Saturday, October 31, 1998

Women of Faith celebrates the joy of Christian bonding

By Maureen Jenkins

Knight Ridder Newspapers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Women of Faith arrives in Charlotte this weekend for a spiritual girls' night out that will give Christian women a chance to laugh, cry, pray and praise God.

Above all, the 10-hour gathering expected to draw 13,000 on Friday and Saturday to the Coliseum will give women a chance to share their faith together.

The Women of Faith conference is bringing its evangelical muscle to a town accustomed to big religious events. Billy Graham drew more than 300,000 to his 1996 crusade at Ericsson Stadium. A 1996 Promise Keepers rally at Charlotte Motor Speedway attracted 50,000 men. Mother Teresa welcomed 13,000 to a 1995 service at the Coliseum.

Now comes a crowd that will range from teen-agers to grandmothers, evangelicals to Roman Catholics. "Bring Back the Joy" will be all women, all the time.

"Enough of life is so serious," says executive director Christie Barnes. "For them to be able to come and laugh is such a relief and release."

Borrowing the formula that made all-male Promise Keepers a national force, Women of Faith and other female-only spiritual meetings are giving women a place to share without browbeating them into confession. Here, humor mixes with tears, Christian insight with contemporary song.

"There's no pressure -- we don't ask the women to make any promises or commitments," says Luci Swindoll, sister of evangelist Chuck Swindoll and a Women of Faith speaker. "You don't have to dress up, you don't have to go to a church, you can be at any place in your life."

While the average attendee is between 35 and 55, young women also come, wooed by the Christian pop sounds of Point of Grace. Local churches send groups, but some women attend alone and leave with new friends.

Most go to evangelical, nondenominational churches, but Catholics, Baptists and Presbyterians help fill seats. This year alone, more than 275,000 will attend Women of Faith events in 28 cities.

Women of Faith organizers say Christian women's groups try to encourage and validate, while men's movements tend to stress repentance and forgiveness.

"The speakers really don't speak from a position of a resident expert -- they speak from the position of fellow struggler," says Barnes. "I cannot emphasize how real they are -- regular people doing the best they can."

Since Promise Keepers' 1997 rally in Washington -- and the Million Man March in 1995 -- female-only events have multiplied. The formula's the same: well-known Christian speakers share personal stories, while youthful musicians inspire through song.

Others in the genre include Aspiring Women, which will have an event next March at Charlotte's Hickory Grove Baptist. Praise Keepers asks women to make seven "commitments," similar to what Promise Keepers asks of men. Focus on the Family's Renewing the Heart will pack 20,000 into the Ice Palace in Tampa, Fla., in November. Woman, Thou Art Loosed, an annual, largely African-American event hosted by Dallas pastor T.D. Jakes, drew 52,000 to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta this summer.

Don't dismiss these as gatherings of "submissive little women," says Graham Reside, who teaches at Emory University and its Candler School of Theology.

"By going to these meetings and participating," says Reside, "they heighten their authority. Even though it's in a conservative context, it's a way of gaining autonomy. Actually, these are strategies for gaining moral and religious authority at home."

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Luci Swindoll says Women of Faith is a retreat where women can "pack up your troubles and leave them at home."

Friday and Saturday in Charlotte, such speakers as authors Patsy Clairmont, Thelma Wells and Barbara Johnson will take the mike and reveal tales of love, loss and redemption.

"I have learned the power of a story," Swindoll says. "As we share our stories and let God do the changing, it's amazing what he does when we are open and vulnerable about the problems we have in our lives."

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But sharing comes at a price. Women will pay $40 to $50 to attend next week's event, plus handling fees and $7 for a box lunch. A spin-off of New Life Clinics -- a for-profit chain of Christian counseling centers based in Plano, Texas -- Women of Faith earned $6.1 million last year. Founder Stephen Arterburn says those dollars are rolled into next year's events, paying for brochures, ads and stadium rental, which can be reach $500,000 in some cities.

"The women know it costs money to put these events on," says Women of Faith's Barnes, "and we don't get complaints. If we want to be able to minister to women across the country, we have to charge to cover our costs."

But for many believers, says religion sociologist Rhys Williams, the spiritual benefits outweigh the costs.

"People making a certain sacrifice to do it, whether it's time or finances, means they get a little more out of it," says Williams, who studies mass social movements at Southern Illinois University. "But then again, how many times will people give up $50? My guess is about once a year."

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More than 75 percent of Women of Faith attendees belong to churches, Barnes says, yet they spend two days singing, weeping and praying with women they don't know.

"There is a sense that participating in a big event or revival is important in affecting the larger society," Williams says. As with men's movements, "it is important to them to make a public statement that religion matters."

Today, he says, movements such as Women of Faith give believers new places to celebrate their faith and help define America's spiritual agenda.

"With the divorce rate and the increase in violence in society -- and specially among kids -- the whole nation is experiencing a wake-up call," says Barnes. "I think people are really starting to realize that a relationship with our creator is important to surviving in this world."

Women of Faith doesn't have altar calls or implore non-Christians to gather before the stage. Attendees don't go home beating themselves up for their failures. Rather, Barnes says, they leave with assurance that "no matter what you've gone through or what you've done, God loves you. He accepts you as you are.

"There's no blame and no shame involved. What I like to call the conference is a 'booster shot of joy.' "

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(c) 1998, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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