Compass Church is Going Multi-Site!

In case you haven’t heard, last Sunday we made a huge announcement: Compass Church is going to multiply!

In other words, in February 2012 we will be launching our very first “multi-site” campus - meaning we will be one church with two locations!

To help communicate the vision as clearly as possible, here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s):

1) What is a “multi-site” church anyway?

There is a new trend that has been spreading like wildfire among healthy, growing, contemporary churches like Compass: rather than remaining in one location, building ever-bigger and more expensive buildings, and growing only to the capacity of its facilities, many churches are adopting a strategy to reach their community by starting new “campuses” in other locations in their surrounding community and beyond.

This allows for the church to use its existing resources, staff, elder board, and congregation to reach new people with the gospel who would be much more difficult to reach had the church just stayed in one location. The multi-site strategy is becoming a practical, affordable, and highly effective way for a church to fulfill its mission.

2) Why has Compass decided to launch this multi-site strategy now?

As you know, since 2007 the vision of this church has been not only to grow, but to multiply! Four years ago we had about 240 people in attendance on a Sunday morning with one service. Lately we’ve been approaching 700 with two services, and we are launching our third service on September 18. (Remember the times? 9:00, 10:30 and 11:59!)

The best answer to the “why” question, however, is because we believe that God has called Christians to be a “sent” people. We are not just to Know, and Grow, but also to Go! To launch a new campus is the best way to multiply, because now we need two of everything (and everyone!) if we’re going to pull off a second site. This creates a tremendous opportunity for tons of people to step forward and be part of something new!

3) Why are you starting a new campus rather than planting an independent church?

Over the last four years we have been laying the groundwork for either planting a new church or launching a new site. Pursuing one or the other has been dependent upon the type of leader God sends us. Some leaders will want to start independent churches that have their own staff, budget, sermons, and style.

Other leaders, however, will be gifted to start new campuses under the umbrella of the “mother church,” where they can take advantage of its existing staff and structure and yet expand into a new area. These leaders make perfect multi-site campus pastors.

4) Who will be leading the new site?

We believe that God has led Brad Hixon to be the leader of this new site. Brad and his wife Nicole have been attending Compass for about three years. For the last two years Brad has felt God’s call to go into ministry, so he enrolled in Phoenix Seminary and is currently pursuing his Master of Arts in Biblical Leadership.

God has gifted Brad with great entrepreneurial ability. He’s been part of several small businesses that have grown tremendously under his leadership. This background, combined with a steadily increasing amount of ministry responsibility at Compass, has helped our elder board identify Brad as the right leader for this venture.

5) Where is this new site going to be?

After looking at many factors, we have chosen the city of Surprise to be the target area for our new campus. We chose Surprise for several reasons:

First, Surprise is close enough to allow us to use the resources of our current facility, but far enough away for the two campuses to not draw from the same neighborhoods.

Second, we are starting to see more people make the drive from Surprise to the Goodyear campus, and we are excited about launching a site in their immediate area with which they can practically reach their friends and neighbors for Christ.

Third, Brad and Nicole already live near the Surprise area, so it seemed like a natural place for them to be sent.

6) Do you have an exact location picked out?

We do not have an exact location yet. However, our leadership is currently looking for properties in the target area. We will most likely rent or lease a facility such as a school or a warehouse. Research on multi-site campuses reveals that about half of them meet in a school and a significant percentage meet in a warehouse or other type of commercial property.

7) Who will do the preaching at the new site?

Pastor Tim will be doing the majority of the preaching at Compass Surprise through what is called a “video venue.” We are already gathering the necessary technology we need to be able to produce high-quality videos to present at the new campus.

At the same time, we plan on having live preaching at the Surprise campus at least once a month. That means that Pastor Tim will occasionally be preaching live at the Surprise campus. At the same time, we will develop a preaching team down the line so there can be a mixture of both video venue and live preaching.

