From Broadway Stage to Bible Studies
God’s voice amidst the undulations of achievement
This Weekend Edition of Ecstatic features Laura Leigh Rogers
I moved to NYC in the summer of 2019 and jumped headfirst into life in the city. Nine months later, in a wild turn of events, I landed a lead role in the Broadway show Mean Girls, making my debut on March 13, 2020. What seemed to be a time of celebration and accomplishment in my life was quickly stalled, full stop, by the pandemic shutdown. Five days after the first show, I was on a plane back home to Arkansas to be with my family for the foreseeable future.
The thing about New York City is that no one ends up here by accident. Most people have a dream in their heart and a passion to pursue. The reality is that most people who move here are driven, ultra-talented individuals. The competition is intense, and the lifestyle fast amidst the jostle of 8.4 million other souls. Against those odds and with that backdrop, prioritizing space and time to listen to the voice of the Spirit is a real war.
As I boarded the flight home, I wondered if I’d heard God’s leading correctly. I was disoriented and disappointed. Something I had dreamt of, worked so hard for, and then achieved, was taken from me in an instant. Amidst that loss, what felt even harder was being separated from the Christian community which, in a few short months, had become a family for me. Not only had I lost my dream job, but I was distanced from the place and people that had become a real source of growth and fellowship. This new beginning of my adult life felt like it was brought to a standstill. In the grief of that loss, I experienced an uprooting of all that was under the surface.
Where my heart had sought hope in Broadway, in finding a husband, and in the thrilling experiences and people of New York City, Jesus helped me find my hope in him alone. He was the anchor of my soul and the place where I could come as I was to find life and light amidst the uncertainty of my future. He taught me how to pray from a place of pain and as I learned how to abide in him, the fruit came forth and Jesus crystalized my hope.
The year before I boarded my flight to NYC, I had the first inkling: “Is God speaking to me?” It was the spring of my senior year in college, and God was working in my life in ways I had never before experienced. One day, I was sick in bed reading a daily devotional when I heard the vivid words, “RISE UP.”
I had been reading Isaiah 60, struck by the lines of the prophet, “Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” With those two words came a deep sense that God was calling me to participate in what he was doing in my generation.
I grew up in the faith, and knew the Bible stories and all the foundational truths of Scripture, but encountering the Holy Spirit and hearing his voice wasn’t something I had a framework for. It was that same spring that my family took a trip to Israel to study through the sights and streets of Jesus’ life and ministry; I had a deep sense of anticipation for what might arise in me as I traveled the same streets my Savior walked. As I was reading on the plane to Israel, I heard a whisper in my spirit: “Listen.”
In another instance, while back at college, I was sitting in my car with worship music playing in the background when I heard the phrase, “A home where women are discipled.” Again, I felt a profound sense of calling, along with deep awe at the voice I knew I was hearing.
These whispers initiated a journey of listening to the Spirit that has led me into new depths and unexpected outcomes. It has awakened in me a desire to live a life centered around seeking Jesus, to throw off every sin that so easily entangles, and to run the race that Jesus has for me in this life. Discovering the personal and intimate conversation with God through his Spirit has since become my greatest joy. I was created to walk, live, work, move, and even breathe in dependence on his Spirit. What has followed in the wake of these whispers has been the wildest adventure of my life.
Trevor Hudson explains, “Deep down in the human heart there is a longing to know God. A longing to move from a secondhand knowledge of God to a firsthand experience of God. We have ideas about God, insights about God, and yet so seldom we encounter God.”
As I learned the foundational role of Christian community, I came to viscerally understand that fellowship with the family of God is central to a life of seeking Jesus. And so, in those first few months of the pandemic, I knew that I had to keep meeting with others who were running the race, even if we had to get creative.
Because of Mean Girls, the platform I had online grew drastically, seemingly overnight. And with the halt caused by the pandemic came a surge of people with the desire to seek Jesus in the suffering. The audience on my social media was primarily young women and I soon found that many sought a safe place to ask questions of faith. After considering the limited options, it made the most sense in the midst of this surge of spiritual inquisitiveness to gather these women on Zoom to study the Bible together.
What began as one online meeting soon became a swell of beautiful activity. It was immediately apparent that God was doing something special in our gatherings, and the wind of the Spirit flew through our screens as hundreds of women logged on each week, forming a community of seekers. In a short time, we reached over 1,400 women from over 10+ different countries including Hong Kong, Brazil, Russia, and Australia. To me, these looked like the seeds of God’s movement in the next generation of women.
In the early months of this new ministry, I found a new paradigm beginning to emerge in my life in the way I listened to God. Maybe it was the freedom in my schedule to talk openly, with no limits on time, or maybe it was the desperation in my heart caused by the lack of anything exciting and spontaneous, but what came out of that time was a new depth in my desire to seek God and to wait on his words.
I was seeing the fruit of being with Jesus and abiding in Him. In John 15, Jesus tells us, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” My ears were being finely tuned to the right frequency to hear the voice of love.
It was during this time that I was introduced to the gentle and kind voice of Fred Rogers. Fred was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and a legend in the entertainment industry known for his profound work in the lives of children.
As I spent time reading about his life and watching clips from his television show, his music and work became a means of discipleship for me. I witnessed the character of Jesus play out before my eyes on the television screen. He was a person who knew how to listen. While on long walks listening to Mister Rogers’ childish and teachable tunes, God used his simple but profound lyrics to remind me that I’m liked and I’m loved.
There was a peace that settled in my spirit that although I may never see a Broadway stage again or walk the dreamy streets of the UWS in NYC, although I might not get married and have babies, although I might not even be able to gather in person with my New York friends again, I am one who is deeply loved. We all are a people deeply loved. And as we seek God and listen to his whispers of hope, we find the secrets to the Kingdom of heaven.
