(upbeat music) - Hey friends, welcome back to Let It Shine. I am so excited that you have decided to join me today. Whatever you are doing, maybe you're folding laundry, maybe you are carpooling, driving kids, picking up kids, dropping off kids, maybe you are at the gym or going on a walk in your neighborhood, whatever you're doing, thank you for bringing me along. I'm so thankful. I love doing life with you. Now, guys, I'm gonna tell you that I am doing one of my very last crossover episodes of the summer today and it is a crossover episode with a podcast called a Marked from Life Way and their guest was none other than Priscilla Shire. So you're gonna hear on this episode, the host of the Marked podcast, Elizabeth Heynman, along with Ryan Grow, who is the manager of Life Way Films. They are interviewing Priscilla Shire today. And guys, I was driving down the road as I was listening to this episode of Marked and I thought to myself, I have got to share this with a Let It Shine listeners. It is exactly the kind of thing that you guys would love to hear. I wanted to make sure you did not miss it. Now, if you are not listening to Marked on a regular basis, I hope that you enjoy it and I wanna invite you to go over and follow Marked and listen so you don't miss a single episode with them. So guys, this is the last episode of the summer where I am doing crossover episodes and we are moving into season two of Let It Shine coming up very soon. So you're gonna hear from me a trailer episode where I'm gonna tell you all about what's coming up and you'll get to meet our new illuminators. We've got four brand new illuminators for season two of Let It Shine and I cannot wait to introduce them to you. I've already been in the studio recording and it is going to be a blast. So make sure you don't miss that. Okay guys, here is my friend Elizabeth Hyman, Ryan Grow and their conversation with Priscilla Shire. ♪ Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) This is the Marked podcast from Lifeway Women. Each episode, we'll talk about what God is doing, how he has and is marking each of us. We're so glad you've joined us today. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to the Marked podcast. I am Elizabeth Hyman and today I am with a fun new co-host for the podcast for this episode, Ryan Grow. Some of our astute listeners may recognize your voice from the behind the scenes Israel taping episode. - I was there, I was there. - Yeah, I think you introduced yourself as, I like the color red. - Yep, yep, that's about all you need to know. - Well, tell our listeners what you do at Lifeway and maybe give them a hint about why you're here for this episode. - Yeah, absolutely. Well, Elizabeth, thanks for having me on. This was exciting. But yeah, I helm Lifeway Films here at Lifeway, which is our cinema division. And essentially that's- - Cinema division. - Cinema division. - I like that. - Yeah, and we basically interact with all different forms of faith, faith adjacent type of content, whether on the publishing front or promotions or distributing, making it ourselves, different projects, but uniquely now with the forge, just helping churches know about that upcoming film. And we have one of the stars of the forge here on the episode with us today. This is Priscilla Shire. Hello, Priscilla. - Hey, y'all, how you doing? - We are so excited to get to talk to you about the forge as well as some of your other stuff that you're doing with Lifeway and a new book that you have out. But let's give a refresher just in case some members of our audience don't know what you've been up to in the past like a couple of years, 'cause I think it's been a few years since you've been on the March podcast. So let us know what your life updates are and what you've been working on. - Well, most of my life updates revolve around my kids. - Right. - Yeah, usual, per usual. But just my boys are getting really old now. So they're all heading off one-by-one to college. Our two oldest are in university now. I think when I first became connected with Lifeway back 20 something years ago when I wrote the very first Bible study, my oldest was three. So now he'll be 22 here in just a little while. And so they're kind of flying the coop one after the other and then Jude, our youngest is in high school now. So it's just kind of a full-time job parenting adult children. And nobody told me that. - Yeah, that's an interesting new phase of your life, I feel like. - It's very interesting and enjoyable really to see them sort of spreading their wings and kind of becoming their own people away outside of the bubble of our house. And so that's been kind of cool. And then beside that, helping my sister serve alongside my dad and brothers at the local church we have here, Oakwood Bible Fellowship Church for dad pastors. And then yeah, with women's ministry, still have the joy and the privilege to speak on occasion to women who are gathered together in different venues, different churches from different denominations, different walks of life. That's one of the biggest joys for me in ministry is getting to teach God's Word to a group of women who may not usually be gathered together either because they don't geographically live in the same part of town, or they just worship completely different styles and different denominational experiences. But being able to bring everybody together and worship underneath the same banner, the name of Jesus Christ, that's just one of the most refreshing and rewarding gifts. I feel like the Lord has given me in ministry. It feels like a present to me to