Dale Sellers: There Is Hope and Help for Pastors Who Feel ‘Stalled’

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February 8, 2023

The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast · Dale Sellers: There Is Hope and Help for Pastors Who Feel ‘Stalled’

Dale Sellers has been in ministry for 40 years. He launched Dale Sellers Leadership, Inc. in March 2014 and became a ministry consultant for The Unstuck Group in April 2017. In July 2018, he accepted the position of executive director of 95Network. Dale is the author of “Stalled: Hope and Help for Pastors Who Thought They’d Be There by Now.”

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Key Questions for Dale Sellers

-What led you to the belief that your life was a failure, and how did that belief impact you?

-What do you mean by getting “there,” and what is the problem with this mindset?

-What are some incorrect standards that you and other pastors have used to measure success and failure?

-What are some warning signs that a pastor is stalling out?

Key Quotes From Dale Sellers

“I felt like Jesus was disappointed with me because I hadn’t built a large megachurch…I was just at a place where I just thought, ‘Man, Jesus, he must be so disappointed that he even created me.’”

“The pandemic affected all of us. But if you were doing some things in the right way beforehand, you were able to get through it.”

“One of the most encouraging things that I’m seeing now, this first time in my life where I’ve seen [it], is a large group of pastors reaching out, going, ‘I need help.’”

“For me, ‘there’ was an unrealistic, undefined expectation. One of the things that I think caused that in me was comparison.”

“When you don’t have a clear definition of that expectation, you never never arrive because it’s kind of like the finish line keeps getting moved or the rules keep changing in the midst of the game.”

“I had a pastor who asked me one day, he said, ‘Dale, what’s it going to take for you to feel satisfied?’ And I said, ‘I absolutely do not know.’”

Indonesian Christian Apologist Vanished Following December Arrest

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Persecution.org

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February 8, 2023

empty-jail — Photo via Pexels.com @JimmyChan

Indonesia (International Christian Concern) – According to media outlet Morning Star News, a Christian apologist, Gratia Pello, has not been seen since his arrest in early December.

On December 6, 2022, police came to Pello’s home and arrested him. Pello, a professor at a small Christian theological school in East Java, regularly published videos and blog posts that compared Christianity to Islam. His content was widely disseminated online.

Pello is reportedly a Coptic Orthodox Christian known for debates with Muslim converts from Christianity.

Before arresting him on December 6, four officers questioned Pello in his home about the content of episode 248 of his YouTube channel, which officers said offended Muslims and Islam. Officers then left his home, only to return later with a group of twenty–nine officers who stormed and ransacked the house, subsequently arresting the apologist upon his return home at 11 pm.

A Christian leader from Central Java released an anonymous statement about Pello’s arrest. They told Morning Star News, “The police always put the arrest of Christians on their priority list, but they are silent when it comes to the many fake clergymen and ustadz [Muslim “teacher” in Arabic] who insult Christian holy books even if the case has been reported.”

They continued, “There is injustice in terms of law, and particularly in the matters of religion. The police are afraid of radicals.”

The Indonesian constitution and rhetoric of Indonesian officials emphasize the importance of religious freedom. However, many Christians and other religious minorities in the Muslim-majority country often face persecution from the government and other citizens because of their faith. Indonesia was listed as the 33rd most difficult country to be a Christian on Open Doors’ 2023 World Watch List.

Please pray for the family of Gratia Pello, for his release from prison, and for other religious minorities who are suffering in Indonesia.

This article originally appeared here.

In Bitter Wartime Winter, Missionary Warms Ukrainians With Stoves, Blankets

By

Adelle M Banks

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February 8, 2023

(RNS) — It’s not the fighter jets overhead or the explosions he’s heard nearby that bother missionary Ken Ward in his several trips to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor.

It’s the people like those in a “little bitty village,” he said, outside of Kherson in the country’s southeast that was bombed in December. There he saw decimated houses and heard the story of villagers who buried “little pieces” of the body of a woman who died trying to get others to shelter.

“We just started driving down every road in the village,” Ward, 66, said of the small team he works with to deliver supplies provided by HelpingUkraine.US, a nonprofit. “It’s pitiful. You got to guess: Does somebody live there?”

Ward, a military veteran who has also served as a police officer and a probation officer, helped found churches in Moldova and Ukraine after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and more recently assisted a homeless ministry in the U.S. state of Georgia, where he lives. But for the last few months, he has concentrated on helping the people of Ukraine survive the frigid temperatures of winter and the harsh effects of a war that is nearing its first anniversary.

Since November, as a team leader for HelpingUkraine.US, Ward has delivered blankets, wood-burning stoves and generators to Odessa, Kherson, Dnipro and surrounding villages and towns that have been hit by Russian rockets, and to centers that have become way stations for internally displaced people.

Helping Ukraine was founded by Emory Morsberger, an Atlanta community redevelopment expert, last year. Having visited the country decades ago, Morsberger decided after the Russian invasion that “I want to do more than just pray or talk or write a check,” he told supporters on a Zoom videoconference call featuring Ward.

Morsberger worked with other members of the U.S. service organization the Rotary and a faith-based organization called Friends of Disabled Adults and Children to ship medical equipment to Ukraine. In November, he and FODAC partnered with Ward, other Rotarians and several churches to get supplies to cities and villages.

“Ken goes back to Moldova after working in Ukraine all week and actually gets to take a shower and warm up and eat a warm meal,” Morsberger said of Ward.

“And then Monday morning at 4 a.m., he’s back across the border, right through Odessa, where he has a number of friends. And he is functioning around this southern part of the Ukraine warfront.”

Ask Ward if he’s a missionary or a humanitarian and his answer is that it’s a package deal. “When you’re loving others, you’re loving God,” he said. “It’s all one.”

