Much like a menu of delectable treats, the variety of speakers and musical entertainment provided for the women’s track of the 2002 Alabama Baptist Evangelism Conference was a feast of inspirational messages — including one from renowned inspirational speaker, Ann Graham Lotz, daughter of evangelist Billy Graham.
Held at Huntsville’s Whitesburg Baptist Church, the first-ever, day-long conference was geared toward the evangelism needs of Alabama Baptist women. Around 300 people attended the morning session but the crowd swelled to around 2,000 for the Lotz presentation in the afternoon.
The women’s track was one of three conferences held simultaneously Jan. 28 in Huntsville. The other two tracks, held at Southside Baptist and Huntsville First Baptist, focused on contemporary and traditional evangelism.
As part of the new approach to the annual evangelism event, the women’s track was created to offer Alabama Baptist women information, inspiration and education regarding their roles in evangelism, according to conference coordinator, Sammy Gilbreath, director of evangelism for SBOM. (See accompanying story, this page)
In addition to Lotz, speakers at the event included Mamie McCullough, a Christian motivational speaker from Dallas, Texas; Jean Stockdale, a motivational speaker and humorist from Memphis, Tenn.; and Jaye Martin of Houston, Texas, the North American Mission Board’s women’s evangelism strategist.
Kicking off the event was Mamie McCullough, a Christian motivational speaker who began her career with the Zig Ziglar organization. The flaming redhead, who describes herself as “gaudy” and gives her age as 59.99 plus tax, entertained the audience with her self-deprecating humor. She gave example after example of how God pulled her through difficult situations in her life. She described her struggles of raising three young children as a single parent after her husband died, and then her later perils coping with breast cancer.
The crowd of attendees, the majority of whom were women, began filing into Whitesburg’s 3,000 seat auditorium an hour and a half before Lotz was scheduled to speak.
Two women, who situated themselves within close proximity of the podium, said they didn’t mind the long wait because they wanted to be sure they had good seats. The women, who are members of a neighboring Presbyterian church, said they had seen announcements in their church bulletin for two consecutive weeks and marked the date on their calendar.
“We were so excited to hear that she [Lotz] was coming to Huntsville. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity to hear her,” one said. The ladies complimented Alabama Baptists for their efforts in hosting an evangelism conference for women. “We all need this,” the other added. Although the visitors had not attended the morning session they both said they were considering staying for the rest of the afternoon.
Lotz did not disappoint her audience although she began her speech with an apology for her low energy level. She explained that she had been under the weather due to a lingering cold and she was also exhausted from helping out in her new role as grandmother to her daughter’s six-day-old baby.
Amid spontaneous rounds of applause, Lotz shared her testimony and offered inspirational advice about how to maintain a consistent walk with Jesus. She gave numerous self-disclosing examples of how she had stumbled on her personal journey and how she had come to terms with her weaknesses by giving them up to God.
“If you’ve been born and raised in the church you may have had things shift and you feel as though you’ve lost your early, childlike, love for Jesus,” she said as she discussed the burnout and demands put on today’s Christian woman.
Lotz shared with the audience that she can clearly remember the point in her life at the age of 17 when she realized that the only person she had to please in her life was Jesus. “I didn’t care what anyone else thought. What mattered to me was that the Lord be pleased with me,” she said. “It’s a very freeing experience just being able to be yourself,” she said.
Lotz recommended to her audience of women that they “not worry about letting others see us under construction.” She urged the audience to “make time for prayer.” Divide up your prayer list she advised. “Make a commitment to spend time alone with Jesus, she said, Discussing the new wave in evangelism training for women, speaker Jaye Martin said, “Women think and feel differently from men. Our approach to evangelism and witnessing is different. We are touchy-feely people,” she said.
“Women share and feel, think and talk and that’s not necessarily the approach that men take regarding evangelism. Women respond more to intentional, relational evangelism. To many women evangelism means knocking on doors, and there are some women who are not comfortable with that. We want to teach women how to develop relationships with a purpose — how to share their spiritual best Friend with their earthly best friend. Words like evangelism can scare women. They need to know God just wants them to share Christ,” she said.
Share with others: