Uncategorized

This is me five days ago travelling to East Texas to speak at a Women’s Conference . . . with the flu:

I should have seen it coming. After all, the topic of the conference was spiritual warfare. But praise the Lord, I was not contagious (hallelujah for Tamiflu) and, best of all, Satan did not get a victory at the FBC Linden Women’s Conference OR at any of our other Priority events in February. Glory!

If you’re under spiritual attack, I pray the following pictures will encourage and remind you that God’s “grace is sufficient for you and [His] power is perfected in weakness,” (2 Cor. 12:9). Even if you have the flu.

February 4: Heights Baptist Church, Alvin, TX

The Red Shoe Gala is one of the highlights of the year at Heights Baptist in Alvin, TX, and this year Priority’s own Emily Ryan was the keynote speaker.

The theme verse of Height’s Women’s Ministry is Psalm 25:4: “Show me the path where I should walk, oh Lord. Point out the right road for me to follow.” So, to demonstrate their desire to do just that . . .

The Red Shoe Gala was born!  It’s a great verse, and it was a great night! Emily’s sister, Meghan Garrett, attended the event with her and served at the Priority resource table. Thank you, Meghan!

Heights Baptist Church is reaching, discipling, and ministering to women all throughout their city and the surrounding communities. We thank the Lord for their Women’s Ministry Coordinator, Brenda McClelland, and for her heart to encourage women. Priority is so grateful to partner with Heights, and we look forward to future opportunities for outreach with this great church and women’s ministry!

February 13:  Journey of Promise Widows Ministry

This was my second year to teach at the annual Sagemont Church Journey of Promise Widows Retreat, and it has truly become one of my all-time favorite ministry events. Led by Diane Zimmerman, a widow herself, this beautiful ministry brings widows of all ages together to support, encourage, and minister to one another.

I cannot recommend Journey of Promise highly enough — every church should have a ministry like this. This group gathers regularly for dinner, fellowship, and occasionally they go to the theater and other outings. Here are a few more of their beautiful faces:

Some of the ladies have been widows for decades and others for only a few days. The conversations I enjoyed with them and the way I witnessed them sharing and ministering to one another that weekend was more precious than gold.

If you’re a widow and you live in the Houston area, I encourage you to contact Diane Zimmerman to find out more information about Journey of Promise. Thank you, Diane, for your leadership! And thank you, dear sisters, for allowing me to be part of your journey at the retreat. I love you all, and I treasure the time God gave us together!

February 24: Bay Area First Baptist Church, League City, TX

God is at work in a BIG way at Bay Area First Baptist Church in League City, Texas, and I was so privileged to witness it firsthand at their women’s gathering on February 24.

I’ve been a fan of this church ever since my sons attended school there, but this was my very first time to be with the women of BAFBC for a women’s event. It was such a special delight to meet their pastor’s wife, Angela Haynes, and to enjoy a reunion with their Pastor of Discipleship & Biblical Counseling, Grant Rothberg (Grant grew up at Sagemont Church where his father is one of our favorite teaching pastors).

As I said, all three of my sons attended school at BAFBC, and they all agree that their favorite teacher of all time is Mrs. Hunt . . .

I was overjoyed to see her at the women’s gathering! My sons knows her as their second grade teacher, but she serves now as the Elementary Principal. Thank you, Mrs. Hunt, for being a godly influence upon the lives of countless children!

My reunion with Mrs. Hunt was only one of many that I enjoyed that night. But from my standpoint, there were far more new faces in the crowd that night, and my conversations with many of them confirmed that God is at work in a BIG way at BAFBC. Please pray for pastor Brian Haynes and the Bay Area Church family as they reach their growing community for Christ.

February 26-27: Warrior Princess Women’s Conference, First Baptist Linden, TX

For 10 years, Sherry Stanfield and her faithful team of women at FBC, Linden, Texas, have been hosting an area-wide women’s conference (and I’ve been blessed with them for four of those years). This year, Shanda Stiles and Emily Ryan came with me! I taught “Warrior Princess” (spiritual warfare), and they led breakout sessions on the topics of “How to Start a Home Bible Study,” and “Guilt-Free Quiet Times.”

Sherry and the women at FBC Linden have a huge heart to encourage and equip the women in their area with God’s Word. Their hospitality, friendliness, and spirit of service all throughout the weekend allowed every woman at the conference to experience God in a fresh new way.

