Unlikely Fighters of the Bible

May 9, 2022

When God chooses one of us for His plan, the chosen one is often not who we might have expected. Throughout history, God has proved He uses the most unlikely people for the greatest of purposes. From Mary, the mother of Jesus, to the Apostle Paul, individuals who seem to have no place being instrumental in God’s plan, find themselves exalted. It just goes to show the transforming power of God’s love and His radically different view of those we’d consider “unlikely.”

The proof is evident throughout the Bible. My series called, “Unlikely Fighters of the Bible” highlights this truth with ten stories where the heroes are not what we might expect.

An Unlikely King

The mere idea of a king is one of grandeur. Kings are firstborn of royalty and raised in palaces where they are trained on how to lead and rule. Then there was King David, who was the youngest of eight, the meekest of the lot, and a shepherd. And this boy would be chosen to be one of the greatest kings who ever lived.

An Unlikely Mother

One might expect the one who would give birth to the Savior would be living in luxury, capable of raising the Messiah with the support of a staff and community. Instead, God chose a poor girl from a town considered to be disreputable who wasn’t even married when she conceived. This girl would give birth to Jesus Christ.

An Unlikely Disciple

When Jesus walked the Earth, he had a few short years to lay the groundwork for His followers, so it would only make sense to choose those who were embodiments of devotion and obedience to ensure there were no issues in the formation of the early Church. But instead, he chose Simon Peter, who seemed to make every mistake possible.

Unlikely Revolutionaries

Not everyone can change the mind of an absolute ruler who harbors no qualms about brutally killing any who dare defy him. God needed one such king to change and chose a few guys to be the ones to do it. Not warriors to lead a revolution or prophets to minister, but three of devout heart to prove the power of faith and the righteousness of God.

An Unlikely Queen

Imagine you were aware your entire people were about to be slaughtered and should you speak out against it, you very well might meet the same fate. Ester was a poor girl who became a queen and found herself in this exact situation. Faith guided her to a position of power, which no one would have expected, and now was the time to prove herself.

An Unlikely Apostle

Persecution. Torture. Execution. These were three traits one might use to define the profession of Saul, who relentlessly hunted down Christians. Someone filled with hate and cruelty would seem to be far beyond saving, much less be used by God. But it is in the nature of God that no one is beyond transformation and use.

An Unlikely Follower

If you had the choice between comfort and poverty, which would you choose? Well for Ruth the answer was clear: poverty. In choosing poverty she chose to remain close to a community which trusted in and loved the Lord. For her faithfulness, she was blessed with more than she would have ever found if she chose the easy option, and even had a hand in the salvation of the world.

An Unlikely Host

Something remarkable about when Jesus walked the Earth was who He chose to spend time with. When a little, and very unpopular, tax collector went to the length of climbing a tree just to get a look at Jesus, Jesus amazed everyone by calling him down and inviting himself to be a guest at the tax collector’s house. The outcast of outcasts was chosen by Jesus.

What It Means to ‘Profess to Know God’ But ‘Deny Him’ by Our Works

Wyatt Graham

May 9, 2022

In his letter to Titus, Paul writes of people who “profess to know God, but they deny him by their works” (Titus 1:16). What does that mean? How can we deny God by our works? In the same context, Paul begins to tell us how. We learn that such people “are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” Here he seems to provide a general pattern of behavior (Titus 1:15–16) after citing specific examples of people who deny God by their works (Titus 1:10–14).

As the letter develops, Paul, I think, gives us more ways to understand what this denial looks like. By looking at these later passages, we can more clearly understand what it means to deny God by our works and how we can ensure that never happens.

First, Paul defines the characteristics or works of a true Christian

Paul affirms that God saves us by faith, not by works (Titus 3:4–5). Thus, any good work described in this letter defines what a Christian looks like after their salvation. Note also that any sin we do can be forgiven (1 John 1:9). The point, as will be clear, is that some people can claim Christian faith while living badly and unrepentantly—that unrepentant life demonstrates a lack of true faith, a lack of the Holy Spirit indwelling our hearts.

So here is what characterizes a Christian according to Paul in his letter to Titus. Christians are:

to be submissive to rulers and authorities,
to be obedient,
to be ready for every good work,
to speak evil of no one,
to avoid quarreling,
to be gentle,
and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. (Titus 3:1–2)

Each phrase above describes what a Christian acts like. The converse by implication describes what a Christian ought not to be. We all sin, of course. The key here is that sinning should bother our conscience so that we repent, change. The opposite of “be submissive to rulers and authorities” here, for example, seems to be what Paul identifies as “disobedient” in Titus 1:16 and 3:3. Lacking these qualities then likely means that we are “unfit for any good work.” More than that, they may be signals that we are denying our profession by our (evil) works.

I want to reiterate. When we sin, God always forgives us when we repent. The only unforgivable sin is unbelief! But that just proves the kindness of God’s saving Word of Salvation (Titus 3:4–5). God saves us by faith, not our works; but our works may show that we lack that faith through which the Spirit indwells us to love and desire what is good, just, and right.

Second, Paul contrasts such works with the works of an unregenerate person

In the next verse, Paul contrasts these positive Christian traits with unregenerate traits: “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).

Paul speaks of us as being slaves to passion here. Being passionate is actually not good. It is sinful.

We call passion good—we usually associate it with boldness or strength. The Bible calls its sin because passions within our flesh deceive us into doing evil while thinking it is good. Everyone thinks they do good; everyone fails to do good. They do so because the flesh and its passions vie against the mind (nous). See, for example, Romans 7 on this topic.

Passions lead us to throw off authorities, to be disobedient, to speak evil of our opponents, to quarrel, to lack gentleness. How unlike our Saviour who called himself: gentle and lowly (Matt 11:29).

Our passions sometimes tell us: yeah, but Jesus turned over tables in the temple and so should I! Mostly correct, but Christ did so because he was the divine Son of the Father who cleared out his own Father’s house in order to reshape the temple into his body (John 2:13–22). He also knew what was in the hearts of men (John 2:25) and thus could, unlike us, know exactly how to call out the sin of others. We cannot even trust our own hearts, much less know them (cf. 1 Cor 4:4–5). So we believe all things without naivety; we love according to our ability (1 Cor 13:6). Christ also escaped crowds who tried to capture him by miraculous feats. We cannot. So we imitate Christ as human beings, adopted sons, as those indwelled by the Spirit of Jesus. But We are are not the divine Son, and so we should chasten our confidence accordingly.

The point

We should test ourselves to see if we act on our profession of faith because the passions of flesh vie against the mind through which the Spirit sanctifies us (e.g., Rom 12:1–2). Expressing our feelings and angst and anger are not goods. They are in fact sin. Passion is bad. In an age of expressive individualism, my words here likely sound profoundly unfashionable.

They are also biblical.

Paul says: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:22–24).

So where is the line where we find our faith to be a fraud? The line is simply when we stop believing, repenting, and following the Lord. Thankfully, God’s Kindness appeared to save us by faith, not works (Titus 3:4–5). But if we have no interest in pursuing what God calls good or allowing the Spirit to guide our steps, we have denied our profession.

I close and repeat with this list of what God loves and what characterizes a Christian. We are

Is that me? Is that you?

