Christian Standard | July/August 2023

It’s Not About How Much Faith You Have

When I came to The Crossing in Quincy, Illinois, 25 years ago, I fashioned a mission statement of helping people find “an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” The thought that a real relationship with Jesus was even possible was a game changer for many in our church and community, and it shaped our impact on the world around us. If I understand that the “what” of my faith is defined in my relationship to Jesus, and if a relationship is what I want, then the next logical step is the “how.”

I think the “how” of faith begins with the conviction of personal surrender. A faithful person is one who is convicted to personally surrender their will to Jesus. We tend to quantify faith using statements like, “I wish I had more faith.” But it’s not really about having more faith so much as having more Jesus.

It’s not about how much faith you have but who your faith is in.

We all have a similar amount of faith, but we distribute it differently. Is our faith in ourselves, others around us, worldly things, or God? We grow our faith by taking that faith out of the bank of ourselves and putting it in the bank of God. So, more Jesus means more faith.

Faith not only is a conviction of personal surrender, but it also should be evidenced by changed conduct that is inspired by that surrender. My relationship with Jesus will affect my conduct. If it doesn’t, then my relationship isn’t real.

Hebrews 11 offers illustrations of how our convictions change our conduct. Faith gives us the proper understanding of creation. Abel tapped into faith to offer a proper sacrifice to God. Enoch’s conduct was so pleasing to God that he was spared from death. Noah’s conduct was to build an ark at God’s command. Abram’s conduct was to leave home because of his conviction of personal surrender. God worked through Abraham’s

faith to give him a son even though his wife was beyond the age of childbearing; then later, Abraham displayed his faith in his willingness to offer that same son as a sacrifice back to God.

By faith, followers of God blessed others, spoke and instructed, and defied ungodly authority. By faith, Moses refused the life of a prince of Egypt. By faith, God’s children applied blood to their doorframes and passed through the Red Sea. By faith, they marched around Jericho. By faith, Rahab forsook her pagan ways for a better way. These heroes serve as models for our faith today. The strength of our conviction is seen through our conduct.

If we continue through Hebrews 11, we find that the conduct of our faith is not based on a perceived outcome. Many of the “ancients” (v. 2) mentioned in these verses endured hardship and death because of how their convictions spoke through their conduct. We even learn there is a greater blessing associated with a faith that holds fast in spite of the circumstances or the outcome. The writer exclaimed, “The world was not worthy of them” (v. 38), describing those who endured such difficulty. That is much greater praise than “well done good and faithful servant.”

But to behold Jesus is to see a perfect picture of faith. And as powerful as these examples of the past are, they fall short of what we experience on this side of the cross. Only after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection was access granted into the deeper relationship that comes through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.

What could be seen only from a distance before that first Easter can now be experienced as never before.

Ultimately, faith is a response. It’s always God who initiates. We love him because he first loved us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He was always there first. Grace came first. Our faith—as imperfect, fragile, and inconsistent as it is—opens the floodgate of a grace that can carry us all the way to and through the gates of heaven. Our faith will someday become obsolete and be replaced with sight. But until then, it will be the substance of all we hope for and the evidence for all we cannot see.

The cloud of witnesses cheer us on! A racecourse has been marked out, one that requires endurance and perseverance. Heavy burdens and entanglements of sin will hinder us and potentially disqualify us, but if we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, an imperfect faith in a much greater grace will get us home. 

Jerry Harris is publisher of Christian Standard Media and teaching pastor at The Crossing, a multisite church located in three states across the Midwest.

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Stories of Faith and ‘Plain Old Discipleship’

Welcome to our “faith” issue! Our purpose is not unlike that of the Bible’s faith chapter, Hebrews 11. The articles in this issue are designed to illustrate what faith is through the examples of faithful people in our churches. Stories of faith, old and new, remind us to trust God even through pain, hardships, and loss; they can reassure or restore our faith amid challenges and doubts; encourage us toward bold, loving action; motivate us toward extreme forgiveness; and propel us to obey God even when it’s tough.

As Christ followers, we need stories like these. We need to hear them from Scripture and retell them to others. We need to sit in circles and listen to one another tell current stories of living by faith in God. I believe sharing faith stories is part of how God works in and through our Christcentered communities to transform and mature us.

Our stories of faith are part of our evangelism and spiritual formation strategies.

Fate Hagood is a pastor-teacher at Metropolitan Church of Christ in Carson, California, and brother to Rudy, our

Intentional column cowriter. Fate wrote on Facebook a while back, “There’s a call to discipleship in Scripture. Not radical discipleship. Not crazy discipleship. Not sold-out discipleship. Just plain old discipleship. The thing is, being radical, crazy, and sold out is pretty much what a disciple is anyway. . . . So, just be a disciple. A real one. The radical, crazy, and sold-out part will just happen.”

So, what’s it look like to be a “real” disciple and how can the church make and mature more of them?

This issue includes several articles about biblical ways to share our faith with others, help people grow in their faith, and reproduce disciples. We’re talking about how to fulfill Christ’s commission: “Wherever you go, make disciples of all nations: Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to do everything I have commanded you. And remember that I am always with you until the end of time” (Matthew 28:19-20, God’s Word ). I chose this Bible version because of the first three words, “Wherever you go.” (The International Standard Version translates it, “As you go” and the Disciples’

Literal New Testament interprets it as “Having gone.”) I believe these renderings are closer to the original meaning in the Greek.

Warren Wiersbe commented on these verses, “No matter where we are, we should be witnesses for Jesus Christ and seek to win others to Him.” It should not be extraordinary or unusual or radical for a real disciple to make other disciples. We do so as we go, wherever we go. It’s a lifestyle for a disciple of Jesus.

We are living in a time when people—especially many young people—are hungry for more of God, more of his presence, peace, and power. They are hungry and thirsty for a revival of faith in our schools, churches, families, cities, and country. I believe the best thing we can do is to get out of God’s way! And I think we may need to relearn how to do that. We may need to surrender our own plans and programs, our own intelligence and ideas to God. We may need to part with what we’ve been taught and the way we’ve always done it and allow God’s Spirit to be in control.

We can learn this best by watching Jesus.

Jesus, in the nature he embodied as a servant and in human likeness, never got in God’s way! He modeled the proper flow of ministry for us. He said, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (John 5:19). The principle is repeated again and again; see John 5:30; 6:38; 7:16; and 8:28; as well as 1 Corinthians 2:1-13. It’s repeated because it’s an indispensable precept for Christian leadership. We are to do nothing without hearing from God first.

When I visited Asbury University in February, during what many people have called revival, a leader from the school remarked that they were simply trying to steward well what God was doing. What if that described our ministries . . . simply stewarding well what God is doing?

That should not be radical or crazy . . . just plain old discipleship.

Free Bible Lessons: In this issue, Bobby Harrington discusses disciple-making movements. A feature of these movements is the use of “Discovery Bible Study” (DBS) a simple method of studying Scripture as a group in a way that is replicable. This method is beneficial for groups to reach more people for Christ and give those new believers opportunities, in turn, to reach their friends and neighbors. The idea is to keep the questions simple, easy to ask, and consistent from week to week, making it possible for almost anyone to gather a group of friends and use the questions.

Our “Discovery” questions, which I write, are a hybrid of DBS and are part of our weekly lesson plans, called The Lookout. These lessons also include study material by Mark Scott and an application column by Dave Faust. Using The Lookout materials in your groups has many benefits, but one of the best is that it’s free! See pages 92-93 for what we’re studying now and where to find it! 

@michaelc.mack

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Death by Faith

By Megan Rawlings

I t was frigid. The winter break had seemed to last forever. I had just arrived back at the Bible college campus in the rolling hills of Kentucky. My appetite for knowledge was growing. My classes that semester were mainly general education, but the Bible classes I took over those few months truly deepened my devotion to Jesus and his Word.

I entered one particular class and sat midway back, where I would appear neither as eager as the people in front of me nor as uninterested as those behind me.

The professor entered the room and asked, “Do you know why God accepted Abel’s gift and not Cain’s?”

Most students in the class had attended Sunday school, so they quickly offered possible explanations, everything from “he was jealous” to “Abel gave the better offering.”

“OK,” the teacher replied. “How do you know that?”

“The Bible!” we yelled (just like we had done during all our years in Sunday school).

“Show me where it says that in the Bible,” the professor challenged.

T his moment was the turning point in my life. This was the pivotal event that made me realize how much I didn’t know and motivated me to dig deeper into the Bible.

The professor seemed to take satisfaction in watching us scour Genesis 4 to defend our answers. I’ll spare you the dramatic tension and just say the answer to the professor’s question can’t be found in Genesis. The book states that Cain did, in fact, murder Abel, but it never explains why God chose to accept Abel’s gift and not Cain’s. My mind was blown.

our faith may cause others to despise us

It is not until the book of Hebrews in the New Testament that we learn the true reason God accepted Abel’s g ift and not Cain’s: “By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead” (Hebrews 11:4).

W hen Abel prepared and then brought God his offering, he did so out of faith. It’s possible the reason Abel’s sacrifice was accepted as better than Cain’s was that Abel gave the best of his animals, while Cain gave merely what he had on hand. We know Abel acted in

faith when he brought his offering to God, while Cain clearly lacked faith, as evidenced by the fact that God did not accept his offering.

Cain’s insatiable appetite for blood directly resulted from the bitterness he felt after God disapproved of his gift. God warned him that sin was crouching at his door, but Cain threw all caution to the wind.

Perhaps it was jealousy that drove Cain to murder Abel, for Abel was commended by God as righteous because of his faith. This should serve as a lesson that some people will dislike or even despise you despite your best efforts, just as Cain despised Abel and the world despised Jesus.

Faith Without Deeds Is Dead

James 2:26 is a familiar Bible passage for many: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” It was not enough for Abel to have had faith; he also needed to put it into action. A moral conviction in the truthfulness of God and acting on it are essential components of having faith. Simply believing in something with all your heart is not enough. We must die to ourselves and choose Jesus every day.

Jesus issued his Great Commission shortly before ascending into heaven. Even in this, his last command, Jesus challenged Christians to put their faith into action . . . to make it a living faith. The command Jesus gave his disciples he has also given to us. We are to go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything he has commanded.

I encourage you to have the faith that longs to be obedient in Christ. Don’t be jealous of others’ faithful actions, as Cain was; instead, put your own faith into action. 

“

The command Jesus gave his disciples he has also given to us. We are to go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything he has commanded.

president of planned giving with The Solomon Foundation. She is the founder and CEO of The Bold Movement. She is an extrovert, pastor’s wife, and lover of the Scriptures. @theboldmovement @tbm_ministry

/tbmministry theboldmovement.com

@tbm_ministry

about the author

e 2:effective elders

Simple Faithfulness

By Jeff Faull

What makes a good leader? Shouldn’t we who are followers of Jesus and leaders for Jesus want to know? A simple internet search brings up thousands of articles on leadership. Titles like “Five Qualities of a Good Leader,” “The Top Ten Characteristics of a Good Leader,” “Twenty Requirements for an Effective Leader,” and a myriad of similar options appear. Many of those articles lay out the essential components of great leadership. The suggestions are endless. Characteristics like vision, strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, creativity, communication skills, decisiveness, empathy, charisma, and others top the lists. All these are good and often necessary for effective leadership. But the quality of faithfulness is often conspicuously absent.

Indispensable for Leadership

From a biblical perspective, faithfulness is indispensable for great spiritual leaders.

Faithfulness is included as fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5). It is inherent to Christian maturity. It is displayed in living out the beatitudes. It is required of a steward. It is displayed in the heroes of the faith (Hebrews 11). It is a characteristic of God himself. It is one of the important matters Jesus accused the Pharisees of neglecting.

Faithfulness is a way of life for the people of God (Psalm 119:30). It is to be written on our hearts (Proverbs 3:3). Faithfulness leads to a crown of life.

Faithfulness—or the faithfulness factor—without question, could fill a “top ten list” of its own. That is why faithfulness is unmistakably embedded in the profile of a qualified church leader. You know the familiar description:

Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap (1 Timothy 3:2-7).

Which of these descriptors is possible without faithfulness? Faithfulness is the foundation for lasting, effective leading, shepherding, and example.

The Need of Our Times

Faithfulness in leadership is the need of the hour in our current culture and in our fellowship of churches. The siren cry of progressivism, the parade of leadership scandals, and the increased scrutiny from every side reveal the great need for simple faithfulness. Unfortunately, faithfulness sometimes seems like a rare commodity. Solomon, a leader who struggled with his own lack of faithfulness, knew this well. He asked, “Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6).

The drift from faithfulness is not unique to celebrity leaders with large platforms and massive influence. No, the slide into unfaithfulness usually is somewhat gradual and cumulative for leaders at every level. It can be spurred on by our subconscious desire for approval, relevance, and our pursuit of pragmatism, even when our initial motivations are healthy.

The late Antonin Scalia, a brilliant jurist and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, said, God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools . . . and he has not been disappointed. . . . If I have brought any message today it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity. Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world (from his 2012 speech at the Living the Catholic Faith Conference).

Faithfulness may not garner the approval of the elite, accolades from marquee leaders, or the admiration of the masses, but faithfulness is what God requires and rewards.

a beautiful reflection of god

Several years ago, I read a devotional article highlighting the stories of some of the Apostle Paul’s dearest friends and most valuable kingdom coworkers. They were people Paul gratefully mentioned by name in his letters. Onesiphorus, the man who showed up when everyone else deserted. Timothy, the only one with a kindred spirit who was genuinely concerned about the welfare of others. Epaphroditus, the one who persevered through illness and was worthy of high honor. Stephanas, who along with his family was devoted to the church and its ministry from the early days in

Greece. Aquila and Priscilla, who “risked their necks” for Paul. The common denominator with all these people was faithfulness. Paul knew he could count on them because of the integrity of their character and the consistency of their track record.

In our relationships, our families, our theology, our practice, and our interactions with the world and with the people of God, simple faithfulness is one of the most beautiful reflections of our faithful God.

“My eyes will be on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; the one whose walk is blameless will minister to me” (Psalm 101:6). 

about the author

Jeff Faull serves as senior minister at Mt. Gilead Church in Mooresville, Indiana, and as a board member for e2.

Spiritual formation has become a buzz phrase. It sounds sophisticated, all the influencers use it, and it’s a way to signal my friends that I am one of those neo-monastic types who reads poetry and welcomes strangers into my home. But what does it actually mean, and why does it matter? I believe this is an important discussion in our cultural environment. A spiritual formation mindset can help us reframe the discipleship conversations we are having in our churches to meet our moment. When I’m asked to talk about spiritual formation, I boil it down to three guiding principles.

Spiritual Formation 101: Three Guidelines for Meeting Our Moment

By Tyler McKenzie

Christians Are Not the Only Ones in This Business

Spiritual formation is happening to us every day, and most of it is not Christian. Understanding this is critical. I would like to offer two definitions here. One definition is for spiritual formation generally, and the other is for the unique approach to it Christians take.

Spiritual formation (generally) is anything that shapes our hearts or habits.

Many entities are trying to shape habits and hearts. TikTok, the GOP and DNC, and Netflix, among many others, are incredible at spiritual formation. Why? Because these entities are experts at influencing us.

Christian spiritual formation is when we become more like Jesus.

