Bear Grylls: It Was Always ‘A Dream of Mine To Get in the Water That Jesus Was Baptised In’

October 2, 2023

Survivalist and author Bear Grylls appears to have been baptized in the Jordan River, something he suggested has always been a dream of his. On Monday, Oct. 2, Grylls shared an image on social media of himself standing in a river in a posture that commonly precedes baptism.

“It had always been a dream of mine to get in the water that Jesus was baptised in by my hero John the Baptist,” said Grylls. “The story is so amazing, & it seems wherever Jesus went, that new birth, new life, a new vision followed.”

It had always been a dream of mine to get in the water that Jesus was baptised in by my hero John the Baptist. The story is so amazing, & it seems wherever Jesus went, that new birth, new life, a new vision followed. Luke (in the bible) was probably a Syrian doctor before he met… pic.twitter.com/YwcEwL1ewh

— Bear Grylls OBE (@BearGrylls) October 2, 2023

Bear Grylls Appreciates the Gospel of Luke

Bear Grylls is a best-selling author probably best-known for the show, “Man vs. Wild.” He is a former member of the British Special Forces and at age 23 summited Mount Everest not long after breaking his back in a skydiving accident.

In addition to “Man vs. Wild,” Grylls has participated in other survival-focused shows, such as “Escape from Hell,” “The Island,” and “Running Wild with Bear Grylls.” His books include “Soul Fuel: A Daily Devotional,” “Never Give Up: My Life in the Wild,” and “Mind Fuel: Simple Ways to Build Mental Resilience Every Day.”

Grylls is candid about his Christian faith. In an interview earlier this year, he drew a distinction between following Jesus and participating in empty religion. “I think Jesus would really struggle with 99% of churches nowadays,” he said. “Our job in life is to stay close to Christ and drop the religious, drop the fluff, drop the church if you need to because that means so many different things to different people anyway.”

“Keep the bit of church which is about community and friends and honesty and faith and love,” Grylls continued. “All the masks, performances, music and worship bands and all of that sort of stuff—I don’t think Christ would recognize a lot of that.”

Grylls has also been an ambassador for Alpha, an introduction to Christianity run by all major Christian denominations in 169 countries.

The baptism of Jesus is recounted in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. “Luke (in the bible) was probably a Syrian doctor before he met Jesus,” Grylls said in his post. “He writes a reliable, poignant account of his life. It’s short. I like it.” Luke is actually the longest book in the New Testament.

‘Wholehearted’—34th Annual ‘See You at the Pole’ Draws Thousands of Students

Janna Firestone

October 2, 2023

Every fourth Wednesday of September, students across the nation gather around their school’s flagpole early in the morning for prayer. And this year was no different.

“See You at the Pole” has become a “global movement of prayer which is student-initiated, student-organized, and student-led.”

Thousands of Students Gather for See You at the Pole

Social media is full of posts and photos of students gathered for See You at the Pole 2023. Groups of students gathered on their own, and some parents or grandparents drove kids to the meetings at the schools’ flagpoles. After nearly 35 years of the event’s success, the prayer movement is “building momentum.” National Field Director of the National Network of Youth Ministries (a ministry partner of See You at the Pole) Doug Clark told The Christian Post of an increased number of students requesting resources over the past couple of years.

Before the 2023 event took place, Clark predicted, “I think I can confidently say that there will be students praying in all 50 states.”

“THANK YOU! We are blown away by how See You at the Pole 2023 went! We give God all the glory and pray that He starts a movement out of this moment,” the organization posted. “We hope you are all encouraged and determined to see more regular prayer in your schools! It starts with YOU #syatp”

This year’s theme focused on Jeremiah 29:13, which says, “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” See You at the Pole provided a planning guide and a checklist for student leaders to follow as they organized the event.

Clark said that studies have shown some younger generations are more resistant to religion. But, as in the book of Jeremiah, while God’s people were living in exile, God spoke words of hope.

“But in the context [of this verse and theme], there’s a question of: Are you seeking me with your whole heart?” Clark continued, “So, the theme this year is ‘wholehearted.’ We want to challenge students to see God with their whole hearts.”

See You at the Pole began in 1990 in Burleson, Texas. “The teenagers felt led to go and pray at night at several area schools during a weekend youth group retreat,” according to organization’s website. “They had a profound time of prayer, and their experience was shared with thousands of other youth from across Texas in the form of a challenge in June 1990 at a large conference.”

“More than 45,000 students on 1,200 campuses in Texas and three other states were documented at the first See You at the Pole™ in September of that year. The movement continued to grow nationally and internationally from 1991 on,” the site goes on to say.

While there is no specific sponsor of the event, a “diverse mix of approximately 100 church denominations, nonprofit ministries, and other organizations are listed as ‘Supporting Ministries’ who promote, endorse, or otherwise support See You at the Pole™.”

Students were encouraged to seek permission from the school administration to meet on campus for See You at the Pole, though “there is no requirement.” The organization surmised, “According to your constitutional rights upheld by Supreme Court precedent, you already have permission.”

What’s Next for Student Leaders After See You at the Pole?

For years, Dare 2 Share Ministries founder Greg Stier has offered ways for students to make the most out of See You at the Pole events. Stier hopes youth leaders will encourage students to keep the momentum of See You at the Pole going throughout the school year. “Mobilize your teens to make See You at the Pole a starting point for revival not a finish line,” he said.

Lee Strobel Recounts Discussing the Resurrection of Jesus With Playboy Founder Hugh Hefner

Dale Chamberlain

October 2, 2023

Lee Strobel Hugh Hefner — Left: Screengrab via YouTube / First Baptist Dallas; Right: Toglenn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Evangelist Lee Strobel delivered a guest sermon at First Baptist Church in Dallas on Sunday, opening the message with a story about a strange encounter he had with Playboy Magazine founder Hugh Hefner two decades ago.

Recounting his conversation with Hefner, Strobel indicated that Hefner understood the central message of Christianity and the life-changing implications of Jesus’ resurrection. It’s just that he found it doubtful that Jesus really did rise from the grave.

“I want to talk about something that happened to me almost 20 years ago,” Strobel began. “I found myself in a highly unlikely place for an evangelical Christian. I was there in the living room of the opulent Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California, about to interview Hugh Hefner.”

“Now, I was no fan of Mr. Hefner’s. I mean, I had seen how his work had corroded and corrupted our culture in many ways,” Strobel clarified. “But I’m a journalist; I’ve interviewed all kinds of infamous people in my life. And at the time, I had a national TV show, and my assignment was to interview him about his religious beliefs.”

Strobel went on to say that Hefner expressed a “minimal belief in God.”