This article originally appeared here.

How I Use the Pilgrim’s Progress in Evangelism

Jordan Standridge

May 9, 2022

How I Use the Pilgrim’s Progress in Evangelism

I’m a big proponent of using the Bible in evangelism. I want the book open with me when sharing the Gospel. I want the unbeliever to be looking down in the Bible, I want them to be hearing the Bible, If possible I want them to be able to quote some of the bible by the end of our conversation.

I believe with all my heart that faith (only) comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God. (Rom. 10:17)

But over the years I have found myself using “The Pilgrim’s Progress” at some point during an evangelistic encounter.

Early on at the end of a long gospel conversations, I found myself not knowing what to do next. Of course, I’m not going to lead someone in a sinners prayer. As a believer in God’s sovereignty in salvation I didn’t want to manipulate someone into making a false profession. At the same time I wanted them to understand the urgency of what they heard and the importance of what had just occurred in their life. So, I always had this dilemma, how do I finish this conversation?

How do I lead them to realize the importance of going home and thinking about what we talked about?

Many of people I’ve talked to over the years simply did not care. They were apathetic. Especially college students.

I usually explain to them the urgency about responding to what they heard. I tell them that they could die on their drive home. That they could get a brain aneurism. Not to manipulate them or to scare them into salvation but to challenge the observable indifference to the words they heard.

On many occasions the person, sensing the gravity of what I was saying, asked me how do I get to the point where I care about what you told me today? How can someone generate concern for the things you told me today?

I was encouraged by this question. It means that I had conveyed the gravity of the situation well. And over the years I found myself using “The Pilgrim’s Progress” more and more.

After explaining to them that you can’t drum up faith on your own, I would quote Romans 10:17 and tell them about Christian in “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”

I would explain to them that John Bunyan wrote “The Pilgrim’s Progress” 400 years ago. His goal was to explain what the Christian life was like. And that the book starts off with the main character, Christian, who lives in the city of destruction, and who happens to pick up a book, which turns out to be the Bible.

I go on to emphasize with the unbeliever the fact that the more Christian reads the book the more worried he gets. The more he reads God’s word the more he realizes how sinful he is and how desperate his situation is. He slowly realizes that he has a big weight on his shoulders and the more he reads the heavier it gets. I tell them that the weight he is carrying is his sin.

Then I emphasize the people who live near him. His wife sins a lot as well, but she doesn’t see or feel her burden. His coworkers, his neighbors, are all constant sinners and yet they don’t have a burden about it.

The only difference between them and Christian, is that Christian is reading his Bible and the others are not.

When you open God’s word you can’t lie to yourself anymore. Because the Bible is constantly emphasizing how sinful, how broken and how unworthy you are of salvation. It is impossible to believe in works-based righteousness if someone solely believes and reads the Bible.

That’s why everyone encourages Christian to stop reading the book. “If it makes you feel bad stop reading it”, they shouted. But it is his reading that led him to the cross. In fact, it is a man named evangelist who sees him reading and tells him about the cross and how he can have his burden taken away in an instant.

I go on to tell them that that’s why I am here today and that’s why I am sharing with you this message, because you have a burden and its heavier than you could ever imagine, and if you die with it on, you will spend eternity in hell, but Christ can take the burden away from you in an instant if you would only repent of your sin and place your faith in him.

The only way to hate your sin is to see it, and the only way to see it is for God to show it to you through His Word. So, go home and read it!

I then give them some suggestions of what to read and where to start.

I have found this to be an effective way to illustrate the importance of reading the Bible to an unbeliever. And I’m curious as to what you do in your evangelistic conversations.

I pray that, no matter what, we would all grow in confidence in God’s word and remember that in evangelism the barrier between unbelief and belief is repentance and not a lack of evidence. (2 Tim 2:24-26) We must always push people to read God’s word because it is only through His word that a soul can be saved.

This article originally appeared here.

The Amazing Power of Thanking God for What He HASN’T Done

Gary Thomas

May 9, 2022

The last time Lisa and I bought a house we made a naïve mistake that we won’t make again: we closed on the house with the builder promising to finish several items that weren’t yet completed. He was a Christian, after all, and had even written scriptures into the frame of the house before finishing it. But he never did finish it, and his ability to stall exceeded our patience until we finally paid to have the rest of the work done ourselves. My wiser friends told me, “That’s why you always hold some money back until the house is entirely finished.” Such suspicion may be wise on earth but applied to heaven it’s monstrous. One of the most worshipful things we can do is to try thanking God for blessings He has promised that we have not yet received. This has been such an encouraging spiritual practice for me that I’m eager to share it with you.

Thanking God for What He HASN’T Done

We can be thanking God for heaven even before we get there; we have Jesus’ word that He is preparing a place for us (John 14:2-3). Thanking God for heaven now floods our souls with joy that we don’t have to be afraid of death, and it reminds us that we don’t have to mistreat ourselves (like some medieval monks and nuns did) or work ourselves to exhaustion (as legalists do) to earn it. All of us will be amazed by our eternal comfort, but why not squeeze a little anticipatory joy out of that comfort just when we need it most—today?

Lisa and I spent the last several years trying to “catch up” on retirement; we did what financial planners tell you not to do—reduced our retirement contributions to pay for our kids’ college. We’re not anxious—God has been generous—but in the midst of normal concern about stock market volatility and unforeseen expenses, it brings such peace to thank God for Philippians 4:19: “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” It’s appropriate to ask God to provide for us, but it’s even more appropriate to thank God that He will: “I praise You that I don’t have to worry about retirement. I thank You that You’ll get me through all the way to my death and even take care of my loved ones after I’m gone. You’ve anticipated everything I can’t so I can live with great peace and assurance. Thank You so much for that.”

Let’s say you’re about to become a parent for the first time or get married, and you’re concerned that you may be getting in “over your head.” You can try thanking God for this promise: “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). Pray like this: “Thank You Lord, that I don’t have to face this alone; I thank You that You will provide the wisdom I need for every life decisions so that I can live with joy, peace, and assurance as I face this new future.”

I took this a step further once and turned all my “long-term” prayer requests into prayers of thanksgiving. Though I haven’t seen the answer to many of them, I do have this from the mouth of Jesus Himself: “Therefore I tell you, all the things you pray and ask for —believe that you have received them, and you will have them” (Mark 11:24). If I’m praying for anything that isn’t according to God’s will, I don’t want that prayer answered my way—and I trust God to sort all that out. His job is to answer according to His will; my job is to be thankful for that.

If you have been praying for a son or daughter’s return to the faith, try thanking God for bringing them back. If you have been praying for release from a sin, try thanking God for His strength and deliverance. If you have been praying about a financial situation, thank God for providing in ways you never even dreamed. If you have been praying for healing, you know you will be healed, one way or another, so thank God that you will not live with this for eternity—healing is certain.

This isn’t presumption. One of the greatest compliments we can give someone is thanking them for a promise that has not yet been received but for which we have their word that it will be received. It’s like paying an honest house builder for the entire house before he or she has even cleared the lot. We honor God when we thank Him for His declared promises even before they arrive and we flood our souls with joy at the same time. It’s a win-win. Try it and you’ll see.

