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How to Make 2022 Your Best Children’s Ministry Year Ever

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In just a few more turns of the clock, it will be a new year—2022.

Praise God for everything He did last year, amen! Think about all the victories He helped you accomplish. All the prayers He answered. For the many lives that were changed in your ministry.

But we can’t dwell there too long—because it’s about to be a new year and God has so much more for you in this coming year.

How would you like to have your best children’s ministry year ever in 2022? Here are some things you can do to see it come to fruition.

Take a hard look at what you are doing. Is there anything you are doing that you need to stop doing? Is there anything that needs to be tweaked or adjusted? Just because it worked in the past, doesn’t mean it will work in 2022. Hold everything with open hands.  Change is a good thing when done properly.

Vision. Have a simple, powerful, engaging vision that you are pointing people toward. This will help them remember why they are serving. And don’t forget, vision leaks. It’s not a one and done. You have to constantly keep it in front of people.

Plan out your ministry year. If you haven’t done so yet, get 2022 planned out. Get your key dates on the church calendar. Work with other ministries and plan your calendars together. This will help you and the other ministries to not have conflicting events or programs.

Focus on building your volunteer team. This must be a top priority. 2022 will rise or fall on the strength of your volunteer team. Remember…your job is not to do the ministry.  Rather it is to equip volunteers to effectively do the work of the ministry. It’s not about what you can do, it’s about what you can empower volunteers to do.

Make sure you have a board of directors. What do I mean by “board of directors?” I mean have 3-4 people that you will hold you accountable. People who you can bounce ideas off of.  People that you can go to for advice in difficult situations. People who will challenge you.  People who pray for you. People who have your back.

Do something that is outside of your comfort zone. What have you been thinking about trying, but you just haven’t gotten the courage yet to try it? Remember, nothing grows in your comfort zone. It’s when you think outside the box and push yourself, that you will see amazing things happen. Are you fearful about trying it?  That’s okay. Try it,  even if you are afraid. Have you gotten so comfortable that you have the ministry on “cruise control?”

Pro Church Website Tips For New Church Webmasters

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So you’ve been named your church’s new website master? Part of my work includes providing quality information on building church websites, so I’ve reached out to experts in the field of church websites and asked for some helpful church website tips for those that are new to being a webmaster. Here is a list of tips that I think you will find extremely helpful as you start your journey of being a church website webmaster.

7 Extremely Helpful Church Website Tips From The Pros

Rob Laughter – Churchly – specializes in a WordPress plugin to use with the Divi Theme. He shares these church website tips.

  • Have a written plan for keeping your site content up to date.
  • Few things about a church website reflect more poorly on your ministry than having outdated content.
  • As a general rule, try to minimize any time-sensitive content on your site, and consolidate the info that is necessary.
  • For example, rather than listing the staff that is involved in a ministry on that ministry’s page, have a single staff directory that lists all of your staff, including ministry area and position, so you only have a single place to update when staff transitions.
  • Same with events — rather than including lists of upcoming events all over your site, have a single events section that you maintain on a regular basis.

Steven Gliebe – ChurchThemes.com specializes in WordPress themes and plugins at Church Themes. Church Themes is one of the premier providers of WordPress themes for churches. He has these church website tips.

  • Make sure your church’s location and service times are immediately clear. People don’t hang around a website very long when they can’t find critical information.
  • Ideas: Show location and times on your homepage, in the header or footer, create a page with these details and link to it from your homepage and menu.
  • Create a prominent “What to Expect” or “I’m New Here” page to help make potential visitors comfortable about stepping through your door.
    • What are services like?
    • How long are they?
    • What is your style of worship?
    • What is a typical attire?
    • How does childcare work?
  • Show a few Sunday morning photos. Bonus for creating a welcome tour video.

Andrew Peters – The Reach Company specializes in church website design at The Reach Company. He offers these church website tips to make your websites more effective.

  • The first few seconds REALLY matter. Focus on a call to action that engages visitors and funnels them to where you want them to be (whether it be a plan your visit page or a sermons page, whatever communicates best what you’re like) without using ‘ain’t we something’ undertones.
  • Get rid of sliders (because they stopped working like 4 years ago) and focus on accurate pictures/video and a headline that stirs the feelings you want stirred in website visitors.

Jason Alexis is the administrator of the Facebook group WordPress for Churches. He gives some great tips about church website security.

  • Fair or not, Internet surfers who find a website that ‘turns them off’ or is ‘turned off,’ almost never visit that website again.
  • So, it is obvious that all church websites need to take steps to reduce their chances of being hacked.
  • Here are some ways to do that with your existing website… Is Your Church’s ‘Underwear’ Dirty? Find Out in 30 Secs!

Michael Terndrup from the WordPress for Churches group on Facebook gives this church website tip.

  • A picture of the church must be on the front page do not make the website about the pastor. Also, make sure the menu bar has everything in the right order

Joe Campbell – Founder – PraiseOn, a Christian lifestyle website gives these tips about image optimization.

Dan Newman – DL Church Website Design gives these church website tips for beginning designers.

  • I think the number one question a new church webmaster should keep in mind is, does the website reflect your church? It is very important for the website visitors get a feel for what they will be experiencing when they physically visit the church.
  • Make sure as much as possible to include actual church pictures – not stock photos.
  • Are the things that are most important to your church prominent on the home page?

My Personal Tip For Church Websites

Whatever you do, don’t use a free website builder like WordPress.com, Blogger.com, Wix.com, or Weebly.com. These sites may be free, but the tradeoff is that they have control of what is put on your website.

They may put inappropriate ads on your web pages. They may decide at some point that your content does not comply with their “community standards” according to their terms of service. Your pro-life event might violate their so-called standards, and your website will be deleted without recourse.

