After stumbling upon Jerra Dooley’s Gracefull Ministries Web site, Kelly Bledsoe, women’s ministry director at North Gardendale Baptist Church, knew she was just what her church needed for its third annual women’s ministry conference.
Recently licensed as a human behavior consultant, Dooley studies people’s natural behavior inclinations — in contrast to a psychologist, who studies abnormal behaviors — focusing on spiritual gifts, heart, individuality, natural abilities and experiences to present women with ways God has designed them to SHINE.
“The most important thing for us to discover is Whose we are and not who we are,” she told the more than 60 women attending the Designed to SHINE conference Sept. 6 at the North Jefferson Baptist Association church.
“Because when we find out who we are, that’s great, but if we don’t understand how that is supposed to work together in the body of Christ as a child of the King, then it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to at all. We need to let the Spirit indwell and empower us to be the people we need to be.”
The conference included four sessions led by Dooley and a series of worship times with Gracefull Worship, a praise team consisting of Dooley, Tina Hood and Michelle Johnson.
Kristina Millwood, a member of North Gardendale Baptist who attended the conference, learned God has already called her to do something.
“Maybe I should stop trying to put it off because I won’t be good at it and just start trusting Him to do what He’s called me to do,” she said.
Millwood’s friend Allison Baldis, a member of Beechwood Baptist Church, Mount Olive, in North Jefferson Association, learned something about herself as well.
“It’s fun to learn why you are the way you are and why God has made you the way He did and that you don’t have to be like everyone else,” Baldis said, remembering Dooley’s words: “You are unique and no one else is like you, and you can’t compare yourself to others and shouldn’t compare yourself to others.”
In 2002, while working as the communications coordinator at Valleydale Baptist Church, Birmingham, Dooley began Gracefull Ministries with the intent to share “God’s transforming grace.”
She has since stepped out of the staff position at the Birmingham Baptist Association church to take on Gracefull as a full-time ministry, traveling throughout the country speaking at conferences and leading worship through Gracefull Worship. Dooley continues to serve at Valleydale as women’s ministry leader.
She developed the Designed to SHINE conference with hopes of encouraging women in their everyday life to function at their fullest potential to Christ’s glory.
“Because I feel Christ has done so much in my life and brought me through hardships and trials and seeing the way He has made the desires of my heart become reality, I want to see other women to do the same thing,” Dooley said.
Bledsoe said she would “definitely recommend” the conference to any other church or women’s ministry. “It was perfect and very worth it,” she said.
For more information, visit www.gracefull.org.
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