Transcript
Speaker: And this is why being in a local church is so important because it doesn't matter how many women's events you go to, how many of these conferences you attend, if you are not in a local church, that encouragement, that equipping does not have a place to put down
Speaker: friends welcome to verity podcast my name is Felicia Masonheimer your host i'm the founder of the ministry every woman a theologian and i am so glad you are joining me here today as we are working through our thinking biblically series This week, we're going to be talking about women's conferences. Now, this might seem like a very niche topic, something um maybe a little bit more bland than some of the other topics that we've discussed in this series so far.
Speaker: but it's very relevant for the Every Woman a Theologian team because our conference is actually this week. So this episode is coming out the week of November 6th and 7th, and that is when our annual conference is. And I wanted to talk about this not just because our conference is happening, but because I have spent a lot of time over the years at women's events, retreats, conferences, and there are a lot to choose from. And everything that I experienced speaking at and attending these events played a role in how we designed the Every Woman a Theologian conference itself. And so in today's episode, I want to talk about some of the objections and feelings that I've heard from my readers and listeners about women's events and And what we can do as a church to provide events like these to our women that actually build up their faith and lead them to Christian maturity.
Speaker: So I feel like in this series, there have been several episodes that are very distinctly American. And I want to first apologize to my international listeners for this. um Because I am American and a lot of my ministry is to the United States of America, it does color what I'm sharing. and so So specifically when it comes to conferences and events, I know that this is a really big thing in the U.S. Now, I've seen events in South America. I've seen them in the U.K. I've seen them in Scandinavian countries. But I know that in America, there this is just a very normal church event.
Speaker: like, approach to discipleship, whereas it might not be the case for some of my listeners. And so for some of you, you live in countries where you're not even able to gather as freely as we are in America, and I know that that's such a privilege. So I just wanted to make sure to say that, that in some of these episodes, I know that there's there's concepts that aren't relevant if you are not living in the United States. And When we're done with this series, we'll be moving on to some other series that will definitely be more broadly applicable on many of those um topics that we'll be encountering. So let's talk about first what Scripture says about gathering together, because when we think about gathering for worship, we usually go to the main church service, which is on Sunday. Now, a women's event will include worship. It will include gathering, but it's not a church service. And this is something distinctive that I think we have to discuss right out of the gate.
Speaker: These events that happen on a Friday night, a Saturday, or, you know, a three-day conference, they involve worship, they involve the teaching of the word, but they're not a church service. So what is actually separating a women's conference or event from your average Sunday gathering?
Speaker: And I will tell you what I think it is. Well, there's two things. The first is there's no structured accountability or hierarchy of authority. There's no eldership. There's no pastor that's over the entire um experience. There's no specific um you know accountability long term. It's a one-time event for the purpose of worship, encouragement, equipping, worship, But those people might all go back to their homes or their states or their countries, and and that person or those people who are at that event, they are not able to continue discipling most of them throughout the week.
Speaker: And this is why being in a local church is so important, because it doesn't matter how many women's events you go to, how many of these conferences you attend, if you are not in a local church, that encouragement, that equipping does not have a place to put down roots. You're trying to live your faith in this isolationist, individualistic manner, and it it is not designed for that. So women's events first aren't a church service because there is no discipleship structure. There is no leadership structure. Now, they are an event that facilitates you know church growth or church encouragement you know for the body of Christ, but i would not I would not equate it to a church service. It is not a church service because it is not actually um functioning as long-term discipleship model.
