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By Brian Orme
Publishing companies were reluctant to print the new Bible cover that Craig Gross introduced for his alternative ministry. It took five months and a long list of rejections before Navpress and Eugene Peterson finally said yes. When the hot-pink and yellow Bibles were finally printed the provocative message on the cover boldly read, “Jesus Loves Porn Stars.”
Craig Gross is the founder of the anti-pornography ministry XXX Church, but you won’t find Gross picketing porn venders outside conventions—you’ll find him and his team inside at a booth passing out Bibles and greeting people as they walk by.
“We had no idea really what we were getting into…it turned out to be such a huge need,” Craig said.
When it comes to dealing with pornography in the church, “Most people just ignore it—they don’t even want to bring it up,” Craig says. “The church shies away from a lot of issues that it can’t wrap up in a 30-minute talk on a Sunday.” Part of Craig’s ministry is spent talking to people within the church about the dirty little secret of porn. Craig has hosted “Porn Sunday” events at many well-known churches like Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan.
The other half of Craig’s ministry is spent sharing the message of the Gospel with people inside pornography shows. The porn industry is booming, with over 12 billion spent here in the U.S. alone, “Porn is selling you a lie,” Craig says. “Porn is going to lead to a dead end…it’s going to leave you empty.”
The goal of X3church isn’t to create enemies at the porn conventions but to open up conversations. “If I have five-minutes to talk with someone in a porn show, I don’t want to get into a fight with them, I want them to know the good news…not that Jesus is into porn and that he’s okay with porn, but that he loves you despite if you’re a pastor or a porn star.”
“We know what we’re doing is out there,” Craig admits, “but at the end of the day, it works.” Craig and his team used to give out regular Bibles at the conventions and they found it to be a hard sell. However, they did give out loads of bookmarks with the, “Jesus loves porn stars,” catchphrase on it and one day they thought, “What if we put this on the actual Bible?” That’s when the journey to find a publisher began.
“I understand why publishing houses wouldn’t print these Bibles, nobody wanted to commit to this, “Craig says. “I worked probably five months trying to get this thing to happen, got shot down by everybody we could think of.” Eventually, Craig found Navpress along with Eugene Peterson, the translator of “The Message”—a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible—and they told him to go for it. The new Bibles were a hit. They’ve given out more than 3,000 at conventions around the world.
Not everyone is pleased with Craig’s radical methods for sharing the good news. In an ABC News special featuring X3church, Al Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said, “In a rush to be relevant I think these guys have crossed a line that I would not cross and I would not commit.”
Danny Wright, teaching pastor at Grace Church in Greenville, Ohio, thinks X3church is a little over the top, “Jesus loves porn stars is theologically accurate, but can be misunderstood.” Danny goes on to say, “I don’t think I know any porn stars personally, but I assume they shop for groceries, have children who play soccer and they certainly work out at gyms, why can’t we approach them there, rather than at the convention?”
John Wambold, Director of Community Ministries at Cedarville University applauds Craig’s boldness but says, “I get a little nervous with getting too casual with Jesus and maybe losing an appropriate sense of awe or fearfulness for who Jesus really is as God.”
Craig knows that many people don’t get what they’re doing, but he believes that they are having an impact and the edgy Bible cover is getting the powerful message into more hands.
And, until someone offers an alternative approach, Craig and his team plan on showing up at more porn shows passing out their Bibles and sharing the message that Jesus does, indeed, love porn stars.
Publishing companies were reluctant to print the new Bible cover that Craig Gross introduced for his alternative ministry. It took five months and a long list of rejections before Navpress and Eugene Peterson finally said yes. When the hot-pink and yellow Bibles were finally printed the provocative message on the cover boldly read, “Jesus Loves Porn Stars.”
Craig Gross is the founder of the anti-pornography ministry XXX Church, but you won’t find Gross picketing porn venders outside conventions—you’ll find him and his team inside at a booth passing out Bibles and greeting people as they walk by.
“We had no idea really what we were getting into…it turned out to be such a huge need,” Craig said.
When it comes to dealing with pornography in the church, “Most people just ignore it—they don’t even want to bring it up,” Craig says. “The church shies away from a lot of issues that it can’t wrap up in a 30-minute talk on a Sunday.” Part of Craig’s ministry is spent talking to people within the church about the dirty little secret of porn. Craig has hosted “Porn Sunday” events at many well-known churches like Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, and Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan.
The other half of Craig’s ministry is spent sharing the message of the Gospel with people inside pornography shows. The porn industry is booming, with over 12 billion spent here in the U.S. alone, “Porn is selling you a lie,” Craig says. “Porn is going to lead to a dead end…it’s going to leave you empty.”
The goal of X3church isn’t to create enemies at the porn conventions but to open up conversations. “If I have five-minutes to talk with someone in a porn show, I don’t want to get into a fight with them, I want them to know the good news…not that Jesus is into porn and that he’s okay with porn, but that he loves you despite if you’re a pastor or a porn star.”
“We know what we’re doing is out there,” Craig admits, “but at the end of the day, it works.” Craig and his team used to give out regular Bibles at the conventions and they found it to be a hard sell. However, they did give out loads of bookmarks with the, “Jesus loves porn stars,” catchphrase on it and one day they thought, “What if we put this on the actual Bible?” That’s when the journey to find a publisher began.
“I understand why publishing houses wouldn’t print these Bibles, nobody wanted to commit to this, “Craig says. “I worked probably five months trying to get this thing to happen, got shot down by everybody we could think of.” Eventually, Craig found Navpress along with Eugene Peterson, the translator of “The Message”—a contemporary paraphrase of the Bible—and they told him to go for it. The new Bibles were a hit. They’ve given out more than 3,000 at conventions around the world.
Not everyone is pleased with Craig’s radical methods for sharing the good news. In an ABC News special featuring X3church, Al Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said, “In a rush to be relevant I think these guys have crossed a line that I would not cross and I would not commit.”
Danny Wright, teaching pastor at Grace Church in Greenville, Ohio, thinks X3church is a little over the top, “Jesus loves porn stars is theologically accurate, but can be misunderstood.” Danny goes on to say, “I don’t think I know any porn stars personally, but I assume they shop for groceries, have children who play soccer and they certainly work out at gyms, why can’t we approach them there, rather than at the convention?”
John Wambold, Director of Community Ministries at Cedarville University applauds Craig’s boldness but says, “I get a little nervous with getting too casual with Jesus and maybe losing an appropriate sense of awe or fearfulness for who Jesus really is as God.”
Craig knows that many people don’t get what they’re doing, but he believes that they are having an impact and the edgy Bible cover is getting the powerful message into more hands.
And, until someone offers an alternative approach, Craig and his team plan on showing up at more porn shows passing out their Bibles and sharing the message that Jesus does, indeed, love porn stars.
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