This article on thanking God originally appeared here. Gary talks more about the virtue of thanksgiving in his newly revised book, The Glorious Pursuit: Becoming Who God Created You to Be.

4 Essential Behaviors That Enhance Leadership Success

Charles Stone

May 7, 2022

I began serving as Lead Pastor in Canada almost nine years ago at a great church West Park Church. I began to practice four essential behaviors that helped me get a good start and experience some early leadership success. I believe leaders would do well to practice these four behaviors to improve their leadership success.

1. Communicate Often and well.

A new pastor must gain the trust of those he leads. One way to build that trust comes through effective and regular communication. People want to know what’s going on. If they don’t, they will connect dots that don’t exist. Here’s what I did (and do) to maximize communication.

I send a short weekly staff report to our board appraising them of our staff’s weekly activities. We answer these three questions each week.

What went well?
What didn’t go well?
What’s the most important 3 things I must do this week to move the mission forward?

I include a short paragraph each week in the bulletin called ‘Where’s Waldo (aka Charles)’ where I share the highlights of my workweek.

In the first few months I sent out regular more detailed summaries of ministry progress.

2. Listen and Learn.

In my first message when I arrived in Canada I communicated to the church that I had much to learn. I told them that during the first few months I would listen and learn by asking lots of questions. I held listening sessions with over 100 people asking them about the history and the strengths/weaknesses of the church. I asked many of those people these four questions.

- - Would you tell me about yourself?
  - What’s going well here (this parallels one of the above questions)?
  - What’s not going well?
  - If you were in my shoes, what would you focus on?

3. Wisely Manage Change.

When a new leader or pastor arrives, he or she often falsely assumes that the organization/church expects dramatic and quick change. Sometimes circumstances warrant such change if something is ‘on fire.’ Often, however, a leader must build trust before the church will receive dramatic changes. That doesn’t mean that we don’t bring change, however. It’s important that a new leader secures some early wins which requires some change. That in itself fosters trust. But, whether or not you are a new leader, thoughtfully managed change will bring the greatest lasting change.

4. Keep Healthy Margins.

I heard someone once say that at the end of each day, the average number of items left to do exceeds 30. This side of heaven we can always find more tasks to fill our time. In my first few months it was difficult to keep consistently healthy margins. When I arrived we were significantly short staffed so I had to take up some of the slack. I realized, though, that I couldn’t maintain the pace I was running. So, to keep myself and my family healthy, I practiced these ‘margin keepers.’

I didn’t say yes to everybody that wanted to meet with me. I learned to politely say no.
I asked the board to handle some of the tasks staff otherwise might have handled.
I made my time more productive. I sometimes took an afternoon or two outside the office where I could minimize interruptions and maximize productivity.

What crucial behaviors have helped your leadership succeed?

This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.

Why Does God Command Violence in the Old Testament?

Jefferson Bethke

May 7, 2022

One of my favorite authors lately has been Professor N.T. Wright. You know when you read a particular author at just the right time and their words seem to help answer the internal struggles you’ve been wrestling with? Dr. Wright has been that to me lately. His work on the Resurrection of Jesus as well as his insights into the actual world of Jesus is second to none. Right now I’m reading his book, Surprised By Scripture, which basically gives each chapter to some of the most divisive or tough to answer questions of our day (science vs. religion, women in leadership, etc.). It got me thinking of what topics I’d add or want to ask him about that weren’t included in this book, including the use of violence in the Old Testament. One I am always thinking through, and specifically get asked by a lot of you guys when I’m on the road or in the YouTube comments, surrounds reconciling violence in the Old Testament with the New Testament, as well as cases of violence in certain parts. So, I asked Wright about six questions pertaining to this that he was so gracious to answer via email (since he’s across the pond). Hope it blesses you guys as much as it blessed me!

NOTE: Professor Wright wrote this as a disclaimer to his answers when he sent that back to me: “I’m happy to give short answers to these, but actually these are HUGE questions that really demand a much more thorough and careful response.” So know that the questions can be large enough for a university course or lecture, but he’s been gracious enough to give us a few thoughts to get the wheels spinning and hopefully push us toward further truth.

I know the “old vengeful God in the Old Testament and nice, loving hippie-like Jesus in the New Testament” is actually a really horrible reading and understanding of the scripture. A closer reading shows these as caricatures and a massive false dichotomy. God in the Old Testament has numerous examples of mercy, grace and love, while Jesus also has some very harsh things to say. But, even with that said, it does seem like an inconsistency of character when comparing the violence in Old Testament to the New Testament. Why is that?

The question arises because we all tend to assume that the Bible is to be read ‘in the flat’ as simply giving ‘revelation’ about God, the world, humans, etc. Once you realize it is a story, a lot of this looks different. And once you realize—which only comes with the cross of the Messiah—just what an appalling mess the world was actually in, everything looks completely different. God the creator is not vengeful; he is simply utterly and implacably determined to bring heaven and earth together for ever, and for that to be even thinkable, evil itself needs to be eradicated. It is we, with our fear of being told off or found out, who resent the fact that God puts his finger on every aspect of evil within us and without, and who therefore blame God for being ‘nasty’ when in fact, like a doctor refusing to tolerate the slightest trace of the disease, he is determined to complete the rescue operation for the whole world, leaving no trace of corruption or decay.

What about specific examples of God commanding violence on large scales (like Deuteronomy 13 and 1 Samuel 15)? If God is like Jesus, and always has been like Jesus, then how is this consistent with Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount? The Cross seems to show that evil loses through self-giving love and sacrifice (loving enemies). I understand Israel needing to survive as a nation as a reason for commanded violence in the Old testament, but wondering if there’s more.

This is of course one of the largest and most complex questions. Yes: With the cross we see not only that love wins, but that God takes the pain and shame of the world ultimately upon himself. The previous answer is part of a pointer, but as with many other aspects of the Hebrew scriptures, there is a deep and necessary ambiguity built into it all. The ambiguity is necessary because when humans rebelled, God didn’t write them out of the story but chose a human family to work through to rescue the world—recognizing that this family, being themselves part of the problem as well as the solution-bearers, would mess things up in all sorts of ways. God is thus working ‘against the grain’ of Israel’s natural (Adamic) tendency in order to work ‘with the grain’ of the world-rescuing project. This comes out again and again. Once more, this becomes much less problematic once we stop seeing the Bible ‘in the flat,’ as though one should be able to read off the same point from any moment in the story.

If I was an Israelite before the time of Jesus, and I was following the Old Testament and Torah, I feel like I would come away from it looking much more like a Pharisee, scribe or Sadducee—not like Jesus or the things He said. Why is that? It seems like God could’ve been much more obvious with the Old Testament, but instead set up a system that was conducive to creating people that Jesus had clashes with?

For this, we need Romans 9-11 (of course!) … but also Galatians 3 and Hebrews and many other passages. We also need Luke 24: Even the disciples were ‘slow of heart to believe what the prophets had spoken.’ It is as though there was a necessary strangeness, darkness, about the whole thing; again, because of the problem to which the cross and resurrection of the Messiah were the necessary answers, only in the light of this would the rest make sense. The cross and resurrection are not simply the salvific event; they are the epistemological centre. It isn’t simply that the cross and resurrection provide the material for what we know about God and God’s saving purposes; they provide the means for how we know this. To suppose that God should have ‘made it easier’ by advance predictions which any Jew with half a brain could have worked out is to suppose that the problem of human sin and mental darkness wasn’t so bad after all.

