Eric Geiger is the senior pastor of Mariners Church in Irvine, California. Before moving to Southern California, he served as senior vice president for LifeWay Christian Resources. Eric received his doctorate in leadership and church ministry from Southern Seminary, and he has authored or co-authored several books, including the best-selling church leadership book, Simple Church.
Other Ways to Listen to This Podcast With Eric Geiger
-What was your reaction when you saw the State of Theology report?
-Why is it important for the average person to understand theology?
-How do you try to help people in your church be more deeply connected to theology?
-Are we in a “crisis of discipleship”? How do we have more effective discipleship?
Key Quotes From Eric Geiger
“I wasn’t overly surprised [by the report] just because if you’re not going to sit under the teaching of Scripture consistently, you can develop some unhealthy beliefs about God and about all that he’s done and all that he’s doing in the world.”
“When you have people who claim that they are Christ-followers and believe the Bible and then come to some of the conclusions that people are saying they’ve come to, it is definitely alarming.”
“I remember when I first was pastoring…you’d have people Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. So a lot of opportunities for theological training…it just has dramatically shifted really in a generation.”
“As you know, when you teach expositionally through a text, the weeks build on one another. Well, the challenge I have is there’s very few of the people who will be there consecutively all 10 weeks. So that’s just a reality that we have as pastors.”
“Both can be true at the same time. There’s a deficit in theological thinking and understanding among God’s people. And at the same time, there is this hunger among God’s people to know and to understand the deeper things of God.”
“Think about this: 60% of the people who would be in our churches believe that the Holy Spirit is a force and not the third person of the Trinity who I have a deep and abiding personal relationship with. And so why does that matter? I mean, it matters so much because if the people I pastor think of the Spirit as only a force, then that’s a power that they can use for their own advantages.”
With a background in television news, Lawrence Smith is adding video stories to Kentucky Today, recently highlighting disaster relief efforts in Eastern Kentucky. Courtesy of Baptist Press.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) – Lawrence Smith, recruited to lead communications for the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC), finds inspiration in the biblical example of Luke.
“I’ve always tried to point to the first four verses of the Gospel of Luke,” Smith told Baptist Press. “I consider Luke to be a great journalist. He’s known as a physician of course, but I think he’s a great journalist.”
Luke 1:1-4 tells of Luke’s desire to write for Theophilus a truthful and orderly account of what eyewitnesses said of Jesus, accounts that Luke himself investigated.
“I take that to heart,” Smith said. “That is kind of my mission, is to do what Luke did, to write orderly accounts of Who Jesus is and what He’s doing. That’s what motivates me to do what I do.”
Smith, a two-time Emmy winner who has worked in journalism and Southern Baptist life for decades, didn’t realize he would be the first African American to direct communications for a Southern Baptist state convention when he began at the KBC in January.
“To be honest, that’s not something I think about. I’m just working with fellow believers and for a common mission,” he said. “It’s a good thing. But I hope that one day that is no longer a story in the SBC. I think we’re getting there.” He believes the SBC will enjoy greater diversity in leadership roles as the roll of Southern Baptists increases in diversity.
Smith was also the first African American vice president at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary when he served as the vice president for communication there from 2001-2009.
“I hope eventually that I stop breaking ground that way,” he said. “It’s a common occurrence.”
In his new role, Smith directors KBC communications, edits Kentucky Today and manages a communications staff he praises for its legacy and award-winning work.
Smith came to the KBC after 10 years as a reporter at WDRB-TV, the Louisville FOX affiliate. He won Emmys for his coverage of the 2020 protests following the shooting death of Breonna Taylor by Louisville police officers, and for team coverage of the December 2021 tornadoes in Eastern Kentucky. Smith is a 2015 winner of the KBC Integrity Award for his news coverage of faith issues.
KBC Executive Director-Treasurer Todd Gray recruited Smith to the post after the departure of Brandon Porter, now associate vice president for convention news at the SBC Executive Committee.
“Lawrence Smith is a gift from God to Kentucky Baptists,” Gray told Baptist Press. “We knew when we started talking to Lawrence Smith about the position of communications director for the Kentucky Baptist Convention that he was highly qualified for the work,” Gray said, citing Smith’s lifelong career in communications. “Lawrence is a godly man, committed husband and father, and an active member and Sunday School teacher in a Kentucky Baptist church.
“He came into a highly demanding job in a challenging time and has performed even better than I could have imagined. Lawrence is a gifted leader and brings to our team an understanding of the industry along with a calm temperament and an excellent work ethic.”
Smith is modernizing Kentucky Today operations with the launch of a Kentucky Today app to make the website more accessible, newly available as the Kentucky Baptist Convention app in app stores. He expresses excitement in leading KBC communications in coming alongside churches to spread the Gospel. With a background in television news, he is adding video stories to Kentucky Today, recently highlighting disaster relief efforts in Eastern Kentucky.
“The thing that surprised me most when I got here was to discover how much the KBC does, and our department is responsible for communicating that and promoting that,” Smith said, “and also telling the stories of what the 2,300-plus churches are doing. When I first got here, I spent a lot of time just learning kind of what we do.”
Smith notes Kentucky Today Managing Editor Mark Maynard and Kentucky Today Content Strategist Chip Hutcheson are both members of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, and commends the staff for doing great work.
“I enjoy what I’m doing here,” he said. “I enjoy the stories we get to tell.”
Smith began working in Southern Baptist life shortly after his salvation in the mid-1980s when he was a Houston television reporter. He joined First Baptist Church of Houston, then under the pastorate of John Bisagno, and volunteered at the church television ministry. The church hired him fulltime to work in its TV ministry, which he did two years before reentering the Houston television reporting market.
He and his wife Garnetta, now married for more than 43 years, were drawn to their Kentucky roots and returned to the state. They are longtime active members of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville. He is vice chairman of the deacon board, lead deacon for Highview’s East campus, a community group leader and teacher.
Garnetta Smith, also active in Southern Baptist life, is director of the Center for Student Success and women’s support coordinator at SBTS and Boyce College. The Smiths have two adult sons.
He applauds the Southern Baptist Convention and describes it as attractive to a great diversity of ethnicities.
“People know what the SBC stands for,” he said. “We stand on the truth of the Gospel. We stand on evangelism. We stand on missions. The Cooperative Program is one of the greatest programs ever launched for spreading the Gospel throughout the world; that is just a brilliant idea for combining our resources to spread the Gospel throughout the world, from Paduka to Peru. And that story needs to get out.
“I think the more people see that story of what the Cooperative Program is, what it does and how effective it is for spreading the Gospel, the more people of any ethnicity will want to be a part of that.”
Members of First Baptist Church Sutherland Springs, Texas, gather around their pastor Frank Pomeroy and his wife Sherri Sunday, Sept. 25, after Pomeroy preached his last sermon as pastor. Courtesy of Baptist Press.