The formation we are after is when our hearts are shaped more like Jesus or our habits are shaped in ways that connect us more to Jesus!

Attention Multiplies Formation

Building on the above definitions, we need to teach our people how to give their attention to the voice of God and protect their attention from the voices of this world. The voices you listen to most often and most intently are the ones that will disciple you over time. From the people who raise you, to the friends with whom you surround yourself, to the places you live, to the apps you give your attention to, to the news outlets you prefer, to the shows or sports with which you entertain yourself, to the celebrities you admire, to the organizations that employ you, to the brands you patronize, to the art you consume, to the politicians you follow . . . these voices all speak into your life. Every voice seeks to define your moral universe, shape your cultural imagination, and distort your religious convictions.

This is why it is vital to be wary of what we give our attention to. One of the most troubling examples of this is our addictions to screens and the media platforms that

fill them. In 2017, Axios interviewed Sean Parker. He was the first president of Facebook, but he now calls himself a “conscientious objector” to social media. In the interview, he said,

God only knows what [social media] is doing to our children’s brains. The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them . . . was all about: “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you . . . more likes and comments. It’s a social-validation feedback loop . . . exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. The inventors, creators—it’s me, it’s Mark [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people—understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.

When you use social media, you are the product, not the customer. They are monitoring you, learning you, discovering what captures you, and then selling your attention to big brands, businesses, influencers, and politicians. That’s the business model. Billions of dollars are invested and sophisticated algorithms are designed to distract you, addict you, and then manipulate your behavior. Why? Because the most powerful people on earth know that attention multiples formation.

At the church where I minister, we ask our members to practice our corporate “Rule of Life.” A rule of life is a set of rhythms and restrictions that a follower of Jesus habituates to connect with God and resist popular culture. We ask our members (it’s literally in our membership covenant) to commit to one rhythm and one restriction, and we ask parents to build these into the lives of their kids:

• R hythm: Prayerfully reading God’s Word daily

how to look at any cultural artifact—a TV commercial, movie plot, politician’s rhetoric, news commentary, new technology, architectural design, sports league, Fortune 500 mission statement, congressional legislation—anything!—and then evaluate it with the following questions:

1. W hat is this trying to teach me?

2. How is this going to form me (that is, how will this shape my habits and heart)?

3. Does the teaching and formation from questions 1 and 2 align with Scripture?

As we moved through the class material, I found myself thinking, I’m not sure why they wait until a master’s level seminary class to teach this to pastors! Basically, instead of allowing popular culture to impose its will, beliefs, and moral vision on us, we were taught to critically evaluate culture through Scripture. Church leaders are not the only ones who need such an important skill.

We live in a time when adults are being socialized and kids are being initiated into life by competing false gospels through sophisticated technology almost every moment of the day. We must raise up cultural exegetes and start them young! We might call this discernment. We must learn how to identify and challenge the stories our popular culture is preaching.

“Spiritual formation is happening to us every day, and most of it is not Christian. Understanding this is critical.

• Restriction: Regulating the quality and quantity of screen intake

Keep the Gospel of King Jesus Central

One of the most helpful classes I took in seminary was on “cultural exegesis.” The goal was to teach pastors

about the author

We need to ask such questions as these:

• W hat does this say will make me happy? And will it really? And for how long?

• W hat does this say is right or wrong? And does Scripture agree?

• W hat does this teach my teen about identity, purpose, meaning, destiny, sexuality, money, etc.?

• W ho created this? What are they about? Why did they do it? Should they have this much influence over me?

• How much of my time is this taking?

• W ho is this platforming as a role model or villain?

• Is this perspective good for my neighbors?

• Is this cultivating rage and hate toward others?

• Is it focusing my attention on things largely out of my control?

• Is it anxiety-inducing or fear-inducing?

• W hat sort of emotional and relational toll will this have on my family?

• Does this make me a better spouse, parent, friend, or classmate?

• Does this make me more like Jesus?

A warning: The goal is not to become judgmental critics or fearful isolationists. That isn’t Jesus-like; and besides, it will turn our kids off. I personally do not advocate severely sheltering yourself or your children. The aim here is to learn and teach sober, critical, biblical thought. As Christians and as parents we must not be afraid to point out the bad and the good, the sinful and the beautiful things we find in non-Christian mediums. 

Tyler McKenzie serves as lead pastor at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

The aim here is to learn and teach sober, critical, biblical thought.

horizons

If Then Move Promotes Healing and Growth in Women

By Laura McKillip Wood

Wendy Fitzgerald has a passion for serving God and for helping others see how God works in their lives.

As a young woman involved in her church, she looked at the women around her and saw many who wanted to serve God with their talents but did not know how to start. Many of the women felt limited in their churches and did not know how to use their gifts in that setting. Some felt overwhelmed with childcare and family, while others felt isolated because they did not have husbands and families. Wendy began to pray about how she could participate in God’s work in other women’s lives.

The Beginning

Wendy is a writer, teacher, and a skilled speaker who uses humor and drama to communicate God’s truth. She loves the word story because it connects hearts and emotions. Stories can convey deep truth in a digestible and relatable manner.

She believed these gifts could work well to create a ministry that would reach into the hearts of women. In 2011, Wendy launched If Then Move, a ministry that uses storytelling and creativity to teach sound biblical principles. In 2016, Rebee Leeman lent her business acumen to the ministry to help organize and structure Wendy’s creative ideas.

According to their website (www.ifthenmove.com), the purpose of If Then Move is “to encourage women to respond to what God wants to do in them and through them.” Put more simply, they say, “We want to put pebbles in shoes. We want you to limp a little and wrestle with what we’ve said.”

If Then Move focuses on training and encouraging leaders in women’s ministry so those leaders can, in turn, train and encourage the people around them. To that end, If Then Move creates ready-made products that women’s ministry teams can use to help them plan kingdom-focused women’s conferences and Bible studies. They provide the materials and training and help continue the work even after the main events end.

Rebee and Wendy co-teach all the conferences.

The ministry has six turnkey women’s conferences to choose from, each with a fully developed theme, print and promotional material, roundtable discussion questions for small groups, and unique message activities. “Faith looks like taking the next step,” they explain. Their goal is to help women in ministry lead other women to take that step.

“ In this setting of acceptance and grace, women find the strength to face and process hard things in life.

In addition to sound biblical teaching, If Then Move’s conferences include a variety of activities and crafts that women can do together. They partner with Papillon Marketplace in Haiti, which provides quality materials, so conference participants can make items by hand. Papillon Marketplace makes the kits that are used for the activities. If Then Move also sells their jewelry and metal art to help the artisans of Papillon Marketplace. The activities they create relate directly to the message of the conferences and help women remember their experiences together and what God is doing in their lives.

The Bridge

The Bridge, which began in 2019, is a unique facet of If Then Move. It is a group of 10 to 15 women who meet regularly for one year to encourage one another and grow in their relationships with God. Each year, a new group of women is chosen for The Bridge. They meet virtually once a month and create a safe space for women to share the messy parts of their lives.

Many women have experienced difficult situations in their churches, and they do not always feel comfortable sharing their emotions in the broader church setting. Still, Wendy and Rebee acknowledge that people need to share their pain together in order to heal from it.

In this setting of acceptance and grace, women find the strength to face and process hard things in life. Then they can confidently and effectively serve God in their churches and other settings. Many of these women can discern what God is doing in their lives while they heal together. Many of the women have started ministries or become more effective in the ones they already serve.

A God-Sized Dream

If Then Move also is dreaming of creating a place where women can get mental health and pastoral care. They are hoping to start a center that eventually will employ counselors, chaplains, and mental health care practitioners who can help women who need more care in a safe environment. If this dream is realized, the comprehensive healing center will offer seminars, art therapy, music therapy, and other types of therapy in conjunction with spiritual healing.

Success Stories

The women involved in the ministry of If Then Move report deepening relationships with God and other women. Jenni says that through participating in The Bridge she learned to love people more deeply, as Jesus does, even when some of their faith beliefs differ.

“Discipling women has been a passion of mine . . . and being a part of The Bridge helped equip me more,” Jenni says. “I gained understanding, courage, and wisdom from the other women. The support and love I felt and still feel from these women is like no other I have [experienced] in a small group before. The true authentic love was just what my heart needed in that time.”

Audra also had a positive experience in The Bridge.

“I was going through a season of healing from church hurt and found myself seeking support and encouragement from other women in ministry, but struggling to find it,” Audra says. “I felt these women understood me without having to say much at all.”

If Then Move is helping Christian women grow and find their place in the kingdom of God. 

about the author

@woodlaura30

lauramckillipwood@gmail.com

Laura McKillip Wood, former missionary to Ukraine, now serves as bereavement coordinator and palliative care chaplain at Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. She and her husband, Andrew, have three teenagers.

No Perfect Parents . . . Just Real Ones

By Rudy Hagood

We all know that parenting our kids is hard. Yet, I think we forget that when we were kids, we were just as hard on our parents!

I want to speak with you parent-to-parent. Osharye and I are not perfect parents, and our kids are not perfect, and as much as it pains me to say it in print, our grandkids—even though they are perfect to us—are not perfect either. (Ouch, that last admission hurt!) So, let us find comfort in our perfect heavenly Father, who heals and covers our many imperfections! Paul wrote, “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (Ephesians 3:14-16). God, and God alone, is the perfect parent.

No one could have prepared me for the lifelong grind that is parenting. No matter how old our kids are or how successful they are, they continue to need us. As parents, our heart and hope never end for them to own their faith and to grow into perpetually maturing contributors to both the kingdom and society. I’m exhausted just thinking about the parenting marathon.

So, if there is an area that stretches, challenges, and pushes us to the point of waving a white flag regarding our faith, it’s got to be parenting. I think it’s because we care for our children so much and because we feel their pain and struggles as much as they do. But, as with a basketball coach, we can only call the play. We don’t get to actually shoot or pass the ball. It can be a hopeless feeling. We ride every victory with roaring cheers and sink low with every struggle, disappointment, and loss. Sometimes we suffer for them and they are not even aware of it, because they lack the perspective of our generation.

And through all of this, we must figure out how to manage and coordinate our parenting with our spouse, who may have a completely different paradigm and perspective. In other cases, we may have to go it alone as a parent. So, I want to offer encouragement to all parents, both those parenting as a couple and those parenting alone.

Parents, Do Your Best and Trust God with the Rest

Parenting can be a faith struggle. You pray to God for your kids to make great decisions, and then they don’t. You pray they make positive, godly choices, and they don’t. You pray God will rescue them from a certain situation and consequence, but God allows them to experience it anyway. Faith is not the ability to change God’s will. Faith is the ability to trust God’s will.

Solomon wrote, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6). As the father of 7 children and 10 grandchildren, I have witnessed God doing just that several times. So, I have learned to hold on to my faith by doing my best and trusting God with the rest. I have never been perfect, but God has always been perfect. We love our kids, and yes, we love our grandkids, but God has always loved them more.

Singles, Give Your Children the Gift of Great Rhythms of Life

If you are a parent who is going it alone or if you are coparenting, you are my hero and deserve more support and accolades than the church gives you. You are doing vital work according to God’s calling to help raise up his children. I encourage you not to worry about giving your children everything in life. Instead, focus on giving them a great rhythm in life.

Note: Married couples can’t give their kids everything either. During my years as a father, pastor, and social worker who helps all kinds of families, God has taught me the best thing we can give our kids is spiritual and emotional stability.

This has inherent challenges for single parents, who often think they need to do everything and be everything. But that’s impossible. No one can do it . . . so don’t. (I know that’s an oversimplification, but it needed to be said.) Instead, focus on providing God’s children with consistency at home. And by home, I don’t mean a particular place as much as an environment and rhythm of life.

My mom was a single mom, and we moved around a lot after my parents separated. She was my consistency. She was my rhythm of life. And, if possible, embrace the church as a part of that rhythm. Let the people of God participate in that rhythm in ways that are safe and supportive of your family’s life rhythms.

Couples, Give Your Children the Gift of a Great Marriage

As I’ve already said, the best thing we can give our kids is spiritual and emotional stability. An unstable and unhealthy marriage undermines all efforts at emotional and spiritual stability within the home. So, let’s give our kids the gift of a great marriage (which we

described at length in our July/August 2022 column, “Very Married: The Gift to the Divine Gift”).

The key building block to a great marriage is a godly commitment to your spouse. A beautiful, God-fearing, healthy marriage will serve as a model for your children when they are blessed with their own divine gifts (their children). All-in together, my friends, let’s be very married.

And in all of this remember, there are no perfect parents, just real ones. 

about the authors

Rudy and Osharye Hagood have seven children and nine grandchildren so far. Osharye is a women’s minister who is also certified as both a life coach and a health coach. Rudy is a college professor with a background in social work. They love being married and love to bless both married and engaged couples.

@rudy.hagood

@rudy_hagood_

“ Faith is not the ability to change God’s will. Faith is the ability to trust God’s will.

preach

A Calling Wrapped Failure

By Chris Philbeck

I recently read an article by Lewis Allen called “10 Things You Should Know About Preaching,” published at Crossway.org. One point in the article stood out to me: “Preaching is a calling wrapped up in failure.”

That may seem a little shocking to someone who isn’t a preacher, but let me share a couple things to think about. First, here’s the reality: We are imperfect beings trying to speak for a perfect God. On our best day, we’re going to fall short.

I have sometimes said, “There are things in the Bible I believe and experience, and there are things in the Bible I believe.” Any honest preacher will tell you they feel the tension of being an imperfect spokesman for a perfect God.

Second, no matter how much we accomplish, we know the need will still be great. So, there’s truth to the statement, “Preaching is a calling wrapped up in failure,” because it’s an overwhelming calling and responsibility.

Who Has What It Takes to Preach?

A biblical example for this is the apostle Paul. He wrote, But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God (2 Corinthians 2:1417).

While this isn’t solely a commentary on preaching, one can’t help but notice Paul’s transparency at the end of verse 16: “And who is equal to such a task?” The word Paul uses for equal means “competent” or “capable.” Here’s how his question is rendered in the Contemporary English Version: “No one really has what it takes to do this work.” How about the Easy-to-Read Version? “So who is good enough to do this work?”

In the article referenced earlier, Allen writes that Paul’s question at the end of 2 Corinthians 2:16 is not “an invitation to despair but a jolting call to gritty realism.” He goes on to say, “Your preaching will fail at times . . . and

so will you. And yet, in the midst of all your triumphs and your tragedies, the Lord is at work for the good of hearers and preachers alike.”

Here’s the bottom line: The privilege of preaching, coupled with the responsibility of preaching, can sometimes feel overwhelming to the point of making us feel like failures.

How Can We Overcome Our Self-Doubt?

So, what’s the answer? How do we overcome that sense of failure that can creep into our preaching? A Scripture passage that has been especially meaningful to me when I have struggled with the feeling of failure is Lamentations 3:22-23: “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

The book of Lamentations was written to express grief over the failure of the people of Judah to repent and turn to God, resulting in the nation being overthrown and plundered by the Babylonians. Yet in this book we find this incredible promise about how the faithfulness of God speaks to the reality of failure— even if it’s just perceived failure.

