Meet Becca Worl, the 2026 PacNWC Women Ministries Retreat Speaker
Becca Worl, this year’s PacNWC Women Ministries Speaker, shares how she will bring her personal story into exploring the retreat theme of Rise Daughter, Faith Has Formed You, Faith has Healed You, Faith Has Spoken. She also shares about what women can expect at the retreat, her ministry context as an associate pastor at Pine Lake Covenant Church, and her passion for developing pathways for women to develop as ministry leaders.
The Women Ministries Retreat Early Bird Registration Deadline is July 22nd.
Register Today to get the lowest price!
Resources from Becca:
Information on the ECC’s Project Deborah
Information on the Four More Women Initiative
Becca’s Recommended Books:
Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes
New this week: Text transcript of the video above:
Erik: Hello everyone. My name is Erik Cave, and I'm the director of NextGen Ministries for the Pacific Northwest Conference. Today I'm joined by my friend Rebecca Rule. She is one of the associate pastors at Pine Lake Covenant Church and the speaker for this year's Women Ministries retreat taking place September 18th through 20th at Cascades Camp and Conference Center. She's going to share all about that in a moment, but first Rebecca, welcome. Take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us about your ministry background and current setting.
Becca: Hi, Erik. Thank you so much. It's nice to meet you all and be here today with you, wherever you are. So yes, my name is Becca and I live in Isiqua with my family. My daughter Annabelle is 19, my son Bradley is 15, and my husband Rob. I have a dog, two cats, and occasionally we have a couple of friendly neighborhood bears. But yeah, I serve in Samish at Pine Lake Covenant. Work especially with kids and with youth. So, my background a little bit, my story is deeply shaped by the church from the very beginning. I was born to Covenant Missionary Parents in the Congo, Africa. And so I grew up as an MK and then later a PK, and you can also say I'm a TCK. So lots of K's going on. But in this I have seen the beauty, the messy, the complexity, and the global nature of the church up close and this really deeply formed me. So I ended up going to Seattle Pacific and degree in theology and biblical studies and later finished my degree at Fuller Seminary. So I've been doing ministry for a couple decades and before Pine Lake, I served as an associate pastor at Cedar Creek and it tenerate preacher and speaker. So that's a little bit about my background.
Erik: Great. Thank you. I am really excited for you and for everyone who gets to participate in this year's women ministry retreat. The theme is Rise, Daughter. Faith has formed you. Faith has healed you. Faith has spoken. So, I'm curious, how do you have you had retreats like this shape you in the past?
Becca: Yeah, thank you. I love retreats. I tell my teammates all the time, retreats, retreats, retreats. It's like the one note I'm constantly playing. And I think it's because they're just so deeply formational and can be significant spiritual milestones and they have been for me. So retreats have shaped me in in powerful ways. In fact, every time I go back to Cascades, it's like a pilgrimage for me each time. Um going back to the place where God had released me in a mighty way of deliverance, healed me, lifted some burdens, filled me fresh with the spirit, renewed me in community and call and like everything. So I would say it's just the most important work that God has done in me is through retreats. So for sure the formation of this retreat, this rise daughter comes from my own story. I know what it is to wrestle with calling, with confidence where with the question of whether or not there is room for my voice in pastoral leadership or even at all, wondering what God's affirmation of women in scripture actually is. And I've suffered a great deal in this area. So, what was so crushing to me is just this constant question of value and worth. And in my healing and in my disciplehip process, again, Jesus has met me with this invitation to me with the words, "Rise daughter." Usually from my knees in a puddle of tears or something, but rise daughter, right? Rise rise out of shame. Rise out of unbelief. Rise out of fear. And then rise into your call, the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given me. you rise into my belovedness in Christ. So I really wanted to to bring this into a fullness of a retreat message for women through these movements of formed, healed, and sent. So we will enter scripture really deeply. So bring your Bibles listening to the voices of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, probably other Marys in the Bible and listen to their voices speak to us and teach us what Jesus thinks of of women. We're also going to listen to women the voices of women on the margins who are not in the center of power in scripture. And these are women that Jesus meets and restores and and trusts to bear witness and leadership. So, oh, also I'm going to lead a seminar that is going to bring us through the entire biblical picture from Genesis to Revelation on God's full affirmation of women in all levels of leadership of the church. So, that means a lot to me and I'm excited about that, too.
