The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi of Santa Fe, New Mexico, commonly known as St. Francis Cathedral, was built in 1869. It is the mother church of the Catholic archdiocese of Santa Fe. MichaelEBM, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The head of one of the oldest Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States says now is the time to rejuvenate and sustain a global conversation about the need for nuclear disarmament and how to develop ways to avoid a new nuclear arms race.
Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester released a lengthy pastoral letter on the subject Tuesday, noting during a virtual news conference that Los Alamos National Laboratory — the birthplace of the atomic bomb — is preparing to ramp up production of the plutonium cores used in the nation’s nuclear arsenal.
Wester called the arms race a vicious spiral.
“We can no longer deny or ignore the extremely dangerous predicament of our human family and that we are in a new nuclear arms race far more dangerous than the first,” he said. “We need nuclear arms control, not an escalating nuclear arms race.”
Last week, the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace welcomed a recent pledge by several countries that are members of the United Nations Security Council to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. Wester said he also was encouraged by the pledge.
Wester said the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, which covers parishes throughout northern New Mexico, has a special role to play given that two prominent federal laboratories — Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories — are located in the state. He also mentioned the U.S. government’s repository of nuclear weapons at an air base in Albuquerque.
People raise their hands during a worship service in Orange, California. Photo by Edward Cisneros/Unsplash/Creative Commons
WASHINGTON (RNS) — A religion scholar believes major trends in religion and politics can be traced back to the rise of the religious right in the 1990s, a sea change moment that set in motion an array of phenomena ranging from an uptick in religious disaffiliation to the radicalization of some Christian conservatives.
The sweeping theory is outlined in a new paper penned by Ruth Braunstein, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut. Her paper, titled “A Theory of Political Backlash: Assessing the Religious Right’s Effects on the Religious Field,” published late last year in Sociology of Religion, offers an unusually broad-based examination of the interplay between the religious right, the religiously unaffiliated and the power of political backlash.
Braunstein grounds her study in a trend well known to scholars and everyday religious practitioners alike: The number of “nones,” so called because of the answer they give to the question “what is your religious affiliation,” has increased dramatically in recent decades. In 1972, the General Social Survey reported that 5% of Americans did not claim a religious affiliation. But that number shot up during the 1990s and again in the 2010s: According to the Public Religion Research Institute, the religiously unaffiliated represented around 23% of the country as of 2020 — a larger percentage than white evangelical Protestants, white mainline Protestants or white Catholics.
Graphic courtesy of PRRI Census of American Religion
Religious leaders and scholars have pondered the ongoing shift since it began, with some speculating the root cause is political. The rise of the nones, so the theory goes, is largely a backlash to the rise of the religious right in the 1990s: As campaigns by conservative Christians increasingly became associated with all religion in the public square, religious Americans who rejected their messages — particularly a subset of liberals with weaker connections to institutional religion — ultimately cut ties with religion altogether, identifying as nones instead.
But in her paper, Braunstein hypothesizes this cause-and-effect relationship is actually more complicated — and more wide-ranging. The uptick in liberal-leaning nones, she says, is but one example of “broad backlash” — a backlash against religion in general, even as some nones don’t necessarily give up religious practices or belief in a higher power. But, she argues, there are also at least three “narrow” backlashes to the religious right that have gone relatively unnoticed, all of which are helping shape the modern religious and political landscape.
“Backlash against the religious right doesn’t actually have to mean leaving religion altogether — even though that is a choice that many people are making,” she said in an interview this week with Religion News Service.
“There are some narrower forms of backlash that involve narrowly rejecting the religious right’s brand of politicized conservative religion by either reclaiming or reformulating a way of doing religion, of being religious and engaging in public religious expression.”
Ruth Braunstein. Photo courtesy of PRRI
Braunstein pointed to data from Pew Research showing an increase in Americans who identified as “spiritual but not religious,” rising from 19% in 2012 to 27% in 2017. In her paper, she acknowledged that while the category likely includes people who agree with the campaigns of the religious right, other scholars have studied people who claim the moniker as a reaction to the “moral lapses of organized religion,” signaling that at least some spiritual-but-not-religious Americans are “moderates, neither religious zealots nor dogmatic atheists” seeking to distance themselves from conservative Christians.
“It is plausible that the rising embrace of a spiritual identity can be read partially as a narrow backlash against the religious right, even as it also seems clear that it cannot be read exclusively in these terms,” writes Braunstein, who also heads the Meanings of Democracy Lab at the the University of Connecticut.
Second, she notes the growth in positive attention paid to liberal religious activists, sometimes described as members of the religious left, who are known for passionately decrying the political efforts of conservative Christians. Braunstein argues “progressive religious mobilization represents a different form of backlash than the one associated with religious disaffiliation,” one that doesn’t reject religion altogether but uses “the presence of the religious right to cast more moderate forms of public religious expression in a positive light.”
She pulled me aside to confess her painful secret: she had accidentally discovered that her husband was looking at pornography. She was hurt and confused, and her question dropped into the church hallway air between us like a deflated helium balloon: “Why?”
I could see it in her face. In her posture. In her balled fists and her furrowed brow. She was wondering why she wasn’t enough for her husband. She was trying to wrap her troubled mind around what this discovery means about her marriage, about her husband’s love for her, about her physical appearance and her sex life. She was trying to decide how to think about what she could only describe as a betrayal. And she was desperately searching for someone who could explain it all to her.
The black-hole-like pull of pornography is complicated and yet so simple. Men and women alike are drawn to it for various reasons and keep coming back to it because sin is like that—it always seems so glittering and alluring while it kills us little by little. Like all sin, it hurts. It hurts us and it hurts those closest to us. Marriages everywhere are struggling to stay afloat in the middle of the vast ocean of pornographic material that is so readily available. Women often want to know what they are doing wrong to cause their husbands to keep going back to the source of the shame and the failure.
I looked into her precious, worried face, and I told her one thing that I have learned about pornography through the years: Your husband’s pornography problem is not about you.
In fact, it has very little do to with you. It isn’t about how you dress or how you look naked. It isn’t about how you treat your husband or whether he feels loved by you. It isn’t about which sex positions you’re willing to try. And, even if your husband says it is about any of those things, it isn’t.
