John MacArthur’s Grace To You Executive Director Kicked Off Twitter for Drag Queen Comment

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October 19, 2022

Phil Johnson, Grace To You’s executive director and Grace Community Church elder, shared earlier this week that he was kicked off Twitter for making a comment regarding a drag queen working as an elementary school crossing guard.

The drag queen, who goes by the name Dixie Krystals, was featured as one of Denver Public Schools’ celebrity crossing guards for their National Walk & Roll to School Day, which took place on October 12.

The school celebrated the drag queen by featuring an image of the 20-plus year entertainer handing out raffle tickets to young children.

“Meet some more of the Denver #CelebrityCrossingGuards that kept our students safe at our schools this morning for National Walk & Roll to School Day. Thank you! #PedestrianSafetyMonth,” the school tweeted.

Johnson told his Facebook followers, “I got kicked off Twitter for saying that the stationing of drag-queen crossing guards at elementary schools is state-sponsored grooming.”

John MacArthur‘s fellow church elder uploaded a screenshot of the tweet that Twitter deemed as “hate speech,” which said, “…gr**ming your kids, actually,” and linked to a Libs of TikTok tweet. The post included a video of a teacher sharing “five things you can do to make spaces more inclusive for LGBTQ+ students this year” and included the caption, “These are the people teaching your kids.”

“I’m refusing to admit that this constituted harassment or a threat of violence against anyone,” Johnson said. “It was a statement of my moral convictions regarding a news story.”

“This is the first time Twitter’s woke police have harassed me. But it will constitute a permanent ban from Twitter if they persist in demanding that I plead guilty to the charge of hate speech,” Johnson said to conclude his Facebook post.

‘Birthed out of Prayer’: First Orlando Intercessor Leads Life of Prayer

By

Diana Chandler

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October 19, 2022

ORLANDO, Fla. (BP) – Pauline Dawkins-Cole, volunteer leader of the intercessory prayer ministry of First Baptist Church of Orlando, considers her very life a product of prayer.

As she tells the story to Baptist Press, her parents – the late Frederick Augustus Dawkins, who pastored Baptist churches in Jamaica for 70 years, and Dorcas Deltora Dawkins, a missionary and teacher – prayed eight years to conceive a child. When Pauline’s mother became pregnant with her, doctors first diagnosed the pregnancy as a tumor.

In addition to leading a prayer ministry at First Baptist Orlando, Pauline Dawkins-Cole serves as vice president of Dawkins International Ministries, Inc., founded by her father Frederick Augustus Dawkins, who died in 2019 at age 101.

But her parents prayed through the ordeal, gave birth to Pauline and seven additional children while leading ministry in Jamaica that was partly supported by the Home Mission Board, the precursor to the North American Mission Board.

God made clear the importance of prayer in Dawkins-Cole’s life, she told Baptist Press, as she prepared to speak on prayer at a women’s conference years ago.

“Your life was birthed out of prayer,” she heard in her spirit. “If it wasn’t for prayer, you would never have been conceived, been born, married, have a daughter and do all that you’re doing. Your life is based in prayer. Those were the words I heard.

“But because your parents prayed for you,” she sensed the Lord telling her, “I answered their prayer and I pulled you out of the womb of nothing through prayer.”

She joined First Baptist Church of Orlando in March of 2006. There, she helped found an intercessory prayer ministry that originally focused solely on praying for pastors. First Baptist Pastor David Uth expresses appreciation for Cole’s ministry.

“Sister Pauline is the epitome of a faithful and fervent prayer warrior,” Uth told Baptist Press Oct. 17. “In my 46 years as a pastor, I’ve never known a more powerful woman of prayer. Every pastor needs someone just like her in his church.”

In 2019, Dawkins-Cole began focusing more on community and international prayer concerns and outreaches while remaining active at Orlando First.

She’s active in several prayer and evangelistic initiatives under the auspices of Dawkins International Ministries, Inc. (DIMI), founded in Jamaica and the U.S. by her father long before his death in 2019 at the age of 101. As DIMI vice president, she leads the group in several in-person and virtual prayer outreaches weekly, utilizing a prayer conference telephone line, Zoom and WhatsApp. The group has mobilized participants from as many as 50 countries, Dawkins-Cole said.

She prays in the official prayer room at Southern Baptist Convention annual meetings, having begun at the 2010 meeting in Orlando, and prayer walks the halls of annual meeting venues, praying for those she encounters. Unable to attend the 2022 meeting, she recruited her brother Samuel Dawkins, pastor of Westside Baptist Church in Fontana, Calif., to serve in Anaheim.

She volunteers as a National Day of Prayer ambassador-at-large for the state of Florida, leading prayer emphases throughout the year.

Local Associations Key to Southern Baptist Credentialing, Cooperation

By

Scott Barkley

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October 19, 2022

NASHVILLE (BP) — Earlier this year, then-candidate Bart Barber received a question at a forum hosted by First Baptist Church in Keller, Texas, for those to be nominated as Southern Baptist Convention president.

What should the Credentials Committee be doing? Are its actions currently outside the scope of what it was designed to do? What should they do if a church is accused of operating outside of the Baptist Faith and Message? How do you determine if that church is still considered in fellowship with the SBC?

So yes, it wasn’t a single question but a series of them. That pattern of trying to clarify the group’s responsibilities has remained since the Credentials Committee was repurposed by messengers in 2019.

No longer would it function only during the annual meeting to ensure messengers were from churches in “friendly cooperation” according to Article III of the SBC Constitution. The group – now a standing committee – would be tasked with considering whether a church remained in friendly cooperation based on allegations related to sexual abuse, discriminatory behavior based on ethnicity and other matters related to faith and practice.

But such a process on a national scale can be cumbersome. Cooperation was simpler 120 years ago, Barber said, because local associations were closely involved, and this involvement is still crucial.

“If you want it to work better today,” Barber said, pointing to the crowd, “you can do more about it than the president of the SBC can.”

Local associations “leaned in” to credential messengers and churches, Barber said, providing a boots-on-the-ground verification of their commitment to Southern Baptist distinctives. If that role is diminished or abdicated, consequences follow.

“When local associations are weak and refuse to assure that the doctrinal parameters that make us Southern Baptists are enforced in the local association, that just creates these problems of scale where you have a Credentials Committee at the national convention level with 47,000 churches trying to figure out what to do all across the fruited plain,” he said. “It’s unmanageable.”

More than 1,100 associations operate across the national convention, according to the Southern Baptist Conference of Associational Leaders (SBCAL). Focused on local churches, they also often serve as a connection point with state conventions and national entities.

The ones leading those associations are pivotal in existing credentialing procedures, said Ray Gentry, SBCAL president/CEO and associational mission strategist for Southside Baptist Network in McDonough, Ga.

“They know pastors and churches personally,” he said. “Depending on the size of the association’s credentials committee, they may or may not know details of a pastor’s theology, but they would know something about it.”

An advantageous position

That relationship, Gentry added, positions associations to “check in with a pastor and church leaders in a winsome but more thorough way than a state or national credentials committee could.”

Barber agreed in a recent interview with Baptist Press.

