Writer, author, and speaker Lysa TerKeurst recently drew some parallels between Joseph’s life and her own when she spoke at Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both TerKeurst and Joseph had significant and painful twists and turns in their lives that often seemed to contradict what God had said. But God’s truth rang out: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).

“With God, there is always a ‘meanwhile,'” said TerKeurst.

Lysa TerKeurst Speaks of Trusting God for Unexpected Good

Life rarely looks like what people had originally pictured. TerKeurst shared beautiful pictures of her now-blended family. She also painted the reality of the hurt and pain that led to those photographs. After a “devastating” divorce, TerKeurst’s trust in others was shattered, and she began to project that mistrust onto God.

She wondered, then, if Joseph had the same struggles trusting God. After God gave Joseph visions of leadership, Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. TerKeurst argued, though, “Throughout Joesph’s story, God has been developing his character to match his calling.”

After she summarized Joseph’s “promotion” to prison, TerKeurst pointed out, “With God, there is always a ‘meanwhile.'” Prison was the least likely next step on Joseph’s trajectory to be the leader God envisioned him to be.

TerKeurst admitted that when she is struggling, the “last thing” she feels like doing is “picking up the Bible.” But she sees how “spiritually disillusioned” she can become if she doesn’t.

“When we want to read the Bible the least is often when we absolutely need to read it the most,” said TerKeurst, adding that the God-inspired text is full of accounts of God’s love and plan prevailing over the most twisted and dire of circumstances.

TerKeurst continued, “When I start assuming that I know what a good God should do, I start attaching my hope on what I assume a good God should do. But, then if God does not follow my plan, I start to get super agitated, super frustrated, and even sometimes doubtful.”

She explained, “Why isn’t God doing what I assume a good God should do? I have a plan, and then I’m trying to hold God accountable to the plan of my own making.” TerKeurst continued to share how she attempted to convince God of her own plan, rather than following him. “This is the plan. This is what the plan should be,” she told God. “Don’t you see it’ll make you look good, God?”

“When you’re in a situation right now, and you cannot possibly see how God is going to work this out, go back and start tracing the hand of God’s faithfulness,” said TerKeurst. “I see it now. I didn’t see it at the time, but I see it now.”

RELATED: ‘Tears of Pure Joy’—Lysa TerKeurst Marries Chaz Adams in Beautiful Ceremony in the French Alps

TerKeurst shared that, at her lowest point after her marriage ended, she took a summer off because she was unable to work. She couldn’t write or contribute to ministry. She ended up taking care of some appointments she had put off—including a mammogram. After a series of tests, TerKeurst was diagnosed with breast cancer and quickly went through treatment. The author quoted her doctor in calling the situation a “miracle”—that she came in when she did and caught the cancer early enough for a full recovery.

The North American Mission Board (NAMB) has responded to claims that it pays its executives exorbitant salaries in light of a lawsuit filed by disgraced Pastor Johnny Hunt in which Hunt claims he received $610,000 in annual compensation while employed at NAMB.

NAMB is the domestic missions agency of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Hunt was the vice president of evangelism and leadership until 2022 when he resigned after credible allegations surfaced that he sexually assaulted the wife of a fellow pastor in 2010. 

The revelation was part of a report commissioned by the SBC Executive Committee into whether it had mishandled allegations of sexual abuse across a two-decade period. The investigation was conducted by Guidepost Solutions.

Since Hunt was the president of the SBC in 2010 and thereby an ex officio member of the Executive Committee, the allegations against him were included in the report.

Hunt denies the allegations, claiming that the encounter was consensual. He nevertheless resigned from his role at NAMB shortly after the report was published. 

Hunt subsequently filed a defamation lawsuit against the SBC, the SBC Executive Committee, and Guidepost Solutions. He is seeking more than $100 million, including 10 years in lost earnings from NAMB, which he claims amounted to $610,000 annually.

After the details of the lawsuit became publicly known, NAMB was the subject of online criticism and calls from Southern Baptists for greater financial transparency, as the agency is funded by the donations of local SBC churches. 

In a recent statement, NAMB responded to the accusation that it has been mishandling SBC funds by awarding its executives excessively high compensation, denying that Hunt received the amount he claims he did. 

