Those are just two of the reasons I want to put on a Women’s Training Day of sorts at Veritas. And it’s true, I do have a dish of Dove Dark Chocolates on my desk in my office, but back off, they were a gift. And they’re for guests.
Along with Melissa (the saving grace of summer), I’ve been meeting with some of the women at my church about putting on an all day conference for women. The men of our church host an event like this (www.actlikemencolumbus.com) and from the start, there have been women hoping to do the same. Unfortunately, we don’t get a clean, pretty piece of scripture to pull out and use as our event title. See 1 Corinthians 16:13. So Melissa and I spent approximately 2 hours fleshing out the theme for the day and also ravaging the bible for any reference of women in hopes of finding a quick name for our event. We both really liked the call in Isaiah 32 to:
9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
10In little more than a year
you will shudder, you complacent women;
for the grape harvest fails,
the fruit harvest will not come.
But "Rise Up" sounded a little too women’s empowerment for us. We tried adding onto that: Rise Up You Complacent Daughters. Not quite catchy enough. I suggested we make it a bit more colloquial and go with Rise Up You Lazy Bitches. Obviously kidding. But it would have attracted attention for sure. In any case, the search continues for a name.
Earlier this year I spent a few weeks going through the stories of some of the women in the Old Testament with a friend. Sarah, Rahab, Ruth. These women were risk-takers. They loved fiercely and they trusted in the Lord. We seem to have moved so far from these strong women. Now, it feels almost taboo to talk about being a strong woman AND a Christian. Blame it on Disney Princesses or whatever cultural phenomenon you want, but it’s not just the secular world that puts a tiara on your daughter. In fact, the Christian world probably does this more than the secular world. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that women in the secular world feel more empowered by their culture than women in the church. (I’m talking about the American culture here too, I can by no means speak to the feeling of empowerment in the rest of the world.)
Too often, the materials and events we have for training women in the Church are flowery and soft, telling you that Jesus will be your boyfriend and that there is something precious hidden deep inside you that a real man is willing to search out. The only precious thing that’s inside of you is the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (1 Cor 3:16, Colossians 3:16).
Along with Melissa (the saving grace of summer), I’ve been meeting with some of the women at my church about putting on an all day conference for women. The men of our church host an event like this (www.actlikemencolumbus.com) and from the start, there have been women hoping to do the same. Unfortunately, we don’t get a clean, pretty piece of scripture to pull out and use as our event title. See 1 Corinthians 16:13. So Melissa and I spent approximately 2 hours fleshing out the theme for the day and also ravaging the bible for any reference of women in hopes of finding a quick name for our event. We both really liked the call in Isaiah 32 to:
9 Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice;
you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
10In little more than a year
you will shudder, you complacent women;
for the grape harvest fails,
the fruit harvest will not come.
But "Rise Up" sounded a little too women’s empowerment for us. We tried adding onto that: Rise Up You Complacent Daughters. Not quite catchy enough. I suggested we make it a bit more colloquial and go with Rise Up You Lazy Bitches. Obviously kidding. But it would have attracted attention for sure. In any case, the search continues for a name.
Earlier this year I spent a few weeks going through the stories of some of the women in the Old Testament with a friend. Sarah, Rahab, Ruth. These women were risk-takers. They loved fiercely and they trusted in the Lord. We seem to have moved so far from these strong women. Now, it feels almost taboo to talk about being a strong woman AND a Christian. Blame it on Disney Princesses or whatever cultural phenomenon you want, but it’s not just the secular world that puts a tiara on your daughter. In fact, the Christian world probably does this more than the secular world. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that women in the secular world feel more empowered by their culture than women in the church. (I’m talking about the American culture here too, I can by no means speak to the feeling of empowerment in the rest of the world.)
Too often, the materials and events we have for training women in the Church are flowery and soft, telling you that Jesus will be your boyfriend and that there is something precious hidden deep inside you that a real man is willing to search out. The only precious thing that’s inside of you is the Holy Spirit and the Word of God (1 Cor 3:16, Colossians 3:16).
We should still do this conference. I'm in.
ReplyDelete