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas (BP) – Frank Pomeroy was hunting in the wet and cold Alaskan bush when the Lord gave him his final sermon as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.
Considering the grizzlies, black bear, wolves and rain, Pomeroy suspected the message would somehow encompass creation.
“But God kept bringing me back to, this was an opportunity for me to share what’s important for the church to continue on,” Pomeroy told Baptist Press, “and that’s when He … led me to Paul’s letter to Ephesus (Acts 20) and we just went from there.First Baptist Church Sutherland Springs presented a cake to Pastor Frank Pomeroy to mark his 20 years as pastor of the church. The cake celebrated Pomeroy’s consistent messages despite extreme hardship — Love never fails; Evil did not win. Submitted photo
The tragedy First Sutherland Springs weathered when a gunman killed 26 worshipers and wounded 22 others on Nov. 5, 2017, is perhaps the memory the church’s name most readily provokes. But First Sutherland Springs has ministered since 1926 in the small community of less than 1,000 people, 20 years under the leadership of Pomeroy.
“What really brings Sutherland Springs together over these 20 years is that there really is a true sense of relationship and family,” he said. “And therefore, we have always been very inclusive of the community, and that the church would be the center of the community, whether it was during a tragedy or in the good times.
“High on the mountain or low in the valley, there’s always been a true sense of family with those in the community. And that’s the thing I think I cherish the most, is that love never fails, as Paul said, and that love will extend to everyone who will come and listen to the Word.
“I think again, if we can be remembered as promoting and making sure everyone knew that that pulpit was never my pulpit, it’s always God’s pulpit,” he said, “and as being God’s pulpit, He’s reaching out to whomsoever that will listen. And the defining thing would be that that church is not the building, it’s the body, and the body should be out including everyone.”
Pomeroy and his wife Sherri have sold their home to their youngest son Korey and daughter-in-law Ashley, downsized their belongings to a camper trailer and are planning a brief road trip before returning to Texas, perhaps for a campground ministry. But he’s not certain of God’s plan.
Their 14-year-old daughter Annabelle was among those killed when Devin Kelley walked in the church and began shooting indiscriminately in what remains the deadliest mass shooting in Texas history. Kelley fled the scene and shot himself to death.
The church survived the tragedy by choosing victory, Pomeroy said.
“We could have been validated by the world to choose hate and ugliness and play the victim card,” he preached, “or we could choose to say we are not victims, we are victors. We choose to put our faith in something greater than ourselves. … I don’t understand, but I know I can’t go back and change what’s already done, but I choose from this day forward to say, ‘Lord, You are in control.’ And God has taken that, has made Sutherland Springs a lighthouse on a hill.
FILE - Nobel Peace Prize laureate, East Timor bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo displays his certificate and medal during the Nobel ceremony at the Oslo townhall, on Dec. 10, 1996. Belo has been accused in a Dutch magazine article of sexually abusing boys in East Timor in the 1990s, rocking the Catholic Church in the impoverished nation and forcing officials at the Vatican and his religious order to scramble to provide answers. (AP Photo/Bjoern Sigurdsoen, File)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The United Nations and advocacy groups for survivors of clergy sexual abuse are urging Pope Francis to authorize a full investigation of Catholic Church archives on three continents to ascertain who knew what and when about sexual abuse by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the revered independence hero of East Timor.
The Vatican’s sex abuse office said last week that it had secretly sanctioned Belo in 2020, forbidding him from having contact with minors or with East Timor, based on misconduct allegations that arrived in Rome in 2019. That was the year Francis approved a new church law that required all cases of predator prelates to be reported in-house and established a mechanism to investigate bishops, who had long escaped accountability for abuse or cover-up during the church’s decades-long scandal.
But a brief statement by the Vatican, issued after Dutch magazine De Groen Amsterdammer exposed the Belo scandal by quoting two of his alleged victims, didn’t reveal what church officials might have known before 2019.
Belo won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 with fellow East Timorese independence icon Jose Ramos-Horta for campaigning for a fair and peaceful solution to conflict in their home country as it struggled to gain independence from Indonesia. He is revered in East Timor and was celebrated abroad for his bravery in calling out human rights abuses by Indonesian rulers despite threats against his life.
But six years after winning the prize, in 2002, Belo suddenly retired as the head of the church in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony. At 54, he was two decades shy of the normal retirement age for bishops, and he never held an episcopal appointment after that.
He has said he retired for health reasons and because of stress and to give the newly independent East Timor different church leadership. But within a year of his retirement, Belo had been sent by the Vatican and his Salesian missionary order to another former Portuguese colony, Mozambique, to work as a missionary priest. There, he has said, he spent his time “teaching catechism to children, giving retreats to young people.”
He is currently in Portugal, where the Salesians have said they took him in at the request of their superiors. His whereabouts are unclear, and he didn’t respond when contacted by Portuguese media.
Advocates for survivors cite the in-house investigation that Francis authorized and published in 2020 into defrocked American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in calling for a similar forensic study of church archives for Belo.
The McCarrick investigation, which began after new allegations surfaced in 2018 that McCarrick sexually abused a teenage altar boy, exposed how a series of bishops, cardinals and even popes over two decades dismissed or downplayed reports that he slept with his seminarians and allowed him to rise through the church hierarchy.
There is no indication yet that Francis is prepared to authorize a similar investigation into Belo. There doesn’t appear to be any groundswell of indignation within East Timor’s Catholic community, as there was among U.S. Catholics over McCarrick. On the contrary, in the impoverished, overwhelmingly Catholic country, where the church holds enormous influence, many rallied behind Belo despite the allegations.
Francis did meet Saturday with his ambassador to Portugal as well as the head of the Portuguese Bishops Conference, who himself is reportedly accused of covering up for other abuser priests. The Vatican provided no details about the private meetings, but Francis is expected to visit Portugal next summer for World Youth Day.
Anne Barrett-Doyle, of the online resource Bishop Accountability, called for Francis to order a “full and sweeping investigation of the Belo case including past and present church officials from all ranks and dicasteries and from every relevant region, from East Timor to Portugal to Rome to Mozambique.”
Pope Francis leaves after the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. Pope Francis has appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, imploring him to "stop this spiral of violence and death" in Ukraine. The pontiff also called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to "be open" to serious peace proposals. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin for a cease-fire, imploring him to “stop this spiral of violence and death” in Ukraine and denouncing the “absurd” risk of the “uncontrollable” consequences of nuclear attack as tensions sharply escalate over the war.
Francis uttered his strongest plea yet about the seventh-month-old conflict, which he denounced as an “error and a horror.”
It was the first time in public that he cited Putin’s role in the war. The pontiff also called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “be open” to serious peace proposals.
