National PornSunday was a huge hit! We are hearing great things from the 75
plus participating churches. The good news is that you can still take part
in National PornSunday. Simply go to Porn Sunday and
find out all the information about how your church can participate. While your
on the site, you can check out the media page to see all the attention this
thing got. PornSunday was featured on 158 different news broadcast in front
of 25 million people. Some of the highlights were being the final guests on
Geraldo’s last show, World News Tonight, and
CNN.
Here are some letters from
all around the world about PornSunday.
From Rock Point Church in AZ:
Thank you for being obedient to God’s call on your lives! National Porn
Sunday was awesome and hundreds of men and women got help. We did a four-week
sermon series entitled JUST LUST, with NPS being the third week, with Clay
and Renee Crosse as our morning speakers and the PG-13 version of the movie
that night. Rock Point’s average weekly worship attendance is 1400, with
900-1000 of those being adults. It definitely got the
communication started! After the movie, we had all the resources available,
along with all the local counselors and psychologists, and Celebrate Recovery,
and Prayer Rooms. The biggest hit was the local counselors and Celebrate
Recovery. It definitely got the communication going and hundreds of people got
help! This last Sunday, the 16th, we ended the series with a POWERFUL communion
service, entitled LEAVING LUST VEGAS, and offered the Prayer Rooms again with
much more response. It was AWESOME to witness what God, through the power
of His Holy Spirit, did throughout this 4-week experience. Again, thank
you! At Rock Point, we are VERY BOLD and RELEVANT and have tackled this
issue once before, but not on this level. XXXChurch.com and NPS empowered us
to battle the sin of lust with total abandoned! PRAISE GOD!
Pastor Randy
From Manhattan Christian College:
Just wanted you two to know that our men’s devo’s last night and our chapel
service this morning was great. We had a couple of guys share their testimony
which was very impactful. Incredible stuff! I have heard several
people say they have heard it on the radios all over eastern KS and then one
of our local TV stations (27 News in Topeka) was here this morning taping our
chapel service. The students, faculty and staff are talking about the
issue of pornography and we can’t wait for tonight’s showing of Missionary
Positions at
Kansas State University. I think we are going to have a packed house! It’s
great. Thank you for this opportunity. I’ll keep you updated as to
what happens tonight during the movie. Thanks!
From St. Paul’s Collegiate Church:
Here is a quick report from — the only church in New England to do so NPS
so far.
It has been an amazing couple of weeks here, as we have gotten ready for NPS. We
are a young church plant in a college town (we launched in Feb 2005) and we
are in Storrs CT, home of the UCONN Huskies and 18,000+ college students and
20-somethings. We knew when we launched that we wanted to be the kind
of the church where we can talk about anything and everything — and NPS seemed
like an obvious way to
start.
Sunday was our largest service yet with lost of new people and seekers. We
showed the movie on Monday night on the UCONN campus in the movie theater at
the student union. Despite rain and competing against a NY Yankees playoff
game (thankfully not a Red Sox game — that would have killed us!) we had over
200 people come to the movie, about 3/4 of which were UCONN students. Several
classes on campus even offered extra credit to come to the movie and write
a response paper.
The responses from people, both within the church and also those not in the
church has been overwhelmingly positive and God is clearly working in people’s
lives. I have had dozens of conversations with people in the last few
weeks–both leading up to NPS and afterwards–about decisions people are making
to reclaim a path to sexual integrity as well as make Christ central in their
lives. I knew that NPS would be powerful and effective in terms of porn,
but it has been awesome to see how it has helped people deal with the broader
issues if sexuality and also to see the evangelistic impact that this
has had. The fact the church was willing to talk about this issue in a
way that was authentic and real has had an amazing impact on seekers, the confidence
of believers inviting their
friends to church, etc. And I believe the fruit is just beginning to be
seen.
I know that lots of people have downloaded X3, have gotten Internet filtering
software, and are finding freedom in talking about these
issues. I believe that Satan’s best tool is not using sexual sin to get
the believer but rather using the tools of secrecy and shame — and with your
help we have begun to disarm Satan
in this arena.
The other added benefit has been the unbelievably positive press coverage
we have received as a church — statewide. As a new church plant, many
people didn’t even know we existed. We had the largest paper in CT (Hartford
Courant) run a front page story on us, one of the most liberal weekly papers
in CT do a full page article (Hartford Advocate), two articles in the campus
newspaper, a local radio show, and two TV stations do stories. This has
been huge for us as a church and, more importantly, our ability to reach out
and impact the community God has
called us to!
I am so deeply thankful you guys and the work you are doing to bring forth
the Kingdom of God and live out the Good News of Jesus Christ — that indeed,
the Gospel will set you free! Thanks for your faithfulness and willingness
to take risks on behalf of the Gospel!