So, don’t out cheap yourself. You paid for a yellow pages ad back in the day. Spend the money to have a great church website so that you have full control.

I hope that these church website tips have helped you have a more effective online ministry for your church. I suggest you read our other article on how to make your church website work for you.

 

This article originally appeared here, and is used by permission.

5 Small Group Questions to Ask for the New Year

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Albert Einstein said: “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” I love Albert Einstein’s thinking! So helpful. Here is my best shot at five small group questions to ask as 2019 begins!

5 Small Group Questions to Ask for the New Year

1. Did you establish “wins” for the strategies you used last year?

If so, how did you do? Did your plans succeed or fail? If you didn’t establish wins, plan on adding this very important ingredient in 2022. Andy Stanley’s 7 Practices of Effective Ministry is an excellent resource for this.

2. Have you moved closer to the preferred future?

Or simply prevented slippage? If you haven’t developed a refined preferred future, it is time and you need to do it.

3. Are you ending 2021 with a solid plan for 2022?

Even if you developed an annual calendar for 2018-2019 (i.e., September to August), it’s a good idea to recalibrate for the start of the new year. What changes or adjustments do you need to make?

4. What have been your key learnings?

What have you learned is true in your setting that you didn’t know before? What have you learned is actually an outdated assumption?

5. What aspects of your design need to be carefully examined?

Remember, “your ministry is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently experiencing (Andy Stanley).” If you want different results, you need to develop a different design. Doing the same things again and again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity (Albert Einstein). Using the same strategy after you know it is ineffective is irresponsible and poor stewardship.

 

This article on small group questions originally appeared here.

Sunday School Lesson on Prayer: Accept God’s Invitation to Chat!

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Use this Sunday school lesson on prayer with kids of all ages. It’s from the popular book Kids’ Travel Guide to the Lord’s Prayer.

Children will go on a journey through the Bible to discover why God invites us to communicate with him. They’ll also explore various ways to pray. And they’ll be challenged to daily accept God’s invitation to interact.

Enjoy this Sunday school lesson on prayer!

Travel Itinerary for a Sunday School Lesson on Prayer

God desires to have a relationship with each of us. And an important part of any relationship is communication. God established prayer as a way for us to communicate with him. Through prayer, we can praise God and ask for forgiveness. We also thank God for all he’s done and share requests with him. Prayer lets us open our hearts to God and tell him our thoughts and desires.

Children are eager to communicate with anyone who will listen. But they often feel as if adults don’t care about their concerns or opinions. Use this Sunday school lesson on prayer to teach children that God wants us to talk to him. God gives us many examples of prayer in the Bible. Celebrate with kids the joy of communicating with God!

Pathway Point: God wants us to talk to him.

In-Focus Verse: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6).

Departure Prayer (up to 5 minutes)

How can we teach children about prayer without actually taking time to pray? If you don’t have enough time to pray, you don’t have enough time to teach! Fight the temptation to dive into the lesson without asking God for wisdom. Spending a few minutes in prayer can make the difference between wasting your time and watching it produce much fruit. God will give you the wisdom to teach as you ask him for it (James 1:5).

Before you pray, remind children they can talk to God as they do their best friends. God wants to hear what each person has to say. Invite each child to thank God for one good thing that happened in the past week.

Then pray: Dear Lord, thank you for loving us and hearing us when we pray. Help us learn to talk to you every day, in every situation. Thank you for answering our prayers and helping us please you. We love you and praise you for all you’ve done. Amen.

1st Stop Discovery (15 minutes)

An Invitation

This activity emphasizes God’s love and his desire to communicate with us.

Items to Pack

  • construction paper
  • crayons or markers
  • bright, colorful stickers

Borrow a book of sample invitations from a stationery shop. Let children see all the fancy invitations for inspiration as they make their own.

The 20 Most Popular Articles on ChurchLeaders in 2021

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The year 2021 is drawing to a close, and for many of us, it has been another challenging season. The most popular articles on ChurchLeaders from 2021 reflect a year of controversy and tragedy for ministry leaders. Yet some of these stories clearly highlight the work of God in people’s lives.

As we look toward the beginning of another new year, we at ChurchLeaders hope that even the brokenness reflected in our top news articles will lead you to ponder the depths of God’s grace and the importance of clinging to Christ above all.

Most Popular Articles on ChurchLeaders in 2021

Here are the top most popular news articles on ChurchLeaders from 2021 based on what our readers have clicked.

20. Lecrae Reacting to Billy Graham Clip About Jesus’ Skin Color Goes Viral

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The not-so “churchy” Christian hip hop artist and Grammy Award-winner Lecrae posted a Billy Graham video on TikTok that received over 477,000 views and 11,000 comments at the time of publication and continued to grow.


19. Pastor Greg Locke Tells CNN They ‘Will Burn in Hell’

greg-locke-cnn popular articles 2
Screen grab from Twitter: @AllisonLHedges

Pastor Greg Locke was featured in a news brief on CNN for telling his church not to wear masks or get vaccinated. So he told CNN they will burn in hell for threatening him.


18. Beth Moore Calls Out Unvaccinated, Unmasked Christians; Greg Locke and Sean Feucht Respond

beth-moore-unvaccinated popular articles
Screen grab from Twitter: @BethMooreLPM

Beth Moore called out Christians who politicize the virus in a tweet that has gone viral, receiving reactions from outspoken pastor Greg Locke and “Let Us Worship” leader Sean Feucht.


