3 Steps to a Weekly E-Bulletin

October 29, 2019

thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

The sun has risen and you see the light of a weekly email to your people. In spite of your palpable excitement, you don’t know where to begin. Take heart! Follow these three easy steps and you will be sending out a quality content weekly e-Bulletin to your church family every week.

1. Collect Email Addresses

Most churches have some kind of database holding all their members’ information. You can find birthdays, anniversaries, addresses, phone numbers, and hopefully a healthy amount of emails. With very little effort you are well on your way to having an email list.

If you’ve never prioritized emails for your database, or you just want to start out real strong, the solution is easy. Pass out an information card during your weekly services for people to fill out. Let people know that you are updating records and are planning to start a weekly email. Instruct people to fill them out and drop them in the offering plate or turn them in at your guest services table. Just like that, you will have a high percentage of your people’s email addresses.

Once you get your initial email list, keep email lists a priority. If your current information card doesn’t have an email field, reprint them and add the space. Have someone mention the weekly email during the announcements on a regular basis. Keep this out in front of people.

2. Choose a Service

You have your emails, now it is time to choose an email marketing service. An email marketing service is software that sends an email to many different people.

There are many weekly e-Bulliten solutions available and they all offer essentially the same thing: they send your email to every person on your list. Here are some things to look for:

Does your current database already offer email marketing as an option?
Our church’s website builder, Squarespace, just started offering this service free to their customers. If we didn’t already have one, this would be worth looking into.
If not free, does your church database sync with any email marketing solutions?
Our church uses Planning Center People, a free database which syncs flawlessly with the email marketing service Mailchimp. This syncing means that every person I add to our database is automatically added to our weekly email list. The lists are kept in sync with no added effort from the office. Not only does Mailchimp sync with our already created database, but it is a free service for small to midsize churches.

If your database neither offers an email solution nor talks with one, then google email marketing and pick a service that strikes your fancy. If you are a smaller church, the service should be free. Stay away from the ones that cost because we’re not trying to convert sales, just trying to connect with our folks. Those paid solutions are for big corporations that have email marketing down to a science or larger churches that rely on the added features.

3. Create a Template

Creating a template is vital to making your weekly e-Bulletin a help (and not a hindrance) to your staff. You have the email list. You have chosen an email marketing service and created an account. Now you need to pay someone to design you a template. That’s right, I said pay. Unless you have a good graphic designer on staff, you should outsource this part. The reason is simple: this email template is going to be used every week. Every single week, you will be filling this design with content. You want it to look nice. I paid a graphic designer $50 to create a template within our email marketing software. It has a clean, crisp design from top to bottom. This is the best graphic design money I have ever spent. Most designs are used for one event and then are never used again. But this template is is landing in people’s inboxes every single week.

You will need to provide your designer with direction. You tell them the buckets, or areas, you wish to create and they make it look beautiful. Our weekly email has two main buckets— the first section highlights some upcoming events for the month. Below upcoming events is “A Word from Pastor.” In this section I write a little message saying hello to our people. Simple, sweet, heartfelt, but never more than 300 words. You could even put things that God is currently teaching you. There are no rules to the weekly.

A word of warning as you create this template. Whatever sections you include are the sections you need to fill. So keep it simple. Don’t write a novel. Don’t include a word from every department. Emails are meant to be bite sized, not whole meals. It takes 30 minutes at most for our email to be ready to go out every Tuesday. Once you build the system, it is just a matter of filling up the sections and sending it on its way.

Three steps. Get those emails. Choose a service. And pay someone to design you a beautiful template within your chosen service. Once you have ascended these three steps, you will be able to send a weekly e-Bulletin with very little effort.

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

Joe Biden Denied Communion for Being ‘Outside Church Teaching’

Megan Briggs

October 29, 2019

At a Catholic Mass this Sunday, presidential hopeful and former Vice President Joe Biden was denied communion by a priest.

“Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside of Church teaching,” explained Reverend Robert E. Morey, the priest who decided not to administer Holy Communion to Biden. Despite expressing his sadness over the event, Morey said Holy Communion represents oneness with God, each other, and the church. Morey deemed Biden out of step with the church due to his pro-choice stance.

The incident occurred at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Florence, South Carolina. Biden was visiting the church while on the campaign trail in South Carolina.

Biden is Catholic and has grappled with his stance on abortion throughout his political career. In June, The New York Times reported on Biden’s voting record on abortion legislation and how it reflects his moral grappling.

Politicians Denied Communion

The presidential hopeful is hardly the first politician who has been denied communion under these same circumstances. In June, a Catholic Bishop in Illinois, Thomas Paprocki, denied Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and Speaker of the House Michael Madigan communion due to their hands in new pro-abortion legislation. “They have obstinately persisted in promoting the abominable crime and very grave sin of abortion as evidenced by the influence they exerted in their leadership roles,” Bishop Paprocki wrote in a statement about the newsworthy incident.

By citing “very grave sin” that the politicians “obstinately persisted in promoting,” Paprocki was borrowing language from Canon Law, the set of rules dictated by the Vatican and which rules the global Catholic Church.

Canon Law 915 lays out the conditions under which one may be denied communion. The law reads, “Those upon whom the penalty of excommunication or interdict has been imposed or declared, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin, are not to be admitted to holy communion.” Those of other religions may also be denied communion under this law.

Paprocki went on in the statement to elaborate on how supporting abortion has been anathema to the broader church from its very beginning:

Christians have rejected the practice of abortion from the earliest days of the Church. Children are a gift from God, no matter the circumstances of their conception. They not only have a right to life, but we as a society have a moral obligation to protect them from harm. Legislation that deprives children of legal protection before they are born, allowing for the murder of children at any stage in the womb, even up to the moment of birth, is evil.

As far as Father Morey is concerned, he has indicated he hopes Biden will change his stance and will “keep Mr. Biden in my prayers.”

Franklin Boycotts Dove Awards, Lecrae and Others Follow

Jessica Lea

October 29, 2019

Gospel singer Kirk Franklin has announced that he will be boycotting the Dove Awards, the Gospel Music Association (GMA), and the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN). In an Instagram video he posted yesterday, Franklin explained that he came to his decision after comments he made about racial conflict were edited out of two separate acceptance speeches.

“Today, I feel like quitting,” said Franklin at the beginning of his post. “I am heartbroken that I even have to share this with you.”

The Dove Awards and the Tipping Point

Franklin began by summarizing what happened when he won the award for Best Gospel Artist at the Dove Awards in 2016. Franklin said that “as a Christian and a man of color,” he felt the need to address the “civil unrest” affecting the country at the time. In that acceptance speech, he specifically mentioned several black men who had been killed by white police officers, as well as five white police officers killed by a black man.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kirk Franklin (@kirkfranklin) on Oct 28, 2019 at 7:27am PDT

In his Instagram video, Franklin said, “I called upon the audience to join me in remembering that as Christians, when we say nothing, we’re saying something.” The audience gave him a standing ovation, and he led them in prayer for racial reconciliation. You can watch that speech below.

“We all felt that moment that it was a shift in the climate of our separate worlds,” said Franklin. But he was disappointed to see that when TBN aired his speech, the network edited that part of it out. He reached out to TBN and the Dove Awards committee about the incident. TBN, he said, never responded to him, while the Dove Awards committee promised that scenario would not occur again.

But it did happen again when Franklin accepted an award in the same category at the Dove Awards in 2019. In this year’s speech, he mentioned the murder of Atatiana Jefferson in her home in Fort Worth, Texas, where Franklin is from. He asked the audience to pray for Jefferson’s family and for the family of the police officer who killed her. When Franklin’s speech aired last week, that part of it did not make the airing.

You can see Franklin’s 2019 acceptance speech below. He mentions Jefferson around the 4:40 mark.

Franklin said he met with the Dove Awards committee, as well as representatives of TBN, about the editing of his speech and also consulted with his team and with his pastor, Dr. Tony Evans. After doing all of this and praying about his decision, he decided to “not attend any events affiliated with or for the Dove Awards, Gospel Music Association or TBN until tangible plans are put in place to protect and champion diversity, especially where people of color have contributed their gifts, talents and finances to help build the viability of these institutions.” By editing his speech, Franklin said, those who did so actually edited “the African American experience.”

