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Discipling the Next Generation

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The Bible only gives two mandates for discipling the emerging generation.

Discipling the Next Generation

1. One Generation is responsible for the next.

(Psalm 145:4)

We are all responsible for the emerging generation, for discipling and passing on all that God has given to us. Discipleship is a close relational experience with someone who knows them well, who models Godly principles and can lead them to encounter the living God on a day to day, moment by moment basis. There are too many children and young people without Godly role models and disciplers. This tremendous privilege and responsibility cannot be left to a few. To take a nation we must take the next generation and discipleship is the way Jesus told all of us to do it.

2. Parents are responsible for their children.

(Deuteronomy 29:29)

We are commanded to pass on a passionate love for God to our own children in the manner of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and out of the abundance of our own love for Him to spill that passion all over our children.  It is not the task of the cell, or the church to disciple children from Christian families. The vision of God is that every home is intentional in discipling their children in an environment of a passionate and obedient love for God.  Malachi 2:15

Bodily Spirituality: Why Our Bodies Matter

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We are well aware that the Holy Spirit indwells our bodies, but do we consider what that means about taking care of our bodies? Our physicality relates directly to what we typically think of as our spiritual well-being. It is through our bodies that we do God’s will in the world. They are very integral to our spirituality. Body and spirit are connected, integrated, and united. What happens to one affects the other. How aware are you that your bodily experiences are integral to your spiritual life? Take five minutes to read and reflect on how God might be speaking to you about your physical well-being. The following five thoughts are adapted from Ruth Haley Barton and Dallas Willard.

1. Caring for Our Body Leads to Stamina for Life’s Journey.

Elijah was the recipient of God’s care for his body (1 Kings 19:7). At a point of physical and emotional exhaustion, the angel told him explicitly that taking care of his body was necessary for his long journey.

The same is true for you as a pastor. A healthy body helps ensure stamina for the heavy demands of ministry over time. Our spirit needs our body even as our body needs our spirit. God knows this. Do you? Is your body in need of rest? Nutrition? Do you consider caring for your physical needs less important than your “spiritual” needs?

2. Spiritual Formation Requires Transformation of the Body (Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 165).

Our bodies only do what we give consent to over time. They reflect the quality of our internal life with Christ. Our outward life flows from the inward quality of our soul and out through our bodies. Bringing our bodies in alignment with the Spirit of God so we do God’s will in the world is possible as we cooperate with God’s grace.

How aware are you of your bodily impulses and tendencies, e.g. food, workaholism, sexuality? Or do your bodily impulses and feelings control you?

3. Life Lived Through Our Bodies Provides Unique Ways To Glorify and Experience God.

Paul stated that in the “earthen vessels” of our bodies we carry the potential to glorify God (2 Cor. 4:7). We may experience God uniquely through eating meals, our sexuality, social relationships, exercise, and more.

Caring well for our bodies can heighten the quality and variety of ways we experience life with God and others. How aware are you of the variety of ways to experience God in and through your body?

4. God Speaks to Us Through Our Bodies.

Our bodies are often barometers of the health of other aspects of our lives. Joy, contentment, peace, depression, disappointment, and anxiety are all registered in our bodies. Our bodies often provide a dashboard of indicators of where we might need to pay attention to other aspects of our lives. We do well to care for them when they speak to us, and we do well to care for the other aspects of our lives that our bodies speak to us about.

What is your body telling you right now about other aspects of your life? Is your body telling you that it needs tending to? What can you do today to tend to your body’s needs?

7 Practices To Help Keep Your Aging Church Young

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All churches become chronologically older every year, but why does an aging church remain young, vital, and more spiritually fruitful than others?

There is a lifecycle to all churches, but intentional leadership can make a huge difference.

The point here is not to select and preserve modern-day cathedrals, but we do have a responsibility to lead churches that are vibrant, flourishing, and bring life change through the person and power of Jesus for as long as we can.

There are several things you can do to help your church remain young, alive, and vibrant, even though the lifecycle process eventually continues.

This post doesn’t promise an ecclesiastical fountain of youth. However, if your aging church is becoming weaker, it can pivot to maturing and becoming stronger. It can have a greater impact by making a few key decisions and commitments toward staying young.

Here are 7 ways to keep your aging church young.

1) Think multiplication and reproduction.

Life produces life; that truth is woven into God’s creative design. My daughter and son-in-law are having a baby soon, life continues, and we pass on family values. Grandchildren keep us young!

The same idea holds true in the church. Leading the way for the birth of new campuses and planting new churches breathes new life into the existing “parent” church.

The birth of a new church is inspiring!

Church growth is good, but it can be focused on only adding people. Adding people can be accomplished merely through events and programs with more people attending. That’s oversimplified, but you get the idea. And again, this is a good thing, but there is more.

Reproduction is the next step, where believers are discipled and become more mature in their faith.

Church multiplication, then, is focused on developing disciples to become leaders who can help launch and plant new churches.

There is, of course, much more to this, but for now, I just want to make the connection to a life-giving church environment that helps keep your aging church young. (Or support other churches who plant churches.)

2) Focus on the future.

Thinking young always looks to the future, and equally important, a better future.

Let’s keep the family analogy going. There are two things essential for any aging person who wants to remain as youthful as possible.

First, they need to keep moving; a sedentary lifestyle is harmful to good health. Second, they need a reason to keep moving, a goal, a dream, or something to look forward to.

For the local church, it’s a bold, clear, and compelling vision. It’s the reason to exist and keep going. Purpose is powerful. It keeps us moving forward with the anticipation of a better future. It keeps the aging church young and forward focused.

Status quo, doing the same things week after week, is draining and demotivating. Focus on what’s new and next for the future.

3) Empower young staff and volunteer leaders.

The importance of selecting, developing, and empowering young leaders has always been true. But now more than ever, with so many leaders who are part of the boomer generation, it’s important to learn how to pass the baton.

