I woke up this morning feeling more like myself. It’s amazing what a night laughing with friends and sitting under incredible teaching can do for your soul.
Next weekend I get to experience it again and gather with old friends, new friends, and strangers at my church to participate in IF:local, and I couldn’t be more excited!
When the idea of IF was first put out there on the interwebs around the fall of 2013, I was sold. A conference like no other conference (really a movement), seeking and believing God, gathering community in unity from all different backgrounds, denominations and races, and with some of my most favorite people in women’s ministry today, then equipping and unleashing us into the world to live on purpose.
In February 2014 I gathered with a few women in a living room. I had printed discussion cards, brought snacks, and we had (with help!) figured out how to attach the laptop to the TV to stream the conference. We really had no idea what we were in for, other than hearing from an incredible lineup about believing God for who He says He is, and gathering together in community. It was water to a thirsty soul, and I drank it in. I fell in love with Chris Caine’s dynamic presence and powerful exhortation. I marveled at the beauty of Angie Smith and Annie Lobert’s story of how God can bring a good church girl and a hooker together and give them community. Ann Voskamp and Amena Brown Owen’s recitation brought me to tears with it’s poignance and piercing truth. Jen Hatmaker made me laugh and want to yell “amen!” at all her words, and Jennie Allen with her realness, accessibility, and vision captivated us all and made us want more of the God she serves.
I get to do it again next weekend, and I couldn’t be more excited.
My church is hosting IF, and instead of a few women in a living room, there will be a few hundred in a sanctuary. I love watching this crazy vision God gave Jennie grow and take off! It’s like a front row seat to see how God is moving and active.
The beauty of a gathering that believes God for big things, and can unite women thrills me to the core. And I need it.
I need to have moments where I hear the richness of God’s word and His faithfulness. I need to have moments where I connect with others, where we laugh and sometimes cry, but are just together. I need the stories, the realness, community, and a God who makes himself known in our midst.
The discussion is my favorite part. The questions don’t mess around, and they are all up in your business in the best possible way. I can’t wait to sit at a table, glance around at the faces, radiant from being with Jesus, and get in the mess of it with sisters.
As much as I’m excited about that though, I know there are some that aren’t. There are those anxious about attending, or those who have decided not to attend at all. Maybe you don’t believe that God is real right now. Maybe you don’t want to talk to other women, and in all honesty, don’t have much trust or regard for women in the church. I know there are a lot of us who have been made to feel not enough, lacking, not part of the crowd, or different by women in the church. If that is you, I’m sorry. Unfortunately even those of us in the church let our insecurities make fools of us too. Please take a risk anyways. Sign up for a IF: local gathering, or simply stream the content by yourself. Let your soul be tended to, let God make himself known, and give us another chance to make it right.
That’s the beauty of IF. IF God is real, you can trust Him for healing. IF God is real, you can trust Him to show up. IF God is real, He can bring about reconciliation. IF God is real, He will comfort you. IF God is real, He hears you and loves you. IF God is real….then what? What do you need from Him? What do you need to trust Him for? Right now, tomorrow, next weekend?
Please, please, please check in next weekend. Either at an IF: local, from your own home with a few friends, or snuggled on the couch just you and your laptop. I promise you won’t regret it. And you’ll get to see firsthand the beauty of believing IF God, then…