Your husband’s pornography problem is about one thing. It’s about how sin is always crouching at our door, waiting to devour us. Pornography is such a quick and easy temptation, and it’s everywhere. Your husband wouldn’t be normal if he didn’t struggle with the desire to look at pornography. He didn’t suddenly develop a taste for lustful thoughts and images when he married you. Chances are, he has struggled for most of his life with this issue, and despite what many think, even a happy marriage isn’t a cure for the desire to look at what can be so easily found on the internet.
You may be the sweetest, most doting wife in the world. You may be attentive in the bedroom. You may be in great shape. You may be none of those things. But, nothing you have said or done and nothing that you are or aren’t has driven your husband to look at pornography.
I’m not saying it doesn’t affect you. It does. Very much so. His private struggle is also yours. His failure in this area hurts you deeply. You can help him in many ways as he deals with this temptation, but ultimately it is his battle to fight, and his failures are not yours to own.
Wives, be prayerful. Be gracious. Be tender. Be tough when you must. But, don’t believe for one second that your husband’s pornography problem is about you. Pornography robs a marriage of lots of things: trust, intimacy, openness. Real choices lead to real consequences. But, don’t forget that this is ultimately a spiritual issue, just like your own struggles with sin. It isn’t about your husband’s level of satisfaction with you.
In most cases, pornography is a source of terrible shame for a Christian husband. You can be a great ally for him in this area. I know it’s difficult. I know it’s heartbreaking. But, the more you recognize that your husband’s feelings about you are not the source of the problem, the easier it will be for you to help him gain victory here.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
One of the ministries EPM has long supported is MedSend, a group that funds qualified healthcare professionals to serve the physical and spiritual needs of people around the world. Our friend John Brose was one of EPM’s original supporters since our beginning in 1990. Dr. Brose was a member of our church, a beloved physician, and a former missionary physician to Burundi who served on the board and was vitally involved with MedSend. He often talked to me about this important ministry and told me stories of what God was doing through them.
John Brose was particularly excited about how MedSend offers student loan repayment grants to healthcare professionals who are headed for career healthcare missions service. He explained to me how medical missions has been greatly hampered through the extreme debt often involved in going to medical school. Those who have aspirations to go overseas to places of greatest need often owe so much money that they are hindered from following their heart to serve in poor countries. MedSend exists partly to help pay off the medical school debts of missionaries while taking them to serve Christ among the poor.
Dr. Geoffrey Moses, serving with his family in a country in West Africa that has had the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy in the world, is one of those medical missionaries who has received loan help through MedSend. They recently sent this short and deeply touching video featuring him. Dr. Moses details what happened when he met a woman in a remote village in Western Africa who had metastatic breast cancer that had gone undiagnosed and untreated:
Watching the video of Dr. Moses reminds me that I often hear it said that we should just get people the gospel and not talk about physical, social, and justice issues. But exactly the opposite is true. When we advocate for people and care for them in their distress, that’s when the words of the gospel have the most impact. Why? Because people know we love them, and we are giving ourselves for them. Nothing opens up doors for evangelism like need-meeting ministries.
When he read aloud Isaiah in the synagogue, Jesus applied to himself and his ministry these prophetic words: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…” (Luke 4:16-19). To him, the Gospel was inseparable from tending to people’s spiritual and material needs.
Of course, instead of advocating acts of compassion and justice alongside the Gospel, some offer it in place of the Gospel. That’s neither truly compassionate nor just, because to leave out the Gospel is to leave out Jesus.
Consider these well-known figures in church history who cared for people’s spiritual and physical needs:
John Wesley actively opposed slavery, and encouraged mine workers to unite in order to resist the inhuman treatment by their employers.
Evangelist Charles Finney had a major role in the illegal Underground Railroad, saving the lives of many blacks, all while under criticism from fellow Christians because of his civil disobedience. His college, Oberlin College, became a major stop on the Underground Railroad. (I need to make clear that this example is not an endorsement of Finney’s theology, but his humanitarian and anti-slavery efforts. As do others, I have serious disagreements with many of the theological statements Finney made, related to perfectionism and the atonement. See this article.)
D. L. Moody opened homes for underprivileged girls, rescuing them from hopelessness and exploitation.
Charles Spurgeon built seventeen homes to help care for elderly women, and a large school for hundreds of children. Spurgeon and his church built homes for orphans in London, rescuing them from starvation and vice on the streets.
Amy Carmichael intervened for the sexually exploited girls of India, rescuing them from temple prostitution. She built them homes, a school, and a hospital.
Some people have written off the current generation spiritually. That is a mistake—for the church and for the Millennials. There’s growing evidence that this new generation will bring the greatest opportunity for Small Church ministry in 2,000 years.
Advantages of a Small Church
Why? Because, as the first generation with a majority born and raised outside traditional marriage, genuine relationships and intimate worship—what Small Churches do best—will matter more to them than it did to their parents.
But this opportunity comes with one, big condition.
They won’t give up quality to gain intimacy.
And they shouldn’t have to.
They’re Checking Us Out—What Will They Find?
Millennials are discovering they have the same needs people have always had. Needs that include a desire to worship something or someone bigger than themselves, and to do so with others who have similar feelings.
In other words, church.
But they will not be drawn to the kinds of churches their parents built. They won’t want a big Sunday morning stage show as much as they’ll want genuine intimacy and relationships.
Because of this need, Millennials are starting to take a peek at what Small Churches have to offer. But they’re used to a high-quality experience in everything, and they won’t settle for less.
Thankfully, that’s not as intimidating as it sounds.
Quality = Health
Small doesn’t mean cheap, shoddy, lazy or low-quality. At least it shouldn’t.
Many of the ministries I’ve featured in this series of articles have existed for decades, easily pre-dating the Digital Revolution. They have had to adapt, to change, to respond to the newly available power and the emerging dangers of new technologies. The ministry I’m featuring today is different. It was founded in the midst of the Internet Revolution, with the Mobile/Social Revolution just over the horizon. Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary (CBTS) began life as the Midwest Center for Theological Studies in 2005 using the traditional model of in-person education. In 2011 the school embraced digital technology, shifting to a primarily online teaching model. That shift has enabled CBTS to accomplish three primary goals: partnering with local churches in preparing men with a pastoral calling, serving churches and students around the world, and making a seminary education affordable. In 2014 the school changed its name to reflect its broader reach and more focused purpose.