When It Comes to Halloween, Pastors Have Opinions, According to New Survey

By

Emily McFarlan Miller

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October 19, 2022

(RNS) — How do Christians celebrate Halloween?

It might depend on their pastor, according to a survey, released Tuesday (Oct. 18), by Lifeway Research of Protestant Christian pastors from all across the United States.

More than 90% of pastors encourage their congregations to observe Oct. 31 in a particular way, but that ranges from avoiding Halloween completely to inviting people to Halloween-adjacent events at their churches, the survey found.

“Few pastors simply ignore the fact that so many Americans participate in Halloween celebrations,” Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell said in a written statement. “Most pastors focus on the social nature of these celebrations, encouraging their congregations to engage with others outside their church.”

Many children across the U.S. celebrate Halloween by dressing in costumes and walking door to door to neighbors’ houses requesting candy with a cheerful, “Trick or treat!” Carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, watching horror films and visiting haunted houses are other popular pastimes during the spooky season.

Some pastors (13%) discourage their congregations from participating in the holiday in any way, according to the survey. This could be because some Christians consider the day’s festivities to be evil — or, at least, to glorify evil.

But a growing number of pastors are encouraging their congregations to engage with the celebration, mostly by inviting their friends and neighbors to church events on and around Halloween. Those events can include fall festivals; “trunk or treat” gatherings that allow kids to collect candy from cars parked in the church parking lot; or judgement houses, also known as hell houses, that aim to scare the hell out of visitors by depicting its horrors.

“Whether it comes from a desire to reconnect with their community after the pandemic prevented much of this or from deepened convictions about the holiday itself, pastors appear more resolute in their convictions around Halloween,” McConnell said.

"What do pastors encourage their church members to do at Halloween?" Graphic courtesy of Lifeway Research

“What do pastors encourage their church members to do at Halloween?” Graphic courtesy of Lifeway Research

The number of Protestant pastors encouraging congregants to invite others to church events has risen from 67% of pastors in 2016 to 71% in 2022, according to Lifeway.

Many pastors (58%, compared to 52% in 2016) also are talking with members of their churches about building relationships with neighbors who trick or treat, the survey shows. Those numbers are highest among the youngest pastors, ages 18 to 44 (66%), and among Methodists (68%) as opposed to Pentecostals (42%).

For Father James Martin, Ministry Means Going Wherever the People Are

By

Joshua Stanton and Benjamin Spratt

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October 19, 2022

Examples of the Rev. James Martin's presence on social media, including Instagram, from left, Facebook and Twitter. Screen grabs

(RNS) — The Catholic Church in America is experiencing great flux — with profound potential and the pain of reckoning and responsibility. Thirteen percent of Americans, according to Pew Research, are former Catholics, while the parish Masses are filled with growing numbers of immigrants from Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa.

Women are rising to new roles of leadership as directors of religious education and pastoral associates, even as the top leadership roles remain reserved for male priests. Likewise, Pope Francis has officially supported ministering to LGBTQ people and encouraged their embrace within Catholic families — creating new possibilities for in-reach.

This time of great change affords Catholic clergy the chance to adapt to new needs and serve people in new ways. Even as some may feel constrained by vows of obedience that obligate leadership to line up with papal directives, others are finding support for new areas of ministry and outreach to underserved and marginalized groups.

Few have done so with the success of the Rev. James Martin, S.J., who serves as editor-at-large of “America” magazine and is a public theologian who encourages and serves millions online, in print and in person. Martin brings a sense of Catholic belonging to many who had been disaffected or unchurched, particularly LGBTQ people.

With more than 645,000 followers on Facebook, 309,000 on Twitter and 81,000 on Instagram, Martin ministers to people wherever they are — through social media, bestselling books and frequent television appearances. Martin also leads smaller in-person trips to the Holy Land with leaders from “America” magazine.

With this multifaceted approach, Father Martin brings his ministry outside the traditional institutional framework to directly reach the people he seeks to serve. His work provides a new model for clergy leadership within the Catholic Church, modeled on the example of Jesus.

Stephen Colbert, left, interviews the Rev. James Martin, Feb. 3, 2021, on “A Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS. Video screengrab via CBS

Stephen Colbert, left, interviews the Rev. James Martin, Feb. 3, 2021, on “A Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS. Video screen grab via CBS

At a time when most teachers would wait for students to come to them, said Martin, Jesus went out into the community of Nazareth to call his first disciples. A similar approach works today.

“Maybe they’re not on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, so you go somewhere else,” he said. “They’re on Facebook, they’re on Instagram, they’re on Twitter. That’s where I go.”

But that’s just a first step.

“When you go there, you speak in their language, Martin said, adding that Jesus took the same approach. When he met Peter, Andrew and James, who were fishermen, he used terms they would understand rather than the language of a carpenter.

“He doesn’t say ‘Let us lay the foundations of God’s reign’ or ‘Let us build the reign of God,’” said Martin. “He doesn’t say ‘Let us construct the House of Mercy.’ Instead, Jesus says ‘Come after me, and I will make you fishers of people.’”

Jesus wanted to help people understand God, said Martin, and doing that meant using images from first-century Jewish and agrarian culture.

Grow Your Ministry by Growing Your Leaders

By

Small Group Network

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October 19, 2022

Leaders are Built not Found

I first heard that quote from Craig Groeschel, lead pastor of LifeChurch. He brought it up in the context of turning the congregation into leaders for Christ in the community. Like so many other great nuggets we get from pastors like Craig, Rick Warren and more, I immediately applied it to my lens and the ever-present need for more small group leaders.

Before that key moment, my radar was always set to detect the born-leaders. The sort of take charge, on fire for Christ types that are often all too few and far between in the church lobby between services.

Once I applied the leader building lens, however, I found myself in a very target rich environment, as hunters often say.

To quote another leadership guru, John Maxwell, “Leadership is influence, nothing more.” So, who was influencing those around them? Who, through conversation, did I discover held influence in other areas of their life? The answer was pretty simple: just about everyone.

Growing a Follower Into a Leader

I first met Tony through a mutual youth sporting event where both of our sons wound up on the same team. After some quick get to know each other discussion, we found out not only did we go to the same church, but our boys were already friends – our wives were as well.

Small world.

As we got to know one another better, I quickly saw the influence Tony held – and was acutely aware of the fact that not only did he not see it in himself, he rejected the very notion it was there. And, this became a theme I would encounter again and again and again with others.

Like so many of us, Tony had been the victim of negative talk from people in his life. Those who had influence on him at a young age failed to build him up, but instead tore him down. I’m sure you can either think of someone you know who had the same experience, or maybe you did yourself. Once those negative voices speak into our lives, we often allow them to navigate our future – erecting road blocks between us and the good deeds God prepared in advance for us to do.

Once this became apparent, I felt a nudge in my spirit. An irresistible urge to speak life and encouragement into Tony’s world. I didn’t have any illusions that I could overcome the years of negative reinforcement he’d endured, but I promised God I would, at very least, be a conversational light for him.

At the time, Tony worked at what he described as a dead-end job. He’d been passed over for promotions and simply accepted his lot in life – since it aligned with the negativity he’d been fed about himself.

