I had the awesome privilege of interviewing Priscilla Shirer! What a blessing it was to hear her story and testimony of growing up as the daughter of Dr. Tony Evans, discovering her call to ministry and how she’s dealt with significant challenges such as loss and grief in her life. Priscilla has an international ministry called Going Beyond that focuses on equipping and empowering women for ministry but reaches people all over the world. Priscilla also discusses the challenges associated with being a woman in ministry and advice on how to move forward in your calling.
so instead of trying to be superhuman
and act like we aren’t hurting
that our family isn’t maybe disappointed
that god didn’t answer particularly with
our mom
the prayers that not just us but people
all over the globe
were praying for my mother we got video
prayers from churches in kenya
and new york and all over the world
europe people that were collectively
praying for our mom
we were stunned and disappointed that
god didn’t answer in the way we had
prayed
god is not asking us to not be
disappointed to not
be honest with him about our frailty but
i think we can
question god or i’m sorry ask questions
of god
without questioning god
well hey everybody alan parr here and it
is my sincere honor to have a special
guest with us here today
on the beat you guys are in for a treat
i’m sure
priscilla shira is not a stranger to you
but we are honored to have her today
on our show and i cannot wait for her to
share her story her testimony what god
is doing in her life so
priscilla thank you so much for giving
us your time today
super excited that you are here welcome
to the beat
i’m so glad to be here i’m i’m a big fan
of what you’re doing so it feels like a
gift to me to be a part of it thanks for
including me
oh that is awesome that is awesome so i
have to start off before we get into
some of the questions and all the
different things that i personally
along with many other people who some
people have written some questions in
and they’re like hey make sure you ask
her this or whatever
we’ve got lots of questions we want to
ask of you but first i just need to
start off by saying
how much of a blessing it is your family
has been such a blessing to me um first
of all starting with your father um
you know i’m sure he knows that he’s
made an influence and an
impact on so many people’s lives myself
included whenever i was a younger
christian coming up he was one of the
main preachers
that i was listening to to get fed
spiritually and all those different
things
and also as i was really developing my
craft as a preacher
um you know he was just so inspirational
and influential in my life he will never
know that
maybe after this interview he will but
um just to see
a strong african-american man who was
combining great preaching with great
theology was something that wasn’t
really
prevalent in our community in our
society and so i want to thank him
i want to thank you because you know
i’ve been blessed personally by some of
your teachings
as well as my wife loves to follow you
and also uh tony uh to me your
your brother anthony evans i love his
music got all of his
music and cds and all those things and i
know jonathan is killing it over at
oakcliff and i know your sister crystal
is has got a phenomenal ministry as well
and of course we can’t leave out your
mother as well and all things she’s done
so
i just want to say thank you to the
evans family
i appreciate that so much especially
when i hear you talk a little bit about
dad
to hear that now from adult child ears
means a whole lot different than it did
when i was little you know you realize
all of the little decisions that dad had
to make
to have integrity for this long
faithfulness for this long to serve god
unashamedly to not try to be politically
correct and liked and all that but to
just serve god and honor the truth of
god
i realize now what that cost him so i’m
really grateful to hear you say that
i’ll pass that along to him and
he was a good dad too so he still is a
great dad so
i appreciate you saying that well that’s
great and that actually
actually transitions kind of into the
first question that i really would love
to kind of
ask you about is you know what
i guess kind of a two-part question
first of all what was priscilla like
growing up like
if you had to describe yourself kind of
what what were you like and i
asked that because i’ve got a
four-year-old daughter and she’s like
very um she’s very she’s kind of
intrigued with a lot of things she’s
very curious about a lot she’s very
outgoing um you know she loves her daddy
she’s like the smartest kid in her class
and all those things of course i’m a
little bit biased but
i wonder i’m like i wonder if priscilla
was like that growing up so that’s the
first thing i would love for you to
to kind of comment on and then on top of
that tell us a little bit about
what it was like to grow up in the evans
household i mean
i almost said the word dynasty because
we all looked at you all like wow this
is like
this is like the royal family here right
like but like what was it like
being in the evan’s home and what were
you like growing up
well um so i’m told i was pretty much
asleep for the first three or four years
of my life and then i got to around the
age your daughter is now
and what i’m told is that i woke up one
day and never went back to sleep that my
personality just exploded out of nowhere
and that i just sort of was outgoing and
social
and wanted to connect with people i was
very active in lots of different sports
all four of us were involved in
different activities in sports and mom
and dad did the best they could you know
i’m sure
their attention was so divided and they
were exhausted as we all are when you’re
trying to support
four kids who are very different and
unique but um i was very active
and just engaged in a lot of different
things so my parents tried to support
that i will tell you
that i was also in trouble for most of
my childhood
i was always getting in trouble most of
the trouble i was in revolved around my
mouth
that my mother would always have to say
uh that you didn’t need to say that so i
either talked too much
or when i said what i said my tone
wasn’t right so she she looked back at
me with that mama eye and said you
better get your tone right
so communication was always a problem
for me
but i will tell you that talking about
what it’s like to be raised in my
parents house
i would be disciplined for the things i
needed to be disciplined for whether it
was rebellion or lack of obedience or
you know talking out of turn we were
disciplined for sure
but i always remember my dad he would
always turn the negatives into a
possible positive
to see it from the perspective of the
way god wired me
so most of the reason why i even
considered
communication not even ministry but i
went to school for communication i
thought i’d be in
broadcast television was the the goal i
was pursuing when i
first went to college that was because
my dad said to me all those years
priscilla you’re a born communicator i
think that god
wired you to communicate so if we can
just allow the if you can surrender this
to the holy spirit and we can allow the
holy spirit to mold this thing that’s
getting you in trouble right now in your
immaturity it could actually be the
thing that god
uses in your life to serve the purposes
that he created you for
so dad was constantly reframing even the
stuff that we were struggling with
so that we could see maybe how god’s
hand was in even those bits and pieces
