People came to listen, to learn, to be inspired and to be in fellowship with others seeking guidance for dealing with serious life issues.  

        The Ruth Graham & Friends conferences help people get “real help” for major life issues such as divorce, depression, addiction and marital stress. These are issues not often dealt with in a straightforward and open manner within the church. But, as Largo conference participants said, it may be time for the church to deal more forthrightly with helping members of their congregations deal with their real life problems.

Casting Light Into The Darkness

“These are serious issues that many within the church find it awkward to deal with, and so the parishioners in many cases are left to deal with them on their own as best they can,” says Ruth Graham, founder of Ruth Graham & Friends.

“One of our main goals with the Friends ministry is to allow churchgoers an opportunity to begin receiving assistance from within the church – and also to wake up the church itself to the need for more compassionate, Christian-centered programs for helping members of the congregation deal with these issues.”

         People attending the Largo conference certainly responded positively to the Friends outreach efforts. “We are opening the windows that need to be opened,” said Tom, a conference attendee.

        “What I love about this conference is that it’s letting people in the church know this is what we in the church face,” said Holly, another conference participant. “They have to take off the blinders in the church and recognize that people in the church need this kind of thing – God doesn’t want us to turn our backs on these people.”

Conference Delivers More Than Expected

        As is often the case with someone new and untried, some of the participants reported being pleasantly surprised to discover that the conference – and especially the seminars – delivered much more value than they expected. “It has been more than I thought it would be,” said Sheri, a participant. “A lot of what I received today I already knew and it confirmed what I know and was learning.”

        And Jessica, another participant, said, “This was a great program on topics that are basically taboo topics…the speakers were so well connected to the Bible, as it related to their personal situations. I need to do more of that myself.”

Transparency is in fact the hallmark of every Ruth Graham conference and Largo was no exception. Ruth Graham set the tone for the conference Friday night with her stirring straight-from-the-heart talk about her personal experiences in life that led her to form the Ruth Graham & Friends Ministry. Christian recording artist Damaris Carbaugh lent her powerful singing voice to the evening as well. All the weekend speakers were present to introduce their topics including Sara Dormon, Jan Dravecky, Nancy Heche, Lysa TerKeurst, Jacqueline Skog and Steven Wiese.

A More Male-Friendly Agenda

It’s a misnomer to think that the Ruth Graham & Friends conferences are for women only. In Largo, special effort was made to make this clear.  Former Major League Baseball star pitcher Dave Dravecky joined the conference for the first time, speaking on “The Worth of a Man.” In addition, a seminar was specifically geared for men only, called “Faithful and True: Sexual Integrity in a Fallen World,” led by Dr. Mark Laaser. However, the “Faithful and True” seminar proved to be of great interest to women as well, so the “men-only” rule was relaxed to allow for attendance by both sexes.

For most people, the biggest drawback of the conference was not having enough time to attend all the seminars. “I very much enjoyed it, it’s very worthwhile. There’s just not enough time to do it all,” said Holly, a participant.

Is there interest in another conference in the Tampa Bay area? “You’re reaching a crowd that is just so hungry for it,” said Jessica.

“We will certainly be a propagator in the community if it comes back again,” said Tom.

“What is coming into the church (through the Friends conference) is good, because we’ve had to go outside the church for recovery. And a lot of us can’t pay $60 an hour or whatever for therapy,” said Sheri, a conference participant.

Additional Largo story

Distance No Barrier To New Jersey Woman’s
Desire To Attend Ruth Graham’Friends’ Conference

        As the message about the Ruth Graham & Friends ministry spreads, more and more people are drawn to attend the conferences – and some make a very special effort to do so, as New Jersey resident Luz Tintle demonstrated in attending the Friends conference at Calvary Baptist Church of Indian Rocks in Largo, FL. Many months prior to the Largo event, Luz heard Ruth Graham speaking about her ministry on an episode of television’s Your Life Today. She made a note of the Ruth Graham and Friends website (ruthgrahamandfriends.org) and vowed that someday she would attend one of the conferences.

        On a visit to the Friends website, she saw that the Largo conference was taking place during the same week that she would be on a business trip in Orlando, FL. Inspired, she decided to extend her stay in Florida beyond the end of her business engagement to attend the conference. She rented a car in Orlando and drove the 100 miles or so to Largo in time to hear Ruth speak Saturday morning on the scriptural basis for dealing with divorce.

        Luz called her attendance at the conference “timely for me.” She hailed Ruth’s seminar on divorce as being particularly appropriate for her understanding of the issues with her own marital situation. As she said, “Ruth’s talk confirmed some of the things I’m going through and the help that I’m getting from the Lord to do this.”

        As a Christian it’s not easy to be in a divorce situation, she said. “Sometimes when people are getting a divorce, you’re looked at as a second class Christian,” she said. “But this is a time when you need the body of Christ.

        “I don’t want to bring shame on the Lord,” she said, “and yet, it’s what Ruth says, you have to take care of yourself too.”

        One of her key takeaways from Ruth’s talk, she said, was the guidance that “it’s not important what other people think,
it’s what the Lord thinks.”