I spoke with Brice Bigham, director of development and marketing for CBTS to better understand how they see the digital revolution transforming seminary education.
Source: Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary
The Importance of the Local Church
Bigham had originally started as a student at a traditional residential seminary. He found the education to be sound, but the separation from his local church was tangible. Brice got married and the various duties of life caused him to put his seminary education on hold. Although no longer a seminary student, he continued as a student of the Word, and especially was growing in his understanding of ecclesiology — the study of the church. He grew in his conviction that the local church is where a person’s gifts and calling are most clearly discerned and developed. The traditional seminary model can have a tendency to minimize the role of the local church in favor of the discernment of the seminary. Then Bigham heard about Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary.
Bigham was thrilled to hear that he could continue to grow and be mentored by his own pastor, while gaining the strong theological training of a confessional reformed baptist seminary. He restarted his seminary training. In time, as CBTS continued to grow, he was called to join the leadership team and he moved his family to Owensboro, Kentucky where the seminary is based.
Prior to the switch to the online model, the Midwest Center for Theological Studies had fewer than 50 students, all of them primarily taking classes in person in Owensboro. Today, Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary has about 300 students, with 20% being outside the United States, and only 1% primarily attending classes in person in Owensboro. Depending on the degree being pursued, students are required to attend one or two classes in person during their degree program. CBTS makes this easy by offering intensive courses a few times a year, often concentrated around a holiday to make it easy for students to take that time away from their other responsibilities at home. Although students only need to take one or two of these in-person classes, many students attend as many as they can to strengthen their relationships with fellow students and professors.
The technology stack that Covenant Baptist uses also helps in developing these relationships. Students can take self-paced classes using recorded video lectures, but many prefer the live teaching option via Zoom video conference where they can interact with their fellow classmates and the professor. In addition to the Neo online learning platform, the seminary runs a Discord server where student interaction and debate remains lively. Students also keep discussions going in the school’s Facebook groups.
While the threat of isolation is real in online learning, most students stay actively engaged. More importantly, while technology enables the benefit from academic relationships, the online model means that students continue to actively develop relationships within their local church and with other churches with whom theirs associate. Most important is the relationship between the student and his pastor, who serves to mentor the student in how to truly be a pastor, a shepherd, to the local flock.
The Global Opportunity
Naturally, Covenant Baptist’s online model works over any distance. A growing share of the seminary’s students are outside the United States. This has been helped by the establishment of the William Carey Scholarship Fund to cover the costs for pastors and church planters around the world. CBTS currently has students from 24 different countries.
Another element of the school’s technology stack has proven especially helpful in countries where it is difficult to get the books and resources necessary for a seminary education. Through a partnership with Logos Bible Software, students build their own library of hundreds or thousands of titles. Through Logos, students also have access to the kind of rich theological library that seminary students have traditionally found on campus, and the opportunity to engage with professors over those materials.
Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary – Meeting the Need
One of the strongest benefits of Covenant Baptist’s model is how affordable a seminary education can become. Students pay $375 per semester plus $75 per credit hour. For comparison’s sake, in-state neighbor the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky charges $275-$475 per credit hour depending on whether the student is from a member church in the Southern Baptist Convention. Other seminaries are even more expensive (Dallas Theological Seminary: $309-$619/hour, Fuller Seminary $450-$820/unit, Regent $500–650/hour, Gordon-Conwell $575–750/hour).
As a result, many graduates from traditional seminaries have built up significant student debt. That means that graduates must find a job that will pay enough to cover their debt obligations. Students aren’t free to go anywhere God is calling them, but rather can only consider churches large enough, and in prosperous enough cities, to cover their financial needs. CBTS graduates, on the other hand, pay thousands or tens of thousands less over their seminary program, and many students are able to continue to work while pursuing their degree, eliminating the need to take on any student debt.
As Bigham described it “When online education is done right, the value is tremendous. Students gain all the benefits of rigorous academic study, while learning practical shepherding skills at the side of their local pastor, all at a fraction of the cost of residential seminary programs. That makes them available to go where God needs them.”
Networks and Beyond
As we’ve moved into the Connected Intelligence Revolution, one of the key shifts that business have had to grasp is to think in terms of networks or platforms. Traditionally, companies focused on delivering a solution — a product or a service — which had standalone value. Today, such value “nodes” still deliver value to customers, but the value they can create, both for customers and the business is limited. In the Connected Intelligence Revolution, organizations are much more focused on creating “networks” that connect nodes made up of products/services, consumers, and providers. Value is created for all participants in the network as they interact with each other, but the one operating the network gains the most value as they observe and learn from all the interactions in the network.
Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary has built two networks as part of achieving their mission of helping “the church to prepare men to undertake the full range of pastoral responsibilities they will face in serving Christ and His kingdom, and to equip Christians for effective service in the church.” For both networks, it’s important to understand the different potential participants in a CBTS-enabled network. Of course, there are the seminary’s students, professors, and alumni. Note that most of the school’s professors and alumni are also pastors in their local churches. The local pastors of current and former students are also natural participants. Other members of student’s and alumni’s churches likely also have an awareness of and appreciation for Covenant Baptist. Finally, there are other likeminded pastors and churches that haven’t yet sent students to CBTS, but may in the future.
The simplest of the two networks is “The Man of God Network” — a podcast network connecting the seminary, its professors, and associated pastors as content providers to students, alumni, potential students, and other church members as content consumers. As primarily a broadcast network, this platform is naturally rich in content, but poor in interaction. Listeners benefit greatly from what they hear; broadcasters benefit from gaining an audience; and CBTS gains in learning what shows and episodes are popular and well received.
