RELEVANT - Issue 78 - November/December 2015 by RELEVANT Media Group

R E L E VA N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M

WHAT I WISH I KNEW AT 27 10 INFLUENCERS TELL US WHAT THEY LEARNED THE HARD WAY

THE

NEW

FACE

MARTYRDOM BOKO HARAM IS SL AUGHTERING MORE CHRISTIANS THAN ISIS. WHY IS NO ONE TA L K ING ABOUT IT?

ISSUE 78 | NOV_DEC 2015 | $4.95

THE MAGAZINE ON FAITH, CULTURE & INTENTIONAL LIVING

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015, ISSUE 78 Gluten free since 2003 Publisher & CEO | CAMERON STRANG > cameron@relevantmediagroup.com Advertising Director | MICHAEL SCHUERMAN > michael@relevantmediagroup.com Account Manager | MATT BLAHNIK > matt@relevantmediagroup.com Account Manager | RACHEL DOUGLASS > rachel@relevantmediagroup.com Editorial Director | AARON CLINE HANBURY > aaron@relevantmediagroup.com Senior Editor | JESSE CAREY > jesse@relevantmediagroup.com Associate Editor | DARGAN THOMPSON > dargan@relevantmediagroup.com Culture Editor | LAURA STUDARUS >laura@relevantmediagroup.com Editorial Coordinator | LINDSEY STATON > lindsey@relevantmediagroup.com Social Media Coordinator | TIFFANIE BRUNSON > tiffanie@relevantmediagroup.com Contributing Writers: John Brandon, Matt Connor, Louie Giglio, Jen Hatmaker, Tyler Huckabee, Emily McFarland Miller, David Roark, Darren Selders, C. Christopher Smith, John Taylor Designer | JOHN DAVID HARRIS > johndavid@relevantmediagroup.com Contributing Designer | ANGEL ACEVEDO Digital Development Director | STEVEN LINN > steven@relevantmediagroup.com Systems Administrator | JOSH STROHM > joshs@relevantmediagroup.com Audio & Video Producer | JEREMIAH DUNLAP > jeremiah@relevantmediagroup.com Photographer | ABIGAIL COX > abby@relevantmediagroup.com Contributing Photographers: Robby Klein, Jess Guemmer, Mark Cramer, Roos Aldershoff, Finegold Alexander, Matthew Burke, Alessio Bono, John Sowers, Kari Sowers, William Weightman, Laura Studarus UX & Circulation Manager | AME LYNN DUNN > ame@relevantmediagroup.com Customer Experience Coordinator | CAROLINE COLE > caroline@relevantmediagroup.com Operations & Project Manager | NIKKI GRAHAM > nikki@relevantmediagroup.com Operations Coordinator | JESSICA COLLINS > jessica@relevantmediagroup.com Finance Manager | MERCEDES SIMON > mercedes@relevantmediagroup.com Facilities Coordinator | ERIC WARD > eric@relevantmediagroup.com ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: www.RELEVANTmagazine.com/advertise

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RELEVANT Issue #78 November/ December 2015 (ISSN: 1543-317X) is published 6 times a year in January, March, May, July, September and November for $14.99 per year by RELEVANT Media Group, Inc., 900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789. Periodicals postage paid at Orlando, FL, and at additional mailing offices.

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STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION RELEVANT magazine (Publication Number: 1543-317X) is published bi-monthly by RELEVANT Media Group. Filing date: 09.28.15. Number of issues published annually: 6. Annual subscription price: $14.99. The complete mailing address and General Business Offices of the Publisher are located at 900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789. The names and addresses of the Publisher, Editor and Editorial Director are: Publisher, Cameron Strang; Editor, Cameron Strang; Editorial Director, Aaron Cline Hanbury; 900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789. The owners are: Cameron Strang, 900 N. Orange Ave., Winter Park, FL 32789; Stephen Strang, 600 Rinehart Road, Lake Mary, FL 32746. There are no known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities. The tax status, the purpose, function and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income purposes have not changed during the preceding 12 months. Issue date for circulation data: July/August 2015. Extent and Nature of Circulation are as follows. Total number of copies (net press run): average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 39,250; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 40,500. Mailed outsidecounty paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 27,906; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 29,129. Mailed in-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 0. Paid distribution outside the mails including sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other paid distribution outside USPS: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 939; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 905. Paid distribution by other classes of mail through the USPS: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 2,336; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,542. Total paid distribution: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 31,180; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 32,576. Free or nominal rate outside-county copies included on PS Form 3541: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 0. Free or nominal rate in-county copies included on PS Form 3541: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 0. Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other classes through the USPS: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 0; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 0. Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,355; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,123. Total free or nominal rate distribution: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 1,355; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 2,123. Total distribution: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 32,535; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 34,699. Copies not distributed: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 6,715; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 5,801. Total: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 39,250; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 40,500. Percent paid: average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months, 95.83%; number of copies of single issue published nearest to filing date, 93.88%. Annual publication of this statement is required. Published November/December 2015. - Cameron Strang, RELEVANT magazine

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first word

A LET TER FROM THE EDITOR

DO STUFF BECAUSE IT MATTERS BY CAMERON STR ANG

matter how important or urgent the topic is, it’s always tricky for us to put a social justice story on the cover of the magazine. RELEVANT is known for covering the intersection of faith and culture, and let’s be honest, people expect a music or movie star to carry the front page. But the broader focus of each issue is to tell stories that compel people to grow in their faith, engage the world around them and live a life that matters. So while that does mean thoughtful cultural engagement (and coverage), it also means each issue talks about living selflessly, intentionally and outwardly. We talk about spiritual growth, worldview and justice. And yes, occasionally we have Jesse Carey write up a piece giving terrible political advice (page 56). Since the magazine contains so much more than just culture articles, it would be odd if we only had celebrities on the cover. So, sometimes we intentionally veer away from a famous face to shine the spotlight on an important topic—like the staggering situation facing Christians in Nigeria at the hands of Boko Haram. The problem is, when we do that, we know the issue’s not going to sell well. From time to time, we send a survey to subscribers asking feedback on how they think we’re doing. In it, one of the questions shows a list of the topics RELEVANT typically covers, and asks the reader to rank them based on what they want to see more of. Inevitably, the number one most desired topic, above God, is social justice. It’s important to our readers. They see issues of life and human dignity as a key expression of their faith, and they want us to cover those issues. That’s why we have the Reject Apathy section in every issue and at RELEVANTmagazine.com. The tricky thing is, with the website, we can see how people interact with content. Let’s say we post a normal daily feature covering relationships or life in your 20s. It will probably get read 150,000 times, and shared 5,000 or more times. If we post a social justice article in the same spot—same style graphic, same headline tone, same

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social media promotion—that article will get maybe 1,200 clicks and have a few dozen social media shares. In light of the survey feedback, it seems like our readers want RELEVANT to cover social justice—they like to know it’s there— but they don’t actually engage it. They don’t even click to read. So, by any rational business thought, it’s a terrible idea to put justice issues on the cover of the magazine. If people don’t even click to read a story like this on our website, why would they pick it up at a newsstand? The tension is, it’s important to talk about things like what’s happening with Boko Haram. The Church in Nigeria is being slaughtered, and the world largely doesn’t know about it. We need to tell the story boldly. When I was in the Middle East meeting with Palestinian Christians for the cover story we did last year on the the Holy Land conflict, I asked them, if they could let the American Church know anything about what’s happening, what would it be? “Let them know we exist,” I was told again and again. There are stories that need to be told— ones people are unaware of because they aren’t sensational enough for the mainstream news cycle. But they are stories our generation needs to engage. So yes, this issue probably won’t sell as well because we didn’t put a cool band on the cover. Christian persecution isn’t sexy. But if we just followed sales or clicks, where’s the missional intentionality in that? God calls all of us to more than just following the easy path. In life, careers, even relationships, He regularly challenges us to do things that aren’t easy or that don’t make sense at the time. But we know we need to do them—even if it means taking a job making less money because you believe in the work, or putting out an issue that’s less marketable because you believe in the cover story. That’s why we’ll always be committed to covering social justice, faith and difficult subjects in the magazine. Sometimes we just need to do stuff because it matters.

CAMERON STR ANG is the founder and publisher of RELEVANT. Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @cameronstrang.

feedback

SEPT/OCT 2015 ISSUE 7 7

JIM GAFFIGAN Jim Gaffigan is one of my all-time favorite comedians, so I was excited to see him on the cover. There are so many comedians I want to like, but can’t really get behind because they’re so raunchy. It’s encouraging to see how “big” Jim Gaffigan has gotten while doing clean comedy. And it was awesome to read about how much thought he puts into his shows and how he collaborates with his wife. TRE VOR WHEATON / Via Facebook

T W E E T N E S S

@ D E R E K J OHN SON _

Stoked to be in the @JimGaffigan issue of @RELEVANT mag. Get your copy. Jim is hilarious. I’m not so much. @ MHE N RYLU C E R O

I haven’t even started reading the new issue of @RELEVANT, but just from flipping through it, I’m struck by how beautiful the design is. @ J OR DAN FU R LAN

@RELEVANT—The kind of magazine I can feel good about taking two hours of the morning to read. @ MTHATC HE R 331

Love how @RELEVANT addressed divorce in the church. Such an important issue that’s not talked about often enough in Christian circles.

As someone who often feels overwhelmed at the task of trying to “change the world,” I found Adam Jeske’s piece, “I Went to Change the World ... and Failed,” very reassuring. It’s always good to be reminded that I don’t have to start a huge movement or become the CEO of a giant company in order to make an impact.

@ AR P STE IN

Then there’s that time you get your new @RELEVANT and on the cover are three of your favorite artists…

JOE BREWER / Via email

I love Christine Caine. She has the most amazing testimony. It’s a true testament to the amazing power and grace of God.

David Oyelowo has a bright future ahead of him. I honestly think Selma is one of the best Christian films I have ever seen, and it wasn’t even marketed as a Christian film. What made it Christian was its emphasis on faith being the core motivation to fight for freedom and justice against oppression. MLK’s battleground was as much in the pulpit as in the streets, and Selma did a phenomenal job of showing that while appealing to both secular and Christian audiences. ANNA TANKSLEY / Via Facebook

PATRICE TRISVAN / Via Facebook

I really appreciate RELEVANT’s willingness to engage issues of race. I was glad to see the stats about race relations in this issue, and I’ve appreciated reading the online articles about how Christians are called to reconciliation. Thank you!

“Things Your Parents Wouldn’t Let You Do in the ’90s” is the story of my childhood. I wasn’t allowed to watch anything except TBN’s children’s programs and The 700 Club, because “Rainbow Bright” was certainly a gold-digging she-wolf. I don’t think I will try and stop my kids from doing all those things, but I will certainly talk them through the decisions they will have to make. However, I think trust is important.

CHRISTINA ZIEGLER / Via email

BETH MATSUDA / RELEVANTmagazine.com

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@ ILOV E L AMP TON

The ’90s Christian parents article in @RELEVANT made me lol on a silent plane. It was awkward, but it was worth it. @ C HAMB E R OFC ON N OR S

Thanks @RELEVANT for recommending Leon Bridges and The Bots. I cannot stop listening to them.

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THE NUMBERS

STUDY: MILLENNIAL CHRISTIANS’ FAITH IS STRONGER THAN ANY GENERATION It’s no news that twentysomethings are the least religious generation of all time. According to a study from Pew Research Center earlier this year, 35 percent of millennials identify as no religion—a far higher percentage than those who identify as evangelical Christians (21 percent). It’s also double the number of unaffiliated Baby Boomers (17 percent).

“Those who are staying connected in churches ... are taking matters of faith even more seriously than do previous generations of Christians.” But despite these numbers, it appears millennials who are Christians may actually claim a deeper, more rooted faith than Christians of previous generations.

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David Kinnaman, who is the president of faithbased research organization the Barna Group, says we’re seeing in this generation a “countertrend.” He says the trend toward “noneness” is being “counterbalanced by a different one of younger Christians being as or more committed to the Bible, Christian practice and even theology,” than the Christians before them. From a merely statistical perspective, “The light of millennial Christians is shining actually brighter than that of Boomer or Gen X Christians,” Kinnaman says. He says there is “real evidence that those who are staying connected in churches and connected into their faith are taking matters of faith even more seriously than do previous generations of Christians.” Millennial Christians, he says, seem to have “a more holistic understanding that theology matters, that Scripture matters, that worship should be taken seriously, that being a Christian is a wholelife commitment, rather than something you just do on Sundays.”

35% IDENTITY

35 percent of millennials don’t claim a religious identity

96% THE BIBLE

Nearly all millennial believers (96 percent) believe the Bible is the actual or inspired Word of God

65% EVANGELISM

For millennials, faithsharing practices have escalated from 56% in 2010 to 65% in 2013.

rom Maryland to South Carolina to Texas, stories of black citizens killed unjustly by police officers have become some of the most common events on the evening news. Not surprisingly, racial tensions across America are at their highest levels since the late 1960sâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; and many Americans believe race relations are worsening. According to a recent survey from The New

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Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley reportedly made a tiny object disappear using an “invisibility skin cloak.” The cloak is made out of small gold blocks that reroute light waves, functionally making the cloak invisible. And you thought Harry Potter was just fantasy.

STARS ARE PUSHING BACK ON NUDITY IN FILM

udity is looking less attractive to some of the Another actress, Jessica Chastain, complained to biggest stars in the entertainment world. One Radio Times about the film industry’s propensity to of the voices speaking out is Emilia Clarke, cast female action heroes not for their characters, but for their bodies. star of the nudity-filled Game of Thrones. “Studios ... try to make women “Most sex scenes you see in very sexualized,” she said. “They films or on TV are gratuitous. have to be in some catsuit.” They’re usually just to attract an “If anything, [appearChastain thinks audiences are audience,” she told The Daily Mail. ing nude in films] was actually more interested in seeing That’s not the audience Clarke wants. The actress—who now rejust going to exploit “intelligent” characters. “Studios have misjudged it in fuses to do nude scenes on the conme for no reason.” the past and thought audiences troversial series—told the show’s weren’t interested in seeing a creators, “I want to be known for —Jessica Alba woman in an action role who is a my acting, not for my breasts.” capable, intelligent woman—and Similarly, actress Jessica Alba recently added her voice. While she admits she’s not isn’t only leaning on her sex.” These women don’t claim moral reasons to ditch against nude scenes theoretically, she told Allure she sees only one result of going nude: “If anything, it was nudity, but they are questioning a ploy that values what they do for bottom lines more than what they do. just going to exploit me for no reason.”

Looking to connect with that special person who shares your love for bacon? Oscar Mayer may finally have the dating app you’ve been waiting for. “Sizzl” connects users with other local “matches” based on their bacon interests. Daters hold their finger on the screen to demonstrate how sizzling their interest is. We’ve reached a point of no return with this whole bacon craze.

THE FORCE IS WITH THESE KICKS E XCI T ED A B OU T STAR WARS EPISODE VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS? Now you can show

Gold, Jerry! Gold!

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everyone just how much with shoes from the galaxy far, far away. This year, Adidas unveiled a new collaboration with the larger-than-life movie franchise. The result is a limited-edition, customizable sneaker. Specially designed for

that small section of the shoe-buying market who wants to express their devotion to both Run-D.M.C. and Stars Wars in a single item, the Adidas Originals Superstar shoes come with options like stormtrooper prints, R2-D2 shell toes or the subtle option of entirely C-3P0 gold. Choose wisely.

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[ OSCAR ALERT ]

THE PEZ DISPENSER MOVIE IS REAL

Fuller House star Candace Cameron Bure has joined the cast of The View. Bure—who played D.J. Tanner on the ’90s sitcom Full House and in the upcoming Netflix reboot—is an outspoken Christian. On her website, she explains, “God has changed me in ways that words can’t describe. He has transformed the way I think and live my life. Things that were once important to me are no longer. I can’t help but share the Good News with everyone.”

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ENVISION MEDIA ARTS recently

greenlit a new animated movie starring—that’s right—Pez dispensers. The studio announced they are working on “a story that will touch the hearts of many” about the candydispensing toys. But riding the coattails of The LEGO Movie just leaves us with a weird, chalky aftertaste.

THE YEAR’S BEST JOHN OLIVER TAKEDOWNS NO nefarious institution is safe while the British-born host of Last Week Tonight is on air. This year, John Oliver took on everything from the sugar industry to payday loans to prosperity gospel preachers. He’s a comedian, but he’s also one of the clearest cultural critics out there. Yes, his segments usually come peppered with strong language and edgy punchlines, but they always deliver cringe-inducing truth. Here are three of the late-night host’s most important takedowns from 2015: PROSPERITY GOSPEL PREACHERS “Robert Tilton, Kenneth Copeland and other pastors of

their ilk have been taking advantage of the open-ended IRS definition of the word ‘church’ and procuring a litany of tax breaks.” STATE-SPONSORED LOTTERIES

“Lotteries are bad for losers, often bad for winners and a pretty compromising way to assist state budgets. ... It would be a little strange if the state was in the liquor business [and was] advertising it by claiming that every shot of vodka you drink helps school children learn.” IMMIGRATION VISAS

“Those like me and most Americans who would like some kind of immigration reform have our voices drowned out by ... a lot of opinions unsupported by documentation. Let’s call them undocumented opinions.”

P H O T O C R E D I T: J O E S E E R

The LeBron James Family Foundation recently announced a new campaign that will help thousands of at-risk kids in James’ hometown of Akron, Ohio, pay for college. Along with paying tuition to the University of Akron for the students who qualify, the “I Promise” campaign also aims to help the students’ parents get their GEDs.

