When young pastor Matt Brown announced he was supporting a ministry for women in the sex industry led by an x-stripper, he was expecting applause. Instead, he got cold stares and an e-mail inbox filled with angry letters. At issue was Heather Veitch, an x-stripper turned evangelist. She looked too much like a stripper and was leading Christian women into the dark world of strip clubs for so-called “outreach.” Capturing it all, was documentary filmmaker Bill Day for his new film “The Pussycat Preacher.”
“Most Christians know that Jesus spent time with prostitutes and tax collectors because that is where the word was needed. But believing the ideal is one thing and living the reality is another,” says Day.
“If we all took a vote on being Biblical versus being respectable , we would all vote for Biblical,” says theology expert Professor Sarah Sumner PhD from Azusa Pacific University in the film. “But the reality is many churches are more concerned with respectability.”
Pastor Greg Laurie from mega-church Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside was one of pastors who didn’t believe Heather’s method of winning souls was worth the risk. He warned Brown to stay away from Veitch.
“When a Pastor you look up to tells you something like that it’s scary,” Brown confesses. “I’m a pastor and I am supposed to love people. But I didn’t love strippers. What Heather did was she birthed that in me and my congregation.”
Instead of backing away from Heather, Pastor Brown put up $50,000 of church money to support the ministry. But in no time at all, a rumor got started that the $50,000 was being used by Brown to buy lap dances for himself. Brown suddenly found himself on the verge of losing his church facility housed on the campus of Southern California Baptist University.
For her part, Heather Veitch claims she is winning souls and that is what matters. For evidence, she has the documentary which shows a number of strippers making their first venture into church. “Now comes the hard part,” Heather smiles.
Day says the film is not rated but very ‘’PG’’ It has no nudity or offensive language. It will be available on DVD, pay to download , or ‘’watch free’’ with advertising at the film website http://www.pussycatpreacher.com/ starting Feb 15.
SO: What do you think about this? Is Greg Laurie wrong on this one, or is he right that this is just too risky?
I think it’s great what Heather is doing. It would be so easy for her to walk away from that scene and never look back, but she chooses to go into the trenches and save who she can. It’s probably too risky a ministry for men to be involved in, though, because of the temptations. What would be nice is if some of these big-time women’s ministries (Beth Moore, Joyce Meyer, etc.) would give her some support. Have a “by women, for women” type ministry.
I think it is great also. My wife and I are working on starting a very similar ministry. Sure, there is risk. But risk is what ministry into the gutters is all about, and is simply following the example of Jesus. After all, Jesus coming to this earth was risky. I can hear the angels objecting, “What if he sins?!?”
[...] read about this on Vince Antonucci’s site, which he gleaned from the MMI Weblog. When young pastor Matt Brown announced he was supporting [...]
I think it’s great. I just listened to the xxxchurch podcast interviewing them today and was pumped to tell my wife about it. My wife has started a similar ministry to the two strip clubs just outside of our town. She’s been doing it now since August and has built some great relationships with dancers and security. It’s really incredible. Over Christmas, both clubs took collections, gave us the money and said “go help some families in need.” My wife was going to ask them to help adopt a family but they raised the money before she even had the chance to ask.
One club said the Christian organization they used to give money to is now refusing their money. We were glad to take it.
I must say, though, it’s wierd to see my wife walk out of a strip club with a big wad of cash.
donnie, that is weird, but also too cool! so was all the money they gave you in one dollar bills?!?
What do you mean “one dollar bills”, my wife is hot!
They were all tens!
Wait… you meant the money they gave us. I’m not sure what they were.
[...] read about this on Vince Antonucci’s site, which he gleaned from the MMI Weblog. When young pastor Matt Brown announced he was supporting [...]