The second network is Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary ‘s Church Partner Program. Churches financially support CBTS and, in exchange, their members save money on tuition. But the power of the network is in the deeper and broader relationships that are fostered. All of the online course materials are available to the church’s pastor and members. Church staff and members can audit classes, and class lectures can be used in a variety of settings, including Sunday School classes and small groups. While a seminary degree really makes sense for a man called by God to the ministry, the Church Partner Program enables many people in the church to grow and be better equipped for service in the church. More than that, as more in the local body are learning alongside their called brethren, their encouragement, support, and accountability for those men grows. Contrast that with a man who leaves his church, moves to a distant city to study theology, and years later accepts a call from another church that knows little about him other than the fact that he’s earned a prestigious degree.
I asked Bigham about how Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary is approaching other potential developments in the Connected Intelligence era. He described how the fact that the leadership team is made up of men in their 30’s, their 40’s, their 50’s (and beyond) is a source of strength in marrying technology with mission. The young leaders may have a better idea of what is technically possible, but the more mature have learned what may be more wise and God-honoring. “We are also paying close attention to the development of virtual reality technologies to understand how this will transform higher education.”
While I’m confident that Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary will continue to wisely leverage digital technologies in achieving their mission, I doubt they will be alone. So much of what they have learned (and are still learning) will eventually be embraced by many, so that our children’s seminary may be of much greater value to Christ’s church.
This profile of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary originally appeared here, and is used by permission.
Finding a fun, meaningful children lesson on prayer can be challenging. This is especially true when a wide range of ages gather together. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for relatively easy yet cool finds.
For this children’s object lesson on prayer, I was inspired by fizzy antacid tablets. They fascinate kids of all ages (and even adults). Effervescence is so awesome!
When teaching children, it’s vital to emphasize building a strong relationship with Jesus. Prayer, worship and reading God’s Word, the Bible, all play key roles. For now, let’s look at prayer:
Children Lesson on Prayer
The focus Bible verse for this object lesson on prayer is 1 Timothy 2:1-6, NLT. Objectives include teaching that Jesus hears all prayers, not just those from adults, and that we should pray for everyone and everything. It’s also important to describe what praying actually means and all the ways we can pray. Print out a kid-friendly definition ahead of time; for example, prayer is simply “having a conversation with God.”
You’ll need a bunch of clear glasses filled with tap water. (For extra fizz, use sparkling water.) Food coloring is optional, if you want to make colored water. You’ll also need antacid tablets (at least two per child). Generic works just fine.
Begin by reading the Bible passage aloud and discussing what prayer means. Talk about what happens when we pray and how prayer helps us all grow closer to God.
Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz
Next, gather children around a table and say, “Watch this and tell me how it makes you feel.” Then drop an antacid tablet into water. The fizz will lead to immediate excitement on kids’ faces.
Say, “Every time we pray to Jesus, that’s how he feels. He’s bubbling over with excitement because we are building a relationship and friendship with him. We’re talking to Jesus and including him in our lives. Jesus loves us so much, and he wants to be a big part of our lives.”
Give each child two antacid tablets (they usually come two per pack).
Pictured: John MacArthur delivering a sermon in February 2021. Screengrab from YouTube.
Pastor and Bible teacher John MacArthur came under criticism earlier this week after a clip from a sermon he gave on January 17, 2021 went viral on Twitter. In that clip, MacArthur expressed that he doesn’t support religious freedom, saying, “Religious freedom is what sends people to hell.” He went on to reiterate that “no Christian with half a brain” would support religious liberty.
While the sermon was given almost a year ago, it received fresh attention when journalist and political commentator Matthew Sheffield tweeted a short excerpt of it as part of a longer thread about the dangers of Christian nationalism.
After the clip began circulating, a number of evangelical leaders, including some prominent members of the SBC, responded with concern at the fact MacArthur seemed to repudiate the longstanding SBC distinctive of religious liberty, a value which is held deeply by many evangelicals both inside and outside the denomination.
In light of that criticism, The Daily Wire’s Megan Basham wrote that in responding to the tweeted clip of MacArthur’s sermon, which was edited, many evangelicals were taking MacArthur’s words out of context and misunderstanding his intent.
Basham said that listening to the entire sermon revealed that “MacArthur was speaking about who the church should look to for protection — not earthly powers, but God.”
Grace to You executive director Phil Johnson told Basham, “MacArthur is certainly not advocating the theonomic notion that Christians today should commandeer governments in order to force Christianity on the world.” Grace to You is John MacArthur’s teaching ministry.
After Basham’s article was published, Sheffield criticized Basham, claiming that her article was “dishonest” and that Basham had not reached out to him for comment. In Sheffield’s original thread, he had included clips from multiple John MacArthur sermons with a link to the full recording of one of those sermons, none of which was mentioned in The Daily Wire article.
“The Daily Wire omitted the context while accusing me of doing it,” Sheffield said.
In her article, Basham acknowledged that MacArthur’s comments in his January 17 sermon appeared “to take aim at the political lobbying arm of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC),” citing the ERLC’s work in 2016 to defend the religious liberty ofa Muslim group seeking to build a Mosque. This was the exact point of concern for many who critiqued the viral video clip, and in the weeks following those comments, MacArthur appeared to double down on his original remarks.
One of the other clips that Sheffield posted was from a sermon MacArthur delivered on January 24, 2021, one week after the sermon wherein MacArthur called religious liberty “nonsense.” In the January 24 sermon, MacArthur said that advocating for religious freedom violated biblical morality.
“Now I told you last week that I do not believe as a Christian that I can support strongly freedom of religion, because that would be to violate the first commandment, right? ‘Have no other gods,’” MacArthur said.
Then addressing the concern that forfeiting religious liberty for other faiths would mean forfeiting it for Christianity, MacArthur said, “You say, ‘Well, doesn’t the church need freedom of religion to move forward?’ No. In no way does any political law aid or hinder the church of Jesus Christ. We are a separate kingdom. Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world My servants would fight.’”
Voddie Baucham preaches a sermon on Jan. 27, 2021, at Community Fellowship Church in Lancaster, Pa. Screen grab from YouTube: @Community Fellowship Church
Voddie Baucham revealed that he is still part of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in an interview with the Capstone Report on his appointment to the steering council of the Conservative Baptist Network (CBN). In the interview, Baucham called recent developments within the SBC “sinful,” “shameful,” and “scandalous.”
