Neighboring for the Common Good

ISSUE 31 / SEPT_OCT 2020

DON EVERTS / LINDA SEILER / JAMÉ BOLDS

neighboring for the common good

of ears ple!

Y n Eleve ish Peo g n i t Jew bra Cele Hope to ing Bring

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REASONS TO SUPPORT JACOB’S HOPE

and Its Efforts to Serve the Jewish People Around the World

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IT’S BIBLICAL. “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3, NASB).

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THE GOOD NEWS IS SHARED. As the world becomes more dangerous and divisive, Israel has served as a beacon of hope. Jacob’s Hope is connected with a respected Pentecostal organization that believes in bringing all people to faith.

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IT DEMONSTRATES GRATITUDE TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE. Through the Jewish people and Israel, both the Old and New Covenants were given. Jacob’s Hope provides support by helping meet needs. The blessings received from this compassion-driven outreach to the Jewish people are used to partner with Jewish believing congregations, leadership training, and more.

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Since 2009 Jacob’s Hope has worked around the world to bring hope to the Jewish people through compassionate ministry and evangelism.

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Partner with us to bring hope to the Jewish people in Israel and the nations.

Love. Hope. Messiah. jacobshope.com (417) 865-3295 jacobshope@jacobshope.com P.O. BOX 1046, SPRINGFIELD, MO 65801

Acct. No. 390907

SEPT-OCT 2020

Influence | 1

MAGAZINE

THE SHAPE OF LEADERSHIP

INFLUENCE MAGAZINE

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Influence magazine is published by the Assemblies of God Publisher: Douglas E. Clay Executive Editor: George P. Wood Managing Editor: Rick Knoth Senior Editor: John Davidson Assistant Editor: Christina Quick Designer: Steve Lopez and Prixel Creative Advertising Coordinator: Ron Kopczick

CONTRIBUTORS Stephen Blandino, Jamé Bolds, JoAnn Butrin, G. Robert Cook Jr., Julie E. Davenport, John Davidson, Don Everts, Gary Garcia, Marvin Gilbert, Julissa Lopez, Eric N. Kniffin, Christina M.H. Powell, Mike Santiago, Linda Seiler, George P. Wood

SPECIAL THANKS Donna L. Barrett, Malcolm Burleigh, Douglas E. Clay, Wilfredo De Jesús, Rick DuBose, Greg Mundis

EDITORIAL

Copyright © 2020 by The General Council of the Assemblies of God, 1445 N. Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65802-1894.

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2 | Influence

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Send address changes to Influence magazine: 1445 N. Boonville Avenue Springfield, MO 65802-1894

“I believe that as you use The One Year® Pray for Life Bible, it will take hold of your life. Your hand will fuse with the Sword of the Spirit. You will become one with the Word, and it will be your mark of valor and distinction. Others may cower as the culture of death moves through the earth like a dark, poisonous cloud; others may retreat from the frontlines; some may collapse in fear before the enemy, overcome by anxiety and overwhelmed by battle fatigue. But you will stand firm on the frontlines, holding fast to Scripture and winning victories for the cause of life and for our King.”

FROM THE FOREWORD BY

J O N I E A R E C K S O N TA DA

♦ ♦ ♦

P R A Y for L I F E B I B L E

THEONEYEARBIBLE.COM SEPT-OCT 2020

Influence | 3

CONTENTS 6 From the Editor A Singular Command George P. Wood

8 Get Set LEADERS IMPACTING THE CHURCH AND CULTURE

Promoting Health in a Hurting World A Q&A with Joann Butrin

p10 10 Leadership TOOLS FOR PERSONAL AND CONGREGATIONAL GROWTH

• Self Dealing With Doubts Christina M.H. Powell

• Marriage & Family Healthy Marriage, Healthy Ministry Marvin Gilbert

• Practice Should We Add a Service?

Mike Santiago

• Ethics Busyness and Boredom John Davidson

26 Neighboring for the Common Good

p26

Amid all the noise, Christians are called to strike a gracious note of love.

Don Everts

36 LGBT Issues in a Postmodern, Post-Christian Culture Discussing sexual orientation and gender identity today.

Linda Seiler

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ISSUE_31/SEPT_OCT 2020

44 Pastoring in an Age of Unemployment Helping people rediscover their unique Kingdom purpose.

Jamé Bolds

52 Beyond the Headlines

p44

What recent Supreme Court cases say about religious liberty’s future.

Eric N. Kniffin

58 Church Ministry STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE MINISTRY

• Children When Kidmin Moves Home Julissa Lopez

• Youth The Lead Pastor’s Role in Youth Ministry Gary Garcia

• Adult Leveraging Experience G. Robert Cook Jr.

64 Reviews Abusing Moral Talk for Selfish Ends Plus Recommended Reading for Leaders George P. Wood

68 Make It Count AN EIGHT-WEEK STUDY FOR LEADERSHIP TEAMS

Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference Stephen Blandino

80 This Is My Story

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Broken Pieces: Hope After Infidelity and Abuse Julie E. Davenport

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FROM THE EDITOR

Reflections on Leadership

A Singular Command G E O R G E P. W O O D

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is obviously relevant today.

George P. Wood is executive editor of Influence magazine.

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ho is my neighbor?

Two millennia ago, a lawyer asked Jesus this question. His motives were not pure. He began by asking Jesus a different question to test Him. Then the lawyer asked Jesus this question to justify himself.

In response, Jesus told what we now call the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37).

Jews in Jesus’ day regarded Samaritans as half-breeds and heretics. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the Babylonians exiled Judean leadership to Mesopotamia and settled a Mesopotamian people group in the ancestral lands of Ephraim and Manasseh. Over the next few centuries, that people group intermarried with the locals and began practicing an idiosyncratic form of Judaism, based solely on the Pentateuch and centered around a temple in Samaria, but also incorporating some pagan elements.

No love was lost between Jews and Samaritans. Each viewed the other as, to borrow a phrase from anthropologist Lisa Harding, a repugnant cultural other.

Jesus no doubt wanted to puncture the lawyer’s self-righteousness. Perhaps Jesus also wanted to force him to reckon more deeply with the Law in which the lawyer was supposedly an expert.

Remember the lawyer’s first question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Knowing the lawyer was attempting to test Him, Jesus asked him how he would answer the question. The lawyer pointed to two Scriptures: “Love the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 6:5) and “Love your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:18). This seems to have been a common Jewish summary of Scripture’s moral teaching, one Jesus himself advocated (Matthew 22:34–40; Mark 12:28–31).

In Hebrew, Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 are linked by the term ve-ahavta, “And you shall love.” Interestingly, that particular verbal form appears only once more in the Hebrew Bible, in Leviticus 19:34: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love [ve-ahavta] them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”

Jewish hermeneutics in Jesus’ day included a principle called gezerah shavah.

If an identical term appeared in two or more commandments, those commandments became mutually interpreting. According to Jesus, then, Scripture taught that love of God, neighbor, and foreigner constituted a singular command.

The irony in the Parable of the Good Samaritan is the Jewish characters didn’t follow Leviticus 19:34, but the Samaritan — the foreigner — did. He acted like a neighbor.

This parable is obviously relevant today.

Some speak of a “culture war” in contemporary America, in which soldiers stare across a divide and view the other side as repugnant cultural others to avoid, if not cancel.

Those of us who follow Jesus know the other side — however “foreign” they and their beliefs and practices are to us — are still neighbors to be loved. Love of God, neighbor, and foreigner is Scripture’s Great Commandment.

As Jesus said, therefore, “Go and do likewise.”

In the cover story of this issue of Influence, Don Everts talks about neighboring for the common good. Linda Seiler uses her personal testimony to share how Christians should think about the controversial issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. Jamé Bolds offers advice about how to pastor in an age of unemployment. And Eric Kniffin analyzes four recent Supreme Court cases that affect religious liberty.

I hope you find these articles — and the other content in this issue — both informative and inspiring!

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GET SET

Leaders Impacting the Church and Culture

Promoting Health in a Hurting World A Q&A WITH JOANN BUTRIN, R.N., PH.D. JoAnn Butrin began her missionary career as a registered nurse serving in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for 14 years. She is now director of both CompassionLink (formerly HealthCare Ministries) and International Ministries for Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM).

Butrin believes in a holistic approach to missions, sustainable development, community health, HIV/AIDS relief, and social justice.

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INFLUENCE: How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way church leaders think about community health?

BUTRIN: As a person educated in public health, I have always been a little wary of the suggestion at the end of a song service to “shake hands with at least five people.” I wanted to reach for the hand sanitizer after that exercise but didn’t want to insult the people around me. I wasn’t thinking of a dangerous virus but more a cold or flu.

The onset of COVID-19 has helped church leaders rethink some of those rituals that have been part of our church tradition for so long. As churches begin to reopen, I believe church leadership will be making decisions to not return to handshakes, hugs, common Communion cups, and so on, and will find other ways to create vibrant community.

How did God call you to work in the areas of health care and community development?

I grew up in a pastor’s home where we hosted missionaries like Lillian Trasher, a nurse and director of an orphanage in Egypt. I think God used her to soften my heart. Not long after her visit, while kneeling at an altar, I was called to be a missionary nurse in Africa.

I received nursing training, and at the age of 22 left for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where I served in a small hospital and outpatient clinic.

My interest began to turn toward public/community health because I realized so much of what we were treating was preventable. I returned to school on my furloughs and focused on health education, community health and preventable diseases. We began to develop training materials, procuring vaccinations, and doing all we could do to ensure clean water and proper sanitation.

I later pursued a Ph.D. in community health and medical anthropology. These degrees have served me well as I have had opportunities to lead ministries with similar focus and to teach and train globally.

Why are health care and community development biblical mandates?

The Bible is a revelation of the heart of God for His people. He speaks of the poor, widows, orphans, and homeless, and He instructs us to care for them. He says when you care for the poor, you “will lack nothing” (Proverbs 28:27). We are told to plead for mercy for the fatherless and do justice and mercy for all (Micah 6:8).

In Luke 10, we find the beautiful Parable of the Good Samaritan where the kindheartedness of the Samaritan went to immediate care (relief ) but also provided for ongoing care for the injured man (development).

Many times, our Western tendency may be to provide relief — food, clothing, etc. — when the situation is not an emergency but is rather a chronic issue that needs longterm and sustainable solutions. It is much easier, faster and more fulfilling to provide relief, but this often creates dependency and doesn’t really help people to help themselves.

“The wonderful part of coming alongside people to find solutions for their life issues together is that it provides opportunities for relationship.

And in that relationship, there is opportunity to share about faith in Jesus.”

— JoAnn Butrin

How do health care and community development relate to the Great Commission?

The wonderful part of coming alongside people to find solutions for their life issues together is that it provides opportunities for relationship. And in that relationship, there is opportunity to share about faith in Jesus.

As communities of faith grow, they are being established with a DNA of compassion and an outward focus to help others.

What does CompassionLink do, and how can readers get involved with it?

CompassionLink is an international AGWM ministry developed to serve a hurting world.

It is a Christ-centered, development-based approach to helping people help themselves by training in community health evangelism, agriculture, fish farming, fuel conservation and basic health screening methods.

Please visit Compassionlink.org for more information.

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LEADERSHIP SELF

Dealing With Doubts CHRISTINA M.H. POWELL

Given that most pastors experience doubt at some time in their ministries, what is the best way to deal with these doubts?

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n all-star baseball pitcher does more than entertain us with his fastball.

He also teaches sportsmanship when he perseveres to win a game, volunteers at a local charity, and compliments the opposing team in a press conference after a loss.

Role models demonstrate the attitude and behaviors necessary for success in a given endeavor. Pastors are spiritual role models, and their congregations and communities observe how faith impacts their lives. But

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pastors are people, and just like a star player can have a bad game or sustain an injury, pastors and other paid church staff members can go through difficult seasons.

In recent years, some high-profile Christian ministers have processed their doubts in the pulpit in ways that are not helpful to the congregations they lead. However, given that most pastors experience doubt at some time in their ministries, what is the best way to deal with these doubts?

Let’s consider a Bible-based and reasonable strategy for dealing with the doubts that arise in the course of ministry.

Determine the Source

Just as a doctor would diagnose a disease before prescribing a treatment, a pastor needs

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MASQUERADES AS AN ANGEL OF LIGHT.”

2 Corinthians 11:14 (NIV)

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The Masquerade

I see Donna Sparks as a watchman on the wall, who sees the enemy coming and sounds the alarm. Donna’s boldness and clarity are exactly what we need today.

The book you hold in your hand will not only open your eyes — will not only give you the tactical advantage over the enemy in your life — I believe it will equip you to be a watchman on the wall.

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Donna Sparks challenges readers’ perceptions as she peels away the deceptive veneer surrounding some of today’s most contentious topics confronting Christians.

This book is a clarion cry to end the ensnaring charades and discover real freedom.

Dr. J.P. Vick, Lead Pastor, Northside Assembly, Jackson, Tennessee

In The Masquerade, Donna Sparks masterfully exposes how deception lures people into its web of deceit.

Deception occurs in every area of life whether ethics, philosophy, morality, religion, or sexuality. But be encouraged, because the king of counterfeits, Satan, has been defeated by the Light of the world, Jesus Christ. This book will enable your ministry to exercise greater discernment.

Terry G. Bailey, District Superintendent, Tennessee Assemblies of God Ministry Network Donna Spark’s new book, The Masquerade, restores clarity to our culture-blurry eyes while provoking us to speak out in love.

Tim Enloe, International Conference Speaker and Author

Donna Sparks, evangelist and author of the popular books, Beauty from Ashes: My Story of Grace and No Limits: Embracing the Miraculous, is a sought-after speaker for women’s conferences, retreats, and church services. Donna also leads a very fruitful jail ministry, through which God has brought salvation and spiritual freedom to hundreds. She blogs regularly at DonnaSparks.com

PURCHASE COPIES FOR YOU OR YOUR GROUP TODAY! DonnaSparks.com or BridgeLogos.com

SEPT-OCT 2020

Influence | 11

Your doubts are spiritual homework to handle outside the pulpit until you reslove them.

to determine the source of his or her doubts.

Are you suffering from fatigue, interpersonal conflict, or overly high expectations, or do you have a genuine intellectual question? Doubts can reflect stress in the ministry, when daily drudgery and frustrations drown out the passion of your call.

Pastors often set unrealistic expectations in the name of faith, expecting small, healthy congregations to explode overnight into megachurches like those featured in the conferences they’ve attended.

