The Lord’s people want to pray. Pastor, teach us to pray.
Most of the Lord’s people want to learn to pray. Pastor, teach us to pray.
Pastor, you are the one to teach them effective prayer.
You do know how, don’t you?
Teach us to pray. None of us do it very well. Even the great Apostle Paul said, “We do not know how to pray as we should” (Romans 8:26). So, we are not saying any of us do it as well as we should, only that we know enough to be able to help others.
Now, it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught the disciples.’ (Luke 11:1)
Pastor, Teach us to Pray
One. Model good praying for your congregation, pastor. “Being examples to the flock” (I Peter 5:3).
Two. Teach us to pray faithfully in the privacy of your home/office/car without ever telling anyone. Let this be between you and the Lord. Anything less turns us into hypocrites. Telling people to do what we are not doing is never good.
Three. But in worship services, understand that people will be learning from you how to pray.They’re listening, and they are learning.
Four. Therefore, give advance thought to your public prayers. Work on praying better and more effectively.
Dr. Rosaria Butterfield criticized Revoice, Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ), and Dr. Preston Sprinkle and his Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender while speaking at Liberty University’s convocation Friday, Nov. 10. Each of these ministries promotes lies about sexuality and discourages repentance from sin, Butterfield said.
“Have you ever heard that same-sex attraction is a sinless temptation and only a sin if you act on it?” Butterfield asked her audience. “Or that people who experience same-sex attraction are actually gay Christians called to lifelong celibacy? Or that people who experience same-sex attraction rarely if ever change and therefore should never pursue heterosexual marriage?”
Butterfield continued, “Or that sex and gender are different and that God doesn’t care about whether men live as men and women live as women because all you need to do is grow in the fruit of the Spirit as though the fruit of the Holy Spirit can grow from sin?”
According to Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, What Christian ministries are heretical liars?
“Revoice, Preston Sprinkle’s Exiles in Babylon Conference sponsored by his heretical Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender, and CRU” @PrestonSprinkle@crutweets
That’s what she said at… pic.twitter.com/eP7XDdXSCZ
Those ideas are “lies” Butterfield said she had heard within the past year from Christian ministries, and she specifically named “Revoice, Preston’s Sprinkle’s Exiles in Babylon Conference sponsored by his heretical Center for Faith, Sexuality, & Gender, and Cru.”
The audience members, who applauded Butterfield throughout her speech, expressed dismay after she named Cru. “I got the receipts people,” she responded.
Dr. Rosaria Butterfield: ‘We Don’t Trust Them’
Dr. Rosaria Butterfield is an author, speaker, former gay activist, and former tenured professor of English and women’s studies at Syracuse University. At one point in her life, she identified as a lesbian, but that changed after she came to trust in Jesus through the friendship and hospitality of a Christian couple, an experience she has written about in “The Gospel Comes With a House Key.”
Butterfield used the first part of her talk to share about her life story, namely her experience living out an LGBTQ+ identity, how she came to trust in God, and how the Holy Spirit convicted her to repent from her sin. “I learned how to hate my sin without hating myself,” she told the students. “The way to grace is through repentance.”
Cooper told ChurchLeaders that although his book’s title might give someone the sense that he is merely attempting to rile Christians up, he is taking a stand because he feels “we are in dire straits” and he cares “about people, their eternal state, and the suffering of mankind.”
“I don’t think the average person quite understands that we really are on the precipice of a civilizational turn of events,” Cooper added, “a civilization crisis,” to be more specific, “that is going to make it so difficult to live, that is going to be making difficult to preach the gospel, and that is going to have worse outcomes for everybody”—Christians and non-Christians alike.
Cooper said that the book has over 645 footnotes and digs into what postmodernism really is so that readers will understand just how incongruent it is with the worldview of Christianity.
“We are living in a time where the culture in our nation is influencing the church in America more than the church is influencing the culture,” Cooper said. “I think that a lot of our institutional church leaders have done nothing but bash the Christian culture where in.”
In other words, “I believe that we are falling off of a cliff into the abyss, and I think that the institutional church leaders are driving the bus,” Cooper said. “They have this idea of this therapeutic Jesus that was a hippie, who was Mr. Nice Guy and Mr. Tolerance, and they’re just driving us off the cliff…And whenever somebody speaks the truth, those Christian leaders come out and typically rebuke them.”
Cooper said that church leaders who have chosen to remain silent regarding the sin present their churches are sinning by not calling people to repentance.
“They’re supposed to be training his sheep and teaching his sheep and caring for his sheep. Part of caring for the sheep is teaching the sheep how to please God,” Cooper said. “I mean, that’s their whole job.”
Many pastors are “swallowing the oppressor/oppressed narrative by not actually just saying what is true,” Cooper said, expressing his belief that the “only reason you wouldn’t say what’s true is because you feel like it’s a little bit mean. And if the truth is mean, that would mean that God is mean—which would make God the ultimate oppressor in the situation—and he would never want somebody to be unhappy.”
“We say these dumb things, like, that aren’t biblical ways to think,” he added. “Therefore, I think that their silence is sin. I mean, what they are creating is basically a church that really is not different than the world.”
In a new essay, human rights activist and longtime atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali revealed she has converted to Christianity. The author, podcaster, and former Dutch parliamentarian wrote that Christianity not only gives life purpose but also is necessary to preserve Western civilization.
In her 2006 book “Infidel,” Hirsi Ali described her upbringing in Africa and the Middle East. She survived female genital mutilation, fled to the Netherlands to escape an arranged marriage, and eventually rejected Islam. Hirsi Ali’s disillusionment with that faith stemmed partly from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The 54-year-old research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution had been a vocal member of the New Atheism movement, along with Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: ‘Why I Am Now a Christian’
Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s essay on the UnHerd website, titled “Why I Am Now a Christian,” is a counterpoint to philosopher Bertrand Russell’s 1927 lecture “Why I Am Not a Christian”—which led Hirsi Ali to embrace atheism two decades ago.