get to do that for women. So I enjoyed that. - Yes, and we'll talk a little bit more about some of those events later. But we love, that's one of the reasons why we love doing life way women events is because it does bring in all these women from different areas, different churches, different styles of worship to all worship, the same God together, and we love the togetherness aspect of those events. But we're here to talk to you mostly today about the Forge, which is a new movie with the Kindred Brothers. So can you tell us what the Forge is about? - Yes, it is about a young man actually. He's a central character. He's about 19 years old when the movie opens. And he's just in that phase of life where he's floundering a little bit. He's not got his eyes set on anything specific regarding his future. And that wouldn't be a problem, except he just also has no momentum. And he's not being strategic or thoughtful even about the choices he's making towards his future. And his mom, I play his mother. She's a single mother. So she's raising him alone. And as the story sort of alludes to, she's been raising him alone for quite a while. And now she's becoming a little concerned and rightfully so that here he is entering into manhood, but he doesn't really have a model of what that's supposed to look like. And she can see that taking, it's tall. He lacks responsibility and an awareness again of future projects and plans that he has for his life. And so she's just sort of secretly praying behind his back that God would send some men in his life that would help to give him some stewarding in terms of what it looks like to have character and integrity and to love God and to be excellent in their life and their craft, whatever that craft may be. And so you get to see the Lord in a very unique way, answer that request and send a man, several men, it ends up being several men. But in the beginning, one man, Joshua Moore, who is a business owner, I love that the script is written that way. He's not a pastor, he's not a vocational ministry. He is just a businessman who has an excellent career. He's built a very established business and it's doing well, so it's highly respected. But you see this grown man in the context of the marketplace looking and being aware of the young men who are around him and asking the Lord, is this one that you would have me disciple, that our relationship goes beyond just this business world, that it's gonna be about that too, but it's also about helping some young man around me to know what it's like to live as a man of character who has his eyes on the purposes of God. So I think it's such a, it's an entertaining movie, it's an engaging movie, it's an endearing movie for sure, but also I think it's gonna be a challenging one where it will compel all of us, no matter our walks of life, no matter our fields, no matter the industries that we're in, to realize that being in ministry has nothing to do with a full time vocational position. There are those in vocational ministry that we're so grateful for that the Lord has called to that. But the Lord has called all of us, whether we're writing or making a film or whether we're teaching a second grade class or we're in a cubicle because we're in accountant, crunching numbers, whether we're a lawyer, so the bar association, whenever we show up, that bar association should see what it looks like when God tries a case, the teacher should be mindful of the students around her, who is it Lord that you have entrusted to me for a purpose that is beyond just the four walls of the classroom? That's what we get to see in Joshua, Joshua Moore's example. And I think it really is gonna encourage all of us to take inventory of the sphere the Lord has entrusted to us and the people he has placed in it, particularly those that may be younger than us and how we're supposed to be investing in their lives. - Yeah, that was one of my favorite parts of the movie too is how that group of men kind of talked to the main character and said, "This is how I know Joshua Moore. "This is how I got connected to him. "This is how I got." And it was all these different ways. And I think we often have women who are like, "Oh, I'm not a women's ministry leader in my church." So that is not on me to disciple or to mentor, but it is. It's on all of us to mentor the next generation and to disciple. And that looks all different ways. In the movie, it looked one way, but it also just looks like having somebody over for dinner and talking about the Bible with them, going through a Bible study together, going to see the forge together and talking about it afterwards. And I think that would be a fun thing to do with your mentee as well to kind of talk about like, "Oh, this is how we, this could look." Or yeah, so I think I love that. - And Elizabeth, just like doing life together. - Yeah, exactly. - When I think back to my teenage years and early 20s, and I wrote about this a little bit in "I surrender all," but there are most of the women I look back on now that I didn't realize until hindsight that that intersection in my life was gonna be a linchpin of some sort that sort of set me on a certain trajectory or made me feel capable about the next step in my life. Those women that I can clearly see now that the Lord was lining me up in a discipleship relationship with. Most of them were not in full-time ministry. The majority of them were just women who were doing something that was attractive to me at the time, whether it was just the way they lived. Like as a one woman named Kim was a single corporate woman, single