That is not always easy, and it’s different for every church. But begin with this question. Are you developing and empowering young leaders?

Organizationally it can get complicated but start with the foundation. Can you name the young leaders in the church and on staff that you are selecting and developing?

Invest in them, train them, and develop them into strong spiritual leaders. Then as appropriate, empower them to actually lead.

4) Place a premium on children’s ministry.

If you want your aging church to remain young, a strong children’s ministry is non-negotiable.

Hire great staff, invest significant time and energy, and be as generous as you can with the budget.

Without this, you are absolutely capping your ability to reach young families in your community.

To reach kids with the gospel message, it’s important to understand and keep up with the world they live in.

That world is fast-paced and built around technology. When you add to that mix loving adult leaders who genuinely care about children, you create a winning environment that the kids want to be part of.

There are few things more heart-warming than children beginning to understand who Jesus is and becoming a Christian at a young age. As they mature in their faith, their potential is incredible.

5) Keep up with technology.

A key to thinking about technology and churches is knowing where you want your church to lie on the innovation S-curve.

Not every church needs or should be spending to innovate in the technology space, but any basic interaction that can be made easier with technology should be implemented.

There is a subconscious level of expectations when it comes to the user experience that everyone has now. If our churches don’t meet them, we are likely communicating irrelevance.

  • Websites should be extremely easy to use and answer key questions within seconds: for example where your church is located and times for your services.
  • Child registration and event check-in should be digital.
  • Online Giving became a standard about 5 years ago now.
  • Social media has become the preferred and primary method for people to interact with your church.
  • We should have a database that knows and understands our congregation.

When I started in ministry we used cassette tapes. Remember those? Gen-Z has not even had much interaction with CD’s, much less the preceding cassette tapes.

Far too many churches have a cassette tape mindset in an instantly responsive digital world. You don’t have to be a mega-church to leverage technology for the sake of the gospel.

If you’re a smaller church and you have just a few young adults, you’d be amazed at what they can do with only a laptop and a smartphone. Ask for their help.

6) Design your Sunday morning service with a fresh and culture-connecting feel.

So how do you know what is young and relevant? That’s a subjective issue.

But here’s where you can start as it relates to your worship service, if you are still doing pretty much what you did ten years ago, the way you did it ten years ago, you are not keeping up.

Are you playing new music? Who is choosing your music? That can be a sensitive subject but have the conversation.

Remember, it’s not about being different for the sake of being different. It’s about what will engage a post-Christian culture most effectively with the gospel message.

Are you inviting young leaders onto the platform? Young musicians and singers will lead you to younger music and a younger vibe overall. This helps to attract young people to your aging church.

If you are thinking, “What about the older people, don’t they matter?” Of course, they do. I am one, and I still make a difference. But we should be more mature.

We know that it’s not about us, the mission is to reach the lost, and if you reach the next-gen, other generations will follow.

How about your primary communicators? We need the wisdom of age and experience, but we also need young voices in the mix. How are you doing there?

Think through all the components from language to video and think young.

If you focus on a younger crowd, the older generations with join in. If you lean toward older, the young will often leave.

7) Invest in the next generation.

Raise up and train young leaders perhaps through an internship, invest in student ministries, and champion the call to vocational ministry among your young adults.

Communicate that you believe in the next gen! They are the future!

The vision of the church needs to be captivating to the next generation, and at the same time, be compelling enough that older generations get excited about the vision in such a way that they will invest their heart, time, and resources.

Let’s face it, middle-aged and older generations have no trouble loving and believing in kids; just watch a grandparent with their grandchildren!

This article about keeping an aging church young originally appeared here.

Going to Church Can Be Such a Hassle: 7 Reasons to Fight for It

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Fight? Going to Church? Weekly? Church member? Yes, indeed! We live in such a swirlingly busy age with countless distractions and endless entertainments and overly-busy schedules. How easily and how quickly it can be that the gathering together with the people of God in your local assembly can be missed one week because of a scheduling conflict. And then it becomes easier the next week. And the next. And so on. So the title is intentional and the motive of this essay is pastorally & compassionately exhortational: FIGHT to make going to church a priority to attend your local church on a weekly basis.

Going to Church Can Be Such a Hassle

I understand things come up. Illness happens. Vacations occur. There are providential workings of God that may cause a child of God to miss church. But please hear this: missing church should not be the norm; it should be the exception. It is your local church where Christ promises to walk amidst His people and bless them by speaking to them and ministering to them in very real and special ways.

Additionally, this essay is for the true Christian. This is not just another paper urging the unsaved to just ‘get to church’. This essay is for those whom God has saved and who have obediently committed themselves to a local church and submitted themselves to the leadership of that church. This is an essay for the saved to reorient the focus on the Lord and on His church because this in our culture can distract and disrupt and cloud our minds at times.

7 Reasons to Fight for It

My argument? Fight with all your might for going to church weekly. I’ll provide seven simple reminders.

1. For the sake of your HEART.

Dear Christian, bought with the precious blood of Christ, as a newborn baby long for the pure milk of the Word so that you may grow in respect to salvation (1 Peter 2:1-2). O child of God, have you tasted the kindness of the Lord? Have you partaken of the sweetnesses of His love for you? Do you hunger for Him and thirst for righteousness? Attend church for the sake of your heart so that you can grow as you receive the food of the Word. No matter what you tell yourself and how you seek to justify it, it’s impossible for you to grow spiritually if you continually find yourself absent from the body of Christ. For the sake of your heart, attend your church to be fed God’s Word through the preaching and to hear Christ address you and the Spirit to mold your heart through the truths heralded.

