By Jordyn Davis | For The Birmingham Times nn
The sanctuary of Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church was filled Saturday with more than 600 women, many with tear-stained cheeks a testament to their joy, anger, pain, suffering and loss at they listened to wisdom from a group of inspirational speakers.
“Can I tell you this is not for perfect women? This is not for pristine women. This is not for women who have never had any blemishes or any challenges,” said Dr Karri Bryant, the First Lady and Executive Pastor of Creative/Experience at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, one of the keynote speakers.
Bryant joined a number well-known Black, female ministers as well as Grammy award-winning recording artist Jekalynn Carr at the Annual Balance Women’s Conference hosted by the Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist church in southwest Birmingham.
This year’s theme was “Level Up!” and aimed to inspire women to prioritize their faith to achieve a great level of personal respect to both themselves and others.
“Those who have never been in any trouble, who have been perfect their whole life, you might as well tune me out because nothing I am going to say is going to resonate with you …,” said Bryant. “It is when we begin to petition God for help. This is when you know God is positioning you to level up. He is positioning you for your ‘next.’”
Other speakers included Minister Sherrika Allen, minister and founding member of True Love Church of Ensley; Reverend Veronica Barnes, minister leader at Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church, and Robin Alyssa Sellers of No Ordinary Worship (NOW) Ministry.
Sellers shared, “I remember there was a time when I was a little girl in about the eighth grade there was a really bad snowstorm … I found myself being trapped at my middle school. Some kids were there all weekend, some were overnight, but I [wasn’t worried] because I knew who my father was and because I knew the relationship I had with my father, Lord God.
“I can tell you that this is my testimony and my father parked and drove as far as he could and then walked a mile to come get his baby girl … After all the storms, the rain, after all the sickness, you have to expect that ‘I’m not leaving here without getting everything that God had for me,” said Sellers, founder of Pretty Girls that Preach, a space for women to study the word of God while also uplifting each other.
This year marks 10 years in which Greater Shiloh held its annual women’s conference.
Alisha Bothwell, one of the attendees, said the conference “was just an eye-opener to know that even though things don’t necessarily go the way you anticipate or the way you think, that God is still in control … [and] It’s okay to be who God called you to be.”
