We’ve been posting information the past few months about a rather exciting new conference experience that was created by a team of four women.  The conference called “Ordinary Influence” was a really creative two-day experience for women in a denomination’s region.  I thought some of you would be interested to hear how it worked out and some might want to do an OI conference yourself (see the postscript).  Here’s the report from Gretchen Carlson:

The conference was high energy and must have scratched an itch.  Bottom line:  Women want to feel comfortable sharing their faith.

We had 190 women attend, representing 20 churches and all ages.  We asked for immediate feedback and there were 145 responses.  (very positive) We’re sending a follow up email evaluation later.   Good weather was sandwiched in between two weekends of snow.  Thank you, God.

We called it a conference because we wanted a format different from typical women’s retreats.  Plus, we didn’t want to have to arrange the hassle of one hotel or conference center. The host church had families who opened their homes for free overnight lodging, but otherwise, women found their own hotels.  We held it Friday from 7 – 8:30 at a church.  Then we offered a continental breakfast from 8-8:25 Sat. morning.  The sessions ran from 8:25 – 3:00 with 45 minutes for lunch.  We served soup, salads and rolls.  Two churches contributed the bulk of the food  (only the soup was catered).  We charged $15 for early registration and $25 for late registration.  We kept it cheap – very purposefully. We had tons of door prizes, chocolate, and table center pieces (women like fluff and chocolate) – but it all was donated and done by church women.

One “philosophy”: When doing something, gather as many people as possible to help.  The more ownership that people have, it goes better.  It’s not hard to ask and most individuals are happy to pitch in (especially when it’s simple like making a salad.)

The women who attended were impressed with Ordinary Influence, and we trust they will follow its heartbeat.    We are excited that many of the discussion leaders at OI are reporting different ways they are following up in their churches.  Some are leading Sunday School classes on evangelism; others are creating “support networks” so women can share stories and encourage and pray for each other.

A key strength of OI was that there were four speakers, and they all were ordinary women.  (There was a lot of positive feedback about that.)  The speakers simply read  books on evangelism and then shared experiences around major teaching points such as:  Don’t manipulate conversations to fit in gospel presentations.  Don’t view people as projects (let’s get them saved).  Count conversations, not just conversions.  Be real  and skip the “canned” messages.  Serve and love.

These themes felt like a breath of fresh air, a new way of sharing the gospel for many women.

Interested in putting on an Ordinary Influence Conference for women in your neck of the woods?  OI coach Gretchen Carlson is willing to help make it happen.  Email me at “randy at DoableEvangelism.com” and I’ll hook you up!