Meanwhile, a few influential yet critical parishioners can make a pastor feel like a failure, using negative words to diminish the positive contributions the pastor is making in the lives of the majority of the congregation.

A staff pastor can feel the stress of a demanding lead pastor who focuses on mistakes and seldom offers praise.

Of course, a genuine intellectual question can arise in the course of sermon preparation or counseling a parishioner. Doubts laden with emotional baggage are quite different from doubts stemming from academic curiosity. The source of your doubts will dictate the best path forward.

Plan an Appropriate Approach Christina M. H. Powell, Ph.D., is an Assemblies of God evangelist who works in the pharmaceutical industry.

She is the author of Questioning Your Doubts: A Harvard PhD Explores Challenges to Faith.

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Once you determine the source of your doubts, plan an appropriate approach to resolving these doubts. While people can benefit from a pastor’s willingness to be vulnerable about personal struggles, your doubts are spiritual homework to handle outside the pulpit until you resolve them.

Let your doubts be an impetus to learn and grow — a beginning that leads to stronger faith and greater ministry instead of a reason to quit or a harbinger of failure.

When willing to be honest with yourself, you can plan an appropriate approach.

Consider the well-known words of Psalm 23:1–3: “The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.”

Are doubts reminders that you have been too busy to refresh your soul? Your physical body needs rest and recreation. Your intellect needs quiet moments for reflection. Your spirit needs time on the calendar for prayer and private Bible study unrelated to your professional ministry work.

Locate and Deploy Resources

While your struggle feels unique, the truth is someone, somewhere, at some point in history has experienced and even resolved similar doubt. Read 1 Corinthians 10:11–13 as a reminder that the spiritual tests, temptations and doubts we experience are “common to mankind.”

In books, you can meet people from distant lands and eras whose journeys can provide answers to questions you have today. Travel to 1960 England and learn how a famous Christian apologist dealt with the pain of his wife’s death in A Grief Observed. To share the lessons he learned dealing with doubts and grief without revealing his identity, C.S. Lewis originally published this book under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk. The book was republished in the author’s name after his death in 1963.

Finally, do not overlook the value of a trusted present-day friend who can listen to you express your doubts and walk alongside while you resolve them. Trust that you can come out whole on the other side of your journey with doubt, heeding the words of the prophet Azariah to King Asa in 2 Chronicles 15:7: “Be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”

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LEADERSHIP MARRIAGE & FAMILY

Healthy Marriage, Healthy Ministry M A RVI N GI LBE RT

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astors are skilled pursuers. They pursue highly qualified staff, visitors, and growth in general. Most actively

Four ways to pursue your calling as a minister by pursuing the person you married.

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pursue the lost in their communities. Some pursue higher education or other qualifications. But what of their spouses?

Ministry is certainly a worthy pursuit. So is a healthy marriage. Unfortunately, many married pastors prioritize the former over the latter — and invariably, both the congregation and the ffamily suffer. Here are four ways to pursue your calling as a minister by pursuing the person you married:

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Pursuit of your spouse is not just one more entry on an already full to-do list. … It is a lifestyle that reflects God’s heart.

1. Prioritize Your Marriage

Make the ongoing, lifelong pursuit of your spouse a high priority. Pursue your spouse when you feel romantic and when you don’t.

Pursue your spouse when it’s easy and when it isn’t.

True pursuit is an act of the will. It is a choice — one that always reflects the value of your marriage. The more you cherish that relationship, the stronger your marriage becomes — and that is the foundation of your future ministry together.

After 48 years of marriage, I know I am at my best (as is my marriage) when I am lovingly pursuing my wife. True, she already said “yes” to me many years ago. I treasure that moment, almost a half-century ago, at First Assembly in Caldwell, Idaho.

But what I most want to hear is my wife’s next “yes” — yes to our shared dreams, our ministry goals, our romance, our partnership, our present, and our future. I must actively pursue that “yes.” I disrespect my wife and imperil my marriage if I assume it already belongs to me.

2. Practice What You Preach

Marvin Gilbert, Ed.D., directs the doctor of ministry degree program at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas. He is the author of The Christian Husband’s Handbook: Constantly Pursuing the Treasure You Hold (Wipf & Stock, 2020).

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Loving, intentional pursuit of your spouse is not a selfish, nonministry activity. It need not compete with your ministry; it is ministry!

Every time you preach, you call people to a close, personal relationship with a God who pursues both saints and sinners. Listeners will more easily grasp these truths when you model gentle pursuit as the central priority of your marriage.

Pastors often speak on family and marriage issues as well. When the love between a pursuing pastor and his or her spouse is rich, tender, and passionate, the congregation will know it. Your happy, deeply satisfied spouse will validate your marriage-focused sermons.

Pursuit of your spouse is not just one more entry on an already full to-do list, however. It is a lifestyle that reflects God’s heart.

In calling Jesus the bridegroom and the Church His bride, the Bible sets the bar high for marriage.

New believers who have had few positive examples in their lives need to see what a healthy, biblical marriage looks like. Your lifestyle and marriage will answer the inevitable question, “Does this pastor walk the talk?”

3. Invest in the Relationship

Pursuing your spouse means looking for opportunities to express your love and adoration. Whether through date nights, tender text messages, or unexpected gifts, intentionally investing in your marriage lets your spouse know how much you value the relationship.

Be creative, and keep it fresh. What truly matters to your spouse? Find new ways to speak to the heart of the one you love.

A few weeks ago, I told my wife as we drove down the road, “I want to give you a bath.”

She looked shocked until I explained my intent. On a whim, I had decided to “bathe” her with words of affirmation. For the next five minutes or so, I confessed how much I treasured and esteemed her and how grateful I am for her wisdom, kindness and graciousness.

Each time I paused, my wife eagerly let me know I had her permission to continue. I am continually amazed at the difference even the simplest gestures can make. Even if it might seem silly, she knows I am gently pursuing her heart … again. And she affectionately approves.

4. Pass It On

Pastors may preach a few thousand sermons during a long ministry career. Yet their first — and perhaps best — ministry opportunity centers on those congregants who sleep just down the hallway, the ones who raid the fridge and who are watching even when we think they don’t notice.

Your children know far better than the average church member whether Dad is tenderly pursuing Mom daily, and vice versa. And what they know will define their view of both marriage and ministry for the rest of their lives.

Pastor, teach your children at every opportunity that a Christ-centered marriage is worth pursuing. This may be the greatest sermon you will ever preach.

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LEADERSHIP PRACTICE

Should We Add a Service?

MI K E SA N T I AGO

Ten do’s and don’ts.

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ess than a year after planting Focus Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, we went from one service to three services. Following a season as a portable church, we expanded again. We now have three locations and five weekend services.

The decision to embrace multiple services has directly influenced the ability to grow our church.

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If your church is contemplating making this shift, here are 10 guidelines: 1. Don’t make extra services the starting point for growth. I have met a few pastors who thought adding a service would generate growth, but that has not proven true.

Churches that successfully make the transition from one to two services usually do so because of capacity issues. Perhaps the

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Adding services creates space for new people to serve — maybe even some you never thought would step up.

Mike Santiago is pastor of Focus Church (AG) in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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children’s area is too crowded, for instance.

Multiple services work best when the congregation can see the obvious need.

2. Don’t fixate on volunteer numbers. The fear of not having enough volunteers often holds churches back from adding services.

However, I have never been to a church of any size that was no longer accepting help.

There will never be enough volunteers. Adding services creates space for new people to serve — maybe even some you never thought would step up.

3. Treat volunteers like VIPs. Whether through catering, compensation or words of gratitude, let volunteers know you appreciate them.

Set up a special room for them where they can get snacks and beverages. Budget and account for this each time you add a service.

Offer childcare for volunteers who are arriving early. It’s the least you can do for the audio technician who woke up three kids before 5 a.m. to be at sound check on time.

4. Generate momentum through careful timing. Ministry happens in seasons.

There are certain windows of opportunity for maximizing growth potential.

Our church always grows early in the year.

Few people vacation in winter, the sports activities are limited, and the new year brings a fresh sense of commitment.

Adding a service later than February may not generate enough momentum to get through the summer, when church attendance is lower. I suggest starting the new year with new service times. Alternatively, consider a date between mid-August and mid-October, as a new school year begins.

5. Keep the services unified. It may be tempting to try two different kinds of services, such as traditional and contemporary.

However, this approach can divide the congregation. If each service is different, people will have to pick sides. It also makes future adjustments more difficult.

Identical services unify the church and give guests plenty of options. Having the

same songs, same sermon, same energy and same programming will keep everyone on the same page.

6. End on time. A multiple service model only works if there is enough lead time between services. Getting this right may mean adjusting the service structure, but the entire church needs to function on a system.

There must be time for cleaning and resetting the kids’ rooms. The sound director needs a chance to get some coffee. You have to end on time, every time.

7. Count the cost. Adding a service can be expensive. For a portable church that is contracted per hour, you will have to add additional time. Over the course of the year, that time can add up.

There are also marketing costs, such as changing the signs, reprinting invitation cards, and updating the website.

Just because you increase the number of available seats does not mean you will automatically have the additional income. You’ll need at least six months of expenses in the bank to float until the income catches up.

8. Don’t neglect your health. The risk of burnout in ministry is real, even with only one Sunday service. Establish some boundaries and healthy habits. Find a place to rest between services, such as a corner of your office.

Keep healthy snacks and water close by.

Stay hydrated to make it through and preserve your voice. And when the services are over, schedule some down time.

9. Start with a seasonal approach. There are some things you have to figure out by trying. Add a service on a temporary basis before committing to it long term. If it doesn’t take off, simply revert back to a single service.

10. Prepare your ego. Preachers love full rooms. But when you spread out your attenders over two service times, it shouldn’t be surprising that the room is no longer full.

Remember that a full room means it is harder to reach anyone else. It takes some adjusting, but creating space — and opportunity for outreach — might be the best thing you’ve ever done.

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Influence | 21

LEADERSHIP ETHICS

Busyness and Boredom J OHN DAVI DSON

How to faithfully steward every season.

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uring the last few months, ministers have dealt with a range of demands.

Some have had to work longer hours than ever because of the pandemic.

Others have struggled because fewer activities and no in-person services created a

D

void — meaning that, for the first time, many ministers felt they had little to do. I’ve heard from many pastors that March through May were very busy as they were in crisis mode, but work has been much slower since June.

Too slow.

Most books, articles and podcasts that discuss time management focus on productivity. That’s good because all of us can be more productive, and figuring out how to manage our time is an important part of our maturity and professional life.

But there’s another side to time

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Influence 23

Busyness and margin both test our ability to steward this God-given resource of time.

John Davidson, Ph.D., is director of leadership development and the Alliance for AG Higher Education for the General Council of the Assemblies of God in Springfield, Missouri.

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management — an ethical side. That’s because there are certain things you should and shouldn’t do with your time. You could make the case that time is our most valuable resource. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time.

Some say you can’t even really manage time; you can only steward it. And the Bible is clear that stewardship of time is a spiritual issue. Here’s just one example from Paul: Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15–16).

Paul wasn’t giving us a manual on personal productivity. He was communicating that how we steward our time is a spiritual activity, and it matters for eternity. Eternity is time without end — or, maybe more accurately, a realm in which time doesn’t exist.

Someday we won’t structure our lives around time, but for now, it’s all we know.

It helps here to understand the difference between a clock and a timer. A clock tells us what time it is. It’s a snapshot of the present.

A timer tells us how much time we have left. A timer is a snapshot of the future.

As believers, we know our lives aren’t governed by a clock but a timer. We don’t know how much time is left, but we know it’s counting down. And every minute that passes, we’re one minute closer to Christ’s return. That alone should be incentive for us to make the best use of our time.

Some seasons are just busy and there’s no way around it. In demanding seasons, try these things so you can manage your busyness rather than allowing your busyness to manage you: Stay healthy by getting regular exercise, rest when you can, share the load, take time for your family, and keep a sabbath.

(Sabbath isn’t optional when you’re busy. It’s even more necessary during such times.)

But what should we do when we’re not as busy? Just as managing busyness requires wisdom, you also have to manage margin wisely.

The last few months have exposed the ways

we’ve looked to our busy schedules for validation. When we’re not as busy, it’s easy to feel bored, unproductive, useless and unfulfilled.

Instead of surrendering to negative emotions, here are some ways to faithfully steward margin in this season: Rest. Take a deep breath and embrace the slowness. Rest is part of the natural rhythm God created for us. Take your sabbath, go on a vacation, or just take a few extra days off to be with those you love.

Catch up. Do anything you didn’t have time for when you were busy. At the beginning of a crisis, everything unessential moves to the back burner. Now is a good time to pull those tasks off the back burner and complete them.

Work ahead. Prepare for anything that’s coming up. Strategize the remainder of 2020, plan an event, outline an agenda for an upcoming meeting, or fill in your preaching calendar for the next few months.

Think. Brainstorm ideas related to your ministry. Think about future events, processes, programs, and how you can better fulfill your mission personally and as a church.

Generate ideas for serving your community.

Thinking sometimes seems unproductive, but time spent thinking is not time wasted.

It’s an investment in the future.

Read. Pick up a book that relates to your ministry. It could be on ministry, theology, discipleship or leadership. Take notes, and share them with your staff or volunteers. Reading on the job isn’t wasting time.

It’s taking action to make yourself a better leader.

Reach out. Take a few minutes to send a text, make a call, or write a note. We rarely have as much time as we’d like to care for people personally, so use this time to care.

A few words of encouragement could be just the boost someone needs.

Busyness and margin both test our ability to steward this God-given resource of time.

So whether you’re busy or bored, make the decision today to use your time in a way that will help you grow, care for others, and fulfill your mission.

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n e i g h b o r fo r t h e co m mon g Amid all the noise, Christians are called to strike a gracious note of love.

DON EVERTS

26 | Influence

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i n g ood

W

hile the divisiveness of our current moment in the United States may be regrettable and fatiguing, it also represents an incredible opportunity for Christians. Amid all the noise, we are uniquely shaped and called to strike an elegant and gracious note of love. But we will miss our opportunity if we do nothing more than add to the rancor.

As church leaders, our job is not only to help Christians recognize the temptations we’re facing, but also to highlight another way: a way of neighborly love that can cut through all the yelling and point others to the beauty of the gospel.

Scripture, Church history, and the latest research all confirm this hopeful path of neighborly love is possible — and ideally suited for our cultural moment.

