Jennie Allen Message Review | Is it All About Our Thoughts?

Jennie Allen’s Conference Vision and the Review’s Purpose

I see across the earth, across every different country, from all different backgrounds, all different ages, that we would, for two days, come together and ignore our feeds, ignore all the noise, ignore the chaos inside of us, and listen to the Word of God taught.

Here, open your Bibles to Romans 8. It won't surprise you. Guess what I'm gonna talk about. Set your mind. If you're familiar with the passage in Romans 8, this is a huge theme. It is this idea that you come to this point where it's like, you know what?

At the end of the day, we have a choice. If 2020, we are going to focus completely, entirely, solely on the person of Jesus. Every parenting. I want kids. I don't want kids anymore. Give me another one.

Every talk is going to be about Jesus. The theme of If Gathering 2020 is Jesus. What would or does a free, sold-out Christian who is setting their mind on the Spirit,.

What do they look like? Like, just say the words.

Let's go.

Because we're gonna preach the name of Jesus.

We're gonna preach the name of Jesus. It's the only name we care about.

It's the only name that changes lives. The only hope we have to give. I wanna be setting my mind over here and hitting it every single time. But for some reason, it feels like most of the church isn't.

It is what we're going to put all of our hope, all of our stock in, because we know He is the only hope. We know there is nothing that can solve the chaos of this world and the chaos inside of us except for Him.

He is going to be the thing we focus all of our attention on in If 2020. Let's start with your thoughts. Each of you have 9 ,000 to 60 ,000 thoughts in a day. 9 ,000 to 60 ,000 thoughts. My husband swears I have 150 ,000.

Because we believe there's gonna be people that meet Jesus for the very first time. We believe there's gonna be people that have been far away from God and the church, and they're gonna come back. We believe there are people that love Jesus, but they don't know what it means to live for Him.

And we're gonna talk about all of that. Evil never wants you to notice it. So what a powerful plan. Get us alone in the dark and tell us whatever the hell He wants. My dream, guys, I don't dream small, I only dream big.

And my dream is to disciple a whole generation. And that takes all of us working together. We give you the tools, you all take them and use them in your places. We cannot wait to see what God's going to do.

Do not miss, if 2020 will be the best one yet. See, the reason I wanted to demonstrate this to you, I wanted to show you what we're up against is because I think, we think, our thoughts are no big deal.

And what you will leave with, I believe, is more of Jesus.

The Battle Over the Sufficiency of Scripture

We have lost our confidence in the authority, the sufficiency, and the power of the Word of God. The battle today is over the sufficiency of Scripture. Whether or not Scripture is everything we need, or whether we need something more.

Today, that's where the battle is being waged. And unfortunately, the church is losing that battle because we have a widespread, amongst evangelicalism, a desire to have more outside of Scripture. And we have lost our confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture to do everything that we need it to do, and our confidence in the power of the Bible to do everything that it is promised to do.

So even amongst Bible-believing, fundamentalist, Baptist, Bible-belt churches that have, in their statements, high statements regarding Scripture, like we believe in inerrancy, and authority, and the sufficiency of Scripture, and that it is God's Word for us today.

Even in those circles, you get a lack of belief in the sufficiency of Scripture. And I'll give you a couple examples of that. The way in which the Word of God takes a backseat in the worship service, the preaching, the ministry, and the life of most churches in our land.

The Word of God is put on the back burner, the back shelf. Now, this happens not because there is a group of leaders within the church who all meet in a dark room, around a table in their dark robes, wringing their hands, offering blood sacrifices to Satan, and wondering how can we hide the Word of God from our people, that's not what goes on.

Instead, it becomes a practical denial of the centrality of Scripture in the preaching, and in the teaching, and in the life of the church, in just the way things are done. They don't read long passages of Scripture up in front of everybody, because that just doesn't set well with congregations that really want to be entertained.

