2016 Most Influential Women Honoree: Jennifer Rothschild

“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Jennifer Rothschild embodies this faith described in the book of Hebrews in a special, more literal way. The Christian author and speaker is blind.

Rothschild was diagnosed with a rare, degenerative eye disease at the age of 15.

“I have now lived longer in physical darkness than I ever did in physical light,” she says in her bio.

When retinitis pigmentosa took hold, it dashed her childhood hopes of working as a commercial artist and cartoonist.

After facing that difficulty, new opportunities came to light.

“Blindness is hard, but it’s been a place where God has shown himself to be so kind, strong and faithful,” she adds.

“That’s why I do what I do.”

What she does is write, speak, sing and teach the Bible, particularly addressing women.

It seems there’s nowhere Rothschild won’t go to tell her story and share her message. She’s been featured on “Dr. Phil,” “Today,” “Good Morning America” and The Learning Channel.

Organized as Jennifer Rothschild Ministries, Rothschild has added an event production division called Fresh Grounded Faith.

It is built on 10 years of holding Fresh Grounded Faith conferences for women. During that time, the conference has been held in 80 cities.

She was recognized for these events in May by the Connect Meetings trade publication.

With nine employees, the Jennifer Rothschild Ministries team comprises a mix of full-time professionals and part-time help, such as other moms and interns, as well as hundreds of volunteers in cities across America.

“We are guided by our mission to ‘serve women through Christ-centered, life-transforming content, events and services,’” she says. “Our four cultural values that guide us are relationships, influence, stewardship and excellence. We will – and are continuing to – ‘RISE’ to our mission as an organization.”

Today, the team puts on 13 events for women around the country. In 2017, she’s holding Fresh Grounded Faith’s first conference on a cruise boat, with special guests actor Kirk Cameron and singer Meredith Andrews.

“My team and I have created best practice systems and processes for engaging hundreds of local volunteers when we produce our Fresh Grounded Faith conferences,” she says.

In Springfield, that amounts to over 200 volunteers from as many as 18 partner churches.

The conference, held at Second Baptist Church, usually draws over 2,000 women from roughly 150 churches in eight to 10 states.

As a thought leader for women, she’s published 11 books – most recently “Invisible: How You Feel Is Not Who You Are” by Harvest House Publishers – that have combined sales over a half-million units. Her best seller is “Lessons I Learned in the Dark.”

As a songwriter and recording artist, she has six albums to her credit.

Rothschild gives of her time to speak to area youth at Cherokee and Carver middle schools, as well as Parkview, Hillcrest and New Covenant high schools.

“It’s an honor to help inspire our youth to live beyond limits and think big,” she says.