It was then that I challenged him to start a small group. To take the lead. To be the man God designed him to be, not the failure so many humans told him he was.

In-Person Experiences – What the Church Can Learn From the NFL

By

Gavin Adams

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October 19, 2022

in-person experiences — Adobestock #39819903

Football is back, baby! If you’re not a football fan (or sports fan), stick with me for a minute. I think, at least at this moment in time, football is attempting to teach us all an invaluable lesson about the future of in-person experiences.

So, back to football for a minute: While football literally never left, the 2020 football season did not give us fans the complete football experience. The 2020 pandemic year did that to everything, right?

You see, the game of football is more than the game of football. It provides in-person experiences. Not to wax poetic, but if you’re a fan, you know exactly what I mean. Football is about the game and everything around the game. In 2020, the games were mostly played, but the experience surrounding the games was lackluster at best.

Stadium capacities were significantly limited. Some games required masks. Tailgating wasn’t allowed. There were very few bars and restaurants to gather and watch with friends and fellow fans. There were no pre or postgame parties of substance.

The players played games. But that’s about it. Something big was clearly missing.

I have a son who attends Auburn University (War Eagle!). He attended all the AU home games last year — spread out, with 20% capacity, and void of the AU football experience.

Two weeks ago, football returned to the plains of Auburn, but this time, the game came with all the trimmings. My son was able to tailgate and sit in a packed student section (he’s vaccinated, so that feels mostly safe). The band participated, the players ran onto the field to screaming fans, and the eagle mascot flew into the stadium. The pomp and circumstance was back in full force. And his experience was completely different.

Just like last season, there was a game. But this time, in-person experiences were back.

Understanding In-person Experiences: Football & Your Church

As a leadership coach primarily working with pastors and churches, the juxtaposition of packed football stadiums and partially full sanctuaries creates a strategic crisis. And it should.

For most of the pandemic, it was easy to justify and excuse a lack of attendance and engagement. People are still nervous about the virus. You can just as easily watch online. We have CDC guidelines limiting our physical growth. All of that was true. In some situations, it may still be valid. Or partially true. Before we go any further, hear me loud and clear: I’m not a fan of recklessness in the name of attendance. I believe digital church experiences play an essential role in every local church. But, I emphatically believe that local churches must provide physical gatherings because in-person experiences create better authentic spiritual community and connection. Not to suggest digital expressions can’t foster community, but face-to-face is better than face-to-screen when both are available. There’s a reason people meet on dating apps but progress to an in-person experience.

Now that in-person experiences are available in most churches, where are all the people?

Why Are Stadiums Sold Out?

That’s the core question we must answer if we want to learn from the football experience.

Why are hundreds of thousands of church people jamming into football stadiums with rabid enthusiasm yet skipping church almost every Sunday?
What is the in-person football experience offering that the church is not?
What did people miss about football?

And perhaps the most painful question:

What did church people NOT miss when they missed church for a year?

That question should haunt every single pastor.

Before we start making excuses, let’s acknowledge that football has similar in-person issues as your local church. Watching the game on television is better if the game is the draw. The camera angles, instant replays, and ongoing commentary available on a screen create a better experience if the game is all that matters.

With church, rolling out of bed, grabbing a cup of coffee, and watching online is certainly easier than getting dressed, getting the kids up, and fighting traffic if worship and sermons are the draws.

These packed stadiums should be a wake-up call to every pastor and church. If the game alone were the goal for football fans, stadiums would be mostly empty. They are not, because the draw of the game is more than just the game.

In your church, a welcome, some worship, and a sermon can no longer serve as the draw of the gathering. The gathering facilitates an opportunity for corporate worship and collective learning, but that alone is not enough. People will no longer attend impersonal, in-person experiencess if the experience is relatively equal on a screen. Your church remains partially full because people missed it for a year and didn’t really miss it.

It’s painful to admit, but for most church attenders, they stopped “attending,” and their life didn’t get worse. Let’s admit it: Church people missed gathering with fellow football fans more than with fellow Jesus-followers.

The Time for Action is Now

Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. It’s time we collectively admit that we, as church leaders, created the problem we are experiencing today. We saw declining in-person worship attendance trends in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and we made excuses. We blamed the people for choosing not to attend rather than looking in the mirror at why they weren’t attending. We waited for some other leader to be bold and course correct so we could mimic their model. It’s unacceptable.

Our mission matters too much to sit idly by worshiping our past models without an honest assessment of our guilt.

I know the passages like you. I believe with all my heart that the “gates of Hades” will never overcome the movement of the body of Christ. Equally, I think church leaders and pastors who refuse to acknowledge the reality of our recent results aren’t helping those gates remain in their place.

We can’t expect what wasn’t working well before the pandemic to be today’s model of choice. The pandemic accelerated the trends. Your ministry model is perfectly designed to get the results it gets. If you’re unhappy with your results, take responsibility for changing it.

It is time to evolve our approach and create something worth not missing.

This article on in-person experiences originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

Youth Group Regulars: The 14 Types of Kids You’ll Meet in Ministry

By

Stephen Altrogge

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October 18, 2022

Ahh, youth group. That sweet collection of awkwardness and overpowering body odor. If you’ve spent any length of time in church, you’ve probably attended or sent your kids to youth group. If so, you know it’s a perfect microcosm of both the church and society. You also know it requires a huge dose of humor.

Here are 14 types of kids you’ll find in every youth group. (FYI: I was a terrible combination of #1, #2, #3 and #4.)

14 Typical Youth Group Attendees

1. The Pastor’s Kid

The pastor’s kid is usually either a hyper-pharisaical annoying moralist who knows all the answers (me) or a rebel without a cause who listens to death metal, smokes weed, and leads the smoke breaks at youth group. In rare “flip-flop” cases (technical term), he/she can be both during a four-year youth group career. The even rarer “Two-Faced Pastor’s Kid” can pull off both simultaneously, though this requires a near sociopathic personality.

2. Guitar Guy

Guitar guy does everything, including volleyball and using the restroom, with a cheap acoustic guitar around his neck. Because he’s been playing the guitar for only six months, he almost always plays Green Day songs. (They have somewhere between one to two chords per song.) Depending on his personality, he will almost always evolve into “Beautiful Voice Heartthrob Guy” or “Greasy-Haired Speed Metal Guy.”

3. Answer Girl

Answer Girl knows it all and ensures that everyone knows that she knows it all. She has the unique ability to raise her hand before a question is even asked. Kids always pick her first for Bible Trivia and last for just about anything else.

4. Homeschool Kid

The Homeschool Kid has the social skills of a highly trained manatee. But they manage to overcome this deficiency with stunning amounts of enthusiasm. No, they can’t sustain a conversation or eye contact for more than four seconds, but they go absolutely bonkers during youth group games. Their enthusiasm is primarily due to ecstasy over getting to interact with other humans.

5. Early Puberty Guy

By age 10, Early Puberty Guy had a full beard, rippling muscles, and sung bass in the choir. He usually has the hygiene skills of a howler monkey, leading him to douse his body in copious amounts of Axe body spray. At least once per youth group, you can count on him hitting a 40-pound girl in the face with a dodge ball thrown at 140 mph. Youth group attendees either hate Early Puberty Guy or are in awe of him.