Part-Time Youth Worker: Thanks for Being Such a Beloved Champion!

Youth Ministrycom

May 6, 2022

Lately my heart has been pulled to one position in the church: the part-time youth worker. This person is so full of heart for youth ministry. The position is necessary but often left out, overworked, and underpaid.

If you feel like I’m talking about you, most likely you’re a part-time youth worker. And If I could imagine the heart of the church speaking directly to you, it would go like this:

Dear Part-time Youth Worker,

We don’t get the chance to talk very often. So I wanted to share a few things I should’ve said long ago and much more often. We’re both so busy all the time. You’re busy doing everything you do, and I’m busy being the church. Still, I wish we had more time to connect.

I want to tell you how much I appreciate you not taking a raise the past few years. I know we’ve talked about you going full-time as the church grows. But we’ve really needed to focus our funding in other places.

If you feel unappreciated, I can understand. But please know we value you highly, even if your pay doesn’t necessarily reflect that. You’ve never pushed for a raise. And you’ve continued to work at the coffee shop to supplement your youth worker pay. Your workday starts at 4:30 a.m. on the weekdays so you can be a part-time youth worker on the weekends. You’ve shown me what real sacrifice and commitment look like.

You Are a Champion!

You’ve been a champion during every transition, no matter how long they last. I know it must be hard to understand why I’ve never offered you the Director Position. Yet I’ve trusted you to lead us through months and months of transition as the Interim Director. I’m blown away that you’ve chosen not to focus solely on titles. Instead, you trust securely in God and demonstrate true humility. Thank you for showing me servant leadership.

I’ve never expected you to consistently work over your 25 hours a week. But I’m so thankful I don’t have to explain to you that ministry never stops. It’s not something you can just turn off when you’ve worked your weekly hours. Week after week, month after month, you’ve gone above and beyond. You get here early and stay late. You go on youth retreats for days and still show up for a full week of work. The ministry doesn’t skip a beat because you define hard work.

‘Peanuts’ Mother’s Day Special Mentions Families With Two Moms; Celebrates Dads

Jesse T. Jackson

May 6, 2022

A ‘Peanuts’ Mother’s Day special released on Apple TV+ today, titled “Snoopy Presents: To Mom (and Dad), With Love,” features all the original characters from Charles M. Schulz’s classic comic strip which includes a subtle message that some kids have two moms.

The special focuses on Peppermint Patty’s character, whose mother died when she was young and is raised by her father.

“It’s the same every year. I’m having a good day, and then someone brings up Mother’s Day, and suddenly I’m reminded that I’m the only kid who doesn’t have a mom,” Peppermint Patty shares with her friend Marcie.

Marcie sympathizes with her friend, saying, “It must be difficult.”

“It really is, Marcie,” Peppermint Patty replies.

In a later conversation, Marcie tries to better understand why Peppermint Patty gets so upset over Mother’s Day.

“Maybe you miss what moms do,” Marcie suggests. “Like making your favorite cookies and putting a bandage on your finger when you have a cut and singing your favorite song?”

Peppermint Patty tells Marcie she doesn’t miss those things because her dad does “all that mom stuff” for her. “He’s the best,” she said.

“Marcie,” Peppermint Patty asks, “there are all types of moms, right?”

Marcie replies, “Of course. Foster kids have terrific moms. So do adopted kids. Some kids even have two moms.”

“Right,” Peppermint Patty exclaimed. “And even kids like me, with no mom, can have someone who acts like a mom. And all those moms deserve to be celebrated, don’t you think?”

After speaking to her friend, Peppermint Patty gets an idea for how to celebrate Mother’s Day. “It’s so simple,” she says. “All I have to do is get him one of those Mother’s Day gifts.”

Peppermint Patty struggles to find her dad something for Mother’s Day and gets angry at everyone else getting gifts for their moms. Another conversation with Marcie sparks the perfect idea, “We play baseball. He taught me all I know about football. We like to tell each other dumb jokes. The dumber they are, the more we laugh; he loves to hear me laugh. He says it reminds him of my mom.”

That’s when she realizes that spending the entire day with her dad is the perfect gift. “That sounds like the best Mother’s Day gift a father has ever had!” Marcie tells Peppermint Patty.

In a statement by Apple TV+, the streaming service explained that the special “is a sweet Mother’s Day celebration of friendship and family featuring the beloved Peanuts gang. While the other kids are excited to celebrate the special day, for Peppermint Patty it’s just a reminder that she didn’t grow up with a mom. With her good friend Marcie by her side, she soon realizes that real families come in all shapes and sizes, and that Mother’s Day is an opportunity to thank that special person in your life who means the most to you. Meanwhile, Snoopy and Woodstock embark on an epic adventure to find Woodstock’s long-lost mom.”

Mother’s Day is celebrated in America every year on the second Sunday in May while Father’s Day is celebrated every year on the third Sunday in June.

Christian Author Jen Hatmaker Argues Overturning Roe Will Harm Women—‘Reproductive Rights Belong to Women’

Jesse T. Jackson

May 6, 2022

New York Times bestselling author, podcaster, and mother of five, Jen Hatmaker, who has given advice to Christians about “Raising Jesus Kids,” as the title reads from her 2015 Christianity Today piece, shared this week that the possible “overturning of Roe is a shocking, unprecedented repeal of women’s rights, and it will not be the end.”

Who Is Jen Hatmaker?

In 2014, Hatmaker and her family starred in an HGTV reality series titled “My Big Family Renovation” after her blog went viral in 2013 because of an interview she did with the Today Show about the struggles moms have at the end of the school year.

In 2015, Hatmaker was featured on the ChurchLeaders Podcast and spoke about changing the tone of our cultural engagement, adoption, and women’s ministry, as well as her family’s intentional fight against excessiveness.

However, Hatmaker’s books were pulled from the Southern Baptist Convention’s Lifeway Christian Resources in 2016 after the author decided to affirm same-sex relationships. She explained in a lengthy Facebook post that her affirmation of the LGBTQ community wasn’t to gain the approval of more people but because Jesus tells Christians to love others.

“I don’t love the approval of people, but I do love people,” Hatmaker wrote. “I love them because Jesus’ love for us is so insane and big and outside our templates and it reaches and reaches and reaches past our comforts to draw people to Him, and He does this with or without our permissions and sanctions and rules and hierarchies, and He has done it for all of time and will continue to do it for all of time. We are standing outside the city gates with people He asked us to stand with, and that is the beginning and end of it.”

The popular podcaster had her oldest daughter Sydney, who is now in her early twenties, join her on the “For The Love With Jen Hatmaker Podcast” in June 2020 to share how Sydney is gay. On the episode they did “in honor of pride month,” the mother and daughter encouraged Christians “to look at what it means to really love our LGBTQ+ family—recognizing them wholly as God’s children, who are wholly loved by God.”

