Christian Standard | February 2017

DICK ALEXANDER n STEVE CARR n BOB MINK n RICHARD KNOPP n CHAD RAGSDALE RESOURCING

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Reasonable Doubt

BY MARK A. TAYLOR

Confronted with doubters, some Christians display one of two unfortunate reactions. Some look away.

They prefer not to think about serious skeptics. Isolated inside the church with no real relationships outside it, they are comfortable with a faith they themselves may never have questioned. They ignore the skeptic.

But others attack.

They can’t pretend doubters don’t exist. They’ve heard the cynical sneers about Christianity from public critics, and the arguments make them angry. They view disbelievers as the enemy, and their instinct is to defend the faith with sarcasm, condemnation, or insult.

Those in either group may not be happy with this month’s issue. Here we allow doubters to have their say, not because we agree with them but because we believe we need to hear them. The church cannot pretend that doubters are some evil minority fringe. They are in our families. Many grew up in our congregations. They wrestle with questions quietly in private, not only in public forums.

But we will not reach the doubter by arguing, or even worse, assaulting his intellect, his character, or his motives. We may hunger for some well-known apologist to put the atheist in his place, but debate won’t be our most effective strategy.

We’d do better to listen to the skeptic’s doubts, consider her reasoning, and understand her frustration with the church as she sees it or the Scripture as she understands it.

If we’ll simply let the doubter talk, we may discover a new path.

• We may see that the doubter does not object to biblical Christianity but to an inadequate, incomplete 21st-century American version of Christianity. We might even admit that some of the doubter’s objections are right and questions are fair.

• We may realize that the doubter makes assumptions about the Bible that just aren’t true. We can help him if he believes we’re with him in the pursuit of truth, not against him in the quest to win an argument.

• We may admit that the doubter has questions about the Bible that we’re still pondering ourselves. Our God is not a puzzle to be solved. He is not found via a mathematical equation or a scientific proof. We invite the doubter to walk with us in faith, not certainty.

In short, we can abandon our fear. Just because we cannot answer an objection does not mean it’s legitimate. If we believe the Bible is trustworthy, God is real, and Jesus is Lord, why should we quake in the presence of someone who disagrees?

We live in a time when polarization is the norm, when accusations and suspicion have pushed aside civil discourse, when those on opposite sides of every issue seem unable to come together. But we, the redeemed of God, can model a gracious spirit and offer a listening ear. Especially toward those whose questions speak not just to our beliefs, but to their eternity.

Mark Taylor posts every Tuesday at christianstandard.com.

Debate is not our most effective strategy.

PUBLISHING COMMITTEE

(Established 1956 by the National Christian Education Convention for liaison with the management and editorial department of Standard Publishing)

Steve Wyatt

Chairman, Phoenix, Arizona

Clark H. Tanner Vice Chairman, Wichita, Kansas

Marshall W. Hayden Secretary, Worthington, Ohio

Alan Ahlgrim Longmont, Colorado

Dennis Bratton Gallatin, Tennessee

Aaron Brockett

Indianapolis, Indiana

Ben Cachiaras Joppa, Maryland

T. C. Huxford

Savannah, Georgia

E. LeRoy Lawson Johnson City, Tennessee

Eddie Lowen Springfield, Illinois

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Pat Magness

Milligan College, Tennessee

Steve Moore Meridian, Idaho

Dudley Rutherford Porter Ranch, California

Dave Stone Louisville, Kentucky

Teresa Welch Joplin, Missouri

Contributing editors help define the focus of Christian standard, identify issues facing volunteer leaders and staff members in churches we serve, and suggest future themes. They periodically write for the magazine and regularly consult, advise, and react to the editors regarding past and future content in the magazine.

Becky Ahlberg Anaheim, California

Ben Cachiaras Joppa, Maryland

Arron Chambers Greeley, Colorado

Glen Elliott Tucson, Arizona

Jeff Faull Mooresville, Indiana

Phyllis Fox Milligan College, Tennessee

Randy Gariss Joplin, Missouri

Jennifer Johnson

Levittown, Pennsylvania

Doug Priest

Indianapolis, Indiana

Matt Proctor Joplin, Missouri

Jim Tune Toronto, Ontario

By Dick Alexander

16 Seeds of Doubt

By Steve Carr

19

By Chris Moon

21 Helping the Skeptical See God

Reviewing Making Sense of God by Timothy Keller.

By Richard Knopp

25

By Chad Ragsdale

30 The Church of Mirrors

Studying the reflections of Christ followers.

By T.R. Robertson

33 NACC 2017: This Is for Everyone

Previewing the convention, June 27-29, in Kansas City.

By Gene Appel

40 Disciples Making Disciples

Reporting on ICOM 2016 in Lexington, Kentucky.

By Doug Priest

44 Finding Joy in the Journey

How God helped mend a broken life.

By Rick Chromey

48 How to Be a ‘Real Man’

By Bob Mink

57 Ministry Today — What we say forms our culture. 60 Best Practices — Steps to get more young women involved.

Notable & Quotable

1 From the Editor — Debate is not our most effective strategy.

4 4C’s — Moving from mortgage to ministry and mission.

8 Seen and Heard — College degree rankings by faith group.

51 In Opinions, Liberty — The church must help the elderly.

53 From My Bookshelf — The devil, a disbeliever, and a bridge.

How one church has gotten men involved. By

Gary Olsby

FOUR

Church Moves from Mortgage to Ministry C’s

It’s common for church plants to meet in school buildings, and leaders in those new churches happily haul gear, set up rooms for children, and tear down worship spaces each week. It’s much less common for decades-old congregations to give up their buildings and go back to this way of worshipping, but for Journey Christian Church in Roswell, GA, this facility decision is opening up new opportunities for ministry.

When Dan Garrett became lead pastor at Journey (then First Christian Church of Roswell) in 2011, the church was paying off $2.5 million in debt. The church had built a new sanctuary a few years earlier, and the payments on it, as well as expenses for maintenance and landscaping on its seven-acre property, consumed half of the church’s budget.

“We managed the payments, but it was difficult to grow or do significant outreach,” Garrett says. “In 2014 we began convening focus groups and discussing possible next steps, and one of our leaders said, ‘What if we had $100,000? What would we do?’ And it transformed the entire meeting, from ‘we have to sell and give up and get out of debt’ to ‘we could reach this community and support these missionaries.’ It felt like God’s Spirit was leading us.”

The church leadership team was careful to honor the investments of time and money so many families had made to build the sanctuary, and they held meetings to present the financial facts as well as the future vision. At the end of 2015, the church voted 95 percent in favor of selling the building, and just a few weeks later a charter school made an offer on the property for more than Garrett and his team expected.

“This helped our people understand the decision wasn’t a defeat or a panicked financial move,” Garrett says. “We decided to tithe off the sale, and we gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to global, national, and local ministries. We continue to give generously, and we’re having so much fun. When it’s a local [ministry] effort, we invite the director to worship with us and we interview that person during the service so that as a church we’re connecting with these ministries and not just writing checks.”

Christian Churches & Churches of Christ

As for those worship services, Journey now gathers each Sunday in a high school, where the media center offers a pleasant spot with big tables and lots of chairs. People share Communion around the tables, pouring the juice and serving the bread to each other.

“We’re a church plant with some money,” Garrett says. “Money to give, money to meet our budget, and money to do outreach in ways we never could before. Now that we don’t own a place for people to come to, we’re constantly thinking about how we can go to them.”

He acknowledges that Journey’s decision isn’t the right choice for every church, but suggests that more congregations—

“Now that we don’t own a place for people to come to, we’re constantly thinking about how we can go to them.”

4 CHRISTIAN STANDARD

especially those struggling financially— should consider it as an option.

“I celebrated our people and our leaders for being visionary enough to see that our purpose is reaching our community, not having a building,” Garrett says. “For us, it was a move from maintenance and mortgage to ministry and mission.”

www.journeyroswell.org

—Jennifer Johnson

A Next Chapter

Several years ago I wrote a series of case studies for Kairos Legacy Partners that described their work with dying and declining churches across the country. Kairos works with these churches to evaluate their impact, their finances, and overall health and determine whether it makes sense for them to stay open as a congregation. If the decision is no, Kairos also works with those churches to help them “recycle” their facilities and financial resources in ways that can fund another ministry.

churches die because their membership dwindles, there are healthy churches with unhealthy debt—and the end of a mortgage doesn’t have to mean the end of a congregation.

My Take

I’m a fan of Kairos and I appreciate its desire to honor the sacrifices of past generations and steward kingdom resources in productive ways. According to the book Legacy Churches by Stephen Gray and Franklin Dumond, about 1 percent of churches in America—or 3,000—close their doors each year. Every church has a life cycle, and if it’s a church’s time to “die,” it’s vital that its assets be protected and then used to bring life someplace new. I’m glad we have a ministry like Kairos.

“We didn’t see this as giving up, but as a next chapter,” Garrett said about Journey’s decision to sell its building, meet in a high school, and repurpose its money for outreach and missions. “Buildings aren’t bad, but they’re not the goal, either. They’re tools for ministry, and when they become a hindrance to doing the work we’re called to, there’s no reason to just hang on to them.

By Jennifer Johnson

“Our financial reality was that we couldn’t keep doing what we were doing for five more years. At some point you have to decide you’re going to move toward mission instead of maintain real estate.”

I’m thankful for both the legacy vision offered by Kairos and the courageous leadership of Dan and his elders. Selling a building so you can thrive isn’t the solution for every church, but neither is closing a church so a newer congregation can flourish.

However, talking with Dan Garrett at Journey Christian Church reminded me there is another option for churches unable to maintain a building or make the payments. Although many

For a variety of reasons, this year thousands of congregations will face tough choices about keeping the doors open. Thanks, Dan, for the challenge to think creatively about the options.

Volunteers with Journey Christian Church, Roswell, GA, participate in a food giveaway with Action Ministries (above), help distribute donated items on a Day of Hope (left), and present a check to Christ In Youth after selling the church’s building (with Jennifer Johnson’s column, right).

Single on Purpose, with a Purpose

Northeast Christian Church (Louisville, KY) has a history of giving money to church members who want to use the funds to make a difference—and the recipients of these donations have a proven track record of changing lives with the money.

Several years ago as part of a sermon series, Northeast’s leadership team chose 100 people and gave each one a hundred dollar bill with instructions to use the money for something God was calling them to do. From this investment came a number of ongoing ministries, including a “Mom’s Closet” which helps single moms with education, food, and clothing, and a “Santa Shop” in a local children’s hospital where kids receiving medical treatment can choose Christmas gifts for their family.

This past fall, Northeast created a new opportunity as part of a new sermon series.

“We did a short series called ‘Single on Purpose’ which focused on being single, a topic that’s often overlooked in the church,” says Jenna Burns, marketing director at Northeast. “We challenged the many single people in our church to allow God to use this season of their lives in purposeful ways.”

But the church did more than encourage singles to use their time and energy for God; it once again provided

money to make those efforts successful.

“Contributions from the church and from private donors totaled $24,000,” Burns says. “Instead of preselecting the recipients and giving them all the same amount, this time we invited people to share their vision for ministry and apply for the funds.”

The church received 20 applications, many (but not all) from single people and most (but not all) from members.

“We intentionally didn’t share this on social media or in a press release, because

Media Matters

we wanted applicants who had heard the message and the heart behind the project,” Burns says. “But the people in our church were so excited that they shared it with others, so some applicants are from other states and even other countries.”

The church awarded the funds to nine individuals, each one with a different dream.

• Rose adopted her daughter from an orphanage in Guatemala 13 years ago and plans to take her daughter back to show her where she came from and to serve with

her in the orphanage.

• Tracey wants to start a relational Bible study for Muslims.

• Kristal plans to build a children’s home in India.

• David is starting an apologetics ministry.

• Melissa—a former addict who is now sober and following Jesus—wants to pursue her degree in counseling so she can help other addicts.

Visit www.necchurch. org/kingdommissions to see all of the Kingdom Mission recipients!

—Jennifer Johnson

n Singer/songwriter Julie Nevel recently released a book, Asbury Lane: An American Love Story, available at http://bit.ly/2h2beEO.

n Ken Idleman is now writing a blog for The Solomon Foundation; check it out at http://thesolomonfoundation. org/solomons-porch.

n Dr. Charity Byers, executive director of clinical services at Blessing Ranch, recently released a new e-book, Beyond Overwhelmed. It is designed for women in ministry. Download the e-book for free at www.beyondherstory. com/ebook/.

Inner-directed

BY SIMON J. DAHLMAN

Professor of Communications Milligan College, Tennessee

“Beware the man of one book.”

Sad Reality

Rise in Mixed Faiths

By the Numbers: College Degrees and Religion

The share of Americans who have earned a four-year college degree varies not only by race and gender, but also by religion. Members of some faith groups are much more educated, on average, than others. The faith groups or denominations with the largest share of people with a college degree are:

 Hindu: 77 percent

 Unitarian-Universalist: 67 percent

 Anglican: 59 percent

 Episcopal Church: 57 percent

 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): 47 percent

 Buddhist: 47 percent

The groups with the smallest share of those with a college degree:

 Assemblies of God: 15 percent

Train Up

Roughly one in five American adults (21 percent) were raised with a mixed religious background, according to a new Pew Research Center study. That figure includes about 9 percent who were raised by two people, both of whom were religiously affiliated but with different religions (e.g., a Protestant mother and a Catholic father or a Jewish mother and a Protestant father). Twelve percent were raised by one person who was religiously affiliated and another who was religiously unaffiliated (atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular”).

While religiously mixed backgrounds remain the exception in the U.S., with almost 80 percent saying they were raised within a single religion, the number of Americans raised in interfaith homes appears to be growing. While one-quarter (27 percent) of young adults in the millennial generation were raised in a religiously mixed family, the percentages who say they were raised in such a household decrease with each older generation: Generation Xers (20 percent), Baby Boomers (19 percent), and adults from the Silent and Greatest generations (13 percent).

Pew Research Center (Religion and Public Life), October 26, 2016

 Church of God in Christ: 13 percent

 Jehovah’s Witnesses: 12 percent

 American Baptist Churches USA: 12 percent

 Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee): 11 percent

By comparison, 27 percent of all Americans have earned a college degree.

Caryle Murphy, “The Most and Least Educated Religious Groups in the U.S.,” Pew Research Center, Nov. 4, 2016

“To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.”

Sir Winston Churchill (1874–1965), British prime minister during World War II

“Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them.”

Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson (1912–2007), first lady (wife of President Lyndon Johnson)

—Thomas

Aquinas (1225–74), Christian theologian, priest, and philosopher

“The man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961), American journalist, author, and Nobel Prize recipient

Quick Quiz: St. Valentine

One of these statements about the historical St. Valentine is false. Which one?

A. The man who inspired the holiday was an actual Christian priest, Valentinus, who was martyred in Rome on February 14, 269.

B. The most common legend surrounding him was that he secretly helped Christian couples wed, against the emperor’s wishes.

C. There was a Pope Valentine, who reigned briefly in the ninth century.

D. St. Valentine’s Day was not associated with romantic love or courtship until the Victorian Era, when greeting cards first gained popularity.

E. St. Valentine is also known as a patron saint of beekeeping, epilepsy, and traveling.

work.

he may have even “invented” the connection with that

connection in a poem he wrote about 1375. Some think

known for The Canterbury ),Tales who referred to the

Chaucer, the great medieval English author (best

Answer: D. Scholars think that the romantic associations began around the time of Geoffrey

As One to Achieve

“I admired them and how tough they are, how connected they’ve stayed with each other, and the great things human beings can accomplish when they set out to achieve for other people, not for themselves.”

Theo Epstein, president of the Chicago Cubs, talking about his team after the club won the World Series for the first time in 108 years.

(Quoted by Tom Verducci in “It Happened,” Sports Illustrated, Nov. 14, 2016.)

Photo credit: http://www.mlbshop.com/ Chicago_Cubs_Accessories

“Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself; that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it.”

—James A. Garfield (1831–81), Christian minister and 20th U.S. president

Turn off that Electronic Babysitter

Toddlers who watch a lot of television are more likely to have social problems at age 13, including isolation and victimization, and they are more likely to adopt violent and antisocial behavior.

A team of researchers led by Linda Pagani of the University of Montreal investigated the impact of television viewing during early childhood. They analyzed parent-reported viewing habits of 2-year-old children as well as self-reported social experiences of the same children at age 13. They used data from a study of 1,997 Canadian children born in 1997 and 1998 (991 of them girls), and controlled for other factors.

The team found that young children who watched more than the recommended number of hours of television were more likely to prefer solitude, experience peer victimization, and adopt aggressive and antisocial behavior toward their peers at the end of the first year of middle school. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends little to no screen time for children under 2, and up to one hour per day of quality programming between ages 2 and 5.

According to Pagani, social skills such as sharing, appreciation, and respect gained from others are rooted in early childhood. “In toddlerhood, the number of waking hours in a day is limited. Thus, the more time children spend in front the TV, the less time they have for creative play, interactive activities, and other fundamental social cognitive experiences,” she noted. “Active daily life at the preschool age can help develop essential social skills that will be useful later and ultimately play a key role in personal and economic success.”

PL. Pagani, et al., “Prospective associations between televiewing at toddlerhood and later self-reported social impairment at middle school in a Canadian longitudinal cohort born in 1997/1998,” Psychological Medicine, Sept. 13, 2016

The other statements are true.

Can I be a Christian and be good?

BY ANONYMOUS

When asked why he did not embrace Christianity, Mahatma Gandhi replied with this widely known remark: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” The sentiment resonates with me.

There are several things you should know about me before you read on. First, I am not an atheist. I cannot rule out the possibility of God or the existence of a “higher power.”

That said, neither am I a Christian. My mom took me to church when I was a child, so I’ve got a few years of Sunday school under my belt, but not much else. I met my husband in high school, and we married in our mid-20s. I am now in my 30s and have two young children of my own. We do not go to church.

If there is a God, I’m not sure the church is very much like him. Increasingly I find myself at odds with the dominant Christian worldview. To paraphrase Gandhi, I like Jesus, I just don’t want to be a Christian. I’ve read a few books that argue the case for Christianity by producing various evidences to convince the reader that Christianity is “true”—that Christianity is the “right” religion to follow. But I need to know more than that.

The question I grapple with isn’t so much whether Christianity is right but whether it is good. Can I be a Christian and be good?

I can’t seem to reconcile the Christianity I observe in my own experience with the values I want to champion in my home. I remember a conversation I had with my uncle about this. He is very active in his church and always ready to turn our family gatherings into heated religious de-

bates. On one such occasion he was raging on about some issue pertaining to what he called “America’s moral slide.” He likes to talk about morals a lot, especially his position on homosexuals, LGBTQ issues, and the gay marriage de-

hristians could

bate. On other occasions he will launch into speeches that range from his views on young earth creationism to how Jesus

would vote. He clearly views his Bible as authoritative in all matters—even when it stands in opposition to the facts. I’m pretty sure he would have had a problem with Galileo too.

During one such tirade, I pushed back. I interrupted him and said, “It is you Christians who are immoral. You’re unloving, intolerant, and judgmental— qualities I find morally offensive.” I probably came off as hostile to Christianity, but I was frustrated more than anything. For me this is a sincere and important question: Can I be a Christian and be good?

Apathy and Hostility

This is a significant issue. It is behind much of the apathy and hostility many in my generation have toward Christians and the church. So many Christians seem driven to prove they are right and everyone else is wrong. There’s an arrogance, a

make a stronger case for their cause if they would redirect the energy they put into being right toward being more loving.

self-righteousness that seems to flow from the conviction that they are right on just about everything.

Non-Christians can be guilty of this too, of course. It’s human nature. But it strikes me that goodness, not just rightness, is what Jesus said mattered most— that good trees produce good fruit, that sort of thing. Honestly, I think Christians could make a stronger case for their cause if they would redirect the energy they put into being right toward being more loving. More like, well, Jesus.

I love my uncle, but I could never, in good conscience, share the values he upholds so religiously. And it’s not just my uncle. As far as I can tell, most of his Christian friends hold similar views.

He was shocked when I suggested that Christians were immoral. I’ll try to explain, but I would ask that you read with an open mind. I am not an expert. I am

not a theologian. While I want to stand on reason alone, I realize that some of my conclusions are influenced by my emotions, and in reaction to the Christianity I have observed. Nevertheless allow me to speak to a few of the issues that make me question the “goodness” of Christianity.

