Let’s Talk About the IF:Gathering (Purpose)

Greetings: Welcome back ladies, I am so thankful you have chosen to listen to this episode. I have been battling with sickness for the last week and it really shows in my voice so I ask that you just bear with me. So let’s just dive in. That was the promo clip for IF:Gathering 2022.

Introduction:

If you currently attend seeker sensitive, Calvary Chapel, non-denominational, and the common baptist churches you may have heard of the IF: Gathering, a discipleship ministry created by Jennie Allen, which launched its first conference back in 2014. This conference is done in a more modern format, as it has been held online to reach those across the world in small house or church gatherings.

For about 8 years now, If: Gathering has grown in popularity and has hosted some of America’s most popular  Evangelical female speakers such as Beth Moore, Christine Caine, Bianca Olthoff, Ann Voskamp, Lysa Turkeurst, Jackie Hill Perry, and many others. 

Ok, ladies. Let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about IF: Gathering. Bear with me, don’t shut me off yet. I know we have our favorite speakers, and especially us women, don’t like to question things that have seemed to bless us or benefited us in some way. I get that, I have felt that way too. God works all things together for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Rom.8:28). I have clearly seen God work maturity in my walk through His word. And even in the many years I was involved in churches that had unbiblical teachings, He worked in my life by opening my eyes to the false teaching by faithful teachers who exposed them and brought to light God’s word. But see God was merciful to me through His word, not through false teaching, and not through women who rebelled against God’s word. His word did it’s work despite all that.

That is my heart in these next couple of episodes. To show you the concerns I have for this ministry and conference, to call you to look at the Scriptures and to see if what is being taught will actually produce women after Christ’s own heart or women after the IF:Gathering’s heart

So let’s start with that… let’s start with the heart or goal of IF:Gathering. The ministry’s goal is to “…[put] tools and resources in the hands of women within the church… to empower women to reclaim discipleship as God’s means to change the world. In 8 years, through technology, our events, and our tools, we have reached more than one million women in 179 countries and we have a grand desire to see an entire generation discipled and unleashed to then go and make more disciples of Jesus. We believe with God it’s possible.” (ifgathering.com/our-story/).

The questions we need to be asking are: 

1) What is the tool that women need to be empowered in discipleship?

2) Does discipleship need to be RECLAIMED as god’s means to change the world?

Let’s address the 2nd question first. Jennie believes, by this statement, that discipleship needs to be “reclaimed”. To reclaim something means to recover  or retrieve something that was previously lost, given or paid. So in this case Mrs. Allen is making the claim that discipleship needs to be recovered, and more specifically that it needs to be reclaimed as God’s means to change the world. That somehow discipleship is no longer about changing the world. Is this true? Is discipleship God’s means by which he changes the world?

Well, we need to have a right understanding of what discipleship is before we ask if Jennie Allen is correct about it being the means to change the world.

So let’s look to God’s very words to learn about what discipleship is. 

Matthew 28:18-20 is what Christians call the great commission passage. This is the passage that calls all Christians to discipleship. When I read this, look at what Jesus instructs the apostles to do. And let’s see if changing the world is an end goal.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Let’s just make a note of some of the things Jesus tells us here.  That ALL authority in heaven AND on the Earth are given to Him. He has ALL authority on this earth. He is in authority over all governments, and all people’s. And because He has ALL authority He now instructs His Apostles to go and make disciples, to make followers, learners, those that want to learn and obey all that Christ commands. He taught the Apostles and the apostles teach us to this day, by the written word of God.

But let’s go deeper. What does discipleship look like, what are we to learn, what is the goal of discipleship? Is it to change the world?

What does discipleship start with? It starts with the Gospel, the good news that the Apostle’s proclaimed to the nearby nations. That God sent his Son to die for our sins, and was raised on the 3rd day, revealing that He has the power over sin, death, and the devil to set free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death (Heb 2:14-15). And with Him being the One with all power and authority, we are called to repent of our sin and trust in the finished work of Christ, justified by His blood, so that we may be saved from the wrath to come (Rom.5:9). Discipleship starts with the good news.