Morsberger said Helping Ukraine has raised $650,000 for the medical equipment as well as providing the supplies Ward has helped distribute. He hopes to raise $2 million more in the coming months.

Contributions have come from individuals, a Jewish foundation and Morsberger’s United Methodist church in the Atlanta suburb of Lawrenceville, which contributed $3,500 from donations received during its drive-through Christmas lights display.

Pennsylvania Churches Partner With Schools To Host Daytime Bible Program

By

Timothy Cockes

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February 8, 2023

bible_school — At Harvest Church’s Bible2School program, second graders have the opportunity to learn about the Bible in small groups every Wednesday.

KITTANNING, Pa. (BP) – Harvest Church is one of the latest Pennsylvania congregations partnering with local elementary schools to host a “Bible2School” program designed to teach children about the Bible and the Gospel during the school day.

Each Wednesday, volunteers from Harvest bus nearly 50 kids from West Hills Primary School to the church campus during the students’ consecutive lunch and recess periods.

The hour-long program includes a large group teaching time while the students eat lunch, a small group time featuring crafts and a lesson review as well as a closing time of worship complete with memory verses.

Megan Caporali, children’s ministry director at Harvest Church and overseer of the “Bible2School” program, told Baptist Press the outreach is designed for children who may not be familiar with the Bible or the Gospel.

“We were targeting the families in which the kids may not ever get to attend church, but could attend this during the school day,” Caporali said.

“We don’t assume that the kids are coming in knowing any of the things we’re teaching, so it is a little bit different than a Sunday School in that we start more basic.”

Caporali teaches during the program’s large group time, which focuses on foundational theological truths such as what the Bible is, what the Bible is about and how God created the world.

She explained most of the parents marked on their child’s registration that the family did not regularly attend a church. This has not stopped the kids from eating up the lessons.

“The kids seem to really enjoy the program and they are learning a lot,” Caporali said. “It has been really cool to see these students who have never heard anything about Jesus, the Bible or have never even been to church before, and now they love coming to this.

“During our reviews of the previous week, I noticed at first that very few students would raise their hands to answer, but now it’s like I don’t know who to call on because they all have their hands raised to answer. It’s been really cool to see them grow and become more confident and know things about the Bible that they didn’t know before.”

Bible2School began in Lancaster, Pa., and aims to provide biblical materials designed to teach the Gospel to public school children.

The program is made possible by a Pennsylvania time-release law which requires schools to dismiss students to attend religious instruction for 36 hours during the school year if requested by a parent.

The guidelines for the law state the organization doing the instruction cannot be funded by taxpayer money, the program cannot take place on school property and student participation must be completely voluntary with permission from a parent or guardian.

Caporali, who has been the children’s director at Harvest since late 2021, said one of the pastors told her about Bible2School and suggested she look into it.

After months of research and training with the materials, she began meeting with the principal of West Hills Primary as well as the local superintendent.

She then gathered about 15 volunteers from Harvest, and the program was launched in September 2022.

New Tim Keller Center for Apologetics Hopes To Help Churches Reach a Changing Country

By

Bob Smietana

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February 8, 2023

Tim Keller — Frank Licorice, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

(RNS) — Visiting houses of worship in the United States, you can’t help but see empty pews, giving the impression that organized religion in the United States is in trouble.

Increasingly, those who study church attendance and related matters are doing the math: In a recent study that projects what faith in America might look like in 50 years, Pew Research Center found that the number of Americans who identify as religious, which has been shrinking for decades, will continue to decline as the number of those with no religion will continue to grow.

For Christianity, the nation’s largest religious tradition, there’s no mathematic model that predicts a reversal of fortunes.

Clearly, Christian leaders are worried, especially those of the evangelical persuasion, whose main goal is to spread the word and reach more people with the Christian message.

“This is the largest and fastest transformation of religion in American history,” said Collin Hansen, vice president for content and editorial director for the Gospel Coalition, an evangelical group that produces resources for churches. “The demographics don’t suggest any positive turn around the corner.”

That reality led Hansen and his colleagues to launch the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, a new initiative designed to help pastors and other Christian leaders adapt to a “post-Christendom culture.” Named for influential evangelical writer the Rev. Tim Keller, founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, the center hopes to support “a new generation of bold evangelists and effective apologists who will communicate the unchanging gospel for a changing world.”

Hansen, author of a new biography on Keller, summed up the challenges facing churches this way in an online announcement about the new center: “Many of our neighbors view Christianity as yesterday’s news but also as the source of today’s problems.”

That’s far from how Christianity was seen in the past, at least in the United States and other Western cultures. In a video announcing the center’s mission, Keller argues that those cultures not only had a positive view of Christianity, they also provided a basic vocabulary of the faith, along with an understanding of ideas like sin and salvation and the basic teachings of Jesus.

In that context, “evangelism was just connecting the dots,” said Keller. If they wanted deeper spiritual answers, people came to church.

But today’s churches can no longer rely on that cultural support. “What if you can’t get them in the door?” Keller asks. “How do you win people to Christ in a post-Christian area? And the church does not have any idea how to do that.”

Autumn Ridenour, one of two dozen experts named as fellows of the Keller Center, said she was drawn by the idea of offering “a thoughtful, Christ-centered alternative that considers emerging cultural issues with deep theological reflection, compassion, and neighbor love.”

A professor of Christian ethics at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, she said the center wants to pair “the transformative work of the gospel with social action and a more global understanding of Christianity.”

What Does It Really Mean To Repent?

By

Tamara Chamberlain

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February 8, 2023

Repent. It’s a word that usually makes me think of angry people holding up bright yellow picket signs in front of heavy metal concerts or a sandwich board next to a street preacher at the beach.

