We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachelle Starr a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachelle, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

As a newlywed living in the suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky, when I took inventory of my comfortable life, I could not shake the feeling that something just wasn’t right. Everyone in my
life looked and acted the same. Put together, clean cut, well-mannered. . . . I started to realize
my experience in the church looked less like a refuge for the sick and broken and more
like a country club for the polite and religious.

My mantra for life, the Scripture that I have staked my entire ministry upon as well as what I’ve
preached to my team over and over again, is the Great Commission. In it Jesus says, “Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And
surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20, emphasis added).
It’s such a small word—if you’re not careful you’ll miss it—but the word that stands out to me is
the word go. If we consider what that word means (to move from one place to another) as well
as who said it (spoiler alert: it was Jesus who said it), we can’t help but take it seriously. Jesus
doesn’t say to sit still and wait for someone in need to cross our paths; he commands us to go.
Not only does Jesus command us to go, but when we look at his life, we must also look at
where he went. Sure, Jesus did ministry with his close friends—I will be the first to tell you how
important it is to have a community of fellow believers with you as you step in obedience to his
mission—but when we look at the life and ministry of Jesus, we see him going to the sinners,
the sick and diseased, the outcasts and forgotten. When we look at the life of Jesus, we see a
life that is countercultural, bold, and outrageous. If this is what Jesus did during his short time
here on earth, then I want to do the same. I want outrageous obedience.

So here I was in my early twenties, exclusively surrounded by other Christians, and I could see
very little evidence of the Great Commission in my life. My obedience to his commission was
less than outrageous. I knew I wanted more—that Jesus had commanded more from me—so I
began praying that God would show me where he wanted me to go and whom he wanted me
to serve. As I prayed, I began to open myself up to as many outreach opportunities as possible. I
stopped to talk to homeless people on the side of the road, cared for the students in my
church, and discipled a group of young women. I didn’t know what God was doing, but I was
open and I was listening.

Finally, more than a year later, on my typical commute to work, God spoke. I was driving and
praying, once again asking him to give me eyes to see who he wanted me to serve, not really
paying attention to my surroundings, when God brought my attention to an old building that I
must have passed a hundred times before. It was a small XXX theater and truck stop. And that’s
when I heard God speak. Almost as if he was sitting in the seat next to me, I heard him say,
“That’s where I want you to go, to tell the women working there that I love them.”
I had never been in a strip club or XXX theater before and didn’t know the first thing about the
sex industry, but as crazy and outrageous as it seemed, I knew immediately that this is exactly
what I had been waiting for. And so did my husband. As soon as I called to tell him what I’d
heard from the Lord he said, “Yes, that is exactly what Jesus would do.”

It’s been almost two decades since I heard God’s calling on my life to reach women in the sex
industry. It has been a wild ride, to be sure—one filled with God-sized victories and souls saved,
as well as much heartbreak and overwhelming exhaustion. But while God does not promise
that outrageous obedience will be easy, he does promise that he’ll be with us every step of the
way.

My name is Rachelle Starr. I am the author of my new book, Outrageous Obedience, and the Founder and President of a ministry called Scarlet Hope that reaches women who have been exploited or trafficked with the hope and love of Jesus. Scarlet Hope has been a ministry for 15 years now, and has served thousands upon thousands of women across the U.S. through outreach, discipleship, and career development. I believe God has created each of us for obedience to the purpose, place, and people he has called us to. I am passionate about inspiring and equipping women to live out their calling to reach those around them with the light of Christ, no matter what season they are in.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In the year 2002 I made a big vision list that held the words “open a bakery for women”. This vision would be five years before I was called to Go share the hope and love of Jesus with women in the adult entertainment industry through the organization that I founded, Scarlet Hope. After working with women that had been exploited, trafficked and abused I began to cast vision to the leaders around our organization of having a bakery that would employee women giving them a job out of exploitation while they healed from trauma and met goals that they had dreamed of. In 2015 Scarlet’s Bakery had our grand opening in the Shelby Park neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky. It was the first social enterprise of it’s kind in Louisville and the streets were lined with people and the freshest cinnamon rolls and goodies anyone could find. From that year to 2020 women would go through our career development program, receive scholarships to go to college, get amazing careers after they graduated our program all while making a deep impact in the community for change. Our tag line was “We don’t hire people to bake cupcakes. We bake cupcakes to hire people.” The business grew to three retail locations a large catering service, however our story a long with so many others had to pivot. In March of 2020 when the pandemic hit our retail locations quickly closed by government regulations and due to the square footage of our spaces we would not be able to open for four months, we quickly had to shift in those beginning weeks of the pandemic and begin with producing our products in dry good mixes and opening an e-commerce store. We sold our customers favorite cookie mixes online, offered virtual baking classes and continued to train and equip women virtually through various learning classes. Our pivot showed us that we did not have to operate a retail store to employ women out of exploitation or trafficking, the pivot opened up many pathways for women to gain new trade skills and work in fields they had never dreamed of: corporate, administration, hospitality, medical just to name a few. This has deepened our career development program and allowed us to hire and retain more women in our program. Ninety percent of women that go through our program are employed in full time employment in stable and sustainable careers.

Rachelle, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Any advice for managing a team?

Culture and purpose are the foundation of our businesses. I’ve learned over the years to hire slowly, fire fast and make sure that the person you invite into your team has passion for the purpose and culture of your business. The reality of any business is it’s only as great as the people within it. In our organization one of our core values is excellence. We seek to listen carefully to our teams gifts, talents and desires within the business and we seek to put those desires in line with our mission and vision. We are an all woman ran operation and it’s amazing to walk along side strong women that desire to see change in this world and to make an impact. Take time to be with your team, not just work on to-do’s or tasks. It’s so important that everyone feels like they belong and are meeting the reason they chose to spend their employment at your company.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rachellestarr.co
• Instagram: rachellestarr.co
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelle-starr/

Image Credits
Josh Starr, Perri Fields