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Here’s a list and description of some of the messages, seminars and classes Mary has taught. Most of the presentations last 45 to 60 minutes, although many (but not all) can be shortened to 30 to 40 minutes in length. Presentations that are part of series can generally also be presented alone.

Leadership Series
Father’s House Series
Conversation Peace Series
Vertically Inclined Series
Womanhood Series
Prayer Series
General Series

Leadership Series

Leadership for Dummies – A Reference for the Rest of Us…

We know there are great leaders. We’ve heard their stories, read their books, and attended their seminars… but what about the rest of us? How does the leader in the trenches – the ordinary woman who feels less than “great” and who will likely only minister to small handfuls of people – effectively lead? Leadership for Dummies is a conference for any woman who is in a position of influencing others – be it on a church staff, in a women’s group, Bible study, youth group, Sunday school class, worship team, small group, or even one-on-one. If you desire to positively influence others; then you have a heart to lead…and this conference is for YOU!

Session One: Authentic Leadership: Keep it Real

Posers, fakers, and imposters pretend to be what they are not. They put on fronts and seek to impress. They hide behind masks, mislead and deceive. The Apostle Paul warns that counterfeit leaders are bad news! But how do you spot a leadership poser? And more important, how do you avoid becoming one? This session will challenge you to keep it real!

Session Two: Empowered Leadership: Charge Your Batteries

Like that pink Energizer Bunny enthusiastically skittering around the room beating the drum, leaders are expected to be “ever-ready” and to keep going and going and going and going. But if truth be told, many are low on power, and perpetually teeter on the brink of seizing up or breaking down. How can leaders remain fresh and empowered? This session will provide some “electrifying” advice on how to keep your leadership batteries charged.

Session Three: Sacrificial Leadership: If it leads it bleeds

When it comes to news headlines, there’s a saying, “If it bleeds it leads.” When it comes to spiritual leadership an apt saying might be, “If it leads it bleeds.” Godly leadership is not without cost. Leaders must pay the price. How do we “bleed” for those we serve without being drained of life? How can we persevere through the stresses, disappointments, and difficulties of leadership? And why does leadership sometimes get so tough? This session will provide some “transfusions” that will help you gain perspective on this important aspect of leadership.

Session Four: Courageous Leadership: Be a Hero

Be a hero? …Yeah, right! Most of us feel more like wimps than warriors. How can we secure great spiritual victories when we can barely conquer our laundry? How can we win the battle when we constantly suffer defeat at the hands of our in box? You may feel like unlikely hero material, but in this session you’ll find out how even the biggest wimp can become a mighty warrior.

Father Heart of God Series

Father’s House – Finding Your Heart’s True Home

The need to be well fathered is a fundamental need of the human heart. Knowing God as Father – as our almighty, loving Father – is the highest, richest, and most rewarding aspect of our whole relationship with him. God has said of you, “I will welcome you, and be a Father to you and you will be my sons and daughters.” (2 Cor. 6:18). Everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. Father is the Christian name for God. These sessions will challenge you to journey closer to his heart…. for it is there that you will find your heart’s true home

Session One: Daddy’s Girl

There’s someone who knows your name, who keeps track of every detail of your life, who collects your tears in his bottle, who has inscribed you on the palm of his hand, who is moved with compassion for you, and who has his cord of love tethered to your heart. Who is it? Your heavenly Father! God wants you to draw near and to experience a close, personal, family relationship with him. If you do not know God as Father, you do not really know Him at all. This session will help you discover the wonder and beauty of the incomparable love that God the Father has for you.

Session Two: The Family Name

Our life experiences shape our personal identities and perceptions of our heavenly Father. God wants us to leave behind distorted labels and to get to know him as he really is. He longs to father us and bless us with a new name. In this session we’ll trace the stages in the life of Jacob, who went from living with labels to experiencing the Father’s blessing.

