Category: Speaking Engagements

Speaking Engagements

Y’all Come! – Speaking Engagements and Event-Hosting Tips

Michelle Lesley

Need an opportunity to get together with other godly women for fellowship and good teaching? I’d love for you to come to one of my conferences!

If you haven’t checked out the calendar of events on my Speaking Engagements page (in the blue menu bar at the top of this page), here’s an update. I hope you’ll be able to attend one of these – I’d love to see you! I’ll be posting more about each of these as the dates get nearer, and I hope to add several more!

2021 Calendar:

June 4-5- Cruciform Conference, Indianapolis, Indiana. Breakout sessions for women. This one is co–ed (except for my breakout sessions), so bring your husbands, ladies!

July 12-17- Reverence in Radical Times women’s conference, online. (This is the 2021 iteration of the 2020 OHCW online conference.) Join me, Martha Peace, Susan Heck, Shelbi and Kimberly from the Women’s Hope podcast, Marci from Thankful Homemaker, and more, as we examine Titus 2:3-5. (More details to come.)

Wait….only two more speaking engagements scheduled this year? Well, I do have a couple more in the works that haven’t been finalized yet, but I want to come fellowship with more of you! Let’s add some events to my calendar…

If you’re unable to attend one of the events above, host your own! I’d love to come speak to the ladies of your church or Christian organization. (I’d especially love to hear from churches within easy driving distance of Baton Rouge: Louisiana, central and eastern Texas, southern and central Arkansas, Missisippi, etc.) Now is the time to start planning for summer and fall conferences for 2021 or even 2022 conference dates.

Need a little help with the details? Check out the rest of the information on my Speaking Engagements page, including my article, Women’s Events on a Shoestring Budget (Plus- Tips for Hosting an Event!).

I also have a speaking engagement option that makes hosting an event easier and less expensive: speaking engagement packages. Choose from my most popular biblical topics and the most common conference formats, and we’ll send you the set speaking fee for that conference. (Of course, if you have another topic you’d like me to speak on or a format that’s unique to your event, that option is still available.)

I hope to see you soon at an event near you!

Speaking Engagements

Nashville, AR, Conference: POSTPONED

Michelle Lesley

UPDATE (February 15)

Ladies- I’m so sorry to inform you that this conference has been postponed due to inclement weather. We are working on setting up another date – hopefully soon. When the details are settled, I’ll let you know here on the blog. Until then, if you know someone who was planning to attend the conference this weekend, please let her know of the cancellation. Thanks.

Ladies, if you’re in the Nashville, ARKANSAS, area (please note, this is not in Tennessee), you’re invited to attend Maranatha Baptist Church’s women’s conference on Saturday, February 20.

I’ll be speaking on discernment and living under the authority of Scripture instead of being slaves to our emotions. We’ll also have a fun Q&A session to round out the day.

The conference is free and includes a continental breakfast and lunch, but you must RSVP directly to the church (not to me – contact info above) by the…

Registration Deadline – February 13

…so the hostesses can get a good headcount for food and materials.

If Arkansas is too far away for you, check out the calendar of events on my Speaking Engagements page (in the blue menu bar at the top of this page) and see if you can find one of my conferences in your neck of the woods.

If you still aren’t able to find an event to attend, host your own! I’d love to come speak to the ladies of your church or Christian organization. Now is the time to start planning for summer and fall conferences. Need a little help planning? I’ve got tips!

I hope to see you soon at an event near you!

Speaking Engagements

You’re Invited to a Women’s Conference!

Michelle Lesley

Ladies, if you’re in the Nashville, ARKANSAS, area (please note, this is not in Tennessee), you’re invited to attend Maranatha Baptist Church’s women’s conference on Saturday, February 20.

I’ll be speaking on discernment and living under the authority of Scripture instead of being slaves to our emotions. We’ll also have a fun Q&A session to round out the day.