Bad Fruit

To begin with, if a good tree bears good fruit, I think we need to be honest and admit that throughout history Christianity has produced some very bad fruit. Yes, I am aware that Christians are responsible for many great examples of charity and benevolence through the centuries. But these positive examples cannot and should not excuse the repulsive effects of bigotry and horrific violence that permeates church history.

Some have suggested that the history of violence and the history of religion are the

©Lightstock

same history. Launched by Pope Urban II in 1095, the knights of Europe united in a crusade to save the Holy Land from the rule of Islamic infidels.

One historian records the words of Raymond of Agiles, a representative of the church, upon the taking of Jerusalem:

Wonderful things were to be seen . . . in the temple and portico of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reigns. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgment of God, that this place should be filled with the blood of the unbelievers, when it had suffered so long from their blasphemies.

The brutality of the Christians was not limited to the Muslims. The synagogue in which the city’s Jews were sheltered was set on fire, burning them alive.

That may be ancient history, but I was

LETTER FROM A SKEPTIC

Continued from previous page

discouraged by the results of a recent poll regarding the use of torture on suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Sixty-three percent of Americans agreed that torture is either “often” or “sometimes” justified. The demographic group that polled most strongly in favor of torture were white, Evangelical Christians.

I have difficulty picturing Jesus waterboarding anyone, let alone condoning the practice among his followers. During the centuries of Inquisition, suspected heretics were tortured in the pursuit of a confession. Many of the torture devices were inscribed with the motto “Glory be only to God.” Protestants are quick to blame the Catholic church for these atrocities, but when it came to killing heretics, even Protestant reformer John Calvin approved of their deaths.

Pro-life, Antiscience

This brings me to the subject of life. Christians claim to be “pro-life.” They say they are concerned about the rights of the unborn. This is a reasonable ethic. But what about the newly born?

Millions of innocent children have been the victims of collateral damage in wars that the majority of Christians enthusiastically support. Christians seem mostly OK with such unfortunate, “acceptable losses.” I find it difficult to believe that Jesus would be OK with this. Shouldn’t Christians be the most reluctant

hroughout history

of all people to go to war?

As I understand it, the creation story occupies a single chapter in Genesis, which is just one of many books in the Bible. So how is it that Christians are so preoccupied with the “creation versus evolution” debate? My uncle insists that the earth is only 6,000 years old. This point seems essential to the integrity of his faith. It is a BIG deal to him. Do I have to accept literal six-day creationism in order to be a

Christian? I think many Christians would answer that with a “yes!”

I don’t rule out the possibility of a creator, but is it possible that parts of the Bible deploy myth or metaphor to convey God’s creative work in words that ancient people could understand and relate to? Even if the Bible is infallible, the way we interpret it is not.

What I’m objecting to is the general Christian inclination to distrust science. I’m not suggesting that science is infallible either. I guess I’m reacting to the antiscientific bias I see in Christians.

Take global warming. Surveys show Christians as being the most likely group to deny global warming. Is it somehow Christian to pretend that humans are not destroying the very creation the Bible says they are stewards of? Is it because Christians believe they are about to be evacuated soon anyway? Or is it because Al Gore, a despised Democrat, popularized the issue in his book An Inconvenient Truth?

I care about the planet. I want my children to care about the planet. For me this is a moral issue. Again, shouldn’t Chris-

Let me answer your question with one word: Yes!

BY DICK ALEXANDER

Dear Friend,

Thank you for writing. You have made a concise critique of Christianity—a large part of which I wholeheartedly agree with. And you’ve asked a serious question that deserves an equally serious response. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to do that.

Christianity has produced some very bad fruit.

tians be the most vocal group when it comes to environmentalism?

Troubling Attitudes

I find that many Christians hold attitudes about the poor, about immigrants and refugees, and about social injustice and racial reconciliation that are troubling. Just this week I saw a poll that surveyed people on their perception of the racial problems in America. Would you like to guess which demographic was least likely to believe the incidences of racism experienced by black Americans? White, Evangelical Christians. Again.

The Christian God seems to me to be a very threatening God, preoccupied with judgment and even willing to turn good people over to Hell for eternal torment. Do Christians really believe that billions of people are headed to Hell, many of whom have had nothing but hardship while they toiled here on earth?

Not long ago a hero of mine, Elie Wiesel, passed away. As an Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camp survivor, his books have taught the world powerful

lessons on love and forgiveness. Hitler sent Wiesel to the death camps because Wiesel was not a Christian.

Is he now laboring in an eternal concentration camp, sentenced by God to Hell for the crime of being Jewish? This hardly seems just or good. In fact I would say it is sadistic and cruel.

I am not presenting an academic thesis here, and my space is limited, but the whole subject of homosexuality, gay marriage, and LGBTQ issues is such a “hot button” in the culture, I must comment before I sign off. I think Christian attitudes toward the LGBTQ community have only served to further alienate me (and a large number of my peers) from Christianity.

I may not be a Christian, but the teachings of Jesus lead me to believe that the God he represents would show love and compassion toward gay people or anyone who is struggling with gender/sexual identity. When we are talking about the LGBTQ community we are talking about people God loves—people with basic human dignity and rights.

In the city where I live there is a sig-

From your original question, “Can I be a Christian and be good?” a number of other questions followed. I’d like to add an implicit corollary question—“If Jesus is so good, then why are Christians so bad?”, and I’d like to begin there. Your criticism of the Christianity you’ve seen in action targeted white Evangelical Christianity. I would narrow that a bit further to white Evangelical American Christianity since the middle of the 20th century. In my opinion, there are many ways this corner of the global church has veered off the path God intended, and as a result has often misrepresented God.

In the middle part of the 20th century, churches in America were growing, new ones were starting, and masses of people were involved. People who didn’t go to church were favorable toward the church and thought that’s what good people did—go to church. If they ever cleaned up their lives, they would do that too.

Government was warm toward Christianity, and it was considered not just acceptable, but in many cases desirable, to be known as a Christian. Many spoke of America as a “Christian nation.” Even though that wasn’t true, to think of it that way was dangerous. The church wasn’t meant to seek or exercise political power.

Misguided Approach

Then came the cultural turmoil of the 1960s. Church people, not knowing how to respond, withdrew and became harshly critical of the culture—this was the beginning of the “culture wars.” What Christians had not been able to accomplish through gentle persuasion, they tried to accomplish through

nificant Muslim population. Occasionally voices from the Muslim community call for Sharia law to be adopted in our civic laws. I bristle at the idea of one religious group trying to legislate their values on a free society.

I think that should also apply to the church. I do not believe Christians have been commissioned by God to enshrine their understanding of sexual ethics into the law codes of our country.

Do Christians really believe that in order to be faithful to their convictions they must depend on the state to pressure those who are not followers of Jesus to act like they are? I support laws that “preserve human rights,” even the rights of non-Christians to act unChristian.

Is there room for someone with convictions like mine to be a Christian? Can I be a Christian and be good?

The writer has compiled ideas from a thoughtful nonbeliever into this essay. This piece summarizes that person’s concerns and convictions, as well as those from others the writer has encountered.

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government legislation. And white Evangelical Christianity became a tool of the Republican Party. Additionally, in fighting the culture wars, churches often communicated an attitude antithetical to Jesus, for example toward the LGBTQ community, as you pointed out.

The church has always been most aligned with God when it was serving the marginalized and oppressed. The first-century church did that—caring for the poor, giving dignity to women, saving infants, and seeing profound cultural change result. The American movement begun a few decades ago to settle cultural upheaval through political means was, in my opinion, misguided.

Religious Arrogance

No arrogance is worse than religious arrogance. Humans were created to live in a love relationship with God—one that would yield a profound sense of worth and value for each individual. Once that relationship was fractured (the Garden of Eden story), the normal way of feeling worthwhile became comparison to others—I’m better looking, smarter, more successful. My tribe is stronger; my religion is the true one. The ultimate self-rightness is assuming rightness about God

In the common use of the word religion, it is a set of beliefs and practices that make a person “good.” Paradoxically, those who pursue goodness on these terms usually feel deep guilt because they cannot attain to the standards, yet they have pride in whatever they think they do right.

At one level, that pride results in a verbal bludgeoning of those who disagree. At a more intense level, it results in physical violence and war. The confluence of human arrogance and religious truth systems has produced a history of religious wars. Globally, religious fundamentalists perpetrate violence, and too frequently Christianity has fallen into that trap.

But at its heart Christianity is not a truth system—it is a relationship with the living God. Jesus, who was the embodiment of truth, didn’t come to fill people’s heads with knowledge, but rather to restore broken relationships with their creator, their own souls, other humans, and the environment.

When truth is seen as a means to the end of knowing God as he really is and growing to wholeness in other relationships, the result is life as God intended it—rich in love for others and for him. Truth matters. People who lack truth from the creator tend to self-destruct. But grace is the distinctive feature of Christianity.

Scripture says Jesus came full of grace and truth—the order is meaningful. Among the world’s belief systems, all others require achieving goodness through endless human effort. Christianity alone claims to make a person whole through grace as a gift from God.

I’ve known people like the uncle you described. While they may be in Heaven one day by God’s grace, I don’t think they represent him well now.

I wonder at times why God allows those who bear his name to do this damage to his reputation. My wife and I were walking in a large square in the center of our city one evening last summer. A band was playing, and it was a nice intergenerational gathering.

At the edge of the crowd, a street preacher shouted, “God hates fornicators! Fornicators go to Hell!”

A young man walking by hand-in-hand with a young woman said, “I love fornicating,” mocking the preacher. I wanted to call down a lightning bolt to vaporize the preacher, just as Jesus’ apostles had done when they met some people with whom they disagreed. It was a very unchristian thought, I’ll admit. But when God granted freewill, he allowed for egregious actions, even when his reputation is at stake.

Unseen Good

You mentioned historic examples of the wheels coming off Christianity, and there are many. Our sinfulness runs deep. But I would encourage you not to dismiss the good so easily.

A friend in India noted that Christians make up 2 percent of India’s population but have started 30 percent of the nation’s hospitals and schools. As I drove across East Africa last month, I noticed that most schools and clinics in the poor villages carried Christian names. After the Vietnam War, it was largely churches that helped resettle the Vietnamese refugees who flooded into the United States. Christians are disproportionately represented among adoptive parents, especially for special needs children. There’s a very long list.

Lee Strobel is a pastor and author who graduated from journalism school as a convinced atheist. Five months into his new job at the Chicago Tribune, he was assigned to do a story each day for a month profiling a different needy family as part of a Chicago media charity Neediest Kids Fund drive.

In the process, he said he stumbled onto a vast network of Christians serving the poor—food pantries, homeless shelters, clothing centers, job training institutes, drug rehabilitation centers, sports ministries for kids—all run by churches and Christian charities.

In God’s Outrageous Claims, he wrote, “I (was) quietly observing the volunteers who poured their lives into selflessly serving these otherwise forgotten people. . . . As an atheist, it just didn’t make sense to me. I wanted to know why.”

Most of the good Christians do is unseen by anyone except by the immediate beneficiaries, because it is done out of the spotlight. Vast numbers of the real Christ followers aren’t looking for publicity—they just want to help. Again, none of this good justifies the bad Christians do. But a person who wants to do good will find passionate allies in the church.

Self-reforming

You asked some specific questions—for instance, do you have to accept a literal six-day creation? Simply put, no. Very knowledgeable and serious Bible students disagree on the meaning of the six days of creation. Beyond a very short list of foundational beliefs about the nature of God and Scripture, committed Christians differ on many things. It’s not that it doesn’t matter what we believe—it’s that human understanding is clouded. So there’s room to disagree, and we’re wise to do it with a large measure of grace.

One of the great things about Christianity is it is self-reforming.

od always does what is right and good, but it’s often not what we would expect or what we can understand.

Because we have direction from Scripture and the Spirit of God at work in his church, when a part of the church wanders off track, God calls it back. That’s happening now in American Christianity.

A few years ago I attended a conference in Portland, Oregon, called simply “Q.” It’s led and attended by Christians who are seeking to recover more closely the way of life God intended, and live it in today’s world.

The middle night of the conference featured a panel that included Sam Adams, the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, and Rick McKinley, pastor of Imago Dei church. McKinley had helped mobilize 450 churches and 27,000 Christians to serve the proudly secular city of Portland.

It was intriguing watching the pastor and the mayor talk about working together for the good of the city. Near the end of the interview, Mayor Adams took the mike and noted there obviously were many things on which he and the pastor would disagree. But then he said, “The quality of volunteers and staying power is unmatched outside the faith community. It is almost impossible to find those volunteers elsewhere.”

There is a rebirth of Christianity happening in America. It includes a reassessment of what the Bible actually teaches on many areas you mentioned—war, the environment, the relationship of science and faith, racism, etc. There remain many like your uncle, but a new day is on the horizon.

I believe you have correctly identified a number of values that are good and right and true, and I think you would find a great deal of resonance with this recovery of the ancient faith and its way of life.

So yes, you can be good and be a Christian!

Pursue God

But I would ask several things of you. First, continue asking questions of God—pursue him. Don’t let people you don’t admire control your life by discouraging you from following Jesus.

And I’d encourage you not to just look for a God who fits your preconceptions. You have identified well some attributes that are true of the living God. But God is God, and is not of our making. He always does what is right and good, but it’s often not what we would expect or what we can understand. Be open to his surprising you, even if the surprises are troubling at first.

Also, as you consider God (which I’m thankful you are doing), please don’t go it alone. Find others who are pursuing him, and share the journey. A faith crafted solely in a closet is likely to be absent some key facets.

And one other thing—humility. For me, it’s too easy to critique the street preacher, while arrogantly thinking I am serving God correctly. My own life has so many weaknesses—I just pray that at the end of most of my days that God is smiling.

Thanks so much for writing—I really appreciate your thoughts. I’d welcome corresponding more about this if it would be helpful, or talking over a cup of coffee. I welcome your pushback on any of this—God is the only one who is perfect.

Sincerely, Dick

Dick Alexander resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is an international consultant for Christian Missionary Fellowship, Indianapolis, Indiana.

BY STEVE CARR

“It was Santa Claus.”

As Bill said it, he looked me straight in the eyes without blinking. I thought he was joking.

“Are you being serious,” I asked. “Santa Claus pushed you toward atheism?”

Bill nodded his head. “It sounds stupid, but that guy really did a number on me.”

If you’re like me, it’s impossible to reminisce about childhood without talking about church. Faith was the priority of my family’s social life. After home and school, I spent the majority of my childhood time in our church building. Our family was there to unlock the church doors for services and regularly locked them back up again as the last ones to leave.

Back then, my siblings and I had no choice in the matter; and yet, today, all our families are committed to Christ. This immersion in faith ultimately led me to entering the ministry.

Yet after two decades of ministry, I noticed quite a few people with a similar childhood path as mine who were living vastly different lives as adults. Although they grew up in the church, they no longer followed Christ. It wasn’t mere apathy that kept them away, but ideological disagreements with intellectual foundations.

And so I began a personal project. I would spend time with people I knew who no longer believed.

I prefaced every conversation with an offer of safety. “I’m not trying to convert you. I just really need to hear about your journey away from Christianity.” With this as a starting point, not one person turned me down, and all were brutally honest.

Even though I’m not finished with the project (and I don’t know what it will look like when I am), I want to share a few of these conversations to reveal the thinking of these folks.

his formative years. His parents were involved in church, but it didn’t dominate their lives; they attended frequently but would miss worship for weeks at a time with no concern. But Bill absolutely loved it and would chastise his parents when they didn’t attend.

Bill talked about Santa Claus early in our conversation. “When I found out Santa didn’t exist,” he said, “I began to ask myself about the other stories I was learning—the ones from the Bible. I didn’t say anything to anyone else at the time, but secretly I started to wonder about whether these were all just stories like Santa.”

ture, not the true Word of God.

Eventually, he and his wife divorced and they share custody of their children. While she still takes their kids to church, Bill uses every opportunity to push them to think about whether God is real. “I just don’t want them to be brainwashed like I was.”

Stacey

Stacey grew up at a strong, Biblecentered church. She was deeply involved in their vibrant youth program and was even the lead in a church play. She was always inquisitive, devoting herself to apologetic issues in order to strengthen her spiritual resolve. She seriously considered attending a Christian college, but her career goals led her to an elite East Coast university.

In college, Bill stopped attending church, but his interest was rekindled when he met the girl of his dreams. They went to her home church to see if they could get married there.

“We were told they didn’t ‘know us’ so we’d both have to become church members.” Not only did this include attending services every week, but giving offerings to the church as well. “They told us they’d actually track our giving over six months to see if we were actually following through. It just felt like all they really cared about was money. I was so angry we went to a Lutheran church and got married there instead.”

This bad experience increased Bill’s suspicion of all churches and Christianity, as well. A high school history teacher, Bill immersed himself in philosophy, studying critiques of faith. He still reads the Bible, but views it as solely inspirational litera-

Away at school, it was difficult for her to find a church. Eventually she connected with a local church that supported her throughout college. As a young adult, she struggled to find her footing as a single woman and longed to find another church where she could grow in her faith. She says she still believed at the time, but found herself growing increasingly jaded as she noticed glaring hypocrisy in Christ followers.

She remembers one Sunday in particular. “I visited a large megachurch my Christian friends loved. I desperately wanted to experience God that morning, but it was just a huge show that felt more like a pep rally.

“Then, leaving the church parking lot, I accidently pulled out in front of a car and the driver flipped me off. That was a game changer for me. I asked myself out loud, ‘Why am I still even trying?’”

Stacey also felt the church viewed her as a lesser person because of her gender. While she was finding relative success in her field, many of the Christian women

Bill Bill grew up in church as part of a faithful family and followed Christ throughout

What I’ve learned, and what I’m still asking, after conversations with those who left the faith.

Some people who grew up in the faith now have idealogical disagreements with intellectual foundations. What happened?

SEEDS OF DOUBT

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she knew were not treated as equals. “I am from a family of strong Christian women, but I could see the ladies in my family discriminated against by men in the church.

“And it’s not like it was a generational thing: I mean, just recently some young Christian men treated my mother with disrespect and she was forced to accept it. The way the church relates to her as a woman embarrassed me. That’s not the kind of community I want to affiliate with.”

Ironically, despite these negative examples, Stacey claims she still wants to believe. She even financially supports some of her missionary friends because they inspire her. But currently, she’s angry and doesn’t see faith in her future.

David

David grew up a minister’s kid in a conservative part of the country. As with Bill and Stacey, he too was deeply involved in church activities growing up, but he claims it was his choice.

David was fascinated by religious study and took every opportunity he had to grow intellectually in his faith. His parents supported his deep exploration of Christian issues, even when he asked extremely difficult questions.

Ultimately, his inquisitiveness led him to pursue studies in philosophy and apologetics. His learning was cyclical: he’d resolve questions, but those answers would lead him to a slew of new questions. Eventually, David ceased exploring aspects of the broader faith and grappled with his personal beliefs. For him, there was no epiphany: one day, he just decided he no longer believed.

David cited his disgust with the cultural Christianity of his hometown. “There were all these people so certain in their own faith, but they never took the time to seriously investigate it. I respect when people arrive at a decision they’ve fully contemplated, but to follow Jesus just because you happened to be born in a certain geographical region seems silly to me.”

For David, there seems no way back to the life he once lived. “When you’re reading through the whole Bible, especially in the Old Testament, Christians conveniently ignore issues like slavery or the treatment of women. It’s inconsistent. It’s like a game that’s rigged from the beginning.”

How Do We Respond?

So how should we approach people who knew enough about Jesus to make a decision, but who chose to walk away from him? I think the first answer is a congregational issue. This doesn’t dismiss the evangelism/discipleship practices we can individually employ to reach the disillusioned, but it’s critical that the church strategize approaches for engaging people like Bill, Stacey, and David.

• Treat doubters respectfully—Too often our desire to be right and affirm our own faith negates our empathy for people who disagree with us. We should treat those who have walked away from the faith the same way we’d treat those who have never believed. They’re seeking compassionate ears, to be told that their concerns are valid, and that they aren’t the only people who have grappled with doubt.