6. Harmony Diva Girl

Harmony Diva Girl never misses an opportunity to sing harmony during worship. She likes to hold the final note of a song at least three minutes after it has ended. Her parent is always a singer, and it’s not uncommon for them to deliver the special music at church functions. Harmony Diva Girl and Guitar Guy often team up to deliver an incredibly vocally rich acoustic cover of “Time of Your Life.”

7. Short Shorts Girl

Despite having sat through 4,391 talks (not sermons) on modesty and wearing a purity ring since age 4, Short Shorts Girl still pushes the boundaries of racy fashion. She wears the short shorts for one of two reasons: She is either blissfully unaware or fully aware that every youth group guy is staring at her.

11 Christian NFL Players Who Give God All the Glory

By

Stephanie Martin

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October 18, 2022

On any given Sunday (or Monday night, or Thursday night), it’s now quite common to hear Christian NFL players and coaches mention God and their faith. As a result, millions of sports fans hear their gridiron heroes praise and glorify Jesus as Savior.

Christians abound in every sport, and Church Leaders has profiled numerous faith-filled athletes. Here’s an updated “roster” of several God-honoring NFL players:

Christian NFL Players

Russell Wilson

Although his debut with the Denver Broncos has been rocky so far, quarterback Russell Wilson is standing up against criticism and standing firm on Jesus, the Rock. On social media, the 2020 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year winner frequently thanks God and shares inspirational messages with followers. “Keep Praising Jesus in the midst of the storm!” he tweeted last week. “Your Breakthrough is coming!” Earlier in October, Wilson tweeted: “New Day! Jesus YOU still get ALL the Glory! In the good and the bad. I Praise YOU!”

Frustrated by their team’s disappointing start this season, some Broncos fans are taking jabs at Wilson and his faith. “Jesus has been through enough dude,” reads one comment. “Don’t drag him into this mess with you.” Others are offering support, with one tweeting: “Amen man…..keep your head up and things will turn around.”

Dutch Bros Drive-Thru Workers See Woman Crying—When She Tells Them About Her Husband, They Reach Out Their Hands

By

Kelsey Straeter

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October 18, 2022

dutch-bros-drive-thru-pray — Screengrab via Facebook / @lovewhatreallymatters

A powerful Facebook post shared by Barbara Danner has captivated the hearts of many across the web.

If your average picture is worth a thousand words, this breathtaking moment must be worth a million:

Barbara Danner

The day after losing her husband, Adam, to heart disease, Alisha Wisbey went to get a coffee at Dutch Bros., Vancouver, a place she regularly visited. When these Dutch Bros Coffee workers saw that the woman in the drive-thru was “falling apart,” they decided to extend their hands out to her car and pray for her.

“They wanted to let me know that I’m not alone and they feel my pain,” Alisha explained to Fox 12. “And that no matter what faith you are, what color you are, who you are, other people can feel your pain and they’re there for you.”

However, they didn’t realize that a customer behind them had taken a photo and posted it to social media, where it went viral.

Along with the picture above, Barbara shared these words detailing the emotional encounter:

Dear Dutch Bros Coffee, snapped this picture while waiting in line at the Dutch Bros on 138th Avenue today. Turns out the young lady in line ahead of us lost her 37-year-old husband last night. When the DB guys & gals noticed she was falling apart, they stopped everything and prayed with her for several minutes, invited her to come back for prayer and support, as well as anything else that she might need. Prayers for the young family, and you know where to stop for coffee!

Pierce Dunn and Evan Freeman were the two Dutch Bros workers praying for her.

Debates About Interracial Marriage, Childbearing Emerge as Christian Nationalism Continues To Gain Support

By

Dale Chamberlain

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October 18, 2022

Once understood to be a derogatory term, support for Christian Nationalism is continuing to gain support among right-leaning evangelicals, with a number of prominent voices advocating for a vision of America defined by a set of cultural and ideological values that comports with their faith tradition.

The shift in tone toward Christian nationalism began in the political arena, with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene leading the way in a marked turn toward appropriating the term in comments given at a conservative student conference in July. More recently, a similar shift has been taking place in evangelical church leadership circles.

For example, William Wolfe, who attends Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) and is a contributing writer for Liberty University’s Standing for Freedom Center (formerly the Falkirk Center), recently tweeted, “There is a Baptist case for a form of Christian nationalism, no doubt about it.”

SBTS president Dr. Al Mohler has also recently expressed that he is “not about to run from” being labeled a Christian nationalist by his critics.

In fact, a new book length argument for Christian Nationalism is set to be released on November 1. “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” authored by Stephen Wolfe (PhD) and published by Canon Press, seeks to show “that the world’s post-war consensus has successfully routed the United States towards a gynocratic Global American Empire (GAE). Rather than the religious right’s golden calf, Christian nationalism is the idea that people in the same place and culture should live together and seek one another’s good.”

Wolfe, who has been promoting the upcoming release of his book, has also been active on Twitter to discuss some of the arguments it contains.

Discussions about Christian nationalism have often intersected with the topics of race and gender, as a number of sociologists and historians have drawn connections between Christian nationalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy.

In a video clip of a presentation that recently began circulating online, sociologist Samuel Perry (PhD) argued that Christian nationalism is inextricably tied to race, saying, “We are actually moving, as a discipline, to try and refer to White Christian nationalism rather than just blanket Christian nationalism.”

“Religion in the United States is fundamentally racialized,” Perry went on to say. “It’s shaped by our racial identity, and it’s shaped by our racial experiences, and our status in that social structure that we call race.”

Perry then presented data indicating that the more White Americans identify with Christian nationalists ideals, the more likely they are to believe that White Americans are the most discriminated against group in the nation. This was not the case in any significant way for Black Americans who identified strongly with Christian nationalist ideals.

Though some commented with accusations that Perry had visually manipulated the data to make these correlations appear more statistically significant, Perry told ChurchLeaders, “Actually what I was showing was a pretty straightforward interaction relationship. No manipulation going on.”

“As white Americans more strongly affirm Christian nationalist views, they clearly respond to questions about racial inequality, authoritarian violence, and democratic participation differently than, say, African Americans,” Perry said. “That isn’t to say Christian nationalism never operates similarly for Black and White Americans. But Christian nationalist language taps into some different feelings for white Americans than it does for Blacks, and this shows up in multiple data sets across multiple measures.”

Hollywood Has an Agenda To Attack Manhood, Christian Values, Says ‘Tokyo Drift’ Star

By

Jessica Mouser

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October 18, 2022

“There’s a definite agenda” in Hollywood to attack Christian and family values, says Lucas Black, who has starred in “NCIS: New Orleans” and “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.” Black pursued his newest film, “Legacy Peak,” which is out on Pure Flix, in order to point people to Jesus and present a positive view of manhood.

“You’ve seen such an attack on those values, Christian values, family values, but there’s been a big attack on men and masculinity,” said Black in an interview on The Prodigal Stories Podcast. “The fatherhood role has been undermined in a lot of stories” in Hollywood, said the actor, who sees “Legacy Peak,” as “an answer to combat that.”