Threefold Temptation

Before we get to the hopeful path, we have to confront our temptations with honesty. Christians in the U.S. today face a threefold temptation to respond to our current moment not with neighborly love, but with bitter antagonism.

First, there’s the political season. Every presidential election cycle brings with it a heightened level of rhetoric that is often anything but gracious. Every four years, Americans get a little louder, a little more

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Christianity in our country has entered a tougher season than it’s seen for some time. on edge, a little more extreme in their rhetoric. As social media posts reveal, at times Christians jump into the fray with more hostility than humility, and more venom than virtue.

Second, a cultural shift influences how people talk to one another. In Conversation: A History of a Declining Art, Stephen Miller suggests the art of gracious conversation, historically nurtured and celebrated in the West, has been eroding for decades.

Pete Carlson observed in The Washington Post that ours is increasingly the age of “the screed, the rant, the tirade, the jeremiad, the diatribe, the venom-fueled, white-hot harangue!”

Yelling has become normative. This shift from conversation to diatribe is well documented and undoubtedly affects Christians and non-Christians alike.

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Not only are Christians not immune from the temptations that come with such an environment, but we are actually predisposed to give in to them because of a third temptation that is unique to us: We increasingly feel like exiles in our own country.

Wanting to Punch Back

As our nation has shifted from modernity to postmodernity in recent years, the Christian Church has moved from the center of society to the margins.

As a result, Christians, who for a long time have enjoyed a sort of home-field advantage, are beginning to feel more like a visiting team.

Our situation in the U.S. is nowhere near as precarious and perilous as what other believers face in many areas of the world today. Yet Christianity in our country has entered a tougher season than it’s seen for some time.

According to Barna Group, many U.S. Christians today feel misunderstood (65%), persecuted (60%), marginalized (48%), silenced (46%), and afraid to speak up (47%) because of their faith.

The ground is shifting beneath our feet, and many of us are feeling it. Beyond a sense of displacement, some feel personally injured by these shifts. This can lead to defensiveness and bitterness — and a desire to join in the yelling. In short, we may want to “punch” back at the postmodern shifts, at changes in culture, at influential

non-Christians, at people who post anti-Christian messages on social media, and even at our non-Christian co-workers and neighbors.

Jesus once quoted a popular saying from His day, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Matthew 5:43).

This captures the posture many Christians are tempted to assume in our present moment. Sometimes hating your enemy feels as right as rain.

Of course, we know better. After all, Jesus went on to say, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” But how do we navigate life as exiles? Should we circle the wagons and wait for things to change? Are we supposed to yell louder than others to get our message across? It turns out there is another, more hopeful way — the way of exiled Christians who came before us.

Just Like Us

Consider the Christians in Asia Minor during the first century, just a few decades into the life of the Church.

These brothers and sisters were living through a time of increasing hostility toward Christians.

Even before a wave of violent persecution began, Christians regularly endured insults, defamation of character, and verbal abuse — all of which were particularly painful in an honor-and-shame culture. There were economic consequences for Christians as well.

Perhaps the changing winds of hostility shouldn’t have been surprising. After all, Paul had told Timothy the gospel would sometimes be “in season,” and at other times “out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). Sometimes the wind

would blow fair upon Christians and their message; at other times, it would blow harsh and hostile.

How were these Christians to respond to this change of weather? Certainly, some felt the temptation to blend in with their culture. Others wrestled with the urge to punch back at the hostility, at their enemies, even at their non-Christian neighbors. This, in part, is why Peter wrote his first letter.

One of the main themes of 1 Peter is that Christians may suffer because of their faith. In the opening verse, Peter addresses the letter to “God’s elect, exiles.” Throughout the letter, he deals head-on with the issue of suffering.

According to Peter, Christians in Asia Minor needed to reorient their self-understanding and come to terms with their status as exiles in their own hometowns.

Peter says Christ followers should expect times of suffering: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

According to Peter, we should also be aware of the unique temptations that come with such seasons.

Overcoming Temptation

The Early Christians were tempted to punch back. This is why Peter writes his letter when he does — to stay their bitter hand and remind them the desire to punch back may be innately human and very understandable, but it is simply not an option for Christians.

Peter is clear in this regard: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with

As social media posts reveal, Christians often jump into the fray with more hostility than humility, and more venom than virtue.

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blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:9).

Peter’s instruction may seem upside-down, but it is the way of Jesus. Peter points to Jesus himself as the example of this refreshing, unexpected response to hostility: “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. …

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:21–23).

These words have profound implications for exiles. It is natural for people to punch back when they feel attacked, maligned or misunderstood. It is natural for people in a hostile environment to raise their hackles in response. It is natural for hate to blossom in the hearts of those who are mistreated.

Yet Peter invites these early Christian exiles to take a very different path. He proposes they strike a surprising, elegant, gracious note of neighborly love.

On the Contrary, Bless

Not only did Peter bar the way of revenge in his letter — “do not repay evil with evil” — but he pointed to a gracious alternative: “On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called.”

It’s one thing to ask those who are suffering for their faith not to strike back. It’s quite another to call them to bless their neighbors. But that’s exactly what Peter does.

Peter then asks these brothers and sisters a fascinating

question: “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?” (1 Peter 3:13).

With this question, Peter invited the newly exiled Christians to step into this way of living enthusiastically and joyfully — “being eager to make good things,” as the Greek text could be translated — not grudgingly or halfheartedly.

It’s not just an attitude, but a heart change that leads to action. First Peter 4:10 says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

This is as practical as it is hopeful, as everyday as it is refreshing. Peter calls these suffering Christians to respond to their tough season by, of all things, blessing their neighbors in tangible ways.

The high call to neighborly love is essentially the same call God gave the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The people hated exile and dreamed only of a quick escape. But God had Jeremiah write them a letter to remind them of their call to pursue the common good right where they were.

Jeremiah wrote, “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7).

When the Jewish exiles were tempted to simply hold their breath until their captivity ended, God called them to pursue the welfare of their new city. When the Christian exiles in Asia Minor were tempted to punch back, God called them to use their gifts to bless their neighbors.

Religion’s Relevance in Good Works Practicing Christians

Non-Practicing Christians

Non-Christians

Sample of 2,500 U.S. adults, July 25–Aug. 15, 2019. Response option “not sure” is not shown.

Source: Lutheran Hour Ministries (LHM) and Barna Group

People of faith and religious organizations provide the majority of good works in the country. If these organizations didn’t exist, those good works wouldn’t get done.

70% 45% 27% 30 | Influence

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A majority of good works would still happen even if there were no people of faith of religious organizations to do them.

19% 36% 48%

Seemingly there are not only common temptations God’s people face during tough seasons, but also a common call: to respond with neighborly love rather than hatefulness or withdrawal.

First Peter is a letter ideally fitted for Christians who suddenly find themselves feeling like the visiting team.

Rediscovering 1 Peter

It has been observed that whenever Christians are a minority, 1 Peter takes on renewed significance for the Church. It is a letter ideally fitted for Christians who suddenly find themselves feeling like the visiting team.

During the summer of 1992, I was in the jungles of the Yucatan with a group of college students, and we were studying this epistle together. Most of the passages about suffering landed casually on us. As Christians living in the waning light of the modern era, we hadn’t really suffered for our faith. We still felt like the home team.

Sure, we experienced discomforts that summer without air conditioning and familiar food. But even then, I suspected our domestic manner of suffering was not what Peter was writing about.

In the gathering winds of postmodernity, Peter’s words about suffering have since come alive for me in new ways.

I know, a little more than I did then, what it is like to have the winds shift against the Christian faith. I feel the pull

to blend in. I feel the urge to strike back. I feel predisposed to jump into the yelling fray that is growing louder every year. It seems this is the perfect time for me and all Christians in America to rediscover 1 Peter and the call to neighborly love.

Hunger for Neighborly Love

Our neighbors are hungry for neighborly love. According to Barna, more than a quarter of U.S. adults live alone, and it is not uncommon for people to have no regular visitors in their home. What psychiatrists call “chronic

Pastor’s View of Lay Leadership Agree Strongly

Agree Somewhat

Disgree Somewhat

Disgree Strongly

Sample of 2,500 U.S. adults, July 25–Aug. 15, 2019. Response option “not sure” is not shown.

Source: LHM and Barna

“I prefer lay initiatives to new church programs.”

“For our church to be healthier, lay people must take more responsibility.”

“My church leadership is good at developing new leaders.”

52% 28% 4% 8%

40%

50%

9%

68% 5% 36%

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loneliness” is common in modern American life.

The neighborhood used to be where people could predictably find friendship in the midst of loneliness and help in time of need. But since the end of World War II, that’s been changing.

As Brian Fikkert and Kelly M. Kapic detail in their book Becoming Whole, the local neighborhood is no longer a place where we are known or meaningfully connected.

Isolated people now purchase from professionals the care previous generations received from neighbors.

The time couldn’t be more ripe for Christians to resist yielding to bitter antagonism and instead choose the ancient path of neighborly love Christian exiles before us faithfully walked.

What if we, too, refused to blend in, refused to strike back, and instead became zealous to pursue the common good of our neighbors? What if the non-Christians around us began to see a wave of Christians who were humbly pursuing the welfare of their neighborhoods and cities rather than joining in on the electoral yelling or divisive culture wars?

Surprised by Neighborly Love

For starters, our neighbors would be surprised. As Barna’s research reveals, our non-Christian neighbors do not associate Christians with good deeds in the neighborhood.

While 70% of practicing Christians believe “people of faith and religious organizations provide the majority of good works in the country,” only 27% of non-Christians are convinced of the same. If Christians across the country started showing neighborly love, it would likely get the attention of our neighbors!

And they might just welcome this neighborly love for the simple fact that we are their neighbors. When Barna asked non-Christians who could best solve community problems, 42% ranked the government as their top option, compared to only 7% preferring churches and Christian organizations.

It seems distrust for Christian organizations is high.

However, 26% of non-Christians chose “community members” as the best solution for community problems. There is more trust for those who live in the neighborhood.

In the modern era, people trusted churches and Christian organizations. In the postmodern era, they are more comfortable with community members — actual neighbors. Could this become the age of the hopeful Christian neighbor?

Perhaps this is part of why pastors have such a high view of lay leadership these days. According to Barna, 92% of pastors agree or strongly agree that they “prefer lay initiatives to new church programs.” Church leaders understand the power of everyday Christians living out their faith.

Can you imagine what would happen if Christians all across the country rediscovered God’s call to exiles — not to escape or fight back, but to seek the welfare of their

Isolated people now purchase from professionals the care previous generations received from neighbors.

community? If history is any indicator, the results would bring glory to God, and bring many of our non-Christian neighbors to faith in Christ.

Power of Neighborly Love

Peter signaled this hopeful outcome was a possibility when he wrote, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Peter 2:12). Peter understood neighborly love would speak louder than any caustic words believers were tempted to lob back at their neighbors.

There’s a reason Peter assumed good deeds would ultimately bring glory to God. During His Sermon on the Mount, this is what Jesus had taught him. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus said, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

The behaviors of Christians are in themselves a sort of message. This message in action is not just unexpected and intriguing, but it can also influence how others think about God. Peter understood Christian deeds were a powerful part of Christian witness. He knew neighborly love really stands out in an age of hostility, and their non-Christian neighbors would eventually try to puzzle out why these Christians were behaving so differently. The neighbors would naturally wonder, Why aren’t they defending themselves or getting bitter?

This is why Peter encouraged the brothers and sisters in Asia Minor to be ready with an answer: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

When this neighborly love inevitably attracted attention, Peter wanted Christ followers to interpret their deeds with gentle and respectful words about the hope they had in Jesus.

Apologetic of Neighborly Love

As it turns out, this is exactly what happened. The persecuted Christians in the Early Church loved their neighbors. For example, we know they sacrificially cared for sick and dying neighbors during two devastating pandemics. They also quietly took in and raised babies who had been discarded in the garbage heap outside of town by their pagan neighbors (an accepted behavior at the time).

The earliest Christians, often at great cost to themselves, were zealous for the common good and pursued it in the name of Jesus.

What was the result of all this neighborly love? First,

Research on spiritual conversations from Lutheran Hour Ministries (LHM) and Barna Group confirms newer generations of Christians are more likely than Christians who came before them to believe sharing their faith with others will be seen as an offensive act.

The report also shows Christians in the U.S. are having fewer spiritual conversations — with one another and with people who don’t share their faith.

In fact, three-quarters of Christians surveyed had engaged in fewer than 10 faith-related conversations with anyone over the previous 12 months.

It would be fair to say the postmodern cat has got our tongue.

Number of Conversations About Faith in the Past Year % Among U.S. Self-Identified Christians Sample of 796 U.S. self -identified Christians, June 22–July 13, 2017 Source: LHM and Barna

10%

9%

17% 32% 12% 21% none

3 to 5

10 to 50

1 to 2

6 to 9

50 or more

People Will Be Offended If I Share My Faith % Among Self-Identified Christians Who Have Talked About Faith in the Past Five Years

61%

Millennials

48%

Gen X

31%

Boomers

SEPT-OCT 2020

Influence | 33

In a room of yelling people, an elegant note of love stands out. People are likely to notice and ask about the source of such love and hope. they literally saved lives and benefitted their local communities in profound ways. Their unexpected neighborly love also brought glory to God as a lived-out message of the gospel.

Believers’ pursuit of the common good turned out to be a powerful apologetic. The early Christian leader Origen wrote that the whole world was like a theater filled with spectators, watching Christ followers to see how they would respond to persecution. This was a common view in the Church at the time.

In light of this, Origen understood apologetics (the defense of the faith) as a discipline of obedience and everyday living rather than rhetoric and ideas. As he put it, Christ “makes his defense in the lives of his genuine disciples, for their lives cry out the real facts.”

The earliest apologists didn’t write arguments about the faith or fashion clever answers to pagans’ questions.

Instead, as historian Alan Kreider has observed, they “wrote extensively on behavior because of their Christian conviction that the way people live expresses what they really believe.”

And what did non-Christian neighbors think of the loving behavior of Christ followers? In the words of writers from the Early Church, these neighbors were “deeply impressed” by their “eloquent behavior,” their “exceedingly attractive” patience, and their “wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.”

As the early Christian author Tertullian wrote, “It is our care of the helpless, our practice of loving kindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents.”

