Glory Event Dallas Recap

ICYMI: We kicked off our fall event season in a big way in Dallas, Texas! That’s right, our newest event, Glory with Jackie Hill Perry, is here, and we are so excited to share a little about how it went.

First, our team was excited to pack our bags and board our flight to see all our friends in Dallas. We’ve anticipated our first Glory event for SO long that we could hardly contain our excitement to see it all come together and celebrate the glory of God!

By Friday afternoon the stage was set, the Lifeway store was stocked with event T-shirts, new books, and Bible studies, the band was warming up, and Jackie was ready to hit us with the Word! At 5:30 p.m., the event doors were officially open, and everyone began finding their seats. Meanwhile, Jackie, Jordan Welch, the band, and our team gathered backstage to pray. As we prayed, we invited the Lord into the space and trusted Him to do His great work through this event.

At 7 p.m., the lights began to dim and the excitement began to build as Jordan Welch alongside a full band and incredible vocalists launched us into worship with “That Great Name” and “Lord, I Love You.” Together we worshiped, lifted our voices high, and sang our praise to the King of kings.

As Jackie took the stage to speak, she welcomed us all to Glory and shared her heart behind creating this event: to help us learn more about God than ourselves and leave with a better understanding of who God is. 

“The Bible has a whole lot to tell us about God. That He is Creator, King, Sovereign, Lord, and God, but if there is one thing that we need to know it is that God is holy. Because if that doesn’t come into your mind when you think about God, it should.”

– Jackie Hill Perry

For the next 45 minutes, Jackie taught from the Book of Isaiah and focused on the holy God. 

We wrapped up night one with worship and prayer and left fully anticipating Saturday morning.

Bright and early Saturday morning we returned to Concord Church and event doors opened promptly at 7:30. Our hearts were full of anticipation as we prepared to dive back into the Word and celebrate God’s glory together.

We kicked session two off with a great morning of worship with Jordan alongside over 1,500 sisters in Christ. 

Jackie didn’t waste a moment as she dove into Session Two focusing on our idols and the unholy gods we worship in our lives. Centered on Exodus 32, she spoke about idolatry and called us to allow God to deliver us from our idols.

“It is futile to place your hope in anything that will inevitably leave you and forsake you. But with God, it doesn’t matter where you are—you can land on Pluto and God will be there.”

– Jackie Hill Perry

Following Session Two, we took a midmorning break to snap pictures with our friends and do some shopping in the Lifeway event store. Once we had our Glory sweatshirts and our copy of Jackie’s new book, Holier Than Thou, we were ready to return to our seats for something extra fun. 

Now, we don’t want to spoil all the fun that will take place at Glory this year, but we will tell you: YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE LATE FOR CHOIR PRACTICE WITH JORDAN WELCH. 

That’s all we’ll say—prepare to be blessed in a big way!

As we prepared to wrap up the event, we knew Jackie wasn’t about to tap the breaks. During Session Three Jackie walked us through what it means for us to behold God’s glory, encouraging us to check our motivation for our pursuit of holiness and find a genuine love for God. 

“But notice that if my pursuit of holiness is motivated by fear or shame it means that neither are actually motivated by love for God.  Could it be that that is the reason people are falling away from the faith like flies, because they were pursuing something they never wanted or had vision for? Trying to live righteous without a genuine love for a righteous God is exhausting. So I think it’s beneficial for us to see how holiness is not merely about what we stop doing but who we start looking at. Beholding, we become.”

– Jackie Hill Perry

As we wrapped up the final session with Jackie and Jordan, we prepared to leave with the call to love God fully and allow God’s glory to fill even the darkest corner of our heart.

We departed Dallas with full hearts and lots of anticipation for our future Glory events! I would like to personally invite you to join me at a #GloryEvent2021 this year. We’ll be heading to Nashville, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta later this year, and we’ll be announcing our 2022 event cities on September 14. (Mark your calendar!) Visit lifeway.com/glory to reserve your ticket for Glory this year.