“I am saddened by the recent ‘awokening’ among Convention elites,” Baucham told Capstone. “The unwillingness to name, let alone address CRT at the Convention last year was shameful. The refusal to acknowledge and/or address the Ed Litton scandal was sinful, and quite revealing (as was the refusal of the press to pursue the issue). Then to discover that a number of SBC elites were having their sermons written by the Docent group, SBC Seminaries were continuing to harbor professors who promote Cultural Marxism, CRT, and Liberation Theology (among other errors), not to mention the scandalous leftward drift of the ERLC. Things are unraveling in the SBC… AGAIN!”
The “Ed Litton scandal” Baucham mentioned refers to allegations (which surfaced shortly after Litton was elected SBC president) that Litton had plagiarized former SBC president J.D. Greear. Litton said he had permission to use Greear’s work, which Greear confirmed, but Litton admitted he should have cited his source. Notably, Baucham himself has been accused of plagiarism, and his publisher has also explained those allegations as being due to a citation issue.
For further information on this and other topics Baucham brought up, see the following articles:
Voddie Baucham is the former pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas, and is currently Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia. The Conservative Baptist Network, whose steering council he has joined, is a grassroots organization that launched in February 2020 to address what its members perceive to be a trend towards liberalism in the SBC. Both Baucham and CBN are vocal opponents of critical race theory (CRT), which has been a divisive topic within the SBC in recent years.
Anne Graham Lotz, Christian author and daughter of the late Billy and Ruth Graham, asked her followers on social media to pray for her daughter, Rachel-Ruth, earlier this week.
Graham shared that her daughter was rushed to the hospital on Saturday night after suffering a heart attack. After having a catheterization on Sunday, Rachel-Ruth experienced a second heart attack.
“The mystery is that her heart has no blockages which can cause traditional style heart attacks,” Lotz said. “Hers is a very rare condition one doctor described as a ‘broken heart syndrome.’ There is no known cause.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, broken heart syndrome is a temporary heart condition that is often a result of stressful situations and extreme emotions. The condition can also be triggered by a “serious physical illness or surgery.” Broken heart syndrome is treatable and usually reverses itself within days or weeks.
At the time Lotz posted her prayer request, Rachel-Ruth was still in the hospital undergoing tests and is expected to be there for several more days.
“I am urgently asking you to join my family in praying for Rachel-Ruth,” Lotz pleaded with her friends and followers. “Please pray for her heart to stabilize; for accurate diagnosis and treatment; for the doctor’s supernatural wisdom; for peace and comfort for all of us.”
Lotz said that she has been praying Psalm 73:26, which reads, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
She concluded her post by sharing Psalm 103, a “very encouraging” verse from her daily devotions, which says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul…Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies.”
Last July, Anne’s son, Jonathan, had to be admitted to the ICU due to COVID-19 complications. The concerned mother said that she placed her son in the “arms of Jesus.” Jonathan spent nearly a month in the hospital recovering from COVID’s Delta variant, which caused him to develop pneumonia. “God has heard and answered your prayers for my son,” Lotz said praising God for her son’s recovery.
Anne’s brother, Samaritan Purse’s CEO and President Franklin Graham, underwent a successful heart surgery last November at the Mayo Clinic because he had developed constrictive pericarditis, an inflammation and hardening of the sac around the heart.
-What mistakes do ministry leaders end up making when they don’t focus on people one at a time?
-You’re writing this book as a pastor of one of the largest churches in the country. Is a megachurch ministry truly compatible with the idea of ministering “one at a time”?
-What would it look like for a church to lead its people to engage one person at a time?
-If focusing on people one at a time is best, why are we doing church ministry in groups of dozens and hundreds and thousands?
Key Quotes From Kyle Idleman
“As a pastor, it’s easy to gauge my effectiveness or my success on those same metrics, right? Like how many people are coming and how many decisions and baptisms. And interestingly, in the past couple of years, a lot of the metrics that we’ve used to find success and find identity and gauge influence and impact have largely been skewed at best by the pandemic.”
“What we find in the gospels, of course, is that Jesus again and again impacted the world through one-on-one encounters.”
“I knew from being on staff at this large church for, you know, 15, 16 years at the time that I would need to work really hard at keeping my focus on people one at a time. In other words, I recognize that a danger for me in this role [of senior pastor] was going to be staying in my office, sitting at home. It was going to be focusing on crowds and not necessarily continuing to have that one at a time emphasis in my life.”
“Crowds of thousands and one at a time don’t need to contradict one another. In fact, if you look through the different stories of Jesus, you often find that the one at a time moments happen within the context of a crowd.”
“I was reading the story, preparing a message for the story on the woman with the issue of blood, and she reaches out. She touches the cloak of Jesus. She tries to kind of disappear into the crowd. And then, you know, there’s this really beautiful verse where it says, ‘Seeing that she could not go unnoticed.’ And that verse for me became the way I wanted to gauge my ministry effectiveness.”
CHICAGO, Ill. (BP) — Moody Publishers has launched a new digital resource designed to support and expand on their print publishing resources called Bibletolife.com. The website contains hundreds of pages and articles aimed at reaching those searching for spiritual answers online.
Launched in November 2021, the site contains content written by authors such as Tony Evans, Alistair Begg, Trillia Newbell, John MacArthur, and Priscilla Shirer, professors from Moody Bible Institute (Chicago) and more. The site is a combination of content adapted from previously released books and brand-new content written specifically for the site.
Articles cover topics like salvation, heaven and hell, sexuality, church history, spiritual disciplines and mental health.
Chris Martin, content marketing editor at Moody Publishers, said the mission of the site is to “lead people to learn about, engage with and love the Word of God.”
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Martin said there is data to show people have been searching for answers to deep spiritual questions online.
He said he hopes the timing of the resource’s release can provide a needed source of biblical truth during trying times, adding that the pandemic “definitely has lit a fire under us to motivate us and inspire us that this is important work.
“We know a lot of people are searching the internet for questions about faith, but it’s hard to know if the answers they are finding are theologically trustworthy. Some people are going to Google with their deepest longings and wonderings before they’re going to their pastors or their parents.”
He said Moody desires to create the site as a way to minister to those who may never pick up one of their physical books but are looking for answers.
“We know plenty of people around the world who could really benefit from our resources but would never pick up a 200-page book,” Martin said.