SPIELBERG PREDICTS THE END WELL, FOR COMIC BOOK MOVIES WE’RE ALL WONDERING if Hollywood can make yet another massive superhero movie—a feat it keeps proving possible. But legendary film director Steven Spielberg says the end is near. “We were around when the Western died, and there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western,” he said. “It doesn’t mean there won’t be another occasion where the Western comes back and the superhero movie someday returns. Of course, right now, the superhero movie is alive and thriving. I’m only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture. There will come a day when the mythological stories are supplanted by some other genre that possibly some young filmmaker is just thinking about discovering for all of us.”

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Hollywood has officially run out of new ideas.

DISNEY IS REMAKING YOUR CHILDHOOD

LIKE IT OR NOT, ANIMATED CLASSICS ARE GOING LIVE ACTION

ou know the saying “look at the past to see the future”? Apparently, that’s Disney’s whole creative process now. Following the massive box office success of the Sleeping Beauty adaptation Maleficent and 2015’s Cinderella (which have

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combined to bring in more than $1 billion worldwide), Disney announced even more live-action remakes. Here’s a dive into the Disney vault to look at the beloved animated movies from your childhood that are getting rebooted:

THE JUNGLE BOOK

DUMBO

Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray (!) and Idris Elba star in one of two new live-action Jungle Book films coming in 2016.

Tim Burton—of course—is bringing one of Disney’s original blockbusters back to the big screen.

TINK

PINOCCHIO

Reese Witherspoon is set to star in an origins story of the Peter Pan fairy Tinkerbell.

Disney is making a new version of the classic, but Robert Downey Jr. is also working on an adaptation.

COLDPLAY: THE MOST POPULAR BAND EVER? To date, Coldplay has sold more than 80 million albums. The Brit rock group has announced their new album is their last, so if A Head Full Of Dreams performs like an average Coldplay album (10.4 M), they’ll exit as one of the best-selling bands of all time. Remember when Kanye declared them better than The Beatles? Album sales might actually back up that claim.

THE ASHLEY MADISON HACK COULD HAVE AN UPSIDE By now, everyone is aware of the colossal fallout from the hack of adultery-facilitating website Ashley Madison. One expert estimated as many as 400 pastors and church leaders ended up resigning after their names surfaced on a leaked list of site users. Is there a silver lining amid all the controversy and damage? Best-selling author Stephen Mansfield thinks so. “This is good for us in the sense that it puts [a huge societal problem] out on the table. ... There is an opportunity when these things happen for us to talk about it—to be honest about it. Let’s talk reality: What are you planning in your soul? And how are you constructing your life so you can be noble?”

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THE H T LIST BI-MONTHLY CULTURE POWER RANKINGS SYNTHESIZERS [HOT TEST] With synthed-out ’80s coolness, artist like The Weeknd, LANY, Brandon Flowers and Lana Del Rey make the pop landscape look a like retro Miami Beach.

HOT TAKES [HOT TER] John Oliver has redeemed the “hot take” from angry bloggers with his righteous-injusticefueled takedowns.

STAR WARS [HOT] We hope it’s a good sign that every new 30-second clip released has basically broken the Internet. APPLE PENCIL [COLD] Now out of things it could possibly put a touchscreen on, Apple has taken the next logical step: Release a $99 pencil to draw on them.

MAN BUNS [COLDER] Any fashion trend that so rapidly takes over Instagram with ironic hashtags has already run its course. ZOMBIES [COLDEST] Seriously, all these zombie shows just won’t die.

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She’s gonna pop some tags.

MILLENNIALS’ RELATIONSHIP WITH MONEY IS CHANGING

illennials don’t care about money—kind of. At least, twentysomethings don’t look at money like their parents and grandparents did. According to a survey from CNBC, barely a quarter of them invest—half as many as previous generations. But that doesn’t mean millennials are bad with money. In fact, TIME suggests they budget more carefully than Boomers by more than 10 percent. The real difference is that the vast majority of millennials are influenced by

their passions more than “conventional” wisdom about money and work. Nearly 60 percent, according to a Forbes survey, would choose a job they love, even if it comes with a smaller paycheck. Millennials aren’t stingy, though. Last year, for example, some 84 percent gave to charity. This generosity doesn’t stop with charitable giving: they are making the idea of crowdsourcing normal, sending some $2 billion to Kickstarter campaigns alone. Apparently, millennials just care less about keeping money for themselves.

BARACK OBAMA RUNS WILD DURING A RECENT TRIP TO ALASKA, the POTUS

taped an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls. In the NBC show, survival expert Grylls, who is a devout Christian, takes celebrities on dangerous expeditions through remote locales. He and his guests talk about personal struggles and overcoming adversity while enduring survival challenges. Apparently, this episode will go particularly deep. Grylls tweeted a now-famous picture of the two praying together.

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NEW TECH THAT CAN HELP YOU EMBRACE SIMPLE LIVING L

iving simply isn’t just about saving money and helping the environment. Lowering your dependency on consumption can let you focus on your passions and embrace a calling outside of the typical American Dream. Here’s a look at how some new tech can get you started on living with less:

SMART HOME The Nest thermostat learns your behavior and syncs with your phone, ensuring you only use your heating and air system when you actually need it. You’ll save money and lessen your energy usage. Eartheasy’s compost tumbler turns large quantities of kitchen scraps into compost for your home garden, eliminating trash while helping you grow fresh food.

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Totally phat news for you ‘90s lovers out there! Sugary energy drink Surge soda is back by somewhat popular demand. After a limited run sold out last year, Coca-Cola decided to put it back in stores. Finally, something to wash down all that Fun Dip you’ve been hoarding for the last two decades.

Cate Blanchett will play Lucille Ball in a biopic written by Aaron Sorkin. Blanchett already got the blessing of Ball children Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. Production on the film is slated to begin next year.

APP SOLUTIONS

CABLE CUTTERS Not only are cable packages expensive, they’re also inefficient considering you only watch a handful of the channels you pay for. Media hub USB sticks from companies including Google, Roku and Amazon— and of course, Apple TV—give you access to tons of streaming content without the costs of cable.

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Carma lets you find people in your community to carpool with, so you can reduce your dependence on your own car and actually meet your neighbors. The app is currently rolling out in major cities, Grocery Pal not only helps you find weekly sales, its enhanced list functions also help you purchase only the items you need when you shop—and keep you on a budget.

An Egyptian billionaire has a plan to help Syrian refugees. Naguib Sawiris, who is a Coptic Christian, wants to buy an island to house the hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming into Europe.

f the 10 biggest box office movies in history, three are Marvel comic book movies released in the last three years (The Avengers 1 & 2 and Iron Man 3). They combined to earn more than $4 billion—yes, with a “b.” Marvel has dominated Hollywood recently, but comic rival DC is rebooting franchises with its own iconic heroes, gearing for a box-office showdown of super proportions. Here’s a guide to the war for comic supremacy:

BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE — The sequel to 2013’s Man of Steel features an angry Batman (Ben Affleck) squaring off with a not-so-heroic Superman. THE FLASH — The premiere of the CW’s The Flash—

about a young man given superhuman speed in a lab THE RELEVANT PODCAST accident—was one of its biggest hits ever.

THE LITURGISTS Probably the best podcast ever “Sciencecreated. Mike” and Michael Gungor ponder big Objectively speaking. questions.

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2015 :

A MOST VIOLENT YEAR

ho can forget the images of a po- 35 “felonious killings” of officers. Accordlice officer throwing a young girl ing to a different report by the Post, “If that to the ground at a neighborhood pace holds, this year would end with the cookout earlier this year? News second lowest number of murdered cops about police violence and exces- in decades.” sive force scrolled across TV screens almost 2015 could end up being the second safest daily in 2015. It defined the year. year for police in history. That means There were loud events like 2015’s mass skepticism and criticism the riots in Baltimore, and quieter of police coincides with violence incidents that only a few people against officers reaching historic lows. heard about. In all, The WashingFatal incidents aside, there have ton Post catalogued more than been thousands of examples of poFROM POLICE 700 deaths from police shootings, lice misconduct—many documented VIOLENCE which some sources suggest is a on social media for all to see. A move low number, and the year isn’t even over. among many police departments to require Surprisingly, the opposite isn’t true. De- officers to wear body cameras was supposed spite the popular idea of a “war on police,” to help end brutality. So far, though, it just experts estimate that 2015 will end up with revealed more.

700

THE NUMBERS COMPILED AS PART OF AN ONGOING PROJECT BY THE WASHINGTON POST

2/3

of unarmed victims were black or Hispanic

1/2

of victims were minorities

80%

of victims did carry potentially lethal objects

DEATHS

MURDERS ARE ON A RISE IN THE U.S. urders are spiking across the United States. Even though homicides have declined steadily for the past several years, that all changed in 2015. Around the country, more than 30 cities reported shocking and inexplicable increases in murder. In some cases, like in St. Louis, murders are up as much as 60 percent. Given some of the national unrest surrounding the use of force by police, an increase in violence may not be surprising. In fact, some law enforcement officials suggested to The New York Times that increased scrutiny of police departments have “made officers less aggressive and emboldened criminals.” Ultimately, no one is claiming to know for sure.

NOV_DEC 2015

blacks were killed at 3X the rate of whites or other minorities

1 in 6 of those killed carried a toy or were unarmed

SLICES

I . C .Y. M . I . IN C ASE YOU MISSED IT

ENTERTAINMENT ACTUALLY WORTH YOUR TIME

F IL M /T V AUDIO B O O KS

WHAT WOULD BIEBER DO? HIS FAITH IS BRINGING BACK A RETRO FASHION STATEMENT SOMETHING IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THE BIEBS—and it’s not just that he looks less like a Disney Channel actor these days. The pop megastar is showing the world a different side of himself. He’s been sporting a subtle piece of retro youth group fashion: the ubiquitous WWJD bracelet. And he is apparently now a fan of worship music. In Cosmopolitan’s “21 Things You Didn’t Know About …” list, Bieber revealed that, along with tracks from Lil Wayne and Drake, he’s listening to “No Longer Slaves” from Jonathan and Melissa Helser of Bethel Music. He took to social media, too, to share “the good news [he’s] felt in [his] own life.” But he doesn’t claim to have it all figured out. He posted a picture of himself reading the Bible, with a post saying:

2 DORNIK: SELF-TITLED

In his debut, Dornik—who started in Jessie Ware’s touring band—fuses ’80s pop with timeless soul.

3 FO R THE LOVE

“Developing my relationship with God has been the coolest thing I’ve ever experienced, to know that I’m not alone and I don’t have to live in fear.”

Jen Hatmaker’s latest looks at how Christians can embrace a life of grace in a culture of expectations.

4 YO LA TENGO: STUFF LIKE THAT THERE

This effort features great new ballads, but it’s the covers that make it a must-listen.

5 DO CU MENTARY NOW !

Fred Armisen and Bill Hader star in this bonkers IFC series that spoofs classic documentaries and modern takes.

6 ME A ND EARL AND THE DYIN G GI RL

A tear-jerking, thoughtful and somehow funny story of a surprising friendship.

NOV_DEC 2015

WHY CAN’T TWENTYSOMETHINGS MAKE FRIENDS?

he most socially connected generation in history is weirdly disconnected. And for help, they’re turning to “friending” sites—which work like dating sites without the romance. Why the extra help? “Millennials are used to dating in a Tinder world,” says David Ryan Polgar, author of Wisdom in the Age of Twitter. That mindset spills into other relationships, too, he says. Twentysomethings are so dependent on digital interaction that they’ve forgotten how to actually interact in person.

P H O T O C R E D I T: D E B B Y W O N G

1 HE NA ME D ME MA L A LA

This documentary looks at the life of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt to become a renowned women’s education advocate.

P H O T O C R E D I T: C A M E R O N S T R A N G

AFTERLIFE INNOVATIVE CITIES ARE REIMAGINING SHUTTERED CHURCHES

IT’S

no secret anymore that churches around the world are closing their doors. The decline of organized religion leaves many congregations with no new members—they simply die out. Of course, that doesn’t mean the buildings are gone. What’s often left is a historic building standing within an urban context that grew well beyond the church. But, in the coolest way possible, many of these spaces are finding new life. Cities around the world are giving their city centers a new look by restructuring old church buildings as homes, libraries, public houses and more. Here are some of our favorites:

NOV_DEC 2015

LEFT: ZWOLLE, NETHERLANDS Waanders In de Broeren bookstore

LEFT: NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND Pitcher & Piano, a pub and restaurant created out of a chapel

ABOVE: ORLANDO, FL East End Market, a venue for artisanal vendors crafted from a converted Baptist church

ABOVE: MONTREAL, CANADA The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts gallery and concert hall in a converted 19th-century church LEFT: BOSTON, MASS The Lucas, luxury condos in the former Holy Trinity German Catholic Church and rectory

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SLICES

STATEMENT

But the cost of dropping the line outweighs the cost of hanging on. What beauty for a watching world to see a Christian community committed to holding tension. Be it theology, denominations, spiritual practices or just personal preferences, any tribe that cherishes unity in essentials (of which there are so few) and grace in nonessentials (of which there are so many) is truly rare. Plus, the stretching is good for us; it enlarges our perspectives and strengthens the family. It relieves us from being right and prioritizes being present. I think often of Charles Spurgeon’s words on John Wesley, his theological antithesis:

HOLD TENSION WITH KINDNESS

CAN WE HONOR THOSE WITH WHOM WE DISAGREE? B Y J E N H AT M A K E R

think it’s the combination, really. Take a generation of deconstructionists with a touch of entitlement (and a few cynical axes to grind) and drop them in an online environment where every opinion has equal billing, and you get a culture of chronic criticism. No longer hindered by geographical separation that ensured previous generations mostly minded their own business, we now have access to everyone. And we have opinions about their lives. Airing them costs us nothing. I feel the tremors in my own heart. I’ve developed a posture of narrowing my eyes at people, looking for holes to poke, searching out the underbelly of any given position, interpretation, group identification, personal narrative. Certainly, diversity of opinion has always existed, but we never had such access to the array. And, as it has always done, our humanity convinces us that different equals wrong and signals our defense mechanisms to kick in. So we are prepared to burn whatever “offends” us to the ground. I crave a spiritual community that can hold tensions with more kindness, more stamina. When you pull one way and I pull another, yes, the line is taut; it would certainly be easier to drop the line altogether. I could better coexist with people of constant like-mindedness, where there is virtually no tension to hold at all. Holding tension stretches me spiritually and emotionally, which involves discomfort, effort and energy. This requires relational work, and I’m already too busy.

NOV_DEC 2015

I can only say concerning him that, while I detest many of the doctrines which he preached, yet for the man himself I have a reverence second to no Wesleyan; and if there were wanted two apostles to be added to the number of the twelve, I do not believe that there could be found two men more fit to be so added than George Whitefield and John Wesley. The character of John Wesley stands beyond all imputation for self-sacrifice, zeal, holiness and communion with God; he lived far above the ordinary level of common Christians, and was one “of whom the world was not worthy.” We can disagree and yet honor one another. We can make opposite choices and yet hold on as brothers and sisters. We can experience tension and remain in community. It is possible through humility and deference, choosing to build up rather than tear down, clinging to the upside-down Kingdom in which our mouths are full of blessings and the meek will inherit the earth. It won’t grant us clicks or headlines, perhaps. It won’t be the sensationalized story of the day, but it is the way of Christ. In a world that can no longer hold any tension at all, may we demonstrate a gracious unity that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Let’s hold the line.

JEN HATMAKER is a popular speaker and author, most recently of For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards. She’s on Twitter at @JenHatmaker.

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WATCH OUT—THE MAKERS OF 2015’S BIGGEST SONG ARE JUST GETTING STARTED lot of artists try their entire careers to do what Sheppard did right out of the gate. With their ubiquitous power-pop anthem “Geronimo,” the Australian outfit’s debut album went multi-platinum, racked up hundreds of millions of Spotify plays and became a fixture on top-40 charts around the world. But just because the song would be a career moment for most, doesn’t mean Sheppard is anywhere close to settling. “It was such a monstrous hit, and people are expecting us to do it again, but we don’t really work like that,” says frontman George Sheppard, one of three siblings who make up half of the band. “We just

“It wasn’t trying to create a commercial hit. It was about writ[ing] honestly.” 32

MUSIC THAT MATTERS

create music that feels right to us.” Despite the early success, he says their approach isn’t about trying to replicate their megahit. Instead, they’ve got loftier goals: Make music that transcends trends. Though each member brings his or her own tastes and styles into the creative process, what makes Sheppard’s songs stand out is the band members’ common appreciation of great songwriting. “What we can all agree on is the earlier artists, the Elton John days, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles—all the timeless music,” George Sheppard says. “I don’t want to call our music timeless, but we did try to create all the well-structured hooks and choruses you find in timeless music.” There’s no formula for writing a timeless song, he says, only a passion to create something honest. “‘Geronimo’ felt right to us when we wrote it,” he says. “It wasn’t about trying to create a commercial hit. It was just about trying to write honestly and from the heart. And that’s what we’re going to keep doing.”

W H Y W E L OV E T HEM:

Sheppard’s brand of power anthems have all of the big choruses and smart hooks of indie pop without any of the irony. Songs like “Smile” and “Let Me Down Easy” channel more classic Beach Boys than quirky Weezer, with real heart and a lot of rock and roll.