The person holding the sign is often shouting and passionately calling those walking by to repent of their sin or they are going to hell. These types of situations have always made me uncomfortable. I frantically look for a way to avoid the person holding the yellow repent sign at all costs.

I have to imagine that at one point, this approach towards sharing the good news of Jesus worked for someone, but I’m not so certain it still does. Maybe it never did.

For a very long time, I’ve understood the act of repentance as being framed towards the non-believer. It’s the act of turning away from your sin, so that you can turn towards salvation. For someone who has yet to receive a saving faith in Christ, one of the big things they need to do is repent. Once you do that, you can receive salvation and move on to the other things of the faith.

Now, I understand that might sound like a bit of an overgeneralization, but I can’t think of an instance when I’ve heard the theology of repentance framed towards the believer.

Due to the heavy call of repentance being directed to non-believers, believers have a way of framing their call to repentance as an isolated, one-time event. Once a person moves from non-believer to believer, they tend not to see the importance of maintaining a posture of repentance.

Repentance in Relation to Salvation

The bible is clear that genuine repentance leads to salvation. In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul talks about the role repentance plays in salvation. There must be a turning away from sin and a turning toward God.

Once you realize the weight of sin, it should bring you to a place of regret and remorse. This realization would be too much to bear and only leave us feeling hopeless under the weight of sin. But godly sorrow offers a better way – to not leave you in that place of regret or guilt. A posture of repentance coincides with salvation.

If you’ve been around the church for even a small amount of time, I don’t imagine I’m sharing anything you haven’t already heard. But we can’t minimize the life changing truth of repentance leading to salvation. The very grace of God is that he offers a way for us to not be suffocated underneath the weight of our sin. The opportunity to repent is part of the good news of Jesus.

Repentance in Relation to Faith

The aspect of repentance that we don’t know as well is that Christians are also called to live in a posture of repentance. It is not merely a single event that happens prior to or during salvation. (Theologians debate about the exact timing repentance has in the salvation process.)

What we hear less about is that once we become Christians the call to repentance is ongoing.

Part of our continual pursuit of godliness is the continuation of a repentant spirit. Our hearts should always hate sin and seek to be more like Jesus. We should always be willing to see and turn from the sin that continues to linger in the dark corners and crevices of our hearts, regardless of how long we’ve been walking in the faith.

20 Easy Ways to Be a Self Righteous Christian

By

Sammy Adebiyi

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February 8, 2023

thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Lust is fairly easy to spot in the mirror. So is gossip and selfishness. Probably bitterness too. But being a self righteous Christian? Well, that’s so much harder to pick out of a line-up because often times it seems, feels, smells and talks like godliness.

Ever wonder why the most self righteous people in the New Testament were religious leaders? Hmm. I’m starting to wonder if self righteousness isn’t the hardest thing for a Christian to see in the mirror.

What was that? You wish there was some kind of “how to know if you’re self righteous guide” written by a pastor from Africa?

Well, folks, it’s your lucky day. Below are 20 quick ways to know if you’re a self righteous Christian. (Note: If it makes you feel any better, a lot of this was pulled from my resume).

20 Easy Ways to be a Self Righteous Christian

1. It’s normal for you to think you have or know “something” spiritually no one else around you has or knows. You also often feel like you have an “up” on others.

2. You assume or expect many people look up to you because of #1.

3. It’s not uncommon for you to walk into a room full of Christians and think “they don’t get it.”

4. People are far often more offended by YOU and and your delivery than they are your actual message.

5. You guilt far more people to action than you inspire.

6. You say things on Facebook about your faith and Christians that you’d never say in person.

7. You have no problem quickly questioning people’s faith—i.e., you’ve posted a Facebook status or tweet that contained the following sentence: “I don’t believe a Christian would …”

8. You never share your weaknesses or when you do, it always has a nice bow at the end of it.

9. You have a hard time relating to those who “don’t get it.”

10. You think the world would be a better place if everyone was like you.

4 Hacks To Recruiting New Small Group Leaders

By

Jackie Van Hook

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February 8, 2023

Recruiting new small group leaders can feel like an all-year, all-hands-on-deck operation. The ratio of people looking for groups versus people willing to lead seems like it skews to the latter.

Before becoming a pastor, I worked as an admissions counselor at a college. My role focused on recruiting students to apply and attend the college. Some nights, I would go to a college fair where three people would talk with me. Other times, I sat with four students over a cup of coffee who ended coming to the school.

Perhaps, the word recruiting comes across as too sales-y for you. Goals and metrics mattered to me as a pastor and admissions counselor, but the relationships meant the most. In many ways, we need to shift our view of “recruiting” to see it as ongoing relationship building.

As I think about my last eight years on staff as a Small Group Pastor and as an admissions counselor, I want to offer you a few recruiting hacks that you can start using today as a small group point person:

Hack #1 – Walk around the lobby.

Aaron walked up to me after church and introduced himself. A few weeks later he joined a short-term group with me and then led a group. He shared his experience as a small group coach prior to coming to the church I serve. When you walk around the lobby, you have no idea who you will meet. Utilize the Sunday mornings and events to get to know people.

Hack #2 – Start with an open training opportunity with a clear follow up process.

Our small group leadership team made the shift to invite any person to a small group leadership training. Following the training potential leaders would fill out an application and get interviewed by one of our small group coaches.

I think sometimes we try to recruit the perfect leader and then train them as opposed to offering a clear opportunity for training. An open invitation to a training might help those on the fence about leading see the vision for small groups. You might fear recruiting the wrong leaders. That’s why the follow-up application and interview helps as an added safeguard.

Starting with an open leadership training can open the door for new leaders who might not be in your circle. We talk about the training as an exercise in discernment.

