c. 1998 Religion News Service

HARTFORD, Conn. _ For the wives of Promise Keepers, it’s payback time. It’s their chance to leave the kids with their fathers so they can head out to their own evangelistic rallies.

But unlike the men, the women are not making any promises. They are coming together for mutual support.”The bottom-line message is that through all the ups and downs of life we can still be joyful women,”said Coleen Wolf of Manchester, Conn.”God wants to bring us through tough times.” Wolf, with about 35 other women from the Manchester area, plans to car-pool to a two-day conference sponsored by Women of Faith, one of the most successful of the national evangelistic Christian women’s groups that have sprung up in the wake of the success of Promise Keepers.

They’ll attend a Feb. 6-7 event in the Continental Air Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., a suburb of New York City more accustomed to hosting football, basketball and hockey games as well as rock concerts.

There the women attending will hear motivational speeches mixed with humor, personal testimony about how women have faced difficult choices in their lives, and assurances that God loves them.”At Women of Faith we are crying at one minute listening to the stories of these women and laughing the next minute,”said Wolf, who attended a conference last year in Pittsburgh.”There is not one woman who can walk away and say those women just don’t know what I went through. As tough as it has been, God is always faithful,”Wolf said.

Women of Faith is riding on the coattails of the evangelistic fervor stirred up by Promise Keepers, founded by former Colorado football coach Bill McCartney in 1990. The men, in football stadium rallies, make a seven-point promise of faith and devotion to God and family.

Ironically, the idea for the women’s group was a man’s _ Stephen Arterburn of Laguna Beach, Calif., an entrepreneur who co-founded New Life Clinics, a chain of centers offering psychological counseling with a distinctive Christian cast.

Inspired by the success of the men’s movement, Arterburn in 1996 organized a series of”Joyful Journey”inspirational conferences in churches in seven cities that attracted 30,000 women.

But unlike Promises Keepers, which is a non-profit organization that makes it finances public, Women of Faith, located in Plano, Texas, is a private, for-profit business that doesn’t reveal its income. Tickets to the events can cost nearly $70.

Featuring a team of authors, motivational speakers and Christian media personalities well-known among evangelical Protestants, Women of Faith conferences in 1997 were held in 15 cities, mostly in civic arenas. Attendance topped 157,000.

This year,”Bring Back the Joy”conferences will tour 29 cities, including Washington, D.C., Nashville, Tenn., San Diego and Minneapolis. Organizers say they expect attendance will reach a half-million.

One reason for the success of Women of Faith is that”women like to connect with other women. They like to hear stories of hope and faith of people who have been there,”said Luci Swindoll, one of the six women who speak at the conferences.

The author of such motivational books as”Celebrating Life (Catching the Thieves that Steal Your Joy),”Swindoll’s messages are humorously uplifting.”Luci Swindoll says if you are not every day on the floor laughing about something you are missing it,”Wolf said.

Another speaker, Sheila Walsh, describes her struggle to find happiness. A Scottish-born singer with 10 albums and author of five books, she became nationally known as a co-host with Pat Robertson on”The 700 Club”on the Christian Broadcasting Network. Later she had her own show on the network,”Heart to Heart with Sheila Walsh,”which was highly popular.

She gave up television in 1993.”I was personally a very lonely woman”who”didn’t have a lot of friends and didn’t open myself up to others,”she said in a recent telephone news conference.

Being part of the Women of Faith circuit”has absolutely changed my life,”Walsh said.”You can absolutely be yourself”and”I don’t feel like I am some second-hand car dealer.”

Eds: Women of Faith is at 820 W. Spring Parkway, Suite 400, Plano, Texas 75023; (972) 424-1900, Ext. 137.

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