And so it's not that they don't quote Scripture, it's they do, it's just that they don't spend as much time exegeting Scripture and explaining Scripture as they do explain in the context of the movie clip they're about to play, or the music video they're about to play, or a song lyric, or a life lesson from the life of the pastor, or something, anything other than Scripture.

It's that the Word of God just doesn't take center stage in all that it has done. And so though they would say, they would affirm the orthodoxy of a belief in the inspiration of Scripture, and it's an errance in its centrality, and they say, it is the Word of God.

But then to live that out in the life of what is done inside the church on a Sunday morning, Scripture is remarkably absent. It's just not there because they have a confidence in almost anything other than Scripture.

Thoroughly Equipped’s Mission and the 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Standard

Welcome to the Thoroughly Equipped podcast, where we compare the teachings from popular women's ministry, books, conferences, Bible studies, et cetera, to Scripture. Our focus is 2 Timothy 3, 16 to 17, that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so the man or woman of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I'm your host, Melba Toast. May this episode bless you and bring glory to God. Hey ladies, welcome to another episode of Thoroughly Equipped. If you are new to this channel, well, welcome. So we have been diving into the If Gathering, which is a very popular women's ministry, and we are going through a series here looking at the teachers, discerning what they teach, and diving into especially the way they handle Scripture in these next coming episodes.

In the first episode, we compared Jenny Allen's goal in discipleship to Scripture's goal for discipleship to see if they desire the same thing for women. The If Gathering states that their goal is to reclaim discipleship as God's means to change the world, while Scripture states the goal of discipleship is to baptize people of all nationalities in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that Christ commands.

Different goals will use different tools and produce different outcomes. Now in this part of the series, I am presenting to you the popular teachers that present at the conference, their ministries, and how they handle Scripture at the conference.

And the If 2020 conference was a great way to assess this as Jenny Allen had each presenter teach on a portion of Romans chapter eight, claiming the women watching would get more of Jesus. Jada Edwards was the first presenter who was to teach on Romans 8, one through four.

Now these verses are known as some of the most wonderful verses in the Bible. They proclaim our freedom from the condemnation of God's wrath due to us because of our inability to obey God's law. They also succinctly explain what God did to save us from his justified wrath.

And that was to send his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

But what we got from Ms. Edwards was very lacking in my opinion. Sin was mentioned, but it was reduced to being a mess. The word gospel was mentioned, but presented as God pursued us, not a word about repentance and trust in what Jesus did.

We were told that there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus, equating being in Jesus to surrendering fully to Jesus by making him Lord. All of this from a passage of scripture, if handled correctly, would have unburdened so many women captured by sins.

Instead, it presented Jesus as giving no condemnation by trusting that God just fixed our mess. We need only to surrender fully to God, because we need to be made whole. And if God says there's no eternal condemnation, we can be sure that there is no earthly condemnation either.

This was the gospel we were encouraged not to alter by the end of her message. Now today's message was given by Jenny Allen herself on Romans 8, 5 to 8. But before we dive into Ms. Allen's message, I'm going to go over what she claimed was her vision for this year's conference to bring it to our memory.

Jenny Allen’s Vision for IF:Gathering 2020

I want to give you a vision for these two days, because you have braved childcare, tornadoes, snowstorms to get to your houses. You're literally, some of you watching right now are watching from a complete stranger's house.

You know no one. You literally showed up at a stranger's house. This is a miracle. It is a miracle that across the earth right now, over 3 ,000 events are taking place. It's a miracle. It's a miracle that over 600 college students are hosting in their dorm rooms, on their campuses, in homes and apartments.

It's a miracle. And so many people show up at If Gathering and they're like, what is happening? Where are we? And I just, I don't want a single person to miss what it is we're doing here. I don't want anything to distract you.

I don't want to confuse you that this is a show or that we've prepared some entertainment for you. That's not why we're here. I don't think that's why you're here. I don't think you came to be entertained.

I think you came because you are weary. I think you came because you are hungry and thirsty. I think you came because you were like, you know what? I don't know right now about God, but I'm gonna give him these two days and we're gonna see.