Fred Rogers once said, “More and more I’ve come to understand that listening is one of the most important things we can do for one another. Whether the other be an adult or a child, our engagement in listening to who that person is can often be our greatest gift. Whether that person is speaking or playing or dancing, building or singing or painting, if we are, we can listen.”
God used the time of separation and isolation, of loss and pain, to deposit something new in my heart: a dependence on his voice. A faith to believe with greater depth that he is always doing immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine; a hunger and thirst for his mission on the earth. I emerged on the other side of a difficult season with a renewed Spirit. I thank God that he restored so much of what I had lost, and despite my lack of a Broadway job, he brought me back to NYC in 2021 to continue my life, artistry, and ministry in the city.
Upon my return, I found that the vision God had given me for a Bible study ministry began to grow and take shape in unexpected ways. Through the work in my spirit during the previous months back in Arkansas, he had prepared me to be sent back into the city with a new mission, revealing that what began as an online community would soon find its fruition on the ground in New York City.
Central to the birth of this ministry was a need for discipleship and a formation of life in God’s Word in community with other women. The same spiritual needs that I witnessed in women over Zoom were present and real in the lives of the daughters of New York City. The re-opening of the city was not the resurrection that many people hoped for. I witnessed firsthand how pandemic isolation put a magnifying glass over the deep struggles and lack of spiritual formation in the rising generation.
According to Barna, only 10% of Christian twenty-somethings have “resilient faith,” which is defined as participating in the basic foundational practices of a Christian walk. The American Bible Society recently reported that only 9% of Gen Z youth would qualify as “scripture engaged.” The painful reality of these statistics was brought to life in front of my eyes through the young women I was getting to know and love.
But what I also witnessed was a light shining in the darkness. Although there is a lack of discipleship, there is a hunger in the rising generation for the way of Jesus. The US Census Bureau recently reported that there are over 673k women ages 20-29 living in NYC. Among this population, 81% say they’re curious about Scripture (American Bible Society) and 64% say they wish they read the Bible more.
Within this anxious and searching generation lies a desire and openness to relationship with Jesus. There is a need—I’ve witnessed it. There is an opportunity—I’ve experienced it. This is where our ministry stepped into the gap. This is the battleground that God had prepared and equipped me for.
The ministry, which we officially named Rise Collective, quickly transitioned from online to in-person discipleship, and my NYC apartment became a revolving door for women in the city seeking God as we met weekly around the Word of God. These needy women were responding in force, passion, and devotion to the call of Jesus. I found a deep, growing desire to see more women rising into their purpose, listening to his voice, and carrying his light into the industries that they felt called to in NYC.
Through this work of gatherings, Bible study resources, and a burgeoning residential discipleship program, we want to see more and more women swept up into the story of God and to find their unique calling in the Kingdom of God. I believe he wants to help them tune their ears to his voice and learn to live a life centered around his presence and peace. Dallas Willard, in his book The Divine Conspiracy, says, “Jesus does not call us to do what he did, but to be as he was, permeated with love. Then the doing of what he did and said becomes the natural expression of who we are in him.” This is the heartbeat of Rise Collective.
Why is it that deep fellowship and intentional discipleship are the pathways to experiencing the life Jesus has to offer the souls of the city?
The cultural impact of NYC on the world is astounding, but at the end of the day, behind the high-rise buildings and the hedge funds, backstage at Broadway shows and on the runways of the billion-dollar fashion brands lie souls that are aching to know the rest and peace offered in the person of Jesus. In a city where power, sex, and money are the driving forces, there lies a powerful remnant of Spirit-filled sons and daughters.
Upon arrival in the city, it is obvious that there is a strong current of worldliness swirling with a dark resistance that, if not actively countered with Christ-like formation, will form you into its image. My pastor, Jon Tyson, often speaks of “counter formation” out of the way of the world and into the way of Jesus. In his book Beautiful Resistance: The Joy of Conviction in a Culture of Compromise, Tyson frames his thesis by sharing a story from the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian who lived and died under the Nazi regime in Germany.
Bonhoeffer had a vision for an intentional Christian community committed to living the ethic of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. In devotion to Jesus and in defiance of the Nazi hegemony he went on to develop and run a discipleship school where daily life was centered around prayer, the Scriptures, confession, and shared rhythms. Tyson also quotes cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead saying, “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world; indeed it’s the only thing that ever has.” Jesus has indeed called us to life in the Kingdom of God, and to be co-rulers for the renewal of all things. Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. in the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 4:14-16 ESV). As we are counter-formed out of the way of the world and into the way of Jesus in the community of believers, we are positioned to step into our calling and purpose in the world to go and make disciples of all nations.
These acts—of worldly defiance, costly discipleship to Jesus, partnership with God in his redemptive work—inspire me daily, giving me strength and wisdom as I steward this ministry work that God has given me through Rise Collective. God planted the seed of a vision in college when I heard his whisper “a home where women are discipled.” That said, I am certain that it has little to do with what I am doing, and is ultimately about the movement of the Spirit of God through his people, and the generations of faithful followers that have gone before us and will come after us.
Just as Jesus spoke to me as a lonely, directionless, sick college student with the words, “Arise my daughter,” he’s speaking this to his whole body. Now is the time for seekers to arise, to live consecrated lives marked by deep abiding and ears tuned to his Spirit moving on the earth; united in the community of the beloved, rooted in the Word of God, and rising up for the glory of God.
Laura Leigh Rogers
Performing Artist & Founder
Laura Leigh featured in the Broadway production of Mean Girls in NYC, and is the founder and CEO of the nonprofit ministry, Rise Collective Women.
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