2 Reasons We Ignore Our Weaknesses Instead of Addressing Them

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June 3, 2022

The common leadership counsel to focus on your strengths is wise, with one important caveat. Your weaknesses must be addressed and brought to an acceptable norm or they will overshadow your strengths. Yes, focus on your strengths, but your weaknesses cannot be so overwhelming as to debilitate your leadership credibility. In his book, The Leadership Code, Dave Ulrich challenges leaders to be at least average in key disciplines of leadership or their weakness will crush them. Yet many leaders choose to ignore their weaknesses completely for the following two reasons:

1. We think our strengths are stronger than they are.

One primary reason leaders ignore their weaknesses is they overestimate their strengths. Overestimating your strengths is often synonymous with underestimating your shortcomings. A leader who overestimates his/her own strengths can unwisely ignore his/her weaknesses. The leader can shrug off the need to address certain leadership deficiencies because the leader assumes, “but I am so very strong in this area.” Having a higher view of oneself than one should always leads to foolish decision-making.

2. We hate to admit we are weak.

To address our shortcomings, we must first admit we have them, and we hate to admit we are weak. Pride keeps leaders from admitting their weaknesses and addressing them. Pride always hampers our effectiveness and our learning. But wise leaders admit their weaknesses, rely on others, and seek to grow and mature.

Of all leaders, Christian leaders should be the first to admit and address their weaknesses. Our faith is not for the strong, but for the weak. And we are all weak. We became Christians by recognizing our weakness, our inability to qualify ourselves to stand before God, and by relying on God for His mercy and grace. We continue in the faith by humbly depending on God’s strength, not by standing in our own. We live as Christians by walking in community with others who hold us up, who encourage us, and by refusing to live independently from others.

The cross has already shown us to be weak. Therefore, we can freely admit our weaknesses and seek to grow.

This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.

An Indelible Collection of Eugene Peterson Quotes

By

Malachi O'Brien

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June 3, 2022

Eugene Peterson was a friend of rock legend Bono, a scholar-legend among the living, a discipleship thought-leader before the term was popular, and he was a pastor to pastors. The vault of Eugene Peterson quotes from his selected works seems never-ending.

Eugene Peterson’s Life Impacted Us All

He lived 85 years exactly what he first wrote; his life was “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” May his message impact a new generation of scholars, pastors, and leaders. We are losing the legends that live among us. Thank you, Jesus, for the life of #EugenePeterson

Eugene Peterson Quotes From the Vast Wealth of his Work

“The way of Jesus cannot be imposed or mapped—it requires an active participation in following Jesus as he leads us through sometimes strange and unfamiliar territory, in circumstances that become clear only in the hesitations and questionings, in the pauses and reflections where we engage in prayerful conversation with one another and with him.”
― Eugene H. Peterson

“A Christian congregation is a company of praying men and women who gather, usually on Sundays, for worship, who then go into the world as salt and light.”
― Eugene H. Peterson

“We don’t need more words; we need accurate words.”
― Eugene H. Peterson

“All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers. We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us.”
― Eugene Peterson

Pastors are People Too

By

Todd Outcalt

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June 3, 2022

Parson (from Latin persona—meaning “person”)

Parsonage (from Latin—a rectory or house, where a person lives)

Pastors are People Too

For a pastor, the deepest levels of satisfaction and intimacy in a parish occur when others begin to see the pastor as a person—a person with hopes and dreams, loves and fears, joys and tears. This revelation is not easily obtained in the parish; and the becoming is often hidden behind many masks, false identities and plagiarized identifications.

Pastors are people too, but for these reasons and more, not every pastor becomes a person.

Some pastors choose to remain incognito—disguised behind thin layers of superiority (or inferiority), behind cardboard and cliché, always dressed up in the costumes of resident sage, spiritual guide, exemplar of the faith. These pastors rarely become persons, however, at least not their own persons; and even in the best of circumstances, they are forced to live one of two lives: the character or the actor. In time, they scarcely can distinguish one from the other; neither the character nor the actor captures the essence of his or her personhood. Pastors are people, too, unless they choose to remain incognito.

Other pastors cannot break free of the costumes their congregations force them to wear. These costumes are binding, humiliating, often funny. Wherever they go, whoever they are or hope to be, these pastors always must wear the official face, the accepted expression, the look that others expect them to wear. They must speak the words others expect them to speak. Their attire is limited, and they essentially are avatars, walking the parish beat, mere representations of the overblown images and stereotypes that must be fulfilled. These pastors are often miserable in their shackles, yet cannot bring themselves to break free. If they are lucky, they will die young. Pastors are people too, but many only can dream of becoming persons.

Still other pastors attempt to masquerade as priests, but they know they are persons; the game begins to eat away at the seams that are holding their costumes together. They are moth-ridden, torn, and in time their costumes begin to drop away in tattered swatches, exposing them for who they really are or want to be; Pastors are people, too, but they are embarrassed by being a person, and some would rather dress the part again instead of exposing their vulnerabilities.

It is difficult to be a pastor who is a person. Often, it is more difficult to find a parish that will allow a person to be a pastor. Many congregations prefer the masquerade, the slight-of-hand artist, the hall of mirrors.

Pastors are people too, but pastors who become persons in the parish are rare. When other persons accept the pastor as a person, all are set free. The people realize they have a person in their midst. This is a person who feels, who cares, who is real—not an imaginary hero or a quick-change artist. Many people—especially those whose lives have been exposed or destroyed—will come to a person for help. A person might understand, might actually listen. A person would not offer platitudes or scripted lines. A person might cry, laugh, sit in silence or show up for a party wearing blue jeans and toting a gag gift. A person would be real.