Every nonbeliever I’ve approached about my project has been willing to share freely about their journey. The majority of them have given much thought to the subject and are longing to test their conclusions. If we refrain from mocking these people, and give them a chance to speak freely, we’ll likely discover the true foundations of their doubt.

• Talk to people who leave—

Some starting points:

• Take a long-term approach—In the church world, we long for quick fixes because there are so many issues that demand our attention. Unfortunately, some of our systems created the very cultures against which these doubters rebelled. Unable to distinguish between methods and essentials, the doubters walked away altogether.

Rather than searching for silver bullet solutions, leaders should focus on facilitating an environment that welcomes honesty and inquisitiveness. This demands that churches clarify a discipleship trajectory for the long haul.

Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, is one church that does this. Northeast hosts a Starting Point class designed for skeptics and new Christians to ask the difficult questions surrounding belief. This is neither a membership class nor a lecture, but occurs in a conversational setting. The church discovered that transparency with difficult issues establishes an atmosphere of trust that permeates the rest of the church.

Our focus on numbers must include tracking those devout believers who stray from our fellowship. Church hopping is commonplace these days, so we must distinguish between people who leave for better children’s programming and those who are ready to abandon faith altogether. When people leave the church, we should check in with them (preferably in person, but a text or e-mail can often suffice) to ask why they’ve left. My experience has been that those who are merely searching for a “cooler” church rarely respond, but people with deepseated concerns are more than willing to articulate them when asked.

And it’s more important to listen than to speak during these conversations. There’s often something deeper behind these struggles we must hone in on.

People fall away from faith for a myriad of reasons—from complex issues of cosmology to Santa Claus. Like you, I want people like Bill, Stacey, and David— and all people for that matter—to experience the transformational power of Christ; he brings fulfillment to my world, and I know he can do the same for them. Rather than leading with judgment, we will be best served if we listen patiently and respond as Jesus would.

Steve Carr (www.houseofcarr.com) is vice president of ministry development for CDF Capital.

Some names and revealing facts from these interviews have been changed to protect anonymity.

‘Hot Button’

AFTER THE IS PUSHED

Strategies for engaging skeptics about the faith

BY CHRIS MOON

Imagine the following scenario:

You are sitting in the bleachers at your child’s soccer game on a Saturday morning. It’s a beautiful day, and you strike up a conversation with another parent whom you have seen at several games. You find you have a lot of things in common—but not everything.

When your new friend asks what you’ll be doing the following day, you casually explain that you’ll be at church in the morning. Then you remember your pastor’s encouragement, and you offer the invitation: “You are more than welcome to come with us. We could do lunch afterward.”

The other parent smiles and politely declines, but then says, “I’ve got a real problem with any religion that condemns people because of their sexual preferences.”

A million things seem to race through your head at once, including the realization that you are subtly being called out for being a Christian—and for being WRONG. You feel the urge to defend yourself and the faith.

But at the same time, you’d like to keep this budding friendship intact and live out Jesus’ call to spread the gospel.

So, what do you say next?

Let’s Talk

The reality is that for many nonbelievers, Christians simply are wrong about many of the hot-button issues of the day—abortion, gay marriage, global warming, environmental concerns, women’s rights, immigration, gun rights, war, Israel, and terrorism. And for some of those nonbelievers, it doesn’t matter that Christians don’t even agree on all those issues.

The fact is, the so-called “Christian” view is quite different from their own, and they aren’t going to move one inch toward faith because of it.

And so how do we speak to unbelievers who are convinced the positions of so many

Christians on these hot-button issues are just wrong—immoral even? Is there a way to move the conversation beyond these lightning-rod subjects that so easily divide us and toward subjects that can connect a person’s heart and mind to the life-giving gospel message?

Christian Standard asked three Christian college professors, each an expert in apologetics, for their thoughts. Their answers, in part, centered on a simple human ability. Listening.

“Really listen to these people,” says Philip Kenneson, professor of theology and philosophy at Milligan College in Tennessee. “Be

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a little less quick to give an answer, less quick to try to convince the person that even though it looks like we are wrong, we are really right.” Christians don’t have a reputation as being good listeners, he said.

“It’s all about attitude,” says Curtis Holtzen, professor of philosophy and theology at Hope International University, Fullerton, California. “There are some skills involved, but I think there are some attitudes that are more important. What’s most important is entering into a conversation where I say, ‘I’m here to listen as much as I’m here to talk, and I’m here to learn as much as I’m here to convey my belief.’”

Holtzen says he frequently tells his apologetics classes: “Other people are only going to be as willing to listen to us as we are willing to listen to them.”

Beyond the Talking Points

Holtzen says one of the first goals a believer should have is to make sure skeptics aren’t allowed to paint all Christians with the same brush.

Not all Christians believe the same way on every issue. Even as believers strive for unity, they all must admit there is wide diversity of opinion about many issues. Believers should remind skeptics of that fact.

“I would shy away from the idea that, ‘Here’s what Christianity believes,’” Holtzen says. “I think it’s important that the people we engage in conversation know that they are conversing with an individual and not a spokesperson (for the faith).”

That relieves the believer from having to defend the views of other Christians— views that may run counter to his or her own. There’s no question that well-meaning Christians disagree about many hot-button topics—from gun control to the death penalty.

The key in this is to allow the believer to begin to dig down below the surface— beyond the hot topics—to the core beliefs of that skeptic. What are their assumptions about the faith, and why do they hold those assumptions?

“I’m a big believer in getting to presuppositions when we say we believe something—getting to the issue of why do we believe that is the case,” Holtzen says. “That’s where the truth lies and probably where the more interesting questions are.”

The Art of Asking Questions

To do this, the believer should be-

gin asking questions—lots of them, says Richard Knopp, professor of philosophy and Christian apologetics at Lincoln (Illinois) Christian University.

“(Ask) questions that would prompt deeper conversations and not merely that would allow this individual to get by with their initial statement, ‘I don’t like the way Christians believe about such and such,’” Knopp says. “That statement is a claim that is coming at the issue from a perspective that needs to be clarified. It should give rise to a number of questions—not sophisticated ones—that clarify what they mean by that. Ask them why they think that.”

For example, Knopp says, if a skeptic complains that all Christians are Republicans, a believer ought to counter that with a series of questions: “Why do you think that’s true? Is it really true? Does it have to be true?”

Looking in the Mirror

But, of course, this is a two-way street.

The Christian must approach the conversation in a compassionate and humble way, Knopp says. The believer must “genuinely come across as a fellow seeker and want to genuinely understand” why skeptics believe the way they do.

Kenneson agrees.

“I find most people are a lot more interested in a conversation if both sides are open to being teachable,” he says. “I don’t want to be anybody’s project. I think people see that a mile away. If somebody wants to enter into a genuine conversation with me, where we’ll both be better off at the end, that’s different.”

Sometimes the person who comes across as skeptical of the faith is not so much skeptical as wounded. Perhaps that person has been hurt by the church or knows someone who has been hurt by the church. Or the wound could go much deeper than that.

But the person likely isn’t going to discuss those deeper issues right off the bat. Instead, he or she will want to talk about more global concerns about the faith.

By the end of this process, the skeptic should be considering whether it’s possible he or she knows enough about the global and historical Christian faith simply to throw all its adherents into the same political and ideological basket.

And questions can be the key to unlocking the human heart.

“A part of my rationale for this is if anybody can come up with all the answers, it would have been Jesus,” Knopp says.

The Gospels, he says, show Jesus asking as many as 173 questions of his listeners.

“I want to know why it is that someone who has all the answers is asking all the questions,” Knopp says. “A part of what I take from that is that Jesus is teaching us something in a pedagogical way about how we can best go about interacting with people who are resistant to what we are trying to say—as they were in Jesus’ time to what he was trying to say.”

Questions oftentimes reveal that people don’t have as strong a grasp on a subject as they thought they did. This likely results in an attitude of greater humility in the mind of the skeptic. And humility opens the door to change.

The Christian must approach the conversation wanting to dig down to the root, not making the person a project or, as Kenneson says, “just a cardboard cut-out where all the things I know about them is that they’re wrong.

“It’s not a strategy so much as it is a posture toward the world that says we have some things to learn too. I can’t love my neighbor if I don’t know who my neighbor is,” Kenneson says, adding that the discovery process may be a lengthy one requiring more than one conversation.

And Christians should be OK with that too.

“God has been patient with us,” Kenneson says. “Can we extend that kind of patience?”

There’s one final layer that Kenneson says Christians shouldn’t forget. God isn’t just looking to bring new people into the faith. He’s also looking to grow those who already are his disciples. And he’s always teaching.

“This encounter with them might make me a better Christian,” Kenneson says. “God might teach me something through them. Are we teachable?”

Chris Moon serves as pastor of Stanton (Kentucky) Christian Church.

God has been patient with us. Can we extend that kind of patience to skeptics?

Helping the Skeptical See God

BY RICHARD A. KNOPP

Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical

Timothy Keller

New York: Viking, 2016

Tim Keller writes, “If you think Christianity doesn’t hold much promise of making sense to a thinking person, then this book is for you.” I would add: If you even have contact with anyone who thinks Christianity doesn’t hold much promise of making sense, then Making Sense of God is for you. Whether you are a strong skeptic, a Christian scholar, a sermonizer, a church shepherd, or a concerned saint, this book is worth your time (and your dime).

Keller’s numerous books include the best seller The Reason

for God, which offers a compelling set of reasons for belief in God. But according to Keller, that book “does not begin far back enough,” because for many, “Christianity does not seem relevant enough to be worth their while.” That point underlies the thrust of Making Sense of God: “to bring secular readers to a place where they might find it even sensible and desirable to explore the extensive foundations for the truth of Christianity.”

In other words, many secular folks are not willing to hear about the reason for God, because to them the whole Godthing is irrelevant, irrational, and unnecessary (if not also dangerous).

The book offers a gold mine of perceptive analyses, powerful illustrations, and a plethora of documented resources from

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songwriters, poets, playwrights, novelists, historians, sociologists, philosophers, and cultural critics. It is not just worth reading, it is worth digging into for personal study and preparation for lessons or sermons.

The hefty 326-page book includes 70 pages of 652 endnotes, many of which are extensive. The endnotes even provide 52 links to online sources. (A searchable Kindle version would be valuable, since the book has no index.)

Keller deftly interacts with characters like Epicurus, William Shakespeare, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Camus, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Karl Polanyi, Bertrand Russell, Charles Taylor, and Thomas Nagel. And he explains core ideas of figures like Augustine, Søren Kierkegaard, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien.

I can envision some Christians saying the book is “too intellectual.” But I don’t think Keller owes anyone an apology. As an effective preaching minister in Manhattan for about 30 years, he undoubtedly understands the dynamics and the identities of the “movers and shakers” of culture. And he is making the case for the relevance and desirability of Christianity, especially for that secular audience.1

I am reminded of a seminary professor’s oft-repeated comment from years ago: “If this is over your head, then raise your head.”

The book has three parts: (1) Why does anyone need religion? (2) Religion is more than you think it is; and (3) Christianity makes sense.

Part One emphasizes that religion is not going away—and for good reason—

Keller’s strategy is illustrated when he says, “If your premise that there is no God leads most naturally to conclusions you know are not true—that moral obligation, beauty and meaning, the significance of love, our consciousness of being a self are illusions—then why not change the premise?”

and that it is false to believe that religion is based on irrational faith, while secularism is based on rationality and evidence.

Part Two incisively discusses meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, hope, morality, and justice.

And Part Three is a truncated version of Keller’s The Reason for God. He calls it a “thirty-thousand-foot view of the case that it is rationally warranted to believe that God exists.” First, he presents six arguments for God, acknowledging that they don’t “prove” God’s existence but make a “strong case that there is something beyond the natural world.” The classic arguments for God “primarily provide a means for ‘shaking up the dogmatic confidence . . . that naturalism and materialism are the default rational views of the universe.’” Next, he focuses on the reasonableness of Christianity, contending for the historical reliability of the four Gospels and the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus.

Keller’s general strategy follows what I call a “contrasting conditional” construction: IF one follows secularism (or any alternative –ism ), here are the logi-

Candid and Constructive

A six-week message and curriculum series for churches is now available from Room For Doubt, a new project designed to encourage questions, address doubts, and strengthen faith.

The series offers focused opportunities for candid and constructive conversations (e.g., about doubt, God’s existence, the Bible’s reliability, the identity of Jesus, tragedy and suffering, and truth and intolerance). It includes message manuscripts, adult and youth discussion guides, many resource videos, and supplemental materials. It is for churches, areawide campaigns, small groups, campus ministries, and Christian colleges.

The messages and the adult and youth discussion guides were written by Mark Mittelberg and Garry Poole in close partnership with Lee Strobel and Lincoln Christian University.

It is available online in downloadable format at www.roomfordoubt.com.

—R.A.K.

cal implications and the practical consequences—and, if you are honest with yourself, you are not going to like them. BUT IF you learn to love and live for God, it makes the most sense and it is livable.

This strategy is illustrated when he says, “If your premise that there is no God leads most naturally to conclusions you know are not true—that moral obligation, beauty and meaning, the significance of love, our consciousness of being a self are illusions—then why not change the premise?” In contrast to the secularist, “Christians do not say to themselves: ‘Stop thinking out the implications of what you believe about the universe. Just try to enjoy the day.’”

The book is not “preachy” but “it will preach.” Keller’s case for the truth of Jesus should attract serious attention by the secularist. Jesus outraged those on the left and offended those on the right. He is “the only thing to live for that will not exploit you.”

The way of Jesus does not justify exclusion; it offers the best hope for resolving cultural violence, oppression, and injustice. When compared to its alternatives, “we need to ask which of these views of reality makes the most sense emotionally, culturally, and rationally.” Christianity does that.

This book invigorated my faith. It can do the same for you or for someone you know. The need for God is definitely not dead; and neither is God.

¹By “secular,” Keller is not referring to the separation of church and state, which he supports, but to individuals who doubt or reject a supernatural realm and to a kind of culture where meaning, guidance, and happiness are based on this-world prosperity and comfort.

Dr. Richard A. Knopp is professor of philosophy and apologetics at Lincoln (Illinois) Christian University. He is also program coordinator for Room for Doubt, an apologetics initiative that includes a six-week series for churches (www.roomfordoubt.com).

Surprise!

BY CHAD RAGSDALE

I was in the library the other day and stumbled across a book titled What Would Jesus Drive? My imagination was immediately captivated by the idea of Jesus and his disciples road tripping down the dusty back roads of Galilee. I was also curious how in the world the author could get an entire book from such a narrow topic, so I opened it up.

It turns out each chapter placed Jesus in a different, contemporary ethical

situation. “What would Jesus eat?” “What would Jesus wear?” “What would Jesus watch?” “How would Jesus protest?”

I confess I have mixed feelings about a book like this. On the one hand, it is absolutely critical for followers of Jesus not to live their lives as functional atheists with Jesus as a mere afterthought. The reality is our discipleship should affect what we watch on TV, where we spend our money, how we dress, and maybe even what we

choose to drive.

In other words, none of us follows Jesus in the abstract. We follow Jesus in the practical and often very complex decisions we make every day. This, I think, is what James was getting at in his short letter when he exhorted us to accompany our faith with deeds.

But on the other hand, our tendency in

The Jesus of Scripture is not the safe Jesus we may seek.

SURPRISE!

Continued from previous page

answering questions like these is to recast Jesus in our own image. The truth is, Jesus never had to choose what to drive or what he would watch at the movie theater. He never voted in a presidential election. He never weighed the moral implications of eating at McDonald’s. On hundreds of other issues like these, Scripture and Jesus have no explicit teaching.

Now, that does not mean we shouldn’t reflect on these issues from a biblically shaped worldview. We absolutely must. But there is also a danger. In the absence of direct teaching, we can tend to go to Jesus for affirmation rather than instruction, for permission and not rebuke.

I got the sense from reading the first chapter of the book that the author had consulted his own garage before writing it. (I can’t prove this, but it would be remarkable if the author concluded Jesus wouldn’t have driven a “gas-guzzling SUV” while one was parked in his own garage.)

I don’t want to pick on the author, though. We all like to imagine that if Jesus were around today, he probably would look, act, and talk a lot like the person in the mirror. Jesus probably would vote like me, eat like me, dress like me, and parent like me.

You get the idea. Jesus doesn’t speak for himself. He speaks with our own voice. We turn our Lord into a helicopter parent—approving of our behavior while offering us safety from any consequences or judgment.

This Jesus is safe, but not really scriptural. The living Jesus of Scripture was not in the business of making people feel comfortable. In reality, the best word to summarize the ethics of Jesus’ kingdom is surprise! Jesus rarely told people exactly what they were expecting to hear.

For example, to the sinner he said, “Go and sin no more.” To the righteous he said, “You are like white-washed tombs.” To those who would follow him he said, “You must hate your own father and mother.” He told the rich to sell everything and follow him, but he also said to those who are weary and burdened, “Come to me and I will give you rest.”

Surprise!

Broken Expectations

Jesus meets our needs by breaking our expectations. There’s no better example than the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew

5–7). The distinct note of surprise resonates throughout the entire sermon.

Jesus begins with a series of blessings. The poor in spirit will receive the kingdom of Heaven. The meek will inherit the earth. Those who mourn, those who show mercy, those who are persecuted and insulted, the peacemakers and pure in heart—all blessed!

Many of us have become so familiar with this list of blessings (5:3-11) that their countercultural impact has been lost on us. Are the meek, the mourners, the poor, and the persecuted really blessed? That is not the way the world as we know it seems to work. But this is exactly how the kingdom of Heaven works.

Surprise!

A few verses later, Jesus surprises yet again. He moves from blessing to warning when he says that only those whose righteousness surpasses that of the religious

At this point, we get a little defensive. Rest assured, Jesus was just being figurative here . . . a little hyperbole. No one really needs to gouge out his own eyes! Jesus wasn’t really serious. Right?

But hold on. We often use figurative speech because it’s the only way to accurately communicate exactly how serious we are. When I’m tucking my daughter into bed I’ll occasionally whisper in her ear that I love her all the way to the moon and back. This causes her to break out in a big smile. She is smart enough to know this isn’t literally true, but she also knows how serious I am. She knows her dad’s love for her is ridiculous.

Don’t soften the blow of Jesus’ words because he uses figurative language. Instead, we should allow this teaching to make us squirm. We should marvel at the seriousness of our hidden sin. We should be mindful and even fearful of the consequences of ignoring it. In other words, what if we actually took Jesus seriously?

Serious Statements

leaders will enter the kingdom of Heaven (5:20). This isn’t the modern Jesus who winks and shrugs at the appearance of sin. This is a Jesus who takes righteousness seriously; much more seriously, it would seem, than those who were concerned only about keeping up proper appearances.

In fact, it is typical of Jesus’ surprising ethic to go beyond mere behavior to address the deeper motivations of the heart. This is seen throughout the Sermon on the Mount.

You shouldn’t expect to be sainted for managing to live your entire life without murdering anyone. The deeper issue is whether you harbor anger and hatred toward others in your heart. Do you allow that anger to spill over into violent and demeaning words (Matthew 5:21, 22)?

In the same way, he says it’s not enough simply to avoid adultery if you are indulging in unchecked lust in your heart. Better to gouge out your eye or cut off your hand if they are causing you to stumble rather than to have your whole body sent to Hell (5:27-30).

What if we took Jesus seriously when he said that, instead of resisting an evil person and exchanging “eye for eye and tooth for tooth,” we should “turn to them the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39)? These are among the most famous words from the Sermon on the Mount and also among the most countercultural. A “turn the other cheek” ethic is certainly surprising in a culture where a movie called The Avengers raked in $1.5 billion.

Jesus was commenting on Deuteronomy 19. In that passage, Israel is told to purge the evil from its midst. The Israelites are told to “show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (v. 21). Sin is a serious business that demands a serious response.

But notice Jesus’ unique interpretation of that Old Testament passage. In regards to our own sin—whether anger or lust— he says we are to show ourselves no pity in dramatically removing that sin. Remove an eye. Cut off a hand. But in regard, to others we are to show an uncommon grace.

He takes it further in Matthew 5:43-48: Don’t just love those who love you. Don’t just love those who make it convenient to love. Extend your love to those who are unlovable—your enemies and your persecutors. Jesus even tells us to pray for them

The living Jesus of Scripture was not in the business of making people feel comfortable.

because he knows it is impossible to keep those for whom we have committed to pray as enemies for long.