so awesome awesome and so speaking of
your dad
you know how how did you i mean
how was it sharing your dad with the
world i mean here’s this
international speaker i mean obviously
we know that you know
he didn’t come on the scene right away
and just become this but i know in the
mid to late 80s and 90s and of course
everything just kind of took off from
there but you know how was
he able to manage all the things that he
is was was doing is still doing and i’m
going to pull the same question to you a
little bit later
but that comes a little bit later but
how how was he able to manage all that
and still be
this present loving father of four and
and
husband and be present when people ask
me what it was like to be tony evans
daughter
it’s kind of hard to answer that
question because we just see him as dad
you know he was just our dad
and of course we knew he was a pastor
they started the church when i was one
so the church always seemed big to me
you know at three years old there were
probably 125 people
that was enormous to me by the time i
was in high school and college
those were the promise keeper years so
dad was speaking to 30
000 people at a time there were 10 000
members at our church
people were starting to recognize him
out because of the radio ministry so
we’d be in
eating dinner or in line at the airport
and people would hear his voice they
didn’t have to see his face they just
heard his voice and they were like oh
excuse me are you tony evans so people
were starting to stop him
and we were beginning to recognize the
breadth and the scope of what
dad’s influence was but i think
and dad certainly would even confess to
the fact that he didn’t do it perfectly
but he was so purposeful and intentional
about being with us
so when he was home he was home when he
um would make it a priority to pick us
up from cheerleading practice even
sometimes when he would come to my
cheerleading practice or track practice
so he could be the one to drive me home
sometimes he might be on the phone on a
phone call because he had a meeting
that he ducked out of early so that he
could pick me up and he might be on the
phone but he was there
you know he was present i know for a
fact there were times where
dad was speaking somewhere in
philadelphia and i remember he flew back
home so that he could be at one of
jonathan’s football games
and then after the football game he had
to get back on a plane and go back and
finish the conference
those were the kind of choices that i
now know how exhausting that must have
been
those were the kind of choices that he
was making so that the memory i have
of growing up with dad as busy as he was
the memory i have is not of a dad who
was not there
i have a memory of dad and mom building
the church but we had dinner around
the dinner table i remember him leading
us in devotions i remember riding his
back
his back as he did piggyback rides and
we had family talent shows and
i remember us being engaged at the
church as a family
or at his ministry events we were the
staff behind the book table you know
when he had one or two books at the time
we were the staff we were the
participants with them in ministry so
we were just never sidelined and i think
that reason
i just have a memory of being dad being
fully engaged and invested with us
i will say briefly that in hindsight i
know my dad says that he would go back
and he would do it a little bit
differently he would probably shave off
a little a few more hours
that he spent building the church and
building ministry
that he’d probably even shave off more
of that now
and i’m always shocked when he says that
because i’m like dad you were there
you gave our late mother they were
married 49 and a half years when she
passed away
18 months ago um you gave our late mom
like a great life like she enjoyed
ministry she enjoyed you
y’all got to travel together you raised
the four of us somebody else didn’t do
it y’all did it
so dad you did good and still dad says
but i would have invested more time in
y’all
and that right there continues to
reframe my choices right now here in my
mid 40s
what i know is that when i get to 70
something like that is now
i’ll probably look back we probably will
alan and go
i should have invested more just in my
wife my husband
my children so i’m trying to allow the
conversations i see my dad having and
the
things he’s saying now in hindsight i’m
trying to allow that to
inform the decisions that i’m making now
as i’m raising my kids
yeah yeah believe me that’s that’s a
constant tension as god
continues to grow in my ministry as well
both online and offline as i’m like okay
god
um i want you to grow it as long as it
doesn’t take me away from home
and uh um you know because my parents
were divorced and so i didn’t really
have
you know that that typical type of
structure that
you know dad is always home and eating
family you know but now that i have that
with my kids and my wife
it’s like i want to make sure that i’m
i’m you know giving them as much
attention as possible
um now you know you mentioned um
you know kind of your communication gift
right and just kind of really
embracing that and your father you know
talked about how that can be a positive
thing for you
talk to me a little bit about how
how did you kind of embrace your calling
if you will and kind of at what point in
your life did you sense that god had a
unique calling on your life and i asked
that because so many people
will send me questions and they’ll email
me and they’ll say hey
you know alan um how did you know you
were called to the ministry like what
does that look like what does that feel
like did god just kind of
speak it you know in the clouds and say
okay i want you to go to ministry like
what does that look like and so what did
that look like for you
and when did that kind of happen yes
um i’ll answer that question in a
nutshell and then i’ll kind of tell you
what led me to that conclusion
but the nutshell answer to that is that
i’ve i’m learning and have learned
that god’s calling and god’s will for
our lives looks less like a moment
and more like just a daily commitment to
honor him with what’s in front of you
for today
when i look back in hindsight over the
past now almost 25 years of being
in in some uh portion of ministry when i
look back on that i realized
that i could not have mapped out in my
wildest dreams what
god’s will for my life was all i knew
was the light he had given me for the
next step
the next 24 hours the next week the next
month the next two
and as i followed him i didn’t even
realize
that each stage was actually setting the
framework and the foundation for what
was to come
so i couldn’t have jumped to step three
without having walked through whatever
the step one and step two was
that he had entrusted to me right then
that’s how god’s will
unfolded for me it wasn’t a strategy and
it wasn’t a plan and it wasn’t
a moment of calling it was just doing
what was next
and then god giving me a passion or
lighting a fire or a peace or an
opportunity
to move forward in a particular
direction and watching him really
strategically close doors in
other directions so i had to decide what
i was was i going to ambitiously force
these doors open
or was i going to trust and honor the
doors that he was opening up for me in
the direction that he was sending me
so as i mentioned i went to school um at
the university of houston for
communications
and i was planning to go into broadcast
television i was going to be on the news
that was my goal journalism i wasn’t
thinking about ministry at all