Francis told the public, gathered in St. Peter’s Square, that he was abandoning his usual religious theme for his Sunday noon remarks to concentrate his reflection on Ukraine.
“How the war is going in Ukraine has become so grave, devastating and threatening that it sparks great worry,” Francis said.
“In fact, this terrible, inconceivable wound of humanity, instead of shrinking, continues to bleed even more, threatening to spread,” the pope said.
“I deplore strongly the grave situation created in the last days, with further actions contrary to the principles of international law,” Francis said, in a clear reference to Putin’s illegal annexation of a large swath of eastern Ukraine. ”It, in fact, increases the risk of a nuclear escalation, to the point of fearing uncontrollable and catastrophic consequences on the world level.”
“Rivers of blood and tears spilled these months torment me,” the pope said. ”I am pained by the thousands of victims, in particular among the children, and by so much destruction, that leaves many persons and families homeless and threatens vast territories with cold and hunger,” he said.
“Certain actions can never be justified, never,” the pope said. He didn’t elaborate. But Putin sought to justify launching the invasion saying he needed to protect his country from what he called “Nazi” elements in Ukraine.
“It’s anguishing that the world is learning the geography of Ukraine through names like Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Izium, Zaporizhizhia and other places, that have become places of indescribable sufferings and fears,” Francis said.
“And what to say about the fact that humanity finds itself again faced with atomic threat? It’s absurd,” Francis said, who then called for an immediate cease-fire.
“My appeal is directed above all to the president of the Russian Federation, imploring him to stop, also for the love of his people, this spiral of violence and death,” Francis said. ”On the other side, pained by the immense suffering of the Ukrainian people following the aggression undergone, I direct a similarly trusting appeal to the president of Ukraine to be open to serious proposals of peace,” Francis said.
It is rare for the pope to single out leaders in his frequent appeals for an end to violent conflicts. In doing so, Francis signaled his extreme worry over the deteriorating situation.
“May arms cease and conditions be searched for to start negotiations able to lead to solutions not imposed by force but agreed upon, just and stable,” Francis said. ”And they will be thus if they are based on respect for the sacrosanct value of human life, as well as on the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of every country, as well as the rights of minorities and of legitimate concerns.”
Invoking God’s name and the “sense of humanity that lodges in every heart,” he renewed his many pleas for an immediate cease-fire.
Without elaborating, Francis also called for the “recourse to all diplomatic instruments, including those so far possibly not utilized, to end this immense tragedy.”
“The war itself is an error and a horror,” the pontiff lamented.
Throughout the war, Francis has denounced the recourse to arms. But recently, he stressed Ukraine’s right to defend itself from aggression. Logistics complications have frustrated his oft-stated hope to make a pilgrimage to Ukraine to encourage peace efforts.
Pastor Bart Barber, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, preaches from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, on Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022. For nearly a quarter-century, Barber enjoyed relative obscurity as a pastor in this town of 3,600, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. That changed in June as delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in California, chose Barber to lead the nation’s largest Protestant denomination at a time of major crisis. (AP Photo/Audrey Jackson)
FARMERSVILLE, Texas (AP) — On the first Saturday of fall, a sweating Bart Barber trekked across a weedy pasture in search of Bully Graham, the would-be patriarch of the rural Baptist pastor’s fledgling cattle herd.
With the afternoon temperature in the mid-90s, the 52-year-old Texan found the bull — whose nickname reflects his owner’s deep affection for the late Rev. Billy Graham — and 11 heifers cooling under a canopy of trees.
“Hey, baby girl,” Barber said as he patted one of the cows, a favorite he dubbed Lottie Moon after the namesake of his denomination’s international missions offering.
For nearly a quarter-century, Barber enjoyed relative obscurity as a minister in this town of 3,600, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. That changed in June as delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Anaheim, California, chose Barber to lead the nation’s largest Protestant denomination at a time of major crisis.
The previous month a scathing, 288-page investigative report hit the denomination’s 13.7 million members. It laid out the findings of an independent probe detailing how Southern Baptist leaders stonewalled and denigrated survivors of clergy sex abuse over two decades while seeking to protect their own reputations.
In August, SBC leaders revealed that the Department of Justice was investigating several of its major entities, giving few details but indicating that the inquiry concerned the sex abuse allegations.
Barber’s background as a trusted, small-town preacher — not to mention his folksy sense of humor and self-deprecating style — helps explain why fellow Baptists picked him.
“In this moment where I think there’s a lot of widespread distrust of these big institutions, I think a lot of people find it refreshing that the one leading us is an everyday pastor,” said Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
A staunch theological conservative, Barber touts biblical inerrancy, opposes women serving as pastors and supports abortion bans. In running for SBC president, he expressed a desire to be a peacemaker and a unifier. Emerging from a field of four candidates, he received 61% of votes in a run-off against Tom Ascol, a Florida pastor who vowed to take the denomination further right.
The SBC faces multiple challenges. Rank-and-file Baptists have demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing sex abuse reforms, but the final outcome remains unclear. The denomination also has a problem with falling membership, which has slid 16% from its 2006 peak. Annual baptisms last year were 154,701, down 63% from their 1999 high, according to SBC affiliate Lifeway Christian Resources.
Nathan Finn, a church historian and provost of North Greenville University in South Carolina, agreed that Barber’s small-town appeal is a big part of why Baptists turned to him to lead the SBC through such troubled times.
“To many Southern Baptists, Bart is an appealing president precisely because he does not pastor a suburban megachurch or lead a seminary,” Finn said via email. “He pastors a ‘normal’ Southern Baptist church and sounds like the pastor down the road. I think many find him to be a breath of fresh air as well as a thoughtful voice to represent Southern Baptists to the outside world.
If you travel you’ve been asked this question a hundred times, but the way you answer it could change after you listen to this.
People often say to me, they say, John, you know, what do you do? It’s always very difficult to know what to say, because if I say to you that I’m a reverend, which I am, that conjures up certain images in people’s minds as to what I might be. So I like to be a little bit creative in telling people what I do.
I sat next to this lady on an airplane at Heathrow Airport and I said, Hello. And she said, Well, hello. And I said, Where are you going? And she says, I’m going to Singapore. Then she said to me, Where are you going? I said, I’m going to Australia. I said, What do you do? So she told me. Then she said, What do you do?
And I said, Well, I work for a global enterprise, she said. Do you? I said, Yes, I do. I said, We’ve got outlets in nearly every country of the world. She said, Have you? I said, Yes, we have. I said, We’ve got hospitals and hospices and homeless shelters. I said, We do marriage work. We’ve got orphanages, we’ve got feeding programs, educational programs. I said, We do all sorts of justice and reconciliation things. I said, basically, we look after people from birth to death and we deal in the area of behavioral alteration.
She went, Wow!
