I started writing this Monday and just finished.
I have been up for almost two days straight. Sitting on a plane headed home and amazed once again by what I get to do. I realize most people don’t want to do what I do but if you were able to be with me the last 48 hours you might quit your job and take my place. Simply incredible. I don’t have much room so I am going to keep this short.
9 years ago no one was talking about this issue. We created a space online to help people. Sunday, 350 churches from across the world addressed the issue of pornography and people found hope.
I spent the whole last week on an ice rink also known as Dallas. We reached out to media outlets and informed them about our event National Porn Sunday.
335 Outlets covered the story online and on Televsion. Over 100 radio shows covered the story and there are still news segments being written and aired as we speak.
A few of the highlights include:
Wasthington Post
Time
Inside Edition
Tonight Show
MSNBC
CNN
HLN ( 2 hits)
CNN.com
Fox – different Fox Markets
CBS Local outlets
38 Radio Interviews
Christian Post
Examiner
Huffington Post
RT ( Russia Television)
NPR
We got a report in that is pretty mind blowing
*350 churches worldwide played the event to an audience of well over 100k people.
* Over 15,000 people have watched it online already.
*News clips and mentions on television and the Internet to over over 23 MILLION PEOPLE on 335 outlets
*It was a seen in newspapers across the world in over 50 newspapers.
*The publicity value (not including print or radio) was estimated at 2.2 mililon dollars
*We did not charge churches for this event but the whole event cost us $21,000 to pull off ( video, travel, print, marketing, promotions, advertising)
I always say we do a lot on a little. To all our supporters and donors I want to say thank you for believing in this ministry and hope you feel good about what this event accomplished and will continue to accomplish. This is not about Press and Media and going on the news. This is about reaching people with this message. We knew from day one on this event we could have huge exposure and impact. The news worldwide of this event despite what was happening with storms and Egypt all week brought this message to over 23 million people.
We took a day when all eyes were on a football game and brought attention to football players that wanted to tell better stories.
I love the article in the Tampa Bay paper. Crazy.. no churches in Tampa hosted the event but the paper still ran this on Saturday’s front page of the paper. The article talked about the event and my friend Ryan Pickett from the Packers.
I just got a call from Jon Kitna from the Cowyboys and I was nervous to pick it up. The media showed some clips of his interview all week long. I thought he might be upset because some people wanted to assume since we had players involved “they were porn addicts”. I kept telling the media that these players wanted to “tell better stories”. Kitna was not upset. He was so pumped to hear about what was going on he wanted to hear more. He said he got calls from people that have not talked to him in years that heard about this and his involvement. I am so thankful for all the guy on the video that they would be a part of this. We could not have done this
without them.
Some emails I have received:
Hello,
Just wanted to say that your ministry has helped my family transform and become more holy. Thank you!
-Ellie
Hey I just got back from a porn sunday service I am going to be adding x3 watch to my Playstation 3 and I was wondering if you have it for that, I know I have and my friends have struggled also. I have it on my computer. – Jack
Watching these players be this honest gave me the strength for the first time ever to be honest. – Cole
My marriage is in shambles but am holding on to hope after what happened today at church. -Rebecca
Great Sunday. Channel 3 from Sacramento came to the third service, your dad was in the second, got to meet him. Just got a call from CNN wants to send a car to do a interview in the morning . . ha… but great video, great response.
Tim – pastor from Galt, CA
The conversation was the best conversation I have ever had with a person who is not a christ follower. He walked in late and wanted to know where the debate was. He is a guy that manages in his words a internet server site that host a significant portion of the us porn web sites. He said with a flip of a switch he could shut down 20 to 30% of the porn in america. His expectation of what he thought I would say and what I said was about as far from each other as he could have ever expected.
When he showed up he expected us to be a place of christians that didn’t struggle with porn and we were only meeting to talk about how other people in the world had a problem and we need to expose it. When he told me that porn pays for family to put food on the table and a roof over their head, he expected me to say, I don’t care and their kids can starve.
What he got from me was inspired by Craig’s and Ron’s relationship. He gave me a chance to give him vision of our church and a side of Jesus he hadn’t gotten before. As aggravated and defense as he was, by the end of our conversation, he actually told me he was impressed with us and then he gave me a better way to word our marketing to get more people here. All he asked from me was when I found people that acted the way he expected me to act to educate them on the vision i shared with him.
We got many what I call “hate” phone messages from christians. But this conversation remind me why we need to exist as a church in this area. I love communicating a Jesus that many people didn’t know existed. He had heard of jesus but not actually heard about Jesus through the eyes of a place like our church
I love what you guys, our church, and Jesus gave me the chance to do.
Mike – Pastor Ashburn, VA
In case you missed the video, you can go to xxxchurch.com to watch the whole video and see the extended clips from all the players. You can pass this onto anyone you want. You can also tell churches they are able to sign up still for this event and play the video at any time of the year.
Download X3watch while you are at it as well.
Thanks to those pastors who took part in this event and just hit it out of the park.
Oh and what about those PACKERS!
Craig