and i interned at a christian radio
station just for class credit while i
was in school in houston
and they gave me an hour-long radio show
and i would just come on every two or
three songs as djs do
and i would say they gave me they told
me i could talk for 60 seconds
and i might just share a word of
encouragement or share a bible verse
nothing major
and i did that through the three years
three or four years that i was at u of h
well people started to call the station
and say well that girl that comes on one
day a week will she come and do a bible
study for the women at my church or
will she come and emcee an event so here
i was a 19 year old
freshman sophomore in college and i’d
show up and sometimes there’d be 10
women there and i’d just share a little
bible study
sometimes i’d show up and there’d be 500
women there and i would just do the same
thing share a little bible study
and the reality is that for 25 years the
invitations to just share a little bible
study never stopped coming
that’s how god’s will unfolded and i
began to realize that my other pursuits
either the lord was very clearly closing
the doors
and by the way those doors being closed
in television for me
was devastating i mean i would be on a
show or be hired by cbs to
be a reporter and then they wouldn’t
need me anymore almost as soon as i
started or
you know it was very crippling to my
self-esteem in my young 20s
i just felt like i wasn’t good at it
that the lord wasn’t allowing me to
pursue my dreams it felt
very devastating to me in those young
years but i realized now that all of
those disappointments were actually the
lord
reorienting and redirecting my path and
my passions
in the direction that he had planned for
me all along
and i also discovered that those years i
felt were wasted years
where none of those dreams were realized
in television for example
i would start and then stop and then be
called here but then be disappointed
when they didn’t need me anymore
everything i was learning about what it
meant to be in front of a camera
i had no idea that these video driven
bible study resources
were going to be a part of the lord what
the lord was would be calling me to do
so i knew how to stand in front of a
camera and talk to a camera
because of all those disappointing years
that i thought were worth nothing
they actually were the fodder god was
using to prepare me for
the calling the purpose the plan that he
had for me so nothing was wasted
but it wasn’t one moment of calling it
was just doing what was next
and then seeing where the lord was
directing my passions and opportunities
and then following him in that and not
trying to force
a path that he clearly didn’t have his
hand upon
yeah i love that answer i really really
appreciate that answer and i hope for
those of you who are watching that you
really got something out of that because
so often we get this idea of calling so
confused and
as a result many people just get
paralyzed because they’re like
i’m waiting for god to show me my
purpose i’ve got so many my friends
where i’m like
you know they’re like hey i’m waiting
for god to show me my purpose i’m
waiting for god to show me my calling
and i love how you put it it’s like hey
just do the very next thing that god has
put in front of you
and then see where god takes it from
there i always tell people hey if you
don’t know what your calling is just
look at the bible because the bible is
very clear
that every christian is called to
evangelize every christian is called to
use their spiritual gifts
every christian is called to make
disciples so if you don’t do anything
else
find one person who may not be as far
along in their
walk or in their faith as you are and
just pour into them
what god has already shown you and if
you do that one thing
you take that one step then god will
show you the next step and the next step
and then at some point you’ll be crystal
clear on okay this is more than likely
where i’m
uniquely going to be used by god in
ministry
and here’s the thing what social media
has done with all of the benefits that
it has afforded us what it has also done
is painted this picture that platform
ministry or that being in the spotlight
or that having a microphone or perfectly
lit pictures of
you know of you on stage that that is
actually what ministry is that that’s
the goal
and it’s not that what you just
described of discipling other people
most of those people and some of the
most
impactful and effective discipleship
that happens
are the people that are right within our
sphere it’s not about a platform for
thousands
it’s about my son or my daughter and me
taking the time
to prioritize them in the young years
and and
help them to learn bible verses and to
disciple them or the young woman
at the church that’s weight a teenager
she’s waiting on somebody in their 20s
or 30s
to place value on her by just paying
attention to her
and spending time with her and helping
her to see what biblical womanhood looks
like
that’s what it’s about that’s how we
serve and honor god
it’s not about a platform and hundreds
of thousands of followers
it’s about honoring god with the spear
that he has placed us
in um in the neighborhoods we live yeah
and i love that because i’m actually
getting ready to do a video where i’m
going to talk about
um you know different preachers who have
had influences on on my life and many of
them are well known
but you know there’s there’s one i’m
kind of a spoiler alert there’s one
that’s maybe not so well known
and the whole point of the video is
going to be hey
you know um you know sometimes
you very well may be the person that has
this large platform
you know like you and i have been
blessed to have something you know some
semblance of that
but you you somebody else you may be the
person
who disciples and pours into the next
person
who does have this large platform like i
can look back at some of the people that
have poured into my life
then nobody would ever know their names
but because of their impact in my life
they have helped me get to where i am so
never underestimate the power of one
absolutely yeah yeah now speaking of
speaking of calling you know
i would love to kind of transition talk
a little bit about you know
obviously it’s no surprise you are a
female you’re a woman you’re a female
communicator
you know so what were some of the
challenges
that you have faced
and maybe are continuing to face
you know as you are a strongly
evangelical bible-based um
you know speaker and communicator
but you know we live in this church
culture where you know a lot of people
will want to put a
kind of a ceiling or cap or limitations
on things that you know women can do
or whatnot and let’s just talk a little
bit about maybe some of those challenges
and
how maybe some people may have treated
you as you started to really progress in
your calling
well that’s a great question and i i
regret the fact that even as you use
that word
evangelical that it has been so muddied
that to say it even now
has these layers of misunderstanding and
um
distortion unfortunately that has been
so
impacting to church culture right now
but but yes
i believe very firmly in the gifting of
women that god placed
jesus himself placed value on women we
see him all throughout the scriptures
reorienting people’s perspective on who
women were the value that they had
and the dignity that were intrinsic to
to them at the same time i know that
there’s order in the church i know that
god has established
um roles that are not indicative of
value of
of male versus female but the roles that
