A Wounded Healer
Rodgers' book details the potentially fatal circumstantial distractions women encounter in their lives: dysfunctional family patterns, job concerns, health issues, biological clocks, marital problems and caring for aging parents. She writes about several emotional distractions--envy and jealousy, loneliness, anger, bitterness, brokenness, and fear and rejection, and then brings the message home with one of the most distracting of the lot--preoccupation with self.
Because her first book targets a female audience, she says she hopes to do a comparable book directed to men that would detail the trials of men of the Bible such as David, Joseph and Peter.
Rodgers describes herself as a wounded healer. "God has sent me out to tell the wounded people I encounter that He will heal, whatever their hurts--physical, emotional, spiritual." She believes the key to her ministry is her ability to speak to people where they are and to tell them that life is a process. "It's never about the person now, but understanding how they got where they are and that this is not the final product ... that God not only sees us, but He is with us."
Rodgers cites her strongest faith anchor and childhood influence as her grandmother--her mother's mother, Bessie Currie--known affectionately by friends and family as Big Mama. Rodgers lived with her late grandmother, who she described as the "community's spiritual voice" and "the epitome of a faith-walker," for most of her childhood years.
Offshoots from Big Mama's influence include Rodger's own mother, Rosie Allen, who is active in ministry in her East Texas church, and two brothers who grew up under Big Mama's wing to become COGIC pastors. "Living with Big Mama, you did church and evangelism. My life was centered around the church, and I was always the youngest assigned to read Scripture at the revivals, even when I couldn't read very well."
"Big Mama called me to the altar when I was 8 years old. I'm not sure if I accepted Christ that night out of fear or reverence, but I accepted Him," Rodgers says.
Big Mama often told her granddaughter that life was like a patchwork quilt. "Each piece represented a phase in life, and pieced together made one big quilt with the purpose of covering, so that we see that God works all things together for the good," Rodgers says.
And since Big Mama sewed, her granddaughter's favorite playthings were thimbles and buttons. "The buttons were the congregation and the thimble was the preacher--me!"
Rodgers says her early years as a Christian were spent mimicking the life of a Christian, but the routine and lifestyle developed a pattern for her. Big Mama instilled in Rodgers the perspective that Rodgers would be a blessing to the nation and that she would find favor with God and man.
"I am a very focus-driven person bent on achieving my spiritual goal to be the best example of Christ this world has seen, perfect my teaching and preaching, and to live my life as an example of a single person of integrity."
Rodgers names a succession of mentors to her ministry, including her mother and her local pastor, Superintendent Kenneth D. Davis. She doesn't know of many evangelists with a national following who, like her, serve under the authority of their local church. Rodgers has served and been a member of St. Andrew's for some 20 years.
"Evangelist Rodgers has worked faithfully in the local church. She attends Bible study and prayer, and she makes herself available Davis explains. "I believe that is one reason her national ministry is blessed," he adds.
Rodgers has been in ministry long enough to know she's standing on the shoulders of others who have mentored her along the way. She names a long list of bishops from both COGIC and other denominations and local and high-profile first ladies and women in ministry who have influenced her path.
An 8-year-old boy's comments a few years ago following her message at a COGIC Auxiliary in Ministry convention, with some 15,000 youth in attendance, cast an affirming light across her ministry path. "He recited my message back to me and then said, 'I'm going home now and make up my bed.' That's change on his level. That's change. ... And I knew I was being heard!"
She says her biggest challenge right now is walking in the areas God has made available to her--"Moving into the unknown and tapping into the things I know God has for me. Feeling unworthy maybe to be there ... and delving in and aligning myself with the resources He's providing, making sure I am equipped for the seasons."
She envisions a more global scope to her ministry this year and hopes to establish an office, hire full-time staff and set up a prayer line. "I sort of did it all backward. ... When God opened the door, the floodgates opened up and I really wasn't prepared. Now I know that women in ministry should make sure they have health insurance and some kind of retirement plan, a rainy-day stash and always have a place they can call home."
Rodgers says she is hoping to carry the ball into field-goal territory on a pet project still in the visionary huddle stage--to open a transition home in the Dallas area to help young women move from welfare to work. She'll call the facility Big Mama's House, she says, "Because Big Mama said that in Christ, no matter the circumstance, we can do anything, and I know that's what these women need to understand!"
She concludes: "Every human being is a valuable player in the game of life. I'm just glad God, the scorekeeper, has given us the victory!"
Don't Be Distracted
Joyce Rodgers teaches women how to avoid the devil's land mines.
Most preachers don't glean sermon ideas from Hollywood films, especially movies about adultery. But when Joyce Rodgers saw the 1987 morality tale Fatal Attraction, which starred Michael Douglas and Glenn Close, the evangelist developed a series of sermons that eventually formed the basis for her first book, titled Fatal Distractions.
In the movie, Douglas plays Dan Gallagher, a family man who throws caution to the wind by having a weekend affair with an attractive, sophisticated woman named Alex Forrest. Douglas' poor choice quickly comes back to haunt him when Alex begins to stalk him and his family. One moral blunder leads to terrifying consequences.
Rodgers, who directs her book to women, believes the devil has placed many "fatal distractions" before women and that all these hidden land mines have the potential to keep a woman from fulfilling her spiritual destiny. Rodgers identifies several key areas in women's lives that become breeding grounds for these distractions:
Family dysfunction. A woman will go off-course in her relationship with God, Rodgers writes, if she bases her self-worth on the affirmation she receives from a man.
The stress of work. Whether a woman is a housewife or a professional, she can easily allow the pressures of daily life to crowd out spiritual priorities.
Physical problems. Women often allow sickness or other health-related concerns to consume their lives--when Jesus calls for the focus to be on Him.
Age. Many women spend too much time watching their biological clocks and worrying about whether they will marry or have children soon enough. Rodgers states her case clearly: "If God is in control of your life, He has the perfect timing already planned out."
Difficult marriage. Many Christian women who suffer in bad marriages allow their circumstance to rob them of spiritual fulfillment.
Aging parents. Rodgers has a message for older women who are caring for elderly parents: Don't let this responsibility--and the emotional wear and tear that it can bring--stop you from pursuing God.
Rodgers also lists several other "subtle killers" that can steal a woman's spiritual passion. These are jealousy, loneliness, anger, bitterness, brokenness, fear and rejection. But in the end, the author notes that the ultimate distraction is the most familiar.
"Your greatest distraction is you," Rodgers states bluntly. "Constantly thinking negative thoughts or pursuing self-destructive behaviors and habits can make you your own worst enemy."
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