When In-N-Out Burger owner Lynsi Snyder met Sean Ellingson, she didn’t know the result would be a loving marriage and the chance to serve God together through their ministry called Army of Love. But that was the hope-filled outcome — and it’s not something the 39-year-old CEO takes for granted. Not in the slightest.
Just eight years ago, Lynsi saw herself as pretty broken, even though she was the billionaire president of the popular burger chain. Business success and wealth didn’t lessen the impact of losing her father or prevent the pain of three failed marriages. But once Lynsi was able to feel whole as a person, not needing the love of a man, and was able to accept God’s healing over loss in her life, everything changed.
She now sees her marriage and life as evidence of God’s unfathomable grace — a grace she wants others to experience.
“This is what I told Sean,” she says. “ ‘I never thought I could love God more. But the fact that His grace has given me you has made me love Him even more.’ “
The couple considers their marriage and ministry as no small gifts, given the struggles both have experienced in their lives. Lynsi and Sean’s story is one of healing and thankfulness — as well as the desire to share God’s love with others who are desperate for hope. And they know what that desperation feels like.
Lynsi’s story
As Lynsi shared in Decision magazine, the death of her father when she was 17 rocked her “to the core.” Lynsi says she tried to fill the void of her dad’s love with “unhealthy relationships and other worldly pursuits.” After a “very tumultuous” third marriage, Lynsi says she hit bottom. But God’s grace helped her thorugh that time, and she came to realize that only Jesus could fill the needs of her heart.
Because of the unsuccessful marriages, she says she didn’t feel qualified to serve God in ministry. But as she prayed one day, Isaiah 61 came to mind and an idea overwhelmed her:
“My heart just started breaking for people, and I felt I needed to be a voice for the voiceless, to fight for those who won’t fight for themselves. This idea for the Army of Love came up, and it was a vision of hope for me. I was just trusting God that this was a ministry that I would one day be a part of.”
Eventually, Lynsi filed for the nonprofit tax exemption to set up the ministry. But the process took longer than normal. “It was unusual,” Lynsi explains. “I’d started one [nonprofit organization] before and didn’t really understand what the delay was. It turns out that the delay was probably because there was a missing piece of that puzzle, and God knew what was going to happen.”
Sean’s story
As Lynsi was learning to live happily without a man in her life, Sean was desiring to have a family and serve God while questioning the purpose of his existence. After the death of a younger brother who had overdosed at age 22, he joined the Army.
“When I got out of the Army, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t where I should be with the Lord. I had come out of the military struggling with alcohol,” he says. “As I was processing out, they said I had diabetes. That radically flipped the switch.”
Your life needs to change, he told himself. You can’t drink anymore.
Just a few days later, Sean found out he’d been misdiagnosed. “But I’d already been shaken up, and I saw God trying to get my attention,” he says. “I prayed that God would show me why He created me. I really wanted a family, and I wanted to be able to provide for a wife and children. At that time, I was living in Los Angeles and didn’t see how that was possible.”
He continued to pray, and then he met Lynsi. “I just saw everything in my life changing and doors opening because of God,” Sean says. After Lynsi and Sean married, they began a Bible study, and eventually, Sean became an ordained pastor. “My sole drive in life is to serve Him first,” the 39-year-old explains. God helped him heal from dysfunction and trauma in his past, he says, including being molested when he was young.
Marriage and ministry
Lynsi sees God’s divine timing at work as the two met. Although the Army of Love ministry was very much on her mind, she was still waiting for the nonprofit paperwork to be processed.
“We realized that our hearts and minds were set on the same things,” she says. “We wanted to do ministry together, and we had a lot of the same focus. It was really neat to see the way God fit that all together. This was the first relationship I had been in where everything started around God. After the first time we talked, we wanted to pray for each other.”
A week after they were married, the nonprofit registration finally came through.
“There was so much purpose in us being together,” Lynsi says. “There was so much unity and knowing that our hearts were pointed toward God and that we wanted to be used [by God]. We both had enough failures in our lives and had received God’s grace by that point. So if we could still be used by Him, that would be the greatest thing ever. We had a lot of gratitude.”