8) Can a video venue to be as effective as live preaching?

It can and it will! We live in a video-based culture that is used to being engaged through that medium. Our goal is to make video-based preaching an equal or even better option than the live experience.

9) Will there be “live” worship?

Yes! There will always be live worship at both the Goodyear and Surprise sites. In fact, except for the preaching, everything that happens live at the Goodyear campus will happen live at the new site.

10) Will there be Children’s and Student Ministries at Compass Surprise?

Definitely. We will be working hard to make sure that we launch the new site with a Children’s Ministry that is as safe, energetic, and effective as the one we currently offer.

In terms of Student Ministries, we will work to generate a ministry that can effectively meet the needs of the Middle and High School students that God brings us.

On a side note, remember that we are quite limited in what we can offer on Sunday mornings because of the size of our facility. However, if we end up in a school or other type of rental facility, we may very well have access to much more square footage than we currently have now, making the site even more advantageous for key ministries such as Children and Students.

11) Okay, sounds like a good idea. How do you guys intend to pay for this?

There are three sources of funding we expect to utilize in order to finance this new venture:

a) Outside fundraising. Our Campus Pastor, Brad Hixon, has already worked on raising support through sources outside the church, and has already received monies through a designated fund.

b) EFCA West. Our denomination, the Evangelical Free Church of America, has a commitment to starting new churches, including new campuses, out of existing churches. We have communicated with Dave Page, the Director of Church Planting for our district, and he has voiced support to direct district funds to this new site.

c) Compass Church. As God calls people from the current Compass family, their tithes and offerings can begin to go toward the funding of this new site. Also, because this is a mission work (i.e., ministry done outside our four walls), we will be drawing from a portion of our missions fund that has been allocated to church planting and multiplication.

12) I want to go and be a part of something new! Where do I sign up?

As was mentioned above, we fully expect that God is already working on the hearts of many in Compass who are ready to establish a new work in Surprise that will result in many people coming to saving faith in Jesus. These people are the pioneers among us who want to be able to look back on their lives and say that they gained new ground for the kingdom.

Is that you? If so, please let us know now so we can contact you about upcoming meetings, Q and A sessions, and pre-launch events. Remember, our strategy is to be a blessing to the city of Surprise, which means we’re going to take a similar approach we’ve taken at the Goodyear Campus. We want to start off with acts of service, love, hope, and restoration, so that we can earn the right to be heard by the residents of Surprise. Then, and only then, can we help them see that life really is all about Jesus.

If you’re interested, please contact Brad at bradh@compasschurch.info.

Also:

Twitter: @bhixonaz

Blog: bradhixon.blogspot.com

I know this is a lot of information, but it’s vital that we all understand what we’re doing here and why. As you’re processing all of this, I urge you to step back for a moment and dream for a moment: What if?

1) What if Compass Surprise became the reason why hundreds, even thousands, of people come to know Jesus?

2) What if twenty years from now we see both new sites and new churches all over the West Valley that were started because we, back in 2011, had the vision to see beyond the way things are and reach for what could be?

3) What if you became a founding member of this new work? How would that change your prayer life, your passion for God, and your understanding of the role you play on planet Earth for the kingdom of God?

There will be more updates along the way. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this – it is the fulfillment of a dream that has been a long time in the making – to actually become a reproducing church! We have thrown off all the limits, and we are bound now only by the passion for the One who has set us free and given us this amazing ministry of proclaiming his kingdom to the whole world!