“He said, ‘Oh yeah, I kind of believe in God as a word for the beginning of it all and the great unknown—but certainly not the God of the Bible,’” Strobel recalled.

It was then that Strobel brought up the resurrection of Jesus Christ, at which point Hefner’s eyes suddenly “grew wide.”

“Because even a skeptic like him saw the implications of the resurrection of Jesus,” Strobel said. “He said, ‘If one had any real evidence that indeed Jesus did return from the dead, then that’s the beginning of a dropping of a series of dominos that takes us to all kinds of wonderful things. It assures an afterlife and all kinds of things that we would all hope to be true.’”

It’s just that Hefner didn’t believe it was possible that Jesus rose from the dead, though Hefner admitted to Strobel that he had never examined the evidence.

According to Strobel, Hefner said, “Do I think that Jesus is the Son of God? I don’t think he’s the Son of God anymore than you and I are the Son of God.”

Dear Pastor: What ‘And’ Can Do

Chad McCallum

October 2, 2023

Dear Pastor, it is Monday and I am thinking about you.

Just a few short hours ago you walked through the events of Sunday and while I’m not sure how your day went, chances are you might identify with one of these common responses that I often hear (and I myself have felt) on a Monday.

It was amazing celebrating with so many who were being baptized!

It was encouraging to see people in the service that we had not seen for some time.

It was so good to gather with friends.

It was hard as the steady drip of criticism regarding the “direction of the church” continued to be expressed.

It was exhilarating as we broke ground on our new facility.

Recently, I have discovered that we all have the capacity to experience a multitude of emotions simultaneously. A mere addition of a single word can expand the spectrum of our feelings in a profound manner.

What is this magic word? It is the word and.

Think again about the responses above, but now add the word and—when you do, a doorway is opened more widely into your internal world.

It was amazing celebrating with so many who were being baptized and frustrating as some core volunteers called in sick.

It was encouraging to see people in the service that we had not seen for some time and discouraging as so many shared the weight of what they are carrying.

It was good to gather with friends and it was disappointing, as we had dreamed and prayed for so much more.

It was hard as the steady drip of criticism regarding the “direction of the church” continued to be expressed and routine as it just seems like we are stuck in a rut.

It was exhilarating as we broke ground on our new facility and exhausting as preaching seemed to drain me deeply.

I want you to know this today, no matter how many ands you might have in your internal world, God is God of all of the ands.

In fact, just this morning I heard Tauren Wells on the radio and he agrees that God is God of the ands, as he so powerfully reminds us of it in his song, Hills and Valleys.

Notice the contrasts in verse 1 of the song:

I’ve walked among the shadows
You wiped my tears away
And I’ve felt the pain of heartbreak
And I’ve seen the brighter days
And I’ve prayed prayers to heaven from my lowest place
And I have held the blessings God, You give and take away

7 Things Pastors Should Never Say

Michael Lukaszewski

October 2, 2023

pastor should never say — Adobestock #113423210

Full disclosure: many of these things were learned the hard way because I said many of these things. In fact, I think we have all said things pastors should never say. So with that apology out in the open, and realizing that we all make mistakes, here’s the list:

7 Things Pastors Should Never Say

1. We’re not here to reach churched people.

Yes, Jesus said he came to earth to seek and save the lost. But that was not the ONLY thing he did.

He also spent significant time teaching a small group of followers whom He said would go on to do greater things. I understand the heart behind reaching the lost, and I understand tailoring certain environments to accomplish that. But in your zeal to reach the lost, don’t discount the comprehensive mission of the church—to go into all the world and make disciples.

When you say, “We’re here to reach unchurched people; there are plenty of churches for Christians,” you alienate people of faith and communicate that they have no real place of ministry in your church. You insult the 65-year-old grandmother who has served Jesus and children for 40 years.

Whether you mean to or not, you foster a spirit of competition among area churches over who is more evangelistic and who is more missional and who is more Bible-based.

Say, “We care about reaching the lost,” but pastors should never say you don’t care about church for Christians.

Developing a Kingdom Mindset

Chuck Warnock

October 2, 2023

As a young child, my mother would tell me to “Put on your thinking cap” when I had to solve a problem. Jesus says something of the same thing to Peter, but much more directly. How do we develop a kingdom mindset? This brief look at the an encounter between Peter and Jesus might give us some clues about developing a kingdom mindset.

Developing a Kingdom Mindset

²¹ From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

²⁴ Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save his life^[h] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. ²⁸ I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” — Matthew 16:21-28 NIV’84

From Demonstration to Decision

During these summer months we have been looking at various passages from the Gospel of Matthew, thinking together about the Kingdom of God; or, as Matthew calls it, the Kingdom of Heaven. We have looked primarily at the words and actions of Jesus that demonstrated the kingdom of God.

We have seen Jesus teach about the kingdom. Matthew in chapters 5-7, records the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon is the compendium, the substance, of the Jesus’ Kingdom teachings. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins to lay out the ethical and spiritual distinctives of the Kingdom. These are characteristics that distinguish the Kingdom of God, which he has come to both announce and inaugurate, from the current practice of first century Judaism.

But Jesus does more in Matthew’s Gospel than just teach about the Kingdom. He presents a kingdom mindset.

We have seen him demonstrate what life will be like in the Kingdom of God by healing the paralyzed man by first forgiving his sins. We have seen Jesus call disciples to follow him, to learn from him, and to embrace life in this Kingdom, which will stand in contrast to the world in which he and they now live.

We have seen Jesus describe the Kingdom of God using parables like the sower and the soils, the wheat and the weeds, and the treasure in the field. We have seen Jesus demonstrate the abundance of the Kingdom of Heaven by feeding 5,000, and then on another occasion by feeding 4,000 people. We have seen the King of the Kingdom, Jesus, exercise his dominion over the created elements by walking on water.

And last week we saw Jesus prod the disciples to verbalize who he really was. And it was Peter who got it out first with his confession – “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

So we have seen Jesus gently, yet persistently teach, demonstrate, and clarify the ideas and actions of the Kingdom of God before his disciples.

But today we come to the hinge point of Jesus’ ministry – the point at which he moves from demonstrating the Kingdom of God for his disciples, and begins to push them toward their own decision regarding their place in the Kingdom.

As I just mentioned, Peter’s confession of Christ was the first public acknowledgement by the disciples that Jesus was the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ. But an acknowledgment is one thing for even Satan recognized who Jesus was.

No, Jesus needed for the disciples to do much more than acknowledge him as the Christ. His teaching and demonstration of the Kingdom was to lead them to a point of decision, a point of commitment that heretofore they had not made.

