The words we speak are an extension of ourselves. Our voices give us the ability to know and be known. Topic, word choice, tone, inflection—each reveals aspects of the one speaking. Words are intimate. We pursue and are pursued through them.
God’s Word is no different (John 1:14). More than a textbook of information for our intellectual consumption, the Scriptures are God Himself revealed in the words He has spoken. When we sit down with the Bible, we’re sitting down with a Person in vulnerable knowability. To know the Bible is to know God.
Intimacy with God is the whole point of Biblical literacy (just a fancy set of words that stand for knowing the Bible well). Teaching, evangelism, applied wisdom—each is a secondary byproduct found in the overflow of intimate proximity with God through His Word. Or at least they ought to be. Therefore, Biblical literacy and intimacy with God is the whole point of Women’s Workshop at The Austin Stone.
Women’s Workshop exists as an opportunity to grow us in our ability to study the Bible in order to intimately love the God of the Bible and walk in joyful obedience with Him.
Women’s Workshop is an all-day event specifically for the women of our church. Each fall, we bring in a skilled Bible teacher to help us hone and craft our Bible study skills alongside each other. While intimacy with God takes center stage at Workshop, cultivating depth of relationship with other sisters is a close second.
We don’t have to spend much time in the Scriptures to understand that our relationships matter deeply to God and serve as a crucial lifeline of faith. The heroes of our faith have not walked with God alone. Instead, they pursued Christ alongside others, sometimes needing the steady shoulder of another and sometimes providing it. What Scripture encourages, our hearts also naturally long after. None of us need convincing that we are designed to live life alongside a band of faithful companions.
Community is not only required for walking in faithfulness—it’s crucial to our joy as believers. Relationships cultivated in the pursuit of faith just might be the sweetest of gifts this side of heaven. Faith is sustained by friendship, and genuine friendship is crafted on the common ground of faith.
Women’s Workshop exists to cultivate relationships among the women of our church in our shared pursuit of Christ.
Our relationship with God and relationships with others are arguably the two most important aspects of our entire lives. They’re the only two investments that will never come to an end, even once this life is over. They matter deeply to our flourishing, and that makes them something of immense value that’s worth our time.
Selfishly, we want you there, not just for your benefit but for ours. We believe that you—exactly as God has made you—are an essential piece in the makeup of God’s family. In as much as Women's Workshop is about offering you an opportunity to grow in discipleship—your gifts, your story, the way you uniquely experience God—your participation is just as crucial to our discipleship.
Women’s Workshop exists for you (and us) - to strengthen our endurance and deepen our joy along the path God has called us to, together in relationship with one another and God Himself.