Hack #3 – Create short-term group leading opportunities.

One thing that holds leaders back is thinking that they will forever lead a small group. At Browncroft almost twenty years ago, we went through 40 Days of Purpose. That short-term experience two decades ago still has small groups that meet today.

Why Does Paul Use That Downer Verse From Psalm 44 in Romans 8?

By

Mike Leake

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February 8, 2023

I’ve preached through Romans 8:31-39 quite a few times in my ministry. And I’ll be honest and say that I’ve always kind of skimmed over verse 36. This verse, quoted from Psalm 44, seemed a bit awkward to me. Why in the world does Paul throw that verse in there?

I’ve understood for awhile that what Paul is doing in quoting that verse is connecting the suffering of Christians with the people of God in the OT. Just as it was their lot to suffer we should know that it is our lot to suffer as well and yet our suffering doesn’t separate us from the love of Christ.

Why Does Paul Use Psalm 44 in Romans 8?

But I didn’t really use verse 36 as a major note in the text. I think that’ll change now. I spent a good deal of time reading through and meditating on Psalm 44 today (that’s where the quotation comes from).

Can you imagine singing Psalm 44 in your church?

It recounts the history of God in dealing with his people. Those in whom the Lord delights he rescues. That’s His record. Until it isn’t. And that’s what has the Psalmist struggling. They have lost in battle. They are suffering. They are being taunted. They are even being slaughtered. I think they could stomach that if they were being ungodly or idiotic. But they aren’t. They are being faithful to the covenant, and what’s really unsettling. Bad things are happening to good people.

7 Leadership Guarantees From Ron Edmondson

By

Ron Edmondson

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February 8, 2023

I can give you some leadership guarantees. And I don’t make many. I once had a leader who was an emphatic talker. Statements were made with no reservation in them about things – honestly – I simply didn’t believe. He would say stuff such as, “There is no way this would ever work.” Really? No way? Maybe the chance is limited, but no way?

He impressed upon me enough I’ve always been hesitant about emphatic statements – unless they are Biblical truths, of course. But I have some emphatic statements to make. I’m calling them leadership guarantees.

7 Leadership Guarantees

1. Every decision you make to change something will produce multiple responses.

Some will agree. Others will not. And some will not care either way.

Yet, the fact is change is inevitable. You can deny it, attempt to avoid it or be afraid of how people will react to it. But change is coming either way. It’s best to be on the side of change where you at least have some chance of helping the change be for the best overall good of the people you lead.

2. You will many times feel under-appreciated as a leader.

In my observation, the longer you do something well the less people notice your efforts. It becomes your “normal”.

Preschool Valentine Crafts: 14 Fun Activities for Young Children

By

Stephanie Martin

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February 7, 2023

Preschool valentine crafts are as sweet as can be! And they’re sure to bring smiles to the faces of kids and their family members. Love is in the air, with Valentine’s Day right around the corner. These ideas work great for young children in your Sunday school classes. Also try some in the church nursery, preschool, and daycare program.

Most kids enjoy creative crafts, and they love showing their love by giving gifts. If you need love-themed craft ideas for preschoolers, keep reading! These preschool valentine crafts are from a wide range of contributors. Take a look and seeing which valentine’s crafts will be best for your children’s ministry. Some activities require just a few supplies; others take a bit more preparation.

When doing preschool valentine crafts, prepare for a bit of mess. Keep paint shirts and wipes handy, and be sure to use washable markers and paint.

14 Lovely Preschool Valentine Crafts

Enjoy making some of these preschool valentine crafts with kids at your church!

1. Cross of Love

Sunday school students will enjoy making this cross craft. Plus, it will remind them how much God loves them!

2. Love Never Fails

We love this 3-D heart mini-booklet. It’s a great way to introduce children to the “love chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13.

3. Loads of Lovely Valentine Crafts

This website suggests 25 simple valentine crafts. Most of them are perfect for preschoolers.

4. Heart-Shaped Holder

Help young children make these sweet valentines holders. This is a great project for little hands.

5. Just for Toddlers

These 18 ideas are tailor-made for the youngest kids. Share them with nursery workers and parents at your church.

6. God Is Love

Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to teach little children about God’s love. Use these 15 Bible-based ideas in your Sunday school classes.

7. Art From the Heart

Keep crafts simple, like with this cotton-swab project. Kids and their families will be delighted by the colorful results!

Who Is Jesus: A Bible Study for Youth About the Word of God

By

Youth Ministrycom

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February 7, 2023

Who is Jesus? That’s a key question for any youth group to explore. This Bible study for youth explores Jesus’ identity as the Word of God. Use it with your teenagers so they can answer confidently when someone asks them who is Jesus.

Bible Study for Youth: Who Is Jesus?

Supplies

You’ll need:

a countdown timer (a phone app, stopwatch, egg timer, etc.)
a large flipchart or whiteboard for taking notes
colored markers or pens
enough printed copies of Isaiah 53 for each student

Begin your discussion by describing this open-ended scene. A freak weather vortex has sent sharks and other dangerous sea creatures—giant squid, angler fish, krakens, and narwhals—hurtling through the sky. They’re devastating everything in their path and ushering in a new apocalyptic era. The only way you can survive this aquatic attack is to quickly evacuate to the safety of indestructible land-based shark cages that are hidden in the mountains. Because space is limited, you’re allowed to bring only three items with you.

Then ask:
• What three items would you take with you? Explain.
• If you did or didn’t choose the Bible, explain why.

Say something like: I think the Bible is more important to surviving in this world than we often realize.