Hatmaker announced on Facebook that on August 21, 2020 she and her husband Brandon were getting a divorce after 27 years of marriage. The couple met at Oklahoma Baptist University, where Brandon went into ministry as a pastor after he graduated. Hatmaker didn’t disclose why the parents of five were divorcing. Rather, she asked that her followers would hold their family dear to their hearts and pray for them.

Hatmaker Gives Her Thoughts on Roe v. Wade Reversal

The adoptive mother of two shared in a May 4, 2022 blog post how she feels about the possibility of Roe being overturned, a turn of events that was forecasted by the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion earlier this week.

Hatmaker believes that if Roe is overturned, it will cause women emotional, physical, and legal harm. “There are a dozen terrifying implications here (the destabilization and politicization of the Supreme Court overturning settled law with double precedence stands out),” she said. “But what I want to focus on is the immediate, disproportionate harm this will cause women. And not just emotional harm; physical and legal harm.”

Making abortion illegal doesn’t lower the abortion rates, Hatmaker argued, saying, “It simply makes them more dangerous.”

‘Public Enemy No. 1’—Kirk Cameron’s New Documentary Takes on Public Education

Jessica Mouser

May 6, 2022

A new documentary from actor and filmmaker Kirk Cameron will release exclusively in theaters on June 13 and 14. The trailer for the film, “The Homeschool Awakening,” contrasts homeschooling with the public school system and emphasizes the important role parents play in their children’s education.

“The pandemic made parents grossly aware of what public schools are teaching our kids,” said Cameron in a press release for the documentary. “It’s up to us, the parents, to cultivate the hearts, souls and minds of our children, and today’s public-school systems are not working for us, they are actively working against us. Public education has become Public Enemy No. 1.”

Kirk Cameron’s ‘The Homeschool Awakening’

“The Homeschool Awakening” is not Kirk Cameron’s first documentary. Cameron, who is known for playing Mike Seaver on “Growing Pains” and has also starred in “Fireproof” and “Left Behind: The Movie,” produced the 2012 documentary, “Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure.”

The trailer to “The Homeschool Awakening” begins with various public figures, including “The 1619 Project”’s Nikole Hannah-Jones, expressing that parents should not have a say in their children’s education. To this idea, Cameron says, “Give me a break.”

The trailer goes on to focus on parents and families interviewed in the documentary, some of whom said they initially thought of homeschooling as “weird,” “abnormal,” or “somewhat of a cult.” But after parents began questioning why they were keeping their kids in public school, several expressed that homeschooling is worth it because of the freedom it gives their families and because it enables them to fulfill their calling from God to be stewards of their children.

Homeschooling has become more widespread in the U.S. since the COVID-19 pandemic forced students into hybrid or remote learning. In March 2021, the United States Census Bureau published survey data that found a “substantial increase” in homeschooling since the start of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. The Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University did a study on the impact of remote and hybrid learning during the pandemic and found the following:

The shifts to remote or hybrid instruction during 2020-21 had profound consequences for student achievement. In districts that went remote, achievement growth was lower for all subgroups, but especially for students attending high-poverty schools. In areas that remained in person, there were still modest losses in achievement, but there was no widening of gaps between high and low-poverty schools in math (and less widening in reading).

In addition to the negative effects on students who went to remote learning, some American parents are concerned about what their children are being taught in schools, particularly on the topics of critical race theory and sexuality (these topics were not specifically mentioned in the trailer for Kirk Cameron’s documentary).

Biden Says a ‘Child of God’ Has a Right to an Abortion; Psaki Calls Mohler’s Opposition to Roe ‘an Outlier Position’

Dale Chamberlain

May 6, 2022

abortion biden psaki — Left: Press Secretary Jen Psaki responding to reporter's question (screengrab via Twitter); Right: President Joe Biden responding to the possible overturn of Roe (screengrab via YouTube)

Earlier this week, a draft opinion authored by Supreme Court Justice Alito in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was leaked to the public. The draft indicated that an overturn of the landmark Roe v. Wade case, which made elective abortion a constitutionally protected right, was likely.

Since then, conversation has exploded across both sides of the issue, with pro-life advocates cautiously celebrating the victory until the decision is finalized, and pro-choice advocates scrambling to respond to what they see as the rollback of an essential right.

During a question and answer period following his prepared remarks on the state of the American economy on Wednesday (May 4), President Biden was asked for his thoughts on the possible overturn of Roe.

“This is about a lot more than abortion,” Biden said. “This reminds me of the debate with Robert Bork. Bork believed the only reason you had any inherent rights is because the government gave them to you.”

Robert Bork, who died in 2012, served as the 35th Solicitor General of the United States before going on to serve as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“If you go back and look at the opening comments…when I was questioning him as chairman, I said, ‘I believe I have the rights that I have not because the government gave them to me, which you believe, but just because I’m a child of God. I exist,’” Biden recounted. “I delegated, by joining this Union here, to delegate some rights I have to the government for social good. So the idea that somehow…there is no right of privacy, that there is no right—And remember the debate we had.”

“We had a debate about Griswold v. Connecticut. There’d be a law saying that a married couple could not purchase birth control in the privacy of their own bedroom and use it. Well, that got struck down,” Biden said. “Griswold was thought to be a bad decision by Bork, and, my guess is, the guys on the Supreme Court now.”

“What happens if you have—a state changes the law, saying that children who are LGBTQ can’t be in classrooms with other children. Is that legit, under the way the decision’s written? What are the next things that are going to be attacked,” Biden went on to say. “Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that’s existed in American history—in recent American history.”

In response to Biden’s remarks, evangelist and Samaritan’s Purse CEO Franklin Graham tweeted, “Yesterday @POTUS Biden said that the right to an abortion comes from being a ‘child of God.’ Mr. President, that is just not true. Being a child of God does not give you the right to take the lives of the innocent. Abortion is a sin—simply put, it’s murder.”

Regarding the concern that the overturn of Roe would necessarily threaten other Supreme Court precedents like Obergefell v. Hodges, which gave constitutional rights to same-sex marriage in 2015, legal expert David French wrote in a recent column, “Alito argues that abortion is dramatically different from cases involving marriage, because abortion involves harm to a non-consenting party, the ‘potential life’ (to use the language from Roe) of the unborn child.”

SBC Elections Feature Broad Range of Candidates

Timothy Cockes

May 6, 2022

SBC Elections Feature Broad Range of Candidates — Southern Baptists will vote for president, first vice president, second vice president, third vice president and recording secretary at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim. Bart Barber (left), Robin Hadaway (center), and Tom Ascol (right) are the known candidates for SBC president. Baptist Press file photo

NAHEIM, Calif. (BP) – Southern Baptists will have a variety of candidates to choose from when electing officers during the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting June 14-15.

A list of candidates for each elected position is below:

President

After SBC President Ed Litton announced earlier this year that he will not seek a second term, several candidates have announced their intention to seek run for the office. The three announced candidates are:

Tom Ascol, pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral (Florida) and founder of Founders Ministries, announced his intention to run on March 22.

Robin Hadaway, a former International Mission Board missionary, was announced as a candidate March 23. Hadaway will be nominated by fellow former IMB missionary Wade Akins.