Seattle Pacific University Targets LGBTQ Displays With New Policy, Say Critics

Kathryn Post

October 2, 2023

Seattle Pacific University new policy — Students walk on the campus of Seattle Pacific University in Seattle on Sept. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Chris Grygiel)

(RNS) — Half a mile from the entrance to Seattle Pacific University, a massive billboard with a rainbow LGBTQ pride flag and the words “all are welcome” looms over a bustling intersection.

The billboard — placed by Pacific Lutheran University, a queer, inclusive Christian school about an hour south in Tacoma, Washington — is viewed by some as an intentional jab at SPU and its LGBTQ policies. In the past three years, the university, which is associated with the Free Methodist Church, has seen lawsuits, student sit-ins and rainbow-flag graduation protests against the university board’s ban on employee same-sex sexual activity.

Now, a new display policy for faculty and staff at the college says the university may “restrict expression” that is “incompatible with the mission and functioning of the University,” including displays that are attached to windows and building exteriors. It also gives the university the right to remove displays in violation of the policy without prior notice.

The new policy, according to students and faculty who oppose it, is targeting the pro-LGBTQ paraphernalia that has adorned numerous faculty windows and other areas of campus over the last three years.

“This, to me, was yet another nail in the coffin to completely erase queer identity on campus,” Christopher Hanson, director of music education and the only openly queer faculty member at SPU, told Religion News Service.

Hanson, whose office door is “littered” with LGBTQ “propaganda,” described himself as the “right kind of queer, quote unquote” to pass the board’s policies, because he is bisexual and married to a woman.

Bill Purcell, professor of communication at SPU, sees the new policy as part of a larger pattern of conservative churches drawing a line in the sand on theological and social issues. He said administrators likely adopted the policy to realign the university with what they perceive as the values of the Free Methodist Church.

“I don’t think that they are necessarily intending to do it punitively,” Purcell said, “But it comes off that way.”

The policy was announced in July in an email sent to staff and faculty by Kim Sawers, vice president for business and finance. The email said no materials would be removed while faculty were away from campus for the summer. As of Thursday, Sept. 28, none of the faculty, staff or students reached by RNS had heard of displays being taken down.

“No one is going around randomly removing things,” Sawers told RNS. “Policies are meant to guide, and have consistent understanding and shared understanding. There are not display police coming around. That’s not what this is at all.”

The policy doesn’t mention LGBTQ paraphernalia by name, leading to some confusion among faculty about what exactly is or isn’t allowed. But others view the policy’s ban on window displays and materials that violate the school’s mission as a direct reference to pride flags and pro-LGBTQ signs and banners.

“The way that I interpreted it, it felt like it targeted specifically those types of posters,” said Nikka Dellosa, a staff member in the health and wellness department who designed signs with pride flags and phrases like “Christians love LGBTQIA+ people” and “SPU is not the board” that have been widely shared around campus. “It didn’t seem very confusing at all, from my perspective.”

Trump, Once ‘Most Pro-Life President,’ Riles Anti-Abortion Activists With New Stance

Jack Jenkins

October 2, 2023

Donald Trump abortion — Former President Donald Trump speaks in Clinton Township, Mich., Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Mike Mulholland)

(RNS) — President Donald Trump, who has touted himself as the “most pro-life president ever” and whose Supreme Court appointments clinched the majority that would overturn Roe v. Wade, has pivoted away from more strident anti-abortion rhetoric and railed against a six-week abortion ban, signed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as a “terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”

Earlier this year, Trump blamed the “abortion issue” for the GOP’s lackluster results in the 2022 midterm elections. And during a Sept. 18 appearance on “Meet the Press,” he pledged to work with Democrats to pass national abortion legislation if elected.

His stance is raising frustration among anti-abortion activists and spurring his Republican primary opponents to try to peel away conservative religious voters from the former president.

“While there are a number of areas that both sides on the abortion issue can come to an agreement on, like paid maternity leave and childcare aid, there is no compromise on whether abortion should be legal or not,” Abby Johnson, who runs the anti-abortion group And Then There Were None, which she describes as a ministry, said in a statement.

“No specific number of weeks is acceptable past conception for those of us who believe in the sanctity of life. Any candidate who is truly pro-life should be able to vow to sign any pro-life legislation that comes across their desk. President Trump’s disappointing comments only serve as an avenue for pro-lifers to find another candidate to support,” Johnson added.

Johnson, a onetime Planned Parenthood staffer turned anti-abortion activist, has been a staunch champion for Trump. She made a speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention in which she referred to Trump as the “most pro-life president we have ever had,” and she participated in a faith-themed Jericho March — which lended support to Trump’s erroneous claims that the 2020 election was stolen — in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Jeanne Mancini, president of the anti-abortion March for Life, an annual anti-abortion protest in Washington, D.C., that featured Trump as a headlining speaker in 2020, sent a statement to Religion News Service that praised state laws passed following the fall of Roe v. Wade banning abortion after cardiac activity can be detected — often around six weeks into a pregnancy.

“Every pro-life governor who courageously signed heartbeat protections was re-elected in 2022,” Mancini said. “There is no reason why any politician, particularly one who claims to be pro-life, cannot support lifesaving measures, with at least a minimum 15-week federal standard which protects children past the point at which they can feel pain. It is the right, compassionate and even popular thing to do.”

Many national GOP politicians have shied away from making abortion an issue as voters in Republican-leaning states of Kansas and Ohio have rejected referendums or related initiatives led by anti-abortion advocates. Trump, who leads the Republican primary race by double-digit percentage points, may be gauging how to avoid being vulnerable on abortion in the general election. But the shift could have more immediate consequences for Trump, who has long benefitted from robust support among white evangelicals — a group that disproportionately opposes abortion in all or most cases compared to other religious groups, according to Pew Research surveys conducted last year.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, often seen as most likely to appeal to evangelicals should Trump falter, made sure to bring up Trump’s recent statements in the second Republican presidential debate on Tuesday (Sept. 26), which the former president skipped.

“I reject this idea that pro-lifers are to blame for midterm defeats,” DeSantis said. “The former president — he’s missing in action tonight … He should be here explaining his comments to try to say that pro-life protections are a ‘terrible thing.’”

Critics of Pope Francis Won’t Rain on Synod’s Parade, Says Papal Envoy to US

Claire Giangrave

October 2, 2023

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — In the weeks leading up to the long-awaited Vatican Synod on Synodality Oct. 4-29, perhaps no local church has been more polarized or vocally critical of the event than the conservative community in the U.S. But according to the Vatican representative to the U.S., Catholics shouldn’t be too concerned with the pushback.

“I think we should never exaggerate the resistance to the synod,” said Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the papal nuncio to the U.S. since 2016, in an interview with Religion News Service at the Vatican on Friday (Sept. 29).

