A Story of Unification—Featuring Ali Gentry and The Arise Movement

PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARTICLE BY SARA FREITAG

Ali Gentry is a speaker and preacher, the founder of The Arise Movement, and an avid adventurist. Her passion is to see people live fully into the gifts and graces God created them with to serve the church and the world. Ali is amongst our earliest alumni, having traveled from her home in Phoenix, AZ to attend the very first Women Speakers Collective bootcamp, which was held in Long Beach in October 2018—and she has generously contributed her wonderful leadership, strong interpersonal skills, and enthusiasm for life to our community ever since. We recently sat down with her to learn a bit more about herself and Arise, which is a Phoenix based movement that connects and unifies women from churches all over the city, country, and beyond.

 “And the Lord told me, ‘Ali, it’s time for my daughters to arise.’”

One morning a few years back, as Ali was driving to church and praying for her city, she had a vision.

In it, she was armed for war. “I had combat boots on, and it was very fierce, but it was very feminine,” she says. “All of a sudden, I started to walk, and when I took one step forward, I felt this movement to my right and to my left, so I looked, and I was flanked by women of all ages, all colors, all looks. Different styles of combat gear. It was crazy, and they were all moving with me.”

 “And the Lord told me, ‘Ali, it’s time for my daughters to arise.’”

Before even seeing this vision, Ali already felt the call to start a gathering of women in her city. She had received confirmations from others, but she had thought to herself, “’Who, me? I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know how to do this, I don’t know the people [or] what it’s going to take.”

Yet, she knew she had a calling on her life, and this vision solidified it. She knew she was called to cultivate unification amongst churches across her city and beyond—by bringing women together of all different ages, denominations, and ethnic backgrounds. By creating an authentic community where women could share and be real with one another—something that she, even as a pastor’s daughter and former Christian school attendee, had never truly experienced as a young girl. So, amidst the fears, insecurities, and lies from the enemy, she felt God reminding her, “I have gifted you and graced you and equipped you.” She knew that she had been given a name and a calling for a reason. And so when she saw the need, she trusted in God and took steps to fill it.

“If the Lord has called us to be one body and to be unified, then we need to put that on display here and now so the world can see what heaven’s going to look like.”

-Ali Gentry

Arise brings women together to worship and read the word, to believe and know their value, and to celebrate the different ways that strength and femininity is uniquely displayed in each woman and girl. Instead of cultivating an atmosphere of competition, Arise creates an invitation for authentic community. “What we get to do is co-create, and we get to bring heaven here on earth together and show what part of the image of God he stamps us with.”

Over the last two and a half years since its beginning, Arise has taken off, and even through a global pandemic, it is continuing to create a culture of unification amongst the body of Christ. And as we all know, our world is in desperate need of this unification.

“At the end of the day, we just have to know that we have a part to play. We have each been uniquely gifted and graced, and he’ll equip you to do the things that he has called you to do. And so, if we trust and know that he is good and that he has created us, then we will take hold of and believe that those gifts and graces are to be used to further his kingdom, and then he’ll equip us to do the things that He’s asked us to do.”

-Ali Gentry

So, as we make our way through Women’s History Month, we encourage you to pursue unification and community with other women wherever and however you can. And we also encourage you to say yes to whatever it is that God has placed on your heart. It may start out small, but that’s ok. It’s the smaller yeses that turn into the bigger yeses. And we all face fears, we all face insecurities, and we all face lies from the enemy. But “we are here on purpose and for a purpose,” Ali reminds us. “At the end of the day, we just have to know that we have a part to play. We have each been uniquely gifted and graced, and he’ll equip you to do the things that he has called you to do. And so, if we trust and know that he is good and that he has created us, then we will take hold of and believe that those gifts and graces are to be used to further his kingdom, and then he’ll equip us to do the things that He’s asked us to do.”