THE DROP

ARTISTS TO WATCH

THE NEXT WAVE OF INTERESTING, SYNTH-DRIVEN POP IS FINALLY HERE

hen the members of LANY posted their first songs online, they did it anonymously, using the band name as a cover for the individuals behind it. It wasn’t a marketing move—they just wanted the music to speak for itself. “I don’t know that there was too much science around that; I don’t think we cared, honestly,” says Paul Klein, the trio’s lead vocalist. “We cared enough to make some social media accounts, but we’ve never bought followers or anything like that. ” As it turned out, the band didn’t have to search out followers. Their music—an irresistibly catchy mixture of ’80s- and ’90sinspired R&B sounds and modern pop— quickly attracted a fanbase online. When Klein and fellow members Jake Goss and Les Priest did reveal themselves as the

MUSIC THAT MATTERS

musicians behind LANY (pronounced “laynee”), their tracks had already played more than 1 million times on SoundCloud, their hit song “ILYSB” was making the rounds on indie radio and they were playing the music festival circuit, including this year’s Lollapalooza. So far, it’s been pretty easy, they say. When Klein, who attended Oral Roberts University, first collaborated with Goss and Priest, the three didn’t even discuss the kind of sound they wanted to make, they just started writing—and things clicked pretty fast. “Without even talking about it,” Klein explains, “we wanted to make the same thing.” The group still records and mixes all their music on a laptop in the apartment they share in Hollywood, and they don’t see that changing. After all, their laid-back attitude and willingness to just go with their musical instincts have served them well so far.

WHY WE L OV E THE M:

LANY’s five-track EP, I Loved You., is both a throwback to the R&B hooks of your childhood and a glimpse at the future of synth-driven pop. They sing about the highs and lows of love with all the sweet sincerity of your favorite old-school rom-coms. L A N Y ’S I LOVED YOU.

FOR FAN S OF:

Brooklynn, EVVY, Oh Wonder, Sam Sure, Phoebe Ryan, Paperwhite

JGIVENS

NOW S T R E A MING

These albums (& tons more) are streaming on The Drop at RELEVANTmagazine.com. Listen in!

WITH HIS LIGHTNING-FAST VERSES and dark, electronic beats, Jeremiah Givens (JGivens) could easily fit into Los Angeles’ Low End Theory—a venue/scene that birthed the likes of Flying Lotus, DJ Nobody and Nosaj Thing, among others. (Thom Yorke has also been known to drop by.) But over the 13 tracks of his new album, Fly Exam, the Las Vegas emcee has got eternity on his mind, casting himself as an Icarus-like character, constantly tempted to soar a bit too close to life’s temptations. But with an identity rooted in Christ, there’s a silver lining to even his darkest rhymes, making him a light to “Sin City” and the whole music community.

FLEURIE

Arrows EP

WHY WE LOV E HIM:

JGivens marries a Motown vibe with sounds like André 3000, and experimental pop with intelligent lyrics.

T H E C I T Y H A R MONIC

WE ARE

FOR FAN S OF :

Flying Lotus, Propaganda, Nosaj Thing

PORT HARBOUR

Take, Keep

GHOST SHIP

Costly

LEVV

Strange Fire

DAY L I G H T W O R S H I P

In Our Time

COIN THE MEMBERS OF COIN KNOW THE Y ARE WALKING A FINE LINE. On one hand, their self-titled debut contains interesting arrangements, eclectic melodies and experimental sounds. One the other, it’s full of catchy, accessible pop. “There was a while there when songs were getting shorter and shorter, just to meet the formula for a pop song,” says frontman Chase Lawrence. “I think now, people’s attention spans are growing a little bit. I hope listeners are always becoming bored.” Whether fans are looking for a sophisticated twist on top-40 pop or envelopepushing artistry, Coin may have figured out the antidote for boring pop.

WHY WE L OVE THEM:

Coin is obsessed with weaving fresh sounds into their music, which always keeps things interesting. FOR FAN S OF:

Night Riots, Phases, Island Apollo

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THE DROP

CONVERSATION

Q +A

JON FOREMAN THE SWITCHFOOT FRONTMAN HAS AN AMBITIOUS NEW SOLO PROJECT on Foreman wants to create a world of music. And he’s doing just that. A few years ago, Foreman released an EP series inspired by the seasons. Now, he’s back with a four-EP project called the The Wonderlands, which features a song for each hour of the day. The frontman of Switchfoot and Fiction Family, Foreman has been making music for almost 20 years. In that time, he says, music changed and shaped him.

WHAT’S THE INSPIR ATION FOR

THE WONDERLANDS ?

It’s an attempt to kind of create a musical space, a musical planet. It’s inspired by the idea that music has always been the scaffolding upon which I can look back on my own life and make sense of it from a distance—that music can get places words can’t. My thought is, “What if I created a planet where there was a song for every hour of the day?” And this isn’t just for me; this is for whoever wants to listen. So there are four EPs that coincide with different times of day. That was kind of the inspiration for the titles: Sunlight, Shadows, Darkness and Dawn. HOW DID YOU GET INTO MUSIC?

Music has always been an important part of my existence. The first time I ever went to Disneyland, my parents told me they couldn’t find me after the marching band went by, then they looked back and I was chasing them down pretending I was in the band. I guess I’ve been in the band ever since, so to speak. I dropped out of college as it became evident that I couldn’t do exams and tour at the same time. I decided the path I was on musically was worth pursuing. I would say music became my education at that point. Music has certainly taught me a lot.

MUSIC THAT MATTERS

SO, WHAT HAS MUSIC TAUGHT YOU?

“The goal of every musician is first to observe and see what’s happening. Listen to what the song’s telling you.”

At the top of the list is to observe. My favorite musicians are the ones who actually listen. LIfe is always telling a story. The goal of every musician or conversationalist or anything like that is first to observe and see what’s happening. Listen to what the song’s telling you. That takes a lot of humility, and my favorite musicians are the ones who don’t take themselves too seriously. The best musicians in the world are always the ones who are very aware of the gift of what it means to be human. WHEN YOU’RE LISTENING TO MUSIC, WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING FOR?

Above all, I’m looking for honesty. At the end of the song, the listener asks the question, “Do I believe it?” So that means across any musical genre, authenticity is paramount. Beyond that, I’m looking for something new, something unique. Every human soul has their own idiosyncrasies. There are things we learn to cover up and hide. We’re shamed away from years of ridicule in grade school and all of these things. To actually embrace those things and let them shine in a song takes a certain amount of bravery. That’s usually something I’m looking for. The ability to break rules with authentic innocence is a real gift.

W ITH V IDEO, AUDIO A ND IN TER ACTI V E DE SIGN, THE RELE VA NT IPA D EDITION BRINGS A R TICLE S TO LIFE

IT ’S INCLUDED W ITH E V ERY PRIN T M AGA ZINE SUBSCRIP TION, OR AVA IL A BLE IN THE A PP S TORE.

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REJECT APATHY S U S TAIN AB L E CH AN G E . SA C RIF IC IA L LIVIN G .

THE FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER IS WORKING GOOD NEWS: A NEW REPORT SHOWS PROMISING RESULTS FOR A GLOBAL CRISIS a time when international news is rarely positive, a new report from the United Nations actually reveals an encouraging trend: Today, fewer people around the world suffer from hunger than before. The number is down to 795 million— compared to 1 billion people 25 years ago. Despite surging population growth, around one out of every nine people are hungry. In developing regions, the number of those suffering has fallen to 780 million today (or 12.9 percent of the population) down from 991 million 25 years ago (or 23.3 percent of the population). Many of these countries—72 of 129 nations—even came close to meeting their

SUSTAINABLE CHANGE. SACRIFICIAL LIVING.

Millennium Development Goals (MDG) established by the U.N. in 2000. “The near-achievement of the MDG hunger targets shows us that we can indeed eliminate the scourge of hunger in our

Fewer people around the world today suffer from hunger than 25 years ago, down to 795 million from 1 billion. lifetime,” says José Graziano da Silva, director general of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization. The areas with the most progress were

East, Southeast and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. What makes the difference for these countries? According to the report, mass hunger reduction is due, in part, to stable political conditions and economic growth in many of the individual countries that made progress. But while the U.N. report certainly represents a significant achievement, it also reveals failure. In some parts of Africa, more than one in every three people remain hungry. And 24 African countries are facing a food crisis, according to the report. That’s twice as many as in 1990. Nearly 800 million people in the world remain hungry. We’re winning the fight, but we’ve not yet won.

REJECT APATHY

SUSTAINABLE CHANGE. SACRIFICIAL LIVING.

THE AMERICAN ORPHAN CRISIS 4 0 0,0 0 0 K IDS IN THE U.S. A RE DISPL ACED, AND THE SYSTEM IS CRUMBLING. B Y E M I LY M C FA R L A N M I L L E R

It was January 2005, the 32nd anniversary of landmark abortion ruling Roe v. Wade, and Randy Bohlender, his wife, three sons and thousands of other pro-life supporters turned out on Capitol Hill. They were there to pray for an end to abortion. Not surprisingly, they were met by strong vocal opposition. And one person actually yelled a question that changed Bohlender’s life: “They said, ‘If you had your way, if Roe v. Wade was overturned, what are you going to do with all the babies who would be born?’ “And, you know, that’s valid,” he says. “Sometimes your critics are right.” During the past decade in the United States, thousands of Christians have come to the conviction that being pro-life means being more than pro-birth. And they’ve embraced adoption and foster care.

“The Church at its best has been known as a people who care for orphans,” says Jedd Medefind, president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO), a network of more than 150 Christian organizations and churches. The early church was known for taking in children Romans had abandoned in a practice known as “exposure.” But many modern American Christians first came face to face with adoption in the early 2000s as the world began to shrink and the speed of technology and ease of travel introduced them to children in crisis all over the globe. That’s when a number of prominent Christians began to speak about—mostly international—adoption, including musician Steven Curtis Chapman, pastor Rick Warren and theologian Russell Moore. “International adoption became a big catalyst for many other expressions for care for orphans, including both international service and engagement with foster care,” Medefind says. Since international adoption peaked in 2004, scandals and politics have forced countries to close or limit adoptions. The number of international adoptions reported by the U.S. Department of State

REJECT APATHY

in 2014 is less than a third of what it was then—down from 22,991 to 6,441. In the meantime, the number of children waiting to be adopted out of the U.S. foster care system has held steady around 100,000. (More than 400,000 total remain in the system, according to the most recent numbers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.) And there are more than 300,000 churches in the country, points out Kelly Rosati, vice president of community outreach at Focus on the Family. “If just one family in every third church would welcome home one of these kids, we would have no more orphans in foster care,” Rosati says. “It would be the most powerful witness ever to the love of Christ.” That’s exactly what the Bohlenders did.

THE BOHLENDERS A year and a half after his come-to-Jesus moment on Capitol Hill, Bohlender and his wife, Kelsey, committed to moving forward with adoption. They had no money and no paperwork filled out, but it wasn’t long before they had a phone call: A baby girl had been born in Las Vegas. “If you want her, just come and get her,” the social worker told Bohlender. The next day, he was on a plane to meet his daughter, Savannah Zoe. The Bohlenders had been writing and speaking about the adoption for two years when they decided to have a home study done in order to show their home was suitable for another child, just in case. Days after passing the study, they brought home twin girls. In the years since, they have welcomed the twins’ three siblings, as well as a fourth child of their own. They now have 10 children total—five boys and five girls. They are white and black and Hispanic and Asian. Bohlender has to stop and count when he’s asked how many of them are adopted. “When you have 10 kids, you’re a magnet for questions, and when your kids represent six ethnicities, you’re a magnet for questions,” he says. There are questions and concerns

SUSTAINABLE CHANGE. SACRIFICIAL LIVING.

about the high cost of adoption—up to $35,000 for an international adoption, according to CAFO—and the long waits involved. There are questions about transracial adoption—questions Bohlender, who describes himself as “certified as the

SINCE 2004, THE NUMBER OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTIONS HAS DROPPED

BY OVER 70 PERCENT

AROUND THE WORLD, THERE ARE AN ESTIMATED

150 MILLION ORPHANS

100,000 CHILDREN WAIT TO BE ADOPTED OUT OF FOSTER CARE

32 PERCENT OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE WILL WAIT OVER THREE YEARS TO BE ADOPTED whitest person on the planet,” says he also has wrestled with. A 2008 report by the Donaldson Adoption Institute found white families generally are unprepared to help adopted children who are black face challenges such as coping with being “different,” developing a positive

racial or ethnic identity and coping with discrimination. “When we went to adopt children of other races, my question was, ‘Can I represent their culture to them as a late 40s white guy who grew up in North Dakota? Could I represent the culture they were going to live in well for them?’” Bohlender says. But Ryan Bomberger says the most important things any child needs are love and permanence.” Bomberger is half-black and half-white and was the first of 10 children adopted by a white, Mennonite family with three children of their own in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His parents read widely with him, he says. They took him to churches with black congregations and to play with other black children. But most importantly, he says, they did a “great job” addressing “foundational things,” like the love and permanence of a family and human brokenness. “What was important to them was loving one another regardless, whatever your background was, whatever your present circumstances were—serving people. That was the start of my life and why adoption is so important to me,” he says.

THE BOMBERGERS Bomberger always knew he was adopted, but he was 13 before he understood why his birth mother placed him up for adoption: She had been raped, and his birth was the result. The teenage years already are tumultuous enough without one’s past being rewritten in a moment, he says, and, “If I didn’t have the incredible foundation of love, if I didn’t have parents who were speaking life into me all the time, I would have fallen apart.” Instead, everything came together for him in that moment. A month later, he ended up sharing his story with classmates in a persuasive speech against abortion, a story he still is sharing with audiences around the country. Not only is Bomberger continuing to tell that story, which began when his adopted mother spent a year in foster care as a child. But he is also writing new chapters. He adopted his wife Bethany’s daughter, Hayley, some time after the two were

married in 2009. The couple also adopted their youngest son, Justice, on the same day, which Bomberger described as “the best day, next to the day I gave my life to the Lord and [the day of ] my wedding.” Together, the couple now have four children and have launched the Radiance Foundation, which advocates for adoption through outreaches like Adopted and Loved and Sally’s Lambs, a ministry to show expectant mothers they are loved and not forgotten. Adoption, Bomberger says, is “a powerful parenting choice, and many (mothers) don’t get the credit for making that.” People also have misconceptions about children in foster care, he says. He loves that Christians feel “concern and compassion for children around the world,” but he feels they sometimes can overlook the need in their own backyards. Or they can think a child in foster care is “broken” because they may have emotional or physical difficulties, as if there were any guarantee a child adopted from overseas or birthed by his or her parents wouldn’t. Still, Medefind warns against “adoption cheerleading.” Children who are adopted all have experienced loss, and some may have experienced abuse or other trauma, according to the CAFO president. The Church needs to be frank about those challenges. It needs to prepare families before they foster or adopt, needs to remember that “the beauty of the Gospel story also carries the Cross,” he says. “Adoption is not a fairy tale. It’s not that movie Annie, where the little kid gets adopted and everybody lives happily ever after,” says Deanna Blincow, co-founder of the Orphan Care ministry at North Way Christian Community near Pittsburgh. “Kids come with very real issues, and it’s going to be hard. But if the Church can’t stand up and do the hard, difficult stuff, then who’s going to do it?”

THE NATURAL EXTENSION OF BEING PRO-LIFE In adopting six children and walking alongside others on both sides of the process, Bohlender says, “We’ve learned a lot.” He also recently received a license to open Zoe’s House Adoption Agency— an agency named for the first, life-filled

daughter to join the Bohlender family. Bohlender hopes the agency will remove barriers by making the process more affordable for adoptive families and more caring for expectant mothers. “It is time for the pro-life movement to embrace the natural extension of the argument, and I think they’re ready to do that,” he says. More than 3,000 people across the country already have started the process to adopt or foster through Focus on the Family’s Wait No More program, according to Rosati. The number of children waiting to be adopted in Colorado was cut in half between 2008, when Wait No More started there, and 2013, the most recent year for which data is available from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That number dropped from 1,897 to 896. Churches like North Way are bringing speakers, agencies and other resources together at an annual expo for families interested in adopting or fostering children. It also offers workshops and Bible studies for families who are considering adoption; support groups for those who have adopted and those who are in the process of adopting; and yearly retreats and respite nights for adoptive parents. That’s because not everybody is called to foster or adopt or even mentor. Still, Medefind says, “Every Christian community is called to live out the ‘pure’ religion James describes. There is a role for every one of us in that.” He points to James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” In fact, Bohlender says, if everybody adopted, his family wouldn’t be able to do what it does. That’s because, he says, “A support system is huge.” His family has received financial support, as well as support from young adults their children are comfortable with, who have become another part of the family. A trip to the park or to the store with 10 children often requires another pair of hands. Leaving town requires a Google spreadsheet. “They get to be a part of adoption as much as we are,” he says.

GET INVOLVED Even if you can’t adopt, there’s plenty you can do:

YO U R T I M E PR AY: Commit to regularly praying for adoptive parents, kids waiting for families and for leaders in other countries to open up opportunities for foreign adoption. MENTOR A FOSTER KID: Volunteer

your time tutoring, job training or just spending time with kids in foster care. Contact your local child welfare office to find out how to get involved. YO U R VO I C E ADVOCATE: Organize school supply or toy drives at your church, sponsor a child, partner with organizations serving orphans in your area and encourage others to get involved. YO U R R E S O U R C E S SUPPORT ADOP TIVE FAMILIES:

Give financially, cook a meal or lend a helping hand to families in your community who are fostering or adopting.

And together, Medefind says, adoptive parents and those helping them “are giving a humble reflection of the character of God.” “This is not just the orphan story, it’s our story as Christians, as well—that God pursued us when we were destitute and alone, embraced us. He welcomed us into His family and invited us to live as His daughters and sons. When Christians care for orphans and foster youth, whether through adoption or fostering or mentoring or other ways, we are really retelling the story of how God first loved us.” EMILY MCFARL AN MILLER is an awardwinning journalist and truth-seeker based in Chicago. Connect with her at emmillerwrites.com.