Lucas Black’s Journey in Hollywood

Lucas Black got his start in entertainment when he was cast at age 10 in the movie, “The War,” starring Kevin Costner and Elijah Wood. But it was being cast in the film, “Sling Blade,” that really jump started Black’s career. Black said that he did one movie per year during high school so he could be at home and have a “normal life.”

“Just been blessed by God for that to continue as an adult,” he said. As far as his faith background, Black grew up in a Christian family that attended church. He trusted in Jesus at age 5, but in his 20s, he strayed from his faith. “I was doing the Christian walk alone,” he said. “That is hard to do.” Black had no accountability and few godly men in his life. Then he got intentional about his spiritual walk, realizing, “I believe these things, but I haven’t even read the Bible.”

So Black started reading the New Testament. “I was convicted a lot by the Holy Spirit,” he said, and his spiritual life was renewed. This happened around 2015, and Black subsequently began trying to figure out his purpose and calling as it related to entertainment.

Lucas Black was cast in “NCIS: New Orleans” in 2014 and said he had a “good, long run” before he left the show in 2019 after doing 125 episodes. He shared that being on the show was an “eye opener for me” and during that time the Holy Spirit prompted him to “be bold” and speak out against some of the agendas that were being promoted, such as attacks on the family and law enforcement. “I learned a lot,” he said.

Regarding how his colleagues responded to the stand he took, Black said, “As a whole, most of them respected it.” Nevertheless, he added, “There’s a definite agenda to attack some of my beliefs, you know, and some of your beliefs as a Christian.”

Greg Locke Calls Catholic Statues and Rosary Beads Demonic, Announces Halloween Mass Burning Event

By

Jesse T. Jackson

-

October 18, 2022

greg_lock_demonic_burn — Photo via Facebook @Pastor Greg Locke

On Monday (Oct. 17), Global Vision Church pastor Greg Locke announced another burning service, which will take place on the night of Halloween. The controversial pastor listed occult items that people should bring to burn in the fire. The list included Catholic statues and rosary beads.

Locke’s announcement comes less than a week after YouTube removed his sermon titled “Why I Told Halloween To Go To Hell” for violating community guidelines. Locke called the giant media platform’s decision a “joke.”

“This sermon has been up for a year and viewed by a massive amount of people,” Locke said. “And now, just before Halloween, they remove it. Don’t tell me there’s not a Satanic agenda.”

Locke isn’t afraid to speak his mind, on Monday, he warned those following him on Facebook to brace themselves, because his post was going to be controversial.

“The world had a melt down this past February when our church had a public burning of occult related items. I’ve been called Hitler 10,000 times for burning books and such. The news media was unsparing and the witchcraft world hasn’t stopped talking about it for the last 8 months,” Locke wrote.

Locke then explained that burning demonic items was a practice in the early church. The pastor cited Acts 19, where Luke records, “and a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.” Locke said, “Acts 19 is plain that BURNING is how we deal with cursed items and demonic trinkets and idols.”

“Deliverance ministry has set people free in unbelievable ways and has lifted the scales from so many eyes. We can’t go back and have no desire to do so. We have once again arrived at a place where people need to publicly let the devil know that we follow Christ and will have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,” Locke said.

The burning event will take place on October 31, the night of Halloween, at 7:00 p.m. in Global Vision Church’s parking lot. Locke told people that his church won’t be bullied by what critics have to say, advising people not to waste their time calling the fire department in an attempt to put out the fire for the burning event.

“Let me be clear,” Locke said. “Our church WILL be burning all occult related materials and there’s no backing down no matter who gets called or who shows up. We have a Biblical right and are fully covered by the law of the State of TN. Bring every form of witchcraft, the occult, new age, satanism and sorcery. It ALL NEEDS TO GO!! Cleanse your home from Harry Potter and ‘play’ witchcraft. It’s evil and should not be tolerated. Burn the dream catchers, spell books, healing crystals and Yoga related nonsense.”

Locke specifically called out any material that has to do with the Freemasons, saying, “If you want the curse removed from your home, you need to dispose of ANYTHING THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE EVIL OF THE MASONIC LODGE. I will not argue over such a wicked organization. Even the Masonic Network refuses to publicly debate me because they know I will expose all of their secret and demonic practices.”

St. Sabina Stands by Chicago Priest Rev. Michael Pfleger Amid Second Set of Abuse Allegations

By

Bob Smietana

-

October 18, 2022

The Rev. Michael Pfleger addresses supporters and media May 24, 2021, outside his church, the Faith Community of St. Sabina in Chicago's Auburn-Gresham neighborhood. RNS photo by Emily McFarlan Miller

(RNS) — A prominent Catholic parish in Chicago denounced abuse allegations against its popular pastor and demanded an investigation into those allegations be resolved quickly.

“God would not have blessed this ministry for over 40 — close to 50 years — if something dark needed to come to light,” Kimberly Lymore, associate minister at St. Sabina Parish, said during a service Sunday (Oct. 16).

The Rev. Michael Louis Pfleger, the longtime pastor of the predominantly Black congregation, has been temporarily removed from ministry after the Archdiocese of Chicago received an allegation of abuse against him. The alleged abuse of a minor— which comes less than two years after Pfleger was cleared of separate abuse accusations — is more than 30 years old, according to a letter from the diocese.

Pfleger was reinstated as pastor of St. Sabina in May of 2021 after an archdiocese review board cleared him of previous allegations of abuse. Known for his dynamic preaching and activism against gang violence and injustice, Pfleger, who is white, has led St. Sabina since the early 1980s and is one of the best-known clerics in Chicago.

“Let me be clear, I am completely innocent of this accusation,” Pfleger wrote in a letter to the parish, which was read during the Sunday Mass. “While I am confident that the new allegations will be determined to be unfounded this process is so unfair and painful to me and to the community I serve.”

Pfleger stepped down in January 2021 after two brothers accused him of abusing them 40 years earlier when they were minors, but he was later reinstated. The new allegations also involve abuse of a minor, this time from more than 30 years ago. He has denied all allegations.

Church members responded to his past suspension over abuse allegations by staging rallies on his behalf and threatening to withhold donations to the archdiocese.

The popular priest is no stranger to controversy. He took a leave of absence in 2008 after criticizing then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a church service and then was suspended in 2011 during a clash with former Chicago Cardinal Francis George, who tried to reassign him.

Just before Pfleger’s letter was read, the Rev. Tom Walsh, who led Mass in the pastor’s absence, read a letter from Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich.

“As is required by our child protection policies, the allegation was reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the law enforcement officials,” Cupich wrote. “The person making the allegation has been offered the services of our Victim Assistance Ministry and the archdiocese has begun its investigation and we will do our best to keep you informed.”

After reading the letter, Walsh crumpled it up and seemed ready to discard it, then said, “Whoops, sorry.”

Southern Baptist Support for Ukraine Continues; Seminary Forced to Meet in Bomb Shelter

By

Diana Chandler

-

October 18, 2022

LVIV, Ukraine (BP) – Russia’s increased attacks across Ukraine forced the Ukrainian Baptist Theological Seminary to hold classes in basement bomb shelters, UBTS President Yaroslav Pyzh said in a new video.