I am particularly drawn to the truth that God’s compassions never fail. That word translated fail is the Hebrew word kala which means “concluded” or “finished.” It’s a word that carries the idea of finality. But in Lamentations 3:22, we find never in front of that word. That means God’s compassions toward me (and you) will truly never come to an end. That’s comforting when I consider the challenging and unfinished task of preaching.

Like most preachers, I plan my preaching calendar a year in advance, and my sermon preparation looks the same pretty much every week.

Monday is not a great day for me because I always deal with a little post-adrenalin letdown from the weekend that includes a Saturday-night service and two Sundaymorning services. So, I start preparing my sermon in earnest on Tuesday morning. I’ve never been a “grinder,” so I live with that message Tuesday, Wednesday, and the first part of Thursday. And each week I preach, regardless of how I felt about the previous message, regardless of whether there was much of a response, I feel God’s compassion.

When I’m having a bad day, I feel God’s compassion. When I’m struggling to put words on paper, I feel God’s

compassion. And when those feelings of failure creep in, I feel God’s compassion.

Psalm 103:13-14 says, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” God’s compassion is the answer when we experience feelings of failure.

Frederick Buechner said, “Compassion is the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin.” That’s what God did when he came into the world in the person of Jesus. Because of that, he not only knows who we are, he knows what we need. And his compassions never fail. 

about the author

/PastorCPhilbeck

@cphilbeck

@pastorphilbeck

“

no matter how much we accomplish, we know the need will still be great.

Chris Philbeck serves as senior pastor of Mount Pleasant Christian Church in Greenwood, Indiana. He has been in ministry since 1980 and has had the privilege of planting a new church, leading a turnaround church, and now leading a megachurch.

metrics

Faith Factors

By Kent E. Fillinger

The number of unaffiliated, nondenominational Christian churches in the United States grew by almost 5,000 congregations and nearly 9 million people from 2010 to 2020, thus making it America’s largest Protestant “denomination,” according to the U.S. Religion Census. In 2010, unaffiliated, nondenominational Christian churches had an estimated 12,241,329 adherents in 35,496 congregations, which represented 4 percent of the overall population. By 2020, the number of people worshipping in those churches grew to 21,095,641, and their share of America’s religious population increased to 13.1 percent, representing 6.4 percent of the nation’s population.

How Many Churches Do We Have?

According to this same 2020 data, our Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ totaled 4,787 congregations (about 12 percent of all nondenominational Christian churches) with 1,379,041 adherents (about 7 percent of all nondenominational Christian church attendees).

By comparison, the Disciples of Christ denomination included 3,135 congregations with 398,072 adherents and the noninstrumental Churches of Christ had 11,881 congregations with 1,422,331 adherents.

Our most recent Christian Standard annual survey included 370 churches, or almost 8 percent of our total number of churches. Those 370 churches reported average weekly attendance of 363,308, or over one-fourth (26.3 percent) of the total number of adherents attributed to our movement.

In a July 29, 2022, Wall Street Journal article, Baylor University professors Byron Johnson and Jeff Levin claimed the U.S. Religion Census undercounted the total number of congregations by between 26 percent and 40 percent. They said the total number of congregations in the U.S. was closer to 500,000 rather than the 344,894 reported in the census. If we assume Johnson and Levin are correct in their estimates, but also maintain that the proportion of churches also is correct, then the total number of Independent Christian Church and Church of Christ congregations would fall somewhere between 6,000 and 6,700.

The Importance of Religion

A Wall Street Journal-NORC report published in March 2023 found that 39 percent of Americans described religion as “very important” to them, down from 48

“

Fifty-five percent of adults 65 and older said religion was very important to them, compared with only 31 percent of 18- to 29-year-old respondents.

percent in 2019. That represented an accelerated drop in a long decline from 62 percent in 1998. Fifty-five percent of adults 65 and older said religion was very important to them, compared with only 31 percent of 18- to 29-year-old respondents.

The same study showed similar declines from respondents in how they valued patriotism, having children, tolerance for others, and community involvement. The only priority that has grown in importance in the last 25 years is money, which was cited as very important by 43 percent in the recent survey, up from 31 percent in 1998.

The Number of ‘Nones’ Stabilizes

On a positive note, the percentage of the population who are religious “nones”—that is, those who say they are unaffiliated with any organized religion—has remained steady at about 20 percent for six years (2017 to 2022), according to annual Gallup surveys. In the 1950s, when Gallup began asking the religious identity question, very few Americans were listed as “nones.” By the 1980s that percentage had risen to just under 10 percent, then it held steady for the next couple of decades, before steadily rising until 2017.

The self-reported importance of religion and selfreported church attendance data are two of the best measures of religiosity, according to Gallup. As noted above, the relative importance of religion has decreased over time and, likewise, so has church attendance.

Church Attendance Pre- and Post-Pandemic

From July 2020 to November 2022, Pew Research Center conducted five surveys to identify in-person and online church attendance patterns to determine the pandemic’s impact. Findings reported in a March 2023 Pew Research Center study showed the pandemic had a minimal impact on church attendance overall and an even smaller effect among White evangelical Protestant churchgoers.

Religious attendance rates reported by Americans have declined slightly compared with pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, one-third of all U.S. adults said they attended religious services at least monthly. That percentage dropped to 30 percent in 2022. Among White evangelical Protestants, 63 percent attended church monthly or more in 2019 compared with 58 percent in 2022.

Among all U.S. adults, 40 percent reported in November 2022 that they participated in religious services in some way (in-person, online, or both) in the last month. Sixteen percent of that number included those who attended in-person only. An additional 12 percent said they

attended in-person and watched online, and the remaining 12 percent said they only watched online.

By comparison, 72 percent of White evangelical Protestants said they participated in religious services in the last month. An equal number said they only attended in-person or attended in-person and online (26 percent each). The final 19 percent said they watched online only.

According to the U.S. Religion Census, one in five U.S. adults (20 percent) said they attended religious services in person less often than before the pandemic, while 7 percent said they attended more often now than before the pandemic. Almost one-third of adults (31 percent) said their church attendance habits today were about the same as before the pandemic.

By comparison, more than half of White evangelical Protestants (52 percent) said they attend religious services as often now as before the pandemic. Almost one in ten (9 percent) said they attend church more often now, and just over one-fourth (26 percent) said they attend services less often than before the pandemic.

Among those who completed all of the Pew Research surveys, 87 percent of U.S. adults and 83 percent of White evangelical Protestants said they attend religious services at the same rate in 2022 as they did in 2019. By contrast, 6 percent of White evangelical Protestants said they attend church more now than they did before the pandemic, and 10 percent said they attend church less today than in 2019. 

/3strandsconsulting

3strandsconsulting.com

about the author

Kent E. Fillinger serves as president of 3:STRANDS Consulting, Indianapolis, Indiana, and regional vice president (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan) with Christian Financial Resources.

GOD LED US TO REACH THOUSANDS MORE FOR CHRIST THROUGH A CAPITAL CAMPAIGN FOR A NEW BUILDING. THIS IS OUR STORY OF WALKING WITH GOD THROUGH WHIRLWINDS OF UNCERTAINTY.

BY TIM MOORE

aith is scary. At least to me. I know, that sounds odd coming from a pastor. The moment I told one of my elders how scared I was we might bankrupt our church, his response was, “C’mon man, time to practice what you preach!” That’s when I realized our Christian culture has a twisted understanding of the reality of faith.

To me, faith is more than another term for a belief system. Faith is a bold trust that enables you to step into an unknown future, not knowing if you will succeed or fail. Faith is being mostly sure you heard the voice of God calling you to sell your house and move across the country. Or in my case, faith is believing God is leading you to build a church facility even if you aren’t sure you will have the financial means to pay for it.

That’s exactly what I felt God leading me toward in 2016. We’d outgrown our current facility while hosting multiple weekend experiences. So, in May, we took a chance on something. We invited our church to support a vision to reach thousands more for Christ through a capital campaign. A step of faith. A step in which we didn’t know how all the other details would fall into place. We just moved with purpose toward what God put in our hearts even though we had no clue how it would go.

That year, it felt like God was lining everything up for us. We felt the wind of his approval at our backs. We needed several things to happen to move forward with construction, and all of them fell into place that year. God was surely all over this!

Hundreds of families took a step of faith to give sacrificially to this vision. (We cleared the first hurdle.) Two months later, The Solomon Foundation approved our funding. (Another answer to prayer.) In November, we sold our current building to a family who attended our church. They let us stay and pay rent until our new building was constructed. (Only God!) That December, the city gave us a site permit that allowed us to move dirt to prepare the site for construction. It felt like the wind was carrying us along.

INTO THE HEADWINDS

Everything was falling into place . . . until January 2017. Just two weeks after we started moving dirt at our new site, the city staff called and forced us to cease all work there. They said we had a FEMA problem. Let me tell you, that’s something you never want to hear.

We went through a civil engineering nightmare for the next 18 months. We spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to find a solution to get the city to approve our project. For whatever reason, it felt like they did not want us to build. We almost had to enlist lawyers to settle the matter. It seemed like the tailwind had become a gale-force headwind.

During that time, we had major internal church drama. Here’s the short version. In a span of several months, I had to let some staff members go for alignment issues. That’s a nice way of saying I faced spiritual mutiny. A few more staff quit because of those decisions.

While this was going on, an anonymous email sent to over 100 of our leaders alleged a staff pastor had engaged in inappropriate behavior. After a prompt investigation, our elder board determined we needed to let that pastor go. All of this turmoil led to hundreds of people leaving our church that year.

This took a toll on my soul. My nervous system was on overload. I had panic attacks for the first time in my life. I dealt with emotions that seemed bent on drowning me. It took a year and a half of counseling to get my head above water. Although this was the hardest season I’ve ever had in ministry, I now see God was using it to shape me and make our church healthier.

MY NERVOUS SYSTEM WAS ON OVERLOAD. I HAD PANIC ATTACKS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE.

SHIFTING WINDS

In the summer of 2018, the winds suddenly began to shift directions. The city finally allowed us to move forward with the construction project. Internally, things began to level out and our church was ready to advance. Honestly, it felt like God supernaturally parted the waters so we could finally cross over.

I contacted our general contractor and told him we had the green light to build. And he informed me he would have to rebid the entire project. During that 18-month delay, the entire construction industry changed. The price of labor and materials skyrocketed.

Without changing a thing in our plans, the price of our project increased by $2.5 million. Gulp! We didn’t have that. You see, it was a massive step of faith before the price went up. Not only did we lose a lot of families and their financial support, but the higher price pushed our project out of reach. A step of faith is one thing, but how can you step across the Grand Canyon?

I called Doug Crozier, president of The Solomon Foundation, to give him the bad news. At the very least, I thought, I could tell our church the funding fell through to deflect some of the heat.

Doug said, “If you don’t build now, you never will. We are behind you and will lend you the additional money.”

Oh no. That didn’t work, I thought. How in the world can we afford an even bigger mortgage? I’m still on the hook.

Then I called our elder board and told them the new price tag and what Doug Crozier had said. All of them agreed we needed to move forward.

It’s amazing how everyone else has so much faith to do something when it isn’t their career or financial security on the line. It feels different when you bear the most responsibility as the founding and lead pastor.

With a lot of prayer, fasting, and the full support of our elders, we made the really scary decision to move forward with the project in August 2018. We held a ground-breaking ceremony a couple months later. We were finally ready to start digging.

But then along came one of the wettest years on record.

More delays.

More costs.

We finally dug the footers the following spring. And despite all the delays, we could feel the momentum coming back to our church. As the steel went up, so did our excitement for the future. Finally, our vision was moving forward. Nothing could stop us from growing God’s kingdom.

And then . . . COVID-19 happened.

God, this isn’t funny, I thought.

And yet, I imagine God had a huge grin on his face.

IT’S BEEN A SCARY RIDE, BUT SOMEHOW GOD HAS PROVIDED FOR US.

A SCARY RIDE

God specializes in doing what seems impossible. Remember the miracles at the Red Sea and, 40 years later, when the Israelites entered the Promised Land? Also, do you recall Gideon’s 300-person army defeating 120,000 Midianites? God perhaps gets the most glory when we are most dependent upon him. What if we took seriously the call of Scripture to “walk by faith and not by sight?”

When I was 10 months old, I was fearless. With wobbly knees and weak ankles, I took my first steps. And I fell down a lot. But I kept doing it, and eventually, I learned to walk, run, and leap.

Somewhere along the way, many of us have lost our adventurous childlike spirit. We are afraid of falling. Even more, we are afraid of the embarrassment of failing. Once we’ve built a safe life, we tend to lose the courage to risk it for something greater.

We all want our lives to matter. I believe God wants the same thing. He wants to use you and me to change the world—or at least our world. Thankfully, as we peruse Scripture, we quickly discover that God didn’t use the most educated, intelligent, or best-looking. No, God used those who had the faith to respond to his call and step into a scary, unknown future.

As for us, we moved into our new building in October 2020. We couldn’t advertise opening our new facility due to the spike in COVID numbers. It’s been a scary ride, but somehow God has provided for us. Here we are almost three years later, and we are still watching miracles happen.

Don’t get me wrong. We still have months where we are in the red. We are learning to trust God for daily provision. At the same time, we are seeing hundreds of people come to Christ. We baptize people nearly every weekend. God is doing something incredible in our community.

He is writing a story greater than any of us could imagine. But none of this happens without being willing to walk in true faith. To walk by faith is to live in uncertainty. If we choose to live in safety, we will end up with a story that’s not worth telling. Because a story that’s worth telling is a story that’s worth living. 

Tim Moore serves as lead pastor at X Church in Canal Winchester, Ohio, and he is the author of Scary Faith: Overcome Fear and Step into the Life You Never Imagined.

www.ScaryFaithBook.com

@PastorTimMoore

@PastorTimMoore

How the Lord Has Shaped and Refined Me Through My Wife’s Tragic Death

By Davey Blackburn

On November 10, 2015, the unspeakable happened. I came home from the gym to find my wife of seven years, Amanda—who was also pregnant with our second child—had been shot three times during a robbery in our home. One bullet was lodged in her arm, one grazed her back, and one went through the back of her head. Amanda was alive but unconscious when I found her. She passed away 24 hours later.

Since then, I’ve been revisiting so many of our shared memories.

One of those memories is of Valentine’s Day when we were engaged. As a gift, I purchased a sword from the movie Braveheart for Amanda. I know, most guys do chocolates and flowers, but I’m not most guys, and Amanda wasn’t most girls. She was special, and for each special occasion I felt the urge to do something special for her . . . something that would top the last.

At that time, Amanda was going to school in Pensacola, Florida, and I was in South Carolina. I found a website where you could order a commemorative edition, fullsize Braveheart sword, so I had it shipped to her college dorm. As she removed it from its awkward, oblong box, I imagine all her girlfriends who had gathered around to watch raised their eyebrows in dismay.

I could picture them remarking sarcastically, “A sword? . . . How romantic.”

But along with the sword I included a short piece of prose I penned. I called it “The Fight,” which I wrote on a papyrus scroll:

Valentine’s Day has always been a holiday of cute hearts and cut-out shapes of love. Fleeting notes and candy seem to idealize the Valentine experience. We feast on the luscious array of chocolates and flirtatious phrases until we’ve gorged ourselves so obese with infatuation that we miss the truth behind love. And the truth is that we fight. We fight the crowds to be noticed, to be sought after, to be something more than just a number on this populated planet. We fight for significance . . . because it’s in this significance that we can lie awake at night and dream.