Now, however, she said she’s realized that life is “unendurable” and “very nearly self-destructive” without beliefs to fill the “God hole” (a concept posited by thinkers such as St. Augustine and Blaise Pascal). That emptiness can’t be filled with a “jumble of irrational, quasi-religious dogma,” wrote Hirsi Ali. Although she admitted she still has “a great deal to learn about Christianity,” she is discovering “a little more at church each Sunday.”
“I have recognized, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer,” Hirsi Ali added. “Fortunately, there is no need to look for some New Age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all.”
Christianity Can Protect Western Civilization, Says Ayaan Hirsi Ali
In addition to her personal reasons for converting, Ayaan Hirsi Ali also noted that Christianity is Western civilization’s only hope from further erosion. “Modern, secular tools” fall short, she wrote, for combating authoritarian regimes (such as Russia and China), “global Islamism,” and “the viral spread of woke ideology, which is eating into the moral fiber of the next generation.”
Hirsi Ali realized that “Russell and my atheist friends failed to see the wood for the trees. The wood is the civilization built on the Judeo-Christian tradition; it is the story of the West, warts and all.”
Following a lengthy dispute over tithing and attendance, a Virginia woman has been laid to rest in the cemetery of the church where she was a member for most of her life.
Alice Mae Garrison, referred to by family and friends as Sallie, died on Aug. 30 at the age of 82. Her dying wish was to be buried at First Baptist Church Hollins (FBCH) in Roanoke, Virginia, where her parents, siblings, and other extended family members are buried.
However, Rev. Harvey Saunders, who pastors the church, denied the family this request after he revealed that the church had removed Garrison from its membership list due to a lack of attendance and tithing.
The church’s bylaws disallow people who were not members of the church from being buried in the church’s cemetery.
The family disputed Saunders’ claim that Garrison ought to have had her membership revoked, arguing that while Garrison was unable to attend the church in person for the last seven years of her life due to health reasons, she continued to regularly give to the church, even though her income was meager and fixed.
The family reported that Garrison wrote 22 checks to the church between 2016 and 2023, and those donations totaled to $1,765, according to The Christian Post. The last check Garrison sent was dated Jan. 3 and was in the amount of $400.
Garrison’s obituary noted not only her longtime membership at FBCH but also her community engagement.
“Sallie loved Hollins which was expressed through her community activism. In 1978, Sallie facilitated a summer program at FBCH for the youth of Hollins by collaborating with the Total Action Against Poverty (currently Total Action for Progress, or TAP),” the obituary read. “Two of her most triumphant acts of service were serving on the committee to establish a sewage system in the Hollins Community and working diligently with Roanoke County to have a community park developed, now known as Sadler Park.”
In September, Brenda Hale, the longtime leader of Roanoke’s chapter of the NAACP, told The Roanoke Times that she had attempted to intervene on Garrison’s behalf but to no avail.
“She was baptized there. She was a vibrant member for years. She started a choir there. She was someone to be respected,” Hale said. “People of integrity attended that church.”
Lifeway Research studied 1,001 U.S. adults who identify as Protestant or non-denominational, attend church worship services at least twice a month and have attended more than one church as an adult.
During the research screening process, it was determined 53% of U.S. regular churchgoers say they have attended more than one church as an adult. Among those who have switched congregations, 63% say they’ve regularly attended only two to three churches as an adult, while another 22% have attended four to five congregations. Fewer say they’ve been active at six to seven churches (8%), eight to nine (3%) or 10 or more (4%).
For most of those changing churches, changing homes was a factor. Three in 5 church switchers (60%) say a residential move impacted their decision to leave their previous church and begin attending a new one.
“The reason pastors and churchgoers talk about church switchers is because it is not a negligible number of people changing churches,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “However, chronic church switching is not the norm. The biggest group of churchgoers are those who have been at the same church throughout their adult lives, and the next biggest group are those whose church changes were necessitated by moving too far to attend their previous church.”
Same place, new church
Still, 40% of church changes were driven by something other than a residential move. When examining reasons people switched to a new congregation without moving, several factors stand out.
More than 1 in 4 church switchers say they changed because some things changed about the church they did not like (29%), the church was not fulfilling their needs or reasons for attending church (29%), they became disenchanted in some ways with the pastor (27%) or they became disenchanted with the church (26%).
For 22%, the change happened because they could not agree with some of the church’s teachings or positions on issues or politics. Around 1 in 5 say they felt out of place at their previous church (20%) or changes in their life situation caused them to stop attending (18%).
Issues related to COVID-19 drove 13% of church switchers to find a new congregation. Around 1 in 10 say they left because they had problems or conflicts with someone else at the church or the congregation itself had a conflict (11%) or their beliefs or attitudes toward church and religion changed (9%). For 2%, they had to find a new church because their previous one closed. Another 23% say they stopped attending for other reasons.
(RNS) — For Kenya Procter, a pastor who trains other faith leaders to understand and prevent suicide, it was personal before it became her job. Two decades ago, she and her husband, Fallon, lost a close friend named Jay they had gotten to know when the two men were serving at a U.S. Army base together. After Jay’s death, Procter couldn’t stop ruminating over why he had chosen to end his life.
Procter also found she couldn’t comfortably talk about it. But in 2010, a volunteer spot opened up at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention while Fallon was serving at Fort Bragg, now Fort Liberty, in North Carolina. Procter realized she could channel her own response to Jay’s death into helping others who had lost someone to suicide.