Session Three: Homeward Bound

Do you long to find your heart’s true home? You can find it in the Father’s house! In this session we’ll explore what it means to live in the Father’s House and how we can experience a deeper intimacy with him.

Conversation Peace Series

Me ‘n’ my Big Mouth! – Experience the Power of Transformed Speech

Have you ever left a conversation feeling like shredded wheat? Stuck your foot in your mouth? Been at a loss for words? Or suffered a yak attack? Do you find it difficult to connect with others? Do you suspect that your communication patterns are hindering your relationships? God’s Word can revolutionize your speech by changing you from the inside out! This conference will help you manage your mouth and improve your relationships one word at a time.

Session One: Word Perfect

Speaking the right word at the right time can be a challenge. Do you sometimes wish you had the perfect word to speak? A word that’s constructive, powerful, and clear? A word that is full of grace and truth? In this session you’ll learn more about the perfect word… and why it’s so important to keep your eye on your mouth.

Session Two: Word Processing

You have an edge to your tongue! Everyone does. The Hebrew word for mouth is peh – which means “edge.” In ancient times, metal was scarce. During times of war, metal was pounded into a sword and used for battle. But during times of peace the same metal was pounded into a ploughshare for tilling the ground. The same edge could be used for fighting or for farming. It’s like that with our tongues. We can use them as tools or weapons – to cultivate or to destroy. In this session you’ll learn how to process your words so that you use them like a farmer, and not a fighter.

Session Three: Word for Word

So how do we keep from sticking our feet in our mouths and messing up our relationships with our words? There are some obstacles we need to overcome. In this session, we’ll learn some lessons from the prophet Isaiah, who had a dramatic revelation about the condition of his mouth.

Vertically Inclined Series

Climbing Higher with God

The Apostle Paul’s driving passion was to climb upward to grab hold of the One who had grabbed hold of him. He was always pressing on to know God at higher levels. How do we keep climbing higher with God? What does it take to push for the next level and keep moving upward and forever upward? In this conference, you’ll discover the adventure, the joy, and the thrill of being Vertically Inclined.

Session One: Kick it Up!

Would you describe your walk with God as “ho-hum” or “hum-drum”? Have you been stuck at the same place spiritually? Then it’s time to kick it up to the next level! In this session you’ll discover three secrets of what it takes to keep climbing to higher levels of spiritual maturity.

Session Two: Champion of the Hill

Cycling’s most prestigious race, the Tour de France, is renowned for its mountain stages. It’s the ability of some cyclists to get to the top of the mountain swiftly that separates them from the rest of the field. The ones who champion the hills are the ones who will likely win the race. The Bible teaches that in the race of life, it’s often our ability to scale difficult mountains that determines whether or not we’ll endure, finish the race, and win the prize.

Session Three: Strong to the Finish

It’s easy to start a race, it’s not as easy to finish. The writer of Hebrews maintains that there are three imperatives that must be kept in mind by all who desire to finish strong. If you grab hold of them, you will run even stronger and harder at the end than you did at the beginning.

Biblical Womanhood Series

Him Tarzan – You Jane: Cutting your way through the Gender Jungle

When it comes to guy-girl relationships, it’s a jungle out there! From Friends to Sex-in-the-City to Desperate Housewives we are inundated with images of today’s modern woman and how women can make life work. Sadly – as multitudes have discovered – this modern concept doesn’t work. Relationally, we are more broken, disillusioned, and frustrated than ever before. We avoid being entangled in this cultural mess by following God’s pattern for male-female relationships. In this series we’ll cut our way through the gender jungle to the heart of what it means to be a woman.

Session One: Sugar n’ Spice

The old nursery rhyme says, “Sugar ‘n’ Spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of…” It’s a silly rhyme, but it poses an intriguing question: What are girls made of? And what are guys made of? What makes us different? How do we tick? We can’t understand guy-girl relationships until we understand the nuts and bolts – the hows and whys – of God’s plan for male and female. In this session, we’ll go back to the basics – to the opening pages of Genesis – to discover what our Creator had in mind.

