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    How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness: Serving People Just as They Are
    How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness: Serving People Just as They Are
    How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness: Serving People Just as They Are
    Ebook221 pages3 hours

    How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness: Serving People Just as They Are

    By Todd Stevens, Erin Stevens and Refraction

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    The starting and ending points for all outreach have to be love. The most effective way to reach people for Jesus is through kindness outreach—showing God’s love in practical ways. This type of outreach is what Jesus modeled, is culturally relevant, and values people. The goal should be to invite people to take the next step from where they are.

    Friendship Community Church, led by Pastor Todd Stevens, has experienced tremendous growth through acts of kindness. The church’s most radical kindness project is Nashville Strip Church, founded by Erin Stevens. Erin’s life changed when God told her to “go feed the strippers.” With home-cooked meals and gift bags, Erin shows dancers that God loves them. How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness includes the story of a dancer who has come to know Christ, left the strip club industry through Erin’s ministry, and is now serving with Erin to reach other strippers.

    From feeding the homeless, to Easter egg hunts for special needs children, to ministering in a strip club, How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness provides exciting ideas for showing God’s love in practical ways.

    Features include:

    • Stories from kindness outreach events, including Strip Church
    • Ideas for showing God’s love in practical ways
    • Inspiration to step out of your comfort zone to serve people 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateJun 24, 2014
    ISBN9780529116895
    How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness: Serving People Just as They Are

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    Reviews for How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness

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    • 5/5
      I initially picked up this book because of the great title. I had no expectations out of it, it literally just looked good. Turns out, it's actually a really awesome book. Normally, I can't stand evangelicals and bible thumpers that try to push their religion down your throat. This book made me realize that there is a proper way to spread the love of God, and that's through kindness. Straight kindness. Pastor Todd Stevens talks about all the things that his Friendship Church accomplishes by thiunking outside of the box. People don't want to be preached at, they react better to actions. Todd and his church make a point to randomly wash car shields, pass out free gas cards, help special needs children, give free food to strippers and soo much more! They hand out little cards that say something like (forgive me, I don't have the book next to me) " Spreading the love of God - No Strings attached." They aren't forcing people to come to church or guilting the community. They are doing good deeds because it's the right thing to do and people will react more positively to it. This is a must read for any Christian or do gooder. There are so many great ideas and positive stories. Seriesouly soo good!I received this book for free from Book Look Bloggers in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.
    • 4/5
      How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness: Serving People Just as They Are (Refraction)The most effective way to reach people for Jesus is through kindness outreach—showing God’s love in practical ways. I have to say I live by this motto. Whenever I see a need I could fulfill I do and it has served me well. Pastor Todd Stevens and his wife Erin reach out to people you would not normally see sitting next to you in church. For instance Erin visits a strip club in Vegas every week bringing food and loving on women who may be in a poor situation. Nothing required in return just to show a loving God verses a hateful and judgmental God. I love the concept and teachings this book has. If you are a faith based person this might be a great book for you. It helps show and suggest some gifts you might not think of using for God works!

    Book preview

    How to Pick Up a Stripper and Other Acts of Kindness - Todd Stevens

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    Special thanks . . .

    To Katie and your two precious girls. May blessings and favor pour out on you for allowing us to share part of your incredible story.

    To the girls. Please don’t ever forget that you are valuable to God and valuable to us.

    To Neil and Mindi, who love us unconditionally and provide the friendship that every pastor’s family needs.

    To Elijah, Daniel, and Levi, who are mighty men of God in their generation. You are game changers for the kingdom of God, and we cannot wait to see what God has in store for your surrendered lives. We love you all the way.

    To our parents, who believed in the vision of Friendship Community Church from the beginning.

    To John. Thank you for not saying no.

    To Jason and Julie, who have been our cheerleaders and sounding board.

    To Teri, the best career placement person in town. Thank you for being a vital part of Nashville Strip Church.

    To Kathy, who filled our freezer with delicious food. Our family is blessed by your generosity and kindness.