“Several days of our session, our students went in bomb shelter. We are lucky that we have basement and we are lucky that our building allows us to have sessions even when we have a raid siren,” Pyzh said in the video. “Russia is escalating conflict and bombing Ukraine all over the places.”

UBTS, with a pre-war enrollment of about 1,300 students in all class levels, enrolled 450 new incoming students in fall sessions, Pyzh said, thanking supporters whose generosity has allowed UBTS to continue serving the battered nation.

Southern Baptist giving through the Cooperative Program, which supports the infrastructure of the International Mission Board and Send Relief, continues to allow direct donations to make their way to where they are needed most.

Donations through Send Relief, the Southern Baptist compassion ministry, and monthly donations from numerous Southern Baptist churches continue to aid UBTS, allowing the school to waive tuition through the war, participate in humanitarian aid and support rebuilding efforts.

Southern Baptists also continue to support those who have fled the war, including refugees in eastern Europe and elsewhere, including the U.S.

Send Relief Vice President of International Ministry Jason Cox commended Southern Baptists for their continued support, sharing updated numbers that encompass about 40 percent of Southern Baptist work done to date to help refugees fleeing the war, the North American Mission Board told Baptist Press Oct. 17.

“Through our IMB (International Mission Board) missionaries and these Baptist partners, Send Relief has, so far, been able to facilitate 72 relief projects in 19 countries,” Cox said. “We’ve received reports from 27 completed projects, with others still ongoing, that already, 600,000 people have been impacted.”

More than 1,100 people have professed faith in Christ through the work, Cox said.

“Southern Baptists have made this possible through an incredible outpouring of generosity. To date, more than $12 million has been given towards the Ukraine crisis through Send Relief and IMB,” Cox said. “This is in addition to the ongoing support of Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program, without which we would not have Send Relief and IMB personnel on the ground in the first place to respond to crises like these.”

Send Relief President Bryant Wright also commended Southern Baptists for their continued support.

“The response from Baptists on both sides of the world to the Ukraine crisis has been inspiring,” Wright told Baptist Press. “From the beginning of the war until now, Baptist churches, conventions and seminaries in Ukraine and in surrounding nations have led out in welcoming and caring for displaced Ukrainians in the name of Jesus.

10 Things You Should Know About the Garden of Eden

By

Nancy Guthrie

-

October 18, 2022

Many people may not think about these ten things about the Garden of Eden. Here’s what you should know:

1. The Garden of Eden was good, but not yet fully glorious.

The Garden of Eden was bright and beautiful, and we tend to think of it in terms of perfection. But rather than thinking of Eden in terms of perfection, we should think of it in terms of potential. Certainly, Eden was pure and pristine, ordered and filled, but the Eden we read about in Genesis 1 and 2 wasn’t yet everything God intended for his creation. It was unsullied but incomplete.

From the very beginning, Eden was not meant to be static; it was headed somewhere. We could say there was an eschatology of Eden. God’s intentions for his creation have always been headed toward consummation, toward glory.

2. The Garden of Eden was abundant, but it wasn’t yet expansive.

Genesis 2:8 tells us that on the earth God created, “the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east.” He instructed Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1:28). Clearly there was an expansion project in the works. As Adam and Eve worked and kept the garden, and as they were fruitful and multiplied, Eden would grow beyond its current boundaries, and the glory of Adam and Eve’s royal rule would increase.

3. Eden was completely good, but it wasn’t completely secure.

As good as the original Garden of Eden was, it was vulnerable to evil, deception and even death. This becomes obvious when we consider that Satan inhabited the body of an ordinary serpent and brought death into the pristine garden. In Revelation 21, John takes care to assure us that this will not happen in the greater garden to come. It will be utterly secure. “Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27).

4. Eden had a rhythm of work and then rest, but not yet unending rest.

God did his work of creation, and then he rested. In his rest, God was setting before Adam something to look forward to when he accomplished his work of subduing the earth, exercising dominion over it, and filling it with image bearers. Had Adam faithfully finished the work, he and Eve and their offspring would have entered into a permanent Sabbath rest.

5. Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but not yet as glorious as God intended.

David wrote about the first man, “You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps. 8:5). Clearly Adam and Eve, having been made in God’s image, had a measure of his glory. Had they obeyed, they would have been transformed from one degree of glory to another. “Transformed from one degree of glory to another” has always been and still remains God’s plan for those made in his image. Even now, as the Holy Spirit works in us, we are being changed from one degree of glory to another. But it is the fullest resurrection glory we anticipate the most. “We await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:20–21).

6. Adam and Eve were naked, not yet robed in royal splendor.

When we read in Genesis 2 that Adam and Eve were naked in Eden, it may initially seem to us to be a good or neutral thing. But Moses’ original readers would have recognized that something was lacking. These were royal representatives of the great king. And royal representatives in Scripture are always dressed in royal robes (think of Joseph’s coat of many colors, Jonathan’s robe given to David, the robe and ring given to the prodigal son). The report of their nakedness indicated a need for royal clothing which would have been given to them had they faithfully exercised dominion. But instead of being further clothed, Adam and Eve lost the original glory that covered them. This is what made their nakedness before God so unbearable that they sought to cover themselves up with fig leaves.

7. Adam and Eve enjoyed one-flesh intimacy, but their bond was vulnerable to brokenness.

The love story in the Garden of Eden began with Adam and Eve enjoying bone-of-my-bones, flesh-of-my-flesh intimacy. But the same two people who were naked and unashamed are, only a few verses later, trying to cover up their shame. The same husband who held out his hand to his wife to welcome her, exclaiming, “At last!” only a few verses later points the finger of blame in her direction, saying, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate” (Gen. 3:12). This partnership that was intended to bless the world brought a curse upon the world.

Ever since this first marriage went so terribly wrong, God has been working out his plan to present a perfected bride to the perfect groom. The day will come when the shadow of temporary human marriage will give way to the substance—the eternal, unbreakable, most intimate marriage between Christ and his bride. This will be the happiest marriage of all time.

8. Adam and Eve enjoyed God’s presence, but they were vulnerable to his presence in judgment.

Adam and Eve experienced the joy of God’s presence with them in the garden before they sinned. But one aspect of his presence with them was the warning he gave them regarding the forbidden tree, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Gen. 2:17). When we read in Genesis 3:8 that Adam and Eve “heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” it was not as though God was taking his regular leisurely afternoon stroll in the garden. This was judgment day, which for Adam and Eve meant that it was also eviction day. No longer could they live in the holy sanctuary of Eden in the presence of a holy God, because they had become unholy people.

But God’s intention to dwell with a holy people in a holy land could not be thwarted by human sin. Instead, God began working out his plan to make it possible for sinners to be made clean and holy in order to live in his presence. The day is coming when, “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3).