Speaker: So it's a one-time equipping or one-time um kind of gathering for worship. In many ways, I think it mirrors something of the really large,
Speaker: festivals that we see in the Old Testament where everyone's gathering together and the high priest is leading them through worship and they're doing the sacrifices and they're celebrating together. But is the high priest personally discipling all of those people? No, he's not. um He's leading the way in that worship. But then throughout the rest of the time, it's the priests who and the Levites who would be leading that um discipleship amongst the people. And then If we go over to um the New Testament, we look in Acts 2, we see the apostle Peter, he's proclaiming the gospel to all these people at Pentecost who are gathered for the festival in Jerusalem. They hear him, they respond, they come to Christ, but then they go back to their cities. And they need discipleship to grow, so they would find other local Christians, other little gatherings of churches, and they would grow from there. So the apostles, actually, we find in the book of Acts very quickly after Pentecost in Acts 2, they realize they can't disciple everybody. They need help, and they begin appointing deacons who will serve and do the hands and feet work of the church while the apostles keep preaching and going out as missionaries. So what we're seeing is that these big events, these like Pentecost-type events, do not actually function in the way that a normal church service would function. Like Pentecost, that holiday in Acts 2, is actually set apart from a standard gathering um of the church for worship, like on a Sunday. So they were praying together in the upper room, and then, you know, out of that comes the the coming of the Holy Spirit. What we see, and i like I think Pentecost is a great example of this because the American church, at least, a lot of times is kind of chasing what I would call the Pentecost experience, especially in more charismatic or Pentecostal traditions. There's this idea that to have a fruitful women's event, it needs to be very emotional. It needs to be very expressive. It needs to be you know really um hyped up emotionally. And the truth is that God works in all kinds of ways. He can work through our emotions. And I i feel deeply when I'm worshiping the Lord, especially with other women, it reminds me of heaven. Like, I love it. However, the goal is not emotional expression or a mountaintop experience. The goal should be equipping in the faith for the work of ministry.
Speaker: That's where we're headed. So if we look at Hebrews 10, 24 through 25, which talks about the gathering of believers, it says, "...let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." So what I think is important here, the whole verse is important, but says, how can we stir up one another to love and good works? A good women's conference, a good women's event will be doing this, stirring you up to love and stirring you up to good works. So it's not just love everybody and, you know, it doesn't matter what you believe. it doesn't matter what you're convicted about. It's not that.
Speaker: um But it's also not just straight fire conviction with no love for the people that you're going back out to serve. It needs to be both of those things.
Speaker: Colossians 3.16 I love when there's a musical element to women's conferences,
Speaker: but we have to be careful that it's not becoming a performance instead of what Colossians describes. It says that when we are um receiving godly teaching, we and when we are singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, the word of Christ is coming to dwell in us richly.
Speaker: So the goal of worship, whether that's through preaching the word or through singing, that should be the word of Christ dwelling in these women richly. Which is why it matters what kinds of songs we're singing, what words we're saying, and what's being preached from that pulpit.
Speaker: And ultimately, out of the word of Christ dwelling in us, we respond with thankfulness in our hearts to God. So are our events for women, are our women's conferences, are they building this into our attendees or not?
Speaker: 1 Corinthians 14.26, the context of this is talking about how a church gathering should function, like what they should be bringing to it. It's talking about tongues and interpretation. um but I think we can take the principle out of this passage without going into the issue of tongues. Here's what he says. When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
Speaker: So the point of a women's conference has to be building up those women in the faith. And it may mean that a really healthy women's conference has women contributing these different things. A hymn, a lesson, a revelation, and then if you're Pentecostal, then maybe a tongue and an interpretation. But i'm having these different forms of worship that are a part of these events. And that's often exactly what happens. But what I really like about this is that Each person, there's different people bringing these pieces. It's not just one person who is the main event. It's not about an individual. It's not about celebrity. It's about Christ. It's to build people up in maturity in Christ. So when I'm looking at women's events and and or visiting them, speaking at them, attending them, um I'm looking for those kinds of traits. Does this build the women up?
Speaker: Is the word of Christ dwelling in them richly because of how they have structured this? Is it moving them towards love and good works, or is it imbalanced in some way one to the other?
Speaker: Those are some things to be thinking about with the women's events that you attend. Now, um i have done probably now hundreds of different women's retreats, events, conferences, church retreats, like all of the things. And having been to many of them, i can tell you there are a few that have stood out to me the most. And I want to share with you a little bit of what stood out to me in the healthy um and and I would say upbuilding women's events that I've been to.
Speaker: The first thing I always notice is that the women's ministry teams are incredibly rooted in prayer and in scripture, and they're very clear on their goal.
Speaker: I can think right off the top of my head of two different women's teams that ran two different retreats. One was in Ohio, Southern Ohio, and one was in the church was in Southern Michigan, but they hosted it in Indiana. And these two churches, their women's ministry teams, there was just this sense of unity and humility And it was so beautiful to behold. And they were really big teams. So they had a women's ministry leader, but they had a lot of women who were actually making this happen. I'm talking like 20, 30 women making this happen. And what I noticed about these teams is that they genuinely loved one another and they genuinely loved the women that they were creating this for.