And it was so loud. Her. Wow! Loads of people turned around and looked at us. She says, What’s it called? I said, It’s called the church.
And that’s it.
Really, isn’t it? If we are a follower of Jesus, then we are part of a global enterprise. But not only is it global, it’s intergalactic because it includes everyone that’s gone before us. Wow.
St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City in Rome. Photo by John Rodenn Castillo/Unsplash/Creative Commons
VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Over a year into the proceedings, the Vatican mega-trial of 10 individuals accused of defrauding the Catholic institution’s finances through a controversial real estate deal began again this week after a summer recess with an interrogation of the prosecution’s witnesses.
The trial, which resumed Wednesday (Sept. 28) after being on break since July, revolves around a 2018 London real estate purchase by the Vatican’s Secretariat of State that ultimately cost the institution well over $200 million, mainly taken from papal funds destined for charity.
After more than a year of hearing from defendants, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu, judges will now be presented with testimony from the Vatican prosecutor’s submitted list of 27 witnesses.
On Friday, Revisor General Alessandro Cassinis Righini described to judges a culture of mismanagement within the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. Righini was appointed to oversee Vatican budgets and transactions by Pope Francis in March 2021 but had already been fulfilling that role since 2017, when his predecessor, Libero Milone, was accused by Becciu and Vatican gendarmes of spying on Vatican employees.
Righini painted a bleak picture of the Secretariat of State to the Vatican judges, also detailing his experience as an assistant to Milone in 2015. He described a “lack of competence” within the large department, which, he said, failed to implement due diligence and transparency.
In 2018, Pope Francis asked Righini to review the finances of the Secretariat as Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra took over the role of substitute, the Vatican equivalent of chief of staff, from Becciu. Righini told judges that the Secretariat adopted a position of “clear resistance” to any form of financial oversight.
“We are used to controlling, not to being controlled,” Becciu, who managed the Secretariat from 2011 to 2018, told Vatican financial revisors according to Righini.
When the revisor began investigating the department’s portfolio, he said he found 928 million euro deposited in a Credit Suisse account and invested “in highly speculative products.” Righini said that to his knowledge Pope Francis was not aware of the money.
In 2018, the Vatican revisors also found “strange” transactions tied to the London property, which would eventually lead the Institute for Religious Works, also known as the Vatican Bank, to flag the deal to Vatican police.
According to Righini, the funds used in the London real estate deal were “difficult to evaluate,” overrun with fees and commissions, and hard to trace back to the original owners.
“It was obvious that it wasn’t the appropriate way to manage the money derived from Peter’s Pence,” Righini said, referring to the fund comprising of donations made by faithful to the Vatican, which he confirmed was used for the London real estate investment.
(RNS) — A long-awaited third-party report on sexual abuse reveals that leaders in an Anglican Church in North America diocese failed to act on tips about sexual misconduct and abuse and defended an alleged abuser as innocent while questioning reported survivors’ credibility.
The probe into events in the Upper Midwest Diocese, conducted by the investigative firm Husch Blackwell, also found that an ACNA priest did not report abuse by a lay pastor to the Department of Child and Family Services, claiming a church lawyer told him he was exempt from mandatory reporting laws, and that Bishop Stewart Ruch III and others allowed a church volunteer to have contact with teenagers after he had lost his teaching job for inappropriate behavior with students.
As serious as the report’s findings are, the investigation went forward without hearing from at least five alleged survivors of abuse who refused to participate over concerns about transparency.
The Upper Midwest Diocese in the ACNA — a small denomination formed by a 2009 split with the Episcopal Church over its LGBTQ-affirming policies — has been roiled since 2019 by allegations that Mark Rivera, a former lay pastor in the diocese known for his charisma and physical affection, had sexually abused young people he had met through Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, Illinois, and Christ Our Light Anglican Church in Big Rock, Illinois.
At least 10 individuals have made sexual abuse or sexual misconduct allegations against Rivera, who is now on trial in Kane County, Illinois, on charges of felony sexual assault and predatory abuse of a victim under 13 years of age. Rivera also faces charges for two felony counts of criminal sexual assault of a separate alleged adult victim.
Ruch is on leave after admitting he made serious mistakes in handling the abuse allegations against Rivera, including failing to initially tell members of the Upper Midwest Diocese about those allegations.
ACNA spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
Four years earlier, in 2015, several leaders became aware that a lay leader at Christ Our Light Anglican, Chris Lapeyre, had been fired from a high school teaching position that year over concerns about a relationship with a female student, according to the report.
The Rev. Rand York, a priest at the church, told investigators he knew that Lapeyre had lost his job and why but allowed Lapeyre to stay in leadership, saying that he “was not concerned about Lapeyre interacting with young people at COLA because Lapeyre had three daughters of his own.”
The natural trajectory of the church is to drift inward, but its design and destiny is to move outward.
An inward focused church is not a bad church, it is merely a church that has become consumed with taking care of its own, solving the problems of the church, and investing its energy to keeping the programs good and going.
An outward focused church also cares for the congregation, works hard to keep ministries meaningful, but directs a substantial amount of thought, energy and resources to those who are outside the church.
Over the last few years, we’ve experienced an elevated level of influences that pull churches inward. For some, it was a sense of what was required, for others it was perceived as a means of survival. For all of us, it was not expected.
Pulling back is a natural response to the punches that life can serve up at times. Like a boxer in a ring, when the opponent is advancing and the hits are hard enough, you can’t help but retreat. The problem with that retreat is that once you are in a corner, it’s easy to get stuck there. Then you’re in trouble.
For the leader, like a boxer, it takes intentionality, willpower, and strength to get out of the corner, away from the ropes and back in the fight.
When a church has drifted inward it’s more difficult to see it than you might expect, and it takes a leader with a strong team to lead the church outward again.
The following are a few common reasons a church can drift inward:
Concerned about safety and security Safety and security matters to everyone, but if it dilutes the effectiveness of the vision, or pulls the leaders and congregation inward, it may be more about fear than security.
Progress meets with resistance
The book of Acts is quite clear throughout the narrative of the early church that progress and problems are inseparable. Progress for the sake of the gospel will always meet with resistance, yet it remains our responsibility to press forward.
Setbacks and discouragement
We can all relate to the reality of setbacks and discouragement. Over time, that drains a leader’s energy and vision which allows drift toward inward rather than reaching outward.
Disconnect with current culture
The moment we fail to connect with or understand current culture we automatically begin to drift inward. It doesn’t mean we don’t care, but it translates that way to those outside the church because we don’t understand how people think and therefore can’t connect or communicate our compassion well.
Leadership has a comfortable sense of busy
It’s easy for churches in general to become “busy machines,” and to eventually find a kind of comfort in that place. The church operates well, but there is little sense of urgency or energy to reach the community.