By the time Jesus’ sermon was over, the crowds were amazed (Matthew 7:28, 29). They were shocked. They were beside themselves at what they had heard. When was the last time you heard Jesus in this way? When was the last time we were genuinely surprised by Jesus to the point of conviction and repentance?

Simple, Not Comfortable

Here’s the point. Jesus does a lot for his follower, but making them comfortable is not one of them. He will often tell us what we need to hear even if it isn’t necessarily what we want to hear. Jesus does not conform to our image. We are conformed

to his. We must be humble enough to really listen to Jesus—to be surprised and amazed at what we hear. And those who are surprised by Jesus will also be able to surprise the world.

Maybe we’ve been guilty of distraction. We live in distracting and confusing times. It seems there is always some new issue that demands we take a stand and make an argument. In this world, Christians are sometimes known more for arguing than discipleship. But maybe the surprising ethic of Jesus is actually very simple.

Nearly every morning, as I drop my kids off at school, I ask them the same two questions: first, “What is the number one, most important thing?”

My kids kind of roll their eyes because they have heard it so many times. “Love

God with all that we are.”

“And what is the second most important thing?”

“Love all people as yourself.”

Jesus may not tell you what kind of car to drive, but he has already told you what is best and most important. We are the ones who have muddled it up. My prayer for my kids is that, more than anything they learn at school that day, they would be living examples of Jesus’ radical and surprising love. I have that same prayer for myself.

In a world full of animosity, callousness, and selfish ambition, it is this type of love that is truly surprising.

Chad Ragsdale serves as assistant academic dean at Ozark Christian College, Joplin, Missouri.

BY BOB MINK

Coping with What Jesus Said

Considering the unvarnished ethical demands of our Lord

I Wish Jesus Hadn’t Said That

Stephen Timmis

Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014

Some book titles get your attention by implying they are about something you may not agree with. When I was a youth minister in the 1970s, I used Fritz Ridenour’s book How to be a Christian Without Being Religious, and was taken to task by a mother who misunderstood the title. Steve Timmis’s book, I Wish Jesus Hadn’t Said That (Zondervan, 2013), does the same thing. The title is his initial response to 10 of Jesus’ most demanding challenges, noting in the introduction that “sometimes being a follower of Jesus can be rather inconvenient” and that “following Jesus can be the proverbial ‘pain in the neck.’”

After he considers each example of Jesus’ call, however, Timmis concludes he doesn’t really wish Jesus hadn’t made these statements. That’s because Timmis believes obeying these demanding challenges brings joy.

Timmis’s premise will remind some readers of F.F. Bruce’s book The Hard Sayings of Jesus. The difference between the two is that Bruce deals with many more of Jesus’ sayings and focuses both on Jesus’ teachings that are hard to understand and those that are hard to obey. While Timmis gives attention to the meaning of Jesus’ demands, his focus is on the difficulty of putting them into practice. Bruce deals with only 4 of the 10 challenges Timmis addresses; this article will explore what both have to say about those 4 challenges (followed by brief mention of the other 6 challenges considered by Timmis).

Self-Denial

In chapter one, Timmis paraphrases Jesus’ call to follow him as a call to self-denial and cross carrying (Mark 8:34). Most have a sense of what self-denial is, but carrying one’s cross is probably not as obvious.

Timmis suggests self-denial is “rejection of all self-worship and of every attempt to run your own life in pursuit of your own self-obsessed, self-glorifying dreams and ambitions.” I don’t think anyone would disagree with the emphasis of this definition.

The Hard Sayings of Jesus

F.F. Bruce Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1983

While we may not grasp what Jesus meant when he challenged followers to take up their cross, those who first heard his words would have understood them. Under Roman rule in the first century, public crucifixion was fairly common. Those slated for crucifixion were forced to carry their cross (or at least the crossbeam) to the place of execution. Jesus’ words suggest his followers must be willing to give up their lives if called upon to do so.

Bruce notes that because Jesus’ demand in a “literal sense is remote from our experience” today, it is now used in a “watereddown way.” Christians today speak of all kinds of inconveniences, whether they have anything to do with faith or not, as being “a cross they have to bear.” Some of Jesus’ first and earliest followers did literally take up their crosses and die for their faith. Christians today probably best understand “taking up one’s cross” as akin to denying oneself. Bruce explains it this way: “A decisive saying no to oneself, to one’s hopes and plans and ambitions, to one’s likes and dislikes, to one’s nearest and dearest, for the sake of Christ.”

Early in his explanation, Timmis affirms that Jesus’ call is not to asceticism. “Enjoying the good things of this life that God gives us is not wrong,” he says. Perhaps the key to answering Jesus’ call is to keep in mind both what Timmis says about not selfishly focusing on oneself and what Bruce says about making sure what we do give up is for the sake of Christ.

Enemy Love

In his second chapter, Timmis turns to Jesus’ call to his followers to “love your enemies” (Luke 6:27-36). Timmis underscores that this is a hard saying to obey by confessing, “I don’t want to love my enemies, . . . I want to hurt them, gossip about them, undermine them, and generally make them pay.” Bruce also acknowledges the challenge: “We should resist the impulse to pay someone who harms back, . . . but does that involve loving him?”

If we are to follow Jesus’ instruction, “We must not just endure our enemies, but actively seek to bless them.”

©Lightstock

Says Timmis, “It flies in the face of natural justice.”

Bruce notes that the instruction to “love your enemies” in Matthew’s account comes right after Jesus’ reminder of the popular teaching of the day to “love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Matthew 5:43, 44; italics added).

Jesus offers a partial definition of our enemies as “those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) and “those who hate you . . . curse you . . . [and] mistreat you” (Luke 6:27, 28). In telling us to love our enemies, Bruce contends, Jesus is speaking about the practical attitude we should have toward them, not “the sentimental associations that the word love has for many of us.” One’s feelings are not the important thing, he says.

Both authors point out that Jesus gives us some direction in how to love our enemies—do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who abuse or persecute us. According to Timmis, “We must not just endure our enemies, but actively seek to bless them.” Bruce reports that those who put into practice Jesus’ call to pray for their enemies realize “a remarkable change in attitude.”

God, Not Money

Another statement Timmis wishes Jesus hadn’t made is this declaration: “You cannot serve both God and money” (Luke 16:13). Modern translations render the word as money, while older translations use mammon. Bruce says mammon refers to wealth, in particular some unworthy aspect of wealth, such as “many people’s attitudes to it.” Timmis reminds us: “In our culture, money gives meaning and importance to our lives . . . [and] wealth is what makes us significant.”

Jesus makes clear in his declaration that wealth is a rival to God. Bruce writes, “Service of mammon and service of God are mutually exclusive.” According to Timmis, “The two compete with each other for our affection and service.” Since followers of Jesus cannot serve or worship wealth, the issue seems to be how a believer views and uses money and wealth.

Timmis points to the parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 16:1-9)—which immediately precedes the “cannot serve both God and money” teaching. Interpreting and applying the shrewd manager parable is not easy, but Timmis suggests it is about how we use our money. Bruce points to Jesus’ words, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist of an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15), as well as to the parable of the rich fool that immediately follows (Luke 12:16–21). Here the point is about selfish accumulation and greed.

Timmis notes, “The point of all this is not to stop us from enjoying any of life’s good things.” (The apostle Paul says it is the love of money that causes trouble (1 Timothy 6:10) and affirms that it is God “who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (1 Timothy 6:17).

Anger, All Bad?

In chapter nine, Timmis deals with Jesus’ teaching about anger. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus builds on the commandment against murder with this warning, “Anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:22). Timmis notes not all anger is bad and suggests that, “Getting angry at injustice is a God-like response.” Bruce, however, notes Jesus “makes no distinction between righteous and unrighteous anger.”

Later in Matthew 5:22, Jesus says, “Anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” Bruce notes that, as Jesus continues to speak, “There seems to be an ascending scale of seriousness.” Timmis suggests, “Jesus is talking specifically about anger that treats others with contempt.” Bruce, it would appear, is right to suggest that “You fool!” is worse than “Raca.”

Here’s my take: Anger can be sinful, and it often is. I agree with both Timmis (“Anger can lead to murder”) and Bruce (“Jesus points out that the murderous act springs from the angry thought”). However, I do not agree with Timmis when he writes, “[When in] our hearts, we despise and belittle someone, it is no different in God’s eyes from quietly spiking their drink with arsenic” or that “Our anger is as bad as murder.” I’m convinced Jesus is talking about an anger that sees another person as somehow being something less than created in the image of God.

In addition to the four items we have mentioned, Timmis highlights six other things he wishes Jesus hadn’t said. Among them:

• Jesus’ response to Peter that he is to forgive “not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:22).

• Jesus’ instruction about his second coming—“Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come” (Mark 13:33).

• Jesus’ citation of the Old Testament commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself” and his illustration of the Good Samaritan.

• Jesus’ pronouncement that “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness” (Matthew 5:10).

• Jesus’ claim that those who do the will of God are his family (Mark 3:31-35).

• Jesus’ farewell instructions to his followers in Matthew 28:19, 20, what is known as the Great Commission.

While Timmis’s book is enjoyable—as is Bruce’s—his list is not identical to one we might come up with.

I think some of his chapters were choppy and could have been more focused. In some places I think he was a bit flippant.

The book’s title—I Wish Jesus Hadn’t Said That—serves to create interest, and I sense Timmis is not the first Christian to think that. I also think his subtitle—Finding JOY in the Inconvenience of Discipleship—is a great rejoinder to the main title.

Bob Mink continues his preaching and teaching ministry from Amarillo, Texas, after retiring in 2014 from 30 years of ministry with the Discovery Christian Church, Moreno Valley, California.

The of

Church Mirrors

BY T.R. ROBERTSON

Not everyone needs to look just like me. In fact, not everyone should.

Gary grew up in the church but has rarely been inside a church building for the past decade. I asked him why he and many of his millennial friends are reluctant to give church another try.

“We’re fairly sure if we show up at church, we won’t fit in,” he told me. “We aren’t ‘church-people’ anymore. They’d make a big fuss if I showed up, but if I stayed, they’d be uncomfortable around me because I’m not like them. And I’d be uncomfortable around them, for the same reason.”

This issue of “fitting in” is huge for young adults who have wandered from the church. They view the church as a homogeneous community, into which they don’t fit.

In a 2013 Barna survey, 44 percent of millennials agreed with this statement: “The church seems too much like an exclusive club.”1

They’re not entirely wrong. The irony is, exclusivity is the opposite of what Jesus intended for his church.

The Department Store Mirror Christians are like any tribe. We tend to attract and be attracted to people just like us.

The regulars at the corner bar likely all

come from the same socioeconomic background. Their sameness drives the things they talk about and the interests they share, making it difficult for an outsider to fit in.

Even the millennials who view the church as an exclusive club tend to hang out with people much like themselves.

They didn’t get along with Jesus because, even though he obviously was a rabbi like them, he was an oddball. He didn’t think like they thought or treat people like they did.

Growing up in a Restoration Movement church in the 1960s, I picked up the notion that we were the “good people.” Those outside our church weren’t part of the “good people,” even if they were in some other “denominational” church. To my young mind, it was clear that what defined our exclusive club wasn’t just doctrine but our shared race, politics, and general approach to life.

Hipster millennials congregate with their fellow hipsters. Blue-collar millennials associate with their fellow laborers—when they have time between their multiple jobs.

The Pharisees were another exclusive tribe. They spent much of their time together, debating important issues, such as the minutiae of the Torah. When they did intermix with people outside their own group, it was with condescension and pointed fingers.

I don’t think the leaders of that congregation intentionally taught us to think that way. Most of them were probably unaware of the attitude of exclusivity they were passing along to their children. Nor did they realize that if newcomers to the church felt like they didn’t fit in, it wasn’t entirely based on our religious ideals.

There are Restoration Movement churches today in which I don’t feel entirely comfortable. With some it’s because they are targeting a specific audience. At others it’s the political leanings that permeate the air.

If we don’t guard against the trend

The church is filled with eccentric personalities and vastly different reflections of God’s image in the flesh. That’s a good thing.

toward sameness, we risk becoming like a young lady in a department store who is trying on the latest fashions. For every new outfit she puts on, she stands in front of a triple set of fitting-room mirrors. She turns this way and that. The way the mirrors are set up, she sees herself not only from three different angles, but also the mirrors’ images reflecting off each other— a virtually endless array of reflections of the girl in that one outfit.

A newcomer entering the church doesn’t fit into the continuously repeated image; he can feel like the boyfriend who sits for a couple of hours watching the fashion show. He’s curious about the girl, but he feels out of place in the setting.

The Fun House Mirror

Jesus’ original plan for his church was entirely different.

On his last night, Jesus knew he would soon ascend to Heaven and would no longer be a walking and talking reflection of the righteousness of God for his disciples, so he promised to send the Holy Spirit to

inhabit the church (John 16:10).

The genius of this approach is in allowing the character of Christ to be reflected though a wide variety of people, each of whom can more easily connect with nonChristians who are like them. The church is made up of people from all sorts of backgrounds, each able to demonstrate how Jesus would live among their tribe.

The book of Acts is the story of the Holy Spirit working behind the scenes to diversify the church. The Spirit sent his hosts to share the good news with kings and peasants, men and women, prisoners and soldiers. People rich and poor, free and slave, black and white were added into the mix.

Cornelius, the centurion, was able to represent Jesus to people who would have ignored an antigovernment agitator like Simon the Zealot. The eunuch from Ethiopia and the jailer from Philippi enjoyed access to entirely different groups of people.

The church isn’t like the fitting-room mirrors, showing an identical reflection of

God multiplied many times over. You and I are uniquely formed reflections of the righteous character of God, blended with our individual personalities.

The assembly of the saints is more like a carnival’s fun house of mirrors, which skew your image to be taller, shorter, or fatter. The church is filled with eccentric personalities and vastly different reflections of God’s image in the flesh.

That’s a good thing. That’s how it’s supposed to be.

My friend Tim hangs out with organic farmers and libertarians, a group of people who would seldom interact with my friend Roger, who spends his days with his fellow executives.

The ladies I’ve seen come to Christ in the prison chapel go on to be effective reflections of the righteousness of God among the larger prison population, people I’ll never have the chance to meet.

The congregation of my youth was even more diverse than I realized. Yes,

THE CHURCH OF MIRRORS

Continued from previous page

there were plenty of doctors and lawyers and professors, but the leadership of that congregation also included a plumber, a barber, and a janitor. Some were movers and shakers, but others were the sorts of iconoclasts you find in every college town.

That congregation would fail 21stcentury American standards of diversity. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit was able to use that collection of mismatched people to reach a wide variety of our city with the good news.

A Welcoming Church

I frequently tell the women in the prison chapel that one of their top priorities when they’re freed is to find a good church. I define a “good church” as one

where they can tell the leadership who they are and where they’ve been and still be welcomed warmly rather than being met only with hesitation and exclusion. This is vital, because they need the circle of support a good church can offer.

A congregation that has embraced the intentional diversity Jesus designed into his church will be eager to welcome yet another square peg into the mix.

I also tell the prisoners the church needs them just as much as they need the church. Every congregation needs committed newcomers who bring something different, something a little out of the ordinary to the personality of the church. Just imagine the people a former prisoner will be able to attract to Jesus; they are

likely to be the kinds of seekers who might not feel comfortable in a middle-class congregation.

The church was designed to be a widely diverse collection of oddballs, nonconformists, straight arrows, and free spirits. What better way to be equipped to serve as a reflection of righteousness to a world filled with oddballs, nonconformists, straight arrows, and free spirits?

¹“What Millennials Want When They Visit Church,” Barna Group, March 4, 2015; accessed at www.barna. com/research/what-millennials-want-when-they-visitchurch/.

T.R. Robertson is a freelance writer from Columbia, Missouri.

BY GENE APPEL

I want to invite you to join me in one of America’s greatest cities for my favorite conference on the planet, the North American Christian Convention, June 27–29 in Kansas City, Missouri.

I especially want to invite you if you’ve never been to this special gathering, or if you haven’t been able to make it for a few years. After a fantastic convention in Anaheim, California, in 2016, we have great momentum building for Kansas City, and I hope you’ll jump on board. Let me share why.

First, we have an urgent theme: “This is for EVERYONE.”

God’s dream for his church has always been that it would be an EVERYONE kind of place. No matter who you are, where you’re

from, what you’ve done, or the color of your skin, God is for you and Jesus loves you.

Peter stood up on the Day of Pentecost before thousands of people and announced, “EVERYONE who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21). Paul declared, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to EVERYONE who believes” (Romans 1:16). Second Peter 3:9 reminds us that the Lord is patient with us and wants “EVERYONE to come to repentance.”

But to be honest with you, sometimes I don’t live as if the gospel is for everyone. I can be one of those people Jesus talked about who love to judge and see the speck in another’s eye, while I have a plank in my own eye. I possess this dark, depraved, instinctive na-

Five reasons you should plan on attending a conference that promises many rewards.

ture to take the plank in my eye and use it to build a wall between those who are different from me, rather than bridges. Maybe you struggle with this too.

For some, it’s the wall we build between people of different ethnicities, whether they are black or white or Asian or Arab or Jew. For some it’s political liberals we can’t stand, and for others it’s political conservatives who make our blood boil. For some it’s the body-pierced, tattoo-covered individual whose appearance is so different from ours, or maybe it’s the party person at work who lives a lifestyle so opposite ours. For some it’s the follower of Islam, Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, atheism, Judaism,

Interview with Mitch Chitwood

NACC Helps One Young Pastor to Bridge the ‘Gap’

BY CHRIS MOON

Mitch Chitwood grew up in the Restoration Movement.

He spent his childhood attending independent Christian churches in Arizona and Nebraska. His father has served for decades as a Christian church pastor. And Chitwood today works as the operations and multisite pastor for StoneBridge Christian Church in Omaha, Nebraska.

Needless to say, the 27-year-old is very familiar with the movement of Christian churches and churches of Christ that spans the United States.

But for his first several years in ministry, Chitwood never fully felt part of that movement.

“I always had that one-step barrier,” he says.

Chitwood attributes that to the fact he didn’t attend one of the movement’s many Bible colleges, opting instead to obtain his theology degree from a Baptist university.

Our Bible colleges often are considered the glue that holds our movement together. Pastors who attend those colleges often forge lifelong bonds with their classmates, who also enter ministry. And so they lead in a familiar network of friends and colleagues.

Pastors without that Bible college experience may lack that network. And so Chitwood says he felt a “gap” between himself and the movement. He longed to find a way to cross it.

And then he attended the NACC in July 2016 in Anaheim, California.

“What the North American Christian Convention did is bridge that gap for me. It brought me back to connect [to the Christian church movement],” he says.

Through the main sessions, with their worship and keynote speakers, and the workshops, with their practical emphasis on ministry and leadership, Chitwood says he was able to experience in a deeper way the connection that exists among the churches of the Restoration Movement.

“The collaboration and unity was incredible,” he says,

Mitch Chitwood

Gene Appel, senior pastor of Eastside Christian Church, Anaheim, California, is serving as president of the 2017 North American Christian Convention.

THIS IS FOR EVERYONE

Continued from previous page

or New Age kinds of beliefs. For some it’s members of the LGBTQ community or those who are infected with HIV.

Jesus always approached people right in the middle of their mess. Jesus said he was going to become like us so we can get to know God. Jesus wasn’t afraid of messy people, and we can’t be afraid of messy people either. I serve a church in Southern California. The only kind of people in California are messy people. I know, because I’m one of them!

You see, a gospel that isn’t for everyone everywhere isn’t a gospel for anyone anywhere. That doesn’t mean you can’t have sincere disagreements, and it doesn’t give you permission to compromise truth, because we are to speak the truth in love. But it does mean we don’t attack and make demeaning comments about others, because when we demean another human being, we are demeaning the very God in whose image they are made, and that’s sin.

So this June in Kansas City, we are going to reenvision God’s church and unleash his people to courageously and lovingly proclaim God’s heart and God’s house is for EVERYONE.

Second, we’re a part of a special family.

A phrase that’s near and dear to many of us is, “We are not the only Christians, but Christians only.” There are many great Christian tribes throughout the world. Over the years, I have often spoken to and served in other tribes, and I have learned much from them, but I sure love and am thankful for our tribe.

