IF: Gathering

Our IF:Local group of lovely ladies.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in one of the most edifying experiences of my adult Christian life. I gathered with 17 other women locally and 500,000 across the globe to watch/take part in IF: Gathering. It was enriching, educational, beautiful, tearful, funny, and poignant.

IF has a primary purpose, but it's kind of hard to find out what it is. IF doesn't stand for anything, it is the start of a question. IF Jesus is who He says He is, how should we then live? IF we believe the Gospel as He shares it, what do we do next? IF Christ is Lord of my life, what does that mean for how I love others?

This gathering of women is non-denominational in that it calls to women ACROSS all Bible-believing denominations. The charter states that they believe in the authority of the Word, the universal Church, the participation of women in that church, that authenticity promotes greater faith, that we should honor each other, and that humility is the result of seeing the greatness of God. It's a pretty great way to reflect Jesus, if I may add.

So, a few years ago, they decided to start this thing in Austin, TX and kept it small intentionally.
Now, the event sells out within minutes each year, and everyone else in the world attends through IF:Local livestream of the speakers and events. We sit together with our local sisters in Christ and learn together and cry together and worship together and are vulnerable together.

Pinpointing a favorite speaker, a favorite topic, or a favorite moment for the weekend would be impossible. I have a few that I can't get out of my head, a few that are sitting to mature and become more beautiful with time. IF is an intense two days and I believe it will affect me all year long.

But here are a few highlights nonetheless:

Eugene Cho, a Seattle pastor and one of the few dudes who rocked the IF stage, reminds us that God is chasing us DESPITE knowing how broken and ugly we are. His Instagram handle is @seattlejediknight, which of course just made me love him even more.

Bianca Olthoff ROCKED the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus and brought a whole new level of beauty, glamour, and hilarity to this age-old tale. She also made me cry buckets and I will never ever picture Martha as anyone ever again but as her depiction of a "Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx with big hoop earrings"

Jeanne Stevens led a confession where we used phone flashlights to confess. Because bringing sin into the light is the only way to take away its power. Watching the room I sat in and the auditorium on TV light up with confession and light was powerful in a way beyond words.

An International Justice Mission staff member talked about her own journey through domestic
violence and abuse, and the beauty that came from her terrible past. She talked about the 10,000 people she has personally helped on rescue missions with IJM, and how, without her past, maybe they wouldn't have had a future to anticipate. IJM then made a plea for 1,200 freedom partners to join them for $24/month in order to fight injustice and slavery throughout the world. The ladies listening through IF:Gathering responded by more than doubling their goal and raising almost $1,000,000 within 24 hours. I am blown away by hope. IJM scores a 91.55 out of 100 on Charity Navigator, so you can trust they will use your money well.

As a final note, each woman in Austin, and most of them throughout the world, received a domino. A single domino can start a chain reaction that knocks over a million more. We just have to knock over the first one and let it fall. Jennie Allen, founder of IF, encouraged us to write a word or phrase on that domino to say where we will fall next. Where will you take the love of Christ and turn it loose in your life or the lives of others? Where will you fall and start a chain reaction that can change the world?

I will carry my domino around in my purse to remind me of my "falling place". I will carry IF around in my heart until next year when it happens again, February 3-4, 2017. If you are interested in it, start planning now. Open your home or church to find a place for women to gather and watch together. It is empowering and beautiful. The three-word mission of IF: Gather, Equip, and Unleash.

Watch out world, half a million women were unleashed this weekend for Jesus.