“The people who are resisting are very vocal and they are also supported by a network of blogs,” he added, which can make papal opposition “look like a conspiracy sometimes.” Pierre is among the 21 nominees who will be made cardinals by Pope Francis at the consistory Saturday.

Following a two-year consultation of Catholics around the globe, bishops, priests and non-clergy faithful will gather at the Vatican to discuss a wide array of topics, ranging from power distribution to same-sex marriage to the role of women in the church. But some conservative Catholics and news outlets in the U.S. have described the synod as a Trojan horse, created by the pontiff to introduce progressive ideologies in the church.

The de-facto leader of papal opposition in the U.S., Cardinal Raymond Burke, wrote in a preface to a book on the synod titled “The Synodal Process Is a Pandora’s Box” that the event has brought “grave harm” to the church and might eventually lead to schism. Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, wrote in a public letter in August that the synod will reveal “the true schismatics” who wish to “undermine the Deposit of the Faith.”

More extremist positions are represented by radical traditionalist Fr. James Altman, formerly of the Diocese of La Crosse in Wisconsin, who, in a video titled “Bergoglio is not the pope,” said, using Pope Francis’ birth name, that the “best thing we could do would be to throw the great millstone around Jorge Bergoglio’s neck and throw him into the deep blue Mediterranean Sea.”

Pierre dismissed conservative fears and insisted the synod is not about creating a new church or a new doctrine, but about fostering dialogue. “Some people say: ‘you opened a Pandora’s box.’ Of course, you can open a Pandora’s box for anything,” he said, adding that “we need in some way to help the church to be together and find ways to evangelize in a new, globalized context.”

While conservative opposition to Pope Francis and the synod in the U.S. often appears conspicuous, well-funded and meticulously produced, it actually represents a small fraction of the faithful and clergy in the country, Pierre said.

“Most of the bishops are respectful toward the pope, I know that,” Pierre said. “Maybe some bishops have taken a different course. But if there are problems, the pope has to deal with them. We have always done that.”

Altman has been dismissed from his parish in the diocese of La Crosse and was banned from preaching publicly in 2021. And in June of this year, Pope Francis sent an apostolic visitation to the diocese of Tyler to investigate Strickland’s leadership. Unconfirmed, but highly publicized, rumors from the Vatican have suggested the pope might soon ask Strickland to resign. But speaking to RNS, the firebrand bishop said he “cannot voluntarily abandon the flock that I have been given charge of as a successor of the apostles.”

While controversial issues in the church may have taken center stage at the synod, the event promises to be far more centered on ecclesiology, or how the church is organized and operates. Questions on how bishops should relate to the pontiff, and vice versa, and how bishops should be held accountable by their diocese will likely make up a big portion of the discussions.

Vatican, Other Faith Leaders Join in Push for End of Death Penalty in Louisiana

Adelle M Banks

October 2, 2023

(RNS) — The Vatican has joined U.S. faith leaders and anti-death penalty activists in supporting the Louisiana governor’s desire to clear the death row cells in his state.

Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Catholic Democrat, called in August for the Louisiana Board of Pardons to reconsider applications for clemency of 56 prisoners on the state’s death row. While the state has only executed one person in two decades, Louisiana, along with 26 other states in the U.S., still permits the death penalty.

Twenty applications have been scheduled for clemency hearings in the next two months by the Louisiana Board of Pardons. Only one person on death row is not among the state’s clemency requests, NPR reported.

“Much like you, the Catholic Church believes that our society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of individuals who have been convicted of crimes,” wrote Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, in a Tuesday (Sept. 26) letter. “We respectfully urge you to exercise all powers vested in your office to encourage the Board of Pardons to docket the 36 remaining applicants.”

Paglia added: “We think that the clearing of Louisiana’s death row would be a monumental step towards the abolition of the death penalty, that would deserve to be also an example to other states.”

The day before the Vatican letter, a coalition of death penalty opponents, including Faith Leaders of Color Coalition, the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International USA, made a similar plea to the governor, describing racial inequities in the use of the death penalty in the state.

“In Louisiana, Black people make up only one-third of the State’s population, yet account for over 67 percent of capital cases in the state,” they wrote in a letter to Edwards and the pardon board. “Clemency today remains the most powerful tool available to correct past injustices and ensure no one tomorrow is executed based on a system, built in a bygone era, which we now recognize to be broken, racist, and faulty.”

In his last state of the state address to Louisiana’s Legislature in April, Edwards, whose term ends in January, called for the first time on its members to eliminate the state’s death penalty.

“We all know our criminal justice system is far from perfect — but the death penalty is final,” he said. “We know in 2023 the death penalty isn’t necessary for public safety; and perhaps most importantly, it is wholly inconsistent with Louisiana’s pro-life values as it quite literally by definition promotes a culture of death.”

He expressed support for legislation introduced by Democratic state Rep. Kyle Green that later was defeated.

“We had many people testify in the Louisiana House of Representatives in favor of a change in state law, but that bill never got out of committee,” New Orleans Catholic Archbishop Gregory Aymond told his archdiocesan newspaper in a recent interview. “We will continue to advocate for the end to capital punishment in the state.”

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, recalling the murder victims of some on death row, filed a Sept. 20 suit against the Board of Pardons for what his office described as a “short-circuiting” of procedures.

A Word of Encouragement to Pastors During Pastor Appreciation Month

Ron Edmondson

October 2, 2023

I came into ministry later in life after over 20 years in the business world. Maybe this explains some of why I was surprised when I entered the ministry at how hard churches can be on a pastor. I never knew. That’s why I write this during pastor appreciation month.

My church leadership blog has given me access into the lives of hundreds of pastors. Many are in smaller churches where they are one of a few, if not the only, staff members. Others are in larger churches where there are more staff members to spread the workload. Regardless, however, of church size many times the pastor is drowning. His spouse is drowning. His family is suffering. They can’t keep up with the demands of the church.

Honestly, I never knew. At least not to the severity of what I’ve discovered.

Some churches expect the pastor to be at every hospital bed. They expect them to know and call when they are sick. They expect them to attend every Sunday school social and every picnic on the grounds. The pastor is to officiate their wedding and then be the counselor when their marriage is suffering. Someday preach their funeral, but for today visit their neighbor who isn’t going to church—instead, of course, of them building a relationship with the person and bringing them to church (which is way more effective.)

The pastor is supposed to recruit Sunday school teachers, manage a budget and be actively engaging the community through a healthy Tuesday night evangelism program. Then, they expect a well-researched, well-presented Sunday message—fully abreast and addressing all the current news events of the week—one in the morning and one at night, along with a passionate leading of the Wednesday night prayer meeting.

