This past weekend at Living Proof Live in St. Louis, Beth shared a message about the image of God: Imago Dei. It was complex and layered and deep, and Saturday's sessions especially stomped all over my toes in the best possible ways.
After the Saturday morning break, Beth shared a story about a woman named Teri (apologies to Teri if I'm misspelling her name) who was supposed to be at LPL in Springfield, Illinois last November. Since Teri was at the St. Louis event, Beth called her to the platform - and you can see the rest right here.
(Please excuse the video quality.)
(I was taping from one of the screens so that you could see the ladies clearly.)
(But apparently I'd had a little too much caffeine.)
There's no question that recapping events is one of my most favorite parts about blogging for AllAccess. As somebody who is just way past grateful for what I've learned from some really gifted teachers at different women's events over the last six or seven years, it makes me all kinds of happy to be able to share bits and pieces what goes on at Living Proof or Going Beyond or Deeper Still with blog readers who weren't able to be there.
But.
One of the things Melanie and I try to be really careful about is that we don't unintentionally elevate the people who speak or lead worship on the platform to some sort of "untouchable" status. A culture of celebrity or even competition has NO PLACE in the body of Christ. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the people who are on that platform wouldn't want us to see them as anything other than servants. They take their callings and their responsibilities very seriously, and they love the people that they have the privilege to serve so deeply and so sincerely.
They want all of us to follow hard after Jesus - not to follow hard after them.
Sunday night at church our pastor said something that resonated with me so deeply that I wrote it on the back of my worship guide: "It's tempting in our culture to put an unhealthy dependence on a personality instead of a healthy dependence on the Word of God."
Isn't that a good word? Because yes, it's fun to talk about Beth's hair or Priscilla's shoes or Vicki's jeans because that's just the kind of stuff that we love to discuss with our girlfriends. But at the end of that day, none of that stuff can save us. None of those women can save us.
So all that to say: as much fun as the events are - and as much as we treasure the people who lead us while we're there are - it's all meaningless if we're somehow worshipping the event or the people on the platform instead of the one true and living God.
I think it's good and healthy for all of us to remember that. And it just seemed fitting to mention it before we dig a little deeper into our LPL St. Louis recaps.
It's been two years since Melanie and I started blogging for AllAccess, and while we only travel to a few women's events a year, I can tell you that there's one aspect of the event-related travel that we caught on to pretty quickly - and that surprised us a little bit.
Ready?
Here it is.
There's really no time to see the city where the event is. I mean, you see the airport, and you see the hotel, and goodness gracious you see the inside of the arena. But the city? Not so much.
So on the odd occasion when there's a little pocket of time to explore the area around the hotel, it really is such a treat. It's definitely not something that you take for granted - and if you're anything like me, it might even make you dance a jig.
I just try to be sure that I dance my jig in private. I'M BAPTIST, you know.
Oh, I kid.
In St. Louis our hotel was right across the street from the Arch, and I was tickled - TICKLED, I say verily unto you - when I got to spend a couple of hours wandering around the Arch this past Thursday afternoon. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, and my time outside confirmed that I really do love me a city that's nestled up against a river - because sweet mercy at the pretty.
Melanie
Melanie
Sophie
Sophie
Paige
Paige
Kris
Kris