Despite the seeming finality of his decision, the gospel singer maintains that he desires reconciliation. He also said he is not asking anyone else to follow his example–although his post currently has over 10,000 comments filled with people who support him, many of whom say they will follow his lead. These include some notable names, such as actress and comedian Anjelah Johnson-Reyes, who wrote, “Amen. We support you good sir,” and Christian rapper Lecrae, who said, “I only came cause you came. You know I’m out.”

Aaron Cole commented with a series of fire emojis, while Travis Greene said, “The general has spoken.” Tauren Wells wrote, “Love and respect your stance, respect, and character evidenced again by this. Reconciliation is possible.” Artist GAWVI commented, “Ima just wait if any top white Christian artist supports Kirk on this…..

Some did respond with affirmation, although it is not clear whether they will actually boycott the Dove Awards. Singer Natalie Grant wrote, “Love and respect you so much. Thank you for using your platform to speak truth in love, and always with a spirit of humility. You’re consistently calling us towards unity.” Jeremy Camp also commented with his support, and John Mark McMillan wrote, “I’m so sorry this happened. It’s not OK…I’m blown away by the grace and humility with which you’ve handled these issues. It speaks volumes.”

GMA Responds

Jackie Patillo, President and Executive Director of the GMA, has issued a public response to Franklin, explaining that the GMA had to “significantly edit” the awards show to get it down to a two-hour time limit. The result was the producers had to leave out “many memorable moments and noteworthy portions of acceptance speeches,” including Franklin’s.

Patillo apologized for the “missteps” that occurred in relation to Franklin’s comments. She said, “We accept the responsibility of our error. Although completely unintentional, we understand it caused great harm and deeply wounded many in the African American and Gospel community. As well, it left a general perception that we are not concerned with key social issues that affect people of color. It is not our intent to disregard or silence any of our artists, and we are deeply saddened by this perception and are committed to change this.”

Patillo said the entire show is available to watch here and noted that everyone who won an award has since received a full version of their acceptance speeches to post online should they choose to do so. She emphasized the GMA’s commitment to the gospel and said the association is working toward reconciliation with Franklin, noting, “We will be highlighting those initiatives at a future date.”

6 Ways the Reformation Changed Church (and Life) as We Know It

Heather Hahn

October 29, 2019

When Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on Oct. 31, 1517, he hoped to spark a theological conversation about true repentance.

Instead, the German monk unleashed a revolution—ideas that transformed Western Europe and eventually the world. His posting on Wittenberg’s Castle Church door might be the most eventful trick-or-treat in history.

Five hundred years later, Christians—and not only Protestants—are still living with the changes wrought by the Reformation he started.

Here are six developments we have today thanks to that fateful All Hallows’ Eve.

An Expanded Priesthood

Luther was not the first person to call for reform in the Catholic Church. But you might say he was the first to go viral.

The printing press, the internet of his day, spread his ideas far beyond the university town of Wittenberg. In the days before copyright laws, different printers had no problem with publishing the same works multiple times. Think of it as the 16th-century version of retweets.

At one point, an estimated 20 percent of the texts published in Europe had Luther as author, said Richard Manly Adams Jr., interim director of the Pitts Theology Library.

The library—part of United Methodist Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta—is home to the Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection, which includes the largest assemblage of Luther’s writings in North America. The library recently discovered the collection includes two examples of Luther’s own handwriting.

Among Luther’s influential works are three treatises from 1520 that argued both lay and clergy shared in the priesthood of Jesus. This marked the beginning of the doctrine known as the “priesthood of all believers,” meaning all baptized have direct access to God without a human mediator.

This equalizing idea shaped much of what followed.

The Bible in Everyday Language

If all baptized are priests, they all should have ready access to God’s word. That premise led Luther to what was perhaps his most momentous work—a translation of the Bible into vernacular German.

He wasn’t the first to translate the Old and New Testaments into a language other than Latin. However, Luther was the first to look to the original Hebrew and Greek in his work (rather than Jerome’s Latin Vulgate).

“Some people say he wasn’t such a great scholar of Hebrew or Greek,” said Jonathan Strom, professor of church history at Candler. “But what Luther was brilliant at was developing a sort of idiom for the Bible, and it stuck.”

The Three Biggest Enemies You’ll Face Every Day

Brandon Cox

October 29, 2019

There are three biggest enemies you’ll face every day. And people are not the real enemies. Paul made that clear when he said,

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:12 NIV

It may often seem as though people are the problem. We blame the left, or the right; the Democrats, the Republicans; the liberals, the conservatives, etc. But other people are actually the least of your worries.

The Bible describes three enemies in your life.

1. The world.

And by “the world,” I don’t mean people in the world. I’m referring to the cultural and philosophical systems of thinking that are devoid of the reality and authority of God. Materialism, humanism, atheism, narcissism, consumerism, and a dozen other “ism’s” are all a threat to walking by faith.

I grew up believing that worldliness was defined by certain behaviors. But worldliness, in the negative sense, is much more about how you think.

2. The flesh.

And by “the flesh,” I don’t mean your skin and bones and physical body, though our flesh may often employ our physical body to fulfill its desires. I’m referring more to the “old you.”

When you decide to follow Jesus, the old you (the flesh) dies and a you are born again as a brand new creature in Christ. But the old you hangs around. Your cravings don’t all change overnight.

I know that I’m walking in the flesh when I’m centered on self, absorbed in protecting and defending my own turf and not thinking or acting like Jesus.

In other words, you’re often your own worst enemy.

3. The devil.

I believe Satan is a real, personal being who is bent on the destruction of anything God creates or loves. And I believe Satan loves two kinds of people…

Skeptics, who doubt his existence and believe that there is nothing beyond the visible, natural world.
Superstitious people, who see a demon behind every bush and believe everything bad that happens is satanic.

He either wants to blend in and be invisible to you, or he wants to have all of your attention and focus. Either way, he wins.

Satan (and by extension, all of those fallen angels we call demons who work for him) suggests negative, ungodly thoughts, plagues your mind, entices you to sin and stay trapped, and works to establish godless ideologies in the world around us.

Here’s the good news about all three of your biggest enemies.

They’re already defeated.

When you enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, you’ll still live in the world, you’ll still walk around in your own flesh, and you’ll still be tempted by demonic forces at play, but all three of those enemies are as good as dead.

The world will pass away and a new world is coming when Jesus returns. Furthermore, “greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.” (see 1 John 4:4)

And Satan has already been defeated in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. His time is now limited. When God is ready to complete our redemption, he’ll be thrown into a pit for all of eternity.

Your biggest enemies are real, but so is your victory. All that threatens you has already been overcome by King Jesus. You simply need to lean into and live out his victory every day. (Click to tweet this!)

You are more than a conqueror when you follow Jesus Christ. Believe it!

This article about the biggest enemies you’ll face originally appeared here.

Why and How We Can Appreciate Pastors

Daniel Henderson

October 29, 2019

It’s important for us to appreciate pastors because of the reality of what they face.

Approximately 4,000 new churches are planted in the United States annually while 6,000 to 10,000 churches in the U.S. are dying each year. [i] This means around 100-200 churches will close this week.[ii]

Additionally, an estimated 1,300 pastors are fired by their congregations every month, and another 1,200 quit due to stress and burnout.[iii] News headlines tell of tragic pastoral failures, scandals, defections from the faith, and even suicide. Healthy churches are guided by healthy leaders. If the church fails, many vital causes in our society will falter and the future of our families will be at risk.

October is Clergy Appreciation Month. Sadly, this designation is rarely recognized and when honored, can be shallow and inadequate. Yet, many Americans would agree that the spiritual vibrancy or decline of any society is directly connected to the strength and impact of the churches in our communities.

We know the strength of churches is directly connected to the effectiveness and well-being of pastors. This is why we must appreciate pastors.

Appreciate Pastors as a Matter of Obedience

Bible-believing Christians are clearly directed to honor and support church leaders:

“Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches” (Galatians 6:6).

“We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves” (1 Thessalonians 5:12–13).

“Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Timothy 5:17).

“Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7).

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Hebrews 13:17).