In Christ’s Love,

Pastor Tim

The Word

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." 
John 1:1-5


What an interesting opening to a book that tells the story of Jesus. A simple fisherman penned this quite a while ago, and yet its aesthetics, poetry and logic still move us today. (It's like he had help or something...) The Greek (the original language the book of John was written in) word for "word" is a lot richer than we understand. It encompasses full expression and/or complete thought. Ravi Zachrias switches it with the word "definition". If we read this passage with this light, we would see that in Jesus is full expression and definition of God. The invisible and Holy God has made Himself known in Jesus. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. In what He says, what He does, how he treated people, how he moved, breathed, lived and died is the definition of God. And this definition is eternal. It has always been and always is existing.
In a time where truth itself is challenged and morals are thought of as relative, there stands this timeless claim that God has since the beginning defined and given meaning to what things are. He made them with definition. He is the truth that gives light and reveals life for what it is. And if you want to know what He is like, look at Jesus. Jesus is God's word.

Gabe Legaspi

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

This week I’m the speaker for our Club 56 (5^th and 6^th grade) and Ignite (Middle School) Sumer Camp! Yes, I’m speaking to 5-8^th graders. As I write this we’re in Show Low at Fool Hollow Lake swimming, fishing, playing volleyball, and all kinds of stuff.

As I was preparing to preach to this 5-8^th grade age group, I was taken back to my youth pastor days, and even earlier to my days as a Middle School student. I don’t know about you, but those were the worst days of my life! Have you seen the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Yeah, kind of like that. Even though I didn’t have an older brother to terrorize me, I didn’t need one because most of my problems were self-inflicted!

Do you remember your old Junior High/Middle School days? Here are a few highlights from mine:

1) Being told by a girl that I had the skinniest arms of any boy she had ever known. (Yeah, Melissa, you should see them now.)

2) Having a lit firecracker put in my back pocket after P.E. class that detonated. (The plastic surgeons did a pretty good job on my butt reconstruction.)

3) Getting arrested for vandalism (I didn’t do it, I swear) and getting a ride in the back of an LAPD squad car handcuffed to my friend Frank who is now in jail for murder (not kidding.)

4) After getting bored with bringing crickets to math class, bringing a water balloon that the teacher, thinking it was just an air balloon, stepped on. It made a big puddle. (That was a good memory actually.)

5) Sneaking into an orange grove and smoking unfiltered cigarettes with my friend David, and then spraying ourselves down with Aqua Net to make sure we didn’t get caught.

6) Sentenced to clean the bathrooms after I was busted for “sagging” my pants too low (I was just trying to make a point).

7) Throwing a large piece of candy with an attached note in the backyard of a girl I had a crush on. Hey, I tried knocking but no one was home. Funny how that relationship never worked out.

8) Writing the phrase “I Will Refrain From any Further Moronic Behavior in Mr. Suenaka’s Class” about 1500 times.

So, as I said, I’m the camp speaker for some of your kids this week.

I can honestly say there were two reasons I survived that time of my life: My church and my parents. If it wasn’t for my Youth Pastor and the great example of my parents there’s a good chance I’d either be eating three squares with a set of numbers on my shirt or still be living at home with a life that resembled the character “Kip” from Napoleon Dynamite.

You see, in the midst of all that ridiculousness, I knew deep down that God had something for me – that I was created for a purpose. I just had a hard time finding anything constructive to do until I got into high school.

With each passing year, the memories of that time in our lives fades just a little more. But let’s not forget how tough those years were for most of us. And at the same time, let’s not forget how critical the decisions are that these young people are making. They are charting a course now that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

So I’m excited to be hanging out with some of your kids this week (including my own, who’s going into 5^th grade). I believe God has great plans for each one of them as well, but it is time for them to own their own faith.

Please remember to pray this week for our 5-8^th graders and the many wonderful adult volunteers who came up to help make this camp unforgettable. Also, if you’re the parent of one of these students, don’t forget that they’re watching you – how you live, who you are when no one is looking, and the degree of intensity to which you follow Christ.

It is AWESOME to be a part of a church that’s making such a great investment in the lives of young people!!

See you this Sunday,

Pastor Tim

Killing Giants

Some stories you’ve heard so many times that you forget how important they are. Growing up in church, I heard the “David and Goliath” story told and retold on everything from flannelgraphs to cheesy animated videos to impassioned speakers at youth camps to highly cerebral bible scholars trying to explain why David had five stones (because, they say, Goliath had four brothers).