    To Maleah, our editor and friend, who saw the potential for this book.

    To Jesus, who showed us how to love and serve people. We worship You and give You all the praise that is in us.

    FOREWORD

    Sometimes when we talk to others outside our spiritual ring, our words come out sounding a lot like a foreign language. The problem isn’t just that we only speak English. What’s more we speak with a particular accent, depending on where we live. Imagine for a moment that most people don’t understand what we are saying.

    Let’s learn how to speak the way those around can understand, whatever that may be. Todd and Erin Stevens have started a church that focuses on the international language of Kindness that changes everything. The story of what has happened in Nashville shows there are lots of people who speak the same mother tongue.

    God made each of us with needs and desires that are impossible to ignore. It’s also true that all of us need to experience kindness and generosity. We are vulnerable to it, so when we experience it our hearts rejoice. We think, So this is the way life is supposed to work.

    As you read this book, imagine yourself as a dry sponge that needs a good soaking. Put aside your expectations of what outreach or evangelism is supposed to look like. Let the waters of newness soak their way in and allow for a new perspective. I believe you will look back in five years and agree that this will have been one of the most influential books you’ve read.

    Steve Sjogren

    Author & Coach, Kindness.com

    1

    GETTING STARTED

    We had no idea about the journey God had in store for us.

    I’m a pastor, and my wife hangs out in strip clubs. I used to be a computer programmer, and she was a human resources director. We were respectable and successful people and had lots of respectable and successful friends. Then God showed up and wrecked all of that. I’m so glad He did.

    When my wife, Erin, and I first started meeting with the group of people who would become the launch team for Friendship Community Church in 2006, we had no idea about the journey God had in store for us. The group that assembled for those first planning meetings had a shared vision for a church that would actively demonstrate God’s love in our community in practical ways by meeting needs and doing acts of kindness. We believed God could use this type of church to change the face of our city.

    Since that time, we’ve been blessed to see transformation begin in our community. We’ve had the opportunity to see hundreds of lives radically changed by the message of Jesus. But the change that has occurred in Erin and me has been even more radical.

    Erin used to hang out primarily with other suburban moms, and the only dancers she knew were the ones on Dancing with the Stars. Now she leads a ministry called Nashville Strip Church, which is reaching out to the dancers and other employees of inner-city strip clubs with the message of God’s love.

    I used to spend all my time with people who had been in church for most of their lives. The closest I had been to any kind of addiction was my own infatuation with pepperoni pizza. Now my circle of friends includes addicts and ex-cons. When we first began the church, I’m not sure I even knew those people existed in my community. Now I can’t imagine what my life would be like without them.

    The purpose of this book is to share with you what we’ve learned along the way, so you can make an even greater impact for God in your community. I’ll bet that reaching your community will even be easier and more fun than you think. I have no doubt God can use you to make a difference and advance His kingdom. If He can use me, then that proves He really can use anybody.

    9780529116871_I_0014_004.jpg

    Now my circle of friends includes addicts and ex-cons.

    I (Todd) am doing the writing, and Erin will be looking over my shoulder and telling me whenever I get something wrong. I’ll make whatever changes she suggests; then I’ll change it back to the way I like it when she leaves the room. In case you were wondering, she’s out of the room as I write this part, or else I would never have gotten away with that last sentence.

    IT’S TIME FOR SHOW-AND-TELL

    I always loved it in elementary school when we got to do show-and-tell. This was my opportunity to show my friends the new batting glove I got for Christmas or to bring a picture of my grandparents. Then I’d tell them all about whatever I had brought. Those days were always fun and interesting, even though none of the third graders in my class were public-speaking prodigies. Their speech, or tell, didn’t have to be great, because it was accompanied by the show.

    The highlight from that time for me was when my friend Jim busted out his awesome baseball card collection. In case you’re too young to have ever been excited about baseball cards, just imagine old-school Pokémon cards, except with actual athletes instead of some evolution of a Pikachu. Anyway, Jim was a hardcore collector. For some baseball seasons, he had the cards for every player on every team.