Speaker: And so both of these events like were very beautiful, right? Very beautiful events. um The tables were gorgeous. there were you know There was food. It was all planned. One of them, at least, was an overnight event. So the women were actually staying overnight, which was really cool. um So they put a lot of thought into the details. But when you were with the team of women, you could tell that like while they thought about those details...
Speaker: those details were not actually their priority. Like, if the tables didn't look perfect, these women were not going to worry about that. What they wanted was for the women to truly be encouraged and equipped in the Word of God. And so I see them accomplishing what Hebrews and Colossians and 1 Corinthians say.
Speaker: And it was so delightful to be a part of what they were creating because you could see that through the worship and through the word and through the prayer and through their like hangout time that these women genuinely cared about the women of their church. Another thing I've noticed in these retreats that I think is a sign of a healthy church environment is collaboration with other churches, which So some of these retreats, women would work with multiple churches. Sometimes it'd be multiple small churches because they all contributed. um i did one retreat that was three different churches, three different denominations. It was a Wesleyan church, a Methodist church, and a non-denominational church that all worked together to host a women's event. And they just had this heart for encouraging women to be in Scripture.
Speaker: So one of the things that I get the privilege of doing is I get called in when people are like, we want the word of God. And so I tend to get asked to come to events that already have that kind of priority because that's what our ministry does. Like they're not calling me in to do a fluffy message, but I have been at events where I was one of multiple speakers and And other speakers there were not teaching scripture. They were just teaching opinion or they were just teaching like or they were just a comedian. You know, they brought a comedian in and there's nothing wrong with doing that.
Speaker: But I would often hear from women who were there going like, I took time off to be at this event. I wanted to learn scripture. And, you know, like, I appreciate the speakers I did hear this from, but I did not appreciate that I spent this time and money and there's people here speaking who are not pointing me to scripture. I think women in America and around the world are waking up to the fact that in their limited time and in the time that they're going to spend at an event like this, they want to be equipped to go out into their life and walk with the Lord. They do not want to spend 60 bucks to go spend a night listening to someone talking solely about experience. They want someone who's going to say, here's what the Word of God says, and here's how this directly applies to your life and how you can take this out and walk it out. And so if you're a Bible teacher listening to this or a women's ministry leader, i just want to encourage you to find those speakers who can do that for you. Watch some ah sample videos of their podcast interviews, of their um sermons or messages that they've delivered, and read their statement of faith, you can email them and ask for a statement of faith. You can say, hey, can you tell me more about like what you believe? um Can you give me some video samples of like what you usually teach on or tell me some of their sample topics and ask them to, or you can ask them to speak on a specific theme. So I've noticed that this is a little behind the scenes for you guys. I'm like women's conference world. As a retreat host or as a women's ministry leader,
Speaker: You can ask a speaker to speak on a specific theme or theme verse that you have. In fact, I love when they do this because I write my sessions new for each event. I always have. I always will.
Speaker: And the reason why i do this is because... I believe that if you are paying me to come and serve your women, I need to write a message that is going to meet those specific women. Like that is what you're asking me to do. You are bringing me in to share with them something that's customized from the Holy Spirit, from the word for them.
Speaker: But it was several years into doing this that I actually discovered a lot of bigger name authors and authors who are writing books, they will give the same message everywhere they go. Now, I don't think that's always a bad thing. Sometimes you have a really good message. It's your it's the signature message that you're known for. But I do think it's important to customize a message to the people that you are serving. What's their denomination? What's denomination? Can you ask the women's ministry leader, like, what are some challenges your women are facing? What are they going through right now?
Speaker: Has something significant happened in your church? Has someone passed away? Has there a big shift in leadership? Has there been, you know, multiple cancer diagnoses? Whatever it is, you can use that information to then pray about your message and either customize it or write something that specifically addresses the burdens of that congregation. I personally feel this is very important because that's what but a women's minister should be doing. Any minister should be doing. Like you're being asked to serve this congregation regularly.
Speaker: You don't just go in like, what do I want to talk about? You go in asking, how can I serve these people? So when I'm called to go in, i will write a new message for that purpose.
Speaker: Sometimes I'll pull from other messages. So I might pull from something I did on Every Woman a Theologian, the book, or something that I did at a pastor tree. I might pull portions of that out, but it's still going to be a new message that I'm writing for that event because that's what you're asking me to do.