Ask a volunteer to read aloud 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Then ask:

• Based on this passage, what’s “useful” about the Bible?
• Okay, besides a storm of dangerous aquatic creatures, how has the Bible been a source of help and hope for you in facing other issues in your life?
• Most English translations of this passage say that Scripture is “God-breathed.” What do you think that means?

Say something like: The Bible is often called the “Word” of God. Basically, that means that the Bible represents God’s “voice” to us. But the “Word” also has a double meaning.

Ask: If someone were to ask you what the Bible is about, what would you tell them? Explain.

Recruit someone who can write quickly to take notes on your flipchart or whiteboard. Then pull out your countdown timer.

Say something like: Okay, you have two minutes to call out everything you know that’s in the Bible. Brainstorm all the stories, special verses, and key ideas that come to your mind. Ready? Go!

Encourage your kids by looking back over the notes that were recorded. Then ask:

• What’s something missing from this list that we must include?
• Taking everything into consideration, what’s the main thing God wants to communicate to us through his Word, the Bible?

‘The Thorn’ Creator John Bolin on Christians in the Arts

By

Stephanie Martin

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February 7, 2023

john bolin — Photo courtesy of The Thorn

Dividing artwork and artists into secular and faith-based categories is a rather new construct. Throughout most of human history, painters, architects, musicians, and filmmakers weren’t categorized as non-Christian or Christian. In fact, for centuries, Christians were the trailblazers—and standard-setters—in artistic expression.

For example, the 9th-century Book of Kells and other illuminated manuscripts feature elaborate illustrations of Scripture. During the European Renaissance in the 15th & 16th centuries, the church and its followers led the way artistically, using groundbreaking styles and techniques.

From paintings and cathedrals to frescoes and stained-glass windows, Christ-followers created breathtaking works that people still revere and study today. Even during the past century, mainstream filmmaking highlighted Christian subjects, including the epic movies “The Ten Commandments” and “Ben Hur.” Yet at some point, “Christians kind of gave up the artistic mantle—in every area,” according to John Bolin, a writer, producer, and creative executive.

ChurchLeaders recently discussed the role of Christians and the arts with Bolin, creator of “The Thorn.” The Gospel-centered live show has led to more than 100,000 commitments for Christ during the past 25 years. This spring, a movie version of “The Thorn” debuts in theaters nationwide March 6 and 7. Meanwhile, the stage production is coming soon to 12 mainstream performing arts centers throughout America.

John Bolin: God Calls Christians to ‘Be Better’

Bolin grew up in an artistic family, with parents who were professional actors in Chicago. But when he wanted to study the arts, they discouraged him from pursuing a creative career. So he majored in marketing at Oral Roberts University, then owned an outdoors store in Colorado Springs in the late 1990s.

College kids were welcome to meet at the store, and eventually Bolin became an interim youth pastor at New Life Church. There he put his creative talents to use. “I wasn’t a great speaker,” he admits, “so I did lots of creative dramas, used videos and music, even pyrotechnics, and told lots of stories.”

During his time at New Life, Bolin developed a live-action show centered on Jesus’ Passion. And despite its humble (even “horrible,” according to Bolin) beginnings, “God anointed it.” Eventually “The Thorn” launched a nationwide tour that continues to this day.

As he talks about Christians in the arts, Bolin emphasizes that God is “not just calling us to be as good as mainstream creators, but is calling us to be better.” Pointing to the book of Daniel, Bolin references what he calls the “10x factor.” When Daniel and other young men refused to defile themselves and consumed only vegetables and water for 10 days, King Nebuchadnezzar “found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.” And the superiority of these faithful few applied to “every matter of wisdom and understanding” (Daniel 1:20, NIV).

Why Christians Must Lead the Way in the Arts

By using our God-given talents and engaging with culture, Bolin says, Christians are “actually going to lead the way, and break ground, and break the mold of what can be done” in the arts. “That’s what Dallas Jenkins is doing with the ‘The Chosen,'” he adds, referencing the hit TV show about Jesus’ earthly ministry. Now in its third season, “The Chosen” is considered a “global phenomenon” as well as a model for how to share the Gospel message with the world.

The performing arts field offers unique opportunities for outreach and ministry, Bolin says, noting that Broadway itself is “a pretty dark place.” His philosophy is to not stay in the church but to ask, “Where would Jesus be?” The answer, he says, is that Jesus would be wise while bringing light “into every corner.”

Lecrae Shed Tears Writing ‘Deconstruction,’ Excited for ‘The Final Church Clothes Tour’

By

Jesse T. Jackson

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February 7, 2023

In March, Grammy Award-winning rapper Lecrae is scheduled to embark on a 26-city tour titled “The Final Church Clothes Tour,” alongside Elevation Rhythm and DOE. The tour will feature stops in the American South, Midwest, and East Coast.

Lecrae released “Church Clothes 4” last November, the final installment in his highly successful mixtape series. The mixtape features 13 songs and collaborations with Andy Mineo, nobigdyl, WHATUPRG, and others.

The Christian hip-hop artist has described the “Church Clothes” series as an opportunity to say things that are sometimes difficult to express. Lecrae told ChurchLeaders that the series was “about making music that is raw and uncut and from the heart and transparent.”

Lecrae’s inspiration for the final chapter in the series came from his “own reignited fuel for God’s people and the church in general.” Lecrae wanted to talk to people stepping away from church in the last couple of years due to the pandemic.

“I wanted to encourage people who feel like they’re done with church to know that God is not done with you,” he said.

“Church Clothes 4” allowed the rapper to create an avenue to encourage those who have been wrestling with leaving the church, as well as those who already have.

That sentiment was central to the song “Deconstruction,” a track that appears last on the album and which Lecrae said is his favorite. In the song, he openly discusses his deconstruction journey, giving listeners and fans a better understanding of what he went through.