‘My Life Was an Absolute Living Hell’—Another Woman Alleges Abuse at Hands of Pastor John Lowe’s Son

By

Jessica Mouser

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June 2, 2022

Jeremiah Lowe — Bobi and Nate Gephart confront Pastor John B. Lowe II on Sunday, May 22. Screenshot from Facebook / @Maisey Cook

Editor’s note: This article contains descriptions of emotional, physical, and sexual violence that some may find triggering.

Another woman has come forward with her own story of abuse in connection with Pastor John B. Lowe II of New Life Christian Church and World Outreach in Warsaw, Indiana. She says she was married to Lowe’s son, Jeremiah Lowe, for four years, during which time he was violent, abusive and even beat one of her dogs to death.

“Since other brave men and women have come forward with their stories, I am coming forward with a little more of mine,” said the woman, whom ChurchLeaders has chosen not to identify by name. She is at least the second survivor to have come forward alleging abuse at the hands of Jeremiah Lowe.

Jeremiah Lowe, John Lowe, and New Life Christian Church

Jeremiah Lowe is the son of John B. Lowe II, who until recently was pastor of New Life Christian Church. During the Sunday service on May 22, Lowe stood in front of the New Life congregation and confessed to a past affair, saying it happened 20 years ago, had continued for “far too long,” and that he had remained silent in order to protect himself and others from embarrassment. Now, however, he would be stepping away from his position in order to pursue a biblical process of repentance.

But after Lowe finished speaking Bobi Gephart and her husband, Nate, walked onstage and told the congregation that Lowe had not in fact committed adultery. Rather, he had sex with Bobi Gephart when she was 16 years old. Gephart and her family have since elaborated that Lowe abused and groomed Gephart prior to assaulting her at age 16.

“Lying to protect the Lowe family for years,” said Bobi Gephart, “I thought I was a horrible person, having suicidal thoughts and not realizing that what had been truly done to me—that I was a victim.” Gephart said she has “lived in a prison of lies and shame” and also alleged that Lowe had protected a former associate pastor by helping him to move on to another church even though that pastor had molested his own daughters.

After the Gepharts confronted Lowe, a woman named Jessi Kline, published her story on Facebook, alleging that Lowe’s son, Jeremiah, molested her as a child. When Kline’s family confronted John Lowe and his wife, Debra, the Lowes said the matter would be handled internally. The Klines were later ostracized from the church.

Since Kline shared her story, another survivor has come forward regarding her own alleged abuse at the hands of Jeremiah Lowe. She posted a picture of herself smiling on a couch with her two dogs, as well as a pictures of a letter from her mother-in-law encouraging her to remain in her marriage. In her statement, the woman said:

What you can’t see behind that smile was that my life was an absolute living hell. What you can’t see is that on numerous occasions I thought this was going to be it for me, the walls of that dumpy trailer were going to be the last thing I saw as I finally suffered for the last time at the hands of my abuser. What you can’t see is the fear I lived in every day not knowing what would set him off or if that day or if would be a day I could just breathe for a moment. What you can’t hear is the sound of items being thrown or broken, the sounds of my abuser screaming at me and calling me horrible names, the sound of me crying, being drug down the hall by my hair, and pleading with him to just stop. What you can’t see in this picture is that a year later that sweet puppy dog in the front would be brutally beaten to death while I was at work one morning and dumped by the side of the road in attempts to make it look like an “accident.” The other one would be taken from my apartment as ransom during our divorce process and I was told by Jeremy that if I did not come talk to him, that he was going to release the dog in the middle of U.S. 30. This is just a handful of the things I went through and unfortunately there are so many more.

SBC Executive Committee Member Joe Knott ‘Terrified’ To Implement Policies To ‘Protect Children or Women’

By

Dale Chamberlain

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June 2, 2022

In a special-called meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Executive Committee (EC), held via Zoom on Thursday, EC member Joe Knott expressed that he is “terrified” at the thought of the SBC implementing policies “to protect children or women,” policies he believes will open the SBC up to class action lawsuits that pose an existential threat to the denomination.

Knott is a lawyer who lives in Raleigh, NC, and has served as a lay leader in his church for more than 30 years. He is also on the steering council for the Conservative Baptist Network, an association of Southern Baptist leaders who believe that the SBC is drifting away from conservative Christian values and desire to “turn the SBC back to the Bible.”

In the special-called meeting, the EC financial committee presented budgetary recommendations to be presented to Southern Baptist messengers at the annual meeting in June, particularly with regard to the allocation of resources in response to the recommendations of the Sexual Abuse Taskforce (SATF).

Following the public release of Guidepost Solutions’ report about the EC’s handling of sexual abuse allegations over the past two decades, the SATF made a number of recommendations for reform.

Earlier in the meeting, EC members also voted to ratify a statement of repentance for the failings of the EC outlined in the 288-page Guidepost Solutions report. The motion carried with 92% of the vote, with Knott not only voting the motion down but also requesting that his dissent be recorded in the meeting’s minutes.

Toward the end of the meeting, most of which was spent discussing the finer points of budgetary allocations with regard to SATF recommendations, Knott voiced his deep concern with adopting any of the recommendations presented in the Guidepost Solutions report.

“With all due respect, and I say this very humbly, this entire endeavor is terrifying me. And here’s why—I speak as a lawyer now,” Knott said. “The funds we’ve been spending thus far for legal fees have been paying our lawyers, and it’s been significant. Lawyers are expensive. But that pales in comparison to paying judgments…When you lose cases and have judgments to pay, you can be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.”

“And everything that we’re talking about today with the Taskforce and implementing policies to ensure this and that—I am terrified that we are breaching our longstanding position of being a voluntary association of independent churches,” Knott continued. “When we start telling churches that they should do this or do that to protect children or women, and it turns out—which it will—that women and children are still going to be victimized, then someone is going to say, ‘You did not do enough.’”

Indicating that his main point of concern was legal exposure, Knott explained, “And when they say that, that is a question of fact, which could support a lawsuit. And not just one lawsuit by one victim but by thousands of victims, if we have not done enough.”