17. UPDATE: Ed Young Thanks Church for Support After Death of Daughter, LeeBeth, at Age 34

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LeeBeth Young, daughter of Texas megachurch pastors Ed and Lisa Young, passed away Monday, Jan. 18, at the age of 34. Ed and Lisa expressed their appreciation to a standing ovation from their Fellowship Church in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.


16. He Was One of the Top Five Male Porn Stars in the World. Now He’s a Pastor

joshua-broome-popular articles
Screen grab from YouTube: @Joshua Broome

Joshua Broome was once one of the top five male porn stars in the world. Now, he is a husband, father, and pastor who wants people to know the depth of God’s mercy and kindness.

John MacArthur Calls Pastors to Take a Stand on Biblical Sexual Morality

Bill C-4 John MacArthur
IslandsEnd, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

On Tuesday, John MacArthur alerted his Twitter followers to an “urgent matter” regarding biblical sexual morality. Grace Community Church’s pastor asked “faithful pastors” to commit to preaching about biblical sexual morality on Sunday, January 16, 2022.

In a statement called “A Stand on Biblical Sexual Morality,” MacArthur called on pastors to sign their names as a commitment to take “a stand for the truth of the saving gospel” by dedicating the January date to preaching on biblical sexual morality in solidarity with their Canadian brothers.

“On December 22, I received an email from Pastor James Coates of GraceLife Church of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada,” MacArthur wrote. Coates and his church has been in the news for disobeying government COVID-19 rules and restrictions regarding gathering limits and church closings during the pandemic. As a result, Coates was arrested and GraceLife Church was seized by authorities for almost three months. Coates is a graduate of MacArthur’s The Master’s Seminary.

Coates’ letter to MacArthur gave him insight into Bill C-4, which was recently passed by the Canadian government. Coates said the bill “directly comes against parents and counsellors who would seek to offer biblical counsel with respect to sexual immorality and gender.” Coates shared that the bill could be used to make evangelism a criminal offense.

MacArthur‘s statement also included a letter from Pastor Andrew DeBartolo, teaching elder at Encounter Church in Kingston, Canada. DeBartolo shared that not “a single dissenting vote was cast by any member of the conservative party,” and that Bill C-4 will become law after January 8, 2022.

RELATED: James Coates’ Wife, Erin: My Husband Is in Jail Because He Obeyed the Lord Jesus Christ

Bill C-4 bans conversion therapy and will criminalize “causing another person to undergo conversion therapy; promoting or advertising conversion therapy.”

Bill C-4 also says that the idea that “heterosexuality, cisgender gender identity and gender expression that conforms to the sex assigned to a person at birth” are to be “preferred over other sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions” is a “myth.”

DeBartolo explained that the new law will be able to be used against preachers and elders who speak against homosexuality or transgenderism. Counseling someone toward a biblical understanding of sexuality and marriage would be in violation of the law and could result in imprisonment.

“Everyone who knowingly causes another person to undergo conversion therapy, including by providing conversion therapy to that other person—is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than five years,” Bill C-4 says.

The Bill also explains that “everyone who knowingly promotes or advertises conversion therapy is guilty of an indictable offense and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years.”

‘Many Incarnations’ of Jesus? NASA Enlisted Theologians to Study Faith Implications of Alien Life

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News recently broke that NASA hired religious experts to ponder spiritual implications of discovering extraterrestrial life. From 2016 to 2017, the U.S. space agency earmarked $1.1 million for a nine-month study at Princeton’s Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI). Recruited to research “The Societal Implications of Astrobiology” were 24 theologians, including the Rev. Dr. Andrew Davison, an Anglican priest and biochemist from Cambridge. He recently described his role in the study and has a forthcoming book titled “Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine.”

Will Storrar, CTI’s director, says NASA’s goal was to have “serious scholarship being published” about the “profound wonder and mystery and implication of finding microbial life on another planet.”

Andrew Davison: Have There Been ‘Many Incarnations’ of Jesus?

On a blog for Cambridge divinity faculty, Andrew Davison details his role in the study. He focused mainly on Christology but also pondered topics such as creation and the dignity of human life. Davison sums up his research as “a survey of the main topics in Christian belief—what is sometimes called ‘systematic theology’—from the perspective of life elsewhere in the universe. I am thinking about its bearing on the doctrines of creation, sin, the person and work of Jesus, redemption, revelation, eschatology, and so on.”

“The most significant question there is,” writes Davison, “is probably whether one would respond theologically to the prospect of life elsewhere in terms of there having been many incarnations [of] Jesus.” He also is pondering “the doctrine of creation, especially in terms of how it deals with themes of multiplicity and diversity.” Calling creation a “generous gift” from God, he says “that would apply equally to…whatever other life there might be in the universe.”

Davison notes, “Perhaps the main discovery I would report on to date is finding just how frequently theology-and-astrobiology has been a topic in popular writing for at least a century and a half: in monthly magazines for instance.”

Religion Will Help People Process Discovery of Aliens

In his upcoming book, Andrew Davison writes that “nonreligious people…seem to overestimate the challenges that religious people…would experience if faced with evidence of alien life.” If such proof is found, he predicts that earthlings will “turn to their religions’ traditions for guidance” to grapple with various implications for “the standing and dignity of human life.” Whether we detect extraterrestrial life “in a decade or only in future centuries or perhaps never at all,” he writes, “it will be useful to have thought through the implications in advance.”

Desmond Tutu’s Family Gathers in South Africa for Cape Town Funeral

Desmond Tutu
People take selfies at a mural by artist Brian Rolfe depicting the late Anglican Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu in Cape Town, South Africa, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021. The funeral service for Tutu, who died Sunday at the age of 90, will be held on New Years Day. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

CAPE TOWN (AP) — Desmond Tutu‘s family members gathered at his Cape Town home on Tuesday in preparation for his funeral this weekend as South Africans honored his life.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist for racial equality and LGBT rights died Sunday at the age of 90.

