You Don’t Have to Panic (or Even Respond) to Every Social Media Critic

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April 21, 2022

I had an interesting conversation recently with the social media director for a Fortune 500 company. A few years ago they had a disastrous PR situation when their advertising agency released a TV commercial that apparently wasn’t vetted well, and their customers – and the general public – hated it.

In fact, they hated it so much, social media lit up to the point that the company had 40-50 people monitoring their social media accounts 24/7. The social media director told me that the flare up lasted about two weeks, and then everything went pretty much back to normal.

In spite of that experience, I asked for his opinion about dealing with critics online and he was surprisingly calm. He told me that anytime you have a controversial message, take a bold stand, or deal with the culture at large you’ll get online critics.

His advice?

Accept it. Understand that it will happen, and don’t feel obligated to respond to every one. Certainly there are posts that should be responded to, and some critics can be taken offline so you can talk directly to the critic. On the other hand, there are also a lot of jerks and trolls out there who will dedicate an enormous amount of time to trying to destroy your reputation online. But as awful as it feels to see wrong information, lies, and misinformation about your organization, client, or you, you shouldn’t always or automatically respond.

Monitor it, and keep aware of what’s happening. But to focus on it – especially to the extent you neglect your future – is to let the enemy win.

This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.

How Our Men’s Group Experiences the Gift of Tears

By

Joe Long

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April 21, 2022

Not many people attend a small group meeting expecting to experience the gift of tears.

“I don’t even know why I’m crying” – I’ve heard this statement more than once in my life. I’ve even said it out loud myself. But when I hear it in my prayer group, it has a different meaning.

Many men are taught at a young age that crying is a weakness. But tapping into and showing this type of emotion might be the most important aspect of deep community. But I’ve spent the majority of my life cut off from this type of vulnerability. I rarely saw it from my Dad, who saw it even less from his father. I was never told that men don’t cry or that it wasn’t OK, I just decided (based on my experience and what the world was saying
)that it was something only reserved for funerals and championship game defeats.

This has changed in the past few years thanks to a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit and a better understanding of myself. And one of the most common places I find myself in tears is at Prayer Dudes, a small group within our church where men come together to pray for each other. The name might lack depth but our times together do not. The process itself is simple yet challenging.

The Gift of Tears

We gather a couple times a month in groups of 4-8. A Psalm is typically read at the start to help us push away distractions and focus on God. Then, whoever is ready to share talks about what is going on in their life and then asks for prayer with that in mind. Everyone listens and might ask for clarity, but we do our best to shy away from counseling or advice: two things that are fantastic but not the point of our time together. Then we ask to be more aware of what the Holy Spirit is doing and saying.

Then we wait. And sometimes we wait a long time.

Because we believe that God wants to talk to us today but we aren’t great listeners, the silence is essential. The silence used to bother me and I felt like if I didn’t step forward and pray that it would be too awkward for the person that was receiving. But I’m getting more and more comfortable with the silence.

Inevitably, someone will feel like God is putting a scripture on their heart for the guy that is receiving. Sometimes we get pictures and do our best to explain them and see if what we are hearing is from God and if it makes sense to the person. There are times we are praying for physical healing as well.

And we do it all with a scripture from I Corinthians in mind:

. . . the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. (I Corinthians 14:3)

This short phrase really helps us all stay focused on what we are doing. Most of us have at one time or another felt like what we were sensing was from God but actually confirming that out loud was too intimidating. One way to vet those things out is to run things through those filters:

Is this strengthening?

Is this encouraging?

Is this comforting?

We lay on hands and pray out loud, with our eyes open while the man that is receiving often stands with his hands out in a posture of receiving. And sometimes, we can see the Holy Spirit move. Bodies shake, people feel heat, waves of peace arrive, and often, the dudes in our group cry. They experience the gift of tears.

Richard Foster’s amazing book (simply titled Prayer) talks about a time in the not too distant past when men sought after tears rather than trying to control them or repress their emotions. They called it the ‘charism of tears’ and felt that the men most to be pitied are “those who go through life with dry eyes and cold hearts.” I call it the gift of tears because I see the emotional release as a true gift from God that unlocks things that only he can unlock. It reminds us of the tenderness and love he has for us.

It’s also an invitation into more.

Of course, most of the time guys don’t shake and what God is doing beneath the surface isn’t obvious. But when we notice what the Spirit is doing, it gives us a chance to focus our prayers at that inflection point. And I’ve found that God always wants to do more when that happens.

After each guy receives prayer, they talk about what they were feeling and hearing during the prayer. This gives the rest of us a better idea of what God was doing beneath the surface and provides some clues about how we can pray for each other moving forward. And sometimes the gift of tears arrives at this point, showing us that God wants to do more and that we need to take some more time with that person.

Finally, each guy is tasked with some sort of to-do at the end. A self assigned item to respond to what God was doing and saying while they were receiving prayer. And when we gather again we ask how that went or how it is going. This accountability is sometimes the difference between a short but valuable experience and a lasting step into maturity and invitation from Jesus.

Overall, our sessions last over 2 hours because each guy receives prayer for about 20-30 minutes. And nobody can hide! You can’t “pass.” When it’s your turn you have to share and the men that are the most vulnerable typically get the most out of the experience.

It’s a commitment of over 2 hours on most mornings when we get together.

For most of us, it’s a time when we can grow deeper in relationship with each other and with God. No matter what happens when we are together, it’s the start of a conversation with our Creator. Taking what we heard or experienced to Him through the week and asking for clarity is the best approach, even though it’s easy to forget.

Finally, here are a few questions you might want to ask yourself .

- Do you have a group of men you can be vulnerable with?
- How about a group that practices listening to the Holy Spirit and delivering a thought or a word when it might not resonate?
- Are you accountable to anyone with the actions you want to take in response to what God is saying to you?

Joe Long is one of the elder/leaders of the Vineyard Church in Covington, Kentucky.

Final T4G Kicks off With Nearly 12,000 in Attendance; Cofounders Explain What Together for the Gospel Means ‘When We’re so Divided’

By

Jesse T. Jackson

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April 20, 2022

Tuesday kicked off the ninth and final Together for the Gospel (T4G) conference in Louisville, Kentucky, which boasted over 11,500 in attendance. Most in attendance are pastors at local churches and represent a variety of evangelical denominations.

During the first panel titled “Addressing the Elephant in the Room: What Does Together for the Gospel Mean When We’re So Divided,” Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan, H.B. Charles, and Greg Glibert discussed why they believe there is so much division within the church over the last few years.

What does it mean to have this title “Together for the Gospel” when there as been so much division in evangelicalism, Dever asked the panel.