And …Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 2 Corin.5:17-20

This is our message

And by this good news we are made new to follow our Master, our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Discipleship starts with the Gospel and the proclamation of the reconciliation between God and His people. And from there it is about training those who are reconciled to observe and obey ALL that Christ has commanded. We see this all over the epistles. The prayers of Paul and Peter are centered on the formation of Christ in His people so that they may be filled with all the fullness of God.

So is the goal of discipleship to change the world? No.

The effects of large groups of people being discipled will change the world. We cannot disregard that. But that is not the purpose of discipleship. The purpose of discipleship is to teach His people to “observe all that [Christ] commanded the Apostles”. 

We can find out more on the purpose of discipleship in Ephesians 4:11-16:

…he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,  so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

All of ministry is done with the heart of making disciples. And Christ has given His people apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers to train the disciples up to serve and disciple others. So that we all attain to the knowledge of the SOn of God, to bring people up to the maturity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so we are no longer carried to and fro by every wind of doctrine, but instead by truth spoken to us in love, we grow up IN EVERY WAY into HIM, who is the head. We are to grow up into Christ.

For us women, discipleship is about training God’s women to be like Christ. 

And that is the purpose of women’s ministry. It is not to equip you with tools to train you up to change the world. 

In fact Christ came to give life to his sheep, to lay down His life so we might have life abundant (John 10:10). In this abundant life, yes, we will love our neighbor, and in that love will do many good works in the world, but our goal is not to change it, but to proclaim the One who saves it from the wrath of God.

We make disciples because individuals need to be saved. We make disciples because those who have been saved also need to be trained to observe and obey Christ and all He commands.

The goal of discipleship is NOT to change the world. It is not even making you a better version of yourself, nor a calling by God to do something great for Him. It is a putting on of a whole NEW man, the man Jesus Christ, denying ourselves and becoming like Him. It is to call another individual to obey Christ as Lord. For this to happen we must be proclaiming the Gospel, knowing nothing but Christ and Him crucified, hearing about Him, seeing Him in the good works of ourselves and others, and growing into the mature stature of Him.

Was discipleship the means by which God changed the world. Well.. I believe there are pieces missing to this statement. The Gospel is the means by which God saves His people, and discipleship is a means by which He sanctifies his people. People who are more like Christ love and serve others and by obvious deduction we could say that the more sanctified people there are the more the world will change…yes. And yet, I cannot find anywhere in scripture that God calls His people to work on changing the world, because from the very beginning, from the moment sin entered the world, it wasn’t change that God said we needed but salvation from death (Gen.2:17) and the wrath of God that is to come against all those who do evil (Rom.2:6-11).

It is the salvation and sanctification of His people that all Christian ministry should be about. To minister is to provide a service, and for the Christian our service is always done with the heart to edify and grow the Church. 

So now that we know what discipleship is and what it is for, we can look a bit at what women’s ministry is, and more specifically what a woman’s conference should be about. Especially if the conference goal is to equip women in discipleship.

Women’s ministry is women serving and training other women to obey Christ’s commands. Now there are broad commands that Christ instructs the whole of the church body in, and there are more narrow commands that He gives to His women. In Titus 2 we have a more narrow or specific set of commands on what the older women are to train the younger women up into. 

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,  and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,  to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (Titus 2:3-5).

These are the good works and acts of love that Christ, by the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul, instructs women to disciple the younger into. 