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THE COOLEST SOCIAL S TA R T U P S

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS: THE FUTURE OF THE ECONOMY this point, millennials’ love affair with entrepreneurship is common knowledge. Roughly two-thirds aspire to it, and about 18 percent actually do it. Many people are now referring to it as the “new American Dream.” Business is good, too. This year, nearly two-thirds (62 percent) of millennial-owned businesses reported increased sales, according to the most recent Spark Business Barometer survey. Comparatively, 41 percent of small business owners overall had increased sales.

Social entrepreneurs influence change through their processes, not just their products. But for this generation, it’s about more than a house, two kids and a dog. “Like other young generations before them, they are idealistic,” says Jean Case, CEO of the Case

CREATE. INNOVATE. LEAD.

Foundation, “but what sets this generation apart is they are turning their idealism into action.” Enter the biggest movement in business: social entrepreneurship. This is where innovation, opportunity and resourcefulness meet to create social change—and experts increasingly say it’s the forefront of the new economy. And this isn’t just Toms Shoes or other companies that incorporate charity into their business models; social entrepreneurs build companies that influence social change through their processes, not just their products. The appeal for millennials is evident. Already, better than 85 percent of twentysomethings make purchasing decisions—and decide their willingness to recommend a brand—based on the social good a company is doing, according to Entrepreneur. And one recent survey by Deloitte shows 77 percent chose their workplace “because of the company’s sense of purpose.” Starting those companies only makes sense.

B E L AY E N TE R P RISES

A faith-based nonprofit in Denver that employs and job trains people who are rebuilding their lives.

P E AC HE S & G R EENS

Provides fresh produce to people living in Detroit’s vast urban food desert.

IN D OSOL E

Creates stylish sandals and shoes made from repurposed Indonesian motorcycle tires.

MAKER

BY K AR A BETTIS

HOW THE HAUGHEY BROTHERS LAUNCHED TEGU TOYS AND ALMOST LOST EVERYTHING a humid evening in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Chris Haughey and his wife, Cindy, take advantage of clear weather to take a walk. Along with their four dogs, they stroll through the lush, wooded trails surrounding their mountain home that sits 5,000 feet above sea level. Six years ago, Haughey, 35, didn’t imagine himself living in Honduras, managing a rapidly growing toy factory. He was living in Los Angeles, working for a successful global

CREATE. INNOVATE. LEAD.

consulting firm. But in 2009, Chris and his brother Will packed their belongings into an SUV and headed to the capital city of Honduras. In the previous months, Chris had traded in his job for the title of “Head Elf,” while Will swapped a position at Goldman Sachs in Manhattan for the post of “Chief Blockhead.” The two entrepreneurs launched Tegu Toys, a company that gave hundreds of Hondurans jobs constructing and selling magnetic wood block toys made from Honduran hardwoods. With 70 different products, the company achieved its first patent and hit the $5 million revenue mark last year.

The brothers hold no fantasies about instantaneously healing a developing country that has been labeled one of the most violent and one of the poorest in the region. Instead, they have launched a for-profit company that focuses on individual citizens in the capital city, Tegucigalpa—from which the company’s name is derived. They are serving “an inch wide and a mile deep,” as Will says.

FROM SHORT-TERM TO LONG-TERM Growing up in the Midwest, the two brothers traveled frequently on short-term mission trips. One of Chris’ trips was a project in

Honduras. In 2006, he returned to Honduras for a consulting trip with his company and reconnected with some of the same people and organizations. That’s when the wheels began to turn. How could he benefit the Honduran people? Meaningful jobs, and any jobs at all, seemed in short supply. He took some time off work to explore the Honduran culture and economy, and discovered the abundant forests of beautiful hardwood. That summer, the Haughey brothers traveled to Germany for the World Cup, where they encountered high-quality European toys made out of wood blocks. The pieces fell together, and Tegu began to emerge. The brothers innovated with traditional wood blocks by adding magnets to make them more compelling for kids. Now, Chris uses his engineering background to manage the factory in Honduras, which produces 40,000 blocks daily. Will runs the U.S. operations, marketing and sales from Connecticut, using the financial skills he gained on Wall Street to navigate the company’s cash flow.

ROOTED IN GIVING BACK While it is a for-profit business, the entire philosophy of Tegu is rooted in giving back. From the start, the brothers wanted to create a self-sustaining company as a leg up for the nation. For each toy set purchased, the company either plants 12 trees in Honduras or funds a day of school for an impoverished child. Since the company started, it has planted 530,000 trees. Nearly all employees are Hondurans, and Tegu provides them with benefits and incentives for a savings plan. To some, it offers financial assistance to pursue higher education. But company benefits go above and beyond. One year, Tegu paid for corrective eye surgery for an employee. In the future, the company may sponsor formal wedding ceremonies for those who cannot afford to marry. For the Haugheys, each person in the company is their focus. “We are trying to go in super deep in our group of people,” Will says. “We have 180 people we’re committed to. They’re our family. We support every aspect of our workers’ lives.”

NAVIGATING FAILURE Despite its current success, Tegu Toys almost failed several times. First, Tegu launched right as a military coup was taking place in Honduras. In addition to the nation’s turmoil, the global economic crisis was well underway. Despite the terrible timing and headlines terrifying their investors, the brothers weathered the first storm. Two years later, their company almost sank again. The price of the magnets they imported from China skyrocketed, forcing them to redesign the entire product. Will is quick to share his near failures when he speaks in front of college groups or young entrepreneurs. “There is such a cultural draw to present yourself as someone who’s changing the world,” he says. “Everyone is ‘making the world a better place.’ There is a sense in which people overstate their impact and their capacity because they’re trying to tackle big problems. “People look at Tegu as an example of ‘we’ve made it,’” he continues, “but I don’t think we’ve made it—I think the role we’ve played is navigating obstacles. We have experienced setbacks every year along the way. Nothing has been easy.”

A DANGEROUS MENTALITY With a generation that celebrates overnight success, Will says, idealistic entrepreneurs quickly discover that starting a company is more of a marathon than a sprint. Some of the greatest

organizations, he says, are the ones that persist through near failure, pressing on through the most painful challenges. With the pressure to become an instant success, the culture of startups can form a dangerous mentality, he says, especially when the majority of new companies fail. A few years ago, Will realized his identity was tied to the success of their venture to the point where it wasn’t enjoyable. The pressure was staggering. “We don’t talk about the failures,” he says. “We expect to reinvent the world in 15 months or less. The pressure is unbearable. Our identities get wrapped up in this thing. We need to tell more stories of failures and good that comes from those failures instead of just successes.” Will has determined to rest in a belief that God will be glorified with success or failure. “Our generation has this mindset of ‘This didn’t work, let’s move on,’ when our parents generation were a generation of persistence and duty,” he says. “We are so quick to discard that. We don’t finish well. Technology can accelerate the timeline, but that doesn’t mean we can conquer the world’s problems in one generation.” They may not be able to solve all the world’s problems, but that’s not going to stop the Haugheys from working to improve the lives of their Tegu family. K AR A BET TIS is a Boston area reporter and freelancer on topics of faith, politics and culture. She tweets @karabettis.

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MAKER

obody can deny the cool factor of launching a new project— be it a startup, new ministry or creative project. But cool doesn’t necessarily mean doable. The fact is, only about 50 percent of new businesses make it past their first five years—and the percentages get worse after that. If you’re one of

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those people who feels God calling you to change the world (and if you’re reading this magazine, you probably are), one of the smartest things you can do is learn from the wisdom of those a little further down the road. We asked some of the most creative, innovative and odds-defying people we know, “What do you wish you knew when you were 27?”

JOHN SOWERS AMENA BROWN

P R E SID E N T: THE ME N TOR IN G PROJECT

PO ET

“I wish I had known that becoming a full-time artist meant becoming an entrepreneur.” At 27, I quit my cushy, corporate job to perform spoken word full-time. I had one paycheck’s worth of savings and no idea what I was getting into. It took my going broke, moving out of my nice apartment into a rented room, plus working the night shift taking customer service calls to realize that seeing my dream become a reality was going to involve a whole lot more than just quitting my job.

SCOTT HARRISON C E O : C H A R IT Y: WATE R

I wish I knew how important initial investments in CRM and other database management systems were to scaling a business. There was a moment at charity: water where we had close to half a million supporters in spreadsheets!

ANN VOSKAMP S P E AK E R , AU THOR

Ignore the vox populi—the popular voice. I spent way too much time worrying about what others thought about me. I let the vox populi shape my identity. I see a lot of young people today doing the same thing. Listen: your identity is not defined by what others say or think about you. It’s not defined by your Twitter and Instagram followers. Burn those ideas. Your identity is hidden with Christ in God. Lean on Him— and work to be excellent at whatever He puts in your heart, no matter how outrageous or crazy it feels.

“The size of your ministry isn’t proof of the success of your ministry. The very Son of God had a ministry to 12. And one abandoned Him.”

The size of your ministry isn’t proof of the success of your ministry. The very Son of God had a ministry to 12. And one of them abandoned Him. Forget the numbers in your work and focus on the net value. The Internet age may try to sell you something different, but don’t ever forget that viral is closely associated with sickness. Ultimately, what seems like futile work that’s taking an eternity today is exactly what may make the most difference in eternity. And whatever you do, make it a regular practice to retreat to the “back side of the wilderness.” Because when you do not need to be seen or heard—you can see and hear in desperately needed ways.

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MAKER

JO SAXTON AU THOR , D IR E C TOR : 3DM

BANNING LIEBSCHER F O UN DE R & DIR E C TO R : J E S US C ULTU R E

Get ready to live in over your head all the time. What God has called you to is going to place you in situations where you encounter your weaknesses and get stretched in ways you had not imagined. Don’t “Trust is required be in a hurry. Slow down and allow God to develop a for long-term deep trust in Him. The key health and susto living in over your head, tainability in all called beyond your capacyou are called to.” ity, is to trust God with all of your heart. Trust is required for long-term health and sustainability in all you are called to.

CAITLIN CROSBY F O UN DE R & C E O : T H E GIVIN G KE YS

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“Burying the hurts, wounds and scars of your heart and soul does not make them go away. ... Eventually, they re-emerge.” Burying the hurts, wounds and scars of your heart and soul does not make them go away. You cannot eat them away, drink them away, ignore them or hide them in your work or in your relationships. Eventually, they re-emerge (often with habits that are harder to heal than the wounds themselves). You also can’t cheat your body out of rest. Learn to nurture healthy rhythms.

I wish I hadn’t been so hard on myself. I don’t fit the mold, and that’s actually a good thing. The Giving Keys was created out of a place of my not fitting the “business mold.” Even though I’m older than 27 now, I still have to tell myself this as a daily reminder so I don’t beat myself up for enjoying who I was created to be.

CHRISTINE CAINE S P E A KE R , AUT H O R , F O UN DE R : A 21 CAMPAIG N AN D P R OP E L

When I was 27, I was full of passion, faith and expectation. The thing I lacked was an understanding that people are people, the challenges are great, the obstacles are huge. God’s timing is not your timing. Everything is going to take longer than you think and cost more than you imagined. God is far more interested in doing a work in you before He does anything through you. Nothing is wasted. He is always preparing you for what He has prepared for you. I wasted many years feeling disappointed, anxious and discouraged. If I could go back, I would tell myself that if God said it, God will do it, and no man on earth or demon in hell can stop it. He who promised is faithful. Trust Him.

LIZ BOHANNON FO U ND ER: S S EKO D E S IGN S

Chasing after bright and shiny is fun. But it can also be dangerous and distracting. Putting one foot in front of the other in a way that is scalable, measured, disciplined and sustainable is infinitely more valuable than chasing after a unicorn that may or may not exist.

“God is far more interested in doing a work in you before He does anything through you.”

TYLER MERRICK OWN E R : P R OJECT7

I wish I had “believed” what I read in passages like Ecclesiastes 5:10-20 (which starts with “Whoever loves money never has enough”). We lift up success in America because of the American Dream. That’s not a bad thing, but if not submitted to Christ, it will poison you. You’ll be a closet “success-aholic,” odorless to the public but privately bankrupting your soul. The amazing thing is that Jesus knew that about each of us, and He still took it all on the Cross. He’s graciously waiting for us to bow our knee and cast our burdens on Him. He’ll let us chase those things and allow them to hurt us to learn a lesson, because the lesson has been the same since the beginning of time.

“Putting one foot in front of the other in a way that is scalable, measured, disciplined and sustainable is [most] valuable.”

THIS ELECTRO-POP QUARTE T JUST DROPPED 2 0 15 ’ S COOLEST ALBUM.

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P H O T O C R E D I T: N AT H A N M I T C H E L L

B Y L AU R A S T U DA R U S

think there’s always an element of ‘Am I going to get crucified for this?’” James Shaw says. He’s talking about Metric’s sixth album, Pagans in Vegas— particularly the track “Other Side,” where, in one of the few times in his band’s 12-year career, he performs lead vocals. There’s also outlier closing songs “The Face, Pt. I” and “The Face, Pt. II,” where Shaw performs an extended, single-take synth jam.

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ALL IN THE CANADIAN FAMILY Here’s a handful of other Canadian bands that have shared the stage (and even band members) with Metric.

B R O KE N S O C IA L S C E N E

STAR S

THE D E AR S

At times, the low-key, guitarheavy outfit has featured Feist and members of Metric.

The Montreal band’s emotional tales of love and death aren’t just songs—they’re anthems.

The Dears use heavy layers of sound and Thom-Yorke-leaning vocals to great dramatic effect.

But you quickly get the feeling the multi-instrumentalist for Metric is talking about his career as a whole. “I care a lot about what our fans think,” he continues. “We’re not making music in a vacuum. It’s not just for us. It’s about trying to make it for people who look to us for something happy. I truly believe that it’s us consistently putting ourselves out on a limb, which is what they’re actually looking for. That’s the vindication for them. They don’t want to see us be safe. That’s boring. Being a Metric fan is not necessarily a position of safety. “People are emotionally invested, and they don’t want to be let down. They don’t want to feel like we took the easy route ever. So I feel compelled to not take the easy route, even though there are

the band’s curiosity afloat for more than a decade. After ending a yearlong string of shows behind their previous effort, Synthetica, the Toronto, Canada-based quartet had planned on taking a significant amount of time off. Frontwoman Emily Haines dropped off the grid, taking with her a knapsack and a tiny acoustic guitar. Meanwhile, Shaw buried himself in the Canadian winter and his studio, (“Where it feels like no one can reach you, although everything technologically works just fine,” he cracks.) But despite making a promise to themselves and the rest of the band that it would be a year or so before they started work again, a funny thing happened along the way: New songs just kind of found them.

“WE’RE NOT MAKING MUSIC IN A VACUUM. IT’S NOT JUST FOR US. IT’S ABOUT TRYING TO MAKE IT FOR PEOPLE WHO LOOK TO US FOR SOMETHING HAPPY. THEY DON’T WANT TO SEE US BE SAFE. THAT’S BORING.” times when it’s like, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this!’ What’s the alternative, you know? Just to do everything you already know over and over and over again— that’s just not living.”

CREATIVE FORCES To hear Shaw tell it, redefining how they work together, as well as working without a safety net, is simply part of Metric’s DNA. After all, changing it up has kept

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“We discovered when we came back that we had both written almost enough material for two complete records,” Shaw says sheepishly. He laughs at the statement, realizing it’s the kind of haphazard creativity most musicians would kill for. “So our plan of taking a year off in-between albums was sort of shortly snubbed by the idea of continuing to want to work and excessive creative forces.”

PAGANS IN VEGAS Metric has already promised yet another album early next year, one that echoes Haines’ stripped-down 2006 solo release, Knives Don’t Have Your Back. (As the group’s producer, Shaw proudly announces that they finished recording backing vocals only the day before our interview.) But for right now, the band is well immersed in their glittery pop world, and they’re owning every second of it. Pagans in Vegas is a bombastic song cycle, Haines’ innocent-sounding soprano clothed in synths, big drums and even bigger emotional statements about love, lust and desire. It’s a playing area that seems to cater to hedonism. And sure, they’re here to party—the album contains a multitude of anthemic riffs ripe for sing-alongs. But that doesn’t mean Metric is concentrating solely on producing mindless fun. “If it happens, it was meant to be,” Haines sings on the percussive opening track “Lie Lie Lie,” “Offer me a free lobotomy/Got to be sedated to be seen/on the cover of your magazine.” Meanwhile, chant-heavy “The Shade” speaks to a desire to embrace life in its fullest without turning a blind eye to the dark, more painful elements of existence. But despite all their definitive, often counter-cultural battle cries, Shaw says most thematic elements happened on an unconscious level. It took naming the album, a task completed well into the eleventh hour, for the band to realize exactly what they had created. “If we have an hour, we will take 59 minutes to make a decision,” Shaw admits. “That’s just the way it is. I don’t

L-R: Joules Scott-Key, Joshua Winstead, Emily Haines, James Shaw

know why. It will probably end my life 10 years early, but I can’t control it.” Shaw says Haines was traveling the day the band had to title the album. She texted him her suggested title, and he realized it perfectly summed up the feel of the album. “It came through and it said ‘Pagans in Vegas,’” he says. “Immediately, it gave the record a through line. We feel very much like the world has turned into some sort of giant casino with the world markets being thrown like a lot of stacks in your face. A lot of dirty, high-rolling vibes right now. “If we’re going to play around in the world, then we gotta play, you know? You don’t show up to the table with the wrong chips. You don’t show up to a poker table in Vegas with a bunch of Russian rubles from 1940.”

BREAKING BOUNDARIES The members of Metric have never been afraid of making a statement. Their early albums were peppered with protest lyrics—lashing out against the capitalistic society with lived-out lines like “Buy this car to drive to work/ Drive to work to pay for this car.”