Session Two: Girls Gone Wild

Girls have gone wild! Our culture has produced a whole generation of Jungle Janes – breast-baring, butt-kicking, in-your-face, my-way-or-highway female aggressors. Countering this trend is the biblical image of a beautiful godly woman. In this session we’ll compare and contrast the two. You’ll have the opportunity to evaluate whether your personal behavior and ideas are in line with what God deems beautiful or more in line with what he deems beastly.

Session Three: Girl Power

Nowadays, little girls are taught to be strong and in control…like the Power Puff girls! But the Bible warns that many girls will, in fact, grow up to be “weak-willed women!” What the world perceives as strength is often a spiritual weakness. In this session we’ll examine the five weak points of a “weak-willed-woman.” You’ll be challenged to overcome weaknesses and walk in the strength of who God created you to be.

Prayer Series

Prayer for Dummies – A Guide for the Rest of Us

The disciples were seasoned veterans when it came to reciting daily prayers, but when they heard the powerful prayers of Jesus – they all felt like “dummies.” They didn’t really know much about prayer at all. This session will explore seven basic types of prayer modeled by Christ. It’s a great class for all those who cry out, like the disciples did: “Teach us to pray!”

Prayer CPR - Breathe New Life into your Prayers

How’s your prayer life? Is it inconsistent? Weak? Or even dead? In this class, you’ll learn the secret to reviving it, and to keeping your prayers vibrant and alive. Breathe new life into your prayers with some prayer CPR!

Watchman on the Wall – Standing Guard in Prayer

When watchmen sleep, cities fall. Are you on the lookout? Are you assuming the position of watchman for your family, community, church, city, and nation? Are you putting up perimeters of prayer to protect against the schemes and attacks of the Evil One? Jesus instructed his disciples to “watch and pray.” In this session you’ll be challenged to take your place and stand guard.

Hunger for God – The Whys and Hows of Fasting

What is it that you hunger after? Is your world so stuffed with the small things of the world that you have no room for the Great? In this session we’ll be exploring the discipline of fasting. Come find out more about why and how to hunger for God.

Time for a Time-Out

Are you busy? Feeling pulled in multiple directions? Or facing difficult issues in life? Find out how to recharge your batteries in order to stay focused and productive. In this session you’ll learn how to plan a personal prayer retreat. Do you want to increase your personal effectiveness? Then come and discover how to take a “Time-Out!” (1.5 hours)

Hands-On Prayer Seminar

Are you interested in ministering to others through prayer? The Hands-On Prayer Model is a useful tool that can be used in many different ministry situations. This method has been used to train prayer teams internationally – in both church and conference settings. With “Hands-On” you will learn to confidently and effectively intercede for other. You will learn the six steps of Hands-On intercession and six basic types of Hands-On prayer. You will learn to listen and respond to the Holy Spirit while praying. Above all, you will have the joy of seeing the power of God at work in people’s lives, bringing them to deeper levels of holiness, freedom, and wholeness. (8 to10 hours of teaching)

General Series

Incredible!

Session One: Incredible Love
Session Two: Incredible Perseverance
Session Three: Incredible Victory

Happily Ever After: Living the Fairy Tale Ending

And they lived happily ever after… That’s how the story is supposed to end, isn’t it? Why then, are women today so disappointed and disillusioned with their lives? Is the hope of that happy ending just a fairy tale? At this conference, we’ll take a look at the fairy tale longings that are buried deep in the heart of every woman and every girl. You’ll discover that dreams really can come true!

Session One: Cinderella – The Prince of Your Dreams
Session Two: Sleeping Beauty – Waking up from Slumber
Session Three: Snow White – Yearning for Love
Session Four: Rapunzel – Always on the Lookout

I’m Gonna Snap! – 10 Stress Busters for Today’s Harried Woman