A quiet dialogue has been taking place in Longview for 42 years — it's called prayer.
"That's talking to God," said Lois Sharpe, chairwoman of the Longview Christian Women's Connection. "And his word, the Bible, is him talking to us."
Scott Brunner/News-Journal Photo |
From left: Nancy Holly, Lucinda Hamilton, Carole Chapel and Verlyn West pray to begin a meeting of the Longview Christian Women's Connection at the Gregg County Historical Museum's education center. The group has an auction scheduled for Thursday.
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Since 1967, the band of women in the Connection have stood watch on the gospel, meeting to pray monthly in preparation for a luncheon that takes place each month.
The prayer meeting tills the soil of human hearts that might show up for the lunch meeting, the women say.
"It changes us," member Nancy Holly said of the preparation prayer. "Because we need to be inviting ladies to the luncheon. And it prepares the hearts of the people who will be invited."
The daughter chapter of an older sisterhood called Stonecroft Ministries, the Longview Christian Women's Connection is not a service organization. There is not a membership to apply for or dues to pay. They don't build playgrounds or collect winter coats or feed people.
They pray.
"We prayed today about the luncheon coming up next Thursday," member Carole Chapel said Thursday about the coming week's lunch and annual auction.
And, their prayers bear fruit.
"A lot of times, we have people make decisions for Jesus Christ at the luncheons," said Chapel, who also is the area liaison to Stonecroft. The parent organization was founded in 1939 by a housewife, Sharpe said, and is now in 50 states and 64 countries.
There are chapters in Canton and the Hideaway Lake community.
The luncheon meetings in Longview are on the second Thursday every month at Summit Club downtown. The main course of those meals is a testimony from an invited guest, usually a member from Dallas or other community chapter. (Chapel often misses local meetings to be the speaker at other chapters.)
"What they are is the very personal life testimony of how Jesus Christ came and changed their heart," Chapel described the messages she and other speakers bring to luncheons.
Sharpe said the format is effective.
"One thing you can't dispute is each individual's personal story," she said. "That's their story."
Each luncheon also has an entertainment element, called its Special Feature, often a singer or other musician. But it's all about reaching people with the Christian message, particularly people who might resist invitations to church.
"But they will come to a luncheon," Sharpe said.
That's been a formula for success that founder Helen Baugh established seven decades ago.
"The vision, the form, the core of what she was about has not changed," Stonecroft Ministries spokesman Jeff Zogg said from the organization's headquarters in Kansas City, Mo. "And that is preaching the gospel to women. Hopefully, Stonecroft is changing the way the gospel is delivered but not changing the gospel."
Forty years ago, Zogg said, chapters met largely at country clubs, an attractive lure in those days, he said.
"Now, that's not such a big deal," he added.
The Longview chapter met at the Holiday Inn during its first decade before shifting to Oak Forest Country Club, then Johnny Cace's Seafood and Steak House, back to Oak Forest and now Summit Club.
The women insisted the mission is separate from their own denominational affiliations. They didn't even say which churches they attend.
"In fact, we purposefully don't stress churches," Sharpe said.
That's the way at all Stonecroft chapters, Zogg said.
"We are not tied to a specific denomination, we are tied to the Scripture," he said, counting about 40,000 members nationwide. The Longview club shares most of the proceeds of next week's auction with Stonecroft, which in turn provides materials for Bible studies the women hold in coffee klatches separate from the Thursday meetings.
At 70 years old, that non-denominational emphasis is an early stab at unity that's become common in many Christian circles since then.
"I think that is accurate, that Stonecroft Ministries is a pioneer in the para-church ministry, being able to reach with the gospel women who maybe haven't heard the message in a long time."
He defined, para-church as "outside the church. It doesn't mean in competition with it or in opposition. It means alongside the big church."
Holly said the praying club is too focused on bringing people to God in an unintimidating setting to worry about denominational difference. They've got a dialogue to keep rolling.
"That's exactly the point," she said. "Because we make friends with other ladies, and somehow the Lord mixes us together. And our focus is on him."
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If you go
- What: Annual Auction: Longview Christian Women's Connection
- When: 11 a.m. Thursday
- Where: Summit Club, 210 E. Methvin St.
- Cost: $14
- Contact: Call (903) 759-8515 or (903) 753-7712 or go to www.beccathewriter.com/CWC
- Lunch: Auction is this month's Thursday luncheon
- Meal reservations: Call (903) 668-3791 or (903) 668-2917 (before Tuesday)