I attended my first North American

Christian Convention when I was 4 years old. I have a deep love for our movement that offers a simple plea to be “Christians only” and strives to restore the practices, beliefs, unity, and love of the New Testament church. I’m personally so grateful for this convention, because through it I’ve been loved, mentored, challenged, inspired, encouraged, and equipped throughout my lifetime.

largest church in America with 25 sites in seven states.

• And this year we’re wrapping up the conference on Thursday night with an enormously fun After-Party for everyone. Make sure you check out more of the details in the accompanying article in this section.

• There are a couple of other new features I’m really excited about. Six “Super Sessions” Wednesday afternoon will be offered twice with contributors like Dave Stone on preaching, Derwin Gray on building a multiethnic church, Haydn Shaw on bridging generational divides, Brad Lomenick of Catalyst on leadership, John Ortberg on the heart of the leader, and one more.

Our children’s and student programs are going to be top-notch. Our Bible Bowlers will be with us. And I look forward to embracing a whole new generation of church leaders who need to know they don’t have to do ministry alone.

We are a family. In fact, I’ve invited 40 pastors of some of our most dynamic churches and their spouses to be available throughout the convention to encourage, inspire, mentor, and just lovingly bless emerging generations who will discover what a special family this is.

Third, we’ve added some compelling new features to the convention this year.

• For one, we’re kicking off the convention on Tuesday afternoon with a session on church leadership led by Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of Life Church, the

NACC HELPS ONE YOUNG PASTOR TO BRIDGE THE ‘GAP’

Continued from previous page

adding, “I am on a bigger team, and that team is alive and well and pushing forward.”

Chitwood envisions his future ministry as one of leadership from the “second chair.” His calling is in the crucial role of executive leadership.

And so he soaked up NACC workshops led by the likes of Jeremy Jernigan, Jeff Vines, Rick Rusaw, and Mel McGowan on leadership and communication within the congregation.

“It was those smaller rooms, and being able to hear from those really high-capacity leaders, that benefited me,” Chitwood says.

Chitwood is planning this year to bring most of his church’s staff to the 2017 NACC, set for June 27-29 in Kansas City, Missouri. He sees it as a good time for them to learn, fellowship,

• On Thursday morning we will be introducing “7 for 7.” Seven dynamic speakers will preach for seven minutes each. Ben Cachiaras of Mountain Christian Church, Joppa, Maryland, will host. In addition to Reggie Epps, who leads one of our great churches in the Kansas City area, we’ll hear from dynamic pastors who have planted churches in Harlem, New York; Salt Lake City, Utah; and the heart of Los Angeles, California. We’ll be inspired by a 20-yearold college student and activist and hear the dream of a church planting leader who will not rest till every child has a church.

Fourth, we’re going to hear from some great preachers and Bible teachers.

I have the privilege of joining with Craig Groeschel at our main session on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday morning we’ll hear from

and worship together.

And that last element—worshipping together—is key.

“A lot of times we’re all working on Sundays. So as a staff, we don’t ever worship together. It’s something we’re really looking forward to doing,” he says.

Chitwood encourages other Christian church leaders to do the same.

“The NACC is a time for rest for pastors and lay leaders,” he says. “But more than that, it’s a time of encouragement—to get new ideas, to feel refreshed, to hear from leaders in our group— and a time to worship God for what he’s done and what he’s going to do.”

Chris Moon serves as pastor with Stanton (Kentucky) Christian Church.

A gospel that isn’t for everyone everywhere isn’t a gospel for anyone anywhere.

one of the young emerging voices in our movement, Trevor DeVage, lead pastor of Christ’s Church in Mason, Ohio, and former NACC president Cam Huxford, who leads Compassion Christian Church with seven campuses in Georgia.

Wednesday night, Tim Liston of New Hope Church in Houston, Texas, will be preaching. More than 8,000 people worship at New Hope weekly, but when Tim planted the church, in the first five years, it never grew more than 80 people. But he was faithful and didn’t give up. Derwin Gray, former NFL football player and pastor of a great multiethnic church in Charlotte, North Carolina, will also preach on Wednesday night. Derwin has a passion for building multiethnic churches.

Thursday morning will be our “7 for 7.” Thursday night I’ve asked the speaker of our woman’s banquet, Charlotte Gambill, to join my good friend Mike Breaux to wrap things up before the new AfterParty.

Charlotte is a dynamic communicator who, along with her husband, serves Life Church in the United Kingdom.

Mike and I have had the privilege of serving together in Las Vegas, Chicago, and now in Southern California, and he’s one of my favorite preachers on the planet.

On Wednesday and Thursday mornings you can choose between one of three Bible studies with Bible expositor Rick Atchley, New Testament scholar Scot McKnight, and the one and only Liz Curtis Higgs.

Fifth, you’re going to love Kansas City. If you haven’t been to Kansas City in a while, you’re going to be impressed with the history, sports, music, food (the barbeque is amazing), entertainment, shopping, water parks, and electric-train transportation. It truly is one of America’s greatest cities.

My prayer is that you will not only attend and bring a whole gang of other people with you, but that you will leave Kansas City inspired, encouraged, equipped, and reenvisioned to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to EVERYONE. The hope of the world is not an economic, political, or educational solution; it’s a gospel solution.

So join us in Kansas City, June 27–29, as we worship and proclaim from the rooftops that this gospel, this Savior, this amazing grace, and the church of Jesus Christ is for EVERYONE.

Gene Appel, senior pastor of Eastside Christian Church, Anaheim, California, is serving as president of the 2017 North American Christian Convention.

It’s Starting Tuesday Afternoon!

This year’s NACC has a brandnew feature and start time focused specifically on kingdom leadership. We’re kicking things off on Tuesday afternoon with a couple of can’t-miss sessions for every pastor, elder, church volunteer, church leader, and kingdom-minded worker.

It all begins at 2:00 p.m. with Part 1. Part 2 follows at 3:30 p.m.

Joining us will be Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of Life Church, the largest church in America with 25 sites in seven states. More than 100,000 attended Life Church Christmas services this past year.

Craig’s passion and commitment to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Jesus is legendary. Through his monthly leadership podcast, books, and speaking, he is inspiring and equipping kingdom workers to dream greater dreams and advance the most important work in the world.

Gene Appel

Derwin Gray

Rick Atchley

Liz Curtis Higgs

Mike Breaux

Cam Huxford

Trevor DeVage

Tim Liston

Reggie Epps

Brad Lomenick

Charlotte Gambill

Scot McKnight

KANSAS CITY

10 Reasons Why Everyone Will Love KANSAS CITY This Summer!

BY GREG MONTAGUE

10. KC Streetcar. This fun new travel option ferries people between downtown restaurants, art galleries, and shopping areas—for FREE!

http://kcstreetcar.org

9. The Power & Light District. Folks can dine in style or on a budget at dozens of restaurants within three blocks of the convention center.

www.powerandlightdistrict.com

8. BBQ. Kansas City is known for some of the finest barbecue in America! My personal favorite? Jack Stack Barbecue, just south of the convention center in the Freight House District. www.jackstackbbq.com

7. The College Basketball Experience and National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Sports fans will LOVE this tribute to the game so many enjoy. www.collegebasketballexperience.com

6. The Country Club Plaza. Designed in 1922 as the nation’s first suburban shopping district, this amazing outdoor mall/museum is filled with Spanish architecture, fountains, sculptures, murals, restaurants, shops, and more. Guys, your wives will LOVE this!

https://countryclubplaza.com

5. Kansas City history. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, The American Jazz Museum, The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, and the National World War I Museum and Memorial are all local, Smithsonianquality venues worth exploring.

www.nlbm.com

http://americanjazzmuseum.org

www.trumanlibrary.org

www.theworldwar.org

4. Kansas City Royals baseball! As the convention ends, the Royals begin a series with the Minnesota Twins on Friday, June 30. Experience the vibe!

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com

3. BBQ. Did I mention that Kansas City is nationally known for GREAT barbecue? My millennial sons prefer Arthur Bryant’s. Begin your own family barbecue contest!

www.arthurbryantsbbq.com

2. Numerous family fun destinations. Worlds of Fun, Oceans of Fun, Legoland Discovery Center, Sea Life, the Kansas City Zoo, and more call Kansas City home.

www.worldsoffun.com

www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/kansascity/

www2.visitsealife.com/kansas-city

www.kansascityzoo.org

1. The North American Christian Convention! Everyone will want to soak up the replenishment of this year’s NACC. www.gotonacc.org

As the old song says, “Ev’rythin’s Up to Date in Kansas City”! So plan to come early or stay late this June. It’s guaranteed to be one of the best weeks of your summer!

Greg Montague serves as pastor with SouthWoods Christian Church, Overland Park, Kansas.

Photos courtesy of visitkc.com

The Country Club Plaza—the nation’s first suburban shopping district.

Worlds of Fun has seven world-class roller coasters.

2017 Schedule of Events

MONDAY, JUNE 26

1:00—Race and Restoration Summit

TUESDAY, JUNE 27

8:30 a.m.—Logos Bible Software Training

2:00 p.m.—Opening Session on Leadership, Part 1 (Craig Groeschel)

3:30 p.m.—Opening Session on Leadership, Part 2 (Craig Groeschel)

7:30 p.m.—Main Session (Gene Appel and Craig Groeschel)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28

7:30 a.m.—Senior Pastor Mentorship Breakfast

7:30 a.m.—Women in Ministry Breakfast

9:00 a.m.—Bible Study (Rick Atchley, Liz Curtis Higgs, and Scot McKnight)

10:30 a.m.—NACC Main Session (Trevor DeVage and Cam Huxford)

12:30 p.m.—Seniors Luncheon

2:30 p.m.—SuperSession I (Derwin Gray, Brad Lomenick, John Ortberg, Haydn Shaw, and Dave Stone)

4:00 p.m.—SuperSession 2 (Derwin Gray, Brad Lomenick, John Ortberg, Haydn Shaw, Dave Stone)

5:30 p.m.—President’s Banquet (John Ortberg)

7:30 p.m.—Main Session (Derwin Gray and Tim Liston)

THURSDAY, JUNE 29

7:30 a.m.—Ministry Networking Breakfast

7:30 a.m.—Ministers’ Wives Breakfast

7:30 a.m.—Dream of Destiny Breakfast

9:00 a.m.—Bible Study (Rick Atchley, Liz Curtis Higgs, and Scot McKnight)

10:30 a.m.—NACC Main Session (Ben Cachiaras, Ruby Clark, Kyle Costello, Reggie Epps, Kevin Haah, Greg Nettle, and Jordan Rice)

12:30 p.m.—Lunch & Learn (2 sessions)

12:30 p.m.—Ladies’ Luncheon

2:30 p.m.—Workshop Sessions

4:00 p.m.—Workshop Sessions

7:30 p.m.—Main Session (Mike Breaux and Charlotte Gambill)

9:00 p.m.—After-Party

* NACC Main Sessions do not require tickets, but some special events do; more information is available at www.gotonacc.org.

BY CHRIS MOON

It was like a banana split without the whipped cream. Or hot chocolate without the marshmallows. Or a Thanksgiving Day meal without the pumpkin pie. Something was missing.

That was the thinking among the leadership of the North American Christian Convention following the final night of programming at the 2016 convention in Anaheim, California.

Everything went so well. Bob Goff was the keynote speaker. The Christian rock band For King & Country put on a concert. The atmosphere was electric.

“People were just up in the clouds—excited,” says Larry Collins, managing director of the NACC.

And then it was over. Everybody went back to their hotels. The enthusiasm dissipated into the night.

“It was sort of anticlimactic,” Collins says. “We dumped all those very excited people—4,000 people—into an empty exhibit hall and told them to go home. What a shame it was.”

And so the idea for the NACC After-Party was born.

Traditionally, the NACC extended from Tuesday evening through Friday morning. But the conference always reached its zenith during the Thursday night main session. After that, exhibitors packed up their booths and headed home.

Convention-goers, however, were encouraged to return Friday morning for another Bible study and main session. But by then, there was no question that the convention was on the downslope.

The After-Party—which will get its debut at the 2017 NACC in Kansas City—is designed to remedy that.

“It is going to be the afterglow of the entire week,” Collins says.

It will be more than just a networking event. Collins says it will be a PARTY.

Immediately after the Thursday night main session closes, everyone will move to the After-Party in the exhibit hall.

Many exhibitors will provide food. There will be special lighting. There will be games and friendly competitions (which may include some of the key speakers of the week). There will be music, karaoke, and times of sharing. Characters from Kansas City’s Worlds of Fun theme park will mingle with the crowd.

There’s even been talk of an electronic bull—and a Ferris wheel.

“It’s OK to keep (the kids) up late that night,” Collins says.

A key benefit of the After-Party is that exhibitors will be free to come and enjoy it. They won’t need to pack up their booths until Friday morning. The NACC will officially end its programming Thursday night instead of Friday at noon.

“We’re family, and families need to party together and celebrate together,” says 2017 NACC President Gene Appel, senior pastor of Eastside Christian Church in Anaheim. “It’s very important to me that everyone who comes to this convention feels part of that family, part of that tribe.

Appel says the After-Party will embody the theme of the 2017 NACC—“This Is for Everyone.” Until now, the NACC has lacked a single event where everyone—convention-goers, exhibitors, and organizers—can get together for the sole purpose of connecting and enjoying one another.

“This is for everyone,” Appel says. “We want to create an environment for young and old and everybody in between. . . . This is a way to go out on a real high—and to celebrate all that God has done in our midst and to just enjoy each other.”

Chris Moon serves as pastor with Stanton (Kentucky) Christian Church.

Voices from international visitors to ICOM 2016 and a report on the impact of the convention

Disciples Making

BY DOUG PRIEST

Mitchell and Luis looked a little lost in the exhibition hall at the Lexington (Kentucky) Convention Center, home to the 2016 International Conference on Missions. They came from the Dominican Republic. Mitchell had come to the convention once before, eight years ago. But the convention had grown a lot in the past eight years, and there were 300 different exhibitors! It is no wonder they were amazed at all they saw.

These men are pastors. They belong to Centro Cristiano, an association of Christian churches in the Dominican Republic that has 23 pastors. Four of the pastors receive some funding from church partners in the United States. The pastors meet once a month for spiritual growth, sharing resources, planning, and updating one another on their ministries. Mitchell is the lone pastor in the group who has a degree, which he received from an Evangelical university in the Dominican Republic.

Mitchell, a believer for 32 years, has preached at Navarreta for 14 years, and Luis, who became a Christian 27 years ago, has preached for 13 years at Las Guaranas. They first heard about the International Conference on Missions from resident missionary

Two ICOM attendees enjoy a conversation with one another in the exhibit area at the 2016 event in Lexington, Kentucky, November 17-20.

Greg Swinney, who works with the Association of College Ministries, wore one of Christian standard’s “I’m In” buttons during a visit to the magazine’s booth at ICOM.

©ICOM

2016 Team PERRY Photography

Disciples

Rick York, who has since retired.

They came to ICOM for two reasons. First, they are looking for instructional resources that can aid them in their ministries. Second, they came to connect with churches that might want to send shortterm teams to the Dominican Republic.

There are between 125 and 140 Christian churches in the Dominican Republic. The association to which Mitchell and Luis belong, Centro Cristiano, had been slowly dying. However, a mission organization that builds homes for people, Casas Por Cristo, formed a partnership with the pastors, and since that time there have been many short-term teams who have come and helped. Forty teams came in 2016, and the pastors are hoping there will be 50 to 60 teams a year. These teams have provided resources and have helped the churches to grow.

Disciples Must Make Disciples

People, some 3,500 of them, come to the International Conference on Missions for a variety of reasons. Some wish to connect with places where they might serve. Some come to lead and attend workshops.

Many come to tell others of their ministries, and of course many come to ICOM to learn of God’s expanding kingdom around the world. While ICOM has a small staff that runs the conference, each year’s event is led by a president who has a large say in the year’s program.

The theme for the 2016 conference was “Mobilize: Disciples Making Disciples.” President Mike Schrage, executive director of Good News Productions, International, said that “becoming all things to

Mike Schrage, president of ICOM in 2016, speaks at the conference. (Below) Attendees enjoy worship during the event.

©ICOM 2016 Team PERRY Photography

©ICOM 2016 Team PERRY Photography

DISCIPLES MAKING DISCIPLES

Continued from previous page

win some” is a call to make disciples at all costs, and in the process, contains a call to incarnational creativity by making use of all available tools and technologies.

Schrage placed a strong emphasis on the foreigners and strangers among us. Those attending heard about the large numbers of refugees, immigrants, and international students who are living in America.

“If we can grasp the heart of God and his compassion for everyone regardless of religious heritage and ethnicity,” he said, “then we are really starting to think and act like the bride of Christ as we all become one” (John 17). Schrage’s prayer for the convention was that “the Lord would anoint every presentation, preacher, and participant, and that after the three days, he will appoint all of us to be mobilized afresh to make disciples by all possible means.”

Preparing the Next Generation

T.D. Paul came to the conference from the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. He has visited America seven times, and this was his second convention. His ministry involves planting churches, training leaders, teaching life skills, running a hospital, conducting disaster relief, working with children and orphans, and hosting shortterm teams.

Paul’s mission board is based in the United States; churches that support the ministry are located primarily in Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. Hancock Community Hospital in Greenfield, Indiana, partners with the hospital in India, which was built by FAME, a medical mission based in Indiana.

Paul said the convention was larger than he thought it would be. He enjoyed the sermons and was grateful for the hospitality of all involved. He appreciated the ideas and new approaches he could apply in his own ministry. He was happy, not just because he could try new methods, but because he could teach these methods to others.

In India, Paul attended the famed Serampore College and later taught in a theological college in Chennai. Of special interest to him was a new strategy that was announced at the confer-

A Word from the Executive Director . . .

Excerpts from an e-mail David Empson sent to ICOM friends and supporters after the convention to report on its impact.

President Mike Schrage created a great theme and slate of speakers as we focused on technology while discipling to make more disciples.

• About 8,600 attended ICOM and the parallel student convention.

• There were more children in KidZone than ever before!

• 88 made decisions to go into full-time service on the mission field.

• The offering goal of $60,000, almost reached during the convention, was exceeded after Giving Tuesday (November 29) gifts were added.

“The exhibitors and attendees left a great impression on the folks living in Lexington. We heard great feedback from store owners and restaurant managers about how kind our people were to them. We also heard wonderful reports of those who attended ICOM and how they felt renewed and encouraged as they returned home.”

ence. Zumé, Greek for “leaven,” is a new approach to making disciples. He appreciated the special emphasis on reaching people who have Hindu and Buddhist worldviews, as these are often overlooked in our focus on Islam. Paul was born into a Christian family. His grandparents, however, were Hindus before becoming followers of Christ.

Paul was asked if he had any advice for those attending ICOM 2016. He commented that the older generation has been very committed to missions, but now it is time to prepare the next generation. He wants America to be strengthened be-

cause America has been a leader in worldwide mission.

We Need Each Other

Mitchell, Luis, and T.D. Paul represent the new face of world Christianity. ICOM speaker Oscar Muriu of Kenya reminded us that there are more Christians in Africa, Latin America, and Asia than there are in Europe, the Americas, and Australia. He told us there were more Presbyterians in Ghana than there are in Scotland, the ancestral home of Presbyterianism.

We were encouraged to look at different areas of the world and see the special gifts each brings to the body of Christ. Indians bring the gift of martyrdom in the face of persecution. Germans bring order. Africans bring joy. Brazilians bring tremendous emotion. Americans bring financial resources and problem-solving ability.

We need one another. We are bereft without one another. We all have something to give.

It is not too early to begin making plans to attend ICOM 2017. The convention will be in Peoria, Illinois, with Enoch Nyador, a Christian leader from Ghana, serving as president.

He has chosen the theme “Together.” Worship, prayer, fellowship, learning, and fun await you!

Doug Priest serves as executive director of CMF International and as a contributing editor to Christian standard

Mike Schrage, 2016 ICOM president, presents a gift to 2017 president Enoch Nyador of Ghana, West Africa.

©ICOM 2016 Team PERRY Photography

Finding JOY in the Journey

How God helped me turn temptation, trouble, and trial into blessing and beauty

BY RICK CHROMEY

Life is a carnival of temptations and troubles. We all walk wounded with hurts, habits, and hang-ups. We’re stuck in moments we can’t escape, desperately addicted to vices and voices we can no longer ignore, resist, or deny.

