Show Up
I can remember driving to Las Vegas on January 8th, 2002. An idea birthed over Chinese food several months earlier now had us headed to Sin City in a rented van packed with displays, equipment, and my wife in the front seat. We would only have to come once, and that would put XXXchurch.com on the map. We made the trip to Vegas to launch our website at the largest adult expo in the country, fully expecting to be kicked out once they realized what we were about. We hadn't even considered coming back the following year. After all, no one was talking about leaving jobs and pursuing XXXchurch full time. Spend a few days in Vegas, come back home, and the website will just run itself.
Within a few days everything changed. Understated, outsmarted, and underfinanced, we knew we could never compete with the 70 billion dollar a year sex industry. But then we realized, we didn't have to compete, we just needed to show up.
Just show up. Jesus said to, "Go." He never called us to play it safe. Where He goes, we're to follow. And the thing is, He goes to the least expected places. So why isn't the church in the darkest places? Perhaps we'll send a group into those places for a weekend, but why don't we show up more often? Why don't we show up and stay?
XXXchurch.com has been built on this concept. Because we follow Jesus, we show up where you least expect us, whether that's with Ron Jeremy at a University or half way around the world at a porn show.
2009 will mark the 7th anniversary of XXXchurch. From an online website that attracts visitors from over 190 countries and territories every month, to helping survivors from the sex industry start a new life, to helping hundreds of churches across the world talk about the dirty little secret. The ministry has now been taken to over 200 million homes through print, web and television over the last several years. We have written books, appeared in documentaries and TV shows, counseled thousands, and enabled over 500,000 people to have accountability online for free through x3watch.
So, what's next? We're headed back to the place where it all started. Every year we head back to Vegas for the porn show in January. This year we plan on staying. We've been asking the question: What could this ministry look like if it were on the ground in Las Vegas? What if the over 189,000 plus hotel rooms of the Strip were XXXchurch's backyard? What if the Church showed up in Sin City? Not in the burbs... but on the strip?
Have we lost our minds? Possibly. Will this work? Well, we realize we could fail miserably but often the biggest reward comes when we put everything on the line and attempt something so great, it will take God to make it succeed.
So keep reading and find out more about our vision for The Strip Church and ways for you to get involved.
God Bless,
Craig Gross - Founder of XXXchurch.com
Comments
I love what you guys are doing. I'm not a Christian anymore, and I think that porn is okay. But anything, from chocolate to porn to alcohol, can become an addiction. And there should be help for those who need and are willing to accept it. I think it's absolutely awesome that you guys are providing that resource in a loving, non-invasive way. And yes, I definitely think Jesus would be in Sin City, in the darkest places no one else wants to go. I commend you for the light of hope you shine for addicts.
Based on what I've read in the Gospel accounts, Jesus would likely go to Vegas if He were in America today, to seek and save the lost. Lost are everywhere, many in our Churches, but false piety would not have impelled Jesus to stay away from the Strip and New Orleans' Bourbon Street as it might for many of us. My prayers are with you as you bring Christ's light to those in need.