It saddens me how the popular church culture today thinks so little of the family. Oh, yes, they teach on parenting, how to get your kids to behave, how to train your kids to become world changers. But it is so lost in these type of churches that the family should be the clearest display of the relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church. Should God grant one marriage and children, discipleship starts with the family. This is not to say that one cannot disciple others should God not grant them a spouse and children, but it is the common means by which God instituted discipleship. He calls all His people to train up their children. That his words be on our heart, teaching them diligently to our children, talking of them when we sit down in our house, when we walk by the way, and when we lie down and when we rise (Deut. 6:6-7). We are to bring up our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord ( Ephs. 6:4). This is discipleship! It is an honor to disciple our children and God has called women to have one of the most important influences on our children as well as our husbands. Yes, we women can disciple our husbands as well. In fact God states that our submission to our husbands has a great effect on them. A meek and quiet spirit that is willing to submit to our husband can disciple our husbands and win them without a word (1Pet.3:1-6). Our godly submissive conduct is an example of how the Church submits to Christ, her Lord and Savior (Eph. 5:31-32).

It is a failure within popular Evangelical Christianity today to equip wives and mothers to ministry out in society without focusing on discipleship  within the home as God’s first and foremost calling to women. So much of the American Evangelical Women’s ministry of today wants to pull you away from what God has instructed in Titus 2. Their books, small group studies, and conferences all overwhelmingly point you away from discipleship in the home. Is the IF:Gathering conference any different?

I am not against conferences. Conferences have their purpose. I think they are a very successful tool to use in promoting ideas. And that is where the problem with conferences lies, that they are so successful. Depending on the ideas and teachings being conveyed it can be a very successful tool at spreading false teaching. The excitement, the feelings brought through music and lighting, the large crowds, all of these can entice us away from truth. So as christians we should have a different use for conferences, not the spreading of the world’s ideas, but the spread and exaltation of God’s word.

What should be the purpose of any christian woman’s conference?

To glorify God. In whatever endeavor, we are to do them all to the glory of God (1 Corin. 10:31). Merely 8 verses before this most popular verse Paul informs the Corinthian Church that “All things are lawful” but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor. (1 Corin.10: 23-24). 

Now, in the context, Paul is talking about meat sacrificed to idols. He is trying to teach the Corinthians that while we have liberty to eat what we want with a clear conscience, should we be confronted with certain pagan/idolatry practices we are to build up our neighbor, to seek his good. And in seeking out his good we would confront his idolatry to pierce his conscience. I know this seems off topic but, I’m getting there, because it is in this context that Paul then states that we are to do all things for God’s glory. And how does God receive glory in this way? Paul continues: Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. (1 Corin. 10:32-33). God is most glorified when we do not seek our own advantage, but the advantage of others, especially any effort on our behalf to bring them to salvation. 

A Christian Women’s conference should be about the salvation of other women, and their spiritual growth, for the glory of God. 

That begs the question; well, how does a women’s conference bring this about? 

When we answer this question, we will expose certain presuppositions and philosophies that are so very easy for people to miss. 

There are 2 ways that people have chosen to answer this.

1. That Scripture is all we need to present at a conference to help equip the people attending for Christian living and discipleship.
2. Scripture and worldly knowledge will best equip the people for Christian living and discipleship.

Understanding that there are these 2 foundational presuppositions in parachurch ministries we can now go back and answer the question I posed in the beginning: What tools do women need to be empowered in discipleship?

These tools that IF:Gathering wish to impart to us will reveal which kind of foundation they are built upon.

Christ tells us in Matt.7:24-27 

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like ^aa wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like ^aa foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

The words of Christ are given to us in Scripture. They are more sure than any personal experience or even any scientific, philosophical, psychological, and sociological observation (which is an experience as well). They are what Peter instructs us to pay attention to (2 Pet. 1:19). In fact Jesus makes this claim about what we are to build upon right after he informs his listeners that not everyone who even calls Him Lord will enter the kingdom of Heaven, only those who do the will of the Father ( Matt.7:21). 

Where do we find the Father’s will? In unregenerate’s man’s observations and philosophies? No. Scripture reveals the will of the Father.

Do we make disciples by reading Jennie Allen’s books and attending IF:Gatherings with millions of other women across the globe?