Speaker: So I just want to say that for women's ministry leaders, if you're planning a retreat, a conference, you can ask for statements of faith. You can give them a theme verse. You can you can talk with the speaker or their assistant, and you can um ask for more details. You can negotiate rates. So my rate is typically, i think right now, i do 500 a session, and I cap at three sessions an event. So one thing that is hard on women's ah women's conference speakers is when you're having them speak online.
Speaker: more than three times at one event, that is like I've done massive i've done events where I think the most I had to do was like six or seven messages in one weekend. that's That's almost two months worth of sermons if you're talking about a pastor. And that's a lot of writing, a lot of preparation. So doing less Speaking sessions on one speaker. So like not having one speaker do four or five sessions, but doing less sessions from one hired speaker and maybe having testimony panels from your church or women from your church do a message. Really? really highly encourage this. I know it's special to invite someone in to speak at your women's event. um I love doing it. But also there's women in your church, you have testimonies, and it's amazing to get to hear from the people in your church and know more of their story because a lot of people don't know. They just don't realize what what people have been through in your church. So consider putting together a panel or having women share more of their personal testimony as a part of your retreat or conference versus just hiring somebody to come in.
Speaker: Okay, so those are just some thoughts, some behind the scenes of like how um I do it. Obviously, this is not the only right way. I'm not saying it's the only right way to do women's events and speaking, but I've been doing this for a very long time. I started very young speaking at homeschool conferences, and I was doing that out of my like miniature little ministry. I would like peer-to-peer do girls ministry, like as an 18, 19-year-old talking to other girls, And then I went into admissions counseling. So I was actually traveling to conferences to teach on like higher education stuff. um Meanwhile, also doing ministry in for single women and for sexual addiction and things like that. So I got practice through those things and and eventually went into generally teaching on theology and ministering in that way. And so by being at all these events and conferences, what you start to see is that the stage and money,
Speaker: can very quickly corrupt it. And that's why I try to keep my rates very reasonable. And I try to focus on my local community first. So especially with the ages of my kids, I don't travel as much as I used to. I used to travel all over the U.S. Then I went to just the Midwest and now I just do Michigan with a few exceptions here and there. So it really just depends on it depends on the season for the speaker and it depends on um a lot of different factors. But for me, my values are making it accessible to as many women as possible and making sure that what I'm writing is something that specifically serves those women. And I'm not just using something that's easy for me to repeat because I'm busy.
Speaker: These women trust me and I want to steward that trust. So as you're thinking through, you know, um that was more geared towards like women's ministry leaders. But let's say you're an attendee and you're like, OK, well, how do I know? Like i I asked recently on Instagram, I said, how do you feel about women's events? And a lot of women actually don't like them. And I asked them why. And they said, well, one it was oftentimes they just there's no scripture at all. It's like a craft night or it's just something that doesn't involve any spiritual instruction or worship. And they're like, if I'm going to take a night off, I want to actually be I want to be growing. Now, I actually love.
Speaker: craft nights and like one-off little events. But the reason I love them is because i think they serve a good purpose for connecting women to each other, like in ah in an environment that's not so serious or so vulnerable, they can kind of laugh and do something with their hands and get to know each other. So I do like events for that purpose. But I do also hear these women in that if they have limited time, they're like, well, I want ah something that's going to actually teach me. Like, I want to grow. And so if your church is only ever doing events that are um fun events, it may be time to think through, like, how can we deepen this? How can we add some more depth, some more opportunity to share what's going on in their lives and praying with these women?
Speaker: Another thing that women didn't like was that some churches will actually pressure or guilt them into going, and it'll be like a church-funded or church event, and it'll be like this guilt-induced kind of approach to attending. And I can see that, too. Like, if I was being pressured to come to something, i would probably be like, well, what's going on here that I need to be there? that's That's kind of creeping me out, you know? Like, what's happening?
Speaker: So those are some some reasons. Others are, they said that shallowness, like getting there and being like, man, I could have watched this on YouTube. Like, why am I here? I'm not being taught the word. I'm not being built up in my faith. um Other instances might be, like I'm thinking back through what their responses were, um feeling left out, like going and feeling like everyone's there, but they you have nobody they're actually with. Again, speaking of specific church events where you're going with somebody, but it's like, I'm ah completely on my own.
Speaker: So there's a lot of reasons why women don't want to go to women's events and conferences. And another is is cost. Sometimes they're very expensive, especially if it's like an overnight thing. So that's another like you know liability and something that many churches will offer scholarships and discounts. And that's an awesome way to really help women be able to come to something like this that might actually be a retreat. And then the last thing is not allowing nursing babies to come.