woman, I was intrigued by her life. Just the freedom of it, the joy she had in living it, her beauty, her femininity. And I just remember her, I was probably 16, she was probably 26, and she would just take me out. After church, she'd grab me and say, "Hey, Mrs. Evans, my mom, can I take Priscilla with me?" And we'd go to the Fort Worth Water Gardens, go to a restaurant, I'd go to her apartment, we'd hang out there, and for a 16-year-old being connected to the life of a 26-year-old, that feels like something when you're 16. It places value on you that someone in that stage of life would just take interest in me and make space for me in her life. But mostly what we did was go to the mall, go out to eat, hang out together, but I've learned so much about what it means to be a single woman, a successful woman, who honors God, who enjoys their life, not 'cause we had Bible studies together, but because I got to watch her live in a way that honors God and the impact that had on me was monumental. - That's amazing, that's amazing. And Priscilla, would you say that this particular, when you received the script for the first time and you were considering it, looking at it, the fact that you have boys that are coming up, that are now college, high school, and seeing that path of discipleship, did that resonate with you maybe on another level, from even the past films that you've done just because of the personalization of that? (upbeat music) - Hey there, it's Priscilla Shire, and I wanted to take an opportunity to invite you to one of the highlights of my year, and I think it'll be one of the highlights of yours as well, on August the 24th. We'll have the Going Beyond Live event, but on that day, it will be simulcasted, which means I'll just come to wherever you are. You can be in the comfort of your own home, or at your local church, or gathered together in some space with a group of friends or on your own, and together we can worship God in spirit and in truth, be taught from his word, share the voice of God, pray with one another, it's such an incredible opportunity for us to be gathered together, virtually, with other people from different walks of life, different denominations, different time zones, different races, different backgrounds, all coming together under the name of Jesus Christ. Would you mark August 24th on your calendar, wherever in the world you live, and I'll look forward to joining with you again. (upbeat music) - Totally, oh my goodness, it absolutely did. I remember when Alex first called me before he even sent me the script and called me and said that it's gonna center on a 19, 20 year old boy, we'd like for you to play as a mother. Let me be honest with you and tell you, my first thought was, I don't think that's gonna come across as true on you. (laughing) - No, you're not old enough to do that. - Yeah, you know, I totally was like, it's never gonna work. And then in the next thought, I was like, oh, I am actually a mother of a 20 year old man. I bet it works. - You know what it dawns on you today? - Yes, I serve in my college ministry, sometimes at my church. And there was a moment when we move in the college freshmen every year, we would help them move in. And there was a moment that I was like, oh, I'm closer in age to your parents than I am to you now. And I'm more identifying with your parents. (laughing) I was like, oh no, I don't like this anymore. - Very jarring, I know. But that was my first thought when they asked me about it. I was like, we'll see. I don't think that's gonna work. Y'all's casting is really awesome. - That's awesome. - But then after I read the script and it again began to occur to me, oh my gosh, this young man is my son's. My sons are literally in this exact same phase. And many of the lines in the film, when I'm challenging that young man of mine in the film, those are things that in some form or fashion, I have said exactly to my children, just encouraging them and challenging them. Like what you're not gonna do is sit around here all day and play video games. There's gonna be a more productive use of your time. And I'm going to make sure that I call you up to a standard, that right now you don't have the motivation, the self-discipline, the character to support. My job as your parent is to keep pressing you and pushing you and elevating you and introducing you to experiences that hopefully the Lord is gonna use to continue to nudge you towards his purposes. So I so saw myself and my own sons in this film. And I asked Alex, I said, now listen, you have written a story that is about a black single mother with a black son. And some of the ways you have written some of these lines, they don't have enough soul for the way I would say this to my kids. And so Alex very much was like, please put all the stuff in it the way you would say it to your boys. And so the way that hopefully it comes across on screen is very much like how I would talk to myself. - That's amazing. - 'Cause I've heard too that Alex is just so collaborative when it comes to, he'll write something, but he is just open to notes. - Totally. - And what do you, 'cause this is your, I think your third film with the Kendrick's, what draws you in to want to be a part of something like this? - Well, the very first speaking specifically about the Kendrick's, the very first thing that draws me and Jerry in is them. Their integrity, their character, we know that they have no interest in sugarcoating the scripture or in any way sort of trying to package Jesus in a way that's more user friendly. I know that whatever they're writing is going