After Charles and Gilbert briefly shared their thoughts, T4G cofounder Duncan shared a conversation the panel had before they took the stage, saying, “The kinds of things that we struggled to overcome were different in 2006 than now. So we knew it when an interesting group of people came together at Louisville in 2006.”

“Continuationists and cessations, Baptists and Presbyterians—that’s an older division. But people from fundamentalist bodies, who were a little bit worried about folks that were associated broader evangelical circles, were intrigued by the fact that we were willing to draw really big, bold theological lines on the important doctrines,” Duncan went on to say. “In that moment in 2006, there was a lot of coming together for the first time. We saw different groups that didn’t normally associate or interact. And that was incredibly encouraging to all of us. And it remained encouraging for the next six years. There was a lot of excitement and encouragement.”

Duncan then pointed to Shai Linne’s book titled “The New Reformation: Finding Hope in the Fight for Ethnic Unity,” because of the timeline Linne provides regarding some of the issues that began to unravel their unity.

“Now the things in the last few years that have that have drawn a lot of attention have been things like race, social justice, police, politics, and pandemic. I’ve found that even in local churches that [they] are divided over how to handle the pandemic,” he said. “And I’ll speak to a pastor who says, ‘Well, you know, I’ve had members leave, because I’m not pro mask enough. And then I’ve had members leave because I’m not anti-mask enough.’”

This makes pastors feel caught in the middle of how they respond to the pandemic, Duncan continued. “Then politics, and then how to process what’s been going on in terms of racial and social justice in the culture—you’ll have the same guy, the same church, with two different groups of people disappointed that he’s been too-something and not-something-enough. So I’ve seen this playing out at the local level, not just at the conference level,” which shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us, he explained.

We are witnessing the same thing that has happened to churches over the last 500 years that has caused divisions within their denominations and local bodies, Duncan shared to conclude his answer. “I think we’re seeing that play out right now.”

Dever, T4G’s other cofounder, said that some people are using the fact that this the last T4G “as a chance to write the obituary for young, restless and reformed.” He shared that one writer made the comment that many people see T4G as a conference that stands for a “kind of moment,” and because the conference is will no longer be held, it is an identifying mark that the movement T4G stands for coming to an end.

‘Take and Eat’—Burger King Apologizes for Easter Ad Campaign Using the Words of Jesus

By

Jessica Mouser

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April 20, 2022

A Burger King campaign in Spain released during Holy Week has backfired—thousands are calling, not for juicy burgers, but for a boycott. The campaign included the phrases “flesh of my flesh” and “take and eat of it,” the latter of which echoes the words of Jesus when he instituted the sacrament of communion.

“We apologize to all those who have been offended by our campaign aimed at promoting our vegetable products at Easter,” Burger King’s Spain account tweeted on April 17, which was Easter Sunday [Editor’s note: All translations of quotes in Spanish were obtained through Google Translate]. “Our intention has never been to offend anyone and the immediate withdrawal of the campaign has already been requested.”

Pedimos disculpas a todos aquellos que se hayan sentido ofendidos por nuestra campaña dirigida a promocionar nuestros productos vegetales en Semana Santa. Nuestra intención nunca ha sido ofender a nadie y ya ha sido solicitada la retirada inmediata de la campaña.

— Burger King (@burgerking_es) April 17, 2022

Burger King Campaign Angers Christians in Spain

About 60% of the population of Spain is Catholic and it is traditional for members of the Catholic Church to give up meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and Fridays during Lent. The Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis explains:

Since Jesus sacrificed his flesh for us on Good Friday, we refrain from eating flesh meat in his honor on Fridays. Flesh meat includes the meat of mammals and poultry, and the main foods that come under this heading are beef and pork, chicken and turkey. While flesh is prohibited, the non-flesh products of these animals are not, things like milk, cheese, butter, and eggs. Fish do not belong to the flesh meat category.

It is common for fast-food restaurants such as Burger King and McDonald’s to market vegetarian and pescatarian options during the season of Lent to appeal to their Catholic customers.

A photo circulating on Twitter shows two ads from the Burger King campaign. One pictures a burger with the text, “All of you take and eat of it,” noting the burger is vegetarian. The other says, “Flesh of my flesh,” phrasing that echoes the words of Adam when he first sees Eve as recounted in Genesis 2. In that ad, the word “flesh” is crossed out and “vegetable” is written in its place.

While some found the campaign funny and creative, the ads angered others. “Burger King has heavily insulted the Catholic Church in Spain by repeating the sacred words of the priests during mass,” tweeted one user. “Now they compare the Holy body of Jesus to burger meat.”

Twitter user P. Juan Manuel Góngora, whose profile says he is a priest and hospital chaplain, tweeted, “Hello @burgerking_es. Due to your offensive campaign against the Eucharist, I advise my more than 46,000 followers never to go to an establishment of yours again. Let’s see if that’s how we learn respect. #BoycottBurgerKing.”

#BoycottBurgerKing @burgerking_es @BurgerKingMX por la falta de respeto a #JesusCristo #Dios a la comunidad #catolica #cristiana #cristianos #SemanaSanta2022 pic.twitter.com/1SpFnAHXCB

— Jacob Herrera E (@JacobHerreraE) April 17, 2022

SBC Pastor Tom Buck Says Wife’s Abuse Story Was Leaked in Retaliation

By

Dale Chamberlain

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April 20, 2022

A statement released to the website of First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, on Tuesday (April 19) has revealed that senior pastor Tom Buck was the “pastor in another state” who contacted Florida pastor and then SBC presidential candidate Willy Rice about the member of Rice’s deacon board who had previously “committed a sexual sin that could also be described as abusive.”

On April 1, Rice publicly disclosed that Calvary Church in Clearwater, Florida, had installed the deacon, whom RNS has identified as Jeff Ford, despite being aware of the sexual misconduct he committed before coming to Calvary Church.

Further, the church had now removed Ford from the deacon board in accordance with a 2021 SBC resolution, which says in part, “Resolved that the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention believe that any person who has committed sexual abuse is permanently disqualified from holding the office of pastor and that we recommend all affiliated churches apply this standard to all positions of church leadership.”

On the same day Rice made that announcement, Buck was alerted to a leaked draft of a story written by his wife Jennifer outlining difficulties in the early years of the couple’s marriage. The person in possession of the draft had leaked it to more than one publication in an effort to discredit Tom Buck as an apparent act of retaliation.

Ford’s Sexual Misconduct in 2005

In 2005, Ford was a teacher and assistant football coach at J.W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey, Florida. According to the Tampa Bay Times, Ford began pursuing a romantic relationship with a 17-year-old female student. The relationship eventually turned sexual, but since the “sexual act” did not occur until after the student turned 18, Ford never faced criminal charges.

