I just returned from two days in Las Vegas. Brandon O’Brien, Leadership’s assistant editor, and I were there to interview Craig Gross. Craig is the guy who started XXXChurch.com seven years ago. In 2008 he relocated his family and a dozen other people to Las Vegas to launch The Strip Church. (There’s a great NightLine video on the site you should see.)

We interviewed Craig about what it means to be a church and engage God’s mission in a culture of growing addictions and vices. The article will appear in the spring issue of Leadership due out in April. Craig’s vision is essentially to create a short-term missions project where churches from around the country send teams of people to Las Vegas to reach out at the many trade conventions. The Strip Church has a booth at many of these conventions, including the porn convention held last week, where they hand out Bibles and talk to people with questions about God, faith, and Christianity.

Craig realizes that every week there are over 300,000 people visiting Vegas, and what happens there often has lasting impact on their lives, families, and souls. He’s working with local churches to reach out to the tourists and business travelers, and give them an alternative experience. It was a pleasure meeting Craig and his team. They’re on the edge and definately using creative methods to reach everyone from porn stars to poker players. But their stance of going into the culture rather than retreating from it is both encouraging and challenging.

We also spoke with Brett Johnson, senior pastor of South Hills Church Community, who is helping Criag’s team get The Strip Church up and running. Brett’s been leading a church in Las Vegas for 8 years now, but he had some great advice for pastors. Essentially, we need to realize that every city is now sin city. Via the web, the vices once unique to Las Vegas are not in every home in America at the touch of a button. We can’t afford to believe that people in our churches aren’t struggling, or even addicted, to every vice under the sun.

Stay tuned to LeadershipJournal.net and Out of Ur for more.