“It gave me this ‘aha’ moment,” said Procter, who today is executive pastor of Ambassadors for Christ Worship Center, a nondenominational church in Raeford, North Carolina, where Fallon is pastor. “I wanted other people to know that you don’t have to walk around with this stigma because you lost someone to suicide.”
Raised in the Black church tradition in Louisiana, Procter has learned that part of her discomfort in talking about Jay’s death had to do with her upbringing; as a clergyperson, she knows that Black pastors are among those who most need to talk about suicide.
Today, Procter is part of a national movement that works with community-based organizations, health officials and mental health advocates to train Christian faith leaders on how to talk to their parishes about this critical topic. She is also on a mission to make sure that clergy receive the help they need to come to terms with their own mental health needs.
Suicide has a disproportionate impact on Black communities in the United States: In 2020, suicide was the third leading cause of death for Black people in their teens and early 20s. In 2019, young Black women in particular were 60% more likely to attempt suicide than their white peers.
In many Black communities, the church is often a hub for many services beyond spiritual uplift. In rural communities especially, congregants and noncongregants rely on churches for information about everything from voting to health care. It is also the first place many people bring their celebrations and their troubles, money struggles and personal grief. So if clergy isn’t talking about suicide, “then that means nobody’s talking about it,” Procter said.
Soon after she volunteered to help with suicide prevention at Fort Bragg, Procter joined a program called Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, known as ASIST, and began teaching others to do the work. As she graduated to a board chair for the program and became a pastor herself, she became more concerned with faith leaders’ views about, and susceptibility to, suicide.
“I had been screaming for years saying, ‘We need to do something for clergy.’ And me being clergy, you would think it would be easier, but it’s not. It’s so hard to get clergy involved, to say, ‘Let’s have a conversation about suicide,’” she said.
Kenya Procter. (Courtesy photo)
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services sponsored a grant program to investigate ways to reduce disparities in delivery of health care. North Carolina’s public health officials took advantage in part by partnering with LivingWorks. The resulting program was called Faith Leaders for Life and focused on suicide prevention. LivingWorks, which is the parent company of ASIST, was asked to develop a training program for clergy. Its director of faith community engagement, Glen Bloomstrom, in turn tapped Procter as one of the faith leaders working with other clergy.
The silence in the Black community about suicide goes beyond faith, Procter said. The history of oppression has made having resilience and mental strength — or at least being perceived to — a necessity for survival. “We don’t talk about mental health, we don’t talk about suicide,” said Procter. “If we’ve lost someone to suicide, we go, ‘The person passed away.’”
There are times where someone needs to offer constructive criticism and there are better ways to deliver that criticism.
In fact, the best leaders and the best organizations are made better by learning to receive, process and respond to criticism. No one particularly likes criticism, but when it is offered properly it can actually improve life for everyone—which is why we call it constructive.
You see things others don’t see. You have experiences others don’t have. As a leader, I personally value healthy criticism, even when it is initially hard to hear.
If you often have a hard time determining when criticism is constructive and when it is simply selfish try reading THIS POST.
The problem is often getting needed criticism heard. Working with dozens of leaders each year, I can testify much of the criticism received is never taken as seriously as it probably should be.
We all know there are times someone shares criticism simply to “blow off steam.” They are angry and want to express their displeasure. Some people are only known for their criticism. Others share criticism simply out of selfishness—considering no one else in their complaint. In my experience, when it is determined one of these is the case, the criticism received is rarely considered as useful or valued by leaders.
How do you keep criticism which may be helpful—even constructive—from being drowned out by a perception that it is non-helpful criticism?
7 Ways To Offer Constructive Criticism Which Actually Gets Heard
Recognize and Compliment the Good
My mother used to say, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Make sure you take a bigger picture approach when offering criticism. Most likely you are criticizing something small in the overall scheme of the organization, so think of the good things which are happening or have happened in the organization. Think of the good qualities of the leader. Start there. Complimentfirst. Some even recommend the “sandwich approach.” You start with praise and end with praise with a little criticism in the middle. I wrote more about this approach HERE.
Be Specific
If you are going to criticize, at least make sure the recipient knows exactly what you are talking about. Guessing almost always leads to misunderstandings. Don’t hint at your problem or cover it over with ambiguities. Passive aggression—which I have seen so frequently in the church—over all causes more harm than it does good.
Offer Suggestions for Improvement
If you are thinking there is a better way, share. And if you haven’t any ideas, spend some time thinking about it before you criticize. When you think, do so from the perspective of the organization’s vision and the individual vision of the leader. It’s going to be hard for a leader to accept criticism which doesn’t mesh with the vision he or she feels called to achieve. You certainly don’t have to be a “yes person”—agreeing to everything a leader does—but, if you’re seen as against everything or against the leader, it will be harder to receive what you criticize as being “helpful.”
In his book The Artist’s Way of Preaching, Charles Denison says, “Most people do not read poetry, but the preacher should!” I wholeheartedly agree. But I will go a step further, I think preachers should listen to poetry too.
I don’t mean that all who teach God’s Word should get a 116 tattoo or become a hip hop groupie. Nor do I mean that if you don’t like rap that you are wrong. You’re just missing out (in my humble but accurate opinion). What I do mean is that I think this particular style of music has some unique benefits for preaching. Here are five:
1. Metaphors:
A good Christian hip hop artist will work really hard to take a known truth and make it feel as though it’s being seen for the first time. Artists like Trip Lee produce potent metaphors for biblical truths.
To give just one example, Trip’s song “I’m Not a Robot,” is a powerful illustration of how the Spirit sets us free from the bondage of sin. Check out his lyrics, “I am not your robot, I am not a clone. You are not my puppeteer and I am not a drone. Got a new master and I follow Him alone. I want a good life ’till I’m gone.”