Because familiarity tends to breed contempt (or at least boredom) and there are so many other great stories and topics in the Bible, I've often dismissed this epic episode in the Bible with "Yeah, yeah, he kills the giant, nice job, let's move on."

But what makes this story so timeless is that the characters and the outcome are crystal clear: there is a visible enemy who seems bigger than life and by all odds the good guy doesn't stand a chance. But in face of danger, the good guy steps up, trusts God, and knocks the enemy right between the eyes and cuts off his head. Yes!

So here are a few lessons to take from this story:

1) We were made to kill giants. Did you ever think about that? If there were no giants, there would be no need for faith. You're not likely to go up against a dude who's nine feet tall and walks around with the weight of a Ford Festiva in weaponry; but you and I will face giants that are just as lethal throughout our lives. When the giant shows up, that's the time to remember that the reason you were created was to fight him (or "it"). You bring God glory when you step up against the odds to go against the one who has declared war against God and his purposes for your life.

2) If you're gonna kill the giant, you have identify him first. When everyone's afraid of the bully on the playground, then everyone wants to deny that he's really a bully. Instead, they project their fear and anger on other people who aren't so scary while making up excuses for the bully's behavior. But if we're really going to kill giants, then we have to name them. We have to be honest about what is standing in the way of God's purposes for our lives.

David did this by verbalizing, out loud in front of everyone, the existence of the enemy and his offense to God:

"For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (1 Sam. 17:26).

3) Be specific: It's not enough to identify our giants as Fear, Addiction, or Worry. We have to finish the sentence: I'm afraid of... I'm addicted to... I'm worried about... When we're specific, we're naming the giant and what its going to take to kill him. Notice how the giant is described in Scripture:

⁴And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. ⁵He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of bronze. ⁶And he had bronze armor on his legs, and a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders. ⁷The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron. (1 Sam. 17:4-7)

While this description would instill fear in anyone who had to face him, another reality comes to light: he's just a man. He is mortal, he is fallible, and with God's help he can be taken down.

4) Expect to kill the giant: You were made to kill giants, not to succumb to them. David says to the Goliath:

⁴⁶This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, ⁴⁷and that all this assembly may know thatthe LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand." (1 Sam. 17:46-47)

It is foolish to think that we can conquer the giants in our lives on our own. But we face these challenges in the name of the Lord, who created us to destroy them.

What giant is facing you right now? Is it overwhelming financial debt? Is it out-of-control anger? Are you losing the private but painful battle of secret addiction?

I believe God made us to conquer the things that stand up against his purposes. So get to work, go to war, and kill the giant for God's glory.

We Are Making a Difference

When the current Compass Church facility was in the midst of getting city approval, part of that process involved meetings with city officials, church leaders, and members of the community. During one of these meetings someone asked this question: What value will this church add to our community?

Great question. What value does a church, or Christ-followers in general, add to a community? And what value could they possibly add to a culture?

Let’s answer that question by taking a little tour of history:

1) In the Roman Empire, Christians risked their lives caring for the outcasts of society: “Members did nurse the sick, even during epidemics; they did support orphans, widows, the elderly, and the poor; they did concern themselves with the lot of slaves. In short, Christians created ‘a miniature welfare state in an empire which for the most part lacked social services.’” – Rodney Stark, Cities of God, pp. 30-31.

2) During the so-called “Dark Ages,” Christian monks brought restoration to war-torn Europe: “The monks were poor, and they worked incredibly hard; they plowed, hedged, drained morasses, cleared away forests, did carpentry, thatched, and built roads and bridges…Through their disciplined and tireless labor they turned the tide of barbarism in Western Europe and brought back into cultivation the lands which had been deserted and depopulated in the age of invasions. More important, through their sanctifying work and poverty they lifted the hearts of the poor and neglected peasants and inspired them…” - David Bosch, Transforming Mission, p. 232.