The Christians’ neighborly love brought attention and glory to God. Ultimately, pagans throughout the Roman Empire wanted to join the ranks of Christians because their good works convinced the pagans of the veracity of their message. Marcus Minucius Felix observed in the early 200s that the Christians’ “beauty of life” encouraged “strangers to join the ranks.”

Thank God, Peter was faithful to write his letter to this

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group of newly exiled Christians in Asia Minor. In the midst of their temptations, this epistle carried a simple message of love and hope they desperately needed to hear.

Peter’s message came just in time.

Our Moment

Peter’s letter comes at the perfect time for us as well. At a time when some of us are tempted to feel anger and bitterness, Peter’s words arrive to arrest our fears and illuminate our path forward, reminding us to pursue the common good of the people and place around us.

Could the divisiveness and rancor of our current moment actually represent an opportunity for the gospel?

Could this be our moment to exhibit our own “eloquent behavior,” as neighbors who are not angered or embittered by our newfound status as the visiting team, but called to a hopeful path of neighborly love?

In a room of yelling people, an elegant note of love stands out. People are likely to notice and ask about the source of such love and hope. God’s Word, Church history, and the latest research confirm this is exactly what happens when Christians pursue the common good.

Paul wrote that it was possible to “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). What if we made that our default strategy today?

Don Everts is a writer for the Hopeful Neighborhood Project and a teaching pastor at Bonhomme, a 200-year-old church in the St. Louis area. He has also been a speaker and trainer for Alpha and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. His latest book is The Hopeful Neighborhood: What Happens When Christians Pursue the Common Good.

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Discussing sexual orientation and gender identity today.

LINDA SEILER

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F

rom my earliest memory, I felt like a boy trapped inside a female body. My parents thought I was just a tomboy and that I’d grow out of it, as most girls do.

But for me, this wasn’t a passing phase; it was an obsession. Somehow I felt incomplete in my own body.

At age 9, I heard there was such a thing as a sex change operation, and I decided that was the answer. As soon as I was old enough and had enough money, I would change my name to David, get a sex change, and live happily ever after — or so I thought.

In junior high, I was envious of the boys around me as their voices changed and they developed into everything I longed to be. Around the same time, I discovered I was exclusively attracted to girls. I didn’t choose that. I didn’t want that. Yet I felt helpless to change it. I soon fell into a deep depression.

I couldn’t tell anyone what was happening. Very few were talking about these issues in the 1980s. I figured attraction to girls seemed reasonable if I truly were a boy trapped inside a female body. That just made me a straight male. I decided I needed to hold out and get the sex change operation, and my whole world would finally make sense.

In late junior high, I started thinking through how I would tell my family. I was afraid of what my parents, grandparents and neighbors would think. I decided I had two options. I could run away, have the operation, and never see my family again, or I could forego the operation and keep my family, even if it consigned me to a life of suicidal despair and loneliness. I chose the latter because my family was all I had. I never felt like I fit in, so I didn’t have close friends, and I did not want to live the rest of my life alone.

I decided to do whatever was necessary to pass as a girl so no one would guess my deep, dark secret. I grew my hair out and tried dating boys in high school, hoping experimenting sexually with them would awaken dormant sexual desires. However, no matter how much I experimented with boys, it only made me more intensely jealous. I wanted to be the man with the woman, not the woman with the man.

My junior year in high school, I experienced a genuine conversion to Christ. I thought all my struggles would go away, but they didn’t. I learned quickly the Church didn’t talk about deviant sexual matters, so I needed to keep the secret to myself. I loved Jesus and wanted to follow Him. I just didn’t know what to do about my forbidden desires.

I lived a double life until my senior year in college, when I finally confessed my issues to my campus pastor.

I thought he’d kick me out of the group and chastise me.

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Instead, my pastor said, “Thank you for sharing that with me. I know that took a lot of courage, and I want you to know this doesn’t change our opinion of you. We love you, we see the hand of God on your life, and we are going to get you the help you need.”

Had my campus pastor responded any other way, I might not be here today.

That conversation 26 years ago was the first step in an 11-year journey of transformation. The process was intensely painful and messy, and I wanted to give up multiple times. As difficult as it was, I wouldn’t trade that journey for anything because that’s where I got to know Jesus and His unwavering love for me.

As Jesus walked with me in the middle of my mess, He healed deep wounds in my heart that contributed to the erroneous belief that it’s better to be a man than a woman.

Jesus met the deep thirst in my heart for feminine love, which was at the root of my same-sex attractions.

Rather than being a sexual issue, my attraction to women developed as the result of an emotional-relational deficit of loving female relationships. Over time, the desire for such loving relationships became sexualized. In addition to direct encounters with the Lord to fill my thirst for love, God used healthy relationships with women in the body of Christ to heal my heart.

Today, I am content in my female body, and I am no longer attracted to women. Had I grown up in today’s gay-affirming world, the outcome might have been different.

Though I was not a Christian when I first experienced same-sex attraction, I had an intuitive sense those desires were wrong. Thankfully, the conviction of God combined with societal norms kept me from mutilating my body to match the disordered desires of my heart.

In contrast, today’s teens constantly hear that disordered sexual desires are natural and should not only be accepted but celebrated. Sadly, this has put Christian leaders on the defensive, not knowing how to address sexuality and gender identity.

Despite my background, addressing LGBT issues in a postmodern, post-Christian culture is challenging. I believe there are four keys to discussing sexuality and gender identity with this generation: 1. Start with relationship.

2. Approach sexuality from a holistic perspective.

3. Address the false constructs of sexual orientation and gender identity.

4. Share stories of transformation.

Relationship

As a Chi Alpha campus missionary, I am immersed in a post-Christian culture that rejects absolute truth and presumes Christians are hypocrites. It’s not a safe place to talk about biblical sexuality.

To gain a hearing, I need to present the truth in a way nonbelievers can receive it. Instead of making truth claims my starting point, I begin by investing in relationships and building trust.

Authentic relationship cuts against the stereotype that Christians are hypocritical and untrustworthy. When unbelievers experience the love of Christ in the context of relationship, it creates a safe place to discuss deeper issues like sexuality. It’s imperative to connect with the heart before you connect with the head.

This generation isn’t interested in knowing the “rules” of biblical sexuality. They’ve grown up in a diverse culture that affirms LGBT ideology and presumes people are born gay or trans. From their perspective, it feels cruel to tell someone they can’t act upon their seemingly inborn desires. In their minds, love is love, and consensual sex doesn’t hurt anyone.

They don’t want to know homosexual practice is wrong; they want to know why. If God is good, why would He create someone gay or trans and tell them it’s a sin to act upon their natural inclinations? A holistic approach to sexuality addresses that.

Holistic

As tempting as it is to start the discussion with biblical proof texts on homosexual practice, those only address the “rules” of sexuality without explaining the why behind them. To answer the why, start with the Person of God, His character and nature, and His purpose for sexuality as it relates to the gospel.

I begin by explaining God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three distinct persons yet one God — in a divine community of holy love. Everything God does is motivated by love, and the purpose of the gospel is to invite us into an eternal relationship with Him. This makes a relationship with God the starting point, rather than impersonal rules.

I narrow the discussion to three aspects of God: 1) He is a creative being who created the universe and rules lovingly over all; 2) He is a relational being who desires a love relationship with us; 3) He is three distinct persons

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yet one unified God. In other words, God exists as unity in diversity.

I go on to explain God made us in His image (Genesis 1:26–27). We are procreative beings. Just as God created us and rules over the universe, He calls us to multiply and rule over the earth (Genesis 1:28). We are relational beings designed to live in community, not isolation (Genesis 2:18).

We exist as unity in diversity — unified in our humanity yet diverse in our sexuality as male human beings and female human beings reflecting God’s image (Genesis 1:27).

Human marriage is merely a shadow of the ultimate marriage between Christ and His Bride, the Church, which is the culmination of the gospel. The same aforementioned characteristics are present in our relationship with Jesus. When we come to Christ, we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus desires an intimate relationship with His Bride (1 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 5:32). We are unified with Jesus in our humanity, yet distinct from Him in that He is God, and we are not.

God’s design for sex and marriage reflect His character and nature and His ultimate desire to be united with His Bride. God did not create sexuality as a list of rules to follow but rather as an expression of who He is and how He wants to relate to us. That resonates with a generation who values relationship over rules.

Because God designed sexuality to reflect His character and the kind of relationship He wants to have with us, He forbids any sexual act not reflecting that reality.

For the sake of explanation, I find it easier to start with

unity in diversity, then move on to relationality, and then procreativity.

First, God prohibits any sexual practice that does not reflect unity in diversity. Thus, divorce falls outside of God’s intended design because it cuts against unity.

God prohibits homosexual practice because it does not include diversity: two males or two females image unity in sameness, not unity in diversity. That is precisely why homosexual practice is forbidden. It does not reflect God’s character and nature, nor does it reflect the ultimate marriage of Christ and His Bride, the Church.

Secondly, God prohibits any sexual practice not reflecting His relational love. For this reason, the only acceptable sexual relationship is a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, reflecting God’s eternal covenant with us. That is why Scripture forbids adultery, where there is no covenant.

Scripture forbids any sexual act that does not have the capacity for procreation. A homosexual union cannot fulfill the creation mandate to multiply, paralleling the gospel mandate to make spiritual disciples who reproduce and fill the earth with Christ followers. This is not to say those who cannot procreate — infertile couples, older couples, and unmarried singles — do not reflect the gospel.

Because we live in a fallen world, some couples face infertility. However, that does not fall into the same category as a same-sex union, wherein procreation is fundamentally impossible. An infertile couple may seek out a fertility doctor to explore medical possibilities for conception, while a same-sex couple cannot conceive life together under any circumstance. A heterosexual couple who do not or cannot procreate still align with God’s design, as they represent the kind of relationship having the capacity for procreation.

While married couples reflect God’s exclusive, covenantal love, it would be inappropriate for an unmarried person to form an exclusive covenant with any one individual. Rather, they are called to experience platonic relationships with everyone, reflecting God’s all-inclusive love.

Thus, we all have the capacity to image God’s love to the world around us, but the only acceptable form of sexual union consists of one man and one woman in a lifelong marriage that images unity in diversity, covenant relationship, and the potential for procreation. While there may be people who choose to be “eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom” (Matthew 19:12), that doesn’t change God’s design for sexuality any more than a single person, like myself, who has not married yet.

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A holistic perspective helps the unbeliever understand that everything about our sexuality is designed to point to the character and nature of God and the good news of the gospel.

It is not about following a list of rules; it’s about imaging our relational, triune Creator. Within that paradigm, there’s no such thing as sexual orientation or gender identity — but only male and female created in God’s image. However, to communicate effectively with today’s generation, we must address the false constructs of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Identity

Scripture never speaks of sexual orientation or gender identity because, in God’s design, biological sex serves as the determiner of sexuality.

God designed biological males to identify as male, present as male, and feel attracted to women. He designed biological females to identify as female, present as female, and feel attracted to men. If any of those are out of alignment, that’s not an indicator of an alternative sexuality that must be celebrated; it’s an indicator that areas of the soul (mind, will and emotions) are out of alignment with God’s creational design (body).

To insist that one’s soul need not align with one’s body is a form of Gnosticism, a false belief that seeks to divorce the soul from the body.

My own transformation process involved healing wounds in my soul so that my inner being came into alignment with my God-given body. It required putting off the old self and the lies I believed that gave rise to deceitful desires, being made new in the attitude of my mind, and stepping into who God created me to be (Ephesians 4:22–24).

Instead of conforming to the pattern of this world — including the false constructs of sexual orientation and gender identity — I experienced transformation by renewing my mind to align with the Word and God’s design for my sexuality. It may sound simple, but the process took years, as our sexuality is deeply intertwined with our past experiences and heart beliefs.

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Stories of Transformation

One of the most powerful ways to reach this feelingsoriented, subjective-minded generation is through narratives. In addition to sharing the grand narrative of how our sexuality reflects God’s character and nature, share stories of how formerly gay-identified or trans-identified people have experienced transformation.

Scripture teaches we overcome the enemy by the word of our testimony and the blood of Christ (Revelation 12:11). Two quality documentaries I recommend are Pure Passion Media’s Such Were Some of You, which traces the stories from dozens of

formerly gay men and women, and TranZformed, which shares the stories of 15 ex-transgender individuals who have been transformed by Jesus. Both are free on YouTube.

I wouldn’t force those documentaries upon people who embrace LGBT ideology. However, if you know someone who is sincerely questioning his or her sexuality and looking for answers, it can be encouraging to hear from others who have walked that road and experienced transformation through Jesus Christ.

Discussing sexuality and gender identity with today’s generation may be a daunting task, but it is also an invitation to think about God’s genius design for sex through the holistic lens of the gospel. God didn’t create sex with rules in mind; God created sex as an expression of His character and nature and the kind of relationship He wants to have with us.

Our sexuality points toward the glorious mystery of the

gospel, culminating in the union between Christ and His Bride, the Church. To help this generation understand that reality, start with relationship, approach sexuality from a holistic perspective, address the false constructs of sexual orientation and gender identity, and share stories of transformation.

When we keep Jesus and the gospel at the center of our conversation, we can offer clarity and hope to a generation that desperately needs it.

Linda Seiler, Ph.D., is an ordained Assemblies of God minister and AGUSM missionary. She serves as a National Chi Alpha field specialist, training student leaders and missionaries in matters of applied theology and culture. She is a board member for ReStory Ministries, resourcing the AG to address homosexuality and gender identity.

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PASTORING IN AN AGE OF

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Helping people rediscover their unique Kingdom purpose.

JAMÉ BOLDS

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E

arlier this year, I received a call from an exhausted physician who was laying off staff because patients were not showing up. That same day, I met with a distraught restaurant owner who asked me to pray over spreadsheets after her business shut down as a result of the pandemic. Then another parishioner, a C-suite executive, told me he had lost his job.

This is the reality of ministry in 2020.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly 31.8 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits in early July, up from 1.7 million at the same time in 2019.

Fortune magazine, reporting 42.6 million unemployment claims between the start of the pandemic and the end of May, noted that this figure is greater than the combined population of America’s 22 smallest states.

Let those numbers sink in. They represent real people — our friends, family members, neighbors and congregants — many of whom were doing well before COVID-19 struck.

As pastors, we are facing a sobering situation. We are not only navigating a pandemic, but we are also leading in an age of mass unemployment. The impact on our church members goes far beyond finances.

Loss and Lament

Unemployment isn’t just a loss of income. Many have lost professional relationships, an outlet for their skills, and a sense of vocational clarity.