he has called us to and i honor that and
i value that so i have been very blessed
to be
uh having been raised in an atmosphere
where i was always encouraged to serve
the lord with my gifts always
now i go to the kind of church where i
have a pastor that does the preaching
so there weren’t any other preachers
really that were preaching in our
churches on sunday male or female
dad that’s what dad does dad’s a
preacher so i never really
had the opportunity to see women in
ministry in the way that i ended up
being in ministry so it was
a little bit foreign to me because i
just wasn’t raised in an environment
that
allowed me to see that all the time like
other people were
but as the lord began to point me in the
direction of ministry
what i knew for sure was that my primary
calling was to women
so my my writing um my speaking
teaching most of everything that i do i
know is
filtered through what i what i know and
believe god has called me specifically
to do
and that is ministry to women when um
the invitations began to come for me to
speak in environments where there would
be a mixed audience
that was something that i did go to my
dad and talk to him about
number one because he’s my pastor he’s
my daddy but he’s my pastor too
and i wanted to have just the covering
of my
my pastor i wanted to have clarity on
um the way that i should handle that and
i wanted to be sure
that no matter what all of the biblical
nuances are of that that i don’t
forfeit what it is that god has asked me
to do um because i’m spending time doing
a whole lot of ancillary things that
aren’t in the wheelhouse of god’s
purpose for me
so i just ran that through my father and
he began to express to me the the need
for there to be
a spiritual covering male and female we
all need to be spiritually covered but
if that
but if i was being invited by a pastor
at a local church
to speak to his congregation that that
there was a covering that it was being
provided for me
and to the extent that i felt the holy
spirit giving me the freedom
to speak into those environments than to
know that i would be covered by him my
daddy as my pastor but then also the
pastor of that church that was inviting
me to come and so
i ha i still haven’t done that for the
majority of my ministry
but i have done it some and um the
reason
i haven’t done it mostly again is
because i really want to honor
what it is that god has called me to do
i know that’s primarily women’s ministry
so i want to honor
that um but another reason that i have
taken some of those opportunities
is because you know for many black
church environments
there might not be a women’s conference
there’s going to be women’s day
on a sunday that is their nod to a
women’s conference or the women’s
retreat it’s women’s day
so if i refuse to go into an environment
where there might be a mixed audience
on a women’s day there will be a whole
um
demographic of churches or denominations
that i may never have the opportunity to
minister to
to simply because their dynamic for
women’s ministry looks a little bit
different
um than others might be so that’s that’s
a long answer to that question
yeah no no that’s a great answer you
know and i asked that because
you know as an influencer myself
you know we and i know you can relate to
this if we get
criticized so much
for you know for for people i mean we
should expect it i mean if jesus himself
got persecuted and
criticized and and lied on and talked
about
and ridiculed i mean should we not
expect the same and
you know it’s just it’s it’s amazing how
even though you’re going forward and
you’re you said it yourself like your
focus is on
you know women in ministry and wanting
to encourage them
and even in the midst of all of that you
still have people out there who will
criticize and who hate and
say certain things and she shouldn’t be
doing this and she shouldn’t be doing
that and so
that kind of leads me to another
question which would be
you know i’ve got a lot of people
watching right now and i’m sure many of
them
are women and they feel like they have a
gift and a calling and they feel this
this sense of okay god i feel you’re
stirring something up in my spirit to do
you know what advice would you give to
that woman who feels
like they are really gifted and they
really want to do something for the lord
but
everything in their in their space
every you know people around them um
even maybe their own self-talk
or their their society is telling them
everything that they cannot do as a
woman in ministry
and you can’t do this and you’re not
allowed to do this and the bible says
this and
what what advice would you give that
woman that feels kind of
stuck and stagnant because she’s a woman
wanting to do ministry well when anybody
feels like they’re
called to ministry or that god is is
steering them in a particular direction
whether male or female the very first
thing i would say
is go to some healthy spiritual
leadership
to talk to them about what it is that
you sense god leading you to do because
to me every samuel needs an
eli you need someone to help you to
discern when god is calling you
and then to help you sharpen and focus
in on what it is he’s specifically
calling you
to do and you need people to free you up
that release you that tell you you’re
okay that that
that say hey you can do this and that
encourage you to move forward
and after you’ve bounced that off of
some wise counsel the next thing i would
say is
start being obedient to what god has
asked you to do don’t wait until you
have a platform or you have a microphone
or you have a following
say lord what do you want me to do today
in response to this calling and then
start doing it like start being obedient
right away
and sometimes that looks like um you
know the
the teenagers that are coming home with
your daughter on wednesday nights
because they’re finished
volleyball practice well why wouldn’t
you recognize the fact possibly that
they
are the audience that the lord is
calling you to they need some
woman to sit down with them and say hey
let me open the word of god with you
guys on wednesday nights from 7 to 7
20 and i’m just going to teach you
something from god’s word about your
identity in christ
that could be in fact for me alan for
five years i did a bible study at
southern methodist university i just
showed up every week
because my cousin was in school there
and couldn’t find a bible study she
moved from maryland to go to school
there
and when she told me she couldn’t find a
bible study i was like i’ll come do one
for you and your friends
and so for five years it was like the
same eight to ten girls it never got to
hundreds of people there was never an
aspiration to build something
i was just kind of showing up and i
didn’t even know
that the discipline of study that
required that the illustrations i had
come up with that some of the things i
had written
that actually became the fodder for
whole messages
that would serve hundreds of people
later or chapters that i didn’t even
know would be in books that i had no
clue
that i would write that that all of that
stuff in those small spaces
mattered when the lord continued to
unveil for me what ministry was going to
look like
so it’s funny you mentioned that oh my
goodness so like you know i earlier i
talked about
these invisible heroes right these
people that you’ll never know who they
are because they don’t have these large
platforms
but people who um pour it into us right
and so like when i when i was in college
that’s
really how i really started to
understand
kind of how god wired me calling to
ministry and all those types of things