3) Under Muslim rule during the time of the Crusades, Christians formed the backbone of a society that was oppressing them: “Indeed, as late as the middle of the eleventh century, the Muslim writer Nasir-i Khrusau reported, ‘Truly, the scribes here in Syria, as is the case of Egypt, are all Christians… [and] it is most usual for the physicians…to be Christians.’ In Palestine under Muslim rule, according to the monumental history by Moshe Gil, ‘the Christians had immense influence and positions of power, chiefly because of the gifted administrators among them who occupied government posts despite the ban in Muslim law against employing Christians [in such positions] or who were part of the intelligentsia of the period owing to the fact that they were outstanding scientists, mathematicians, physicians and so on.’” - Rodney Stark, God's Battalions, p. 61.

4) Today Christianity is exploding in the Southern Hemisphere. As it transforms the lives of men, it radically improves the plight of the women and children in their midst: “The reshaping of gender roles echoes through Southern Hemisphere Christianity, and Latin American churches often present Jesus as divine Husband and Father. In practical terms, the emphasis on domestic values has had a transformative and often positive effect on gender relationships… Membership in a new Pentecostal church means a significant improvement in the lives of poor women, since this is where they are more likely to meet men who do not squander family resources on drinking, gambling, prostitutes, and second households. - Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity

Throughout history, this is what Christians do: They raise other people’s children, rebuild what others have destroyed, love their enemies, and work to redeem the culture in which they live.

Even so their views and contributions are routinely mocked in the media, universities, in the courts, and in entertainment. They are also stigmatized by the actions of a few wackos in their midst, as though your creepy uncle from Toledo accurately represents your whole family.

But they don’t let that bother them. They just keep building.

So here’s what we do each and every day: we build communities, we redeem culture, and we proclaim the kingdom of God. Therefore, here’s what that should look like (not that it always does) in each and every one of our lives:

1) We are industrious. We get up each day and give our best energy to whatever task God has placed before us. We don’t squander our time or our money, but with a sense of urgency direct both of those resources to our God-given priorities.

2) We are honest. We don’t cheat others to get ahead, but we present ourselves as worthy of trust in both our personal and professional lives. We don’t lead double lives: what you see is what you get.

3) We are patient. We trust God to provide, fully aware that we may not always get what we want, but we will always have what we need. That prevents us from restoring to selfish manipulation of others for our own personal gain.

4) We engage. Rather than rolling up the drawbridge and staying safe inside our little castles, we go out to find those whose lives we can bless by sharing the Gospel or at least living it out.

5) We are happy. We forgive because we know we have been forgiven. And we know that God wins in the end no matter who claims to be in charge now!

So when we had thirty-seven kids respond to the Gospel message last week at VBS, you can bet that adds value to the community. When we send a team to the max unit in the Women’s prison every Thursday to preach the Gospel to murderers, you can bet that adds value to the community. And when we are challenging hundreds of people each week to become more like Jesus by laying down their lives for others, you can bet that adds value to the community.

We are making a difference. Christian, what you do today matters. If you’re living out the Gospel message, as has been done throughout history, then whoever is around you will always have hope.

Burn the Ships: The Elements of Passion

If I I could have preached another 20 minutes last Sunday, I might have thrown in the following:

In Philippians 2, considered by many to be merely a “travelogue,” Paul tells the Philippians that he’s going to hang on to Timothy for a while, but Epaphroditus he’s sending back to them to be an encouragement to them. But I believe it’s a window into three lives that were lived with wild, burning, take-no-prisoners passion!

Here’s how he described Timothy: “For I have no one like him… For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.” (v. 20-22)

Here’s how he described Epaphroditus: “…my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier…” (v. 25). He went on to say that he “nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking…” (v. 30)

It seems to me these men were living in what can only be described as a constant state of “faith on the run.” You’ve got one guy being held as a religious prisoner and two other guys who are courageously committed to him, even though one of them almost died because of it.

