Christian Standard | September/October

A Hard Lesson in Hope

Some years ago, a church member phoned and asked me to make a hospital call on their distant relative who was dying in the hospital. This relative had a terminal brain tumor and no relationship with Jesus. I had not been invited by the immediate family and so I figured it was going to be a bit awkward.

I stepped into the hospital room with complete strangers and introduced myself. I wasn’t greeted warmly. The person in the bed was Benny Robertson, and he appeared to be close to death. He was in a half-seated position and making the motions of eating except nothing was there. His family told me he was on a high level of morphine.

I sat next to his bed and asked him if I could share a few words about Christ. In a moment of lucidity, he replied, “I’m going to go where I’m going to go.” I then asked if I could pray with him, to which he said, “Get it over with.” I offered a short prayer and then exited the room and headed back to my car.

I was angry . . . angry with the rejection, angry with the family, angry with the dying man, and angry with the church member who put me in that position. As I drove away, I tried to put the negative experience behind me.

After a couple weeks, I called the church member to ask if Benny had passed away, and I was told he was still lingering. About a week after that, on a Sunday morning, as I greeted people in the lobby between services, I glanced out the windows to the parking lot. What I saw defied all logic. Benny Robertson was walking into our worship service! I greeted him at the door with astonishment on my face. I asked him how he was doing. He responded, “I’m dying, but I’m here.”

As he left that day, he asked me if I would pray that he would live another week so he could come back. We prayed for that together. The next Sunday, I was in the lobby again and saw Benny walking toward the door. When I finished the sermon that day and offered an invitation from the floor, Benny came forward and knelt at

our platform steps. I knelt beside him and asked why he had come forward.

“I don’t know,” he said.

I asked, “What do you want, Benny?”

“I don’t know what I want.”

“Do you want Jesus to be your Lord and Savior?” I asked.

“That’s what I want!” he said.

I asked Benny if he wanted to be baptized. He asked if I would pray he would live another week because he wanted his whole family to be there to see it. I said we could pray for that together.

The following week, he was there with his entire family, and when I gave the invitation, Benny came forward to be baptized. I shared our story from the baptistery that day. When he came up out of the water he exclaimed, “It took me 46 years, but I did it!” There was thunderous applause and such joy in that moment! He passed away the following Wednesday.

That experience reminded me that there is always hope. It may be hard to believe and impossible to see, but as

long as God is there—and he is—there is always hope! It is one of the most powerful treasures we have in the Christian life. Hope isn’t an empty wish, but a calm assurance, and it reminds us that God is in control. Hope requires room in our lives.

The day I visited Benny in the hospital, I didn’t have hope because I didn’t have room for it. We need to ask ourselves what is taking up all the space in our hearts instead of hope . . . we need to make room for hope. When we pray, we need to identify our blessings, for this reminds us that God has done it before and he can do it again. It will quell the spiritual amnesia that sometimes can set in, and it will build confidence in an always faithful God. Every day we can look forward and upward knowing we are one step closer to home. 

Jerry Harris is publisher of Christian Standard Media and teaching pastor at The Crossing, a multisite church located in three states across the Midwest.

CHRISTIAN STANDARD

FOUNDED 1866 BY ISAAC ERRETT

Devoted to the restoration of New Testament Christianity, its doctrine, its ordinances, and its fruits.

team

Jerry Harris, Publisher

Michael C. Mack, Editor

Jim Nieman, Managing Editor

Abby Wittler, Designer

Renee Little, Operations

Allison Harris, Marketing + Advertising

Jordan Smith, Customer Service

Subscription Information

To order Christian Standard for yourself, your church, or your group, visit christianstandard.com or contact Customer Service. Bulk pricing is available.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

720.598.7377 info@christianstandardmedia.com

Volume CLVIII. Number 5 Christian Standard (ISSN 0009-5656) is published every other month by Christian Standard Media at 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Periodicals postage paid at Parker, CO, and additional offices.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Christian Standard Media, 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Phone: 1-720-598-7377.

SUBSCRIBERS: Send address changes to Christian Standard, 16965 Pine Lane, Suite 202, Parker, CO 80134. Send old and new addresses, complete with zip codes, at least six weeks before delivery date.

ChristianStandardis published by Christian Standard Media, www.christianstandardmedia.com.

Email: cs@christianstandardmedia.com

Website: www.christianstandard.com

Copyright ©2023 by Christian Standard Media

Printed in USA

Hope Makes All the Difference!

Hope makes all the difference! That’s the conclusion psychologists and social scientists have come to after years of research.

In his best-selling book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman reported on what other researchers had discovered: “that hope was a better predictor of [students’] . . . grades than were their scores on the SAT, a test supposedly able to predict how students will fare in college (and highly correlated to IQ).” Hope, he says, “plays a surprisingly potent role in life, offering an advantage in realms as diverse as school achievement and bearing up in onerous jobs.”

That’s not a new discovery for Christ followers, however, who believe in a “God of hope” and who “overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). We hold unswervingly to this hope and profess this hope to others (Hebrews 10:23) “while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

You see, the research simply confirms what God’s Word has been telling us all along.

The world is interested in hope and where to find it. I found recent online articles in Popular Science, Psychology Today, The Atlantic, as well as on the websites of Harvard University, the National Institutes of Health, and many other places. They say you may need to dig deeper to find hope (but they don’t say how deep) and to look for hope in the evidence of history, for instance. Their diagnosis is accurate: we all need hope. But they seem helpless—and hopeless—in where to find real hope.

That’s where God’s church—the hope of the world—comes in. We can show people how and where to find it. Hope is splashed in vivid colors throughout the pages of Scripture. Where do we look for hope? David’s reply was simple yet profound as he cried out to the Lord: “My hope is in you” (Psalm 39:7). God is the source of hope and Jesus is the cure for all hopelessness. And God’s Word is better than any medical or psychology journal in providing a hopeful prognosis for all of us. We can say with the psalmist, who

proclaimed four times in Psalm 119, “I have put my hope in your word.”

The world needs the hope we have. We have a God-given opportunity to help them find what they are looking for, especially in today’s culture that provides, it seems, so little hope. Our job is to tell them about the source of real hope. “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

Christians are not immune, of course, to difficulties, troubles, and trials. “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). We can even boast in our sufferings as Christians! Why? “Because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame” (Romans 5:3-5). Hope makes all the difference!

But what about when we don’t feel much hope? Over the last couple years, I’ve limped (when I could walk at all) through many of my days, both physically and metaphorically. My faith didn’t waver, but my hope teetered. So I read God’s words of hope over and over. Like the psalmist, I spoke words of hope to myself: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:5, 11; 43:5). I’d say, “You know my circumstances are tough, Lord, but my hope is in you.” God’s Word helped me take my eyes (and my mind) off my circumstances and place them on the One who transcends my circumstances.

Where do we find that kind of hope? God gives it to us. Consider Peter’s words:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade (1 Peter 1:3-4).

God has given us this hope out of his great mercy; it’s part of his grace we received in our new birth. We don’t have to go searching for hope in a world that knows no real hope. We don’t need to dig deeper for it or look to the past for it. It is a gift of God to us as his followers. We have hope because we have Jesus and his Spirit within us. This hope is not like what the world defines and understands as hope. Our hope is living; it is as alive as our Savior through his resurrection from the dead. And it causes us to worship: Praise be to God!

My hope is that you will save this issue—either a printed or digital copy—and refer to it whenever you need a dose of hope. For all the articles point back to the giver of hope: “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The stories and other articles demonstrate and illustrate the hope we have in him in our personal lives, in our churches, in our movement, and in the future of the church. Ultimately, we have hope in the resurrection; that truly is the “inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.”

That kind of hope makes all the difference! 

@michaelc.mack

@michaelcmack

@michaelcmack

/authormichaelcmack

There Is Hope, and His Name Is Jesus

By Megan Rawlings

The news makes me anxious. Stories that make it seem the world is ending far outnumber positive articles and reports. Wars, division, disaster—it’s too much to process on a daily basis. And social media only adds to my unease. To deal with this, I changed my phone setting to limit my social media intake to 30 minutes a day. Any longer than that and I find I am crippled by comparison, more bad news, and disappointment. I started to wonder why the news and media (social media included) seem mostly to bend toward evil. It turns out, there’s a science to it.

THE BEND TOWARD NEGATIVE BIAS

Apparently, human brains tend to have a negative bias. “Your brain is simply built with a greater sensitivity to unpleasant news,” Psychology Today reported in a 2003 article. “The bias is so automatic that it can be detected at the earliest stage of the brain’s information processing.”

I am not a psychologist, but I would argue that this report was wrong with regard to the way the brain was “built.” Our brain was not designed to bask in negativity and evil; that is a product of the fall. Our sin has corrupted our hearts, and that has been the downfall of mankind since the fall in the Garden of Eden.

In a study conducted by neuroscientist Dr. John Cacioppo, a series of positive, negative, and neutral photos were shown to individuals. As he monitored brain activity, Cacioppo found a much stronger reaction— there was a greater surge of electrical activity— whenever people saw photos that were deemed negative.

The Habit of Sin

The National Science Foundation reports that 80 percent of our thoughts are negative and 95 percent are repetitive. We replay negative thoughts at a fascinatingly high rate. The article suggests that this takes place because we are mentally trying to change the outcome. Additionally, it says, “The mind will always choose thinking about pain over experiencing it directly.”

In summary, our brains are more sensitive to unpleasant news, have a stronger reaction to negative imagery, and repeatedly revisit negative thoughts. This must be why the news and other media outlets highlight and focus on negative stories and make short references to positive ones.

So, why does this matter?

If we are constantly bombarded with negative stories and negative concepts, according to the statistics, we will spiral down with repetitive thoughts that trigger and illicit strong responses. It’s a repetitious cycle.

“

God commanded us to focus on and cling to the things that are good because all that is good points us back to God.

Is the World Going to Hell in a Handbasket?

I have heard well-meaning Christians say, “The world is going to hell in a handbasket,” more times than I can remember. And in many ways, it feels that way. But I would be remiss if I did not remind you, brothers and sisters, of these truths:

1. None of this new. “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9).

2. God is not surprised by this. In fact, he warned us it would happen. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

3. There is hope. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

God designed our minds, so he knows how they work. He also knows the toll sin takes on his creation and in our inner being. That is why nearly 2,000 years ago, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write,

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you (Philippians 4:8-9).

God commanded us to focus on and cling to the things that are good because all that is good points us back to God, the only one who can demonstrate it perfectly. This is why I encourage everyone to memorize as much Scripture as possible. When we repeat God’s words to ourselves, we correctly fight the battle at hand with the weapon he gave us, the sword of the spirit which is the Word of the Lord. There is hope, and his name is Jesus. 

@tbm_ministry

@tbm_ministry

@theboldmovement

/tbmministry theboldmovement.com

dent of planned giving with The Solomon Foundation. She is CEO of The Bold Movement and works with 1801 Media, Inc. She attends Christ's Community Church in Portsmouth, Ohio, where her husband serves as teaching pastor.

about the author

e 2:effective elders

Anchored by Hope

By Tom Ellsworth

The candles on my birthday cakes in recent years have been reduced to a symbolic number (so as not to set off smoke alarms), but my grandkids still urge me to make a wish and blow them out. I comply. When I was their age, I remember hoping my wish would come true, but there was always considerable doubt in that hope.

We regularly misuse the word hope in our casual conversations. “I hope it doesn’t rain today.” “I hope we get to take that vacation we’ve always dreamed about.”