One definition of the word “vocation” is “calling.” Every person who is a follower of Jesus Christ has been entrusted with a unique set of gifts and talents to invest in service to God and others (Romans 12:1–8; Ephesians 2:10).

Pastors don’t have a corner on “calling.” God also calls

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parishioners to serve in areas like education, law, medicine, entrepreneurship and government. Believers who know their place of service have vocational clarity. But when unemployment strikes, it may cause them to pause and reevaluate their calling.

The challenge that lies ahead is helping our people lament and then rediscover their Kingdom purpose as they find a place to use their God-given gifts and abilities.

The reality is, some of those jobs may never come back.

Some people will need to retrain, relocate or reinvent.

Whatever lies ahead, they will need pastoral support and guidance.

We can disciple our people to be faithful to their calling but flexible to their work. Before we engage in these things, we must first take time to lament with them and offer compassionate care.

In Latin, compassion literally means “fellow-suffering” or “to suffer with.” Immediately after a loss is not the time to try to fix things for those who are suffering. It is a time to “mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15).

Our American theology often glosses over pain, suffering and loss. However, these things are part of the human experience, so we must create space for them.

As Pentecostals, we rightly trust the Spirit to empower us to do the impossible. Yet the Greek word for the Holy Spirit, Paraklētos, starts with the preposition of para, which means “to come alongside.”

The Holy Spirit is One who helps by consoling, encouraging or mediating on our behalf. John 14:26 calls Him the “Advocate” (NIV), “Helper” (ESV),

When unemployment strikes, it may cause believers to pause and reevaluate their calling.

or “Comforter” (KJV). We can follow the Spirit’s example by coming alongside those who are in pain.

To do this well, we must rediscover how to pray and lament. In Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: The Grace of Lament, Mark Vroegop suggests a simple framework: honest complaint, bold request, and decision to trust. Vroegop uses Psalm 13 to illustrate this.

The Psalmist begins with an honest complaint (verses 1–2): How long, LORD? Will You forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Teach your people it’s OK to have an honest complaint before the Lord. There is nothing wrong with asking, “Lord, why did I lose my job? Will there be work for me?

What is my part in all this?”

Of course, prayer shouldn’t end there. Next, the Psalmist makes a bold request (verses 3–4): Look on me and answer, LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

We can boldly ask God to open up new kinds of employment or new ways to use skills. We can pray, “Spirit, lead me to that new business where I can glorify God and help people. Give me wisdom and strength to flourish and do well in my new job.”

Finally, the Psalmist acknowledged his decision to trust God (verses 5–6).

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing the LORD’S praise, for he has been good to me.

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Pray with your people that they will trust in the Lord to provide new opportunities for work and relationships. Ask boldly on their behalf, and encourage them to approach God with confidence.

As we walk with people through this valley, it’s important to realize there is no one-sizefits-all solution.

Faith and Work

Job loss is a traumatic event. Beyond the financial implications, it can take a toll psychologically, socially, physically and even spiritually. As we walk with people through this valley, it’s important to realize there is no one-sizefits-all solution.

However, I do believe God has uniquely positioned your church in your community. You may be in an inner city with all its socioeconomic complexities. You may be in a growing area where jobs are somewhat easier to find.

Or perhaps you pastor in a rural community where the closing of a single factory is devastating.

Regardless of your location, job opportunities change, but God’s faithfulness remains constant.

I think of career issues in terms of calling, vocation and work. Our callings are divine, our occupations change, and our work depends on our location. As we disciple people, we can help them discover what God has called them to do. This brings vocational clarity, a constant North Star of God’s calling and purpose.

If our people know what God has called them to do and can hone the skills to pursue their calling and apply them in any environment, work activity simply becomes a matter of location.

Every believer needs to hear from God about his or her specific purpose in the Kingdom. Each person has unique gifts and talents. We have a divine design that benefits us, our families, and our communities as we seek the common good.

Vocational clarity brings dignity and meaning to work, but it goes beyond employment status or positions. It’s about who people are at their core, whether they are big-picture visionaries, detailed analysts, relationship builders, or natural contributors.

Within that divine design, there is room for occupational flexibility. For example, someone with exceptional creativity could use that gift in construction, corporate problem solving, or legal analysis. It could find expression in laying tiles, designing spreadsheets, identifying financial solutions, or doing landscaping. It’s a matter of honing practical skills and being willing to learn new ones.

Work activity then becomes a matter of location and preference. It is the location and context of what and where people want to spend their time.

Practical Help

When people give you pastoral permission to get involved in their lives, it is a privilege. You may need to coach

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Whitney Lynd, Emily Smith, and Annie Roberts, Community Groups

people to file for unemployment, relocate, or seek a new job. In some cases, the church may be able to help with some bills or network with someone in the congregation to find a position.

God designed us to work and create. Granted, not all work is a perfect fit. Nevertheless, sometimes people need a gap job to provide an income source, even if it doesn’t line up with skills and passion.

When pastoring in an age of unemployment, shepherding people to start working is important. It’s often easier to find a job when you have a job.

Here are five things to consider when helping people find solutions: 1. Networking. As a pastor, you know a lot more people than you think you do. Now is the time to leverage that network. Think about what your people do for work and what their skills are, and identify individuals you know outside your church. You may be able to help match workers to potential employers.

For example, perhaps a talented, outgoing church member lost a sales job. With that person’s permission, you might send a few emails to the church’s insurance company, bank, and other vendors inquiring about openings.

2. Services. Think about the talent you have in your church and the skills others need. Do you have an unemployed parishioner who previously ran accounts payable for a company? Maybe that person could do bookkeeping for two or three small business owners in your congregation.

3. Bartering. I pastor many entrepreneurs, all of whom are a little eccentric and wildly creative. Instead of two businesses hiring each other, they sometimes do a straight trade.

Say a small accounting firm owner needs an office bathroom remodeled. Instead of paying for it, a contracting business remodels the bathroom, and the accountant does the contractor’s taxes. Do your people have skills they could barter?

4. Relationships. What are the needs in your congregation, and what relationships do you have in the community?

Our church doesn’t have a food pantry. Instead, we support the local food banks and have a relationship with them, which makes it easier to refer our people there for assistance.

5. Benevolence. Every Communion Sunday, take up a special offering that goes directly to help those in need,

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assisting with food, clothes, utility bills, etc. As in Acts 6, let the deacons manage and oversee that ministry.

Biblical Perspective

Colossians 3:23–24 offers a Kingdom perspective of earthly work: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

When everything we do is in service to God, work becomes an act of worship. It also benefits the local economy, which is a service to others.

We can see a connection between work and worship in the Old Testament in the Hebrew word avodah. First, it means “work” in contexts such as “there was no one to work the ground” and in God’s intent for Adam to “work [the Garden of Eden] and take care of it” (Genesis 2:5,15, emphases added). Elsewhere, this word means “worship”: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me” (Exodus 8:1, emphasis added).

All work can be worship if we offer it to God. God called you not only to your church, but also to your community. This includes the marketplace where people work. What would happen if we discipled people to think of work as worship and creating an income as secondary?

What if every member of the congregation sought to honor God wherever they are right now — whether working a less-than-ideal job, learning a new trade, filling a volunteer role, caring for children at home, or seeking employment?

This is not to dismiss the real struggles people are facing, of course. But even in difficult times, we can trust that God is working in and through us.

When God is the focus, fulfillment no longer depends on a particular position. We can use our gifts to glorify Christ and point others to Him in all we do.

May we lead creatively and prayerfully as we pastor our churches and communities in an age of unemployment.

Jamé Bolds is a Ph.D. candidate at Stellenbosch University, lead pastor of Victory Church (AG) in Yorktown, Virginia, and an adjunct professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Debbie Rester, volunteer

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What recent Supreme Court cases say about religious liberty’s future.

BEYOND THE

HEADLINES ERIC N. KNIFFIN

A

merican Christian leaders have braved unprecedented challenges this year. When the pandemic hit, ministries quickly learned how to offer worship services, build community, and even teach school remotely.

When the economy tanked, religious organizations navigated the federal Paycheck Protection Program so they could continue to care for their employees and serve their communities.

And now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided four major religious liberty cases, the Christian community is again discerning a path forward.

I do not dare venture to guess how the pandemic will play out, but as an attorney who has been representing religious organizations for most of my career, I would like to share some insights into these Supreme Court cases to help Christian leaders get past the headlines and the social media hot takes.

I remain optimistic about the future of religious liberty. But just as we are all taking practical steps to protect our communities from the coronavirus, I believe we should start taking steps to protect our ministries’ religious freedoms.

Supreme Court Overview

The case that has caused the most consternation for Christian leaders is the June 15 decision in Bostock v.

Clayton County. The central issue was whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status.

There were at least three reasons to expect the Supreme Court to say “no.” First, the only categories listed in the law are race, color, religion, national origin, and sex — and all attempts to amend the law to include sexual orientation and gender identity had failed.

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Second, all sides agreed that Congress would not have passed a bill that clearly prohibited such discrimination in 1964.

Third, over the law’s first 40 years, federal appellate courts had unanimously held Title VII did not cover sexual orientation or gender identity.

But the Court, in a 6-3 decision, held that these considerations could not sway it from deciding the case based on “the straight forward application” of Title VII’s text.

Looking at that text, the Court determined Title VII’s prohibition on sex discrimination necessarily covered the plaintiffs’ claims as well, “because it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.”

The Court’s ruling sent shockwaves throughout the Christian world, especially among groups like the Assemblies of God that have held fast to biblical teachings on human sexuality.

Andrew Walker lamented in Christianity Today that “Bostock is as bad as you think,” and that it represents “a significant inflection point in the never-ceasing culture wars.”

Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, warned the decision will have “seismic implications for religious liberty, setting off potentially years of lawsuits and court struggles.”

While these fears are real, it is also important to note Bostock’s conclusion, where the Court affirmed it shares the concerns of religious groups who worry its broad reading of Title VII “may require some employers to violate their religious convictions.”

In response, the Court referenced “several doctrines protecting religious liberty,” including two other parts of Title VII: one that allows religious organizations to use religion as a factor in their employment decisions, and another that allows employers to identify religion as a bona fide occupational qualification for specific positions.

These references may not sound significant. After all, these provisions have been in Title VII for decades, and courts have interpreted them narrowly. But the strict textualism the Court employed in Bostock may also breathe life into these long-neglected religious liberty protections.

Decades of case law said the plaintiffs in Bostock should lose, but the Supreme Court found these precedents contradicted the “ordinary meaning” of the law’s text: “when the meaning of the statute’s terms is plain, our job is at an end.”

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Likewise, Bostock should help religious organizations lay claim to Title VII’s yet-unrealized promise that religious groups may use religion when making employment decisions, and that in this context “religion” includes “all aspects of religious observance and practice as well as belief.”

If one has to squint to find a silver lining in Bostock, the good news from the Court’s other three religious liberty decisions is more straightforward.

The Court’s next religious liberty decision, Espinoza v.

Montana Department of Revenue, overturned Montana’s “Blaine amendment,” a provision rooted in anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant bigotry that forbids state funds from going to religious schools.

Building on its 2017 decision in Trinity Lutheran v.

Comer, the Court held that the Blaine amendment violated the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, which “protects religious observers against unequal treatment” and against “laws that impose special disabilities on the basis of religious status.”

The Supreme Court’s last two religious liberty decisions came on July 8. Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania marks the Supreme Court’s latest foray in the nearly decade-long battle over whether religious employers must comply with the federal contraceptive and abortifacient mandate, despite their religious objections.

The Court held that the Trump Administration acted lawfully when it created a broader religious employer exemption from the mandate, and affirmed that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) not only permits but requires federal agencies to consider whether regulations like the contraception mandate burden religious exercise.

The last religious liberty case of the term was Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru. This was a follow-up to the 2012 Hosanna-Tabor decision, the first Supreme Court case to recognize a “ministerial exception” rooted in the First Amendment’s religion clauses.

This time, the Court reviewed two Ninth Circuit decisions that had interpreted Hosanna-Tabor narrowly, ruling that teachers at two California Catholic schools fell outside the ministerial exception — and were therefore free to sue their former employers — because they failed to satisfy the four factors identified in Hosanna-Tabor.

The Supreme Court held that the Ninth Circuit had erred by treating the ministerial exception as a narrow doctrine, available only when employees meet a “rigid formula” based on the factors at issue in Hosanna-Tabor.

In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue , the Court overturned Montana’s “Blaine amendment,” a provision that forbids state funds from going to religious schools.

To the contrary, the Court affirmed that the ministerial exception is an important doctrine that protects the constitutional right of religious institutions “to decide for themselves, free from state interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.”

To vindicate this principle of church autonomy, the ministerial exception “should apply to any ‘employee’ who leads a religious organization, conducts worship services or important religious ceremonies or rituals, or serves as a messenger or teacher of its faith.”

Courts should look to “a variety of factors” in determining whether a given employee falls within the exception.

Under this broad approach, both Catholic school teachers before the Court qualified as ministerial employees.

Brokering a Fragile Peace

What do these Supreme Court decisions say about where we are as a society and the future of religious liberty? All four cases show the Supreme Court struggling with the reality that we live in a deeply divided, pluralistic society.

Luke Goodrich, vice president at Becket, describes this standoff in Chapter 4 of his recent book, Free to Believe: The Battle over Religious Liberty in America. Goodrich notes that Christians believe in absolute truth, and among these truths are certain biblical teachings about sexual morality and the nature of the human person.

But an ever-growing portion of our society not only rejects these teachings, they see them as bigotry that threatens the “pursuit of happiness” that is every American’s birthright.

How is the Supreme Court trying to manage this fundamental impasse? It seems the Court is willing to adopt the dominant progressive worldview, but with two important exceptions.

First, the Court has continued to stand by our

nation’s fundamental commitment to religious liberty.

Second, and relatedly, it has refused to follow the left in condemning traditional Christian teachings as hateful bigotry.

Take, for example, the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. The Court declared a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, but also pushed back against efforts to conflate those who believe in traditional marriage with racists: “Many who deem same-sex marriage to be wrong reach that conclusion based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises, and neither they nor their beliefs are disparaged here.”

The Court remains committed to this principle today.

In Bostock, the Court listed statutory and constitutional protections that will help religious employers respond to discrimination claims. Espinoza affirmed that discrimination on the basis of religion violates the First Amendment.