In the song, Lecrae says that he got to a point of clinical depression until God spoke to him, saying, “‘Crae I know you love me, I need you to feed my sheep.”

“I don’t feel like I just wrote the song ‘Deconstruction.’ I feel like God inspired me and challenged me to write it. I needed to get it out,” Lecrae shared. “There’s been a lot of tears shed just listening to it myself and writing it. It’s been a minute since I was crying [while] writing lyrics down, but that was one of those songs that was just really personal for me to get out.”

‘Soul Surfer’ Bethany Hamilton Takes Stand Against World Surf League Over New Transgender Policy

By

Jessica Lea

-

February 7, 2023

“Soul Surfer” Bethany Hamilton has announced that she will not compete in or support the World Surf League (WSL) as long as the organization allows trans women to compete in women’s surfing. Hamilton, who is a shark attack survivor and a Christian, expressed her views in two Instagram videos posted this week.

“While I address this issue, I want to be clear that I strive to have love for all of mankind, regardless of any differences,” said Hamilton in her first video. “But this concerns me as a professional athlete that has been competing in the World Surf League…for the past 15+ years. And I feel that I must speak up and stand up for those in position that may feel that they cannot say something about this. I think many of the girls currently on tour are not in support with this new rule, and they fear of being [sic] ostracized if they speak up.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bethany Hamilton (@bethanyhamilton)

Bethany Hamilton Raises Questions About Policy

On Monday, Feb. 6, the World Surf League announced that it had adopted the International Surfing Association’s (ISA) transgender policy. The ISA’s policy states, “An athlete who was assigned male at birth and whose gender has changed and identifies as a woman, and/or has woman/female, ‘other’ or ‘X’ on her passport or national identity card” may compete as a woman so long as “her serum testosterone concentration has been less than 5 nmol/L continuously for a period of the previous 12 months.” These individuals must also meet “any other requirements reasonably set by the Executive Committee and/or Medical Commission.”

Bethany Hamilton is a professional surfer, author, speaker and advocate. At the age of 13, a 14-foot tiger shark bit off her left arm while Hamilton was out surfing. She not only survived the attack but actually returned to surfing one month later. She won her first national surfing title two years later and turned professional at age 17. In 2016, when competing in the WSL, she beat a six-time world champion who was the top-ranked surfer in the world.

Hamilton, who is married to youth pastor Adam Dirks and has three children, speaks openly and often about her faith in God and how he has sustained her through the challenges she has faced. She sees surfing as a “gift from God” and writes, “For Adam and me, our journeys have been heavily reliant on the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. We can be assured that when we fail, God still loves and accepts us as we are. When we are lost and distant, He is there with us. When we turn our backs on God, His arms are still wide open. When we are weak, He is strong. When we are broken, He brings healing.”

Hamilton’s story was dramatized in the 2011 movie, “Soul Surfer,” which followed her book “Soul Surfer: A True Story of Faith, Family, and Fighting to Get Back on the Board.” In 2018, her life was the focus of the documentary, “Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable.”

After explaining the purpose behind her video on the WSL’s transgender policy, Hamilton listed a series of questions she believes it is important to consider:

-How is this rule playing out in other sports like swimming, running, MMA?

-Have any of the current surfers in the World Surf League been asked what their thoughts and opinions are on this new rule before it was passed or announced?

Ordination Candidates Say Exam’s Use of Violent Old Testament Passage Is Triggering

By

Stephanie Martin

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February 7, 2023

A recent exegetical exam for candidates seeking ordination in the Presbyterian Church (USA) contained a Bible passage that some people are calling a “trauma trigger.” Test-takers were asked to analyze Judges 19, a chapter in which the Levite’s concubine is gang-raped, murdered, and dismembered.

The Scripture choice has led to widespread criticism as well as a petition and request for an apology. Meanwhile, the committee responsible for selecting exam material is defending its process, but planning an open session to hear concerns.

Violent Bible Stories ‘Cause Harm,’ Petition Claims

Survivors of sexual assault are particularly outraged about the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s use of Judges 19 for such a high-stakes exam. One such survivor, Oklahoma Pastor Elana Keppel Levy, launched a Change.org petition that received more than 400 signatures in less than one day. “While it is a vital skill for pastors to be able to interpret, teach, and preach from scripture,” the petition notes, “stories that feature extreme violence and sexual violence cause harm for both test takers and readers.”

Pastoral candidates who are required to “read and intensely focus on stories like this” may suffer from PTSD, the petition adds. “How can we, in good conscience, create conditions detrimental to test taking itself and call it reasonable examination and evaluation of those who would be pastors? It is tantamount to hazing.”

The petition requests “a formal apology” from the committee and a commitment that it will “agree to oversight from a person or persons who have authority to act to prevent such harm from ever happening again.” It concludes by stating that “as a church can do better and we must do better.”

Keppel Levy acknowledges that pastors must be able to respond to congregants’ questions about difficult Bible passages. But in those situations, she notes, a clergy member has “the quiet and the time with the person” and can conduct research before offering counsel. The exam content, however, constitutes “real harm, and it’s totally unnecessary harm,” she says.

As Baptist News reports, Judges 19 doesn’t appear in the three-year cycle of Lectionary readings. That “makes sense,” according to Ruth Everhart, a Presbyterian pastor in Virginia. “I would wager that very few, if any, pastors have preached on this passage,” she tells the outlet. “While there is much to be said about this text, it is not fodder for the pulpit.”

PC(USA) Pastor Traci Smith says she’s never preached on Judges 19 and never will. “The probability that this passage in this exam context caused a trauma reaction in someone is close to 100 percent,” she writes.