“I hope the MRI results bring good news.” The hopeful statements all contain an element of doubt.

As a result, when we read the word hope in Scripture, we naturally assume an element of doubt in the writer’s assertion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hope as used in the New Testament is an assurance, a guarantee, a promise. And biblical hope isn’t based on something, it’s placed in Someone

On the wall of our home study hangs a decorative inscription of Hebrews 6:19: “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

Is it any wonder that an anchor was one of the ancient symbols of the Christian faith? Epitaphs on believers’ tombs dating as far back as the end of the first century frequently displayed anchors alongside messages of hope. But we need to remember that a ship’s anchor is worthless unless it latches onto something firm. The anchor can bring stability in the storm only if it clings to a solid foundation. Hope, as an anchor, works the same way. It is worthless unless secured to something firm and lasting. Far too many people anchor their hopes to the shifting sands of humanistic ideologies.

“ Hope anchored in Jesus brings confidence, changes the way we think, and gets us through life’s toughest challenges.

If your hope is anchored to a Marxist worldview, you’ll find yourself drifting in godless waters.

If your hope is anchored to an evolutionary, random-chance beginning, you’ll find yourself floating through life without lasting purpose, wondering why you exist.

If your hope is anchored to mere religion, you’ll find yourself bobbing in a sea of doubt.

But if your hope is anchored to Jesus Christ, the “Rock of Ages,” your faith will remain strong despite the world’s influence. When life’s storms rage, it is our hope anchored in Christ that keeps us grounded. Hope anchored in Jesus brings confidence, changes the way we think, and gets us through life’s toughest challenges. Why is hope so important?

Hope Squelches Fear

Where there is no hope, universal fear dominates. Our culture is handicapped by multiple fears, from hydrophobia to claustrophobia. We fear economic chaos, joblessness, social unrest, random shootings, open borders, teenage pregnancies, drug addiction, broken homes, unexpected disabilities, incurable diseases, and being left alone in this world without the one we love most. It’s no wonder we live in fear. But perhaps our fears are exaggerated. Many years ago, in his book Scared to Life, Douglas Rumford cited a study that explains why fears shouldn’t dominate our lives:

• 60 percent of our fears are totally unfounded.

• 20 percent of the things we fear are already behind us.

• 10 percent of the things we fear are so petty they don’t make any difference.

• 5 percent of the remaining 10 percent of fears are real, but we can’t do anything about them. Which means the remaining 5 percent are real fears that we can do something about. That means only 5 percent of our fears are truly justified.

Fear is no match for hope anchored in Christ!

hope anchors Our future

The three great pillars of the Christian life are faith, hope, and love. All three are vital to our spiritual survival. Where there is no hope in the future, there is no life in the present.

Can you imagine living through heartbreaking moments without the assurance of eternal life? How do you face a terminal disease, a debilitating accident, or the open casket of a loved one without the guarantee of a new body and new life in heaven? When the dark fog of depression closes in around you, can you find your way out without the hope that the best is yet to be?

While slogging through the valley, look up to these biblical promises:

Jesus: “I’m going to prepare a place for you that where I am there you may be also” (John 14:2-3, author’s paraphrase).

Paul: “To be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9, author’s paraphrase).

Psalmist: “Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5, New Living Translation).

On a Sunday morning in November 2021, my mom passed out and struck her head. At the hospital, the doctor informed her she would not survive the brain bleed. We gathered in her hospital room on that Sunday afternoon. I must tell you that in 48 years of ministry, I’ve never experienced a more uplifting conversation about dying. There was a glint of expectation in Mom’s eyes, a smile on her lips, and hopefulness in her words.

“Son, I’m going to see the Lord and your dad!”

I knew she was sad to leave us—she said as much with a tear—but anticipation filled her with a childlike, unspeakable joy. Her expectation was the culmination of 90 years of loving God and walking faithfully with him. Mom spent nine decades showing me how to live in hope and concluded her lifelong lesson by showing me how to die in hope.

May that kind of hope be a firm and secure anchor for your soul! 

about the author

Tom Ellsworth is in his fourth interim ministry since retiring in 2020 after serving 40 years as preaching minister with Sherwood Oaks Christian Church in Bloomington, Indiana. He also serves in several other Christian Church ministries.

Why Progressives and Conservatives Hope in the Same Thing

By Tyler McKenzie

Neither the hopes of ideological progressives nor those of conservatives are biblical because both locate their hope in the same place . . . humanity. While God has imbued humanity with awesome dignity and seemingly endless potential, grounding our ultimate hope in ourselves will always disappoint.

Progressives’ Hope

Progressives ground their hope in the advancement of human reason and ingenuity. The 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries have seen Western cultures driven by this vision that human progress in areas like technology, science, medicine, economics, and politics will bring us closer and closer to utopia. Every generation will leave the world a little better for the next. It’s all up and to the right. And throughout the process, these increasingly enlightened societies will grow out of the superstitions, religions, and moral systems of yesterday.

The problem is that with two centuries of evidence available now, we see the massive failure of the progressive dream. The 20th century is a case study of this. No century in human history has ever seen more blood spilt. This is illustrated in the changing attitudes of English historian H.G. Wells. In the 1920s and ’30s Wells was lovesick over the progressive vision. He wrote in A Short History of the World,

Can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations, that it will achieve unity and peace, and that our children will live in a world made more splendid and lovely than any palace or garden that we know, going on from strength to strength in an ever-widening circle of achievement? What man has done, the little triumphs of his present state . . . form but the prelude to the things that man has yet to do.

A few years later, World War II happened. After watching the most educated and cultured nation on earth bamboozled by Hitler, Wells flipped (as he recorded in Mind at the End of Its Tether from 1945):

The cold-blooded massacres of the defenseless, the return of deliberate and organized torture, mental torment, and fear to a world from which such things had seemed well nigh banished— has come near to breaking my spirit altogether. . . . “Homo sapiens,” as he has been pleased to call himself, is played out.

We are responsible for moving history forward, ruling and filling the earth, stewarding the graces of life, earth, and neighbor to the glory of God and the flourishing of one another.

Eventually we all must face the reality that we simply cannot be trusted. Technology can stimulate struggling economies or create nuclear weapons. Medicine can cure diseases or be exploited by pharmaceutical companies. Science can reveal undiscovered landscapes, and yet the sense that life goes beyond what can be accounted for by science alone continues to haunt many of us.

I say this often, but look around. How’s it going, America? We are the most advanced society in human history. We have more tech than ever. Wealth abounds. Luxuries are more sumptuous and pervasive. Food tastes better. Sex is fluid and accessible. Life expectancies are longer. People can do whatever they want with their lives, careers, families, marriages, and bodies. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

But are we happier? That would be a hard argument to make. The alarm bells are going off. Statistically, our generation is more mentally unhealthy than ever (when measured by suicide and depression). We are lonelier, more anti-social, and despairing than previous generations. We are more untrusting of our major institutions and one another. Our media is dishonest, dramatic, and malevolent. Our cultural art and literature are dystopian, apocalyptic, and pessimistic. We have this low-boil, seething rage against all the institutions that have failed us.

Conservatives’ Hope

While progressives ground their hope in the future advancement of human reason and ingenuity, conservatives ground their hope in the preservation of a historic instance of human brilliance (like the Constitution) or a perceived “golden era” of American history. (This is captured with campaign slogans like “Make America Great Again!”) The problem here is that history will not allow us to whitewash our unsavory past. The well-documented racism, sexism, religious extremism, economic exploitation, political corruption, and violence in our nation’s history is undeniable.

The Bible is unique in its refusal to venerate any prophet, priest, king, or apostle as flawless and in its refusal to extol any age as “golden.” Besides Jesus, every main character is guilty of egregious sin. From Adam and Eve, to Noah, to Abraham and the Patriarchs. The books of 1 and 2 Kings are an unforgiving invective against basically every king. If we had to sum up the main messages of these two books, along with 1 and 2 Samuel and Chronicles, we might write, “Even the good kings weren’t that good.”

The spokesman for the apostles was a betrayer. The author of half the New Testament waged holy war against Christians before his conversion. Tax collectors, former demonpossessed women, zealots, and doubters were at the top of the org chart. My point is this: it is a uniquely Christian trait to recount our stories and heroes, warts-and-all.

Christian Hope

As we can see, neither the futuristic hopes of the progressive nor the preserving hopes of the conservative get us all the way there. A robust biblical hope summons the best of both. Biblical hope is strongly conservative in that it is in the historic person of Jesus and the historic event of his crucifixion and resurrection. However, it is strongly progressive in that we believe conserving the way, the truth, and the life of the risen Jesus gives us power today to build the kingdom until Jesus returns. We are responsible for moving history forward, ruling and filling the earth, stewarding the graces of life, earth, and neighbor to the glory of God and the flourishing of one another.

What makes Christian hope better than the progressive or conservative version is that the power source is theocentric, not anthropocentric. Both progressives and conservatives believe power starts inside of us and flows inside-out. But the Christian believes power flows outside-inside-out. We believe that hope is grounded in a historic person (Jesus) and event (his crucifixion and resurrection). Upon accepting this, a transcendent power (the Holy Spirit) comes in and animates us with a living hope that isn’t just eye-onthe-sky passivity but power for our time.

Hope-filled Christians have our eyes fixed on the past as we bring the way of Jesus to bear on the future. In a cultural moment that is exhausted with the zero-sum game that partisans in government, academia, and church play, this third way has more evangelistic appeal than we might imagine. 

about the author

Tyler McKenzie serves as lead pastor at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

horizons

The Esther Project Shop Gives Hope to Artisans

By Laura McKillip Wood

Stacy Hollingsworth grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee and lived in Senegal for several years as a missionary. She then returned to the United States and worked as a forensic psychologist on violent crimes. Doing that work with the state, she saw firsthand how hard life can be for people with traumatic backgrounds.

As an adoptive parent of six children, she is invested in improving the lives of children in her South Carolina community. However, her vision for helping impoverished people who have experienced trauma expanded when she visited Kenya for the first time in 2015.

Participating in a medical mission there, she saw firsthand how lack of resources affects families in poverty, and she dedicated herself to helping people in whatever ways she could. This medical ministry also used the opportunities provided by contact with patients to start a church plant and outreach into the communities where it worked. After first helping meet people’s medical needs, they began ministering to their spiritual needs.

The Needs of Women and Children

It wasn’t until Stacy participated in a women’s symposium in Kenya, though, that she was led to help people affected by human trafficking. She learned that the average Kenyan woman lives on $2 a day. With that $2, she must find a way to feed and clothe her family. These women are trapped in a system of poverty; many feel helpless and turn to child trafficking as a last resort. Additionally, many greedy people exploit these families and their vulnerable children. The problem is widespread.

“Over fifty children a week are trafficked,” Stacy says.

According to the State Department, “In 2020, an international NGO [nongovernmental organization] reported there are between 35,000 and 40,000 victims of sex trafficking, including child sex tourism, in Kenya, of which approximately 19,000 are children.”

Some of these children are exploited by Kenyan people, while other children are exploited by foreign tourists who take advantage of sex-trafficking opportunities.

Stacy felt moved to dedicate herself to helping women and children stay out of sex trafficking. From her unique perspective as a person of Native American descent, she has seen that donations of money alone do not solve problems for people in poverty, so she brainstormed ways to empower women to increase their incomes. Stacy knew that many Kenyan women

“ Stacy felt moved to dedicate herself to helping women and children stay out of sex trafficking.

are skilled artisans who make beautiful bags, jewelry, and other items, but do not have places to sell them.