Erik: Well, that sounds fantastic. It sounds like people are a lot have a lot to look forward to that you're going to be bringing. What else? What else do they have to look forward to for at this retreat?
Becca: Yeah, I think a meaningful worship for sure. Um, you know, we come from all over the Pacific Northwest Conference. So, you're going to have all kinds of all of our women here and it's just great to be together. There's going to be seminars, some great teaching. If you just need to rest, there's quiet, there's a lake, there's a canoe, there's hiking. Um, but really, we get to look forward to encountering God in a unique and special way when we intentionally carve that space out.
Erik: Why would you say opportunities like the women's retreat are so important?
Becca: Again, in that intentionality, I think that well, a few things. I think I think we're very tired. I'm very tired. Women carry a lot and hold so much together. And it's even costly to to count the cost of going. we have to figure out how to be away for a weekend. And um and in that it's like this costbenefit analysis, right? But the benefit, the value like rises so far to the top to be able to set everything aside and just place oursel under this anticipation of God's going to meet me here. God's going to restore me. God's going to speak to me. I'm going to I'm going to be first a daughter of the king, a daughter of to Jesus before I am mom, pastor, worker, caregiver. So, we just come away to encounter his spirit. And I just I just will say with confidence in the spirit that when we do that and we come and we anticipate and say, "God, I'm here to meet with you." He will be faithful to meet you and and bring his word to your heart. So, I think that's really important for us and it's also really important as we're in community together because we get to hear and see what God is doing in other people. We get to hear, you know, we get to hear the spirit's work here and in that church and that church and this person and we get inspired and encouraged and sometimes we'll have ideas from this place that we never even thought of before. And I all those divine appointments, right, that those just happen that God has something for each of us through that. It's pretty amazing.
Erik: Excellent. So you know we share a passion to see clear pathways for women to develop leadership roles in the church. And so I would ask I want to ask you like what do you see other than encouraging women to attend this retreat? How would you recommend churches and leaders in our churches to develop these clear pathways for women in leadership?
Becca: Thank you. I think there are many ways. I'm just going to I'm going to focus on two that I thought of with this question. The first one is two covenant initiatives actually and the first one is called the Deborah project and the Deborah project was launched maybe 12 years ago and it's a really simple and powerful question to lodge in our hearts and spirits is the question to ask oursel is who is the Deborah in our ministry area and Deborah was a prophet but also a spiritual military and political leader in Israel.
So this is the question is asking ourel who are the women where are the women here with leadership gifts with a anointing of spirit with a walk with Christ that needs to be noticed developed and discipled and released. So I'm actually a product of that which is why I think it's so cool because about I think it was like a dozen years ago my pastor at Cedar Creek came back from the midwinter conference and had learned this initiative and it lodged in his spirit. Right. And so he saw me and he he started calling me a Deborah. And from that the church leadership team just launched me into opportunities to grow and to preach and teach and lead and that changed the trajectory of my life. So awesome. Yeah. And then the other one is four more. Um I can't remember who started this initiative but it's simple and genius. It is simply asking churches and and staff and leaders to invite at least four more women to preach each year than they had before. And so you've got your goal, right? It's very intentional. I'm going to look for them. I'm going to ask for four. I'm going to raise up these four with the and there's more around the Deborah Project that we can put a link into that people can see. But I'm gonna find the Deborah and I'm gonna call them. So because of for more pastors called me to come and preach and to pulpit fill or whatever and that also just gave me more opportunities and growth and learning to do it and as well as many other gifted clergy women in the covenant. So I think those are some very you know just easy but powerful develop you know ways to develop pathways for women leaders in your church. Maybe we can link those or something Eric. Yeah, we will. We'll put those. We'll put a link to the retreat. Perfect. Perfect. And whatever else you like at the same.
Erik: Thank you, Becca. I'm excited for the retreat. I hope that folks will sign up and we pray and everybody for the trip. Thanks. Thanks for sharing today. Really appreciate it.
Becca: Absolutely. I'm so excited. Thanks, Erik. All right. See you later.