to be a clear incubator for whatever the principle is that they're trying to get across in that story. In this case with the forge, it's discipleship. We know they're going to steward that clearly and carefully. And we also know that they're going to have integrity in things that we don't even have to concern ourselves with. Like, for example, I can tell you so many things. But in this film, there was AI that was used in some of the films. Well, that is a real concern for actors and actresses that this is their craft right now. AI is a big problem for them because that means that their image having been captured by AI, it can be used in any way that that production company wants to use it after the filming process is over. Well, because we know that Kendrick Brothers and their character, the use of my image in AI, we don't even have to concern ourselves that there would be any misuse or misrepresentation of that because we know these men. They are like family to us. They're like my brothers. So that's sort of honestly that comfort level with them and honestly just knowing the integrity that they have to the scriptures and that their goal is the same as ours that we want to minister to the body of Christ. And so the fact that they keep allowing me to partner with them and their ministry and do it in this way is one of the biggest surprise gifts that the Lord has given me and my family in our lifetime. So we just feel incredibly grateful. - That's amazing, Priscilla. 'Cause one of the things I had a chance to do a set visit when you guys were filming the forge, last summer, so about a year ago. And the thing that impressed me more than any of the professionalism, everything around it was the prayer that went into every single. I have never seen a set more bathed than prayer and just acted and everyone there was just acting in such a humble servant mindset to where they were leading, they would solve problems. All the problems that you face as a filmmaker when you're trying to get a movie done which is not a simple or easy process on any level but to do that with grace and every day, having those devotions and to make sure that people felt not only just part of it but that we were giving this to the Lord. And I just was so, they even have prayer teams on set. Set shepherds, I mean, it's not typical to say the least in a normal production. - I'm so glad you brought that up because number one, I don't think that I certainly didn't before I'd participated in any capacity in a film. I didn't realize the amount of work that goes into these 100 people. There's about 100 people with the cast and crew, all of them doing their own bits and pieces of the puzzle. And if any one of them is slack on the job, the whole scene can't get filmed. If one person on lighting or one person behind this camera or the continuity person or the wardrobe or if any pieces of the puzzle aren't full-fledged, if everybody's not willing to work together to be supportive, the whole team doesn't function. And so to watch Stephen and Alex build this community of people around, like you said, morning devotions, every day, it doesn't matter what aspects of the film you're working on. Everybody gathers together for morning devotions. And then throughout the day, they will stop the filming. If we're getting ready to film a scene that is pertinent and particularly powerful in terms of the fact that they know this could be a scene, somebody sitting on the other side of the screen in the theater, they could see this one. And this could be the one where they're introduced to Jesus or where their heart becomes tender to the fact that maybe they do not know the Lord is Savior. When they realize this is a poignant scene, they're calling everybody down from their ladders, from their posts, from behind cameras. And they're saying, let's gather right here on the set, right before we push record on this next scene. And let's pray and ask the Holy Spirit to be present on this one. So for me to watch all these hard-working people, I mean pouring in sweat in 100 degree weathers, 13 hour days, coming together to say, let's pray together before we film this one and ask God's presence to be on it so that we can continue to work together to make sure that we steward God's glory and his presence through this scene. Oh my gosh, I was so moved by that as well just to underscore what you've said. A lot of those people, most of the people work in the film industry, they're unlike me where they're kind of coming in and doing something they don't get to do every day. A lot of those people had just come off of the Marvel, the next Marvel movie set. And now they come to this set. And so for them too, seeing people work together like that, seeing the fruit of the spirit demonstratively on display, seeing the pause and priority of prayer, it is what I've heard for many of them, some of the most refreshing experiences they've ever had on set have happened on the Kendrick Brothers sets. - That's amazing. - So I just feel incredibly grateful again to be able to be a part of it. - What a great metaphor too for the body of Christ. Like when you were describing everybody doing their part and then it all being centered on prayer and on Christ and God, I think that's just a beautiful metaphor that I'm sure you will work into a talk or a book or something sometime, but that was just a great illustration I needed to point out. - Well, it is amazing how collaborative those film sets are and how dependent you are. And really for the Kendrick's, I think for me too, the thing that I just, I so values that it's not