Since their early days touring as part of Broken Social Scene and rooming with members of Liars, TV on the Radio and Yeah Yeahs during a brief stint in Brooklyn, the group has found itself increasingly in the public eye. Homerecorded CD-Rs gave way to proper releases. Scrappy, self-arranged tours led to opening slots for Bloc Party and The Rolling Stones. And thanks to a clutch of sparkly vampires, the band even scored a major film placement with their soundtrack highlight “Eclipse (All Yours).” But even after having effectively leveled up (as Shaw pragmatically points out, you don’t have to be Rihanna to occasionally get radio play), the more things change for the band, the more things stay the same. “From the very inception, the very first conversation Emily and I ever had was about being able to break down some of the boundaries—to be the thing on the radio that was a respite from the radio. To be the thing in the indie world that was not elitist—that was opportunist, for lack of a better word,” Shaw reveals.

“We’ve always strived to ride the fence between this commercial world and this exclusive independent world. It’s very much who we are, in a lot of ways. I like a lot of pop music. I like big shiny stuff. I don’t necessarily like the ethos or the politics behind it, but I like a lot of the results. “I think what we do is very much in line with that ethic. We felt like it was important to be in the middle class in music.” This mindset, he explains, has helped the band find where they fit. “It’s difficult in the musical world to not compare myself to everything else that’s going on around us. I’ve seen [so many bands] go from, like, junior kindergarten to $25 million mansions in the Hollywood Hills while I’m having lunch. “But we’re not them. We’re us. We have our own life. We have our own path. And when I feel that and I don’t care about the rest of the world and I feel happy for the rest of the world, that’s the best feeling in the world.” L AUR A STUDARUS is the culture editor at RELEVANT. Find her on Twitter @Laura_Studarus.

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NOV_DEC 2015

BY JESSE CAR EY

“T

he best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversations with the average voter.” Those were the words of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who, despite all of his success, also knew that talking about politics can be more difficult than being a politician. If there’s one way to turn a friendly conversation into an embarrassingly loud yelling match, a casual get-together into a fight scene worthy of a reality show, a good friend into a mortal enemy, or a Twitter follower into someone on your blocked list, it’s by talking about politics. There are so many ways to isolate others and start unnecessary fights about political issues, but where to begin? We’ve compiled the best ways to lose friends while talking about politics.

BRING UP DIVISIVE POLITICAL ISSUES AT OTHERWISE ENJOYABLE GATHERINGS Nothing ruins a pleasant family dinner like a heated argument with dad over health care reform. The scene will likely end with mom awkwardly trying to change the subject while the two of you have to be separated by Uncle Frank, who’s found himself on the receiving end of a fork-full of flung meatloaf. When employing this tactic, make sure to bring up issues that are both nuanced and polarizing at places where it is completely inappropriate to have a shouting match. Suggestions include the bleachers of a Little League game, the post-church lobby or the uncomfortably close quarters of a car on a long drive. E X A MPL E: “Please pass the gravy, just like

Hillary passed the buck on Benghazi.”

PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVELY SHARE LINKS ON SOCIAL MEDIA If you write a Facebook post or Tweet that solely consists of the phrases “I’m just

going to leave this here,” “Just saying…” or “Interesting…” along with a link to a story containing a salacious headline that confirms your own political opinions, you are likely doing a good job of isolating people who disagree with you. Make sure to not actually say anything substantive yourself, instead, use passiveaggressive tactics like researchers on Shark Week use buckets of blood and fish guts: Just draw out the sharks and watch the feeding frenzy begin. E X A MP L E: “Well, what do you know?:

‘Report: Rick Perry Fails Second Grade Common Core Spelling Test’”

ACT LIKE YOU ARE FAR MORE INFORMED ABOUT AN ISSUE THAN YOU REALLY ARE Sure, you may not know the details about the Iran nuclear deal, but blindly defending it based on a few talking points you heard on the radio on your commute to work will surely make you sound like the expert you fashion yourself to be. When it comes to complex social issues or Congressional policies, as long as you have a vaguely general idea about the issue based on a 30-second soundbite you overheard at the gym, you are more than qualified to put some fancy-pants knowit-all co-worker of a differing opinion in their rightful place. After all, you heard part of a quote or something! E X A MP L E: “As I understand, Congress

has now made it illegal to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in public places.”

INADVERTENTLY SHARE “NEWS” STORIES THAT ARE ACTUALLY SATIRE The Internet is rife with “satirical” websites that post fake news stories in the hopes that unsuspecting users will make them viral. Some, like The Onion, are sharp and funny. Most, however, are intentionally outrageous and inflammatory. These are perfect for making yourself appear

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both gullible and overly combative. Look, as someone discussing politics in a democracy, it’s not your job to factcheck the Internet. Just post things that underscore your own opinions and let the bookworms figure out if they’re “technically” true. E X A MPL E: “Donald Trump to Tax All Men’s Haircuts That Do Not Dramatically Swoop Over Forehead”

INVITE YOURSELF INTO POLITICAL DISCUSSION THREADS WITH TOTAL STRANGERS Want to weird out people you don’t know? Jump into the comment thread on a political discussion with a bunch of your cousin’s college friends you’ve never met, but managed to stumble into on Facebook. Just like in real life, people on social media can get very uncomfortable when complete strangers or long-lost fourth grade classmates insert themselves into conversations while making wild accusations about links to communism, political conspiracies and deeply held beliefs. It’s the perfect way to get blocked. E X A MPL E: “I’m not sure how this ended up in my feed, but I just want to let you all know that you are dead wrong and stupid. (I was roommates with one of your roommate’s old co-workers. Tell him I said hey!)”

USE MEMES TO UNDERSCORE YOUR POINT Want to oversimplify a complicated political issue and strip all nuance out of a thoughtful conversation? Distill it down to one sarcastic statement over top of an image of Willy Wonka giving a condescending look or Keanu Reeves appearing baffled. If there’s one way to offer zero insight while making absolutely no effort at anything resembling two-way dialogue, it’s by posting a picture of that pig-tailed tween with braces holding Goosebumps books along with big white letters that

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say “Ermahgerd You Vroted Fr Briden.” That’ll show ‘em. E X A MPL E: Post an image of that dude from

Lord of the Rings saying, “One Does Not Simply Sign Up Online for Obamacare.”

BE EASILY OFFENDED Being thin-skinned is a good way to a start a beef where one doesn’t need to exist. After all, what friend group doesn’t want that one person who is a constant source of drama and bickering? Getting mad over political differences lets people know you care more about being right than being a good friend. The best way to do this is to take someone’s individual position on a political issue— that in no way affects your day-to-day life—extremely personally. It’s even better if every time someone criticizes a candidate you plan on possibly voting for, you view it as criticism against yourself. It’s both irrational and ineffective: a perfect storm of friendship-ruining!

E X A MPL E Blocking someone on Twitter

for suggesting we don’t need a wall between the U.S. and Canada.

FOCUS ON A SINGLE ISSUE Instead of listening to your friend talk about the issue she is most passionate about, steamroll every conversation by bringing up the dangers of water fluoridation, the evils of the “big-guacamole” lobby or your deep disdain for the space program. Everyone likes to be heard and have their opinions considered, so blocking them out with your singular passion for protecting endangered turtles will successfully make them feel like they are of little value to our democracy. “Imma let you finish, but Bill Clinton had the greatest scandal of all time!”

E X A MPL E:

DEFINE EVERYONE YOU MEET BY POLITICAL LABELS Using broad labels and candidate party affiliations to separate your friends into ideological groups is a helpful way to figure out who you probably aren’t that good of friends with anyway, right? Labels like “liberal,” “conservative” and “moderate” can really tell you everything you need to know about what someone believes—and whether they are secretly a freedom-hating communist. Totally rely on those labels to let you know who is worth unleashing your valuable rants on. E X A MP L E: I do not like Ralph Nader.

Ralph Nader was in the Green Party. The Green Party supports clean energy, and so do you. I do not like you.

BE MORE CONCERNED WITH DIVIDING PEOPLE THAN UNIFYING THEM You know who likes that one person who is always looking to stir up drama and cause an argument where there doesn’t need to be one? No one. OK, maybe reality TV show producers, but no one else. Being intentionally divisive and dramatic is a great way to lose friends and maybe end up as the villain on an upcoming season of Big Brother. E X A MP L E: “I know we agree on most issues regarding faith, politics and social issues, but how dare you use that one hashtag I disagree with on Twitter!”

THINK THE WORK OF POLITICIANS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE WORK OF THE CHURCH Perpetuating the idea that voting a particular way is the only way to make an impact will diminish how you view your role as part of the Church—and irritate your friends. E X A MP L E: “The only way to help the poor

is to vote to raise taxes (but not on me, obviously).” JESSE CARE Y is a senior editor at RELEVANT and a mainstay on the RELEVANT Podcast.

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THE ICELANDIC BAND ON MAKING IT BIG—AND GETTING PERSONAL ALONG THE WAY. has been a crazy few years for Of Monsters and Men. Since the release of their debut album, My Head is an Animal, the Icelandic five-piece has circled the globe, checking items off their musician bucket

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lists that would leave any amateur guitar slinger drooling. Extensive international tour? Check. High-profile festival dates? Check. Slots on Saturday Night Live, performances on latenight talk shows and a major soundtrack placement (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)? Check, check and check. So it probably isn’t terribly surprising that the band is handling the

announcement that they’ll have a cameo on an upcoming episode of Game of Thrones with equal good grace. Or rather, silent grace. “It’s horrible,” frontwoman Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir moans when the question of recent set photos featuring the band comes up. “We can’t say anything.” Beside her, Ragnar Þórhallsson cracks up. He had been attempting to play a

right-handed bass left handed—but something about his bandmate’s desperate tone caught his attention. “They may just cut us out!” he says, offering up a smirk. “I love that,” Hilmarsdóttir replies. “They made such a hype and all that, and then we’re not in there!”

GETTING PERSONAL

L-R: Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, Ragnar Þórhallsson, Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson, Brynjar Leifsson, Kristján Páll Kristjánsson

BENEATH THE SKIN

The Icelandic band goes deeper on their new album.

Beneath the Skin, Of Monsters and Men’s sophomore album, proves to be a much safer topic. The conversation begins with a bit of a shock—both Hilmarsdóttir and Þórhallsson are taken aback at the realization that it was only a year ago that they had begun writing songs for the project. Since then, those crystalline folk-rock opuses have seen them though what’s felt like an entire lifetime of work, including an extended run through the festival summer circuit in Europe, and, in one particularly memorable moment, a set at Montreal’s Osheaga Festival where the storm clouds rolled in with the opening chords of their performance. Both musicians talk about their songs like old friends—their time on the road together allowing them to bring new depth to their live performances. Even so, while playing an acoustic radio performance earlier in the day for Canadian radio station Indie 88, Hilmarsdóttir admits she had to take a moment to collect herself before launching into the acoustic track “Organs.” Ultimately, she was steadied by Þórhallsson, who sang the first line to help remind her. “I feel like it’s the kind of song you really have to [feel],” she muses. “It’s so raw—it just has to be. You can hear it immediately. There’s something that goes off. It’s so vulnerable.” It’s that idea of vulnerability that drives Beneath the Skin. Where the group’s debut album centered

around large-scale, folk-tale-like storytelling, Beneath the Skin has more personal elements, reflecting on life, love and feeling lost. Sonically, unlike folk-rock peers Mumford & Sons, Of Monsters and Men didn’t set out to recreate the wheel on their new album. Instead, the work became focused around gradually opening their sonic scope. The heady emotional mood of each track hinges on lush

feeling kind of sick of everything, she’ll find herself writing a song. “Solitude is a thing that I just kind of crave in those kinds of situations,” she says. “I have nights where I wake up and I can’t sleep and the light outside is beautiful. Then I pick up the guitar, and there’s something about being alone and thinking about stuff that’s happening—that moment just inspires something.”

“IT’S THE SONGS THAT HAPPEN WHEN YOU’RE NOT TRYING TO WRITE A SONG. I LIKE THOSE SONGS THE MOST.” choral harmonies, layered guitars and a playground’s worth of additional musical instruments.

CAPTURING THE EMOTION But despite the band’s liberal crescendos, each one teasing their music to new euphoric heights, it all points back to Hilmarsdóttir and Þórhallsson, who once again share vocal responsibilities. Often, the pair trade off duties over the course of a single track. Hilmarsdóttir is aware that being one of the lead faces for her band means she doesn’t have the luxury of hiding. But that’s OK. When she sings the line, “I’m OK in see-through skin,” on album highlight “Crystals,” she means it. “I’m very emotional,” she says with a rueful laugh. “I’ve always been that way.” The trick to capturing that emotion? Timing, she says. Often, following her muse means keeping some unexpected hours while writing. She’ll be driving alone at night, she says, listening to the rain on the windows, making a simple rhythm, and a song will come to her. Or during the in-between moments of touring, when she’s

Usually when she writes, Hilmarsdóttir says, she isn’t necessarily thinking about the song making it onto an album. She isn’t always even aware of her own emotions in the moment. She just lets the song flow out of her. “I feel like I’m locked on the spot with a song,” she explains. “A lot of the time, you don’t even write about what you’re thinking or feeling. It’s more just like when you’re feeling it, you write, and then the song ends up about something completely different. “It’s the songs that happen when you’re not trying to write a song. I like those songs the most.”

FLESHING IT OUT With their laid-back approach to songwriting, perhaps it’s a bit unlikely that Of Monsters and Men would become the radio juggernauts they are today. (Just take a moment to recall their ubiquitous single “Little Talks.”) Þórhallsson waxes poetic on the first band he saw in concert, Blur. Hilmarsdóttir recalls that around the same time, she was marking time seeing Reykjavik punk legends Æla (name translation: puke) in concert.

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Given that Of Monsters and Men formed piecemeal around songs Hilmarsdóttir had written as a solo artist, their sound could have leaned any direction. But the melodic tracks of My Head is an Animal soon took on lives of their own, screaming rather than shouting. Often, it’s more like the song than the creator is in charge. The band worked together to flesh out the songs, often born from the solitary times Hilmarsdóttir seeks out to write. “I think usually, the spark of a song will come from that moment, and then we kind of mix it up together,” Þórhallsson says. “We write the rest of the song together. And Arnar, our drummer, he writes a lot. So some songs are all of us.” “It’s very much all over the place,” Hilmarsdóttir chimes in. “It’s hard to keep track of it sometimes,” Þórhallsson admits.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD OF TOURING Since they’re deep in the Beneath the Skin promotional cycle, it will be a while before

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we get new music from Of Monsters and Men. With tour dates seemingly stretched into the horizon, the band says their only goal at the moment is to stay on the road, and stay on their game. “If I’m on tour and everything’s organized, I’m very happy,” declares Þórhallsson, a satisfied glint in his eyes at the thought. However, both Hilmarsdóttir and Þórhallsson say the unique experience of leaving home for months at a time can stir up emotions—and it often gives them something to write about in the long run. “I think touring life is a very weird thing, because it’s the best thing in the world. It’s so much fun. You get to see all these places, and you get to hang around with your best friends. It’s just this really great experience,” Hilmarsdóttir says. “You feel almost stupid about sometimes not loving it. Of course, there are a lot of things that happen at home that you miss out on ... and there’s this weird feeling of isolation, too. Because we all

get what’s happening. There’s this whole world and this family, and then everyone kind of splits up and goes back home. And it’s kind of isolating in a way, because nobody really knows what’s been happening out on tour.” “It’s hard for them to imagine what we’re doing,” Þórhallsson adds. “Their life keeps going, and you come back home and your niece has grown up. You feel like time stands still when you go away, but, you know, everyone is just doing whole other things. “It definitely gives you something to think about and write about. We didn’t want to do that, but there are a lot of emotions that you stir up when you’re touring—and a lot of things you go through. A lot of great things. A lot of things that aren’t so great. So it gives you a lot to think about.” L AUR A STUDARUS is the culture editor at RELEVANT. Find her on Twitter @Laura_Studarus.

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BY L O U I E G IG L IO

SEPT_OCT 2015

ne doctor compared it to redlining your car for too long and it just gets stuck there. I never really got a clearer diagnosis. Depression was underneath it somewhere. Maybe a nervous breakdown. It’s almost like my brain got on its own wavelength for a while and just started calling the shots. At first, it felt like a heart attack; then there were crazy symptoms: numbness, convulsions. These were all triggered by a breakdown of my nervous system. I didn’t know if I could come back from this. I wasn’t sure I was going to be a normally functioning person again.

READY FOR A COMEBACK I know all too well the need for a comeback. As a pastor, I walk with people at every stage of life, people struggling with every kind of challenge and loss. I’m finding out more and more that a lot of people need a comeback, just like I did. In fact, if you’ve ever said “I can’t,” “I quit,” “I’m done” or “I’m lost”—or even if you’ve said “I don’t need any help,” chances are, you need a comeback, too. The kind of comeback I’m talking about isn’t some kind of self-help formula. The difference is in the source. In its purest form, a comeback is the belief that God is still at work in you and me. Within ourselves, none of us have the power to turn things around. But the truth is, as long as we are breathing, there is the possibility for God to do something supernatural in our lives. There is hope He can and will bring something beautiful out of the mess, and fill our hearts with joy again. That’s not meant to sound shallow or glossy. If you’ve lost a loved one, he or she is not coming back. If you have been devastated by a disease, the effects are real. But in every case, God is present and powerful. He can and will be enough to light the darkness and accomplish His purposes in our situations.