Some of you, you are walking in and your marriage is falling apart. And I just want to say it at the very beginning that you are welcome here, that we are so glad you said yes and that you overcame barriers to show up.

I just want you to know, no matter how invisible you feel, no matter how scary this is, no matter how daggum awkward this might be, that you would know that this is a place you're gonna be safe. We're gonna do our best to take care of you.

We are fighting for you because we are at war, people.

It is wild.

And we need Jesus more than we've ever needed him and this world needs Jesus. And as I prayed about 2020, let me tell you, this is what I dreamt. This is what I saw. It wasn't about us. It wasn't about you watching.

It wasn't about you in your seat. It was about the world. And I believe what's gonna happen here in the next two days, it's going to shape eternity. I believe it. And not because we're fancy or special, but because we're gonna preach the name of Jesus.

We're gonna preach the name of Jesus. It's the only name we care about.

It's the only name that changes lives. The only hope we have to give. And those of you that that's news to you and your neighbor tricked you, I'm sorry. But you know what I think? I think you're gonna love him.

I think you're gonna love him. I think you're gonna find out he's so different than what you thought.

He is delightful.

And he is delighted that we're together. He is smiling so big right now that his girls across the earth are coming together for two days to talk about him, to talk to him,.

And to make him known on this earth.

It's my greatest hope.

3 ,000 locations across the globe. Wow, that's a lot of women. A woman of all sorts of backgrounds, women who know Jesus and women who don't know Jesus. Women who are struggling in their lives with trial and tribulations of all shapes and sizes.

Her hope for the conference is that the audience come to know Jesus and go back and proclaim Jesus to the world. And I agree to a certain extent. A women's conference should help equip women with the knowledge of Jesus, who he is, what he's done, what he will do, and the tools he has given to equip women to live by faith in the gospel.

So as I present to you their messages, keep this in mind and observe how much they talk about him and proclaim him. And especially because there are unbelieving women attending this conference, let's assess whether they give the full gospel.

Of course, the 2020 conference is a perfect opportunity to show just how well these women handle scripture. Questions to consider in every episode as we're looking at each of the teachers at the 2020 conference.

Do they draw out from the scripture in context what the Holy Spirit through Paul wishes to teach us? Or do they take certain verses, words, or concepts out of their context so they may interject what they want to teach?

Do they talk more about themselves, their stories, or do they talk about Christ and his work? Do they talk rightly about sin so they can rightly give the gospel? Do they make the gospel more about God's great love for you, his pursuit of you, his plan for you, without first explaining our sinful nature, our state as children of wrath, who have no hope without trusting in the finished work of Christ?

Do they exalt Christ and his work because by it we have no other hope? Or do they treat the gospel as something of the past and now we need motivational, engaging speeches to live as Christians? Do they not only proclaim by words that the scriptures are authoritative without error and sufficient to train us onto righteousness, but act on that belief by teaching from the scriptures, handling it with honor in its context, urging their listeners to look to it to thoroughly equip them for all good works?

Or do they dishonor it and minimize its necessity to equip us by adding their own philosophies, examples, ideas, and opinions? All right, so those are just some questions that I'm gonna continually look and try to answer as we go throughout this series.

So let's start with Jenny Allen, okay? Who is Jenny Allen? Well, Jenny Allen is founder and visionary leader of the If Gathering. After receiving a voice from heaven, giving her the instruction to disciple a generation.

I wanna just for one second give you a little bit behind the scenes of where this all came from. About seven years ago, a voice from the sky doesn't often speak to me, but that day there was this whisper.

It was the middle of the night actually, and it was gather and equip your generation.

Jenny Allen became founder and visionary leader of the If Gathering. Over the years, the If Ministry added more resources and tools besides the conference to become a ministry for women to disciple other women.

She is also a New York Times bestselling author. Her titles include Nothing to Prove, Get Out of Your Head, Find Your People, and her newest release, Untangle Your Emotions. All are labeled as Bible studies.