The Happy Girls led worship and praise for the event, and they truly made ALL of us happy as they shared and we sang with them.

I include the following picture of me (with the flu) only as evidence of God’s power. When we are weak, He is strong! Thank You, Lord, for giving me the strength to teach your Word.

Please remember Sherry, her husband Pastor Jackie Stanfield, and all of the churches in East Texas in your prayers. Because of the economic downturn in their area, they are facing enormous challenges and great spiritual warfare right now. Pray with me that they will “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might . . . so that [they] will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil,” (Eph. 6:10-11 NASB).

We love you FBC Linden. Thank you for your love for the Lord, His church in East Texas, and for others!

---

That’s the scoop for March! Thanks for your interest and support for Priority Ministries. We would love to partner with you and your church to reach and teach God’s Word to women, so please feel free to contact us. Know of our love and prayers for you as you seek Him first and give God priority!

Your sister in Christ,

 

I am thrilled this month to report that Priority Ministries and I enjoyed a fantastic January, and February is full of new ministry and outreach opportunities. Here’s the scoop along with a few pics, a praise report, and some prayer requests:

Thank You Priority Partners!

Priority’s New Year began with a generous outpouring of financial support from year-end gifts. As always, this support was much-needed, and we are so thankful for the Lord’s faithfulness and for the generosity of our Priority Partners. Thank you, beloved Partners!

 

Priority’s First Retreat-at-Sea

The Lord blessed big-time on the ReNEW! Retreat-at-Sea, Priority’s very first cruise. Sixty-six wonderful women (and a few equally wonderful men) participated in the Jan 2-9 cruise including a beautiful mother/daughter duo from Canada (you’ll see their pic below), and a fantastic husband and wife team from California (their pic is also below).

Mindy Ferguson, a dear friend of mine from Fruitful Word Ministries, and I hosted the 7-night/8 day Western Caribbean cruise. The priority of our trip was to get into God’s Word, learn how to make biblical resolutions, and return home renewed in our walk with the Lord. And praise the Lord, that’s exactly what He did! But He also blessed us with tons of fun and glorious fellowship.

These pictures represent only a few of the many sweet faces from our cruise – and I miss them all:

 

(l-r) That’s me, Angela Autry (my dear friend and member of Priority’s Advisory Council), and Mindy Ferguson.

 

(l-r) Sandra Jacobs and Diane Zimmerman — two long-time, much-loved friends of mine.

(l-r) Sydney and Guadalupe Perez — precious mother and daughter. Sydney will be enlisting in the Army soon; please pray for her.

(l-r) Beverly Snell, Candy Jard, Pam Jones and her sister Cheri — seeing their faces makes me want to do another cruise tomorrow.

(l-r) All the way from Canada, beautiful mother-daughter duo, Cecil & Christine Douglas — loved meeting them and loved every moment of fellowship with them.

(l-r) Virginia Hosea, Mary Ellen Vail, and LaRita McGown — what a tremendous joy and honor it was to spend time with these amazing ladies!

Richard & Melody Haak from California — I love this couple, and I will never forget our sweet fellowship over dinner one evening.

(l-r) Fabiola Amador, Gladys Markham, Graciela Morales, and Elizabeth Miller — what a blessing each one of them were to me throughout the trip!

Lord willing, Priority will plan another retreat-at-sea in 2017. And don’t worry. I’ll keep you posted because I want you to come with me next time.

 

Praise Reports & Prayer Requests

• January always brings orders from around the country for our Priority Bible Studies for women. We praise the Lord for every Bible study leader and student who will be participating and growing in God’s Word through these studies. Please keep them in your prayers.

• Emily Ryan and I are speaking at several events and retreats in February. And on Feb. 26-27, Emily and Shanda will be travelling with me to First Baptist Church Linden, TX where I will teaching and they will be leading breakout sessions. Women from 30+ churches in East Texas area will be part of this event. Many of churches there are suffering greatly because of the economy in that area of our state. Your prayers for them and for us are so appreciated.

• My 2016 speaking calendar is still open, and I am praying and trusting the Lord to fill it up according to His will. If you or your church need a speaker for an event, retreat, or conference, I’d love to come! You can contact me by email priority@priorityministries.com or phone (1-866-968-4564). My heart’s desire is simply to go where God leads. Please pray with me that that He will open doors and provide opportunities for me to serve Him and minister to women.