Is Scripture sufficient to train us on how to be a disciple and make other disciples? Our modern society wants to believe that we are more advanced than our predecessors. Somehow, because we live in this technological age we just are wiser and now know better. We have advanced in philosophy (so we think), become more aware of sociological issues, and know more about the human soul (psychology) than we did a hundred years ago. And because of this we should be integrating philosophical, sociological, and psychological tools into our ministries to better equip women in making disciples. Why is Scripture not enough? Why do we have to integrate these sciences into our discipleship programs? Does mankind know better? Or does God know best and give all we need for life, godliness, and good works in His Word?

We are just so ashamed of Scripture, today in our very modern era. In our shame of God’s word, to make it more palatable for unbelievers, we feel that God needs man’s help to bring them to Christ. This is syncretism, a tool used by liberal theologians for this very purpose, to draw in the unbeliever. It has become the weapon of choice that the devil has used to undermine the authority, clarity, perspicuity, and sufficiency of Scripture. It’s the same question by which satan tempted Eve in the garden : Did God really say…? Is Scripture really enough to equip you in the good work of discipleship? Do you think you would equip your listeners and conference attendees better if you integrated useful analytical tools such as positive psychology,  critical race theory,  intersectionality, etc in the conference messages? Your audience needs to know how to engage with the world. How else will you make disciples?

So many of our churches today forget who has ALL authority, and who brings salvation. One is born again through the work of the Spirit (John 3:3), calling on the name of the Lord through hearing the proclamation of the Gospel (Rom.10:14). And when we are brought into the family of God we then are equipped and trained by His word (2 Tim.3:16-17).

We can say we believe in the inerrant word of God. Claim it as our authority. But we undermine that authority if we do not go to it as sufficient to train us to be like Christ. But maybe that’s the issue. We are not taught in these churches to be like Christ, but to be world changers instead. They forget or do not believe that Christ was and is the Ultimate world changer, one who brings reconciliation between God and His people. This is our mission, to proclaim this reconciliation. No other reconciliation, no gender reconciliation, no racial reconciliation, but the reconciliation between a Holy God and a most unholy, godless people. OUr mission in discipleship is after the same heart of Paul, to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified (1 Corin. 2:2).

So as I listen to the conference I want to discern what is being taught by these popular teachers. The next couple of episodes are going to look at the speakers and their teachings.

On one end, we can praise God that the gospel is preached by those who may have selfish ambition in preaching it, and like Paul we can praise God for saving people even through sinful people (Phil. 1:15-18). But it is another thing for one to add to or change the Gospel along with misusing or adding to the word of God. That is another thing altogether and one Paul never let slide (Gal. 2:11-13).  

Part 2 we will look at not all, but most of the speakers, especially focusing on the female ones. I want to observe their faithfulness to the Scriptures, whether they submit themselves to the clear teaching in Scripture to the role of women in the church. So this episode will be more research related and relaying of mere information on the speakers of IF:Gathering

In part 3 I will be looking at the teaching presented at the last couple of years of If:Gathering. I want to discern who they preach. Do they preach themselves or Christ? How do they handle Scripture? Is the Scripture about Christ, from which they point us to Him and what He teaches or do they use it as a manual for right living? Do they focus more on urging us to good works for the benefit of society or urge us to pursue knowing, loving and being like Christ?

So ladies, the next couple of episodes are going to be enlightening. They may rock your world, and you may feel inclined to rebuke me, or they may make you think. Either reaction, I pray you get into God’s word to work it out. Ask these questions, and let God’s word guide you into what is true. 

I pray that, as you do that, you are reaccessing what women’s ministry should look like, and more specifically, what a women’s conference should look like. I pray that if you are older, you are actively looking for younger women to disciple. If you are younger you are actively looking for an older woman who is grounded and firm in God’s word. I pray that our ultimate desire is to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified for our sins. 

I pray, you are in His Word.

MelbaToast