The fact that we were the only church in New England to be part of NPS was
both surprising and disappointing to me — and I don’t think it is because
people in New England look at less porn, Anyway, thanks again
and God Bless. You are in our prayers here in CT!
From The Heights Church, TX:
Thanks for letting us are a part of the day. We used NPS as a way to
kick off a new sermon series dealing with family issues called LIFE AS A HOUSE. The
first sermon was called FIRE-WALLING YOUR HOME. The morning services
revolved around what God intends to happen in the bedrooms of our homes. We
talked through 1 Corinthians 7 and looked at how God created intimacy within
marriage relationships for good. We then talked briefly about how distorted
intimacy and sexuality leads to perversion and pornography and encouraged the
community and church family back that
evening for a viewing of the film.
We had 3 news agencies do stories and interviews as well as interviews and
stories in the Dallas Morning News. From all that I saw and could tell,
the reviews and stories were favorable and the material presented in a fair
manner. The comments
that came back from the day have for the most part been very affirming. We
have partnered with a local ministry that deals with issues of sexual brokenness
and are having a follow up Panel Discussion and Roundtable Q and A over the
film and the sermon from last week this Sunday
evening.
I know of 5 conversations that took place with people who viewed the film
and have since sought help or additional resources dealing with pornography
accountability and healing. I think we have just hit the tip of the iceberg…and
we have helped people in our community know that the church is not only a place
dealing with relevant issues, but also is a safe place to talk openly and honestly
about that which is taking place in our society and
culture. Thank you for the resources and the vision to bring others on
board with
exposing the dirty little secret in a productive and meaningful way.
From Germany:
Oh, what a day! What a night in Mettmann! We had about 80% more attendance
than we usually have at the “Flow”, but more important: we established a topic
that has been hidden for too long. We had a 16-year-old porn-dealer who witnessed
to us about his porn-addiction and his tough fight. We split the group in the
middle of the service to talk to the boys and the girls separately. It was
amazing how fast the men felt one in the temptations and struggles on the one
hand and Gods calling for Godly men and working relationships and families
on the other hand. The girls needed some more time, but are on a good way as
well. Finally we asked the groups to pray for another and take over some responsibility
for the other gender. What a great moment it was when the men surrounded the
girls and prayed for healthy relationships. And they prayed for us, that temptation
would not overcome us.
The
night ended with some good laughs about “Missionary Positions” and
Robertson’s “day off”. A great day for “Out-of-the-Box”-Christians.
We are so thankful we could be part of the PornSunday. I bet it was not the
last thing we did with you guys. On our team there is an American pastor, who
is now working as a missionary in Germany. We have asked him to mentor and
supervise our young leadership-group. That day has definitely placed something
in our hearts.
From Real Life Community Church, ID:
I just have to tell you that while I was in Idaho and did Porn Sunday with
Real Life Community Church in Nampa, that your documentary and videos were
OUTSTANDING. I mean I am so impressed with the both of you and how God is using
you. I was overwhelmed with the excellent job you did in the presentation of
everything. I just want to say I admire you both greatly for your courage and
your determination to fight against porn and help set THOUSANDS free! I wanted
to share that in Idaho one of the major impacts we made at Real Life Community
Church was that men were so touched by me because they saw a real “face”behind
the fantasy, a “real person”behind the pornography. A counselor
explained that what happens is that men begin to become desensitized and see
women as body parts after viewing pornography but when they saw a REAL face
and heard a REAL story, it broke them. God spoke to me and told me He would
be using me to help men see the REALITY of the person behind the fantasy and
it would be part of the healing process for them.
I was also to share heartfelt details of my story and it really affected the
people.
When I was in Idaho I was
interviewed by three of Idaho’s 4 news channel stations and people are
reporting to me even from Colorado that they are reading about me in the paper,
etc. Seems that dumb “former porn
actress”label is being used for God’s Glory! I was interviewed and
it
was shown on three news channels in all of southern Idaho.
Blessings,
Shelley Lubben
Former Porn Star
From Living Word Community Church, PA:
My church held the PornSunday service yesterday and showed your movie last
night. Just have to tell you that I am very thankful for what you are doing.
Keep it up. I am a husband (18 years) and a father of a 12-year old girl and
8-year old boy and we have been frustrated with society and all the crap out
there as our kids grow up.
I struggled with porn in years past and have come to grips with the monster.
My wife was sexually abused by her uncle as a very young girl. This has been
a very long road of healing and repair. But I have to say that God has worked
through that evil to help us protect our own kids
and purify our marriage bed.
You both have gone through a ton of crap to get where you are with XXXchurch
and I encourage you to keep the faith –and your eyes –set on God.
Even if you helped just one person, you’ve been faithful.
Free in Christ,
Chris