It’s in this significance that we can endure the present hardships because the hope of tomorrow is deep within our clutches. It’s in this significance that we can stand alone on a promise even though we look out at a sea of seated, apathetic souls. It’s in this significance that we find our battle, a war that wages where we cannot see.

Only few dare to venture into this other world where warriors lay slain and their corpses strewn over the hillside. To set foot in this world is to sell your soul to one side. It’s a world of significance.

Know this today, for this is a declaration that I make not in haste but in earnest resolve. I will fight. I will fight for this calling. I will fight for the world Unseen. I will fight for your love. I will fight for this relationship. I will fight for your respect. I will pick up my sword even when everyone has laid theirs aside. I will stand in the face of all danger and peril to win your heart . . . for I could never fight enough to receive a reward as valuable as you. But I will fight . . . and I ask you one thing. Will you take up this sword and fight alongside me, and through this raging battle stand victorious . . . my Warrior Princess?

Since Amanda’s passing, the sword has remained a powerful image for me.

A sword is a weapon that when wielded properly can claim territories, defend nations, and protect the defenseless. But a warrior who is going to use a sword in battle must ensure it is strong enough to endure the stress it will surely undergo. At the same time, the sword must be resilient enough to flex under strain and immediately “return to true.”

Because of that, every sword goes through a careful shaping and refining process.

A swordsmith puts the sword in a fire that is heated to upwards of 2100 degrees Fahrenheit. The metal is then taken out of the fire, placed over an anvil, and repeatedly struck with a hammer or mallet to shape it into a strong, durable weapon.

If you were to personify this process, you could say the sword is undergoing a lot of pain. The sword is just a piece of metal and cannot be used but for the intense heat and hammering. The metal must undergo this “pain” to be forged into a weapon.

A similar shaping process occurs in us when we undergo pain and hardship.

Many people have found that life’s most trying times have also been the most developmental.

The old adage “No pain, no gain” seems trite—especially when it involves a senseless tragedy—but, the basic principle can hold true.

In fact, I often wonder if the intensity of pain one undergoes directly correlates with the degree of impact the shaping process eventually will have on others. So, the trial or tragedy that could have devastated you, destroyed you, and deterred you from moving on actually becomes the very thing that makes you a dangerous weapon of love to help push back darkness in this world.

The key is not to let your pain define you but, instead, refine you into something that is more useful, purposeful, and helpful to others.

I’m finding this to be true for my life and for Amanda’s.

When Amanda and I married, we carved out time for a “first look” before the ceremony. We closed the doors of the sanctuary, and I stood down in front of the stage as the sound guy cued a compilation of our love songs. Our photographer surreptitiously captured the moment. I stood there waiting in breathless expectation to see my bride.

As the double doors opened, my heart stopped. She slowly stepped through the threshold, the most beautiful smile I‘ve ever seen emanating from her lips. Her white dress and veil settled softly on her bronze skin, causing a knot in my stomach and a flutter in my heart.

My eyes scanned her perfect frame as she waltzed toward me.

Her radiance so distracted me that I didn’t notice she was holding something behind her back. She brought her arms around and presented me with a Braveheart sword.

“Davey, today I’m joining you in this fight,” she said. “Until the day I die, I’ll fight for you, for us, and for people who are far from God.”

And she did. She fought the good fight.

She lived her life to see people meet Jesus, and in her death even more have come to know him. And through her death, I’m being shaped into someone who loves deeper, hurts stronger, and helps people more readily.

I have vowed to spend the rest of my life seeking retribution for my wife’s death. But not in the way you may think. I recognize the real enemy was not the group of guys who broke into my house and killed her. The real enemy is the master of all evil, Satan—the one who seeks to steal, kill, and destroy.

As I fight for love and forgiveness, I’m participating in God‘s unraveling of the work of the enemy in this world. I’m not fighting fire with fire. I’m not fighting hatred with hatred. One day at a time, one work at a time, and in true William Wallace fashion, I‘m fighting for my wife’s legacy, fighting for the freedom of God’s people, and gaining revenge on Satan’s pillaging of my life.

I just wish I had been there when Amanda walked down the aisle for Jesus, her first love, her true groom. I wish I had seen her “first look” of the Savior. I wish I could have seen her face when from behind his back he pulled out a crown. I wish I could have seen the tears streaming down her cheeks when he whispered to her, “Well done, Daughter. You have fought the good fight. You have finished the race. Enter into your reward, my Warrior Princess.” 

Davey Blackburn and his new wife, Kristi, have devoted their lives to helping people through life’s valleys and teaching them that “nothing is wasted” when following Jesus. Davey and Kristi live in Indianapolis, Indiana, with their three kids, Natalia, Weston, and Cohen. They founded Nothing is Wasted Ministries to help people partner with God to take back their story.

www.nothingiswasted.com

@nothingiswastedminisries

@DaveyBlackburn

THE POWER OF

FAITH & FORGIVENESS

HOW A SENSELESS TRAGEDY BECAME A WITNESS TO THE GRACE OF JESUS

BY KEN IDLEMAN

It was 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, November 13, 2016. I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of the Harborside Christian Church in Harborside, Florida, savoring a few quiet moments before going in to preach the first of three worship services, when my cell phone rang. It was Todd Bussey, my ministry colleague, calling to tell me the tragic news from Indiana that our friend and worship pastor for 22 years at Crossroads Christian Church, David Rinehart, 46, his daughter, Sophie, 17, and his mother, Ruth Ann, 74, had been killed early that morning by an alcohol-impaired driver. Older daughter Josie, 18, survived the crash with cuts and abrasions. The family was traveling back to Newburgh from Indianapolis after an exhilarating day at a national band competition.

The Rineharts’ car had struck a deer, so they had pulled onto the outside shoulder of the freeway to wait for a state trooper. Mason Hartke, 19, of Jasper, Indiana, had been drinking beer with

friends throughout Saturday at Indiana University. As he traveled south on Interstate 69 that Sunday morning, his 2006 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck ran off the right side of the road and rear-ended the Rineharts’ 2015 Honda Civic at 70 mph. Hartke was taken to IU Health with a fractured arm.

I cannot overstate how heartbreaking this senseless tragedy was for the Rinehart family, Newburgh High School, and Crossroads Church. David was musically gifted with a missionary heart, a deeply committed and respected Christian leader. Sophie’s ethereal voice was the centerpiece of the Castle High School band, considered one of the 10 best marching bands in the country. Wife, mother, and grandmother Ruth Ann Rinehart was a much-loved retired public school music teacher. The band had come from one of the best showings in its history to one of the worst moments in its history in just 12 hours.

FAITH

The Rinehart deaths hit the entire Evansville/ Newburgh community hard. More than 7,000 people came to the hours-long visitation. Nearly 4,000 filled the worship center, the atrium, the chapel, and the gymnasium of the Crossroads Church facility for the funeral. Three caskets lined the front of the worship center. But the grief that accompanied the memorial service was outshined by the celebration of the profound faith of three souls who had already left the land of the dying for the land of the living.

David’s 100-voice Crossroads choir sang “Revelation Song,” “I Can Only Imagine,” and “It Is Well with My Soul” with bittersweet smiles through tears. His two surviving daughters, Josie and Riley, stood side by side and paid eloquent and moving tribute to their sister, Sophie. Friends John and Sally Bagby stood together and tenderly eulogized fellow educator Ruth Ann.

Pastor Bussey expressed admiration and affection for David on behalf of virtually every person present that day. Congregational singing clearly came from yielded hearts. The sermon was a biblical exposition and literal visualization of what this mother, her son, and his daughter were experiencing in the presence of the Lord. It was a truly edifying wake—a profound and memorable faith witness to all who were present.

FORGIVENESS

But later, Josie Rinehart extended perhaps the greatest witness to the grace of Jesus Christ. The print and television media carried the story of her supernaturally empowered forgiveness.

At first, Mason Hartke, the defendant, pleaded not guilty to vehicular homicide. However, he was later offered a plea deal . . . which he accepted. Josie asked the judge ahead of time if she could embrace the young man whose bad choice to drink and drive had taken the lives of her grandmother, father, and younger sister. He consented.

That defining moment was captured in the accompanying photograph. But what is not visible in the picture is what Josie whispered to Hartke in that moment. She said, “You are not a bad person, but you did a very bad thing . . . and I want you to know that I forgive you.” Hartke shed tears that surely were a combination of remorse and relief. After serving just three years in prison, he was granted work release. But Josie’s forgiveness, without a shred of lingering bitterness, is still in force to this day.

Surely the hardest forgiveness to grant is that which is not requested. And yet that is the forgiveness Jesus extended to the crowd that demanded his crucifixion at his illegal trial and reviled him in the hour of his death on the cross. Our Lord’s immortal words, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” are the gold standard of forgiveness for all of us who are his disciples. Josie met the standard of Christ! Will we? 

Ken Idleman serves as vice president of leadership development for The Solomon Foundation. He served as the fourth president of Ozark Christian College and then as senior pastor of Crossroads Christian Church in Newburgh, Indiana.

AMID INFIDELITY AND IMPRISONMENT, I’VE FOUND HEALING AND PEACE

NAME WITHHELD

It seemed idyllic.

Ministry family. Almost 20 years of marriage. Two kids and a dog. A house in the suburbs. A green yard and gorgeous flowers outside the front door. A “Welcome to Our Home!” sign.

Things looked good from the outside, for sure, but inside the house a spiritual war was waging on my family and my marriage.

I knew something was wrong in the fall of 2020; I could feel it in my gut. My husband and I both were teachers, and it was a rough time to be a teacher—masks, online school, quarantines, etc. We both knew we needed to build relationships with our students to be effective in the classroom. Boundaries, however, disappeared in that regard for one of us.

PEACE IN THE CHAOS

In all things, God was working for my good (Romans 8:28). But at that point, life didn’t feel good. Every negative emotion possible—I felt it. Hurt, pain, failure, anger, disappointment, betrayal, confusion. Feelings of inadequacy. But amid all that, I had a sense of peace. A song by Switch called “Symphony” put my feelings into words:

You say you’re working everything for my good, and I believe every word. Even in the madness, there is peace—drowning out the voices all around me. Through all of this chaos, you are writing a symphony.

I cannot explain the peace that fell over me. Even while not sleeping and barely eating, I felt a symphony was being written—a story in which I played the lead despite not auditioning for the role. I had been called to this purpose, and through it all, God would be glorified.

TRIALS

“Consider it pure joy,” says James, “whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance” (1:2-3). The trials arrived in the form of a text message. It was cowardly and only made the pain more intense.

On a Friday night in the spring of 2021, I received a lengthy text message from my husband. He was having an affair . . . and it was with a former student. He suggested I move on without him. He was embarrassed and ashamed. He was on his way out of state to go stay with his parents as things crumbled. I managed to get him on the phone while he was driving, and we talked for what seemed like hours. He cried. I cried. I sat alone in our basement, staring at the things around me—the home we’d made for ourselves. I couldn’t imagine giving it all up. My heart ached in a way I never knew was possible. The next few weeks were a whirlwind.

Let me be clear. My husband made some terrible mistakes. The person he had an affair with was under 18, and in our state, his decision was a felony because he had once been her teacher. He immediately lost his job, and his reputation was destroyed. All the students he had led closer to Jesus were left questioning every conversation they ever had with him. He had officiated weddings, spoken at funerals, mentored and prayed with students, and spoken the truth of Jesus into thousands of lives. And now what did all that even mean? Was he just a fraud? A criminal? For some, the pain was too great to bear. It was easier to just cut him out entirely.

For me, I couldn’t imagine life without him, nor could I believe that God was finished with our marriage or with my husband. Don’t get me wrong: I filed for divorce. I just never went through with it. I never submitted all the papers to the lawyer. I just couldn’t grasp that as our story. So, when he returned to our home several days after

his confession, I presented him a list of my expectations. Repent. Seek counseling. Pursue God first, and then me. And many other more personal things. The final item said, “This list can be expanded as needed to help me and the kids feel like we can trust you again. But ultimately, we want you here . . . not away. We can’t fix things if we’re apart.” He started to work his way through the list, and we began the process of healing.

On Easter Sunday (2021), I let him back into our bedroom. It had been a month, and he’d been sleeping downstairs ever since his return home. The story of forgiveness and love found in the cross and resurrection of Christ pushed me to allow him back in and move us another step toward healing. Over the course of the next 16 months, the days and weeks were filled with counseling appointments (individually and as a couple), conversations (some lighthearted and filled with laughter and others weighed down with hurts and tears), and making new memories together. Had it not been for those months of healing, I’m still not sure we would have been prepared for the next step.

Prison—it was an unspoken possibility from the time he was caught until his sentencing. He had broken the law as a teacher, but due to his lack of criminal history and the opinion of a licensed psychiatrist that he was not likely to recommit this offense, we had hoped he wouldn’t be incarcerated. His lawyer did her best to pursue probation. Unfortunately, however, in the fall of 2022, my husband was sentenced to prison for a little over two years. We had prepared in advance for him to be gone. All our accounts were in order. Time had been spent with our kids. Hugs and kisses had been given. And God had blessed us with time to heal before we were separated.

WAITING

And so here we are. We’re dealing with the aftermath, tying up loose ends, with some additional stories still to be told. God is still working through our marriage. My husband and I talk often; I visit him almost weekly. God is moving in my husband’s life in ways that only He can. God is caring for me and my family. Friends and coworkers send texts and letters, bless me with coffee (when they know I’m in the valley), and blessed us with cash gifts at Christmas for our kids. God is moving. He is crafting a story unlike one I could have ever told.

I know that God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). And I get to tell others of the blessings he is pouring out!

Wait is my word for 2023, as in . . .

[Those] who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31, English Standard Version).

The word wait can be exchanged for trust and hope. That’s where I am in this story. I’m waiting on the Lord. I’m trusting in him for my future. I have hope that he will continue to renew my husband, me, our marriage, and our family, especially in times when we’re tired and weary. 

MY CANCER BATTLE HAS MADE ME A BETTER PREACHER AND LEADER

BY CHRIS PHILBECK

It began in December 2011 when I awoke one morning unable to clear my throat. A nurse practitioner in the Minute Clinic at our local CVS said my right tonsil was swollen and gave me a 10-day prescription for an antibiotic.

About a week into taking the antibiotic, I spoke informally with a general practitioner (and church member) during a funeral. I told him about my situation and asked if he would look at my throat. We borrowed a music stand light from the worship center, he looked at my throat, and immediately said, “We need to get you to an ear, nose, and throat doctor as soon as possible.” The next day, with his help, I was in the office of an ENT who looked at my throat and said, “We’ll need to do a biopsy to be sure, but I’m 90 percent certain you have tonsil cancer.” Biopsies of my right tonsil and a lymph node both came back positive.

My wife and I were stunned. We had spent a lot of time praying the biopsies would be negative, that God would intervene, that there was another explanation. But that was not the case. At the time of my diagnosis, I was 53 years old, had been in full-time ministry for 31 years, and was in my 10th year of serving as senior pastor

at Mount Pleasant Christian Church.