While the statement did not name Hunt or the figure he has claimed to have received in annual salary and benefits from NAMB, NAMB did refer to “some speculation online about the salary of a former NAMB employee.”

RELATED: Johnny Hunt’s Defamation Trial Against SBC Gets New Date; Hunt Seeking $100M, Claims His Annual Income at NAMB Was $610K

“While NAMB can’t share confidential salary information about any current or former employee or comment specifically on active litigation,” the statement said, “no one at NAMB — now or at any time — has ever been paid anywhere near as much as the salary amount that is being speculated online.”

Comments Vice President J.D. Vance made this week explaining what he called a “Christian concept” are generating heated debate among Christians online. During an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Hannity and Vance were discussing President Donald Trump’s immigration approach when Vance explained his belief that Americans should have a hierarchy of affections towards others.

“As an American leader, but also just as an American citizen, your compassion belongs first to your fellow citizens,” Vance said in an appearance on “Hannity.” “It doesn’t mean you hate people from outside of your own borders. But there’s this old school—and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way—that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community.”

“And then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then, after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world,” Vance continued. “A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders.” 

JD Vance References St. Augustine in Defense of His Views

Immigration has been front and center as Trump has taken office, with the president signing a number of executive orders (EO) impacting immigration in the U.S. One EO suspended the United States Refugee Admission Program (USRAP), another sought to eliminate birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, and another paused the disbursement of foreign development assistance funds. 

RELATED: Trump’s Executive Order Harms Persecuted Christians, Argues World Relief

The president says his actions are to prevent an “​​invasion” into the country, and he said Wednesday he plans to detain up to 30,000 migrants at Guantanamo Bay. The administration has been conducting raids to arrest illegal immigrants, as well as empowering law enforcement officials to carry out deportations. The president has also now made it possible for officials to arrest people in houses of worship. 

However, some Christian leaders are troubled by the actions that the Trump administration has taken. A pastor in Tennessee was criticized for expressing concern that officials might arrest people during a church service. Christian humanitarian organization World Relief published a statement saying that President Trump’s actions in pausing USRAP threatens persecuted Christians around the world. 

On Jan. 22, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) responded to Trump’s executive orders, stating, “Some provisions contained in the Executive Orders, such as those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us.” 

Vance is Catholic, and in an interview on Jan. 26, he responded to the statement from USCCB, saying he was “heartbroken” by it. Vance defended the Trump administration’s intention to protect Americans from criminals and suggested the bishops were more worried about their “bottom line” than they were about “humanitarian concerns.” 

RELATED: Trump Signs Executive Order Ending Federal Support of Gender-Affirming Care for Minors; Evangelicals Celebrate

Speaking to Hannity, Vance said that caring more about foreigners than American citizens “is no way to run a society. I think the profound difference that Donald Trump brings to the leadership of this country is the simple concept: America first. It doesn’t mean you hate anybody else. It means that you have leadership.”

Chris Surratt, a pastor who also consulted and wrote about small group ministry, died unexpectedly Thursday, Jan. 30. Surratt, 52, had recently moved back to his home state of Colorado to serve as adult ministries pastor at Journey Church in Castle Pines. He is survived by his wife, Jenny, and their two adult daughters.

Along with his brothers Geoff Surratt and Greg Surratt, Chris hosted the “Surratt Brothers Podcast.” Before returning to Colorado, Chris was executive pastor of discipleship and groups at Harvest Church in Southern California. He also served at churches in Tennessee and South Carolina, before becoming the discipleship and small groups specialist for Lifeway Christian Resources.

RELATED: Faithlytics: Leaders at Pew, Barna, Lifeway and Gallup Share Key Insights Into the State of American Christianity

Surratt wrote the books “Leading Small Groups” and “Small Groups for the Rest of Us.” He also co-hosted the “Group Answers” podcast. In an online bio, Surratt wrote, “I grew up in the church as a P.K. (pastor’s kid), but dedicated my life to ministry at a youth camp as a teenager.”