“We spend a million dollars, two million dollars, five million dollars, 10 million dollars to try to protect women and children, and I guarantee you women and children are going to be victimized no matter how much we spend,” Knott said. “And that is going to make us, potentially, targets of great class action lawsuits, which could be the end of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Knott then argued that the solution to sin in the SBC is missions work and providing theological training for pastors.

‘Radicalized Christians’ Pervert Bible to Justify Violence, Says ‘The View’ Cohost

By

Stephanie Martin

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June 2, 2022

During a spirited discussion Tuesday about America’s epidemic of mass shootings, two cohosts on ABC’s “The View” decried how some Christians twist Bible passages to support their beliefs about guns and slavery.

Tara Setmayer, a senior adviser for the Lincoln Project, addressed the “disturbing…rise in violent Christian nationalism,” saying adherents “prevent…biblical principles to justify this.” She added, “Particularly in Texas, this is a growing movement. It’s God, guns, and Trump. Or God, guns, and whatever. It’s a part of their ethos.”

After Fox News wrote that Setmayer blamed Christian nationalism for mass shootings, she pushed back on Twitter. She emphasized that she was addressing a gun maker’s tweet featuring a child, an assault rifle, and Proverbs 22:6. The company, Daniel Defense, has since removed the post.

Tara Setmayer Is Alarmed by Radicalized Christians

Tara Setmayer, who describes herself as a “principled conservative,” cut ties with the Republican Party in 2020 due to the “malignancy of Trumpism.” She has been filling in as a guest host this week on “The View.”

On Twitter Thursday, Setmayer called out Fox News and its reporter, urging them to “correct your headline & story” because “it’s dishonest and inaccurate.” She writes: “My comments are in the context of the gun maker’s ad featuring a child & using a Bible verse. I never tie violent Christian nationalism to Uvalde.”

Setmayer has appeared on other outlets to warn against the “radicalization of the Christian evangelical movement.” On “The Breakdown” last week, she described being “alarmed” by the movement’s rapid acceleration. “They are so perverting the Bible and what Christianity stands for,” she told the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson.

“This is no different than the radicalization of Muslims and calling for Muslim jihad,” Setmayer continued. “Because they are calling for violence. They’re using biblical Scripture to justify violence… and they’re rationalizing violence. That is not a joke at all.”

Referring to controversial Pastor Greg Locke, who has spoken about insurrection, Setmayer added, “That Tennessee pastor is a heretic, as far as I’m concerned…That’s not the Christian church I grew up in, and I don’t know what Bible he’s reading from.”

Whoopi Goldberg: Christians Used Bible to Justify Slavery

Following Setmayer’s comments on “The View,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg added that Scripture-twisting isn’t new. “This was the way it was down South,” she said. “They used to use the Bible and say you’re not people, God doesn’t see you as people, so we don’t see you as people.”

Missouri Pastor Charged With Murder of Man He Believes Was in an Extramarital Affair With His Wife

By

Dale Chamberlain

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June 2, 2022

Missouri pastor Matthew Dedmon, 47, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Joe Newburn, 57. Dedmon believed that Newburn was engaged in an extramarital affair with his wife.

Dedmon had been the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church, a KJV-only independent Baptist church in Rogersville, Missouri. The church’s website and Facebook page appear to have been taken down since Dedmon’s arrest. The congregation had been associated with Global Independent Baptist Fellowship.

According to KY3, investigators said Dedmon discovered his wife having lunch with Newburn on Saturday afternoon (May 28). Dedmon went to the restaurant in Ozark, Missouri, to contact his wife, whom he had seen in the same car with Newburn earlier that day.

Police said that after confronting Newburn and accusing the two of having an affair, Dedmon shot Newburn in the chest three times with a pistol.

Dedmon allegedly placed the pistol back in his vehicle. Police, who arrived on the scene just before 1 p.m., recovered it when they arrived, according to Springfield News-Leader.

Newburn was taken to a Cox South Hospital in Springfield, where he was ultimately pronounced dead.

Dedmon was initially taken into custody on the scene as a person of interest, has now been charged with first-degree murder, and is being held without bail.

Brad Eubank To Be Nominated for SBC First Vice President

By

Brandon Porter

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June 2, 2022

Brad Eubank To Be Nominated for SBC First Vice President — Photo courtesy of Baptist Press

MAGEE, Miss. (BP) – A Mississippi pastor has announced plans to nominate a fellow Mississippi pastor who is a sexual abuse survivor to serve in the role of SBC first vice president. Adam Wyatt announced his intentions to nominate Brad Eubank, senior pastor of Petal First Baptist Church in Petal, Miss., to serve in the role.

“Brad’s conservative commitment to our convention and his passionate spirit of cooperation are exactly what our convention needs,” said Wyatt, pastor of Corinth Baptist Church in Magee.

Eubank, 50, has served at Petal First Baptist since 2012. He has 32 years of pastoral experience serving churches in Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, according to a press release.

Since 2012, Petal First Baptist has increased its Cooperative Program (CP) giving from $8,593 to $72,581, according to the 2021 Annual Church Profile (ACP). In 2021, the church gave 9.8 percent of its undesignated gifts and offerings to CP, according to ACP data.

The church has averaged 21 baptisms per year since 2012, reporting 18 in 2021.

“As Southern Baptists seek to address the horrifying realities outlined in the Task Force report, we must have leaders who are both biblically faithful and sensitive to pleas from the survivor community for much-needed reforms,” Wyatt said in the release.

According to the recent Guidepost Solutions report on the alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims, Eubank was sexually abused as a child by a minister of music at a Southern Baptist church in Mississippi.