She has spoken at the Porch Conference. She's spoken at Liberty University's Convocation. She's presented at Dallas Theological Seminary, even been interviewed on TBN's Praise, and is the host of the podcast show titled Made for This.

Allen's current project is what is coming in March 1st, 2025, known as Gather 25, a 25-hour online gathering of the global church. After having a dream, she began to ask this question, well, what if Jesus returns in 10 years?

And from that question, she got the vision for Gather 25. I have some questions and concerns regarding this, what she called the new move of God, and did an episode relaying my concerns, which if you are interested, the link to that episode is in the show notes.

Jenny Allen does not call herself a preacher, but has claimed to preaching at conferences. I have not been able to find anything of her actually preaching to a local church during a Sunday service, other than the convocations and other seminary presentations that she has given.

She does, however, call herself a Bible teacher, one who has gone to seminary. Her latest conference messages have been centered on the idea that our current battle is a battle for the mind and how we can manage our emotions.

She relays how the enemy is set to destroying our thought spirals by bombarding us with lies and how our emotions can be used by God to connect deeper with him, to conquer time in her life, what she describes as a dark time full of lies for the enemy.

She decided to attack lies with psychological research and God's word. If you have not listened to my critique on her Bible study titled, Get Out of Your Head, you should go back and listen to those episodes from season one.

I go through the study highlighting what I thought was good and bad in her study. For this episode, I will mention that while I'm very eager for women to break open their Bible and study it, I am extremely wary of how that study guide handles the text and what, if any, additional philosophy or sciences are brought into the guide to make the scripture more relevant.

In Jenny Allen's case, she included such sciences as positive psychology along with scripture to help you get out of your head, so to speak. This undermines the sufficiency of scripture and Christ as the means to sanctify our thought patterns.

In that critique, I try to show you that the more we study scripture and especially study Christ, the more our thought patterns will be conformed to Him. A Bible study that draws out of the text, and in this case, the study of Philippians, should not only be handling the scripture correctly, but should also draw us closer to Christ.

Jenny Allen, instead of drawing out from the text, infers or puts in the text a more modern psychological idea merging a worldly science with scripture, and this is called syncretism. It's a form of liberalism that has at its foundation the underlying belief that scripture is not authoritative on its own.

We need other authoritative tools, and it's not sufficient and efficacious on its own to sanctify God's people. All right, so let's dive in to her message at the 2020 conference. Jenny Allen had decided to give a message on Romans 8, verses five to eight.

So let's look at that passage before we dive into the message. Let's look at it in context, including verses one to four as well. At the end of chapter seven, Paul is explaining how the spirit wrestles with the flesh, that the law is spiritual, but the flesh is sold under sin.

Therefore, he does not understand his own actions, that in his mind, he is agreeing with the law that it is good, and yet he does not accomplish the law. He has a desire to do what is right, to obey the law, but the evil he does not want to do, he keeps on doing.

He delights in the law of God in his inner being, but he sees in his members another law that wages war against his mind, making him captive to the law of sin that dwells in his members. It is because he delights in God's law and wishes to obey it that he cries out in desperation that he is wretched because he is in need of a righteousness that is not his own so that he may be reconciled to God.

And it is from identifying this need that the gospel rescues us from condemnation. This is where chapter eight is taken off. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

Now here are Jenny Allen's verses. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Okay, clearly in context, Paul's talking about the war between the spirit and the flesh. The inability of the flesh to be able to obey or submit to God's law, or it cannot.

For those who live according to the spirit set their minds on things of the spirit. But what does it mean to set the mind on the flesh? And what does Paul mean by setting the mind on the spirit? That's what I want you to keep in mind because this is what Miss Allen's message is all about.

The question is, does she teach what scripture teaches about what it means for one to set their mind on the flesh versus what it means to set the mind on the spirit? So let's dive in. Right off the bat, she states that her message is about what it means to set the mind and that God gave her an analogy to be used.