Save the Date for Priority’s Boot Scootin’ BBQ!

Don’t miss Priority’s 2016 Boot Scootin’ BBQ! This year’s event will be April 23 at Sagemont Church in Houston, TX with special entertainment by LaDonna Gatlin. LaDonna grew up on stage performing with her brothers, the legendary Gatlin Brothers. You will love her music and her testimony about growing up Gatlin.

We will also have a wonderful silent and live auction, delicious BBQ and desserts, and a few other fun surprises. And just in case you’re wondering about the dress code, I’ll be wearing my boots and jeans — and you can, too!Tickets are $25, and they will go on sale soon. So, save the date, and I’ll share more details about Priority’s 2016 Boot Scootin’ BBQ with you soon. Yee-haw, y’all!

_____________________________________________________

Well, that’s the scoop for February. How I thank the Lord for you and for your interest and support for Priority Ministries. May God pour out His blessings upon you in abundance as you love Him most, seek Him first, and give Him priority!

Your sister,

 

 

“Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…”  Matt. 6:33

New Bible study – Are You a Disciple? – available August 3

[July 20, 2015]

Discover life beyond casual Christianity with Priority Ministries’ new Bible study, Are You a Disciple?, by Laurie Cole.

This 8-week, in-depth Bible study helps individuals and groups discover the difference between Christianity and discipleship with practical insights straight from the pages of God’s Word.

“I became a Christian when I was just a child,” said Laurie, “but in my twenties I came to a spiritual crossroads. My life and my marriage were falling apart. I was faced with two options. Option one was to continue doing life my way, as a pretty good religious person. It’s what I call casual Christianity. Option two was to accept Jesus’ call to ‘Follow Me,’ and become His disciple. I chose option two, to follow Jesus – to become a disciple – and I am so grateful that I did.”

Laurie outlines the differences between these two options by contrasting the 7 characteristics of casual Christians with the 7 distinctives of devoted disciples. “A Christian is a believer,” she said. “A disciple is a follower.”

Are You a Disciple? will help you discover:

• The difference between Christianity and discipleship
• How to know if you’re a Christian
• How to know if you’re a disciple
• The 7 characteristics of casual Christians
• The 7 distinctives of devoted disciples
• How to become a disciple who makes disciples

Are You a Disciple? is a workbook/video study and is formatted for individual and group use.

All materials will be available for purchase on August 3.

Priority releases Guilt-Free Quiet Times

[November 05, 2013]

After years of producing Bibles studies with teaching videos, Priority Ministries released its first stand-alone book today. Guilt-Free Quiet Times: Exposing the Top Ten Myths about Your Time with God was written by Emily E. Ryan, Priority’s Executive Editor.

“Several years ago, Laurie [Cole, Priority’s President and Founder] discussed three common quiet time myths on her popular Front Porch Friday videos,” Emily said. “Her messages not only resonated with the readers, they resonated with me as well.”

Emily wondered if she was alone in her constant feelings of “quiet time guilt,”  so she conducted a quiet time survey in April and found that most women experienced similar guilt in some form or fashion. “Some women feel guilty for not journaling or for having a quiet time in the evening instead of the morning,” she said, “and it was clear that someone needed to be the first to strip away the legalism.”

Emily began researching what women were being taught about “proper” quiet times compared to what the Bible has to say about spending time with God and found that there were even more myths than the original three that Laurie mentioned.

“Since writing Guilt-Free Quiet Times, not only is the time I spend with the Lord more precious, but the time I spend doing other things is sweeter too,” Emily said. “Once I stripped away the formulas, what I found was freedom. Freedom to experience God in new and invigorating ways and freedom to enjoy His blessings guilt-free. I pray that everyone who reads this will discover the same freedom.”

Guilt-Free Quiet Times mixes Scripture with sarcasm to help women move from the “have to” mentality of spending time with the Lord to the “get to” mentality. It also offers several pages of innovative, but practical, suggestions to foster intimacy with God and discussion questions that small groups and book clubs will find helpful.

Guilt-Free Quiet Times is available in paperback for $9.99 and as a free PDF download for those subscribing to the Glo Girl Blog. A Kindle version will be available soon.