Tutu’s wife Leah is being joined by the couple’s four children, grandchildren and other family members.

“Mommy is maintaining … She is being surrounded with love,” daughter Nontombi Tutu told The Associated Press in front of the family home in the Milnerton area of Cape Town.

“In a time like this, there are times where we are laughing, sharing stories, and there are times where we are crying, as we come to terms with life without daddy,” she said.

“He has not quite left us and yet he has left us. And so as a family we are supporting one another,” she said. “We are loving one another, we are fighting one another, as families do. And we are feeling the love and support from people all over the country and all over the world.”

The period when Tutu will lie in state at St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Cape Town has been extended to two days, Thursday and Friday, to allow all mourners to pay tribute by filing past his coffin, his trust announced Tuesday.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that Tutu’s requiem Mass Saturday will be a Special Official Funeral Category 1. His ashes will later be interred at the cathedral’s mausoleum, according to Tutu’s instructions.

“The archbishop was very clear on his wishes for his funeral. He wanted no ostentatiousness or lavish spending,” the Tutu trust said in a statement. “He asked that the coffin be the cheapest available and that a bouquet of carnations from his family be the only flowers in the cathedral.”

Tutu’s supporters have left flowers at the Cape Town cathedral and also in front of Tutu’s historic home in Soweto, Johannesburg. Prayers were said and candles lit at St. Mary’s Anglican Cathedral in Johannesburg Tuesday evening.

An interfaith service will be held in the capital, Pretoria, on Wednesday and the City of Cape Town is also planning to hold a service in honor of Tutu. Cape Town’s landmark Table Mountain, the Cape Town Civic Center, and an arch at the cathedral are all being lit up each night this week in purple in honor of Tutu’s purple bishop’s robes.

___

AP journalist Andrew Meldrum contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

This article originally appeared here.

Frank Barker, Founding Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church, Is Dead at 89

Frank Barker
Frank Barker. Photo courtesy of Haddon Smith

(RNS) — The Rev. Frank Barker, whose 4,000-member Briarwood Presbyterian Church grew from a Birmingham, Alabama, storefront before he helped found a conservative branch of Presbyterianism, has died. He was 89.

Barker died Monday (Dec. 27), his daughter, Peggy Barker Townes, confirmed to the news site AL.com. He would have turned 90 in January.

“He was faithful to the last breath,” Townes told AL.com. “We have been as blessed as we can be.”

Barker led Briarwood Presbyterian Church from its founding in 1960 until his retirement in 1999. The church lasted only three years in its shopping center location. In 1988, Barker oversaw the construction of a $32 million hilltop campus, adding a $5.5 million expansion 10 years later.

Barker led the church through the creation of Briarwood Christian School in 1965 and the Birmingham Theological Seminary in 1972.

The Rev. Harry Reeder, who replaced Barker as senior pastor at Briarwood Presbyterian after his retirement, remembered Barker in a Facebook post on Monday as a “mentor in Gospel ministry” and as a “humble, godly, visionary friend and pastor.”

“He loved His Word, His Church, the lost and he loved living the Great Commandment and fulfilling the Great Commission,” Reeder wrote.

Barker, unlike many other megachurch pastors, was not a “dynamic orator,” his daughter recalled in a 2018 news story on The Gospel Coalition. “I had to train myself” to evangelize, he told the publication.

In 1973, Barker hosted the founding meeting of the Presbyterian Church in America, the second-largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States and, according to its website, “the largest Calvinist denomination in the United States.”

Five years later Barker helped found Campus Outreach, a network of interdenominational ministries targeting college students without faith in the U.S. and across the world, especially at schools too small to support their own ministries.

Campus Outreach today has 122 chapters from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C., and from New Zealand to Peru.

Though retired, Barker continued to serve Briarwood and Christians in Alabama until recently. “I was blessed to be in the last small group Bible Study he conducted which concluded just a couple of months ago,” said Bill Armistead, former chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, who described Barker as a mentor in a Facebook post Monday. “Rev. Barker was truly faithful to the end and he was anxiously anticipating the day he would be face to face with his Savior.”

This article originally appeared here.

Parents Outraged After Educator Refers to Evangelicals as ‘Kooks’ and ‘Bigots’ in Poem Recited at School Board Meeting

Leander
Pictured: Krista Tyler making remarks at Dec 16 meeting of the Leander ISD school board via Twitter.

Tempers have flared in Leander, Texas regarding a list of 11 books that have been removed from the Leander Independent School District curriculum after a year-long review that deemed them inappropriate for high school students. 

In response to the decision to remove these books, one educator wrote a Dr. Seuss style poem, which refers to evangelicals as “bigots” and “kooks,” and recited it at a December school board meeting. Parents of students in the district have responded to the poem with outrage. 

While the pulled books had not been required reading for literature courses, they were part of a list of texts that students could select from for required “book clubs.” Students were also allowed to select books that were not on the provided list. 

After parents complained about some of the books on the “book club” selected readings list, which included titles such as “The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel” by Margaret Atwood and Renee Nault and “V for Vendetta” by Alan Moore, the Leander ISD assembled a committee to review them. The committee consisted of staff, parents, and community members, who eventually determined that 11 books should be pulled from the curriculum because of sexual content, sexual assault references, foul language, and graphic images.