The site’s connection to Moody Bible Institute and Moody Radio makes it unique from other “evergreen” Christian content sites.
“Our radio hosts will often, if not daily, get all kinds of questions from listeners … the hosts often want to be able to point their callers or the person they are corresponding with to a website so they can find a longer-form answer to their question,” Martin said.
“Our hope in developing this resource is that it could be a trustworthy home for long-form Bible explanation and Bible application content that our radio hosts and listeners could benefit from. I think the way that we all (Christian websites) create content online is really just small bricks that we can use to build a more effective and more redemptive relationship with the social internet in general.”
As more and more people go online and look to social media to look for answers to life’s essential questions, Martin believes the site will give solid authors an opportunity to provide solid answers.
He believes Christians would be wise to ask, “Is this tool driving a wedge between me and Christ or is it bringing me closer to him and making me more like Him?” as they search the internet.
January is Christian discipleship emphasis month on the SBC calendar. Martin said even more than helping people simply understand the Bible, Moody desires the site to be a resource to help people apply the Bible to their lives as disciples.
“The name’“BibleToLife’ explained exactly what we were hoping to do in showing people how the Bible really can lead to new life in Christ and help people come to understand the Gospel,” Martin said.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem gives the State of the State address on Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, at the South Dakota State Capitol in Pierre, S.D. (Erin Woodiel/The Argus Leader via AP)
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem on Tuesday said she would push legislation to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, as she laid out a sharply conservative list of priorities to start the state’s legislative session.
During the final State of the State address of her first term, the Republican governor proposed what amounted to a wishlist for conservative voters, promising to make it easier for state residents to get a permit to carry concealed firearms and nearly impossible for them to get an abortion. She is also proposing a requirement that schools allot time for prayer, a ban on the teaching of controversial material on race in public schools and ensured exemptions from COVID-19 vaccines for medical or religious reasons.
“In South Dakota, we protect freedom, and we will pass it on to our children, and we will not allow freedom to go extinct,” the governor said, as she derided other states for enacting restrictions to prevent and slow COVID-19 infections.
Noem has used her hands-off approach to the pandemic to generate nationwide attention among Republicans. She has positioned herself for a 2024 White House bid, and her speech Tuesday showed a willingness to tap into the country’s most incendiary social issues to stay in the spotlight.
“It was a campaign speech,” said Rep. Jamie Smith, the House Democratic leader, adding that it was a “blueprint of how conservative can I be?”
But medical experts say the heart doesn’t begin to form until the fetus it is at least nine weeks old, and they decry efforts to promote abortion bans by relying on medical inaccuracies.
“Today, I am asking all of you to protect the heartbeats of these unborn children,” Noem told the lawmakers assembled in the House chamber. “I am bringing legislation to ban all abortions once a heartbeat can be detected.”
The proposal received a standing ovation from the Republican-dominated Legislature.
Noem also touted a $116 million tax surplus and proposed using that to slash fees for applications for concealed weapon permits, including covering the cost of federal background checks. She also proposed cutting fees to register businesses with the Secretary of State and cutting a tax on bingo operations.
(RNS) — More than 350 people have signed a petition calling the Anglican Church in North America to honor abuse survivors’ wishes regarding an investigation into the handling of abuse allegations.
The petition, published Thursday (Jan. 6) by the abuse prevention advocacy group #ACNAtoo, asks that ACNA hire an investigative firm that will “search for and publish all the truth, even if it shows the Province in an unflattering light, following the best practices of a survivor-centric investigation.”
Several individuals who reported being sexually abused by Mark Rivera, a former lay minister in ACNA’s Upper Midwest Diocese, have said leaders in the diocese repeatedly mishandled their allegations. On Aug. 28, ACNA announced an eight-member Provincial Response Team to oversee an investigation into the Upper Midwest Diocese’s handling of the abuse allegations.
On Wednesday, the response team emailed some of the accusers, inviting them to vote between two possible investigative firms. The email said the eight members of the response team would also vote. However, 10 of the alleged survivors have signed or initialed the petition stating that they will not participate in the investigation process due to several concerns.
“My vote is no. … This ‘voting process’ you’re trying to sell me is an absolute insult, and you know it,” wrote #ACNAtoo advocate Joanna Rudenborg in a public letter on Thursday. “You ask me to choose between your chosen firms as if that is an actual choice, all the while refusing to disclose the concrete processes and parameters that you, the client, will be asking whichever of these firms you hire, to follow.”
The #ACNAtoo petition states that, based on publicly available information, “it seems clear that both firms are committed to serving and prioritizing the needs of the client (i.e the Province), which elevates protection from liability rather than elucidating the truth.” The petition says the firms do not appear to have experience with church investigations and seem to indicate little commitment to survivor-centered practices.
The petition also voices concerns about the transparency of the investigation, saying the response team has neither specified the parameters of the investigation nor agreed to share the contract it will sign with the chosen firm.
The petition requests ACNA hire a firm that will commit to several measures, including waiving attorney/client privilege, using trauma-sensitive interviewing practices, assuring the anonymity of victims, examining systemic contributions of abuse and making the final report fully available to victims or the public. It also asks that the selected firm commit to not representing the client (ACNA) in civil litigation.
A spokesperson for ACNA declined to comment on this story.
Faced with political confusion, economic turmoil, a global pandemic, and the disruption of just about every normal routine of life, many parents have felt ill-equipped to get through these times, let alone talk to their children about significant events. But as Christians have learned to expect, when we feel the most helpless, God is the most helpful. So what should we say to our children about events like those we’ve faced this year and similar events that I’m sure we will continue to face in the future? I’ll offer some observations, not as an expert but as a fellow traveler and father.
Far and away, the most helpful assistance a father can offer his children who are trying to understand noteworthy events is helping them to see the reality of God in every detail of this world and their lives. Everything around them is calculated to make God seem unreal, distant, and uncaring. The world invites them to consider reality as basically atheistic. A wise father will challenge this godless assumption by teaching his children to see every major happening that captivates their attention in the light of God (Ps. 36:9).