there was a guy by the name i’m going to
give him i’ma call his name out his name
is deacon
kevin miller so if you ever see this
deacon kevin miller i don’t even know
what this guy’s up to anymore i don’t
even know where he’s at
but he did the same thing you did every
friday night he would come down to our
campus and do a bible study
with a whole bunch of college students
and most of us didn’t want to have
anything to do with god anything to do
with the bible didn’t know how to study
the bible
but the way he broke the bible down
for the first time in my life as a 19
year old i was like
wow i actually understood the bible and
reading it and studying it
was so much fun he would go through
these parables and i was like wow that’s
really cool how jesus
taught this thing and it was a deeper
meaning and this that and the other
and it’s because of him coming down
and ministering to about eight or nine
of us on a friday night
that’s triggered some sort of desire and
passion in me to want to read the bible
for myself
and i have not been able to put the book
down since so that’s one thing i’ll say
but the second thing you said about
getting started man that is so important
right because like even this ministry
that i have now on the beat
it really emerged from a place of okay
look i’m not gonna continue to wait for
somebody to tap me on the shoulder and
say hey alan
can you preach for me or can you teach
this bible study can you do this can you
do that
i got to a point where i said i know i’m
gifted i’m called to communicate the
word of god let me just start somewhere
with zero subscribers
i don’t know how many people are going
to subscribe or watch but i’m going to
start
putting my videos out there and god has
blessed it so
guys don’t wait until you have a certain
place
just start somewhere start where god has
gifted you for where you can start with
right now
absolutely i would completely agree with
that and what if that what if that dude
had decided
that doing that bible study on a college
campus wasn’t worth his time and it
wasn’t a big enough platform that it
wasn’t
a big enough venture so he didn’t do it
you know
if all of us are not doing the small
things that god has called us to start
with
we’re ignoring a whole opportunity not
only for those people we’re supposed to
be impacting
but us we’re the ones that miss out on
the gift
of being a part of pushing other people
towards their trajectory
that god has for their life yeah awesome
awesome
so i i want to kind of transition a
little bit and um
to something that hopefully it’s okay to
talk about but
you know over uh matter of fact my wife
she’s going through your elijah series
and she uh she she loves it first and
foremost and she going she’s going
through with several other young ladies
on thursday night
and um so she’s going through this part
i think it’s the chapter where it says
anywhere but here anywhere but here and
i know you’re
well familiar with that page and so she
brought it to me a couple nights ago and
she said hey you know you
you want to read up on this and so you
know obviously i know that
you know over the past few years you
know you and your family
have really dealt with so much
difficulty loss disappointment um
trauma you know i know you’ve dealt with
some personal
health issues as well literally you’ve
had you’ve had a job experience like
you’ve had a job
literally no joke like a job type of um
interaction you know basically
experience if you will so
i just would love for you to kind of
talk to those people out here who
they just feel like life is beating them
down they’re dealing with loss
they’re missing people that they love
they’re questioning god
questioning the goodness of god and how
can how do you remain
emotionally and mentally stable
in the midst of so much loss
so much confusion so many questions so
much disappointment
yeah you well the question is how do you
know i’m emotionally stable
that that is true how do you know
um you know it has been a trying time i
appreciate you asking about that
honestly every single one of us have
been through a lot the pandemic
it hadn’t just been a medical pandemic
it’s been a racial pandemic a political
pandemic
one layered on top of the other but in
combination with that you’re right over
the last
two years we’ve lost eight family
members
and i mean every three to six months
we lost another loved one you talk about
a job experience i really feel that way
when i look at my dad because
most of those people were directly
connected to him
his sister his brother his father
his wife his niece all of these people
very very close to us and we just lost
them one after the other
after my mom passed away seven months
later
my mother-in-law passed away just she
wasn’t even sick i mean she was fine one
day and then the next day she just
was gone um so it has been difficult
and then the health challenges that i uh
face the surgeries that are surgery
rather that i had to have which was
pretty significant
it has been hard and
the key i think if there is a key
because we’re still traversing it
is to remember i’ve had to remember that
god knows i’m human and he knows this is
hard
he hadn’t asked me to be a superhero he
hasn’t asked me not to cry
not to grieve not to even need to stay
in bed a little bit longer
this day or this week or this month not
to have to start saying no to a whole
bunch of things that i don’t have the
emotional
capacity to invest in right now in this
season he knows
i’m human and he says my grace is
sufficient for you
so instead of trying to be superhuman
and act like we aren’t hurting
that our family isn’t maybe disappointed
that god didn’t answer particularly with
our mom
the prayers that not just us but people
all over the globe
were praying for my mother we got video
prayers from churches in kenya and new
york and
all over the world europe people that
were collectively praying for our mom
we were stunned and disappointed that
god didn’t answer in the way we had
prayed
god is not asking us to not be
disappointed to not
be honest with him about our frailty but
i think we can
question god or i’m sorry ask questions
of god
without questioning god that i’ve never
allowed
and honestly i think my father’s example
has helped me with this
that he can cry his tears i’ve watched
my big strong
superhero amazing dad cry his tears
we’ve seen him in an emotional slump
some
because think about this allen right
after mom died the pandemic started and
he lost
church too he couldn’t even go to church
preaching and being with the
congregation that’s therapeutic for our
dad
for us but then with the pandemic he
couldn’t even do that that was like a
whole nother grief
a whole another loss and so we watched
our dad
lose a little bit of motivation we’ve
seen him as a visionary and motivated
our whole lives but of course there’s
that emotional slump of all of that loss
and grief all clumped together
but watching him in his humanity
but at the same time not question the
character of god
that he would look at his kids and say
god is who he said he is
he’s still good and he’s still kind and
he’s still sovereign and he still has a
plan for us and heaven
is real that we could watch this dad go
that
i’ve been preaching when stuff was good
i’m not going to now not believe and not
continue to preach just because things
have gotten bad
god is still good we saw that same thing
with our mom
in her last days she knew that it was
her last days and we knew that it was
her last days
and she was still passing on the baton
of faith
