I get excited about coaching and developing motivated young leaders. This fall it has been fun and exciting to work with a leader that is new to our Fireproof circle. Her name is Amanda. I received a general interest email from her about bringing xxxchurch to Vancouver to work the porn show; she really felt burdened by God for this ministry through prayer, a challenging sermon from her pastor and by seeing what we do online. As far as emails go, we get a lot of them that express interest in ’serving in ministry’ with us in their community by way of either in strip clubs or in the porn conventions when they come to town. VERY often, people have no perspective based in reality about what kind of work and finances are involved in doing ministry in the areas where we operate. In fact, I have a standard reply email that quickly invites people into leading and outlines the ‘costs’ of leadership and doing the ministry. Simply put, we can not continue to expand into every city and every opportunity without local leaders and participation. It would be fair to say that 98% of the emails I send out to the ‘very passionate leaders’ who contact us never end up coming back. So I was quite surprised when I received a 2nd email from a young Canadian mother who wanted to do ministry in the Taboo show in Vancouver.
Monthly Archive for October, 2009
Amanda hadn’t flinched by the realities of the endeavor as I first laid them out to her. In fact, I think she had already counted the cost of doing this kind of work and was fully ready in her spirit and in her mind to press on in what she knew God was calling her to do. So through this fall it has been my pleasure to lead her in developing the team and raising the finances needed to share God’s word at the porn show in Vancouver this next week. Amanda has worked hard to communicate the vision and the need for this ministry to her campus pastor, her senior pastor, her congregation, her denomination and any christian in Canada who will listen. She has faced opposition, she has overcome resistance, she has lead in faith and, catch this… she & her husband made a $6000 down payment on her personal credit card before she ever raised a single penny. That is gutsy, and super cool. Her husband and her children are ‘all in’. In fact, all four of them have personally recruited, prayed, promoted and sacrificed for this upcoming ministry opportunity. Her kids are even sporting “Jesus loves porn stars” t-shirts when they go to church.
So this week 3 of us from staff are heading out to Vancouver to train, support, equip and encourage Amanda’s team under the xxxchurch.com umbrella. We will be at the “Jesus loves porn stars” booth handing out 1000’s of bibles, having conversations with people about Christ’s love, forgiveness and life giving relationship inside the Taboo show. At what is incredible and unique about this particular show is that we would not be there without the leadership of a young mom of two, who is eight months pregnant with her third child, that is following God’s call upon her life to be salt and light to the people of Vancouver. How incredible is it when God gets ahold of your leadership?!?!
* Please be praying for her pregnancy; I just learned today that she is very sick.
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