According to Buck, Ford had attended Riverside Baptist Fellowship in Florida, where Buck was the senior pastor until 2006. When Buck learned what Ford had done, Buck urged him to confess what he had done and went with him to make the report. Buck further advised Ford to be “forthright about what had happened with any church he attended or joined from that day forward.”

Ford Comes to Calvary Church

Sometime later, Ford began attending Calvary Church in Clearwater, where Rice served as pastor. According to Rice, Ford was true to his word and openly disclosed his past. As a result, Ford was barred from serving in student and children’s programs at Calvary Church but served the church in other ways. Eventually, Ford was ordained as a deacon.

Ford is the CEO of Man Up and Go, a global non-profit organization aimed at breaking the cycle of generational fatherlessness. Ford also serves on a faith advisory council for Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

Given Ford’s qualifications and track record serving at Calvary Church, the church’s leadership did not see him as a predatory figure and thus felt comfortable ordaining him.

Buck Privately Confronts Rice

When Buck discovered that Ford was a deacon at Calvary Church, he grew concerned that the church’s leadership either didn’t know about Ford’s past or were acting inconsistently with the SBC’s resolution about sexual abuse.

Glenn Packiam: These Are the Signs That You Are a Resilient Pastor

By

Jessica Mouser

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April 20, 2022

The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast · Glenn Packiam: These Are the Signs That You Are a Resilient Pastor

Rev. Dr. Glenn Packiam is associate senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., and lead pastor of one the church’s eight congregations, New Life Downtown. He is a senior fellow at Barna Group, a visiting fellow at St John’s College at Durham University, and an adjunct professor at Denver Seminary. His latest book is “The Resilient Pastor: Leading Your Church in a Rapidly Changing World.”

Other Ways to Listen to This Podcast With Glenn Packiam

► Listen on Apple
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► Listen on Stitcher
► Listen on YouTube

Key Questions for Glenn Packiam

-What are the challenges you and Barna found and how are they impacting church leaders?

-How much do you think pastors are prioritizing their spiritual lives?

-What are some signs that pastors are living beyond their limits?

-Can you talk about your own experience as a pastor with tribalism in the church? If tribalism is a failure of discipleship, what can we do to work through that?

Key Quotes From Glenn Packiam

“On the pastor’s side, one of the things that really emerged is there’s a shaking in vocational confidence…more pastors are less confident and fewer pastors are more confident.”

“So many of us as pastors and church leaders, we’ve sort of thought the mark of being great or healthy or whatever is how fast we can run or how far we can run or how big our churches can get. And I think what we’re realizing is resilience or, to put it in another way, recovery and recalibration, those are the markers of health.”

“That’s the test for us: Can you cultivate a deep life with God, with spiritual practices beyond the ones you’re leading your congregation in?”

“Maybe you’re in a church that has modern worship. Well, maybe for your own life with God, you need…Psalm praying or an ancient prayer like the prayer of examen.”

“When was the last time you had a Sabbath? Many pastors, we sort of feel like a Sabbath is a luxury.”

“One of the signs that we’re moving too fast and we’re just trying to run too hard is there’s no space for Sabbath with the Lord, but then also no space for genuine recreation with friends.”

“I think there’s a core part of our calling that remains consistent, even if it takes different shapes throughout our lives. And so good guides, good retreats, good resources can actually help us dig deeper on vocational discernment.”

“When we find ourselves at seasons of disruption, of vocational discernment, we need to remind ourselves that the source of our calling is Christ himself.”

Guidepost Investigation Costs Exceed $1.7 Million As of February

By

Scott Barkley

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April 20, 2022

guidepost investigation — Photo courtesy of Baptist Press

NASHVILLE (BP) – The cost of the investigation into alleged mishandling of sexual abuse claims by the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee has reached $1.7 million since being commissioned last fall, according to invoice summaries provided to Baptist Press. The budget provided by Guidepost Solutions, the firm contracted to conduct the investigation, originally projected the investigation to cost between $1.3 million and $1.6 million.

Guidepost sends invoices to the Sexual Abuse Task Force commissioned by Southern Baptist messengers at the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting. That documentation is then passed to the SBC Executive Committee. From October 2021 through February, those invoices totaled $1,743,121.

Willie McLaurin, interim EC president and CEO, said those expenditures reflect the wishes of Southern Baptists regarding the investigation.

“The final authority and final accountability for how funds are spent is given by the messengers and the convention,” he said. “Southern Baptist can be confident that while the investigation focused on the Executive Committee, the EC has diligently fulfilled the request of the messengers by funding the investigation. I am incredibly thankful that for such a time as this, reserve funds were available to use without having impact on our cooperative work.”

The reserve funds McLaurin referenced are generated from gifts allocated through the Cooperative Program to the EC. Those reserves have been built over the years through investments and as of February stood at $15 million, with $12.2 million in unrestricted funds. BP has learned that an update on the status of the reserved funds will be given at next week’s called EC meeting.

In their September 2021 meeting, Executive Committee trustees originally voted to allocate up to $1.6 million for the investigation. At their February gathering, members approved a recommendation that increased that figure to $2 million. Legal fees were originally approved for $500,000, but also increased in February to $ 2 million in a unanimous vote.

Bruce Frank, pastor of Biltmore Church in Arden, N.C., and chair of the Sexual Abuse Task Force, commended Guidepost’s work and thanked them for a $458,154 credit to the February invoice.

“I am very grateful for the immense professionalism shown by Guidepost in dealing with a condensed time frame – due to EC delays – and a large project,” he said. “We are also grateful for the professional courtesy discount given by Guidepost due to this project’s importance.”

Archie Mason, pastor of Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Ark., and chair of the EC’s Committee on Convention Finances and Stewardship Development, pointed out to fellow trustees in February that while the Guidepost report will be released prior to the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim, bills connected to it and legal fees will continue to be collected throughout the summer.

World Council of Churches Urges Patriarch Kirill to Lobby for Easter Cease-Fire

By

Jack Jenkins

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April 20, 2022

(RNS) — The head of the World Council of Churches is urging Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to call for a cease-fire in Ukraine as Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter this weekend.

“People lost their trust and hope in politicians and in a possible peaceful negotiation and a ceasefire,” the Rev. Ioan Sauca, a Romanian Orthodox priest and acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches, wrote in a letter published Tuesday (April 19).

“We receive daily requests from the faithful in Russia and Ukraine but also from all over the world to contact Your Holiness and to ask to intervene and mediate for a peaceful solution, for dialogue rather than confrontation, for end to the fraternal blood shedding.”

Kirill has been widely criticized for first refusing to speak out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, then attempting to blame Western nations for the war and eventually calling it “a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance.”

Earlier this month Sauca responded to calls to expel Kirill and the Russian Orthodox Church from the WCC over the cleric’s rhetoric, with the WCC head suggesting the organization should remain a place of dialogue but acknowledging the decision is ultimately up to group’s central committee. Pope Francis, meanwhile, has cautioned the patriarch against invoking the language of holy war.

