The “All-Illinois teaching team” rose to the challenge at the Priority Women’s Conference that so excited organizer Carmen Halsey-Menghini.
This was the first year that she slated four keynote speakers all from Illinois. Some of these women were schooled in leadership through their engagement with Illinois Baptist Women. Others are products of SBC seminaries, Disaster Relief, and military service. All are strong examples of what God does with people who are willing to be used in his service.
As the main speakers in four large worship sessions, they took the women on a journey through Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. They are:
Lindsay Lewis Bowen—married to Andrew and mother of two girls, they serve Bethel Church in Troy. Lindsay holds a Master of Divinity from Southeastern Seminary and is a marketing manager for Harvest House publishers.
Melissa Pryer—married to Jared and mother of two girls. They live in Southern Illinois. Melissa is a project manager. She enjoys encouraging relationships with ministers’ wives.
Alyssa Caudill—lives in Carmi with her pastor-husband, Drake, and their four children. Alyssa holds a Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary and is pursuing a Ph.D. in Christian Leadership.
Jennifer Smith—is a Jacksonville native, former ship’s captain in the U. S. Coast Guard, and holds five degrees from bachelor’s to Ph.D. She is active as a Disaster Relief chaplain and leads frequent mission trips.
Excerpts of their teaching appear below. And look for videos from the Priority Conference at IBSA.org/ministries/women/priority/.
What can unite people who are distinctly different from one another? The only thing that can bring groups together and keep them together is the gospel. So, we are those who believe we’re all “in Christ” for the praise of his glory. So why is it significant to be “in him”? Why does Paul use this term over and over in his writings?
If we look at who we were before Christ, Paul says in Ephesians 2 that we were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship, foreigners to the covenant of promise. We were distinctly not “in him” and distinctly “in the world”—but who are we now?
We are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people, members of his household. We are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Anyone now “in Christ” is considered family.
Look at the word together. It literally means “to gather.” The goal of unity is to join unique parts together to form a unified complex whole. But does God ask us to strive for unity or uniformity? Is it possible that we would say unity, but in our minds, we actually mean uniformity?
Uniformity can seem easy. Uniformity provides rules to follow and boxes to check. There’s something comfortable about knowing the specific standard and being able to measure it, but that’s not what God calls us to. He calls us to unity: Joining together for unity requires grace and humility, as he crafts unique parts into a complex whole.
— Melissa Pryer
Three times in Ephesians 3 we see this word mystery. Then Paul tells them this is what the mystery is: the Gentiles whom Paul was called to preach to are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Rome as a nation became a big melting pot because they had this insatiable thirst to conquer. They would conquer people and assimilate them in. They would take from other cultures what they found beneficial to their own, and they would add it in. These cultures were allowed to keep their own heritage so long as it didn’t cause issues.
The Jews are converted, guess what they’re still holding on to? Their past heritage, them being God’s people. As Gentiles are converted, guess what they don’t care about? The Jews’ heritage. Put that together and you have some big differences going on within the church.
But Jew, Greek, all are fellow heirs. Paul says they are members of the same body. He totally makes up a new Greek word here: soma. They’re not just members of the same body; this is a brand new body. In Jesus they are all saved. They are redeemed the exact same way.
What a beautiful thing is this mystery—this new church made up of all these different people from all these different backgrounds reveals the manifold wisdom of God.
Unity doesn’t mean you become something you’re not. And we see this now. Unity happens when there is an ever-increasing embracing of who God made you to be.
— Alyssa Caudill
I saw a girl wearing a uniform yesterday, a nice crisp, clean sports uniform, walking with that little swagger of an athlete because she was clothed in the uniform of her team. And I thought back to my military days when I would put on my Coast Guard uniform and stand a little straighter and walk a little taller.
Have you have worn a uniform of some kind? Policeman, fireman, nurse, doctor. If so, you know what I’m talking about. Being clothed in that uniform causes us to take on the greater identity and the character behind that organization that the uniform represents.
The uniform of Christ’s Kingdom is to be clothed in love, which binds us together in unity. Christian unity is not an option. There’s one body, one spirit, one Lord. Jesus abolished the wall that separates us, and he paid a high price so we could be bound together by a common faith, a common loyalty, and a common mission. We witness to the lost world around us by how we treat one another.
Jesus came to destroy the hostility that divided the Jews and the Gentiles. He came to destroy the hostility that divides church member from church member. Today, our world is filled with division and strife between races, between nations, between religions, between the rich and the poor, the educated and uneducated, the male and the female. Whenever we feel inferior or if we feel superior, it brings division, and division weakens us.
Being united in Christ allows the very power of God and the very presence of God to come. It brings us near to God and near to one another. We don’t have to look alike or think alike, but we must keep eyes on that same goal. Four centuries ago, St. Augustine famously summed it up, In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity.
— Jennifer Smith
One of the biggest schemes the devil is to try to separate us. He’s going to tell you to identify with anything that is not your identity in Christ. He’s going to pit you against your brothers and sisters and have you take sides. And this happens in big ways: “This is a millennial. This is a boomer. This is a Republican. This is a Democrat. He’s part of the 1%. Black, white, male, female.” We know those.
But think about the small ways. We create clubs and decide which people are our people based on the dumbest stuff I’ve ever heard: Parenting style, traditional families, working moms, stay-at-home moms, homeschooling, public schooling, private schooling, homesteading… We’ve created a Russian nesting doll of exclusive memberships and tiny clubs until it’s just us. It’s like being in a hall of mirrors.
We’re not called to live this way. We must embrace the diversity of thought and ability and perspective and skills that God has provided for the church and for her mission—so that we can be strong, so that we can stand against the schemes of the devil, so that we can walk as lights in this world.
The victory has been won. And as we leave this weekend, we must not let Ephesians remain words on a page. It must become our life. Let’s walk after Jesus and stand in his victory alone.
— Lindsay Lewis Bowan