Betsy Childs Howard led a discussion with Suzanne Bates, Courtney Reissig, and Kristin Wetherell in a breakout session at the TGC 2021 Women’s Conference titled “Steadfast Hope in an Anxious World.” 

They addressed different types of anxiety, the notion that anxiety is sin, scriptural vs. sinful responses to anxiety, anxiety as spiritual warfare, and medical treatments for anxiety, among other topics. They offered specific and practical hope for women struggling with anxiety, encouraging them to remember that they are not alone in the fight.

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Speaking primarily from his own traumatic experiences and pastoring others through their own, Matthew Spandler-Davidson led a workshop for pastors at the 2021 TGC National Conference titled “How the Cross Offers Healing for Victims of Abuse.” 

Having both experienced and seen abuse as a child—from beatings to rape to being smothered with a pillow—he was left shy, insecure, bitter, angry, and self-centered. It was through the care of a rugged fisherman with a thick Scottish accent, a glass eye, and a long beard that he was introduced to the Bible and the gospel broke into his stubborn, dead, and cold heart. Hope was stirred as Christ and his church became a refuge for his weary soul, and he worked to create the same for other victims when he became a pastor. Spandler-Davidson enumerated three ways churches can become a hope-giving refuge for victims of abuse and several ways to ensure that your church can be a place of safety for the vulnerable and healing for the hurting.

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New Testament patterns clearly show that the normal practice of the church is to meet for embodied acts of corporate worship and mutual edification. - Matt Merker

Matt Merker led a workshop at the 2021 TGC National Conference titled “Gathered by God’s Grace” to encourage pastors as they move toward assembling in more traditional ways after tight guidelines from the pandemic are loosened. He walked through the gathering of God’s people in both the Old and New Testaments, focusing on how they informed two particular ideas:

• Why gathering is so essential for the life of the church.
• Why it matters that God is the One who gathers us and works in our midst during our corporate worship.

“We serve a God who is not only powerful—not only does he have utter control of everything that's going on in our lives—but we serve one who has tasted death on our behalf.” – Alasdair Groves

Alasdair Groves taught a breakout session at TGC’s 2021 National Conference titled, “Nothing Outside His Control” as a response to the anxiety that is common to our human experience and amplified through current events.

Defining anxiety as “the reality that, in the fallen world, there will be suffering in our future,” Groves turned to Hebrews 2:7-9 to flesh out how we should address it. The passage of Scripture, he taught, clearly states that God is in full control of all things, but we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. Embracing those two truths and holding them in tension is key to rightly responding to anxiety in our lives.

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TGC hosted a panel discussion during the 2021 Women’s Conference titled “Motherhood and the Hope of the Gospel” with Christine Hoover, Trillia Newbell, Irene Sun, and Laura Wifler.

Against the backdrop of such a difficult last year for mothers everywhere dealing with the reality of pandemic-driven changes, the panel offered words of hope for those who are tired and weary. 

Mental health, emotional health, relational strain, and all sorts of suffering and struggle common to motherhood were addressed as each participant in the panel offered biblical and experiential wisdom to encourage mothers and point them continually to Christ and his Word.

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John Piper preached a message at TGC’s 2021 National Conference on “The Essential Achievement of Christ” from Hebrews 9:1-10:18. Through this text, Piper expounded upon six manifestations of Christ’s greatness, magnifying the central achievement—the removal of guilt—and the averting of the wrath of God from those who are in Christ Jesus.

He preached:

• Christ the Great Absence
• Christ the Great Achievement
• Christ the Great Accession
• Christ the Great Application
• Christ the Great Arrival
• Christ the Great Abundance

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Jackie Hill Perry taught a message at TGC’s 2021 Women’s Conference titled “Steadfast Speech: A Mighty Little Tongue.” James chapter 3 formed the backdrop for her admonition to carefully control the tongue by the power of the Spirit. Perry taught that the tongue is accountable, the tongue is powerful, and the tongue is inconsistent.

Creating a better world through our words, she suggested, comes by addressing those realities in three ways. She called her listeners to be honest, to behold, and to be filled.

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Speaking at TGC’s 2021 National Conference, Dane Ortlund delivered a message titled “Gentle Savior, Gentle Shepherd.” He addressed a common insufficiency many believers—and church leaders, specifically—possess when it comes to really knowing Christ.

Through four Old Testament passages, Ortlund outlined the gracious, merciful, compassionate character of God that “rolled out the red carpet and constructed a perfectly fitted throne” for the King who would appear in the New Testament to inhabit it.

Understanding the character of God throughout the Scriptures sets the stage for knowing how Christ approaches us, Ortlund taught, and how church leaders should then approach those under their care.

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Vaneetha Rendall Risner delivered a message titled “Forgiveness: The Hardest and Most Life-Changing Thing We Can Do” at TGC’s 2021 Women’s Conference. Speaking from her own difficult experience learning to forgive someone who had hurt her deeply, she encouraged those listening to explore and understand what forgiveness really is—allowing God to heal them through the process.

Risner clarified what forgiveness is and, just as importantly, what it is not, as she outlined what it means to forgive in a healthy, biblical manner.

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Jen Wilkin delivered a message at TGC’s 2021 National Conference called “Female Bravery and the Mission of God.” Walking through Scripture, Wilkin relayed stories of women who feared God rather than men and stood against the Serpent, risking their very lives. The imagery revealed in the stories, she taught, is the metaphor necessary for the modern church to understand in order to also be shrewd as a serpent and innocent as a dove—overcoming the enemy that wages war against our very souls.

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