SURVIVING THE TREATMENT

The day after the biopsies came back, my wife and I were at home when our doorbell rang. It was after 9 p.m., so we were both surprised. At the door was a man I recognized, but I didn’t know his name. He said he was a member of MPCC and asked if he could talk to us. It turns out he was a retired firefighter who had battled tonsil cancer a few years earlier. For the next couple of hours, he shared his story and told us stepby-step what the treatment plan would be like. He said it would be difficult, “but you can do it, and you can survive.” His kindness, concern, and friendship were overwhelming.

The next day, my wife and I had an appointment at St. Francis Cancer Treatment Center where we met the radiation oncologist who had treated our new friend from church.

“What you have is treatable and curable,” he said. “I can’t make any promises, but I believe you can be cured.”

My wife and I both felt genuine peace, and the next week I began weekly chemotherapy treatments and daily (Monday through Friday) radiation treatments. The radiation had a devastating effect on the soft tissue of my mouth and throat, so a feeding tube was implanted. My neck was covered with radiation burns and I had to take a mild sedative just to get through the radiation treatment. I limped across the finish line on February 21, 2012.

The experience changed my physical life. I lost weight and strength, my salivary glands were destroyed, and it was seven years before I was able to taste food again. Even now, my sense of taste hasn’t completely returned. My thyroid was damaged, leaving me to take medication the rest of my life.

HOLDING ON

But greater than all of that is what happened in my spiritual life. I clung to the Scriptures during all of this—sometimes literally pressing my Bible against my chest just to get through difficult moments. Psalm 20 became what I called my “hold on” passage.

The start of the psalm—“May the Lord answer you when you are in distress” (v. 1)— reminded me to hold onto my hope because I wasn’t alone in my time of suffering. “May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed” (v. 4) helped me to look forward to the day I returned to the pulpit as a better preacher and leader than ever before. That was the desire of my heart, after all. When I read Psalm 20:5—“We will shout for joy over your victory; we will rejoice in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests” (New English Translation) —I thought about the joyful celebration to come when I was healed from my cancer.

I don’t have enough space to share about the love and support of my church family, my wife, Sandy, and my two children. My adult children would come over and lay in the bed with me so we could talk or watch a movie. There was healing in their presence. I don’t think Sandy slept more than two hours a night during my treatment because she was praying for me and taking care of me.

LEADING WITH A LIMP

Since my experience, I have been able to meet and minister to several people who have been diagnosed with tonsil cancer or some other kind of head and neck cancer. I would have never chosen to walk this path, but because I did, my love for God and personal relationship with Christ is deeper and stronger. My cancer battle has left me leading and preaching with a “limp,” but like Jacob in Genesis 32, I will never forget the deep encounter my suffering allowed me to have with God.  

LEARNING ABOUT

(AND DETERMINED TO REMEMBER THE FORGETTING)

BY MARK A. TAYLOR

I sat with my friend Joan, a gentle, pretty 83-year-old, who is the picture of Southern grace and charm. She was her husband’s caregiver for the seven years he suffered with Alzheimer’s disease, until he died in April 2021. I was interviewing Joan for my website, Unchosen Journey: A Caregiver’s Walk with Alzheimer’s (www.unchosenjourney.com).

“How did you cope with his death?” I asked her.

“Our 59 years were good years,” she said. “But today I want to remember the hard times.”

“Why?” I responded. I wasn’t expecting this—or her reaction when I pressed her. Her voice caught. She looked down at the floor silently shaking her head, and then choked out, “I can’t talk.” By then I had tears too, so I just waited for both of us to compose ourselves before going on. It seemed like several minutes.

“This is the only way to accept the loss,” she told me, finally. “If I remembered only the good things, it would be hard to live without him. But when I remember the times he struggled, the times we both had trouble dealing with it, it’s easier to live without him.”

Joan was echoing at least part of my motivation for starting my website. When I introduced it, I spoke about remembering.

“Since my wife’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, her memory has been evaporating,” I wrote. “I can’t reverse the losses, but I’ve decided to do the next best thing. I’m going to keep a chronicle of this journey. Here, in this space, I want to remember the forgetting.”

Not that my wife is dead, mind you. No, she’s very much alive, sitting quietly at the breakfast table as I write the first draft of this piece. Our times together have become more and more quiet since her diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease was confirmed in December 2019. Two years later her neurologist ordered tests to confirm a second condition, Parkinson’s disease. Soon we “went public,” announcing these developments in a Christmas letter and on Facebook. At the urging of three who know us—a good friend, a family member, and a former colleague—I decided to write regularly about my reactions and conclusions and questions experiencing this new life we’d been forced into. And so, I started the website in March 2022.

More than a year later, and after almost four years of living this “unchosen journey,” I’ve come to some conclusions.

As never before, I’m resonating with Rich Mullins’s “We Are Not as Strong as We Think We Are.” Perhaps anyone, looking at someone they love, head bobbing with a Parkinson’s tremor, unable to finish the sentence she started, would agree with Rich: “We are frail.” And when confronted with the mishmash of lucidity and confusion that characterizes the early Alzheimer’s patient, many might ponder how “we are fearfully and wonderfully made.” Each diminished capability sparks new awe at the creation that made it all work so well together in the first place. Alas, only in loss do we most appreciate what we enjoyed without thinking.

But as Evelyn loses her strength, some days I wonder how much I ever had. While I’m pleased I’m learning how to manage our household, monitor her medicine, and—after any number of mistakes and mishaps—cope with her ever-changing condition, I regularly see evidence of my own weakness: Waves of grief punctuated by tears. (Alzheimer’s brings a succession of losses, each of them another occasion for sadness.) Frustrated reactions to spills or other messes or the need to go slowly, repeat each step of the process, and give the same information again and again and again. (Five years ago, I would have said I’m a patient person. Now—especially at the end of many days—my patience wears thin.)

We spend so much of our lives projecting a persona of having it all together. I’m blessed at this late stage to begin understanding what the apostle proclaimed, “For Christ’s sake, I delight in . . . difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

People who love us have made up for my weakness. Examples:

• Volunteer caregivers who allow me to get out of the house and satisfy my extrovert compulsions to talk and laugh and cry with others. (Evelyn and I have many pleasant moments. But she has lost most of her ability to demonstrate companionship. Thus, the increasingly quiet days, mentioned above.)

• Friends at dinner or dessert who ignore Evelyn using the wrong utensil, getting up and down repeatedly throughout a meal, or retreating to the couch while the rest of us visit at the table.

• T he parade of hugs and friendly greetings in the hallways at our church building. The watchful eyes of a dozen different friends who tell me where Evelyn has wandered or look for her in a restroom or find me when we’ve become separated.

• O ver and above acts of kindness: managing a major home repair, filling our freezer with food, tackling housework I never would have asked a friend to do. There’s not room here to list the gift cards, books, or flowers. The goodness goes on and on.

Most of these people are responding not only to us, but to God who has taught all of us that he is glorified by our service to others. And that leads me to the most important lesson.

As soon as I posted about our new life, I began receiving a stream of good wishes from people all over the world saying, “We’re praying for you.” That stream has become a river, a mysterious, marvelous flood of intercessions asking God to bless us. And he has.

Evelyn’s deterioration has been slow, slow enough for a friend to mention and her neurologist to notice. The time has given me opportunity to learn how to cope. It’s a slow, sad slog, but only occasionally do I feel overwhelmed.

Again and again, I reflect on the promise of Jesus who told us service to “the least of these” is really service to him (Matthew 25:40). When I can remember that Jesus is watching—when I deal with soiled laundry and bathrooms, prod pill-taking or good grooming, offer three sets of pajamas before finding one that works, or plead five times just to come back to bed after I’ve already been drifting off to sleep—I begin to find the strength and the will to carry on.

But it’s a journey, an unchosen journey. I can’t imagine taking it without the assurance that “the God of all comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:3) notices and cares. And so I regularly ask him to teach me what I can learn along this new path, and I’m waiting to see what I become as I take each new, tenuous step. 

Mark Taylor retired from a 40-plus-year career at Standard Publishing (now Christian Standard Media) in 2017. He was editor and publisher of Christian Standard for the last 14 of those years. He and his wife live north of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Mark and Evelyn at Christmastime last year.

‘A MIRACLE OF GOD’S GRACE’

Paul E. Boatman Talks to Dr. John Castelein

About His Crisis of Faith

a christian standard interview

After an honored career as professor of theology at Lincoln Christian University, Dr. John Castelein declared in 2019 that he “deconverted” from Christianity to agnosticism. In 2022 he announced his reconversion to a strong Christian faith. He agreed to this interview in the hope of providing help for others who may face a crisis of faith.

PAUL BOATMAN: JOHN, ARE YOU NOW A CHRISTIAN?

JOHN CASTELEIN: God worked a miracle to draw me back to faith at a level I have never experienced before. Jesus Christ is my Lord and I am compelled to serve him. I see my reconversion as a miracle of God’s grace and of the Holy Spirit working in my heart.

BUT FOR THREE YEARS YOU WERE AGNOSTIC. EXPLAIN THAT.

It has been a lifelong struggle, but for three years I could not affirm that I knew that God exists. I was in a desert.

A LIFELONG STRUGGLE?

As I grew up in Belgium, my father was a rigid, fundamentalist preacher. In our church we never questioned anything of the Bible, but we had religious education in public school where my Hebrew-reading teacher questioned everything about the Bible. By adolescence I was torn. Intelligent scholars discounted the Bible. The church would not even discuss critical questions, like a seven-day creation, talking snakes, 900-year-old patriarchs.

YET YOU CONTINUED IN CHURCH?

I was helping Dad in ministry, but in my heart I had already left the faith. After Dad died when I was 16, I was in the pulpit, translating for the American missionary preacher. I tried to fully follow Jesus, but I lived dualistically, with unresolved critical questions pulling at me.

Even when I entered Bible college, there was nobody who would address the questions. After two frustrating years, I transferred to Lincoln Christian because they had professors who were willing to wrestle with the critical questions. That helped, but I wanted to know, and they seemed to accept by faith what could not be absolutely known.

AND YOU ADVANCED IN MINISTRY WHILE HARBORING THESE HUGE DOUBTS . . .

Yes, I ministered in the church, even preached revivals (which were more fellowship events than educational). I taught theology in college and seminary for 37 years, choosing a faith perspective, but wanting more. I even tried embracing tangents—dispensationalism, charismatic tongue-speaking, . . . young earth creationism, and such—all in a quest for experiencing the reality of God, but they failed to assure me. My PhD studies at University of Chicago further challenged me. Critical scholars from the 17th century to the present issue a persistent chorus of questions which my church colleagues never adequately answered.

WHAT LED YOU TO OPEN AGNOSTICISM?

I did a ministry at Lincoln Christian Church while still teaching at the LCU. The fellowship invigorated me, but it pushed me to look inside. In 2006, I confessed in a sermon that I have a hard time with praying. I understated it: I had never sensed that my prayers were actually talking to anybody. After that sermon, a church leader came to my home and said, “If you cannot pray, you should not be our preacher.” I agreed and resigned. I never preached again.

When I retired from teaching at the school, restraints were gone, but I still wavered. I spent seven months with a mentor guiding me in devotions, Scripture reading, and singing, but God was still not real to me. Finally, in early 2019, I publicly declared my agnosticism and withdrew from the church, including the Sunday school class that had been like a tether to me.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE FOR YOU AS A PUBLIC NON-CHRISTIAN?

WHO WERE THESE SCHOLARS?

[Immanuel] Kant, [Friedrich] Nietzsche, Peter Berger, Paul Ricoeur, [Sigmund] Freud, and [John] Dewey among many others. I vowed never to shipwreck anyone else’s faith, but my own faith was battered on rocky shoals. I could not ignore that.

That’s a hard and fair question. When I was in the desert, I did not realize how parched my soul was until I later rediscovered the fountain of life. It is lonely out there without the God of the universe, therefore no soul, no heaven, no hell. It seemed like a lot of freedom, but meant stark emptiness. I fought off my despair by priding myself for my integrity: “At least I have the guts to follow what I believe is truth!” I’ve had to repent of such deep arrogance.

HOW DID YOUR CHRISTIAN COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS RESPOND TO YOU?

With tremendous patience and compassion. No one attacked me. Some tried to argue with me, but my teaching colleagues, and even my preacher and the elders from the church, never abandoned me. My “anchor people” kept praying for me, affirming their love, saying “We hope you’ll come back.” That had enormous impact on me.

WHEN I WAS IN THE DESERT, I DID NOT REALIZE HOW PARCHED MY SOUL WAS UNTIL I LATER REDISCOVERED  THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE.

WHAT WAS YOUR TURNING POINT?

In 2020 my wife, Marie, was diagnosed with Bulbar ALS, a disease that attacks the whole body, starting with preventing speaking and swallowing. I was her sole caregiver for 22 months, feeding her through a tube four times a day, suctioning her saliva since she could not swallow, sitting with her as she pointed to letters to spell out what she could no longer say. And I was bathing her. One time, while bending over to wash her feet, my mind flashed to the image of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. It hit me that nobody in his right mind would “invent” the concept of a Messiah, Son of David, King of kings, who comes and washes feet! That is certainly not what the crowds or his disciples wanted. This was not contrived. It actually happened. I could believe that.

IGNORE MY TEARS AND TELL ME MORE.

I have always read books. But to keep me from being distracted from caring for Marie, I gave away my entire library. Later it hit me: I emptied my library to serve my wife. . . . Paul tells us that Jesus emptied himself to serve us even unto death (Philippians 2). The Holy Spirit used those two images to thaw my heart and I bowed to my Lord Jesus Christ. Almost immediately I got emails from two good friends, one telling of his wife’s diagnosis of brain cancer, the other of his own need for a bonemarrow transplant. For the first time in memory, I prayed for Linda and Chuck. When I finished praying and sobbing, I realized that I had been talking to someone, from my heart to the heart of God! And if God hears my prayer, I need to worship him.

The next Sunday I slipped into the local Episcopal church, and had a moving experience reciting the Nicene Creed, realizing that by faith I fully believe all of it. Partaking of the [Lord’s Supper], the body and blood of Christ were very real to me. I’ve not missed church since that day (now at Lincoln Christian Church). The Christian church Sunday school class that first received the public announcement of my agnosticism has, since my reconversion, asked me to be their full-time teacher. And I accepted.

THIS HAS BEEN A WHIRLWIND. ARE THERE OTHER “WINDOWS” YOU WOULD LIKE TO OPEN?

I just read Calvin Miller’s Spirit, Word, and Story. He opens with, “Years ago I made up my mind to preach the Bible, rather than try to figure it out.” That’s where I have at last arrived.

CAN YOU SUMMARIZE YOUR COMPLEX SPIRITUAL TREK, FIRST AWAY FROM THE FAITH AND THE CHURCH, THEN TO BEING A DEEPLY COMMITTED BELIEVER? WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?

When we become believers, we accept the invitation to  dare to believe! Believers trust the good news of God’s forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ, repent of their sinful lifestyle, are immersed into the body of Christ and obey the Spirit of Christ within.

However, in our modern world, educated believers, who are exposed to critical thinking about the Bible, are confronted with a different widespread, powerful command to  dare to know! Immanuel Kant, the extremely influential 18th-century German philosopher, urged modern people to grow up intellectually, to dare to question and doubt traditional authorities like the Bible.

