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Orlando church hosts ladies’ conference on joy—audio available

Aug
21

Orlando, FL >> Metro Life Church hosted a women's conference for regional churches in June. Titled Joy Inexpressible, the conference included teaching from Danny Jones (Metro Life’s senior pastor) and Jenny Detwiler (wife of Brent Detwiler). Metro Life Church sent this report.

On June 14–16, Metro Life Church (Casselberry, FL) hosted Joy Inexpressible, a ladies’ conference attended by over 800 women from Sovereign Grace churches in Florida. For three days the building was filled to near capacity with ladies greeting, laughing, worshiping, and learning from early in the morning until, well, early in the morning again. Throughout the retreat ladies were showered with gifts for everything from arriving on time to a reputation for loving thrill rides. At each session, selected ladies from each church were honored for demonstrating joy in various seasons of life. And the retreat ended with drawings for great prizes including Disney park tickets.

Metro Life’s senior pastor Danny Jones opened the conference, ending his message with “Don’t think it’s okay to have less than God wants for you!” Jenny Detwiler followed with three sessions on the source of true joy and sinful hindrances to living a life of joyful obedience to God. Her encouraging and convicting messages elicited much dialogue between and after the sessions.

One night of the retreat was devoted to a time of worship and ministry led by Metro Life worship leader Todd Twining. Three hours of near-nonstop worship were interrupted only for prophetic ministry and the exercise of spiritual gifts. One participant said, “This was the highlight of the retreat for me. How often does a busy mom have the chance to worship the Lord undistractedly for several hours?”

The conference closed with an insightful and humorous original musical called Finding Joy Faire, which shed light on some unbiblical areas in which we ladies sometimes search for joy. Afterward, no one seemed to be in a hurry to leave, and genuine joy was evident on many faces. The powerful messages of this conference and a renewed awareness of the joy found in the Lord will surely have far-reaching effect after the ladies have returned home to families, friends, and churches with “joy inexpressible.”