Setting the Mind on the Flesh and the Spirit in Romans 8

The guys were like, tell us how you came up with this analogy. I was like, God, he was like, what do you mean? I was like, I wouldn't have thought of this and I wouldn't have done it unless every time I thought to sit down and write about this talk, this is the image he gave me.

So we're gonna go here, open your Bibles to Romans 8. It won't surprise you. Guess what I'm gonna talk about? Set your mind. If you're familiar with the passage in Romans 8, this is a huge theme. It is this idea that you come to this point where it's like, you know what?

At the end of the day, we have a choice. We have a choice how we're gonna live.

So let's read it together.

Let's start with Romans 5. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

She rereads the text up to verse seven and explains that what we set our minds on is what we're going to think about. Now, this is where her analogy comes in and I'll describe it for those listening through the podcast.

On the stage, she has two basketball hoops, one on either side of the stage. She describes that one side, the left side, is setting the mind on the flesh and the other hoop, the right side, is setting our mind on the spirit.

She proceeds to throw the basket at the flesh hoop, listing off certain fleshly things. Listen to what she lists as setting our minds on the flesh.

See, let's take job, for example. Okay. Job, for example. I wanna be good at my job. I want a job. I don't have a job. I don't get paid enough money. Oh, I am good at my job.

I'm actually awesome.

In fact, I'm so good at my job that it brings me so much joy that I love my job. I found a lot of significance in my job. I lose my job. Okay, what's another one? Relationships, let's go with that. Okay, marriage.

I wanna get married. There's no cute boys that are in love with Jesus. I met a mediumly cute boy and he likes Jesus. Thanks, you're doing so good. And he likes Jesus. I marry that boy. I don't wanna be married.

It's way harder than I thought. I'm unhappy. Give me another one. Parenting. I want kids. I don't want kids anymore. Give me another one. Social media. Twitter, they're mean. Instagram, they're pretty.

I'm gonna watch Netflix. I'm gonna watch The Bachelor. There's three seasons of it on Netflix right now. I wanna get married again. And here's the thing, that all feels a little bit harmless. Those are thoughts we think every day or they bump up close to thoughts that we do think regularly about.

But what Romans 8 says is that actually leads to sin and death.

What Romans 8 Means by the Flesh

Now, this is very telling. She claimed that she received this analogy, shooting a basketball into two different hoops, from God, right? Then in implementing her analogy, she goes to the audience to give examples of what it means to pursue the flesh.

Let's think about this. Does God's written word of scripture give us clear teaching on what it means to walk in the flesh? Yes, it does. So why didn't she go to what God had already given to us instead of using some new analogy to receive from the audience what it means to set our minds on the flesh?

Don't you think if God was really involved in her planning, he would have told her to present what he taught from his word instead of to ask the audience? Well, I think so.

Why?

Because the audience gave a completely different answer from what God made clear in scripture. Wanting a job, wanting marriage, wanting children, being involved in social media are the audience's ideas of fleshly desires and things.

Now, social media, I can see, but these others? Now, at one point in my life, at a time when I was steeped in the purpose-driven gospel, these two would have been on my fleshly list. I would have labeled them as worldly and selfish while any service I dedicated to the church and others outside of my home would have been my spiritual service to God.

And in my mind, been of more importance. They were what I believed was helping God bring in his kingdom. Until I learned about a lost doctrine called the doctrine of vocation, in which I learned about the beauty of the law and the role the spirit plays in the disciple in helping one keep the law in our vocations.

For a woman, the role the spirit plays in her calling as a wife, mother, worker from home, sister, daughter, neighbor, and friend. Now, in learning about this, I was brought to Galatians 5, 16 to 21. But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh for those are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherent the kingdom of God. God is clear on what it looks like to walk in the flesh. It is to gratify the desires of the simple heart, the will to place our desires above those of God's word and will.