“They would go and sit all day in the market, sell nothing, and then had to return home, where the workload was heavy,” says The Esther Project Shop website. Demand for artistic goods is not high in a culture where many are just trying to survive. Many of these women ended up with double the workload—making their handcrafted items, trying to sell them to meet basic survival needs, while still maintaining a household.

Stacy wondered how to connect artisans in Kenya with people in the United States who would love to purchase their handmade items. Three years ago, she began a nonprofit that did just that, and The Esther Project Shop was born. The shop brings handmade items from Kenya to the U.S. for shoppers to purchase. The team started with five Kenyan artisans, and the effort now involves more than 250!

In the process, through the ministry’s efforts, the artisans’ quality of life has improved, and they are now able to provide food, safe housing, and education for their children. They also are more involved and connected with Christians in their community.

A Village Participates

Even though Stacy started working mainly with women, she quickly saw limits to what women could do in their culture. Women cannot participate in some jobs, and even educated women still must remain conscious of their place in a male-dominated culture.

One village heard about Stacy and contacted her to propose a new facet of the work. This village struggled financially, but they had access to soapstone. They offered to mine soapstone and create carvings from it. Women cannot do this work in their culture, and the men in the village wanted to use their skills to support their families and grow the ministry. This village also saw the need for protection and education for children removed from sex trafficking. Village leaders agreed to donate land to build an orphanage for these children. They also partner with a school of 600 where girls are trained in tailoring. When they graduate, they can support themselves and their families and thus break the cycle of sex trafficking and abuse in this village.

Stacy and her coworkers in Kenya monitor all the work being done by artisans to ensure it is their work alone and no slave labor is involved. They know it is possible for American groups to unknowingly support systems that promote slavery and trafficking, despite their good intentions and desire to help, and Stacy does not want to blindly support people who exploit their fellow Kenyans.

She is happy the artisans she works with do their own work and support their families and communities with the money they earn.

Since it began, The Esther Project Shop has progressed from shipping goods for sale in the United States in suitcases to shipping them in containers. Stacy’s vision for the ministry is that it will continue to grow and will expand outside Kenya. The need is great, and Stacy and The Esther Project Shop are there to meet it as much as possible.

Learn more about The Esther Project Shop ministry at https://www.theestherprojectshop.com.

about the author

/laura.wood2

@woodlaura30

@woodlaura30

lauramckillipwood.com

lauramckillipwood@gmail.com

Laura McKillip Wood, former missionary to Ukraine, now serves as bereavement coordinator and palliative care chaplain at Children's Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. She and her husband, Andrew, have three teenagers.

‘We’re Talking About (Marriage) Practice’

By Osharye Hagood

Practice is a key principle to having a “winning” marriage. Back when we were learning to drive a car, or playing on a sports team, or perhaps learning to dance, we underwent the repetition of practice. This perspective has been extremely helpful for me in my marriage to Rudy. I wake up each day with the desire to have a great marriage, and I understand this can only happen over time, with practice, by the power of God. Please hear me when I say,  the gift of love does not equate to a world-championship marriage. It takes practice.

Rudy loves basketball, so I’ll share an illustration from that sport. The word practice took on a new life four days after the Philadelphia 76ers’ season ended in 2002. A sportswriter asked Allen Iverson, the team’s franchise player, about coach Larry Brown’s comments to the press four days earlier. Brown had said, “Your key player’s got to be there. He’s got to be practicing. He’s got to set the example, and he knows that.” To this, Iverson famously replied, at his own press conference, “We’re talking about practice . . . not a game . . . we’re talking about practice?” He repeated the word practice 22 times, and it became a famous pop culture reference.

Similarly, I’d like the word practice to take on a new life as it relates to marriage.

Practice to Become Proficient

People who have been married for any length of time have learned that no one comes into it as an expert. We’re just human beings doing our best; in other words, we’re practitioners. So, if we want a world-championship marriage, we have to put in the practice.

Merriam-Webster defines practice as “to perform or work at repeatedly so as to become proficient.” A practitioner is defined as “one who practices, [especially] one who practices a profession.” So, we are practitioners who practice marriage.

Consider a primary difference between a physician and a nurse practitioner. Doctors can prescribe medication to patients as part of their duties. Nurse practitioners also prescribe medicine, but many states require that a doctor or physician provide direct oversight of the nurse practitioners’ scripts. What I’m saying is that even the most skilled among us are just practicing. Even life and death decision-making fall within the guidelines of practice. No one is perfect at it. We will all make mistakes.

Marriage is a beautiful and divine piece of art. Marriage is the blank canvas God has entrusted to amateur artists who are producing world-class art, and this is possible only through practice and divine inspiration.

Consider this adaptation of 2 Peter 1:5-8 as viewed through the lens of marriage and practice: “Make every effort to add to your marriage goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive.”

“ We all need practice, it does not guarantee a win, but it gives a person a greater chance at winning.

Practice Until It Becomes Second Nature

Let’s return to the basketball illustration. Allen Iverson obviously had put in a great deal of practice to become the franchise’s top player. He was at the top of his game, even as he continued to dwell on the shooting death of his best friend from seven months earlier. His coach arguably thought that practice could have been a critical ingredient in that hour. We all need practice, it does not guarantee a win, but it gives a person a greater chance at winning.

Here are six reasons practice can be a game changer for marriages:

• Practice changes the brain. Repeated practice helps trigger an “autopilot” switch that causes our actions to become automatic and unconscious.

• Practice is proactive. It helps us become more in control and less reactive. Practicing helps diminish being ruled by frustrations and negative emotions.

• Practice establishes a routine. If we practice giving our spouse what we’ve learned they love and need, it typically increases their happiness.

• Practice promotes continuity in our marriages.

• Practice gives us hope.

• Practice helps us eliminate (or at least minimize) our mistakes.

We all remember learning to drive a car. Having access to a car did not mean we instantly knew how to drive it. We had to get into the vehicle and learn how to make various adjustments (to the seat and mirrors), and we had to learn about the difference between the gas pedal and the brake. We probably didn’t think about these things when we weren’t driving. But then, the more time

we spent behind the wheel practicing, the better we got at driving. In the same way, we need to practice to create the marriage we desire. If we want to be happy in our marriage, we must practice. In time, it will then become second nature.

We won’t need to think about dribbling and passing. We won’t need to focus intently on keeping the car going straight. And we won’t need to think about being considerate and loving toward our spouse. Marriage practitioners aren’t perfect people, but they practice perfection.

So, strive to have the best marriage in the world—a worldchampionship marriage. Sometimes we will succeed, and sometimes we will fail, but we must continue to practice. Practice to win. We are a key player in our marriage.

The Bible says, “We are more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). That applies to our life in Christ and to our marriages, as well. Now, get out there and practice! 

about the authors

Rudy and Osharye Hagood have seven children and nine grandchildren so far. Osharye is a women’s minister who is also certified as both a life coach and a health coach. Rudy is a college professor with a background in social work. They love being married and love to bless both married and engaged couples.

@rudy.hagood

@rudy_hagood_

preach

What Does the Bible Say About Everything?

By Chris Philbeck

As I write this column, I’m in the middle of a message series called, “Truth Over Trend” (series title not original to me). The specific topics are gender identity, same-sex relationships, deconstruction of the Christian faith, and having the courage to speak up for biblical truth. You’d have to have your head buried in the sand not to realize the seriousness of these issues in our world and culture, and the impact they have on our local communities and families.

Writing the first two messages on gender identity and same-sex relationships reminded me of an important truth about preaching the Bible. We can sometimes make the mistake of treating the Bible like a reference book or religious encyclopedia. That can happen when we ask, “What does the Bible say about (fill in the blank).” But the Bible is much more than a reference book or religious encyclopedia. It’s the revelation of God to man that reveals the story of God, the character of God, the heart of God, the power of God, the desire of God, the will of God, and so much more.

So, rather than asking, for example, “What does the Bible say about same-sex relationships?” we need to ask, “What does the Bible say about everything?” and let that become the foundation of our preaching.

the 'clobber-passages' perspective

When it comes to same-sex relationships, most Bible students are familiar with a list of Scriptures that have come to be known as the “clobber passages,” for example, Genesis 19; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:2627; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; 1 Timothy 1:9-10. I want to be clear that I believe the words of 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” That means I believe each of these “clobber passages” is important and relevant when it comes to the question of same-sex relationships.

In fact, I would recommend Kevin DeYoung’s book What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality or Preston Sprinkle’s People to Be Loved (Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue) to help you in your understanding of these passages, including the criticisms.

But when we approach the issue of same-sex relationships with a “What does the Bible say about everything?” perspective, we not only have the benefit of passages that speak to same-sex relationships, but also the benefit of passages that speak to everything God says about human sexuality. So, we don’t focus solely on verses that speak against same-sex relationship, but also verses that speak for biblical sexuality.

The Whole-Counsel-of-God Perspective

Let’s look at a couple examples of preaching from this perspective. Genesis 1:27-28a shares not only the truth that God made us to be sexual creatures, but also God’s natural order and pattern for sexuality. A chapter later, in Genesis 2:20b-25, you see God’s creative design for men and women to experience companionship, complementarity, and intimacy. That’s one example of broadening the question to, “What does the Bible say about everything?”

Another example is the clear New Testament teaching about sexual immorality which, in the original language of the New Testament, is the Greek word porneia. A literal definition of that word is “illicit sexual activity,” which is any sexual activity that occurs outside of the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. So, it includes, but is not limited to, same-sex relationships.

The word porneia is used 25 times in the New Testament. Examples include: “The body . . . is not meant for sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:13); “Flee from sexual immorality” (Ephesians 5:3); and “Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality” (Ephesians 5:3).

In studying this word porneia (sexual immorality), we learn, or are reminded, that all sexual sin is offensive to God whether it’s homosexual sin or heterosexual sin. Critics of a biblical perspective of same-sex relationships will sometimes say that Christians are hypocrites because they are selective in their condemnation of sin. And sometimes they are right. The Bible celebrates the sexual expression between husbands and wives because that sexual expression is a gift from God. But outside of that, there are no other examples or expressions of sex that are condoned by God, again, whether homosexual or heterosexual.

Preaching has always been challenging, but it has become even more so in the modern world as culture moves further away from God in new and disturbing ways. But every time I read Psalm 19:7-11, I’m reminded of the sufficiency of the Scriptures for whatever issue or challenge we face. I see that sufficiency in the different names David used to describe God’s Word: “The law of the Lord,” “The statutes of the Lord,” “The precepts of the Lord,” “The commands of the Lord,” and “The fear of the Lord.” As we embrace the high calling of preaching, let’s embrace the whole counsel of God’s Word by sharing everything it reveals for life and living. We can do that when we ask this question: What does the Bible say about everything? 

As we embrace the high calling of preaching, let’s embrace the whole counsel of God’s Word by sharing everything it reveals for life and living.

@pastorphilbeck

Chris Philbeck serves as senior pastor of Mount Pleasant Christian Church in Greenwood, Indiana. He has been in ministry since 1980 and has had the privilege of planting a new church, leading a turnaround church, and now leading a megachurch.

/PastorCPhilbeck @cphilbeck

about the author

I t’s been said that a person can live 40 days without food, four days without water, four minutes without air, but only four seconds without hope. Hope is a power that energizes us with life. The available research on hope is limited, so Christian Standard conducted an online survey in May 2023 to assess how hopeful people are about the future of the church. The survey size was limited—just 141 responses—but the results were informative.