STARTING FROM THE BOTTOM Every comeback is different, but they all begin at the “zero point,” that desperate place where we admit we’ve hit rock bottom. Regardless of what self-help books tell you, you can’t really break a comeback

down to exact steps. The path forward will look different in every situation. As a starting point, I would suggest asking yourself what your end goal is. What do you need? What do you want? Then back up and look at what it would take to get there. So, for example, if you need your marriage put back together, take a hard look at what’s wrong with your marriage. Let’s say you’ve been unfaithful to your spouse. What are five steps for you, given that you were unfaithful to your spouse and your marriage is on the rocks? You should confess what you did to whomever is appropriate. You should get help with whatever triggered you to cheat. You should get into an accountability group with people who can surround you and practically help you live out the help you’re getting. You should rebuild your operating grid so you don’t set yourself up for that again. And you should reconcile with your spouse—that may mean meeting with a pastor or counselor, or going to talk to his or her family. Or maybe you’re in debt and you don’t know where to turn. Then you do the same thing: Look at what you need and start taking steps to get out from under the pressure of debt. Call up a financial adviser. Call somebody in who can assess the situation and make immediate recommendations for what you can do. The steps may look different, but in any situation, there are three common threads: 1. Confess where you are. Be honest with yourself and other people. 2. Reach out to the best and most appropriate help you can get. 3. Put people around you to encourage and walk alongside you as you put the help you’re getting into practice.

THE ULTIMATE COMEBACK There’s a spiritual component to every single one of those situations, as well. After all, the Bible is the story of the greatest comeback of all—the one that makes every other comeback possible— the resurrection. If Jesus is not alive, where would we draw the strength we need for our road back from the depths? If the grave is not empty, how could we believe we can rise from the ashes with new purpose and hope? The darkness took its best shot at Jesus, but hell’s power was not enough to keep

Him down. And Jesus is enough when you can’t come back. God is enough when the marriage won’t come back together. God is enough when the business is gone and it’s never coming back. Looking up, we grasp for Jesus and find He’s already reaching for us. Then we start to walk toward what He says is true about us. We begin again in His great love for us. Friends will help, truth will guide us, professionals may counsel us, but the start is a turnaround in our hearts that causes us to face up to God’s goodness. We have to believe, or ask Him to strengthen our unbelief. And we have to accept His help and receive His grace.

BACK TO LIGHT During my own dark period of depression, there were many days and weeks that I really couldn’t see myself going back to work. I couldn’t see myself taking on the weight of leadership again. I couldn’t picture myself being able to navigate any difficult situations. I wasn’t really sure I was going to come back at all. I didn’t have anywhere to turn. I didn’t have a road map. I kept thinking, “I have lost my mind. I’m going crazy and there’s no light at the end of this tunnel.” That kept me spiraling down into it more and more. For me, the turnaround was worship. I remembered another chapter in my life when I went through something really difficult. During that time, God had taught me that He gives us a song in a night. So when I got to that critical place again, I asked Him for that. It was my last gasp, really, saying, “God, if you give me a song in this dark place, I’ll sing it.” He gave me a little song in my heart, and, as simple as it was, it became the thing I was able to replace a lot of the other thoughts with. Eventually, it was the song that led me back into the light—after about six months. Praise is powerful like that. It reorients us to who God is, no matter our circumstances. Praise is a component for every comeback, because it is the verbalization of our confidence that it takes something bigger than us to do what we have not been able to do on our own. ROB FEE is a writer and comedian best known for writing and is telling jokes.of You can follow him LOUIE GIGLIO the pastor Passion City Church on founder Twitter @RobFee to read more jokes go to and of the Passion Movement. Hisormost Del Taco. probably there. recent bookHe’s is The Comeback.

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B Y DA R R E N S A N D E R S

THE ISLAMIC STATE GETS ALL THE PRESS. BUT COULD A DIFFERENT ISLAMIC EXTREMIST GROUP BE THE BIGGEST THREAT TO THE GLOBAL CHURCH? WE WENT TO NIGERIA AND SAW AND HEARD FIRSTHAND THE HORRIFYING REALITY OF BOKO HARAM. RELEVANTMAGAZINE.COM

he only thing I was thinking when they took me is that I will die,” says a young, soft-spoken woman in a dimly lit room in Nigeria. “I know they will kill me. I’m just praying to God about everything that I did that is wrong, that the good Lord will forgive me.” Mary Patrick, 24, began that evening happily. It was September 2014, and Patrick, her older sister and two friends were walking to a nearby village to attend a wedding. One of her friends was the bride-to-be. As they walked, they suddenly heard gunfire and shouts of “Allahu akbar!” Islamic extremists from the group Boko Haram stormed their Christian village in Adamawa State in Northeastern Nigeria. The women quickly hid in a nearby house, but were captured when they misjudged a chance to escape. The moment Patrick arrived at the terrorist camp in another part of Adamawa State, soldiers began chipping away at her Christian identity. They shaved her head, forced her to wear a hijab, gave her an Arabic name and made her recite verses from the Quran. “I just forgot how to pray, how to read the Bible,” she says. “When I was with Boko Haram, the only thing was Muslim prayer.” Patrick quickly found herself behaving like other young women in the camp, some of whom were the “Chibok girls”—the girls made internationally famous through the #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign. Those girls, from a town in Borno State where Boko Haram is based, were abducted by the militant group in April 2014. Although some managed to escape, 219 reportedly remain in captivity. Patrick says the more than 50 Chibok girls she encountered were among the most vicious prisoners in the camp. “The [Boko Haram] train women,” she says. “They even taught how to shoot a gun, how to kill somebody, bomb places like churches, wood houses and schools.” Women are told these attacks are the work of God. Patrick herself took part in multiple attacks, including one on her own church. She tried to shoot away from people. She watched as militants tied her sister to a tree and shot her to death—her

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punishment for declining to slit the throat of an elderly man who refused to renounce his Christian faith. Patrick also watched as her friend—abducted on her wedding day— and her friend’s younger sister were married to Boko Haram commanders. Patrick was set to marry the man who killed her sister. This same soldier was one of the numerous fighters who repeatedly raped her. “Sometimes five men at the same time,” she says. “After this one, this one.”

THE RISE OF TERROR Thanks to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the atrocities of Boko Haram largely go unnoticed in terms of international attention. But in reality, Boko Haram poses as much of a threat—or more—to Christians as the more famous terrorist group. In fact, in March, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS, helping spread the bloody fight for a global caliphate to West Africa. Boko Haram formed in 2002, but gained prominence in 2009 after the death of its founding leader, Mohammed Yusuf. Since then, the group has slaughtered at least 17,500 people, though many estimate the actual death toll could be three to five times higher than what is reported. Experts say the group killed more than 10,000 people in 2014 alone—close to the number of civilian deaths in Iraq linked to ISIS in 2014. Many sources estimate Boko Haram also has forced more than 2 million people from

“I THINK BOKO HARAM IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN ISIS. WHAT WE DO FOR ISIS, WE SHOULD DO AGAINST BOKO HARAM.” — Chad’s ambassador to the U.N. their homes. These numbers show a force that may be smaller than ISIS (many place the number of Boko Haram fighters at about 9,000), but at least as deadly—and willing to employ an unparalleled level of brutality. An African envoy to the United Nations even pled with global leaders to make Boko Haram the number one target among the international community. “I think Boko Haram is more dangerous than ISIS,” said Mahamat Cherif, the ambassador from Chad. “What we do for ISIS, we should do against Boko Haram.”

TARGETS Christians make up more than 50 percent of Nigeria’s 182 million people, according to Christian research group the Joshua Project. More than 43 percent of the population is Muslim, while the remaining percentage is composed of those practicing ethnic religions. Boko Haram’s attacks have primarily taken place in the Muslim-dominated North, but some fear it is establishing more of a presence in the Christian South. The group claimed responsibility for two bombings on June 25, 2014, in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city and commercial center, located in the Southern part of the country. And while Boko Haram has killed Muslims— often for not practicing the faith to the standards it believes are dictated by the Quran—it mainly targets Christians. Most attacks take place at night in Christian villages, but the group also burns churches or sends suicide bombers—often young women like Patrick—into Sunday

morning church services. Because of such attacks, it’s common to see armed guards checking vehicles as they enter church grounds in the North. With the election of Muhammadu Buhari, who took office May 29, much of the country hopes the government will start fighting back more powerfully against Boko Haram. Many Christians voted for Buhari because of his experience as a major general in the Nigerian Army. He previously obtained power in the mid-1980s by leading a military coup. The president before Buhari, Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, was seen as weak in the fight against Boko Haram during most of his presidency—though he did eventually win support from neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, forming a coalition that recaptured districts under Boko Haram’s control just before he left office. Despite the confidence in Buhari’s forceful words against Boko Haram at the polls, some Christians are closely watching his actions now that he’s in power. He ran on a platform promoting freedom of religion throughout Nigeria, but he has previously supported the total implementation of Sharia law. Buhari pledged to rescue the Chibok girls during his election campaign, and in September, he said he’s willing to negotiate for their release. After months of military strikes on Boko Haram camps, he also said Boko Haram was limited to its stronghold in the Sambisa Forest in Borno State. Just days before this announcement, however, Nigeria’s Intelligence Agency claimed 12 Boko Haram fighters were arrested in Lagos.

FORGIVING THE ENEMY Nigerian Christians largely don’t fight back against Boko Haram. For one, they simply don’t have the proper weapons, and most of the attacks happen by surprise at night. This isn’t a war against the Church— it’s a massacre. In response, Christians can only remain firm in their faith. After all, when under a surprise attack in the middle of the night, their faith is all they have. “If you go to Nigerians and ask, ‘Will you die for Christ?’ they would say no,” says the Rev. Isaac Oluwole Newton-Wusu, a director for Voice of the Martyrs in Nigeria. “But look at how many Nigerians

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have died for Christ. When the time comes, the courage comes.” For thousands of Christians, that time comes all too soon. While women like Patrick are often abducted by Boko Haram, men, if they’re not killed, often have a hand and foot cut off from opposite sides of their body—a Quranic punishment for those who wage war against Islam. In a video released in 2013, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said: “We will kill because Allah says we should decapitate, we should amputate limbs, we should mutilate.” Thirty-five-year-old Micah Magaji survived such an attack while walking through his village with his wife, Dorcas, in Taraba State on the morning of December 18, 2014. A group of Boko Haram soldiers surrounded them, demanding they convert to Islam. The couple could deny Christ and live, or affirm their faith and die. “We were born into a Christian family,” Magaji told the attackers. “We are still Christians today. There is no way we are going to turn around from our past.” The men threatened to cut off Magaji’s hands and kill him if he didn’t renounce his faith. “Only God can take a life,” he responded. “It is from God, so you cannot take my life.” The attackers then attempted to intimidate Dorcas, but she remained unfazed. “I’m married to a Christian,” she told them. “Wherever my husband goes, that is where I’ll go. I’m not changing from this faith to any other.” Her response angered the men. They shot her to death, while another went after Magaji with a machete, hacking at both of his forearms before leaving him for dead. When elders in their village learned of the attack, they sent people to rescue Magaji. “It is the power of God that has kept me up to this point,” he says now. Still, the attack put Magaji in a rehabilitation hospital for two months. Doctors had to amputate his right arm and perform surgery to save his left. Before the attackers left Magaji to die, they stole his cellphone—a common practice in such attacks. After receiving his initial care at the hospital, Magaji borrowed a phone to call the attackers who had taken his. “I told them, ‘You people thought you have killed me, but my God has saved me,’” he says. Surprisingly, he adds, the attacker who answered apologized.

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“I am a Christian,” Magaji told him. “I don’t bear grudges. I don’t keep records of wrongs. I have already forgiven you.” At the time of the attack, Magaji and Dorcas had been married for more than 20 years. He misses her deeply. He also hopes his left arm will heal so he can continue his work as a yam farmer to provide for his five children. “I’d love prayer for God to strengthen and heal, not only me, but people in similar situations elsewhere,” he says. “My prayer is that this hand will heal completely and I will go back to the work God has given me.” Since the rise of Boko Haram, attacks on Christians like Magaji have increased dramatically. And with virtually half of Nigeria in serious risk of being attacked at any moment, groups such as Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) focus a large portion of their work on helping victims receive quality care and support to heal physically and emotionally. In fact, the attacks on Christians are so ubiquitously brutal that VOM now employs

“MY WORK IS NOT TO KILL, MY WORK IS TO PRAY. I PRAY THAT GOD WILL TOUCH THEIR HEARTS AND CONVERT THEM.” —Wale Omu the only prosthetist in Northern Nigeria because of the regular need for prosthetic limbs for victims of Boko Haram and other Muslim extremists.

A WEARY CHURCH Wale Omu, 48 (whose name has been changed to protect his identity), once pastored two churches in Borno State, each with about 275 members. Boko Haram bombed both, the first in December 2012 and the other in October 2014. Seven people were killed in the attacks. Those deaths, plus the members of his congregations who have been killed in additional attacks on villages, brings the number of congregants Omu has lost to 42. Many more have left the churches to escape further violence. “They had to desert the town,” he says. “Most of them lost both their church and houses, so they had to leave—and they lost members of their family.” A pastor since 1993, Omu now struggles to provide for his children, seven of whom are still living at home. “Life has been so difficult, because, since the

RIGHT: A woman and her daughter take shelter in a camp after fleeing Boko Haram

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attack, I was left penniless—I don’t have anything,” he says. “We have to struggle to go to farm and do some farm labor to be able to get food. Then my major concern is the care of my children, that they go to school again because of the condition I am in.” The bombings and the burning of his home are only the most recent times Omu has been persecuted for his faith. Boko Haram fighters previously visited him at church and threatened to kill him if he didn’t convert to Islam. As the attackers held a knife to his throat, a gunshot fired outside the church and they fled. During another attack, he was hit with a machete on his head, neck and back. Omu says his main source of comfort has been that Jesus said this would happen. And since persecution is certainly taking place, he reasons that surely, Christ’s other promises are true, as well. “The Bible said definitely ‘In this life, there will be persecution. You will be

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killed for my sake,’” Omu says, referencing Matthew 24:9. “I was really comforted in this.” He felt discouraged after losing his churches and his home, but Omu knows God is still in control. “It really hurts a lot, but the Word of God always comforts me,” he says. “I just worshipped Him more. I was happy because God saved my life.” Omu is proof, however, that Boko Haram can only hurt part of him. Apart from the pain and devastation the terrorist group brought him, the reverend feels a bit of satisfaction. “The joy I feel is that none of my members converted to Islam,” he says. At this point, Omu doesn’t fear another Boko Haram attack. In fact, he has prayed on several occasions to meet with members of the militant group. He won’t let hatred toward the fighters enter his heart. For him, hatred would

make him more like Boko Haram and less like Christ. “My work is not to kill, my work is to pray,” he says. “I pray that God will touch their hearts and convert them.”

A NEW LEVEL OF DEPRAVITY Boko Haram’s violence has inspired imitators. Nomadic Muslims from neighboring countries Chad, Niger and Cameroon have been known to conduct raids as they pass through Nigeria. Muslim Fulani herdsmen have carried out some of the most brutal attacks in recent years, and some Nigerian Christians claim the herdsmen are supported by Boko Haram. In March 2010, Fulani herdsmen attacked the Christian village of Dogo Nahawa outside Jos, a city near the center of Nigeria, killing 500 people—mainly women and children—in one night. Attackers reached a new level of depravity when more than 1,000 armed men,

reportedly disguised as herdsmen, surrounded the Nunkwo village in Taraba State on Jan. 28, attacking Christians. Twenty-three villagers died. Boko Haram’s level of involvement in the attack is unclear, though it would be difficult to deny. As survivors of the attack counted the dead, they suddenly heard shrieks coming from one of the bodies. They discovered Danjuma Shakaru, a 13 year old who had his right eye carved out, his genitals cut off and his left hand nearly amputated. Fortunately, Shakaru only remembers feeling the machete slice through the left side of his head, falling to the ground and watching his attackers run off to set homes on fire. The attackers returned to his limp body to do further damage. Shakaru was so brutally maimed that villagers dug a grave for him after he was rushed to the hospital. But he still lives. Light from an open window highlights his many scars. He’s wearing a brightly colored shirt with the word “Kids” sewn on the front. Instead of pants, he’s wearing a Nigerian cloth wrap around his waist so a medical worker can follow up on wounds sustained during the attack. In spite of what he has suffered, Shakaru remains certain that God is still in control. He has no anger toward his attackers. “There is no problem,” he says. “I have allowed God to handle everything. “I forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing,” he says, echoing the words of Christ on the cross. “If they had love, they wouldn’t behave that way.” Prior to the raid, Shakaru was a typical Nigerian boy. He lived with his mother, a widow, and enjoyed playing with friends. He often went on fishing trips with fishermen from his village. It was after one of these trips that the attack occurred. Shakaru’s life is much different now. A catheter extends from his lower abdomen, draining urine into a bag he carries as he walks. Because of the trauma he experienced to his head and right eye, he also lost the use of his left eye. He is fully dependent on God, on his mother and on the care of others around him. Although the attackers stole so much from Shakaru, they couldn’t take his joy, which is still evident on his face and in his voice. “The joy comes from the Lord,” he says, smiling.

He wants those who hear his story to pray that his faith will continue to grow. “If they hear the story, they should pray for me—for my broken heart,” he says, “and that I have strength to serve the Lord.”

A FOREIGN ENEMY The deadliest enemy facing the church in Africa is Boko Haram. But another enemy is strangling the church in the country— and this one isn’t native. Boko Haram’s attacks test the limits of the church in the North, but they also reveal a disconnect with many churches in the South. Pastors in the North need more support from churches in the rest of the country, but the prosperity gospel—a theological Ponzi scheme that promises God’s blessings in exchange for donations— drowns out their need. Pastor Peter Agabi (whose name has been changed to protect his identity) says Boko Haram is revealing a serious threat to the Nigerian church: disunity. “The church is so divided,” he says. “There is no visible unity of the body of Christ in Nigeria. That dismays me at times. Sometimes, it makes me grieve more than the threat of Boko Haram does.” A drive through cities in the South showcases billboards displaying brightly colored images of pastors in fancy suits with promises of “signs and wonders” and “prosperity in exchange for praise” in bold letters. Churches in the South regularly take donations for their leaders to buy private jets—even as pastors in the North risk their lives daily to meet the needs of persecuted brothers and sisters. Terror spreads in the North; the prosperity gospel spreads in the South. “Their churches are absolute cathedrals,” Agabi says. “While so many ordinary Nigerians are poor, those preachers are bathing in luxury. Church has become their business. The size of the building and the vehicle the preacher drives now serve as the yardsticks of their church’s success. “How can we ever give a witness for Christ if we carry on like this? The unity that Jesus speaks of in Scripture is nowhere to be seen.”