Clergy appreciation month is an important opportunity for churchgoers to understand the unique challenges faced by congregational leaders. It is also a moment to embrace the practical commitments we can make to encourage and strengthen local clergy.

Appreciate Pastors Because of These Five Professional Hazards

People in the pew seldom understand the unique challenges faced by clergy. Five that seem most common:

Fatigue from unrealistic demands – The unpredictable and impractical burdens placed on pastors can quickly drain a leader of his emotional stamina. He is supposed to visit all the sick, counsel all the troubled, fix countless dysfunctional marriages, and attend a variety of community functions. All the while, he is expected to lead the staff, work with the board, raise all the money, organize various committees, preach stellar sermons, and spend extraordinary amounts of time in prayer. Oh yes, and lead the perfect family all the while.

Feelings of inadequacy fueled by comparison – A century ago the only way to compare your pastor with another pastor was to go on vacation. Today every pastor is measured against the “best of the best” that are heard on radio, watched on television, or revered because of a best-selling book. Pastors can be defeated by all the raving reviews of the mega-church down the street. Those who serve smaller churches often battle feelings of inferiority, especially when church members openly elevate the famous celebrities with massive platforms on social media.

Family pressures from the “glass bowl” effect – Unlike many professions, church leaders fulfill their duties in the context of an ever-watching, tight-knit community. The personal lifestyle, marriage, and children of pastors are always in close-up view and under scrutiny by less-than-gracious church members who thoughtlessly critique family members. This can lead to hurt and resentment within the clergy family as they try their best to do life together as imperfect people.

Frustration from a job never finished – Because clergy are called to serve the multifaceted needs of people, the job is never finished. There is always another sermon to preach, more souls to counsel, additional hospital visits to make and the never-ending need to conduct a wedding or funeral. All these duties can certainly be rewarding but, unlike other project-focused jobs, there is no real finish line.

Financial under-resourcing compared to other professions – According to payscale.com, the average pastor’s salary is $48,828 while the average pastor accrues $60,000 of debt for their seminary education. For many pastors, the paltry pay can require a bi-vocational lifestyle to make ends meet. Financial pressures can be stressful and debilitating to many who seek to serve the church.

Appreciate Pastors With These Four Practical Commitments

As I interact with thousands of pastors from many denominational streams each year, I sense their great need for support from congregants. Here are some timely recommendations to honor church leaders, not just in October, but throughout the year.

Faithful Prayer – In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was very open about his need for prayer (Romans 15:3-33, Ephesians 6:19; Colossians 4:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:25; 2 Thessalonians 3:1). Prayer undergirds church leaders with grace and strength for the never-ending tasks of their calling. I used to tell our people that prayer was a win-win. I needed the prayer and they needed the practice. Besides, it is difficult to be a critic and an intercessor at the same time. Pray for your pastor. He will be blessed and you will be changed.

Dependable Service – Every church member can and should be a minister within and beyond the church. As individuals utilize their unique gifts to serve within and beyond the congregation this alleviates the burden on pastors, allowing them to focus on more strategic priorities that facilitate health and direction for the church.

Practical Encouragement – Many church members are more than eager to express their opinions about the ministry. Negative input typically outweighs the positive. A note of gratitude, positive feedback on a sermon, and appreciation for the sacrifices made by clergy go a long way.

Multifaceted Generosity – Certainly every member should faithfully and sacrificially support the financial needs of the church. Beyond this, an occasional gift card, tickets to a local event, or support for a special get-away, even an extra week of vacation, can provide a much-needed break from the grind for the pastor and the ministry family.

Let’s not miss this opportunity to support and appreciate pastors. The health of the church and the spiritual strength of future generations may depend on it.

[i] The 2010 Church Consulting Future Trends Report, https://www.willmancini.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/01/FT_Executive_Summary.pdf

[ii] Thom Ranier, https://factsandtrends.net/2018/01/16/hope-for-dying-churches/

[iii] Ibid. The 2010 Church Consulting Future Trends Report

This article about how to appreciate pastors originally appeared here.

Scottish Minister Who Helped 2,000 People Escape the Nazis Memorialized in France

Stephanie Martin

October 28, 2019

The Rev. Dr. Donald Caskie, a Church of Scotland minister who saved more than 2,000 people during World War II, was recently honored at a ceremony in France. The organization Le Devoir du Memoire (“Duty to Remember”) installed a plaque at Fort de la Revere near Nice, where Caskie, nicknamed the Tartan Pimpernel, helped Resistance fighters escape through a sewer system.

“These men were heroes of the shadows who did not seek reward and only thought about whether or not they had done their duty,” said Le Devoir du Memoire secretary Nicole Pinon while presenting a commemorative medal to Caskie’s nephews on October 19. “Our goal is to never forget.”

Nephew Tom Caskie said he was “bursting with pride” at the well-deserved tribute. “He was a hero of the Second World War,” he said of his uncle, “and is still remembered with affection for his time as the minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris and the things he did with the Resistance to save thousands of lives.”

From Ministry to Wartime Intelligence

Caskie, who lived from 1902 to 1983, decided to become a pastor by age 6. After studying divinity at Edinburgh University, he ministered at a country parish in Scotland before accepting a call to the Scots Kirk in Paris in 1935. “I learned to love the beautiful city to which I had come,” he wrote.

When Germany invaded France in 1940, Caskie refused to return to Scotland, saying he “knew with utter certainty that God wanted me to stay in France.” Instead, he denounced the Nazis from the pulpit. To the French authorities who offered to arrange Caskie’s safe return home, he responded, “There’s nothing I’d like better, but that is impossible. I cannot desert my own people in such a dreadful hour of need. I am a minister. How could I leave them?”

From Marseilles, Caskie ran a “seaman’s mission,” helping about 500 British and Allied soldiers cross the mountain border of Spain. That mission was the final stop in a chain of safe houses throughout France, running from Dunkirk to Marseilles. Caskie made use of his many contacts in the intelligence services. A friend once said Caskie “was networking long before the term had been invented.”

After Caskie’s identity was compromised, he was arrested and banished from Marseilles. Instead of fleeing to safety in Britain, he became a university chaplain in Grenoble, France. From there, he continued helping Allied soldiers escape. In vaults under the campus church, Caskie helped hide hundreds of people.

While ministering to prisoners of war in 1942, Caskie found a sewer hidden behind shrubs near Fort de la Revere. He helped dozens of soldiers escape through the sewer tunnel—and returned 36 to Britain in a submarine. “All returned to England to continue the fight,” Caskie wrote in his autobiography, The Tartan Pimpernel. In that account, he shares, “Still more would have escaped but for a tragic comic miscalculation involving a fat man—a squadron leader from the RAF [Royal Air Force] who got stuck in the tunnel.”

Caskie Narrowly Escaped Death

Following those efforts, Caskie’s cover was blown yet again. The Gestapo threw him in prison, where he was sentenced to death. Thanks to the intervention of German Lutheran minister Hans-Helmut Peters, Caskie was granted clemency. Until the war’s end, he was jailed in a POW camp, where he served as chaplain to other prisoners. He described writing on his cell wall this Scripture: “Fear not, for I am with thee, saith the Lord.”

Caskie’s harrowing work resulted in seven prison stays. After the war, he returned to the Scots Kirk and was awarded the OBE, or Order of the British Empire. Caskie wrote his autobiography to help fund a rebuild of the Scots Kirk—the first of two construction efforts he helped make possible.

Even today, the minister-turned-war hero is “still very much alive in the hearts and thoughts of the congregation,” says church elder Dorothy Nitsche. “Many visitors to the Scots Kirk come here because they have read his memoir or have heard of his bravery during the war. People said he was a brilliant figure in the church and a very much hero to them—although he himself would never have put it that way.”

Caskie Had “a streak of iron”

Caskie moved back to Scotland in 1961, where he pastored several churches until his death in 1983. On an episode of This Is Your Life, Caskie was reunited with Peters, the pastor who helped save his life. Despite many recognitions and war medals, Caskie reportedly suffered from depression and died poor and alone.