The conference is free and includes a continental breakfast and lunch, but you must RSVP directly to the church (not to me – contact info above) by the…

Registration Deadline – February 13

…so the hostesses can get a good headcount for food and materials.

If Arkansas is too far away for you, check out the calendar of events on my Speaking Engagements page (in the blue menu bar at the top of this page) and see if you can find one of my conferences in your neck of the woods.

If you still aren’t able to find an event to attend, host your own! I’d love to come speak to the ladies of your church or Christian organization. Now is the time to start planning for summer and fall conferences. Need a little help planning? I’ve got tips!

I hope to see you soon at an event near you!

Speaking Engagements

Report Back: Discernment with Michelle Lesley Conference

Michelle Lesley

I had a great time of fellowship and teaching recently with the ladies of Cornerstone Church of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Teton Valley Bible Church, of Driggs, Idaho, and their guests from the surrounding area. These sister churches, across the border and across the mountains from each other, come together each year to host a conference to build up the women of their churches and to reach out to the women of their communities. This year, the theme was discernment.

I taught on discernment in four different areas of our walk with the Lord: the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, living by Scripture instead of our emotions, false doctrine and false teachers, and women’s roles in the home and church. And we had a fun Q&A session over lunch, too!

Click here to listen to the conference audio!

  • What a super hostess gift bag!

I also had the privilege of recommending a few books for the book table. It was my pleasure to recommend to them (and to you!) God, Greed, and the Prosperity Gospel by Costi Hinn, Deceived No More by Doreen Virtue, and You’re Not Enough and That’s OK by Allie Beth Stuckey.

I had never been to Wyoming or Idaho before this trip. They are both so beautiful! I took about a million pictures, but I tried to pare it down for this article. (You can click on most of the pictures to enlarge them.)

  • I took this one through the window of the plane as we were about to land in Jackson Hole.

Jackson Hole has several of these charming elk antler arches. When you get off the plane, you walk through one to get into the airport, and there’s one at each corner of the town square.

The hotel I stayed at in Jackson Hole had these adorable little critters everywhere!

When we crossed over the mountains into Driggs, I got to stay in this cozy little resort cabin. Too cute! It snowed the morning I flew out.

During some down time prior to the conference, one of the lovely sisters from Cornerstone graciously took time out of her schedule to drive me around to see the sights.

Here’s the National Elk Refuge. You can hardly see them, but there are swans and ducks in that little pond. We didn’t see any elk that day, but I did get to see some alongside the road another day.

There’s a significant Mormon population around Jackson Hole. Near the turn of the 19th century, the area pictured below was a community of 33 homesteads surrounding a “church” and a school. These are a few of the buildings still standing from that era, with the Grand Tetons in the background.

The Grand Tetons, and boy are they grand! A camera just can’t capture the beauty of God’s creation like the human eye can, but I tried. :0) (I did not add any filters. The sky is really just that radiant and gorgeous.)

These were taken at the area where Ansel Adams took his famous photo Tetons and the Snake River. Maybe the trees weren’t quite as tall back in 1942. :0)

After a fantastic morning of sightseeing, we headed back toward the town square for lunch where, as is my custom, I sampled a bit of the local fare. The restaurant that served elk burgers was closed, but we found the next best thing – a bison burger, which was delectable and has now spoiled me forever for regular hamburger.

I was enchanted by the rustic, “log cabin in the mountains” facade design of many of the buildings in Jackson Hole, even their Albertson’s and Target! I’m told the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar is “famous” and that they have saddles for bar stools.

Many, many thanks to the conference organizers and pastors of Cornerstone and TVBC for treating me like a queen and making a work trip seem more like a vacation. It was such a pleasure fellowshipping with them and with the ladies who attended the conference. If you’re ever in the Jackson Hole or Driggs area, and need a good church to join or visit, I can’t recommend these two churches highly enough.

If your church or organization is ever in need of a speaker for a women’s event, I’d love to come share with your ladies as well. Click here for more information.