Bart Barber, pastor of First Baptist Church, Farmersville, Texas, announced on April 7 he intends to accept a nomination from 2022 SBC Pastors’ Conference President Matt Henslee. Barber will also be serving as the chairman of the Committee on Resolutions at this year’s annual meeting.

A fourth candidate, Florida pastor Willy Rice, announced his candidacy in early March, but withdrew his candidacy April 6^.

First Vice President

Victor Chayasirisobhon, president of the California Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Anaheim, was announced as a candidate for first vice president on February 15. Chayasirisobhon will be nominated by Abel Galvan, senior pastor of Faith Fellowship church in La Palma, Calif.

Second Vice President:

South Carolina pastor Alex Sands will be nominated for second vice president by fellow South Carolina pastor Josh Powell. Sands is the founder and pastor of Kingdom Life Church in Simpsonville, S.C., and in 2021, he became the first African American to serve as president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention.

Testifying at Vatican Megatrial, Cardinal Rebuts Claims That He Paid to Trap Rival

Claire Giangrave

May 6, 2022

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Cardinal Angelo Becciu laid out his version of events at the heart of the Vatican‘s megatrial about the purchase of real estate in London using a charitable fund, touching in his testimony on his rivalry with Cardinal George Pell and his relationship with Italian political analyst Cecilia Marogna.

As he has over the past two years, Becciu, formerly the Vatican’s third-highest-ranking official and the first cardinal in memory to face trial at the Vatican, claimed he is bewildered by the accusations against him of embezzlement, witness tampering and abuse of office.

“I was thrown on the front page of newspapers, almost like a monster,” Becciu said. “For over a year and a half I am tormented by one question: Why? Why have these defamatory things been said to the pope?”

Besides the charges in the real-estate matter, Becciu faces accusations that he misdirected funds belonging to the Italian bishops’ conference and the Secretariat to a charitable organization in Sardinia run by his brother Antonino. It’s also been alleged that he sent thousands of dollars to Australia to spur on charges of sexual abuse against Pell, whom Pope Francis had appointed as a financial watchdog. (Pell was eventually acquitted on appeal.)

Becciu denied both accusations, saying, “None, not even one of my relatives enriched themselves” with the money sent to Sardinia.

He said the payment that went to Australia was used to buy an internet domain and showed the court a letter signed by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin to support his claim. Becciu also claimed that Pell himself signed the authorization for the payment, adding that he was “sorry that Cardinal Pell has stumbled into this misunderstanding.”

It was the accusation about Sardinia, Becciu said, that Francis primarily confronted him about during the audience that led to Becciu’s being stripped of all but his title of cardinal in September 2020 — “the mother of all my misfortune,” he termed it.

Becciu served as substitute, equivalent to deputy chief of staff, in 2014 when the Vatican’s Secretariat of State embarked on the purchase of an apartment complex in London’s Chelsea neighborhood, using funds from Peter’s Pence, comprising contributions from Catholics around the world to the pope’s charitable work.

The deal proved ruinous, losing a staggering $384 million, according to Vatican prosecutors. Becciu is among 10 defendants at trial, who prosecutors say had a part in the purchase and who have been accused of crimes ranging from misuse of their offices to money laundering.

Becciu’s testimony lasted for more than two hours, much of it revealing the inner workings of the Secretariat of State’s financial operations and the thinking behind the deal.

SBC Cooperative Program Stage To Encourage a ‘Laser Focus’ on Unity, Generosity, Diversity

Scott Barkley

May 6, 2022

SBC Executive Committee leaders hold a panel discussion on the CP Stage at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting in Nashville. Photo courtesy of Baptist Press.

ANAHEIM (BP) – A drive toward unity in the Gospel and taking the Great Commission to the nations will permeate the presentations and discussion at the Cooperative Program Stage at the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting, organizers say.

“It will be an opportunity for messengers to hear firsthand reports about a variety of SBC missions and ministries, and ‘listen in’ on hard-hitting and relevant panel discussions which orbit around important issues for Southern Baptists,” said Willie McLaurin, interim SBC Executive Committee president and CEO. “The 2022 Cooperative Program stage has been designed to put a laser-sharp focus on unity, generosity and diversity.”

The theme of the annual gathering, held this year at the Anaheim Convention Center, is “Jesus: The Center of It All.” Due to shifting personal schedules, messengers are encouraged to monitor the Annual Meeting app for the latest information on CP Stage speakers and times.

Both the International Mission Board and North American Mission Board will feature prominently, with the latter hosting various panel discussions ranging from the future of the SBC to church planting and adoption and foster care.

First Baptist Church, Cleveland, Tenn., Pastor Jordan Easley will moderate several of those discussions. The first will be “Creating A Church Culture That Looks Like & Ministers To Your Community” on June 13. It will be followed by “Forecasting the Future of the SBC: What Are The Main Things We Need To Focus On As We Move Forward To The Future?”

National Next Gen Director Shane Pruitt and NAMB National Collegiate Director Paul Worcester will discuss student and collegiate ministry issues with “Reaching the Next Generation.” NAMB President Kevin Ezell – who alongside his wife, Lynette, has raised six children, three of them adopted – will lead a panel on adoption and foster care.

Sessions commence each day at 8:30, with the June 13 slate beginning with “Making Disciples Who Live on Mission” led by Sandy Wisdom-Martin, Woman’s Missionary Union executive director-treasurer. Later, the National African American Fellowship will host a panel on “Finishing Well” and that afternoon McLaurin will be interviewed about his new book “The Winning Way.”

“We all have lessons that we pick up along the way,” McLaurin said. “Those lessons have shaped our philosophy on how we engage and develop others. The lessons deepen our faith and challenge us to think and live differently. The set of working principles in this book were derived from such a lesson.”

IMB President Paul Chitwood will be on stage as well for at least two of the entity’s three sessions. Those sessions will cover the importance of having an ongoing Southern Baptist missionary presence around the world as well as how the IMB is sending more missionaries and opening more pathways for Southern Baptist churches to participate in short-term and long-term missions work.

The IMB and Send Relief have been active in ministering to those impacted by the war in Ukraine since the beginning. Another session will address how the IMB has used digital strategies for Gospel engagement in and around the country during the conflict.

Earlier this year Gateway Seminary President Jeff Iorg testified to what is special about ministry in California in a Baptist Press First Person. Those points are certain to resurface in the panel he will lead in the final Monday session – “As California Goes.”

In ‘Search,’ a Church Committee Plots Over Fiesta Chicken and Cookies

Bob Smietana

May 6, 2022

Author Michelle Huneven, left, and her book "Search." Photo by Courtney Gregg

(RNS) — Finding a new minister is a bit like online dating.

You look at their online profile, chat on Zoom and hope for a bit of magic.

Often things do not turn out the way you hoped.

That mix of discovery and disappointment is at the heart of “Search,” a new comic novel about the search for a minister at a Unitarian church near Los Angeles. The story reveals the dynamic of human foibles, kindness, ambition and friendship that keeps the machinery of organized religion going — and features surprise twists, political machinations and, of course, lots of food.