What, specifically, should we teach our children (even if they’re grown) about God? Chief among His many attributes we should highlight is the truth of God’s sovereignty. Children, not to mention adults, crave certainty. The world scorns this craving as an infantile, unobtainable desire. But God wants us to be sure about many things, not the least of which is His absolute control of all that comes to pass.
Again, our children are being bombarded with the message, “God is not sovereign. You are on your own in this harsh world.” To drown out this cacophonic jangling of falsehood, fathers must open their Bibles and walk their children through the countless passages that proclaim the life-giving truth of God’s sovereignty. Maybe we start with the majestic prose of Isaiah 40:12–17. Or maybe we turn to the blunt but pastoral teaching of James 4:14–17. Wherever we choose to turn in the Word, fathers who point their children to the reality of the sovereign God are offering them a bedrock for a lifetime of faith and trust.
But the question then becomes, “Why do we want to be certain?” One reason is that we live in a world that gives us good cause to be afraid. When crisis strikes or when world-altering events take place, our first instinct is fear. All of us want to know that everything is going to be OK. Focusing on God’s sovereignty helps us and our children understand that everything ultimately will be OK, even if it won’t be OK immediately. In short, we are calling them to put their faith in the One who controls everything that makes us afraid. We are asking them to listen to the Savior, whose favorite command is “Do not be afraid.” There is no one safer for us to listen to in uncertain times.
We must also remind our children of God’s inexhaustible love. A sovereign God who does not love is a tyrant, and a loving God who is not sovereign is pitiful and powerless. Fortunately for us, the Bible tells us that God is both sovereign and loving.
Therefore, the surest way to help our children understand monumental happenings is to bring them to the cross, where God’s sovereignty and love meet most perfectly. We tell our children the old, old story, but we apply it to their hearts specifically. We teach them that even something as horrifying as the death of the sinless Son of God was part of God’s sovereign plan (Acts 2:23). At the same time, it was the Father’s love that sent the Son to offer Himself by the eternal Spirit as atonement for sinners like us (John 3:16; Heb. 9:14). The cross of Christ is the beautiful, paradoxical intersection of divine sovereignty and love.
I never wanted to be the parent who just throws on the TV to get stuff done. But it happens…more often than I want to admit. I’m trying to put away the dishes or write out a grocery list. Or maybe I just want 10 minutes of quiet. No matter the reason, the TV comes on. That’s when it’s great to know about Christian cartoons for kids.
Finding the perfect content for kids to watch can be a struggle. I want something educational and appropriate for my 2-year-old to watch. In our house, cartoons are our jam. But sometimes you grow tired of Disney cartoons or throwing on another Netflix show. So I started introducing my toddler to clean Christian cartoons that she really enjoys.
And guess what? You can stream good Christian cartoons for kids of all ages! Read on for details.
Streaming Services for Christian TV & Movies
Many people use streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu to find on-demand content. Yet it’s not always easy to filter good, clean Christian cartoons for kids.
The good news is that Christian streaming services provide a wide variety of positive content. So first, let’s explore different Christian streaming services.
PureFlix
Pureflix.com provides family-friendly movies & TV shows for the whole family.
Why we love this service:
PureFlix gives back to the community. With every paid membership, Pure Flix gives a portion of funds to a variety of causes. These include funding for family adoptions, military and veteran hope and healing programs, not-for-profits for at-risk youth, and more.
PureFlix has a monthly or annual subscription plan. For the monthly subscription, the cost is $12.99 per month. If you pre-pay for the entire year upfront, you can cut your expense in half! The annual plan breaks out to only $6.95 per month, which is $99.99 for the full year. PureFlix also offers a free one-week trial.
Poster prepared for September 2021 in-person congregational meeting that was cancelled. Poster prepared by Salvador Cordova to convey history of weekly church attendance at McLean Bible Church from 1961 to 2021 and associated leadership teams. Solid lines are from official congregational meeting reports. Dashed lines are interpolations based on unofficial numbers reported by members. Blue indicates Early Era, green the Lon Solomon Era, red the SBC and David Platt Era, purple indicates the Era where leadership election results were still contested in court. MBCmisfit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In July 2021, McLean Bible Church (MBC) in Vienna, Va., which is pastored by David Platt, was sued by five of its members (current and former) for allegedly barring them on illegal grounds in June of 2021 from voting in an important congregational meeting to approve new church leaders.
MBC’s constitution says that elders must be approved by a three-quarters majority, but on June 30, 2021, the vote failed for the first time in the church’s history.
Platt accused some MBC members of organizing a planned effort to thwart the election in a Sunday sermon, saying that a small group of people within MBC and some outside the church had “coordinated a divisive effort to use disinformation in order to persuade others to vote these men down as part of a broader effort to take control of this church.”
The lawsuit also states that in addition to illegally barring them from voting in the July 18 members meeting to affirm the new elders, a second election that affirmed three new church elders violated McLean’s constitution. The second election required MBC members to show identification, and ballots where labeled with the member’s name. Inactive members were given provisional ballots. Any member who misses in-person services eight weeks in a row is placed on MBC’s inactive member list, according to their constitution.
Due to the pandemic, it has been hard to know who has been in-person and who has had to watch online. MBC’s leadership has been accused of disqualifying members who they thought would vote against the way leadership desired.
Current and former MBC members and plaintiffs Kevin Elwell, Steve Gaskins, Deborah Ash, Roland Smith, and Michael Manfredi hired attorney Rick Boyer to represent them and file their complaint against their home church.
Boyer told Religion News Service that although courts are usually reluctant to involve themselves in church disputes, Virginia law requires churches to follow the rules in the constitutions they put forth.
“The heart of the complaint really comes down to truth, transparency, and a free, open, and uncoerced process,” Boyer said.
Lawsuit Allowed to Move Forward
On December 3, 2021, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Thomas P. Mann rejected MBC’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, “arguing that the First Amendment bars courts from considering church disputes.”
“While the defendants do scatter terms such as theology, prayerfulness, doctrine, specific books of the Bible and interpretation of the Scripture throughout its papers to put really what is a round dispute over the church constitution and adherence to that constitution into the square hole of the First Amendment,” Mann said. “That is really what is happening here with this motion. Really per the complaint (the issue here) is whether the procedural requirements of the church’s constitution were followed or whether there were shenanigans in order to produce a pretextual result.”