One pastor told me he is allowed one Sunday off per year. I hesitated to do the math on the number of messages he is doing in a given year.

And, in the midst of all those responsibilities, when I talk to many pastors, they hear far more negative feedback from people than they ever hear the positives.

Wow! I never knew.

And with different parameters, the same unreasonable expectations may exist for every staff member of a local church. Now some of this is exaggeration, and no doubt most pastors reading this love their people and love their work, but in some churches it is exactly the expectation. And, in principle, the activities may be different, but the level of activity is normal for many pastors, again, especially in smaller churches.

And even in those churches where the expectations are totally unreasonable there is probably a pastor who is desperately trying to live out the call of God and love people.

Women in Worship – Raising Up Women Worship Leaders

Jalessa McCreary

October 2, 2023

On a Sunday morning, you finish a song, cue the intro to the next tune, and your female leader steps forward ready to lead. She sings that first note and the room erupts in female voices! There is a noticeable shift in the room as women take the lead on a Sunday morning. Women in worship leading means that women in the congregation have a voice like theirs leading them in melodies that are easy to follow with songs in their range, and they are being led with a meekness they are well acquainted with.

I have the honor of leading and developing women in worship in our church—not to just come to a service and sing a song but to show up prepared to truly command the room and lead people in declaring truths about God.

Women in worship from the stage is a topic that comes up in almost all of my professional conversations—who should lead? How should she lead? How do we encourage her to lead? Over the past several years that I have served with Austin Stone Worship, we have seen this take various forms, and I am hopeful that you can glean something from a few ways we have seen God encourage and shape our female leaders. Taking the time to invest in women for leadership in our churches has a significant impact on the women who attend and serve Sunday to Sunday. The women in your bands are leading over half of the people in the room every week, and the women in your services are getting to see what it looks like to honor God with their gifts in addition to having countenance, harmonies, melodies and authority in Christ modeled for them.

My hope in writing this article is that whether you have women in your church who are currently leading worship or you are asking God to raise up women in worship for your team, you would find this a helpful place to gain insight.

Women in Worship – 4 Keys

1. Start at Front of House

Audio on a Sunday morning is a very important component of our services. We have skilled engineers who understand the value of pushing vocals and instrumentation just loud enough that a man or woman would feel comfortable singing out to God and not feeling exposed while simultaneously being able to hear the voices around them as we collectively offer up praise to God. Likewise, it has become a high value for our services that a female vocalist’s voice not just be an “accessory” to the male vocal, but rather an “out-in-front” vocal so other women in the room can catch on to melody and harmony and easily join in on any song no matter the key. If a lady steps forward to lead out on a specific song, her voice goes up and the male vocal, while still very present, is set just a touch below hers in order that his harmonies would be easy to follow for the men in the room. It’s crucial for the engagement of the room that a male leader has sharpened his harmonies for the songs he won’t be singing lead on. For most of us, the days of everyone in our congregations knowing hymns by heart, four-part harmonies included, are gone! We want to make worship through song inviting and accessible to anyone who walks into one of our services.

It’s Time for a New ‘Finest Hour’

James Emery White

October 1, 2023

The title was meant to shock: “Britain Is No Longer a Christian Country, Say Frontline Clergy.” But which cultural observer was saying it was? If there is any settled understanding, it is the post-Christian nature of the Western world.

Perhaps the shock, at least to Brits, was who was finally admitting it. The Times, a leading U.K. newspaper, conducted what it claimed to be “the most wide-ranging poll carried out among frontline Anglican clergy, and the first survey of Church of England clerics conducted in almost a decade.” Result? Three-quarters of Church of England priests believe that “Britain can no longer be described as a Christian country.”

The shock to me, or at the least the shock of concern, was the solution the priests espoused to the decline. The survey “found a strong desire among rank-and-file priests for significant changes in church doctrine on issues such as sex, sexuality, marriage and the role of women to bring it into greater line with public opinion.” In other words, a majority of priests want “to start conducting same-sex weddings and drop [the church’s] opposition to premarital and gay sex.”

They also felt under pressure. Why? As one priest put it, the “pressure of justifying the Church of England’s position to increasingly secular and [skeptical] audiences.”

Linda Woodhead, professor and head of the department of theology and religious studies at King’s College London, noted that the survey revealed how the church had found itself in recent decades “pushed apart from public opinion on what’s right and wrong” on issues including sex and sexuality. Referring to the moderate ground the frontline priests seemed to be staking out, or at least wanting to, Woodhead added that if they were listened to “the church might be in a better place today.”

In response to the survey, at least the Bishop of Leeds, the Right Rev Nick Baines, had the sense to say: “The church is the church, and, as such, not a club. It has a distinct vocation that does not include seeking popularity…[This] means sometimes going against the flow of popular culture, however uncomfortable that might be.”

For anyone who embraces the importance of historical Christian orthodoxy, this goes without saying. But to Woodhead’s point, would capitulating to culture actually result in warm bodies in the pews?

Hardly.

Many years ago, sociologist Dean Kelley wrote a book, “Why Conservative Churches Are Growing.” He noted that, beginning in the mid-‘60s, mainline churches that had become more liberal in their theology simultaneously began to decline, while conservative churches who remained countercultural in their theological moorings (translation, true to historic, biblical Christian orthodoxy) were growing.

Why? Kelley’s conclusion was that conservative churches tackled the questions of the day with robust answers rooted in transcendent truth. They did not try to give culture what culture already believed, but instead engaged culture with what the Christian faith believed—countercultural though that may be. Further, they did not flinch from challenging people to deeper levels of personal commitment to that faith.

Though Kelley’s book came out in 1972, the findings haven’t changed, and his conclusions have stood the test of time. Mainline liberal churches continue to decline, conservative churches flesh out the majority of all churches that are growing, and the reasons remain clear: conservative churches are countercultural in nature due to their embrace of transcendent truth, and they call people to a commitment to that truth.

It brings to mind something I recall reading by the late Catholic contemplative Thomas Merton where he warned against watering down the Christian faith to such a degree that we have nothing to offer the world that it does not already have.

6 Goals of an Effective Small Group Ministry

Brandon Cox

October 1, 2023

There is way too much of a mess to clean up all alone! You need some people! And that’s what an effective small group is for. Sundays are awesome. That’s where we worship with a crowd. But somewhere removed from the crowd I need a few people who are close enough to build me up, hold me up and fire me up. And I need to be doing the same for them in return.

There is a broad variety of approaches to small group ministry, many tempered by the experiences of individual churches. I’m sure the same will be true of us.We will adapt our approach over time as we learn what works and what doesn’t. I do know, however, at least six key foundational principles that we will live by as we craft the DNA of our church’s community life…

6 Goals of an Effective Small Group Ministry

We will grow larger (in our corporate worship) and smaller (through small groups) at the same time.