Among the characters are Dana, a food writer and author, who hopes to write a book about the experience; Belinda, the 80-something former church president, and her co-conspirator, Charlotte, who is three decades sober and a master of church bureaucracy; Jen, a young mom and rabble-rouser; Curtis, the new member, who was rejected by his past church because he’s gay; and Riley, the polyamorist, 20-something aspiring bartender who runs the church handbell choir.

This diverse group finds itself trying to sort through an eclectic mix of ministerial candidates: a Unitarian-Buddhist teacher who hates pets and has a sketchy past; a Wiccan, newly divorced, Southern songwriter; an urban pastor who bakes bread and makes beer; an older, renowned Black woman preacher looking for one last challenge; and an up-and-coming young minister who seems vapid but has steel in her spine.

“Search” was inspired by an experience that author Michelle Huneven, a novelist, former seminarian and award-winning food writer, had on a search committee at Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church, her home congregation in Pasadena, California. She was intrigued by the work involved in getting past the shiny, public profiles of potential pastors to the real person. Though that search went well, she also saw how a search committee could go awry and reveal something about the human side of faith.

The book also features a set of recipes for the food the committee shares, from the Pledge Drive’s Fiesta Chicken — Huneven’s favorite — and one grandmother’s Lamb Nihari to Jennie’s Midmorning Glory Muffins and whole wheat chocolate chip cookies, described by one character as “wonderfully gritty, buttery, and salty-sweet.” However when you make a mistake and hurt someone you care about, it takes some distance for both of you to heal. But it’s best to reconcile quickly, you can send Chocolate Shipped Cookies mails cookies to that someone you hurt to repair that connection.

Released in late April, “Search” has earned rave reviews and has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR. Huneven spoke to Religion News Service recently about the ways going to church shaped her life, how food creates community, and what a search committee can reveal about the challenges facing congregations.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I saw a profile recently that described you as a prodigal daughter turned church lady. Is that fair?

I don’t know how prodigal I really was, but it was sort of funny that I began going to church. I’m a sober alcoholic and like other sober people, I got very spiritual. That’s what led me to try and find a community I could be a part of and that’s where I found Neighborhood Church.

I think that like Dana in the book, finding a church kind of finished me as a person. There were just so many women there who took me under their wing and came to my cooking classes and welcomed me onto their committees and really approved of me in a way my sort of critical, disapproving mother never did. I mean, my mother loved me and I loved her like crazy, but I could always be improved in her eyes.

SBC Messengers Long Resolved To Overturn Roe v. Wade

Timothy Cockes

May 6, 2022

Roe — Messengers vote at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting in Nashville. Photo courtesy of Baptist Press.

NASHVILLE (BP) – A leaked copy of a Supreme Court opinion that would essentially overturn 1973’s Roe V. Wade decision has prompted Southern Baptists to reflect on their pro-life history.

The draft was originally published by Politico and was later confirmed to be authentic by Chief Justice John Roberts in a press release issued by the Supreme Court.

The leaked document suggests the SCOTUS is set to overturn not only the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, but also 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision. Overturning these decisions would essentially return the determination of abortion law to state-level governments.

Brent Leatherwood, acting president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), called the leak of the SCOTUS draft “the most consequential leak of our lifetime,” in a first-person piece released this week.

He said if the decisions are in fact overturned, it would be an incredible step in developing “a culture of life.”

“Overturning the Roe-Casey precedents will mark massive progress toward this goal as the jurisprudence stemming from these cases has been the number one factor inhibiting pro-life laws from taking effect,” Leatherwood said.

“It will mark a hopeful and substantial step toward establishing a true culture of life in our nation by giving states the freedom to pursue policies that protect preborn children. Christians should be in earnest prayer for such a moment.”

Leatherwood referenced an SBC Resolution from 2003, ‘On Thirty Years Of Roe V. Wade,’ which called for not only overturning Roe v. Wade, but striving for a society that would consider the act of abortion “unthinkable.”

“RESOLVED, That we pray and work for the repeal of the Roe v. Wade decision and for the day when the act of abortion will be not only illegal, but also unthinkable.”

Leatherwood said the potential overturning of Roe v. Wade will hopefully serve as a step in that direction for society.

“This leaked draft opinion would indicate we are closer than we have ever been to that reality,” Leatherwood said. “When that day is upon us, we will enter a time when the inherent rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are finally extended to our most vulnerable neighbors.”

This 2003 resolution is not the only time Southern Baptists have stood in opposition to Roe. After a somewhat uncertain start in 1971 and 1974, they solidified their stance with resolutions passed in 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979.

In 1980, they took on the challenge of legalized abortion on demand for the first time. They were resolved saying, “That we abhor the use of tax money or public, tax-supported medical facilities for selfish, non-therapeutic abortion,” calling “for appropriate legislation or a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion except to save the life of the mother.”

Resolutions calling for the end of legalized abortion followed in 1981, 1982, 1984, 1986 and 1987.

In 1989, messengers passed a resolution on encouraging laws regulating abortion, and in 1993 messengers passed a resolution regarding The Freedom of Choice Act.

More recently, the convention based a 2015 resolution on the sanctity of human life, and in 2021 passed two resolution on both abolishing abortion and on taxpayer complicity related to The Hyde Amendment.

Bart Barber, chair of 2022 SBC Committee on Resolutions, said the committee had already been working on a resolution calling for the repeal of the Roe v. Wade decision before this week’s news, and will now be reworking that resolution in case the opinion reflected in the leaked draft becomes finalized.

Florida Churches Among First to Begin Exit From UMC to New, Conservative Denomination

Emily McFarlan Miller

May 6, 2022

Florida UMC Foundation in Lakeland, Florida. Screenshot from Google Maps

(RNS) — A statement posted on Facebook Tuesday (May 3) by the Wesleyan Covenant Association’s Florida chapter caught the attention of the Florida bishop for the United Methodist Church: “107 Florida Methodist Churches Depart United Methodist Church,” it began.

The Facebook post came just a few days after the launch of the Global Methodist Church, a new conservative Methodist denomination formed, in part, by the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a coalition of self-described “orthodox, evangelical” United Methodists.

“We are not leaving The United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church has left us,” Jay Therrell, president of the WCA-Florida, said in a written statement, blaming a “decades-long rise of theological liberalism, the selective enforcement of our denominational laws, and a strong surge in the promotion of partisan politics.”

But the bishop of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church took to Facebook the next day to remind Florida United Methodists that leaving is not that simple. The departure of any church or clergy from the denomination is not instantaneous, he said, but must first go through its annual conferences.

“No significant changes occur in our relationship apart from the actions of these authorized bodies,” Bishop Ken Carter said in a letter posted on the Florida conference’s Facebook page.

Florida’s annual conference will meet June 9-11 in Lakeland, Florida — the first time it’s gathered in person since the COVID-19 pandemic began two years ago.

Bishop Ken Carter. Photo via FLUMC.org

In the past three years, about 1% to 2% of churches in the Florida and Western North Carolina conferences have formally started the process to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church, according to Carter, who is resident bishop of both conferences.

“We’ve had a small number of churches that have done the work to disaffiliate from the denomination — and every church is important,” he told Religion News Service.

“We anticipate there will be more churches who will disaffiliate, and we’ve worked hard to send a message that all are welcome in the church and that the processes are intended to be open, public and transparent.”

