worship conference – Michelle Lesley

There’s a lot of great stuff going on in Christendom lately, and I didn’t want you to miss out (especially if you’re not on social media)! So, “in case you missed it”…

Several weeks ago, just for fun and encouragement, I put out the call on social media for women who are using one of my Bible studies – either individually or in a class – to send in some pictures of their study time. Here are the responses I’ve received so far:

Natasha lives in Kiev, Ukraine and is currently working on Imperishable Beauty: A Study of Biblical Womanhood. (She has also completed Living Stones: A Study of 1&2 Peter.) Natasha says: “I pray that God will help me understand and study His Word. And this is not easy since I have 4 children and three of them are under the age of 4…But God is good to me.” I’m sure many of us can relate to that!

My friend, Robin Self says, “Our ladies are LOVING studying verse by verse!” They are working through 1 & 2 Timothy: The Structure and Spirit of the Church.

Megan says: “My friend Paige and I are working through the Colossians Bible Study!! It’s been so refreshing to actually study the Bible, not someone’s book!! We have a group on Facebook¹ for people to join (WOMEN ONLY, but we’d love to have more ladies join us!) and watch any recordings if they can’t meet. We got to meet in person for the first time this morning to work through the 5th lesson! Thank you so much for what you do!”

¹Just a reminder, Facebook groups, pages, and Bible studies – even mine – are great, but they are not a biblical substitute for active, faithful membership in a local church.

Are you or your ladies’ group working through one of my studies? Send me a picture (email or social media private message), including the study’s title image, if possible, the name of the study you’re using, and a brief comment. I’d love to share it on social media and/or the blog!

Can you believe my A Word Fitly Spoken podcast partner, Amy Spreeman, and I have only spoken at one women’s conference together? We’d like to change that. If you’d like to book both Amy and me to speak at your next women’s event, please click here.

Did you know that G3 Ministries has a shiny new church finder? Check it out, and if your church isn’t listed, pass the link for the application page on to your pastor.

Don’t despair that you can’t find a church in your area or that there are so few listed. For a brand new site with an application process, this is quite a good number of churches. I’ve got it all linked up at my Searching for a new church? tab (in the blue menu bar at the top of this page), so you can keep checking back from time to time to see which new churches have been added.

If you’re looking for a new church right now and you can’t find anything near you on G3’s map, be sure to check out all the other wonderful church search engines and resources at Searching for a new church? I highly recommend the Founders and Master’s Seminary search engines.

And speaking of G3, the hits just keep on coming! You’ve loved their national conference, maybe you’re looking forward to a regional conference, and you’ve probably heard about their expository preaching workshops for pastors. But did you know they’ve added another workshop specially geared toward worship pastors?

Grab this link for G3’s first Biblical Worship Workshop, and pass it along to your pastor or worship pastor. (And you might want to tell them to hurry up and register. I’m really surprised it isn’t already at capacity.)

The singing portion of this video was recorded at my church. You can briefly see yours truly (at the 0:05 mark, near the top of your screen) in the pink glasses and black sweater. Fun stuff! :0)

Another reason I’m excited about this particular G3 workshop is that one of my own pastors, Laramie Minga, is going to be one of the instructors. He knows his stuff, and your pastor will really benefit from sitting under his teaching. (The other guys are good, too! :0)

Also, in case it wasn’t clear from my saying that this workshop is for pastors, this one is for men only, ladies, particularly men who are already pastors or who are on track to becoming pastors.

Interested in becoming a certified biblical counselor? Spring 2022 regional training events are coming to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Bardstown, Kentucky, and Moore, South Carolina, so get signed up! Find out more about training and other events at the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) website.

I recently had the exciting opportunity to attend the Gathered conference here in Baton Rouge.

The topic of the conference was family worship in the context of the local church – how parents must disciple their children in conjunction with the church body, and how the church body can, in turn, support those parents and help them disciple their children.

There were four plenary sessions by Dr. Scott Aniol. Currently a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Scott was recently named Executive Vice President and Editor-in-chief of G3 Ministries. And you’ll definitely want to check out his website, Religious Affections Ministries, a wonderful resource for churches, families, and individuals.

Other presenters included Andrew Pressley, Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church, Lindale, Texas (Tom Buck’s church), and Matt Sikes, Pastor of Discipleship and Worship at Pray’s Mill Baptist Church (Josh Buice’s church).

You’ll find all of the main sessions and men’s breakout session (be sure to share them with your husband!) linked, but I wanted to feature the two women’s breakout sessions taught by Scott’s wife, Becky Aniol, who, among other fine pursuits, is a stay at home, homeschooling mom of four. She gave us a lot of biblical precepts and practical tips for family worship in her two part session A Family Worship Toolbox: Resources and Routines for Monday – Sunday. You’ll find them helpful with your children, grandchildren, or the children you minister to at church. I’m sure you’ll enjoy her sessions as much as I did.