4 Ways to Move Your Church From Inward to Outward Focused:
1. Shake off the Past
Whatever reasons may have caused your church to drift inward, you don’t have to remain stuck there. Determine to shake off the past and re-engage the passion and confidence you once had to move intentionally outward.
This is not meant to sound like an annoying platitude. We know it’s not easy. The church wants to drift inward, but the pain of remaining stuck there is greater than the risk of pressing forward.
Let me offer you some starter ideas.
Remember your dreams and vision when you first came to the church.
Simplify your ministry.
Take a few days for a quiet retreat to find spiritual rest and resolve to make some changes.
Ask others to help you. You may have all the gifts and talent you need, and still need a little help to get a breakthrough.
I’ve been wrestling a LOT with the practice of prayer and finding prayer that works. There are moments when prayer comes very easily, and my heart feels quite in tune with the divine. Couple that with what appears to be answers to my prayers I want, and we’ve got a winner. Other seasons, my prayer life is much more like a shrug or sigh. If it’s a particularly dark time, my prayer may literally be throwing my hands up in wonder, frustration, doubt or, on occasion, fear.
But no matter what, prayer is an integrated part of my life, and the life of my family. We pray before meals. We pray before bed. There are whispered prayers, light prayers, heavy prayers, grateful prayers and painful prayers. As our lives go, so go our conversations with heaven.
One Prayer That Works Every Time
At some point I’d like to write a much more involved series on what I believe the full purpose of prayer is, how it “works,” what it accomplishes and why it doesn’t seem like God is even listening sometimes. But today, I really just wanted to share with you what I’ve discovered as the ONLY prayer that works 100 percent of the time.
It’s not “The Prayer of Jabez” or some magical concoction of words. Ready? Ok, here it is:
“God, please show me how I can invest in someone else today.”
That’s it? Yep, that’s it. Sometimes all I have to do is look up after I finish praying that line and it’s already been answered.
There are people around us all the time. Even if you’re a stay-at-home mom, there is always someone who could use an extra word of love, assurance or hope.
There is always someone who might need a few bucks to cover their grocery bill.
There is always someone who is searching.
There is always someone who might just need us to just go be with them … no words or sage counsel, just our presence.
Frequently I hear requests for prayer like this: “Please pray for a family who is having some financial trouble right now” or, “I know someone who is really struggling, would you ask God to provide for their needs?”
Those prayers are answered as soon as they form in our hearts.
When Jesus gave his disciples what we now call “The Lord’s Prayer,” the part about “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven …” that’s about US. You and me. We are an important part of bringing those realities to life.
Right here. Right now: be an answer to prayer today.
Thanksgiving in the Bible is for both the sun-lit mountaintop and the deep, dark valley. Paul calls us to give thanks to God “in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:18). We don’t wait until our faith is so full and strong that thanksgiving bursts at the seams, but we practice thanksgiving even when we’re fearful or worried because it’s part of how we set our eyes on God and cultivate faith in him. Thanksgiving is one of the key ways we push back against the full-court press from worry, fear, and anxiety. And King David is an example of how to give thanks to God.
The Psalms prove especially helpful for seeing thanksgiving as a weapon against worry. Because the Psalms are so beautifully written, I think we sometimes imagine they must have been written from a serene cabin in the woods. But in reality, the psalmists crafted many of their words in the midst of danger, trials, and suffering. David penned a number of psalms when he was in the wilderness, running and hiding from enemies, abandoned, betrayed, hungry, thirsty, and weary. The Psalms in the wilderness were forged in the fire, not on a spiritual retreat.
And while David does cry out to God and asks for help, he pairs his prayers for deliverance with thanksgiving; he give thanks to God. When David’s life is full of things that would cause worry by looking around, he would intentionally give thanks. He gives thanks to set his eyes and heart on God, who is much bigger than his enemies. Rather than being consumed with fear about circumstances, he gives thanks to the God ruling over those circumstances. It would be easy to be discouraged or overwhelmed and give up, or to throw all his energy into seeking control by devising a plan, but David’s response in trials is to practice thanksgiving.
Importance of Thanksgiving to God
David gives thanks to God in a few different ways, and I think we can follow his example by leaning into gratitude when we’re worried. I’ll mention five ways he gives thanks when in the midst of trials that apply to us today.
5 Ways to Give Thanks to God
1. Look Back
Sometimes David gives thanks for how God delivered, protected, and provided in the past (see Psalms 105 through 107). Before walking through Israel’s history of fickleness and God’s faithfulness, David writes, “Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered” (Ps. 105:1-2, 5).
David rehearses God’s works as a means to fill his heart with worship. He looks back and remembers God’s faithfulness and thanks him for it. He recounts God’s deliverance, mercy, or help throughout his life to strengthen and sustain his faith in the present. This helps him know God can and will deliver him again. He can face today and tomorrow because he’s thankful for God’s provision, power, and presence in the past.
How has God been faithful, kind, merciful, or gracious in the past? Give thanks for the times and ways he provided, delivered, sustained, or comforted you through trials in your past. Just like God helped you when you worried in the past, God will help you in whatever worries you today.
2. Consider God
Other times, thanksgiving focuses simply on who God is. David will give thanks to God because of his compassion, power, mercy, faithfulness, and love. “With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good” (Ps. 54:6). David thanks God for his goodness, and he doesn’t wait until the trouble stops or the worry fades but he gives thanks in the midst of the trial. He practices thanksgiving in the wilderness and doesn’t wait until he’s safely back at home.
By giving thanks to God for who he is, our view of God grows. This puts our worries and fears in perspective. They don’t go away, but they start to shrink compared to an all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present God. Even if you don’t see the blessings in your life, you can thank God for who he is. As you consider God’s attributes or character, or see him in Scripture or even in nature, grow in gratitude by giving him thanks. What are some of the attributes, characteristics, or truths about who God is you can thank him for?
Dead people don’t come back and tell us what they’ve experienced. But we can know some things based on the Bible’s explanations. We don’t just disappear after we die. We live on in another location. Followers of Jesus go to live with Him in Heaven. On the cross, Jesus told the thief crucified next to Him, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
Enter the Kingdom of Heaven
In Christ’s story about the rich man and Lazarus, at the moment of death, Lazarus was ushered into Heaven by angels (Luke 16:22). It seems likely that will be true of all of God’s children when we die. Different angels are assigned to different people (Matthew 18:10), so perhaps our escorts into Heaven will be angels who have served us while we were on Earth (Hebrews 1:14).
Most importantly, Jesus Himself will be with us during our deaths. He has promised to never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Nothing, not even death, can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39). God promises that all who know Him will experience acceptance into His holy, loving, and gracious arms. This assurance is why the apostle Paul could say, “We are confident, we would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8, CSB).