Skillet’s John Cooper Shares Why He Is Now Speaking Out

Jessica Lea

October 28, 2019

Skillet frontman John Cooper has said that he will likely be speaking out a lot more about topics pertaining to Christianity and the church. In an interview on the Dear America podcast, Cooper said he thinks the church is afraid of offending people by speaking the full truth about what it means to love God and other people.

“I do think the church could be doing a better job,” said Cooper. “I do think we’re afraid, and I don’t think that’s good. And I don’t think that Christians should feel that we need to apologize for God.”

How John Cooper Has Come Full Circle

When he started his music career 20 years ago, John Cooper said he used to be more vocal about his Christian beliefs—and that was before Skillet crossed over into the secular music industry. But the Christian music industry did not like what he had to say. For example, Cooper would get on stage and say something like, “This song is about the fact that either Jesus is everything or He is nothing,” and people would accuse the band of being offensive. But another band would get on stage and ask, “Who’s ready to party with Jesus?” and no one would have a problem with that. The result of Cooper’s outspokenness was that Skillet started getting fewer gigs. “The church just wasn’t into it,” he said. He sees that example as part of an overall problem in the church.

“What I think has happened over this last 20 years,” said Cooper, “is that the church has been trying to make young people happy by, in my view, not speaking truth, not speaking out about issues that the Bible seems to be pretty clear about.” Instead of giving a black and white message, churches simply tell people that they need to love God and love others. “But if you don’t teach what it means to love God, then people just attribute their own ideas of love to what Jesus is into,” said Cooper. That is, people start with their ideas of love and conclude that because God is love, God must approve of their ideas.

Cooper has encountered situations on the road that have troubled him, such as meeting worship leaders in Christian bands who are not even believers. Or he’ll try to talk to young people about God’s Word, and they don’t want to. Instead, they tell him they love Jesus, but don’t care for the Bible. So Cooper concluded, “The church is not doing her job,” and decided to start speaking out publicly again, even if it cost him fans. In August, the Skillet lead singer wrote a Facebook post sharing his thoughts on the fact that two Christian influencers, Marty Sampson and Josh Harris, had walked away from their faith. More recently, he wrote a post in response to a CNN article titled, “Why Christian music’s biggest stars refuse to change their tune for the Trump era.”

But instead of fans deserting Skillet, what has happened, said Cooper, is that “the sleeping majority” woke up and thanked him for saying what they were feeling. So he plans to continue speaking out.

Speaking About the Faith and Living It

At the same time, John Cooper said, “In my view, the absolute best way to share my faith in Jesus is not by saying a whole lot.” To him, being in a Christian band has a lot more to do with the conversations he has behind the scenes than it does with Skillet’s music. Several years ago, he was about to go on tour with another band when one of the band members’ brothers killed himself a week before the tour started. Cooper didn’t know the band member very well, but he told him that Cooper and his family were praying for him every night. Cooper’s daughter, who was six at the time, continued to pray for that band member for years. She ended up meeting the man again three to four years later and told him that she still prayed for him every night. The man was deeply moved when he heard her say that. “I think there’s a great way to share the love of Christ without preaching at people all the time,” said Cooper.

But while “being a Christian band isn’t necessarily about the lyrics,” when it comes to the lyrics, Cooper said, “I like to write about what I see happening in the world.” One of those issues is mental health. “One of the things I feel most passionate about is all of the young people suffering from depression,” he said. “We live in a pretty great time to be alive…but people are sadder, and more teen suicides.” Several rock musicians have died from suicide in recent years, said Cooper, mentioning Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave and Chester Bennington of Linkin Park. In fact, John Cooper wrote the title track of Skillet’s latest album, Victorious, for Chester Bennington. Because of the widespread tragedy of suicide, Cooper wanted to write a record encouraging people not to give up even though life is hard.

Towards the end of the interview, the Skillet frontman stressed the importance of having meaningful relationships with people, something that is difficult both in the church and in our society as a whole. “I think that the church is full of mainly really great people,” he said, “but I think that a lot of people don’t know what to do and we don’t have relationship.”

But meaningful friendships are essential and they are possible, even with people who have totally different beliefs. Cooper described the people on his team as atheistic, agnostic, and hyper-liberal, saying, “Out of my 15 employees, well over half of them, we wouldn’t agree on anything, but we’re best friends.” We don’t have to agree with people about fundamental issues in order to love them, said Cooper, so “Go out, be nice to some people that aren’t like you today.”

Second Bible Translator in 2 Months Killed in Cameroon

Megan Briggs

October 28, 2019

The second Bible translator in as many months has been killed in Cameroon. Benjamin Tem worked for the Cameroon Association for Bible Translations and Literacy (CABTAL) and had worked on the recently completed translation of the New Testament into the Aghem language. Friends of Tem believe he was killed by Fulani herdsmen, although this has not been confirmed.

“Another Bible translator and friend was butchered last night,” Efi Tembon wrote on his Facebook page, indicating that Tem was killed on October 20, 2019. Tembon is the director of CABTAL, which is associated with Wycliffe Bible Translators. He knew both Tem and Angus Fung, the translator who was killed in August and whose wife also suffered harm during the attack.

Benjamin Tem Helped Put the Aghem Language on Paper

Tembon wrote that in addition to working on an Aghem language Bible, Tem also served as a Scripture engagement facilitator and a Bible listening group promoter. CABTAL works with people groups in Cameroon that speak unique languages that may or may not be written down. For this reason, the ministry offers a huge help to different language groups in the country that are in danger of having their language and way of life erased due to the mounting violence in the region.

Before CABTAL’s New Testament project, Tembon says the Aghem language had not been written down. Tem and Fung were working in Wum, Cameroon, which is located in the Anglophone region of the country and represents a very unstable area at the moment. Not only are some groups of Fulani herdsmen attacking people and trying to take land, the government doesn’t appear to be moving to stop the violence.

Tembon, who is a native Cameroonian, but also has citizenship in the U.S., speaks out frequently about the abuses of the government and the rising tension between the Fulani, who are Muslim, and the more populous Christians. Last week, Tembon posted a picture of a Catholic priest from Cameroon who was arrested at the end of a church service and sent to a concentration camp. Tembon explained that Father Paul Njokikang had recently spoken to the United Nations about the atrocities committed by the Cameroonian government.

The Current Unrest in Cameroon’s Anglophone Region

As ChurchLeaders wrote in our article about Fung, the current tensions in the Anglophone region of Cameroon stem from a history of strife:

The division of Cameroon (formerly the German colony of Kamerun) into English- and French-speaking regions occurred after World War I. Voice of America News (VOA) reoports the country’s current war began in 2016 when Anglophone lawyers and teachers protested against the Francophone goverment because of “alleged discrimination.” Violence ensued and escalated. Tembon, who was in the country at the time, told the Leader, “Helicopters were used by the government to start killing peaceful protesters.”

There is credible evidence that the government’s security forces and the separatist rebels have both been guilty of serious human rights abuses. VOA reports that tens of thousands of people attempted to flee the Anglophone region this past weekend after 40 people were killed and a Catholic bishop was kidnapped as a result of fighting between separatists and the government.

One woman trying to escape the region told VOA that separatists had ordered businesses to close for a minimum of two weeks and attacked anyone who disobeyed. Another woman said she is fleeing after seeing the military kill six civilians and a baby. The most recent violence has come after separatist leader, Julius Ayuk Tabe, was put on trial in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. The tribunal found him and nine supporters guilty of “secession, terrorism and hostility against the state” and sentenced them to life in prison.

After this sentence was handed down, separatists responded by issuing a lockdown in the Anglophone region, preventing schools from re-opening. Children there have not been able to attend school since the violence escalated three years ago.

While completing the New Testament in Aghem was a big milestone for CABTAL, the distribution of the book has been stifled because of the conflict in the region. Tembon says at least 24 people have been killed by Fulani and many houses have been burned in Wum, where Fung and Tem were located. Earlier this year, an American missionary was killed in the Anglophone region as well.

Tem was buried on October 21st. He leaves behind five children.

The Almost Invisible Church

Darryl Dash

October 28, 2019

Is your church an almost invisible church?

