Last week my twin and I attended Sisters: Celebrating the Art of Friendship, the latest conference sponsored by Women of Faith.
In 2015, Women of Faith completed the Loved Farewell Tour after 20 years of ministry. The event essentially retired the original speaker team and the large event format. Since then the company was sold and resold, suffering some setbacks and necessitating some changes in the way it would move forward. After some reformatting, Women of Faith is back on the road with the Sisters event.
The new tour is more accessible and less expensive than in the past and is held in churches rather than in arenas. In many ways it appears that Women of Faith has returned to its roots—featuring fewer speakers and more biblically-based messages. In the early years, speakers were well-seasoned Christians with plenty of life experience. None were particularly famous when they started, but all were gifted at sharing the wisdom they’d learned from walking with the Lord for many years.
The Sisters event features three of these well-seasoned women—Patsy Clairmont, Anita Renfroe, and Jan Silvious. Each speaker emphasized God’s provision of friendship, and how he uses those he places in our lives to uplift, encourage, and equip us to be all that God has in mind for us.
Patsy described how our friends can teach us how to appropriate the word of God into our lives, so that not only do we know Scripture but we learn how to live it out. God can speak truth through our friends in ways that we might not be open to from other people. These truths can bring us liberty in areas of our lives where we’ve settled for less than God would have for us.
Jan focused on how God uses our brokenness to fashion us into something of great value. Regardless of what we’ve been through, what has been done to us, or the consequences of our own poor choices, God can redeem and transform our lives.
The conference theme was the “art of friendship” focusing on how our friends help bring out the gifts God has given to us, which are demonstrated in the ways that we care for others and donate our time and talents to be the hands and feet of Jesus. In spite of our own brokenness, God uses us to minister to others.
Anita illustrated this in three questions. What do I have in my hand? Like the staff Moses carried and used to bring water from a rock, something super ordinary can be extraordinary when God works through it (Exodus 17). What do I have in my house? Like Elijah inquiring about the widow’s small provision, God can make a miracle out of what we have if we surrender it to his use (1 Kings 17). What do I have that I can share? Like the boy who brought his lunch to preaching, God can use whatever we are willing to share to meet the needs of others (John 6). Anita also suggested that it was likely the boy’s mom who packed his lunch that fed the 5,000, so never discount the ordinary tasks that can be used by God!
After the event, my sister and I had the opportunity to meet the new owners of Women of Faith. They are a personable husband and wife team committed to the original purpose of the organization. Their goal is to encourage and equip women to know and walk with Jesus. With a refocus on biblically-based teaching at the Sisters event, it appears that Women of Faith is headed in that direction.
Patsy summed up the evening’s message with just that type of encouragement—“You are more than you know, because our God is greater than we can imagine!” Amen to that!
On the journey toward Home,