As Denison says in The Artist’s Way of Preaching listening to poets allows us to learn their trade of “using words to create image.” Download a Trip Lee album and study the way he uses word pictures to convey spiritual realities. It will help you be more creative in helping people imagine the truth you are talking about.
The more important the truths we share the more they deserve to be said in a beautiful way. Why would you display an expensive painting in a cheap frame? Preaching shouldn’t be merely about helping our audience know something, but helping them feel something, helping them see something.
2. Concise and Compelling Sound Bytes:
As the saying goes, “Necessity is the mother of innovation.” Rap music illustrates this point. A rap song has sixteen bars in each verse. This genre imposed limitation forces the hip hop artist to say things in a concise and memorable way. When you have limited time you should weight every word.
Sometimes preachers use light sentences and feathery paragraphs because they know they can take about as long as they want. It’s a shame that some preachers even joke about going long as if it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if the words are weighted and if going long is necessary to better understand and apply the text.
It’s wrong if going long is just because someone hasn’t spent enough time crafting their sermon. I have no doubt I’ve been guilty of this more than once. I think preachers can benefit from seeing how much content can be loaded into a four minute song. I know I have.
Listen to a KB album and see how much truth he is able to share in one sixteen. Regarding persecution, he gets all this into just a few lines, “What are they gonna do, what murder us? What murder does is send a surge of us to go put churches up. Ain’t no hurtin’ us!” Hip hop artists like KB can show meandering preachers, and we’ve all been there, how to get and stay on point.
3. Cadence:
John MacArthur might be the most sampled preacher in all of Christian hip hop. In addition to having stellar biblical content, he has a rhythm in his preaching that flows well with a rap beat. I certainly don’t want to reduce great preaching to cadence, but I do think this is an area where many preachers can benefit from hearing sermonic rhythm from artists like Shai Linne or the Ambassador.
Consider these lines from Shai Line, “Praise God the Father, the Immortal Creator; For your glory you made us, You’re the Sovereign Orchestrator; All that you decree will most surely come to happen; You’re awesome as can be and Your glory none can fathom; Nothing could ever stain you, the heavens can’t contain you; We thank you for sending your Son to explain you.” Developing a tempo in your preaching might take a lot of wordsmithing and a whole lot of thought and practice. But preaching is worth it, right?!
4. Translating Theology:
Listen to Flame’s albums Our World Fallen and Our World Redeemed and you will see what it looks like to park the biblical worldview at a specific address. Flame takes deep concepts and puts them in a narrative format custom made for a target audience.
If we aren’t careful, our theological propositions can be aimed at the sky. Christian hip hop provides examples of truth spoken in context: both a biblical context and a cultural one. For example, Flame expresses the truth explained by the Apostle Paul in Acts 17 regarding God’s sovereign placement of the nations with modern application in his song Where God Placed You:
“He placed me right here. Do you think about your place on the map? Some born in the suburbs, some in the trap. He placed you right there. Consider your race, your city and state. Your third world or US of A. He placed me right here. Consider your race. By God’s design, you were placed in time and space. He placed you right there. Before the day of your birth. God decided where He wanted you to stay on this earth.”
Artists like Flame can help us be more thorough in explaining ancient truths with an eye towards modern application.
5. Authenticity:
I think it could be easy to preach theological truths as if our audience lived in the Garden of Eden. We can make following Jesus look like a simple formula that is easily perfected. Christian hip hop gives an example of “theology in sneakers,” the gospel in real life. Listen to Json’s album No Filter for a view of Christian life from the trenches of the lived experience. Christian rap can help us think deeply about the way our message might sound on the other side of the lectern.
Everyone has a different preaching style and I’m not saying there is one right way. But reading poetry, or better, since our’s is a spoken trade, listening to poetry, can positively affect one’s preaching. So, listen to some solid gospel-centered hip hop. Your soul and your preaching will be better for it.
In conversations between Christians and non-Christians alike, “evangelism” can be a bit of a buzzword.
For some, it is a call to action—to fulfill the Great Commission to “go and make disciples among all nations…” (Matt. 28:19-20). Evangelism is an integral and crucial component to God’s plan to redeem creation and reconcile humanity into relationship with him (what we call in missiology the missio dei or “mission of God”).
But for many, the word evangelism conjures other, more distasteful images. Some think of charlatans shaking people down for money. Others think of hell, fire, and brimstone preachers that showed up at church for a revival service. Still others associate evangelism with getting everyone to behave a certain way or winning an argument to rationally prove the existence of God. Some people have abandoned the term altogether.
In other words, there’s a lot of confusion about this call to tell people about Jesus and what it exactly entails.
I wanted to offer up five ways we often get evangelism wrong (either in our assumptions about it or in how we actually do it). I also wanted to include five ways I believe we can right our perspective on this misunderstood, yet crucially important, practice.
1. Apologetics Evangelism
Apologetics has its place in Christian history and in the church, but it isn’t evangelism. Since the Enlightenment, our forms of apologetics often include scientific arguments for the existence of God, the astronomical probability of Jesus fulfilling all of the First Testament prophecies, and more. Don’t get me wrong, these are important things we should discuss. But in an increasingly post-modern culture that values experiential transformation over rational argumentation, these arguments usually make for a poor approach to evangelism.
What’s more apologetics evangelism is often done at a distance. It can be done with a fact sheet or a link to a blog or a recommendation for a book. Often apologetics evangelism even devolves into arguing with people one the internet…“to glory of God.”
The Solution: A Trustworthy Evangelism
In their book I Once Was Lost (IVP 2008), Don Everts and Doug Schaupp identify that the first step a person generally takes in their journey toward Jesus is learning to trust a Christian. This means that the first thing that you and I can do—the very frontlines of reaching people far from God—is being trustworthy Christians.
