Your Ministry Vision

What is your ministry vision?

L.I.F.E. Ministries will be teaching ministry vision to assist your personal ministry development and your local ministry development at the Training and Certification event next month.
L.I.F.E. will also share its vision of the future of sexual addiction recovery.

] We hope you will join us!

Can't make it?
Reply to this email and share your vision with us. We can further help you develop your vision, and share it at the Training and Certification event to help others jump-start their ministry visions.

Living In Freedom
Training and Certification

Hosted by L.I.F.E. Ministries

July 17-18, 2009 (NEXT MONTH!)

Discovery Church in Orlando, FL

Registration includes a free Facilitator Training DVD (Men or Spouses), a $20 value.

Complete Details and Registration <

Sexual Addiction Recovery Training and Certification

Living In Freedom

Training and Certification
Hosted by L.I.F.E. Ministries
July 17-18, 2009
Discovery Church in Orlando, FL

L.I.F.E. is calling! Raising up God’s Army to battle sexual addiction and restore integrity to his people. Learn more about sexual addiction, its history, modern recovery methods, being the best sponsor possible, mentoring others in a group, running an efficient support group, and experience L.I.F.E. in person! This training is open to those in recovery, facilitators, counselors, pastors, and anyone desiring more information about this societal cancer. This training offers an optional certification from L.I.F.E. Ministries.
Complete Details and Registration <

New Resource for Restoring Marriages broken by Sexual Addiction

Restore your marriage torn by sexual addiction <

Mobilizing an Army of Warriors: Preparing the Field with Prayer

For several months, you have read about L.I.F.E.’s vision of building an army to combat sexual addiction.

We revisited the original vision of L.I.F.E. when Johna Hale, our Executive Director, stood with the Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane and as far as she could see, people of all races came marching forward in an army. The Lord told her that this is the army that He is calling out to fight the war against sexual addiction within the Christian community.

I shared my inspiration from Him for the methods and ways of raising this army. And that L.I.F.E. Ministries no longer exists only to encourage, empower, and equip; L.I.F.E. is now moving toward the recruiting and training of warriors, and coordinating the attack on sexual sin and bondage.

Preparing the battlefield with prayer is the next step and I want to thank those that began and continue to pray since the call for prayer last November.

For those wanting to participate, we hope that you will consider prayer at 9:00 am EST or 9 pm EST. Understanding that lives are busy, to remind yourself, you can place a sticky note in your day planner or create a reminder in your calendar software of choice.

Suggested prayer (revised since November): Heavenly Father, thank you for the love that you show me each day. I know that there are many out there clouded in shame. Please reveal your grace to them through channels in their lives. Help them to feel the comfort only You can provide while they seek help. Father, L.I.F.E. group facilitators sacrifice their time to help others, may their seeds yield 100 fold. I pray that they feel the rewards you have in store for them. Today I also pray for group members, that you touch each of them individually and encourage them to live everyday in sexual integrity. Father, your servants in L.I.F.E. Ministries are answering your call. Please guide them coming days as the prepare for battle. And that all involved in building your Kingdom through L.I.F.E. are protected from attack, hear Your desires, and experience joy. Amen.

Thank you all for your heart for this ministry and the important work each of your roles, from group members to pastors, contributes to this ministry.

Free Shipping in December

Free Shipping on our Sexual Addiction Recovery Resources <

Mobilizing an Army of Warriors: Facilitator Resources

(From the December 2008 Living In Freedom monthly email newsletter)

L.I.F.E. Ministries is a network of support groups based in churches across the globe connected to our central Headquarters. Group Facilitators are a critical link in ministry communications and operations – setting up and running their group and staying connected with Headquarters.
Facilitators, we have many free resources to help you on your mission of spreading sexual integrity. The newest resources are our monthly Facilitator Training Calls (men and spouses).

We have had great feedback about these calls and plan to continue them in January, after the holiday season.

Participants dial into a conference call, spend about a half an hour listening to a seasoned facilitator speak about a particular topic and then participate in questions and answers for another half an hour. Men’s and spouse’s facilitator call schedules can be found in the Facilitator’s Area of our website.