RECOVERY IS FAR OFF After four nightmarish months as a captive of Boko Haram, Mary Patrick saw an opportunity to escape from her captors.

GET INVOLVED YO U R T I M E PR AY: Commit to regularly praying for Christians in Nigeria, for pastors there and for the end of Boko Haram’s reign of terror.

YO U R VO I C E ADVOCATE: Because ISIS receives more press, it’s easy to assume Boko Haram isn’t a large threat. But nothing could be more wrong. Raising awareness is one of the most important things the Church can do. YO U R R E S O U R C E S SUPPORT: Organizations like Voice of the Martyrs provide critical services for Christians in Nigeria, both in protection and health care.

One night, when the soldiers were drunk, she and an older woman fled into the bush. Upon returning to her village, she learned her father had died of a heart attack after the abduction of his daughters. Patrick was completely alone. She now lives with a friend named Afam Onwenu as she undergoes counseling and returns to university studies. When his family took her in, Onwenu realized the depths of the horror Patrick faced. “I wanted to buy food for her and bought some meat,” he says. “She told me she couldn’t eat the meat. She said, ‘In the camp, they used to eat human flesh, so every meat looks like human flesh.’” Patrick is now free and still trying to recover pieces of herself stolen by Boko Haram, but her biggest concern isn’t herself anymore. It’s her brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer everything she did and worse—all for believing in Jesus Christ. “I would be grateful to have other people pray for Christians in Northeastern Nigeria,” she says, “because they are suffering the most.” DARREN SANDERS is a freelance writer from the Midwest. He can’t wait to return to Nigeria.

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B Y L I N D S AY DA I L E Y

aniel Zott is backstage at Conan. In a few hours, he and JR JR bandmate Josh Epstein will dress in white and perform their new single, “Gone,” complete with whistles, snaps and a sizable backing band. But right now, the Michiganborn, Los Angeles-based musician is simply content to take in the madness.

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Late-night gigs can be nervewracking, he admits, but they’re also an opportunity to learn from the best. “I get nervous, which is part of being excited, I guess,” he says. “But everyone’s so professional, so you get to see how the big dogs do it. That’s always a really cool learning experience.” And, he says, he knows the band is in good hands.

“We had an issue with a guitar amp. The light went out, and they fixed it right on the spot,” he says with relief. “And the JR JR light, they had to fix the height of it, and they just built something right there—right on the spot. “It’s cool to see that level of care for what you’re doing. You get treated really well. And plus, it’s just really fun to play on TV.”

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THE INDIE DUO HAS STREAMLINED THEIR NAME—AND FOUND THEIR VOICE.

It’s a far cry from the group’s DIY roots. Zott recalls that the pair’s earlier musical incarnations would usually eschew touring in favor of local shows and recordings.

BY POPULAR DEMAND Originally called Jr. Jr.—then Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr.—the collaboration was just a sideline where Zott and Epstein could explore their poppier instincts. As Zott describes it, they were ushered into bandhood by popular vote. “It was a weird experience,” he reflects. “It’s weird when you show your friends something and they’re all like, ‘That’s really, really good.’ And then you’re like, ‘Oh, did you never really like what I was doing before? Because you never said you liked it like you’re saying it right now.’ “It was sort of humorous,” he continues. “We had a lot of friends who were always giving us critiques of our music. But pretty much across the board, they were all like, ‘This is the best thing you’ve ever done.’ So it was very obvious.” Zott’s quick to clarify that people’s affirmation is not what he’s after. But, he says, it let him know he was headed in the right direction. “I’m one of those people who would do music if no one listened to it,” he says. “In fact, that’s why I do a lot of stuff. I write songs for family members, because it’s like a gift. I feel like it’s wrong of me to not use that. “But when you’re not just in your own head thinking you’re good at something, but people actually tell you, it’s just a good feeling. It sort of reassured me like, ‘Hey, you should really pursue this,’ even though I was going to do it anyway. Now I really knew we might have a shot.” JR JR

The band’s selftitled junior album is bright, lean and personal.

GAINING SPEED Things did start happening for the duo. On the strength of their debut EP, Horse Power, they signed to

Warner Bros. Records. Tastemaking outlets began to take notice of the pair’s irreverent, undeniably playful tunes. Zott even appeared as a member of George Michael Bluth’s band in Netflix’s Arrested Development reboot. Two more albums (It’s a Corporate World and The Speed of Things) followed, and Dale

“I think we just finally found our voice,” Zott explains. “I don’t think we’re trying to reinvent ourselves, but I definitely feel like we finally got to a place where we feel comfortable.” To hear Zott tell it, the album is also an unabashedly personal affair, with most of the tracks stemming from true-life adven-

“I DON’T THINK WE’RE TRYING TO REINVENT OURSELVES. I THINK WE JUST FINALLY FOUND OUR VOICE.” Earnhardt Jr. Jr. cemented their place as the pop world’s others— two guys who could write a hook while not taking themselves too seriously in the process. But something became clear as the duo started work on their third album—the chemistry was working. The band name was not. “People would check us out just because they were curious,” Zott says of their former, car-race-leaning moniker. “So the name, in a way, had a purpose. But before long, it became like this drunk band member that isn’t offering anything to the band anymore, but everyone wants to talk about him. So we felt like we had to kick him out. “I guess it’s rebranding, in a way. But almost just like, ‘Let’s cut all the fat off.’ It also felt like that was us in the beginning, and now we’re growing up.”

JR YEAR The band brought that no-nonsense energy into their new selftitled release. Brighter, leaner and more driving than their previous albums, JR JR highlights a band in full control of their crisp guitars, electronic squeals and BeachBoys-style harmonies, creating a style along the way that can best be described as equal parts fun in the sun and psych freak out.

tures. (Well, save for the apocalyptic tale of “Philip the Engineer.”) Songwriting is cathartic for him, he says. It helps him get things off his chest in a way that conveys his emotions better than simply talking them out. “I’m not really good at communicating in terms of using language in conversation,” he muses. “But I know when I have more time to construct a sentence or a song, I feel like I can get my point across a little bit more. “I’ve always gravitated toward writing a song, because I can convey my emotion and how I feel about something through that, when, in conversation, it doesn’t seem to [work]. I never have the right thing to say. I just feel more comfortable if you give me a microphone and a guitar. “If you ask me to tell a story or say something, you might not feel anything. You might just feel bad for me. But I can make somebody feel something through a song.” Zott points to the track “For My Brother”—which opens with the unapologetic line, “I wrote this song for my brother/I wrote it just because I had to”—as one of JR JR’s most hyper-honest songs. “It’s sort of a song about writing a song, which I think artists do a lot. It was me talking about

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L-R: Josh Epstein and Daniel Zott. Neither is an actual Jr.

how I’m hesitant to show off my songs, very hesitant to say, ‘What do you think about this?’ I’m just in my own world. I feel excited about it, and I really don’t care what anyone else thinks.” Those, he says, are indicative of the moments as a musician he likes the best—the moments he feels like he’s fully expressing himself. “I’m confident about my music. I love it. I can play this song for my brother, I can play it for my lover and we’ll dance to it. But even if they don’t think it’s gold, I don’t care, because I’ve got my own radio. Even with people close to me, I’m so in my own little world that if I like it, I don’t care what anyone else thinks.”

COOL LIKE JAMES DEAN This tendency to value his own opinion of his music above all others can be somewhat selfish, Zott admits. But in an industry where labels push for big radio hits and bands seek out Internet fame, it can be easy to get too caught up in everyone else’s opinions. “The pressure to be all these things ... can get in the way of just being you and doing your thing,” he says. “I think, in a good way, I don’t get too distracted by

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that, because I’m too selfish. I think about just pleasing my own ears.” JR JR also reflects on that “pressure to be cool” with the song “James Dean,” in which the duo sings lines like, “All I want to be/is to be cool like James Dean” and “The Internet won’t ever love you back.” Zott says the song started out as a joke on one of the band’s tours. “Josh [wrote], ‘I wanna be cool like James Blake,’” he explains. “And we all started laughing, because James Blake could play anything and pretty much end up in that cool zone. But if you’re not there, no matter what you do, you just can’t. James Dean was a little bit wider of a phrase, and we thought that would connect well with people.” But, he says, though the band still feels some of the pressures that come with fame, they’re realizing they’re at their best creatively when they call things as they are and don’t worry so much about pleasing the masses. “We’re realizing we’re kind of past that. I feel like we’re getting more comfortable just us being us,” Zott explains. “I think that’s why people are connecting with ‘Gone’ and some of the other songs, more so than before.”

MUSICAL KINSHIP Other themes running through the album are the passage of time, and the responsibilities that come with getting older. That topic has come naturally, Zott says, as he and Epstein have entered their 30s and grown in their friendship alongside their musical career. “We’ve been a band for five years, and as we’ve written songs together, we’ve grown as friends,” he explains. “So I think time is a very easy thing for us to talk about, because we’re getting older, but also because this band is really a representation of Josh’s and my relationship.” Relationships have become extra important to Zott. Making music is something he feels compelled to do (“It’s like eating for me”), but he has found that the best things about being in a band are the close friendships he’s been able to build through music. “We started fostering those things that kind of put a perspective on your life,” he says. “As much as I love music and art and making money and the business side of it, really, it’s just about people. Maybe this is why we do these sorts of things— so we can all kind of have kinship, you know?”

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BY T YLER HUCK ABEE

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ich Wilkerson’s Instagram feed probably looks a lot like yours. There are adoring photos of his wife, DawnChere; first-person POV pictures of his legs stretched out in exotic locales; numerous group shots of him and close friends with arms around each other, usually tagged with a caption like “Some of the best people I know!” or “Love these guys!” You could be forgiven for scrolling through and never noticing the occasional picture of him palling around with the Kardashian sisters. Or Justin Bieber. Or Michelle Obama. It’s not like he advertises it or makes a big deal about it. Wilkerson is not that kind of guy. He’s a pastor—a handsome, fashion-conscious one, sure, but not particularly different from your own—who happens to find himself invested in genuine, meaningful friendships with a few of the most famous people in the world. “I don’t think God’s called us to do hard stuff—I think God’s called us to do impossible stuff,” Wilkerson says. “Any time you’re walking into what God called you to—whether that’s being a lawyer or a doctor or high school teacher—if you’re fulfilling what you feel like God’s put you on the earth for, it’s going to feel more than hard. You’re going to feel out of your depth. You’re going to feel unqualified. I think I’ve gotten good at living in that space every day.” For Wilkerson, “that space” occasionally gets a little trippy—and not just because of his relationships with A-listers. Truth be told, Wilkerson seems like a friend to just about everyone. He’s a master at accepting strangers with genuine enthusiasm and finding common ground with them. You could say that Wilkerson’s most in his element when he’s out of it. He’s one of those people who has a knack for being a fish out of water. And he’s had plenty of opportunities to

test that out. He’s got a new reality show on Oxygen (excellently titled Rich in Faith, debuting in December), VIP access to the Miami nightclub scene and, currently, all the attention and skepticism that comes with joining today’s loose-knit collective of “cool Christian pastors.” Wilkerson may be just a pastor. But how many pastors do you know who had their book cover designed by Kanye West?

A CLEAR CALL “I’m a fourth generation Pentecostal preacher on both sides,” Wilkerson says. “I grew up in a preacher’s home, and both my grandfathers and my great-grandfathers are pastors.” Wilkerson comes from a legacy of hugely influential preachers. His parents started a ministry called Peacemakers. His father’s cousin, David Wilkerson, wrote the Christian classic, The Cross and the Switchblade. When his father, Rich Sr., became pastor of Trinity Church in 1998, it averaged

of being the majority to the minority pretty quickly.” The move and resulting loneliness (he attended a private school 30 minutes away from home) left Wilkerson feeling alienated and angry. It was during this period Wilkerson says he “ran from his calling.” “I don’t know that I was intentionally saying, ‘I don’t believe in God,’” he explains. “It was just high school misbehavior and mischievousness, not living according to my beliefs and partying. There was nothing super crazy, but I was definitely doing things I didn’t believe in. I was doing things that didn’t line up with who I said I was.” That all changed when Wilkerson was 17. “I was with my dad on a trip and he was preaching,” he says. “And I felt a clear call to the ministry. It was like, ‘I know I was created for more than the way I’m living, and I know God’s got something special planned for me. I feel called to share the Gospel, I feel called to proclaim His message, and I want to do that with all of my

“I FEEL CALLED TO SHARE THE GOSPEL, AND I WANT TO DO THAT WITH ALL OF MY HEART.” something like 100 members. Today, it packs around 4,000. The growth was notable because it defied conventional wisdom about where churches could thrive. Trinity Church is in Miami Gardens, Florida, where nearly 64 percent of the population was born outside of the United States. Churches weren’t known for diversity in 1998 any more than they are today, so the family’s move was a bold one. “I grew up in Tacoma, Washington, outside of Seattle, until I was about 14,” Wilkerson says. “I went from the Pacific Northwest to Miami. I went from sort

heart. I want to do that with both my feet.’ I didn’t want to live on the fence. I wanted to live completely sold out for Him.” This is not unusual stuff, of course. A lot of people have an emotional moment in high school that leads them to get serious about something they’ve always believed to be true. The difference with Wilkerson is that, according to him, it didn’t have the weepy, movie-moment feel of so many teenage come-to-Jesus moments. “It wasn’t a very emotional thing,” he says. “I just felt like it was a practical thing of saying: ‘How long are you going to run from what you’re called to do?’”

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RENDEZVOUS For Wilkerson, that meant going to Bible school, where he met and married his wife. Afterward, he returned to Miami Gardens, where he started a youth service called Rendezvous at his father’s church. At first, it was just a Bible study of about 12 people. Eight years later, it was averaging around 1,200. In September, it launched as a stand-alone church in downtown Miami—now just called Vous Church. ABC’s Nightline was on hand to film the first service. “Every step of the journey has been laced with challenge and difficulty,” Wilkerson admits. “But the greatest testimony about the journey is that, with every step we’ve taken into the deep end, God’s grace has been sufficient. “I really see every day that we are in the deep end, and that’s where I want to live, but it’s definitely God’s grace showing up time and again.”

Unsurprisingly, Wilkerson is demure about the whole thing. “It was a beautiful experience. It was a precious day. They asked for a Christian wedding, so I got to talk about Jesus. There were people from all different walks of life, so many interesting conversations at the wedding. Some incredible, grace-filled questions asked.” Perhaps this is the time to address the elephant in the room. Any time a young, good-looking pastor acquires a significant following, questions start to arise about sincerity. If you have celebrity pals who can hook you up with Yeezy Boosts and a reality show on Oxygen, those questions grow some teeth. “In the past, I didn’t deal with criticism well,” Wilkerson admits. “I’m always learning how to deal with it. I’ve really always cared what people think, what people say. I’m a feeler to my core.” The criticism has taken many forms.

it, because I think you’d get it more.’ But you can’t always do that.” For all the connections the Internet gives, one thing it rarely allows is a genuine opportunity for people to explain themselves. So, instead, Wilkerson has had to focus on his own heart. “I preached a message not too long ago on how leadership is about having thick skin and soft hearts,” he says. “I want my skin to get thicker and I want my heart to get softer in the process. I want to try to listen first and speak second and try to hear their point. A lot of times, people criticize, and they’re trying to come from a place that’s actually good, but how they go about doing it comes off wrong. You have to keep it moving and move forward.” “Move forward” is a phrase that comes up a lot with Wilkerson. It’s his go-to phrase when discussing criticism. “We gotta keep this thing moving. There are people out there we’re not reaching, and so if that means I gotta go over the fence and smell a little bit like smoke coming back, let’s do it. I just gotta keep checking my heart in this process—that I don’t allow criticism to make me bitter.”