RELATED: Christmas Display Featuring ‘Gender Queer’ Alongside Bible Removed by VA Library After Outcry

While many parents saw the removal of these books as a victory, a number of educators and advocacy groups decried the decision as an act of censorship. Jonathan Friedman, director of free expression and education at PEN America (a nonprofit organization that promotes literature), said, “The entire process has been unusual, opaque, and worrying—more about appeasing sensitive parents than serving student learners.”

“One cannot deny that the books on the chopping block all deal with LGBTQ+ issues, sex, and racism and that they were singled out because of these themes,” Friedman continued. 

Krista Tyler, who is a former instructional technology specialist at Grisham Middle School in the nearby Round Rock Independent School District (ISD), also expressed her concern about the decision to pull the books in a December 16 Leander ISD school board meeting, though in a decidedly less diplomatic manner. 

The Twitter account called “Libs of Tik Tok” posted a video of Tyler’s remarks, which were styled after Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” 

RELATED: ERLC: Child-Care Proposal Threatens Religious Liberty

“Everyone in Leander liked reading a lot, but some evangelicals in Leander did not. These kooks hated reading, the whole reading season. Please don’t ask why; no one quite knows the reason,” Tyler said. “It could be perhaps critical thinking causes fright. It could be their heads aren’t screwed on just right. But whatever the reason, their brains or their fright, they can’t follow policy in plain black and white.” 

California Man Gets Second Life Term for Synagogue Attack

John Earnest
FILE - Defendant John Earnest listens during testimony by witness Oscar Stewart during Earnest's preliminary hearing, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2019, in Superior Court in San Diego. Earnest has been sentenced on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021, to life in federal prison for killing a woman and injuring three others when he burst into a Southern California synagogue in 2019, adding to a life sentence he received three months earlier in state court. (John Gibbins/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP, Pool, File)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A 22-year-old white supremacist was sentenced Tuesday to life in federal prison for killing a woman and injuring three others in a shooting at a Southern California synagogue in 2019, adding to the life term he received three months earlier in state court.

John T. Earnest declined to speak in a courtroom full of victims, families and congregants. In state court, his attorney said he wanted to speak but a judge refused, saying he didn’t want to give a platform for his hate-filled speech.

Earnest’s attorney, Ellis Johnston III, said his client acknowledged his actions were “inappropriate,” a statement that was greeted with skepticism by prosecutors. Peter Ko, a federal prosecutor, said Earnest’s show of contrition came shortly after the shooting in a recorded phone call to someone else.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia said the federal and state life sentences would run one after the other instead of concurrently, acknowledging it was symbolic but that it was meant to send a strong message. The judge denied the defense attorney’s request to have Earnest stay in state prison.

“Obviously this is as serious as it gets,” Battaglia said.

Earnest was tied to restraints and looked straight ahead without expression during the two-hour hearing, which marked the end of legal proceedings against him.

He pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes in September after the Justice Department said it wouldn’t seek the death penalty. Defense attorneys and prosecutors recommended a life sentence, plus 30 years.

That same month, Earnest received another life term under a plea agreement with state charges that spared him the death penalty. His conviction for murder and attempted murder at the synagogue and arson for an earlier fire at a nearby mosque brought a life sentence without parole, plus 137 years in prison.

Minutes after the shooting on the last day of Passover, Earnest called a 911 dispatcher to say he shot up the synagogue to save white people. “I’m defending our nation against the Jewish people, who are trying to destroy all white people,” he said.

The San Diego man was inspired by mass shootings at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh and two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, shortly before he attacked Chabad of Poway, a synagogue near San Diego, on April 27, 2019. He frequented 8chan, a dark corner of the internet, for those disaffected by mainstream social media sites to post extremist, racist and violent views.

Earnest legally bought a semi-automatic rifle in San Diego a day before the attack, according to a federal affidavit. He entered the synagogue with 10 bullets loaded and 50 more on his vest but fled after struggling to reload. Worshipers chased him to his car.

Earnest killed 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye, who was hit twice in the foyer, and wounded an 8-year-old girl, her uncle and Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was leading a service on the major Jewish holiday.

Family members and other congregants spoke of how Gilbert-Kaye brightened their lives with extraordinary kindness and called Earnest a coward, an evil animal and a monster. Gilbert-Kaye paid for medications for people who couldn’t afford them. An Easter basket for a poor family she met was found in her trunk after she died.

Hannah Kaye, her daughter, said it was “beyond comprehension” how Earnest — an accomplished student, athlete and musician who was studying to be a nurse at California State University, San Marcos — “traveled down the rabbit hole” of violent anti-Semitism. She expressed willingness to meet with him at some point.

Earnest was also convicted of arson for setting fire to a mosque in the nearby suburb of Escondido about a month before he attacked the synagogue.

“All people in this country should be able to freely exercise their religion without fear of being attacked,” said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. “This defendant’s horrific crime was an assault on fundamental principles of our nation.”

Earnest’s parents issued a statement after the shooting expressing shock and sadness, calling their son’s actions a “terrifying mystery.”

“To our great shame, he is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries,” they said.

This article originally appeared here.

Beth Moore, Part 2—What It Was Like to Leave the SBC

communicating with the unchurched

Beth Moore is a Bible teacher with a speaking ministry that’s taken her across the nation, challenging thousands of people. She has written multiple best-selling books and Bible studies. Her latest, co-authored with her daughter, Melissa, is “Now That Faith Has Come: A Study of Galatians.” Beth lives in Houston, Texas, where she leads Living Proof Ministries and enjoys life with her husband, Keith.

RELATED: Beth Moore, Part 1: How Galatians Is ‘Astonishingly Relevant’ to American Christianity

Other Ways to Listen to This Podcast With Beth Moore

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

Key Questions for Beth Moore

-How did writing a study on Galatians impact you personally?