Another free resource that we offer is email support through our website. Group facilitators can login to the website and submit a question to a L.I.F.E. Headquarters representative. They can also select the urgency of the matter in case they are in a potentially toxic situation. Email support is available in the Facilitator’s Area of our website.

The final resource I want to talk about is free downloads. From the Feelings Wheel to Sexual Addiction Self Tests, these downloads are available to you from any computer so that you have access when you need it. Downloads are available in the Facilitator’s Area of our website.

In 2009, we have several new, exciting, and requested resources coming out. To be notified of new facilitator resources as they are released, sign up for our Facilitator Email List (found in your Facilitator's Area).

Honesty and transparency are what this ministry is built on. I have to be honest with you, these free resources and services are not free to the ministry – they cost us money and our volunteers their time. If these resources have been (or will be) useful to you, would you prayerfully consider making a tax-deductible contribution, either a year-end or monthly donation, so that we can continue to bring you free resources?

Mobilizing an Army of Warriors - the Leader/Facilitator Role

The L.I.F.E. Ministries leadership team, including our Director of Development, attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit early in August. There were over a hundred thousand attendees from around the world, most of them via satellite. Bob and I have attended several Summits throughout the years, but I have never heard such urgency from all the speakers about fulfilling God’s purposes for our lives. The first words spoken by Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Community Church were “We need to advance God’s purposes on earth.”

Immediately, my thoughts were that the Lord’s mandate for L.I.F.E. Ministries is to advance God’s purpose of preparing the Body of Christ to be the Pure Bride of Christ—without spot or wrinkle.All of us who are a part of L.I.F.E. Ministries certainly know that that is our purpose, and that to fulfill that purpose we need to mobilize an army of warriors to fight the assault from the enemy that tries to keep the Bride from being pure.

In the original vision I had in the Garden of Gethsemane, I was kneeling down at the rock with Jesus and I cried out: “not my will but thy will be done.” Then Jesus and I rose from the rock and I stood beside Him as a line as far as I could see of people of all races came marching forward in an army. The Lord told me that this is the army that He is calling out to fight the war against sexual addiction within the Christian community. You are a part of that army, and we so appreciate your participation. In the months to come, we will be telling you how you can help increase the size and effectiveness of this army.

The first thing that we can to do to better prepare for battle is to make our actions as leaders/facilitators lead to the things that matter to God. “Let our light shine and give glory to the Lord.”

When we place our hope in who God is and what He asks us to do, then He is responsible to get it done.

Leadership bears the responsibility to give back to others from the same freedom in which you received ministry. Then empower them to step up and facilitate that same healing to still others. People want to have meaning and purpose in their lives--that is what Principle Seven is all about. Have them ask the Lord to create a vision and purpose for their lives. Prayerfully, if the Lord so leads, many will want to join the other warriors working with L.I.F.E. People need to align around a mission and then become servant leaders themselves. This helps still others grow to join the army and make a difference in this world.

Tell your story so others will catch the vision, and desire that same freedom for themselves. Rather than remaining a victim of the addiction, they can find that they are to help others to live in freedom. Leadership is to empower others, not to have power over them. We can lead others to this gift by helping them to contribute to something.

As we grow into the army we are called to be, one of our most powerful weapons is love. In many ways this army is like other armies in devotion, discipline, focus, training, seriousness, and so on; but in some basic ways it is unlike any other army. The weapons of this army are not like any human weapons, but are divinely powerful. We do not hate our enemies—we love them! We do not fight to kill but to give life—not to conquer, but to set others free.

L.I.F.E. groups need to be an accepting and grace-giving environment for those who are truly seeking healing. We can do this by being an authentic and confessing community, accountable to one another. Without truth coming to the light, we will not have the freedom that the Lord so desires in our lives. L.I.F.E. groups give that safety for the truth to be spoken and the shame to be defused. As leaders, we need to model that transparency. You can learn more by joining the monthly Facilitator’s Calls for either men or spouses groups; details are on the website at www.freedomeveryday.org.