I suffered with my pain for many decades.

Life for most of us is tattooed by loss, tragedy, abuse, neglect, or abandonment. Maybe you’ve endured an affair or addiction. Maybe you suffered salacious ridicule, unjust criticism, and unfounded rumors. Perhaps you’ve been unexpectantly fired, forcibly retired, or unfairly incarcerated. Perhaps you’ve suffered poverty, bankruptcy, homelessness, or unemployment. We’ve all been hurt by people we loved, wounded by friends we trusted, and scarred by enemies we feared.

Consequently, most of us have camped in the Big D (and I don’t mean Dallas): Doubt. Death. Depression. Disillusionment. Divorce. Discouragement. Dryness. Disappointment. Dependence. Disaster. Disease. Desperation.

It’s certainly my story.

I didn’t get the best start in life. My absentee father wound-

ed me with emotional neglect and verbal abuse. My alcoholic mom abandoned the family and disappeared. I grew up angry, cynical, and depressed. I struggled with relationships—at home, church, work, and school. I hoarded hate and trusted few. I masked pain with perfectionism, soothed angst with stuff, and even entertained suicide. I hurt others before they could hurt me; I rejected to avoid rejection.

I also believed several inner falsehoods: God doesn’t care about my life. I’m only his “cosmic joke.” I deserve my abuse, neglect, and rejection. People want to hurt me and will abandon me.

Most people never knew the struggle as I masked my pain for 40 years.

Choosing Freedom

My life officially crashed in 2007. I lost my “dream” job and plummeted into unemployment and financial distress. My grandfather, mother, and stepdad died. My marriage crumbled. My depression deepened: I hated life, those who hurt me,

and myself. I had no job, no purpose, no confidence, and no joy. I struggled to go to church and enjoyed little peace. I was completely alone

My angst drove me to forbidden fruit: pornography.

I had struggled with a 40-year addiction to lust and sexual images—television, movies, and Internet.1 In seasons of difficulty, the desire to indulge proved impossible to resist. Pornography comforted my pain, but also produced horrendous guilt and shame. I was a hypocrite, proclaiming a gospel of liberty that I didn’t possess.

Four years ago I decided enough was enough.

I was weary of the deception, pain, and dark depression inside me. I desired freedom, wholeness, and life. I invested in professional counseling and sacrificed Friday nights to attend Celebrate Recovery.2 I wanted to save my marriage, reconcile relationships, and heal my

soul. I devoured God’s Word, finding solace in the stories of Joseph, Job, David, and Paul.

In my 12-step recovery group, I unmasked my pain and learned why sexual addiction distorted reality and prevented authentic healing. I also discovered freedom and true sobriety for the first time in my life. Friday nights became havens of hope and help. Thankfully, my pornography use was mild and seasonal. It never led to more overt kinds of acting out.

Unfortunately, my recovery work didn’t save my marriage. I knew confession had a price but never expected my 30-year marriage to dissolve. My unwanted divorce produced new pain and problems. Through it all, I believed God was working something greater, and if I simply did the next right thing, no matter how dark and

My life officially crashed in 2007. I had no job, no purpose, no confidence, and no joy. I struggled to go to church and enjoyed little peace. I was completely alone.

FINDING JOY IN THE JOURNEY

Continued from previous page

difficult, God would honor my faithfulness, integrity, and suffering.

I also learned happiness and sobriety are choices. I could choose freedom. I could enjoy victory. Like Paul, I learned to be content in all circumstances (Philippians 4:11). The Greek word for “learned” is emathon. It’s a math word. Contentment is learned like algebra. It requires desire, determination, and discipline. Joseph learned in prison. Job learned in poverty. Paul learned in persecution.

I learned in pain.

I’m currently four years free from porn, and my life is unbelievably reimagined, good, and blessed. In Revelation 21:5, Jesus promises to make “everything new.” Today I enjoy a vibrant new marriage, reconciled relationships, and fulfilling life work.

Daily Prayer

So what was my secret? How did I bring JOY to my JOurneY?

Simple. I daily L-E-A-R-N the Serendipity Prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.

—Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971)

This simple prayer fuels my joyful, peaceful, victorious Christian life.

Live like I’m dying—Joy emerges when we learn to enjoy “one moment at a time.” It’s living hakuna matata. In African tradition, hakuna matata happens when we purely and powerfully embrace the present; when we forgive and forget the past and no longer worry about tomorrow.

Paul stated his “one thing” was “forgetting what is behind” and straining ahead (Philippians 3:13). He confessed “to live is Christ” and death is “gain” (1:21). Paul learned to live only in the present. Country singer Tim McGraw put it differently: we must live like we’re dying. Essentially,

live every day like it’s the last because one day it will be your last day.

Embrace grace—Grace is hard to live, but it’s necessary to accept “this sinful world as it is.”

A life consumed by grace can never be shackled by fear, worry, regret, or hate. Grace forgets. Grace forgives. Grace frees. Grace lives outside karma, religiosity, and legalism. Grace is messy, nonsensical, and even counterintuitive. You can’t steal, buy, or earn it. Grace is a free gift, wholly divine, and unbelievably beautiful.

Grace salves what failure slashes. We’re all addicted to something, and grace is our deepest spiritual need. Grace allows us to forgive others and ourselves.

willingness to erase sin and shower the wrongdoer with encouragement, service, dreams, and opportunity.

Of course, some people won’t accept, desire, or appreciate our contrition. Some people prefer to stay stuck, wallow in regret, and never forgive. But once we forgive, the weight is no longer ours.

Jesus commands his followers to reconcile with each other (Matthew 5:23, 24). It’s neither an option nor suggestion.

Nurture joy—Finally, to be “reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy” with God forever, we need to plant, nurture, and harvest joy. In Christian recovery this means continual selfinventory of our words, attitudes, and behaviors. It’s immediate confession of wrong. It’s daily immersion in Scripture, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines. Finally, it’s carrying this message to others (as I’m doing now).

In joy there is strength (Psalm 28:7), and often joy comes in the mourning. You can’t spell JOurneY without J-O-Y. Just as dawn eventually breaks across a cold, dark land, so also joy showers peace, beauty, goodness, and hope upon the broken, bruised, and battered soul.

Accept trial—Nobody wants trouble. Nobody expects crisis, conflict, or dire circumstance. But trials come (and go), and peace emerges when we “accept hardship.” Pain happens. Stuff breaks. Life changes. People leave (and die).

James wrote to “consider it pure joy” when trials come, for trouble tests and matures faith (James 1:2-4). Suffering solidifies core beliefs, strengthens patience, and supplies wisdom. Difficulties either make us bitter or better.

The good news is God never allows more than we can handle. I sometimes wish he didn’t think so much of me though!

Reconcile relationships—A major part of recovery work is the amends. It’s granting forgiveness to those who’ve hurt you and those you’ve hurt. It’s faith that God will “make all things right.” It’s admitting wrongs to persons we’ve wounded with our words, attitudes, or behaviors.

Reconciliation also means forgiving others. The easy part is saying, “I forgive you.” Full forgiveness adds blessing. It’s a

One final thought: humility is key. Not everyone will understand, appreciate, or be impressed by your journey toward joy. Some will criticize. Some will ridicule. Some will ignore. Some will walk away.

Trust that God will grant the serenity to accept what can’t be changed and the courage to correct what can, then watch how wisdom bubbles.

I’m grateful for my addiction, troubles, and depression because they led me to deeper grace. God is working and winning.

My healing is proof.

¹According to a 2013 study, 66 percent of men look at pornography weekly (www.covenanteyes.com/2013/02/19/ pornography-statistics/). A study from 2015 revealed one in three women view porn every week (http://nytlive. nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2015/10/22/study-findsthat-1-out-of-3-women-watch-porn-at-least-once-aweek/).

²Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered program to heal “hurts, hang ups and habits.” More information is available at www.celebraterecovery.com.

Rick Chromey is the director of leadership and online training programs for KidZ At Heart, International, Mesa, Arizona. He has empowered children’s ministry leaders to lead, teachers to teach, and trainers to train for more than three decades (www.rickchromey.com).

In Revelation 21:5, Jesus promises to make “everything new.” Today I enjoy a vibrant new marriage, reconciled relationships, and fulfilling life work.

Maybe you should be worried

When Living the Good News Gets Easy

BY SUSAN LAWRENCE

We boil it down to the basics: Love Jesus. Help others love him too. But we have different approaches:

• Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.

• Help people. And if you can’t help, at least don’t hurt them.

• Give what you can, and you will receive more. Helping others achieve their dreams will help you achieve yours.

We like to boil things down to the simplest form. We like quips that affirm and encourage us. If it sounds good, we think it is good. If we can’t readily see how something contradicts Scripture, we assume it’s consistent with Scripture.

But that’s not always the case. We have to know Scripture well in order to find what is consistent and what isn’t. In many cases, we can find or recall a verse that supports just about any perspective we want. That approach only affirms us; it’s not a reliable way to live a faith-filled life. That kind of life requires humility, which we don’t always like because it makes us feel vulnerable and gets us out of our comfort zone.

Vulnerability and discomfort often describe living out the gospel too. We prefer living out and sharing the gospel in more comfortable and convenient ways. Lifestyle evangelism—living out the good news in our everyday lives—is an excellent approach to sharing Jesus with others because we have established influence on those in our immediate circles and regular routines.

Comfortable?

However, we can sometimes fall back on a distortion of lifestyle evangelism as if we’re falling into a comfortable couch. It feels good. We don’t have to do much more than what we would be doing otherwise. We just continue living our lives and let God use everything we do and say. He’s powerful enough to do that. We can trust him to work in our lives and in the lives of others.

But our motives matter. If we simply want to boil down how we share faith in the simplest approach, how humble can we possibly be? Evangelism becomes more about us than others, and that’s not true evangelism. God won’t always have us go out of our way, but he will always have us set aside our way for his.

The two sometimes coincide, but we should never settle for starting with our own way and trying to rationalize God’s support for it. Instead, we get to know him well and check with him every step of the way so that there is less of us and more of him.

Living the good news doesn’t always have to be difficult, but when it becomes

chronically easy, we need to question our efforts. We have a responsibility to GO, to get off the couch and move about the neighborhood and engage the world. It’s not just what we do for others but how we live life with others.

Intentional?

Consider the words we often place in front of church: at church, in church, my church. Is it your church or God’s church? If it’s truly God’s, you’ll spend as much or more effort to “go” than to convince people to “come.”

The church’s reputation outside the walls will be more radical and relevant than what happens inside. You’ll invite God to clear out any hypocrisy or self-centeredness as an individual and church family by living faith-filled lives outside the walls of a building.

The good news is simple in truth but takes intentional, humble, authentic, sacrificial effort every moment of every day. It requires

• patience with the person who opposes you;

• kindness for the person who offends you;

• gentleness when you confront someone;

• love when you’d rather retaliate;

• faithfulness when you’d rather give up;

• self-control when you’d rather do things your own way.

Susan Lawrence serves as small groups and communications coordinator at Taylorville (Illinois) Christian Church. She speaks at conferences, retreats, and leadership seminars, and writes studies, devotionals, and ministry resources. Her most recent book, Pure Submission, explores examples of submission throughout Scripture.

Sharing the good news takes intentional, humble, authentic, sacrificial effort.

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How to Be a

‘REAL Man’

BY GARY OLSBY

I have a friend named Nick. He’s a great guy—funny, athletic, a hard worker, a good leader, and a good citizen. He’s a good husband and a great father who provides well for his family. He’s also a loyal Northside Christian Church member (NCC is where these thoughts were developed).

You’d like him, too, if you ever got a chance to know him. But Nick has some issues. You see . . .

• He’s confused about how to balance home, work, and church.

• He’s confused about what spiritual leadership in the home is all about.

• He’s confused about how to make financial commitments in this tough economy.

• He’s confused about how to take his faith into the marketplace.

• He’s confused about sexual purity. And, in this sensual society, sometimes he wonders if it’s even possible.

• He’s confused about God’s grace and believing that God loves him.

• And he’s confused about what a “real man” is.

This confusion leads him to isolate himself from others because he feels like he’s the only confused person. He hates that these things stress him out, but doesn’t think he can do anything about it. He feels trapped and like he’s running on empty.

Nick’s not the only one confused. Most men are confused on some level. And we’re confused about our own manhood—about being a real man. Steve Sonderman tells us, “Most men in our society do not have a compelling vision of manhood, a vision that calls them up as men.”1

Well, our men’s ministry leadership team decided to do something about this confusion at Northside—we decided to define what it means to be a real man. We struggled with this for months—wrestling with all of the biblical concepts and principles—until we came up with a definition so simple even we guys can remember it.

REAL Men, committed to . . .

Radical integrity

Effective family leadership

Authentic brotherhood, and

Loving God

Radical Integrity

Gary Oliver writes, “The essence of true manhood is not found in what a man does, in how big or strong he is, in how much money he has made. It is found in who he is and what he is becoming. It’s found in his heart, his moral character, his values and integrity.”2

When something is “radical” it is marked by a considerable departure from the usual or traditional—it is “extreme.” Unfortunately, in our society it is usual and customary for people to lack integrity. Researchers recently found that 97 out of 100 people tell lies—and they tell lies about 1,000 times a year. So, people with integrity must be “radical.”

Integrity means “wholeness” or “completeness”—the opposite of hypocrisy. The Bible uses the terms upright or blameless to describe a man of integrity.

King David said, “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity” (1 Chronicles 29:17).

So what does “radical integrity” look like?

It’s doing what’s right—simply because it is right.

It’s being the same man in private as in public.

It’s learning how to handle anger. Should we sometimes be angry? Absolutely! But it’s discerning between godly and selfish anger.

It’s being courageous at just the right time.

It’s making a covenant with our eyes not to look lustfully at a girl (Job 31:1).

It’s seeking after justice in all situations.

It’s having a family budget that honors both God and family.

It’s being the same at work as at church.

It’s paying our taxes even though no one would know if we fudged just a bit.

It’s making a commitment ahead of time to do the right thing—knowing it honors God, and ultimately honors self.

Effective Family Leadership

The Bible says the husband is the head of the household. We often see this as a command, but it’s not. It is a statement of fact. The text reads, “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior” (Ephesians 5:23).

Husband, you are the head, the lead, the initiator. You are not commanded to be the “head.” You are the “head.” You are the

What one church decided about how to help the men they serve in a day when most men are confused about how to be the man God wants.

one everyone else in your family is looking to for leadership. You are the family leader. The question is not whether you are the leader or not. You can’t abdicate your leadership! The question is, which direction are you leading your family? Are you an “effective family leader”?

The problem is that ever since Adam, men have had a natural inclination to remain silent when they should speak. Yale sociologist Stephen B. Clark states flatly, “Men have a natural tendency to avoid social responsibility.”3

So men—we must fight this natural inclination to be passive. We must model our leadership after Christ—literally—as stressed in that same Ephesians passage: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (5:25).

Christ didn’t use the church. He didn’t dominate her or force his leadership on her. On the contrary, he earned the right of leadership by expending himself for his bride, and ultimately by dying for her.

Chuck Swindoll encourages us,

C’mon, dads . . . let’s start saying no to more and more of the things that pull us farther and farther away from the ones who need us the most. . . . You’re not perfect? So, what else is new?

a real man, I won’t need anybody else.” Nothing can be further from the truth.

Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 tells us, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up! . . . Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

See related article on page 50

You don’t know exactly how to pull it off? Welcome to the club! . . . Your family doesn’t expect profound perfection, command performances, or a superhuman plan. Just you—warts and all. . . . Let’s get started.4

Authentic Brotherhood

Somewhere along the line we were led to believe the lie, “When I grow up to become

Every man needs his own band of brothers—a tribe, a posse. Truth be told, men long for this—a place to belong, a place where we are accepted for who we are, where we can tell our story and our wounds can be healed, a place where our dreams can be shared, our heart refreshed, our gifts used—without shame, guilt, or fixing. We need a place where we can be challenged and

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We Started Slowly

How men’s ministry has grown at Northside Christian Church

About 12 years ago, I took our men’s leadership team to a Man in the Mirror Conference entitled “No Man Left Behind.” We learned many principles for successful ministry to men, but the thing that stood out for many of us was a statement that building a thriving men’s ministry takes 10 years.

So we started slowly—with one men’s Bible study group that studied Robert Lewis’s Men’s Fraternity video series. The group met on Wednesday mornings at 6. Since then we have added a group on Thursday evenings at 6:30 and a group on Saturday mornings at 7:30.

We call these our three core groups. Having three groups helps eliminate the excuse that a single group does not fit into a man’s schedule. Each of these groups studies the same thing. Currently we are going through a 10-week Bible history overview, and interestingly enough, we’ve seen record crowds, even though the study did not address a “felt need” issue for men.

Perhaps men do want to study the Bible after all. Imagine that!

Felt Needs

I must say, though, that we often do focus on the felt needs of men. In Mobilizing Men for One-on-one Ministry, longtime men’s pastor Steve Sonderman says, “The top issues for men are work, family, marriage, sexuality, and finances, and rarely are these addressed in the church today.” After working with men for years, I agree wholeheartedly with Sonderman’s list.

We offer a men’s conference each fall—and also short-term groups (that are not always just for the men)— that usually focus on one of these issues. Such groups include Financial Peace University, Raising a ModernDay Knight, Love & Respect, Dads of Destiny, and Every Man’s Battle (information about each of these programs is available online).

For the first 10 or so years of

our men’s conference, we used the military theme “No Man Left Behind.” In the spring of 2014, the “REAL Men” theme emerged (explained in the accompanying article).

We kicked off this new theme via my sermon to the entire congregation on Father’s Day, 2014. We even passed out a REAL Men coin and encouraged the men to keep it in their pockets at all times to remind them of what it means to be a real man.

When our core groups resumed in the fall of 2014 (after our traditional summer break, during which we promoted our new program) we went through a 13-week REAL Men study of lessons that I put together. These 13 lessons became a REAL Men book, which is now available at www. garyolsby.com.

We’ve also developed a website (www.nccrealmen.com), a monthly e-newsletter that reminds the men of coming events and includes an encouraging article, a group of men’s

prayer warriors, and polo shirts and ball caps with the REAL Men logo on them.

Whatever we are studying, we try to review what it means to be a REAL Man—keeping the theme in front of the guys on a regular basis.

We also host monthly events that are key to attracting new men to our core groups. These include a Guys’ Night Out (free pizza, billiards, ping-pong, etc.), Wilderness Trek (camping, target practice, off-roading, fishing, hiking, etc.), a father/child camping trip, mixed martial arts viewing, car show, ATV trip, retreat, traditional men’s breakfast, and Sunday Night Football viewing. Our church also offers adult athletic leagues, although these leagues do not fall under men’s ministry.

For anyone looking to start a men’s ministry, I encourage you to read Patrick Morley’s No Man Left Behind and Steve Sonderman’s How to Build a LifeChanging Men’s Ministry and Mobilizing Men for One-on-one Ministry —G.O.

Northside Christian Church in Fresno, California, has hosted a men’s conference each fall for the last several years. This one is from 2012.

The Cry of the Elderly

BY BOB MIZE

Four decades ago, Frances Schaeffer, in How Shall We Then Live?, forecast that the next throwaway segment of our society (after aborted babies) would be the elderly by euthanasia. Physician aid-indying, or assisted suicide, is now legal in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, and Vermont. Schaeffer’s gloomy prophecy has become reality.

The elderly are becoming viewed as a dispensable segment of society. Christians should work to make sure this doesn’t occur.

This devaluation of our seniors is serious, but equally concerning is that their needs are outpacing resources.

In 2050 the population aged 65 and older in the United States is projected to be 83.7 million, almost double the 2012 estimate of 43.1 million. Statistics and trends of an aging population are driving the rapid increase in care facilities—many of which are understaffed— and the economic burden on the younger population.

The dramatic rise in the number of people reaching 65 has expanded classifications into three subpopulations: the “Young Old” (ages 65–74), the “Old” (74–84), and the “OldestOld” (85-plus).

The Young Old is the first wave of baby boomers who reached full retirement age in 2011. Over the next 20 years, 74 million boomers will be retiring. Because of increased longevity, a wave of aging baby boomers will expand the Old category.