As past president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, Carter was one of 16 United Methodist bishops and advocacy group leaders who negotiated a proposal to split the denomination after decades of debate over the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ United Methodists.

Delegates were expected to vote on that proposal, called the Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation, at the 2020 General Conference.

Surviving Cultural Changes in Ministry

Allen White

May 6, 2022

In the last two years, you’ve experienced about a decade’s worth of cultural change. Organizations that were breaking quickly broke. Some startups and skunk works quickly accelerated. Just to give you an example. You probably thought the legalization of gay marriage in 2015 appeared rather quickly. Now with the promotion of non-binary designations and transgenderism, gay marriage seemed simple. Western culture has become very complicated to say the least.

You might have jumped onto the darlings of the pandemic like Peloton, Netflix, and Zoom. But, now that much of Coronavirus has subsided, these online platforms are losing value. Has everyone forsaken digital? Considering that the average adult touches their smartphone 2,600 times per day, I don’t think so.

This is the tip of the iceburg of complex cultural change. Add in inflation, a pending recession, war, and a heavy dose of politics and you have a recipe for much stress and apprehension. Easter wasn’t what you expected. That’s okay. You are not your numbers. Church ministry isn’t working the way that it used to work. But, some things are working. How do you discern what to invest your life and ministry in at this point? Here are some things to consider in navigating cultural changes in ministry.

First, Look at God‘s Word

The Bible has stood the test of time and has been applied in every culture for the last 2000 years. Whether the church was under Roman oppression, living in the Dark Ages, or embracing the Enlightenment, the Bible clearly explains the church’s mission.

I know that you know and understand God’s Word. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be in ministry, right? But, stick with me. This next part is a little more like Vince Lombardi saying, “Gentlemen, this is a football.”

Consider the commands of Jesus (Matthew 28:20). The Great Commission is the same: Go and make disciples…baptizing them…teaching them to obey…” (Matthew 28:19-20). You only have one job: Go and make disciples. Loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself hold true just as Jesus gave in the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40). That’s the summary of the commands we are called to obey. And what about the Great Compassion (Matthew 25:45)? How are you serving the “least of these?” You may think of some other things as part of your mission, but these are the big ones.

If you created three buckets labeled: Great Commission, Great Commandment, and Great Compassion and assigned the various activities of your church to a bucket, where would those activities fit? What wouldn’t fit? What would you need to add?

In planning ministry for a changing culture, start with the church’s mission as articulated by Jesus Himself. The methods have changed, but the message is consistent.

Next, Look at Best Practices

Over the last 18 years, I’ve had the privilege of working with over 1,500 churches across North America in the areas of small groups and disciple-making. While the last two years were vastly different than the previous 16 years, practices in small groups and disciple-making are working very well. What is struggling right now are worship attendance and other centralized events, voluntary serving especially in children’s ministry, and bringing new people through the traditional front door of the church.

Digital ministry is a new frontier, but it’s not the answer for everybody. Don’t write it off. There is much to be explored. The church needs to enlist digital missionaries to this growing culture. Online small groups are the pits compared to in-person small groups, but if your only option is online, then it’s a great option.

In the Christian Life, the Name of Jesus Is Everything

J.D. Greear

May 6, 2022

There are a number of times throughout Scripture where someone has an encounter with God’s glory. As I’ve written previously, nearly every time the scene begins with abject terror, not with warm fuzzies. For sinners to stand in the presence of God is so overwhelming that the usual response is, “I think I’m about to die!” One of these encounters stands out to me as unique—when Moses met with God on Mt. Sinai. After receiving the 10 Commandments, Moses asks to see God’s glory. God reminds Moses that if he were to meet him face-to-face, Moses would be a dead man. So he offers to hide Moses in a cleft of the rock while his glory passes by. Even though this is an Old Testament encounter, we can learn from it that the name Jesus is everything.

Most of us miss the significance of what happens next. When God’s glory and presence pass in front of Moses, it doesn’t say that Moses saw a brightness or a dazzling light. It says that he heard something—the declaration of a name:

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

The Name of Jesus is Everything

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says that there is no passage of Scripture where you see more clearly what it is like to be in the presence of God. He puts us in a place of safety and declares his name to us, a name of covenant love. But for the believer, instead of putting us into a rock, God places us into the safety of Christ. And instead of just proclaiming steadfast love, he proclaims the covenant love of a Father for his sons and daughters.

A couple years ago, my wife’s wedding ring went missing. For months I saved up to surprise her with a new one on our anniversary. I even re-enacted the whole proposal. (She said yes.) Now, legally speaking, giving her a new wedding ring didn’t make her any more my wife. But it made the sense of my love for her more real. That’s what it’s like to hear God’s name declared over your life. It’s a promise of the gospel that renews your relationship with God, the Spirit washing over you saying, “You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter!” (Romans 8:15).

Strike While the Iron is COLD

Bill Seaver

May 6, 2022

What does strike while the iron is hot mean? It means we should take advantage of an opportunity while the opportunity before us. It makes sense for sure but I wonder if we can get stuck waiting for hot irons when there are things we could (and should) be doing while the iron is cold. After all, the iron is cold a lot more often than it’s hot.

What does strike while the iron is hot mean? Striking while the iron is hot is about being ready when opportunity knocks. That’s necessary for sure but we can’t sit around waiting on it. We need to be striking while the iron is cold. It’s what we’re doing most of the time.

The Cold Iron of Social Media

In the world of social media there are some people who emphasize “hot iron” kinds of things like creating viral videos or diving headfirst into the latest social network. It’s great to aspire to be on the cutting edge or wish for your latest video to get a million views but most of us don’t need to be on the cutting edge and don’t know what we’d really do if that video got a million views.

There are also viral videos that are available online which will make you curious to watch. Check out some videos like this Jimmy John Shark video and find out what made it viral!

Rather than pursing the next big web video, we would be a whole lot more successful using the things around us a little bit better than we are today. That takes work and commitment and patience and consistency, but it’s worth it. It’s the stuff we probably already know how to do. It’s the stuff we know we should be doing. Striking while the iron is cold doesn’t mean it’s ineffective. It just means you’re being proactive when there’s not an obvious opportunity.

Some examples of striking while the iron is cold are:

Responding to a question on Twitter that was meant for anyone to answer.
Creating yet another blog post that your audience will find valuable.
Monitoring what’s being said about your industry on Facebook.
Checking discussion boards (use BoardReader) to see what’s being said about your competitors.
Adding something to a discussion happening in a LinkedIn group.
Sharing a link for your Facebook fans to a news story they’ll find interesting.
Commenting on a blog and adding value to that conversation.

In practical terms, though, what does strike while the iron is hot mean — because the fact of the matter is most days the iron isn’t hot. It’s usually cold but that doesn’t mean you’re not doing the things you should be doing. The only people who don’t need to strike while the iron is cold are blacksmiths. The rest of us should be doing it every day. You’ll probably find that some cold irons turn hot pretty quick. It’s funny how it works out that way.

This take on what does strike while the iron is hot mean also appeared here, and is used by permission.

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Second, Paul contrasts such works with the works of an unregenerate person

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3. Wisely Manage Change.

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Some examples of striking while the iron is cold are:

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