Speaker: This is actually a pet peeve of mine because i just think like the baby's literally relying on her her or his mother for sustenance and they're not allowed to come because they might make a tiny noise.
Speaker: I went this past June and with my team to the Gospel Coalition Women's Conference. I go every couple years to go and um support some of my friends who are speakers there and enjoy learning and just shopping for books, my favorite. um And what's amazing, if you've ever been there,
Speaker: is there's a whole area where they park strollers and it is completely full. And I remember there was um this moment where Shane and Shane was playing the worship. There's like 9,000 women worshiping. And I was walking through the back and there was this woman worshiping and her baby was crawling on the cement floor at her feet and like pulling up on the chairs and and just wandering around. And i just was like, that's what it's supposed to be. That's what the church is. Like, let the little children come. They're not disrupting anything. And if a women's event is like, no, you can't bring your nursing baby. I just, you're just making it hard for your women.
Speaker: You're making it hard on them. Now, At our event, we welcome nursing babies. We always have. We always have an area for nursing moms. We have, like, we've tried to make it as homey as possible. um I do think at some events that are on the smaller side, if you have, like, background checking, it can be really great to offer child care. especially if it's a church event, so it's like an internal event. We have considered this at Every Woman a Theologian for the future because the church that we're working with this year has a team that is background checked and could work in the nursery. um So maybe one day that's a possibility, but um it's a blessing just in itself to be able to invite young babies to come and join. So,
Speaker: vera will be at this event with me so if you're coming to the event this weekend you will get to maybe meet her because she will be with us for the weekend so i am a case study in this all right so as we're kind of wrapping this up i want to share a little bit more of our heart behind the everywo a theologian conference If you've been following us for a long time, you may remember that it used to be called Verity Conference, named for this podcast, Verity Podcast. Verity means truth. And that's what our goal is in this conference, in this podcast, to say the truth, even if it's uncomfortable, even if it confronts our feelings, even if it makes us go, I don't know if I've ever thought about it that way before.
Speaker: that we are seeking truth. We're seeking to move forward into the light of Christ. And at our conference, that's our goal. So I'm never going to avoid or shut down emotion at the conference that I'm hosting. I delight to see women worshiping freely with the Lord, and I hope that they express that. But I'm also not going to create an environment that's emotionally manipulative or like moving people that direction. We have women from all different denominations coming, some more expressive, some less expressive. All of them are welcome. And in that environment, I'm going to invite them through the word and through singing and through prayer and through testimony to encounter their Savior. And women cry, and they raise their hands, and they kneel, and they worship, and that's between them and God. But I'm not going to create an environment that's pushing them to have a specific response.
Speaker: Now, in our design of of this event, um one of the challenges is finding speakers. I had no idea how hard this was. So I sympathize women's ministry leaders because every speaker has a different schedule.
Speaker: And the ones that are bigger name speakers are really hard to get because their schedules fill up like two years in advance. And so it's really hard to contract them or to keep the contract because sometimes they have to cancel the contract. So you end up like going through all, okay, that That didn't work. So now we have to find someone new. But by the time you're hunting for someone new they're booked. It's a whole thing. So we have lists of of speakers we trust. And the other part of this is that I try to diversify who is speaking. So it's really easy to get the same names over and over and over again.
Speaker: But one of our goals at Every Woman a Theologian is to have denominational diversity. So there's multiple ways to be diverse. Number one, denominational diversity. So we're not going to only be hiring Reformed speakers. Now, if you're a Reformed conference, it makes sense, like TTCW, to only have Reformed speakers. But we're not a Reformed conference. We are a conference that is interdenominational. So we want to have speakers from different perspectives and different backgrounds who are coming in to speak to our women. But they must align with our statement of faith. And that means that they need to be
Speaker: believing in the Trinity and believing in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the sufficiency of the cross for salvation and um the Holy Spirit and how he works. And, you know, so we're going to have specific, and you can go and see our statement of faith on our web website,
Speaker: We have certain standards. We also have standards for our speakers. So one of our standards that we have put into our speaking contract is that we ask our speakers to not hide in the green room after they speak, but to actually spend time talking to the attendees out and about. This is a big priority for our conference that we're actually outward focused during the event. We don't just speak and leave. um And thankfully, the women that we have and the men that come, um they do this naturally.