John Langworthy was sentenced to a 50-year suspended sentence for sex crimes. According to a September 16, 2011, story in The Christian Post, Langworthy confessed to members of Morrison Heights Baptist in Clinton, Miss., that he had committed “sexual indiscretions with teenage boys in Texas and Mississippi.”

Southern Baptist Abuse Task Force Requests $3 Million for Reforms, ‘Ministry Check’ Website

By

Bob Smietana

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June 2, 2022

abuse task force — People enter the Music City Center for the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting, June 15, 2021, in Nashville, Tennessee. RNS photo by Kit Doyle

(RNS) — A Southern Baptist task force has asked the denomination to set up a “Ministry Check” website to track abusive pastors, church employees and volunteers and to spend millions on reforms to prevent abuse and care for survivors.

Most of the suggested reforms are voluntary. Some could involve years of study and preparation, prompting a skeptical response from some abuse survivors and advocates.

Those requests for reforms, released Wednesday (June 1), would also include hiring a national staff person who would receive reports of abuse and forward them to church leaders for a response; increasing training for churches; doing background checks on the trustees who oversee Southern Baptist entities; and encouraging state conventions to consider hiring staff to respond to abuse allegations.

Those requests are part of a series of recommendations from the Southern Baptist Convention’s sexual abuse task force, which oversaw a recent investigation into how leaders in the 13.7 million-member convention have responded to abuse.

That investigation found that leaders of the SBC’s Executive Committee had shown callous disregard for abuse survivors — often demonizing or ignoring them — while working at all costs to protect the denomination from liability.

In response to the report, the task force has proposed two sets of recommendations.

The first set of requests — made to the Executive Committee, state conventions and other Baptist entities — are voluntary. That may make them ineffective, said Christa Brown, an abuse survivor and longtime activist, who called the task force’s recommendations disappointing.

“I don’t give much credence to suggestions and requests because they are toothless,” she said.

The task force will also ask local church representatives, known as messengers, to approve an abuse reform implementation task force during the SBC’s annual meeting in June. That task force would study abuse reforms recommended by Guidepost Solutions, the firm that ran the abuse investigation, and then report back in 2023. Among the Guidepost suggestions is creating a fund to care for survivors.

“They are kicking the can down the road,” said Brown. “I am gutted.”

If approved, the task force would serve for three years and would act “as a resource in abuse prevention, crisis response, and survivor care to Baptist bodies who voluntarily seek assistance.”

The task force would also work with the SBC’s Executive Committee and Credentials Committee, which has the power to kick churches that mishandle abuse out of the SBC.

Meet the First Minister of Gun Violence Prevention

By

Emily McFarlan Miller

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June 2, 2022

(RNS) — When the Rev. Deanna Hollas heard about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, she was shocked, but she wasn’t surprised.

Three years into her role as the first ordained minister of gun violence prevention in the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States — likely in any denomination — Hollas is never surprised by gun violence.

That’s what happens in a world where there are more guns than there are people, she said.

Just over a week before Uvalde, there was the shooting at a Taiwanese church in Southern California. A day before that, it was the shooting at a supermarket in a predominantly Black community in Buffalo, New York.

Every single day, Hollas said — pointing to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — incidents involving guns take more than 120 lives.

“The mass shootings capture our attention because it could be us. The randomness feels so much worse as opposed to the one child that gets ahold of a gun or the one that gets shot by a drive-by shooting. Those, oftentimes, we’ve become numb to, and we’ve just expected them to be normal, but it’s not. It’s not normal,” she said.

“It’s only because we have so many guns.”

Hollas, a Texas native, became interested in gun violence prevention in 2016 when the state passed a law allowing guns on college campuses. Worried about her daughter, then a student at Texas Tech University, she joined the group Moms Demand Action as “really just a cry for help: ‘What do I do? How can I make a difference?’”

The Rev. Deanna Hollas. Courtesy photo

She was ordained specifically to the call of gun violence prevention in 2019 by Grace Presbytery, which includes Presbyterian Church (USA) congregations in North, Northeast and Central Texas. During the service, she was presented with an orange stole — not a traditional liturgical color, but a color used nationally to symbolize gun violence prevention. The congregation debuted a new hymn: “If We Just Talk of Thoughts and Prayers” by the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey-Gillette.

The Rev. Steve Shive, interim general presbyter of Grace Presbytery, said the presbytery has always been 100% supportive of Hollas’ call because “we have all seen the effects of gun violence in our culture and our society.”

For decades, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has urged its members to study, dialogue and act to prevent gun violence, Shive noted. That goes back to the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, according to the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.

Other mainline denominations have also joined, like the Episcopal Church’s Bishops United Against Gun Violence.

One Key Way Leaders Can Build Trust

By

Phil Cooke

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June 2, 2022

Pastor Craig Groeschel has a great quote on leadership: “People would rather follow a leader that is real than one that is always right.” He’s on target because great leadership is about trust. If people don’t trust you, they won’t follow you – no matter how “right” your decisions.

The problem is, most leaders feel like they’ll lose the confidence of their team, employees, or followers if they change their mind about an issue. Their insecurities force them to stay on course no matter how wrong that course may be.

We saw that played out here in the United States with our national leaders during the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though new information was coming in, data was being updated, and early estimates were proven wrong, medical and political leadership stayed the course. While our economy was being crippled, mental health plummeting, children falling behind in school (and much more), I can’t recall anyone at the national level actually admitting they were wrong, and adjusting their policies based on the new information.

So it’s not surprising that during that time, polls indicated that the American people’s trust in those leaders plummeted as well.

People trust a leader who is open to new information, willing to be challenged, and knows the world is changing by the minute. Not someone who is wishy-washy or is constantly swayed by the latest fad, but one who sees the world as it is, and is willing to respond.

Egotistical leaders find that kind of honesty and openness a challenge. But confident leaders know that reality is more important than their assumptions.

It’s worth repeating: “People would rather follow a leader that is real than one that is always right.”