I love this paragraph from James K.A. Smith’s new book On the Road With Saint Augustine:

Let your eyes skate past the megachurch industrial complex and take note of the almost invisible church in your neighborhood that you’ve driven past a thousand times without noticing. Check on it some Tuesday night, and see if there aren’t lights on in the basement. Maybe the food pantry is open. Or the congregation is offering financial management classes or marital counseling for couples who are struggling. It might just be the choir practicing, giving some souls an appointment to look forward to each week that pulls them out of their loneliness.

I drove past one of those churches last week in a small town in Ontario. I first knew the church when it was small (around 30) and relatively unloved, a group that resembled David’s early followers: “everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul” (1 Samuel 22:2).

Thirteen years later, the church has grown, and so have the people. I sat with the pastor and listened over coffee to what God has been doing. It’s still messy. It’s still an almost invisible church. The room can hold a hundred no matter how they configure the church. You would probably never visit that church or town except by accident. And yet God is there.

If I’m right, this story is being repeated in tens of thousands of churches, mostly without anyone noticing.

I’m not against big churches. God is at work there too. My point is simpler: We tend to think that God is at work somewhere else. We spend our time wishing that we could be part of what God is doing, all the while missing what God is doing right under our noses because it looks small and insignificant and because it’s hard work.

We need pastors who are to their churches what Wendell Berry is to farming: who stay connected to place, enjoy the pleasures of simple ministry, who resist industrial, mechanistic forms of pastoring, and who find joy in that calling. Eugene Peterson has died; Zack Eswine can only write so many books. I suggest we go about living what they wrote about while we wait for the next great writer to remind us what pastoral ministry is about.

I heard Rosaria Butterfield say that she would rather stay home and cook a meal for her neighbors than travel to a conference and speak to a crowd of thousands.

My proposal: We as pastors commit that we would rather stay home and prepare a meal for our congregation of 30 (or whatever that number might be), completely out of the spotlight, than worry about increasing our follower count or looking for opportunities to serve elsewhere. Love a ragtag group of misfits for years and see what God does. Be content with pastoring an almost invisible church.

To paraphrase an old saying, God must love almost invisible churches because he made so many of them. So we’d better start to love them too.

This article originally appeared here.

Why “Remove Negative People” Is Terrible Advice For Leaders

Scott Cochrane

October 28, 2019

The world may tell you to remove negative people from your life. But if you strive to be an authentic leader, your goal should be just the opposite.

You should be seeking out negative people, and placing yourself directly, and intentionally, in their midst.

Authentic leadership requires nothing less of you. Authentic leadership is built on the understanding that your greatest contribution in leadership is to shine your light where it is needed most.

Authentic leadership knows nothing of the all-too common mantra that says you should eradicate negative people from your life. Instead, authentic leadership seeks to shine its light of positivity and inspiration exactly where it is most needed.

A Dangerous Trend

The world today scoffs at such a notion. Instead, it advocates cocooning yourself as far away as possible from any vestige of negativity.

Google the phrase, “Remove negative people” and you will find 274 million hits, much of which is loaded with articles with such titles as,

“6 Ways To Deal With & Remove Negative People In Your Life”
“Removing Toxic People From Your Life in 9 Steps”
“How to Get Rid of Negative People In Your Life (With Pictures)”
“5 Reasons You Need To Get Rid Of All Your Negative Friends”

A Better Way…

Admittedly, my perspective is heavily influenced by my faith. As a person of faith, I follow the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, who taught his followers, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” (Matthew 4:14-15)

Jesus was saying that the reason you have been given a light is to shine it for all to see; to find the darkest places, those negative people and places most in need of the luminescence you can provide.

What a contrast to so much of what we hear today, where we are told to “get rid of negative people”. This line of thinking tells us to surround ourselves only with other lights.

What a sad waste of a light that would be.

As a leader, your greatest gift may be in your ability to shine your positive example in the very places it is most needed.

So keep your light illuminated.

And shine brightly.

This article originally appeared here.

3 Huge Downsides to a Busy Church

Eric Geiger

October 28, 2019

About a busy church, Adrian Rogers was perhaps the first preacher to coin the phrase, “If Satan can’t make you bad, he will make you busy,” but many others have echoed the pithy statement. And for good reason. Pastors have seen the numbing effect of busyness on the people they serve. Busyness can harden our hearts as we work and perform without enjoying the One who gives us real life. Our busy lives can deceive us into thinking we are accomplishing much, but Jesus reminds us that apart from Him all we do will be worth nothing (John 15:5). The busier we are the less still we are, which is damaging to our souls as the Scripture connects our stillness with our realization that He is God (Psalm 46:10). So, churches and church leaders frequently and wisely challenge people to slow down, to spend more time with Jesus, to not over-schedule their lives, and to be counter-cultural by avoiding the treadmill of busyness.

But if the messages are true for people in the church, is the message not true for the overall church? Many churches are incredibly busy and many church calendars are filled with too many things. It would seem some church leaders believe the pithy “If Satan can’t make you bad, he will make you busy” for congregants but not for the congregation.

After writing Simple Church with Thom Rainer, I spent several years consulting and speaking with church leaders who lamented their church’s busy schedules. Many did not want the busyness and programmatic complexity but found themselves on ministry treadmills they inherited with lots of expectations to keep the treadmill moving. They lamented the busyness of their churches because of the adverse impacts they believed the busyness produced. Here are 3 common themes I heard from these leaders:

1. Lack of Engagement in the Broader Community

If people are continually at church, they likely are not in conversations with their neighbors. If people are “always at church,” they are less likely to be in the community as salt and light. We are not helping people live on mission in the cities and communities where the Lord has purposed them to live if we constantly ask them to be at church activities. Just as a busy person or family struggles to invest in important relationships, a busy church keeps God’s people from important relationships with the broader community.

2. Energy and Resources Spread Too Thinly

Every program, activity, or event requires resources. Churches that are too busy divide the energy and resources across a plethora of activities instead of appropriately investing in the programs they deem as most effective. When resources are spread too thinly across many things, none of them receive the resources or attention that they should.

3. Equating Busyness with Life

If a person’s calendar is “slammed,” people don’t tend to assume the person live by a healthy and sustainable rhythm. Yet for some reason a slammed church calendar can draw affirmations from people. Sadly, a busy church calendar can mask a lack of vitality because a busy church calendar can wrongly be equated with life. It is possible to be very busy on the outside and cold on the inside.

If Satan can’t make you bad, he will just make you busy. It is true for Christians. And for churches too.

This article originally appeared here.

Mobile Church on a Shoe-String Budget – It CAN Be Done!

Bryan Haley

October 27, 2019

Several years ago, I helped transition our church from a single-site church to a 3-campus multisite church. One of our new locations was going to meet in a local movie theater, which meant we needed to think about how to do portable or mobile church well.

Lots of churches are set up a mobile church, particularly new church plants and congregations operating on a shoe-string budget. Some meet in school gyms, movie theaters, community centers, or other facilities that are easy for churches to load their equipment and supplies into and out of each Sunday. The popularity of the mobile church approach continues to grow because it’s affordable and cost effective. Mobile church can be a great option—but when you choose a mobile church format, clear communication becomes even more essential.

When using someone else’s facility, a church needs to be obsessively detailed and purposeful in how they communicate their church’s message. Here are three things to think about if you’re a portable church.

Signage & Branding

One of the most overlooked areas of communication in portable churches is signage. When you have poor signage—or worse, none at all—you are adding, a sometimes insurmountable, barrier for new people who want to visit. Even if the building you’re using has decent signage and mapping for itself, you need to think about what this looks like for a visitor trying to find your church on a Sunday morning.

Often, a mobile church will use only certain areas of a rented building. The main entrance on Sunday may not be the building’s main entrance for the other 6 days of the week. Think about a first-time guest, and what they’re experiencing.

Try to invite them in by being overly clear about where to park, where to enter, and where to go inside the building. That may mean you need to cover the regular signage for the building. You may need to find ways to minimize distractions and draw focus to your own brand and sign. And don’t underestimate the power of a large parking lot crew and welcome team to reassure people that they’re in the right place.

Next Steps

Once you’ve got people inside the building and in the auditorium (or theater, or gym, or cafetorium), it’s time to think about next steps. Being a portable church can make it difficult to connect people to next steps opportunities like mid-week events, Bible studies, or service opportunities. So be purposeful about how you’re going to communicate upcoming events to visitors, both while they’re in Sunday service and also throughout the week.