she was still looking at the four of us
going do not let this slow you
down do not drop this baton of faith
that i’m handing to you
you pass it on to my grandchildren and
you make sure that your grandchildren my
great-grandchildren
still know how good that jesus is any
kind of person that can have that kind
of resolution of
faith knowing that they’re facing death
that tells me that the holy spirit’s
presence must be real
and that there is a hope that is worth
hanging on to
so really it’s been watching the faith
of my parents and
other people like them that have been
steadfast in the midst of trouble
that has encouraged me to have that same
kind of backbone too
because alan our kids are looking at us
your
your kids and my sons
just like i’m watching my parents go
through this and i will always have a
memory of it that will
shape the woman that i’m becoming in
christ my sons are looking at me
and i want them one day to look at their
kids and say
your grandmother lost a whole bunch of
stuff
in the two-year time period let me tell
you what mom
your grandmother went through but let me
tell you how she
never doubted the goodness of god and
the grace of god
and how she still continued to speak the
praises of god out of her mouth to other
people
even when things were very difficult in
their life i want to have enough
backbone
that i give my son something to tell
their kids about that’s what keeps me
steady
wow wow wow you know and
and i’m just i’m just i’m humbled
hearing that because
i almost i’m almost nervous to say this
but i don’t believe in the whole
speaking things and all that but you
know i’m i’m 45 years old
and i i’ve been so blessed to have never
experienced
a major loss um you know my parents are
still here
and my sister and you know my family all
my aunts and uncles and
you know um i just i
hope and pray that i i know it’s not
about if it’s when
i experience that that you know i’ll be
able to
like you said be honest and be okay with
my feelings and go to god and and let
him know what i’m feeling and
um but it’s just it’s an encouragement
to know
like even in the situation with your mom
like here she is the one
that is she’s not watching someone else
pass she is the one that is
knowing that days are are limited and
she’s still
fighting the good fight and and holding
up you know holding up that faith
so um you know thank you so much for
that um
you know along those lines and i’ve
wanted to ask this just
just in general um i know this obviously
isn’t an interview with your father but
you know how how how is he how is he
doing
i mean how is he really doing i mean
you’ve got a life partner
49 and a half years i i mean the love
was evident between him and
and lois um you know
how is life after life after lois if you
don’t mind me asking
how is he coping how is he managing his
time his thoughts
yeah um thank you for asking that i’m so
grateful that you would ask
dad really is doing well and i don’t say
that loosely
i say that because i have known and seen
others in this kind of a scenario where
you lose a spouse after
basically 50 years they were six months
from 50 years of marriage
your life is so intertwined with someone
at that point
that i’ve seen some some people who have
lost that even with less
time and have come undone because
their life they don’t even know how to
move forward solo
so with that in mind i can honestly say
that dad is doing well
partly because the four of us won’t
leave him alone we’re all up on him he’s
like are y’all going home
is anybody leaving the house today um
y’all could leave me alone i’ll be fine
and we’re like no we’re gonna hang out
so he’s got us and i’m grateful that
we’re around my mom’s sister
um they are like siblings my dad and my
aunt
um they’ve known each other since dad
was 18 and she was 14. that’s how they
long they’ve known each other
and their buddies and they hang out and
um
dad’s life is still very full with
ministry he’s still preaching and
pastoring the church
he still travels in ministry um even
throughout the pandemic you know
the technological needs of ministry
continued and so he was
very much ministering to others and
trying to help people in leadership
governmental positions of leadership
work through the political season that
we went through
um so he’s been very busy and i’m
grateful to the lord for that because
dad
thrives as he’s giving and as he’s
ministering and as he’s studying
and writing and he thrives during all of
that so
it is a new normal he’s having to find a
new normal we all are
but i think that god is giving him grace
to be able to find that
and he has lots of friends around him um
men who have been in his life literally
since mom and dad got married
so people he’s known since he graduated
from dallas theological seminary
and they call and they check on him and
they hang out and have lunch and
so those kinds of friends i think are
also an encouragement to him and keep
him going so thanks for asking he’s
really doing good
that’s awesome that’s great to hear now
you speak a lot about
you know spending time with your family
and i mean i see all the posts on
and i love seeing it i love seeing how
you how close you are with your
your brothers and your sister and your
dad and i i love all of that
um talk a little bit about how you
prioritize i don’t even know if the word
balance
is the word that we want to use here
because we all know that
i don’t even know if that exists but
like i just was thinking about this the
other day i was sitting i was trying to
write a list
i’m like okay this sister has been in
movies so you’ve had to learn how to act
i don’t even know how long it takes to
film a movie
and you know so you got to learn all
your lines so you got the movies
you got the international speaking
you’re writing books
i know you used to have i don’t know if
you still have the chat which was your
talk show i watched that a few times i
loved it the guests that you have on
there
you know you’re writing bible studies
you’re traveling with anthony you’re
doing all these conferences you’re doing
the awaken conference like
like you seemingly are just going
going going and i’m like okay did the
lord give priscilla an extra 40 hours a
week you know that that
he didn’t give to the rest of us because
i don’t know how she i mean i’m trying
to do two videos a week on youtube
trying to be a husband and you know love
my two kids and i’m out of i don’t even
have enough time to do that and i’m like
how does this woman keep popping out
books
i mean and she’s still traveling and got
this new bible study i’m like
i can’t even write one book like i
haven’t written a book so like
what is your secret how do you do it
spill the beans and how do you keep your
family together
i mean what is what is it
well i will tell you that the main
answer to that question is that i’m not
doing everything that it appears that
i’m doing
you you said the key word earlier you
said it seems like and that is what it
seems like
but i’m really only doing a couple of
things at a time
and sometimes because they might those
things might dovetail when they’re
released
or they dovetail when they’re happening
online it looks like i’m doing them all
at the same time
but i’m really very careful to make sure
that i’m not expending
um too much time in a million different
directions all at the same time
um when our kids first started coming
along when jackson was born i remember
getting six months into having a new
baby
and saying to jerry i want to make sure
that i’m mothering this kid it was just
about the time that the lord was
starting to give us some clarity