This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.

The Difference Between Change and Transformation

By

Gavin Adams

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June 2, 2022

Statistics show approximately 80 percent of change efforts fail. That’s a shockingly high percentage of churches and organizations that attempt to improve only to lose. Over time, the consistent failure rate gave birth to many change management techniques and processes, but even with these in place, the rate of success remains relatively unchanged. Why?

I believe the answer is primarily in verbiage.

Words matter. Is it possible that better words would lead to better change metrics? Perhaps.

We tend to interchange words, assuming they have the same, or at least similar, meaning.

This is true for change and transformation. These words are similar and directly connected, but unique in their usage and hopeful outcome. I’d love to define each term first, then discuss when each element is most valuable.

First, some definitions.

CHANGE

Change is what leaders do to make things better. Change typically focuses on past issues and present solutions. Change adjusts current actions, behaviors, and tactics. Some changes are minor, and some more significant. Most change efforts are incremental, affecting a portion of an organization, like a department. Change is vital for organizations and challenging to lead, but alone, making things better isn’t enough to ensure future success.

For example, replacing the sound system in your auditorium, adding breakfast for your volunteer teams, or swapping children’s ministry curriculum are changes. Each change carries the potential to make something better.

TRANSFORMATION

If change makes something better, transformation makes a better something. Transformation isn’t simply a more extensive change. Change makes old things better, while transformation replaces the old with the new. Transformation moves from individual behaviors to organizational beliefs, values, and culture. The scope and scale of transformation often disturb and disrupt every process and person within an organization, making transformation further reaching and more complex than change.

Change and transformation are connected, though. Every transformation requires changes, but not all changes are transformational. Transformations require an aligned accumulation of incremental changes pointed in the eventual transformation direction. This distinction is essential as leaders consider the extent of a pending improvement.

For example, on the transformation side, replacing the sound system in your auditorium is a change, but redesigning the entire worship service flow to reach the unchurched community around your church better is a transformation. Swapping children’s curriculum is a change, but moving your children’s ministry model from mostly large group experiences to a relational small group approach is transformational. These adjustments are broader in scope, take more time, and are focused on values, not just actions.

How do you know when to change or transform?

That’s a good question, and one required to be answered by all leaders who desire to remain relevant in their communities and industries. Here are a few considerations.

1. SCALE: Changes tend to be more incremental. If the adjustment is more broad in scope, a transformation effort is likely. If you need to make something better, it’s a change. If it’s time to make a better thing, you need a transformation.

2. TIMELINE: While not absolute, transformations take longer due to the broader organizational scope. Changes usually happen within a department or a portion of a team, whereas transformations often disturb every process and person in the organization.

3. FOCUS: Change aims to modify outward practices, where transformation engages inward principles.

It is only a guess, but I wonder if attempting a change when a transformation is required is the most significant contributing factor to failure? Words do matter when they change our focus and expectation.

Perhaps it’s worth considering.

How can I help?

Helping you change to do something better and transform to become something better is why I created Transformation Solutions. At Transformation Solutions, we help leaders gain traction for organizational transformation.

Go right now to mytransformationsolutions.com and sign up for a free, 30-minute conversation to decide if working together works for you.

This article originally appeared here.

Greg Locke Removes Church’s Tax Exempt Status; Calls Steven Furtick, Kenneth Copeland, T.D. Jakes, Perry Stone False Prophets

By

Jesse T. Jackson

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June 1, 2022

On May 22, Greg Locke announced that he is voluntarily removing Global Vision Church’s tax exempt status. This came after some of Locke’s critics contacted the IRS, demanding an investigation into political comments the pastor made and claiming the church should lose its 501c3 status.

Locke shared that the church receives multiple hate calls and threats a day, saying, “You ought to see the pictures we have to send to the security team for the people that are going to be here to kill me in front of everybody.”

The pastor told ChurchLeaders that he received a call this week from an event organizer who was canceling a speaking engagement of his in Kentucky due to protests and death threats.

Addressing his previous political comments, Locke called out news outlets for falsely reporting on his “insurrection” remark, saying, “You know, all of them are saying that I called last week to take up arms against the government. If they heard that, it’s because they’re smoking crack, or apparently they didn’t pay attention.”

An IRS investigation won’t shut down the church or Locke’s message, he said, standing behind his previous statement that “you can’t be a Christian and vote Democrat.” It was this statement that resulted in calls for an IRS investigation.

Global Vision Church Files to Remove Tax Exempt Status

In his May 22 sermon, Locke said that he hopes those who desired to see the church’s tax exempt status revoked are listening closely, explaining how a church’s tax exempt status works.

“Did you know that churches are tax exempt automatically?” Locke said after expressing that he didn’t break the law by making political comments in a church service. “We don’t pay sales tax as a church and property taxes as a church, because churches in America make up 90% of giving to charitable organizations, single moms, and to the homeless and [feeding] people. The church does more than the government does when it comes to that. We get people a hand-up; the government gives people a handout.”

Locke continued: “If you give to a church just so you can write it off for Uncle Sam, you’re giving it for the wrong reason.” Locke then shared that he contacted an attorney and “I dissolved our stinking 501c3 in this church, because the government ain’t gonna tell me what I can and what I can’t say. So IRS, we don’t need your stupid tax exempt status. You can put it in a bag and burn it in your front yard for all we care. I renounce 501c3 communism in this church! So we’ll say what we want to skippy lou. The IRS, the FBI, and everybody we’ve been turned in to can eat my dirty socks on live TV. I’m sick of it!”

“I revoke our 501c3 status and, IRS, we don’t give two flips what you think about it. We’re squeaky clean, give 90% of our money away, and we aren’t afraid of you. Because this is America, and we got a constitutional right to say what needs to be said,” Locke said.

