Our mission is to engage the whole person with the whole gospel of Jesus Christ anywhere, anytime, with anybody. One of the ways we are able to fulfill this mission is through our partnership with Scarlet Hope Nashville. This ministry reaches into some of the darkest corners of our community to bring hope and love to women in the adult entertainment industry.
“Our model of walking alongside these women and loving them is just straight from how Jesus did ministry,” says Tami Majtan, Executive Director at Scarlet Hope Nashville. In the same way that Jesus went out of his way to minister to the woman at the well in John 4, Scarlet Hope seeks to challenge Christ followers in Middle Tennessee to go out of their way to serve and minister to women in the adult entertainment industry.
The places where Scarlet Hope does ministry are not places many churchgoers would typically go. Yet, just as Jesus reached out to those in need, this ministry team purposefully goes to these places to provide compassion and support. Majtan adds, “We go where no one else is going. We are climbing down the rope into the pit of ministry, where it’s dark, and it’s scary, and it’s overwhelming, and it’s messy, but it’s an honor to go.”
The ministry is deeply aware of the struggles these women face. 85% of the women working in these clubs have childhood abuse in their lives. There are 89% of them who want to leave but have no other means of survival. There is a deep need for compassion in these communities, and trustworthy relationships are extremely valuable and provide a great opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Middle Tennessee.
Each Thursday night, the Scarlet Hope team meets to intentionally minister to these women. “Our defender picks us up here and drives us to the clubs, drops us off, and then waits outside in the parking lot, prays over us, prays over the women that we’re meeting,” Majtan explains. Their approach is simple: pay the club entry fee like regular customers, sit, and wait for the women to engage with them.
“We bring them food. We want to be someone safe for them to talk to. If they even just want to sit down and just relax and not talk, we want to give them that space also,” says Majtan. This genuine care opens doors for deeper connections and trust, allowing some women to feel safe enough to meet outside the club environment.
Scarlet Hope Nashville offers a range of services at their resource center to help women transition out of the industry, if they so desire. “Here at our resource center, not only do we offer just safe community and just a safe place for them to be, we also offer them counseling. We have all different kinds of life skill workshops where we teach them how to budget and manage their money,” Majtan notes. Once the women leave the industry, the ministry walks with them through life, turning those connections into discipleship.
We invite you to join us in prayer for Scarlet Hope Nashville. Pray for wisdom, for the women to see Jesus, and for the ministry to build and maintain strong, faithful relationships with these women. It’s about seeing that they are worthy of being loved by Jesus, exactly where they are.
Through partnerships like the one we have with Scarlet Hope Nashville, we are able to live out our mission, reaching into the darkness to bring the light and love of Jesus Christ into the lives of those who need it most in Middle Tennessee and beyond.