Trustworthy evangelism has a couple important characteristics. First, it requires a consistency of moral character. We need to possess a cohesive integrity of how we apply and live out our Christian morality. Second, it requires that we seek to understand before we seek to be understood. We need to develop a listening posture, willing to steward peoples’ experiences, opinions, pain, and struggles with dignity and respect. We need to learn to be a safe place for people to be honest about where they are at, without fear of reprisal. Third, it requires presence. Relationships are the sum of time plus attentiveness. That means if you desire to build a trusting relationship with someone you need to spend time with them, giving your undivided attention.
2. Legislative Evangelism
We live in a time where people will vehemently fight for their religious rights yet seldomly actually use them to share the gospel. Legislative evangelism seeks to codify a particular vision of Christian moral and ethical beliefs onto a society by leveraging the power of government. The underlying assumption is that if we outlaw this or enforce that, our nation will “turn back to God.”
But there is barely a shred of evidence from all of Church history that implies that legislative evangelism works, regardless of the system of government. You simply cannot legislate the transformation of the heart. Paul Hiebert once noted that while conversion necessarily includes changes of behavior and beliefs, when these are forced upon people, people retain their old belief systems and simply put a Christian veneer over them to make life easier. But in the long wrong, Hiebert says, such a situation results in a subversion to the gospel and a “syncretistic Christo-paganism” (Transforming Worldviews, 10-11).
The Solution: A Grassroots Evangelism
An evangelism that is focused on touching people’s lives with mercy, love, service, and understanding is more faithful to the missional heart of God than one that seeks to leverage earthly power to force people to conform to moral and ethical standards and calling it “holy.” We need a grassroots approach to evangelism—one that doesn’t depend on earthly powers but is dependent upon each of us doing our part as the priesthood of all believers. True transformation—whether individual or societal—happens through the slow, patient process of personal encounter.
With new small group events right around the corner, it’s easy to get caught up in the “I” dotting and “T” crossing of our current season. For those of us who fish for group leaders, group members and community builders this time of year, the forest is easily lost in the trees. We’ve all heard the term “power of prayer” more times than we can likely count. But when it comes to group building and group leader building, small group prayer is an often overlooked tool. Everyone knows praying is an integral part of groups, but it can often become an afterthought, instead of a leading effort.
Several years ago, a national study of small group attenders asked why they found their group so enjoyable. What was it about the group that had them coming back again and again? The answer to this question is worth it’s weight in gold.
New group leaders often ask, “what can I do to make my group irresistible?”
In fact, if you’re reading this, you’ve likely had one or more group leaders under your care ask you a variation of this question.
Does a perfect environment where people can grow and learn and share and care take center stage?
Does the perfect balance of study and fellowship mean more than anything else?
Does the perfect amount and type of food provided, if any, have a huge impact on attendance?
All these things are often very important, but also very earthly. You may have guessed by now, however, that none of them came close to the top answer in the survey. The number one thing responders cited as to why they love their group, by a long shot, was the power of small group prayer.
The Irresistable Power of Small Group Prayer
Pray for your Group Members
Knowing their group leader prayed for them regularly meant more than where they met, what they studied, who they built relationships with, how their faith grew, what yummy food they ate or any of the other measurable things we humans often put too much value in when hosting groups.
Generation Z is spending, on average, nine hours a day in front of one screen or another—meaning TV, videogames, smartphones or tablets. What does that level of online consumption do to individuals and society in general? There are at least five areas where we know the effect is not a positive one.
5 Effects of Online Consumption
1. Online consumption is hurting our kids.
According to a major study of nearly 10,000 teenagers by University College London and Imperial College London, social media damages children’s mental health by “ruining sleep, reducing their exercise levels and exposing them to cyberbullies in their homes.” In fact, “using sites multiple times a day increases the risk of psychological distress by around 40 percent, compared to logging on weekly or less.”
Making matters worse, children’s screen time doubled during the pandemic and, according to researchers from the University of California-San Francisco, hasn’t gone down since. Adding to the concern is that this does not include the time spent on computers for schoolwork as researchers focused exclusively on recreational activities such as social media, texting, internet surfing and watching or streaming movies
2. It’s changing how we view and have sex.
A survey from the U.K.’s The Times finds that pornography is leading to sex where women getting hurt is the new normal, specifically the causing of pain and humiliation. BDSM (bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism) “is now ordinary.” Slapping, choking, anal intercourse… internet pornography has made those who view it expect it.
For Generation Z, “rough sex” (hair-pulling, biting, slapping, choking and other aggressive behavior) is now the second-most popular porn category searched, and nearly half say online porn is the source of their sex education. It’s also changing our experience with sex, creating distance with our sexual partners—both emotionally and physically. Those who watch porn often find themselves unable to be sexually aroused by their actual (flesh and blood) partner.
Billie Eilish, one of the biggest Gen Z musical stars and the youngest person in history to win all four of the top Grammy awards in the same year in 2020, has spoken freely about her addiction to pornography, starting from age 11, and how it not only gave her nightmares but affected her later dating life.
Speaking on the Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM radio: “I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn.” Twenty-years old at the time of the interview, she added, “The first few times I, you know, had sex, I was not saying no to things that were not good. It was because I thought that’s what I was supposed to be attracted to.”
A Bible study on thankfulness helps young people discover the many reasons to express gratitude to God. Both the Old and New Testaments feature countless ways that God blesses, protects, and provides for his children. Most importantly, God sent his only Son, Jesus, to die for our sins. Because of that, we can live with him forever in heaven.
Gratitude is a powerful force, changing hearts, attitudes, and lives. How well do your teens express and live out gratitude in their daily lives? Narcissism and self-focus aren’t uncommon among adolescents. Kids may need frequent reminders about the role that giving thanks should play in a Christian’s life.