2. For the sake of your CONGREGATION.

Dear Christian, Christ never called you to a life of lone-ranger isolationism. Christianity is never my Christianity. It’s always a community, joint, shared journey. And that journey is with other predestined travelers who are progressing and traveling to glory just as you are. Don’t neglect them! No matter what you tell yourself, private times in the Word (as important as that is!), and family worship (as important as that is!), and listening to sermons online (as helpful as that can be!) is not a substitute for actually going to the gathering with your fellow believers to worship the crucified and risen and interceding Christ together. Your fellow believers who have covenanted together love you. When you’re not there, they wonder where you are (at least, they *should*). They care for you and wonder if everything’s OK. We minister together as a body. A body has many members. When one member is absent, there’s something incomplete about the body. So make it a point, a deliberate point: going to church with your congregation.

How To Get Your Teaching Into Kids’ Long-Term Memory

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As children’s ministry leaders, our goal should be to get the truth of God’s Word into children’s long-term memory.

Are you only placing God’s Word into children’s short-term memory? A week later they have forgotten the truth and cannot recall what they “learned.”

I have seen this played out as children try to learn multiple Bible verses in one week. They succeed in repeating it once with someone helping them, but can’t recall the verse a week later.

Life change happens when children get God’s Word in their long-term memory. Children can apply God’s Word and truth to their life when they are able to recall it.

I believe that spiritual fruit only happens when we see God’s Word embedded in children’s long-term memory.

Last week, I tested the children to see if the key truths we have taught them have been successfully placed in their long-term memory. I was excited to see them recall and be able to say key truths they had learned months ago. And guess what…a year from now they will still be able to say all of the key truths we have taught them.

Want to know how this happened? Let’s look at how to get your teaching into children’s long-term memory.

Repetition

Repetition is a key part of moving truth into kids’ long-term memory. Did you know if a child hears something one time a month their retention rate will be 10%. But if a child hears something six times or more in a month, their retention rate will go up to 90%.

This verse from the Bible reminds us of this. Look what it says in Deuteronomy 6:7.

Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up.

Less Is More

Instead of trying to get kids to remember a new verse and key truth each week, focus on helping them learn one Bible verse and one key truth per month.

Make It Rhyme

Did you know that kids learn a lot better when something rhymes? Turn your key truth into a rhyme.

Here are a couple of examples from my Connect12 curriculum.

The Bible is clear to say…Jesus is the only way.

The Bible is true…you can trust it through and through.

Music

Music helps kids memorize things long-term. Turn your key teaching truth into a song. Have the kids sing the song each week and you will see what you are teaching them go into their long-term memory.

For my Connect12 curriculum, I have a talented friend that turned all of our key truths into cool songs that kids love.

Here’s an example.

If you are reading this in an email and can’t see the video, you can go to this link to watch it. All of these songs are available for purchase at this link.

Remember Your True Citizenship, Love the Foreigner

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While immigration remains a divisive topic in America, differing views on politics and policies should not distract Christians from their calling to love others. This is especially true at a time when immigration is on the rise—a recent report shows that the number of immigrants in America’s biggest counties grew drastically between 2021 and 2022. 

Immigration isn’t a new issue in our country, and it likely isn’t going away any time soon. It’s no secret that Republicans and Democrats have different stances on the topic. But as believers, we can’t allow these political arguments to prevent us from fulfilling our calling as Christ-followers. Whenever we encounter immigrants and refugees, we have one job—to love and serve them in their humanity. 

Moses reminds the Israelites in Deuteronomy 10:18, “[God] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

In this passage, Moses sets the standard for how we are to treat foreigners; namely, with love. We’re also reminded that we are no different and no better than immigrants or refugees. Each of us has received God’s undeserved grace. The grace of God is a free gift to everyone, regardless of their color, class, culture, or even borders

Through my church’s missions work and outreach efforts, I’ve been able to spend one-on-one time with immigrants and refugees all around the world. As I’ve listened to their stories, their struggles, and their reasons for hope, I’ve found myself time and again challenged and encouraged. I have seen and heard the cries of immigrants and refugees from Mexico, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Palestine, and Israel, and I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that their cries are much the same. They’re cries for safety, peace, and empathy, and a need for practical love to be extended to them. 

What a privilege we have as ambassadors of reconciliation to offer these very things in the name of Jesus. Through the opportunities I’ve had to interact with immigrants and refugees, there are a few important perspectives I’ve gained. 

First and foremost, I’ve been reminded of the true citizenship of a Christian. We are ultimately citizens of the Kingdom of God, and as his ambassadors, we are called to extend the love of God with the understanding that this earth is not our true home. I’ve also come to a deeper understanding of my calling to serve. God will reward us for serving others in his name, not for holding others to our human standards of legality. Finally, I’ve grown in my desire to serve selflessly. Without personal sacrifice, we’re not really serving. It may be charitable, but it is not noble. 

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s not get so caught up in political arguments about immigration that we overlook our true citizenship and neglect to serve selflessly. Let’s remember that God calls us to extend positive favor to others regardless of, and sometimes because of, their color, class, or culture—something that I call gracism

Any of us, at any time, could find ourselves displaced and in need of the kindness of strangers. These are real circumstances that are in no way far-fetched. Such circumstances do not define your humanity, but they truly do define your Christianity.

Our earthly citizenship carries so little weight compared to our glorious status as children of God. If you believe this, then the next time you come across someone from another country, background or culture, extend positive favor toward them as if they matter to God, and to you. 

Christian, Do Not Bypass Your Grief

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Grief over a loss happens far more often than when a literal death occurs.

I can attest to the anguish and pain that comes in the wake of the death of a loved one. But there are many other times in my life where mourning and sorrow have welled up within me. There can be seasons or situations that cause deep sorrow—grief in various forms.

A loss of any kind can bring about some manner of pain. Nevertheless, it can be difficult to give ourselves permission to grieve a situation that doesn’t bear the same weight as death. It seems unjustifiable to grieve when we consider how life could be so much worse.

