Alice Cornes works for St Philemon’s Church, Toxteth, Liverpool.

The first thing I did when I came home from the PT Women in Ministry conference was to put the dates of the 2019 conference into my diary!

The second thing was to bound in to the room of my just-finished-night-shifts flatmate announcing ‘Jesus is wonderful in Psalm 45! Can I show it to you?!’ The poor girl then sat through my rendition of the psalm, in the song we’d learnt on the conference. All 4 very long verses of it. My timing may not have been thoughtful, but I did come home with my heart full of Jesus.

We were thinking about how to handle Wisdom Literature this year. Soaking it in for ourselves, and learning how to teach it back in our church families. The workshop groups were useful for that. Most of us don’t get much feedback on the Bible teaching we do through the year but we want to get sharper. So it’s wonderful to have a group of women who’ll listen to me teach a bit of the Bible and then gently show me what my strengths are and what I can work on. I came away challenged to use NT controls better (commentaries are my friends, I’m told!) and buoyed by their encouragement that I am able to teach.

The main teaching sessions this year were taught by Robin Weekes (Minister of Emmanuel Wimbledon) teaching us from the Psalms and Jenny Salt (Dean of Students, Sydney Missionary & Bible College) teaching us from Ecclesiastes.

It’s a joy to have time talking with other women there. It stretches my outlook when I talk to women’s workers, children and youth workers, people teaching the Bible part-time or in their free time when they’re not at work, missionaries based in Slovakia or Jordan, women with years of experience and women who are just starting out, the whole gamut. This year it struck me what a useful part of the conference that is. We all need encouragement, some of us particularly strongly when we’re close to giving up. For a number of women I spoke to, the conference was a key time for gaining direction on what next. For me, it was a great time for stealing other people’s ideas for events, models of ministry, ways to make ministry sustainable etc. These conferences are a great combination of equipping, encouragement and being re-energised to better serve the Lord Jesus.

There was time to rest, too. I’m not very good at resting and I’m especially bad at the kind of rest that actively engages with God. I’m more likely to knock around a squash ball than to chew the cud with my Father. The conference was super for both! Good food, lots of time to sleep, and walks in the countryside, but also lots of breaks between one bit of Bible teaching and another, when my head is full of Christ and there’s space to speak to him. I was grateful for time talking through my fear of man with him.

When you dunk a sponge in water, and then walk with it across the kitchen, the floor is bound to get splashed. The conference felt like dunking us for 3 days in superb teaching and useful conversations. I hope, now I’m home, the people around me will get splashed!

Next year’s Women in Ministry conference is 21st-24th January at Hothorpe Hall, near Market Harborough. In 2019 we will be thinking about Apocalyptic Literature with Nigel Styles (Cornhill Director) and Andrea Trevenna (Associate for Women’s Ministry at St. Nicholas Church, Sevenoaks).

To book on to Women in Ministry 2019 click here.