just about the destination. It is genuinely about that journey to get there because it matters. That journey matters for people from the highest producer on set to the PA who this is their first film that they're ever, that they're doing and that valuing of people and just roping them into that process to where they're praying over a scene. I mean, that just tethers people together in ways that a lot of people just don't, I mean, you're in battle in a way for six weeks, eight weeks, whatever it is while you're filming. And, but this is great. And Priscilla, if you could let me know 'cause movies in some ways, they, how did they help share the gospel in maybe different ways than books or Bible studies can do? - Well, there's a certain person who would never read a book that I would write or a book that Life Way would publish or come to a conference that I would be speaking at. They are not in church. They have no interest in being in church. They're not gonna go to a bookstore or get online and buy a book that is very clearly centered on Christ or biblical teaching, not because they're antithetical to it. It's just not in their realm. It's not in their world. It's not what they're drawn to. But a movie, they'll go to a movie. It just might be the movie that's playing at the right time that they happen to have a break that week and a little opportunity to go to a theater or by the time it's streaming many, many, many months later, it just happens to be the thing that pops up on their streaming platform. And okay, I'll watch this movie. So there are many people that I could never touch through the way that I have traditionally done ministry for the past 25 years. But there are people that will go sit in a movie theater and I've had the joy to meet so many of them since 10 years ago, if you can believe it, that's when a war room came out 10 years ago. And since that time, the people that I have met walking through malls or in grocery stores or when I've been out of the country and a group of people will come up to me that don't speak the same language, but I can tell they know exactly who I am and they're trying to communicate to me. And then a translator will come to let me know what they're saying is that that war room helped them to realize the importance and necessity of prayer and salvaging their marriages or a woman that comes dressed up to me and she's in a hijab and she's got all of the markings that let me know her religious perspective is completely different than mine, that she's grown up completely differently and that her frame of reference of what it means to worship God is completely different than mine. And yet she sees me and comes over to me to ask me, can I pray for her? - Wow. - I've done that in malls. - Yeah. - I've done that. So people I would not be able to connect to and pray over in the name of Jesus. These films give me an opportunity to be able to serve them in that way. And so I love that when the Kendrick Brothers produce a movie, there is a series of resources that they wanna make available so that someone who's coming out of the theater that doesn't know the next step, they have no idea what to do with this warmth, they're feeling in their heart that's drawing them towards one of the many layers of nuance in the film, forgiveness, dealing with having a hard past and being betrayed or feeling like they're needing to come in contact with this loving father that is introduced to them in the film and they have no idea how to do that. Well, that's the reason why these resources that the Kendrick Brothers wanna make sure are produced in connection with the films are so critical because there is a vast array of people who are in that theater who have never been in a church before. And those are the people now we have the opportunity to minister to through these films. Yeah, and let's go ahead and transition to some of those extra resources. I know there's a Bible study, the Forge Bible study. And then you have a book coming out that is kind of themed with the movie, similar to the movie called I Surrender All, which I love that title. But tell us a little bit about that, the book, what the message is, why somebody might pick it up. I surrender all is really exactly what that title portrays. It's the idea that as believers, our goal should be to surrender every part of our lives to him, to his authority so that he is the main priority, the priority of our life. It's one thing to be a Christian. It's another thing to choose to be a disciple because salvation is free, but discipleship costs. Jesus says if anyone will be my disciple, then he will, she will be willing to lay down her life. She's got to be willing to take up her cross to follow me, to deny self. Those words are very different than some of what we have seen portrayed in culture and even in Christian culture of what it looks like to follow Jesus. The words are completely opposite, but it's not about being self-focused or building a brand or having a certain image. What Jesus says discipleship looks like is self-denial. It looks like sacrifice. It looks like taking up a cross, which means something's going to die. Most of the time, it's our flesh, that the things that we are leaning towards, our flesh leans us towards, or the propensities that we have naturally in our flesh, that we're yielding all of that to him and saying, "No, your Lord, "I'm not gonna let anything else boss me around, "not my appetites, not my political preferences, "not my cultural identity, "that all of those things can be part of my life. "They're just not the preeminent force of my