Just in time for back-to-school, here are some FREE PRINTABLES that will help you pray God’s Word over your kids! You can even use the pdfs to insert your child’s name and have each prayer customized for him or her! Click here for the full post!

After more than six months of planning, praying collaborating and designing, Priority Ministries is pleased to unveil phase one of its new website! This redesign is the first major overhaul since 2007 and merges Priority’s main website with its Glo Girl Blog in order to operate under one WordPress platform. It boasts new graphics, new layouts, easier navigation and greater functionality. Plus, the Priority staff will now be able to handle much of the everyday updates.

Future phases of improvements include reformatting the Priority “store” in order to have more flexibility, and incorporating the ability to offer downloadable products as well.

This project could NOT have been done without these fabulous people:

Our Priority Partners – So many of you supported this project with your one-time gift or through your regular monthly gifts. Thank you so much for allowing God to use you to bless us (and our Glo Girl community) so much!

Shanda Stiles – Thanks to our fabulous IT and Events Director, Shanda, who clocked in many, many hours with her trusty laptop. Thank you, Shanda, for going above and beyond!

Neil Luft of Internet Imagineering – Thank you to Neil who has worked with us on the technical, back end of this project. You take the things that make our eyes cross and make them appear easy-peasy! Plus, you had to work with a handful of women, which means LOTS of, “Hmmm… I think we changed our minds!”

Julie Riley of jRiley Creative – Thanks to Julie who is responsible for all things “pretty” on our website! Your artistic contributions are a.m.a.z.i.n.g! We love you!

The Lord has blessed us with this platform and we are so grateful! May He use this website and blog to His glory, to encourage thousands of women to give God glory and priority in their everyday lives!

Ever wonder what we’re up to at our ministry office? Here’s a list of projects we’re working on and would appreciate your prayers. We also love your ideas, so drop us a note!

Behind the Scenes Project List

So, here are the major projects and ideas that we are currently working on behind the scenes at Priority. Some are almost complete; some are still in the brainstorming phase. But as you read through them, you will be able to see what we do all day and how you can pray for us!

Website/Blog Redesign

So much has changed in cyber land since we first designed our current website in 2007! While we updated it and tweaked it quite a bit when we began the Glo Girl Blog in 2011, it’s time for a major overhaul! New graphics! New layouts! Easier navigation! And most importantly, more functionality that will make it easier for us to manage it on the backend. But honestly, this is the kind of stuff that makes our eyes cross! Thankfully, we have professionals to help, and we can’t wait to unveil the final product!

Conversion from Constant Contact to MailChimp

This probably means nothing for you, but it’s a booger of a project for us. Over 9,000 people subscribe to our electronic mailing list, and we’re transitioning to a different platform in order to manage those subscriptions more effectively. MailChimp will make it easier for us to customize our subscriptions according to what our readers and supporters want. We just have to learn how to use it first!

 

Redevelop/Rethink email newsletter

Remember our monthly eNewsletter, You Glo Girl? So do we! It is what we used before the blog as a regular way to encourage women through articles, Scripture Art and information. Now that we do most of our communication through the Glo Girl Blog, we’re reevaluating how best to share info and encouragement to all of our subscribers on a regular basis. We know not everyone wants to see us in their inboxes every day, so we’re working on a solution to keep you informed on a regular, but less frequent, basis.

 

FREE eBook

For a long time, we’ve wanted to offer a free eBook on the Glo Girl Blog. So Emily is writing a full-fledged book inspired by Laurie’s Front Porch Friday video series, Quiet Time Myths. It will elaborate and expand on how to have a guilt-free quiet time and expose even more myths associated with having “perfect” quiet times. Everyone who subscribes to the Glo Girl Blog will be able to get this pdf book for free!

 

Warrior Princess

Back in the spring, Laurie video-taped a four-part series on spiritual warfare at Sagemont Church. We’re compiling those messages and creating supplemental material to make available in an easy and affordable format that Christian ministry leaders will be able to use in their churches and small groups. It’ll be kind of like a retreat-in-a-box, and we know you’ll love it!

 

Devotional Book

So… Laurie and Emily want to write a devotional book. Yeah, that’s as far as this project has gotten so far, but we’re praying for divine intervention that will allow this to happen, and allow it to happen in time for Christmas, 2013. Yikes. That’s soon!