Due to my very strict upbringing in the church, I understood my conservative faith to be telling me the opposite: don’t dare to know! Therefore [at the time when I was moving away from my faith], I felt my integrity in facing critical questions demanded I leave the church and a faith that insisted on a traditional, literal interpretation of Scripture.

By God’s amazing grace, I now know that the opposite to “dare to know” (the modern mind) is not “don’t dare to know” (the premodern/antimodern mindset), but  dare to not know (the postmodern mind). This means we must dare to humbly acknowledge that we are not God and that there are many things God alone knows that we will not and cannot know while living in a fallen creation.

WELCOME HOME, BROTHER. 

Paul E. Boatman serves as professor emeritus of pastoral care and counseling for the Seminary at Lincoln Christian University.

welcome home, brother.

HOW TO HELP IN AND SHARE

FOUR WRITERS DISCUSS IDEAS AND STRATEGIES TO CARRY OUT OUR MISSION TO

PEOPLE GROW THEIR FAITH

MAKE DISCIPLES WHO MAKE DISCIPLES —TANGIBLY, LOVINGLY, HUMBLY, EXPONENTIALLY

ONE EXPRESSION AT A TIME

HOW WE, LIKE JESUS, CAN MEET PEOPLE AT THEIR POINT OF DEEPEST NEED

BY KYLE IDLEMAN

Shelly Hollis was a young Christian who wanted people to know Jesus. She felt God calling her to be a missionary in Haiti, so she went. She moved there to love the people Jesus loved in Haiti the way Jesus would love them.

She had no idea how hard people can be to love.

One day Shelly came across an elderly woman who was dehydrated and near death. Her name was Granka, and she hadn’t been cared for in days. Shelly found her soaked in urine and sweat, lying on a little bed. Granka’s family had taken all her personal belongings and divided them up among themselves. They’d put a coffin next to her and left her for dead.

Shelly was moved with compassion, but she couldn’t move Granka. So, Shelly stayed with her day and night, cleaning her body, feeding her, praying for her. This went on for several days, but finally Granka died.

The next morning Shelly was sitting, dejected, at a picnic table outside the school where she worked. A friend sat down next to her, and Shelly began to weep. Finally, Shelly gained enough composure to get out the words, “I didn’t get to tell her about Jesus.”

Shelly Hollis sat brokenhearted, and she prayed God would put another elderly woman into her path with whom she could share her faith.

Not long after, Shelly walked out of her church building late one night and a man jumped out, grabbed her shirt, and swung her into a wall. Shelly’s shoulder was dislocated. As she lay there, momentarily disoriented, the guy jumped on top of her and began to remove her clothes. She fought him off with everything she had. Biting him and hitting him with her flashlight, she finally managed to get away and ran down the street, screaming for help. Shelly opened the door of the first house she came to, went in, and collapsed onto the floor.

Fatalia, the elderly woman who lived there, woke up and ran out of her bedroom to see who was in her house. When she saw Shelly lying on the ground, Fatalia called for help.

The next morning, Shelly phoned her family back in America to tell them what happened. Her father insisted she leave Haiti and come back home. But Shelly told her dad, “I prayed God would give me another elderly woman to share my faith with, and this is that opportunity.”

Shelly didn’t go home. She went back to Fatalia’s house and told her about Jesus. Eventually, Shelly and Fatalia walked into the ocean together, and Shelly baptized Fatalia.

LOVE EXPRESSED

We love the idea of loving people . . . but doesn’t loving people have its limits? If you try to answer that question guided by common sense, your natural response might be to say yes. But if you look at the life of Jesus, the only and obvious answer is no.

Jesus loved with a limitless love. He loved everyone, even—perhaps especially—those who were hard to love.

His love was conveyed through more than words. He tangibly expressed his love by meeting people at their point of deepest need.

One of the most poignant examples of Jesus offering a thoughtful and tangible expression of compassion is when he touched a leper in Matthew 8. If people from Jesus’ time were on Family Feud, and the question was, “We asked 100 people to tell us someone who is hard to love,” lepers would have been toward the top of that list.

In the first century, leprosy was a death sentence. It was an incurable disease that caused the person to lose sensation in their extremities. Dr. Paul Brand, a leading researcher in the field of leprosy in the 20th century, often told about a time when he was walking at night in India. He saw lepers sleeping in a ditch on the side of the road, and he watched as rats came and gnawed on their fingers. It didn’t wake them up because they could feel nothing.

In Jesus’ day it was easy to spot a leper because they would have discolored skin and sores all over their faces. It was easy to smell a leper. They would have a horrible, putrid smell.

People back then thought of leprosy as being a curse from God and very contagious. Someone who contracted leprosy immediately became a spiritual and social outcast. A leper received a life sentence of never being touched—no more hugs, handshakes, or kisses. They were declared “unclean” and forced to

quarantine themselves from the rest of society. In fact, if a leper went anywhere near other people, he or she would have to shout a warning, “Unclean! Unclean!”

Lepers never approached people—except for when one walked right up to Jesus.

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” (Matthew 8:1-2).

Did you notice that “large crowds” were following Jesus, but it became about one man? We see it time and time again: crowds flocked to Jesus but he loved and impacted people one at a time. It was his philosophy of ministry and the rhythm of his daily life.

This time the one person was a leper. There was no precedent for a leper approaching a rabbi. If one did, he or she would risk violence and almost certain humiliation. In fact, some rabbis of that time boasted about throwing stones at lepers to keep them far away.

Jesus was a rabbi. But this leper must have heard Jesus wasn’t one to keep anyone far away. Jesus was approachable, even for a leper. Even for a leper with, as Luke points out in his telling of the story, an advanced case of leprosy (see Luke 5:12, New Living Translation). The strong stench of rotting flesh followed him everywhere he went. It was like a barrier that surrounded him and kept everyone away.

This leper believed in Jesus’ goodness enough to approach him, but not quite enough to be confident Jesus would heal him. Did you notice he didn’t say, “If you are able, you can make me clean”? He knew Jesus was able.

He just wasn’t sure Jesus was willing.

Why? Because it had been made unmistakably clear to him that he was hard to love.

JESUS LOVED WITH A LIMITLESS LOVE.

WHAT HIS HEART FELT, HIS HAND TOUCHED.

TOUCH

I mentioned lepers would never again be touched. That’s a terrible hardship because there’s incredible power in a loving touch.

It turns out humans are wired for appropriate and affectionate physical contact.

Touch lets us know we are loved.

Can you imagine how much this leper, who hadn’t been touched at all for who knows how long, and who was considered unlovable, was starving for human contact? Even though the leper hoped Jesus was willing to heal him, I’m sure he never expected Jesus to touch him.

But “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’ Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy” (Matthew 8:3).

Jesus reached out and touched the leper. The word translated “touched” literally means “to fasten onto.” That’s how Matthew, an eyewitness, described what happened. So don’t picture a televangelist wearing a $3,000 suit and standing next to a gold piano giving someone a quick karate chop slap on the forehead.

Jesus fastened onto the man. Imagine the scene as Jesus grabbed the leper’s hand with both of his hands, or put his arm around his shoulders, or put both hands on his shoulders as he looked him in the eyes.

It’s worth noting that Jesus healed some people without touching them. Jesus didn’t have to touch this leper. He could have simply said, “Be clean.” He could’ve winked at him or given him a thumbs-up. Jesus could have healed him without touching him, but Jesus wasn’t just healing him of leprosy.

Mother Teresa, who spent decades in Calcutta ministering to lepers, said the worst part of leprosy is not physical, it’s the disease of “being unwanted.” Someone feeling that way was heartbreaking to Jesus. He had to cure this leper of feeling unwanted, so he reached out and touched someone who was considered untouchable and unlovable.

What his heart felt, his hand touched.

FORGIVING THE INEXCUSABLE

Shelly Hollis went to Haiti to be a missionary and was so committed to sharing Jesus’ love that she refused to leave even after a man tried to rape her.

Fast-forward two years. Shelly, still in Haiti, was walking to church one Sunday morning when she saw the man who had assaulted her.

His name was Parnal, and he had spent two years in prison because of what he had done to Shelly. She hadn’t been told he had been released, and her heart started racing with fear as their eyes met. Afraid to run, she walked as fast as she could to church, crying with every step.

She got to the church, put her hand on the door, and stopped. She felt like God was calling her to go back and love Parnal, to share his love with the man who tried to rape her.

I have to pause and ask, Would you go back to Parnal?

If you felt like God was leading you, would you go? Well, God has already called you to go and to love. Who is the one hard-to-love person that keeps coming to mind as you read this? Is your reason for not loving that person better than Shelly’s reason for not wanting to go to Parnal?

Shelly turned around and ran back in the direction from which she had come. Praying, her eyes open, she looked for and finally saw Parnal. Jesus filled her heart with compassion, and what her heart felt, her hands touched. She reached out and hugged Parnal. Shelly told him, “I have forgiven you, and I want you to come to church with me so you can understand why.”

He agreed. Shelly took his hand, and they walked together to the church.

Who needs a tangible expression of your compassion? Who does your heart need to go out to?

To encourage?

To forgive?

To invite?

To visit?

To financially help?

To listen to?

To be patient with?

To hug?

To fasten onto?

To love? 

Excerpted from Chapter 9 of One at a Time: The Unexpected Way God Wants to Use You to Change the World, published by Baker Books, 2022. http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/one-at-a-time/393690

Kyle Idleman serves as senior pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the author of Not a Fan, Grace Is Greater, and other books. Kyle and his wife, DesiRae, have four children and live on a farm where he doesn’t do any actual farming.

DISCIPLEMAKING MOVEMENTS AND THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT

By Bobby Harrington

I believe Christian Churches and the Restoration Movement are the best hope for disciple-making movements in North America.

A disciple-making movement (DMM) is characterized by a rapid and exponential increase in disciples making disciples. These movements share a distinct group of priorities which provide the environment for viral multiplication. The emphasis on DMM principles started about 30 years ago, and now about 1,500 DMMs are reaching over 1 percent of the world’s population.

Here is a four-point summary of the character traits of a disciple-making movement:

1. fast-growing

2. i ndigenous (of the local culture)

3. multiplying disciples and groups

4. producing obedient Jesus followers (disciples)

And this is a short definition of a DMM:

A rapid and exponential increase in disciples making disciples who plant multiple churches, all within a local culture. These churches multiply disciples, groups, and more churches of obedience-based disciples so that at least four generations of churches are produced in six streams of disciple-making activity. These streams multiply consistently into disciplemaking churches (100 churches or more within 2 to 5 years).

In the last 30 years, movements have changed how we approach the Great Commission. The hardest-to-reach areas of the planet are being touched by disciple-making movements. The website 2414now.net seeks to track these movements. The website name is based on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

The 24:14 community believes the day is near when we can say that every unreached people and place has been engaged by a group of people committed to DMM principles. They are explicitly targeting the end of 2025 as the goal for completing the task, as they have defined it.

I’ve been told that we have some DMMs—or at least incipient DMMs—in the United States (especially among

immigrants), and yet others who are knowledgeable about movements are not so sure of this. I personally have yet to find clear examples of DMMs in the United States (or Canada).

In early 2020 I led the team at Discipleship.org, in partnership with Grey Matter Research and Todd Wilson of Exponential Church Planting, to complete a thorough national study of disciple-making churches in the U.S. The summary report is called, National Study on Disciple Making in USA Churches: High Aspirations Amidst Disappointing Results. The report is available as a free download at Discipleship.org.

We found disciple-making churches, but we did not find disciple-making-movement churches. At that time, we found that just under 5 percent of U.S. churches had cultures of disciple making, where disciple making is regularly reproduced in a local church.

Let me explain.

FIVE DISCIPLE-MAKING CHURCH PROFILES

For simplicity, at Discipleship.org, we have developed five profiles that are practical and measurable ways of classifying where a church is in the disciple-making process. Our levels for measuring congregation disciple making include:

1. L evel 1 (subtracting from disciple-making efforts)

2. Level 2 (plateaued, neither helping nor hindering disciple making)

3. L evel 3 (adding disciples by church programs)

4. L evel 4 (reproducing personal disciple makers)

5. L evel 5 (multiplying personal disciple makers)

Each of these levels of disciple-making cultures is unique. Each one has common ways of thinking about God, people, being a disciple, the kingdom, and what it means to make disciples of Jesus. The more likely someone lives out the kingdom mindset, practices intentionality, and views their effectiveness from a long-term perspective, the further they move along the disciple-making scale.

Jesus is our model and the pattern for level-5 disciple makers. He did not just make disciples, he made disciple makers.

THE GRAPHIC BELOW IS THE MODEL WE USED AS A FILTER IN THIS STUDY.

Level 1: Subtracting Level 2: Plateauing Level 3: Adding Level 4: Reproducing Level 5: Multiplying

Level-1 churches demonstrate the behaviors of people who are not passionate about growing in their relationship with Christ through obedience to Jesus’ disciple-making call. They don’t personally or intentionally focus on helping others grow in their relationship with Christ, and they don’t help others make disciples. They may actually have a negative impact on disciple making because they allow the world to have a greater impact on the people around them than they do for the cause of Christ.

Level-1 churches are numerically declining churches; 29 percent of U.S. churches fit into this category.

Level-2 churches demonstrate the behaviors of people who identify with Christ but are not yet growing in their relationship with him. They are similar to level-1 churches in that they are not personally making disciples. However, they do help in disciple-making efforts by attempting to create church gatherings that involve helping people to plateau in their lives as disciples. The behaviors of these men and women prevent disciple making from progressing as quickly as the next three levels (3, 4, and 5) because those assessing at level-2 don’t seek to intentionally influence others for spiritual growth.

Level-2 churches are numerically plateaued churches; 44 percent of U.S. churches fit into this category.

Level-3 churches seek to intentionally advance disciple making through their programs. These churches add disciples via the preaching, ministry programs, pastoral ministry, and various other factors of the church. They do not mobilize significant numbers of members to become personal disciple makers.

Level-3 churches are numerically growing churches (by addition); 22 percent of U.S. churches fit into this category.

Level-4 churches are intentionally growing and seek to actively equip and coach their members to make disciples. They raise up people who personally invest in relationships so they can make disciples and assist in others’ disciple-making efforts, as well. The leaders are personally committed to the process of disciple making, do so themselves, and join with other leaders of their church or parachurch organizations. They see their role as coaching and equipping everyday disciples to become disciple makers.

Level-4 churches are numerically growing churches that are reproducing disciples and disciple making; less than 5 percent of U.S. churches fit into this category.

Level-5 churches epitomize revival through disciple-making movements. In these churches, almost everyone makes disciples. The leaders live to develop disciple makers who then make other disciple makers, to the fourth generation. These churches are igniting and fueling disciple-making movements in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Level-5 churches are numerically growing churches that are multiplying disciples and disciple making; we could find no statistically verifiable evidence that any U.S. churches fit into this category.

The good news is that there are disciple-making churches. On the other hand, only about 5 percent of all churches qualify as level 4—that is, churches that reproduce disciples and disciple makers. Additionally, we could not statistically verify churches that qualify for level 5. And sadly, 80 percent of all U.S. churches scored negative points on this model; another 5 percent weren’t even scored because no one in their church was making disciples.

