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Top 5 Fastest Growing Churches in America

By
Outreach Magazine
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fastest growing churches
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Bayside Church in Clarksville, Tennessee, has been named the #1 Fastest Growing Church in America on the Outreach 100 listings created in partnership with LifeWay Research and released in the 2019 Outreach 100 American Megachurch Annual, a special issue of Outreach magazine.

To survey churches for this report, Outreach partnered with LifeWay Research. The researcher contacted more than 30,000 churches to gather the self-reported data used to compile the lists. The information is then confirmed by phone, fax, email and certified letter.

“The Outreach 100 offers a unique look at many of the churches on the lists to tell the stories behind the numbers—stories of transformed churches and individual life change,” says Outreach magazine Editor James Long.

“As we talked to leaders of churches on the lists, we were encouraged to learn about local churches that are not only preaching the gospel, but also running free or subsidized grocery stores, providing hurricane disaster relief, and making their multifaceted service to the community a priority,” Long says.

fastest growing churches

The Fastest-Growing and Largest lists are based on February and March weekend attendance averages. The Fastest-Growing list includes churches with attendance greater than 1,010, a numerical gain of 127 or more and a percentage gain of at least 5 percent. The ranking of Fastest-Growing Churches is determined by an average of their numerical and percentage growth. The list of largest participating churches includes congregations of more than 5,138.

Fastest Growing Churches Fast Facts

The issue profiles 12 of these community-minded churches on the Fastest-Growing list, with a dozen more profiles online, presenting transferable principles and insights into their growth. Fastest growing church profiles include:

The special issue also includes five profiles from the new listing of 100 Reproducing Churches—churches that are expanding the kingdom through strategic church-planting efforts. Reproducing Church profiles include Northwood Church in Keller, Texas; Community Christian Church in Naperville, Illinois; Hope Church NYC in New York; The Ransom Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Hill Country Bible Church in Austin, Texas.

The 2019 Outreach 100 also includes candid conversations with 23 of the Outreach 100 pastors, covering themes like church growth, discipleship, outreach and faithful ministry. The 216-page report, Outreach magazine’s largest issue ever, also includes in-depth interviews with J.D. Greear, Ray Johnston and Chad Fisher. Johnston pastors this year’s No. 1 Fastest-Growing Church and No. 7 Largest. Fisher pastor’s the second Fastest-Growing Church. The Summit Church, pastored by J.D. Greear, is one of the country’s most influential Reproducing Churches.

Outreach magazine, published bimonthly, seeks to connect outreach-oriented churches by sharing stories, ideas, innovations and resources. Subscriptions are available at OutreachMagazine.com/Subscribe. For more information about the Fastest-Growing Churches, Largest Churches in America and Reproducing Churches, visit Outreach100.com.

Are You Praying on Facebook?

By
Ray Hollenbach
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Our Facebook, who art on the Internet, followed be thy pages . . . praying on facebook is a thing, right?

Don’t worry: this post isn’t a screed on the devilish dangers of social media. It’s too easy to locate trouble and place blame in structures and technologies beyond us. It’s also too easy to ignore such complaints because, honestly, who’s going to “fix” Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest?

Our modern problems do not lurk in apps or software. In truth, our modern problems are not modern at all. Our modern problems reside in deep within us, where they have always hidden. Facebook merely puts us — and our problems — on display with astonishing speed and reach.

Praying on Facebook

Social media is like any other technology, a device capable of good or ill. It’s a tool to be wielded well or to hinder the real work of living life well. Social media is a comfort to the shut-in, and a means to share everyday joys; it is also the latest platform for fears and fools to find expression.

In one respect Facebook and its children have provided a new outlet: cyber prayer. What was formerly the province of what was called a “prayer closet” is now an opportunity to broadcast our prayers around the world in search of someone who will hear. Prayer has always been difficult because we have so often felt alone — in the very place we are told to pour out our hearts before God. In prayer, when we meet the silence of God, we usually fill the silence with our own words. With social media, others will fill the silence for us.

We want to feel heard

We go to social media to know we are not alone. We post our prayers because we will certainly get some kind of answer in response:

POST: You guys! I’m going in for a job interview today. Please pray that I get this job because I really need it.

  • You’ve got this!
  • Hugs to you, I’m praying.
  • Don’t worry: God’s in control.

These answers, well-meaning but completely powerless, feel better than no answer at all, which is what we often think we get from God. Traditional prayer is the place we bump into the silence of God. Cyber prayer is how, together, we fill the void apart from the still small voice of the Spirit.

It’s true: there are plenty of examples of God’s people praying together, rallied by social media, and miracles have followed. In a world of billion-plus Facebook users, this should not surprise us. But daily, and in ways uncounted, we have turned to social media because we are sure to get some answer — any answer — which we can see and hear.

But what if God really does hear?

Even more frightening than not getting an answer from God is the possibility that the Father would respond, and use the response to focus us on the real problems of our lives. Imagine what would happen if God responded to your Facebook prayer:

PRAYER: Father, I’m going in for a job interview today. Please help me get this job because I really need it.

  • What happened to the last job you had?
  • Are you afraid I will not provide?
  • Are you so desperate for money you would debase yourself by working for a company that exploits the poor and abuses its own employees?

The gospels are filled with stories of people who brought their requests to Jesus only to receive challenging “answers” to their prayers:

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

We take our prayers to Facebook because it is filled with people like us, and when people like us respond we can be sure to get the answer we are looking for. If we complain about other drivers, people like us will respond with more of the same. If we post angry words about a political party, we can be sure others will join our anger. If we post the latest warning about the dangers of modern life, we will soon read fearful words from others who feel powerless against big business or Big Brother.

Here are the challenges of living in a world filled with social media. Can we wait on God? Can we sit in the silence without trying to fill the void? Can we bear the possibility that the Spirit will change the subject, and ask about the condition of our souls?

READ MORE: REMOVING OBSTACLES TO JESUS

 

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

3 Types of Stress for Leaders

By
Eric Geiger
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Right before Dr. John Townsend walked up to shred a guitar to some old Blink 182 songs with the band he has with his sons, I asked him if he was nervous. In a brief moment he talked to me about leaders and the three different types of stress for leaders we can face.

Before I share his insight, let me set the scene.

He invited us to a block party in his neighborhood, and he was hanging with his neighbors and being the generally great guy that he is. Not only is a renowned author, leadership coach, psychologist, and founder of the Townsend Institute of Leadership and Counseling at Concordia University, he is also and more importantly a great husband, father, and a deeply committed follower of Christ. Kaye and I have enjoyed getting to know John and his wife, Barbi. He was about to go play some music and I was curious if he gets nervous in these types of settings. He replied:

There are three types of stress for leaders. There is “no stress”, which means you don’t care and don’t bring your best. There is “debilitating stress”, which is not good for you or your family. And then there is “performing stress”, which helps you pull out the best you have in the moment. That is my level right now.

Mic drop.

And then he went and picked up a real mic and started with a Journey song before moving into some Southern California punk. As I listened I thought about what he shared and the three different types of stress for leaders.

1. The Moments/Seasons of “No Stress”

While we can be tempted to long for a life of “no stress,” it is ultimately not what is best for our growth and development. I have talked to many leaders who lament the seasons in their lives when they grew too comfortable and were not challenged. Leaders lament those seasons because they know they did not offer their gifts to others as intently as they could and because those seasons did not help them grow.

2. The Moments/Seasons of “Debilitating Stress”

No stress is bad and so is stress that is debilitating. Debilitating stress levels are those that lead to paralyzed leadership – where you cannot make a decision. Or to absent leadership – where you don’t want to show up. In my years of leading, I have been there a few times… a few times too many. I pushed too hard for too long without rest, without stepping away from the work to be reminded that God is bigger than the work and that there is life outside it. Sometimes rest is not sufficient and time with therapist and medication are necessary. If you are in a season of debilitating stress, go talk to someone right away.

3. The Moments/Seasons of “Performing Stress”

Growing leaders are attracted to problems and opportunities that feel a bit overwhelming. They have learned that those challenges call for their best leadership and that their leadership will be further developed in the midst of the challenge. This is different from debilitating stress. This is putting yourself in positions of being intentionally overwhelmed not losing control and feeling owned by the situation. Just as additional weight and stress when working out helps develop our muscles, extra weight and stress in our leadership develops us and prepares us for the future. Discomfort helps development. Leaders who never want any stress are leaders who stop growing.

We want to do all we can to avoid “no stress” and “debilitating stress” and to courageously walk into opportunities of “performing stress.”

This article about three types of stress for leaders originally appeared here.

Preachers, Don’t Just Explain the Text Meaning—Tell Us How You Got There

By
Lucas O'Neill
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

I realized something recently about how when we preachers explain the text meaning alone, it’s not enough.

I listened to my wife as she spoke to my mother over the phone. We wanted one of many traditional Puerto Rican recipes that I grew up with but never learned to make. My mom tried to explain but her directions were unhelpful—a “little” of this, a “smidgen” of that. We lacked the experience to eyeball it the way she does; we needed every ingredient spelled out.

The problem was simple: Mom never made our meals with forethought of passing the recipe on to us or anyone else. She just did it. The danger, however, was that if the next generation didn’t learn it, our family would lose it.

Fellow preachers, if we explain the text meaning in our sermons, we do well. Our people will benefit. But that’s not enough.

