Jackie Hill Perry explains the purpose of Glory 2023. Screenshot from YouTube / @Lifeway Women
As part of a recent Glory Event, Jackie Hill Perry posted a short video calling out older women and pleading for them to speak into the lives of younger women.
“You. You got all this wisdom. All this life experience and Scripture. And yet, you sit and be silent,” Perry challenges.
Jackie Hill Perry Calls on ‘Older Women’
The Facebook video summarizes Jackie Hill Perry’s words: “Older Saints, older women, we need you. We need your wisdom. We need your experience. We need your nurture. Your direction. We need YOU. So take my challenge as a plea… for you to stand in the call of Titus 2:3-5.” That passage says:
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Perry‘s short, one-minute video includes “a challenge to the older women in the room.” She calls out older women and their biblical responsibility to the younger women in their lives. Perry continues, “Because, some of the younger women are where they are because you haven’t stepped up.”
“And, I know some of it is the enemy,” she explains. “The enemy is telling you that you are not sufficient for the work that God has called you to.”
Perry understands that not all women are comfortable speaking into one another’s lives, and she addresses this directly. Instead of thinking you “gotta be cool or you gotta be relatable,” speak the truth in love. She says, “We don’t want you to be relatable because you can’t be. We want you to be righteous. We want you to be reverent. That’s all. That’s the only expectation we have of you.”
Young and Older Women React to Perry’s Plea
With thousands of reactions and hundreds of comments, Jackie Hill Perry’s video is creating quite a stir among believers. Comments include affirmations, defensiveness, and genuine conviction.
“We are here,” says one person. But the younger ones are not listening. They have their own agenda. They are on a ‘false hurrah!’. I’m seeing it everywhere. I’m 67. I’ve been in ministry for 30 years. However, I continue to pray and lift it all to the THRONE ROOM.”
“I think a lot of us don’t quite realize yet that we’re older,” says another. “I also think we never had anybody invest in us when we were young, so we’re not quite sure how to step into that role ourselves. The church has been failing in this area for a long time.”
“O, wow!” says one follower. “That’s exactly what I was talking about today with another older sister. That we’ve got to step up our game. Thank you for the confirmation, Jackie Hill Perry! Keep telling it like it is, woman of God!!!”
Another says, “I would LOVE an older Christian woman to come alongside me & mentor me. I’ve prayed for it, even asked specific women for it and been turned down. I decided the Holy Spirit will have to suffice until someone says yes”
“Amen, for the older Women of God in comments, please don’t give up,” says yet another. “I understand that as one may have rejected you but there are some still praying for you to show up. Don’t grow bitter or cold in your compassion, and on behalf of the ones too ignorant to understand – I apologize wholeheartedly and seek your forgiveness. They may not come back more but trust me they won’t ever forget that you warned them. I used to have a hard head myself. I love all of y’all and I thank God for you.”