In his letter on Tuesday, Sauca noted Easter cease-fires are a tradition extending back to at least World War I, while expressing concern about potential attacks on Ukrainian churches as worshippers mark one of the most important celebrations on the Christian calendar.

“Our humble request to your Holiness in this particular and impossible situation is to intervene and ask publicly for a ceasefire for at least a few hours during the Resurrection service,” he wrote.

Within hours of the release of Sauca’s letter, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a “humanitarian pause” in fighting in Ukraine to coincide with Orthodox Easter.

“The four-day Easter period should be a moment to unite around saving lives and furthering dialogue to end the suffering in Ukraine,” Guterres said. He also noted that U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths had broached the idea with the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations.

In early March, Sauca sent a message asking Kirill to “Please, raise up your voice and speak on behalf of the suffering brothers and sisters, most of whom are also faithful members of our Orthodox Church.”

Former Drug Addict Finds Redemption in Church Rehab Featured in New Film

By

Diana Chandler

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April 20, 2022

LEESBURG, Fla. (BP) – “Would God put somebody on this earth to be nothing but a drug addict and to die in that sin?” That was John Draxinger’s first question when he heard the Gospel in a jail cell around July 4, 2013.

Draxinger had assumed he would always be an addict, surely dying from the Hepatitis C he contracted during 10 years of heroin and opioid abuse that resisted six sobriety attempts and 15 jail stays.

Draxinger, who was released from jail in November 2013, said that he felt that God was working in his life and he knew that a secular rehab wouldn’t be effective for him. Despite having attempted to get clean several times in the past, he searched online for “sober living homes near me” and begged to be admitted to a Christian drug rehabilitation facility. It took a few tries before he was finally accepted into the Men’s Care Center, a residential drug rehabilitation program founded by the First Baptist Church of Leesburg. This is a testament to the value of faith-based private addiction centers in LA and their ability to offer effective treatment to those in need.

He carries in his Bible a newspaper clipping reporting on a new Hepatitis C treatment that has since cured him of the illness. Just the knowledge that Hepatitis C wasn’t a death sentence gave Draxinger the desire to repent of his sin and find healing from his addiction nearly a decade ago.

“It was, I felt like, one of the first answers to prayer in my life, and it was enough for me to commit and surrender to God,” Draxinger said, “and trust that He would do what He needed to do to get me wherever He wanted to have me.”

Today, Draxinger directs Samaritan Inn, the Christian Care Center’s (CCC) housing ministry for homeless men. From 2019 until March 2022, he also served as middle school teaching pastor of First Leesburg’s downtown campus.

Draxinger’s testimony made him a good candidate to direct Samaritan Inn, CCC Executive Director Bill Jones said.

“John had a background that was very similar to a lot of our residents,” Jones said. “And so he could really relate to them in a way that no one else previously could.”

Draxinger is one of many men who have found sobriety and salvation through the Men’s Care Center, one of seven CCC ministries serving Leesburg and Lake County, senior pastor Cliff Lea said.

“I’m a sucker for a powerful testimony,” Lea said April 6, “and this morning, there was a man who’s graduating who gave his testimony, and it was just amazing. He struggled with alcohol and drug addiction for decades. He finally got to the end of his rope and a family friend told him about the Christian Care Center.”

Lea began serving at the church in 2007, about a year before First Leesburg expanded its CCC to include Samaritan Inn.

The saga of how First Leesburg founded Samaritan Inn – buying an abandoned motel that was attracting squatters and drug users – is the plot of the new film “No Vacancy,” opening nationwide May 9.

Why Vance Pitman, Megachurch Pastor, Resigned as Top Leader at His Las Vegas Church

By

Bob Smietana

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April 20, 2022

(RNS) — Two decades ago, Vance Pitman and a pair of friends from the Bible Belt went out west to start a church in Sin City.

They launched a Las Vegas congregation, known as Hope Church, two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks and it grew beyond their wildest dreams, becoming a multicultural megachurch with congregation members who speak more than 50 languages.

During the summer of 2021, Pitman and his wife began to think about the future. Rather than focusing on building up Hope Church and Pitman’s platform there, they wanted to spend more time with their grandkids and on helping other churches get off the ground.

In December, Pitman resigned as senior pastor of Hope Church — a rare move for megachurch pastors in their prime — to take a new role as president of the Send Network, the church-planting arm of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board.

Pitman spoke to Religion News Service in March, not long after starting his new role. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why step down as senior pastor at your church to take this new job?

About 40% of the unchurched population in America lives in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, which is about 75 million people. We had a dream to start 300 new churches, and currently, we’re about 80 churches into that process. Last summer, my wife and I just spent some time before the Lord and we began to ask,”Lord, what have you made us to do?”

There was a shift taking place in my heart that for the next season of ministry, rather than be focused on Hope Church, it was going to be focused on the “big C” church and the kingdom. Also, I get about five calls a year from senior pastors across the country who are retiring or getting ready to finish their ministry and looking for their successor and asking if I’d be interested in taking over. I got burdened that we don’t do a good job of developing the next generation of pastors and church planters in North America. I felt like this was the right time for us to make this step.

Will you still be a member of Hope Church?

For now, I’m going to live here and be a member of the church here. My family will still serve here and I’ll preach occasionally — four or five times a year — but we are sent out full time. We raised up a team from within that’s already taken the mantle of leadership, we passed the baton and so the church is doing great.

What have you learned in Vegas as a church planter that you think might be useful in this new role?

I believe what is happening a lot in church planting today is just starting church services and not starting churches — by that I mean churches being born as a result of engaging cities with the gospel and seeing disciples made in those churches as byproduct. We call starting church services “church planting” when a guy moves into a town, sends out a mailer, opens up a storefront and immediately invites people to attend a church service.

Vance Pitman speaks for the first time in his capacity as Send Network’s new president at an orientation for 165 of the organization’s newest church planting missionaries March 7, 2022. Photo courtesy Send Network/Kent Mallett

Vance Pitman speaks for the first time in his capacity as Send Network’s new president at an orientation for 165 of the organization’s newest church planting missionaries March 7, 2022. Photo courtesy of Send Network/Kent Mallett

You can do that strategy in Memphis or Nashville or Atlanta or Birmingham, where you have Christians waking up looking to go to church on Sunday. In Las Vegas, when I moved here, 95% of our city was non-Christian and 60% was nonreligious. You can send out mailers all day long but nobody’s looking to go to church.

Dede Robertson, Wife of Religious Broadcaster, Dies at 94

By

Ben Finley

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April 20, 2022

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Dede Robertson, the wife of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson and a founding board member of the Christian Broadcasting Network, died Tuesday at her home in Virginia Beach, the network said in a statement.