If we don’t make it clear how we know that’s the text meaning, then we’re serving our people great meals but not teaching them how to cook. We need to explain and apply the text, but we should also demonstrate how we came to our conclusions from the text. As Bryan Chapell has stated, our sermons should not only be faithful to the text, but obvious from the text.[1]

Here are five reasons why we should teach how we know the text meaning, not just what it says:

1. So that your listeners can learn to read and teach the Bible themselves.

A commitment to Sola Scriptura demands that preachers not function as priests with special interpretations; he’s not the sole member of the congregation with interpretive authority. Rather, we affirm the priesthood of all believers and encourage our people to engage one another as an interpretive community.

We want our people to be able to apply Scripture together without depending solely on the preacher. Surely, the preacher is a help. The labor that goes into faithful preaching should not be undervalued (1 Timothy 5:17). But part of that value should be in helping the congregation learn how to read and even teach the Bible themselves. We’re equipping them for ministerial work (Ephesians 4:12; Colossians 3:16).

2. So that they will trust you.

When we clearly demonstrate that our interpretations and applications are clear conclusions based on the evidence in the passage, we show that we’re trustworthy in the pulpit. We’re not there to hijack Scripture for our own agendas, and our people can see we’re doing honest work, that our propositions are controlled by and derived from the text meaning.

Christians want to follow a leader whose demands on the congregation are clearly from the Bible. Sharp-minded folks will catch non sequiturs in sloppy exposition; over time, this will lead to an attrition of trust. We may not mean to preach the right truth from the wrong text, but they don’t know that. And so they might assume we had something we really wanted to say and so we used a passage as an excuse to say it. Brothers, we must keep our exposition solid and lucid. It builds trust.

3. So that they can test you.

We want our congregations to hold us accountable for our teaching. If they’re unable to discern faithful exposition from unfaithful exposition, then they’ll have a difficult time knowing whether our conclusions are on point or way out of line.

The more we teach them to interpret Scripture responsibly, the more they’re able to challenge us when we miss something. And pastors, assuming this kind of criticism is given in a godly way, we should want this—for their sake as well as our own.

4. So that what is preached lands with authority.

Our leadership of the congregation will be enhanced when what we say carries weight. But any authority we have must be derived from God’s authoritative Word. Christ’s headship of the church is protected when we adhere to Scripture closely. So, if we make a habit of veering from what Scripture actually teaches, then we call our teaching into question: why should our people receive our exhortations with any weight?

5. So that they can better respond to your attempts to shape their doctrinal thinking.

Central to the preacher’s task is to teach and to correct (2 Timothy 3:16; 4:2). This encompasses not only behaviors but beliefs. No one’s beliefs will change based on argumentation alone. The Spirit must be at work, and the Spirit uses Scripture to equip us for every good work. In other words, we need to make the case that Scripture says what we’re proposing it says in order to convince discerning saints that they should adjust their beliefs accordingly.

We don’t have to show them everything. We won’t have time to make every connection for them; we can’t share every morsel of exegesis we found in our study. Instead, we filter our research and use any necessary details to showcase the text’s logic, how what we see leads to certain conclusions.

My mother had no recipes written down. She didn’t know how to explain it over the phone. So she did the next best thing: she booked a flight and came to see us. She spent hours in the kitchen with us, modeling how to make the meals we wanted so we could pass them on to our children.

[1] Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon, 3rd ed. (Baker, 2018), 148.

This article about preaching the text meaning originally appeared here.

Fuller Streamed a Continuous Reading of the Four Gospels on Sept. 11th

By
Megan Briggs
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Fuller Theological Seminary’s Fuller Studio hosted a live stream of a continuous reading of the Gospels on September 11, 2019. The stream lasted over nine hours and featured people in different parts of the world reading through the four Gospels. Four Fuller professors also provided commentary before the reading of each Gospel.  

“Whether you’re together with friends or family around the table, whether you’re alone in your room or on a crowded subway, know you are part of the church universal listening to God’s Word together,” says Tod Bolsinger, vice president and chief of leadership formation at Fuller. 

The Goal Is to Get People Reading Scripture Together

The live stream project was a part of Fuller’s Communal Reading of Scripture series, which is an audio project that seeks to “gather people from all over the world to hear the Scripture together.” 

As part of their effort to get people to listen to Scripture with other believers around the world, Fuller Studio launched Introductions to the Books of the Bible, a special video series which features professors in their respective areas of expertise explaining the themes behind each of the books of the Bible. Currently, only the commentaries on the four Gospels are available, although the entire series is scheduled to be available by March 2020. 

In the live stream, readers take turns reading from the studio at Fuller’s main campus in Pasadena, California, to different locations across the U.S. and abroad. Readers are seen in California, Texas, Arizona, New York, Belgium, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. The group uses a range of English Bible translations including NIV, ESV, CEB, and NRSV. 

English isn’t the only language featured on the video, either. A handful of readers can be heard reading from Cantonese, French, Korean, Spanish, Turkish, Fulfulde (spoken in Nigeria), and Tagalog translations of the Gospels. 

Themes of the Four Gospels Discussed in Short Commentaries

In their commentaries, the professors point to what they believe are the most significant themes of each of the four Gospels. Dr. Tommy Givens starts out saying that Matthew highlights the importance of living in and reaching out to one’s own community just as Jesus did. Givens says this message has implications for the church today. “[Jesus] refuses to give up on what’s familiar even when that grows to be apparently stubborn at times, or difficult. And this, I think, should affect our vision of what it means to follow Jesus because we often romanticize that following Jesus or engaging in Christian mission will necessarily take us far away to something that strikes us as exotic, or move us to do something very dramatic and flashy,” Givens says.

Dr. Ahmi Lee likens Mark’s telling of the Gospel to an attention-grabbing, action-packed sermon that drives home the message that Jesus is the Son of God. “John Mark…is not interested in telling us a perfectly packaged story that we just have to sit back, sip our tea, and read as distant readers. Rather, we are invited into a captivating reality—life-altering, real-life story of Jesus that keeps us on the edges of our seats. Ultimately, Mark wants to show us who Jesus is, and he does this by including snapshots from Jesus’ life and ministry that revealed to us his unique identity and mission as the Messiah who is fully God and fully human,” Lee says.

Dr. Joel B. Green reflects on how Luke begins with Mary’s Song, also known as the Magnificant. Green believes starting the Gospel this way points to the theme Luke is getting at: one of revolution. Green explains “Mary’s Song prepares us for the rest of the Gospel of Luke..by portraying the coming of salvation in terms of reversal. Things get turned upside down. In fact, in the Song of Mary you have up-down language as well as in-out language. Up-down, leveling. In-out, so that the excluded are included based not on their position, not on what gender they were, not on how they were born, not on who their parents were, not on their wealth, and so on, but based on need and response.” Green also sees the theme of journey in Mary’s life and actions.

Dr. Marianne Meye Thompson believes the theme of the Gospel of John is that God is the God of all life, and that God is embodied in the person of Jesus. This Gospel borrows language from Genesis in its beginning, signifying the importance of creation. “Not only do the things that Jesus does show us that he is the life from God but the words that he speaks are also the words of life. ‘I am the bread of life.’ ‘I am the light of the world.’ ‘I am the good shepherd.’ ‘I am the door for the sheep.’ ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ ‘I am the vine, you are the branches.’”

The entire stream was captured and posted to YouTube, so you can watch or listen to the entire presentation at your leisure. 

Pastor Greg Laurie on Suicide: Hope Has the Last Word

By
Jessica Lea
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pastor greg laurie
Screengrab Youtube @Pastor Greg Laurie

Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, delivered a message Thursday at a special service remembering the life of Jarrid Wilson. Wilson was an associate pastor at the church and died by suicide on Monday. 

“I’ll be honest with you that this is one of the hardest messages I’ve ever had to write,” Laurie told the congregation, “but it’s one I have to give to you tonight.”

Pastor Greg Laurie: Hope Has the Final Word

“When I heard the news that Jarrid was gone, I just couldn’t believe it,” Laurie said. When he heard about the tragedy in the early hours of the morning, he screamed, “No!” waking his wife, Cathe. 

Laurie described Jarrid as full of excitement and energy, hard-working, and someone who went out of his way to serve others. “He also dealt with very deep depression,” a struggle, said Laurie, that went back to Jarrid’s childhood. Jarrid had also been under the care of a doctor. Part of his legacy is Anthem of Hope, a faith-based organization he founded with his wife, Juli, with the purpose of helping people who are “battling brokenness, depression, anxiety, self-harm, addiction and suicide.”

Laurie said he’d had an opportunity to pray with Juli, who told him that in the midst of her grief she has felt God’s supernatural peace. He took the title of his message, “Hope Gets the Last Word,” from an Instagram post Juli wrote after her husband’s passing. 

Shocked and Confused

Laurie said that news of a pastor taking his own life “comes as a shock to people because people think that we as pastors and spiritual leaders are somehow above the pain and struggles of everyday life. We’re supposed to be the ones that have all the answers, but we don’t. At the end of the day, we’re people, just like you.”

But it is still confusing. “We don’t know what was going on in his mind in that night when this event happened,” said Laurie. “He was dealing with challenges, medical challenges and other extenuating circumstances we know nothing of.” Therefore, it’s not our place to pass judgment on Jarrid. Instead, “This is a time for compassion.” 

