From left: Ali Alfarso, Melinda Priest and Beth Fox led music at 2009 Come to the Fire, a women's conference focused on purity of heart and love for Jesus.
Keynote speaker Beth Coppedge, founder of Titus Women’s Ministries of the Francis Asbury Society, promotes prayer groups who bathe the conference in prayer.
Carolyn Johnson was among several speakers urging women to become "lovers of Jesus, not just workers for Jesus," a theme profoundly changing many attendees.
Women came to the conference from the Horn of Africa, Taiwan, France, Asia-Pacific countries and dozens of U.S. states. Event planners hope to take the conference outside the U.S.
While Come to the Fire is open to women from any denomination or none, it is held annually at Nazarene churches and many attendees are Nazarene.
2009 Come to the Fire was held at Nashville First Church. The 2010 conference will be Sept. 30 - Oct. 2 in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Photos courtesy Aletha Hinthorn.
What would bring 1,700 women from dozens of American states, plus Taiwan, France, the Horn of Africa and the Asia Pacific to the First Church of the Nazarene in Nashville, Tennessee? It was the fourth annual conference of Come to the Fire in November 2009.
In 2002, a few women began meeting for prayer in an Amish Inn in Ohio. For several years, we met nearly every six months for three days to seek God and to ask Him to revive the message of holiness in our land—the message that God purifies our hearts so we can live holy lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Three years later, I felt God leading me to call eight women to a meeting to plan a conference that would be for all women who are hungry to experience the joy of a love relationship with Jesus. When I told my pastor, (now General Superintendent) J. K. Warrick, of this vision, he immediately replied, “You can have this at College Church.” The first three conferences were in College Church in Olathe, Kansas.
One of the eight women was Beth Coppedge, founder of Titus Women’s Ministries of the Francis Asbury Society. Her ministry partners with Come to the Fire by promoting the Lydia Prayer Groups that support the conference with prayer.
Another of the eight women was Dr. Linda Hardin, Women’s Ministries Director for the Church of the Nazarene. Her office has encouraged this conference by helping to advertise and by giving direction. Come to the Fire has been endorsed by the Evangelical Church of North America, Church of God (Anderson), Wesleyan and the Free Methodist denominations. In the past four years, thousands of women have attended from more than a dozen denominations, although the majority of attendees are Nazarene.
Not wanting anyone to miss the conference, the council decided not to charge, but to trust the Lord to provide through donations.
The conferences have one purpose: challenge women to have, as the keynote speaker Beth Coppedge, calls it, a "squeaky clean" heart. The messages center around God's desire to purify our hearts and challenge women to become lovers of Jesus, not just workers for Jesus.
The message of love and purity resonates with the women. Following the first conference, a pastor's wife wrote, "After 34 years of serving Him, my life will never be the same. As Beth would say, I'm squeaky clean inside."
Hundreds of women e-mailed their testimonies following the conferences. Lavon Delp of Olathe, Kansas, said, “The conference led me deeper in my quest for God’s holiness and fullness in my life. I can truthfully say, I have not been the same since the conference. I want more and more of Jesus.”
Rev. Vanessa Betancourt, of Indianapolis, wrote, “It is hard to explain Come to the Fire. It is so much more than a conference. It truly is an experience that is so personal it is difficult to find the appropriate words. It is a revival, a holiness summit, a worship experience and a journey.”
Much prayer preceded this event in Nashville. For 40 days before the conference, registrants received daily devotionals and prayer requests and were invited to request a list of registrants for whom they would pray. Nearly 150 women responded. During the conference, men gathered in another area of the church to pray.
Speakers included Beth Coppedge, Dr. Carolyn Johnson, Linda Boyette, Linda Seaman, Laura Edwards and Patsy Lewis. Eve Soulain came from France to testify with her mother Yori Taylor of how God brought reconciliation to their relationship. Kim McLean spoke of God’s healing in her family.
In the final service, flags from over 100 nations were carried through the sanctuary. Women were challenged to prayerfully choose a country to pray for and to claim as their inheritance.
Repeatedly scores of women came forward to pray. Women's e-mails tell the stories of God's faithfulness and transformed lives. Women testified to having been saved, sanctified and freed from unforgiveness, pride and many types of bondages.
Women described the conference as being Spirit-filled, exciting, humbling and full of the Holy Spirit's conviction. One attendee wrote, “I really believe that the difference in this conference is that it was born out of a prayer retreat, and that it is bathed in prayer, not just 40 days in advance, but for a whole year.” (Read more testimonies at www.cometothefire.org.)
The 2010 Come to the Fire conference is scheduled to be on the campus of the Indiana Purdue Ft. Wayne University in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, September 30 to October 2. Grace Point Church of the Nazarene is hosting the event.
The 2010 theme is “Reflect His Glory” and the theme verse is taken from Ezekiel 36:23: “Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” Speakers will include Beth Coppedge, Dr. Carolyn Johnson Dr. Janine Metcalf, and Dr. Jo Anne Lyon. Registration is available at www.cometothefire.org.
The first conference that Beth Coppedge and I worked in together was in Budapest. Our vision for the future is to take the holiness message to women to other states and then to other continents.
Former General Superintendent Dr. Nina Gunter encourages women to attend Come to the Fire.
“Have you been longing to be in a gathering where there is a mighty visitation of God? Where the Holy Spirit does something so supernatural that everyone knows it is God? Where people humble themselves before God so He can do in them all He desires and they will never be the same? Come to the Fire!”