Beware of the "IF Gathering" for Women

Update: I included some incorrect info when I first published this post, and a pastor who supports the IF Gathering and approves its annual presentation at his church, corrected me. Those corrections are explained under the info about Jen Hatmaker. I ask you to forgive me for sloppy scholarship. It is my desire to present things accurately.

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The more I've been researching the speakers at past and present IF Gatherings, the greater my concern. I believe it introduces women to a subtle form of deception during a time when deception in the church is becoming a major problem. 

When it comes to professing Christians, the most dangerous false teachers are not those who are obvious. Most Christians recognize and avoid such people. 

The greatest enemies we face are those teachers who mix a little bit of error with truth. Accurately sharing a Scripture along with a lie is always more effective than simply sharing the lie. And if the truth can be watered down a bit, that's even more effective. 

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Matthew 7:15

The IF Gathering is a yearly presentation that is taped or live-streamed to women’s ministries across the globe. Jennie Allen, the woman who started the ministry, holds some solid biblical views, but she also promotes the enneagram, a New Age tool. (See Author Jennie Allen on Toxic Thoughts and the Enneagram and The Enneagram: Cross Examined.) While she chooses some good speakers for the IF Gathering, she also chooses some who teach a mixture of error and truth. And she usually includes some female pastors. See Seeking Scripture in Addressing Role Differences in the Church. 

WOKE or CRT Philosophy Promoted at IF Gatherings

Mike Kelsey: I don't believe Kelsey has spoken at an actual IF Gathering, but Jennie Allen features him on the IF Gathering site (example). She clearly admires Christians who teach WOKE or Critical Race Theory. In one of her online interviews she did with Mike Kelsey, Lead Pastor at McLean Bible Church in the D.C. area, she said, “Today you'll get to learn from Mike Kelsey - he is probably one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met. He is a godly man who is humble and determined to follow God with his life.”  

During the interview, Kelsey addressed the situation with George Floyd and said, “To be totally honest, it's difficult for me sometimes not to just torch all white people, specifically white evangelicals and Christians.” He went on to explain that he knew his attitude wasn’t right, but his talk was a mixture of good biblical beliefs, misused Bible passages, and non-biblical WOKE philosophy. Sometimes it seemed he was saying contradictory things. I believe this was because WOKE beliefs can't be supported in Scripture. When news got out about this interview, Kelsey publicly apologized to his church. But I want you to imagine what would have happened if a well-known white pastor said he knows it's wrong but sometimes he’d like to torch all black people, especially black Christians. 

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Latasha Morrison, a featured speaker at several IF Gatherings, also promotes a “Christian” form of critical race theory or WOKE philosophy. She teaches communal and ancestral guilt and urges voluntary reparations for the past sins of our ancestors (source). These views mirror culture and often lead to anti-white racism.  (Kelsey also believes in reparations - source).

Ironically, while some whites enslaved blacks in the U.S., some whites fought valiantly for their freedom, but CRT makes no distinction. 

Morrison has a Facebook group called Be the Bridge, and if you join, you must “maintain a profile pic or avatar” that reflects your ethnicity. 

Whites are given rules for engaging with POC [people of color], such as:

✔ “Provide space for POCs to wail, cuss, or even yell at you. Jesus didn’t hold back when he saw hypocrisy and oppression; POCs shouldn’t have to either.”   

This makes me genuinely sad to compare anything Christ did to wailing and cussing. And Scripture definitely condemns this type of communication: Colossians 4:6; Ephesians 4:29; 1 Peter 3:15; James 3:17, etc.

✔ “Remain cognizant of the dynamics of white fragility [defensiveness], and take note of how it usually shows up in you.” 

This is a negative judgment based on race, i.e., it's racism. It's no different than lumping all black people into a negative stereotype. 

John 7:24: “Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

Their “Group Rules from Admins” include:

✔ “5. Unity and Uniformity 

Unity is not the same as uniformity.​ Please allow people of color in particular to express their feelings without judgment or correction. Keep your focus on listening, understanding, and empathizing with others.”

This is favoritism based on color. Instead of helping Christians understand we are all on equal footing in Christ (Galatians 3:28), it creates an inequality based strictly on skin color. 

I hate racism, and I have spoken out against it prior to the popularity of CRT, but I believe I have approached it biblically. See Slavery is a Black and White Issue.

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“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.” Romans 16:17

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Feminist Views Promoted at the IF Gathering

Brandon Cormier, a speaker at IF 2025, promotes female leadership in his church. In the video sermon Asking for a Friend, Cormier says he completely trusts God’s Word, but he says it’s irresponsible to base our views on women pastors on only two verses in the New Testament. He claims that feminism, abortion, and people leaving the church are results of Christian churches refusing to have women pastors, and he calls those who disagree “little chauvinistic people.” 

At minute 32:43 of this video, Cormier says, “Then comes a movement called feminism saying God hates you. Christianity is not for you. Let's make our own thing. My body, my choice. All of these different things because the church failed to validate and affirm and give women a seat of authority. Some of you have been under religious spirits for so long, it's hard for you to even say amen, but we'll say amen for you because that will not be in this house because not only do we want women to lead, we actually need the voice of women in the body of Christ. So all my little chauvinistic people, just repent.”