Even though Jarrid died by suicide, Laurie was clear throughout his message that he believes the father of two is in God’s presence:  “Jarrid had put his faith in Christ, and that is why I believe right now, he is in the presence of the Lord in heaven.” People don’t go to heaven because of their own works, but because of Jesus’ sacrifice. “One dark moment in a Christian’s life cannot undo what Christ did for us on the cross,” said Laurie. He acknowledged that suicide is a wrong choice, but emphasized that we all have made wrong choices, and Jesus died for every sinner. 

Laurie also observed that people in scripture dealt with severe depression. Job, Jeremiah and Elijah all wanted to die at different times in their lives. This was true, despite their faithfulness to God and despite their great works that include, in the case of the prophet Elijah, calling down fire from heaven and raising someone from the dead. 

To people who wonder why Jarrid could not “snap out” of his mental health struggles, Laurie asked if they would have that reaction if Jarrid had been diagnosed with cancer. People don’t survive cancer because it’s powerful and because sometimes treatments don’t work. Mental illness is no different, he said. 

If Jarrid Fell, How Can We Stand?

Laurie said that some of the people in Harvest’s young adult group, which Jarrid had pastored, had asked him how they were supposed to overcome suicidal thoughts if Jarrid hadn’t been able to. The answer, Laurie said, is that God will give them strength to persevere and that persevering is what Jarrid would want them to do. He urged his listeners not to trade what they do know for what they don’t know. We don’t know why Jarrid took his life, said Laurie, but we do know that God is good and faithful. 

He urged anyone dealing with anxiety to cast their cares on God as 1 Peter 5:7 instructs us, and he encouraged those struggling to reach out to people they trust. “God cares for you,” said Laurie, so ask for help and don’t be ashamed. 

Laurie said that when his son Christopher died 11 years ago, he thought his life was ruined: “Getting to sleep at night was the hardest thing imaginable.” One of the ways he and his wife survived that time was by memorizing scripture (Phil. 4:8), something he encouraged his listeners to do. “Hope has the last word,” he said, “Not suicide, not cancer, not depression, not even death. When that hopeless thought comes knocking on the door, reject it.”

Throughout Laurie’s message, a constant thread was the preeminence of what Jesus has done for us and our dependence on Him. “We can have times of depression,” said Laurie, “we can have times when we’re sad, and it doesn’t mean our faith is gone, and it doesn’t mean that we’re failures as believers. It means that we’re hopelessly human and we constantly need Christ.” 

Abundant Life, Abundant Suffering

By
James Faris
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

What kind of life has Jesus promised his people? Abundant life. That’s his promise in John 10:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

With what does the abundant life abound?

The Scripture assures us that the Christian life abounds with joy, with love, with grace, with power, with peace, with pardon, with salvation, with wisdom, with knowledge, and even material blessings as the Lord pleases. Further, we enjoy the abundant mercy, steadfast love, righteousness, goodness, power, of the Author of Life himself. Indeed, the context of John 10 contrasts the life Jesus gives to the murder and destruction worked by the thief, Satan himself.

Life in Jesus Christ is really full. The Christian life is full of knowing God and knowing his people. It is full of service and meaning. It is full of grace and truth. It is full of untold riches in Christ. The Christian life abounds with attractive and pleasant things.

But, do we recognize that the abundant life Jesus promises is also a life that abounds with suffering in the present age? In John 10:11, Jesus immediately pivoted to say that he would lay down his life for the sheep. He gave life by giving up his life. He reminded his disciples constantly that their way would be his way: the way of the cross.

Paul fills out the idea of abundant life in Christ a bit more in 2 Corinthians 1:5, “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”

Let’s be honest with ourselves and others.

The Christian life abounds with suffering. That’s what we sign up for when commit ourselves to Jesus, because he has promised it. We should not be surprised when suffering comes because it is part of abundant life in Christ here on earth. The good news? Our suffering is nothing compared to what Jesus has suffered. Our suffering, though it abounds, serves ultimately so that we share in the comfort of Christ even now.

So, as you share abundantly in Christ’s suffering today, rejoice that the promises of your Savior are true. He has promised abundant life, not the easy life. As we find fellowship in his suffering, we find fellowship in his abundant comfort. By faith, we look forward to the day sorrow and sighing flee away, the day when God wipes away every tear from our eyes, when death will be no more, and neither will there be any mourning, crying, or pain.

This article originally appeared here.

Pulpit Pointers from Past Preachers

By
Nathan Busenitz
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Here are ten pulpit pointers for those who preach and teach the Word of God, as confirmed by some of history’s greatest preachers.

Pulpit Pointer #1. Effective ministry consists not of fads or gimmicks, but of faithfully preaching the truth.

Charles Spurgeon: Ah, my dear friends, we want nothing in these times for revival in the world but the simple preaching of the gospel. This is the great battering ram that shall dash down the bulwarks of iniquity. This is the great light that shall scatter the darkness. We need not that men should be adopting new schemes and new plans. We are glad of the agencies and assistances which are continually arising; but after all, the true Jerusalem blade, the sword that can cut to the piercing asunder of the joints and marrow, is preaching the Word of God. We must never neglect it, never despise it. The age in which the pulpit it despised, will be an age in which gospel truth will cease to be honored. . . . God forbid that we should begin to depreciate preaching. Let us still honor it; let us look to it as God’s ordained instrumentality, and we shall yet see in the world a repetition of great wonders wrought by the preaching in the name of Jesus Christ.

Source: Charles Spurgeon, “Preaching! Man’s Privilege and God’s Power,” Sermon (Nov. 25, 1860).

Pulpit Pointer #2. Preaching is a far more serious task than most preachers realize.

Richard Baxter: And for myself, as I am ashamed of my dull and careless heart, and of my slow and unprofitable course of life, so, the Lord knows, I am ashamed of every sermon I preach; when I think what I have been speaking of, and who sent me, and that men’s salvation or damnation is so much concerned in it, I am ready to tremble lest God should judge me as a slighter of His truths and the souls of men, and lest in the best sermon I should be guilty of their blood. Me thinks we should not speak a word to men in matters of such consequence without tears, or the greatest earnestness that possibly we can; were not we too much guilty of the sin which we reprove, it would be so.

Source: Richard Baxter, “The Need for Personal Revival.” Cited from Historical Collections Relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel, ed. John Gillies (Kelso: John Rutherfurd, 1845), 147.

Pulpit Pointer #3. Faithfulness in the pulpit begins with the pursuit of personal holiness.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne: Take heed to thyself. Your own soul is your first and greatest care. You know a sound body alone can work with power; much more a healthy soul. Keep a clear conscience through the blood of the Lamb. Keep up close communion with God. Study likeness to Him in all things. Read the Bible for your own growth first, then for your people. Expound much; it is through the truth that souls are to be sanctified, not through essays upon the truth.

Source: Robert Murray M’Cheyne, letter dated March 22, 1839, to Rev W.C. Burns, who had been named to take M’Cheyne’s pulpit during the latter’s trip to Palestine. Andrew Bonar, ed, Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne (Banner of Truth, 1966), 273-74.

Pulpit Pointer #4. Powerful preaching flows from powerful prayer.

E. M. Bounds: The real sermon is made in the closet. The man – God’s man – is made in the closet. His life and his profoundest convictions were born in his secret communion with God. The burdened and tearful agony of his spirit, his weightiest and sweetest messages were got when alone with God. Prayer makes the man; prayer makes the preacher; prayer makes the pastor. . . . Every preacher who does not make prayer a mighty factor in his own life and ministry is weak as a factor in God’s work and is powerless to project God’s cause in this world.

Source: E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer. From chapter 1, “Men of Prayer Needed.”

Pulpit Pointer #5. Passionate preaching starts with one’s passion for Christ. 

Phillip Brooks: Nothing but fire kindles fire. To know in one’s whole nature what it is to live by Christ; to be His, not our own; to be so occupied with gratitude for what He did for us and for what He continually is to us that His will and His glory shall be the sole desires of our life . . . that is the first necessity of the preacher.

Source: Phillips Brooks, Lectures on Preaching, originally published in 1877. Republished in 1989 by Kregel under the title The Joy of Preaching. As cited in “The Priority of Prayer in Preaching” by James Rosscup, The Masters Seminary Journal, Spring 1991.

Pulpit Pointer #6. The preacher is a herald, not an innovator.

R. L. Dabney: The preacher is a herald; his work is heralding the King’s message. . . . Now the herald does not invent his message; he merely transmits and explains it. It is not his to criticize its wisdom or fitness; this belongs to his sovereign alone. On the one hand, . . . he is an intelligent medium of communication with the king’s enemies; he has brains as well as a tongue; and he is expected so to deliver and explain his master’s mind, that the other party shall receive not only the mechanical sounds, but the true meaning of the message. On the other hand, it wholly transcends his office to presume to correct the tenor of the propositions he conveys, by either additions or change. . . . The preacher’s business is to take what is given him in the Scriptures, as it is given to him, and to endeavor to imprint it on the souls of men. All else is God’s work.

Source: R.L. Dabney, Evangelical Eloquence: A Course of Lectures on Preaching (Banner of Truth, 1999; originally published as Sacred Rhetoric, 1870), 36-37.

Pulpit Pointer #7. The faithful preacher stays focused on what matters.