life. "They're not setting the agenda for my life. "I'm gonna surrender everything that I am "and all that I have underneath the lordship of Jesus Christ "and surrender all to him." And that's gonna come with a cost. So the question is, are we willing to do what is necessary to surrender all to Jesus because in exchange, there is abundant life, there is reward, there are internal treasures that we store up in heaven for ourselves. And so just encouraging and challenging believers, really it's a book, Two Believers, to say, "Hey, are you just a Christian, "which is wonderful if you are, I hope you are." But the question now is, "Have you chosen to surrender all? "And if not, what areas of your life "are you holding back? "What treasures? "What relationships? "What entertainment choices? "Can you hold, are you holding back from him "so that when and if he convicts you "to release your grasp on some ambition that you've had "or a direction that you've been going, "would you be willing to do it as a disciple of Jesus?" - That's incredible. I really resonate that with that right now, Priscilla, because even, so little personal story. So my son, who just turned 16, he was with us at a recent screening of The Forge, saw the movie. And for him right now, working out is the thing. He just loves working out. Just, I mean, he's with me at the gym. He just, he's obsessed with it way more than I am. I wish I was, but he's just obsessed with it. Well, during this, he saw The Forge, and the Lord just ministered to his heart in that. And he literally surrendered in this season. He, God just, just really laid on him that for this season. He was going to put down, he was going to surrender, working out to the Lord as just, literally, as just this offering. And it was just one of those like pillar catalytic moments in his young life that, that, that surrendering that was what he, and what we're seeing now, my wife and I is just, he is just blossoming into this, this young man that's on fire for the Lord. And it was, and it was because of that surrender. It was really ultimately because he was able to surrender something that he loved. That, that was not innately bad. It was, it was a good thing, but, but he knew that that was taking a priority over the Lord, and that he had to lay it down. - Yeah, and I think that's, that is such a great example. I'm glad you shared that. And that's some of the examples that people will hear about and see in The Forge. But I think sort of jar you, because sometimes we're, we're always thinking about the line between the line, not wanting to cross the line that gets us into sin. So the issue is, am I sinning? And that's a good question, but for the disciple, the question's completely different. It's not how close can I get to sin without crossing a line? - Yeah. - The question is, how close can I get to Jesus? - Yes. - So when you're, when your perspective is completely different, then I might not be dealing with issues of whether or not they are sinful in and of themselves, but if they are not beneficial in keeping me sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, in keeping me purer before Him, and helping my ears to stay attentive to hearing the word of God through the scriptures. If they're not benefiting me and forming me into the image of Jesus Christ, then that means they could be taking away from what my primary goal is. And I love that in the foot film. You hear somebody saying basically what you just said about your son, about golf. And the person they're talking to is saying, "Nothing's wrong with golf." And he's like, no, there's nothing wrong with it, but I just realized I loved it too much. I was doing it too much, it was my crutch. And all of us can identify with something in our lives that may not be sinned in and of itself, but we actually realized it's starting to take more of a priority in our time, our attention, our allegiance than it should. - Yeah. - Yeah. - I would say a lot of times for the Christian, for the believer, especially those of us who maybe have grown up in church, a lot of times it is those good things that are not the best thing that are the hardest to like surrender that are, 'cause you're like, this is good. I mean, what's wrong with golf? What's wrong with working out? Like this is a great activity, but just think, I love how you phrase that, you love it too much. It's too much of a, it's taking the place of the Lord of our life. And it's taking the place of our object of worship and admiration and so that's, and just spending a lot of time doing it too, where we are like, oh, maybe this time, like your son, maybe this time could be used doing something else. - Well, he just found that he was getting wrapped up in. He loved it so much that all of his time, his energy, his mental capacity. - Yeah, that's the thing that I find is like just thinking about it all the time. - And ultimately, what is that? Well, that's your heart. I mean, ultimately that's where it is and that's where he's, he decided I'm going to lay this down and his name is Judah by the way, which I love that name for so it's a great name. - Judah. - That's right. But we have, we just, he being able to lay that down for the season though, it has allowed him the capacity really to grow in his walk with the Lord and it's not something that, you know, he's probably not going to lay down working out forever, but in this season though, this is exactly what he needed. - Yeah. And sometimes we do have to like completely cut it off for a little while to retrain, to take those thoughts captive and retrain those thoughts into something that is more worship of the one true God. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Okay, I'm going to go a little bit off the current topic, but we, if we had you on a life label, in my podcast and did not talk about going beyond live, I think that everyone would be upset. So what can women expect from the going beyond live event and the simulcast? And we'll have, just for you to note, we'll have all the information on how to sign up for that in the show notes. But Priscilla, let us know what women can expect from a going beyond live event and the simulcast? - Yes, well, so many layers of worship and opportunity to be present with others in the body of Christ again, who you may not always have an opportunity to be connected to. And that's one of the most joyous parts of it looking around the room and seeing women that you can clearly tell, just even based on their style of worship, you can tell that we're from whole different backgrounds and whole different walks of life. And here we are all together. There's something really beautiful and refreshing about seeing a picture of the body of Christ, like that different races, different generations gathered together. And we always spend incredible amounts of time and worship, but then also prioritizing prayer together, corporately, where two or three are gathered. God says, I'll come in your midst. And so we pray over your requests and we receive those in writing so that we can pray over those and make sure that they are covered together as the body of Christ. And then, of course, a time of teaching in God's word throughout the day. Anthony, my brother, sings incredible music that invites you even more deeply into the presence of God. And then we always have an outreach that is affiliated with each gathering. So wherever we are locally, we've kind of done the work of going in beforehand and, like we've sort of explored what's an organization that's here on the ground in this city that really is being the hands and feet of Jesus to people that are in need here. Let's support that organization. So we try to galvanize everybody who's gathered together for the event to raise significant funds or to bring a significant amount of items. Sometimes it's just soap that this organization needs soap so that they can help the homeless people, population that they're serving or women that are coming out of abusive situations and they're now being housed with their children and their families and they need diapers. And man, if this organization gets 3,000 women bringing diapers, then can you imagine how much money they can save not buying diapers, that they can now relocate to higher level things and that they need in their ministry to be able to serve the people that the Lord's entrusting to them. So I find great joy in watching us all mobilize our generosity together to be supportive of these organizations. And we do it with the simulcast too, which is such a unique opportunity 'cause it's a global audience. So we're gathered together in one city, but then there are people literally scattered throughout the 50 states of the US as well as around the world, New Zealand and London and Australia and different time zones and lots of people signed up together. We get to experience it together and we choose an organization that all of us, from every part of the globe, can focus on this one organization and pooling our resources together to be a blessing to them as they serve the body of Christ in a very practical way. So I love the gatherings and I think they give us a unique opportunity to see God move in a way that's unique to our weekly experiences at our local churches in our individual contexts. - Yes, I love that it brings together women in the room that are from all different demographics, like you said, different age groups, different ethnicities, but then I also had the privilege of several years doing the social media for the simulcast. And so I also got to see in churches around the world these groups of women coming together and it would be a grandmother with her granddaughter watching the simulcast together. And it would be, I mean, I saw women huddled together in like a, there's a dirt floor there somewhere in a country where they're meeting together and I'm like, I'm so glad you have Wi-Fi here. But it's so fun that they're there together and some of them are like, it's midnight here but we're just rolling with it and we're still watching. - And you don't, obviously these people do not have to watch it live. The simulcast will, there's replay. So you can watch it in your own time zone if that does not, if staying up till midnight to watch Priscilla does not appeal to you, you can watch it a time time. - I would say until midnight to watch me. - But yes, it's such a fun, such a fun event as well as something that's very powerful. And that's kind of what I wanted to ask with the last question because you talked about the prayer being such a pivotal part of the events that you do and that is one of our favorite. At Lifely we talk about the prayer at the Going Beyond Live events a lot because it is such a powerful moment in each of those events but it's also been a theme of several of your Bible studies and the forge and the war room. So it's really a theme of your life I feel like and infervent your books. And so I wanted to ask you because we've asked you the March question before. So I want to ask you specifically how prayer has marked you in your walk with Christ. And if you need a second to think about it, I also wanted to ask Ryan the same question. So Ryan, you