Presbyterian Church (USA) Chose Passage During 3-Year Process

The Rev. Robert Lowry, who chairs the Presbyteries’ Cooperative Committee on Examinations for Candidates, says the purpose of the Presbyterian Church (USA) choosing Judges 19 was to prepare and equip clergy for modern-day ministry. Pastors today must engage with congregants about “issues that might not have been talked about 20 or 25 years ago, including sexual violence and violence in general,” he says. “Scripture provides a rich narrative that touches on the fullness of the human experience,” and the committee “tries hard to…represent the fullness of experiences of the church.”

The committee’s various working groups engage in a three-year back-and-forth process of finalizing exam questions. “In the end, the collective wisdom was that this issue was of sufficient importance to use a question like this on the ordination exam,” says Lowry. He adds that his “heart breaks for anyone hurt by an action of the church,” and the committee regrets “that anybody was wounded by being part of the ordination process.”

13-Year-Old Who Carjacked Pastor Turned In to Police by His Mother; Pastor Is ‘Praying’ for the Teen

By

Dale Chamberlain

-

February 7, 2023

When Mike Coleman, pastor of Carondelet Baptist Church in South St. Louis, told police about the two assailants who stole his car at gunpoint in the parking lot of his church on the evening of Friday, Jan. 27, he described the car thieves as being young teenagers.

One of those teens, an unidentified 13-year-old, has been taken into custody, reportedly after being turned in to police by his own mother.

“It was his mother becoming aware of the event and questioning her son and turning him over to the juvenile courts for prosecution,” Capt. Donnell Moore of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said, according to KSDK. “Investigators are still working to find the second suspect.”

Security footage showed the 13-year-old and his accomplice approaching Coleman as he was getting into his 2016 Dodge Caravan in the church parking lot. They pointed a gun in his face and demanded he turn over the vehicle’s keys along with his wallet and other valuables.

In an attempt to avert the possibility of violence, Coleman reported that he coached the boys through starting the engine of the car after perceiving that their lack of driving experience was causing delay.

“The pitch of the voice was high,” Coleman reportedly told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I am thinking this isn’t real. But the gun in my face was very, very real.”

“I didn’t want to get closer to these guys, but I was very cooperative,” Coleman recalled. “There is no way these guys had driven a car before.”

Coleman’s assessment seems at least somewhat accurate, as the boys abandoned the car a few blocks away from the church after striking several other vehicles. Coleman suspects that the boy in custody may have been used by more experienced criminal operators to execute the carjacking.

Coleman was invited to attend a hearing for the apprehended teen the next week. That’s when he discovered that the suspect had been turned in by his own mother.

“I commend her for turning him in because that’s probably the hardest thing, but the best thing, she could do for him. Because these people he’s dealing with, you don’t know how desperate they are,” Coleman told Fox News.

Muslim Throws Acid on Young Christian Woman in Pakistan

By

Morning Star News

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February 7, 2023

Muslim-Throws-Acid-on-Young-Christian-Woman-in-Pakistan — Sunita Masih after acid attack on Feb. 1, 2023, in Karachi, Pakistan. (Morning Star News courtesy of family)

LAHORE, Pakistan (Morning Star News) – A Muslim in Karachi, Pakistan on Wednesday (Feb. 1) threw acid on a 19-year-old Christian woman for refusing his pressure to enter into relationship and convert to Islam, sources said.

Sunita Masih, who lives with her sister after the death of her parents, left the house in Masoom Shah Colony, in Karachi’s Kala Pull area, to go to work that morning. After getting off a bus at Cantt station, her Muslim neighbor, Kamran Allah Bux, threw acid on her and fled, said her uncle, John Masih.

“Sunita is just 19, but now her whole life has been physically and mentally scarred by Kamran,” her uncle said. “Even if he is convicted for his crime, will Sunita be able to live a normal life again? We all know how our society treats acid attack survivors, even though they are the victims of this heinous crime.”

Sunita Masih suffered 20 percent burns in the attack.

“My eyes, face, arms, and legs started burning as soon as Kamran threw the acid on me,” she told police from her hospital bed. “The pain was so excruciating that I collapsed on the road.”

Bux had been pressuring her to enter into a relationship with him, John Masih said.

“He would try to force her to renounce her Christian faith, assuring her that he would marry her once she became a Muslim, but she refused to surrender to his illegitimate demands,” Masih said. “Sunita had informed her siblings about Kamran’s harassment, and they had repeatedly complained to his parents, urging them to stop him, but that did not work.”

The family had registered a complaint with police to stop the harassment, but they did not act on it, he said. When all efforts failed, Sunita’s brother-in-law beat Bux, which also did not deter him, John Masih said.

The family, members of a Salvation Army church, was seeking justice for Sunita Masih, whose face and other parts of her body were disfigured in the attack.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Sagheer Ahmed of the Frere Police Station said officers had registered a case against Bux for hurt by corrosive substance (Section 336-B of the Pakistan Penal Code) and had taken him into custody.

“We obtained his two-day physical remand from a court during which he confessed to the heinous crime,” Ahmed told Morning Star News. “In his statement, Kamran claimed that he had fallen in love with Sunita and had attacked her with acid in retaliation after she rejected his marriage proposal.”

‘Doubly Disadvantaged’

Pakistan has a history of violence and discrimination against women, including those belonging to vulnerable minority communities.

Acid attacks are a form of gender-based violence in which a corrosive substance is thrown on the victim with the intention of disfiguring or killing. These attacks are often carried out as a form of retaliation and are often aimed at women who reject marriage proposals or other advances from men.

Karachi, in particular, has witnessed a surge in acid attacks in recent months, with at least a dozen being reported since October.