What is a new person’s next step if they want to know more about your church? How do they sign up to get more information? In permanent churches, it’s easy to have a next steps area, a connection area, or a cafe. In portable churches, we often need to be a little more creative. There are a number of digital solutions like a specific web address with details for next steps or a new visitor text message signup.But if your space allows, consider also setting up a temporary connections area in a lobby area.

Think about how you’re enabling people to take the next step in getting connected to your church. Then be clear during the worship service about how to get to that next level.

Clear Communication

Communicating clearly is always important for churches. But it becomes even more vital when your church doesn’t have a permanent location. Think through your communication strategy and be as simple and clear as possible in everything you communicate. And Make sure there’s a central location where anyone can get any information they need at any time—in a portable church situation, a website is probably the best place for this. A strategy for communication needs to be thought through and prepared in advance. Always be thinking: What are you communicating? And how?

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

Distinguishing Marks of an Unteachable Person

Mark Loughridge

October 26, 2019

Kevin DeYoung wrote a great piece on the “Distinguishing marks of a Quarrelsome Person”. I found it convicting and helpful. It was the sort of piece that should cause you to take a long hard look in the mirror after reading. It acted as a catalyst for this companion piece—The Distinguishing marks of an Unteachable Person. I have been thinking a lot about this over the past number of years. I believe unteachableness is one of the great sins of our era.

I’m not talking about having set convictions about doctrinal matters—although the issue can surface there.

I’m not talking about people who just can’t get their head around a minor change in church life, and make the occasional comment.

I’m talking about something much deeper. James says the marks of godly wisdom are that it is ‘pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason…’ (3:17). The word translated by ‘open to reason’ can be translated ‘willing to yield’ or ‘persuadable’ and has the idea of being willing to listen, to consider another person’s viewpoint.

(I have to say from the start that this is not inspired by anyone in my two congregations—but is the fruit of 20 years of observations in ministry.)

Over my years of ministry I have come to value and look for this characteristic above many others, especially in church leaders, whether teaching or ruling elders. I have met those who don’t have it. And at times I have failed to have it too.

It is the practical outworking of our finitude. We don’t have all the answers, we don’t have infinite knowledge, and we are sinners—we get it wrong. We must therefore be open to persuasion.

An unteachable person is not necessarily quarrelsome, although when the right issue arises they may be, or they may just walk away.

What does an unteachable person look like? What are his (or her) distinguishing marks? Here are twelve possibilities.

You might be an unteachable person if . . .

1. You see everything as a Martin Luther moment – Here I stand I can do no other.

2. You see an article on Facebook about Quarrelsome people, and don’t stop to let it teach you before you pass it on to others. The same goes for many other posts—posted in the ‘hope’ that a particular person will ‘see and take note’.

3. You hear a challenging sermon and immediately think of someone else who needed to hear it—as opposed to applying it to your own soul.

4. You have sat in church for years, merely being informed but not transformed. You may have learned, but you have not been taught, nor much changed by the Word. This may also include sitting in judgement on the sermon, straining out a theological, grammatical or idiosyncratic gnat while failing to apply the sermon to angularities in you.

5. You haven’t been wrong for a long time. There is always an answer for your actions. It is actually a long time since you had to put your hand up and say, “I got that wrong”—even at the dinner table. Since we spend so much time at the table, inevitably it should be a place where our family hears us say, “Sorry I was wrong.” But if we aren’t saying it there, we aren’t likely to say it in public.

6. You haven’t repented or sought forgiveness in a long time. In theory you admit to being a sinner, but functionally you are sinless. It is a long time since you repented, either to your wife, your children or to God. It is other people who need to repent.

7. You have never changed your mind or altered an opinion. We all grow and mature. None of us have it all nailed down.

8. You see changing your mind as backing down and damaging to your identity (self), rather than a means of growing into your identity (Christ-likeness).

9. You focus on minutia when you are wrong. Increasingly insisting on being in the right in a minor area, whilst ignoring fault in major areas. And so you miss the opportunity to grow. More straining of gnats. Rather than being taught, and growing, you risk turning into Gollum all for the sake of ‘your precious’.

10. Your eyes glaze over and you tune out when something challenges your position. You hear arguments against it, but rather than take those on board and respond to them, you simply restate your opinion in a different way, or even with the same words.

11. Your circumstances override any command God has given. Your past or present trumps anything God says—His commands or promises may apply to others but not you. It may be problems, it may be pain, it may be opportunity, but it is their voice that regulates your life.

12. You continue to search for a supporting opinion from someone—anyone—even when lifelong friends, or biblically qualified leaders, tell you otherwise.

Don’t be unteachable, unpersuadable. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit, by resisting the work that he is seeking to do in you. Be easily persuadable that you may be wrong.

If any of this hits close to home, as Kevin DeYoung said at the conclusion of his article: “Look to Christ. He has the power to change us and has made provision to forgive.”

PS: Don’t pass this on without first picking at least one of these and saying “This is me, this is where I fail.” Be teachable.

This article about marks of an unteachable person originally appeared here.

To the Women Who Faithfully Serve (and Proclaim) Jesus

Nichole Chavez

October 25, 2019

To the women in ministry: If we offend man by preaching, teaching and sharing the message of Jesus with our lost and broken world it is better than offending God by not sharing the message. #womeninministry #femalepreachers #ministry #church

As I listened to the words John MacArthur carelessly spoke, my face began to get hot, comebacks and arguments flooded my mind and my anger burned. I so badly wanted to be offended, I wanted his words to give me permission to lash out and embrace the pain he knew his words would inflict but I know better than that, I know his words only have as much power as I let them have. I also know that God trumps man’s thoughts, opinions and views.

Women of God, we are half of God’s army, we are called, set apart, mandated and commissioned to change the world for Jesus. Do not be moved by his words, do not be discouraged or offended. His words cannot silence us, but offense can and the enemy would love nothing more than for you to be offended.

We can choose offense, or we can choose to silence it. We can choose to become the obstacle that keeps the beautiful message of Jesus from being shared with the world, or we can be the army who removes the obstacle of offense and bravely, boldly, and confidently stands up for Jesus and steps into our purpose and calling.

Each one of us is equipped and purposed to change the world for Jesus, and each one of us is a crucial part of the church.

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Romans 12:6-13 NLT

God did not save the honor of sharing the message of Jesus for the men of our world; he gave the honor to ALL of us. If we offend man by preaching, teaching and sharing the message of Jesus with our lost and broken world it is better than offending God by not sharing the message. The enemy would love nothing more than to see the church destroy itself from the inside out. He would love for women to be offended and silenced. He would love for you to think that your purpose can only be lived out within the walls of the church building or behind the scenes, off the stage and without a mic. He would love to see you limited by fear (yours or others), rules and tradition.

There are no limits with God. There are no walls, no traditions. There is only obedience and submission, calling and purpose, and the mandate to not just serve in the church, but to also leave the walls of the church and GO into all the world and preach, share, and spread the good news of Jesus.

“And then he told them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.’” (Mark 16:15 NLT)

In Nichole’s book, The Silenced Army, she is honest and transparent in telling her story of abuse, heartache, pain and her struggle to overcome them. She is honest about how the enemy used these experiences to silence her and to build a wall between her and God. The enemy looked on and was pleased by her silence because he knew if she ever found her healing in Christ then she would find her voice and if she found her voice, she could change the world for Jesus. She found her voice and now it is your turn. Order your copy at nicholechavez.com.

Beth Moore: Please Don’t Go Home

Geoff Surratt

October 25, 2019

One night almost ninety years ago two ladies stepped onto an improvised stage in a wheat field in western Oklahoma and began to preach the Gospel. They had never heard of John MacArthur or Beth Moore; they simply knew that their lives had been changed by the Good News, and they wanted to share what they had found. At the end of the sermon that night they invited anyone who wanted to follow Jesus to raise a hand. Laying in the backseat of a car parked near the tent, too weak to sit in the revival service, my grandmother lifted her hand in the dark, taking her first step toward Jesus. Soon my grandfather followed her lead, and then their children and their grandchildren joined her on the journey back to God. When my granddaughter stepped across the line of faith recently she became part of the fifth generation of my family to become Christ followers since those two lady preachers refused to “go home”.