Little Sisters of the Poor preserved an exemption that lets religious employers exclude contraceptives and abortifacients from their health plans. And Our Lady of Guadalupe affirmed that the First Amendment prevents government from interfering with “matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.”

Practical Steps Forward

While key battles over religious liberty continue to play out at the Supreme Court, and while progressive and religious groups wrestle over the scope of these opinions in the lower courts, ministry leaders should not resign themselves to watching from the sidelines.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, good leaders are translating expert advice into practical changes to protect their congregations against future outbreaks. The same is true with the looming threats to religious liberty.

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Whether navigating a global pandemic or the growing challenges to religious liberty, good leaders will soberly assess the situation and take practical steps to keep their communities safe.

Goodrich wrote Free to Believe because he saw that our “culture is changing. Religious freedom is not as secure as it once was. And the church is unprepared.” But the good news is that practical changes can make a real difference.

In his book’s final chapter, “Free to Believe,” Goodrich urges religious organizations to take proactive steps to take advantage of religious liberty victories.

“Far too often,” Goodrich warns, “religious organizations wait until a conflict is already upon them before seeking legal advice. By then, it’s often too late.”

The consequences of inaction can be harsh. Goodrich tells the story of the Herx case, where an Indiana church lost an employment discrimination suit despite strong religious freedom claims in the abstract.

According to Goodrich, the church lost “because it made several mistakes that increased its risk of conflict and liability. It didn’t clearly communicate its religious values throughout the organization. … It wasn’t careful enough in hiring and training its employees. And it lacked a consistent process for enforcing its standards of conduct.”

Because the church failed to prepare, a teacher was hurt, a lawsuit exposed the church’s inconsistencies, and a frustrated jury awarded the plaintiff $2 million in damages.

Goodrich offers Herx as a cautionary tale. He hopes such cases will prompt religious leaders to engage an experienced religious liberties attorney to help them take practical steps to “strengthen their witness and reduce their likelihood of conflict and loss.”

Goodrich’s advice echoes many of the strategies I outlined in a special report for the Heritage Foundation, Protecting Your Right to Serve: How Religious Ministries Can Meet New Challenges without Changing Their Witness.

Taking these practical steps is a time-intensive and

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resource-intensive process, but such planning is an important part of stewardship and prudent leadership in our cultural and legal contexts.

Whether navigating a global pandemic or the growing challenges to religious liberty, good leaders will soberly assess the situation and take practical steps to keep their communities safe.

As Paul told Timothy, “the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7). The increasing legal and cultural pressures on religious institutions are real, and they make the Supreme Court’s religious liberty decisions more important than ever.

But to take full advantage of Supreme Court victories, ministry leaders need to take concrete steps before conflicts arise.

The information contained in this article is provided for educational purposes only and is not legal advice.

Readers should not act upon any information in this article without seeking professional legal advice. This information is not intended to and does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you have questions about how this information applies to your ministry, please reach out to Eric separately.

Eric N. Kniffin is a partner in the law firm of Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie, where he works in the firm’s Religious IIInstitutions Practice Group. He and his wife, Bonnie, have eight children and live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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When Kidmin Moves Home J U LI SSA LOP EZ

Are families in your church prepared to nurture their children’s faith?

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onths after COVID-19 began disrupting the way we did just about everything, churches are still trying to navigate the disruptions. As difficult as it has been, churches must also recognize the opportunities to reassess and reset in this season.

New York was one of the first states to limit in-person interactions and issue a stayat-home order. Our city’s shutdown was the longest of any area in the nation. During this time, churches shifted to online services and mobilized teams to go out and meet the needs of the community.

Our children’s ministry team provided on-demand digital experiences for children and facilitated small groups that met via Zoom. In addition, children received drive-by visits and mailings from their small group leaders.

Recognizing these methods were not providing the same connections made possible through in-person interactions, we complemented our approach by calling on the ones who were accessible for those connections: parents.

We reached out to meet the physical needs of families. We also offered resources to provide context and enhance the digital experiences of children learning at home.

In addition, we distributed materials to help kids process emotions related to the pandemic and racial injustice.

When we finally opened our doors in late June, we added a family service to the weekend schedule. It uses a multigenerational approach to present the same message people hear at the other services. Families can then continue conversations on the message throughout the week.

This approach is changing the way we

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minister to children and families. While we continue to encourage community within age-specific small groups, we have shifted from discipling kids to equipping parents to disciple their children.

Although church leaders agree parents are most responsible for a child’s

spiritual formation and development, only 1 in 5 churches prioritize training and equipping of parents, according to Barna Group. When asked how their churches address spiritual formation in kids, 73% cited Sunday School or a similar setting. Yet only 10% provide parents with training or

resources to help them disciple their children.

Even while agreeing that parents are the primary influencers, church leaders continue to use a ministry model that enables parents to outsource the spiritual development of children to kids’ pastors.

God’s plan for children has always been that parents be the primary disciple makers.

In Deuteronomy 6:4–7, God instructs His people to diligently teach their children. As church leaders, our job is to equip God’s people to do their own works of ministry. As they do this, they enlarge and build up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11–12).

As churches reopen their doors, some are unable to offer kids’ programing at this time. And many families are not yet comfortable attending services in person. If people choose to remain home, or if we experience another shutdown, are families prepared to nurture faith at home? How can children’s pastors equip parents and come alongside them?

Current events have compelled us to do ministry outside of our routines. As we move forward, there are many unknowns. What we do know is it has never been this way before.

Just as the Israelites needed the presence of God to guide them into their new season as they prepared to enter the Promised Land, we must seek the guidance of God’s Word and Spirit today.

The Bible provides examples of how Jesus made disciples and what discipleship looked like in the Early Church. We may need to reset some of our methods to follow more closely the patterns found in Scripture, while we continue to innovate through technology.

And children’s ministries may need to collaborate with others in the local church to help us carry this out.

The disruptions of this season can still work for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). As we take time to refocus, we must not allow the desire for a return to normal cause us to miss the restoration that can take place in our mission of making disciples.

Although church leaders agree parents are most responsible for a child’s spiritual formation and development, only 1 in 5 churches prioritize training and equipping of parents.

Julissa Lopez serves as children’s ministry director at International Christian Center (AG) in Staten Island, New York.

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CHURCH MINISTRY YOUTH

The Lead Pastor’s Role in Youth Ministry GA RY GA R CI A

Reaching and discipling the next generation.

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any of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day misunderstood His heart and message. Yet the children in the temple courts recognized Jesus for who He is.

Matthew 21:15 says, “When the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant.”

One of the things I love about youth ministry is how quickly young people figure out who Jesus is. It’s often easier to bring a teenager to Christ than an adult. Youth aren’t stuck in their ways like so many adults I meet.

Lead pastors need God’s heart not only for adult congregants but also for the whole church — and especially for the next generation of church leaders.

I have the joy of serving as both a lead pastor and youth pastor, while also leading youth

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ministry for the Southern California Network of the Assemblies of God. I love being a lead pastor, but my calling remains clear: reaching young people for Jesus!

It is not always easy for lead pastors to connect with youth. Whether you have a youth pastor or you are doing double duty as a leader of adults and students, you have a key role to play in reaching today’s generation.

With a Youth Pastor

Your first thought may be, I have a youth pastor. I don’t need to connect with youth. Lead pastors have to make a decision: Are we going to build a relationship with the new generation or not?

It would be easy to let that responsibility fall solely on our youth pastors. However, the students we have in our churches will graduate. When they do, whether they have a relationship with the lead pastor will likely influence their decision to stay or go to a

Without a Youth Pastor

different church.

Here are three ways to connect with teens while working alongside a youth pastor: • Show up on a youth night — and not just when the youth pastor asks you to speak. Come just to hang out and support the group. The students will love it, and so will your youth pastor.

• Make your Sunday sermons as inclusive as possible. Keep students in mind as you prepare. Ask yourself, Would the youngest and oldest people in the room connect with my message? Every once in a while, throw in an illustration from a teenager’s point of view.

• Connect with your youth pastor. While your youth pastor probably knows your vision and dreams for the church, do you know your youth pastor’s vision and dreams for his or her ministry? Your support means a lot. Be the youth pastor’s advocate, and he or she will be your ally. The youth pastor could be your most influential point of connection between you and the church’s young people.

It’s not easy wearing multiple hats, but in many small church ministries the lead pastor and youth pastor are the same person.

Ideally, you will recruit or raise up leaders to take over at some point. But until then, you are in a better situation than you might think.

Here are three things to keep in view as you lead your church and youth group: • You are in the best possible place to help grow your church. The one thing I have learned in leading both youth and adults is teenagers are much more eager than adults to invite people to church. I have a great relationship with our youth. They know any message I preach will relate to them as well. They don’t see the main service as an event that isn’t for them. Their attitude is, “My pastor is speaking on Sunday, and I’m going to bring my friends!”

• You can integrate your ministries. You don’t have to sell the lead pastor on letting young people have ownership on Sundays. Give students a role in the main service. It has worked out great for us to have young people working alongside adults in leading worship, ushering, greeting and hosting. They don’t want to just be spectators. Give them a chance to be participants.

• Relationship is key. You are busy. Don’t try to be like the youth ministry across town with fancy lights, stage sets, and more. There’s nothing wrong with those things, but every youth pastor knows the key is building relationships with students. Create moments with them outside of youth night. Have several over for a movie night, or meet up with a group at Starbucks. I discipled a group of high school guys once a week at Del Taco.

They remembered those moments more than my sermons.

Lead pastors, we can’t miss out on discipling today’s generation. They have been labeled many things, but I think they could be one of the most important groups of disciples this world has ever known.

While your youth pastor probably knows your vision and dreams for the church, do you know your youth pastor’s vision and dreams for his or her ministry?

Gary Garcia has been leading youth ministry at Cornerstone Christian Fellowship (AG) in Fountain Valley, California, for 28 years and has been the lead pastor for two years.

He also serves as student ministry director for the Southern California Network of the Assemblies of God.

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CHURCH MINISTRY ADULT

Leveraging Experience G. R OBE RT COOK J R .

Five strategies for engaging senior adults in ministry.

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s pastoral candidates, my wife and I attended a series of meetings the church board arranged with various groups from the congregation. During one of those sessions, we met with the senior adults.

Two things stood out to me. First, I was impressed by the number of seniors who attended the meeting. We had noticed the many young families, children and teens in earlier meetings. But this wasn’t just a church for young people; it was a healthy mix of all ages.

The second thing that made the meeting memorable was a question I suspected was coming: “Bob, we love our old gospel songs and hymns. Any chance we could sing some of those on Sundays again?”

Yes, worship wars were upon us. I knew I would need to navigate this concern carefully and wisely. Thankfully, an 80-year old man spoke up and said, “Hey, folks, I’ve learned a secret. I just borrow one of our old hymnals, take it home, and occasionally pull it out to sing some of my favorites. You should do the same!”

Senior adults have much to offer the local church. As with any age group, pastors need strategies for connecting with them, engaging them in ministry, and utilizing their gifts.

Here are five ways to do that: 1. Build relationships with them. Whatever you do, don’t ignore the senior adults in your congregation. It would be a mistake to spend all your time with just your peer group. Go out to lunch or coffee with some of your older congregants. They will be thrilled you’re spending time with them. And that older gentleman or lady could become the Aaron or Hur you need to provide support (Exodus 17:8–16).

2. Encourage them in your preaching or teaching. When sharing illustrations in your messages, include inspiring stories about

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senior adults. This is also an excellent way to encourage them to stay involved.

Why not preach from Psalm 92:12–14, a passage that talks about the righteous flourishing like palm trees? Verse 14 says, “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green.” I love to remind our seniors they still have a vital role in God’s kingdom, and one of those roles is to stay “fresh and

green” — gracious and filled with God’s love.

3. Provide opportunities for them to serve.

Yes, some are unable to serve because of physical limitations, but many of the senior adults in your church want the opportunity to do something. They want to feel needed.

Assuming they have a cheerful disposition, you could invite seniors adults to serve as greeters at the front door. You may even have

a senior adult who could step up and lead that crucial ministry.

Those who have a teaching gift might enjoy leading an adult class, helping out in the children’s area, or even rocking infants in the nursery. Some children in our churches don’t have Christian grandparents in their lives. These kids need the influence of godly older adults.

Many senior adults are committed to intercessory prayer. Have them serve on prayer teams, perhaps helping generate a weekly prayer list for the church.

Utilize those who are physically able to work two to three hours each week when the weather is mild to spruce up the landscaping or pull weeds.

4. Organize a group for them. Find someone who can lead the seniors, connect them to ministry opportunities, and support them.

Show your support by attending their events.

Your presence at the seniors’ Christmas Luncheon will let them know you care.

And in case you weren’t aware, senior adults can become some of your most faithful and generous givers, both in tithes and missions support. Time invested in them can help grow the Kingdom in more ways than one.

5. Be creative in how you approach the “worship wars.” One of the best things we did at the last church I pastored was starting a quarterly Sunday night hymn service. We brought back the older piano that had been moved aside, passed out the hymnals, sang eight to 10 hymns and gospel songs, prayed together, and enjoyed refreshments.

We sometimes called it Hymns and Ice Cream. Other times, it was Hymns and Soup.

Either way, our seniors loved it. And when a grumpy older adult approached us about the new songs on Sunday morning, we could offer assurance that we did believe in hymns and provided opportunities to sing them.

Pastor, your senior adults can be your best allies. Work hard at staying sensitive as to how you can encourage them and utilize the gifts they are to you and the church. Love the little children … but also love those “silver saints.”

Senior adults can become some of your most faithful and generous givers, both in tithes and missions support.

G. Robert Cook Jr. is a former superintendent of the Rocky Mountain District of the Assemblies of God and most recently served on the pastoral staff of Victory Life Church (AG) in Grand Junction / Fruita, Colorado.

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REVIEWS

Selected Book Reviews

Abusing Moral Talk for Selfish Ends G E O R G E P. W O O D ustin Tosi and Brandon Warmke’s Grandstanding is a work of philosophy informed by psychology. Its authors evince no religious commitments one way or another, and they work from secular premises. So, you might wonder why I’m recommending their book in a magazine for Christian ministers.

The answer is that Grandstanding trains a searchlight on “the use and abuse of moral talk,” in the words of its subtitle. Moral talk is an intrinsic part of spiritual leadership.

Proclaiming the moral excellency of Jesus

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Books reviewed by

George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine.