As much as I wanted to be overcome by hope, all I could think of were the hundreds of thousands of people who went into the hospital due to COVID-19 and didn’t return home. I wept when my aunt told me she was taking my uncle to the hospital, because he was unable to breathe. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t focus. All I could do was cry. I was so afraid of losing him, and I certainly didn’t want to be the one to say that aloud.

The news that he would be discharged to finish his road of recovery at home was unbelievable. A true miracle. I’m beyond grateful for the time we continue to have with my uncle. My world wouldn’t be the same without him, and I certainly should tell him that more often.

I keep trying to talk myself out of the pain and sorrow that I feel. But even with the blessing of life comes a new current reality for my uncle. His road to recovery will be much longer than he ever anticipated. There are many stressors that come along with any sort of health crisis, and my family is experiencing many of them. I see the pressure, pain, loss, and uncertainty about whether life will ever get back to normal. I also feel guilty for experiencing any kind of grief, knowing that so many others are mourning more than the difficulties of a season but the loss of a loved one.

Nevertheless, in the same way we would never inflict emotional bypassing on another person, we must resist the tendency to do it to ourselves.

It’s far more “acceptable” to make space for grief in our lives when it’s related to literal death, but setting these kinds of limits on acceptable grief is harmful. The bible is full of people being honest with God, even when their pain and loss seemed less weighty than death itself.

Regardless of your reason for grieving—change in physical health, relationships, life seasons, career, or unmet expectation—we should invite Jesus to meet us in this pain. He will.

Grief is an important aspect of the human experience and we should stop trying to simply move past it.

Grief Is Not the Enemy of Faith

Deep sorrow. 

This is the definition of grief. The list of reasons any person would experience deep sorrow is long. Allowing yourself to grieve is not the opposite of faith. Nowhere in scripture does it instruct us to trade grief for faith. One does not mean the absence of the other.

Stop Worrying About Offending Senior Members of Your Church

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Right now, the senior members of your church – the oldest donors or church members you have – (people in their 80’s for instance) are part of the rock and roll generation. These guys were raised listening to Led Zeppelin, James Brown, and the Stones.

One of the most frequent (and frustrating) cycles that’s happened to our team over the years is this: A church, ministry, or nonprofit asks us to come in to help them update their brand, reposition in the marketplace, or help share their message in a more contemporary way. Fine. But at a point, some of them get really nervous and start pushing back, and it usually sounds like this:

“Phil, we can’t become too contemporary in how we present our message because we’re afraid we’ll upset our older donors or church members. If we update our website, design a really creative logo, those older folks – who are our major donors or most supportive church members – won’t like it and will push back.”

Then they try to backpedal, soften the work, or make it less relevant.

Let me put this argument to rest:  Do you really think your new logo will freak them out?

As I write this, Chubby Checker is 79, Mick Jagger is 77, and Steven Tyler from Aerosmith is 72. And that’s not to mention the legends who have passed: Elvis would be 86 today, Little Richard 89, and Fats Domino 93.

Trust me – the oldest folks in your congregation or donor database were cool before you were born, so give them a break. Trust them. They know what contemporary means and they know what it means to be relevant.

And for the record – they want to reach their children and grandchildren with your message – even if they’re not personally crazy about the presentation.

Are a few grumpy? Absolutely. But those folks are in every age group.

Stop worrying about the seniors. Unleash your creativity and let’s make an impact.

 

This article about senior members originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

Questions for Teenagers: 3 Critical Queries About Following Jesus

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Some questions for teenagers are vital to help them know and love Jesus for life. Read on to discover 3 questions to ask teens in your youth ministry.

Are the kids in your youth group the first to grow up in a “post-Christian” world? The research says they are.

Post-Christian describes a cultural dynamic marked by the absence of Christianity as the foundation—or hub—of the broader society. One writer refers to this time in history as the “post-truth” era.  In other words, all foundations for life are subjective, including truth. It’s not hard to spot this reality: “What is true for me may not be true for you.”

This shift in our fundamental beliefs has left a generation of teenagers trying to find their footing on a slippery slope of shifting morality. They’re not only leaving the church, but they’re also leaving behind their belief in God.

What’s to blame for this retreat? Well, many potential culprits exist. But I believe our best way forward is to re-focus the way we think about and practice apologetics. One report suggested that youth today aren’t looking to read books that show proof of Christ’s existence or even the case for Christianity over other religions. They can do that sort of research on their own. Instead, they want to know why they should choose Jesus. Then they need help in learning how to follow Him.

The teenagers in my ministry tell me they want Jesus. They’re not angry with him or repelled by him. They just don’t know what it looks like practically to follow him. Teens know it takes grit to live a life centered on Jesus. They just don’t know how to do that.

So the question becomes: How do we help teenagers move from acquaintance to disciple? Three critical questions help us get at this.

3 Key Questions for Teenagers

1. Questions for Teenagers: Will I trust Jesus’ love for me?

The real question here is often not whether Jesus loves us, but whether or not we trust his love for us. It would be great if we could simply answer: “Just do it.” But this question requires a little work. Recently, I was talking with a young woman about some friend issues she was having that were affecting her self-esteem. I mentioned the first place we had to go was to the Lord. She broke down as she shared that she didn’t even believe he would love her as she was.

I told her that sometimes it all comes down to trust. We may not feel it or know it, but we have to jump into the unknown. The process, lived out in conversation, was slow—but we reached a tipping point, when she was ready to give Jesus a chance in her life, to trust him more deeply than she had before. That’s when her heart started to change.

Kirk Cameron Labeled ‘Bigoted Christian Nationalist’ Before Public Library Reading in Seattle

Kirk Cameron
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Christian actor and author, Kirk Cameron, is receiving more pushback from transgender-inclusive groups who have organized a protest at his upcoming Brave books story hour in Seattle, Washington.

The event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, May 27th, 10:30 am PST at the Seattle Public Library and will include Coach Joe Kennedy. Kennedy made national headlines himself when he was recently reinstated as the head football coach at Bremerton High School after winning a lawsuit over on-field prayer.

