2022 was a massive year in the pro-life movement; in fact, in the political sphere, I assume that the Dobbs decision will be one of the biggest forward advances that we see in our lifetimes.
Since the end of June, Speak for the Unborn has been working to continue to serve our Network Churches to become gospel-centered voices for life in their communities. Many of our churches have been met with the beautiful challenge of how to continue serving abortion-minded women and men with the gospel when the abortion clinic closest to them is closed. How do we continue to connect with them in order to bring them gospel hope and into the lifelong care of the local church? After all, while we know that while many states now have abortion bans, there will still always be people in our communities who think that abortion is their only hope. There will still be women trying to access the abortion pill or driving out-of-state for surgical abortions.
What is the answer? How do we continue to share gospel hope and help when it is no longer as “simple” as being present on an abortion clinic sidewalk?
We began the process of answering this question for Christians across the US and Canada, and look forward to serving even more in 2023.
Strides you helped us make in 2022:
- We encourage our current Network Churches to continue going to the sidewalk to offer gospel hope and help at Planned Parenthood locations, as PP will continue to offer confirmations of pregnancy and out-of-state referrals. We have a profound opportunity to speak to women who are now just going in for initial information without an abortion scheduled for that day. There is now the huge blessing of time and continued relationships before any final decisions have been made! Praise God for that.
- We released our Pro-Life Conversation Guide and distributed it to our Network Churches. This print guide equips church members to have gospel-centered answers to common pro-choice questions they may encounter on a day-to-day basis.
- We added components to our Voice for Life training series that makes it applicable to those who desire to get involved in other aspects of pro-life ministry outside of sidewalk counseling, or who don’t have an open abortion clinic or Planned Parenthood location near them.
- We continue to offer sidewalk counseling training through the Voice for Life program for churches who have abortion clinics in their communities. It is still critical to have church members who are trained in sidewalk counseling that is gospel-centered, winsome, and compelled by love for those who are in places that have abortion clinics in their communities. In fact, we could argue that this is more important than ever, as more people than ever before will be traveling from out-of-state to the clinic near you.
For info on becoming a Network Church and gaining access to these resources, click here.
Here’s what we’re doing in 2023 and 2024, Lord-willing, to equip even more Christians than ever before to become gospel-centered voices for life in their communities:
- The Youth Voices for Life curriculum is currently in its pilot phase, and we plan to make it available to churches everywhere by August 1. This curriculum will educate middle school, high school, and college students on both the “why” and “how of pro-life ministry, from both biblical and scientific perspectives. As 30% of women who pursue abortion identify as Protestant, we believe that educating our youth about these issues inside of our churches will be a crucial step to make abortion unthinkable for Gen-Z Christians and beyond. This program will be our biggest focus in 2023.
- We are holding several in-person Voice for Life training workshops this year in our target states. In fact, we already had one in Richmond, VA in January. Contact us to see if there is one coming up in your area.
- An extension to the Voice for Life training program will be coming in 2024, with the goal of even further serving our churches by training them to share the hope of the gospel through abortion-related conversations in any context. More info on that will come later this year!
How you can help
- Serve. Consider this your call to action to get involved, if you are not yet part of this ministry work! We need your help to bring gospel hope and help to abortion-minded people across the country. Learn more about becoming a Network Church here.
- Spread the word. We want to get Youth Voices for Life into the hands of as many student ministries groups as possible this year. Will you help us by sharing the info with student ministries pastors in your church and community? We will be releasing more info on March 1!
- Pray. You can mightily serve the ministry by being persistent in prayer for these efforts. Pray that many women in your community will choose life and come to know saving faith in Jesus.
- Give. We still have funding needs for Youth Voices for Life in order to cover the cost of getting the curriculum into the hands of churches. If you’d like to help, click here.