THE ROLE OF THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT IN DISCIPLE-MAKING MOVEMENTS

I believe Restoration Movement churches are the best home and hope for disciple-making movements in North America for three key reasons:

1. T he best of Restoration Movement theology is the necessary theological foundation for sustaining such movements.

2. T he leadership structure of our churches can make rapid and significant adaptations without the encumbrance of denominational hierarchy.

3. Restoration Movement leaders have demonstrated the highest levels of expertise in church planting in North America through organizations like Exponential over the last 25 years.

These three beliefs describe why I am so committed to the RENEW.org Network, Renew Movement church planting, and Discipleship.org. We were intentional when we moved our National Gatherings to Indianapolis, Indiana, this past spring because so many Christian Churches are present in that area, and we are praying they will catch the flame of these movements.

It is the best future hope for our country and our churches. 

Bobby Harrington is the point leader of Discipleship.org, RENEW.org, and Harpeth Christian Church (in the Nashville area).

LOVE

MUST BE THE FOUNDATION OF A DISCIPLE-MAKING CULTURE

BY BRANDON GUINDON

Our living room buzzed with conversation. Most of it focused around a new couple, James and Sara, who came to visit our small group. My wife, Amber, and I have led small groups for 20 years, and this was one of those evenings that will always stick with me.

Before I called everyone together to begin our Bible lesson, I stood back and observed. I could not help but wonder what this new couple was thinking. What were they feeling as people greeted them, shook hands, even hugged? The room was filled with a relational warmth, and I realized I was witnessing a great example of what church should be: love.

Later that night, after small group was over, I was saying goodbye to each family as they left. James and Sara were last to leave. Amber and I stood with them on our front porch for another 10 minutes talking about our families and the outdoor activities we enjoyed. As the conversation wound down, I could not help but notice James was suddenly in tears. But before I could say anything, James said, “I cannot remember a time when I felt this loved.” I smiled because what seemed like a normal, friendly, and authentic conversation to me was a tear-inducing expression of love and connection to him. Not surprisingly, they returned to our small group the next week and became regular members.

What creates that kind of atmosphere? I mean, how in the world can a person experience a love like they have never

before experienced in just an hour and a half with complete strangers? Where does that come from? It comes only from the love of God among his people.

Biblical love grows from our spiritual maturity. The Bible calls us to love one another, and as we grow in our relationship with Christ, our love for others will grow. I believe the church has fallen victim to the same issues as our secular culture: we become consumed by the busyness of life, so often influenced by social media. Relationships today are often measured by approval on social media or by a timely response to a text. The kind of relationships that foster love require that we fight against the secular culture with its relational unhealthiness. Love cannot be programmed; rather, love comes from our relationship with God and a genuine interest in authentic relationship with others.

We find all over the Gospels how Jesus expressed his love. Even in his greatest conflicts, he was demonstrating love. The most quoted verse in the Bible, John 3:16, even describes his love. Christ did not intend for the love he daily demonstrated as he discipled the Twelve to stop with him. The love he shows us in the Scriptures is not some abstract, far-off, unattainable “thing.” In fact, we are called to love people with the same kind of love as Jesus. We, the church, are commissioned to live out this love as the primary aim of discipleship.

LOVE IN THE BIBLE

Consider what our Lord said about love when a man asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).

Do you see how important it is that love characterize us as disciples of Christ? Whether you are a staff member, elder, or volunteer within the church, your greatest commandment is to love God and others. Love must be the defining characteristic of church culture. Without love we create a culture contrary to the gospel Jesus preached and lose the focus of all disciple-making.

ALTERNATIVES TO LOVE

Problems often arise in the church when spiritual maturity is equated with biblical knowledge. We have adopted a false notion that more knowledge makes someone a “better Christian.” Yet some of the most judgmental, harsh, and unloving people I have met in the church are those who have spent much of their lives in Bible study classes. I think Paul’s words ring true: “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand

all mysteries and all knowledge . . . but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2, English Standard Version)

Biblical knowledge is important, don’t get me wrong. We need to study and know the Bible. We must teach people to learn the depths of Scripture. But to what end? To gain knowledge for the sake of knowledge? So that we can point out how wrong the secular culture is? No!

It’s all for love.

If biblical knowledge does not translate for us into a deeper love for God and others in a healthy way, we have missed the point! We become just like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time.

Remember the simple methodology of Jesus: he loved people even when they were unlovable. Too often, the church communicates to the outside world that you will only be loved and accepted once you clean yourself up. What an offense to the gospel! We are to love people right where they are. That does not mean we excuse sin or ignore ungodly behavior; it means we confront sin in a loving manner.

Jesus loved the woman at the well and spoke truth to her at the same time. Jesus loved Peter while rebuking him. Creating a culture where we love and accept people right where they are establishes the first and most important step toward building a healthy disciple-making culture.

IT STARTS WITH YOU!

HOW TO CREATE A CULTURE OF LOVE

So, what does this look like in practice? When I look at the life of Christ, which my staff, church leaders, and I have tried to emulate, I want to point out three consistent characteristics:

1. Compassionate. Compassion is a dominant attribute in the life of Christ. This means that he deeply cared—and cares—for those who cannot care for themselves. I have heard compassion called “empathy in action.” Compassionate people love others by getting in the mess with them and walking alongside those with deep emotional, physical, or spiritual needs. Churches regularly offer acts of kindness: assembling supplies to help hurricane victims, giving away turkeys at Thanksgiving, and providing blankets for the homeless. These are all good things, but they’re not necessarily acts of compassion.

The compassion I am talking about may begin with a similar kindness, but it goes deeper, connecting personally with those who need to be loved. It is heartfelt action that covers needs by delivering supplies to a flooded home and then staying to help mop up dirty water and sort through wet papers. It goes beyond the act itself and reaches into the heart and finds its way out through the hands. It is the love we show when we sit and listen to the stories of a homeless veteran or hold the hands of the hurting—all with the affections of Christ. Cultivating compassion creates security because people know they will be cared for when times get hard.

2. Inclusive. When he sat with Matthew the tax collector in his house, Jesus made a powerful statement to all the religious people—that the gospel is for all. The early church was filled with every kind of person.

Leaders must exert intentional effort to affect their church to love and include those who are not like them. Most churches in America tend to draw the moral, conservative, and cleanedup types. If we are to reach a lost and dying world, we must be willing to be like Jesus and include those who are not like us.

This is not “inclusiveness” as the world defines it. We accept people as they are and invite them into relationship where God transforms them, never leaving them where they are. The church is to be a place that welcomes in the sinners so that they can learn truth, be loved, and walk alongside others as they grow spiritually.

3. Sacrificial. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, ESV). Death to self means sacrifice, and this happens daily. For example, are you willing to be interrupted? Judy, one of our staff members, sometimes reminds me that if we are to love people, we must be willing to be interrupted. Rather than rush to that meeting and pass by someone who is in tears, are you willing to stop and ask if they are OK?

Sacrificial love like this means you are willing to take the time to call families who are missing from your group or church gatherings, to visit someone in the hospital, and to take a meal to a family in need. When we live sacrificially, we express a kind of love that creates trust. It says, “When life is tough, I will be there. I’ve got your back.” That’s Christlike love. This type of life does not mean we get out of balance and give up our own families to help others. Yet we also understand that at times we must give our time, effort, and energy to serve others. At the root of love is sacrifice, and if we want to cultivate healthy disciple-making cultures that exude biblical love, we must be willing to sacrifice.

CULTIVATING A LOVING CULTURE

It starts with you! You will impact the culture by the way you love people. You must be emotionally present with your people and willing to love just as Jesus loved. Give people your full attention. Put your phone down and stop looking at social media. Get eye to eye with your people. In an age of constant distraction, you must be committed to living out the highest ethic that exists in the church—love.

A loving culture does not require us to solve everyone’s problems; nor does it demand that we throw truth out the window. Some think that to be loving we must disband truth and accept any sin that secular culture says is OK. Jesus didn’t do this, and neither must we.

A loving culture walks with someone in their struggle with sin. We hold the hands of the hurting because we too were once like that person. You and I are the misfits, and the incredible work of Jesus Christ and his forgiveness of our sin demands that we love like he did. So, let’s be willing to do whatever we can to love those who so desperately need to experience and be transformed by the love of Christ. 

Brandon Guindon serves as lead pastor of Real Life Ministries Texas. He is the author of Disciple Making Culture and Stay the Course and co-author of Real-Life Discipleship Training Manual, and he serves on the board of directors of the Relational Discipleship Network.

Adapted from Brandon Guindon’s book Disciple-Making Culture. You can purchase the book from the publisher and get free access to the accompanying video course at himpublications.com.

PREVENTING THE CELEBRITY-PASTOR SYNDROME:

MY ENCOURAGEMENT TO FELLOW PASTORS

By Ben Cachiaras

The surge in the number of celebrity pastors is a growing concern for the church. Multiple documentaries, articles, and podcasts (including “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill”) have exposed this problem. And with so many highprofile pastors disqualifying themselves, one naturally wonders how much of their downfall was connected to the celebrity status that had become part of their identity.

The terms Christian and celebrity have not meshed well historically. Over time, popularity has taken out more pastors than persecution.

The church has been negatively impacted by this syndrome. A celebrity pastor is not easily replicable, but a pastor who says, as the Apostle Paul did, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1), models a ministry that multiplies.

Celebrity pastors are a turnoff to a spiritually hungry but skeptical culture. The tendency to turn pastors into celebrities hurts our mission. It also hurts the soul of pastors, who, instead of driving their soul into the heart of Christ, are driven by where they stand in the hearts of people.

NAVIGATING THE TENSION

It is healthy, of course, for a church to give honor where honor is due. Too many pastors have been disrespected and treated poorly. Leading strongly, preaching boldly, or possessing a powerful personality are not the same as desiring celebrity status. Rather, the Lord often uses these gifts to build his church.

Yet, the nature of pastoral ministry can be tricky. Ministers are often known, respected, and loved by many people. Appreciative and well-meaning folk seek to put us on a pedestal. This can happen no matter the size of the church.

This is not necessarily a new problem. Even in the early church, some clamored after Paul and others identified Apollos or Cephas as “their guy.” Nothing indicates these leaders were promoting themselves, but all three undoubtedly still needed to navigate this tension.

It’s important to differentiate fame from being a celebrity

Fame is the result of a life well-lived. In this sense, it is the accidental by-product of doing something significant and important. Fame results from a person doing good work and shining a light on Christ.

Being a celebrity is the result of a brand well-cultivated. Celebrityhood is the pursuit of significance, desiring to have others see you as important. The goal is to be well-known and to shine brightly.

Celebrity pastors seek to be celebrated. By contrast, faithful pastors with integrity and purity of heart genuinely want to see Jesus and others celebrated, so that all will know the name of Jesus.

Seeking celebrity status has less to do with the size of your church and more to do with the size of your insecurity. The more grounded you are as a deeply loved child of God, the less driven you will be to seek celebrity status as a means of self-validation or healing of past wounds.

Don’t let what happened to King Saul happen to you. The Spirit of God left Saul, and he ended poorly. Here’s a clue to what led to his demise. The Bible says, “Saul built an altar to the Lord; it was the first time he had done this” (1 Samuel 14:35). A chapter later, the Bible says, “Saul . . . has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal” (1 Samuel 15:12). Somewhere in this timeframe, Saul stopped building altars to God and started building monuments to himself.

The line between Thy kingdom come and my kingdom come is a thin one. When we stop serving God and start using him for our own ends, it’s idolatry.

What is desperately needed is not more pastors with bigger platforms, but more pastors with a deeper love for Jesus.

TAKE THE MISSION SERIOUSLY, BUT DON’T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY.

10 WAYS TO COMBAT THE CELEBRITYPASTOR SYNDROME

As encouragement to that end, here are 10 ways to combat the celebrity-pastor syndrome.

1. Step off the pedestal. Refuse to allow people to speak of and treat you in ways that magnify the “clergy-laity” split. When the disciples shushed and shooed away the children (“don’t bother Jesus with that!”) Jesus drew them near and said, “Let the little children come.” He corrected celebrity thinking. Noncelebrity pastors can be seen kneeling to talk to little ones.

When the disciples wanted offices next to Jesus’ CEO suite in the coming kingdom, Jesus said (my paraphrase), “You know that those who are regarded as celebrities in non-Christian arenas lord it over their people and love their lofty status and power. Not so with you. Be different! Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must become a servant” (cf. Mark 10:42-45). That’s the culture you want to set.

Collaborate on decisions instead of making unilateral edicts. Invest in others even when you don’t need to. Park in the back lot and walk like other staff or volunteers do. If you are given special accommodations such as administrative help, make sure it’s because such help is necessary for you to focus on your unique role and not because you or anyone else thinks you deserve the honor. Be a servant like you preach about.

Be marked by true humility—that is, take the mission seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Bond with ministers and pastors who are more interested in being great pastors than being thought of as great pastors. The company you keep will either justify your slippage in this area or hold you accountable for noble aspirations.

2. Be among the people. It’s easy for us to hide backstage, in our offices, in meetings, or at home and never truly connect with the people to whom we are ministering. Being a pastor is more than being a public speaker or figurehead. Regardless of your personality type and preferences, find ways to mingle, listen, visit, connect, and be among people. Jesus was more than a public

speaker; he was among the people. Be in a small group with regular folk. After church, don’t run off when everyone is hanging around to chat. Stay late and help with the group putting away chairs.

3. Watch your words. Some pastors typically say “I” instead of “we.” As you speak of vision for the church’s future, talk about how “the elders and I” or “the leaders of this church” or “the staff and I have been thinking and praying,” etc. Don’t make it about you, for that cultivates the notion that the lowly people need to wait at the bottom of the mountain for you to return with a word from God.

And let’s stop saying things like, “Now I want you to close your eyes and meditate for a moment” or “I want you to do something this week. . . .” Who cares what you want? Instead, say, “Here’s a challenge for us this week.” Or, “I invite you to close your eyes and let’s all meditate for a moment.” Include yourself in the community rather than placing yourself above it. Your words tell a story and form a foundation stone for the kind of pastor you will be.

4. Preach to equip. When we preach to impress, we make it about us. Instead, we should preach to equip the saints to be on mission. Is the goal of your sermon to impress others with your smarts, charisma, or humor? Or is it to empower them to know Christ and to live out the Scripture in practical ways? Teach Scripture in a way your listeners can see themselves reading and handling the text rather than merely being impressed with your delivery. There’s a difference. Celebrity pastors stand out as speakers who impress people with their words. Faithful pastors stand on the Word and impress it upon their people.

OUR JOB IS TO MARVEL AT HIM, NOT ASK HIM OR ANYONE ELSE TO MARVEL AT US.

5. Know thyself. Some personality types are more susceptible to the dangers of being a celebrity than others. My personality type lends itself to wanting people to like me and think well of me. People like me appreciate affirmation. Some people crave validation, applause, and approval. If you share these traits, be especially aware and diligent to find your approval and identity in Christ. Satan tempted Jesus with celebrity status, and he will tempt you in the same way, so you’d better be aware of your weaknesses.

6. Curb your cravings. If you deeply desire to be known and revered as a celebrity, ask yourself, Where do those desires come from? Allow Jesus to address carnal cravings. Let God provide healing in a deep place. Invite the Spirit to fill you with contentment that allows you to serve out of a place of wholeness, rather than using people to fill the hole inside you.