Kennedy will give a short speech and lead the audience in prayer. Cameron will be reading “As You Grow,” and his newest release “Pride Comes Before the Fall,” both of which are from Brave books’ Freedom Island children’s series.

The “Growing Pains” actor, with the help of Brave books, started holding children’s story hour readings at public libraries. Cameron’s books focus on the Fruits of the Spirit and his readings, which are commonly attended by entire families, are positioned as counter-programming to “drag queen” story hours, which have been hosted at government-funded libraries across the nation.

RELATED: Kirk Cameron’s Indianapolis Library Book Reading, After Initially Being Denied, Results in Overwhelming Turnout

Cameron’s new children’s book focuses on two main characters, a zebra-striped cat named Valor who doesn’t think he can win a race with his teammate Kevin, an elephant. Valor’s pride creates relational issues with Kevin and shows how Valor comes to realize that there are things far more important than winning.

The Brave books team told ChurchLeaders, “Seattle Public Library has provided great customer service to Kirk and the Brave team and has been very accommodating and not at all restricting when it comes to First Amendment Rights.”

However, Brave books shared that after some “community backlash,” the library has been “abundantly clear” that they do not approve of Kirk’s message nor his movement.

RELATED: Tennessee Library Director Fired for ‘Negative Pushback’ During Kirk Cameron Book Reading

According to independent local news site PubliCola, the Seattle Public Library “stopped holding drag queen story time several years ago.”

In their article “Seattle Library Rents Room to Kirk Cameron, Right-Wing Crusader Against ‘Woke Marxist Librarians,’” a library spokesperson told PubliCola that the Seattle Public Library isn’t “hosting” or “endorsing” Cameron’s views. They are only providing the room that is available to anyone in the public to rent.

“We do not choose who gets to use our meeting rooms or what they are allowed to say or believe,” the spokesperson said. “That would be government censorship and a violation of the First Amendment. The Library is committed to intellectual freedom.”

In a Twitter post, PubliCola editor Erica C. Barnett labeled Cameron a “homophobic culture-war crusader who says people who have abortions are murderers.”

RELATED: ‘Nefarious Forces Are Targeting Children’—Kirk Cameron Warns Goal Is To Collapse the Family

Protest organizers with Puget Sound Mobilization for Reproductive Justice said Cameron and “his hate has no place in Seattle.”

‘Born Again This Way’ Author Rachel Gilson Addresses Whether New Believers in a Gay Marriage Should Divorce

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If someone who is in a same-sex marriage becomes a Christian, should the new believer leave that marriage? Author and speaker Rachel Gilson, who recently dealt with some controversy related to this question, tackled the topic on “The Confronting Christianity Podcast.”

“By definition, a same-sex marriage is not a marriage in God’s eyes, even though it’s a legal contract that does exist in our society right now,” said Gilson during the conversation. “And so that means some principles about divorce that we might normally bring in when we’re talking about marriage can feel confusing when we bring them to a same-sex marriage. Because legally, we’re using the language of marriage, but it’s not actually marriage in God’s eyes.”

RELATED: Rachel Gilson: How Jesus Helps Me Say No to My Same-Sex Desires

Rachel Gilson on Gay Marriage and Divorce 

Rachel Gilson serves on the leadership team for Theological Development and Culture at Cru and is the author of “Born Again This Way: Coming Out, Coming to Faith, and What Comes Next.” On May 18, a clip circulated on Twitter of her speaking to an audience, addressing the question of whether a person should leave a same-sex marriage if he or she becomes a Christian. “These are some very tender things,” Gilson emphasized. She encouraged the audience to be cautious in how they approach a couple in this situation, and she noted that discipleship is a “process.”

Gilson said that the marriage is not necessarily the first issue to address in this situation because discipleship involves the entire person, not simply one aspect of someone’s life. She emphasized loving and supporting new believers as they learn what the Bible says about sexuality. It is common, said Gilson, for people to realize as they progress on their journey following Jesus that Scripture does not support gay marriage. 

Neither the first clip of Gilson nor a longer one that gives more context shows her stating that new believers should stay in a same-sex marriage—or that they should leave it. She tells the audience that she has known couples who choose to stay in such a marriage while remaining celibate, and she has known of other situations where the new Christian wishes to remain celibate and the other partner leaves the marriage. And sometimes people have to get a divorce, which “God hates,” said Gilson, despite the fact God allows it in certain circumstances in a broken world.

Several Christian influencers perceived Gilson to be endorsing Christians remaining in gay marriages, and some subsequently called for her to be removed as a speaker from the upcoming Pastors’ Wives/Women’s Conference at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in New Orleans. 

The same day the controversy erupted, Gilson posted a statement in which she said that same-sex marriages are “sinful” and that any believer who is in one should get out of it. She said that this has always been her position. 

Gilson appeared on the May 23 episode of “The Confronting Christianity Podcast,” where she joined host Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin and fellow guest Dr. J.D. Greear to discuss the question, “Should Someone in a Same-Sex Marriage Who Becomes a Christian Get Divorced?” Greear is pastor of The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and the author of several books, including, “Essential Christianity: The Heart of the Gospel in Ten Words.”

Gilson indirectly addressed the Twitter controversy by saying that she had recently been thinking about one of the first times she answered the question at hand in public, which she did at a student ministry over five years ago. “I’d just given this long seminar explaining why the Bible says no to same-sex marriage, same-sex sexual relationships,” she said. 

Barna Research: People Like Jesus. His Followers? Not So Much

barna research
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“I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians.” That biting quote often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi seems to sum up results of the latest survey in the Barna Group’s “Spiritually Open” series.

The Barna research, conducted in partnership with Gloo and He Gets Us, found that although 71% of American teens and adults have a positive opinion of Jesus, only 36% of non-Christians have a positive opinion of Christianity.