that travel might be included and what
he was calling us to do jerry was
feeling compelled to
for us to do ministry together so he was
leaving his corporate job and we were
going to do this together
and i i was very clear on the fact given
my mother’s example
that i was supposed to raise my children
so if i couldn’t be at home with them
or if they couldn’t be traveling with me
what i did know is that this wasn’t
going to be something that i would be
able to sustain or that i even wanted to
sustain i didn’t want to
i wanted to be with my kids so really
everything we’ve done in the past
um you know now my oldest son is 18. but
everything we’ve done
right down choosing to homeschool our
sons is because
that was the priority that was at the
top of my list
and so still to this day i continue we
continue to go to the lord with each
season
because this is the thing man that will
keep you before the lord in every season
of life
you’re going back to the lord going now
what now how are we supposed to get
through this week or this month or this
semester of the kids schooling and we
literally put down
the things that are priorities for our
family in that season
anything that doesn’t jive with those
priorities
we say no to and i mean no
it’s a whole sentence and we say it all
the time
so when i’m doing one thing i’ve said no
to
literally hundreds of other
opportunities in terms of speaking
engagements or interview requests or
opportunities to write a book or co-auth
or something we’ve said
no to lots of things so that we can
honor the one thing
i’ll give you another example alan i
hope i’m not answering too long
no you’re fine but you mentioned films a
minute ago that
has been one of the surprises of
ministry for us that’s not something i
ever aspired to or thought
would have an opportunity i mean who
thinks that who thinks i’m gonna be
in a movie or two one day it wasn’t even
on my mind
but the first time the kendrick brothers
called me it was when they were filming
courageous
and they wanted to see if i would do a
role in courageous and i responded to
them and said
no i’m not going to do it number one
because i’m not an actor but number two
because the time i would have to film
was about a month and it was right at
the end of my kids homeschooling year
and i just knew that it wasn’t a good
time for me to be leaving them or for
even them to be uprooted from what we
were doing at the time there was too
much going on at the time
and it wasn’t going to be good for my
family so i said no
i ended up working with them um writing
the resolution for women they wrote the
resolution for men
i wrote the resolution for women which
was a book that coincided with
just so i still got an opportunity to to
work with them and build a relationship
with them
but they told me that they were so
taken aback in a great way that i
declined being in a movie they said
we’ve never had anybody
that said no to being in a film and so
for them
um they said they respected and
appreciated that so much
that by the time they got around to
writing war room they said as they were
writing the script they were thinking to
themselves as they wrote for elizabeth
jordan’s part
they were thinking what would priscilla
say and they were writing those words in
and so as they thought that they called
me before the script was even done they
said this time we want to ask you far
enough in advance where hopefully you
can honor
your family as we see clearly you want
to do but you can also participate with
this project so when we filmed war room
they said
we will we know your family is important
we’ll bring your family with you so for
the whole summer
we move together to north carolina my
sons sort of
interned on the set they got to be a
part of certain scenes and we did it
together as a family
and that really was the only way that i
was going to be able to do it because
i don’t want to compromise the main
things because i’m doing everything
um and that’s not easy it’s it’s
constant give and take it’s constant
struggle as we realize oh man we’re
imbalanced in one season
and we’ve got to recalibrate for the
next so we don’t have it down
packed because it’s like as soon as you
do your kids grow up a year and the
dynamics change or the dynamics of your
marriage change or
you change your energy level changes so
it’s a constant recalibration
but it’s this intentionality to say lord
give us the courage to say no
to the things we need to say no to so
that we can leave
margin for the things we’re supposed to
say yes man that was a word i appreciate
that because
learning to say no to things it’s
difficult when you’re somebody who wants
to do
wants to serve everyone and and a lot of
times you know
people don’t understand why we have to
say no sometimes and
and a matter of fact if you would have
told me no i cannot interview with you
allen as somebody who has had to say no
to other people
i would have been like oh man i’m
disappointed but i get it and i
understand because
sometimes even one hour of people’s time
it’s like you have to make these
decisions
all the time the busier that you get so
now speaking along those lines
you know it takes a really strong man
to support a very strong
successful woman right so
talk a little bit about you know how
how does jerry support you what role
does he play
in the ministry because i don’t think a
lot of people really
are maybe from the outside maybe from
your inner circle they kind of know but
from the outside you know they don’t
maybe know what role he plays
and how whenever he saw okay this woman
is really being called to do these
things
you know how did he have to sacrifice
any of his dreams or anything that he
may have wanted to do
because he sensed that you know you lord
was doing something special in your life
talk a little bit about about his role
in all of this
well jerry is actually the reason we
have a ministry um i don’t know that i’m
even organized enough to have developed
sort of an umbrella of a ministry
um that he that he developed so i was
kind of just randomly speaking doing
little bible studies here and there in
my early 20s
and jerry begin to see that this is the
ministry the lord has called
us to as a family so he founded going
beyond ministries
which is the ministry through which now
we try to equip churches and women’s
ministry leaders with resources
where we’re real strategic about even
like our local ministry here in dallas
fort worth
and how we serve women that come to our
awakening events and we do outreaches
um he also is a businessman so there is
a business
aspect to ministry that has to be
balanced um
and so he and i are in two completely
different lanes
um all of the behind-the-scenes business
aspects of
of what the reality is in ministry and
technology and
publishing and all of that stuff that’s
jerry’s lane and it’s it’s not mine i’m
not gifted in that at all
the flip side of that is he does not
want to be on a stage he doesn’t want to
even want to be on social media for that
matter
he doesn’t want to be sort of the face
of anything so we’re not really bumping
heads he and i about anything because
we’re in two different lanes and we try
our best to respect the lanes that each
of us
is in and honestly him sort of
spearheading and
and being the visionary of ministry for
me has been incredibly helpful because
um i as his wife and so it’s em
submitted to his leadership and i trust
the vision that the lord
has given him for us so um there are
many things that i have so much freedom
to say no to
for our family if if he is not feeling