Robertson was 94. The statement did not provide her cause of death.

Robertson became a born-again Christian several months after her husband found his faith. The couple, who met at Yale University in 1952, embarked on a journey that included living in a roach-infested commune in New York before Pat Robertson bought a tiny television station in Virginia that would become the Christian Broadcasting Network.

He later ran for president of the United States in 1988, with his wife campaigning by his side.

“Mom was the glue that held the Robertson family together,” said Gordon Robertson, one of her four children, and the president and CEO of CBN. “She was always working behind the scenes. If it weren’t for Mom, there wouldn’t be a CBN.”

Adelia “Dede” Elmer was born in Columbus, Ohio, to middle-class Catholic Republicans. She got her bachelor’s degree from Ohio State and a master’s in nursing from Yale.

Robertson’s future husband was the son of a Southern Baptist, Democratic U.S. senator. Eighteen months after meeting, they ran off to be married by a justice of the peace, knowing that neither family would approve.

Robertson’s husband was interested in politics until he found religion, she told The Associated Press in 1987. He stunned her by pouring out their liquor, tearing a nude print off the wall and declaring he had found the Lord.

They moved into the commune in Bedford-Stuyvesant because Robertson said God had told him to sell all his possessions and minister to the poor. Robertson told The AP she was tempted to go back to Ohio, “but I realized that was not what the Lord would have me do … I had promised to stay, so I did.”

Pat Robertson later heard God tell him to buy the small TV station in Portsmouth, Virginia, which would become a global religious broadcasting network. He ran the network’s flagship program, the “700 Club,” for half a century before stepping down last fall.

In her autobiography, Robertson recalled bridling at staying at home and her husband’s refusal to help around the house.

“I was a Northerner, and Northern men just generally help around the house a little more,” she said. “I noticed the further south we moved, the less he did.”

NJ Diocese Agrees to $87.5M Deal to Settle Sex Abuse Suits

By

Mike Catalini

-

April 20, 2022

New Jersey Diocese — The interior of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden, New Jersey (Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey Catholic diocese has agreed to pay $87.5 million to settle claims involving clergy sex abuse with some 300 alleged victims in one of the largest cash settlements involving the Catholic church in the United States.

The agreement between the Diocese of Camden, which encompasses six counties in southern New Jersey on the outskirts of Philadelphia, and plaintiffs was filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden on Tuesday.

The settlement must still go before a U.S. bankruptcy judge. If approved, the settlement would exceed the nearly $85 million settlement in 2003 in the clergy abuse scandal in Boston, although it’s less than other settlements in California and Oregon.

“I want to express my sincere apology to all those who have been affected by sexual abuse in our Diocese,” Bishop Dennis Sullivan said in a statement. “My prayers go out to all survivors of abuse and I pledge my continuing commitment to ensure that this terrible chapter in the history of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey never happens again.”

Details about what allegedly happened to the roughly 300 victims were not included in the proposed settlement, according to an attorney for some 70 of the victims.

“This settlement with the Bishop of Camden is a powerful advance in accountability,” said Jeff Anderson, an attorney representing 74 of the roughly 300 survivors. “The credit goes to the survivors for standing up for themselves and the truth.”

The alleged sexual abuse occurred from the 1950s into the 1990s, Anderson said, but primarily unfolded in the 1960s and 1970s.

The diocese said the deal calls for setting up a trust, which will be funded over four years by the diocese and “related Catholic entities” to compensate survivors of sexual abuse. Part of the deal also requires maintaining or “enhancing” protocols to protect children.

Abuse survivors who filed a claim in the bankruptcy could get $290,000, according to victims’ attorneys Jay Mascolo and Jason Amala.

The agreement comes more than two years after New Jersey expanded the window of its civil statute of limitations to allow for victims of sexual abuse by priests to seek legal compensation. The legislation lets child victims sue up until they turn 55 or within seven years of their first realization that the abuse caused them harm. The previous statute of limitations was age 20 or two years after first realizing the abuse caused harm.

The diocese, like others across the country, had filed for bankruptcy amid a torrent of lawsuits — up to 55, according to court records — stemming from the relaxed statute of limitation.

In 2019, New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses listed more than 180 priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors over a span of several decades, joining more than two dozen other states that have named suspected abusers in the wake of a landmark grand jury report in Pennsylvania in 2018.

Many priests on the lists were deceased, and others were removed from ministry.

This article originally appeared here.

Do School Administrators Hate Small Groups?

By

Allen White

-

April 20, 2022

Back in the good old days, the school year started after Labor Day and ended before Memorial Day as God intended. Lately, however, school districts have gotten creative with school calendars. Some schools take a week or two off every six weeks now – all year ‘round. While I’m sure there is a lot of reason and research that have gone into creating these optimal learning environments, I feel for those missing the lazy days of summer, but I especially feel for you as you plan your small group launches.

Good News: Old Calendar Habits are Hard to Break

Even in areas where the school calendar looks a lot like the annual calendar, the traditional school calendar is well embedded into the hearts and minds of most adults. Look at the workplace. Most people take vacation during the summer months and little gets done the last two weeks of the year. It’s just like the good old days when we had summer vacation and Christmas break. In a way this is good news.

My wife taught in the California public schools. At one school there were 900 students on a campus built to accommodate 300 students. They added as many portables as possible, but it was impossible to have the entire student body on campus at the same time. So, students were divided into four tracks. Each track took a month off every fourth month. This way only 75% of the students were on-campus at any one time. But, here’s the thing – the most popular vacation months were May, June, July, and August. While families could have gone on vacation during either of the other two months their children were out of school, vacations happened during the summer months. Old habits die hard.

If your small group launch is faced with a new or changing school calendar, don’t fear. Your people are still conditioned by the traditional school calendar. Most people won’t go on vacation every six weeks. Most people can’t afford it. Vacations by and large will occur during the summer months. There might be a trip to Branson in October or a skiing trip in the winter, but most people will be around.

Your Groups Can Flex

Often the fear is that if you launch groups, then there’s a “fall break” two weeks into the aligned series or semester, then your groups will fall apart. This is not true. Breaks that occur after a series or semester launches are not a problem for most groups. But, you want to avoid breaks while you’re gearing up for a launch.

In most cases, the best times to launch groups are in the fall, the New Year, and after Easter. These are normal seasons of the year for folks to start things. People are still driven by seasons regardless of what the school calendar dictates.

In South Carolina where our family lived for 14 years, many South Carolinians went on vacation either the week before or after the 4th of July. This tradition went back more than a century. Back in the day, the textile mills closed for two weeks on either side of Independence Day. That’s when everyone took vacation. Now, generations later, many people still vacation during those two weeks because that’s what their families have always done. Recent calendar changes won’t disrupt decades-long traditions.