Hypocrisy of religious people” is the top reason people give for not embracing Christian teachings. In other survey findings, respondents express fairly low opinions of megachurches, celebrity pastors, well-known worship bands, and evangelicals.

Barna Research: Millennials Express High Commitment to Jesus

The Barna research, conducted online last December, found that Millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996) claim the highest level of commitment to Jesus, at 70%. The overall percentage of Americans who express commitment to Jesus has seen negligible declines during the past two decades, researchers pointed out.

Most survey respondents say they have positive views about Jesus (71%), spirituality (65%), the Bible (63%), and Christianity (57%). Among Christians, responses are at least 10 percentage points higher in each of those categories.

Views toward other aspects associated with Christianity are much less positive, however. “People of no faith are neutral or leaning negative—and for celebrity, mega- or famous reps of the faith, opinions are decidedly negative,” according to researchers.

Only 16% of Christians (and 17% of non-Christians) express a positive view of megachurches. Only 19% of Christians and non-Christians view celebrity pastors in a positive light. And only 26% of total respondents indicate positive associations with high-profile worship bands.

Regarding churches in their local communities, 58% of Christians and 47% of overall respondents express a positive view.

Survey Results Show Hurdles, Opportunities

Most people tend to perceive present-day Christianity as “respected, principled, loving, friendly, generous, and so on,” researchers said. Yet only 15% of people without faith label Christianity as a faith they respect. Instead, those non-believers are much more likely than Christians to label Christianity as judgmental (48%) and hypocritical (49%).

These “glaring disparities,” said researchers, “represent the hurdles the Church needs to overcome, especially if sharing faith or welcoming people into churches is the goal.”

SBC Sexual Abuse Reform Task Force To Further Consider Definition of ‘Credibly Accused’

ARITF credibly accused
Attendees listen to Bruce Frank, a chair of the Southern Baptist Convention's sexual abuse task force, during its annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., Tuesday, June 14, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

The Southern Baptist Convention’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force (ARITF) released an update on Thursday (May 25), indicating that the “ministry check” website, which will provide a database of SBC clergy and leaders who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse, will launch with a more restrictive definition of “credibly accused” than originally announced. 

Conveying the desire of the ARITF to adjust the parameters used to determine the credibility of accusations in the future, the statement indicated that the task force would “continue to work closely with churches, leaders, survivors and experts to thoroughly address concerns” and create a standard that is both legally prudent and expansive enough to provide necessary protections for abuse survivors and those vulnerable to abuse. 

The Task of the ARITF

At the denomination’s 2021 annual meeting in Anaheim, California, SBC delegates, called messengers, overwhelmingly voted to implement reforms to address its sexual abuse crisis. Chief among those reforms was the creation of the ARITF, and the chief responsibility of this newly formed task force has been to implement the ministry check website. 

These reform efforts came on the heels of a bombshell investigation conducted by Guidepost Solutions, which found that for at least two decades, denominational leadership had repeatedly and systematically ignored, silenced, and at times even ostracized survivors of sexual abuse. 

RELATED: Amid Pressure, SBC Abuse Reform Task Force May Step Back From Using Guidepost Solutions

The legitimacy of the report would later be questioned by some SBC leaders after Guidepost Solutions tweeted their support for LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June 2022, mere weeks before the SBC annual meeting. The denomination’s ongoing use of the firm’s services continues to be a point of contention for many Southern Baptists.

Nevertheless, messengers voted to adopt reform strategies that were derived from the recommendations included in Guidepost Solutions’ report. 

The language of the recommendations indicated that the ministry check website would include SBC clergy and leaders who had been “credibly accused” of sexual assault, which was defined to include those who had confessed in a non-privileged setting, had been convicted in a court of law, had a civil judgment rendered against them, or were deemed by an independent third-party investigation to be credibly accused by a preponderance of evidence. 

The final category in that fourfold definition has been the subject of fierce debate, as a number of high profile Southern Baptists pastors and leaders have called into question whether it is ethical to place on a public list of credibly accused leaders the names of individuals who had not confessed, been convicted, or been found legally liable. 

Emblematic of this debate is the high profile case of Johnny Hunt, a now-disgraced former megachurch pastor and longtime denominational leader who was named in the report, which deemed him credibly accused of sexually assaulting the wife of a fellow pastor toward the end of his term as SBC president in 2010.

Hunt has consistently denied the veracity of the allegations, resuming his public preaching ministry roughly eight months later—a move that called into question whether the churches that hosted him should be allowed to remain in the Convention. 

In March, Hunt filed a lawsuit against the SBC Executive Committee and Guidepost Solutions for defamation and invasion of privacy.

Sadie Robertson Huff Welcomes Baby No. 2 With Husband Christian Huff

sadie robertson
Screenshot from Instagram / @legitsadierob

Sadie Robertson Huff and her husband Christian Huff are soaking up newborn bliss this week after welcoming their second daughter, Haven Belle, on Monday.

“Haven has brought a touch of heaven,” Sadie captioned a carousal of photos on Instagram Thursday. “May 22, 2023 at 8:30 am life got a whole lot sweeter!”

 

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“Peep the time on our phone in slide two and the sheer joy on my face!” she said.

Sadie, who delivered via cesarean section is seen in one of the photos smiling ear-to-ear on an operating table as their daughter was born.

“Christian and I could not be happier and more grateful. Soaking in every single moment.”

Robertson family members and friends alike flocked to the comments with love and support for the growing family.

“Love that little girl!!!” wrote Mary Kate Robertson.

On his own instagram page, Christian shared photos of the couples’ newest bundle, including a sweet picture of him swooning over his newest girl. “Surreal seeing a little miracle up so close,” he wrote. “Blown away by God. Love you so much Haven. Some of the sweetest moments ever.”

 

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This article originally appeared here.