As painful as death is, and as right as it is to grieve it (Jesus did), we on this dying earth can also rejoice for our loved ones who are already in the presence of Christ. When they die, those covered by Christ’s blood are experiencing the joy of His presence. (Scripture clearly teaches that there is no such thing as “soul sleep,” or a long period of unconsciousness between life on Earth and life in Heaven. The phrase “fallen asleep” in 1 Thessalonians 4:13 and similar passages describes the body’s outward appearance at death.)
Glorious Reunions
As Paul tells us, though we naturally grieve at losing loved ones, we are not to “grieve like people who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Our parting is not the end of our relationship, only an interruption. We have not “lost” them, because we know where they are. And one day, we’re told, in a magnificent reunion, they and we “will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:17-18).
The Vinedresser often prunes the vine so that the dead branches are cleared to make way for fresh, new growth. I believe that may be happening within the American Evangelical Church. I’m not a prophet, so time will tell, but I do believe that the events of 2020 and 2021 (so far) have thrown back the curtains and shined the light on some of our greatest weaknesses.
People are leaving in unprecedented numbers, both church-goers and pastors, and it’s more than just fear of contracting a virus. There are numerous reasons why people have become disillusioned with the American Evangelical church. Out of my own heart and with my ear to the ground, I’ve listed out at least fifteen reasons why.
15 Reasons People Are Disillusioned With the American Evangelical Church
1. We’ve Rejected Science Unnecessarily
(Discoveries about origins, evolution, environmental issues, etc.) We are needlessly afraid of what scientists discover that might threaten our status quo.
2. We’ve Been Superstitious
We’ve been enamored with anything suspected of being “dark” to the point of seeing tons of things as demonic in a superstitious way.
3. We’ve Embraced Christian Nationalism
We’ve believed that the survival of “our” faith and culture is dependent on the election of a strongman as our protector. The American Evangelical church has married to patriotism and faith in an idolatrous fashion.
4. We’ve Idolized the Bible on the Pedestal of Literalism
Our understanding of the Bible’s authority leaves no room for the human element of scripture’s origins. We’ve told people it’s a house of cards — doubt one part and it all falls apart.
5. We’ve Re-created Secular Celebrity Culture Inside the Church
We make Sundays and whole movements personality-centric and all about how we’re cool and awesome.
6. We’ve Often Mimicked Corporate Culture Inside the Church
We define “success” by numerical output and effective leadership as persuasiveness and salesmanship.
7. We’ve Devalued Women and Defended Patriarchy
We’ve decided that leadership responsibilities are reserved for men only regardless of how competent women might be for the task.
8. We’ve Ignored Systemic Poverty
We’re so addicted to individual freedom that we often turn a blind eye to the suffering and those without healthcare or financial security and have written it off as a lack of personal responsibility.
9. We’ve Ignored Systemic Racism
we’re so fragile and sensitive to any insinuation that we are privileged because of whiteness that we turn a deaf ear to those suffering under unjust and inequitable systems.
10. We’ve made secondary issues primary
doctrinal matters that are outside the scope of the major creeds, we’ve made non-negotiable tests of orthodoxy.
11. We’ve Been Inconsistent in our “Pro-life” Message
We’re pro-birth and anti-abortion, but also okay with the death penalty. We ignore gun violence, and don’t seem to care about the economic conditions of those who often seek abortive measures.
12. We’ve Embraced Conspiracy Theories
a thousand little lies about some supposed satanic agenda behind everything we don’t understand.
13. We’ve Allowed Spiritual and Sexual Abuse to Often Go Unaccounted For
We have handled abuse issues “in house” as “sin problems” rather than calling the police first and believing and supporting victims first.
14. We’ve Singled Out Certain People Groups
For example, LGBTQ+ people, undocumented immigrants, and others have sometimes been singled out for exclusion, judgment, and rejection instead of welcoming and including everyone who wants to follow Jesus.
15. We’ve Become Self-Appointed Judges, to the Neglect of Love
The American Evangelical church sees itself as having the moral high ground and using it as a gavel to sentence those we perceive as morally inferior.
It’s been a year of pain for the American Evangelical church. We need a reformation. Not so much of doctrine but of emphasis, and the emphasis needs to be placed squarely on our calling to love God and all people.
Yes, we need solutions. I want to talk more about the solutions than the problems, but the American Evangelical church is in such denial that it’s hard to get there. If you’ve been disillusioned by these things, I hear you. I understand. I get it. But I still follow Jesus because I believe he was raised from the dead and enthroned as King of an entirely other-worldly heavenly kingdom where love really does reign. His Way is worthy of following.
This article about the American Evangelical church originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
Danny Gokey, three-time Dove Award winning singer and American Idol alum, told a crowded room of fans on Thursday night (Sept. 29) that when Jesus’ people compromise God’s Word, it affects not only them but the next generation.
Gokey’s latest album (2021) and current tour is called Jesus People.Earlier this month, the the 42-year-old singer posted a video on Twitter defining what it means to be Jesus People. Gokey repeated lyrics from his song “Jesus People,” describing them as “misfits and doubters, outcasts and cowards who have been changed by His love.”
Jesus People are “radical and willing to leave everything behind to stand up for what we believe. We’re bold. We’re unstoppable and we’re unashamed. We’re hope givers and gospel sharers,” Gokey continued, encouraging fans to share how God’s love has changed their lives.
ChurchLeaders met with Gokey just moments before he took the stage on the opening night of his “Jesus People” tour in Dayton, Ohio. Joining Gokey every night on tour is Tasha Layton and Jordan Feliz. ChurchLeaders asked Gokey how he’d encourage Christians in today’s broken world and what he hopes God accomplishes throughout the tour.
CL: In the world and nation we live in today where Christians are witnessing many of churches cave to society’s pressure and worldly influence out of fear, whether it be the sexuality movements, the pro-abortion movement, etc…How would you encourage Jesus People to stand strong on God’s Word and not to give into Satan’s lies while it seems more and more churches around them are failing to do so?
Gokey: Right now there is a faux righteousness and a faux morality that it seems like wokeism and the government has created and it plays on people’s fears. Looking at the scriptures, we see that the Pharisees were people who created a faux sense of righteousness, and it was by burdening down the people. As a matter of fact, they had such power that they influenced the government—remember they caused Jesus to be crucified.
The Scripture verse that I’ve been really meditating on today is 1 John 2:6, which says, “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did (NLT). I think we’ve created our own version of Jesus where we think that Jesus would just all love—anything’s acceptable—because there’s examples in Scriptures for example where they throw the prostitute at Jesus’ feet to be condemned but he didn’t. It’s almost like that verse has become a-sort-of hyper focus on that type of loving grace, but Jesus told the prostitute, “Go and sin no more.” Jesus came with grace and truth. Notice how he gave her grace, but then He told her to “Go and sin no more.”