Chris Surratt: ‘A Good Man Who Loved God’

On Facebook Friday morning, Greg Surratt shared news of his brother’s death:

One of the best human beings on the planet went home to see Jesus today. He was kind, bright, funny, brilliant, talented. But most of all, just a good man who loved God and his family well. Perhaps in time I’ll write something about him. I want you to know him like I did, and I hope the world never forgets him. But right now it just hurts too much…At the same time we rejoice with the fact that he is with Jesus and our family that has gone before us. What a reunion that must be.

Greg Surratt also shared:

Yesterday we lost my best friend and youngest brother, Chris Surratt, in a sudden cardiac event no one saw coming. I have no words, no explanation, no next steps. Please pray for our family, especially Jenny, Brianna, and Ashlyn. Someday I’ll write about Chris as a brother, a friend, a husband, a dad, a pastor and a passionate follower of Christ, but today I will simply grieve and take care of his family as best I can.

Greg Surratt is co-founder of Seacoast Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where Chris had served on the executive team.

Chris Surratt was also a ministry consultant at The Unstuck Group, whose leader, Tony Morgan, died unexpectedly last year from a heart attack. In fact, the last post Surratt made on X was a tribute to Morgan.

RELATED: Tony Morgan, Founder of The Unstuck Group, Dies After Suffering Heart Attack

A youth pastor has been arrested on suspicion of child sex abuse. Adrian Daugherty of Tehachapi Church of the Nazarene in Tehachapi, California, is accused of sexually assaulting a young teenager. 

Tehachapi is a small city in central California, located roughly 40 miles east of Bakersfield.

Daugherty, 41, is no longer listed on the Tehachapi Church of the Nazarene website. However, an archived screen capture of the website from November 2024 confirmed that Daugherty had previously served as the church’s youth pastor.

According to arrest records, Daugherty was taken into custody on Jan. 27, and he faces one charge of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old.

RELATED: 2 Men Arrested for Allegedly Assaulting Pastor, Stealing His Car During Church Renovations

The Tehachapi Police said that the investigation is ongoing, and the department is seeking to determine whether there are more victims. 

Investigators are urging anyone with information to call the Tehachapi Police Department at (661) 822-2222.

Daugherty was booked into the Kern County Jail. According to BakersfieldNow, he has since posted bail. 

RELATED: Worship Leader Associated With Creation Museum Faces 80 Charges Related to Alleged Sexual Abuse of Teen Boy

ChurchLeaders has reached out to Tehachapi Church of the Nazarene for comment and will update this article in the event of a response. 

(RNS) — On Sunday (Jan. 26), a collection of U.S. Catholic bishops’ staffers met at a Capitol Hill hotel with Catholic advocates and educators at the USCCB’s Catholic Social Ministry Gathering. In a keynote, Emilce Cuda, a Vatican official overseeing Latin American issues, had told her audience that though an inauguration “often heralds a honeymoon of hope,” there was already “an air of unrest,” and that Catholic social workers were already feeling “called to superhuman effort” to get through the next four years.

When they emerged for a coffee break, however, the gathering learned that a even a honeymoon had been too much to hope for.

In an interview that began airing on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” during the break, Vice President JD Vance had fended off criticism from the U.S. Catholic bishops about the Trump administration’s migrant policies. ”If they’re worried about the humanitarian costs of immigration enforcement, let them talk about the children who have been sex trafficked because of the wide open border of Joe Biden,” said Vance, adding later that the bishops had “not been a good partner in common sense immigration enforcement.”

In a line New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan would later call “scurrilous,” Vance went on to suggest the bishops’ thinking was clouded by their concern for the funding they receive for resettling refugees. “Are they actually worried about their bottom line?” the vice president asked.

Just a week into the Trump presidency, the U.S. bishops find themselves in an unaccustomed position: For the first time in history, their character has been called into question by a Catholic standing at the helm of the U.S. government.

Some of their differences with the new GOP are not new: On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order signaling an intent to expand use of the death penalty, renewing the eagerness to resume federal executions shown at the end of the last Trump administration. While the president seems reluctant to enter new armed conflicts, his administration will continue with weapons sales the pope disapproves of.

At the Capitol Hill gathering, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the papal representative in the U.S., highlighted “the abolition of the death penalty, advocacy for world peace and the just treatment of migrants and refugees” as three major areas of focus for attendees. But this last policy area has shown the most potential for clash with the new administration.