Speaker: So finding speakers for the event is a challenge, but we really seek for that denominational diversity. We seek for age diversity, so younger speakers, older speakers. So we have a wide generational um experience to share. um Yes, racial diversity. And I know that for some of you, interesting. You're like, well, that's DEI. No, the church is diverse. the The church is worldwide. It's culturally diverse. And so I live in an area of the country that is 94% white. And so that's the most of the experiences in the church. that's That's what it's going to reflect. But I do try to work hard to bring in
Speaker: Christian speakers from all different cultural backgrounds so that we can hear what does Christianity look like? What challenges are being faced in your cultural context? How can we encourage and equip and learn from these different cultural contexts? Because yes, We're all one race in Christ in the sense that there is no Jew nor Greek, but at the same time, while we're in this broken world, we have different cultural experiences that affect how we walk out our faith. Challenges that are faced in Detroit that aren't faced up North Michigan where I live. And so bringing in different speakers who can speak to that is also helpful and serves the women that we're trying to serve. So denominational diversity, age diversity, racial diversity, and then also bringing in um diversity in regard to ah other cultural experiences like having someone speak to disability ministry, having someone speak to ministering to children who have ADHD disability.
Speaker: people who are ministering to the LGBTQ community. So different kind of like niche ministries, like diversity of what their topic is, um is also very helpful to serve our audience and our our attendees as effectively as possible. Like how can they take this out into the world and walk this out? Now we do a theme and this year it's built on Christ, foundations of faith. So everything that's being spoken and talked about is coming from that angle of like, how do we found ourselves on on Christ and on the rock of Scripture? And then out of that, we can talk about a lot of different things. So Wendy Blight is coming, and she's speaking on um spiritual warfare.
Speaker: and And we have um Jeremy Jenkins. Many of you know Jeremy. He writes for us. um Jeremy's speaking about Christ as the only foundation in light of all the religions in the world. I'm going to be speaking about um Christ as our foundation and why that gives us assurance of salvation. So there's a lot of different ways we can take that theme. And that's kind of what our goal is at the event. So by the time this episode comes out, the conference will be, you know,
Speaker: on its way. It'll be about to happen. But I hope that if any of this resonates with you, number one, it helps you discern through the events you say yes to or the events you host at your church and what you can provide um to your women.
Speaker: But I'd also love for you to keep us in mind for next year. So 2027. The Every Woman a Theologian conference will be happening again, and this time we will be doing a spiritual gifts theme, Every Good Gift. And we already have some amazing speakers coming. We have Natalie Runyon of Raised to Stay.
Speaker: She'll be talking about what does the biblical view of prophecy look like? What is that gift? And what does that look like? We're going to have Kelly Needham coming in to talk about the gift of teaching. I will be talking about the gift of evangelism. And we hope to have a panel of women to share more about some of the other spiritual gifts and how those play out in their lives.
Speaker: So we are really excited about this theme because the whole thing is on spiritual gifts. That is what we're learning about. And that makes me really excited. So um I hope you'll pencil us in for fall, October or November.
Speaker: Fall 2027 is when that will be happening in northern Michigan. So Petoskey, Traverse City area, we're still nailing down our location for next year and official dates, but just keep that in mind. We would love to see you, love to have you join us for the conference and be in person, not just on YouTube or listening on iTunes. So Just think about that for next year.
Speaker: All right. Well, we are drawing to the close of our Thinking Biblically series. We are getting really close um to the end because as we go through November, I think we only have a couple more episodes in this series, and we're going to be switching to our Advent series. So a couple of things to keep in mind as we get close to the end of this series.
Speaker: um Number one, we are headed into a really busy holiday season, And as you're looking for gifts for your families, for your kids, for your friends, for your church leaders, we would love for you to consider Every Woman a Theologian. We're a small business based in northern Michigan. We now have a physical bookstore. And we would love for you to take a look at our website and see if any of our books, studies, and products resonate with you. We have some brand new stickers and window clings and books and Christmas resources, Advent resources, coming out mid-November. So be sure to watch for that because they will most likely sell out very quickly. And so we are prepping for that holiday season coming up here very soon. If you live in Michigan, we'd love if you'd come visit our physical location, Riverside Bookshop, which is located in Lanson, Michigan. We open on November 20th, and we would love for you to come check us out during the holiday season and beyond. So thank you as always for listening to this podcast. We're so grateful to you, and i hope we'll see you next year at the Every Woman a Theologian conference.