9. Adam and Eve could have gained the knowledge of good and evil without eating from the forbidden tree.

When we read about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9), we might think that there must have been something essentially evil, even foreboding, about this tree. But it wasn’t forbidden because it was evil. Rather, it was evil because it was forbidden. God had put this tree in the garden to give Adam and Eve the opportunity to live out genuine faith and obedience. Adam and Eve could have used the wisdom God gave them through his word to judge the Serpent’s lies and rebellion against God as evil, while clinging to God’s goodness. Adam should have crushed the head of the evil serpent then and there. He should have squashed this rebellion rather than taking part in it. Had he done so, Adam and Eve would have been able to eat their fill of the tree of life, and enter into a heavenly life, without ever having to experience death.

10. The Garden of Eden had the tree of life, but Adam and Eve were prohibited from eating from it.

We’re not told specifically that Adam and Eve could not or did not eat of the Tree of Life that was in the midst of the garden. But it would seem that the fruit of this tree was a feast Adam and Eve would enjoy once they passed the test of obedience represented in the forbidden tree. Revelation 2:7 speaks of eating of the tree of life being granted to those who “overcome” or “conquer.” Clearly, Adam and Eve did not overcome temptation. They were meant to rule over creation but they couldn’t rule over their own appetites. Because of their disobedience they were barred from eating of the tree.

Revelation 22 reveals that the opportunity for God’s people to eat of the tree of life is not gone forever. Instead, the tree of life is gloriously planted in the center of the greater garden to come. In the Garden of Eden, the trees bore fruit in their season, which means once a year. But in the new and better Garden of Eden, the tree of life yields a new crop of fruit every month. In the Garden of Eden, the tree of life grew in the midst of the garden. But in the new Eden, the tree of life grows on either side of the river. It seems to have multiplied and expanded, implying that everyone will have access to it; all will be welcome to eat their fill. And it’s not just the fruit that will feed us; the leaves of this tree will heal us. In fact, they will heal everything.

Sometimes we hear the story of the Bible told as Creation-Fall-Redemption-Restoration. But as good as Eden was, we’re not merely headed back to Eden as it once was. The story of the Bible is Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consummation. We’re looking forward to a home that will be even better than Eden.

This post is adapted from Even Better than Eden by Nancy Guthrie. The article originally appeared on Crossway.org; used with permission.

11 Signs of an Emotionally Mature Christian

By

Pete Scazzero

-

October 18, 2022

emotionally mature christian — Lightstock #983358

Are you a mature Christian? Why are so many Christians judgmental, unaware and defensive? Part of the answer lies in a failure to biblically integrate emotional health and spiritual maturity.

A vast industry exists around emotional intelligence that ignores spirituality. A vast amount of information also exists that defines a “mature” Christian. Rarely are the two integrated.

11 Signs of an Emotionally Mature Christian:

1. You anchor your life in the love of Jesus.

You don’t divide your life into “secular” and “sacred” compartments. Instead, you rather enjoy communion with Him in all areas of your life—work, recreation, church and parenting. Toward that end, you regularly practice spiritual disciplines (e.g., meditation on Scripture, silence, solitude, community, confession, worship) to position yourself to practice His presence all throughout the day.

2. You break the power of the past.

You can identify how issues from your family of origin (e.g., character flaws, ways of coping with pain) impact your current relationships and decisions. As a result, you are reflective and open to feedback from trustworthy sources in order to minimize the negative impact of your past and live freely in the new family of Jesus.

3. You listen to your anger, sadness and fear.

You take the necessary time to experience and process these “difficult” emotions. Thus, you are able to express anger, hurt and sadness in ways that lead to growth in others and yourself.

4. You slow down for Sabbath.

You regularly set aside a 24-hour period in which you stop your work and practice Sabbath—setting a healthy limit around your paid and unpaid work. This rhythm of stopping, resting, delighting and contemplating God informs the structure of your week.

5. You recognize your brokenness and vulnerability.

People experience you as approachable, gentle, open and transparent. This is evidenced by the way you receive criticism without becoming defensive. You easily admit when you’re wrong and freely talk about your weaknesses, failures and mistakes.

How to Grow Small Groups – 5 Paradigm Shifts

By

Derek Olson

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October 18, 2022

how to grow small groups — Adobestock #537159163

While the phrase Paradigm Shift may be used and heard a lot today, the actual occurrence of one is still a rare sight, especially when considering how to grow small groups.

A paradigm shift can be defined as a dramatic change by members of a group or community in the cognitive framework of basic assumptions, ways of thinking, underlying suspicions and methodology. I believe a true paradigm shift in small group ministry can release a desperately needed disciple-making revolution in our churches.

For many years, small groups were seen merely as an assimilation tool. In other words, if you get new church attenders plugged-in to a small group, they won’t be able to sneak out the “back door.” While this was (and is) a real benefit of small groups, it was an isolated motivator that typically didn’t generate enough sustainable momentum for churches to eventually see the “back door” shrink or close.

Since then, small groups have been re-discovered as an oasis for community, transparency and best friends. In other words, you need a small group to form close-knit, Christian relationships in your life that allow you to be vulnerable and cared for. While this was (and is) a real benefit of small groups, it created two unforeseeable reactions:

A. Scared them away for good.

People who weren’t already in a group became reinforced in their lack of participation because they didn’t want any more relationships in their life. The thought of having to create new, deep bonds with strangers was an overwhelming one.

B. Unrealistic Expectations.

People got out of their comfort zones to visit a group, loaded with high expectations. When they arrived, and looked around, they had trouble seeing their future “bestie” across the room and left disappointed, never to return again.

I have personally navigated my way through these paradigms of small groups. In many churches, if we are going to learn how to do small groups, we will need a paradigm shift to unlock the potential God has hidden in them.

How to Grow Small Groups – 5 Paradigm Shifts

1. Promote spiritual growth more than you focus on how to grow small groups.

When your church is communicating to your people about upcoming opportunities to join a small group, talk more about what aspect of spiritual growth the group will be focusing on instead of the nuts and bolts of group life.

Can people meet new people at a small group? Yes.

Can people develop flourishing friendships over time at a small group? Sure, it’s possible…

But don’t talk about that!

Talk about the study the group is going to go through. Talk about how you believe people will grow as a result of going through the group curriculum. Elevate the value of participation in group life for personal development to the same levels that you also do for the weekend services, daily devotions, serving, giving etc.

Why? For one, it’s the truth; and two, it will give your people a healthy focus at the beginning while everyone gets comfortable and gets to know each other. When it comes to small groups, most American Christians tend to get excited about content before being hooked by community.

2. Your vision must be to see every single individual in the church connected into a small group.

Don’t move onto to the next point because you think that you’re already doing this. A lot of churches have this as their goal, but they’ve set the deadline five to six years down the road. I’m not talking about hitting this goal in five to six years, if you are truly interested in how to grow small groups, I’m talking about hitting it in the next five to six months.

It will radically alter your prayers and approach. You will begin asking questions you never asked before…

How many people are connected in groups right now?
How many groups would we need to connect every single person in our church?
How many new people will we need to find to spearhead all of the new groups?
What tweaks do we need to make to our ministry model to make it possible to hit our goal?

Remember: Your present ministry structure creates the perfect conditions for the current outcomes you have. If you’re looking for a dramatic difference in results of how to grow small groups, you’ll need a dramatically different design.

