Nearly 800 local women gathered at Jacksonville’s Southpoint Community Church Feb. 24-25 for the Courageous Women’s Conference. Featuring keynote presentations by New York Times best-selling author Lysa TerKeurst and Paralympic medalist Bonnie St. John, the two-day event offered women an opportunity to attend workshops and presentations aimed at inspiring and encouraging them to live life courageously.
“Courage isn’t the absence of fear, but the judgment that something else is more powerful,” said Debbie Austin, women’s director for Southpoint Community Church and the conference’s organizer. “Anyone who has done anything important, they do it in spite of fear.”
Too often, Austin said, women today listen to the negative messages coming from the culture around them, telling them they’ll never measure up to worldly standards of beauty, intelligence and success.
“We believe the Bible has much to say about what it means to be a powerful, victorious woman,” Austin said. “Women have an important role to play in our society. We are called to be strong and courageous, and can do so when we believe the truth and quit believing the lies.”