My faith journey is shaped by women who didn’t “go home”. My grandmother, an ordained pastor, taught the adult Sunday school class in every church my grandfather pastored. My mom became my Sunday school teacher when all the other teachers gave up trying to teach me and my friends. My wife is an ordained pastor and tremendous teacher. My mother-in-law taught for decades in her home church. I’ve learned leadership from Nancy Beach and Nancy Ortberg. I’ve been inspired by Christine Caine and Jo Saxton. I am honored to call younger leaders like Kadi Cole and Jenny Catron my friends.

John MacArthur and Beth Moore

One of the most impressive teachers I’ve had the honor to meet is Beth Moore. When Sherry was leading MOPS International Beth spoke at one of the conferences. Unlike other speakers, her only demand was that she be able to spend a few minutes praying with Sherry before. Her graciousness and humility were amazing, and her speaking that evening was powerful and convicting. She is one of the best Bible teachers I’ve ever heard.

With my background, it isn’t surprising that John MacArthur’s recent attack on Beth Moore and all women who preach was repugnant. His arrogance and lack of grace stand in stark contrast to the women who’ve spoken into my life. It is not, however, MacArthur’s tone but rather his message that causes the most damage. From Jesus’ day to today woman are told from an early age they are less than. Only men can preach, only men can lead, only men can be mentored by men. If a man rises to the top he’s a leader, if a woman follows the same path she is grabbing for power. Men lead, women follow. And if they don’t like it they should shut their mouths and go home.

This is not what we see in Jesus. He elevated women, he respected women, he taught women one-on-one. Jesus encouraged the women who followed and supported his ministry at a time when Rabbis would not even look at women. Jesus refused to treat women as less than.

Paul also placed great value on women as leaders. He sought out women when he entered a new town. He tore down the distinctions between Jews and Gentiles, slave and owner, male and female. He listed multiple women as influential and significant leaders in the early church. And in a passage in his first letter to Timothy he said that men should lift their hands when they pray (without getting into fights), and woman shouldn’t braid their hair, wear gold or pearls, or buy expensive clothes. And he said he didn’t permit women to preach.

Somehow we’ve decided that it’s ok to ignore Paul’s other instructions in this passage: it’s ok for men to pray without lifting their hands (or covering their heads); it’s ok to get angry and quarrel; and it’s ok for women to wear nice clothes and jewelry. The one thing we’ve taken as a theological cornerstone is Paul’s single admonition, repeated nowhere else in Scripture, that women not preach. Standing on this single verse, men like John MacArthur find it ok to ridicule women like Beth Moore, and to say to all the girls and women with the gift of teaching, “Go home”.

I am thankful that those two women who preached the Gospel to my grandmother did not go home. I am thankful for the many, many women who’ve impacted my life since then did not go home. And I am praying, in spite of men like John MacArthur, the young women who are coming behind will not go home. We need the voices of all the church, male and female, to lead sinners like me home.

Father Wins Small Victory in Fight to Save 7-Year-Old from Gender Transition

Jessica Lea

October 25, 2019

There has been a small win for the movement to “Save James.” A judge has ruled that the father and mother of seven-year-old James Younger have equal conservatorship and an equal say in the boy’s medical treatment. The judge’s ruling prevents James’s mother, Dr. Anne Georgulas, from moving forward with her desire to transition her son from a boy to a girl, something his father, Jeffrey Younger, strongly opposes.

“I’m looking out for the best interests of James, my son,” wrote Younger on the website, SaveJames.com. “When James is with me, he shows no signs of wanting to be a girl when given the choice. Even when in female company, away from me, James rejects a female gender expression…Help me Save James.”

The Fight to Save James

Jurors heard testimony in Texas last week regarding the dispute between Younger and his ex-wife, Dr. Georgulas, over custody of their twin sons, James and Jude. Younger was seeking sole custody of the boys, while Georgulas wanted to further restrict his access to their sons. Central to the case was the question of James’s gender identity.

On Monday, the jury rejected Younger’s request for sole conservatorship, paving the way for Georgulos to move forward with transitioning James if she wished. However, on Thursday, Judge Kim Cooks ruled the parents were to have equal rights when it came to medical decisions, preventing Georgulas from moving forward without Younger’s consent.

Some Background on the Battle to Save James

Younger and Georgulas married in 2010. They conceived James and Jude through in vitro fertilization, and the boys were born in 2012. According to The Texan, both parents were members of the Orthodox Church at the time. The marriage disintegrated and was annulled after four years, with Georgulas gaining more rights over the children than Younger, even though both were joint managing conservators. The marriage’s breakdown appears to have been bitter and complicated. You can read Younger’s account of it here.

In her testimony before the court, Georgulas said she started noticing James exhibiting female behavior (for example, wanting to wear dresses), so she took him to see Rebekka Ouer. Ouer is the founder of Dallas Rainbow Counseling, which offers therapy for LGBT youth. Ouer recommended that James start a “social transition” from being a boy to a girl, so his mother began dressing him as a girl, calling him “Luna,” and requiring him to be treated as a girl at school. This she did without consulting his father. Younger has posted a video online of the first time he found out Georgulas was encouraging James to act like a girl.

Instead of transitioning James, Younger wants to pursue “watchful waiting” and let the boy work through his gender confusion. The father is highly concerned about the impact transitioning could have on James, writing on his website, “James is unaware of long-term consequences of transitioning gender…If subjected to medical interventions, James will be permanently sterilized.” Younger disagrees with Georgulas’s belief that James has gender dysphoria, arguing the boy does not meet the criteria for it. During the trial, witnesses testified that James was happy to answer to his given name, wear a boy’s swimsuit, and otherwise identify as a boy.

Younger’s Reaction to the Jury’s Decision

In an interview with LifeSite News before Judge Cook’s ruling on Thursday, Younger reacted to the jury’s decision against him, saying, “I was just completely shocked. I mean, we put up an email from Ms. Georgulas to me in which she contemplates cutting the penis off my son.” He said the decision did not reflect the Texas he knew.

Yet at the same time, Younger said he had anticipated the case becoming national news and is not surprised at the support he has received for trying to protect his son from being chemically castrated. “I don’t believe Texans will allow this to happen to children,” he said, “I was not surprised at all that Americans stood up for my son because that’s what Americans do.”

He expects the case will go to the Texas Supreme Court and possibly even the U.S. Supreme Court. This is a battle Younger is prepared to fight. “I’m not backing down. This is my son’s life,” he said, adding, “I’m ready and willing to go there because I would like to protect every child in the United States from these abhorrent practices by the medical community.”

Younger also spent some time addressing his marriage annulment and accusations against his personal integrity. But even if people decide that he is totally untrustworthy, he said the fact remains that “I’m not trying to cut the penis off my son. And I’m not trying to cross-dress my son and mislead him into thinking he’s a girl. And I’m not pushing my son towards medical transition. And I haven’t done all that without the consent of the other parent.”

Younger strongly believes there needs to be laws passed in Texas, not just to save James, but to protect thousands of other children from the situation his son is facing. Right now there is nothing legally prohibiting parents from administering puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. The family court should not even be entertaining these cases, but rather, “CPS should simply be taking these children from parents who do this to children and giving them to parents who won’t.”

Suicide Rates in Youth: An ‘enormous problem hiding in plain sight’

Stephanie Martin

October 25, 2019

A new report reveals disturbing trends among America’s youth: For young people ages 10 to 24, the suicide rate increased by 56 percent between 2007 and 2017, making it the second-leading cause of death for that group. And among preteens and young teens (ages 10 to 14), the suicide rate almost tripled during that decade.

By 2011, the suicide rate in youth surpassed their homicide rate. Despite being in decline for almost 10 years, homicides among 10- to 24-year olds increased 18 percent between 2014 and 2017. For ages 15 and 19, homicides jumped 30 percent between 2014 and 2017.

The report, published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), points to “a continuing public health issue,” says lead author Sally Curtin. “Not only is suicide trending upward,” she adds, “but the pace of increase is actually accelerating.”

