A Personal Letter from Sally
Dear Sweet Friends,
I hope you will be able to join me and my friends for a Mom Heart Conference this year. Every year is special, but this one will happen in a perfect storm of three converging realities—(1) the release of my newest book, The Lifegiving Home; (2) the celebration of 20 years of conference ministry to mothers; and (3) the official final year of our conference ministry. Yes, I know. I’ll get to that third reality in a moment, but first let me share with you about the first two.
As a woman made in God’s image, I have always believed I have a special role by God’s design to be a lifegiver. Like Eve, whose name means “Life,” I believe I am divinely designed with both a biological capability and a spiritual capacity for giving life—I bring life into this world by child-bearing, and I bring life into my world by home-building. I believe that every woman of God can tap into those parts of her nature. This year, I want to encourage moms to become confident, convinced, and capable lifegivers at home.
My new book, The Lifegiving Home, has been percolating in my spirit and in Sarah's for many years. I am grateful Tyndale gave us the opportunity to get out of us and into a book that has been in my heart for so long. It’s a history of the Clarkson home, the ways we lived life, celebrated Christ and His incarnation into all the corners and moments of our lives and a definition of what home was created to be. Join us also, in our journey through the twelve months of a year exploring the ways that I have tried to bring God’s life, and the life of Christ, into our home for over thirty years as well as seeing it from Sarah's eyes and memories as a child. It’s how that lifegiving home is an integral part of my mission and ministry of motherhood, and even my walk with God as a mother. And as the subtitle of the book so perfectly captures, I want to help you become God’s lifegiver by “creating a place of belonging and becoming” in your lifegiving home.
In many ways, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for the twenty years of this conference ministry. It’s all been about becoming a woman and mother after God’s heart, the one He designed you to be and put in your heart to be. That simple, biblical message began in a small church in Texas in 1996 for about 120 women. In 1998 it moved to a hotel as the WholeHearted Mother Conference and then expanded to other states. In 2006 we took a year off, but came back again in 2007 as what would become the Mom Heart Conference. And here we are another decade later. I am grateful for this ministry that God placed into my heart and hands, and this year we’ll take some time to celebrate the twenty (20!) years of mom conference ministry we’ve been able to enjoy.
But then there’s that third reality. The “final year” thing. When Clay and I started Whole Heart Ministries in 1994, having a hotel “conference ministry” was not on our spiritual radar. We just wanted to write books and speak, but things change—God had other plans, so conferences happened, and we’ve been faithful to do this conference ministry for twenty years. But now it’s time for another change—our children are all grown and gone now, volunteer families have aged, hotel costs are going up, winter weather is more uncertain, and Clay and I are slowing down. We feel it is time to switch gears so we can find a good cruising speed for the next decade. We’re not going away as a ministry, and there will likely still be some smaller speaking events along the way, but twenty years seems like a good time to say, “That’s a wrap.” It will be a quiet ending with no big fanfare, and we’ll appreciate whoever is there with us to mark the memory.
My heart will beat with a passion to give Christian mothers hope and help for their strategic role in God’s plan for as long as God allows me to minister. My mind is alive with vision for how to reach and help more mothers—the Internet, small groups worldwide, Spanish language materials, new books, and more. I hope you will join me this year as we reach out together to take hold of all God has for us as lifegiving mothers. That’s what I’m here for. That’s what we’re all here for. Join me.
In his heart,
Sally Clarkson
To Register, go HERE
Registration officially opens at noon tomorrow. :)
Be sure to tell your friends about it and tell them to register early as we expect this year's conferences to sell out quickly.
We have lots of great speakers and fun surprises for our conferences this year. I am so excited. We shall have a grand time together and change our worlds together!