There is a word that comes to mind when I imagine how these guys lived: passion.

Passion is that primal, gut-level, semi-irrational life force that comes from the inside out. While knowledge and experience move from the outside-in, passion begins on the inside; from that deep part of your soul and bursts out of your heart with an undeniable force that says, “I MUST do this!!”

Passion tramples that other word that has doused the dreams of countless millions: prudence. Prudence is the name of that old, crusty lady in the corner of your mind who wags her bony finger at you, shakes her head, and says, “Come on, let’s put away these silly thoughts in your head and get back to reality.” In other words, “Play it safe. After all, you don’t really think this is worth your life, do you? We’ve got to have some balance, some rationality here.”

Don’t get me wrong: Passion without wise planning and consideration is foolish and potentially destructive. But too often the valid concept of “prudence” extinguishes the God-passion in our hearts that rightly takes risks for the cause of the Kingdom.

Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus were not called to map everything out - they were called to lay everything down. They were passionate men who were fighting for the Kingdom to the death. They burned the ships, because sometimes faith requires you to burn them, and burn them all.

A wise man once told me to make decisions that would leave me with multiple options in the end. In other words, hopelessness only comes when one realizes there are no more options. In many aspects of life this is true. The decision to go to college creates more options than if you don’t. The decision to open a savings account creates more options than if you don’t.

But after dwelling on that statement for a number of years I’ve come to the conclusion that the decisions that define us are not the ones that leave us with the most options in the end. Rather the opposite is true: the decisions that truly define us are the ones that cut off every other option.

Next to becoming a Christian, the most defining moment of my life was the day I married Judi. On that day I cut off about 132,943,503 (or something like that) other options – that is, all the other women I could have married.

When you became a Christian, you threw off every other “religious” option available to you. You said, in the lyrics of the old hymn, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”

Contrast that to the idea of “moral relativism,” the idea that there is no objective truth outside of what the individual wants there to be. The stench of this belief is not merely that it’s wrong – it is that it demands nothing of you. Its very premise is based on “options” that allow you to morph into whatever belief is most convenient at the time. It’s the philosophy of posers. Very few people have died for moral relativism. (Many have died because of it, but not for it.)

What does all this mean? Godly, effective, lasting passion comes from faith that ditched the “options” a long time ago. It was Esther who said, “If I perish, then I perish.” (Esther 4:16). Paraphrased for today: “If this goes bad for me, then it goes bad for me.”

This attitude is evident in the life of a single mom who commits to raising her children in faith, without malice for the husband who bailed, not dwelling on the years of love lost because of his selfishness. She fights to the death because she made a decision a long time ago that cut off all of her options: to follow Jesus without turning back.

It is evident in the father who doesn’t chase the fantasy of all he thought would have had by now back when he was twenty-one. Rather, he steps up and faces the challenges of being a husband and a father to people who were entrusted gracefully to his care. He doesn’t enter a second childhood at forty. Instead, channels his energy toward what gains the most ground for the Kingdom: godly leadership, gospel-driven risks, fidelity at all costs, and integrity to the end.

The examples could go on and on, but faith that ditched the options a long time ago is what Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus had. They lived on the run; every second counted. Life was not mapped out; it was laid down. Where you’ll end up in 20 years is not so important when you’re not sure where you’ll end up tomorrow.

When I die, I’m not interested in people remembering all the things I did or said. I only want them to say with confidence, based on the way I lived, that I really believed.

Reflections on My Visit to the Perryville Women's Prison

Hey There!

Tonight I went to the Perryville Women’s Prison. I was invited by our very own Compass Prison Ministry team to come as a guest and see what they do each and every week in this facility that is literally in our backyard.