As a leader in this army, you must keep people around you who can speak truth and accountability into your life. Always be teachable to continue to grow in the likeness of Jesus.
Bill Hybels said that callings are precious and holy things. Let us be lights to shine in the darkness more than ever. We need those lights to bring glory to the Lord and to stand out in the Christian community--and in the rest of the world to as well –to offer something that the rest of the world does not.

Thanks for being a part of us! We cherish you and look forward to an even more effective army to glorify the Lord.

Bob and Johna Hale

(this post is an exerpt from the October Living In Freedom Monthly e-Newsletter found at www.freedomeveryday.org/newsletter)

New Beginnings

The Lord keeps bringing Isaiah 43:18-19 to my mind, which talks about new beginnings. We entered into the eighth year of L.I.F.E. Ministries in July 2007, and have been reminded that in the Lord’s system eight often means a new beginning. The last seven years were spent in receiving revelation, developing resources and proclaiming the vision that the Lord gave me for this ministry. That was in Israel several years ago, while at the Garden of Gethsemane; and I was kneeling at the rock with Jesus, saying “not my will but thy will be done.” Then Jesus stood up and I stood beside him, and there was a line as far as I could see with people of all nationalities lined up as an army going toward battle. The Lord later told me that the army was being formed to fight the battle of sexual addiction in the church. Of course, that subject was hardly discussed eight years ago.

We have had glimpses of this army the last seven years. One recent glimpse came at the AACC World Conference. We watched our own volunteers and realized the transformation taking place in each of their lives, as they are now serving the Lord instead of being in bondage to shame. I looked at the glow on their faces as they answered questions and served the people; and I realized again that only Jesus could bring this about and that being Jesus to each other in the support groups will continue to bring this growth into full bloom in the next few years. The statistics speak for themselves: even within the Christian community 47% say that pornography is a problem in their home. Sixty to ninety percent of Christian men and one out of three Christian women are sexually addicted. In an anonymous survey conducted by Leadership magazine, seven out of 10 lay leaders in the church admitted to visiting adult Web sites at least once a week. When pastors were asked the same question, four out of 10 said they did the same. Paul Harvey has reported that internet pornography is the fastest growing addiction in the United States, with 82 million visitors to such sites each year; and one-third of those are women. If this isn’t the biggest problem within the church today, I don’t know what is. Pastor Jack Hayford has said that if the church doesn’t address this problem then it will rob the church of its life and power. Consequently, we need to join forces and be the army that keeps that from happening. Preparing for this new season in L.I.F.E. Ministries will involve building and embracing that vision, by reaching out to the people who are called to be a part of this army. How do we do this?

In order to help the large numbers of Christians struggling with sexual addiction; we need to realize more financial support from the groups to be able to enlarge the ministry, do more training, and develop additional resources to provide a close-knit community to support and reinforce the army with skill and love. To start, we are going to send to a survey to some of our largest groups, asking them to identify their needs. We’ll also have these same questions available on our website for all to answer. We will use these answers to set our priorities and address the needs of the recovery community. Also, starting in February, we are going to have a monthly training for the spouses’ and men’s group facilitators, but all can join in this web based training. And we continue to pray for the finances to have an annual L.I.F.E. Ministries conference where we can all get together for further training and to build community. These are just a few of the things that we hope will build and equip the army, and the surveys should tell our headquarters team where we need to put additional efforts as well.

In this eighth year of new beginning, let’s always remember that love will continue to be the greatest key for the church the next 7 years. Let the L.I.F.E. groups demonstrate this love of Jesus to all those in attendance, and to all in the church. I remember that I had to leave the church for several years because of the shame of my own sexual addiction—it wasn’t’ a safe place. Let our groups and our churches be that safe place for all who need this love, because without love we are nothing and whatever we accomplish without it profits nothing (l Cor.13). Let us grow and mature in love as we seek the Lord’s purposes for our lives. Ask God for a vision of how you can minister out of the healing that He is providing for you. Even within Christ’s Church, this cancer is destroying lives and families; and keeping people from their God-given purposes. We pray that you will be a part of this army; fully engaged in this battle to encourage, empower and equip God’s people to live everyday in sexual integrity—to the Glory of the Lord.

We love you,
Johna