The Oldest-Old is the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population, with a growth rate twice that of the Old and almost four times that of the total population. The Oldest-Old now represent 10 percent of the older population, but that is about to skyrocket, according to Transgenerational Design Matters (transgenerational.org), an advocacy group.

These are more than mere “fast facts.” These facts are a call to ministry, and must shape our response as Jesus followers.

Ministering to the Elderly

Emotional problems of the elderly often increase with physical decline. Care facilities are full of residents/patients with deteriorating sight, hearing, and mobility. And the result? There is a huge need for Christian ministry to the aging and dying, to the lonely and lost and their families.

We cannot assume doctors and technology will resolve everything. In his must-read book Being Mortal, Dr. Atul Gawande examines the inadequacy of doctors and their practices to meet the needs of our seniors. He writes of a conversation with Felix Silverstone, a geriatrician, who said,

Mainstream doctors are turned off by geriatrics, and that’s because they do not have faculties to cope with Old Crock. The Old Crock is deaf . . . has poor vision . . . and a somewhat impaired memory. . . . And the Old Crock doesn’t just have a chief complaint—the Old Crock has fifteen chief complaints. How in the world are you going to cope with all of them? You’re overwhelmed.

The Medical Model Is Inadequate

Gawande captures the purpose of his book in the Epilogue: “We’ve been wrong about what our job is in medicine. We think our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being. And well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive.”

Gawande does more than daunt us with the size of the problem. He effectively traces the transformation of geriatric care from the “nursing home” to brighter alternatives like assisted living and multilevel life care. He lets us peek into the

Continued on next page

Their needs are outpacing our resources. But the church can help.

The elderly are becoming viewed as a dispensable segment of society. Christians should work to make sure this doesn’t occur.

THE CRY OF THE ELDERLY

Continued from previous page

lives of senior citizens he’s learned can be engaged rather than warehoused, who can experience renewal, and who can build and retain vibrant relationships. He clearly educates about the value of aging, the kinds of relationships patients have with doctors, and how all caregivers can encourage a fuller life.

His book also sharpened my view of endof-life issues, hospice, and palliative care. It clarified the matter of life expectancy and helped me identify the myths I may have accepted. Drawing upon his own medical experiences, he challenges some of the conclusions our culture has embraced about unnecessarily and artificially prolonging life at any cost. (Gawande implies he would endorse euthanasia if he could, a view which I do not share.)

Referring to drawn-out medical treatments as “a long tail of possibility,” he writes,

The trouble is that we’ve built our medical system and culture around the long tail. We’ve created a multitrillion-dollar edifice for dispensing the medical equivalent of lottery tickets—and have only the rudiments of a system to prepare patients for the near certainty that those tickets will not win. Hope is not a plan, but hope is our plan.

Interfacing with senior citizens provides profound opportunities for compassionate servants of Jesus to shine. When I visit my mother in assisted living, attendants often mention how few residents have visitors. Walking those hallways can be depressing, but it should nudge

HOW TO BE A ‘REAL MAN’

Continued from page 49

trained. We are in desperate need of a safe place where we can become all God desires us to be.

Loving God

The Great Commandment tells us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

We get distracted by many things, don’t we? We should focus on one thing—loving God and Jesus. Bruce Wilkinson puts it this way,

The committed have a single focus to their commitment: Jesus Christ. Their commitment is not to the Bible, the Church, or Christian service; it is not to anything or anyone except Jesus. The committed are simply loyal to Jesus. The

us into service to be the hands and feet of Jesus to these special seniors.

Even the Oldest-Old can become interactive, though many seem dull, overmedicated, or prone to sleep most of the time. One woman on my mother’s wing who seemed withdrawn and quiet was sitting in a common area reading her Bible. I approached and asked about her reading habits and her spiritual background. Since then she always lights up when I approach. We have some great conversations.

Caring for the Caregivers

Here is another segment of our culture that is begging for Christian outreach and touch. Supervisors, nurses, aides, kitchen helpers, and cleaning personnel may comprise some of the most unappreciated and unnoticed vocations in our culture.

There has been increasing concern about the current and future supply of acute and long-term care workers, especially nurses and paraprofessional staff, such as certified nurse assistants, home health aides, and personal care attendants. Unskilled paraprofessionals, who provide the bulk of long-term care services, are overwhelmingly women and disproportionately drawn from racial and ethnic minorities. Low wages and benefits, hard working conditions, heavy workloads and a job that has been stigmatized by society make worker recruitment and retention difficult. International Journal of Epidemiology, http://ije.oxfordjournals.org)

I make it a point to know those who work these jobs. I call them by name, joke with them, encourage them, and minister to them. The response is very positive. We must personify the Great Commission and Golden Rule to these people too.

What can be done to minister to the elderly and their caregivers? Here are some ideas:

1. Visit facilities for the elderly. Ask staff members which residents need special attention.

2. Volunteer. Helpers are welcomed in all areas.

3. Be certain your congregation has an outreach to the elderly. The Young Old are often looking for meaningful service and gladly assist those a bit older who are more limited.

4. Pray for and with the elderly. Offering prayer is a vital outreach.

5. Start an adopt-a-senior initiative, either personally, as a church, or both. Celebrate special days, help with note writing, run errands, read aloud, pray with them, and especially listen.

Take a moment to hear the muffled cries for help coming from our senior citizens.

Bob Mize is a chaplain, minister, and freelance writer who lives with his wife, Charlotte, in Lubbock, Texas.

committed simply follow Jesus. The committed simply obey Jesus. The committed simply submit to Jesus. The committed would die for Jesus. The committed would give anything for Jesus at any time and for any reason. The committed live their lives for Jesus. The committed are sold out to Jesus. The committed simply love Jesus. Friend, love Jesus! Focus on Jesus and your commitment will flourish. Focus on Jesus and your behavior will be revolutionized.5

Men, the greatest gift you will give your wife, children, work associates, and neighbors is your love for God. And I’m not talking about some legalistic to-do list. I’m talking about a genuine relationship where we surrender our hearts to our heavenly Father and trust him to provide what we need to be—REAL Men.

¹Steve Sonderman, Mobilizing Men for One-onOne Ministry (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2010), 40.

²Gary Oliver, Real Men Have Feelings Too (Chicago: Moody Press, 1993), 54.

³Stephen B. Clark, Man and Woman in Christ (East Lansing: Tabor Publications, 1980), 639.

⁴As quoted by Stu Weber, Along the Path to Manhood (Sisters: Multnomah, 1995), 20.

⁵Bruce Wilkinson, First Hand Faith (Sisters: Multnomah, 1999), 94.

Gary Olsby is the men’s pastor at Northside Christian Church in Fresno, California, and author of the book

REAL Men: Tackling the Biggest Issues All Men Face

The Devil, the Disbeliever, and the Politicians

BY LEROY LAWSON

Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted

Richard Beck

Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016

What should we do when faith falters, either our faith in God or our faith in no God? Either loss is a life-changer. Like most serious believers, I have had my own doubts. I am not alone. Some of my best friends have left the faith. Others claim to have no faith in the first place—but even they have had doubts, in their case about their lack of belief.

Richard Beck’s Reviving Old Scratch tackles a very specific kind of disbelief: What happens to Christian faith when you no longer believe in the devil? That’s Beck’s position. And the devil he doesn’t believe in is the same one I can’t believe in—the redclad, horned, tailed, pitchfork-wielding, “the devil made me do it” beast of popular imagination.

But he does believe in the Bible’s Satan (literally, the Adversary, the One-WhoOpposes). He also takes the antichrist seriously, though refuses to identify him with a specific leader, political (Hitler, Stalin) or religious (the Pope), but rather with the principalities and powers that oppose the God of love, the Christ of compassion. The opposer: that’s Old Scratch.

Beck believes in the reality of spiritual warfare. There are spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places, and they wreak havoc where we live on earth. He takes it seriously because it came perilously close to defeating him. But it failed.

So how come he writes now as a convinced believer? How did he recover?

And what did the devil have to do with his recovery? It was in prison, where he ministers to convicts, and in church,

Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense

Francis Spufford

New York: HarperOne, 2014

where he teaches addicts and disturbed individuals (like most of us), that he began to take the Adversary seriously. These spiritual warriors have no doubt that evil is real and the war is serious (deadly serious) business. They believe in Christ in part because they’ve met Old Scratch and realized they couldn’t defeat him without Christ’s help.

Reviving Old Scratch is a provocative read. Beck doesn’t know how to write a dull book.

From the Inside

In Francis Spufford’s Unapologetic, the tone is in the title: I will not apologize for being a Christian. Period. So there, you intellectual snobs with your withering skepticism. Take that.

Unapologetic is the author’s answer to atheistic notables like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and other rationalists who argue there is no sensible argument for the Christian faith. But that’s because they are looking in the wrong places, Spufford argues back. For them, it’s all about the mind. For me, it’s about the heart, about emotions, about experience as well as mind. Unapologetic, he insists, is not an attack on atheism—though he is not loath to skewer some of its more pompous advocates. Rather, it’s a look at the faith from inside out, rather than outside in.

This is a very different and, to this reader anyway, helpful point of view. For many years I led tours abroad; often those tours included visits to holy places, when

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan

Rick

Perlstein

New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015

we would noisily intrude on worshippers, rather smugly disparaging their illogical behavior while congratulating ourselves for not being like them. In time I became aware that I was judging what I didn’t understand, couldn’t understand from the outside looking in.

Those experiences came back as I read this book. I am not entirely comfortable with Spufford, either. His language is too salty—offensive—for me. But I like the man’s honesty—honesty about his earlier atheism, about his wrestling with the irreconcilables of the faith, about how nearly impossible it is to argue someone into belief. I appreciate an intellectual who can accept the ordinary emotions that constitute most of what we call “life.”

About them he writes, “The emotions that sustain religious belief are all, in fact, deeply ordinary and deeply recognisable to anybody who has ever made their way across the common ground of human experience as an adult.” As far as Spufford is concerned, a strength of the Christian faith is that it neither denies nor disdains these emotions but speaks to them through the One who identified with our experiences and shared (shares) our feelings. “We don’t say that God’s in His heaven and all’s well with the world; not deep down. We say: all is not well with the world, but at least God is here in it, with us.”

Unapologetic’s feisty tone gets a little wearisome, I admit. This book doesn’t make my list of all-time favorites. But I did enjoy hearing from a thinker who once denied there is any reason at all to believe but then found his way to belief. I wanted to know what changed his mind. His heart did. That’s not a bad argument.

THE DEVIL, THE DISBELIEVER, AND THE POLITICIANS

Continued from previous page

Principalities and Powers

Rick Perlstein’s 880-page The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan takes us from theology to politics—but we’re still dealing with evil, not personified as Old Scratch but certainly present among the principalities and powers that govern our nation.

The first president I voted for was Richard Nixon, in 1960. Then I voted for him again in 1968 and again in 1972. In 1974, he resigned—as I had become convinced he had to—in disgrace. From that day until now I have remained perplexed, fascinated, disgusted, and dismayed by the Watergate scandal and the whole political scene of the era—and by the cyclical replays of that drama we seem unable to outgrow.

Nixon’s second term should have been the victorious climax to his checkered but remarkable career. He had overcome

so many challenges and defeats, been reelected by a landslide, announced the end of the Vietnam War, and seemed to be sitting on top of the world. Then, because of that “third-rate burglary” at the Watergate Hotel, his empire crumbled and we found the emperor had no clothes.

When Vice President Spiro Agnew left office in disgrace, Nixon appointed Gerald Ford as vice president. Then Ford became president, declaring “our long national nightmare is over.” But it wasn’t. We learned to our horror that the CIA had assassinated leaders of foreign governments; we watched in greater horror as South Vietnam collapsed—and that after 58,000 Americans had died to save it from communism. For these and so many other reasons, we lost and never fully recovered our faith in our elected leaders.

While other politicians were acting remorseful, an upbeat Governor Ronald Reagan out in California insisted on seeing the bright side of everything. He preached a gospel of American greatness. He didn’t seem to take Watergate seriously. He famously insisted our problems couldn’t be solved by government because

government was the problem. The goodness of the American people will make things right, he proclaimed.

Reagan thought Ford was a nice guy, but he compromised too many conservative principles for Reagan’s taste. So he took him on in the presidential campaign of 1976. Reagan lost, but only barely, and in losing he became the voice of a new conservatism that he would ride to the White House in 1980.

Perlstein writes with objectivity and exhaustive—almost exhausting—attention to detail. I read it during the scary 2016 presidential campaigns, shaking my head at the many parallels between then and now, while reminding myself that my faith does not rest in political solutions. Nor in politicians. Old Scratch may be alive and well—but there is still One greater.

BY DOUG REDFORD

To the Earth and Back

Maybe you’ve heard an expression often shared between two people who love each other: “I love you to the moon and back.” I’m not sure how the expression originated. The meaning is pretty clear; it’s another way of saying, “I love you more than you can even begin to measure.”

Every February, love takes center

stage with the celebration of Valentine’s Day. But love takes center stage every Lord’s Day for the followers of Jesus during the observance of Communion. Jesus, literally, loved us to the earth and back.

To the moon and back to earth is estimated at about 480,000 miles. But Jesus came farther. Jesus travelled an immeasurable distance from Heaven to a broken, sin-ravaged earth to tell the people of that world that their creator loved them with a passion and that he was that creator, that passion, in the flesh. Few returned that love; as John notes, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:11). “He was despised and rejected by mankind,” said Isaiah (Isaiah 53:3). The creator of the moon (John 1:13) was not loved “to the moon and back.”

But a love this intense was not deterred from its mission. Jesus died and came forth from the tomb to reverse sin’s curse so that we could become everything our creator intended us to be.

He then went back to Heaven, leaving his followers with the responsibility of modeling his love and taking his message to the world.

Paul did not use the expression “to the moon and back” to describe the love of Jesus. He did, however, express his desire that all followers of Jesus should “grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18, 19). This is a love that cannot be measured, but is meant to be experienced and shared by those who have come under its life-changing influence.

Paul also tells us that in our observance of Communion, we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26). We anticipate the day when Jesus will once more love us to the earth and back.

Only this time he will take us with him. Doug Redford serves as minister with Highview Christian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. Find another mediation by Doug each Friday in February at christianstandard.com.

LeRoy Lawson serves as international consultant with CMF International.

PREACHING

The Best Sermon I’ve Ever Heard

BY ARRON CHAMBERS

Christian leaders, some of them preachers themselves, tell us about a sermon they can’t forget— and maybe you won’t either.

Bob Blanshan, his beautiful wife, Sarah, and three children live in Crowley, Louisiana, where he serves as the children and family minister at Forest Park Church of Christ. He grew up on the other end of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota, attending a church just six miles from the Canadian border. Bob is fortunate to have heard a lot of great preaching throughout his lifetime, including his father, Dale Blanshan, and his grandfather, Bob Blanshan, who were both ministers.

Bob’s Best Sermon: The best sermon I’ve ever heard on God’s providence is “God Is: Active” by Matt Proctor of Ozark Christian College. The sermon is available at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=g5VasBF8Bu4.

Why Bob likes this sermon: “Sometimes we feel as though God has forgotten us, and we wonder where God is and what he is doing. In this sermon, Matt Proctor traces the life of Joseph and the theology of God’s providence. It is an encouraging message for anyone who is struggling to see God’s work around them.”

Rob Kastens has served as executive pastor with Mountain Christian Church, just north of Baltimore, Maryland, since April 2002. In that role, he provides leadership of the staff and serves as part of the church’s leadership team. Rob grew up as a preacher’s kid in Kingsport, Tennessee. He has two great kids, Kylie (25) and Blaine (21), and a lovely wife, Kelly, who is the Love God area leader at Mountain. Rob is a 1986 alumnus of Milligan College and also earned a master’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago. Rob strives to develop leaders to accomplish Mountain’s mission—to make disciples . . . more and better disciples. Rob’s life mission is to have a life and faith worth imitating (Hebrews 13:7), to develop leaders of prevailing churches (Acts 2:42-47), to bind up the brokenhearted (Luke 4:18, 19), and to call all people to be authentic followers of Christ (Colossians 1:28).

Rob’s Best Sermon: The best sermon I have ever heard was by Christine Caine at the North American Christian Convention in Anaheim, California, this past summer. It can be found at www. catapes.com/viewresults.cfm?cid=335 and www.hatfieldmedia. com/north-american-christian-convention-live-event-streaming/.

Why Rob likes this sermon: “This message looked at the sto-

ry in John 5 regarding the man by the pool of Bethesda. It was a familiar passage but Christine flipped the script and challenged each of us, as Jesus challenged this man, to stop playing the victim and get up. Then she challenged church leaders and churches to stop playing the victim and get up. Each one gathered there walked away challenged by Jesus through this dynamic communicator.”

Joe Snyder

Joe Snyder is a retired information technology executive living in Orlando, Florida. His retirement goal is to live out Psalm 71:18 by serving the church, and especially missions, with teaching and training based on many years of church and missions leadership experience. Joe became a Christian at an early age and has filled roles of elder, teacher, supply preacher, and missionary with Restoration churches in Texas, Oregon, Colorado, and Florida. He closed out his IT career by serving Wycliffe Bible Translators for 13 years. He and his wife, Jerry, have two daughters, two sons-in-law, and six grandchildren. Joe is serving with two ministries in Southeast Asia doing development, leadership training, Bible teaching, and support for five orphanages reaching out to children saved from human trafficking.

Joe’s Best Sermon: The best sermon I have heard calling the church to adopt God’s heart for the nations is Rick Warren’s speech at Exponential West 2014. You can view the sermon at https:// exponential.org/register/dap2014/ (fee for Digital Access Pass).

Why Joe likes this sermon: “Rick Warren challenges all churches (including new church plants) to make God’s heart for the nations a centerpiece of their strategy and mission. He lays out the case for global and local (“glocal”) missions by tracing the focus of God on the nations and his relationship to them.

“God’s antidote for leadership burnout, as he directs Isaiah in Isaiah 49, is to think big and have a vision for the nations. That is God’s plan for your church plant. You need missions in the DNA of your church if you want God to bless it. Don’t expect God’s blessing if you are focused inward only. Saddleback church has experienced its greatest growth since adopting a global focus.”

Aaron Chambers, a Christian standard contributing editor, serves as lead minister with Journey Christian Church, Greeley, Colorado.

Bob Blanshan

Rob Kastens

Sayings

BY EDDIE LOWEN

Build the culture you want with the phrases you repeat

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon put some thought into his team’s 2015 season motto. He unveiled it at spring training: “Embrace the target.” The sports psychology behind the motto was sound, but it didn’t catch on. Some players began using their own motto: “We are good.” They were, but not quite good enough to reach or win the World Series in 2015.

As the Cubs entered the 2016 season, Maddon joked that the team motto would be “Try not to suck” (note: though definitely slang, the word is not vulgar in this context). The more relaxed motto stuck. On November 2 the Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908.

When axioms and sayings stick, they make an impact. The right words, metaphors, and sayings not only reflect culture, they create it. I’ve written before about my resistance to formalizing the mission statement of the church I serve beyond the words of Jesus in the Great Commission. But once we decided on “We exist to connect everyone to Jesus and his mission,” it was transformative. Nearly everyone in our church knows the phrase by heart. It is heard in small groups and café conversations and in response to critics of larger churches.

I’d like to share some of the sayings that have stuck in the church I help lead. I hope they will encourage you to develop some sayings that help in your ministry or leadership context.

Speak up—as long as you say it to the right person, at the right time, in the right way.

Healthy teams frown on pessimism and sarcastic criticism, as they should. Every few months, I learn of another church leadership team where a staff member, or the spouse of a staff member, or a volunteer leader and his or her spouse is trafficking in division or negativity.

Not long ago, I asked a church leader why a member of the church staff was being allowed to undermine another leader

with impunity. The person replied, “We don’t like it, but what can we do about it?”

My response was a bit indignant. I said, “You can be faithful to the New Testament.” Every church should adopt the perspective and the prescription the New Testament offers regarding divisive rhetoric in the church. I’d summarize the apostle Paul’s approach like this: ain’t happening Titus 3:10 sums it up. Check it out.

We have a saying that captures this. We’ve shared it with many other church leaders and have been told it has gone a long way toward producing leadership health.

