TRUE Story: A Narrative of Gather Women
by Kim Blackaby
I was recently challenged to approach my reading of scripture by asking God to reveal which biblical narrative I was currently living in. Which story most resonated with my current experience? As a director on the Board of Gather Women I began to pray about this question in relation to our organization and the Lord directed me to the ministry of the apostle Paul.
As I consider the narrative of Gather Women I see several clear connections with the story of Paul.
1. It began with an invitation:
The Lord interrupted Paul’s life with a dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus and the former “Pharisee of the Pharisees” and zealous persecutor of the fledgling movement of Christ followers became the one who would take its message the farthest. However, he first spent several years learning, teaching, serving and developing his relationship with God.
And then came the invitation. In Acts 13:2 “The Holy Spirit said, ‘Dedicate Barnabus and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” This is God’s story. It is his table and he invites us to be his guests. As David wrote in Psalm 39:12, “I am your guest, a traveler passing through..” NLT.
The Lord has issued an invitation to Gather Women to set a table for the diverse, the searching, the scattered, the sidelined and those seeking to make a difference and add their voice to a national conversation that God has initiated.
We have accepted that invitation.
2. Choreographed and led by the Holy Spirit:
Just as the mission began with an invitation, it progressed by a series of invitations. The story of Acts is not linear and predictable. It is organic. Paul moves on, stays put, circles back around and pushes forward as orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. This may have been contrary to his logical and ordered mind, but he learned to bend to the Holy Spirit’s leading and he went further than his own plans may ever have taken him.
Likewise the development of Gather Women has not always followed a tidy and ordered pattern. We have learned to bend, to pivot and adjust to the Spirit’s leading. And he is moving us beyond and leading us further.
3. A Series of Conversations:
The story of Acts is a series of conversations and speaking opportunities in many different spaces and in many different ways. As Paul went to the meeting places and the gathering spaces of his day – the synagogues, public squares and riverside prayer meetings - he engaged in conversations and looked for invitations to speak. The message was consistent but it was adapted to diverse contexts.
So too, Gather women is showing up and initiating important conversations in Canada through diverse voices and avenues.
4. Communication:
Paul was in constant communication through letters carried along the network of roadways developed by the Roman Empire. The scriptures contain just a portion of the many, many letters that he wrote to teach, encourage, strengthen, comfort and challenge the early churches. That communication created a vital connection that allowed the distanced and scattered early churches to grow into a culture-shaping movement.
Gather Women is also seeking to shape the culture and future of the church in Canada and using the modern digital pathways of communication to forge the necessary connections. Communication is key and blogs, podcasts, True Conversations, social media, events and online conferences are ways that we are making it happen.
5. Network of Co-Labourers and Supporters
Paul did not work alone. There were many believers throughout those early churches that supported and aided him. Those that traveled with him, that worked and taught alongside him, that carried his letters, that financed him, that hosted him, that prayed for him, that visited him in prison and together with him advanced the Kingdom story. Several are mentioned in his letters, and significantly, women played prominent roles as co-labourers and supporters of Paul - Junia, Lydia and Priscilla to name just a few. Paul was not the only one called to the table.
Gather Women is building a network of co-labourers and supporters across Canada. If you are reading this, you are one of them. We need you at the table. We need you to work alongside us to advance the story that God is writing in Canada. We need your hands, your support and your voice. This Canadian table is big and it is wide and we need to fill the empty spaces.
6. Cultivating Leaders:
Everywhere Paul went he cultivated and trained leaders. This was absolutely necessary for the future of the churches he planted.
Cultivating leaders has been an essential part of the call of Gather Women from the beginning. Through internship opportunities, coaching masterclasses, Gather Circles, and our conferences and events we are seeking to influence the leaders of today and tomorrow.
7. Struggle:
The narrative of Acts was not without struggle. In fact, it was anticipated and expected. However, it was also not without the miraculous and the supernatural.
Gather Women has and will experience struggle, for the forces of darkness, inequity and injustice do not easily give way. However, God is calling us to persevere through the struggle and rely on the supernatural to accomplish what he has called us to.
We need you at the table.
I believe as we do we will see the miraculous.
Kim Blackaby
Board Chair, Gather Women
Kim Blackaby, Christ-follower, pastor’s wife, speaker, traveler, school teacher, mom to three great kids and student of God’s Word has served in churches both in Canada and Norway. Her experience leading women’s ministries during those years instilled in her a passion to help women draw the life-giving water necessary to lead spiritually and emotionally healthy lives. Her motto is “Meet me at the River” (Psalm 46:4-5). Kim continues to lead women’s ministries in her church in Langley, BC, and speaks at various women’s events, both in Canada and internationally.