It’s worth noting that 87 percent of the survey participants reported attending church “more than once a week” or “once a week,” which reflects a higher level of church participation than the average U.S. adult. An additional 6 percent said they attended church “once or twice a month.”

The Hope Quotient

By Kent E. Fillinger

how hopeful/optimistic are you for the future of the church in america?

More than three-fourths of the respondents (78 percent) said they were “very hopeful” or “somewhat hopeful” for the future of the church in America. Women were more hopeful than men regarding the future of the American church (83 percent vs. 74 percent, respectively).

Respondents from the Silent Generation (born 1928 to 1945) were the most hopeful, while those from Generation Z (born 1997–2012) were the least hopeful (100 percent vs. 57 percent, respectively). More than four-fifths of Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964) and Millennials (born 1981–1996) were “very hopeful” or “somewhat hopeful” for the future of the American church (87 percent and 82 percent, respectively), but only 64 percent of Generation X (born 1965–1980) were equally hopeful.

Frequency of church attendance impacted hopefulness for the future of the church. Among those who reported attending church “more than once a week,” 41 percent said they were “very hopeful” for the church’s future. Among those who reported attending church “once a week” only 30 percent were “very hopeful” for the church’s future, and that percentage dropped to only 11 percent for those who attend church “once or twice a month.”

People who said they were “very satisfied” or “mostly satisfied” with the way things were going in their lives were the most hopeful about the future of the American church. Among those who were “very satisfied” with their lives, 52 percent said they were “very hopeful” about the church’s future. Of those who were “mostly satisfied” with their lives, only 29 percent said they were “very hopeful” for the church. On the flip side, more than 60 percent of those who said they were “mostly dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with their lives said they were “not that hopeful” or “not at all hopeful” for the future of the American church.

How hopeful/optimistic are you that Christian Churches/Churches of Christ will be healthier/ stronger in 2050 than today?

Overall, people were slightly less hopeful about the future health of Christian Churches/Churches of Christ than they were about the future of the American church (70 percent vs. 78 percent, respectively). More than onefourth of respondents (28 percent) said they were “not too hopeful” the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ would be stronger in 2050 than today.

Women were once again more hopeful than the men in our survey (72 percent vs. 68 percent, respectively). The different generational groups responded similarly to the prior question, with the Silent Generation being the most hopeful and Generation Z the least hopeful. Again, life satisfaction levels seemed to color people’s perspective and hopefulness for the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ.

How hopeful/optimistic are you that the church you currently attend will be healthier/stronger in 2050 than today?

People were the most hopeful about the church they attend, with 79 percent of survey respondents saying they were “very hopeful” or “somewhat hopeful” their church would be stronger in 2050 than today. Women, again, were more hopeful than men about their church’s future (84 percent vs. 75 percent, respectively).

Some might be surprised that while Gen Z isn’t hopeful for “the” church, they are hopeful for “their” church; in fact, their generation was the most hopeful of any in this regard. Among the Gen Z respondents (ages 11 to 26), 85 percent said they were “very hopeful” or “somewhat hopeful.” Baby Boomers and Millennials also had a high level of hope for their local church (83 percent and 81 percent, respectively). About three-fourths of the Silent Generation and Generation X (75 percent and 73 percent, respectively) were equally hopeful.

about the author

how hopeful/optimistic are you that your children and/or grandchildren will follow in your footsteps in terms of their faith/devotion to god and his church?

The parents and grandparents in our study were overwhelmingly hopeful (87 percent) that their children and grandchildren would follow in their faith footsteps. Women continued to be more hopeful than men in this regard (92 percent vs. 83 percent, respectively).

People in Generation X were the most hopeful in their responses, with 93 percent saying they were “very hopeful” or “somewhat hopeful” their children and grandchildren would remain faithful to God. (This despite Gen Xers consistently being less hopeful than most generational groups regarding the future of the American church, the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, and their own local church.) The Silent Generation was the least hopeful about their children and grandchildren’s future devotion to God (76 percent).

Among those who attend church “once or twice a month,” 86 percent said they were hopeful their children and grandchildren would follow in their faith footsteps. If that’s true, it means future generations may equate occasional church attendance with full devotion to God and his church.

overall, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in your life today?

Among all 141 respondents, 86 percent said they were either “very satisfied” or “mostly satisfied” with their lives today. Women and men were about equally satisfied (89 percent vs. 88 percent, respectively).

All participants from the Silent Generation and Generation Z were satisfied with their lives. Among the rest: Generation X (94 percent satisfied), Millennials (85 percent), and Baby Boomers (84 percent).

People who reported attending church more frequently were more likely to be satisfied with their lives. Among people who reported attending church “more than once a week,” 93 percent said they were satisfied with their lives, while 90 percent of those who attended church “once a week” were satisfied. And among those who attended church “once or twice a month,” only 55 reported being satisfied with their lives. This corresponds to multiple other research studies that show church attendance equates to better overall health.

John C. Maxwell said, “Where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present.” Our ability as Christians to remain hopeful and to be dealers in hope will help to shape the future of the church and impact how others behave and believe. 

Kent E. Fillinger serves as president of 3:STRANDS Consulting, Indianapolis, Indiana, and regional vice president (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan) with Christian Financial Resources.

Frequency of church attendance impacted hopefulness for the future of the church.

1997-2012 Gen Z is giving us hope!

By Jacob Stewart

We have seen the data. We have heard the news. We get it. Gen Z is the worst.

At least that is what I am accustomed to hearing. Generation Z (comprised of people born from 1997 to 2012) may go down in history as the most analyzed, picked on, studied, and bashed generation in the world . . . right next to Millennials (those born 1981–96). Have you seen the memes? It’s brutal out there.

As a youth pastor for 10 years, I have worked closely with Gen Z. I agree with my current high school ministry student leadership team: the discourse on their generation has been overwhelming and depressing.

Data is hard to deny though. They are the most connected generation ever, but also the loneliest. Nearly half of Christian teens say they never read the Bible. Nearly half of teens believe all religions teach equally valid truths. On average, they spend 7 hours and 35 minutes online every day. More than half (55 percent) of U.S. teens believe marriage should not be exclusively between a man and a woman. I could go on.

I’ve seen churches all over the world say they are “all about” the next generation and long to see them repent and experience revival like what occurred at Asbury University earlier this year. And yet, these same churches are confused and frustrated about why their church is not growing and reaching young people. Church leaders want Gen Zers to know Jesus.

Yet, I’ve seen them cast heaps of judgment upon the next generation . . . and a profound lack of hope.

In my opinion, however, this generation is the most open of any in our churches to experiencing the Holy Spirit and bringing about revival. Have we not learned from the failures of the Israelites that it takes intentionality to pass on faith and leadership to the next generation?

If we want to see revival like some are experiencing, we should ask ourselves, What am I doing to champion the next generation in a meaningful way in my church or organization?

At Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, our youth are giving us hope. The church leaders and the adult youth leaders are not doing anything profound or innovative, per se. We desperately want our students to experience Jesus’ grace and to learn how to be made new day by day and to become more like Jesus in their homes, schools, sports teams, and our city.

We are trying to envision a new way of youth ministry and to engage the next generation in profound ways within our church. This requires patience, trust, and humility because we think the old way of youth ministry is gone. The days of one big event after another, week after week, isn’t working anymore.

Youth ministry can’t ignore the culture. The targets at which we constantly aim include these:

A Web of Meaningful Relationships

If you want the next generation within your church to be thriving and active, they desperately need people who know them, love them, and are interested in them standing and serving alongside loving parents.

The next generation in our church doesn’t want to be siloed off. Instead, they want to be known by their friends, pastor, and leaders.

This next generation is lonely and unconnected, but our lead pastor and elders are devoted to changing that by disproportionally investing in the youth of the church . . . and not just through the budgeting process. The church’s leaders are sharing stories about the youth ministry and inviting the youth ministry team to “take over” specific Sundays and have students lead worship and teach. They allow our students to serve not just on Wednesday nights but also on Sunday mornings, and they have created a large spot in our Sunday-morning “adult” worship service for our high schoolers to gather and worship together as a part of our church.

We now structure our youth ministry around conversations instead of content. I’ll never forget my summer 2022 student leaders proposing their idea for a “HOT” summer. After I experienced a few anxious moments—I thought this might be heading in the wrong direction—one leader shared how they wanted our youth ministry to be “honest, open, and transparent.”

This student-leader-generated idea was preached to their peers that summer and became our theme for the entire year. This past May, we wrapped up the conversation of biblical community and learning how to be honest, open, and transparent with those around us. Empowering students to lead and drive conversation has been a game changer. (Of course, we still provide oversight and direction.)

This generation wants to be heard, so we work hard to equip our leaders to foster small groups of students to engage in honest and transparent ways with their leaders and peers. To build transparency and honesty, we tell them that hard questions are OK. We teach these student leaders how to navigate Scripture well so they can pass it on to their peers.

A Culture of Biblical Literacy

We see the mission as being like when Ezra and Nehemiah made a deep commitment to God’s Word and prayer when they returned from exile. We want this generation to know and love God’s Word. This is why I am preaching shorter messages. I want them to wrestle with the Scriptures and not just receive all the answers. We want to ask better questions that get to the heart of what God desires for them rather than serving them answers on a platter and making it easy for them.

To that end, instead of always doing “topical” sermon series, we are leaning into large book studies. This past January through April, our high school students studied the book of Acts. Yeah, that’s right. Four months, one book of the Bible, a few chapters a week. The transformation we have seen through having honest and open dialogue about our faith, the early church, and the challenges we see in our own community has enabled students to see that their church can be the greatest source of community.

Sure, I sometimes hear moans and groans as we tackle large portions of Scripture and assign weekly reading, but it’s worth it to see students engaging with the Bible and learning how to follow Jesus’ ways, together, as a youth ministry.

THIS GENwants to be heard.

genZ

IS OPEN TO DISCUSSION OF THOUGHT AND BELIEF.

A Capability to Exegete Culture

For students to understand why they should not adopt some of today’s popular cultural beliefs, we must be patient and listen to their claims, while simultaneously presenting what the Bible teaches. This requires time, thought, and the skill set to exegete culture yourself in a meaningful way. You cannot just look at a cultural issue and say, “That’s bad! Don’t believe it!” This generation is looking for robust answers because, well, they probably have done their research (even if their research was inadequate and misguided).

We try to be thoughtful, create environments where students can share their thoughts and opinions freely, and teach them how to assess their culture in a meaningful way. Our church is passionate about helping not just the students but every person to better understand the world and how Jesus is redeeming it, and to more adequately engage with others who think or believe differently.

The next generation is open to discussion of thought and belief—they are eager to learn—but are you open to being challenged by someone younger than you?

Actual Experiences of the Holy Spirit

We want this generation to truly experience the Lord and his presence. We can easily stir up emotions among students and adults. Students typically are emotional, and sometimes they can confuse the hype of a service with the presence of the Holy Spirit. Whether our service, or any service, was Spirit-led will be proven by the fruit. Still, we want to try our best to teach students how the Holy Spirit is with them and working in them at all times . . . and not just on a Wednesday night or Sunday morning. Our worship team does an incredible job of creating moments to lean into what God is speaking to us in times of worship.

For us, this includes creating opportunities for not just worship but prayer. On some Sundays, Northeast’s leadership team plans services that focus more heavily on worship and prayer than preaching. On one recent Sunday, our lead pastor invited people

to come forward just to pray and worship, and it was incredible to see not just the adults come forward, but also our students.

