Riches Hidden in Secret Places

Baptist Women’s Rev. Diane McBeth shares what’s next for her ministry

BY RENÉE JAMES

Diane with members of the Women’s Union at a Kimpondo church, Angola

AFTER FINISHING HER ROLE as Baptist Women’s executive director in August 2021, Rev. Diane McBeth shifted gears, moving into a well-earned sabbatical. She thought she knew why sabbatical seemed the necessary next stage for her. God was calling her to take time for physical rest and exercise; to spend extra time with Him and with family, and to continue her creative pursuits with a shift in attitude from creating for God…to creating with Him. “At first I thought that taking this sabbatical was a delay to what I was supposed to be doing next – perhaps even a remedial check,” she says, “when in fact, it has been an amazing gift from God.”

Coming out of that sabbatical, Diane realized she’d filled her journals with enough material to create a slate of spiritual formation resources for women. “God has a sense of humour,” she laughs. “He wanted me to see that I could produce more when I wasn’t trying to, than when I was working.” One of those resources is a fresh version of Life Circles that she’s written for an international audience. Life Circles equips women to experience peer/group spiritual direction for themselves through practicing a number of spiritual habits like silence, praying Scripture, breath prayer and learning to listen without judging.

God’s plans for Diane hadn’t stopped there though. For some months prior to wrapping up at Baptist Women, a homesickness for global missions began stirring in Diane’s spirit. Baptist World Alliance Women leadership was excited to know that Diane could support the organization’s goal of resource transfer from different parts of the world.

By the time you read this, Diane will have travelled to Liberia, invited to speak with African Baptist Women leaders at their quinquennial Assembly about the importance of spiritual formation practices to their leadership. She will also have led participants through an actual Life Circles session. Her hope is that each region in Africa will appoint one or two women to meet with Diane through the year to learn with her and go through both Life Circles and other resources Diane is currently creating. Of late, God has been speaking to Diane from Isaiah 45:3 (NRSV) – “I will give you the treasures of darkness and riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.” “All around the world, there are women who have spiritual gifts that are hidden. There are places where women don’t have a chance to do things,” she says. “It will be so precious to really sit and speak with these women; to offer them space and these resources that may empower them.”

Diane’s worlds of global missions (she is a former Canadian Baptist global field staff) and women’s ministries have meshed. “I thought God had called me to give up missions completely. And I’d felt fulfilled in my Baptist Women’s work,” she says. “But now, it’s like God giving me back this whole previous area of my life…when I’d thought it was too late. Especially now that I will return and focus on women.”

Diane lives out her belief that fruitful leadership is proportional to our ability to lead from revelation. “When we lead, we are deciding between so many good choices. What we must be able to do is hear from God,” she affirms. “What direction does He want us to take in this particular moment? We can hear from God if we’ve developed spiritual practices, building them into our lives so they become a way of living and leading.” Her journey to Liberia bears witness to what that way of listening and obeying yields.

Her prayer request is simple: Pray for the circumstances and for women’s hearts, particularly as the ministry begins.

“I thought that taking this sabbatical was a delay to what I was supposed to be doing next… it has been an amazing gift from God.”