Lutheran World Federation Head Anne Burghardt on Historic Firsts and Helping Ukraine

By

Emily McFarlan Miller

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February 7, 2023

CHICAGO (RNS) — When the Rev. Anne Burghardt was elected general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation in 2021, the Estonian theologian became the first pastor from Central and Eastern Europe to lead the global communion of 148 Lutheran denominations, and the first woman to do so.

The first achievement is important because she believes her region has much to teach the wider church about living in the context of persecution and extreme atheism. As for the second, Burghardt said she hopes her work “will bear good fruits for the lives of our member churches, particularly for the women in our member churches.”

The secretary general spoke to Religion News Service last week in Chicago, where she was visiting the headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the largest Lutheran denomination in the country. She also planned to preach at St. Peter’s Church in New York and meet with members of the ELCA’s advocacy team and “key U.N. stakeholders,” including the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.N.

Burghardt’s U.S. visit follows her first trip as general secretary to the Holy Land and the Middle East, where she attended the ordination last month of the Rev. Sally Azar, the first Palestinian woman ordained as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.

The general secretary said she wanted to convey that the “worldwide Lutheran communion is really grateful for ELCA’s continuous support and for the fact that ELCA hasn’t forgotten its sisters and brothers worldwide.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What were your takeaways from your visit to the Holy Land? What does Azar’s historic ordination mean for the wider church?

This was indeed a very eye-opening trip for me personally because I (not only) attended the ordination of Sally Azar, but also visited our LWF World Service program and Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem, which is serving Palestinian people in a very special way. To have an insight into the realities (of) where Palestinian people are living these days was very moving and made it very clear that we need to strengthen our advocacy efforts. We always say that our task is to give voice to the voiceless, and Palestinians, unfortunately, often tend to be the ones who don’t have that strong voice globally.

Sally Azar’s ordination was, of course, a very special moment, not so only in the life of our member church in the Holy Land, but for the whole region. We hope this will serve as an encouraging example also for other Protestant churches. Knowing that many young Christian Palestinians tend to leave the country, it was also a sign of hope to see that a young person is willing to stay and to serve in her home country.

You grew up in a secular family and were baptized Lutheran as a teenager. Can you say a little bit about what drew you to the Lutheran church?

If you look at the clergy in the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church today, approximately 50% come from secularized families. There was a big, let’s say, opening at the end of the ’80s, when the Soviet Union was about to break down, and many people came to the church to find their religious roots, in a sense. For many, the Lutheran church was the first and evident choice because this had been the church of their forefathers and mothers.

I came to church through attending confirmation classes, through asking questions about the meaning of life, the meaning of the world, etc. It was more of a philosophical journey in the beginning, I would say, and very much also linked to the worship life. So I could say that I, in a sense, really entered the church through worship.

As Pennsylvania’s ‘Bible Belt’ Evolves, Clergy Look to One Another for Mutual Support

By

Elizabeth E. Evans

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February 7, 2023

LANCASTER, Pennsylvania (RNS) — Many outsiders who travel to Lancaster County every year are drawn by the area’s reputation as the heart of Amish country. In fact, the rolling hills of the county west of Philadelphia, and Lancaster City itself, host a diversity of Christian faiths, with Mennonites and Anabaptists outnumbered by Catholics and mainline Protestants.

Such is the area’s historic religiosity that some call Lancaster County the heart of Pennsylvania’s Bible Belt.

But in recent years, an influx of transplants, particularly to Lancaster City and its suburbs, have made the area less religiously observant and more politically diverse. As the new residents have moved in over the past decade, clergy who have operated in a relatively homogeneous, small-town culture are navigating a landscape with new tensions. That friction has only been exacerbated by the difficulties of the pandemic and the widening gap between people of different political persuasions.

Amid this strife, the clergy of the Warwick Ministerium — an informal action and mutual support group for the Lancaster area’s pastors and other ordained Christian leaders — has been a source of calm and unity.

Missy Deibler. Courtesy photo

“Iron sharpens iron,” said Missy Deibler, a chaplain at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Lititz, a small town north of Lancaster and ministerium member, using an expression from the Book of Proverbs. “You can be isolated in a church and a particular tradition, but when you hear how others are handling it, prayerfully talking and respecting each other, the Spirit really moves through the group.”

Clergy of different denominations and even different faiths have long gathered to share their challenges and create community among their flocks. The Warwick ministerium — named for the township that comprises Lititz and several other small towns around Lancaster — is no different.

Deibler said the ministerium’s 25 or so members had fostered “some really strong friendships, amazing support and wise counsel. It’s just a group that really cares for each other.”

The ministerium has managed to find common ground by developing new strategies to meet the challenges of a changing religious landscape, said the Rev. Jerry McGrath, pastor at Lititz United Methodist Church and president of the ministerium.

The Rev. Jerry McGrath. Courtesy photo

He offered the example of last November’s ecumenical Thanksgiving service, which had long been hosted at one or another of the ministerium members’ churches. The ministerium decided to move the 2022 service to the premises of Clair Global, an audio-visual production company in nearby Lititz. It drew more participants than it ever had before — precisely, said McGrath, because it wasn’t held in a church.

He congratulated the members of the ministerium for taking a countercultural approach. “Christ has always called us to lead, not control the future. What’s happening in our ministerium is exploration,” said McGrath.

But the recent culture clashes in the community have drawn the ministerium’s members into more controversial terrain. Last year, some local clergy supported a group of parents and area residents protesting books and curricula used by the Warwick School District, particularly those promoting discussion of social justice and gender identity.

The Rev. Ken Miller, a retired seminary professor who has served for nearly a decade as pastor at St. Paul’s Evangelical Congregational Church in nearby Rothsville, said he’s heard longtime residents say the newcomers “want the benefits of having that kind of community, but they want to change the ethos that actually created it.”

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