Exceptions Abound

First, if you live in Canada, forget what I just said. Plan for your groups to start AFTER your Thanksgiving and lead up to the Christmas season.

Rehab for the Fault-Finding Addicts We’ve Become

By

Scott Sauls

-

April 20, 2022

There is a lot of faultfinding in the world these days. The problem with the world, it seems, is other people. Many have given up loving one another for the sake of “othering” one another instead.

It starts in our hearts. We have our list of concerns, the echo chambers we are part of, and our ideological tribes that bring us “together” in condemnation of a common enemy. When outrage becomes our norm, we lose focus on the matter of ultimate concern — namely, organizing our lives around the agenda of Jesus as opposed to fixating on how “the other” is failing to do so.

What is the agenda of Jesus? That we love God with our whole selves and our neighbor as ourselves.

Who is our neighbor? Jesus said we must start with our ideological and political enemies to find the answer to this question. A Jew and a Samaritan in the same story, where one is helpless and “the other” comes to his aid. Ideological differences are put aside in deference to human dignity. Culture wars are laid to rest in deference to loving neighbor as self. End of story. Now go and do likewise.

Whenever we de-center neighbor love as Jesus defined it (again, think Samaritans serving Jews) we also de-center him as our Lord. As we do so, we declare our opposition to the only Kingdom inside of which cultural enemies can learn to love one another. Consider, for example, how Matthew the tax collector and Simon the anti-taxation zealot were both among Jesus’ twelve disciples. They lived and died together while ministering together, as brothers. Incidentally, they were also both sharply rebuked by Jesus for wanting to call fire down on a Samaritan village (see Luke 9).

In 21st century America, we fancy calling down fire on other people. When we do, we become disciples of another kind as we turn partisanship into our new doctrine, pundits into our new prophets, and politicians into our new Jesus. This happens on both sides of the aisle. It happens when we are glad about who is in power and when we are not. This unholy trinity is failing us as a society and, wherever it gains a foothold, as the Body of Christ. Our Christian “will to love” gets usurped by a Christ-less “will to power,” proving Nietzsche’s theory that when we fixate on gaining power over our ideological enemies more than we fixate on loving our ideological enemies, God becomes functionally dead to us.

We remain, in Christ, one Body with many members. But fixing our eyes on Washington instead of Jesus will lead us to dis-member one another over time. The solid ground of our fellowship through union with Christ will become like eggshells under our feet. We will bite and devour, shame and cancel, attack and un-friend…and Jesus will lose visibility in our midst.

The solution is to repent and reverse course by renouncing the unholy trinity (partisanship, pundits, and politicians as our preferred doctrine, prophets, and saviors) because the Kingdom of our Jesus is decidedly not of this world.

Neither progressivism nor conservatism, neither activism nor pacifism, neither moral outrage nor moral restraint, neither wokeness nor anti-wokeness, neither favorite pundits nor favorite preachers, count for anything. What counts is faith expressing itself through love.

As Shakespeare reminds us, the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves.

Chesterton was allegedly asked, “What’s wrong with the world.” His answer? “I am.”

Can we start there? None of us can boast of having the moral high ground. This is why we all need Jesus, and sorely so. We are his chosen people, not his choice people.

May we grieve the logs in our own eyes more than we grieve the specks in other people’s eyes. Only then will we have moral authority to speak meaningfully and persuasively to the specks that are elsewhere. Only then will we cease to be fruitless, clanging cymbals. May we get back to Matthew 18 (when we’ve been wronged) and Mark 5 (when we’ve done wrong) as our strategy for engaging conflict. Lastly, may we cease behaving as if Washington is the nexus for the Kingdom of God. It is not.

Hopefully, the following thoughts will provide helpful guidance for how to get started.

Culture-weary, but still hopeful in Christ,

Scott

Once in a sermon, the great Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, spoke strongly against owning slaves. In that sermon, he said about the emancipator William Wilberforce:

“Not so very long ago our nation tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to destroy slavery; but when was it utterly abolished? It was when Wilberforce roused the church of God, and when the church of God addressed herself to the conflict, then she tore the evil thing to pieces. I have been amused with what Wilberforce said the day after they passed the Act of Emancipation. He merrily said to a friend when it was all done, ‘Is there not something else we can abolish?’ That was said playfully, but it shows the spirit of the church of God. She lives in conflict and victory; her mission is to destroy everything that is bad in the land. “(The Best Warcry, March 4, 1883)

Another great British thinker, CS Lewis, said that Christianity, too, is a fighting religion. Just as Jesus loved the world by combatting evil in the world, his followers will do the same. Advancing the good includes “picking fights” with everything that threatens and diminishes the good.

But before we are ready to fight the wrong out there…

The Fault In Ourselves

In Julius Caesar, Shakespeare’s Cassius says, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” It is easy to look around and identify things that are wrong with the world and with others. But Jesus directs us to look first at ourselves. Before we can effectively address the fault in our stars, we must face the fault in ourselves.

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)

Scripture highlights a universal truth about the human condition: None of us is what we should be. Whether a short temper, a lustful eye, a haughty heart, a lying tongue, or some combination of these and other issues, each of us lives with a sickness of the soul – a sickness that keeps us from loving God as we are meant to love him.

When the body is sick, we who desire health will attack the sickness in multiple ways. We take our medicine, do our exercises, get plenty of rest, eat healthy, and whatever else the medical professionals tell us we must do. Similarly, sickness of the soul requires focus, energy, and action. It also requires honesty about the seriousness of our condition. The soul that is not carefully tended to—the soul whose health is not consistently fought for—will erode spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and in every other way. This is why the fight against the wrong in us is a most important and necessary fight. Emotionally intelligent and spiritually healthy people answer the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” in the same way that Chesterton is said to have answered the same:

“I am.”

Our love for God is diminished wherever we are willing to dismiss or disobey him. And when we dismiss or disobey God, we don’t merely go against him; we also go against ourselves…because our enjoyment of his love – of that love we can never lose because no one, not even ourselves, is able to snatch us out of his hands (John 10:28) – is intimately connected to our enjoyment of his law.

To see the law of Christ fulfilled,
to hear his pardoning voice
turns a slave into a child
and duty into choice.

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him…If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words…Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:15-27)

Boundaries > Dysfunction

Jesus has not left us as orphans. He has come to us, he has come for us…and his love can never be taken from us once we have received it through faith in Jesus. As my long-time friend and gospel sage Scotty Smith likes to say, “God cannot love us more, and he will not love us less.” But as in any romantic relationship, the enjoyment and full manifestation of God’s love will happen in a setting of mutual surrender. In Jesus, God has fully surrendered himself to our deepest need – the need to be forgiven, loved, restored, and made new. And when our heart’s cry becomes, “LORD, your wish is our command,” these truths about his love become more than truths – they also become experiential.