Locke told ChurchLeaders that Global Vision Church’s attorney has filed all the necessary paperwork with the IRS, and the church is waiting to hear back regarding when their request to terminate their 501c3 status will be finalized.

They can “threaten to kill me,” but “I ain’t stopping and I ain’t quitting,” Locke shouted to his congregation. “Your compromising, communism 501c3 can get out. The state and the government ain’t telling this church how we can operate. You call that what that is. When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes biblical.”

Locke Preaches on False Prophets

Locke then turned his focus to pastors whom he called “limp-wristed false prophets,” that is, pastors who side with Democrats. “No wonder these panty wearing pastors closed their church down during COVID. Bunch of sissies—they ain’t got a backbone.”

After Swastika Drawn on Door, San Francisco Church to Boost Security

By

Stephanie Martin

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June 1, 2022

church door — Photo courtesy of River of Life Church

River of Life Church, located in San Francisco’s racially diverse Visitacion Valley, plans to increase security following a disturbing hate crime. Last Thursday, when April Cowan unlocked the church for an exercise class, she discovered a swastika drawn in black marker on the front church door.

Cowan, wife of Pastor Robert Cowan, called her husband and son, who serves on the San Francisco police force. A police investigation is now underway.

Meanwhile, the Cowans have been directed to SF Safe, a local nonprofit that teams with law enforcement to raise safety awareness throughout the community.

Swastika Graffiti on Church Door Stuns San Francisco Pastor

Speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, Pastor Cowan describes being “stunned” and shocked by the hate crime. “That’s the very last thing I would have suspected in San Francisco,” he says. “Maybe if we were in Mississippi,” he adds, “but in a multicultural environment like Visitacion Valley, I was surprised.”

The valley, located in the city’s southeast region, features many family-based, working-class neighborhoods. The pastor, who is Black, leads a congregation of about 100 members, many of whom also are Black.

Although Pastor Cowan plans to have the scribbled swastika removed from the church door, he says that won’t occur right away. “It’s going to be after the congregation meets on Wednesday (June 1) so they can see it themselves and know what we’re dealing with,” he says. After Bible study tonight, he tells ChurchLeaders, he’ll have a better indication of whether anyone plans to stay home as a precaution.

When asked what he’d say to the person or people who drew the swastika, Cowan tells ChurchLeaders his initial conversation would be filled with questions. “I’m just very curious as to why they would choose River of Life and what their aim is,” he says, adding that he’d approach the situation as an “opportunity to dialogue.”

Church Will Boost Its Security Measures

The graffiti incident has sparked “anxious trepidation” among some River of Life congregants, Cowan says. Some people admit they’re now worried about an actual physical attack, especially in light of recent mass shootings at churches, schools, and grocery stores.

In addition to installing more cameras on the church property, Cowan says staff will instruct members how to respond if an intruder enters. “I would hate to have to do drills,” the pastor says, “but we are going to prepare the congregation.” First up will be an all-church meeting to talk about what occurred and then listen to people’s concerns and safety suggestions.

Training and vigilance are key to any church safety plan, according to experts. A well-trained team, says church-security trainer Ben O’Neal, “communicates that when you bring your family to that church, they’re going to be safe. You have somebody looking out for you so you can freely worship and learn.”

Pro-Abortion TikToker Tells Infant ‘I Chose to Let You Live’ in Viral Video

By

Dale Chamberlain

-

June 1, 2022

In a viral TikTok video, a pro-abortion advocate can be seen telling her infant daughter that she “chose to let her live,” even though she had every right to kill her prior to her birth. A video stitching together two posts by the TikToker was tweeted by Lila Rose, founder of Live Action, a pro-life advocacy organization.

In the video, the mother can be seen nursing her infant and telling the child, “Hi, I could have killed you, but I chose to let you live.”

Turning toward the camera, the woman then reiterated to her following, “I chose to let her live. As in, I had a choice. All women should have a choice.”

The baby cooed and hiccuped as her mother spoke. Above the mother’s head read the words, “motherhood is a choice and it is not for every woman.”

The clip was in response to the comment of another user who had said, “It’s so scary to see pro choicers with babies. Do you tell your kid, ‘I could have killed you but I decided that you can live’?” The user was apparently trying to establish that expressing such a sentiment toward one’s own child would be troubling. That point was lost on the woman, who went on to repeat the user’s words almost exactly to her infant child.

The video apparently elicited more comments to which the pro-choice mother was willing to respond.

“Do you realize what you just said? Killed. I just can’t wrap my brain around that no matter how I look at it,” another user commented. Reading the comment in a mocking tone, the mother responded, “If you don’t want to use the word ‘kill,’ that’s fine. If you want to use the word ‘kill,’ that’s fine.”

“When you use hand sanitizer, you kill germs,” she went on to say. Stroking the child’s face, she added, “I could have simply chosen to let you not exist. But I let you exist. I let you form past the zygote phase.”

Turning back toward the camera, she asked, “Is that better?”

“Yes, I realize what I just said, and I stand by it,” she continued. “If you want to get an abortion, get an abortion. If you don’t want to get an abortion, don’t get an abortion. But don’t try to oppress my rights.”

Posting the video to Twitter, Rose called it “horrific.”

“Abortion activists know abortion kills a child, yet they continue to promote the evil, horrific violence,” she added.

Others responded to the video by calling the TikToker’s words “evil,” “demonic,” “disturbing,” and “horrifying indeed.”

“Lord help her and her precious baby,” one person said. “God help us all.”

While abortion is an evergreen issue and a key talking point every election cycle, conversation around access to abortion has ramped up nationwide in light of a leaked Supreme Court decision draft signaling that the landmark Roe v. Wade decision could be overturned this summer.

