there any questions?