“I have spent personally more time encouraging pastors who wanted to resign in the past 18 months than ever before in my 52 years of ministry,” said Rick Warren in a recent appearance with his wife, Kay, on the Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast. “If your tank was already half empty before these storms hit, you’re running on empty now. And some of you probably entered this crisis with little or nothing in your emotional, spiritual tank.”
Rick and Kay Warren shared with host Ed Stetzer words of encouragement and practical advice they believe is important in order for ministry leaders to continue persevering during an extremely challenging season. “You were already drained,” said Rick, “and you are the people that Kay and I care about deeply. And we care about your ministry and we want to help you through this time. Please don’t give up.”
Rick and Kay Warren’s Encouragement for Pastors
The advice Rick and Kay Warren offered dealt with how people in general and church leaders in particular can care for their inner and physical health. Said Kay, “It’s not just about our soul, but our bodies. Every part of us needs care, especially during these really, really rough times.”
“When you’re under severe stress,” said Rick, “when you’re in chronic chaos, which is what we’re in right now, set and stick with a simple routine…You need to remember that routine develops resilience, predictability creates stability in ministry and in life, structure creates steadiness.”
Following a routine includes maintaining basic boundaries like not staying up or sleeping in late. Another important part of a routine is taking regular breaks, such as going on a walk. Kay said, “What we’re learning is that you’re actually more productive if you take several five-minute breaks during your day, rather than something that is all at one time…Just know that if you’re going to be sitting and doing something for a while, it’s so much better to get up.” She also emphasized the importance of good eating habits and exercise, noting that we are all individually responsible for our own decisions in these areas.
Bible reading should also be part of a spiritually healthy routine, and Rick had a suggestion about how to add that habit more easily. “Get a Bible translation that is readable to you that you like,” he said. “I don’t care what translation—you get a Bible translation, and you put it by the side of your bed on your bed stand and you leave it open. You never close it. Why? Because a closed Bible is easy to ignore.”
Another piece of spiritual advice that Rick has is, “Stop watching cable news…The reason we’re seeing more conflict rising in congregations today is because people are spending more time with the nightly news than they are hearing a sermon on Sunday.”
Rick and Kay Warren on Dealing With Grief
Both Rick and Kay Warren acknowledged that the pandemic has been an extremely difficult period of time for church leaders. Kay said it has been more difficult for her than when the Warrens’ son Matthew took his own life. “This is not a fun time to lead,” she said. “For me personally…it’s even harder than when Matthew died…After Matthew died, we got so much support. I mean, we could do no wrong. We got so much support. Very little criticism.” That has not been the case, however, when the Warrens have spoken out about racial injustice or when Kay publicly said she had gotten vaccinated.
Georgia's Nakobe Dean breaks up a pass intended for Alabama's Cameron Latu during the first half of the College Football Playoff championship football game Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
This story is courtesy of Sports Spectrum and is used by permission.
Entering Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game in Indianapolis, Georgia had a former walk-on at quarterback while Alabama was led by the reigning Heisman Trophy winner. It was a tall task, but the Bulldogs’ chances rode on their top-ranked defense and how well it could slow the Crimson Tide’s high-powered offense.
The D carried them to victory.
Georgia stifled Alabama and Heisman-winning quarterback Bryce Young, collecting a 33-18 victory for Georgia’s first football national championship since 1980. Young threw for 369 yards and a touchdown, but he also tossed two interceptions — his first collegiate game with multiple picks — the second of which was returned 79 yards for a touchdown to seal the victory for the Bulldogs.
Alabama averaged 494.6 offensive yards per game this season, and in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 4 against Georgia, it gained 536 total yards. But on Monday night, the Bulldogs held the Tide to just 399 total yards and only 30 rushing yards.
The defense that ranked first in the country in points allowed (9.5) and second in the nation in yards allowed (253.9) held the reigning national champs to just one touchdown.
“It was the defense who kept us in this game,” said that former walk-on, QB Stetson Bennett, in his postgame press conference, “while we were stumbling over our own feet the entire first half and then starting out in the second half. They won this game for us.”
Pictured: Steven Kurtz promoting "Pints with a Pastor." (via Facebook)
A Presbyterian pastor and a Catholic priest walk into a bar. But it’s no joke. Pastor Steven Kurtz of Central Presbyterian Church and Father Matt Garrison of Sacred Heart of Mary in Fort Smith, AR are teaming up to share their faith at the local brewery.
The two clergymen hold monthly meetings called “Pints with a Priest” and “Pints with a Pastor” on alternating Thursdays at Fort Smith Brewing Company, in order to connect with members of the community that would not ordinarily feel comfortable attending a Sunday morning service.
“It started from becoming aware of the fact that there’s a lot of people for whom church just doesn’t work,” Steven Kurtz told Times Record. “A lot of them have questions and a lot of them have had experiences of maybe even having had difficult relationships in churches.”
Kurtz intends for his monthly meetings to be an opportunity for people to connect on matters of life and faith in an informal setting.
“It’s a big, motivated interest of mine talking to people for whom the church doesn’t work,” Kurtz said, going on to express that he understands that many people have been exposed to “a version of church that is hurtful,” as well as “a version of God that is unhelpful.”
Echoing Kurtz’s sentiments, Garrison said, “A lot of times when I’m teaching or preaching in a church setting, it’s formal…It’s a lot more difficult to really open up, and in this setting, it’s easier to just be completely honest and open and to bring in more elements of humor and things like that.”
Both clergymen expressed that their favorite things to talk about at the meetings are the topics and questions that aren’t often explored in their Sunday morning sermons and homilies. From questions about the reliability of the Bible, how a good God would send people to hell, or whether God is a gendered male, the meetings explore the genuine questions of those who attend them.
“Those (are the) kinds of questions and issues that I think are interesting and open a door to reconsidering that faith might have a role to play,” Kurtz said. Kurtz regularly promotes the meetings on his Facebook page, encouraging people to “bring a question, bring a friend!”
The meetings feature different speakers who explore topics and lead discussions.
Joby Martin joins “The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast” to discuss what happens when a church leader has truly been run over by the “grace train" and understands the profound love and grace of God.