Pediatric psychologist Lisa Horowitz calls these findings “completely disturbing,” saying they should spark a “call to action.”

What’s Causing the Increase?

A combination of factors is likely behind these rising rates, experts say. For young people—especially girls—heavy use of social media and encounters with online bullies may play a role. For boys, access to guns is key. Other likely contributors include depression, anxiety, abuse, substance abuse, and even media portrayals and coverage of suicide.

Anger and stress also can be culprits, according to Dr. Victor Fornari. “Society as a whole has become more polarized, angrier, less tolerant,” leading to “overt aggression,” the psychiatrist says. And home environments are often “toxic with fear and stress and anger,” he says, causing coping problems for kids.

Suicides and homicides, or “violent deaths,” trail only accidental deaths as the top cause of youth mortality. Contrary to perception, says Dr. Rebecca Cunningham, violent deaths “are not just random acts” or “one-offs.” Cunningham, director of the Injury Prevention Center at the University of Michigan, says violent deaths among young people are “a preventable health problem” requiring “a comprehensive public health approach.”

What Can We Do About It?

Talking openly about suicide and depression is a vital first step, experts say. “Suicide is an enormous problem hiding in plain sight, perhaps in part because we are reluctant as a society to talk about it,” says Dr. Albert Wu, a professor of public health. America’s medical system “should at least provide parity for mental health,” he adds.

Also important: teaching children social and emotional skills, screening young people for depression, recognizing warning signs, and intervening early. Providing access to local resources is a must for preventing self-harm, and another study reveals that racial disparities affect access. Among black youth, suicide attempts rose 73 percent between 1991 and 2017.

Tight-knit, supportive communities—including churches—are another “protective factor” against suicide. “Even if you feel down or badly about yourself or hopeless and helpless,” says psychologist Nadine Kaslow, in a loving community “you feel loved and cared for and protected.”

Karen Swallow Prior to Leave Liberty University After 21 Years

Megan Briggs

October 25, 2019

Karen Swallow Prior, a longstanding English professor at Liberty University and author, is leaving Liberty to join the faculty of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS). Prior will join SEBTS in the fall of 2020. She will represent the first research professor the Southern Baptist seminary has hired in its history.

“She is a gifted teacher in the field of English and literature who loves Christ, the gospel and the Great Commission,” SEBTS President Danny Akin said of Prior. “Our students will be blessed to sit under her instruction. She is a wonderful addition to the outstanding faculty of Southeastern,” he wrote in a statement.

Karen Swallow Prior to Bring Literary Expertise to SEBTS

Prior’s expertise is in 18th-century British literature. She received her undergraduate degree from Daemen College in Amherst, New York and her graduate degrees (M.A. and Ph.D.) from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

She is considered a highly esteemed thought leader in the evangelical world and often weighs in on issues with which the evangelical church grapples. She has been outspoken about her lack of support for President Trump, even while some at Liberty University feel they don’t have the freedom to be so bold under Jerry Falwell Jr.’s watchful eye. (Falwell is a strong supporter of President Trump, whom he’s invited to speak at Liberty a couple of times.) Prior will be leaving Liberty after teaching there for more than 20 years.

Not one to shy from controversy, Prior has also been outspoken about the SBC’s need to reconsider its treatment of survivors of sexual abuse. Prior was one of many women to call for Paige Patterson’s resignation after it came to light last year that he had intimidated at least one female student into silence after she disclosed sexual assault. Patterson formerly held the position of President at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary before he was let go amidst the scandal. Before that, Patterson led SEBTS where one alleged coverup occurred.

In addition to her prowess when it comes to the written word, Prior is also known for her ability to help Christian students connect with their culture in positive ways. The dean of SEBTS, Scott Pace, says of her: “As a conservative evangelical and cultural ambassador, Karen brings a unique combination of skills and expertise that will help train our students through a Christian liberal arts education and equip them to give their lives for the cause of Christ in the church, among the nations, and in every aspect of society.”

Indeed, Prior is excited to train students to fulfill the call of God on their lives. “I’m looking forward to being able to join with Southeastern in its exciting mission of sending students, future pastors and future scholars across the globe according to God’s calling on their lives and the Great Commission,” she said.

Prior is the author of three books: Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (T. S. Poetry Press, 2012), Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist (Thomas Nelson, 2014), and On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Literature (Brazos, 2018). Prior has also lent her writing talent to publications such as The Atlantic and The Washington Post, as well as other places. (See Prior’s article on the process of healing she experienced after she was struck by a bus in 2018.)

“At Liberty, I have been privileged to disciple Christian young people for 21 years, primarily in my discipline of English,” Prior said. “My mission in teaching has always been to have students leaving my classroom loving life, literature and God more than when they came in. I look forward to continuing in that mission as I move into this new assignment at Southeastern.”

Liberty University tweeted their appreciation to Prior for her years of service. “We are so grateful for Professor Karen Swallow Prior and her 21 years of Training Champions for Christ. And we wish her many years of fruitful ministry, teaching the students at
@SEBTS.”

How to Take Care of Introverts in Your Ministry

Brooklyn Lindsey

October 25, 2019

If you wonder how to take care of introverts in your ministry, read on.

Recently, Susan Cain recently released a new book: Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts (A guide for KIDS and TEENS).

It landed on my doorstep and I made the clumsy assumption that I could crack it open and read a few pages without wanting to stay up until 3 a.m. reading the rest of it.

It’s a good thing I’m a mom and my kids prefer a human parent over having a sort of human that resembles a zombie to wake up to in the morning, so I didn’t stay up all night devouring it. I did read a good chunk of it in between putting a new couch together with my husband and putting our kids to bed repeatedly.

The point is: I wanted to read the whole book all at once. I wanted to ditch everything to do it. Because being able to tell a kid that they have a hidden superpower is something I want to do more often.

Reading the words “we should be scheduling daydreaming into the extracurriculars” are words I want to wrestle with. How do we do this better in youth ministry—touching all of the ways a teenager is growing developmentally?

I want to connect Susan’s ideas with the youth ministry context because one-third to one-half of the students in our youth ministries are introverted. How do we take care of introverts in our ministries?

In my ministry experiences, three-quarters of our programs and ideas nurture the extroverted nature. Think worship, think loud, think games, think camps, think…think…think…what are the ways we are intentionally giving introverts access to things that light them up and energize them?

How to Take Care of Introverts in Your Ministry

How does youth ministry as a function and as a group of loving leaders empower a quiet one in…

…the cafeteria

…the classroom

…group projects

…in leadership

…in friendship

…at parties

…with extroverted friends

…with creativity

…in sports

…with adventure

…in changing the world (there is a quiet way!)

…in the spotlight

…in their restorative niches (home)

…in their family

(These are the chapters of Susan’s book! So, we have answers! Praises and more praises.)

1. Collect Email Addresses

2. Choose a Service

3. Create a Template

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The Dove Awards and the Tipping Point

GMA Responds

An Expanded Priesthood

The Bible in Everyday Language

The Bible describes three enemies in your life.

1. The world.

2. The flesh.

3. The devil.

We know the strength of churches is directly connected to the effectiveness and well-being of pastors. This is why we must appreciate pastors.

Appreciate Pastors as a Matter of Obedience

Appreciate Pastors Because of These Five Professional Hazards

Appreciate Pastors With These Four Practical Commitments

From Ministry to Wartime Intelligence

Caskie Narrowly Escaped Death

Caskie Had “a streak of iron”

How John Cooper Has Come Full Circle

Speaking About the Faith and Living It

Benjamin Tem Helped Put the Aghem Language on Paper

The Current Unrest in Cameroon’s Anglophone Region

A Dangerous Trend

A Better Way…

1. Lack of Engagement in the Broader Community

2. Energy and Resources Spread Too Thinly

3. Equating Busyness with Life

Signage & Branding

Next Steps

Clear Communication

You might be an unteachable person if . . .

John MacArthur and Beth Moore

The Fight to Save James

Some Background on the Battle to Save James

Younger’s Reaction to the Jury’s Decision

What’s Causing the Increase?

What Can We Do About It?

Karen Swallow Prior to Bring Literary Expertise to SEBTS

How to Take Care of Introverts in Your Ministry

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