Returning to the Original Church- IF:Gather Women's Conference

In 2007, one woman, Jennie Allen, followed a calling to minister to women across the globe. She met with friends, shared her vision, and started a movement. Now, 10 years later, over 412,000 women from 44 countries registered to attend IF in order to gather, equip, and unleash women to live out their calling.

Event organizer Nacole Walker describes the IF: Gathering as “a group of christian women declaring that they are chasing God with all of their lives.” The idea is to reach women where they are, inspire them to fulfill the lives they are called to in Christ, and send them out to inspire other women as well.

One of the major concepts of IF is the idea of women coming together, holding each other accountable, and encouraging one another. This is accomplished with IF tables. IF tables consist of women meeting in each others homes to study god’s word and simply fellowshipping together.

The other two components of IF are: Equip, where future leaders in the IF community are trained to host events, and Gather, which consists of women coming together for a simulcast conference.

This last component was the type of event held this weekend at IF: Polk. Several hundred women met Friday and Saturday to join in worship, watch speaker broadcasts, and engage in conversation with other women with similar values, dreams, and purposes.

I spoke with Kasey Crawford, a returning participant in the IF community, about her experience. When asked how IF impacted her life, Crawford replied, “IF impacted me … in such a big way and I wasn’t expecting it.” Crawford continued, “It’s a wake up call. It was a smack over the head that was very needed.” When asked what she hoped the ladies attending for the first time this past weekend took away from the event, Crawford said she was “ just praying they are courageous enough to answer the call (God) will give them.”

The organizers of IF are grateful for a large turn out of women hungry for the movement of god in their lives. This weekend was full of passion, emotion, and hopefully life change for the women of Polk County and IF participants across the globe.