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(in)courage

find yourself among friends

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(in)courage Staff Summer Faves + a Giveaway!

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How to Pray When It’s Hard to Hear God

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What Does Your Mirror Tell You?

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The Risk of Vulnerability

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To the Woman I Didn’t Want to Sit Next to
on the Airplane

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Your Generation Is Needed Here

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Making New Friends in New Places

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Happy Birthday to Two of Our Favorite Books!

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FREE Printable:
Summer Hospitality Bucket List

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How Can We Pray for You?

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How Can We Pray For You?

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Introducing Ten New (in)courage Contributors!

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How Can We Pray For You?

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You’d Never Know It From Looking At Her

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Meet Me in the Middle

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Our Story

Imagine you walk through the door, look around, take it all in, and feel the tensions of the day start to roll off your shoulders in little waves. All these girlfriends, gathered around a table and waving you in with words of welcome. You ask, “How did you find this place?”

We look at each other, smile, pull out a chair and say, “Get comfy — we’ll share the secrets with you.”

DaySpring, the Christian subsidiary of Hallmark Cards, Inc., has always sought to connect people with the heart of God. In 2009, a talented team of individuals decided to extend that vision to an online community of women.

Our name represents DaySpring’s goal of bringing women into deeper community with Christ and with one another. The (in) means that we are in Christ, connected, and in community with each other. From all of this comes true courage.

We felt called to be real, authentic, brave women for the Kingdom and wanted to connect with other women who did as well.

We asked God to build a team to partner with us and He answered that prayer with over twenty amazing women and a behind-the-scenes team that you’ll love getting to know here too.

At its core, (in)courage is a friend that comes alongside you. We aren’t offering a quick fix for your struggles, but rather, a community and the life-giving tools to equip you right in the midst of the chaos. Through blog posts, book clubs, one-of-a-kind products, and sharing encouragement through all our social media channels, our heart is to help every woman build more meaningful relationships and find herself among friends.

(in)courage History

2008: Holley Gerth and Stephanie Bryant dream of a home for the hearts of women online.

2009: Holley & Stephanie introduce (in)courage for the first time at the She Speaks conference. First contributors are invited to write for (in)courage. The first post goes up in August.

2010: Guest posts are featured at incourage.me.

2013: (in)Mercy is launched, and the (in)courage community raises $100,000 in 5 months.

2014: (in)courage products are resources are launched at DaySpring.com.

2014: Nine new contributors are added.

2015: Partnership with LifeWay and B&H Publishing begins.

2018: Ten new contributors are added.

Over the years (in)courage has hosted:

(in) Real Life Online Conference and Meetups: 2012 – 2014, 2017
Derived from the social media acronym “IRL” or “in real life,” (in)RL was one of the first virtual conferences of its kind, combining online learning with real life meet-ups. Instead of asking women to travel to us, we brought all the content to them through webcast videos and local meet-ups. In 2017 we hosted (in) real life: FRIENDED in partnership with LifeWay Women. (in) real life FRIENDED was held live in Nashville and simulcast around the world.

Online Community Groups: 2012 – 2014
We believe friendship can transcend time zones, cultures and blog comment boxes – and out of that the vision for (in)couragers’ community groups was born. For two years, thousands of women came together with like-hearted sisters-in-Christin online communities, where they were encouraged, heard, and supported by new friends around the world.

Book Clubs: 2011 – present
We really, really like words, and firmly believe that a good book and a good friend are two of God’s greatest blessings. You can access all of our past Bloom book studies, find our more recent book clubs and recommended reads — read along at your own pace — and join current book clubs based off of our very own titles!

Current Partnership with LifeWay / B&H Publishing: 2015 – present
We’ve partnered with the wonderful people at B&H to write and produce books, devotionals, Bibles, events and gifts that will help women build meaningful relationships. Our bookshelf currently includes:

It’s a place where you’re always welcome, just the way you are. At (in)courage, our heart is for you to always find yourself in the stories shared by women in all ages and stages of life, living in different areas of the world, who all love Jesus. We celebrate unique voices and experiences at (in)courage: married, single, working full-time in or out of the home, stay-at-home moms, empty nesters, young adults, city dwellers, rural farm gals, and everything in between.

Meet our monthly contributors. These are the women who write regularly for (in)courage. Every day they take turns pulling up a chair to share their stories of what Jesus looks like in their every day, gloriously ordinary, and often messy lives.

Along with our current writers, we deeply value our past contributors. These women, the ones who helped shape this place and spoke to our souls, remain dear to our hearts. You can continue to connect with our former monthly contributors — here are their (in)courage posts and websites:

We’d love to hear from you too! Submit a guest post and share your story with us. And connect with us in other online spaces as well:

Pull up a seat, just as you are. Find yourself among friends.