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.
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For the better part of 6 months or more I have been mulling* over what it takes to meet and have friendships w/ new kinds of people. This processing really began some time after having lunch w/ Ron Jeremy & Craig. I am sure this sounds rather basic or maybe even odd, but to be honest, I am getting bored with having the same kinds of people in my circles of friendship. A better way of saying this perhaps is that most of my friends see the world the same way and I would like to get some more diversity of perspective and conversations. So with that in the forefront of my mind I have been endeavoring to strike up more conversations at random times with people I don’t know and who I did not meet at a place that would assume a unifying background or set of beliefs. I could elaborate more on the types of people I have met, but I don’t think it would make for engaging reading. Except maybe for the group of travelers I met in Sedona last spring while there with Rich & Ernie mountain biking — for that particularly unique evening I lack the creative ability to put the account down in type. Just ask me about it the next time we see each other in person.
This desire coupled with things I have learned from Craig and also experiences gained through StripChurch has begun to form some new ideas for what I plan to do here in Seattle. Rich (Nichol) and I have been batting around what God’s grace really could mean to those most in need of it and just how to go about dispensing that grace without the normal constructs or limitations associated with doing a brand new church launch in a city. What comes next will be rough when I first present it (October-ish) but I do think with some more thought-help and prayer that what we end up doing here in the city of Seattle (and other places as well) will be mostly unique and have a very powerful impact. More to come…
* “who uses that word?” - Jen
Vegas (www.stripchurch.com) is going GREAT! I am very excited about the addition of Jessica who is heading up our local clubs & brothels initiatives. She is also working with our gal interns. Our prayers our that her leadership continues to flourish this summer and she will stay on a permanent staff. Check out the site — we are making lots of new headway into new territories. Going places where most Christians dare not going. Stephen who is charge of our guy interns and our strip outreaches is also doing a great job. All of the new efforts and the prayers are really starting gain some practical traction.
Also, for the next 2 weekends I will be filling in preaching for our man Dean up at Pathways. Our family attended there last weekend and the church is mostly made up of young couples with young kids — fits Dean well! I will write more about the ministry there as I fill in preaching and volunteer some with him.
Look for NEW CHURCH updates starting in Sept.-ish.
I am in Las Vegas this week launching some new efforts for StripChurch. We have 2 new interns on board PLUS a brand new coordinator for the local ministry efforts. Here is a quick link related to our work in the strip clubs. Here is a quick link related to our first Las Vegas strip outreach. What is very fascinating to me is how easy it has been to go into new areas with the Gospel. People who are hurting the most and who are in the darkest areas are actually the most receptive. Interesting isn’t it… people don’t want Jesus until people really need Jesus. Pray for our team of gals… they are out at a brothel today & tomorrow.
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