We went through all the security procedures, took a short bus ride, and arrived at the facility that would hold the 180 women who showed up. One by one the ladies trickled in, all wearing the same orange attire with “ADC” (Arizona Department of Corrections) stenciled in big black letters across the back.

It’s hard to imagine a women’s prison. Women aren’t supposed to go to jail. They’re typically the victims, not the perps. In our hearts we sense this. Very few movies depict women as the masterminds of evil, for example. Men are overwhelmingly the ones who commit the crimes that we deem worthy of serving time.

It’s equally hard to look at most of the women who were cramming into the worship service as criminals. Granted, I met a few I wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley (unless I had a can of “family-size” pepper spray). But what’s a 20-something woman who could put on normal clothes and fit right in at the mall doing with prison tattoo’s and the whole “I’m a tough chick” swagger?

There’s only one explanation: A war has been waged for their souls, and the Enemy appears to be winning.

What no one ever told these women is that, in truth, they’re all Eve’s. They were born with the same purpose as this First Woman: to bear the image of God in the expression of a female.

The Bible says that Eve was created not with the rest of Creation but afterward. Only after Adam recognized that something was missing in a world that God called “very good” did God grace this Earth with the Other Side of his image. When Adam saw Eve, his reaction says it all,

"This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." (Gen. 2:23)

James Montgomery Boice notes that the first woman could have had all the strength and intellect of the man, but with a “beauty and grace” that excelled him. This would have stopped Adam in his tracks, as surely it did, in the state of mind of which folk singer Ellis Paul wrote, “And that is the mystery: here she is.”

It was under these circumstances that Eve came into the world. The woman was never to be worshipped as God, but was to be cared for, nurtured, and attended to for who she is: the finishing touch of God’s creation.

We have fallen so far since that day. As these women came in I could see evidence of the Enemy: Drugs, absent fathers, bad boyfriends, and a series of bad choices have been their history. Their war torn faces bore scars that come from a life lived far away from that original vision to which they were created: to be beautiful, to radiate the glory of God.

That’s where the Compass Prison Ministry comes in. This team of eight men and women come in each week and bring smiles, hugs, prayers of encouragement, music, and the message of the gospel.

Tonight there was a choir of 25 women who sang as well as any choir you’d hear on a Sunday morning. They’re led by an African-American woman who apparently reminds of them of Whoopi Goldberg’s character in the movie Sister Act. So they call her “Whoopie.”

This is the 35^th week that our Prison Ministry Team has been working in the prison, and it has grown from a few dozen to the over 180 that were there tonight. And when you hear them sing, laugh, and respond to the message, you can begin to sense the beauty starting to come back.

While they’ve all got a long way to go, tonight twenty women came forward who said they wanted to give their lives to Jesus. Bill Alford did a great job spelling the Gospel out simply, and told them that forgiveness and restoration is found only through the Cross of Christ and the love of our Great and Mighty God.

You see, the world does not possess the capacity to tell a woman who she really is or what she might become. These women all acted on exactly what the pop culture taught them: live for the moment, follow your heart, innocence is outdated, and a man is the key to happiness.

This is why we hold fast to the message that we do – it is the only thing that works! The Bible is the only book, the only book, whose message is large enough to fill the gaping holes of a woman’s soul.

So our team continues each week to bring hope and restoration to the fallen Eve’s of this world, whose spiritual captivity has resulted in physical captivity. And they are gaining ground. Over 300 women have come forward to receive Christ in the eight months they’ve been there. (There are only 700 women in that particular unit!). I spoke with several who are excited about getting back on the outside and leading lives that can glorify God, and you can tell they are serious.

Maybe you’ve read this and your heart is tugged toward wanting to help. While practically the prison ministry can involve only so many people, they are looking for one other person who is able to meet the high-level of commitment that a ministry of this nature requires. If you’re interested, contact Bill Alford at bill.alford@yahoo.com.

Aren’t you glad to be part of a church that is truly making a difference in our community? I am.