Photo Credits

Photo of Michelle speaking by Anika (conference organizer)

All other photos by Michelle Lesley

Speaking Engagements

Report Back: Cruciform Conference

Michelle Lesley

I had such a great time at Cruciform Conference a couple of weeks ago! Sadly, a few of the speakers pictured above ended up not being able to make it due to illness and other reasons, but even though we missed them, there was no shortage of wonderful preaching and teaching on the theme of holiness.

The first morning of the conference I finally had the pleasure of meeting in person my dear online friend, Chris Honholz, and his lovely wife, Kristine. You might remember that I was a guest on Chris’ and Richard Story’s podcast, Voice of Reason Radio, a while back, and I got to do another brief interview with Chris at the conference:

Voice of Reason Radio- Cruciform Conference: Interview Edition
Subscribe to VOR Radio and become a regular listener!

It was tons of fun visiting with Chris and Kristine in person. We were staying at the same hotel, and they graciously chauffeured me around all weekend. What a blessing to me – and to the body of Christ – these two are!

Kristine, me, Chris

Friday and Saturday were a whirlwind of teaching and fellowship. I would highly recommend that you head over to the Cruciform Ministries YouTube Channel and give all of the sermons a listen.

On Friday, I taught my first breakout session (for women only, of course): Holy Mothers (and Others) of God’s Word: The Holy Women of Scripture:

Saturday’s session was Practical Holiness:

On Saturday evening, my podcast co-host – Amy Spreeman – and I had a super time recording a live Q&A episode of A Word Fitly Spoken – Glad You Asked: Live From Cruciform Conference:

You can also listen to this episode at our website,
or by subscribing to AWFS on your favorite podcast platform.

I had tons of fun meeting and fellowshipping with so many wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ. Everyone had such interesting stories or ministries! And the fall foliage in Indy – gorgeous!

  • Me, Andrew Rappaport of the
    Christian Podcast Community
  • Me, Justin Peters
  • Drew Von Nieda (me) and Chris Huff of
    Matter of Theology podcast.
  • Chris, Andrew, and Drew recording a live episode of Matter of Theology
  • Andrew presents Chris Honholz
    with Captain America shirt
  • Cruciform organizer, Brandon Scalf (l)
    Pastor Brett Baggett (r)

I’d also like to take a moment to put in a good word for smaller, regional conferences like Cruciform. Large conferences are awesome, and I enjoy them, but there are a lot of great things about smaller conferences that you may not be aware of if you’ve never been to one. Smaller conferences…

  • …are usually less expensive.
  • …introduce you to great pastors, speakers, authors, and ministries you wouldn’t otherwise have known about.
  • …allow you to network with others in your area who have similar ministry interests
  • …allow more and deeper fellowship with other attendees
  • …allow you more access to speakers you want to meet
  • …often have a more casual, relaxed atmosphere than larger conferences

If there’s a doctrinally sound smaller conference in your region, I’d encourage you to give it a try.

It was so encouraging to fellowship with my brothers and sisters and sit under wonderful preaching at Cruciform 2020. Many thanks to Brandon Scalf for his tireless work putting this wonderful conference together, for inviting me to speak, and for being a great handler – graciously making sure all of my needs were met. Thanks also to all of his helpers who ferried me to and from the airport, made sure I got to eat when I arrived in town, and expertly managed all the audio, video, and computer equipment for my sessions and the podcast.

I’d love to see you at Cruciform 2021! Next year the conference will be held June 4-5, instead of in October, so start planning to attend now!

If your church or organization is ever in need of a speaker for a women’s event, I’d love to come share with your ladies as well. Click here for more information.

Photo Credits

Cruciform logo images courtesy of Cruciform Conference.

Photos of Michelle teaching by Kristine Honholz.

All other photos by Michelle Lesley, Chris Honholz, Brandon Scalf, and conference attendees.