NEW ORLEANS (BP)–Christians are called not to simply hear God’s Word, they are called to action, Rhonda Kelley said during the Southern Baptist Women’s Leadership Consultation.
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary hosted more than 300 women for the annual event sponsored by the Seminary Women’s Network to provide training and resources for leaders of women’s ministry programs at churches and associations across the nation. They also participated in worship and practical ministry, including prayer walking through the city of New Orleans.
Kelley, professor of women’s ministry at NOBTS and wife of seminary President Chuck Kelley, kicked off the event with an explanation of the conference theme, “Beyond Hearing,” based on Luke 8:15, part of Jesus’ parable of the sower: “… having heard the Word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit….”
“We want to be challenged personally, and we want to challenge you as well, to not just hear [God’s] Word, but to go ‘Beyond Hearing,'” Kelley said. “We need to be reminded to hear and to teach and to live the Word.”
To illustrate each point of her explanation, Kelley referenced a woman from the Bible. She also invited three women from New Orleans Seminary to share testimonies about hearing, teaching and living God’s Word.
“Lydia is a woman in the New Testament who is a wonderful example of a woman who heard the Lord,” Kelley said.
Referring to her story in Acts 16, Kelley said that when Lydia responded when she heard the Word of the Lord. Lydia not only received salvation, but she shared the Word with her household, and all of them were saved.
“How wonderful to know that as we carry the Word and share the Word from the Lord, the work of the Spirit can change lives,” Kelley said.
Kelley then asked NOBTS student Rebecca George to talk about hearing from the Lord. Recounting a recent experience with an automated telephone answering system, George said she knew she needed to speak with a customer service representative and tried to bypass the system by saying words and phrases such as “representative,” “customer service” and “real person.”
George’s attempts were unsuccessful and ultimately the automated system cut the call short.
“I am so glad this isn’t the way God communicates with us,” George said. “He doesn’t have a matrix set up for us to try and get through. He doesn’t try to keep us at a distance. He doesn’t play games with us.
“Instead, we serve a God who willingly and freely offers His Word to us,” George said. “I know that when I need a word from the Lord, I’m speaking with somebody who really does want to speak to me.”
Hearing from the Lord, Kelley said, is of vital importance, but believers must not stop at hearing: God wants Christians to teach and share what He has said with others.
Kelley cited Priscilla as a biblical example of a woman who faithfully taught the Word to others.
“My question to myself and to you is, ‘Are you teaching the Word?’” Kelley said.
Kelley then asked Trish Hawley, NOBTS assistant professor of women’s ministry, to share about teaching the Word.
When she became a Christian as a teenager, Hawley recounted, she had many questions about her newfound faith. A Christian woman in her life soon became her mentor and helped her find answers. She also taught Hawley about God’s Word, challenging her to search the Scriptures when questions arise.
“As I began to look in God’s Word, I started experiencing transformation,” Hawley said. “The truth actually changes you. [The Word] started to affect how I thought, and it started to have an effect on the things that were uncertain to me.” Now, as a teacher, Hawley said she leads students to the same type of discovery by pointing them to Scripture.
“We must not only hear the Word and teach the Word,” Kelley said, “but we must live the Word. Jesus told us over and over again how important it is to hear and to do.
“I love the story of Dorcas in the New Testament. Dorcas was an example of one who lived the Word,” Kelley said, pointing to Acts 9:36. “Dorcas was full of good works and charitable deeds.”
Kelley asked Hannah Sterling, who works with the seminary’s MissionLab initiative, to speak about living out God’s Word.
“Though I was saved as a little girl … it was only a few years ago that living the Word became a reality in my life,” Sterling said. “At that time, God began dealing with me through one word: Surrender.”
God then called Sterling into ministry. She responded in faith and spent a semester serving in Mexico. From there Sterling came to lead mission groups in New Orleans through MissionLab.
“When you fully surrender to God and you are truly living the Word, your plans for your own life are no longer certain. When you are in His hands, He can start to bend you towards His desire and will for your life,” Sterling said.
Kelley closed her session by imploring the audience to be hearers and doers of God’s Word.
“Today our challenge to you is to go beyond hearing; to not just hear the Word, but to teach it and to live it,” Kelley said.
Also featured during the Feb. 7-9 Women’s Leadership Consultation were Bible teacher and author Priscilla Shirer; author Jackie Kendall; Paula Hemphill, women’s mobilization consultant for the International Mission Board; Dorothy Patterson, author and professor of theology in women’s studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas; former missionary Madelyn Edens; and songwriter/performer Diane Machen.
A series of breakout sessions called WORDshops were conducted during the conference, led by women’s ministry leaders and NOBTS faculty. Topics included development and leadership of effective Bible studies, budgeting, missional and Kingdom living, ministering to hurting women, biblical hospitality, using Scripture in prayer and worship, mentoring, using small groups and reaching women across cultural barriers.
On Friday afternoon, 20 carloads of women spread out in various New Orleans neighborhoods for a time of prayerwalking coordinated by Sterling. Women prayed, picked up trash, distributed water and left behind a simple sign of their visit: a doorknob hanger that said, “We prayed for you today.” One of the women led a New Orleans resident to Christ.
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Gary D. Myers is director of public relations at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, with reporting by NOBTS writers Christi Gibson & Paul F. South.