Jemar Tisby on Grove City College, CRT, and His Struggles With White Evangelicalism

By

Jessica Mouser

-

June 1, 2022

The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast · Jemar Tisby on Grove City College, CRT, and His Struggles With White Evangelicalism

Dr. Jemar Tisby is a New York Times bestselling author, national speaker, and public historian on a mission to deliver truths from the Black experience with depth and clarity. He is the author of several books, including “The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism” and “How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice.”

Other Ways to Listen to This Podcast With Jemar Tisby

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Key Questions for Jemar Tisby

-Tell us what happened with Grove City College. Are you a critical race theorist?

-How have your views, especially on evangelicalism, changed over the years?

-Do you think people take critiques of systemic racism too far, and if so, when?

-Speak to white evangelical pastors who are unsure how to lead in these areas. What would you exhort them to do?

Key Quotes From Jemar Tisby

“When I speak at Christian colleges and universities, even at Wheaton, there was some conversation. Never has it risen to this level of an institutional response [that it has at Grove City College].”

“I was waving the banner for Reformed, white evangelicalism in the early 2010s…At that point, I really and truly believed that we could, as Black Christians, have a place at the table, by which I mean the reformed and white evangelical institutional table.”

“What I came to understand through a series of events from the murder of Trayvon Martin to the rise of Black Lives Matter to the election of Donald Trump, was the table was never built with Black people in mind, really. Even if there wasn’t overt animosity, it really just wasn’t built with us in mind.”

“A lot of times with folks who talk about justice issues, particularly around race, there are these tests and checks that we send people through to say, ‘Well, do they check all the same theological boxes that I do? Therefore, I should listen to them, or if they don’t, I can dismiss them.’”

“I have learned much, much more about the Black church tradition and historic Black Christianity. And I take a lot of my cues from it. This was not an education that I really received in majority white Christian spaces, whether churches or seminaries or books or anything else. So it’s a learning that I had to undertake on my own.”

“I’m not the only one who feels distanced, in some sense, pushed out of white evangelicalism. There are a lot of people across the color line who feel that way. And oftentimes, the difference is not some deep theological issue that you would read about in a systematic theology textbook. It’s because we have felt some sort of exclusion or marginalization for reasons that shouldn’t be so in the body of Christ.”

Cougar Mauls 9-Year-Old at Church Camp in Washington State

By

Nicholas K. Geranios

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June 1, 2022

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A cougar attacked a 9-year-old girl who was playing hide-and-seek at a church camp in Washington state, seriously wounding her and sending her friends running in fear.

Lily A. Kryzhanivskyy and two other children were playing in the woods Saturday at the camp near the small town of Fruitland, northwest of Spokane. Lily jumped out to surprise her friends when the cougar attacked, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

Adults rushed to help and found the girl covered in blood. She was airlifted to a hospital, where she had surgery for multiple wounds to her head and upper body.

Lily was released from the intensive care unit Monday and remains hospitalized in stable condition, the department said Tuesday.

Following the attack, adults staying at the church camp found the young male cougar and killed it.

“We are extremely thankful for this little girl’s resiliency, and we’re impressed with her spunk in the face of this unfortunate encounter,” Fish and Wildlife Police Capt. Mike Sprecher said. “It happened fast, and we are thankful that the adults at the camp responded so quickly.”

Tests completed over the weekend showed the animal did not have rabies, the agency said.

Cougar attacks on humans are rare. There have been just two fatal attacks on humans in Washington state in the past 100 years, in 1924 and 2018, the agency said. State records show another 20 cougar attacks on humans resulting in injuries.

The cougar, also known as a mountain lion, is the second-largest cat in the Americas after the jaguar. Secretive and largely solitary by nature, cougars are rarely seen in daylight. The ambush predator eats deer and smaller animals. While cougars generally avoid people, attacks on humans have increased in North America as more people enter cougar habitat.

‘Repentance and Change’: Pastors Lead Churches in Response to Sex Abuse Report

By

Diana Chandler

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June 1, 2022

Sex Abuse Report — Photo courtesy of Baptist Press.

RALEIGH, N.C.(BP) – Former Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear says he’s encouraged by the SBC’s bottom-up structure putting power in the hands of lay members.

“I want to be in a convention where the people have the power. Because like we see, usually it is the leaders who go corrupt more quickly than the people,” he said in a May 30 special broadcast of his Ask Me Anything podcast.

Among the family of some 50,000 Southern Baptist churches and missions, pastors are leading their congregations in responding to the messenger-commanded Guidepost Solutions report of the SBC Executive Committee’s handling of sexual abuse allegations spanning two decades.

”We recognize that when you have unchecked power in the hands of a few, as it was in the case of the SBC – you’ve got corruption there – it’s a people that hold accountable the leaders, rather than vice versa,” Greear said. “This report reveals some significant leaders who abused their power to protect the institution, to protect their own power.”

Lament, repentance and change are recurring sentiments expressed in sermons and public statements from pastors of churches of varying sizes and influence.

“This is primarily a time for us to lament and to repent where we have failed,” said Greear, senior pastor of The Summit Church based in Durham, N.C. “I think the posture we all have to have is a posture of brokenness and a posture of grieving.”

SBC President Ed Litton updated his congregation May 29 following the May 22 release of the Guidepost report.

“I lamented the sin and failures it exposed regarding our convention’s handling of sexual abuse cases and our lack of compassion toward survivors” he told Baptist Press May 31. “I also urged our people to be in prayer that the SBC would take the appropriate next steps going forward and that God would change our culture to make all of our churches and institutions safe places for survivors and the vulnerable.

“Moreover, I encouraged them to expect our own church (Redemption Church in Saraland, Ala.) to continue to review our policies and procedures to ensure we are doing all we can to protect our people and prevent abuse.”

Congregations large and small, including First Baptist Church of Sulphur, La., First Baptist Church of Fairmont, N.C., and First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tenn., received pastoral guidance after the report’s release.

In Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Huntersville, N.C., pastors Grant Gaines and Ronnie Parrott, who authored the motion at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting calling for the independent investigation, led their congregations in lamenting, repenting and advocating for change at the upcoming 2022 SBC Annual Meeting June 14-15 in Anaheim, Calif.

Asian American Christians See More Work for the Church to Do to Stop AAPI Hate

By

Emily McFarlan Miller

-

June 1, 2022

stop asian hate — Two women walk along Jackson Street in Chinatown past the new "AAPI Community Heroes" mural in San Francisco, Monday, May 23, 2022. Chinatowns and other Asian American enclaves across the U.S. are using art and culture to show they are safe and vibrant hubs. From an inaugural arts festival in San Francisco to night markets in New York City, the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes has re-energized these communities and drawn allies and younger generations of Asian and Pacific Islander Americans. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

LONG GROVE, Illinois (RNS) — After members of the congregation read Scripture aloud and after a discussion about a work of art depicting the body of Christ, the Rev. Juliet Liu approached one of the microphones among the chairs arranged in a circle around the Communion table.

This was just days after a shooting at a salon in Dallas’ Koreatown injured three women of Asian descent and about a year since eight people were killed at three Atlanta-area spas, including six women of Asian descent. It was also more than two years into a pandemic that brought with it a dramatic and disproportionate surge in violence against Asian Americans documented by the FBI and groups like Stop AAPI Hate.

For Liu, it was “meaningful” to be able to lament that violence during the Sunday morning service (May 15) at Life on the Vine, a church in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago she co-leads with the Rev. Susanne Calhoun.

“That’s not separate, for me, from worship,” said Liu, who is Chinese and Vietnamese American.

As racism and violence against Asian Americans began to spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, groups like the Stop AAPI Hate coalition, Leading Asian Americans to Unite for Change and the Chicago-based Asian American Christian Collaborative formed to fight back with information and advocacy. The Asian American Christian Collaborative organized events and marches like the Rally for AAPI Lives and Dignity, joined by an estimated 5,000 people in cities across the U.S.

The Rev. Juliet Liu speaks to the congregation at Life on the Vine Church in Long Grove, Illinois, on May 15, 2022. RNS photo by Emily McFarlan Miller

Still, some Asian American Christian leaders believe there is more the church can be doing to address racism and violence against Asian Americans.

“In some ways, I think we have more to grieve now than we did one year ago after the March 16 Atlanta massacre,” said the Rev. Michelle Ami Reyes, an Indian American church planter in Austin, Texas, and vice president of the Asian American Christian Collaborative.

“I think what a lot of Asian Americans are struggling with is that anti-Asian violence just continues to grow.”

Few white Americans are aware that anti-Asian violence is a problem, according to Reyes, who co-authored the new book “The Race-Wise Family: Ten Postures to Becoming Households of Healing and Hope” with Helen Lee. She pointed to a 2021 study by LAAUNCH that found 37% of white Americans were unaware of the increase in attacks against Asian Americans over the previous year. The study also found 24% of white Americans didn’t believe anti-Asian racism was a problem that should be addressed.

Anti-Asian racism won’t change until those perceptions do, Reyes said.

When it launched in 2020, the Asian American Christian Collaborative released a statement with five action steps Christians could take to help end racism and violence against Asian Americans, including speaking against anti-Asian racism from the pulpit on Sunday mornings. That’s a good place to start, Reyes said, and she’s seeing more pastors feeling encouraged to do so.

There’s still a long way to go, she said.

The Rev. Michelle Ami Reyes. Courtesy photo

‘Jesus Calling’ Tops 40 Million Sold

By

Bob Smietana

-

June 1, 2022

"Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence" and author Sarah Young. Courtesy images

(RNS) — Jesus called.

40 million people answered.

The popular “Jesus Calling” devotional has now sold more than 40 million copies, according to Publishers Weekly, an influential trade magazine.

First published in 2004, the book has become a publishing phenomenon, spawning a television series, a podcast and a magazine. In 2013, the book outsold pop-culture phenomenons “Lean In” and “50 Shades of Grey,” according to the Daily Beast.

The book’s publisher, Thomas Nelson, reported in 2019 that “Jesus Calling” had sold 30 million copies and has continued to sell since then.

A follow-up book, “Jesus Listens,” has sold half a million copies since its October 2021 release.

“I hear over and over again from regular people and celebrities alike who say, ‘It’s like it was written for me,’” Michael Aulisio, a Thomas Nelson vice president who oversees the “Jesus Calling” brand, told Publishers Weekly. “It speaks to various situations — the grief of losing a child, divorce, addiction or giving thanks to God for the good days. That really appeals.”

Author Sarah Young, who has largely remained out of the public eye due to health problems, began writing the books in the 1990s while a missionary and counselor in Australia. After a difficult case, where Young counseled a woman who claimed to be a victim of satanic child abuse — during the so-called Satanic Panic — she began “jotting down what came to mind” during her devotional times, when she focused on listening to God. Those journal entries were eventually compiled into “Jesus Calling.”

The book was rejected at first before finally being released in 2004. Sales started slowly — with just under 60,000 copies sold in the first three years, according to Christianity Today magazine, before taking off in 2008.

In 2015, Calvinist blogger Tim Challies labeled “Jesus Calling” a “deeply troubling book” in a blog post pointing out what he saw as serious problems with the book, including that “she mimics occult practices” and “speaks for God.” Early on there were other critics, but any controversy over the book has faded.

Young told Religion News Service in a 2021 email interview that she still sees herself as a missionary. She also said her health issues make her focus on God more.

“When I sit down to write, I always ask God to connect His infinite sufficiency with my utter insufficiency,” she said in an email. “So, my health struggles help me rely on Jesus and work collaboratively with Him.”

This article originally appeared here.

1. We think our strengths are stronger than they are.

2. We hate to admit we are weak.

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