Serving God in the Army of Love
The goal is to “enlist, train and equip an Army of Love to help people from all walks of life that are in need of support, prayer, encouragement, healing, direction, and freedom.” Volunteers “enlist” on the ministry’s website and take a discipleship training course before “deploying” to serve others in a variety of ways.
Sean and Lynsi see the ministry as the “outstretched arm of the body of Christ.” If churches and other Christian organizations become overwhelmed as they serve their communities, the Army of Love can provide manpower and resources.
“We just want to be faithful and use this ministry to love God and love people — and to help them,” Lynsi says. “Because there are people who need someone to fight for them.”
Serving God together
Lynsi and Sean agree that working in the ministry together keeps them unified as husband and wife.
“I would say it promotes a very healthy marriage,” Sean says. “I definitely see it as keeping us with the same goal, the same focus.”
Of course, the couple isn’t immune to disagreements. “There have been times when we’ve argued, but at the end of the day, we know how much we love each other,” Lynsi says. “And we know that with anything that comes our way, with God we can get through it.”
Sean adds that he’s learned to admit when he’s wrong. “I’ve had to swallow a few pills of pride,” he says with a laugh. Getting counsel from a group of elders helps him realize when he needs to make amends.
“I know that I have to turn to someone else in the body of Christ in those times. I have no problem opening up and sharing about certain issues with a select few people. We need to be wise about who we’re opening up with, but at the same time, we have to get over this hump in our society: So many people, especially men, are afraid to open up about anything in their personal lives. And it’s just so debilitating.”
For the past seven years, the couple has served together leading the Army of Love, what some describe as a “church without walls.” Yet the couple stresses that the nonprofit’s purpose is to support local churches, not replace them. That support comes from Christian volunteers who are ready to serve people in need.
We both had enough failures in our lives and had received God’s grace by that point. So if we could still be used by Him, that would be the greatest thing ever.
Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson
The Army of Love hosts an annual retreat (they call it an “advance”), where couples are paired with another couple for prayer. “Sean and I love being able to connect with couples,” Lynsi says. “The testimonies that come out of that after just a few days — when people are able to face things and deal with stuff — is just amazing. I really love working with couples and Sean also does. We obviously want God to get all the glory, but we sure enjoy being His tools. It’s very rewarding to see people set free, transformed or helped in any way.”
Lynsi points to The 5 Love Languages book as helpful for any relationship, but especially for couples who are serving God in the same ministry. “I think that really knowing what makes the other person feel loved and what discourages them is important,” she says. “You want to do ministry together, but what’s going to make her feel loved and empowered to do so? What’s going to make him feel respected that he can do that, what’s going to encourage him?”
Vision for the future
Over the past few years, the Army of Love has connected with other Christian nonprofit organizations to provide training for staff members on various topics they may deal with, including addiction. In-N-Out Burger raises support for nonprofits to help fight both addiction and human trafficking with its Slave to Nothing foundation.
As they’ve linked with other organizations, Sean and Lynsi have discovered that leadership of Christian nonprofit organizations often need extra support. And they want to provide that assistance.
“Oftentimes people who are in positions of leadership are expected to have it all together,” Lynsi explains. “And their workloads just keep building. Army of Love is there to say, ‘Hey, are you OK?’ We’re there to say, ‘Who are you talking to? Who are you letting this out with?’ We’ve helped foster an environment in organizations so they can be OK with not necessarily having it all together, so they can get healing, too.”
Lynsi is excited about the impending launch of social media channels for Army of Love. She sees it as a powerful way to reach people in need who wouldn’t necessarily go to a church. “If someone is dealing with depression or considering an abortion, we’re connected with other organizations,” she explains. “So we can point people to these organizations. At the same time, whether people are struggling with their marriage or not wanting to live, Army of Love can deploy soldiers to help anyone, anywhere.”
Both Lynsi and Sean want others to find the same grace, love and healing from God that they’ve experienced. As Lynsi says, “I’m just hoping that the Army of Love can be a beacon of hope and light that people can turn to, so they know there’s a safe refuge in the Lord.”
