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Ten years ago, I was working out while The View was on. At that time, it was one of the only places where you could hear the viewpoint of women who were different ages and with different opinions. After watching for a few months, I thought how cool it would be to do that for my Christian sisters. Different women, all who loved God, with different experiences and views on faith. I pitched my idea to Gloria Toti. We didn’t know how, but we knew we had to go forward.

It took no more than three days to line up 8 authors who loved God, but had different experiences and views on faith. I googled production schedule and we set a launch date. Prize 31 Blog was born ten years ago today.

Prize 31 has had several different leaders. I was honored to be the first. Authors have moved or have heard God’s calling to a different ministry. New authors were spiritually promoted to step in.

There have been easy years and years where the leader thought “how are we going to pull this off?” Yet, God supplied. The views kept coming. And women in the church kept responding.

Prize 31’s readership is beyond the members of Trinity. I am currently part of a church plant, yet I read Prize 31 for encouragement and perspective. I have friends all over the country doing the same. I’ve nodded in agreement, cried in compassion and laughed until my belly hurt. It’s been a fun 10 years.

To be honest, I have found myself really disagreeing with an author. I thought her stance on things would cause harm and division. I worried she was hurting and not helping. I actually had a lot of thoughts and wouldn’t you know, God called me to study the scripture. I can’t say I still agree with her view, but it has been a sweet journey to dive into God’s view. And I respect her viewpoint.

And that was the purpose all along. Agree or disagree, but bring women into the conversation. Challenge them through brave women who share with boldness and honesty to seek God’s view.

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Jennifer Riley is the Director of Women’s Health Initiative at the YWCA of Lubbock and is an adjust professor at the Texas Tech Rawls College of Business. She has been married to Chris for 15 years (the met and got engaged at Trinity) and is mom to Micah, 12, and Bella, 9. Jennifer is launching a young professionals cooking club for City Church January.