You may have heard this statement before. I first heard it from Pastor Rick Warren in The Purpose Driven Church. The reason I restate it here is that it not only speaks to the different nature of our two primary gathering-types—it also suggests a very simple church structure.

We aren’t going to try to make disciples using Sunday night discipleship ministries, Wednesday night prayer meetings and Sunday School. We’re keeping it simple. We grow larger as we gather corporately and smaller as we gather in small communities.

We will balance the five purposes in group and individual life (worship, evangelism, ministry, fellowship, discipleship).

There is a strong trend today toward “missional communities.” I like it. I especially love some of the stories I’ve heard of missional communities (formerly known as small groups) making a huge impact on their surrounding cultures and communities.

But if the great commission and the great commandment give us five prime objectives (or purposes) then I want our small groups to be arenas for growth in all five of those purposes.

We want our groups to grow in all five purposes, practicing them weekly. But we also want individuals to be able to gauge their own growth in each of the five areas as well, and to be able to measure that growth in the context of a small group community for the purpose of encouragement and accountability.

We will empower people to lead from their potential before they are trained experts.

We aren’t looking for Bible scholars who have earned seminary doctorates to lead small groups. Instead, we’re looking for people who are faithful, available and teachable, and who want to grow as leaders.

In fact, we aren’t looking for small group leaders alone, although we do want to make room for those with the gift of teaching. We also want hosts who simply know how to serve brownies, press the play button on a DVD player and love on people.

We will align the whole church family with sermon-based small groups.

We will grow deeper in the Word together as a church. We will raise our faith and our generosity together as a church. We will concentrate on particular disciplines, doctrines and biblical topics together as a church family.

How can we do this as we grow larger? By utilizing small groups, through which we’re growing smaller at the same time. We will stay on the same page, initiate campaigns and stick with one another throughout the church family.

On a practical note, every sermon I preach has been whittled down from an over-abundance of material. As I’m preparing the message for Sunday, our community pastor will also be simultaneously preparing a discussion sheet for group hosts.

We will grow by creating entry points for new groups, not by disrupting community life.

Yes, I believe in multiplication. But I also see that some leaders will naturally draw a larger number of people to themselves and I don’t want to penalize that kind of leadership by forcing cell division where it doesn’t naturally occur.

So our approach will not be to divide existing groups at a certain growth point. Rather we will create a culture of multiplication within the church that constantly challenges people to be receptive to God’s calling to go and host new groups.

And we will heavily utilize entry points such as sermon series, holidays, campaigns and our life matters classes to continually be birthing new groups.

We will cultivate disciples rather than creating passive spectators.

I want us to communicate, out of the gates, that small groups are more than a Bible study. They are a time for mutual sharpening and challenging.

Groups will be challenged, trained and assisted in moving outside the walls of a single home to love and serve a community. They will also be challenged to do ministry within the group, taking care of needs that often go unmet in the larger gathering.

I don’t know it all. In fact, small groups is probably my weakest area of leadership right now, so I’m going to lean heavily on some leaders whom God will provide us as well as some of the sharpest small groups thinkers I know such as Steve Gladen, Ron Wilbur, Brett Eastman, Mark Howell, Ben Reed, Larry Osborne and Rick Howerton, all of whom have helped me with advice so far in planting Grace Hills.

I’m open to learning, but as I’ve studied various models and approaches for effective small groups, these six goals align well with the core values from which we are planning on launching a robust small group ministry. What did I miss?

This article on an effective small group originally appeared here and is used by permission

What To Do When a Volunteer Is Burned Out

Dale Hudson

October 1, 2023

Burn out. It happens. It can happen to pastors. It can happen to volunteers. It can happen to anyone who serves in children’s ministry.

Let’s talk today about volunteer burn out.

How can you know when a volunteer is nearing burn out?

How can you help a volunteer who is burned out in your ministry?

Let’s start by talking about how you can identify a volunteer who is burned out.

Here are some signs.

They begin doing the bare minimum.

You see a small group leader in the back of the room reading over the lesson while the kids are in large group time. This is the first time he or she has looked at the lesson.

They start missing volunteer meetings.

They get there at the last minute or they are late for their serving role.

The smile they used to have while they were serving is gone.

They used to stick around for a few minutes after serving to talk with the other volunteers and hang out with them. Now they quickly leave as soon as the last child is picked up.

They start calling in at the last minute and saying they can’t serve today.

You can sense they are just going through the motions.

So what should you do? How can you best minister to this volunteer?

Sit down and talk with them. The earlier the better. As soon as you sense the person is starting down the road to burn out, set up a meeting with them.

This meeting should be to help find out why they are feeling burned out.

Remember this…

“Use the ministry to build people instead of using people to build the ministry.”

Find out why they are feeling burned out. It may be family issues. It may be a change at work. It may be health problems. It may be they are struggling financially.

Be compassionate. Demonstrate genuine concern and interest for them as a person.

Listen and empathize. Show them that you have their best interests at heart.

Work with the volunteer to come up with a remedy.

If the burn out is coming from personal stress, offer some options. Perhaps, for a while, they need to only serve once a month instead of every week. They may even need to take a few months off from serving.

If the burn out is coming from feeling overwhelmed, maybe you need to go back and offer the person more training so he or she can better manage their serving role.

Make sure people are in their sweet spot. By “sweet spot” I am referring to being in a role that aligns with the person’s talents, gifts and passion. Don’t just place people in random roles. Instead, work closely with new volunteers to help them find the best place for their skill set.

“Don’t place people where you need them, rather place them where they need to be.”

The burnout may be from boredom. Sometimes volunteers will get bored with the role they are in. They want a bigger challenge. They want more responsibility. And if you don’t offer it, they will go somewhere that will present a bigger challenge. You can help with this by offering a growth plan that will challenge them and help them grow into a volunteer role that is a bigger challenge.

I have personally seen this happen. At the last church I served at, we had over 70 staff members in the children’s ministry. With the exception of 4-5 people who were brought in from the outside, all of the other people came from inside the church. They were all volunteers that we had invested in and raised up to be leaders. When you challenge people, you will see many of them grow and move into full-time ministry roles.

Make sure they are jogging rather than doing an all out sprint.

Often a volunteer gets burned out because of the pace he or she is on. In their zeal to serve Jesus, they sign up to serve in like 3-4 ministries. They are like a super volunteer…flying from ministry to ministry…running in an all out sprint.

While you are so thankful for their heart for ministry, you also realize that eventually the “SV” (super volunteer) letters on their shirt are going to fall off and they will crash and burn out.