G. Campbell Morgan: Nothing is more needed among preachers today than that we should have the courage to shake ourselves free from the thousand and one trivialities in which we are asked to waste our time and strength, and resolutely return to the apostolic ideal which made necessary the office of the diaconate. [We must resolve that] “we will continue steadfastly in prayer, and in the ministry of the Word.”

Source: G. Campbell Morgan, This Was His Faith: The Expository Letters of G. Campbell Morgan, edited by Jill Morgan (Fleming Revell, Westwood, NJ), 1952.

Pulpit Pointer #8. The preacher’s task is to make the text come alive for his hearers.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: As preachers we must not forget this. We are not merely imparters of information. We should tell our people to read certain books themselves and get the information there. The business of preaching is to make such knowledge live. The same applies to lecturers in Colleges. The tragedy is that many lecturers simply dictate notes and the wretched students take them down. That is not the business of a lecturer or a professor. The students can read the books for themselves; the business of the professor is to put that on fire, to enthuse, to stimulate, to enliven. And that is the primary business of preaching. Let us take this to heart. … What we need above everything else today is moving, passionate, powerful preaching. It must be ‘warm’ and it must be ‘earnest’.

Source: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Jonathan Edwards and the Crucial Importance of Revival.” Lecture delivered at the Puritan and Westminster Conference (1976).

Pulpit Pointer #9. The preacher is to be Christ-exalting, not self-promoting.

R. B. Kuiper: The minister must always remember that the dignity of his office adheres not in his person but in his office itself. He is not at all important, but his office is extremely important. Therefore he should take his work most seriously without taking himself seriously. He should preach the Word in season and out of season in forgetfulness of self. He should ever have an eye single to the glory of Christ, whom he preaches, and count himself out. It should be his constant aim that Christ, whom he represents, may increase while he himself decreases. Remembering that minister means nothing but servant, he should humbly, yet passionately, serve the Lord Christ and His church.

Source: R.B. Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ (Banner of Truth, 1966), 140-42.

Pulpit Pointer #10. Faithful preaching requires great personal discipline and sacrifice.

Arthur W. Pink: The great work of the pulpit is to press the authoritative claims of the Creator and Judge of all the earth—to show how short we have come of meeting God’s just requirements, to announce His imperative demand of repentance. . . . It requires a “workman” and not a lazy man—a student and not a slothful one—who studies to “show himself approved unto God” (2 Tim. 9:15) and not one who seeks the applause and the shekels of men.

Source: A. W. Pink, “Preaching False and True,” Online Source.

This article about pulpit pointers originally appeared here.

Beware of Broken Wolves

By
Joe Carter
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

We must be on guard against wolves in sheep’s clothing. Throughout Scripture the people of God are referred to as sheep and Jesus as the Great Shepherd. The natural enemy of the sheep is the wolf who “snatches them and scatters them” (John 10:12). Our Shepherd even warns us to beware of false prophets, who “come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7:15).

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

Echoing this warning, Paul admonished the elders of the church:

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert… (Acts 20:28)

Wolves often look like sheep, so to spot wolves in sheep’s clothing, we can often look at what values and qualities are esteemed by a particular religious community. In Jesus’ day outward religiosity was prized, so the wolves looked like legalists. And in the early post-apostolic age, secret knowledge was valued, so wolves took the form of learned Gnostics.

The values of the evangelical community in America today are diverse, so it’s not surprising that we have a broad diversity in the species of wolves we encounter. In our own age, health and wealth are precious, so some wolves take the form of preachers selling a prosperity gospel. We also seek to change the world for the better, so some wolves take the guises of “social justice” or “family values” advocates.

But there is a particularly nasty breed that often goes unnoticed, a type that we might call the “Broken Wolf.”

These are the false teachers who use their own authenticity, pain and brokenness to attract believers who are also suffering and broken—and then using their “brokenness” to lead the sheep to turn away from God’s Word and embrace sin. They blend into the flock because Christians are not—and should not be—suspicious of broken people. They appear “in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7:15).

Here are three reasons Broken Wolves who are wolves in sheep’s clothing are a grave danger to your family and to your local congregation.

1. Broken Wolves Are Authentic.

The majority of the Broken Wolves you’ll encounter are truly broken people. They have suffered real pain and hurt—sometimes even at the hands of the church. They are the type of people we should naturally rush to comfort and protect, for they need love and refuge.

But what separates Broken Wolves from Broken Sheep is the former believe their brokenness provides them—like the Gnostics of previous eras—with secret knowledge, such as fresh insights into the human condition. Because they can see more clearly than those who are “whole” (i.e., the average, hypocritical churchgoer), they “re-interpret” Scripture, discarding the musty old understandings of previous generations of Christians for interpretations that just so happen to align with the latest preferences of the secular culture.

2. Broken Wolves Are Beyond Criticism.

Your parents probably taught you from an early age not to harm the already hurting (Prov. 22:22). We therefore hesitate to criticize the broken, even if we recognize them as false teachers. No Christian likes to be considered a bully. And the harsh reality is that if you call out a Broken Wolf you will be called a bully. This is inevitable, especially if you’re a man warning the flock against a Broken Wolf who is a woman.

Many of us men—including elders called to protect their flock—remain silent hoping that one of our sisters in Christ will speak up before the popular and prominent female Broken Wolves in our midst devours another one of our own. But if not, we probably won’t speak up.

The brokenness of Broken Wolves often act as a shield that protects them from any legitimate criticism because we fear being viewed as harsh or unloving toward women. The result is that in failing to speak out, we leave the women (and men) in our churches vulnerable to be ravaged.

[See update below.]

Three Dangers of a Kid-Centered Family

By
Jamie Ivey
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

My husband and I have been married for 17 years. We have four kids. When you have four kids, your family often feels as though your life is in a kid-centered family. It’s hard work to make sure that our homes are gospel-centered family vs. a kid-centered family. It’s something that our family continues to work on. And it is hard, but it’s doable.

I will never forget early on in our marriage, before we had any kids, my husband got a phone call from a buddy of his from college. He said, “Hey, I wanted to let you know that my parents are getting a divorce. I thought, Your parents are getting a divorce? They’ve been married for 25 years, and now they are calling it quits? I have no idea what caused their divorce, but I would guess that somewhere along the way they became a kid-centered family vs. gospel-centered.

As parents, we are not usually strategic about this; it just slowly happens over time. When you find out that you are pregnant or that you are going to become a parent through adoption, you usually sit down and ask yourself and your spouse a few questions. Do we want a home birth or hospital birth? Do we have insurance right now? Do we have money for this adoption? Do we tell our friends? What will our parents think? No one usually asks: Do we want to raise our children in a kid-centered family or a gospel-centered family? No one would ever say we choose kid-centered.

But the problem gets even greater because, oftentimes, kid-centered homes make us feel like good parents. And we’ll take it a step further—they make us look like good parents. Look how much they love their kids. Look how much they are invested in their life. Look at all the things they do with their children. We think that because we only have our kids for 18 years, we should build our entire lives around them. I have three dangers, however, that I think a being a kid-centered family poses for parents.

A kid-centered family will put your marriage at stake.

Like I said before, I have no idea what caused the divorce of that couple, but might I suggest that one day after 25 years of raising two children and sending them off to college, they woke up, looked at the person that they share a bed with, and had no memory of how they got there. They didn’t even know who they were. They had lost their first love of each other because they had centered their entire life around making their children happy. And their marriage took all of the heat for that.

This happens little by little. They lost touch with their intimacy because they were so busy with the kids. They didn’t have time to cultivate their marriage, relationship, and friendship because of the kids. They didn’t keep their marriage at the top of their priorities because the kids needed so much. While it’s true, I get it. We have three teenagers, and they take a lot of our time. From football games to football practices to hair appointments to medical appointments to braces appointments to church activities—I often feel like a glorified Uber driver, except I don’t get paid, and my ratings are questionable.

But I believe we should not love our kids more than we love our spouses. I tell my kids often, “I love your dad more than I love you.” It’s not mean; it’s very true. We continue to invest in each other because God has called us as parents to raise these children together, and our relationship must take priority if we will be good parents. When we place our kids and their activities and our relationship with them over our marriage, our marriage will suffer. It’s hard because this takes time, and so do our children. But it is worth it to prioritize marriage because if we do not have healthy relationships, we cannot parent and disciple our kids well.

A kid-centered family creates entitled children.

We have four children in our home, which means they don’t often get what they want when they want it. And that is called life. This world is a hard place to live in if you are constantly waiving the banner of “that’s not fair.” When our families revolve around our kids and cater to their every need and want, they will expect that from the world. We will be teaching them that this is how life works and that they deserve whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want it.

But the truth of the matter is that we don’t deserve anything. In fact, the gospel is a direct contradiction to this idea that we deserve to have it all, that we deserve happiness at all costs. God’s Word teaches us to be servants, to lay down our lives for those we love. When we allow our kids to be the center of our worlds and our homes, we are not showing them how to follow Jesus as a servant. Our kids will have a harder time serving those around them when they feel entitled and are used to being served all the time. Parents, our goal is to raise children that love, obey, and follow Jesus. Let’s not make it harder for them by allowing our entire home to revolve around their needs and wants.

A kid-centered family creates idols out of our children.

This is the greatest danger. We create idols out of our children when our homes revolve around them. And some of us even think that this is cute and normal. We actually hide behind the fact that we are making idols of our children by calling it great parenting. But we are not supposed to find our joy and satisfaction in them. Anything that we desire more or find more satisfaction in than the Lord can become our idol.