The next generation led the way; they stood up first to raise their hands in worship, to walk forward and kneel on carpets and pillows and surrender whatever was on their hearts to God. Even better, when they see a friend go forward, they go with them. They sit with them, talk with them, and pray with them. They do not care that hundreds of people are looking at them or concerned with who might be in the room to see them; they come forward anyway and show our church their obedience to the moving of the Holy Spirit.

We do our best to create space for them both in our youth ministry and on Sunday mornings so they can be silent before God, receive prayer and encouragement from leaders and others, and have a genuine response to whatever and wherever God may be leading them. We are nurturing a generation to not just be swept up in the emotion of a service but, instead, to obey the Holy Spirit in their everyday lives.

A Generation to Be Loved and Empowered

The next generation is teaching and leading the way in our church in so many ways.

We do not have it all figured out, and students are still struggling daily. Some haven’t yet made a commitment to Jesus. But we keep speaking life and hope over them, and they’re beginning to see that life with Jesus is better than anything else that is being offered. Life with Jesus makes the most sense when we talk about it with them over weeks, months, and sometimes years.

They need us to point to the hope Jesus offers and to see the hope that is in their life. Will you join us in raising up a generation like this? 

Jacob Stewart serves as youth 9-12 pastor at Northeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

A BIBLICAL CHARACTER STUDY

BY DOUG REDFORD

I N the first part of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, entitled “Inferno” (Italian for Hell ), Dante comes across the gates of Hell during his travels. There he sees these ominous words etched above the entrance to the underworld: “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.”

But when one enters the world of the Bible and travels through the landscape of its contents, a far different message resounds throughout its pages. That message is, “Embrace hope, all ye who enter here.”

Paul’s words in Romans 15:4 affirm this invitation: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” When Paul wrote these words, the Scriptures covered primarily the contents of the Old Testament; but they most certainly include the New Testament and its message of the “living hope” provided through Jesus’ resurrection (1 Peter 1:3).

THE GOD OF HOPE

We read only a few pages in our Bibles before we see the entrance of sin shattering the relationship between God and the couple made in his image. Yet even as God declared the punishment for both that couple and the serpent who tempted Eve, he announced the coming of the woman’s seed who will crush that serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). It is the first glimmer of messianic hope in the Bible.

Not long afterward, we find that death, the punishment God stated would “certainly” come upon the man and the woman for their disobedience (Genesis 2:17), did not touch faithful Enoch, whom God abruptly removed from this world (Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5). The God whom Paul called the “God of hope” (Romans 15:13) has been so from the beginning.

Solomon, though renowned for his wisdom, had to admit, “Since no one knows the future, who can tell someone else what is to come?” (Ecclesiastes 8:7). Rather than reveal to us everything that is to come, whether in our personal lives or in the grand scheme of history, God calls on us to embrace hope that regardless of what happens in the present, his purpose and his promises remain steadfast. He does not lie (Titus 1:2).

Furthermore, we can follow in those same Scriptures cited by Paul in Romans 15:4 God’s record of faithfulness in keeping his word. Because of God’s faithfulness in the past, we choose to live obediently in the present and to commit the future to him. Consider examples from Scripture of those who chose to embrace hope.

A PATRIARCH: ABRAHAM

The word hope does not appear in the Genesis record of Abraham’s life. But in Romans 4, Paul called attention to the part hope played in Abraham’s walk with God. Paul wrote, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’” (Romans 4:18). Those words “against all hope” assess the possibility of Abraham and Sarah becoming parents at their advanced age. But Abraham “believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he  couldn’t do but on what God said he  would do” (Romans 4:18, The Message). Abraham embraced hope in God’s promise, and Isaac was born.

When God commanded the aged patriarch to offer that same son as a sacrifice, the writer of Hebrews explained what guided Abraham’s thinking as he prepared to obey: “Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:19).

Why did Abraham reason that way? Because Abraham and Sarah had already experienced a resurrection with Isaac’s birth, since both of them were “dead” in their ability to become parents at their advanced age (Romans 4:19). Abraham once again embraced hope; in fact, his hope extended beyond blessings of this life. Hebrews 11:10 said that “he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

A KING (DAVID) AND A BOOK (PSALMS)

The book of Psalms, of which David is the primary author, is brimming with hope. David expressed that hope in several passages (Psalm 25:21; 31:24; 37:9, 34; and 52:9, to name a few). Even where the word hope is not used, certain psalms exhibit a steadfast hope—the best example being Psalm 23. Those psalms not attributed to David or which have no author provided often speak of hope in the Lord and encourage others to find that same hope in him (Psalm 33:18, 20, 22; 42:5, 11; 71:5, 14).

Several psalms express a hope that anticipates the messianic hope associated later with the prophets. David, in Psalm 16, expressed his confidence that “you [the Lord] will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay” (v. 10). Peter quoted David’s words on the Day of Pentecost as fulfilled in Jesus, using the words “my body also will rest in hope” (Acts 2:26, from Psalm 16:9). Other noteworthy psalms in this category include Psalms 49, 110, and the hopeful words of Psalm 23, which concludes with forever.

A NATION AND ITS PROPHETS

In Deuteronomy, Moses was straightforward about the curses that awaited God’s covenant people should they turn away from the Lord and worship other gods (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). But he also encouraged the people that even though they experienced the judgment of God for their sin, they could still embrace hope. When the people became exiled to other nations because of their rebellion, if they returned to the Lord in sincere repentance, he would gather them and bring them back home (Deuteronomy 30:1-5).

God commissioned prophets to echo these themes of judgment and hope to his people. Isaiah’s prophetic ministry came during the years when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom (Israel) as God’s instrument of judgment against it and threatened to do the same to the southern kingdom (Judah). Yet Isaiah encouraged the people to embrace hope: “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Jeremiah carried out his prophetic ministry in Jerusalem at the very time the Babylonians were besieging the city. Prior to the beginning of that siege, they had already exiled some of the residents of Judah to Babylon. The prophet dispatched a letter to those captives, which included one of the classic affirmations of biblical hope: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (Jeremiah 29:11). But that hope must be accompanied by a seeking after God (v. 13).

Jeremiah, who is often termed the “weeping prophet,” most likely wrote the book of Lamentations,

in which he expressed his deep sorrow over the plight of God’s people. But Jeremiah also chose to embrace hope. “Yet this I call to mind,” he wrote, “and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:2123). The prophet added, in a challenge to all to embrace hope, “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him” (v. 25).

God told the prophet Habakkuk of his intent to use the Babylonians to carry out his judgment against Judah, which troubled the prophet because of how cruel the Babylonians were. This minor prophet, however, came to a place where he too embraced hope and concluded his brief message with a major statement of hope: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:17-18). The modern reader must replace Habakkuk’s thoughs with more contemporary scenarios: high gas prices, inflation, potential bank failures, etc. Can we hold on to joy, to hope, even amid all of those thoughs?

A major thrust of the Old Testament prophets’ message of hope included prophecies of a special kind of ruler over God’s people, a king whose dominion would include the nations far beyond Israel. Isaiah is a primary source of such messages of hope—messages that the messy world of which he was a part would be eclipsed by a messianic age of blessings to be imparted to peoples far and wide (Isaiah 2:2-4; 11:1-10; 49:1-6; 55:3-5).

(COLOSSIANS 1:27)

THE CHRIST OF HOPE

The Jewish people in the time of Christ lived in hope of a Messiah—one who would end the dominance of the Romans and restore Israel to a time of greatness like what they had known under King David. And Jesus certainly came to bring hope, but it was not the kind anticipated by most in his day.

The men on the road to Emmaus expressed the bitter disappointment about Jesus to the traveler who joined them: “We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). By day’s end, the two men came to realize that their hopes were not dashed; the one to whom they were talking was the one who had indeed brought redemption, not only to Israel but to all humanity. The disciples in Jerusalem, who had hidden in fear of what might happen to them, now waited in great anticipation until the promised Holy Spirit came and empowered them for the great work they would begin to do.

We often think of Christian hope as something that sustains us when a believer dies. Without question, our hope in Christ is probably most precious to us whenever we face those times of loss. We understand that those who have faithfully followed and served Jesus in this life are in “sleep mode.” Thus we “do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). We embrace hope from Jesus’ words: “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).

Paul wrote, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). But because he is alive, we can embrace hope in this life, even when

circumstances become especially trying. Peter wrote his first Epistle at a time when the persecution of Christians was intensifying. This is perhaps why Peter included more than one reference to hope in his letter (1 Peter 1:3, 13, 21; 3:15). The last reference is where Peter encouraged Christians to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” Our hope in Christ should not be reserved for occasions at a funeral home; it should be demonstrated in our everyday home, and in ways that generate questions from curious, searching-for-hope onlookers.

The writer of Hebrews noted how some champions of faith were empowered to do amazing acts of triumph, even miraculous acts (Hebrews 11:32-35a). For others, however, their faith-life was excruciatingly painful and humiliating (vv. 35b-38). All of these, however, await the “something better” that awaits all followers of Jesus (vv. 39-40). That will come at the event Paul called the “blessed hope,” the triumphant return of Jesus (Titus 2:13). That hope is still the anchor for our souls, as “firm and secure” as ever (Hebrews 6:18-19). It is still intended to “overflow” within us, even in the overwhelming times around us (Romans 15:13).

Embrace hope: from the Scriptures, the examples they provide, and from “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). 

Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities come.

THE FINE PRINT OF RELATIONSHIP

GOD HAS ALWAYS FULFILLED HIS COVENANTAL PROMISES— AND HE STILL DOES

BY MARTY SOLOMON

“Trust me.”

Those aren’t popular words these days. We’re waking up to the reality of institutional abuses, cultural messaging, and half-truths. Simply put, we don’t trust anybody but ourselves.

God has always invited his creation into a place of trust. Hebraic thought talks about this using words in which we place great theological stock: belief, trust, hope, faith. These words speak of the dynamic relationship between God and his creation. From the opening chapters of Scripture, God invited humanity into a place of trust—trust in the goodness of creation, in his acceptance of and provision for you, in his ability to protect.

We weren’t any better at trusting back then, unfortunately.

But God was building a story on a foundation of hope. We’d have to learn how to trust. God wanted to draw a connection between hope and trust. And, so, God wanted to teach us something about his word. Very early on, God taught us about the power of his promise.

In the ancient world of the Bible, promises and assurances were typically couched in terms of covenant These ancient agreements stood as contracts that could be trusted. Rather than trust being in an abstract legal system, however, these contracts were made in the gravity of relationship.

ANCIENT COVENANTS

Among the oldest forms of covenant was the “suzerain-vassal” covenant. This covenant was rooted in the dramatic power imbalance of a relationship. There was no contractual accountability in suzerainty—one world power subjugated another party as its vassal. The covenant defined the relationship, but the benefit flowed in one direction.

God started toying with these covenant promises early in the book of Genesis, but he largely turned the dynamics on their merciful, grace-filled head. The story of Noah and the Flood is a clear story of suzerainty, yet the covenant established at the end is not one of demands enforced on a vassal, but of a promise made of God’s mercy and provision. Never again would God (the suzerain) destroy the earth. You don’t have to live in fear. His promise enables a relationship of hope.

Only a select few people took God up on his offer. Abram struggled and learned as he trusted and failed. He learned God can be trusted. The next covenant God established was a blood path covenant with Abram in Genesis 15. This covenant was far more relational; it was not an agreement between political parties, but instead was more personal and intimate. Blood path covenants in the Ancient Near East were used for everything from betrothals to agreements between households.