And God's word is clear on the role and good works of women in their vocation. And scripture is clear that if you desire marriage and children and even desire to have a job to support yourself or your family, these are not fleshly but good.

Our flesh can rear its ugly head in these pursuits, but the word of God equips us to love God and love our neighbor through them. Now, keep this in mind as we will have to tackle the biblical teachings on the flesh more further on in this episode.

She continues with her message.

Let's play this out a little bit deeper. How many of you feel lonely right now? Some way. Well, you're in this room and everybody's cute. I can see you. Raise your hands.

Yeah.

How many of you feel anxious in some way? Depressed? We have a problem. And so Romans 8 says, set your mind on the world and everything in it it's gonna lead to sin and death. And while ultimately that's true, especially for the unbeliever, what's also true is that those of us that know Jesus, we have a choice.

The next verses are gonna go on and say in verse seven and eight, you are the, let me go back to seven and eight, Romans seven and eight. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed it can't. So I can't turn to life and peace if I don't know Jesus. I am stuck there with the world. Whatever it can give me, whatever it can offer me, that's it. I don't have another hope. There's no other storyline.

But then if I have Jesus, then there's another storyline.

So she is right that for the unbeliever, they cannot pursue the things of the spirit. But notice that she slid right past what's said there, that the unbeliever cannot submit to God's law. The unbeliever covets what he does not have, bears false witness, takes what doesn't belong to them, murders, hates, and thinks others are fools compared to themselves.

Lusts for people who are not their spouse, dishonors their parents and others in authority, does not receive the rest of God in Christ Jesus, continually misrepresents God and his word in thought, speech, and deed, creates and worships false gods and or worships themselves.

And in all of this, they cannot know God, so cannot love God with all their heart, strength, and mind. This is how we do not submit to God's law. And this is why we are condemned. Because to commit one of these is to transgress the whole law, James 2, 9 -13.

Okay, so we know what Jenny Allen and the audience's idea of the flesh is. She then proceeds to the opposite side and then asks people to tell her what a person looks like who has set their mind on the spirit.

Check out what they say.

But let's play out this side, team. Life and peace. Let's describe it. What would or does a free, sold out Christian who is setting their mind on the spirit,.

What do they look like? Just say the words, let's go.

Hopeful, joyful, confident, free, peaceful, settled, kind, fearless. Love y 'all's answers. Enough.

Okay, so she has set it up to describe a person who has set their mind on the spirit as looking like one who has peace, hope, confidence, et cetera. And this sounds legit, doesn't it? There is a slight problem and I will go into that in a bit.

But first, let's see where she goes with the analogy. She's throwing the basketball into the net to make the point that someone who sets their mind on the spirit will make the net. And then for those of you listening by podcast, a group of women circle her and block her from making the net.

Here's that clip.

But what I wanna propose is there's more happening here. That it's not just as simple as a choice. Like I'm gonna go over here. There is an all out attack. So I'm trying to shoot, I'm trying to shoot.

But it is literally, good job. It is literally, I can't. Like I want to hit that goal. I want, thanks guys. I wanna be, I wanna be setting my mind over here and hitting it every single time. But for some reason, it feels like most of the church.

Isn't.

We have a problem because the vision God gave me was disciple a whole generation. It's gonna take all of us. So why aren't we free?

Why aren't we free?

The Difference Between Fruit and Law in Romans 8 and Galatians 5

So by her analogy, she's trying to draw out that there are things that keep us from making that net. That if we set our minds to being peaceful, hopeful, confident, we as a church should be accomplishing that.

Now I've laid out what it means to set the mind on the flesh. Is this what Paul means by setting our minds on the spirit? Is it a conflict between good and evil and choosing peace, hope, joy, et cetera, other than worldly things?

No, this is a very subtle twist. Let me explain. All throughout the letter to the Romans, Paul has been describing how all men are under the wrath of God because they do not submit to God's law. He is not saying our problem is that we pursue material things, success, careers, riches, and we only need to pursue peace, love, and joy.