Thankfulness is an important topic to discuss throughout the year, not just at Thanksgiving. So use these resources for a youth group lesson about giving thanks.
Bible Study on Thankfulness: 8 Resources for Youth Groups
Here’s a range of materials to use with preteens and teens. Which one will work for your next Bible message or small-group meeting?
This Bible lesson for teens is based on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. Kids will examine God’s command to “give thanks in all circumstances.” Then they’ll discuss ways to put that gratitude into action.
Remind teens that a thankful heart stems from God’s goodness, not our circumstances. With the correct biblical perspective, kids can be grateful no matter what they face.
Less than a week after receiving criticism, the International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOPKC) released “an important update” the evening of Friday (Nov. 10) regarding the law firm investigating allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse perpetrated by founder Mike Bickle.
One critical statement posted on X by a former “Metro/HOPer” and current attorney Jesi Stanley went viral.
“They did not hire a neutral 3rd party to investigate. They hired a team of defense lawyers,” Stanley originally posted in a comment on Facebook. “They literally retained one of the most prestigious, aggressive, and expensive defense law firms in Kansas City, and nationwide. There is nothing objective about it. Everything will remain confidential. These victims are going to be completely railroaded and they sold it to their congregation as accountability.”
Stanley said that it isn’t wrong for IHOPKC to have lawyers but explained the lawyers wouldn’t be conducting a legitimate “‘investigation’ and there will be zero accountability because of attorney-client privilege.” Stanley said that “every single victim should be warned. No victim should enter into conversation with the IHOP leadership team or Stinson without their own counsel present.”
“I’m sickened by the lies,” she added. “IHOP leadership seems so far out of touch, it’s deeply disturbing. Everyone should be furious.”
IHOPKC Changes Law Firm Following Criticism
“Dear IHOPKC family, We have an important update,” IHOPKC said in a statement, which was posted on social. “Third parties that claim to represent alleged victims have communicated a lack of trust in the national law firm IHOPKC engaged to lead the inquiry.”
IHOPKC added that after “careful consideration, our leadership team has decide not to proceed with STINSON LLP and instead has retained a local KC law firm to conduct interviews with alleged victims.” The 24-7 house of prayer announced that the unnamed local Kansas City law firm has already started its process, which has included reaching out to the “few alleged victims whose identities are known, also individuals claiming to represent anonymous Jane Does.”
“IHOPKC is committed to investigating any allegations of abuse in our organization in a way that honors privacy, safety, and due process,” IHOPKC’s statement concluded.
Just days prior to IHOPKC’s latest announcement, the ministry announced that Bickle had agreed to step away from public ministry indefinitely, including IHOPKC’s platform and the prayer room. He will also not engage in social media messaging until leaders “complete a thorough examination of the allegations and inquiry of the circumstances.”
Dr. Michael Brown Shares Ways To Pray
Dr. Michael Brown, founder and president of AskDrBrown Ministries and FIRE School of Ministry Online, preached at IHOPKC (Forerunner Church) the day its leadership shared that Bickle would be taking an indefinite leave of absence from ministry.
Transformation Church in Bixby, Oklahoma, has received hundreds of complaints from nearby neighbors since relocating to the small town outside of Tulsa. Even after taking some measures to reduce the amount of sound produced during each service, the church has continued to receive one noise complaint after another.
Resident Jeremy Price spoke with a local news station about how the nearby church has affected him nearly every day. “They’re practicing at full volume, and they do this anywhere from 7 in the morning to 11 at night,” he said. “It’s sometimes four days a week, sometimes five days a week, and it’s very random.”
The ongoing complaints and lack of full resolution have gone on for years. “You read the books of Matthew and Romans, it talks about loving your neighbor,” said Phil Frazier, attorney for the city, back in 2020 to ABC News affiliate KTUL. “And that’s what we’re asking them to do.”
Local Residents Submit Another Noise Complaint Against Transformation Church
The city has issued 150 citations since September 2019, beginning soon after the church took possession of its building. Residents in the neighborhood continue to complain about the noise from Transformation Church. And, over the years, the church has made attempts at solving the issue, but without success.
Frazier described a situation he’s heard from many residents living near the church. On Sundays or during practices during the week, the noise is terribly loud. If a neighbor has a cup of coffee on the counter, the liquid will vibrate with the beat of the music.
A couple solutions that have not yet been implemented include reducing the volume of the bass and building a concrete wall between the church and nearby homes. The wall is expected to better contain the noise.
Public Affairs Officer Bryan Toney is on staff with the City of Bixby and told a local news station that church leaders have agreed to make further changes to reduce the amount of sound emanating from the building.
Transformation Church staff is changing how music rehearsals are conducted and using in-ear speakers in an effort to reduce the use of house speakers. The church may even go so far as to permanently move the stage.
As the church and city of Bixby have been navigating complaints and solutions for three years now, Toney expressed that the city continues to support the church and its efforts.
With a population of just under 30,000 people, the City of Bixby and nearby restaurants recognize how Transformation Church draws thousands of people each Sunday, boosting the local economy.
One day after the Big Ten suspended Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh for the rest of the regular season, the Wolverines notched a major road win under interim head coach Sherrone Moore. In a tearful post-game interview that quickly went viral, Moore, 37, began by thanking the Lord and Harbaugh but then used explicit language [Editor’s note: The preceding link contains language that some may find offensive].
Moore, the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, filled Harbaugh’s shoes on short notice. Michigan had asked a judge to grant a temporary restraining order so Harbaugh could be on the sidelines. But 90 minutes before kickoff at Penn State, Michigan learned the suspension would be in place for at least one game.
“We were just prepared to adjust however we needed to,” said Moore after leading the Wolverines to a 24-15 win. “It’s been a crazy 24 hours. But at the same time, our team is built for this. Our staff is built for this. We’re all built for it.”