Imagine a loving wife who, after discovering that her husband is seeing another woman, begins to withhold intimacy from him. She simply cannot live with an arrangement in which she shares her husband’s affections with another.

The husband, not wanting to lose the benefits of having her as his wife—for he still enjoys her company, is attracted to her, and enjoys having access to her trust fund—begs her to reconsider. He reminds her of the flowers he has given to her, of the weekly date night that he has never missed, and of how often he affirms her with his words. Every now and again, he will even pull out a guitar and sing a love song to her.

The husband reasons with her, “The other woman only gets 10% of me and you get 90%. Doesn’t that count for something? Isn’t 90% enough for you? Why would you withhold the experience of your warmth, affection and smile from me when I’m 90% committed to you?”

Because she is a healthy wife and not dysfunctional, she calmly responds, “When you give 90% to me and 10% to her, do you know what that makes you? It makes you 100% unfaithful. If you’re not going to give me all of you—if you are bent on keeping a girl on the side, and have no intention to fight against that urge—then I have no choice but to withhold intimacy, to withhold the invitation, “This is my body, given for you…” from you. Integrity to our covenant demands that I not share my bed or warm affection with you under these conditions. When your lips are close to me but your heart is far from me, when you share a bed with a mistress with no intent to turn from her and toward me, I have to keep my distance. This is for your sake as well as mine.”

“It’s Not You…It’s Me”

In times when God seems distant, when I struggle to connect with him, when I find my heart wanting to avoid him – it is sometimes helpful to ask myself (and also the people around me), “Am I actually chasing a mistress? Is there something or someone – other than Jesus – that has me around the neck, that has become my true north and my controlling center, my deeper desire and passion, the functional love of my life? Is there a ‘must have,’ an obsession or an addiction – whether physiological or emotional – the applause of others…the urge to eat, or shop, or monitor social media, or make money, or control things excessively…the urge to gossip and complain and tear down instead of building up…might there be a cause / effect relationship between one or more of these things and my spiritual malaise? Might it be because I remain unmoved by, passive about, and are unwilling to fight against, a known fault that is in myself?”

Sometimes these are questions worth considering. Because as it says in Proverbs 7, all forms of adultery – physical, emotional and spiritual – rob God of the affection owed solely to him, and rob me of surrender’s joy.

“Be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.” (Proverbs 7:24-27)

Conversely, falling into the arms of God is the path of life and fullness:

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

Because God put Jesus away on the cross, he will never put us away.

Isn’t this enough reason to set our hearts on “forsaking all others” – to the end that his wish becomes our command, and his face becomes more compelling to us than his hand?

This fight against the fault in ourselves…it’s a worthwhile fight.

This article originally appeared here.

To Share Your Faith You Should Mark Your New Testament

By

JDPayne

-

April 20, 2022

I frequently train others that you share your faith using a marked New Testament. While this is not the only model for evangelism, it is a simple way to equip churches to communicate the gospel. It requires no memorization of Bible verses, prayers, or scripts. As Charles Brock often stated, “What God’s Word says is more powerful and effective than anything I could ever say about God’s Word.” A marked New Testament allows the Word to speak for itself as one shares it with another person.

Often the model uses Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; and 10:9 & 13. People write Romans 3:23 and the corresponding page number near the front cover of their Bibles. When sharing the gospel, they open the cover, see the page number, and turn to Romans 3:23. Once they arrive at the passage, the text is underlined and Romans 6:23 (with the corresponding page number) is written in the margin. After sharing the initial verse, the person turns to the page on which Romans 6:23 is found.

The process repeats itself, generally concluding with a “Sinner’s Prayer” written in the back cover of the Bible.

Share Your Faith Using a Marked New Testament

While cleaning out my mother’s house, I recently came across my grandmother’s Bible. I was surprised and encouraged to see that someone had taught her how to use the New Testament to share your faith.

While the verses found there include more than the “Roman Road” and do not follow precisely the paradigm I just described, it is a variation on the model.

If you do not have a Marked New Testament in your evangelism toolbox to share your faith, add it now. It is a simple way to share the gospel without memorization and with simple prompts written in the margins. If you already use this model, be sure to train others how to use it too. Church members frequently state they do not know what to share with someone. A marked New Testament is a simple tool that helps alleviate their concern.

This article about how to share your faith originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

Pastoral Leadership: 4 Essential Behaviors for Success

By

Charles Stone

-

April 20, 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 for success.

4 Essential Behaviors for 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.
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?
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.
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.’

1. 1. I didn’t say yes to everybody that wanted to meet with me. I learned to politely say no.
  2. I asked the board to handle some of the tasks staff otherwise might have handled.
  3. 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 for success have helped you?

This article on essential behaviors for success originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

Why Grace Is Important in Every Youth Ministry Program

By

Cameron Cole

-

April 19, 2022

Recently, the priority of the Gospel of grace in youth ministry has become a battle cry. Through my involvement with Rooted, I’ve interacted with many youth workers who share this passion for ministry anchored in the Gospel. They express several reasons for their conviction of why grace is important.

Why Grace Is Important: Reasons to Emphasize the Gospel of Grace

Some wave this banner out of principle. Their theological tradition emphasizes biblical teaching and Gospel proclamation. They believe the church’s primary function is to declare that Jesus died and rose for sinners. This convicted crowd takes pride in pronouncing at every gathering why grace is important.

As a result, this camp tends to keep youth ministry grounded. They promote grace-driven ministry not because it’s attractive or because it personally helped them. Instead, they advocate for the Gospel of grace because it’s the Bible’s core theme.

Others preach grace in the name of reform. They were raised in legalistic religious environments that wounded them. This crowd sat through high-pressure exhortations centered on behavior modification, mainly premarital sex and drinking. Rarely did they hear about forgiveness and unconditional love.

Many of those people had a burnout or meltdown. And they link it to their moralistic spiritual upbringing. The message of why grace is important has healed their wounds and freed them from the performance treadmill. These folks long for a better experience for young people in their flock. Above all, they passionately want kids to know why grace is important.

The reform crowd brings a passion for the Gospel to youth ministry. They remind us of the burden and despair teenagers commonly carry. Then they push us to care for kids by reminding them why grace is important.

But the cry for grace hasn’t come only from reformers and theological purists. Another camp makes a strong argument for Gospel-centered ministry on pragmatic grounds. What do I mean? Simply put, many church leaders promote grace-saturated ministry because it works.

Research Into Grace-Filled Youth Ministry

Researchers identify Gospel clarity as one of the most important practices of youth ministries for helping students remain faithful to Jesus and the church after high school. In their multi-year, longitudinal study, Fuller Youth Institute’s College Transition Project identified a student’s understanding of grace as a key indicator of long-term sustainability as a Christian.