This is scary because it doesn’t always look like idolatry. This should put a bit of fear in us as parents because we serve a God who is holy and jealous and desires all of our affections. And he is the only one who can provide all of our satisfactions. We see this clearly in the Old Testament. The first of the 10 Commandments is “You shall have no other gods before me.” When Moses was up on the mountain, the people below got tired of waiting, took matters into their own hands, and created their own golden calf to worship. God responded by telling them that they were a stiff-necked people and that his wrath was going to burn hot against and consume them.

Recently, we had to say no to something good for some of our kids because we knew it wasn’t the best for the family. It wasn’t an easy decision for me; it took me a while to believe that the “no” was okay. In my heart, I began to idolize my children and their happiness, thinking that my role as their mom was to do everything I could to make them happy—and that I would find my happiness in watching them be happy. It sounds good and normal, but sometimes a good thing is not the best thing.

When we idolize something that we find our happiness in (i.e., our children), we begin to think that their happiness is going to satisfy us. When we do this by bending to every need or want, we are creating idols out of our children. Idolizing our work, a substance, or even our marriages over God—we often see the danger in those. But when we talk about idolizing our children, we miss it. We think our kids aren’t idols, but yet we desire to make them happy more than we desire to please God. We find our satisfaction in their happiness. Or, our money and actions prove that they hold more worth than the things that will further the Kingdom. Or, we find ourselves consistently striving to find our joy, satisfaction, and ultimately our worth in our children.

There are many dangers in idolizing our children and our families over the gospel. Our marriages will suffer, our kids will feel entitled, but more than any of those, we will continually be let down and struggle to feel content. When we make idols out of our kids, just like anything else, we will be left very unsatisfied. Idols were never meant to sustain us, to supply our joy, to supply our contentment. That is something that only God can do.

Like I said earlier, this is hard work. These are conversations we must visit often. It is not our job as parents to receive our happiness from our kids or give our happiness to them. Our job is to follow the lead of Proverbs 22:6 which says, “Point your kids in the right direction and when they are old they will not be lost.” We cannot teach our kids to give their lives away for the gospel when all they see is us giving our lives away for them. Parents, our job is big, and a lot is at stake. We are raising the next generation of world changers for the gospel, but that next generation will be unable to change the world if they believe that the world revolves around them. Let’s not be parents that feed our kids this lie.

This originally appeared as a talk at the ERLC National Conference. For free conference messages, visit our site. 

This article about dangers of a kid-centered family originally appeared here.

WordPress Builder Reviews: WPBakery, Divi, & Elementor plugin

By
Duke Taber
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

What tools should you use to create a church website? WordPress offers the most comprehensive platform for building a quality church website. It includes thousands of helpful plugins, including the Elementor Plugin. The Elementor plugin provides a drag-and-drop interface for editing websites built with WordPress. For those with limited technical experience, this is the most effective way to build a church website.

WordPress Provides Your Base Set of Tools

The Elementor plugin is a free plugin designed for WordPress, which is a free website platform. WordPress provides the infrastructure for your website, while the Elementor plugin gives you a simple way to design your website.

WordPress is the most used website builder tool. All types of organizations use this tool to build professional-looking websites, from major brands to small businesses and churches.

While WordPress was originally designed for blogging, it now includes a vast set of tools for building and managing your site, making it a complete content management system (CMS).

WordPress has a dashboard that allows you to easily create posts or new web pages. You can also integrate Google Analytics to track your website traffic and visitor statistics. However, some people may struggle with the interface for editing web pages and posts.

The interface allows you to switch between HTML code and a visual editor. Editing a page with the visual editor is a lot like editing a Word document. While you can easily type text and insert images, it does have its limitations.

Some people may prefer a drag-and-drop interface. With a drag-and-drop interface, you can click and drag elements and see the result in real-time without needing to publish your changes.

Elementor Plugin Provides an Easier Interface

Installing the Elementor plugin for WordPress gives you the interface that you need to build web pages without any previous web design experience. When you edit a page, the changes are viewable instantly, providing a live design interface that is easier to work with compared to the standard WordPress interface.

With these features, you can also include details that help your website stand out. Hover effects, animations, overlays, box shadows, gradient backgrounds, and other professional touches are easily added to any web page.

The Elementor plugin also includes over 100 full-page WordPress templates that you can choose from for the basic layout and look of your website. You can then customize the theme to suit your specific style.

Along with templates, you can use special blocks to customize your web pages. The plugin includes over 300 pre-designed blocks, which are individual section templates that can be added to any page or combined in any order.

The Elementor page builder also allows you to use a responsive web design for your website. Responsive design adjusts the layout of your webpage based on the type of device.

Whether a visitor is visiting your website from a mobile phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer, you can ensure that they get streamlined user experience.

The Elementor page builder essentially takes the hassle out of building your website. Within a few hours, you can have a website that looks like it was designed by a professional instead of a church volunteer.

Besides the free Elementor plugin, the developers released Elementor Pro. The Pro version is a premium plugin that costs about $41 for use on one website. It also includes several features that are not found in the free version.

With Elementor Pro, you gain a visual form builder. You can quickly create forms to get people to sign up to receive a newsletter or capture emails from prospective members that want to learn more about your church. You also gain custom fonts, animated headlines, and image and video sliders.

Alternatives to the Elementor Plugin

Elementor is not the only plugin for WordPress that adds a drag-and-drop page builder interface to your WordPress installation. WPBakery and Divi are a couple of popular options that offer similar features. However, these two options are not free.

WPBakery costs about $45 to purchase while Divi requires an $89 per year subscription. These premium plugins include several features to help make them effective options for building your church website. While these are great choices, they are not quite as user-friendly as the Elementor plugin.

With WPBakery, you can use any WordPress theme that you want. It is designed to work with all free and premium themes, giving you more options for the starting look of your website. You also get tons of templates for quickly building web pages with a specific layout.

Whether you are editing the overall look of your website or using a template, WPBakery gives you complete control over the colors, fonts, and elements.

Divi is a little different from the WPBakery and Elementor plugins. Divi is a theme and page builder, which means that you do not need a separate WordPress theme. However, you also have the option of installing the standalone Divi plugin without the Divi theme.

It also includes many of the features found in the other plugins, including real-time visual editing. You can drag, resize, or remove elements and instantly see the results. You even get a large set of predefined elements that you can drop on to the page, including an audio player, comment section, email opt-in form, gallery, and slider.

Conclusion

Elementor is a useful plugin for WordPress that gives people more control over the design of their websites. Using this plugin, you can simply drag and drop elements on the page. You can easily resize images and move paragraphs to create stunning web pages that appeal to both your existing members and future church members.

The Elementor plugin is designed for WordPress, which gives you a base set of tools for managing your website. You do not need any experience to build a site that represents your church in the online world.

Besides Elementor, some churches use the WPBakery or Divi plugins. All three options give you a drag-and-drop page builder and a variety of useful features. However, if you want a free option, the Elementor plugin remains the most-recommended option. If you enjoy the plugin, you can upgrade to the pro version to enjoy even more useful features.

 

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

Mental Health in the Church: Learning from (and for) Jarrid Wilson

By
Christine Yount Jones
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

Church pastor Jarrid Wilson died by suicide on September 9, 2019, on the same day that he officiated a funeral for a woman who died by suicide and one day before National Suicide Prevention Awareness Day. In his life and writings, Jarrid Wilson challenged the issue of mental health in the church.

On September 10, churchleaders.com posted this notice of his death on Facebook: “Jarrid Wilson, Pastor, Author and Mental Health Advocate, Dies by Suicide This Week.” 

The responses varied widely…as they most often do. Most people posted that their hearts were broken and they were praying for his family and friends. Many expressed confusion. Yet others declared that Jarrid had gone straight to hell. And some were just not sure what to think.

Conversation swirled around vitriolic comments about the sin of suicide. Some admonished that anyone who is depressed needs to do a better job of casting their cares on Jesus. And even others scolded because of the selfishness they perceived in suicide. Many, though, talked about how mental illness is akin to cancer or diabetes…it is an illness that strikes an organ in the body.

Still others…just wept.

People, can we all just admit we have a problem? 

Jarrid isn’t the only pastor we’ve seen succumb to death by suicide recently. 

  • Jim Howard, a megachurch pastor in Santa Clarita, California, fatally shot himself on January 23. Howard was the Family Life pastor at Real Life Church’s (RLC) Valencia campus and had a history of struggling with his mental health.
  • Pastor Andrew Stoecklein, lead pastor of Inland Hills Church in Chino, California, attempted to take his own life on Friday, August 25, 2018. Despite being rushed to the hospital and placed on life support, Stoecklein passed away on Saturday.

And there are more. Are we under “a curse of suicide” that’s stalking our church leaders? What do we need to do now to stem the tide? How do we better focus on mental health in the church? 

“I sometimes get calls from pastors a thousand miles away who have nobody—it seems—to help them. I wonder how this has happened,” writes Ed Stetzer in a recent article at ChristianityToday.com reflecting on Jarrid Wilson’s tragic passing. Stetzer goes on, “I also wonder about those who are ministry leaders who don’t make the call, who suffer in silence, afraid to reach out.” And what do we think when a pastor who is an outspoken mental health advocate takes his own life? 