3. To grow small groups, the lead pastor must be the small group champion.

You can always have a volunteer or staff pastor lead the charge behind-the-scenes, but if you want your entire church to mobilize into groups, they need to hear it and feel it from their leader. This is the practical advice I give to lead pastors:

In the first week of a new groups launch, find one small group to visit one time. At the next weekend service, take the first one to two minutes of your message talking about your experience.

4. Your groups can’t be hardcore without an actual core.

If small groups and discipleship are going to grow in your church, the leadership core of the church must be all-in. In fact, without the core, things will just be hard.

Remember, it’s not the worship leader’s job to worship for the church. It’s also not the small group pastor’s job to do small groups for the church either. Jesus commanded all of us to “make disciples” (Matthew 28:19-20). When the church sees buy-in from the influencers regarding the church’s discipleship philosophy, it will remove any confusion about what the priorities should be in their own life.

If you’re the point person for group life at your church, please don’t use #3 and #4 as the catalyst to tear your clothes and proclaim a holy rebuke. Use these insights as fuel for prayer and as conversation starters with key leaders who know your heart.

5. The end-game of small group discipleship is to send out disciple-makers.

The end-game cannot simply be to get people connected to each other. Remember, we want to see people grow in our groups. Think about growth in your small group ministry in the following stages…

Seeing every single person connected in a group
Seeing people in groups grow from consuming to contributing
Seeing disciple-makers raised up within groups and sent out to start new groups

This mindset can take time to cultivate but it’s an important one to maintain for kingdom discipleship. Not everyone in small groups will eventually lead their own group one day, but there should be a few people in each group that are in the process of being sent out to fulfill the mission of disciple-making. This dynamic not only facilitates future growth, it raises the sense of significance for each group and provokes other group members to have a higher vision for their own spiritual formation as well.

I pray that one or more of these five paradigms spawn fresh waves of thought, ideas and energy for you. Which one(s) stand out to you the most?

This article about how to grow small groups originally appeared here.

Pumpkin Prayer Craft: Kids Will Love This Fun Fall Activity

By

Courtney Kirk

-

October 17, 2022

Make a pumpkin prayer craft with kids in your Sunday school class or children’s ministry program. Children will have a blast while learning a lasting message about interacting with God. Read the tips below for a safe, powerful autumn activity.

No matter how your church or ministry approaches Halloween, it’s possible to turn our focus toward God. Here’s a great activity that’s a hit with kids.

How to Do a Pumpkin Prayer Craft

In our Sunday school class, kids sat in a circle while I carved a Jack-O-Lantern and shared the Pumpkin Prayer. I cheated a bit. Beforehand, I had cut the top off and cleaned out the inside, leaving just enough to pull out for that part of the prayer.

If I had thought about it, I would have roasted the seeds and let the kids eat them while listening and watching. I cut the eyes as we talked about “opening our eyes” to see God’s love. Then I cut the mouth as we talked about “sharing” God’s Word. You get the idea. And at the end, I placed a flashing LED light inside. Then kids could see our lights shining for God in all we say and do!

Then it was their turn. No, I was not too comfortable with the idea of handing a bunch of elementary kids sharp objects. So I passed out miniature pumpkins and these awesome acrylic paint markers. Then kids could draw their Jack-O-Lanterns to take home with the Pumpkin Prayer. (And down the road, they can use the markers to make prayer rocks or story stones. The possibilities are endless!)

Finally, I emailed the Pumpkin Prayer (below) to parents. I suggested that as a family, they carve pumpkins as they go through the prayer. We will see how many give it a shot!

This article about a pumpkin prayer craft for fall originally appeared here.

Ex-Atheist Lee Strobel Shares 4 Powerful Facts That Prove Jesus Resurrected from the Dead

By

Kelsey Straeter

-

October 17, 2022

Atheist turned Christian apologist Lee Strobel is one man who is not easily swayed without evidence.

When he was the legal editor of The Chicago Tribune, Strobel says, “I would have smirked at the fact Easter (in 2018) fell on April Fool’s Day because back then I thought anyone would have to be a fool to think that Jesus literally rose from the dead.”

But after discovering what he can only describe as an “avalanche of historical data” in his quest to disprove the Resurrection, the famed Case for Christ author can no longer refute that Jesus Christ IS who he said he is — the resurrected Son of God.

In the video below, Strobel outlined four major reasons that prove Jesus died AND rose from the dead.

Firstly, there’s no dispute among scholars that Jesus was dead after being crucified. Even renowned atheist and medical journals agree it’s “historically indisputable” that he was, in fact, dead. Strobel also points to the fact that very early reports of Jesus’ resurrection and an empty tomb (that even Jesus’ enemies attested to) prove the accounts can’t be written off as legend. Lastly, the ex-atheist explains that numerous ancient sources both inside and outside the New Testament confirm and corroborate the conviction of the disciples that they encountered the resurrected Christ.

Strobel says upon his conversion, he did not have a rush of emotion as many do, but rather the “rush of reason” after seeing Jesus’ claims were backed by historical evidence that could not be denied:

“I had the rush of reason because the Resurrection of Jesus is not some April Fool’s Day joke, it is a historical reality based not on mythology or make-believe or wishful thinking, but a solid foundation of historical truth.”

When I was an atheist and legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, I would have smirked at the fact that Easter this year falls on April Fool’s Day. Because back then I thought that anyone would have to be a fool to think that Jesus literally rose from the dead. One day my wife gave me the news that she’d become a Christian and so I decided to take my journalism training and legal training and debunk the resurrection of Jesus. So I spent two years of my life analyzing the historical data. And what I found really shocked me. I recounted in my book The Case for Miracles.

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Barbara Danner

Along with the picture above, Barbara shared these words detailing the emotional encounter:

Lucas Black’s Journey in Hollywood

1. The Garden of Eden was good, but not yet fully glorious.

2. The Garden of Eden was abundant, but it wasn’t yet expansive.

3. Eden was completely good, but it wasn’t completely secure.

4. Eden had a rhythm of work and then rest, but not yet unending rest.

5. Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but not yet as glorious as God intended.

6. Adam and Eve were naked, not yet robed in royal splendor.

7. Adam and Eve enjoyed one-flesh intimacy, but their bond was vulnerable to brokenness.

8. Adam and Eve enjoyed God’s presence, but they were vulnerable to his presence in judgment.

9. Adam and Eve could have gained the knowledge of good and evil without eating from the forbidden tree.

10. The Garden of Eden had the tree of life, but Adam and Eve were prohibited from eating from it.

11 Signs of an Emotionally Mature Christian:

1. You anchor your life in the love of Jesus.

2. You break the power of the past.

3. You listen to your anger, sadness and fear.

4. You slow down for Sabbath.

5. You recognize your brokenness and vulnerability.

A. Scared them away for good.

B. Unrealistic Expectations.

How to Grow Small Groups – 5 Paradigm Shifts

1. Promote spiritual growth more than you focus on how to grow small groups.

2. Your vision must be to see every single individual in the church connected into a small group.

3. To grow small groups, the lead pastor must be the small group champion.

4. Your groups can’t be hardcore without an actual core.

5. The end-game of small group discipleship is to send out disciple-makers.

How to Do a Pumpkin Prayer Craft

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