Michigan’s Sherrone Moore: ‘I Wear My Heart on My Sleeve’
Speaking to Fox’s Jenny Taft immediately after Saturday’s victory, Moore was tearful and passionate. “I want to thank the Lord,” he responded when asked what the win meant to him. Next, Moore thanked Harbaugh, saying, “I love the s— out of you, man.” He also praised the university and its president, athletic director, players, and alumni. While turning to his players, Moore said, “These f—— guys…these guys did it!”
Moore, one of college football’s top young coordinators, said he’s “a pretty calm guy, but there’s a lot of emotions.” He added, “I wear my heart on my sleeve. I work extremely hard, as we all do. So it meant a lot for us to get this win in this situation.”
On social media, people shared clips of Moore’s interview, expressing confusion about the intensity. “He’s suspended, not dead???” someone commented about Harbaugh’s absence. Others noted the disconnect between invoking God’s name and then cursing. “’First off, I want to thank the Lord’… proceeds to drop multiple F-bombs,” someone wrote.
Moore, a member of Michigan’s coaching staff since 2018, describes himself as a “Christ follower” in his Instagram bio.
Michigan’s Suspension Comes Amid NCAA Inquiries
Michigan’s suspension by the Big Ten comes amid an ongoing NCAA investigation into a possible sign-stealing operation. The school also is under scrutiny for allegedly making impermissible contact with football recruits during the pandemic. Rulings from the NCAA aren’t expected until 2024.
In August, Michigan handed down self-imposed penalties on both Harbaugh and Moore, a tactic that schools sometimes use to “get out in front of the NCAA, show cooperation and mitigate some damages of an eventual punishment,” according to the Associated Press. The university suspended Harbaugh for the season’s first three games and Moore for the first game.
Bart Barber, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, preached from Philippians 4:8-9 during his president’s address June 13 during the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting. He focused on the passage’s commands to imitate the ways of Paul and dwell on specific truths in order to receive the peace that God promises in the passage. (Photo courtesy of Baptist Press)
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) president Bart Barber is under fire for his financial support of Republican Oklahoma State Senate candidate Jean Hausheer, who was running against SBC pastor Dusty Deevers.
Conservative news site The Sentinel reported on Saturday (Nov. 11) that Barber had contributed $100 to Hausheer’s primary campaign in August, per campaign records.
Deevers, who serves as pastor of Grace Community Church of Elgin, Oklahoma, has now secured the Republican nomination and will face off against Democrat Larry Bush in the general election.
While Hausheer was a pro-life candidate, her opponents criticized her as a “liberal” Republican, in part for previous statements supporting COVID-19 pandemic safety mandates enacted by the Biden administration, including lockdown measures and vaccine requirements.
Among the voices decrying Barber’s donation to Hausheer is Tom Ascol, a Florida SBC pastor who ran against Barber in the SBC presidential race in 2022.
“Wow. This is incredibly disappointing. It is also very revealing on many levels—not the least of which is it highlights the obfuscation that flies under the banner of ‘pro-life’ in many evangelical circles,” Ascol posted. “The SBC is in dire need of spiritual renewal.”
Ascol was referring to a growing divide within the pro-life movement in a post-Dobbs landscape. While Barber has long advocated for a traditional pro-life approach, Deevers is a part of the “abolitionist” wing of the movement, which is seen by many as more extreme.
In an exchange on X (formerly Twitter) in September 2022, Deevers criticized Brent Leatherwood, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, for being one of the signers of a letter opposing a Louisiana bill that would make women who get abortions subject to criminal prosecution and prison—a proposal that does not comport with mainstream pro-life values but is characteristic of an abolitionist vision for ending abortion.
Deevers argued that by siding against the Louisiana bill, which eventuallyfailed to pass, Leatherwood “sided against the innocent preborn.”
Scott Sauls, who for the past six months has been indefinitely suspended from his role as pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church (CPC) in Nashville, Tennessee, officially resigned Sunday, Nov. 12. The congregation resoundingly approved Sauls’ decision to step down, with 517 voting in favor and 122 against, according to Liam Adams, reporter for The Tennessean.
Prior to the vote, Sauls read a letter to hundreds of people gathered Sunday evening to deliberate over his proposed resignation. The pastor said he had originally hoped to continue serving at CPC, “but we now believe the most merciful thing to do is step aside so the church can seek new leadership and we can seek the Lord’s will for whatever comes next as well.”
Scott Sauls Resigns as Pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church
Scott Sauls served at Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City prior to pastoring Christ Presbyterian Church for 12 years. He has appeared on “The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast” and is the author of several books, including “Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen,” “A Gentle Answer,” and “Jesus Outside the Lines.”
On May 7, CPC announced it had placed Scott Sauls on an indefinite leave of absence following an investigation by the church and the Nashville Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America. That investigation was prompted by an August 2022 letter from former staffers, alleging that Sauls had created a toxic working environment.
In a video to the church, Sauls apologized for how he had abused his leadership. “I verbalized insensitive and hurtful criticism of others’ work,” he said. “I’ve used social media and the pulpit to quiet dissenting viewpoints. I’ve manipulated facts to support paths that I desire.”
“Although I want to live by what I write and preach, my sin and my blind spots have created gaps between my message and how I show up and lead,” Sauls said.
“I am grieved to say that I have hurt people,” he added. “I want to say to all of you that I am sorry.” Sauls has not been accused of substance abuse or sexual abuse.
Elder David Filson also apologized for how the church’s leaders had failed in their responsibilities to safeguard the culture. “We recognize the gravity of this moment and acknowledge that leadership in a church like ours does not happen in a vacuum. We are sorry for the ways we have failed to lead well,” he said.
A May 6 note on Sauls’ Substack said that he is taking a break from writing.