Again, God used the conventions of our world to communicate his promises and call us to live with hope. God promised Abram protection and reward (Genesis 15:1), and as Abram struggled to understand how this could be true (Genesis 15:2-5), God continued to woo him with hope. And then came these defining words: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6).

One can almost feel the theological significance shifting with those words. This trust in God’s promise, facilitated by covenant, was the beginning of a new world built by God. A world built on faith. A world established in hope.

PROMISES OF HOPE

Covenants would continue to define and guide the development of God’s people: more covenants throughout the life of the patriarchs, covenants to establish a national identity at the foot of Mount Sinai, covenants to define a royal priesthood and the expression of worship, covenants with the house of David and those who would follow him. All of these covenants were connected to promises and acquainted us with hope—hope in who God is and what he is doing in the world.

Even the prophets rooted their promises of hope in terms of covenants. For Jeremiah and Ezekiel, destruction and disaster were unequivocally linked to a broken relationship—a broken covenant—that needed repair. How would God do this for his people? Was there any hope left for a conquered, exiled assembly?

Yes. God had not run out of promises. And he would establish a new covenant.

Some rabbinic thought connected the daily sacrifices offered at the temple (at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day) to that dramatic promise to Abram in Genesis 15 and the blood path covenant. As the sacrifice was offered in the temple, the shofar sounded and worshippers recalled God’s promise made centuries before.

“God, you promised our forefather Abraham that you would walk the blood path. You promised you would be our shield and our great reward. You promised your deliverance and provision. Please let it be as true today as it ever was.”

For the people of God, hope had been built for centuries on the promises of God and the covenant of Abraham. Abram/Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. May it be so with us as well.

PROMISES FULFILLED

In the first century, there was one Passover week when God made good on his promise in a new way. As the ninth-hour shofar sounded in the distance, Jesus hung on a cross and gave up his spirit.

God, it turned out, was not out of promises. God had not given up on his campaign to call us to hope. God’s covenants were as new and fresh as ever.

The early believers did not see this as a new story or disconnected paradigm. For those of us who are second-Testament believers, the apostolic writers connected this new reality in Jesus as deeply rooted in the same promise and springing from the same covenants that facilitated the same hope.

Paul said,

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So, the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:2329, emphasis added).

This thing God had been building since the days of Abraham (who Paul mentioned earlier in the chapter to build his argument) found its fulfillment in the resurrected Christ. Everything God had done culminated in this Christ-centered expression of his covenant.

This new community offered a new way of ordering a life of faith because hope was realized anew in the resurrected Christ. The promises of God have been experienced in an empty tomb. Goodness stared in the face of evil and stood its ground. Light shone in darkness, and darkness did not overcome it. Life called out death and showed it to be a fraud.

LIFE CALLED OUT DEATH

AND SHOWED IT TO BE A FRAUD.

LOSING OUR PRIDE, ONLY TO GAIN REDEMPTION.

LOSING OUR LIVES, ONLY TO GAIN THEM.

PERFECT PROMISES, REAL HOPE

This embodied hope, these realized promises, this renewed covenant changes everything for you and me.

We’re surrounded by the stories of our spiritual predecessors and are buoyed by their faith. We stand on the shoulders of those who could see only the promise on the horizon (Hebrews 12:1-3). The writer of Hebrews said that only with our faithfulness was their faith made perfect.

They had covenants. They had promises. They believed in hope. And now it’s our turn.

So, let us not lose heart or be fearful and discouraged. Jesus endured the cross and scorned its shame. He was not going to let the shame of defeat or being misunderstood stand in the way of what real life and real hope look like.

So, will we? It seems we are worried about being misunderstood at every turn. Worried that we may be perceived as weak or defeated. That we won’t be relevant. That we won’t be effective. That we won’t be respected. Jesus scorned these fears. He laughed at them. Mocked them. And we are invited to consider these things.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? . . .

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35–39).

No defeat in the world can undo what God has done in Christ. Nothing—Paul is adamant: nothing!—can undo this. This covenant is too perfect, his love too pure, his promises too sure for us to be concerned about anything other than living out his way.

And what way is this?

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:3-11).

We love the verse about every knee bowing and the triumph of Christ. But we often ignore the reason those knees bend. They bend because of Christ’s humility. Jesus is exalted because the promises of God are so true that Jesus would choose to lose his life on the cross to show the world a better hope. A hope built on loving and serving others. A hope built on losing. Losing our lives, only to gain them. Losing our pride, only to gain redemption.

It’s an old covenant realized anew in the person of Jesus.

It’s hope. 

Marty Solomon serves as president of Impact Campus Ministries. Among other endeavors, he is a host of the BEMA Podcast, a walkthrough of the context of the Bible and the text itself, as well as surrounding history.

When Hope Is What You Want

By Steve Wyatt

On the Phoenix campus of the Mayo Clinic— where I received my new kidney—two private streets divide an otherwise massive parking lot. The streets are fittingly named Hope Drive and Healing Drive.

Sometime after my surgery, I stood at the intersection of Hope and Healing drives and observed something remarkable: Although Hope Drive is in the middle of a parking lot, it has zero parking spaces and no off-ramps . . . not even a deceleration lane.

Why? Because, on Hope Drive, you’ve got to, well, drive! Idling in place is not an option. You can’t park, either. Because this road isn’t called Hope Rest Area—it’s Hope Drive. As I thought about that, I realized this: Wyatt, if you really want Hope to get you to the Healing place you want to be, you’ve got to keep moving in that direction!

When Hope Is What You Want, Hope Is What You Do

In my often-interrupted life, I’ve witnessed this truth many times: Hope isn’t hope—unless you are pursuing it. Because when hope is what you want, hope is what you must do.

Hope isn’t just an emotion you feel, though we all certainly can experience a hopeful feeling that temporarily lifts our spirits. But hopeful feelings are fleeting. They come, but, just as quickly, they go.

But the strong, secure, “anchor-for-the-soul” kind of hope the Bible talks about in Hebrews 6:19 is not an emotion. Rather, it’s something you do.

Just yearning for something better isn’t hope. That’s merely “wishing upon a star.” It’s what you feel when you “hope” you win the lottery or “hope” you get a tax refund this year. You don’t know, and you’re not sure it can even happen, but you’d really like if it did!

But when hope is real, it’s an action you’re taking . . . a behavior you’ve put into motion . . . an attitude that drives you upward even when you’re climbing against insurmountable odds.

During my kidney battle, I stumbled across a Bible verse that I stubbornly held onto, especially during those seemingly never-ending months on dialysis:

We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3, English Standard Version).

In that verse, I noticed, faith isn’t something you should “have,” as in, “Have faith, brother!” No, faith is “work.” It demands effort.

And love isn’t just a warm, fuzzy feeling. Real love is a “labor.”

Then there’s hope. Hope—if it truly is hope—is “steadfast.” Other translations call this the “endurance” of hope.

Hope hangs in there—regardless. You may lose your job, your home, or your health, but even then, hope, if it’s real, presses on! It keeps holding on.

True hope keeps moving, steadfastly, in pursuit of healing.

This verse serves to unpack your No. 1 action step (and there is no No. 2)! Because reaching your desired destination will demand work, labor, and steadfastness. Those aren’t “lean back in your recliner” words; those words come with sweat!

You will receive enormous value when you invest that kind of effort. But check out what all this exertion leads to:

Work leads to faith.

Labor leads to love.

And steadfastness leads to hope.

Another Bible passage says this trio will outlast all other things (1 Corinthians 13:13). Because nothing is greater than faith, hope, and love.

Getting to those delightful destinations requires sweat. Remember, faith is work, love is a labor, and hope demands your endurance. But these ultimate qualities will not come to you. You must drive after them!

When Hope Is What You Want, Hope Is What You Continue to Pursue

During the last four years, as I fought for life, my fiercest battle was to remain in a place of active hope. Everywhere I looked, my story seemed grim and my future felt uncertain. As dialysis systematically drained the strength from my body, every day was a new battle to not give up!

Given my past, you would think I would have already understood and been living in hope. After all, my late wife, Cindy, got cancer and stopped by heaven to see Jesus. I spent my early years building a strong ministry but then had to walk away. And I planted a church—something I never wanted to do—but I did it at the ancient age of 50. (Most planters are in their late 20s or early 30s.)

But that’s the thing about hope. Although hope is a learned trait, it’s never fully learned. You don’t just complete the syllabus, ace the final, get the diploma, and graduate. No, you are a lifelong student in the university of hope.

As I sat in that dialysis center, the single-most depressing room I’ve ever experienced, I would watch my fellow pilgrims, most of whom had lost all hope long ago. They would slump into their chairs and then, three to four hours later, they would slouch their way back home. Everybody there said they wanted hope, but the drive to actually pursue hope was long gone. And I could empathize with them because I battled those same feelings.

But hope is what you do, right? So, instead of waiting for healing to come to me, I pursued my healing! I pressed and I pushed and I prayed. I made calls. I did research. I took ownership over my own care. I just never let up!

Ultimately, God brought me to where I now am. He found a kidney for me by choosing a woman who had a fearless generosity and brought us together in a way only God could do.

For too long I had it wrong. I thought hope was something I needed to feel ,

But that’s not how hope works.

But what I could do, I had to do. So, I did. I pursued hope.

For too long I had it wrong. I thought hope was something I needed to feel, and feel it deeply enough that my hopeful feelings would carry me through whatever I was going through.

But that’s not how hope works.

During my first two decades of ministry, most everything I touched turned to gold. But God wanted me on a deeper path. He wanted me to take those same principles I had taught with excellence and apply them to my own life. So, God directed me to a road less traveled—a path marked by all kinds of chuckholes, roadblocks, and dead ends.

But that’s just one event. All told, I’ve done a total reboot of my life three times. And now, with my brandnew kidney, it’s Restart No. 4. But I’m learning that when my life is in tatters and everything I value has been scattered, that’s when real hope shows up, suits up, and gets back in the game.

If it’s too late for your current predicament, just wait till next time. Because there will be a next time when you need to remain steadfast.

And isn’t that, in the end, the essence of hope?

The most important thing I learned is that hope can begin only after I release my grip on what I think is my preferred future! And I must, instead, take measured steps—painstaking but resolute steps—in the direction of God’s far better future.

Hope is hard work and is typically learned in the heat of battle, where you are guaranteed to leave that conflict with scars.

Now, if you want to learn hope, you also want to avoid some of the lesser and unnecessary battles, so you need to find someone who has also been knocked around by life but is passionate about doing life . . . anyway. Watch them as they limp and then ask why (or how) they keep doing whatever they’re doing. If they are truly a veteran of hope, at first pass they will claim to know nothing about the topic.

But don’t listen to what they say; watch what they do. Take note of the tear stains on their cheek, but also the white knuckles, swollen from constant use. Because those are “wounds” of someone who will not stop holding onto hope—even when there seems to be no hope.

And then do your own hope by moving in the direction of healing. You’ll probably stink at it at first. Because mastering hope takes practice, and you will never fully arrive. But keep repeating the effort and moving in the direction of the healing you say you desire, and like a muscle, hope must grow! Talk about resistance training: Hope thrives in the heart of the one who stubbornly refuses to give up.

Without hope, none of us can survive. When all hope is gone . . . we are goners. So, whatever is pressing in against you, press on anyway. And don’t ever shift your life into park. Instead, keep traveling down Hope Drive and, in God’s perfect time, you will come to a glorious destination where you have always wanted to be. It’s a place called Healed.

And if you happen to see a 60-something man standing there, sporting an extra kidney and a wide smile, please say hi. Because I’d love to welcome you to your healing place. And here’s what you will find there: Healed is a mighty fine place to park. 