There’s a lot of trickery going on in our world right now. For instance, the government is trying to push out God and begin to create a form of godliness with no God in it—a form that tricks people. Not only do they start playing on people’s fear, but their ignorance, as they do regarding the abortion issue. They’re saying, “How dare dare you fight against abortion?” Just like Gavin Newsom is doing by putting billboards up and using the ”Love thy neighbor” verse. Newsom is a manipulative scoundrel-trickster. That man is corrupt, and he is tricking people, but he’s using people’s morality. So what he’s telling people is, “If you love your neighbor, you would really care about them, and not let them have the burden of their pregnancy.” He poses questions like, “Well, what about, ‘How are they going to pay for this?’” They ask questions that really can prick the heart a little bit and make someone feel like they’re a bad person for saying a mother should raise that baby because, “I’m not going to be in your life. I just think they should raise the baby.”
A lot of people in the pro-choice movement have sayings like, “Yeah, you just, you want to leave the let the baby live and then you leave.” That’s not not true. That’s such a lie. My wife and I support many pro-life organizations. But even if we didn’t, there’s a God who promises that He supplies all their needs. That type of trickery is is fear based. It’s always fear. You’re not going to have enough. You’re going to miss your dreams. Fear! Fear! Fear is the root of it. Then places like California are twisting people’s fears by telling parents to “let your kids have transition surgeries if they want it or we’re gonna take the kids away from you.” Now there’s that sense of fear.
Everyone is struggling. This has been an extraordinarily difficult time in our world for many in ways financially, physically, mentally and spiritually.
As believers, we can be encouraged that God wants to give us a specific kind of help during difficult seasons like these. We don’t just go with the flow of culture, but we flow with the wind of the Holy Spirit.
What is the spirit, posture or attitude God gives us in difficult times like these that we’ve been in? Scripture is crystal clear.
For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline [sound mind]. (1 Timothy 1:6-7)
This Scripture has three traits plus instruction that are a guide from heaven about where we can turn when we don’t know what else to do:
1. In Difficult Seasons, God Gives Us a Spirit of Power.
Henrietta Mears once said, “Christianity is not adding a burden to your life, it is adding power. The Scripture tells us that “the same power which raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us.” The word used from God’s power at work in the life of a believer is “dynamis” the root word we get the word dynamite from. That is some extreme power.
As my friend Andrew has said, “It is inconceivable to think the same power which raised Jesus from the dead would come into our life and do nothing.”
So when times are dark and difficult, guess what you can count on? God’s powerworking in you, helping you stand firm in His truth when you don’t know if you have enough power on your own.
When does God give us this power? Ahead of time? Right when we need it. He gives us enough grace for each new day’s challenges and concerns at the time that we need it, as we rely on and stay close to Him.
How do we appropriate God’s power when we need it? Read the Scriptures, pray and ask God for His help and trust that He will carry you when you cannot carry yourself.
2. In Difficult Seasons, God Gives Us a Spirit of Love.
When the world around us is going crazy, what does God call us to do, and who does He call us to be? Scripture is clear. It is not to suddenly become a person who is angry all the time, for “that does not bring about the righteousnessGod desires.”
In difficult seasons, God calls us to the same thing He always has – to stand firm in His truth and love.
In working with dozens of churches over the last 20 years, I’ve discovered some deadly sins of an unhealthy church. And I should clarify that and say these are deadly sins of church people. I’m a walking testimony that the people who make up Christ’s church still sin. It is the result of who we are that we need a Savior.
I chose the word “deadly” intentionally. Of course, it’s a strong word, and I have no research behind my claim that if you have any of these your specific church will eventually die. I have been told a church on average will take 30 years to die if it remains in continual decline. (But I can’t confirm that statistic either.)
I know many unhealthy churches that are in decline. There are church buildings that once housed vibrant, growing churches, which have been turned into a unique restaurant, office building or condominium. I’ve seen that. I have enjoyed some the food. Again, I have worked with many churches and pastors in revitalization – as a pastor and a consultant. Those churches needed revitalization for a reason. They were in decline.
In each unhealthy church, I saw some – sometimes all – of these deadly sins. So, that’s my “research.” Simply knowing these sins will not heal an unhealthy church or help it grow again. My hope, however, is that the awareness helps you lead through them.
As pastor, when I encounter these sins in an unhealthy church they become the subject of much of my teaching and leadership, since each of them have biblical implications. I am not afraid to challenge these head-on if needed; either directly with individuals or even with the congregation as a whole. They are too important not to address.
In fact, I’m not sure you will see much progress towards revitalization until there is some repentance or, at least, discontinuance of these deadly sins.
Five Deadly Sins of an Unhealthy Church:
Apathy.
As soon as a church stops caring for the mission of the church more than any other activity it has lost its way. The mission must come first. To be clear, the mission is not programs, systems or buildings. These are means to accomplish the mission. We should care for them and have the best we can offer. But they are secondary to the mission.
An Unhealthy church cares more about the personal comfort of members and protecting the way things have always been done than it does about the broken and lostness of the community around them it has fallen into the deadly sin of apathy.
Pride.
This may be the most often repeated sin I have seen in unhealthy churches. It mostly occurs when a church has had success and then simply became comfortable. When pride takes over anything that is challenged in the church will cause people to become defensive. People will protect what they perceive to have built. “My grandmother donated that furniture. You can’t get rid of it.” (Actual statement I’ve heard and many similar.)
If I have to remind you from Scriptures how offensive pride is to God then we will need another post. There is too much biblical evidence for this short article.
See Page Two for the final three signs of an unhealthy church . . .
“I’m So Glad You Were Born: Celebrating Who You Are” is Earhardt’s third children’s book (the others were both New York Times bestsellers). The author shared her inspiration behind the book, which explains to children that they were made “spectacular” by God, who creatively crafted and divinely designed them to be one of a kind.
The book tells children they can grow up to be anything they want, listing preaching as one of the professions. Earhardt made the inclusion because of how much pastors have influenced her life and relationship with Jesus Christ.
Earhardt, who dedicated the book to her 6-year-old daughter Hayden, discusses raising a child in today’s culture, navigating her Christian faith at Fox News, why the church is important, and how New York City is her mission field.
CL: What has been your biggest surprise about parenting?
Ainsley: My biggest surprise is probably how much I was going to enjoy it and love it. I always wanted a baby. But I did in my mid 30s. And then I tried to have a baby, and I couldn’t get it. It took me a little while to get pregnant, and then I had a miscarriage. And three months after I had the miscarriage, I was pregnant with Hayden. So even though that was a hard experience to go through, God blessed me, and I wouldn’t have Hayden if it weren’t for that experience. And I know when I go to heaven, I have another little girl in heaven that will be waiting for me.