Watch out for entitlement, which feeds the craving that says, “I deserve better.” Watch out for self-pity and its cousin, ingratitude, which feed cravings for unhealthy escapes or ungodly actions. These cravings are a toxic soup that taste good in the moment but create a deathinducing rot inside you. Remember, cravings are strong and immediate, but they are never the same as our deepest longings . . . which are to honor Christ, retain your integrity, and finish well with a family and church that respect you as a pastor rather than a product or personality.

7. Promote Jesus more than yourself. What would an objective observer who watches you closely, listens to you, and observes your social media feeds say about you? Would they say you care more about making yourself famous or making Jesus famous? Resolve to devote yourself to being in Christ more than speaking for him. Make John the Baptist’s words your mantra: “He must become greater, I must become less” (John 3:30).

8. Determine that you want to finish well. When you come to the finish line and look back, you will want those closest to you to think well of you, be bound to you in love, and respect you because there is in you no

deeply entrenched shadow life. Invest in your marriage and family as your “first flock.” When celebrities finish, they fade away. When faithful pastors who did not seek renown finish well, they are remembered for their faithfulness.

9. Remember whose church it is. Jesus said, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). This means the church is not yours. It’s not mine. It is not a means to the end of your career or celebrity. You are a servant of Jesus, which means you’re a servant of the church. You are a means to the end Jesus has in mind. Remembering it is Jesus’ church will help you when things are going horribly. (“Jesus, your church has some real problems today. I hope you fix it. I’m going to bed.”) But it also will help when things are going great and accolades flood your direction, for you will remember whose church it is. If anything good happens in the church, it’s not because of you, it’s in spite of you.

10. Give God the glory. Latch onto Psalm 118:23 and quote it often: “The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.” Church leaders too frequently are tempted to reverse this and say, “Lord, look at all the amazing things I’ve done . . . isn’t it marvelous in your eyes?” This is performance-based thinking. It reveals a legalistic, reward-based system, where we hope our “success” will award us with celebrity status. Instead, the psalmist reminds us that if anything good happens in and through you or the church, the Lord has done this Our job is to marvel at him, not ask him or anyone else to marvel at us. 

Ben Cachiaras serves as lead pastor of Mountain Christian Church, Joppa, Maryland.

arlier this year, it seemed the whole country was caught up in the cancellation of Bud Light, America’s best-selling beer. The turmoil resulted from a promotion that connected the brand to Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender TikTok influencer; Bud Light sent personalized beer cans to Mulvaney celebrating both March Madness and Mulvaney’s yearlong transition to identify as a woman. Mulvaney’s videos on social media triggered a backlash that caused many Bud Light beer drinkers to reject the iconic brand.

In just a few weeks, Anheuser-Busch lost $5 billion in market value, 17 percent in sales, and 21 percent in market volume. Two executives responsible for the campaign were put on administrative leave, and the brand enlisted the help of Anheuser-Busch global marketing executive Todd Allen to get them back on track.

But what does any of that have to do with the Restoration Movement?

A few weeks into the controversy, Anson Frericks, a former Anheuser-Busch executive, was interviewed by Will Cain, who asked whether conservative consumers are likely to put this controversy in the rear-view mirror.

Frericks said, “That’s the bet [Anheuser-Bush is] making. I think that’s the wrong bet to make.”

Frericks’s primary argument hinged on what he described as the difference between “shareholders” and “stakeholders.”

Shareholders, Frericks said, are those who drank the beer, purchased the brand, invested in the stock as part of their retirement portfolios, and made it a part of their lives.

Stakeholders, on the other hand, he described as organizations who leveraged a brand’s capital by working with political and activist organizations to try to reach a wider target. Such efforts, in this instance, ventured afield from what the shareholders are about—humor, sports, and the things that bring us together rather than those that tear us apart . . . such as social and political hot-button issues.

Frericks’s analogy of shareholders and stakeholders is where I saw the connection with the Restoration Movement.

Kent Fillinger shared data with me from the U.S. Religion Census. The data showed there are 4,787 Christian Church/Church of Christ congregations with 1,379,041 adherents. (As Kent mentions in his Metrics column this month, a Wall Street Journal article indicates the actual numbers might be 26 to 40 percent higher.) But the state-by-state breakdown of where these congregations are located is what I found most interesting. You see, nearly 600,000 (42 percent) of Independent Christian Church adherents are located in four states: Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio.

The people who attend, serve in, and tithe to our churches are our shareholders. Beyond that, we have plenty of parachurch organizations like conferences, Bible colleges, mission organizations, church extension funds, and publications like Christian Standard that tend to be more like stakeholders. These parachurch entities seek to influence the churches they serve by highlighting and promoting their area of focus, be it education, growth, innovation, Bible translation, worldwide missions, financial investment, discipleship, news, networking, unity, or something else.

The particular passions of these stakeholders are great, and their desires are noble, but the movement is really about present shareholders and possible future shareholders. Ultimately, the Restoration Movement is about the people—the shareholders—of those individual churches.

The old saying goes, “All politics is local,” but it is especially true in our movement in terms of the incredible value of each church’s independence. “All church is local” fits us . . . and our churches find their epicenter in the Midwest, particularly among the four states we have listed.

That’s not to say that the people and churches in the other 46 states are less important to the whole, but it does serve as a reminder of where almost half of our shareholders live and worship. And while some of the largest individual churches might be located in those 46 “non-core” states, the largest concentration of our shareholders are not. For example, the largest American Independent Christian Church is in Arizona, but Arizona has only 19 percent as many ICC adherents as Indiana.

As parachurch organizations or stakeholders, we need to understand that shareholders (church members) are in relationship with their local churches to a much greater degree, in most every case, than with us. If we (parachurch

organizations and stakeholders) are trying to influence on a national level in conferences, we need to shape our passions around what those shareholders stand for, believe in, invest in, and build their lives around.

I’ve noticed that our conferences can become focused on a particular topic or agenda that serves more to divide than to connect. We should pause for a few moments and consider how much we agree on regarding our distinctives. Then, I think, we would be more inclined to leave important but nonessential issues to local church leaderships and their shareholders.

Our located colleges and universities are places where biblical and behavioral authority is leveraged with students, so those institutions should be clear and forthcoming about their theological positions, approach to Scripture, and disciplinary processes before students sign up for classes and before churches support the institutions. Many churches have a “playbook” about how they determine important but not essential issues. It would be helpful for unity if places of higher education did the same.

Publications like Christian Standard need to be environments of honest and respectful debate over important but nonessential issues where our unity is leveraged for greatest effectiveness. Parachurch ministries like our extension funds, mission organizations, and other services exist to serve the needs of the church. Still, these ministries can face difficulties because of competitiveness among themselves. While such competition is unavoidable among nonprofits, we must admit it and still compete in God-honoring ways.

The stakeholder/shareholder analogy is a good one, I think, when we see how our fellowship of churches and ministries operate and how we might do our best to foster unity as we hold firmly to our clear distinctive of church autonomy. 

IS MY CHURCH HEALTHY?

When it’s your own health, a check-up is easy. An hour with your doctor tells you everything you need to know.

But how do you know if your church is healthy?

Consider these symptoms:

• You’re saying goodbye to ministers way too often.

• You’ve quit reaching your community.

• A ny buzz of excitement has left our building

• Your leadership feels stuck.

If it’s time to check the pulse of your church, we’re here to help.

NXTStep Church Services has a long history of serving churches like yours. If you’re between ministers, we’ll work with you to provide an experienced minister who has the tools and proven evaluations to help you find greater health—and a solid future.

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Call 480.682.8516 now to find out more. There’s no obligation—just the relief of moving from anxiety to anticipation.

WE HELP MOVE YOU FROM ANXIETY TO ANTICIPATION!

For more information, go to yourncs.org or follow the QR Code.

THE LOOKOUT

OUR FREE WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY MATERIAL IS AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH CHRISTIANSTANDARD.COM AND OUR “+LOOKOUT STUDY” NEWSLETTER.

To access our weekly lesson material, simply visit ChristianStandard.com in your web browser and select +The Lookout in the main menu.

There you will find the most recent

• Study by Mark Scott (longtime Christian college professor)

• Application by David Faust (veteran Christian educator and minister)

• Discovery questions by Michael C. Mack (editor and experienced curriculum writer)

A new block of related lessons begins every month, so your group can jump in at any time during the year.

Many small-group leaders and participants prefer to receive our lessons via newsletter, which we send out monthly at least 10 days in advance. The newsletter provides a link to a download of the next month’s lesson material all in one easy-to-print pdf. (Send an email including the title “The Lookout Study” to cs@christianstandardmedia.com to be added to our mailing list.)

You have our permission to print as many copies as you need for your group or class, or you can forward the link or share the pdf via email with your friends.

A final thought: Our Discovery questions are designed to foster conversation and “discovery” of biblical truth among groups and individuals with much Bible knowledge or no Bible background. Try it out! It’s free!

july

JEREMIAH (PART 2)

HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS

In darkness there still can be hope—like when grade-school students come into a classroom and see the blinds pulled and the projection unit on. A movie beats homework any day. Jeremiah sounded warnings, but he also sounded hope. From the potter, students will learn the hope in repentance. From a letter, students will learn the hope of God’s plans. From a new covenant, students will learn the hope of God’s loyal love. From the purchase of a field, students will learn the hope of God’s promise. From restored land, students will learn the hope of God’s faithfulness.

JUSTICE WILL COME

People cry out for justice when justice has been violated. Perhaps that indicates we all have an innate sense of fairness, honesty, lawfulness, and integrity built into us by our Creator. We seem to know that no one gets away with behaving unjustly forever and that only a fair and impartial judge can judge correctly. We all want justice—until it is imposed upon us. Then we want to avoid justice at all costs. The pre-exilic, seventh-century prophets Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk will help enlighten us that God will someday right all wrongs—even wrongs we have committed against him.

MINOR PROPHETS (NAHUM, ZEPHANIAH, HABAKKUK)

INTERACT

BIBLE LESSONS

Linda Snapp Thank you for the April lesson materials. I’m looking forward to studying from the book of Mark and appreciate, as always, the insightful commentaries of Mark Scott and David Faust, as well as the interesting discussion questions provided by Michael Mack! God bless all of you at Christian Standard as you spur us on to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24)!

INERRANCY IN THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT

Bill Greer, PhD, President, Milligan University Putting your exchange [with Dr. David Kiger] aside, allow me to state clearly that since our founding in 1866, Milligan has adhered to Alexander Campbell’s tenet that “the Bible is our rule for faith and practice” [“My Response: Inerrancy Is a Hill to Defend to the End,” by Jerry Harris, May/June 2023, p. 82].

I agree with the following statement that Dr. Kiger himself made to me this week: “At Milligan and Emmanuel we take the Bible seriously because it is the Word of God. We believe it is so important that we teach the Bible as part of our general education requirement for all undergraduates and as the core component of our seminary curriculum. We teach and study the Bible in the original languages of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic because we value the unique revelation of God that is in the Scriptures. We affirm the beauty of the Scriptures and love the God from whom the Scriptures come and to whom the Scriptures point. We believe the Bible serves as the guide and directive by which the church and the individual Christian should live.”

Milligan takes the words of 2 Timothy quite seriously and believes that “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). I believe this commitment can be seen in the many ways we carry out our work at Milligan, and I am confident that our namesake, Robert Milligan, would be pleased.

Peter J. Rasor II, PhD, Associate Pastor, Lilburn (Georgia) Christian Church; Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Grand Canyon University I want to commend you on supporting inerrancy and putting into historical context the statements by (Alexander) Campbell, et. al., which (David) Kiger took out of context. Not many in academia believe in inerrancy today, especially those in Christian Church and Church of Christ colleges and universities.

UNDESERVING

Loren C. Roberts Love, mercy, and grace. God extended these to us even though we don’t deserve [it]. We are to extend these to others, deserving or not [Letter from the Editor, “Where Grace Can Be Found,” by Michael C. Mack, March/April 2023, p. 6].

OLD SAINTS AND YOUNG SAINTS

Charles We the church have to understand the changing philosophies of our time and show how the Word gives a more complete meaning to our lives [Engage, “How Do We Talk About Grace with a Generation that Feels No Guilt?” by Tyler McKenzie, March/April 2023, p. 14]. I like those old saints and their life stories, but current saints with flesh and blood will have more impact because these young people can ask them questions.

INTERACT (CONT'D)

MOVIE THEATERS AND BATTLESHIPS

Jeff Zacher I agree with this [article] wholeheartedly [Preach, “The Listener’s Role in Preaching,” by Chris Philbeck, March/April 2023, p. 26]. Hebrews says we are supposed to meet together to spur each other to love and good works. Instead, we have often turned church into a movie theater or concert hall. I’m going to hang on to that battleship idea. That is exactly what a church is called to be. Galatians 5 says we are to serve each other in love—so share and spread the love since Christ gave so freely of himself to do us the ultimate service.

MASTERED MATTERS

Jeff We cannot master the Bible. The Bible is supposed to master us [“The Grace-Filled God of the Entire Bible,” by Marty Solomon, March/April 2023, p. 38]. Thank you for sharing that sentiment. I live mastered by his Word as best I can. It has been on the tip of my brain, but I needed to read you putting it like this. If it is God’s will, I may use [the concepts in your article] to help others.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS IN THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT

Hashim Warren “Our relationship has opened a new vista of relationships with brothers and sisters from Independent Christian Churches, the Churches of Christ, and other streams of the Restoration church family.” Love this! [“Grace Unites Us,” by Will Archer, March/April 2023, p. 44]. I’ve been creating relationships in the Restoration Movement streams in my state, and it’s refreshing and uplifting.

BEN MEROLD

Nathan (Nate) L. Hanson Doyle so beautifully describes Ben Merold [“An Example Worth Following: A Tribute to Ben Merold,” by Doyle Roth, March/April 2023, p. 64]. I had the opportunity to hear Ben speak many times at the NACC, his church, a leadership conference at LCU, and at our church in Omaha. He was so full of wisdom and insight. What a tremendous blessing he was to the Restoration Movement. We are all better for having known him!

Paul (Pat) Mooney Ben Merold was my favorite preacher. I had Ben preach revivals in just about every congregation I served as senior minister. Ben was the best. I heard him preach at the North American Christian Convention [and at] the Kiamichi Clinic in Oklahoma. Pam and I would travel 100 miles to hear him preach revivals in areas where we were serving. What a Christlike man he was.

Bruce Russell I had the privilege of being a part of Eastside Christian Church for several years and completing my internship under Ben’s direction. I was always amazed by Ben’s ability to lead even through difficult times. Not only at Eastside but as a member of the board at Pacific Christian College. Pat was always a gracious host in their home and did so much to compliment Ben’s ministry. It was probably from Ben’s influence that I started using the phrase, “for the Christian, retirement is out of this world.”

For space, length, readability, relevance, and civility, comments sent to Interact may remain unpublished or be edited. We do read them all and prayerfully take them to heart. If we publish your comment, we will try to honestly reproduce your thoughts with those considerations in mind. Where we disagree, let’s continue to keep P.H. Welshimer’s words in mind to “disagree without being disagreeable.”

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