Facing Mental Health Issues in the Church

Inevitably, in the face of pastoral suicide, we grieve and we ask why. And not just…why has it this happened this time, but why does it keep happening? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that suicide rates are rising across the country, and at churchleaders.com, we consistently see our articles on depression and mental health getting a high level of response from our audience. Jay Lowder’s article, “Being a Christian Does Not Make You Immune to Depression, Hopelessness, and Suicide,” posted on Facebook days before the news about Jarrid broke, got a significant level of engagement.

 

We don’t want to offer flippant or simple answers, and there is no way we can thoroughly address this problem in a single post. As the CDC observes, “Suicide is rarely caused by a single factor.” 

But it is right to ask what can we do to advocate for those who are suffering and save lives. It would be far worse to be apathetic or conclude that it is hopeless to try to do anything. In his battle with mental health issues and his desire to help the church, Jarrid Wilson challenged the church to address depression and anxiety: 

“It’s no secret that my past was ridden with mental health issues—ones that kept me from wanting to live for much of my teenage life. I’m very vocal about this truth, and I will continue to be as long as my story may have an impact on others who need to hear it. And while I do believe today’s church is doing better at addressing the issue that is mental health, I believe there can be so much more done than what is currently taking place in regards to depression and anxiety.” Jarrid Wilson

The Unreached People Group That We Overlook

By
Stephanie Martin
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

According to a study published by the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (JSSR), children with special needs, disabilities, and chronic health conditions are most likely to never attend worship services. This is especially true for conditions that impact social interaction or impede communication, such as autism spectrum disorders, developmental delays, and ADHD.

An estimated one in six children has at least one developmental disability, representing a 17 percent jump from 1997 to 2008. As a result, children with special needs are now one of the largest unreached people groups—yet many churches have been slow to respond. According to a 2001 survey, only 10 percent of congregations said they provide some type of care for people with disabilities. In other words, the mission field is wide open.

In an interview with Baptist Press, Texas pastor Lee Peoples says that for churches, people with special needs are “some of the most underserved” and “unreached” groups. Peoples and his wife, Sandra, have a 10-year-old son with autism, and Sandra has a sister with Down syndrome.

Peoples’ church, Heights Baptist in Alvin, Texas, had so many people with needs that it named a special-needs ministry director, Lisa Rose. Her brother’s family had stopped attending church because it was too difficult to bring their daughter, who has a genetic disorder. “We had a lot of special needs in our church that just weren’t being served,” Rose says. “So we said, we haven’t helped you, how can we fix this?”

Solutions included converting two areas into sensory-friendly rooms, using the “Special Buddies” curriculum from LifeWay Christian Resources, and setting up a respite program for caregivers.

Reaching Families With Special Needs Ministry

Taking those types of steps to reach families with special needs is key. According to the JSSR research, church involvement is just as important to people with disabilities as it is to those without them. In addition, studies show that attending worship services has positive effects on children with special needs, as well as their families. When children with disabilities are involved with church, they have better emotional health, higher self-esteem, and improved overall well-being. Parents and siblings also benefit, thanks to increased social support and better physical and emotional health.

What Obstacles Get in the Way of Special Needs Ministry?

When it comes to church attendance, children with special needs or chronic health conditions face five main barriers, according to a 2007 study. These include architectural issues such as building access, negative attitudes expressed by church members and leaders, communication difficulties, programming obstacles, and “liturgical barriers.” When combined, these obstacles make it seem difficult for families to integrate into the life of a congregation.

In addition, many parents who have children with special needs reveal that the effort to attend church—and to advocate for their kids in yet another area—often feels overwhelming, despite their desire to be part of a congregation. “We wish we had a community to belong to,” one mother says, “however…we have not had the time or energy to seek out and prepare a new spiritual home for ourselves.”

Those frustrations are echoed by other statistics cited in the JSSR study. For example, 33 percent of parents of children with disabilities have switched churches because their child seemed to be excluded. Fifty-six percent of parents have kept their child from participating in religious activities due to a lack of support from the congregation. Half of parents of children with disabilities say their church and its leaders have never asked how to best include their child in worship, education, programs, and activities. And more than half of parents say they were expected to stay with their child during church services, rather than getting a break to worship.

Special-needs families who leave a church or never make it inside one might be getting their religious needs met elsewhere, the JSSR study notes. But the church, as the body of Christ, has many often-missed opportunities to step up and welcome children of all abilities.

In general, congregations do better at overcoming barriers related to health problems that are physical in nature, such as muscular problems. By contrast, conditions that are “primarily characterized by deficiencies in social interaction or might impede communication are most consistently and significantly associated with disengagement with attendance at religious worship services,” according to the JSSR study. Examples include autism spectrum disorders, which increased in prevalence by 78 percent from 2002 to 2008, and ADHD, which increased in prevalence by 42 percent from 2003 to 2011.

How Creative Repurposing Is Resurrecting Dying Churches

By
Stephanie Martin
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thank you notes for children’s ministry volunteers

For years, church attendance, membership, and giving all have trended downward in America. According to an often-quoted statistic, between 6,000 and 10,000 churches close each year.

To stem the tide of all those “for sale” signs, some churches are taking innovative approaches involving community outreach—a tool they may have previously avoided, whether due to financial restraints or internal resistance.

What’s Happening to America’s Churches?

Yesterday in a Chicago bankruptcy court, the historic Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church was sold for $2.5 million. The congregation has 75 days to relocate, and church attorney David Herzog acknowledges that parishioners “have a very heavy heart because the church has significant meaning to them.” Some had even offered to mortgage their homes to prevent the church’s foreclosure.

In downtown Jacksonville, Florida, the 181-year-old First Baptist Church recently announced it’s selling nine of its 10 blocks. Pastor Heath Lambert says the church has been in “cardiac arrest,” spending about $5 million annually on maintenance. “Nobody can afford what it takes to keep this thing up,” he says. “It is really killing us.” 

Almost every American city has a similar story: a congregation—often aging and dwindling—that can no longer financially support its church building. Many of those properties are in prime locations for residential developments, but outcry from concerned residents and church members is common.

When Boston developer Bruce Daniel planned to demolish St. Augustine’s Church, protests ensued and led to condominiums instead. “Anybody who goes into a neighborhood and buys a church without having some knowledge and sensitivity, they’re asking for trouble,” he says.

Another trend is that empty or vacant church buildings are being transformed into houses of worship for other faiths. In Buffalo, New York, two former Roman Catholic churches were recently converted into an Islamic mosque and a Buddhist temple.

Other churches, notes Jonathan Merritt in the Atlantic, have been converted into bars, hotels, various entertainment venues—even a fraternity house.

Red Flags to Watch For

Author Thom Ranier, formerly of LifeWay Research, is the source of the alarming church-closing stat mentioned in this article’s lede. His website lists warning signs that a congregation may be in what he calls the dreaded “death spiral.” At the top is a steady decline in attendance—for four or more years. Other red flags including being out of sync with the local community, having a high proportion of senior-citizen members, spending money inwardly rather than on missions, and resisting change.

Selling a church can lead to profound feelings of loss, even for community members not affiliated with a particular congregation. Memories, sacred symbolism, and the sense of community all play a role.

But closing and selling a church may have some advantages and lead to new opportunities. Congregations and denominations can avoid or restructure debt, consolidate neighboring churches, and rethink their purpose and approach. At Holy Trinity in Chicago, Father Nicolas Jonas says, “We are hoping that we will relocate perhaps not immediately, but we are hopeful that something good will come out of this.”

Closures aren’t all necessarily bad, some people say. Demographically, certain areas may have too many churches, resulting in congregations “growing” merely by swapping members. Carey Nieuwhof lists reasons a church should close, including a mission that’s been “lost” or has lost financial support and a focus on its own people and “preserving the past.”

Alzheimers, Human Dignity, and a Church That’s Truly Pro-life

By
Todd Brady
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You can tell a lot about people by watching how they treat those who can’t articulate, defend, drive, bathe themselves, or even comb their hair. Meet a church that’s truly pro-life in the way they minister with dignity to people with Alzheimers.

I’ve never seen a more pro-life group of people than those at a West Tennessee church down on Main Street. No one from the church went to Washington, D.C., for the March for Life Rally. They don’t picket outside abortion clinics. They don’t preach and write proclamations about the evils of abortion. They believe babies should be born, but for them, that’s not the whole picture of being pro life. One way they demonstrate this is in how they love Frank.

Frank, a 75-year-old man, has been a member of the church for about 10 years, along with his wife. Several years ago, he started showing signs of Alzheimers disease, and it’s been mostly downhill ever since. He is one of more than five million Americans living with the disease. With each passing day, Frank knows and remembers less. He’s slowly slipping away from everyone. Like Nancy Reagan once said, it’s like experiencing a long goodbye.

Frank consistently makes his rounds on Sunday mornings during the service’s greeting time. He says, “Good morning,” “Glad you’re here,” and “God bless you.” It’s obvious that he’s glad to be there and see everyone. He remembers which pew is his, but he can’t remember his phone number or how to get home after church. When he talks, he doesn’t make sense. He says words, but they aren’t related to each other; they’re strung together in a series of meaningless jabber.

Once a month, the men gather for a prayer breakfast. And Frank is always there. Everyone is kind to him. One week, as the men were sharing, Frank spoke up and said, “I’ve got something to say.” He stood, looked at the group, and started talking. Nothing he said made sense. As he does when he’s talking to someone one-on-one, Frank started putting unrelated words together; it was just meaningless chatter.

