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How one little church made a big difference
By Jason Perry
Can one little church with 40 people fight sexual impurity and the spread of HIV/AIDS? Can one broken pastor make a difference in a problem that seems to be insurmountable? On the surface, this seems improbable, if not impossible. The AIDS crisis is so big that it is easy for us to feel like the classic case of David facing Goliath. Many of us look at our personal and corporate resources and follow the path of David’s brothers. Their preoccupation with the enemy caused them to be paralyzed by fear. They talked big, but did little. While disturbed by the problem, they failed to take any action to overcome it.
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“Our desire is to raise the bar concerning attitudes about sex and sexual behavior.”
Jason L. Perry, pastor of Living Oaks Fellowship in Centennial, Colo. |
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David, on the other hand, drew on his experience with God to find the courage to face down a formidable foe. David believed that what God had put in his heart to do, God would also give the power to accomplish.
That is how I felt when I first approached this giant. I felt ill-equipped (“I don’t know what to do.”) and under-resourced (“Where do I get the money?”), and too small (“Why would anyone listen to me?”) for the job. The statistics are overwhelming and mind-numbing. Nearly 25 million have died from AIDS, 3.8 million of them children under age 15. The human toll is shocking – every day on the African continent, 6,000 people die from AIDS. The expansion of the disease is frightening – India has passed South Africa as the world leader in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS. But like David, we must know that with the One we serve “all things are possible.” At my church, we know this to be true because we have experienced this grace and power ourselves.
In December of 2000, I was invited to speak at the Generation 21 Leadership Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. Event organizers had read my book, How Far Can You Go? Straight Talk About Sexual Purity, and requested that I come to speak to the young people on the topic of purity.
As I prepared to go, the Lord placed it on my heart to take 2,500 copies of the book with me to give to the conference participants. With the help of churches and supporters, I raised the necessary funds to make this happen.
This seminal event has set in motion a ministry that has expanded far beyond my imagination. The book was so well received that organizations such as Youth For Christ International and the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism have sought to use it as a resource for teaching about sexual purity and as a solution to the AIDS pandemic. Since that initial trip, we have begun to conduct Project Purity Training Tours. The goal of these tours is to encourage young people to live pure and holy lives, empower adults and youth to minister to their peers, and to distribute biblically based literature that supports and spreads that message. To date we have:
- Conducted two such tours in South Africa
- Offered more than 100 training sessions
- Spoken to more than 10,000 people in schools, prisons, churches, and communities
- Distributed 47,000 copies of How Far Can You Go? Straight Talk About Sexual Purity
- Completed a French translation of the book that is currently being used in Togo and Burkina Faso, West Africa
Our desire is to raise the bar concerning attitudes about sex and sexual behavior. Supplying and teaching people how to use condoms is not the answer to the AIDS problem. It only seeks to prevent the consequences of behavior without addressing the underlying cause. In other words, it picks the fruits without pulling the roots. Our attempts to modify behavior will last only as long as the fear of consequences exists. Once that fear is removed, the behavior returns. The only hope for removing this scourge is to raise up a new generation of people who have a passion for purity, a hunger for holiness, and a determined desire to please God above all else. Only then will there be sufficient enough motivation and power to bring sexual behavior within God’s prescribed boundaries.
We believe that through changing attitudes and lifestyles via education we can significantly reduce the continued transmission of this deadly disease. More specifically, we believe that teaching and empowering a generation of young people to develop character that values self-control and respect for God, self, and others will dramatically reduce the transmission of the HIV/AIDS virus.
Neither the problem of AIDS nor our passion for addressing this issue is limited to Africa. AIDS is a scourge in America as well. In a recent ABC PrimeTime TV special entitled “Out of Control: AIDS in Black America,” the following sobering statement was made:
“Black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for more than 50 percent of all new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That infection rate is eight times the rate of whites. Among women, the numbers are even more shocking – almost 70 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV-positive women in the U.S. are black women. Black women are 23 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than white women, with heterosexual contact being the overwhelming method of infection in Black America.”
In an effort to begin to address this frightening reality, we have begun offering what we are calling Purity Summits. The summit consists of a Friday night seminar for parents followed by a Saturday interactive gathering with youth. Friday’s seminar, Breaking the Silence: Talking Straight to Your Kids about Sex, seeks to give parents the skills, attitudes, and tools necessary to effectively communicate with their children about sex. Saturday’s youth gathering aims to engage (build meaningful intergenerational relationships between youth and adults), educate (provide a biblical basis for sexual morality), and empower (give youth the skills to identify and evaluate cultural messages).
God has used one church and one pastor to make a difference in the lives of thousands of people. Don’t be intimidated and incapacitated by the size of the need, but be encouraged and empowered by the size of your God. Educate yourself about the need and look for small ways to get involved and move ahead in confidence and faith. The power of one can be great because of the power of One.
Jason Perry is the pastor of Living Oaks Fellowship in Centennial, Colo., as well as the president of Oak Tree Ministries and Publications.
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