How To Kill My Husband

And Other Things I Learned at Women’s Bible Conference

Yes, there was a session on how to kill your husband. Granted, it was killing him with words, not a frying pan, but progress is progress. Ha!

I didn’t think it was possible, but the Grace & Truth Conference this year was even better than last year’s fantastic premiere. The food was top-notch, the sessions truly enriching (if not bloodthirsty), and the sistership…priceless.

There were a whole lot of sessions. Too many to go through in detail, but my favorites were the aforementioned (Controlling Your Tongue: A Matter of Life and Death) and the sessions on Courageous Femininity by Holly Stratton.

Pastor also presented a paper, “How to be a strong woman in a weak man’s world.” It was one of the best I’ve read on the subject. I really hope he thinks about publishing it (or at least reading it aloud at a Sunday night service).

A couple of women (from other churches) asked me why Pastor and other male members of the church leadership were at the conference. At a typical Baptist women’s conference, the men usually volunteer to serve the food at the luncheon, and that’s the only time you see them.

The Grace & Truth Conference, however, featured Pastor as one of the main speakers, along with our male song leader to lead songs, and another male member of leadership to direct us to sessions.

Now, in backwards Baptist churches, this could be taken as a sign of the male leadership’s lack of faith in the women of the church to plan their own conference.

Believe me; I’ve been in THOSE churches.

However, in our church, the fact that Pastor is involved means he cares deeply about the conference. I know it’s hard to understand unless you attend our church (or one like it), but it’s actually a badge of honor for Pastor to attend the conference.

He prays for the women of our church; he cares about their spiritual growth; and he knows and values the importance of women’s lives at home, at work, and in the church.

I’ve often said the main difference between Pastor and all the other pastors I’ve known is that he understands fully the misconceptions of women in the church (especially backwards Baptist churches) and tries his best to make sure it doesn’t happen at Morning Star.

If we’d still been at another church, I might have had the same thoughts, “Don’t these guys trust the women to plan their own conference? Do they think we’re stupid or not spiritual enough?”

But at Morning Star, it makes perfect sense to have church leadership involved and active.

It made the conference even better.

I also got to connect – in real life – with one of my blogging friends! My new friend Julie attended the conference and made me laugh so hard I almost spit up my tea. (I’m discovering we old-time-Baptist-school-and-church-survivors are a humorous lot.)

I’d just like to publicly thank all the wonderful men and women who served at the Grace & Truth Conference. It was an amazing time, and I can’t wait until next year!