We must remind volunteers that ministry is a marathon and not a 100 yard dash. Encourage them to choose one or two ministries (at the most) to serve in. 20 years from now, when they are still serving, they will thank you.

Your turn. What do you do when a volunteer is burned out? Share your thoughts and insights in the comment section below.

This article originally appeared here.

Andy Stanley Affirms Traditional View of Marriage Following Controversial ‘Unconditional Conference’

Jesse T. Jackson

October 1, 2023

On Sunday, Oct. 1, pastor and author Andy Stanley addressed swirling speculation about his stance on gay marriage during a service that was not livestreamed. In the comments Stanley made Sunday morning, he publicly affirmed the traditional view that marriage is meant to be between one man and one woman while also emphasizing the need for compassion for those with LGBTQ+ identities.

Prior to Sunday’s worship service, the pastor sent out an announcement explaining that he would be addressing why the church hosted the “Unconditional Conference” on Thursday and Friday and that there wouldn’t be a livestream of the service this week:

HEY EVERYBODY, You may have heard about or been asked about a conference for parents North Point Community Church is hosting on September 28-29, the Unconditional Conference. A great deal of misinformation has circulated regarding the purpose of the conference, and I do not want you to be misinformed. So on Sunday, October 1, we’re taking a break from our regular programming to talk about the conference and why we elected to host it. In light of the subject matter, we will not be streaming services online on October 1. If you plan to attend, and I hope you will, plan to arrive early. While the subject matter will not be kid-friendly, this is actually the perfect weekend to bring your kids because we are kicking off new content in all our children’s environments. If you have no idea what all the fuss is about, good! Come anyway and I’ll explain.

Stanley’s Stance on Marriage Questioned

Last week, North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, of which Stanley is lead pastor, hosted a two-day event for parents with LGBTQ+ children titled the “Unconditional Conference.”

The conference was led by Greg and Lynn McDonald, who are founders of Embracing the Journey, a ministry birthed from their experience with having a gay child.

Stanley was also one of the conference’s featured speakers.

According to the conference’s website, the MacDonalds “are passionate about helping parents embrace their journey where true healing can occur.” They use their two decades of “firsthand experience” to coach and counsel Christian parents with LGTBTQ+ children.

The Unconditional Conference is described as a “two-day premier event…for parents of LGBTQ+ children and for ministry leaders looking to discover ways to support parents and LGBTQ+ children in their churches.”

“We deeply desire this time will bring about healing and restoration. No matter what theological stance you hold, we invite you to listen, reflect, and learn as we approach this topic from the quieter middle space,” the description adds.

Prior to the event, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler criticized Stanley on his podcast “The Briefing,” saying that “the quieter middle space” is “illusory.”

“I don’t believe that the quieter middle space exists,” Mohler said. “I can see why many might hope that it would exist. You might hope there would be a place which is not so confrontational, not so controversial, not so loud.”

“I believe this conference is anything but middle space,” Mohler added, pointing out that two of the conference’s scheduled speakers, Justin Lee and Brian Nietzel, are men married to other men.

Mohler said that Lee is “very well known for arguing for the legitimacy of monogamous same-sex relationships” and Nietzel gives seminars “on what is described as restoring LGBTQ+ faith.”

Do They Know That They Belong?

Christina Embree

September 30, 2023

Once when my daughter was younger (11 years old), she had a conversation with me about our neighbors at the time. “I really like them,” she said. “Me too! Why do you like them?” I asked. “Because when I talk, they listen to me,” she replied.

It was an interesting response. From a mom’s perspective, I thought that we, her parents, did a pretty good job of listening when she talked and I never really felt like her voice went unheard, but obviously, these particular neighbors stood out to her as unusual. I asked her about that. Her response was convicting.

Well, yeah, other people listen but most adults only listen halfway. They don’t really care about what you are saying. They are just polite and listen because they have to. But (our neighbors) really listen. They ask questions and they laugh and they treat me like an adult. I like being heard. It feels good. It feels like I belong.

Her words struck me. Often this same theme repeatedly came up again and again when people left the church—they didn’t feel like they belong. They felt like they belonged in children’s ministry when they were little. They felt like they belonged when they were in youth ministry as teenagers. But once they were in “big church” they felt out of place, disoriented, like strangers in a familiar place but one where they didn’t belong.

This feeling or sense of not belonging could stem from many things.

If the only experience that children or youth have within a church is in age-specific ministries, then the sense of not belonging in the larger community of “big church” makes sense. If their primary experience with the rest of the congregation is a a performer or visitor but not participant, then it a feeling of being on the outside looking in could persist. If children and youth do not have the opportunity to meet and interact with the broader faith community, to worship with or even have their name known by the adults in the congregation, that also makes sense.

But what if the kids have been in some way a part of the corporate gathering and what if their names are known by the congregation? Could it be possible that what we are missing is their voice?

Is there a place in our faith community where our children and youth can speak and really be heard? Is there a space for them to know that the person or persons they are talking to aren’t just half-listening to be polite but truly listening because they care?

Do They Know That They Belong?

The importance of belonging goes farther than many of us can imagine. Belonging impacts our mental, physical, and emotional health in ways we are only starting to truly understand.

The benefits of belonging are astounding. It simply makes people healthier. Being an integral part of a social support system reduces the effect of chronic stress on your body dramatically because being in community reduces the overproduction of cortisol–the stress hormone. Belonging reduces your risk of heart disease and cancer while increasing your immune system’s resilience. Your brain works better because you’re not stuck in survival mode. You can feel safe again when you are part of a healthy community. (Source)

Giving space for all ages to have a voice, to be heard, can be a powerful way to create a culture of belonging. After all, Jesus tells us that we should be learning from children (Mt. 18:1-5) and that we are to welcome children (Mk. 10:13-16) but often children, even if they are included in the corporate gathering, aren’t given a chance to speak. That being said, I’ve served in churches of various sizes and know that space, time, and the flow of service don’t always allow for these types of promptings.

Here are some ways that larger churches may want to consider creating space for the voices of children and youth to be heard.

How To Design and Lead a Healthy and Productive Church Board

Dan Reiland

September 30, 2023

My heart aches when I hear a horror story about a church board filled with division, conflict, and competition with the pastor about who leads. But thankfully, more stories are closer to a dream come true than a nightmare.

What makes the difference?

It starts with selecting who’s on your board, but that’s just the beginning. I wrote a brief post a few years back covering an introduction to selecting church elders. I’ll include a couple of abbreviated thoughts from it today, but you can read the full post here.

When it comes to selecting your church board, don’t give in to politics, people-pleasing, or pressure. Always start with biblical standards (I Timothy 3:8-10)

You may be part of a denomination or system where it’s difficult to make a change with those who serve on the board, but as a pastor, you’re a leader with influence, so don’t give up.