-Earlier this year, you left the Southern Baptist Convention. What was that like for you?

-What advice would you give to people who are staying in denominations they find difficult?

-What gospel hope does Galatians offer to people bearing the weight of the law?

Key Quotes from Beth Moore

“Most writers would say that the pandemic made it extremely hard to write. You would think we were all home and it should have been the easiest thing. It’s not true. It was so burdensome, so, so worrisome.”

“Where I landed was true to my convictions in Christ as I understand the Word and as I seek in a very wobbly way to walk with the Lord Jesus day to day. But in the midst of those things, will I get a ton of things wrong? Yes, absolutely I will. But where I felt like I was landing on some of these things, Galatians was very affirming and it was like, stand and don’t let go and don’t back off.”

“You can tell a tree by its fruit, not by its mouth, but its fruit.”

“When you’ve known of Jesus all your life, began to know him in childhood, for me, it was around nine…I’m just not bailing this late.”

10 Prayers for a New Pastor or Staff Member

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Yesterday, the church where I am interim pastor (and a member) affirmed our candidate for our next senior pastor. I’m excited about the days to come, and I’m honored to support him and pray for him. Maybe one of these ways to pray for a new pastor or staff member will help you to pray for long-term leaders, too:

1. That he will have courage to preach the Word. This task is not going to get easier in the years to come, so I want to know I’m always praying for the man who leads me and my family spiritually. We need him to give us God’s Word.

2. That his family will experience a healthy transition. Generally, a pastor and his family are moving to a new location and a new place of ministry. When his family loves that transition, a pastor’s work is much easier. I pray for his marriage and his parenting in these changing times.

3. That he will model consistent, growing, godly living. All of us who pastor must set the example as we shepherd the flock. We who are the flock thus have the responsibility to pray the enemy will not win in our pastors’ lives.

4. That he will have a quick read of church culture. I realize that understanding a church is a ministry-long journey as the church grows, but it helps when a new pastor can evaluate his new congregation’s culture quickly.

5. That he will experience quick connections with the church staff. It’s not always easy to become someone else’s “boss” almost overnight via a church affirmation. Healthy church staffs, though, can make all the difference in the world as a congregation looks toward the future (and, if you’re interested, here are some posts about healthy church staffs).

6. That he will have a unique ability to remember names. People matter. Their names matter. When a pastor identifies members by their names, he grants them significance and value. Many of us, though, have to work at this task.

7. That he and his family will develop genuine friendships in the church. To this day, I still have friends I pastored over 30 years ago—and I count them incredible gifts of God to me. Pastoring is more fun when you’re pastoring real friends.

8. That he will know God’s vision for the future. The best pastoral leaders I know have a clear vision for what they believe the church should become. They believe in that vision, promote it, and lead toward it.

9. That the ministry he has left will sense God’s comfort and leading. The excitement of one church in gaining a new pastor is often the pain of another church losing their beloved leader. We’re all in this Great Commission task together, so we need to pray for each other’s congregations.

Why Does Mark Give Credit to Isaiah for Malachi’s Work?

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As it is written in Isaiah the prophet…

You expect immediately after this statement a quote from a prophet named Isaiah. But you don’t get that. The verses immediately after are from another prophet; namely, Malachi.

Behold, I send my messengers before your face, who will prepare your way…

He then proceeds to actually quote Isaiah:

the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight…

Why does Mark ignore Malachi and give all the credit to Isaiah? Can we really claim an inerrant Bible if we’ve got a gospel writer misattributing a source? That’s basic level scholarship. As I set about answering these questions we will also learn a little about textual variants.

My Bible Doesn’t Say “Isaiah the Prophet”

Some of my readers will grab their trusted KJV to check these verses and you won’t find “Isaiah the prophet” It will simply read “As it is written in the prophets…” No problem, then. Some may even go so far as to argue that this is part of the modern translations—they bring more confusion than help. The only problem is that it’s quite likely that “Isaiah the prophet” is the original. How do we know this?

Have you ever heard the phrase “textual variant”? It’s what happens when the many biblical manuscripts we possess conflict with one another. In this instance there are some manuscripts which read “as it is written in the prophets” and others have “as it is written in Isaiah the prophet.” Only one of these (or I suppose neither is a possibility) is original. What is inspired is what Mark actually wrote. So how can we figure that out. At times it is difficult, but the general rule of thumb is that “the reading that best explains the origin of the other readings is probably original.”

Those who have given their lives to figuring these things out have given us five specific rules (or maybe strong suggestions—because sometimes we break those rules):

  1. Prefer the shorter reading because scribes don’t add words
  2. Prefer the more difficult reading because nobody changes something to make it more difficult
  3. Prefer the reading that is most similar to the author’s typical vocabulary.
  4. Prefer the reading that accords best with the context and author’s theology.
  5. If dealing with parallel passages prefer the one that is less harmonious because a scribe wouldn’t change something to create less harmony between the texts.

There are also rules for weighing external evidence. We typically prefer the older manuscripts, the ones that have the most widely separated geographical areas, and the greater number of texts types which support that reading. Scholars differ on which text types to prefer, but the basic rules still apply here.

3 Dangerous Characteristics of False Doctrine

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Consider this half-century old quote regarding false doctrine:

Here is the great evangelical disaster—the failure of the evangelical world to stand for truth as truth. There is only one word for this—accommodation: The evangelical church has accommodated to the world spirit of the age. … Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation: loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is always accommodation regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, there is something wrong. — Francis Schaeffer 

Francis Schaeffer knew that having sound doctrine was not only crucial, but also difficult. We live in a time and place where the conveniences of accommodating falsehood far outweigh the inconveniences of holding to what the Bible teaches—in the short run, at least. The reality is that our doctrine has eternal implications. When Paul warns Timothy of false teachers, he explicitly ties sound doctrine to the gospel (1 Tim 1:10-11). This is because the gospel requires faith and repentance. If we distort Jesus, then the object of our faith is not the Savior, and if we distort his commands, then God-honoring repentance is impossible.