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Sarah Bessey: Early in the history of the IF Gathering, Jennie Allen was choosing speakers who challenged traditional biblical views. Sarah Bessey spoke at the 2014 IF Gathering after publishing her book Jesus Feminist in 2013. Her book challenged many of the evangelical teachings about women. At a later date, Bessey went on to affirm LGBTQ lifestyles. This is a normal progression for people who call themselves progressive Christians or Ex-vangelicals (See Beware of Ex-vangelical Teachings). 

In one of her blog posts, Bessey explained that the Syro-Phoenician woman in Matthew 15:21-28 taught Jesus a lesson, making her the hero in the story, not Jesus:

“I’ve thought of the Syro-Phoenician woman often since that first reading. It made me mad at Jesus the first time I encountered it but now I find it amazing and instructive, even convicting for us in the Church now: perhaps Jesus learned from this moment. A woman taught him and he responded. … Jesus isn’t the hero in that story even though he ultimately heals the child. Rather, the woman is the hero because she was persistent, she was unrelenting, she was clever, she turned insults into entreaties, she prevailed. She’s also an outsider who showed the insiders how it should be done in the Kingdom of God.” (source)

Read why this view should seriously concern us in A Serious Feminist Error.

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Rick Warren is also a featured speaker at IF this year (2025). More than a decade ago, Warren participated in an exchange with Muslim leaders and signed a statement affirming fellowship and mutual goals between the Muslims and Christians: Rick Warren, Emergents, and Muslims;  PDF of document Warren signed. If you are not familiar with the beliefs of Islam, I encourage you to read Remembering the spirit behind 911, and I encourage you to do further study on the teachings of Islam to understand that we could never have true religious fellowship with Muslims, nor should we seek to do so. 

Warren has also been caught lying in regard to his views about gay marriage: Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Pragmatic Deception. 

Most recently, Warren changed his views on women pastors using a false method of scholarship which lets culture define Scripture instead of letting Scripture define culture. See A Well-Known Pastor Changes His View or Rick Warren shares 3 Bible passages that changed his mind on women pastors. 

And it's interesting that the IF Gathering teachers almost always include a few women pastors. 

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WOKE  Pastor Caught Lying to His Congregation

David Platt, a speaker at the IF Gathering in 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025. If you want to understand the concerns with Platt, I encourage you to watch “The Real David Platt Documentary,” Part 1 and Part 2. It highlights his dishonesty, misuse of funds, and misuse of Matthew 18 to silence people who asked for an accounting of church funds. Since he became the head pastor at McLean, attendance in the mega-church has dropped 34%. He has brought “no trespassing” charges against members who asked for proof of funding, refusing them entry to membership meetings. And when two members took the “no trespassing” charge to court, Platt lost.

See also:

David Platt is harming McLean Bible Church with Woke Social Justice Theology, 6/21

The Six Lies of David Platt, 7/21

LIAR: Discovery shows Pastor David Platt lied to McLean Bible Church, 12/23

Understanding the David Platt Story, 10/24

Most recently, as an element of his WOKE beliefs, Platt turned the job of head pastor over to the African American Mike Kelsey who Jennie Allen deeply respects, as explained above.

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Jen Hatmaker, Ex-vangelical, Gay Pride Activist

When I first published this post, I had errors in some of my information. It was completely unintentional, but I apologize. The specific example brought to my attention was my statement that Jen Hatmaker had spoken at the IF Gathering in 2016 and 2018 after she came out in favor of LGBTQ relationships. She actually only spoke at IF in 2016, not 2018. 

She spoke at IF in February and came out in favor of LGBTQ lifestyles in April (Christianity Today). And Lifeway Christian publisher officially quit selling her books in October 2016 (Christianity Today). 

Afterwards, Jennie Allen got complaints about Hatmaker's beliefs and her previous role at the IF Gathering. Jennie Allen wrote a reply explaining that it was extremely difficult to address the questions:

“This is not about some ‘Christian celebrity’ out there, this is my friend whom I have logged a lot of life with—including hours over the past many months about this very topic. While we disagree on this important issue, Jen and I love each other and agree on so many things. Jen speaking at IF Gathering isn’t even on the table, because she took herself out of IF many months ago for reasons that are her own.” (This article was reprinted in Church Leaders in 2020. It first appeared on Allen's website in 2016 but has since been removed. Allen said she was responding to Hatmaker's approval of gay marriage expressed in an article published on 10/2016.)

I don't have access to Hatmaker's talk at IF 2016, and I'm not assuming that she spoke on gay issues, but her presence and affirmation by the IF Gathering most certainly caused some women to buy her books and follow her blog. 

To read more on Hatmaker's views, see Making Faith Culturally Acceptable and Wilderness Wanderers. 

Conclusion

Many modern Christians are creating new areas of what they call secondary issues. When the Bible was more respected in our churches, secondary issues included differences that were not clearly addressed in Scripture—things such as methods of baptism, communion, church leadership, spiritual gifts, and different interpretations of God's sovereignty (i.e. Calvinism and non-Calvinist beliefs). 

Now, many Christians see no problem partnering with people who take Scripture out of context and “update” it to fit culture (e.g., feminism, women's roles, sexual sins, etc.). Things once considered false teachings are now considered secondary issues by many Christians, a sign that we are letting down our guard. 

When a person teaches things which deny or contradict biblical principles, we're called to expose their false doctrines (Ephesians 5:11). We cannot mix human philosophies with biblical truth and expect to grow spiritually (Colossians 2:8). This doesn't mean we mistreat those who hold these beliefs, but neither do we invite them to teach.

There are good solid Bible teachers and good ministry materials available through other sources. I encourage you to find other resources than the IF Gathering.