After eleven years of working in education, I was excited to finally be on staff at the church where my husband was pastoring. One of my goals for the first year as our women’s director was to hold a women’s conference at our church. Due to COVID, it had been several years since we had been able to have a large gathering for our women. I knew I wanted to have an incredible time with dynamic speakers, but my small budget seemed like it wouldn’t allow me to provide what I had been dreaming about.
I prayed about the choices I had and started searching online for Christian simulcasts that were geared toward women. I discovered the Lifeway Women simulcast and immediately fell in love with everything it offered. The list of speakers was beyond my wildest dreams! Also, the flexibility of doing it on the day and time of our choosing and the low cost allowed me to make an easy decision. Within the week, I secured the simulcast and downloaded all the resources that were available to me.
As someone who had never put on an event like this, the provided planning kit made my months ahead of the simulcast extremely organized. It helped me plan out exactly when I should be doing certain tasks and allowed me to do the needed prep work beforehand. This way, the week of the event I did not feel frazzled at all. In fact, I spent a lot of time in prayer the week of the event, and I know it was because of the preparation pointers I had been provided.
On the day of the simulcast, I was at the church at 5 a.m. I couldn’t sleep, and I was so excited about all the good things I believed were going to happen that day. We had volunteers welcoming ladies, a photo booth for them to take pictures at, a delicious breakfast, and even giveaways donated by local businesses. However, the most important thing was that our auditorium was filled with ladies from all over our city– ranging in age from twelve to ninety-two! There was even a large group from a neighboring church who had heard we were doing a Lifeway simulcast and wanted to attend.
It was astounding to have all these ladies from a variety of generations sitting in one room, listening to the teachings of such powerful speakers like Jada Edwards, Jen Wilkin, Jackie Hill Perry, and Kelly Minter. As I sat in the back of the room, I noticed ladies quietly wiping tears away during poignant moments, nodding in agreement at certain points, laughing with their friends, and furiously writing notes during each session. At the end of the day, we had a time of prayer, and several ladies committed their lives to Christ.
Fast forward a few months later: I was teaching our class for new believers at our church, and a lady whom I had met at our simulcast was there. She and I had bonded over the amount of coffee that was needed to keep us going strong during the morning sessions, and we had spent the few months after the simulcast finding small connections on Sunday mornings.
At the end of our class sessions, she opened up to me and shared she had come to the Lord during the Lifeway simulcast conference we had hosted just a few months before. She shared how her entire life’s trajectory had realigned. She was going full force toward the Lord and was bringing her children along on her journey as well. I was floored. Her entire life had changed. I sat in awe as I spoke with this sister in Christ. Her entire family’s future had changed after this one weekend. I could have never imagined such an amazing life transformation in all my times of prayer and planning for this event. But God knew and prepared her heart to be forever changed.
As I drove home that night, I realized the weekend we had spent so much time, energy, and effort planning for was all about Christ and His life-transforming power. He joined us that weekend and changed people’s lives, more than we could have ever hoped or imagined! This is something I would have never imagined when I Googled “Christian simulcasts for women,” but I am so grateful I did.
Stacy Lacy (yes, that’s her real name) is an Associate Pastor at North Highland Church in Columbus, GA. She and her husband, Brad, have been in ministry for over 20 years and love to connect people to the life-changing power that comes from knowing Jesus Christ. They are parents to two amazing boys who bring so much joy to their lives. When she’s not serving the church, she enjoys spending time cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs, reading books, cooking, and birdwatching with Brad.