Though showing signs of reeling internally, the bishops have greeted that unprecedented level of opposition with a low-key statement and renewed their vows to press for humanitarian protections for migrant families.

In his address on ecology to the social ministry gathering on Monday, Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima, Washington, made the point that the church’s concern with topics such as human trafficking is at the core of the faith’s theology. Referring to the New Testament’s Letter to the Romans, a first-century text, Tyson told the audience that Paul drew on the ancient reality of human trafficking in forming Christian concepts of redemption and salvation related to the crucifixion, and these realities are still applicable today.

Tyson said that in his agricultural diocese, parishioners have experienced modern human trafficking. A seminarian named Nico, he said, had been kidnapped and tortured in his native Guatemala by men who extorted $50,000 from the young man’s family. “In his bones, (Nico) grasps that we can’t save ourselves. We can’t pay our own ransom. Someone else must do it for us,” Tyson said.

In making connections between the redemption of humans and of creation, the bishop called on attendees to “arrest the desertification of the human heart which has become so vast so we can stop the literal spread of deserts around the world.”

On Tuesday, the bishops’ staffers and Catholic college students in attendance walked to congressional offices on Capitol Hill to attempt to change some hearts, armed with policy booklets urging lawmakers to use tax and economic policy to support poor families in the U.S., foreign aid to support poor families abroad and humanitarian protections for migrants.

More than a week after Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde asked President Donald Trump to show mercy on Americans, her comments remain a hot topic in Christian circles. Budde, the first female bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, spoke during a Jan. 21 interfaith prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral.

Budde said people are “scared” about Trump’s second term, specifically mentioning members of the LGBTQ community and immigrants. The president and vice president, in attendance with their families, were visibly displeased by the bishop’s comments.

RELATED: Trump Tells Bishop Budde She Owes the Public an ‘Apology’ After Prayer Service Plea To Show Mercy

Afterward, Trump said, “I didn’t think it was a good service.” The president criticized Budde and her “nasty tone,” saying she owed the public an apology. In response, Budde said she would continue to pray for the president. Meanwhile, some Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives submitted a resolution condemning the bishop’s Jan. 21 sermon.

Some Christian denominations have issued statements in support of Budde’s words. On Jan. 26, the Committee on Faith and Order of the United Methodist Church wrote that Budde “sought to ground national unity in honoring the inherent dignity of all, in honest conversation and humility.” In a letter, the committee’s chairperson, Bishop David A. Bard, praised Budde’s “prophetic voice for justice in a suffering and conflicted world,” which he said she “delivered with gentleness and respect.”

Sharing that letter on social media, the Rev. Benjamin Cremer wrote, “Thankful that the United Methodist Church publicly supports Bishop Budde and her sermon.” Cremer, a digital pastor based in Idaho, wrote on his blog about the “politics of mercy”:

My immediate thought when I saw the backlash was, “This is always what happens when you preach about the need for mercy to a people who worship power.” Especially mercy towards people many have already decided are evil and not worthy of love. People like our LGBT siblings and immigrant neighbors who have long been the target of disinformation, fear, and hateful rhetoric. An appeal to mercy for demonized groups challenges the narratives that demonize them.

Critics of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde Speak Out

Joe Rigney, a fellow of theology at Doug Wilson’s New Saint Andrew’s College in Moscow, Idaho, criticized Budde’s “untethered empathy.” In a Jan. 25 opinion piece for World magazine, Rigney wrote that the bishop, “in the halting and syrupy tone of a schoolmarm,” offered “a clear example of the man-eating weed of Humanistic Mercy, untethered from what is true and good.”

Budde’s comments, Rigney added, remind Christians “of how destructive the feminist cancer is in the Church.” God made women more empathetic than men, he wrote, which is a “great blessing” in the home but “a curse…when it comes to upholding strict standards of justice.”

After citing numerous Bible passages regarding the submission of women, Rigney concluded that “the greatest evil…is conceived and supported…in grandiose cathedrals, by earnest women with rainbow robes and closely cropped haircuts who do not need to raise their voice.”