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and calling believers to imitate His example are among a Christian minister’s most basic duties (e.g., Philippians 2:5; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 2:6). But with this duty comes a temptation to abuse moral talk.

For example, Jesus once told a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector who went to the temple to pray (Luke 18:9–14). The Pharisee prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people — robbers, evildoers, adulterers — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

The tax collector, on the other hand, prayed, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

According to Jesus, only the tax collector went home “justified before God.” Tosi and Warmke would describe the Pharisee’s prayer as an example of grandstanding, that is, “the use of moral talk for self-promotion.” Grandstanding consists of two elements: “Recognition Desire” and “Grandstanding Expression.” In other words, grandstanders want “to impress others with their moral qualities,” the authors write, and they “try to satisfy that desire by saying something in public moral discourse.”

Grandstanding can take a number of forms. Tosi and Warmke identify five, which they term piling on, ramping up, trumping up, expressing strong emotions, and dismissiveness. The Pharisee’s prayer, for example, combines a strong emotion of disgust (toward lawbreakers and tax collectors) with an air of dismissiveness (as if the Pharisee’s righteousness were self-evident).

All five forms of grandstanding are legion on social media, especially Twitter.

Interestingly, write Tosi and Warmke, “You don’t have to know you’re grandstanding in order to grandstand, nor do you have to say anything false.” Perhaps, like the Pharisee, you really think you’re that good and others that bad. And maybe the others actually are nasty pieces of work, while you’re an

RECOMMENDED READING FOR LEADERS

By Influence Magazine

LEADING SMALL GROUPS THAT THRIVE Ryan Hartwig, Courtney Davis, and Jason Sniff (Zondervan) upstanding citizen by comparison. Regardless of whether you’re witting or wrong, however, you’re still grandstanding. Jesus criticized the Pharisee for exalting himself, after all — not for telling a lie.

But if grandstanding can be unwitting and truthful, what exactly is the problem? As moral philosophers, Tosi and Warmke draw on the three main streams of ethical theory — consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics — to describe what’s wrong with grandstanding. In a nutshell, they argue, grandstanding has social costs, it disrespects people, and it manifests a defect in moral character.

The social costs of grandstanding include “polarization, cynicism, and outrage exhaustion.”

Grandstanding disrespects people “by using others to show how good the grandstander is, or by misleading others about how good the grandstander is.” And it manifests a defect in moral character because to be virtuous, “you must do the right thing for the right reasons.” A grandstander, however, is selfishly (that is, wrongly) motivated.

Tosi and Warmke conclude Grandstanding by suggesting several strategies, both personal and social, for reducing self-promoting moral talk. As the United States enters the home stretch of its presidential election season, these strategies are helpful, especially for spiritual leaders like you and me whose calling requires speaking prophetically — that is, morally — to the pressing issues of the day.

But let us make sure we speak with clean hands and a pure heart. “It is far less important to identify grandstanding in others,” Tosi and Warmke write, “than it is to know how to avoid it in ourselves.”

Or, as Jesus put it, “first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).

Only by doing so will we avoid the Pharisee’s temptation to abuse moral talk for selfish ends.

BOOK REVIEWED Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke, Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).

Anyone who has led a small group knows it can be an immensely rewarding and intensely frustrating experience. In Leading Small Groups That Thrive, Ryan Hartwig, Courtney Davis, and Jason Sniff identify five things small group leaders can do to “maximize the benefits that result from thriving, transformational group experiences”: 1) articulate purpose, 2) set the stage, 3) cultivate shared ownership, 4) stimulate meaningful conversations, and 5) embrace difficult conversations. The book is research-based, eminently practical, and well worth reading.

STAY SALT Rebecca Manley Pippert (The Good Book Company) “There are two kinds of people in the world,” writes Rebecca Manley Pippert: “the found, and those who haven’t come home yet.” God desires all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9) and uses ordinary believers, not just pastors and evangelists, to help the lost come home.

In Stay Salt, Pippert offers seasoned advice about the means, message and method of personal evangelism.

Relying daily on the Holy Spirit, believers can build authentic relationships with unbelievers in which spiritual conversations arise organically.

WISDOM FROM BABYLON Gordon T. Smith (IVP Academic) American Christians are accustomed to wielding tremendous power — socially, politically and economically. As the U.S. becomes increasingly secular, however, we need to learn how to influence from the margins. In Wisdom from Babylon, Gordon T. Smith turns to the biblical prophets, as well as minority Christians, for insight about how to do this.

These voices teach believers how to be in the world, but not of the world — that is, “fully present but not aligned with the values of the society in which they are located.”

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Influence | 65

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MAKE IT COUNT An Eight-Week Study for Leadership Teams

Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference STEPHEN BLANDINO

WHAT IS MAKE IT COUNT?

Week after week, you invest time and energy into making every Sunday count. But you also have to think about staff meetings, board meetings, and meetings with key volunteers and other church leaders.

Juggling so many meetings can seem overwhelming, especially as you think about developing the leaders around you. Effective leaders are continually looking for great leadership content they can use to develop and mentor other leaders. Make It Count is a powerful, little tool to help you accomplish just that.

Each Make It Count lesson is easily adaptable for individual or group discussion, allowing for personal application and reflection among your ministry leaders and

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lead volunteers. The lessons are useful as devotionals in board and staff meetings and in departmental meetings with your lead volunteers.

Studying and growing together are important for building strong, healthy relationships with your team members. It is also a necessary component of building healthy, flourishing churches.

Blandino These lessons can help you make each moment count as you lead and develop the leaders around you.

piritual disciplines are essential to the health and growth of every Christian. No matter who you are, the level of influence you hold, or the size of the task God has entrusted to you, you’ll never outgrow your need for spiritual disciplines.

What are spiritual disciplines? They are the habits that draw you closer to God. They are the practices that help you become more like Jesus as you starve your sin nature and feed your spirit nature. And in leadership, spiritual disciplines are imperative.

Why? Because your spirituality — or lack thereof — doesn’t just impact you.

It impacts every person you lead. If you ignore the habits that foster spiritual vibrancy, you’ll simultaneously undermine your life and leadership. There will be fallout.

But that doesn’t have to be your story. You can cultivate the habits that breathe life into your leadership. You can develop the practices that help you meet the test of leadership, find ongoing peace, and enjoy intimacy with your Heavenly Father. What are these habits? In this edition of ‘Make It Count,’ we’ll discuss eight spiritual disciplines: • Prayer: The Habit of Connection • Bible Engagement: The Habit of Growth • Worship: The Habit of Perspective • Gratitude: The Habit of Thankfulness • Confession: The Habit of Humility • Fasting: The Habit of Breakthrough • Community: The Habit of Relationship • Stewardship: The Habit of Faithfulness As you read and discuss each lesson with your team, may these habits be renewed in your life, along with your passion for God. Each spiritual discipline is unique, and each one will deepen the health of your soul and the health of your leadership.

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FREE DOWNLOADABLE DISCUSSION GUIDE HANDOUTS Go to InfluenceMagazine.com Click on “Downloads”

The following eight, easy-to-use lessons on spiritual disciplines and the leader are written by Stephen Blandino, lead pastor of 7 City Church (AG) in Fort Worth, Texas (7citychurch. com). He planted 7 City Church in 2012 in a thriving cultural arts district near downtown Fort Worth. Blandino blogs regularly at stephenblandino.com and is the author of several books, including Do Good Works, Creating Your Church’s Culture, and GO! Starting a Personal Growth Revolution.

HOW TO USE MAKE IT COUNT We are pleased to offer the Make It Count Discussion Guide in a downloadable PDF, available through the “Downloads” button on Influencemagazine.com. Each lesson in the PDF Make It Count Discussion Guide is divided into a Leader’s page

and Team Member’s page. The Leader’s page corresponds directly to the material in this print issue of the magazine.

We encourage you to print multiple copies of the PDF Discussion Guide from Influencemagazine.com for all your ministry leaders and the team members they lead in your church or organization.

You will notice that key words and concepts are underlined in each lesson on the Leader’s page. These underlined words and concepts correspond to the blank spaces found on the team member lesson pages. Team members can fill in the blanks as you progress through each lesson’s material.

We trust these lessons will help you make each moment count as you lead and develop the leaders around you.

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MAKE IT COUNT Study

1

Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference

Prayer: The Habit of Connection Assess: What difference has prayer made in your life as a leader?

Insights and Ideas

odney “Gipsy” Smith became a follower of Jesus at age 16, and a year later began preaching after William Booth invited him to become an evangelist with The Salvation Army. Although this British evangelist had no formal education, he proclaimed the gospel for 70 years. He made dozens of trips across the Atlantic to preach in the United States, and two presidents invited him to the White House.

Someone once asked Smith the secret of his ministry. He said, “Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.”

Like Smith, we need the habit of connection found in the place of prayer. And here’s the good news: Jesus provided a great template to guide our prayers when He said, “This, then, is how you should pray” (Matthew 6:9).

1. Worship. Jesus began with, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” (verse 9).

Rather than starting with a list of needs, Jesus challenged us to acknowledge and worship our Heavenly Father. This approach begins from a place of relationship rather than a place of requests.

2. God’s will. Next, Jesus said, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (verse 10). We live in a fallen world, but Jesus makes it clear God can still accomplish His will on earth. As leaders, it’s our job to pray and welcome God’s will in whatever place He has entrusted to us to lead.

3. Provision. Jesus said, “Give us today our daily bread” (verse 11). When we seek God to meet our daily needs, we exhibit an ongoing reliance on Him. The moment we become self-reliant, we abandon the provision made available through prayer.

4. Forgiveness. Next, Jesus says, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (verse 12). Extending forgiveness keeps our hearts soft toward God and the people we lead. Sometimes leaders have to give extra time to this part of prayer because of the hardships and disappointments experienced in leadership.

5. Temptation. Finally, Jesus instructed us to pray, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (verse 13). A regular habit of prayer gives us the spiritual strength to overcome the temptations and win the battles often associated with leadership.

Love for the people we care for, the ministry we lead, and the God we serve should drive us to a place of prayer.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. What part of the Lord’s Prayer is most meaningful or challenging to you?

2. What are your biggest struggles in making prayer a consistent priority?

3. In what areas do you need God to provide right now?

Apply

Set aside time to pray together as a team. Rather than focusing on a laundry list of items that are “safe,” open up and share the burden you are currently carrying in leadership, and pray for one another.

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Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference

Bible Engagement: The Habit of Growth Team Review: What difference did praying together make as a team?

Assess: What approach to personal Bible study do you most enjoy?

Insights and Ideas

s leaders, particularly preachers, it’s easy to fall into the trap of Bible study solely for the purpose of sermon preparation. After all, “Sunday’s coming.” When that happens, Scripture becomes nothing more than head knowledge and doesn’t work its way into the depths of your spirit, heart and soul.

To cultivate a healthy habit of regular spiritual growth, we need to be strategic and intentional about how we engage God’s Word. These four strategies are a good place to start: 1. Find a practice. Each personality type has a different approach to studying Scripture.

Some prefer a systematic reading of the entire Bible in one year. Others like to take a deep dive into a few verses each day. Some favor listening to God’s Word, while others prefer the SOAP method where they write down a Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer. The best practice for you is the one you’ll actually do, and the one from which you’ll draw the most refreshing.

2. Select a place. It helps to have a place to study God’s Word. It might be in your church office, at home in your favorite chair, out in nature, or on your back patio. Life-giving environments often enhance the practice of life-giving study.

3. Enlist a person. Inviting someone else into the discussion may enhance your personal devotional life. With whom could you connect every week or two to pray together and share what God has shown you through His Word?

4. Vary your plan. To keep your Bible reading fresh, vary your approach as needed. “As needed” may be a couple of times per year, or even a couple of times per month. You might decide to read a different version of Scripture, include a devotional, do a Greek study on a particular passage, or study a topic or biblical character in detail.

The apostle Paul said, “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Colossians 1:9).

The word for “knowledge” is epignōsis. Author and professor William Yount described epignōsis as “a knowledge that reaches out and grasps its object and is in turn grasped by its object.” In other words, you grasp the knowledge, and the knowledge grasps you. It moves from “head knowledge” to “heart transformation.” That’s the power this habit of growth can produce in your life.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. Have you ever found yourself replacing personal devotions with sermon preparation?

What caused this slow drift?

2. What is God currently speaking to you through His Word?

3. Which of the four strategies do you need to implement to foster a richer practice of Bible engagement?

Apply

Reflect on the four strategies offered to keep your Bible engagement fresh and inspiring.

Which strategy do you need to embrace to elevate your daily interaction with God’s Word?

What would it look like to implement the strategy this week?

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MAKE IT COUNT Study

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Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference

Worship: The Habit of Perspective Team Review: What changes have you made to how you engage in God’s Word?

Assess: What difference does worship make in the life of a leader?

Insights and Ideas

eaders face enormous pressure. There are plenty of curveballs and crises that come with leadership, and the ever-changing landscape makes it easy to lose your peace.

The apostle Paul certainly understood this reality.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul acknowledged his lack of peace (2:12–13) and fear-inducing conflicts from every direction (7:5). And in 2 Corinthians 11:24–28, Paul provided a long list of his hardships: beatings, shipwrecks, danger, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst and more. He concluded this list by saying, “Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches” (verse 28).

Despite all this, Paul wrote these words from a prison cell: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4). How did this leader rejoice in the midst of his hardship? We can see two ways: 1. Rejoice with your will. For Paul to rejoice, it had to be a deliberate choice. As author and pastor Max Lucado said, “This verse is a call, not to a feeling, but to a decision and a deeply rooted confidence that God exists, that He is in control, and that He is good.” In leadership, you will face hardships. The question is, can you still make the hard choice to rejoice in the Lord?

2. Rejoice with your worship. When Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi, they were anxious and worried about suffering, persecution, divisions in the church, and their physical needs. Yet Paul said, “Do not be anxious about anything” (Philippians 4:6).

Paul understood that when we worry, we adopt a high view of our problems and a low view of our God. In other words, worry becomes a form of worship. Simply put, when our mind is distracted by the size of our worry, our heart diminishes the size of our God. Choosing to rejoice with your worship helps you enlarge your view of God. God and anxiety both cast a shadow. Worship is how you walk out of the shadow of anxiety and into the shadow of God. That’s why worship is the habit of perspective; it changes your focus and your view.

What’s the result of rejoicing with your will and your worship? Philippians 4:7 says, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” That word “guard” is a military term that means “standing on guard.” In other words, your heart and mind will be guarded by a peace so great your mind cannot fully comprehend it or skillfully reproduce it.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. How has worship helped you during a particularly stressful time as a leader?