Steve Wyatt serves as founding pastor of The Crossroads Church in North Phoenix, Arizona.

HOOKED ON HOPE!

How Are Our Churches—and Our Movement—Doing Today?

An Honest Evaluation

By Alan Ahlgrim

My friend Adam Turner recently said to me, “There’s not a day that goes by I don’t find both reasons to mope and reasons to hope!”

This I know: The more time I spend immersed in the chaos of our culture, the more I mope. By contrast, the more time I spend pondering the promises of God and luxuriating in the presence of Christ and his people, the more I hope!

Negativity and positivity are both emotionally contagious. We are each profoundly affected by the attitudes and outlooks of those things we ponder and the people with whom we spend the most time.

When asked to write this article I sought the insights of several dozen leaders I am connected with via head and heart. These well-informed and influential leaders are scattered throughout the country, so their thoughts represent a national perspective.

I asked them for an honest evaluation of how our churches, institutions, and movement in general are doing. Where are we strong, and where might we need to get stronger still?

Their input, and related information I’ve seen or gleaned from other resources, provide us with reasons to mope . . . or to hope.

NEGATIVITY

AND POSITIVITY ARE BOTH EMOTIONALLY CONTAGIOUS.

REASONS TO MOPE

• Most of our strongest churches are now, at best, averaging only about 80 percent of their pre-COVID in-person attendance.

• Church attendance is less regular than in the past; the average regular attendee is present only 1.5 times a month.

• Recruiting and retaining faithfully committed volunteers has become more difficult, with few even willing to devote more than an hour or so to Sunday engagement.

• While the online church option is benefiting some who are struggling or traveling, it has led to further normalization of disengagement from face-to-face community.

• Churches that are attracting greater online viewership wrestle with how to meaningfully measure true participation and struggle even more with how to assimilate viewers into true community.

• Leaders’ hearts are weary, not so much from overwork but from excessive worry that their messages will be heard as too challenging in an increasingly hypersensitive and critical culture.

• The fear of criticism has led many to give up on consistently balancing messages with both grace and truth; instead, many have resorted to shouting acceptance and, at best, whispering repentance.

• The corruption of the culture and the growing acceptance of deviant sexual behaviors are affecting and infecting many families even in the core of the Christian community, especially those fearful of losing their own children from the church and the faith.

• Younger people in the church are increasingly accepting cohabitation as a viable option and postponing marriage until 28 to 30 years of age. Those who do choose to marry are having fewer, if any, children.

• Younger people are hesitant to make sacrificial career choices such as law enforcement, military service, and the ministry. Most are increasingly elevating selffulfillment over selfless service.

• We are losing leaders far faster than we are developing them, with many Bible colleges declining or closing and many congregations struggling to hire quality staff members and to retain those who are already serving.

• A study found that pastors who reported their spiritual well-being as “excellent” fell from 37 percent to just 14 percent in a seven-year period. Over that same period, leaders who said they had true friends dropped from 34 percent to 17 percent.

Barna CEO David Kinnaman said, “A drop in the level of pastoral health this significant in only 7 years isn’t just unprecedented, it signals a crisis the church has to address.”

• A recent Barna report indicated that an astonishing 40 percent of pastors now show a high risk of burnout, and that with younger pastors—those under 45—it’s at 50 percent.

• The stress at all levels of leadership has been exacerbated by COVID-19 and its aftershocks, with one high-ranking Army chaplain observing that pastors now have more PTSD issues than soldiers!

“A S FOR ME, I WILL ALWAYS HAVE HOPE”

(Psalm 71:14).

REASONS TO HOPE

• The lost have lost hope that the things of the world—whether education, government, or business—will bring them a sense of security, comfort, and personal peace. Desperation is a wonderful motivation for a glorious pursuit!

• Spiritual curiosity and hunger are increasing among the younger generation; many are searching for meaning for their lives. This is documented by the ongoing success in attracting young people to both Christ In Youth gatherings and The International Conference on Missions.

• The recent awakening at Asbury University and the popularity of the recent movie The Jesus Revolution and streaming series The Chosen indicate a longing for in-depth encounters with the living God.

• Christians have an avalanche of highquality resources, including countless encouraging podcasts, conferences, and connection opportunities available at minimal cost.

• Professional counseling for leaders has become more common and is no longer a cause for embarrassment; instead, it is now considered a notable credential confirming a desire for personal health and growth.

• Skill-sharpening cohorts and soul-enriching covenant groups are becoming a new standard of ministry excellence for many leaders.

• Discipleship is now measured not merely by the transfer of information, but also by spiritual transformation in life-giving community.

• Overall church attendance is down, but not church giving. In fact, charitable giving increased nearly 5 percent during 2022’s record inflation.

• Our movement has several organizations that specialize in providing financial assistance for building and ministry expansion with virtually no problematic loans on their books. Churches, it seems, are the most reliable borrowers!

• Many congregations have dynamic, flourishing, exuberant intergenerational worship celebrations featuring energetic contemporary music.

• Baptisms of people of all ages at worship gatherings are increasingly common, with periodic mass celebrations of dozens of baptisms on special days.

• More of our churches and parachurch organizations are demonstrating compassion through creative pace-setting approaches in church planting, world evangelization, child sponsorships, and church-based foster care efforts.

• Elders are focusing less on church management and more on church health by working with and encouraging staff leaders.

• Amid vitriolic culture wars, church health is prized more than ever and healthy church relationships are being pursued through authentic life-on-life, small group connections.

• Our churches are typically islands of joy, peace, and civility in a world filled with discord. They reflect confident hope in the One who promises to redeem all things!

REASONS TO REJOICE!

I recently saw someone wearing a T-shirt with the slogan, “Eternal Optimist!” I want that description to be true of me. Years ago, noted British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge made some pessimistic comments about world affairs while visiting Washington, D.C. When asked if he saw any reason for optimism, he said, “My friend, I could not be more optimistic, because my hope is in Jesus Christ alone.”

That’s how I see it, and that’s why I’m hooked on hope . . . because my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness! As I approach the eighth decade of my life, I am more devoted to Christ and his community than ever, and I’m not alone! Cam Huxford, my closest friend in ministry, recently said to me, “I believe the best days are still ahead. The challenges are making us stronger and more grateful. I’m confident God is raising up leaders to move his church down the field. . . . What a great time to be a Christian leader!”

In summary, as the culture grows darker, the light of the gospel is shining brighter through countless life-giving communities of faith! The movement of which I have been a part has great work yet to do, especially in discipleship; but there is great reason to rejoice that God is at work among us and that he isn’t finished with us yet!

“But as for me, I will always have hope” (Psalm 71:14). 

Alan Ahlgrim is author of Soul Strength: Rhythms for Thriving. He served as the founding pastor of Rocky Mountain Christian Church for 29 years and now serves as chief soul care officer of Covenant Connections for Pastors. www.covenantconnections.life

Aligning Our Lives with God’s Upper Story

By Randy Frazee

Have you ever struggled to understand how the various stories in the Bible connect to one another? Or wondered how those stories relate to the story of your life today? What if the testimonies in the Bible, the lives of everyone who ever lived, and your own “story still in progress” are all connected—all part of one big divine epic?

TWO PAINTINGS

Two of the most famous works of art in the world help us understand how the long, sweeping story of the Bible—seemingly a narrative only about God and ancient people with strange names—connects with your story. To view the first painting, you would travel to Paris and enter the renowned Louvre museum and walk past painting after remarkable painting by artists whose names are familiar: Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, and others.

After climbing stairs and moving from one cavernous room to another you would finally spot it: the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci— the most popular painting in the world and also the most valuable, worth a reported $700 million. It is in a room all by itself. The size of the painting is surprising. Based on legend and popularity you might expect it would cover the entire wall, yet its dimensions—20.875 inches by 30 inches—are not much larger than a built-in microwave oven in your kitchen.

To the untrained eye, the painting appears somewhat ordinary at first. But as you gaze at the colors and shadows, the details, the translucency of the flesh and atmospheric illusionism of the background, it grows on you. For some reason, you are drawn to her gaze and might even agree with those who say her eyes follow you as you move.

The longer you look, the more you want to know about the woman staring back at you, so you lean closer to the docent who is explaining the painting to a group of Englishspeaking tourists. Ms. Lisa, you discover, was born on June 15, 1479, during the Italian Renaissance. Her husband was a wealthy Florentine silk merchant who supposedly commissioned this painting for their new home to celebrate the birth of their second son, Andrea.

But there must be more to her story, you think to yourself. What was happening in her life at the time she posed for this picture? What was that enigmatic smile on her face all about? Was she happy? Was she sad? After 10 to 15 minutes in front of this famous painting, you stroll through the museum, stopping every now and then to study other paintings that catch your eye: Christ at Emmaus, by Rembrandt; Liberty Leading the People, by Eugene Delacroiz; The Virgin and Child with St. John the Baptist, by Raphael. Each one has its own unique tale utterly unrelated to the Mona Lisa story. By the time you leave the museum, you will have stood in front of dozens of exquisite paintings each with a different and disconnected story behind it.

To view the other famous work of art you would fly to Rome and then take a cab to the Vatican. Upon arriving you would walk across a magnificent plaza and enter the Sistine Chapel and look up to see the breathtaking work of Michelangelo. Interestingly, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci painted their respective masterpieces within the same decade. Yet, where da Vinci isolated one person on a single canvas, Michelangelo captured a full sweep of history.

Perhaps the most famous scene from this dramatic mural shows the strong arm of God reaching to touch and give life to the

limp hand of Adam. It has been reproduced and printed on countless posters, prints, and postcards. As you stand in the Sistine Chapel, the original is directly above you.

As you gaze at this painting, your neck tilted back in an almost painful position, you ponder the 300 characters painted on the ceiling of this room: Adam, Eve, Noah, Jacob, David, and more. While each section of this massive mural depicts an individual story, they all are connected to tell a grander epic. At the highest point of the ceiling nine scenes from the book of Genesis unfold, beginning with God dividing light from darkness and ending with the disgrace of Noah. Just beneath these scenes are paintings of 12 prophets who foretold of the birth of Christ.

Moving down the walls, crescent-shaped areas surround the chapel that include the ancestors of Christ, like Boaz, Jesse, David, and Jesus’ earthly father Joseph. The entire scheme is completed in the four corners of the room with dramatic biblical stories from the Bible, like the heroic slaying of Goliath by young David.

Each scene, each painting, tells its own singular story, stories you may have heard from childhood. Yet the artist connected them to display one magnificent story: humanity’s need for salvation as offered by God through Jesus.

The Louvre and the Sistine Chapel both display astounding art. The Louvre tells thousands of unrelated, separate stories. The Sistine Chapel tells only one.

On the surface, you and I—along with billions of other humans—are individual paintings hanging on the wall of some cosmic gallery, distinct and unrelated to each other. But if you look closer, you will see that your story is intricately woven into the same seamless narrative depicted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel: God’s story as recorded in the Bible. One story as seen through many lives.

God desires for us to read the Bible as we would view a mural. The individual stories on its pages entwine to communicate one overarching story. Woven tighter than reeds in a waterproof basket, they together compile God’s one grand story. To stand beneath the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling is to see what the entire narrative from beginning to end says to us as individuals. To better understand this story, we will view it wearing bifocal lenses. Through the lower lens we will gaze at individual stories from the Bible. Think of these individual pieces as our Lower Story.