3 Reasons to Beware of False Doctrine

1. False Doctrine Is Subtle

There are two types of teachers in the world: true teachers who teach true things, and false teachers who teach false things. Both claim to tell the truth. Jesus said that despite their sheep-clothing cover-up, we’d know them by their fruit (Matt 7:15). Listen to these striking words from Jeremiah:

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes? (Jer 5:30-31)

When our ears are tickled and our hearts are preyed on, do we reject it or do we “love to have it so”?

2. False Doctrine Is Powerful

Good doctrine saves souls. Once again, we look to Paul’s admonition to Timothy:

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Tim 4:16)

Bad doctrine is powerful too, but in an opposite way. That’s why condemning false teaching is not a matter of winning arguments or feeding egos, but clearly (and lovingly) warning people. Do we treat false doctrine like lethal poison?

Here’s why we ultimately should…

3. False Doctrine Is Dangerous

Any doctrine that is contrary to the gospel is damning. If we buy into it we will spend eternity in hell. That’s a watery paraphrase of what Jesus told the Pharisees for promulgating a false doctrine of works:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. (Matt 23:15)

Does the prudence with which we guard ourselves against false doctrine reflect the eternally serious implications of straying into it?

The three warnings regarding false doctrine above are expanded on from Secret Church 7: Angels, Demons and Spiritual Warfare.  

Effective Youth Ministry Strategies: 10 Keys for Impact

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When the topic of effective youth ministry strategies comes up, I think back to a testimony I heard years ago. A missionary shared how he felt God’s call overseas to a group of people who needed Christ. He shared candidly how he nearly gave up after ministering for 16 years (!) without seeing any fruit.

I’ve felt like that missionary so many times. And I consistently hear from other people in the trenches who are so close to giving up. Bottom line: Youth leaders often don’t feel as if we’re being effective in ministry. As a result, we want to quit.

That’s why I want to share these highly effective youth ministry strategies. Throughout the years, they’ve helped me maintain maximum impact.

10 Effective Youth Ministry Strategies You Need Now

1. Prayer

Unlike many lists where prayer lands at the bottom, I’d suggest it’s the master key. Without prayer, you can’t be effective and remain in ministry for the long haul. Don’t ever underestimate the power of prayer. The conclusion of the missionary’s testimony was powerful. After a 16-year wait, God brought revival to those people. Hundreds accepted Christ because of this person’s faithfulness and prayers.

2. Vision

In every ministry I’ve been part of, I’ve been more effective when I’ve clearly communicated my vision. This involves communicating to the people I partner with and to those I minister to. As the scriptures say, “Where there is no vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). If you want to be effective in ministry, make sure you communicate where you’re going and how you plan to get there.

3. Disciple

One of the very last commands of Jesus before leaving Earth was for us to “go and make disciples” (Mattnew 28:19). If we follow this command and reach those who don’t know Christ and disciple them, we will be effective because we are doing what Christ told us to do.

Punches Thrown in Front Row During Pastor’s Sermon; Church Commits to Walking Alongside Assailant

Bishop Kevin Adams
Photo from TMZ taken from YouTube @Olivet Baptist Church

While preaching this past Sunday, Bishop Kevin Adams, the Senior Pastor of Olivet Baptist Church (OBC) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, witnessed one man approach another in the front row and punch him in the head.

In a video captured from the church’s livestream, Adams can be heard preaching from Matthew 2 and reading, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and we have come…”

It was then that 34-year-old Marcus Williams casually walked up to pastor Chris Sands, who was sitting in the front row, and punched him in the face.

Sands, who is Adams’ first assistant and is the church’s youth pastor, swiftly jumped out of the pew and defended himself while absorbing some more of Williams’ blows. As the scuffle broke out, some congregants can be heard screaming, and Adams calmly told Williams to “stop” while others restrained him off camera.

WTVC News reported that Sands told officers that Williams had threatened him a few months ago because he thought Sands insulted his mother.

Adams said that Williams, who started the fight, grew up in their church and that the man’s mother is like a sister to him. “Wonderful young man. I think the world of him,” Adams explained in a Facebook live video. Adams also revealed that Williams had just left rehab.

“All of us go through stuff. You all know I’ve been through my stuff. We all been through stuff,” Adams shared, expressing his care for the man who disrupted their Sunday worship service.

Adams said that Williams was supposed to return to rehab, but was nearby the church and decided to come in. The pastor explained that Williams was “under the control” of “some other forces and influences” when he approached Sands and started to attack him.

RELATED: ‘We Had Faith’: TN Pastor Tackles Gunman During Church Service, Saving Many Lives

“We know that the Bible says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but it’s principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness in higher places,” Adams said.

When Williams was removed from the sanctuary and brought to the fellowship hall, he reportedly began to cry and was immediately apologetic for what he did. “It was almost like he didn’t even know he was there,” Adams told his followers on Facebook.

Why Are People Fine With Steph Curry’s Faith, but ‘Hate’ Tim Tebow’s? Ray Comfort Answers

ray comfort
Left: User:Sports Spectrum, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Center: Screen grab from YouTube: @Living Waters. Right: TechCrunch, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why do people find the Christian faith of Steph Curry to be acceptable while finding the Christian faith of Tim Tebow to be polarizing? Evangelist Ray Comfort believes there is one clear reason: Tebow talks about the offensive parts of Christianity.