The men around the table leaned in. They looked at Frank in the eyes. It was hard to listen, but everyone listened well. No one tried to stop him. He probably only spoke for a minute or two, but it seemed like an eternity. After he finished, the other men around the table immediately started affirming Frank. They spoke of how thankful they were for him. They told him he was a good man. They talked about how the church wouldn’t be the church that it was if it weren’t for him. They told him they loved him.

Valuing a human being

It was a powerful moment. It was the church being the church. It was the church being pro-life, valuing a human being regardless of what he could bring to the table. The people in that church recognize that all people have inherent value because they have been created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). They treat Frank with dignity and respect, not because of any ability he has— he’s losing his abilities—but because he is a human being.

The number of people in America who have Alzheimers disease is expected to triple to over 16 million people by 2050. Church communities are not immune to this disease, and it’s only going to become more prominent in our churches. This means that the church must be ready to minister to those with Alzheimers and their families.

The Southern Baptist Convention unanimously approved a resolution in 2016 titled “On Alzheimer’s Disease And Dementia, Caregiving, And The Church.” The resolution acknowledges this issue and that there is no cure. Southern Baptists collectively said,

God calls us to care for the most vulnerable among us, including those who are unable to remember or speak for themselves (Isaiah 58:1-14; Zechariah 7:8-10; James 1:27); and . . . All people are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27) and this status as image bearers does not depend upon cognitive or intellectual ability, because all people, including those with Alzheimer’s and dementia, have value and are loved by God.

My favorite line of the resolution is when Southern Baptists state, “RESOLVED, That we urge our churches to treat people with Alzheimer’s and dementia with dignity and continue to invite them into the life of the church, rehearsing the good news of the Gospel together, singing familiar songs and hymns, reading Scripture together, and praying together, including well-known prayers, such as the Lord’s Prayer.”

The way we treat those with Alzheimer’s is about the mission of the church. Alzheimers disease is yet another evidence of the fact that we live in a world that is fallen. A day is coming when Jesus will make all things new, and this horrific disease will be a thing of the past. Until then, we work and love and proclaim the gospel until he comes. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

People will continue to gather at that West Tennessee church every Sunday. Everyone will worship again. There will be the time in the service for greeting one another. Frank will be there. He will wander through the crowd during the Sunday morning worship service and tell folks, “Good morning,” and, “Glad you’re here,” and, “God bless you.” He will have conversations with people that make no sense, yet they will be kind to him. They will love him. They will value him—because their commitment to one another and to being pro-life will show in the way they treat Frank.

This article about human dignity and Alzheimers originally appeared here.

What Does It Mean to Walk by the Spirit?

By
Mark Altrogge
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But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16

What does it mean to walk by the Spirit?

Does this mean our day is filled with supernatural feelings and impulses such as while we are driving we hear a voice say “Turn left and drive two blocks then stop your car get out and go into the building on your right. Walk up to the fourth floor and knock on door 412. There you will meet a man wearing a Beatles T-shirt. You are to tell him to stop listening to ‘Imagine.’”

This is not what it means to walk by the Spirit. It is possible that the Holy Spirit could guide us to do something like this, but that is not what the Bible means by “walk by the Spirit.”

To walk by the Spirit means to obey the Holy Spirit. To live life according to the leading of the Spirit. But first of all…

Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity. There is one God, who exists in 3 persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. There are not 3 Gods, but one. This is a mystery. The Holy Spirit is a person. He is not a force or power. As a person he knows us, speaks to us, leads us, helps us, strengthens us and changes us.

How does the Holy Spirit lead us?

First of all the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

When we believe in Jesus, we are born again by the Holy Spirit, who comes to live in us.

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own 1 Corinthians 6:19

The Holy Spirit actually lives inside every believer. He doesn’t direct us from the outside, but from our inner being.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. John 14:15-17

Isn’t this wonderful! God himself takes up residence within us. He never leaves us. Never takes a break. Even when we are not aware of his presence he dwells in us.

The Holy Spirit begins his work of sanctifying us, changing us, making us holy, making us like Christ

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18

We “behold the glory of the Lord” through Scripture, through prayer, through meditating on Jesus, by fellowshipping with other believers. And this passage tells us that as we do that the Holy Spirit “transforms us into the same image” – makes us more and more like Christ, “from one degree of glory to another.”

David knew his need for the Holy Spirit to help him and change him when he prayed:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51:10-12

The Holy Spirit begins to produce fruit in us

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

The Holy Spirit speaks to us and instructs us, primarily through the Word of God.

Paul knew that the words he spoke were not mere human wisdom but were the words of the Holy Spirit.

And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 1 Corinthians 2:13

Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. John 16:13

Through God’s word, the Holy Spirit warns us of the dangers of sin, and convicts us of sin

So to walk by the Spirit means we obey the Word of God and the Holy Spirit’s reminders of God’s word moment by moment.

To walk by the Spirit also means that we play a part in our sanctification.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t automatically transform us into the likeness of Christ. We must obey God. We must act upon God’s word. We must sow to the Spirit. We must “walk.” We are not robots.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:7-9

To walk by the Spirit means we do not “sow to the flesh,” or obey the desires of the flesh. The flesh is what remains of our sin nature. At one time it was our dominant nature and ruled us. When we turn to Jesus, he saves us, makes us new creations, gives us a new heart and fills us with his Spirit. We are no longer slaves of sin and our old nature. Now the Holy Spirit empowers us to obey him. But we can still be tempted to sin, though now we no longer have to sin.

So to walk by the Spirit means we turn away from sin and do good. We do not sow to the flesh, but to the Spirit.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Galatians 5:16-17

So how do we walk by the Spirit?

Take in God’s Word on a regular basis

Because the Spirit spoke God’s Word, reminds us of God’s Word, and helps us to obey God’s word.

Pray

Ask God to help you. Ask him to deliver you from temptation and sin and help you to live a life worthy of the Gospel.

Obey God’s Word

Do not sow to the flesh. Turn away from sin. Flee temptation. Sow to the Spirit. Love others, thank God for as much as you can. Do good. Bless others. Encourage others. Pray for others. Give to the poor.

To walk by the Spirit means that by the Spirit’s power and help, we obey God and live every day, moment by moment, to obey and glorify God.

This article originally appeared here.

Wisely Handling the Book of Proverbs

By
R.C. Sproul
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Every culture seems to have its own unique, collected wisdom, pithy insights of the wise. Oftentimes, these tidbits of wisdom are preserved in the form of the proverb. We have proverbial sayings in American culture. I am thinking of sayings such as “A stitch in time saves nine” or “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

The Bible, of course, has an entire book of such pithy sayings—the book of Proverbs. However, this compilation of proverbial wisdom is different from all other such collections in that these sayings reflect not just human wisdom but divine wisdom, for these proverbs are inspired by God.

Still, we must be very careful in how we approach and implement these wise sayings. Simply because they are inspired does not mean that the biblical proverbs are like laws, imposing a universal obligation. Yet, some people treat them as if they were divine commandments. If we regard them in that way, we run into all kinds of trouble. Even divinely inspired proverbs do not necessarily apply to all life situations. Rather, they reflect insights that are generally true.

To illustrate this point, let me remind you of two of our own culture’s proverbs. First, we often say, “Look before you leap.” That is a valuable insight. But we have another proverb that seems to contradict it: “He who hesitates is lost.” If we tried to apply both of these proverbs at the same time and in the same way in every situation, we would be thoroughly confused. In many situations, wisdom dictates that we examine carefully where we should place our steps next so that we are not moving blindly. At the same time, we cannot be so paralyzed in our evaluation of the pros and cons of our next move that we hesitate too long before making a decision and lose opportunities when they present themselves to us.

Naturally, it does not really bother us to find seemingly contradictory proverbs in our own cultural wisdom. But when we discover them in the Bible, we find ourselves wrestling with questions about the trustworthiness of Scripture. Let me cite one well-known example. The book of Proverbs says, “Answer not a fool according to his folly” (26:4a). Then, in the very next verse, we read, “Answer a fool according to his folly” (26:5a). How can we follow these opposite instructions? How can both be statements of wisdom?

Again, just as in the example I gave above, the answer depends on the situation. There are certain circumstances when it is not wise to answer a fool according to his folly, but there are other circumstances when it is wise to answer a fool according to his folly. Proverbs 26:4 says, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself” (emphasis added). If someone is speaking foolishness, it is generally not wise to try to talk to him. Such a discussion will go nowhere, and the one who tries to carry on the discussion with the fool is in danger of falling into the same foolishness. In other words, there are circumstances when we are better off saying nothing.

At other times, however, it can be helpful to answer a fool according to his folly. Proverbs 26:5 says, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes” (emphasis added). Although it was made an art form by the ancient Greek philosophers, the Hebrews understood and in biblical teaching sometimes used one of the most effective ways of arguing with another person. I am referring to the reductio ad absurdum, which reduces the other person’s argument to absurdity. By means of this technique, it is possible to show a person the necessary, logical conclusion that flows out of his argument, and so demonstrate that his premises lead ultimately to an absurd conclusion. So, when a person has a foolish premise and gives a foolish argument, it can at times be very effective to answer the fool according to his folly. You step over onto his territory and say, “Okay, I’ll take your position for argument’s sake, and I’m going to take it to its logical conclusion and show you the foolishness of it.”