• We spend some time explaining what it means to approach the right person (usually your supervisor, whether you’re paid or volunteer), not as a last resort, not after voicing concern or “prayer requests” to others, but as an initial response.

• The right time, we explain, is often not in a meeting, or on Sunday morning, or just before the weekend, and certainly not before some prayer and reflection.

But as bad as dysfunction and division are, leaders must have a device by which they can raise concerns and ask penetrating questions to those who have more authority. To go a step further, I believe church leaders have the solemn obligation (to the health of the church) to share concerns they are unable to resolve on their own.

That’s not an invitation to employ stall tactics or to become the designated obstacle to progress. But it is a call to the kind of openness and healthy dialogue that isn’t based on avoidance. This type of environment produces genuine unity, one of the few must-haves for every healthy church.

• We teach that the right way to express a concern is nearly always in the form of a question, asked with respect and kindness, and followed by a lot of listening.

There are people who have the capacity and integrity to communicate this way, but who’ve never been taught how. So, we teach people how—and how important it is to us. If we learn they cannot or will not, we allow them to step back or seek another environment. We simply won’t settle on this—and we are constantly being made glad that we hold this bar high.

Visibility x Voice = Influence

A few years ago, I realized that the people the church sees and those from whom

©Lightstock

Genuine unity, one of the few must-haves for every healthy church.

SAYINGS

Continued from previous page

they hear were becoming more and more important. The formula above is how I captured it.

We know this intuitively—that the folks we have up front either add to our credibility or detract from it—but we should remember it more often. Because our church is blessed with many gifted communicators and attractive personalities, we need to choose who gets more visibility.

How do we decide? Giftedness, of course. Availability, yes. But the biggest question we ask ourselves is: How good is it for our church to be influenced by this person?

Beware those who compliment you at someone else’s expense.

Church dynamics always include pitfalls. It’s the human element. I’ve helped lead churches of 200, 400, 600, 1,500, and 3,000, and I have observed that some pitfalls are slightly deeper in larger churches. Because our church has multiple worship leaders and multiple speakers (and because we’ve had staff transitions along the way), we have heard many comparisons voiced by the people of our church.

When we welcomed a new worship leader several years ago, some members didn’t adjust quickly or well. They loved and appreciated the sincere vibe of our longtime worship leader (who remained on the worship team), so the new worship leader’s hip look and presentational style gave those members an opportunity to compliment the former worship leader— at the expense of the new worship leader. And the same kind of thing has occurred among those on our staff who preach in our weekend gatherings.

So we train our staff to evaluate compliments. We teach them to beware of people

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who place them on pedestals and who give them exaggerated praise. Why? Because everyone who has been in the church leadership game for a while has learned that over-the-top accolades, just like over-thetop criticism, often come from people who have a need or an agenda.

It’s wise and right to humbly receive encouragement. It’s dangerous to be susceptible to flattery, especially when the person offering the praise needs to add that you’re better than someone else they ought to appreciate.

I follow Paul. I follow Apollos. You get the idea.

When evaluating people for your team, evaluate those around them.

Like most principles, this one has limits. It isn’t a universal law and shouldn’t be leaned upon too heavily. But after 30-plus years in church leadership, I have observed that it’s unwise to recruit someone for a key staff or volunteer role when those around them seem unsupportive or unhappy.

Our staff members lead teams. They must recruit people, a lot of people in some cases. They need to evaluate who is healthy enough to assist them without becoming a drain.

My wife and I don’t agree on everything, but we influence each other’s thinking. We reflect each other’s attitudes. So, teach your team to evaluate people in part by observing their closest relationships.

Eddie Lowen, lead minister of West Side Christian Church, Springfield, Illinois, writes the “Ministry Today” column semimonthly in Christian standard

events, and mission and college happenings, are posted free at Christian standard’s website, christianstandard.com, soon after we receive them. They may also appear in the print magazine.

Classified ad-style news appears only on our website. This includes such items as help wanted (including ministry and college staff openings), jobs wanted (including ministers seeking positions), and other needs and opportunities.

St. Valentine

BY JOE BOYD

I am pretty good about remembering my wife’s birthday and our anniversary. Christmas is hard to overlook. But Valentine’s Day always sneaks up on me. If you’re like me, your February 14th may involve a frantic stop at the flower shop to overpay for roses and chocolates.

The cynics among us like to claim that Hallmark invented these pop-up holidays to sell greeting cards. Our consumer culture undoubtedly pours a massive amount of gas on the Valentine’s Day fire. But is that all this is? Is there a bigger story at play here? (Hint: there is always a bigger story at play.)

This day we celebrate is rooted in the Roman Catholic Church calendar. People have been remembering February 14 as “St. Valentine’s Day” for 1,600 years. There are different versions of the historical St. Valentine’s story, but one likely goes like this.

The Valentine Story

It was AD 269.

The Roman governor Claudius was seeking a way to strengthen his army. He surmised that soldiers who had wives at home might not fight as bravely on the front lines for fear they would be killed and not return home to their family. Claudius, therefore, made marriage illegal for Roman soldiers. He believed loyalty to the

state would supersede the natural desire to marry, raising up a generation of soldiers completely loyal to Rome with no side allegiance to wives and children.

He was wrong, of course. Many soldiers desired to marry in spite of his decree.

A young priest named Valentine held the firm conviction that marriage should

sus, over the “king” of Rome. He was immediately arrested and condemned to die as a traitor to the state—not unlike his Savior had been a few hundred years prior.

From his prison cell, Valentine wrote notes of encouragement to his family and friends. He stayed in touch with many of the couples he married by sending them letters from his dungeon. He signed each of his notes the same way: “—from your Valentine.”

On February 14, 270, Valentine was executed for treason, but not before making a mark on history for standing on the side of love.

not be denied by the state. He began secretly and illegally to perform marriage ceremonies, insisting that the law of God should always be obeyed, even if in conflict with the law of Caesar.

More and more Roman soldiers began to secretly fall in love and desire marriage. Word spread, and these soldiers sought out the rogue priest named Valentine who could perform the sacrament of marriage.

Valentine’s underground, illegal scheme was eventually uncovered. He was brought before Emperor Claudius and told to repent of his sin. He refused, believing he must be faithful to his true King, whom he claimed to be a resurrected Jewish rabbi named Je-

And that is (possibly) the real story behind why florists and chocolatiers do so well for themselves in mid-February.

Telling the Story

It’s when we lose sight of the story behind things that they become trite and rote. We see this clearly with major holidays like Christmas and Easter, but we see it less clearly with the other happenings in our lives. There’s a story to tell our children about why we go to the church we do. Or why we live in the community we live in. Or why we meet Grandma for breakfast at Bob Evans on Saturday mornings.

Routines and traditions are just meaningful stories that have been hollowed out a bit. As a people of story, it becomes our great pleasure to retell and relive these stories of our family and faith.

So take a few minutes this month as your little ones scribble the names of each of their classmates on their SpongeBob and Star Wars Valentine’s cards to tell them a bigger story. Our stories remind us that people like Valentine learned to love the way he did because we share the same Father. Every good thing we have comes from a God who loves us—and this day is just another reminder that nothing can separate us from that love.

Joe Boyd is founder and president of Rebel Pilgrim Productions, Cincinnati, Ohio.

He signed each of his notes the same way: “—from your Valentine.”

PREPARE TO TEACH OR FACILITATE

“The commitment to teach a Bible class requires work,” says Bailey McBride. The editor emeritus of The Christian Chronicle says he prepares to teach a Bible text by reading it until he has nearly memorized it. He studies the text four times:

1. Read specifically to see what the passage says about God, what he has done and what he is doing.

2. A day later (preferably), read the passage to see what it teaches you to do or not to do.

With notes from these first two readings, ask God to reveal to you what the passage implies for you and your class members.

3. Read to determine any ideas you may have missed during the first two readings. Develop the ideas you have into a working form.

4. Study the passage to discover what parts of the study might need further explanation, what ideas are most significant, and how the teaching should bring change in thinking and action. This study should provide a clear outline for the lesson/ discussion.

While this preparation sounds tedious, McBride says, it will help the teacher/facilitator “move beyond first impressions and [dive] deeper into the Word.”

“Studying to teach, when done right, takes as much concentration as playing tennis.”

Raise the Sails to Lead Your Group or Class

As sailing is a partnership between man and nature, spiritual growth is a collaborative effort between you and God. The term for Spirit is the same for that of wind in both the Old and New Testaments. The Holy Spirit is the wind that provides the driving force of all spiritual growth.

You cannot bring about spiritual growth in your own life or the lives of those you lead, but neither are you a passive bystander. As the Holy Spirit moves, you must become engaged in that driving force. As a small group leader or teacher, you have at least four vital sail-raising responsibilities:

1. Pray for the members of your group. That’s your first and most important job.

2. Be an example to the flock. Let them see spiritual growth happening in your own life by being involved in the spiritual disciplines of worship, Bible reading, prayer, and others.

3. Involve the group every week in practices, such as meeting in authentic community, studying and applying God’s Word together, teaching and admonishing one another, praying together, serving together, and confessing your sins to each other.

4. Shepherd your members outside of group meeting times. Be prepared to mentor them in areas where they need to grow, as God leads you.

—By Michael C. Mack. Adapted from World’s Greatest Small Group

—Bailey McBride, “How to Be a More Effective Bible Teacher,” The Christian Chronicle (www.christianchronicle.org)

Women’s Ministry: 5 Steps to Get Young Women More Involved

How can a women’s ministry get more women, especially younger women, involved? It probably won’t happen by “doing the same old things because we have always done them that way,” says Christy Sylvester in Today’s Christian Woman (www.todayschristianwoman.com).

Sylvester provides five practical ideas:

1. Ask for their input. Ask a variety of younger women—singles, stay-at-home moms, single moms, working moms, and others—questions, such as these:

• What would you like to see us do as a women’s ministry?

• What topics would you be interested in discussing in studies?

• What ideas do you have for fellowship or outreach events and activities?

2. Listen and affirm. After asking, be sure to actively listen, asking questions and taking notes. Acknowledge and consider all ideas, even imperfect ones. Stay open to new ideas.

3. Invite. Ask interested women to join the team and be involved in decisionmaking. Ask for their help in getting women their age involved in the ministry.

4. Empower. Give women the lead with parts of an event or ministry, or in carrying out an idea they’ve helped develop.

5. Mentor. Some women who have a heart for ministry will need guidance and coaching. It can be like learning to cook by spending time in the kitchen with your mom or grandmother—a younger woman can assist at first, receive feedback, and then increase in responsibility.

—Bailey McBride, “How to Be a More Effective Bible Teacher,” The Christian Chronicle (www.christianchronicle.org)

The Vitality of Apologetics in Our Ministries (Part 3 of 3)

This month, David Holdcraft, regional director of Ratio Christi (ratiochristi.org) in Kentucky, answers the question, “How can an average Christ follower begin a study in apologetics?”

The plethora of apologetics resources available in print, on the web, and in regular podcasts is astounding. Start by subscribing to apologetics podcasts such as Reasonable Faith and the Defenders Class by Dr. William Lane Craig, CrossExamined by Frank Turek, Let My People Think by Ravi Zacharias, or Cold-Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace.

I recommend the book On Guard by William Lane Craig. I also encourage those who want to become trained in apologetics to attend an apologetics conference.

Finally, I encourage people to read the Bible with “apologetic eyes”; that is, look for stories, verses, and truths that are found throughout the Bible. For instance, when you read Psalm 19, you will see both general

revelation (general truths about God revealed through nature) and special revelation (more specific truths we discover about God through the supernatural). If you read Acts 17, you will see how Paul used apologetics in his message at the Areopagus in Athens. This speech is a masterful defense of the faith in a hostile environment.

Perhaps the most important way to begin a study in apologetics is just to begin. I have no doubt that as you get your feet wet in apologetics, you will eventually be jumping in with both feet and you will become a Christian apologist that God will use greatly in making disciples who will make disciples.

—David Holdcraft, davidholdcraft@ratiochristo.org

How Ministers Can Respond to Financial Pressures

CT Pastors recently reported, “Today, 90 percent of pastors feel financial stress in their family and church work, 76 percent of pastors know other pastors who left the ministry due to financial pressures, 31 percent of pastors work a second job to help make ends meet, and almost 60 percent of pastors do not receive health insurance or retirement funds from their church.”

We asked pastors: What would help, or what would have helped you in responding well to these circumstances? Here are a few of the responses:

“Some problems, not all by any means, could be helped by better information and financial info taught at the Bible college level. Teaching guys how to handle money before they jump into ministry would help.”

Jay Hardison, lead minister at Plymouth (North Carolina) Church of Christ

“Don’t opt out of Social Security without a firm retirement plan in place (not just a hoped for retirement).”

Robert Szoke, senior minister at Impact Christian Church, Greater Chicago area

“I learned some time ago it is not always how much [money] that comes in that matters as much as how much [money] that goes out. As one who transitioned from the business world before full-time Bible college and ministry, I

was quickly and continually shocked at how undereducated ministers are in managing both personal and business finances. . . . Financial Peace University or something similar should be a requirement for all ministry students.”

Eric Allen, senior minister at Bluff Creek Christian Church in Greenwood, Indiana

“Remember your calling to ministry. Practice gratitude. Set clear boundaries when working a second job. Remember that your congregation is filled with people working multiple jobs or 70-hour weeks. Don’t buy into the lie that ministry is the most difficult job; be thankful for the people you get to invest in, books you get to read, etc. Learn to take control of your finances and not solely rely on your church to do it for you.”

Michael Brown, founder, Insight Leadership Group, and lead minister at Thrive Christian Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

“Some things that might help are to minimize your debt load, especially student loan debt from Bible college/ seminary, but also credit cards, auto loans, etc. . . . While I agree that ministers need to be educated on how to handle finances, I also think churches need to be educated on what is fair compensation in the 21st century given the education, experience, skill set, character, etc., they are expecting in a minister.”

James McMillion, pastor at Petersburg (Illinois) Church of Christ.

8 Best Practices for Pastoral Financial Health February Ministry Ideas

Take advantage of coaching networks available to pastors (yes, that may mean paying a coaching service for your long-term health in ministry). It’s an investment, not an expense, as seasoned ministers have years of advice for you.

• Participate in a financial acumen class (Financial Peace, Money Matters, any Larry Burkett program, and others).

• Opt for a non-Bible degree undergrad program. (Business would be a good option for ministers.)

• Take advantage of spousal insurance or retirement plans. (If your spouse is a teacher, maximize the benefit of retirement plans and paid health insurance.)

• Go bivocational. Many pastors doubt their ability to work in the marketplace, but they have a huge set of needed skills, such as writing, speaking, human resources, customer service, linguistics, counseling, and so forth.

• Ask your church to ease the financial burden by offering compensation in areas where you’re spending extra dollars (discretionary funds for books, taking folks to lunch, conference expenses, initial moving expenses for new ministers, and so forth).

• Negotiate salary demands per contract period. (Many churches hire “independent contractors” who sign a legally binding contract, so leverage this for the sake of your family.)

• Say no. If your work demands are far exceeding the dollars coming in, say no to certain demands and expectations and build a system of lay leaders around you (Ephesians 4) to help in ministry tasks.

—By Brandon Morrow, who is doing pastoral research on this topic. Morrow is lead pastor at Gateway Church in Benton, Arkansas (gatewaybenton.org), and cofounder of Preacher Prep (www.preacherprep.com).

#Ministry Tweets

“Great leaders celebrate the success of the team. It is about influence and impact, not about who gets the credit.”

—Justin Irving, @lead2purpose

“If you are feeling that your Christian life, ministry or life in community is a heavy load, then it is not Jesus’ load you are carrying.”

—Caesar

February 5—Super Bowl Sunday For outreach ideas, go to the Super Bowl Outreach page of Sports Fan Outreach International: http://sfoi.org/super-bowl.

February 11—Make a Friend Day Holiday Insights (www.holidayinsights.com) describes this day as “a great opportunity to meet someone new or do something to make a new friend.” Leverage this weekend to encourage church attendees to connect with others in community through small groups or other ministries.

February 14—Valentine’s Day

• Throw a Valentine’s dance just for singles. Provide a fun, inviting opportunity for those who are tired of online dating and blind setups. (You might even encourage singles not to bring dates.)

• Offer a free Italian dinner for couples and throw in some entertainment for an inexpensive and fun evening out.

Have a ministry tweet to share? Please tag @MichaelCMack, #BestPractices. We may use it in a future issue.

“We cannot reduce God to a Black church, a White church, a Hispanic church, a Chinese or Korean Church!! God’s church is a reconciled church!”

—Dr. John M. Perkins, @JohnMPerkins

“Spread hope like it’s grass seed in a big wind.”

—@bobgoff

The Social Side of Best Practices

Discover more “best ministry practices” and share your own on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ChristianStandardMagazine.

“Our head usher has held the position for 32 years. What’s a brother gotta do to get some term limits established in this joint?”

—@saneyouthpastor

“If God gives me a task, then I need to give that task priority within my mind, heart, and on my calendar. #WiseGuys”

—@manhoodjourney

Kalinowski, @CaesarKal

Insider or Outsider?

BY JIM TUNE

In the book How Jesus Saves the World From Us: 12 Antidotes to Toxic Christianity, Morgan Guyton includes a provocative chapter with the title, “Insiders, Not Outsiders: How We Take Sides in Conflict.” In it he refers to something known as the Valladolid debate. I had not heard of it.

It seems that in the decades following Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Americas, the conquistadors and invading Spanish colonizers had been ruthless in their domination of the native peoples, enslaving, displacing, and slaughtering tens of thousands. Troubling reports made their way back to King Charles V, who called upon Spain’s best theologians to help think through policies for how colonists should interact with native populations in the New World.

In 1550, the Valladolid debate between Bartolomé de Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda convened to discuss the following: Were the natives beings of value and dignity deserving of respect? Or were they subhuman savages who needed to be brought under Spanish rule for their own good? It was the first moral disputation in European history to debate the rights and treatment of

Next month in

Welcome the Alien

“My only memory is war.”

a colonized people by colonizers.

Las Casas was a Dominican friar who had lived among the natives of Central America. He had witnessed the cruel brutalities suffered by the natives at the hands of the Spanish invaders. Las Casas took the position that natives were beautiful human beings deserving of dignity and worth and whose culture deserved respect. He maintained that the gospel should be shared without the sword or compulsion and that natives had a right to self determination.

Sepúlveda argued that the natives were subhuman barbarians. As such, the Spaniards had the right to wage war against them and to punish and purge their pagan practices. They were fit only for slavery, and it was the divine right of the Spaniards to act like masters. The natives must be conquered and thoroughly civilized before they could even respond to the Christian gospel.

After the debate, both sides declared victory. Over time, though, attitudes softened. The Pope had declared that Indians were human, and the Spanish—unlike many of the other colonizing powers— began to take seriously the humanity of native people. Spaniards saw them as part of the community of God and recognized

that they had certain rights.

In 1573, the king of Spain issued “Laws Concerning Discoveries, Pacifications and Settlements Among the Indians.” It was a small step, but it slowly set in motion more humane policies. Guyton writes:

Las Casas and Sepúlveda represent two very different postures toward the world today: A Christianity that exists to submit itself to the world’s outsiders and a Christianity that exists to validate the superiority of the world’s insiders

Taking readers to the cross, Guyton reflects:

To take up your cross meant . . . getting stripped, beaten, and spat upon by Roman soldiers. It meant being abandoned by your friends. It meant the total loss of your status and dignity. It meant becoming a complete outsider.

I am, in many ways, an insider. So is most of the established church. Isn’t if time we submitted ourselves and truly took up our crosses?

This was the response of one 10-year-old Afghan refugee when asked about his favorite childhood experience. Relief workers from Restore Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, were trying to teach him English, but they weren’t prepared to hear what he would tell them.

Theirs is one of several refugee-relief stories we tell in the March issue of Christian standard. From Maryland to Kentucky, to Indiana, to Arizona, to California,

Christians have decided God is calling them to bring hope and help to refugees and immigrants. Read each story, plus the thoughtful and biblical analysis from Kip Lines next month.

Get this issue first and get it fast via our free app available at Google Play, the App Store, and for your Kindle. The digital edition of our March issue will be ready for you early in February.

When we take up our cross, it should mean something.