Pope Blasts ‘Consumerist Greed’ on World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation

Pope Francis Climate Crisis
Pope Francis attends the world’s first meeting of the Educational Eco-Cities promoted by the Scholas Occurrentes, at the Vatican, May 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Francis condemned “consumerist greed” and “selfish hearts” as responsible for the climate crisis in his yearly message for World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which occurs on Sept. 1 and was presented at the Vatican on Thursday (May 25).

Inspired by the words of the Prophet Amos, the pope chose “let justice and peace flow” as the theme for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, which he established in 2015 alongside the publication of his encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si’.”

Francis said his message was inspired by the Indigenous and Catholic pilgrimage site Lac Ste. Anne in Canada, which he visited last summer. Standing before the lake and “surrounded by the beating of drums,” the pope said he was reminded “of the maternal heartbeat of the earth.”

“During this Season of Creation, let us dwell on those heartbeats: our own and those of our mothers and grandmothers, the heartbeat of creation and the heartbeat of God,” Pope Francis said in his message. “Today they do not beat in harmony; they are not harmonized in justice and peace.”

Pope Francis blesses faithfuls as he arrives at the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage site in Alberta, Canada, Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Pope Francis is on a second day of a "penitential" six-day visit to Canada to beg forgiveness from survivors of the country's residential schools, where Catholic missionaries contributed to the "cultural genocide" of generations of Indigenous children by trying to stamp out their languages, cultures and traditions. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Pope Francis blesses faithful as he arrives at the Lac Ste. Anne pilgrimage site in Alberta, Canada, July 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Modern societies, more interested in profit than in future generations, are responsible for the disharmony between humanity and the environment, the pope said. “Consumerist greed, fueled by selfish hearts, is disrupting the planet’s water cycle. The unrestrained burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests are pushing temperatures higher and leading to massive droughts. Alarming water shortages increasingly affect both small rural communities and large metropolises,” Francis said.

“Predatory industries are depleting and polluting our freshwater sources through extreme practices such as fracking for oil and gas extraction, unchecked mega-mining projects, and intensive animal farming,” he added.

While this bleak picture might seem discouraging, Francis said he believes there is still hope. “We can and we must prevent the worst from happening,” he said, urging people and communities to “come together like so many streams, brooks and rivulets, merging finally in a mighty river to irrigate the life of our marvelous planet and our human family for generations to come.”

The Argentine pope said change can occur only through the transformation of “our hearts, our lifestyles.” To do this, Catholics and non-Catholics must “repent of our ecological sins,” the pope said, quoting the words of Ecumenical Patriarch Batholomew of the Eastern Orthodox Christian Church.

Lifestyle changes must include “less waste and unnecessary consumption,” the pope said, but also “using resources with moderation and a joyful sobriety, disposing and recycling waste, and making greater use of available products and services that are environmentally and socially responsible.”

While faithful are called to make changes in their own lives, Francis also urged Catholics to take actions that affect public policies that can have immediate and future impact. “Economic policies that promote scandalous wealth for a privileged few and degrading conditions for many others, spell the end of peace and justice,” the pope said.

Citing his “green encyclical,” “Laudato Si’,” Francis referred to the “ecological debt” that must be paid by richer nations who enjoyed economic development for centuries through reckless environmental policies. For this reason, he said, “world leaders who will gather for the COP28 summit in Dubai from November 30 to December 12 next must listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel.”

Drawing from the international Paris Agreement on climate change, which the Holy See joined in 2022, the pope described the “continued exploration and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructures” as “absurd.”

10 Secrets of Many Senior Pastors

communicating with the unchurched

I get to hang out and know many senior pastors. I have a great heart for them and understand, firsthand, some of the pressures, frustrations and joys that are unique to the role of a senior pastor. In my recent blog survey, over half my readers are in ministry and half that number are senior leaders.

When I first shared the points in this post a few years ago it was at a conference for executive pastors. I was asked to give my perspective as a senior pastor, since each of them reported to one. Specifically, the request was to share some things about senior pastors they may not know. I honestly didn’t realize what I was sharing would be so revealing for some of them. They didn’t know some of these about their senior leader.

And, granted, I can’t speak for every senior pastor in every church. I can only speak in generalities from what I know and personally experience—in my life and among the senior pastors I know. Thankfully, this blog platform and my personal ministry have afforded me access to hundreds of senior pastors.

I share this post simply for the purpose of understanding. I know and have felt the extreme love most of the church has for its senior pastor. I’m grateful for that in my own life. Hopefully this helps you love and understand your pastor even more.

Here are 10 “secrets” about many senior pastors:

1. Leading from this position is overwhelming at times. We know Christ is ultimately in charge, but we also know it often seems everyone is looking to us to have all the answers. And we know we don’t always have them. (Granted, some senior pastors are more honest about this than others.)

2. People tell the senior pastor all kinds of things about what is happening in their life or in the lives of others—many we would rather not know sometimes. And, frankly, some things we don’t need to know—such as gossip, rumors and information they don’t have permission to share. Many times it’s in the form of a “prayer request.” We don’t always know what to do with this information. (And again, in total frankness, some senior pastors have abused this information and hurt people in their church.)

3. Most pastors walk with a degree of uncertainty about our abilities to do the work we feel called to do. We intellectually know this is designed by God. It keeps us in prayer and walking by faith. But we are human, and the demands upon us and our insecurities in them can also make us question at times whether we have what it takes to do the work before us.

4. Many senior pastors fear the possibility of failing in their role, so they thrive on the encouragement and prayers of others—almost to a fault. They can become very insecure. If they aren’t hearing constant positive feedback, they can begin irrational questioning how people feel about them.

5. A senior pastor’s insecurities can cause them to become overprotective of their reputation and position. At extremes, it may even cause them to react with poor leadership, such as playing politics with leaders in the church or using information as power.

Can We Hope in the Face of Death?