go first and then. - Oh man. - And then we'll close with Priscilla's answer. - Oh goodness, well, I mean, it's hard to pen a specific in this way but I will say, really in the last few years, the theme of just thankfulness for me that has really, really just, because every single one of us, we have seasons that are challenging, we have seasons that are valleys in our life but through it all, I just remember thanking the Lord just for just our house, our cars, just anything that we would have in our life that was just Lord, thank you. And it just would prime my heart for something that I think was generally optimistic because I just genuinely was so thankful for what he had done in our life. So that for me, the prayer of just thanksgiving for me has been one that has really genuinely marked me in a beautiful way. - And that goes along with the, like, capturing every thought of, because I just think about whenever I start to feel like complaining about something, then I'm like, okay, let's stop and, you know, this does not happen every time, I just wanna be clear but if I'm on my best days, I'll be like, okay, let's stop and think about, I used to do that to kids that I taught at camp. If they complained about something, I would say, okay, now you have to have three things that you're thankful for. But it just kind of retrained your mind to worship God and to give him thanks for all the things that he's provided for us. How would you answer that question, Priscilla, about prayer, marking your life? - Yeah, well, I would definitely echo that that I will take time to write down 10 things that I'm just grateful for. Small things, like, you know, coffee. - Right. - You're like-- - Yes. - You know? The common things that you think that because it's ordinary to you, it's you kind of forget, no, somebody somewhere wishes they could have a cup of coffee this morning. And I get to easily. So just saying thank you to the Lord for those things. It does reframe, like y'all just said, it does reframe your perspective. But when you ask the question, how is it marked to me? I thought immediately back to both of my grandmothers, but my mom's mom in particular, she, so this is way before there was a war room encouraging all of us to write down our prayers. She had spiral notebooks. And I remember she would just write down what she was writing down. We're not the prayer specifically for writing down the names of the people she was praying for and what the issue was. And of course that included grandkids and great-grant kids. And now when I look at those journals and realize how many prayers have been answered because that woman was praying for who at the time were babies or grandchildren she hadn't even met yet who were in the womb. And then when she went to heaven, there was still a ripple effect of her prayers being answered that we have record of in this spiral notebook. So for me, prayer marked me in the sense that seeing its impact one generation to the next is huge for me because it reminds me that me making sure that and like you said, Elizabeth, let me be clear. I'm not perfect at this. I am not Elizabeth Jordan from the world room and cleaned out a whole closet. And it's just filled with post-it notes now that that was a movie. But I do have post-it notes on my college, I mean my closet wall. And I do have a habit of writing down the names of the people that I'm praying for and specific prayers that I pray for my sons when I see certain things going through there on in their life, I'll fill a prayer in my journal with a scripture verses that I know align with what it is that I'm asking God to do in our straight from his words so that I could be strategic of what I'm praying for them. But what keeps me encouraged in prayer is that I saw and had the example of a woman who prayed for her family. And now I'm living in the blessing of that prayer and what I so want for my sons and hopefully grandsons and granddaughters to come in and get a groom with me. What I love is that even if there comes a time that I'm not here, the legacy of my prayers if I'll be consistent, if I'll be intentional about prayer, hopefully they'll get to live under the banner of the blessing of that just like I've had the privilege to. - I love that. - Amazing. - I have a great grandmother who did the same thing. I don't know that she always wrote hers down so we don't have like a physical copy but we knew that Mammy Gillie was praying for everyone at all times and all the people. And so that was just her thing. She was a prayer warrior. And so I love that you said how I can't think, a legend of prayer, like the, yes. - Legacy. - Legacy, thank you. I could not think of the word. - Yeah, I know. - I loved it when you said it. Yes, the legacy of prayer, I love that term. I think that's such a beautiful term to strive for and all of our lives. Well, thank you so much Priscilla for being on the March podcast today. - Thank you, Priscilla. - Thank you, Ryan, for co-hosting me. - Oh, great, good to see you guys. - Yes, it was so fun. - "Let It Shine" is a production of the "Lifeway Podcast," executive produced by me, Angie Elkins, produced by Nicki Ogden. It's recorded at the "Lifeway Podcast" studios and engineered by Donnie Gordon, edited by Robert Elkins, an original theme song arranged by Robert Elkins, the Maestro himself, performed by Tiffany Casey, Abby Peirce, Ryan Walker, Jarian Felton, and Shawna Felton, art by Grace Morgan. And I'm your host, Angie Elkins. Meet me back here next week. (upbeat music) Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine! (whooshing)