    Jim had lots of good information too. He could talk about Dave Winfield’s stats and why George Brett’s rookie card was already worth so much. As he gave his speech, I could hold his cards in my hand and see them up close. I could see immediately that my cards, with their bent corners and frayed edges, were way inferior to his. I had a front-row seat to what could happen when a regular guy like Jim took better care of his cards. The combination of show-and-tell inspired me to make some changes. I knew I could do it because I now had the right information and a good example.

    I’ve never been a bold, outspoken person who could just walk up to anyone and begin a conversation. As I grew in my Christian faith, I started looking for ways to share it with others. I wanted to do exactly what Jesus had commanded: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matt. 28:19–20 NIV).

    Unfortunately, whenever I tried to go and make disciples, I usually ended up feeling like a failure. I went to training classes and read books because I really wanted to help other people connect with God. I had no doubt that every person’s life (and eternity) would be exponentially better if Jesus were in the center of it.

    But whenever I would try to do evangelism, instead of making disciples, I was just making people uncomfortable. It felt as if I were putting on a shoe that just didn’t fit right. Actually, a better comparison to my attempts at evangelism would be that it was like me as a two-hundred-pound-guy putting on pink high heels. Not only was it painful for me, but it was painful to watch. I was focused exclusively on the tell.

    When I first read Steve Sjogren’s groundbreaking book Conspiracy of Kindness, I had finally found the shoe that fit. I’m wanting to make an analogy to being like Cinderella finding her glass slipper, but then that would be another analogy that has me wearing women’s shoes, so let’s not go there.

    In his book, Steve unpacked the concept of servant evangelism. Servant evangelism is an approach to outreach that isn’t just about telling people the gospel: it is about showing them too. I was intrigued. Could it really be possible to do evangelism without coming across as obnoxious or manipulative, as I had in the past? It occurred to me for the first time that this was what Jesus had done.

    In his account of the life of Jesus, Matthew wrote, Jesus went throughout Galilee. He taught in the synagogues. He preached the good news of the Kingdom, and He healed people, ridding their bodies of sickness and disease (Matt. 4:23). He taught and preached the good news and he met people’s physical needs.

    Could it really be possible to do evangelism without coming across as obnoxious or manipulative?

    If Jesus had only taught lessons and not done the good works, I think the crowds would have been smaller, and would have consisted mostly of intellectuals and religious people. If He had gone around healing everybody, but never taught them the truth about God, then crowds of people would have shown up to be entertained, but they would have never changed or grown spiritually. Jesus always did both.

    Servant evangelism is about doing both—showing and telling. Words without good deeds lack credibility. Good deeds without words lack eternal impact.¹ As followers of Jesus, we’re challenged to do both.

    As we serve people and do acts of kindness, their hearts open up and they often want to know more about why we’re doing what we’re doing. Whether we have an in-depth conversation or just hand them a card explaining that we’re showing God’s love in a practical way, they leave the encounter with a more positive view of Christianity and a tangible experience of God’s love. Servant evangelism is about both serving and evangelizing, so we’ll define what we mean by both of those words in the pages ahead.

    Servant evangelism is about doing both—showing and telling.

    For now, maybe an example will help. I eat lunch at Subway almost every day. I figure if Jared lost 250 pounds eating those sandwiches, then I can’t possibly go wrong. A while back I decided to start paying every day for the person’s lunch who was in line behind me. The employees have caught on and know I’m going to do it now. They get excited every time.

    As I pick up the tab, I hand the person behind me a business-sized card and say, Lunch is on me today. I just wanted to do this to show you God’s love in a practical way with no strings attached. The card (which I ordered from ServantEvangelism.com) has basically the same thing as what I said on one side, and the other side has some basic information about our church.

    Each day as I am driving to Subway, I pray that God will put just the right person in line behind me. Today when I went to lunch, my recipient was an elderly woman. At first, she didn’t understand what I was doing. Then we had a nice conversation as we got our drinks. She told me a bit about the church she attends and thanked me for what I had done.