Take a stand for what’s right, don’t lower standards, and invite those more interested in their agenda than the mission to surrender their seat on the board voluntarily.

This must be handled redemptively; don’t just go “Spiritual Rambo” on the board. Instead, prayerfully lead the way to a church board that seeks God first, is loyal to the mission, and is supportive of your leadership.

NOTE: This post does not cover technical governance issues or by-laws. Both are highly unique for each church, often denominationally connected, and require wise legal counsel.

We’ll focus on practical functionality, including specific roles.

Hopefully, your board is not a nightmare, but that doesn’t mean that you and the board are highly effective or that the staff and board function together well. My objective is to provide content and direction that helps take your functionality to a higher level.

5 Values Toward a Healthy and Productive Church Board:

1. The Best Church Boards Know and Embrace the Difference in Roles Between the Church Staff and Church Board to Form a Great Partnership.

Clear expectations are essential for a healthy and functioning church board. This help prevents the pitfalls of micromanagement or the other extreme of abdicating responsibility.

4 Reasons Your Church Needs a Mentoring Program

Kevin Harris

September 30, 2023

Every week I get the privilege of working with pastors from all over. Most have a sense there could be more. More participation, more depth, more passion, more community. What they’re doing isn’t broken, but it’s not enough. A common concern I hear: “my church is a mile wide, but an inch deep.”

I’m a little biased, but I think the best way for a church to help their people dig a few inches deeper is small group mentoring.

Before I tell you why, here’s the two-sentence overview of how Radical Mentoring does “small group mentoring.” We equip an older, wiser mentor with conversation guides and other resources to lead a group of younger mentees through an intentional mentoring process for nine to twelve months. Mentors share their faith stories in the first meeting and continue to share their life experience by facilitating a topic-based conversation during each of the monthly meetings that follow.

Now, here are four reasons launching a small group mentoring process can have a profound impact on your church…

1. Mentoring groups build intergenerational relationships. Last year, Barna released a study on engaging men. They found that men with intergenerational relationships were “nearly twice as likely to be very satisfied in their relationship with their child (54% vs. 30%) and in their marriage (64% vs. 54%).” Mentoring groups create an environment for people of different seasons of life to interact. Mentors find value in sharing their wisdom and life experience, while mentees get to learn from someone who has already been where they’re going.

2. Mentoring groups create authentic relationships. Ultimately, we all want to be known. Of the 450+ people surveyed after their mentoring season, 95% said they experienced authentic community in their group, and 88% described their group’s relationships as “very deep” or “deep.” The secret sauce? Stories. By focusing on stories, mentoring groups create a safe space for people to be real, encourage each other, and drive relationships deep. Having everyone share their full, no-holding-back faith story, starting with the mentor, equips the group to go further, faster and leads to conversations that matter.

3. Mentoring groups raise the leadership capacity of your church. Every church needs more leaders. More people to lead small groups and get involved with the high school ministry. More people to serve as deacons and elders or to lead Bible studies. People who go through a mentoring group become your next generation of leaders. They improve the quality of your other environments by bringing the authenticity and intentionality they learned during their mentoring season.

4. Mentoring groups develop all-in Jesus-followers: Arguably the most important one. Mentees spend nine to twelve months learning from and watching their mentor. They observe how the mentor lives their life and how they interact with Jesus. While anything but perfect, the life of the mentor, transparently exposed and fully committed, shows them a real-life example of what a fully-alive Jesus-follower is like and what it can be for them if they go all-in.

The people in our churches today are connected but more alone than ever before. This isolation causes them to stumble through life, unsure of who they are or where they’re going. But when they can connect with someone who’s a few steps down the road and engage in authentic community with others, they begin to uncover who God created them to be.

Small group mentoring has become a next-level discipleship model for churches of all shapes and sizes. It works best as an expansion of a church’s current discipleship model, building on what a church is already doing. Here’s how one church outside Charleston, SC, uses mentoring to enhance their discipleship model…

101: Events – periodic events (i.e., men’s hike, women’s gathering, etc.) aimed to inspire people and encourage them to take a next step and serve or get into a group.

201: LifeGroups – weekly small groups aimed to help people “learn about God, pray, eat, laugh, and share life” with others in the LifePark community

301: Mentoring Groups – high commitment groups that meet for three hours, once a month, for nine months, aimed to “yield a deeper walk with God and a biblical perspective on many aspects of life” under the guidance of older, wiser co-mentors.

So, what do you have to lose? If you want to build a culture that fosters meaningful connection, you have to put a process in place to help your people develop authentic relationships and unlock their leadership potential.

Alister McGrath: Ministering Amid Conflicting Cultural Beliefs

Jason Daye

September 29, 2023

What can we learn from conflicting ideologies like New Atheism and others that can help us be more effective in ministry? In this week’s conversation on FrontStage BackStage, host Jason Daye is joined by Dr. Alister McGrath. Alister is a respected professor and the director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at Oxford University. He is a prolific writer, and his latest book is titled “Coming to Faith Through Dawkins.” Together, Alister and Jason discuss the importance of looking for opportunities in cultural belief systems that allow us to point people to Jesus. Alister also shares a rising ideology that we need to be aware of and how we can minister to people who are wrestling with it.

FrontStage BackStage Podcast With Alister McGrath

View the entire podcast here.

Keep Learning

Looking to dig more deeply into this topic and conversation? Every week we go the extra mile and create a free toolkit so you and your ministry team can dive deeper into the topic that is discussed. Find your Weekly Toolkit here… Love well, Live well, Lead well!

Podcast Links

Video links to this week’s episode – easily share with the ministry leaders in your church
Audio links to this week’s episode – easily share with the ministry leaders in your church
Additional resource links from this week’s conversation – so you and your team can easily find what is mentioned or referenced
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6 Goals of an Effective Small Group Ministry

We will grow larger (in our corporate worship) and smaller (through small groups) at the same time.

We will balance the five purposes in group and individual life (worship, evangelism, ministry, fellowship, discipleship).

We will empower people to lead from their potential before they are trained experts.

We will align the whole church family with sermon-based small groups.

We will grow by creating entry points for new groups, not by disrupting community life.

We will cultivate disciples rather than creating passive spectators.

Stanley’s Stance on Marriage Questioned

Do They Know That They Belong?

5 Values Toward a Healthy and Productive Church Board:

1. The Best Church Boards Know and Embrace the Difference in Roles Between the Church Staff and Church Board to Form a Great Partnership.

Now, here are four reasons launching a small group mentoring process can have a profound impact on your church…

FrontStage BackStage Podcast With Alister McGrath

Keep Learning

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