2. When was a time you “rejoiced with your will,” even though you didn’t feel like it?

3. How has worship shifted your perspective when you’ve been dealing with a leadership challenge?

Apply

Set aside some time to worship together as a team. Don’t rush this moment. Instead, lean into the presence of the Lord, worship His name, and allow Him to speak and minister to you.

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Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference

Gratitude: The Habit of Thankfulness Team Review: What difference has worship made in your life recently?

Assess: On a scale from 1 to 10, how regularly do you express gratitude to God and others?

Insights and Ideas

n Philippians 4:6, the apostle Paul said, “Do not be anxious about anything … .” The verb translated “be anxious” means “to be pulled in different directions.” That’s what anxiety does. It pulls your mind and emotions in different directions so you feel like you’re coming apart.

That’s a perfect description of the hardships of leadership. There are days when you feel like you’re being pulled apart as you face demands from people, problems and possibilities.

Sometimes you may even feel like throwing in the towel.

Instead, Paul challenges us to give thanks. He writes, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6, emphasis added).

What does the spiritual discipline of giving thanks do for leaders? Here are two benefits: 1. Giving thanks makes you a more positive leader. How you think shapes the kind of person you become. Proverbs 4:23 gives us a clear warning: “Be careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life” (NCV).

Complaining and thanksgiving are polar opposites. One is negative and the other is positive. In fact, complaining doesn’t eliminate your problems; it only extends them. It turns your problems into bigger problems. But as you speak with gratitude, give thanks to God, and foster a thankful heart, you’ll lean more frequently in the direction of positivity. Plus, people will enjoy being around you more.

2. Giving thanks provides better perspective as a leader. Paul couldn’t solve his problem of being in jail, so do you know what he did? Paul changed his perspective. He focused on the positive.

In fact, Paul started his letter from prison with these words: “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:3–6).

You may not be able to change your circumstance, but you can change how you view it.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18, Paul said, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” When you live out of a spirit of thanksgiving, it enables you to find the good, even in the most difficult situations.

Thanksgiving always makes the future look bigger and brighter, and it helps you become a better leader.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. When are you most tempted to be least grateful?

2. How has thanksgiving made you more positive and helped you gain greater perspective?

3. What’s one thing you can do to become a more grateful leader?

Apply

Commit to keeping a gratitude journal for the next 30 days. Each day, list three things for which you are thankful. You might even challenge a friend to join you, agreeing to meet for coffee each week to share some highlights from your journals.

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Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference

Confession: The Habit of Humility Team Review: How is gratitude changing your attitude as a leader?

Assess: What comes to mind when you hear the word “confession”?

Insights and Ideas

uthor Richard Foster said, “Confession is the spiritual discipline that allows us to enter into the grace and mercy of God in such a way that we experience forgiveness and healing for the sins and sorrows of the past.”

When we confess our sin to God, we cultivate an openness to God’s gentle work in and through us. In the life of a leader, confession helps guard against the abuse of power and the seeds of bitterness. In fact, confession helps leaders in three practical ways: 1. Confession fosters a spirit of humility. The temptation of pride is constant in leadership, but confessing our sin to God reminds us of our humanity, and our need for God. John said, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8–10). Through the regular practice of confession, we keep our feet planted humbly on the ground and cultivate a daily dependence on God’s grace and mercy.

2. Confession keeps the heart soft. There’s so much pain and hardship in leadership that the heart can grow cold rather quickly — cold toward God and cold toward the people who have hurt us. When we confess our sins to God, we invite God to regularly search our hearts, show us any unclean way, and keep us soft and open to God and the people He has called us to serve.

3. Confession brings spiritual, emotional and relational healing. When we confess our sin to God and others, we open our soul to the healing work of the Spirit. James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”

It has often been said, “When you confess your sin to God, you experience forgiveness.

When you confess your sin to others, you experience healing.”

Confession is uncomfortable, but it’s good for the heart. In leadership, it’s the spiritual habit of humility that softens the heart and keeps us pure before the Lord.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. What difference has confession made in your life?

2. How might confessing sins or faults to a family member or close friend help facilitate healing?

3. How could confession become a more meaningful part of your spiritual disciplines?

Apply

Invite the Holy Spirit to search your heart and show you anything that needs to be confessed and repented of. Don’t rush this process, but allow God to convict and restore you. Then, if there’s somebody you need to meet with personally to confess your faults, schedule a time to do so.

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Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference

Fasting: The Habit of Breakthrough Team Review: How do you feel as you’ve practiced confession in recent days?

Assess: Why are we so negligent of fasting and prayer in the Church today?

Insights and Ideas

ave you ever felt like you needed a breakthrough, and no matter what you did, nothing seemed to work? Guess what? You’re not alone. We all have those moments when we desperately need God to open a door, make the path straight, deliver or heal, or bring a breakthrough in our lives or in the church.

The entire chapter of Isaiah 58 talks about fasting. God describes the kind of fasting that is not honorable to Him. Then, beginning in verse 6, God describes the kind of fasting He has chosen: fasting that reflects justice, freedom and helping the poor.

Isaiah identifies three clear benefits of God-honoring fasting. Isaiah 58:8–9 says, “Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.” What three benefits do we find in this passage?

1. Healing. The first benefit of fasting is healing. Verse 8 says, “Your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear.” There are times when we need a miracle breakthrough in the form of healing, whether for us, a loved one, or a member of our church. Fasting can pave the way for that healing to come.

2. Righteousness. Isaiah goes on to say, “Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.” When we fast, we draw closer to God, and He will often begin working in the deepest part of our hearts. He will reveal sins, purify our hearts, and do a deeper work of sanctification within us.

3. Help. Finally, Isaiah says, “You will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I” (verse 9). When we fast, God often provides help with the needs we are dealing with at that time. In leadership, those needs can be deep and wide.

We can be comforted by the fact that God hears our cries, and out of His grace and love, He responds with the help we need.

There will be times as a leader when God will elevate your vision or call you to deeper intimacy with Him. In those moments, God may call you to fast and pray. It’s the habit that can open the right doors, release freedom, and break strongholds.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. What difference has fasting made in your life?

2. What would it look like to make fasting a regular part of your personal life?

3. How could we make fasting a part of our church life?

Apply

Schedule a fast in the next 30 days. Pinpoint an area where your life, your church, or your community is in need of a breakthrough, and then determine when and how you will fast.

Finally, consider when you can schedule a churchwide fast.

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Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference

Community: The Habit of Relationship Team Review: What plans did you come up with for personal or corporate fasting and prayer?

Assess: When you hear the word “community,” what comes to mind?

Insights and Ideas

n Genesis 2:18, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Since the beginning of time, men and women were made for community.

Author John Ortberg put it this way: “No substitute will fill this need in your life for human relationship. Not money. Not achievement. Not busyness. Not books. Not even God himself. Even though this man was in a state of sinless perfection, he was ‘alone.’ And it was ‘not good.’”

Like prayer, worship, gratitude, and fasting, community is an important discipline that fosters spiritual health. What difference does community make in the life of a leader?

1. Community lightens the leader’s load. Galatians 6:2 says, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” A lightened load can only happen in the context of community.

2. Community gives the leader friends. When we live in community, we find friends to help us stay connected and encouraged.

Author Wayne Cordeiro said, “Friends are rare these days, but it is not because they have diminished in importance. It is because we have increased in speed. Friendships are not made in the blur of life. They are made in the margins.”

Intentional community creates the margin for friendships to form.

3. Community deepens the leader’s growth. Hebrews 10:24–25 says, “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” When we connect in community, it becomes a source for spurring growth in love and good deeds.

4. Community expands the leader’s prayer support. The enemy would like to isolate you and leave you to fight your spiritual battles alone. But as authors Andy Stanley and Bill Willits observe, “Our enemy’s most successful strategy is to isolate us so he can attack and destroy us. Sheep are never attacked in herds. Sheep are attacked when they become isolated from the rest of the flock.”

Community removes the isolation and broadens the prayer base every leader needs.

5. Community sharpens the leader’s effectiveness. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Community provides the context for sharing insights, gleaning wisdom, sharpening knowledge, and improving skills. We get better when we take the leadership journey with others by our side.

Rob Ketterling has observed, “Our relational circle has an effect on the direction and speed of our lives.”

If you want to go faster in the right direction, it requires the spiritual discipline of community.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. Who are your closest friends?

2. What difference has community made in your life?

3. How can you cultivate deeper community in your life?

Apply

Do a community audit of your life. Do you need more time with friends, family, mentors or coaches? What would it look like to increase your investment in community, and how can you begin this week?

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MAKE IT COUNT Study

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Spiritual Disciplines for the Leader: 8 Habits That Make a Difference

Stewardship: The Habit of Faithfulness Team Review: What were the results of your community audit?

Assess: How is stewardship a spiritual discipline?

Insights and Idea

e are called to be stewards of all God entrusts to us. Whether money, time, talent, energy, health or influence, we should manage our resources with the interests of our Master — Jesus — in mind.

Perhaps no passage drives this point home more than the Parable of the Bags of Gold. A master calls his servants together and entrusts each of them with his gold — one bag, two bags, and five bags. But when the master returns from his trip, he discovers the two-bag and five-bag servants had doubled the gold, while the single-bag servant had buried it in the ground. To the first two servants, the master said, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:21,23).

But to the third servant, he said, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest” (Matthew 25:26–27).

From this important passage, we discover three key insights about the spiritual discipline of stewardship, and how it relates to leaders: 1. Stewardship is a trust, not a possession. A trust is anything God has placed under your care. A possession, on the other hand, is something that belongs to you. Nothing we have as leaders belongs to us; it is simply entrusted to our care. We don’t own it. Instead, we’re called to steward it wisely.

2. Stewardship is management, not ownership. In the parable, the master was the owner, and the servants were the stewards. And what do stewards do? Stewards manage the resources of their owner, with the owner’s best interests in mind. Similarly, God entrusts us with resources, not to own for our pleasure, but to manage for His purposes.

3. Stewardship is faithfulness, not recklessness. In God’s economy, the way you receive more of anything — money, opportunity, open doors — is to faithfully steward what He has already entrusted to you. If God can’t trust you to steward $1,000 with His interests in mind, what makes you think He would trust you with more?

Each principle shows us how to practice the spiritual discipline of stewardship in leadership. When we manage resources wisely, we are exercising the habit of faithfulness.

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Reflect and Discuss

1. What resources has God entrusted to you? To your department? To our church?

2. Which of the three stewardship principles above most challenge you?

3. If God graded your faithfulness as a steward with each resource He’s entrusted to you, in what areas do you think you would score the highest and lowest?

Apply

Consider all the resources God has entrusted to you. Put together a management plan to handle each resource with the interests of your Heavenly Father in mind. Then begin making adjustments to become the steward God has called you to be.

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THIS IS MY STORY

(continued from page 80)

Life as I had known it ended abruptly as we left our beloved church family. My marriage was completely broken, and I had no idea what the future held for me and our two young daughters.

A “moral failure” was not the whole story.

By all outward appearances, my husband was a charismatic, educated, successful pastor. Hidden inside our marriage were numerous infidelities, accompanied by multiple incidents of physical, mental and emotional abuse. Following each incident, he said he was sorry and begged me not to tell anyone.

Just a few days earlier, my husband had confessed to more affairs during the year our daughter was in the hospital. Once again, he begged for secrecy. He seemed most afraid of losing his position. As I pictured myself sitting on the second row in our church, acting as if nothing had happened, something inside me broke. I was done.

I made a choice to trust in Jesus and give everything to Him. I sensed the Lord telling me to continue doing the simple things I knew were right, and He would take care of the complicated things. A supernatural peace came over me.

I had endured years of pain because I believed a lie that God hates divorce more than He hates sexual sin and abuse. I now know God does not love the institution of marriage more than He loves the individuals in it. A high view of marriage allows for biblical divorce. Rarely, but sometimes, you need to leave!

Healing began when I left, but the process to become whole again took counseling, supportive family and friends, commitment to a church community, and much time in prayer on my knees, where God mended my broken heart.

I tangibly felt God’s love for me in moments of loneliness and despair. Clinging to the Lord and spending time every day reading the Bible were vital to my healing.

After sharing my story at a women’s conference several years ago, doors began opening for me to speak in churches and

conferences, both at home and overseas.

I crossed paths with a number of women — from a pastor’s wife in Africa to a young mother I met on a walk in my neighborhood — with stories similar to mine.

I felt the need to share my journey in a greater way to reach more broken women.

Since my first husband tragically died several years ago and my daughters are grown, there is more freedom to share publicly. I stepped aside from my position on staff at a church, which gave me time to write and publish a book, Secrets in the Sanctuary.

Through my writing and ministry, I encourage women to bring their difficult secrets out of darkness and into the light of truth so there can be healing.

I have been remarried for many years to a wonderful Christian man. We serve on our church’s prayer team and care team, and we lead a small group in our home. Each week in my community, I encounter women from all walks of life who are hurting. I receive messages online from women who have read the book and are needing to talk with someone.

I have learned to surrender my life, my story, and the things I have been through.

When I give it all to Jesus, He takes what was meant for evil and uses it for good.

I’m transparent about my own experiences so I can raise awareness of these issues and help others heal. I talk about things seldom discussed. I want to comfort others the way I have been comforted. Instead of being a hurt person who hurts people, I am using my pain to help hurting people.

If you are dealing with these issues, you are not alone. Help is available. Talk to somebody. Tell the truth, even if it hurts. I feared telling the truth because I knew my life would crumble.

You may lose an outward position, but you will obtain inner peace by not living with secrets. If something crumbles when the truth comes out, it was built on a lie.

God has rebuilt my life and has used the broken pieces I gave Him to bring freedom to others. The truth sets us free.

I had endured years of pain because I believed a lie.

Julie E. Davenport is an ordained Assemblies of God minister. To learn more, visit julieedavenport.com.

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THIS IS MY STORY

BROKEN PIECES Hope After Infidelity and Abuse J U L I E E . D AV E N P O R T

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awoke that Sunday morning to a tearsoaked pillow from crying as I slept on a foam mattress beside my 5-year-old daughter’s bed. We were at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where she was receiving cancer treatment.

My mind raced with thoughts, knowing a letter of resignation admitting my husband’s moral failure would be read in the morning service where he was lead pastor. (continued on page 79)

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