that same passion or
that same direction for us as a family
then i know that that’s not
that’s not for us um so i i look to him
for that not just with our personal
family needs but also with ministry
um having his leadership there really
does give us a lot of guidance so
we kind of stay in our lanes and do our
thing and and then dovetail together and
just try to honor god as best we can
and you know i’m so so thankful that you
that you said that because
i just want to encourage every single
person watching this
that there is a blessing and there is an
anointing and there is a ministry
in the support role and being and i only
want to call to support i’ll just call
it a behind the scenes rule because
sometimes support sounds
secondary but like behind the scenes
listen even paul not only to preach to
you all but even paul said in first
corinthians chapter
12 he said sometimes the the hidden
invisible parts of the body are the ones
that we present the most honor to right
and so you know just thinking about our
own bodies right you know
yes it’s nice to have big arms and you
know the the biceps and all that stuff
but like if your heart stops bump like
pumping or
if your brain is something going on with
your brain or your liver or whatever
like the invisible parts are sometimes
the most important
to keeping things running so i just want
to be an encouragement like my wife
she’s
she’s on camera sometimes but quite
frankly she supports
me and and she is behind the scenes and
she does so much
and jerry is the same way and so many of
you are that way as well so i never
want to belittle anyone who may not be
in front of the camera
doing these things that priscilla and i
are doing but your
role can be just as much
or greater of an impact behind the
scenes as you can be
on center stage i i just want to echo
that and say that i’m so grateful that
even you differentiated between
even saying support role or behind the
scenes because
it can put it can compartmentalize in
people’s mind what that means
honestly if the behind the scenes folks
in church
in ministry in business if the behind
the scenes folks aren’t
good at doing what it is that god has
called them to do and honoring
and serving well and doing with
excellence and taking
pride in the role that god has given
them then most of the stuff that’s
happening above the surface won’t even
happen it won’t even happen
i would have never published a book i
would have never been in a film
i would have never been a part of some
of the ministry opportunities that we
hope has
have been impactful to people that would
have never happened
if there is not someone willing to sit
in the meetings to read the contracts to
have all of the kind of in-depth
conversation that has to be had before
any of this
connect these things can actually work
those people
are necessary and um important to
whether or not the product
or the resource is finished or comes to
fruition at all yeah
yeah awesome awesome well you know this
has been a phenomenal time
uh sharing with you uh priscilla it’s
been awesome awesome
i just have one final question i would
like to ask how can we be praying for
you
uh how can we be praying for your
ministry what’s next for going beyond
ministries what’s next for the shires
personally um you know what i saw
something on social media i want to say
it might be today that there’s a new
book
i think it’s called divine disruption or
something of that nature i just saw it
on instagram right
this morning so kind of let us know kind
of what’s on the horizon for you
all what can we be praying for and how
can we best support you in this season
i appreciate you asking me that thank
you um ministry wise yes my
um siblings and dad we got together over
the past year or so and we just sort of
pinned down
some of the questions that you were
asking me about like how to hold on to
faith when life breaks your heart
and we just sort of wrote down some of
the things that have happened in the
past two years and the way that the holy
spirit and the lord have encouraged us
and guided us through it
so we could i would love for you to be
prayerful that that resource
which um we posted about it today but it
doesn’t come out until november
but really that it will encourage some
folks who are going through some really
hard stuff
to just know that god’s still got him
and there’s always still hope in him
um but then personally i’m just at this
season where i just dropped off a son at
college i have another one going into
his senior year
and all our focus and energy really is
going towards just this transition
in our son’s lives we have another one
coming up into his high school year soon
and so we’re just in those real
formative teenage years where we’re
dealing with all the teenage things
and i’ve told you before we started um
taping this
allen how grateful i am to you and your
wife your family for
the ministry you do because you really
are helping me parent
sons through these years where they need
a godly man who looks like them
to be sharing truth with them on hard
hitting topics that they need to know
what the bible says and
and you’re helping me do that i play
your videos all the time for family
devotions and i’m grateful for that
so just prayer as we steward these years
with our boys before they all sort of
head off into the horizon of college and
whatever god has for them i’d be
grateful for that awesome awesome
well priscilla it’s been an honor to
have this time with you
and um it’s just been amazing to see
what god is doing
you know in your life in your family’s
life and
um once again just always cheering the
evans family and the shirers on
and uh and for those of you watching
hopefully you all were encouraged
um you know in the midst of difficulties
that you may be going through
whether it’s financial whether it’s loss
or whatever
hopefully if you are a woman who has
this sense of
calling in ministry and you’re just
feeling stuck hopefully something that
was said today will encourage you
to start where you are and to not wait
and
to really be obedient to what god has
called you to do hopefully for some of
you who are questioning your calling and
ministry and you’re not doing anything
and you’re waiting
on god to give you some revelation in
the clouds or knock on your door and say
hey
deliver you a letter and say hey this is
what i want you to do hopefully you’ll
just start with what god has already
told you to do
and god will reveal more and more to you
as you go forward in ministry so thank
you for all the wisdom
that you’ve poured into us and uh i
don’t i always
normally always ask my guests how how
can we get in touch with you but
i think everybody knows it’s the best
way to get in touch with you is
obviously going beyond
dot com is that what it is or going
beyond ministries.com
it’s going beyond.com that’s ours okay
awesome awesome so guys
stay in touch with the showers pray for
them um i don’t know if they have
i’m assuming they have support um
opportunities on their website where you
can financially support
um i can tell you that we need it right
i mean we we need that support so if
god’s laid on your heart
please feel free to support i’m going to
put links below the video
to um i don’t know if they can pre-order
the book i’ll find out later
but if so i’ll put that link there i’ll
also put links to her ministry
as well instagram and all those
different things and um so thank you so
much priscilla for your time
and uh god bless you and hopefully we’ll
be able to do this again
i’m grateful thank you so much alan all
right
bye-bye everybody