‘The Chosen’ Director Responds to Billboard Backlash: ‘I Was Wrong and I Want To Genuinely Ask For Your Forgiveness’

By

Jesse T. Jackson

-

April 19, 2022

“The Chosen” director Dallas Jenkins took to Facebook Live to apologize for the show’s latest billboard marketing campaign that misled a handful of fans.

Billboards around the United States promoting “The Chosen” appeared to be defaced. Graffiti-like art crossed out words and persuaded people to visit a website titled “ChosenSux.com,” which took them to a site called “The Chosen Is Not Good.”

The show’s marketing team is behind the site, which features a satirical video that includes Satan teaching demons how to get people not to watch “The Chosen.” Additionally the site has a link titled “Don’t download the FREE chosen app,” but takes a person to the app to stream the show and also has a link to an online game called “disciples invaders game” where Satan’s head shoots characters who play the disciples in the show.

The b illboards also appeared to be graffitied with sayings like, “Come and see Poopy butts,” “The Chosen is boring,” and “Binge Salad (gross).”

Fans of “The Chosen” were duped into thinking the defaced billboards were the work of a hate group targeting the show’s wildly successful viewing audience.

Comments like, “How sad…what is wrong with people…why are they so afraid of God..??? This series literally saved my life the past year…I am so grateful I found it…Love it so much,” and “There will always be haters, even for the son of man. Sad as this may sound but our faith has withstood more than the emotions of people that are lost with their hate. Not only does this make our faith stronger but gives us more drive and purpose to spread the good word.”

The show later shared that it was actually behind the billboards and that they were an effort to get those who hadn’t yet seen the show to give it a try. “As you may have heard, these billboards are one part of a larger marketing campaign that launched yesterday,” a tweet from the show’s Twitter account read.

Before livestreaming episodes seven and eight from season one, Jenkins addressed the reasoning behind the marketing campaign. Jenkins explained that the show’s new campaign was intended to be “a bit of this reverse psychology,” like Chick-fil-A ads featuring cows telling people to eat more chicken.

After sharing the thought behind the video, Jenkins told their fans, “We made a big mistake. I made a big mistake, and I want to apologize to you who are watching who saw those billboards is a core passionate, loyal fan of the show, and felt defensive of the show.”

The fans’ passion for “The Chosen” is great, he said. Many “didn’t know that this was us didn’t know that this was part of a marketing campaign and the reason you didn’t know is because we didn’t tell you and we told you too late.”

“In retrospect, last night, I was up very late, stressed about the fact that I screwed up and there’s no excuse for it,” Jenkins said, apologizing to fans.

Easter Points to Signs of Hope After Two Hard Years of COVID and Unrest

By

Ed Stetzer

-

April 19, 2022

Despite what you might have seen on social media, the Christian faith is not about a political party or a particular nation. In reality, the Christian faith is rooted in a cosmic story throughout history of a God who creates and redeems. It is a story of a God who sees our suffering, our rebellion and our lostness and responds in love.

And at the center of this story is Easter. It is where God fulfills his promises of victory through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is both of these events—Good Friday and Easter Sunday—that together capture God’s abiding love for his creation. On Good Friday, Christians celebrate God’s victory over the brokenness of our world through Christ’s death on the cross.

Just looking around, we see the effects of sin on our world. Hostility, suffering and oppression are so prevalent today, yet the Christian hope is that all these scourges are defeated through Jesus’ death on the cross.

On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate Jesus’ resurrection as victory over death itself. Through his resurrection, Jesus offers eternal life to those who believe in him.

In a pandemic season where both the brokenness of this world and the pain of death have been lived realities for many, Easter is the story of God’s love that transcends even seemingly insurmountable loss.

So when a Christian invites you to church services for Easter, it’s because of the belief that there is no better news than the good news, or the “gospel.”

That’s the hope we have in Jesus to forgive sin and free our hearts to love God and others.

In other words: It’s a story that Christians believe we must tell.

Church During COVID Pandemic

For the past two years, COVID-19 has forced the church to find new means of telling this story. In 2020, when the pandemic was still fresh and restrictions necessarily high, fewer churches held Easter services in the United States than ever.

Just before Easter 2020, only 3% of regular attendees said they planned to attend in-person services, according to one study, though 61% planned to watch online or on TV.

Though in-person attendance increased to 39% by last year, churches continued to struggle with celebrating Easter face to face.

With recent surveys suggesting that 62% of U.S. Christians could attend Easter services Sunday, and 1 in 10 of those who are religiously unaffiliated plan to do so as well, it appears we are returning to a sense of normalcy. And church leaders cannot wait to again tell the story of Easter.

Celebration Church Pastor Announces Resignation Amid Bitter Legal Dispute

By

Jessica Mouser

-

April 19, 2022

Stovall Weems, who on Jan. 7 was suspended as the senior pastor of Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Fla., announced on Instagram Monday night that he was resigning from his positions at the church effective immediately. Weems’ resignation comes in the middle of a bitter legal dispute with Celebration Church.

“Hello, Friends,” said the caption of a post on the Instagram account for Stovall Weems and his wife, Kerri. “We wanted you to hear directly from us about our recent decision, made on Friday, April 15, to separate and resign from Celebration Church of Jacksonville (CCJ).”

The post is an image of a letter from Stovall Weems addressed to Celebration Church’s trustees, directors and officers. In it, he states he is resigning as the church’s senior pastor, president and CEO, chair and member of the board of trustees, and registered agent.

Stovall Weems: Resignation Won’t Impact Legal Claims

Stovall Weems, who with Kerri founded Celebration Church in 1998, said that he has “spent much time in prayer and received counsel from other pastors here in the city, the region, and around the world. The Trustees’ actions lead me and my family with no choice but to legally separate from CCJ and continue our ministry elsewhere, placing ourselves under the proper accountability and oversight of a council of apostolic pastors and elders in our city, nation, and world that understand and model biblical governance.”

Celebration Church’s leadership, alleges Weems, has abandoned “the clear biblical principles and scriptural qualifications for spiritual covering, spiritual authority, and ecclesiastical governance and oversight.”

Stovall Weems was suspended as pastor of Celebration Church in January due to “possible improper financial practices and/or failure to fulfill duties and responsibilities.” On Feb. 23, Stovall and Kerri Weems filed a lawsuit for injunctive relief against the church, making requests that include the restoration of their base salary, benefits and back pay and the restoration of the status quo to what it was when the church suspended Weems.

Celebration Church responded with a motion to dismiss the injunction, alleging that it “presents the latest chapter in a campaign of deception, manipulation, distraction, and abuse of power by Stovall and Kerri Weems against Celebration.”

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