FRIEND OF SINNERS

Wilkerson and his wife, DawnChere

HOW THE WEST WAS WED Any conversation about Wilkerson must eventually turn to the flashiest friendship in his community. In 2014, his public profile shot into a rare stratosphere when it was announced that he’d be officiating the American equivalent of the Royal Wedding. In a very private, no-paparazzi-allowed ceremony that included Serena Williams, Alexander Wang and Steve McQueen, Wilkerson married Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

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Scroll through Wilkerson’s Instagram comments and Twitter mentions, and you’ll find plenty of dissenters who accuse him of being a “false teacher” and worse. “You call yourself a Christian?” is a pretty common refrain on his Instagram account. “I’ve always dealt with a level of the fringe of criticism,” he says. “These days, it’s a little bit louder. Nobody ever put self-doubt in me from what they put on the Internet, but it has hurt my feelings. I’m going, ‘I just wish I could sit down and have coffee with you and fully explain

“Here’s a fun question for Christians: Do sinners even like you?” Wilkerson asks. “I think a lot of us in 2015 would say, ‘Well, I don’t care if sinners like me.’ Well, I do. I want sinners to see something inside of me that makes them go, ‘Man, there’s something about that guy. He seems satisfied and complete. He doesn’t have as much money as I do, or as much fame as I do. He doesn’t have everything put together, yet somehow, there’s a peace that transcends understanding about his life. I want to get what he’s got.’” This is more than just empty rhetoric, and it’s not something Wilkerson only lives out when it comes to celebrity billionaires. It’s part of his life. “The last couple nights, I’ve been staying at a friend’s house who owns one of the big nightclubs in Miami,” he explains. “I just love him. He has come to church half a dozen times, we’ve had beautiful conversations, but he hasn’t made a profession of faith. He hasn’t prayed the sinner’s prayer. He’s not giving to church or serving church. He’s just a friend of mine.

long ago, an online article was published that called the wisdom of a pastor-centric reality show into serious question. Wilkerson insists the criticisms don’t bother him and that if his critics could just see his heart, they’d see his motives are pure. On the one hand, it’s not hard to see where Wilkerson’s skeptics are coming from. The American church has a long history of men leveraging faith for personal gain. It’s made millennial Christians suspicious of success. On the other hand, Wilkerson’s sincerity is obvious, and it’s hard to deny the value in what he says he’s trying to do. American Christianity has often claimed it wants to invade spaces outside its suburban buildings and find strategic ways to be culturally influential. Wilkerson seems to be better at that than most, but the cost has surprised him. According to him, he’s just trying to help people. “There was a guy who came into our church not too long ago who was visibly intoxicated,” Wilkerson says. “He was cordial and cool, but you could tell he was using. I think he came and he enjoyed it. Can I tell you that his whole life is completely changed and upside down? No, I can just tell you he’s come more than once.

I’ve learned that I have to keep being intentional to be a bridge. I’m not loving him like he’s a project. A project has a start date and a finish date. I’m loving him because he’s a person.” Other pastors might be shy about their motives or couch it in the usual rhetoric. But Wilkerson is not a shy guy, and he doesn’t seem particularly interested in playing softball. He doesn’t have to be. To hear him tell it, he’s just copying a few moves from the best. “That’s what we see about Jesus,” he says. “We see Jesus walking in as a guest of sinners. Sinners are inviting Him to their table. I just think if there was something I could correct inside of people it’s this: Let’s just love and be about people. We preach Jesus, and we gotta believe that Jesus changes us from the inside out, not the outside in.”

OUT AND ABOUT Wilkerson has been in New York City

“LET’S JUST LOVE AND BE ABOUT PEOPLE. WE PREACH JESUS, AND WE GOTTA BELIEVE THAT JESUS CHANGES US FROM THE INSIDE OUT, NOT THE OUTSIDE IN.” recording the audio for his new book, Sandcastle Kings. He sounds a little exhausted (so would you, if you had to read an entire book out loud), but excited, too. Talking about Rich In Faith, it’s clear he sees the challenge of living around a camera crew for three months. “It was a learning experience,” Wilkerson says. “It was challenging at times, but, man, the good outweighed the bad. The show has nothing to do with celebrity. It’s about local church. Is there an entertainment factor to it? Yeah. It’s called TV. But I don’t know why it should be viewed as a negative thing for people. It’s a positive.” In these words, it’s apparent just how fine a line Wilkerson is trying to toe. Not

“Then there’s this one lady who’s bringing a whole truckload of strippers every week. They’re totally welcomed. I think the Gospel, in many ways, can be summed up in one word: Come. Come to Jesus. ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and heavy burdened. I will give you rest.’ We’re trying to take the pressure off of ourselves a little bit and a little bit more on Jesus.” It’s here where you start to get a sense of the real Rich Wilkerson. Not a Christian celebrity. Not a reality star. Not even an author. Just a pastor. T YLER HUCK ABEE lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a contributing editor to RELEVANT. Check out his work at tylerhuckabee.com.

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B Y J O H N TAY L O R 82

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ungover and leading worship on Easter Sunday, Seth Haines felt a sharp, nauseating pain in his stomach. Two thousand churchgoers sang along, unaware, as he, nervous about hitting high notes, struggled to keep from vomiting. He led the congregation in singing: He has cheated hell / And seated us above the fall / In desperate places / He paid our wages / One time once and for all After the service, a couple of friends caught Haines as he exited the stage. “You have a special anointing,” they told him, with their hands placed on the worship leader’s shoulders. Haines forced a smile before stumbling back to his seat. “Anointed?” he thought. “What are you talking about? I’m hungover. I was probably still drunk when I got here this morning.”

It all began with a Nalgene bottle. Two years before that Easter Sunday, Haines sat in a hospital waiting room, trying not to think about Titus, his infant son born with a hole in his heart and a rate of respiration that jogged a little faster than most. Friends, family members and strangers visited in rotation. They offered prayers for swift recovery. Haines and his wife, Amber, watched as doctors squirted blue liquid into Titus’ mouth through a syringe. The 6-monthold gurgled, squirmed and wailed as plastic tubes entered his nose and reached down into his still-developing intestines. The doctors shook their heads when they found clumps of blood the size of popcorn kernels. The Haineses discussed what songs they would play at Titus’ funeral. That was when Haines called his sister and said, “I need you to bring me gin to the hospital. Smuggle it in.” Hours later, a Nalgene bottle arrived, filled to the top with Tanqueray. Haines unscrewed the cap and poured its contents into a plastic cup filled with ice. In that moment, Haines—the believer, husband, father of four, full-time attorney, worship leader, home group host and editor of the blog “A Deeper Church”—was becoming an alcoholic. Because, as Haines would say later, “You get enough alcohol in your system and you don’t feel anymore.”

“I think everyone’s story of belief is pretty complex,” Haines says. “Mine is no exception to that rule.” About two years ago, in that hospital room, gin and tonic became “more gin than tonic” for Haines. He started with casual single shots. Then doubles. Then triples. And eventually, regardless of the pour, he consumed as many as 10 drinks daily. Before long, and almost unwittingly, he

found himself hiding his drinking from his wife, Amber. To keep her from noticing his rapidly growing addiction, Haines says he would store empty bottles in his car, then drive garbage bags of them to the dumpster behind his office. When he and Amber hung out in their living room—talking and usually listening to worship music—Haines would wait for his wife to go to the bathroom, turn up the stereo volume and run to the kitchen for another drink before Amber could get back. Despite his efforts, Haines couldn’t hide from his wife. “Do you think you’re drinking too much?” she asked one afternoon about a year into Haines’ downward spiral. “When’s the last time you went without drinking?” He couldn’t remember. “Last…” he looked away, trying to think of a day Amber would believe. “Thursday,” he lied.

A few months later, Haines was out of town attending a Christian conference and staying with some friends. As usual, on one of his nights away, he’d “had a good bit to drink.” “It was 3 a.m. and there were these college kids who came across the yard and introduced themselves,” he explains. “I started talking to them about church. Before long, I was pretty much witnessing to them. “The next morning, when I sobered up, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I doing?’” That same weekend, as he describes it, the voice of the Holy Spirit spoke to him through a concerned friend. Somehow, she’d guessed that he had a problem. He says their conversation was revealing. “I would say things like, ‘Yeah, but I’ve never been pulled over for a DWI.’ “And she would say, ‘Well, you know that doesn’t matter, right?’ “I said, ‘Well, I’ve never hit Amber.’ “And she said, ‘You know that doesn’t

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matter either, right?’” Later that day, Haines dialed Amber’s number and said, “I think I have a problem, and I don’t really know what to do.” When he arrived home, the Haineses started a long journey of drying out.

In his first therapy session, Haines tried to answer tough questions: “Were you drinking to pass out?” “Do you have the shakes?” “Have you been drinking and hiding the evidence?” “Is it starting to interfere with your job?” “What are you covering with the alcohol?” After he admitted his problem, Haines needed to discover the reasons behind it. Titus wasn’t getting any better, he explained to his therapist. He and his family prayed for Titus’ recovery for months, but those prayers seemingly went unanswered. Haines feared losing both his son and his faith, in that order. “Sickness, I fear, is the permanent plague of my son’s life,” he said to his therapist. “Of my life.” A breakthrough came while Haines and his therapist discussed the initial source of the pain that first drove him to that Nalgene bottle. Throughout his life, Haines has suffered from asthma, and it was particularly severe when he was young. As a child, he regularly spent time in the hospital for it. And it seemed after a while that his parents exhausted their options. In a kind of last-ditch effort, the elder Haineses turned to a faith healer.

“I just knew, ‘All I have to do is plod away at my desk, keep my Christian facade up, then get home at night and drink away the voice of God.’”

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Haines tells his story in his book Coming Clean

Haines remembers the experience vividly. The healer marked a cross on young Haines’ forehead, his finger dipped in olive oil bought from a nearby grocery store. “With enough faith, all things are possible,” the man said. He prayed so loudly that he was nearly shouting. It didn’t work, and Haines still struggles with asthma today. “That moment, more than any other moment in my life, has haunted me,” Haines says. “It was the moment where my faith was put to the test, when my faith as a 6 year old didn’t measure up. And if my faith as a 6 year old didn’t measure up, it’s definitely not going to as a 37 year old.” The experience drove doubts into Haines’ faith, and it continued to “undermine the good seasons” in his life. Off and on during the next three decades, he would question just about everything about God: “Is He really there?” “Does He really intervene?” “I would have those seasons of intense thoughts,” he says. “But I always seemed to come through them.” Then Titus got sick. Haines was back in a pediatric ward, this time with his son. “We were visited by a person who comes to the room and says to me, ‘I know Titus is going to be fine, because you’re a man of great faith. Through your faith, God is going to heal your son’,” he remembers. That was the last thing Haines wanted to hear.

In therapy, Haines realized that Titus was a constant reminder of the loss of his childhood faith. From his experience with the faith healer, Haines internalized the idea that his faith wasn’t good enough for God. And with Titus, Haines was seeing that his faith—and all of his church involvement—again wasn’t good enough. Slowly, he stopped trusting in God. Cognitively or not, Haines thought God abandoned him. More than fear for his son or any kind of parental stress, that’s what drove him to the bottle. “For me, it was, ‘If I drink enough, I don’t have to hear the voice of doubt in my head,’” he explains. “I just knew, ‘All I have to do is plod away at my desk, keep my Christian facade up, then get home at night and drink away the voice of God.’”

The same friend who identified Haines’ addiction suggested he journal as a part of the recovery process. On one particular night, well into his dry-but-searching phase, Haines read through the passion of Jesus—the suffering Christ endured in the hours leading to His crucifixion. A familiar story took new life. “In the Luke account, one of the last things Jesus says to His crucifiers is, ‘Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing,’” Haines recalls. That moment became the “touchstone” in Haines’ recovery. He knew what he needed to do. And so he journaled, “Father, teach me to forgive the faith healer.” This September marked a full year since Haines’ last drink. And, yes, he’s a little nervous. “I don’t like to think about what this looks like in five years,” he says, “because today, I’m dry. Tomorrow I’ll be dry. And then we’ll see what happens. ‘One day at a time’ is a real thing.” The key, he says, is to believe God, and then to lay his anxieties at the Creator’s feet: Titus. The thirst for alcohol. The desire to be a better husband, a better father to his children. As a part of his daily recovery, Haines says a simple prayer: “Lord, forgive my unbelief.” JOHN TAYLOR is a writer living in Chicago, Illinois. He is currently at work on his first novel. Follow him on Twitter @johntaylortweet.

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B Y M AT T C O N N E R

P H O T O C R E D I T: R O B B Y K L E I N

HE’S GOT A BREAKOUT HIT, MILLIONS OF FANS AND A BRAND NEW ALBUM. SO WHY ISN’T HE COMFORTABLE? Andy Mineo is uncomfortable with his faith. And he thinks that’s a good thing. Actually, “uncomfortable” is how he describes both his faith journey and his musical goals. “There are lots of transitions as I’m maturing in my life as a person and as a believer,” Mineo says. “You kind of go from a black-and-white faith to a gray faith, in the sense that you start to question things. You ask deeper questions and get into the complexity of your faith and life.” It’s a sign of maturity for the artist, who wants his latest album (aptly titled Uncomfortable) to reflect the complexity of his own faith. And he hopes those very meditations encourage listeners to appreciate the same. “A maturing faith allows you to sit in that tension and let it refine you,” he says. “That’s an uncomfortable place, but it’s a necessary place to mature.” Given Mineo’s reputation as a vulnerable lyricist, it’s no surprise he’s inviting listeners along for the journey he’s taking away from simple answers and all-too-easy maxims. “A good phrase that encompasses the title of the album is ‘Great art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,’” he says. “That’s kind of what we have been trying to do through my art, my music and my direction. “Meaningful conversations are what I’m aiming for, and they can be in any sphere,” he continues. “They can be about all the important things in life: art, sex, relationships, marriage, relationship with God, relationship with yourself, relationship with other people. Those are things I hope my album will do for the music industry, or at the least the people

in the hip-hop culture.” “Uncomfortable” also applies to Mineo’s platform, since it’s about to be shaken up. The table is set for the 27 year old to become the genre’s next star performer, following in the footsteps of his friend and Reach Records labelmate Lecrae. The pair toured together this spring on Lecrae’s Anomaly tour, giving Mineo an ideal platform upon which to build excitement for this next full-length. Mineo had already developed a passionate following and positive buzz on the strength of previous releases, like his last EP, Never Land, and the previous full-length, Heroes for Sale. The former landed at No. 2 on Billboard’s rap charts and No. 13 overall—moving nearly 26,000 units in its first week. And given his dynamic live act and YouTube viewership, Mineo’s trajectory won’t be “comfortable” for quite some time. Interestingly, even the schedule to write, record and release a new album became uncomfortable for Mineo over the last two years. Changes and responsibilities, both personal and professional, kept him from focusing on the music alone. Mineo and his wife, Cristina, planned a wedding in just four months while the artist continued to balance his demanding tour schedule. “I got engaged, married, went on two tours with Lecrae of about 30 cities each, and then was set to release my album,” Mineo says. “In that whole time trying to work on this album, I scrapped a whole bunch of songs, started over and got a new executive producer halfway through the process. So it’s just been a lot.”

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Even after the release of Uncomfortable, Mineo still isn’t certain what to make of the “hectic” period of its creation. He’s still trying to figure it all out. “Basically, all I can say about being married and this past year is that I’m just learning and growing,” he continues. “I’m learning about how to be a better husband, a better man, a better servant and servant leader and a better artist—because now I have a family. “It’s weird when your job is your hobby and you do what you love. It’s hard to pull away from it, because it can consume all your time, and you’re fine with it because you love it,” Mineo says. “So I’m finding ways to make sure that I build in breaks to not let my work or my creativity barge in on personal time and what’s important with me and my family.” There will be those who chart the success of Uncomfortable with data tables and dollar signs. And as far as they go, Mineo

NOV_DEC 2015

believes those things are important, since being an artist for a living is inevitably tied to commerce. That said, it’s those “meaningful conversations” that frame true success for the Syracuse native. “Obviously, high sales and numbers are a part of being able to help tell the story, but that’s not what we set out to only do,” he says. “We don’t want to just kill the charts, because our end goal is not only money and success and fame, but those things do help us tell the story to the watching world. “I feel like we live in a culture of triviality,” he explains. “Everything is so fastpaced and people are fighting over ‘likes’ and fake followers and just silliness. I think, because of the culture we live in, we’ve started to lose the ability—and even the attention span—to have longstanding, meaningful conversations.” Ultimately, it will be those conversations fueled by Mineo’s music that will lead to substantive change in the lives of

his listeners. At least, that’s the hope for an artist learning to craft his calling in dynamic ways. “If this album helps people have meaningful conversations, helps people wrestle through the tensions of their lives, celebrate those tensions and learn from those tensions—that’s a win for me,” he says. “I look forward to hearing the stories that people share with me from the lyrics and the conversations that spark because of it.” The goal, he says, both for himself and for his listeners, is “not avoiding discomfort for the sake of selfish pleasure, but embracing it and letting it mold you, letting God make you what you’re supposed to be through that.” Maybe it’s time we all got a little uncomfortable. MAT T CONNER is senior editor at SB Nation and writes about all aspects of pop culture for the Indy Star and other places he says don’t matter.

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NOV/DEC 2015 ISSUE 78

FEATURES HOW NOT TO TALK ABOUT POLITICS

Hint: Don’t use social media or family gettogethers to voice your views on tax reform.

OF MONSTERS AND MEN

The Icelandic folk-rock band already took over American radio. With their second album, they’re ready to show their personal side.

THE KEYS TO YOUR COMEBACK

Louie Giglio didn’t think he’d ever come back from a breakdown. Here’s how he did.

THE CHURCH’S NUMBER ONE ENEMY

METRIC

They’re more brutal than ISIS and they’ve killed tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria. So why is no one talking about Boko Haram?

The line between indie and mainstream is a fine one. But that hasn’t stopped the Canadian synth rock band from walking it with perfection. They explain how.

JR JR

The indie darlings have streamlined their name and hit their stride.

MEET KANYE’S PASTOR

Rich Wilkerson Jr. seems like a normal pastor. Then you find out he’s pals with Kanye and Kim and he’s getting his own reality show.

HE WAS LEADING WORSHIP HUNGOVER

The story of one man’s fall into alcoholism and his journey to recovery and faith.

ANDY MINEO

60 OF MONSTERS AND MEN

FIR ST WOR D

FEEDBACK

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Hollywood stars are pushing back on nudity in film, how tech can help you simplify, beautiful converted churches and more.

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78 RICH WILKERSON

THE DROP

Everything is going right for the breakout hiphop artist. So why is he uncomfortable?

MAKER

The founders of Tegu Toys tell how they almost lost everything, and innovators share what they wish they knew when they were 27.

Sheppard, LANY, JGivens, Jon Foreman and other artists you need to know. R E J E C T A PAT H Y

How the fight against hunger is working and a look at how the Church can help solve the American orphan crisis.

R E L E VA N T R E C O M M E N D S

The music, movies, books and digital media you should know about.