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There’s a word that we don’t like to say. We’ll look for just about any other word or phrase just so long as we don’t say that word. We’ll turn ourselves inside out, we’ll do anything not to say that word. That one word. The “D” word: Death. Can we hope in the face of death?

They’re deceased, they’ve expired, they’ve passed, they’ve been released, they’ve gone into the afterlife, they’ve entered their rest, their eternal rest or eternal sleep, they’ve reached their final rest, they’ve left this life, they’ve gone home, they’ve gone to heaven, they’re in paradise, they’ve passed away or passed over. And the list goes on and on.

There’s a reason that we’re uncomfortable with the word death. We were never made to experience it. It’s completely strange and foreign to how God made us and who we are.

Evangelicals and the Book of Common Prayer

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Alan Jacobs, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Baylor University and former professor of English at Wheaton College, wrote a sweeping (yet not dense), elegant “biography” of the Book of Common Prayer. It is part of Princeton University Press’s “Lives of Great Religious Books” series and is one of my favorite recent reads. In an interview published by Christianity Today, Jacobs explains why the Anglican prayerbook has had such an impact. The whole interview– not too long to read in a few minutes– is well worth and read and can be found HERE.

Some of my favorite bits are excerpted below:

What makes the Book of Common Prayer a distinctively evangelical form of worship?

Well, I’m not sure it is, at least in its liturgies. Cranmer strove to maintain as much continuity with traditional forms of worship as he could, given his commitments to the Reformation. So in the liturgies themselves there is little that a medieval Catholic Christian could find fault with—except that they are in English…

Charlie Kirk Exhorts Church Leaders at Sold Out TPUSA Faith ‘Pastors Summit’: ‘If You Love God, You Must Hate Evil’

Charlie Kirk
Photo credit: Jesse T. Jackson

Turning Point USA Faith (TPUSA Faith) kicked off its sold out Pastors Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, late Wednesday afternoon (May 24).

According to its website, the summit’s goal is to empower pastors in America to “stand boldly for righteousness in a world that desperately needs Jesus.” Those in attendance will be hearing from a mixture of pastors, subject matter experts, and leaders in the faith community “about the latest anti-biblical cultural topics of today and be equipped to speak biblical truth into them.”

Scheduled speakers include a long list of conservative men, women, athletes, artists, authors, and pastors. The lineup includes TPUSA founder Charlie KirkRob McCoyDave Ramsey, Jentezen Franklin, Eric MetaxasJames Lindsay, Michael Knowles, Riley GainesDanny Gokey, Michael Chandler, Michael Oher, and John Amanchukwu, among others.

Over a thousand church leaders are attending this year’s TPUSA Faith Pastors Summit, twice as many as last year’s inaugural summit in San Diego, California.

RELATED: Charlie Kirk on Tucker Carlson, Abortion, and Why Biden ‘Will Be Tough To Beat in 2024’

TPUSA Faith donors paid for registration and hotel accommodations for church leaders in attendance. A spokesperson told ChurchLeaders that donors invested money into these pastors and church leaders because they believe in the importance of encouraging pastors to boldly proclaim the truth of the gospel in their churches—which includes speaking out against ideologies that they say directly conflict with the teachings in the Bible, such as the LGBTQIA movement, critical race theory, and abortion.

Attendees have come from all over the country and represent many denominations, the spokesperson said, but they have one common goal: to serve Jesus.

Charlie Kirk’s Opening Address: ‘If You Love God, You Must Hate Evil’

“We believe Jesus is the center of it all,” Kirk said during his opening address. “We believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, and we want to spread Jesus to as many people as possible. So that’s the most important thing that we’re going to talk about these next couple of days.”

“The second most important thing is make sure we can do that first thing,” he continued. “To make sure that the church is never labeled non-essential again.”

Kirk shared that the most important decision of his life came in the fifth grade, when he made Jesus Christ his Lord and personal Savior. Growing up in church, Kirk said he was always told that “politics and faith” were incompatible and that Christians shouldn’t bring politics into the church.

“It’s dirty. it’s unclean…You could do the politics thing, but keep it away from the Bride of Christ,” he said of what he was raised to believe.

Better Sermon Prep–Better Wellbeing

Sermon Prep
Source: Lightstock

I love preaching.

Until I hate it.

Is that you? You have this unspeakable joy of bringing the Word of God week after week, and that joy brings energy and passion.

At least, until it brings despair and isolation.

And that second state leads to a host of clergy health challenges, including depression, anxiety, ulcers, and the bubonic plague.  Well, I might have exaggerated that last one.

But what if I were to tell you that some tweaks in your message prep and delivery would not only up your preaching game but improve your physical and emotional health as well? Too good to be true?  Not at all.

With all that in mind, here are some sermon tips that might just improve your overall wellbeing in the process.

The Joy of Discovery

The most rewarding thing about preaching is what I call the “joy of discovery”the time spent in study when through scribbling and researching, the Scripture’s truth leaps out of antiquity and off the page and into the preacher’s lap.  I love sharing that “a-ha!” moment with the congregation while preaching.  If they can’t tell that you have been fascinated by the Scripture, why should they be captivated by you? Barely a Sunday goes by at Good Shepherd church without a mention, for example, that “Mark is a genius and Jesus is glorious” or “Luke is brilliant and Jesus is beautiful” or even “this inspired and anonymous author of I Samuel weaves his tale with such impeccable skill that I can’t help but shake my head in wonder and say, ‘Praise God.’”

Be interestED in Scripture so you can be interestING when you talk about it. I encourage colleagues to become captured by the Bible’s quirks, its art, its marvelously flawed heroes, and its raw power.  When it captures you, you will be much more likely to capture your listeners’ ears and hearts.

Make Change Your Constant

I am grateful I am not the same preacher I was in 1990. I am also grateful the internet had not been invented back then so that there are no digital recordings of those early efforts.

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