    This evening I received an e-mail from a young lady who attends our church. She told me that her neighbor from two doors down, Dot, had come to see her this evening. Dot knew this young lady attended Friendship and wanted to tell her about the handsome young man who had bought her lunch today. Okay, I added in the handsome part.

    Anyway, it turns out that Dot is caring for her forty-nine-year-old son who has Down syndrome and lives with her. Her husband died many years ago, and her daughter has just recently filed for disability. Even though Dot’s only income is her Social Security check, she is now buying the groceries for all three of them. Do you think God put just the right person in line behind me to receive a free lunch as an expression of His love? I am continually amazed at the ways God uses my daily lunch gift.

    That may sound to you like a nice thing to do for someone, but it may not seem to be evangelism. After all, nobody prayed the prayer, and I didn’t even mention what Jesus did on the cross. That is okay if it doesn’t all make sense yet. By the end of this book, you’ll understand just how potent a simple act of kindness can be in reaching people with the gospel.

    There are lots of good ways to do evangelism. I think most of us want to be able to reach people and share our faith. If you are already effective in communicating the gospel to people so that they often understand and respond, then by all means please keep doing what you’re doing.

    If you’re like I was, though, and are looking for a practical way to connect with people in the real world and to see them take the next step toward God from wherever they are, then perhaps servant evangelism will be the shoe that fits you just right. I think you’re going to enjoy learning these concepts and seeing what God does as you put them into practice.

    WE DON’T NEED A BUILDING, BUT OUR COMMUNITY DOES

    Since its inception, Friendship has engaged in servant evangelism by showing God’s love in practical ways with no strings attached.² I kept a separate full-time job for the first year, so the church could devote more of its resources to meeting needs and reaching out in our community. I had an office in our basement and was the only staff at the time, so we didn’t see a need for any additional space for our church besides the school we rented each Sunday for our worship services.

    As the church began to grow, the size of our student group grew too. We kept shifting our growing youth group to bigger and bigger houses, until we finally decided they needed a space of their own for their midweek gathering. So we rented some space in a storefront that had a couple of large meeting rooms and some small offices on the side. We dubbed it the CITY—Christ Is Transforming Youth.

    We’d only had the space at the CITY for a few months when Middle Tennessee was hit by its biggest disaster since the Civil War. You may not have heard much about it because some national news outlets devoted only fifteen minutes of total coverage to the event. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was already dominating headlines, and there was a failed car bomb attempt in Times Square on the day the rain started. But for the people who were impacted, the flood that devastated Nashville in 2010 will never be forgotten. The total cost of the damage was in the billions of dollars. By some estimates, it was the costliest non-hurricane natural disaster in U.S. history.

    In retrospect, the strangest part is that in this era of high-definition Doppler radar and ten-day forecasts, nobody saw this coming. When the rain began to fall on Saturday, it was just another storm. By Sunday morning, there were a few roads covered with water, but I was still able to make it to the school to begin setting up for our weekend worship experience. Within an hour, we realized we had a crisis on our hands because every road leading to the school had completely flooded. We would be trapped if we didn’t get out fast. So we canceled the service, told everyone to stay home, and posted the sermon as a podcast on our website.

    Thirteen inches of rain fell in just thirty-six hours, and the rainfall ultimately exceeded seventeen inches. Just imagine if a foot and a half of water were dumped over your entire region all at the same time. There just wasn’t any place for all that water to go. Houses and buildings were literally washed away, and several lives were lost. But the flood had a very peculiar effect on the people of Nashville.

    Within hours, it seemed as if everyone I knew had updated their Facebook profiles with this mantra: we are Nashville. Instead of the chaos and crime that other areas had experienced in the wake of disaster, the community rallied and people did whatever needed to be done to help their neighbors. Best of all, churches were leading the way in the relief effort, and Friendship was no exception. Our church was literally the first on the scene in two flooded communities.

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