“There’s a brand of Christianity that the whole world commends,” said Comfort in a video published on Dec. 25, 2021. “It’s one that speaks of being blessed by God, success, family, love, and of prayer. But it never publicly speaks of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Why is Tim Tebow so hated? Because he’s not ashamed to talk about sin and the cross.”

Ray Comfort on the Faith of Curry and Tebow

Ray Comfort is the founder and CEO of Living Waters, a ministry that “exists to inspire and equip Christians to fulfill the Great Commission.” His video opens with a montage of clips demonstrating that people think Tim Tebow is a polarizing figure. The video references a 2018 article that asks the question, “Why Isn’t Steph Curry’s Religion as Polarizing as Tim Tebow’s?

Curry is a point guard for the Golden State Warriors and an NBA superstar. Tebow is a former NFL and MLB player whose achievements include winning the Heisman Trophy when he played college football. At first glance, there appears to be little difference between how the two athletes express their faith. 

Curry sometimes posts Bible verses on his social media and includes a reference to Philippians 4:13 on his Twitter profile. He publicly credits God for helping him with his success, openly talks about praying for others, and sometimes wears a wristband during games that says, “In Jesus Name I Play.” 

Tebow is quite open about his Christian faith as well and also posts verses on his social media. He was well-known for putting Bible verses on his eye black during football games and for kneeling on the sidelines in prayer to God. 

Both Curry and Tebow take part in charity work. Curry and his wife, Ayesha, started the Eat.Learn.Play Foundation, which focuses on helping children in the areas of food insecurity, education, and physical activity. The Tim Tebow Foundation supports children as well, focusing on orphans, children with special needs, and children with severe medical needs. Tebow’s foundation also fights human trafficking.

“It seems to be a mystery,” said Comfort, regarding the division Tebow causes in contrast to Curry, who is “universally beloved, celebrated and compensated for his religious beliefs,” according to the 2018 article. 

Ray Comfort Explains

People’s responses to the two athletes is not a mystery, however, says Ray Comfort. The reason they elicit different reactions is that Tebow is not afraid to talk about unpopular Christian beliefs in sin, God’s judgment, and our need for forgiveness. And he does this “because he cares about the fate of the lost, as should every Christian,” said Comfort.

Bible Survives Christmas Morning Fire That Destroyed Everything Else in Texas Family’s Home

Robert and Darla Voigt
Darla Voigt posing with unburnt family Bible outside the remains of the family's home. (Picture by Amanda Henderson via Twitter.)

Tragedy struck the home of Texas couple Robert and Darla Voigt on Christmas morning when a fire resulted in the total loss of their San Antonio residence. Amid the rubble, the couple expressed gratitude for two reasons: the family made it out of the home uninjured, as did a family Bible. The Voigt family is taking the undamaged Bible as a sign of God’s protection.

“I always thought this will never happen to me. That’s a lie,” Robert told Amanda Henderson, a local reporter, outside the remains of the family’s mobile home. “We lost everything we own. Everything. Clothes, everything.” Included in the loss were Robert’s diabetes and heart medications.

While little could be salvaged from the fire, the Voigt family did celebrate when they found that a family Bible had survived. 

Tweeting the news as it broke on Christmas afternoon, Henderson said, “Take a look at their Bible, virtually untouched by the flames,” above an image of Darla Voigt holding the family Bible.

RELATED: ‘Our Building Is Not the Church. We Are’—The Faith Stories Coming Out of Devastating Tornado Damage

“Not one page is burnt in the Bible. Not one page. God was with us last night,” Robert said.

The Voigt couple is also thankful that their son, who is also named Robert, was able to alert them with enough time to evacuate themselves and their 17 year-old daughter. 

“My wife tried coming through here; couldn’t get through because of all the smoke. So, she came back around and I went around to the front of the house and went into my daughter’s room and dragged her out. It’s what a father does. Takes care of his children,” Robert said.

While three of the family’s four dogs initially went missing, Darla’s dog, named Sister, has safely returned to the family. 

“That’s my dog and my heart sank, and just knowing I had her safe again was just overwhelming,” Darla said.

RELATED: Pastor Gives Online Sermon While His House Burns in the Background

Charity in India Started by Mother Teresa Blocked From Receiving Foreign Funds

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India (International Christian Concern) – According to Christianity Today, India has blocked the Missionaries of Charity, a charity founded by Mother Teresa, from receiving foreign funds to operate in India. This development comes more than a week after the charity was falsely accused of engaging in forced religious conversions.

On Monday, India’s Home Ministry announced that the Missionaries of Charity’s application for renewing it license to receive foreign funds was rejected. This rejection reportedly was made on Christmas.

The only explanation provided by the Home Ministry for the decision was that it came across “adverse inputs” while considering the charity’s application. According to Christianity Today, the Home Ministry did not elaborate further.

Earlier this month, the Missionaries of Charity was put under investigation in Gujarat after several false complaints were made against its shelters. Specifically, the shelters were accused of forcing girls to read the Bible and recite Christian prayers. Missionaries of Charity has denied these allegations as false and an attempt to besmirch the legacy of Mother Teresa.

Missionaries of Charity was founded by Mother Teresa in Kolkata in 1950. The charity now runs hundreds of shelters across India where “the poorest of the poor” receive care.

In recent years, the legacy of Mother Teresa and her works in India have come under assault by radical Hindu nationalists. Nationalists falsely claim Mother Teresa was involved in the fraudulent conversion of India’s poor and desperate to Christianity. These statements and accusations are meant to cast a negative light on Mother Teresa and India’s Christian community.

This article originally appeared here.

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