Events

Living Story offers retreats and workshops to help people learn, live, and love in God’s story of grace.

Watch and see how wonderful a Living Story event can be:

Grow community.

Deepen intimacy with God and others.

Live missionally.

Upcoming Events:

June 29 – July 1:  Meet Elizabeth Turnage at G.A. !  Living Story will be at BOOTH 134, next to John Stott Ministries.

Design Your Event
Structure your event to suit the needs of your group. Living Story offers retreats and workshops on the following topics in a variety of formats.  Please contact us to see how we can assist you in reaching your goals to learn, live, and love in God’s story of grace.

Living Story: Learning, Living, and Loving in God’s Story of Grace

Do you know the story of grace God is writing in you? Learn how you were created and see where your story was broken. Spend time pondering the false gods you’ve used to make life work. And see where rescue and redemption have broken in to your story. As you do so, you will leave freed to live and love in God’s story of grace.

A Woman’s Story: The Gospel Call to Women
Deep questions cry out from a woman’s heart. What does it mean to belong to Christ? Will he meet us in our loneliness? Will he help us with our struggles with sin? What do we do with our broken stories? Does a woman have a place in the kingdom of God? Spend time hearing Bible stories of real women like you. These stories will help you understand better how the gospel meets you in your brokenness and gives you energy and mission to bring beauty to God’s kingdom.

A M.O.M.’s Story: The Amazing Mission of Motherhood
Motherhood has many seasons, and with each comes challenges and stresses. Unanswered questions abound, and we want certainty. Elizabeth invites us to consider how God’s story of grace is being written in our children’s lives AND our lives through trials and triumphs. Live with less certainty and MORE HOPE. Live and love in the amazing mission of motherhood!

The Mysterious Story of Marriage
According to the Apostle Paul, marriage is a mystery, hard to understand and harder to live out. Whether you’ve been married for 5 months, 5 years, 25 years, or 50 years, you probably still have some significant questions about how to live and love in this mysterious story of marriage. You will experience new hope, deep healing, and healthy humor as you recognize the story God is writing in your marriage.

The Story of Sexuality: From Creation to Consummation
Who invented sex? That’s right – God! If the God who created us also created sex, then why does it seem like everyone except Christians can talk about sex? In this one-day conference, we’ll talk about the design of sexuality, how it came to be so broken, and how Christ has redeemed it. We’ll also discuss practical ways to enjoy our sexuality as God designed it. The good news of the gospel tells us that Christ has come to restore all broken things, including our sexuality.

Abuse Recovery Intensive
If you have already begun work in thinking through significant stories of childhood emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse, this healing weekend is for you. Through teaching, reflection, and small group discussion, we will consider ways broken stories have impacted our willingness to risk love as followers of Christ. We will focus on how to grow in grieving and repentance, forgiving and living for the sake of the gospel.

Possible Event Structures subpage of Events
Structure your event to suit the needs of your group. Living Story offers the topics described on the pages inside in the following formats. Please contact us to see how we can assist you in reaching your goals to learn, live, and love in God’s story of grace.

One-day workshop: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Designed for a larger group of anywhere from 50 – 500. Your group might hold one of these as a growth opportunity for church members or as an outreach to the community. Opportunities provided for individual reflection and small group interaction. Four or five talks ranging from 45 – 75 minutes.

Two or Three Day Weekend Retreat Speaker sessions followed by individual reflection interwoven with small group discussion. Discussion questions are supplied.
Friday night – Saturday afternoon: Three sessions.
Friday night – Sunday noon: Four or five sessions.

Two, Three, or Four Day Living Story Intensive
An intensive retreat weekend, usually involving a smaller group of people whose desire is to do some deep work with their stories. The goal is both individual reflection on personal story and community bonding in sharing, engaging with, and praying for one another’s stories. Consultation with groups and individuals provided.

Thursday night – Sunday noon:
Eight-ten sessions. Five-seven individual reflection times and six-eight group interaction times.

Friday night – Sunday noon:
Five-Six sessions. Three-four individual reflection times and four-five group times.

Saturday 9 a.m. – Sunday 4 p.m.
Four group sessions, two-three individual reflection times, three- four small group times

Abuse Recovery Intensive
Schedule same as Four-day Story Intensive, with topics focused on the tragedy and redemption of stories of abuse.

Event Speaker
We are available for addresses or talks as part of a larger conference. Please contact

Other Recent Events:

February 9, Tuesday mornings:  9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., The Mission Anglican Church, Pensacola
Living Story Bible study
Do you want to know how you were made, or why?  Do you want to know more about why things don’t work in your world?  Come for this engaging study that invites you to interact with the Living Story of Scripture and to consider how we can live that story in our daily lives.

Read the following excerpt from the introduction to the guide to find out why you should participate in this exciting study:

Living Story

Scripture calls us to learn and rehearse God’s story of grace and our stories of grace because doing so calls us to live a life of faith, hope, and love:

• Faith means trusting in God for life and hope rather than other gods.

• Hope means believing God is doing brand new things in the midst of wrecked shalom.

• Love is living and telling our story to a broken world sorely in need of a life-transforming story.

We need to learn God’s story of grace in order to live it.   Learning doesn’t mean simply studying hard or knocking material into our minds; rather it means knowing.  In the Hebrew language, knowing meant a deep connection involving heart and mind.  To know God is to be intimately connected with Him.  As we consider both the big Story God has written in Scripture and the particular stories he is writing in our lives, we come to know God more deeply and love him more fully.

The Guide

The goal of this Bible study is to bring the transforming power of the gospel to bear on your life.   As you interact with this material, I hope that you will experience the freedom to live in God’s story of grace with deeper faith, greater hope, and more passionate love. The format takes you into the grand narrative of Scripture, your story, and other’s stories, giving you opportunities to pray and live what you are studying:

ENGAGING SCRIPTURE: Focuses on a passage or story from Scripture, with questions for insight, reflection, and discussion.

ENTERING YOUR STORY: Takes the passage and shifts the focus to what God is writing in your story.  Here you will be given opportunities to write and tell parts of your story or an entire story.

LIVING STORY: Invites you to reflect on how you will live out the gospel in the topic being explored.

PRAYING STORY: Offers an opportunity to write or say prayers regarding the story.

All are welcome — study begins at The Mission Anglican church, 609 Alcaniz St., Pensacola, Fl. Tuesday, February 9 at 9:30 a.m.  Feel free to join us at any point in the study — even if you can’t make all of the sessions, you will benefit from this story study!

March 5- 7:  Synergy Workshop, “Living the Gospel in Uncertain Stories”
Synergy Conferences provide excellent training and fun networking for Christian leaders.  Listen to the title of this year’s conference:  Conflict in the Story:  The Shaping of a Leader’s Soul.  If you are a leader, especially a woman, you won’t want to miss this conference!  I’ll be leading a workshop on how to live in uncertain stories.

April 15- 19, 2010:  Recovering Your Story, A Living Story Intensive Retreat for Women
Are you a woman?  Do you have a story?  Do you know your story?  We women need to know the story of grace God is writing in us.  We’ll spend all of our time and most of our money caring for others, budgeting little for ourselves.  This retreat, in the lovely setting in the gorgeous Gulf Coast, will provide the perfect sanctuary to reflect on the narrative of your life.  Through passionate teaching and compassionate consulting, Elizabeth Turnage will lead you into a deeper understanding of how your story reflects the mission God has given you.