‘Befriend faithfulness’: Women’s Conference features MBC executive director’s wife
by Pathway staff
A Women’s Conference was hosted, Oct. 28, in conjunction with the Missouri Baptist Pastors’ Conference. The event also included worship led by Missouri Baptist University’s Spirit Wing, a presentation by the MBC Ministry Wives Network, and a message from Tanya York, wife of Southern Seminary’s Hershael York.
The conference also featured Tara Fowler, wife of MBC Executive Director Wes Fowler. She encouraged participants of the Missouri Baptist Women’s Conference to “befriend” and “feed” faithfulness by delighting in the Lord, by committing their ways to the Lord, by being still before the Lord, and by refraining from anger and wrath. Her message of encouragement was based on Psalm 37:4-8. ν
‘Enjoy being God’s daughter,’ ministry wives hear during luncheon
by Vicki Stamps/The Pathway
ST. CHARLES – The theme “Table Talk: Ties that Bind” – based on Col 3:12-17 – was the focus of the Ministry Wives Luncheon at the MBC annual meeting last month. After the luncheon, the program included a panel of women discussing questions biblical truth. Table talk then provided an opportunity for the ministry wives to connect on the topics raised by the panel discussion.
Adrianna Anderson, director of the Ministry Wives Network, moderated the program, and members of the panel included: Cynthia Walker, Lyndsay Cullum, Patty Culbertson, and Yvonne Hansom.
Colossians 3 emphasizes love, which binds all together in perfect unity. The ministry wives asked some hard questions to work through everything that the Scripture represented.
“Which people in your congregation are easiest to love? Which people are hardest?” Both questions were answered first by the panelists and then time was given to each table for discussion.
There was a consensus on the church members easiest to love, Hansom described some of those as “Iron Women, who encourage me to run faster and harder for Jesus.”
Another panelist described the harder-to-love church members as high maintenance. “They take up a lot of my husband’s time, and they are critical, they are impossible to please,” she said.
During the discussion around the table, many of the ministry wives had difficult situations to address in their congregation.
“God brings them to us to reveal our hearts. It is the sanctifying process,” Cullum said. “He wants to reveal it to us for us to repent.”
Culbertson agreed. “This is not in me without the Holy Spirit,” she said. “We need to tattle tale to God if we are hurt. We need to tell Him. Pride gets in the way because they may have hit our insecurity. We need to see with a different heart and ask God for it.”
Hansom advocated the need to find a friend. “We need good, godly women with a bigger toolbox to walk through life,” she said. “We need friends and a community. Find a person, don’t NOT do it. Freedom is on the other side.”
“We need each other,” Cullum said. “Walking through life with others is a blessing. Ties that bind don’t isolate. We need sisterhood. Look for others and disciple others.”
The ministry wives were challenged to look back to the beginning of the biblical passage; “You are God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved.”
“Don’t lose being in doing,” Anderson said. “You have been chosen and set apart for His good purpose. Enjoy being His daughter.”