Related articles and links |  1 of 6

Patsy Clairmont walks on stage with a long string of rubber bands. Holding the elastic array at arm's length, she cries out, "Warning, warning, hormonal woman ahead.

"Often, my emotions cause me to have stretch marks," explains Clairmont, the bestselling author of God Uses Cracked Pots (Focus on the Family, 1991). "They pull me this way and that way." The audience of 5,000 laughing women roars in approval.

It's the women's turn. In scenes reminiscent of the Promise Keepers (PK) men's movement, women are coming together across the United States. Last year, about 197,000 women attended 15 conferences organized by Women of Faith. This year, Women of Faith's leadership is projecting double that total for 29 conferences under the theme Bring Back the Joy.

Other groups have taken advantage of the surging attendance at women's conferences. Aspiring Women, Focus on the Family (Renewing the Heart), and Time Out have scheduled events for women throughout 1998. In all, about 600,000 women are expected to attend these gatherings in 1998, compared to the 683,000 men who attended PK stadium events in 1997 (not counting Stand in the Gap, PK's October gathering on the Mall in Washington, D.C.). Typically, the women's events start on Friday and run all day Saturday, with admission fees ranging from $25 to $60.

Although they were inspired by Promise Keepers, these women's conferences have different goals and a different ethos. For PK, men are encouraged to "stand in the gap" with God for the benefit of home, country, and church. They do this by pledging to keep seven promises that apply biblical principles of righteousness, especially with regard to their commitments to their wives and children.

In contrast, a primary goal of many of the women's conferences is to give women a time out from their harried schedules and to extend comfort and companionship. Clairmont, who for years agonized over agoraphobia, a chronic fear of public spaces, says, "I think the main struggle of women today is loneliness." She says contemporary life's frenzied pace presents women with emotional challenges that few have faced before. "I use rubber bands to show how women's emotions work. I've learned not to mind an emotional day."

FILLING A NICHE: The burgeoning women's conferences are taking place in the context of millions of PK-influenced husbands and fathers taking a greater interest in home life.

Women of Faith and Aspiring Women, two of the largest conference series, were started by men inspired by PK weekends, which are a combination of revival meeting and spiritual pep rally.

Mike Hyatt, founding partner of Aspiring Women conferences, attended a PK meeting in 1993. "I went to a PK meeting and thought, Why isn't there something like this for women?" says Hyatt, a Christian publishing veteran, currently associate publisher of Thomas Nelson in Nashville. New Life Clinics cofounder Stephen Arterburn says of the Women of Faith conferences, "I really believe that the idea was a gift from God." Initially, Arterburn met with Lisa Harper, director of Renewing the Heart conferences, to learn how they organized their meetings.

Arterburn says, "The clinics always did conferences dealing with problems, and the response was underwhelming." He says they revised the conference focus "to see how many more people we could reach by celebrating what is good about life." Women of Faith recruited top female Christian speakers and musicians. They put a spotlight on encouragement, sharing sorrows and joys from their own lives. The changes struck a chord. In 1996, 38,000 flocked to its Joyful Journey conferences, and in 1997, 197,000 women attended.

next page... |  1 of 6

April 6 1998, Vol. 42, No. 4