Hayden is perfect for me. We do everything together—she’s just the greatest joy. We have fun. It’s not a house where we’re yelling or screaming. We laugh, we have dance parties throughout the house, which is part of this book. She’s a lot like me as a child in the fact that she loves dolls and she loves girly things, but she’s much shyer than I was as a child and I love that about her. She observes the room. She wants to be comfortable with everyone before you see who she really is, and she guards herself at first, which is a quality that I didn’t have. I was just friends with everyone and walked in. But I love that quality about her. And at first, it took some getting used to because I thought gosh, she needs to be saying hi to everyone. She needs to be outspoken. She needs to…but no, I realize God made her unique and she’s taught me so much in that regard, because as I’ve gotten older, you realize that that’s a quality that is valued: to be able to just read the room and get to know people before you give them maybe 100% of you.
CL: What effect do you think the current culture war, political strife, widespread anger, and division between adults in this nation is having on children who are witnessing it?
Ainsley: Hayden just finished kindergarten, so we’re going into first grade and we haven’t had to deal with a lot of that. Obviously, in my profession, I’m covering these types of stories and the division—schools and what parents want and what other parents want in our political environment. But the beauty is with a child this age, she just loves everybody and that’s how we will raise her in our home, to have friends of all walks of life and to look at everybody as God’s child, and to listen to other people and appreciate their opinions and just to show them Christ. That’s why we’re here. The ultimate goal is to get more people into heaven, and just telling them about how great Jesus is and to have a relationship with Christ. So that’s our focus in our house, and the rest I will leave up to God to steer her in the right direction. I mean, obviously, I will be a big part of that being her parent, but we are we’re here just to serve others and to love everybody.
CL: What inspired you to write I’m So Glad You Were Born?
Ainsley: When I was growing up, my mom always said “I’m so glad you were born” on our birthdays. So when I got to Fox and Friends, every time someone would come on our show, and we celebrated a birthday, I would say, “I’m so glad you were born.” The first time I said it to my co-anchor, everyone just laughed and he was kind of shocked. And I said, “I know it sounds funny, but think about it. I’m so glad you were born. This is your birthday. This is a day that God brought you into this world and created you to make a difference and to really impact the world for Him.” I told them that you only get one shot at this. This is not a dress rehearsal. You have one life, so use it to your fullest and really go out and make a difference in this world.
Earlier this week, CNN raised the ire of some evangelicals by publishing the stories of former evangelicals who discussed one source of religious trauma: rapture anxiety.
Rapture theology, which is one part of Dispensationalism, posits that Christ will take Christians to heaven prior to his full return in glory. Those who hold to the Premillennial stance within Dispensationalism believe that this could happen at any moment, and that non-Christians will be left behind for the Great Tribulation.
While this particular eschatological belief is one of many viewpoints within the larger Christian church, it became extremely prevalent within evangelical circles during the latter decades of the twentieth century, even becoming a central point of emphasis for some prominent Christian leaders and inspiring myriad books and films, such as the “Left Behind” series.
For some who grew up in evangelical churches and homes where the rapture was spoken of constantly, they cite the theology as a source of religious trauma. April Ajoy, who spoke with CNN, said that she experienced fear that she would be left behind when the rapture came, a fear that surfaced once as a teenager when her house was quiet and she found only a pile of clothes on her parents’ bed.
“When I was probably 8 or 9, I remember my brothers and I spending a good 30 minutes looking out into the sky,” Ajoy told CNN. “We took turns counting down from 10, and in that time, we were convinced Jesus would come back.”
Ajoy, who is now an exvangelical but still identifies as Christian, often discusses faith, deconstruction, and religious trauma on her popular TikTok account. She also is one of the hosts of the podcast “Evangelicalish.”
Ajoy’s experience with rapture anxiety is not unique, as others have also described the existential dread that accompanies belief in the possibility of being caught in the middle of a sin when Jesus returns or being left behind entirely, likely later to be beheaded.
Darren Slade, president and CEO of the Global Center for Religious Research, described rapture anxiety as “a chronic problem” for many who struggle with religious trauma.
“This is a new area of study, but in general, our research has revealed that religious trauma leads to an increase of anxiety, depression, paranoia and even some OCD-like behaviors: ‘I need to say this prayer of salvation so many times,’ ‘I need to confess my sins so often,’” Slade told CNN. “Now imagine you are taught that at any minute, you could be left here on Earth. What does that do to the teenager who just had premarital sex, or even simply took the Lord’s name in vain?”
Ajoy said that she regularly receives direct messages on social media from followers who are grateful for her content, which validates and acknowledges their painful religious memories.
During a recent interview, actor and outspoken Christian Candace Cameron Bure spoke about the importance of a healthy sex life within marriage. Bure, star of “Fuller House” and numerous movies, has been married to retired pro hockey player Val Bure for 26 years. She admits she’s disappointed that “sex within marriage gets such a bad rap” because they’re both “happier…when we’ve had sex.”
Bure, who has been frank about this topic in the past, addressed it most recently on the “Bialik Breakdown” podcast. Speaking to fellow former child actor Mayim Bialik, Bure says she wants to emphasize the importance of marital sex without being too graphic or grossing out the couple’s three young-adult children.
Candace Cameron Bure: Sex Is ‘Important Part’ of Marriage
On the podcast, Bure, 46, says although she and Val “don’t have a schedule” for intimacy, they strive to “make time for each other” and “still love each other physically.” She adds, “I’m a happier person and my husband’s a happier person when we’ve had sex.”
It’s “important to share what a healthy sex life within marriage can be,” she says. “It’s an important part of the relationship that we make time for one another, that we still love each other both physically, spiritually, mentally. … It all comes hand in hand.”
Bure adds, “In our culture and society today, it’s always like, ‘Oh, you’re married 10 years, when was the last time you had sex?’ That’s always the joke and it can be funny, and I can roll with it.” But she surmises that when a marriage “goes south,” that might be “all the more reason” to rekindle your sex life.
‘Do Something Unexpected,’ Actor Advises Couples
When Bialik said a couple’s problems might not be related to intimacy, Bure pushed back a bit. “But there are days when it is about the sex,” she says, “and we’ve had those conversations.” Bure admits, “Some days you just need the release, and it’s just about the sex.” To that, Bialik replies, “We’re human beings and we crave connection and especially in a partnership, especially when there’s stress and when you’re dealing with kids and jobs.”
Val Bure, 48, was raised in Russia, so he’s usually “much more reserved” and “more serious about life,” according to his wife. But “when there’s that playfulness,” she notes, “there is nothing that makes me happier and more attracted to him.” Because laughter is one of the actor’s “love languages,” she says she loves when her husband makes her chuckle.
Joby Martin joins “The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast” to discuss what happens when a church leader has truly been run over by the “grace train" and understands the profound love and grace of God.
