In session one, Pastor John Piper, CBMW Council Member, preached on the ultimate meaning of true womanhood from Scripture. He distinguished between authority and influence and thus declared “A woman on her knees sways more in this nation than a thousand 3-piece suited, Wall Street jerks!”  He underscored his beginning assumption with this profundity: “Wimpy theology makes wimpy women.”  After giving many inspiring examples of the opposite of wimpy women, Piper upheld a vision of a godly woman who has such a vast and accurate view of God that she can give thanks for all hardship and thus magnify the glory of Christ in all situations.

So central to a biblical view of masculinity and femininity is the cross and resurrection of Christ, that we cannot separate the two, says Piper.  Sexual distinctives are embedded in both creation and the cross. So Piper helpfully warns, “If you base your womanhood on competency you diminish the glory of Christ.”  From Ephesians 5, especially verse 33, Piper showed how marriage and sexual design are created by God to portray Christ’s passion for His Bride, the Church. The two genders are not interchangeable because Christ and the Church are not interchangeable.

Which means marriage on earth is not the main thing. Eternal, spiritual marriage to Christ is the main thing. That means that temporal marriages will, one day, come to the end of their usefulness.  It also means that singleness can say three things about Christ, better than marriage can. First, singleness shows that the family of God grows by regeneration, not propagation. Second, it shows that a relationship with Christ is more permanent than relationships with earthly families. Third, Christ-exalting singleness bears witness to the temporariness of marriage and how we were meant to know Christ eternally.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss, hostess and sponsor of the True Woman conference, spoke in the second general session from Romans 11:33-36. After giving a brief overview of the book of Romans, she celebrated the glorious attributes of God from that “hinge” text in Romans 11.  Before it, in chapters 1-11 Paul gives the “What” of the gospel and following that text, in chapters 12-16, Paul gives the “So what?” These glorious attributes of God, “the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God” became the substance of her message. She called all women present to become those who define their womanhood by that high vision of God.

That call led to three statements of application:

*A true woman lives a God-centered life.

*A true woman trusts God.

*A true woman says “Yes, Lord.”

In all three of these she called women to focus on God in all things, to trust him in all circumstances, and to acknowledge his lordship over them and all things, past, present and future. In this she said, “you will be like salmon swimming upstream in an unholy world.”

She closed with an invitation for each woman to wave the white flag of surrender to the Lord, during the conference, when they go home and always in their hearts.

As a part of their involvement in the True Woman conference, attendees are invited to read, embrace and sign a True Woman Manifesto. It is a theological proclamation that calls Christian women to a high, fully-biblical understanding of God and their unique calling to manifest the glory of Christ in their femininity. All like-minded women are invited to go to the above link and sign it as well.