Martha Lawley
Martha grew up in beautiful northern Wyoming where she enjoyed the many benefits of living in a small farming community. Having three brothers, she quickly learned the advantages of being the only girl. Martha accepted Christ as her personal savior and was baptized at the age of 9. Only upon becoming an adult did she truly appreciate the great blessings of growing up in a Christian home.
After receiving a degree in Political Science from University of Wyoming, Martha moved to Waco, Texas to attend Baylor University School of Law, where she graduated with honors. Upon passing the Texas bar exam, Martha began her legal career in Houston specializing in business litigation. While in Houston she met and married the love of her life, Roger Lawley. Martha continued to actively practice law until 1994, when God called her family to Utah. For the next five years she was blessed to be a fulltime wife and mother as well as serving in her home church. In late 1999, God called Martha to be the Women’s Consultant for the Utah-Idaho Baptist Convention where she served until her family relocated to northern Wyoming.
Some of Martha’s most cherished childhood memories involve church – hearing Bible stories in Sunday school, enjoying church-wide fellowships and playing “Red Rover” at VBS. Her family was in church every time the doors were open and severe illness was the only acceptable excuse for not attending. Considering all that time Martha spent in church, you might think she figured out what “church” is all about. But, as time passed, she realized how little she really understood about church as described in the Bible. For years she defined church based on her experiences rather than what God’s Word says about it. As an adult, she found herself becoming frustrated and disillusioned, with church. God used Martha’s disappointment to motivate her to see what the Bible had to say about church. The more she learned about church from God’s Word, the more she understood its importance and the vital significance of each believer’s involvement. God continues to use these profound truths to change Martha’s attitudes and actions.
During this spiritual journey, Martha discovered that the image Scripture provides of Christ as the bridegroom and the church as the bride of Christ is rich with vital spiritual lessons. A greater understanding of this God-given pattern of the relationship between Christ and the church has radically changed her life. The insights she gained during her personal journey to understand the church and what God really wanted from her form the basis of her Bible study, Attending the Bride of Christ: Preparing for His Return.
Martha has been blessed with many opportunities to lead women’s conferences and retreats nationwide. God has graciously given her the gift of teaching and a passion to see lives continually changed through the power of God. Her humble, straightforward manner challenges women to go further with God. Her holistic approach to ministry emphasizes the importance of cooperating fully with God in all areas of spiritual transformation. She encourages women to wholeheartedly pursue the core spiritual disciplines of Bible study, prayer, worship, using spiritual gifts in service, and personal evangelism / missions involvement. Martha’s greatest desire is to provoke women to look at things differently – to step outside their usual ways of thinking so they may see things from God’s perspective and allow Him to reorder their lives accordingly.
Martha is the author of Attending the Bride of Christ: Preparing for His Return, a women’s Bible study originally published in November 2005 and republished in February 2015. She is a contributing author to several women’s leadership books including, Women Reaching Women: Beginning and Building a Growing Women’s Enrichment Ministry (revised edition), and Transformed Lives: Taking Women’s Ministry to the Next Level. She has also written numerous articles for LifeWay Church Resources Women’s Ministry web page and serves as a Women’s Ministry Multiplier for LifeWay.
Martha and Roger have three wonderful children, Amber, Katie and Taylor, as well as two fantastic sons-in-law, Keith and Nathan, one amazing daughter-in-law, Cayley and four precious grandchildren, Jared, Katelyn, David and Macie! She loves to read and is hopelessly addicted to following the latest news developments online and reading conservative political blogs. Roger and Martha enjoy getting away to the Big Horn Mountains and traveling together. Martha remains devoted to her local church where she and Roger, teach a young adult small group and she also serves as a Bible study leader and women’s ministry team member.
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”Ephesians 3:20 -21