Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Women of Worth (a.k.a. free ad space)

So, I am planning an event for next week called “Women of Worth” (abbreviated WoW, not to be confused with World of Warcraft…ok, maybe we did that purposefully).  It will be a panel event with women in different phases of relationship (single, dating, engaged, and married) speaking into what it looks like to be serving and seeking God in each of these phases. Hannah Kalb and I originally came up with the idea for this event after emceeing the “He’s Just Not That Into You” panel last semester. While we thought that event was great and discussed many important topics surrounding relationships, we felt it left the audience, ourselves included, wanting more. Questions were left in our mind such as: what do we do with this information? How do we put into practice some of the lessons we have learned through this? How can we use this information to more fully serve God?

In light of that, we have decided to have a panel of women we feel can insightfully speak into the questions of relationships and our spiritual walk (Emily Sell, Angela Carpenter, Joi Logan, Anne Tohme, Lindsey Goetz…). We will then have Katherine Fulkerson give a closing charge that synthesizes the evening’s topic and sends the women out with some sense of direction regardless of what stage of relationship they are in.

Hannah and I’s greatest motivation in creating this event was in seeing so many girls struggle with their identity in Christ as a result of their relationship status (be it single or dating). In singleness, we have seen girls give up their striving for anything that will not bring them closer to their man. We have seen strong independent women become insecure and fragile, thinking themselves unworthy of relationship, whether it be with a man or with God. We have heard about and experienced the struggle women (and men!) face when they equate entering into relationship with success in their walk with Christ.

On the flip side, we have seen the challenge of balancing a relationship with a man and a relationship with God. We have known people who become too dependent on their significant other, forsaking their dependency on Christ. We have struggled ourselves in trying to discover what the purpose of relationship is as the bible outlines it.

So our goal is to shed an ounce of light on these issues, knowing that we will not solve the problem with one event. Our hope is that, through WoW, we will be able to speak into the current situation of the women in the audience, providing some semblance of guidance towards God’s heart.

And, before all you men get up in arms, we have already thought through the possibility of doing a similar event that includes men. Based on the success of WoW, you can expect to see something that will cater to your relationship lives sometime in the near future.

So, what is our role in speaking into the corruption and distortion that so often happens in relationships? We aren’t fully sure, but we will start taking those steps of responsibility by opening space for discussion of the topic. Come join us if you’d like! (Shameless plug: JHL, Feb. 16th at 7:30 PM)

Cheers,
Becca

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