On May 12, the Nashville Presbytery indefinitely suspended Sauls from ministry. Elders and preachers from within CPC took over Sauls’ preaching duties.
Richard Gustav Niebuhr leads an interview on a PBS program. (Video screen grab)
(RNS) — Richard Gustav Niebuhr, an influential award-winning national journalist turned college professor who covered religion for The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and New York Times, died last month from complications of Parkinson’s Disease, his family announced.
He was 68.
Niebuhr died Oct. 20 at his home, but his passing was not widely known until this week.
Born July 30, 1955, in Poughkeepsie, New York, religion was his family’s business. Niebuhr’s grandfather, H. Richard Niebuhr, taught theology at Yale; his great-uncle Reinhold Niebuhr taught at Union Theological Seminary; while his great-aunt Clara August Hulda Niebuhr was a legendary Christian educator and the first woman professor at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. His father, Richard, taught at Harvard Divinity School for more than four decades.
Yet when he began his journalism career, Niebuhr covered politics, doing so at the Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
But when a friend told him that the Atlanta-Journal Constitution was looking for a religion reporter in the late 1980s, he jumped at the opportunity, Niebuhr recalled in 2010.
“She only mentioned it, but it caught my attention in a major way,” he told veteran religion reporter Richard Dujardin in a 2010 profile. “I realized then it was exactly what I wanted to do.”
Before long, he was covering a theological civil war raging in the Southern Baptist Convention and the growing influence of evangelical Christianity in Central America.
His success at the Journal-Constitution led to a series of offers to cover religion on the national stage — first at The Wall Street Journal, then The Washington Post, and finally The New York Times — where his work earned a number of awards from the Religion News Association.
One of the last major stories he covered at the Times was the attacks of 9/11. He was headed into New York on the morning of Sept. 11, he later recalled, and saw the World Trade Center towers in flames.
“My train was the last one from New Jersey to make it to Penn Station,” he told Dujardin.
Former colleagues described him as kind and generous.
“The thing I noticed and appreciated about him was that he always had time for his competitors, he was always willing to help others out and he never thought he was too important to lend a hand to other reporters,” said former Religion News Service editor Kevin Eckstrom, who was a young reporter during Niebuhr’s heyday.
“Gus defined the religion beat at its best and really helped set the standard for what good religion journalism looks like: smart, incisive, respectful but not deferential. He had a unique ability to connect the dots to tell a larger, more important narrative. And he was a hell of a nice guy while he did it.”
Longtime religion journalist and author Cathleen Falsani described Niebuhr as a mentor and a friend, calling him a “kind, gentle, funny, patient and wise man,” who understood that religion shapes every part of the world around us.
“He cared deeply about such things and instilled that care in me,” she wrote on her Facebook page, in mourning Niebuhr’s death. “I know I am not alone in having experienced Gus as inspiration, guide, mentor, sounding board, cheerleader, voice of reason.”
An undated photo and a depiction of Matushka Olga Michael of Alaska. (Images courtesy of Orthodox Canada)
(RNS) — A Native Alaskan midwife known for her healing love, especially toward abused women, has become the first female Orthodox Christian saint from North America after she was glorified at a meeting of bishops of the Orthodox Church in America in Chicago this week.
Expected for more than a year, her glorification is the result of a bottom-up process that begins with lay members’ veneration and the gathering of accounts of holiness by a church committee. Unlike Catholicism, the Orthodox do not require miracles to confirm a saint, but some women have credited Olga with miraculous intercessions.
On Nov. 2, Bishop Alexei of Sitka and Alaska wrote a letter to the OCA’s highest-ranking cleric, Metropolitan Tikhon, formally requesting that she be considered for sainthood.
“The first peoples of Alaska are convinced of her sanctity and the great efficacy of her prayers,” he wrote.
The synod then agreed in a Nov. 8 statement that “the time for the glorification of Matushka Olga has arrived, fulfilling the hopes and prayers of pious Orthodox Christians throughout Alaska and the entire world,” using an honorific for priests’ wives in the Russian Orthodox Church.
“The Holy Synod determined that the time for Matushka’s glorification is now simply based upon its prayerful reflection and the growing witness to her holiness expressed through the voice of the Faithful,” Archbishop Daniel of Chicago and the Midwest, who serves on the synod, told RNS in an email. “In other words, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”
Olga, named Arrsamquq when she was born into the Yupik tribe in 1916, knitted mittens and sewed leather and fur boots for her rural Alaskan community and often gave away her family’s few possessions to help others in need. She assisted pregnant women through childbirth and shared their joy and grief.
After an arranged marriage to a local hunter and fisherman who founded the village’s first general store and post office before becoming a priest later in life, she gave birth to 13 babies of her own, only eight of whom survived to adulthood.
Church accounts credit Olga’s prayers for her husband’s embrace of the church but do not say whether Olga suffered abuse herself. She died in 1979.
Above all, Olga is remembered for spiritually healing abused women, inviting them into the intimate space of a traditional wooden Yupik sauna, where neither bruises nor emotions could hide, and conversation flowed freely.
Olga will officially become the 14th North American Orthodox Christian saint, and the only woman in that group, in a ceremony yet to be scheduled. Her ancestors reportedly converted to Orthodoxy after hearing the teachings of the Aleut missionary Iakov Netsvetov (1802-1864), now known as St. Jacob. St. Herman, a Russian Orthodox monk and missionary to Alaska in the late 1700s and early 1800s, when it was part of Russia, was the first North American to be canonized by the church.
The Rev. Vasily Fisher, parish priest of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Kwethluk, Alaska, where St. Olga lived, said her glorification means “a great deal” to the Yupik community there.
Joby Martin joins “The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast” to discuss what happens when a church leader has truly been run over by the “grace train" and understands the profound love and grace of God.
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