So, the book of Proverbs is concerned to give us practical guidelines for daily experience. It is a neglected treasure of the Old Testament, with untold riches lying in wait in its pages to guide our lives. It holds real, concrete advice that comes from the mind of God Himself. If we want wisdom, this is the fountain from which to drink. He who is foolish will neglect this fountain. He who is hungry for God’s wisdom will drink deeply from it. We need to listen to the wisdom of God so that we can cut through the many distractions and confusions of modern life. But, as with the entirety of the Word of God, we need to be zealous to learn how to handle the book of Proverbs properly.

This article originally appeared here.

Falwell Turns to the FBI in Response to Scathing Exposé

By
Stephanie Martin
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jerry falwell jr
Screengrab YouTube @WSLS 10

Following POLITICO Magazine’s exposé about his leadership at Liberty University, Jerry Falwell, Jr., has requested the FBI investigate what he calls a “criminal conspiracy” against him.

Jerry Falwell Jr Under Fire

Falwell, Liberty’s president and chancellor and son of the school’s late founder, accuses reporter and Liberty graduate Brandon Ambrosino of stealing emails for the investigative piece, published Monday. Titled “Someone’s Gotta Tell the Freakin’ Truth,” it quotes more than two dozen “current and former high-ranking Liberty University officials and close associates of Falwell.” Most requested anonymity, fearing repercussions. One purchased a burner phone for the interview, saying, “Everybody is scared for their life.”

One employee calls Liberty “a dictatorship,” adding, “Nobody craps at the university without Jerry’s approval.” Another says: “I feel like I’m betraying [the Falwells] in some way, but someone’s gotta tell the freakin’ truth.”

The conservative evangelical university was founded in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1971 by the Rev. Falwell, Sr., creator of the Moral Majority. The school now has assets of more than $3 billion and an enrollment of more than 110,000, most of whom are online students.

Open dissent isn’t allowed at Liberty, Ambrosino writes, noting that only law professors can receive tenure. Nondisclosure agreements are common for employees and board members, who must receive permission from Falwell’s office before speaking to the media. “Fear is probably [Falwell’s] most powerful weapon,” one source says.

Falwell, who has filled his father’s role as leader of America’s Christian conservative movement, initially answered Ambrosino’s interview questions, refuting the claims. But he eventually ended the conversation. After the article appeared, Falwell disparaged the reporter and said, “I’m not going to dignify the lies that were reported yesterday with a response, but I am going to the authorities and I am going to civil court.” Falwell adds that it’s “theft” for employees to share emails from university servers, though a cybercrime expert disagrees.

Report: Falwell’s Power and Influence Raise Red Flags

Falwell, who has a law degree, became Liberty’s president after his father’s death in 2007. His younger brother, the Rev. Jonathan Falwell, is senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, the Lynchburg congregation his father founded.

POLITICO’s sources accuse Falwell, Jr., and his wife, Becki, of consolidating power at Liberty. “He just kind of pushed [Jonathan] aside,” one says, adding that “Jonathan complained but never stood up to” his brother, knowing that Jerry “controlled the purse strings.”

Many of the allegations involve blurred financial lines between Liberty and Falwell’s family and friends. Interviewees point to questionable loans and sweetheart deals that benefit an inner circle, including Falwell’s son Jerry “Trey” Falwell III, a Liberty vice president. Those deals include a shopping center managed by a company Trey owns, a fitness center, and a LaQuinta Inn to which Liberty “funnels business,” according to claims.

Legal experts quoted in the article say some transactions are troubling, due to Liberty’s non-profit status. Falwell, Jr., denies any resulting financial gain.

Several loans from Liberty to Falwell’s associates have reportedly led to large contracts for university-related construction. While denying personal benefits, Falwell says, “Liberty University has one of the largest unrestricted endowments in the nation and frequently invests in hundreds, if not thousands, of companies around the world purely for the return on investment.” Other schools do the same, he notes.

But some employees view things differently. “We’re not a school,” one says. “We’re a real estate hedge fund.” Another notes, “There’s no accountability. Jerry’s got pretty free reign to wheel and deal professionally and personally. The board will approve an annual budget, but beyond that…he doesn’t go to the board to get approval.”

Sex and Politics Also Factor In

Another concern of some Liberty officials, past and present, involves how “very, very vocal” they say Falwell is about his “sex life.” Sources report he had inappropriate workplace conversations and showed racy photos of his wife. After Falwell accidentally sent one to unintended recipients, he relied on a Liberty-employed IT “fixer” to negate damages.

Chris Tomlin Brings Church to Florida Georgia Line Concert

By
Jessica Lea
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At their recent concert in Atlanta, country duo Florida Georgia Line surprised fans by bringing Christian artist and worship leader Chris Tomlin onstage. Tomlin, whom band member Tyler Hubbard described as, “one of our heroes,” led the audience in his song, “How Great Is Our God,” ending with the refrain from the hymn, “How Great Thou Art.”

“God is good,” said Tomlin in a post on Facebook where he is pictured with the band. “These two guys I’m standing next to are the real deal. Not afraid to use their stage to bring praise to God where the people are. Never seen something happen like what went down last night in Atlanta. God’s kingdom is so much bigger than we know and his ways are so much higher than ours.”

At one point during the concert, Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard told the Atlanta audience that he and fellow band member Brian Kelley were about to do something they had never done before, but which they had “been looking forward to for a long time.” He said, “God really does have a sense of humor, I promise ya’ll that. 

“A few months back,” said Hubbard, “we got to meet one of our heroes, and we ended up connecting with him and building a friendship and a brotherhood. We ended up getting to write a lot of songs, we’ve been hanging out a ton…he’s become one of our really good buddies and one of our brothers.” 

Hubbard said he and Kelley used to lead worship in church, “singing songs to Jesus,” and that many of those songs “were written by this guy that we’re about to bring out for you guys right now tonight.” Their surprise guest turned out to be none other than Chris Tomlin, who walked on stage to cheers from the crowd. Hubbard then invited the audience to sing along to one of Tomlin’s songs that he said has changed the band members’ lives and which the two have sung “hundreds of thousands of times in church.” 

Before beginning the song, Tomlin took a moment to “give God praise.” Then he began to sing the following lyrics from, “How Great Is Our God,” with the audience joining him. 

How great is our God
Sing with me
How great is our God
And all will see
How great, how great is our God

Name above all names
Worthy of all praise
My heart will sing
How great is our God

As he wrapped up his time on stage, Tomlin transitioned to the chorus of “How Great Thou Art.”

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

Hubbard thanked Tomlin for being there, saying it was “such an honor.” He told the crowd, “This is probably one of the coolest moments for us. It’s really a full circle God thing.” God, he said, has been “moving in our life and in our community and in our industry.”

Many people who were at the concert or who saw the video expressed how grateful and encouraged they were by the moment of worship. One user wrote, “I was there that night, and it was nothing short of amazing!!! It truly brought me to tears last Saturday night. Thank you for sharing that message with so many people in attendance and now online!” 
On Twitter, Tomlin wrote, “Probably one of the coolest moments in my career… God is moving in such incredible ways!

Watch Billy Graham’s 9/11 Message From the Washington National Cathedral

By
Christine Yount Jones
-
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While prayer services swept the nation after 9/11 in 2001, God used Billy Graham’s 9/11 message at the prayer service called by President George Bush in the Washington National Cathedral to encourage our nation.

Excerpts From Billy Graham’s 9/11 Message

“We come together this day to reaffirm our conviction that God cares for us,” Graham said. “Whatever our ethnic, religious or political background may be. The Bible says He is the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles.”

Graham acknowledged that no matter how hard we try, words could not express the horror, the shock and the revulsion of the events of 9/11.

And he had a warning for the 9/11 culprits: “Today we say to those who masterminded this cruel plot and to those who carried it out that the spirit of this nation will not be defeated by their twisted and diabolical schemes.”

Graham asserted that someday these people would be brought to justice. Immediately, Graham turned to remind us that we need God; we’ve always needed God.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear. Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” (Psalm 46:1)

While admitting he didn’t have all the answers, Graham addressed the pervasive question: Why does God allow evil to happen? He gave these five points to try to help explain.

  1. God can be trusted even when life is at its darkest.
  2. There is the mystery and reality of evil.
  3. God is not the author of evil.
  4. God is sovereign.
  5. God is a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of our suffering.

Graham called people to repentance that would lead to much-needed revival in our nation. And he reminded them of the brevity of this life and the need to face our spiritual need and commit ourselves to God. He then focused on the cross and shared a powerful gospel presentation.

The closing of Billy Graham’s 9/11 message closed with this: “We all watched in horror as planes crashed into the steel and glass of the World Trade Center. Those majestic towers, built on solid foundations, were examples of the prosperity and creativity of America. When damaged, those buildings plummeted to the ground, imploding in upon themselves. Yet, underneath the debris, is a foundation that was not destroyed. Therein lies the truth of that hymn, ‘How Firm a Foundation.’

“Yes, our nation has been attacked, buildings destroyed, lives lost. But now we have a choice: whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a nation; or whether we choose to become stronger through all of this struggle, to rebuild on a solid foundation.” 

Watch the full video of Billy Graham’s 9/11 message on the next page.

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