The Lower Story reveals the here and now of daily life, the experiences and circumstances we see here on earth. Goals and fears; responsibilities and rights. In the Lower Story, we make money, pay bills, get sick, get tired, deal with breakups and conflicts. These are the story elements we care about, and as people of faith, we trust God to meet our needs in this Lower Story. And he does! God meets us in our Lower Story and helps us by offering us wisdom and guidance on getting through life with dignity and purpose. He intercedes and applies healing salve to our physical and emotional wounds. God loves to lavish us with his care, stretching out his arms to comfort us when we are in distress and encourage us when we are downtrodden.

But he has a higher agenda than our survival and comfort. When we rise above the here and now, look beyond the daily grind, and view each of these stories in the Bible from God’s perspective, we see something much bigger. When we look up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, it gives us hints that the Bible isn’t filled with a thousand individual stories of God’s intervention just to get people through a rough day, but rather one grand story of something larger, something eternal.

JOSEPH’S STORY

Consider the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Viewing his life from the Lower Story, it looks like a bad case of sibling rivalry. He shared a dream in which his brothers bowed down to him, and his brothers didn’t like it. They roughed him up, sold him to a band of gypsies on their way to Egypt, and later told Dad (Jacob) that he was mauled and killed by a mountain lion.

In Egypt, Joseph experienced a series of incredible ups and down. All along the way, we get several peeks into the Upper Story. We are told numerous times that “the Lord was with him.” God was involved in Joseph’s daily life. God was intervening to tell a grander story. Fifteen years later, Joseph found himself a prince in Egypt, second only to the mighty Pharaoh. His job was managing a seven-year famine that affected people everywhere. Twenty-two years after Joseph’s first dream, his brothers came to town for food and found themselves bowing down to their younger punk brother they threw under the bus.

Joseph had the power to put them to death, which most people would have done. Instead, he said to them, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). God used what they did to Joseph in the Lower Story, which was evil, and he used it for good in the Upper Story. Joseph captured that idea somewhere along the way, and it gave him the ability to forgive his brothers.

GOD’S UPPER STORY

This is the Upper Story. As we view the Bible through this lens, we see that God has been up to something amazing from the very beginning. He has a vision, a big idea, and it is all good news for us. When we look at the Upper Story of God—his magnificent mural—we discover where we fit in because this story was created to deliver one, singular message: “If you want to live life to the fullest and enjoy it forever, then become part of my masterpiece. Align your life to my Upper Story.”

God’s promise is recorded in the New Testament: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Put another way, “If we will love God and align our lives to his Upper Story, he promises a good story for our lives.” What a deal.

Here’s the invitation. You may be going through a rough or confusing season right now. That is how it looks from the Lower Story. But if you would dare to align your life to the story God is telling from above, you will see things differently and trust he is up to something good. 

Adapted from The Heart of the Story: Discover Your Life Within the Grand Epic of God’s Story, by Randy Frazee Randy is the lead teaching pastor of Westside Family Church in Kansas City. He is the author of 15 books and the architect of The Story and Believe Bible Engagement campaigns.

Audio file of this article read by the author here.

PART

JIM PUTMAN

1 - BY

Though I grew up a preacher’s kid—and maybe because of it—I ended up in college as an unbeliever with a drinking problem. I had rejected my parents, but they were waiting to journey with me back to Jesus. Back then, I would have said there is no God . . . that God had been “educated” out of me. I was no victim, however—I was rebellious.

My father sent me research that affirmed that some scientists believed in God, even though professors had told me no reputable scientist could. Over time, I moved from “there is no God” to “there is a god, but which god?” I was convinced he couldn’t be the Christian God, so my dad sent me a Josh McDowell book to try to change my mind. I was working toward my degree in history (I later graduated to be a teacher), and Dad thought McDowell’s work would fit my research to discover which religion was historically true.

After using historical principles to compare and contrast religions, I came to believe Jesus is the Son of God. Bottom line—I believed the New Testament . . . that the account of Jesus is accurate history and the other religious documents are not.

This did not make me feel better, however, because I still didn’t understand the gospel. That’s when my dad shared the gospel as he understood it. I still had a problem though. I had grown up

attending Christian school . . . where there was much disagreement among Christians! In college, I also heard the different brands of Christianity fighting about almost everything.

Consider the variety of beliefs regarding how a person “got saved.” Some Christians contend a person needs only to say a special prayer. Other Christians say baptism in water is required— though they disagree whether sprinkling is adequate or immersion is necessary. Christians also disagree about baby baptism verses adult baptism.

On a personal level, some spoke to my addiction problems by saying that merely accepting Jesus would eliminate it if I had the Holy Spirit, while others recommended a 12-step group.

A lot was riding on this decision, it seemed to me at the time. Hell itself could very well be on the line . . . even though I already believed in Jesus.

More doubt followed. Was the Bible really God’s Word, or was it just a historical account about Jesus? Was part of it God’s Word and part of it not God’s Word? And if the Bible is God’s inspired Word, but we can’t figure out what it means, then who cares? If there was a right way to read it, then what was it, and why weren’t people reading it that way?

A HISTORICAL LOOK AT CHANGES IN BELIEFS

It was at that point that I went back to my roots and dug into early church history. I decided to use historical principles to determine what the early church believed. Why? Because historians know that the earliest accounts give us the best view into the truth. I had decided on Christianity, in part, because I believed credible witnesses had given us an unchanged story. I accepted that these witnesses had accurately described the events and also had given us the right meaning of those events.

I decided to research what the first Christians believed the Scripture writers meant in their writings. The biblical story had not changed over time, but the interpretations of Scripture sure had.

As a history student, I knew about the changes in Christian beliefs that had occurred through the years—the councils, Constantine, the Great Schism—albeit from a secular perspective. I knew that the Roman Catholic Church had made a practice of changing their beliefs over their history. I also knew about the Reformation and their concept of Sola Scriptura as a reaction to those changes by the Roman Catholics.

The Reformers were rightly concerned about things like the papacy, the veneration of Mary,

indulgences, saved by works rather than grace, and many more cases of historical revisionism. Though sympathetic, I thought they had swung the pendulum too far in the opposite direction. The Reformers relied on the Bible alone, along with the leading of the Holy Spirit, as their only guide for faith and practice. But I felt (and continue to feel) this opened us up to a whole new set of problems. Those problems played out in the many versions of Christianity that sprung up after the Reformation Movement. In fact, it led to the problem I was having—who and what is right?

How can I know or hold to a faith that is always open to change based on new versions of inspired insight? How can I believe something is true when it is open to new scholars who come to new conclusions? If the Bible has been clear on something from the beginning—something that might be deemed a less important issue—and change is allowed, then what might be next? The same approach to changing belief about less important issues will be employed by others on something more important later. A world like this leads people to wonder whether there is objective truth—so they just decide on their own. No unity exists except to say, “You be you, and I’ll be me.” Truly, if we should speak only where the Bible speaks, but we can’t know what it actually means, then how do we speak at all?

While the early church didn’t agree on everything, these historical principles lead us closest to what was and is right.

TEACHINGS + INTERACTIONS + SYSTEMS = UNDERSTANDING

We know that what was recorded in Scripture was not all there was to the story. Much is written about Jesus, but John made it clear that if everything Jesus had said and done were written down, the earth’s books could not contain them. Jesus’ form of disciple-making included teaching in sermons, but also much more. Jesus included modeling what his words meant in practice. He answered questions, clarified, had personal conversations, etc. A personal element went along with the actual teacher-listener interaction. Jesus later sent the Holy Spirit to help his followers, but he still sent the disciples to play a part in the process. Reliable men and women teaching and interacting with others, and so on.

We know the apostles asked Jesus questions of clarification and that these were not written down. Further, we know the apostles also taught people who would ask clarifying questions. Therefore, I could not only read what they wrote, but study how the early Christians put those teachings into practice based on the written and unwritten interactions. In combining the teaching with the interactions and the implementation, we discover what was meant by the teacher.

The apostles understood Jesus had sent them out to make disciples. The message was shared (not changed); the Holy Spirit was the best way to guarantee accurate reproduction. We can’t divorce the teachings of Jesus from the methods of Jesus and expect to get the results of Jesus.

Acts 2:42 tells us the people were devoted to the teachings of the disciples, and this shaped all the behaviors that followed. They took Communion together in a certain way. They prayed in specific ways together. They lived in specific relational environments—and gave in specific ways. They did not just listen to a message from the Scriptures, only to be left alone to figure out

what that story or message meant in practice. Questions surely came up, including many of the same questions I was having. The answers they gave then, I think, should be the standard we use for answering those questions today.

You might say that Bible scholarship includes an understanding of interpretation principles to arrive at a correct scriptural meaning. Principles like understanding the context of the passage, using other Scripture to interpret Scripture, understanding the type of literature being read, and a deep dive into the Bible’s original language reveal how we should understand Scripture and apply it in our time. I agree on this to a point. This is helpful to a believer and should be a part of a disciple’s journey.

However, the historical principle often is left out in favor of modern-day interpretations. Why? Because we don’t often know or care what was taught in the beginning. Today’s culture thinks newer is better. The historical principle, at least in part, should include how Scripture was received and implemented at the time it was first given. If an interpretation is new, it probably isn’t true.

There are many examples of modern-day teachers who question long accepted understandings of various Scriptures. This is not new. In the early church, some had unorthodox interpretations, but the overwhelming testimony is that those different interpretations were rooted out. All that to say that the earliest understanding was the one held to and used for a defense against anything that challenged “the faith” once for all delivered. I believe the same God who protected the process of creating the canon also protected the early churches’ view of the most important beliefs. While the early church didn’t agree on everything, these historical principles lead us closest to what was and is right.

HERE COMES THE RESTORATION MOVEMENT

My personal journey with history led me to the Restoration Movement for reasons that should be clear by now. When I discovered a movement that sought not to reform the church but to restore it, it appealed to me greatly. To a history person, it just makes sense. It answered my many questions.

The New Testament writers were inspired, but I believe the disciples of those disciples were not inspired. (However, I also believe the early church had the best chance of understanding what the inspired writers meant.) This means, of course, that I am not inspired. Nor were the Reformers; nor were Barton Stone or Thomas and Alexander Campbell.

In my view, the Restoration Movement principles best reflect the New Testament’s warning to “contend for the faith that was once for all [past tense] entrusted to God’s holy people” (Jude 3).

For many years, I have felt I had a home in the Restoration Movement. Why? Because I believed the movement itself represented a Josiah moment in time. As told in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, Josiah came to power at a time when the faith had been corrupted, but he did not know to what extent. The nation was just living out what had passed down to them over time. But then, at Josiah’s direction, his subjects began to clean out the temple and found the book of the Law. When it was read to Josiah, and the king compared it to how they had actually been living, he was broken. He rejected the changes that had been made over time, and he began to move back to the Scriptures and what they had commanded.

I felt at home with the Restoration Movement because this was its heart from the beginning.

As I look at the Restoration Movement today, I think many have forgotten what it was really about. In the November/December issue I will tell you why. 

Jim Putman serves as senior pastor of Real Life Ministries in Post Falls, Idaho. He holds degrees from Boise State University and Boise Bible College and is the author or coauthor of various discipleship books, including Church Is a Team Sport, Real-Life Discipleship, and DiscipleShift

www.jimputman.com

/JimPutmanRLM

@JimPutmanRLM

IF AN INTERPRETATION IS NEW, IT PROBABLY ISN’T TRUE.

HELPING THE CHURCH THRIVE BETWEEN MINISTERS

An Interview with Leaders from Transitional Interim Pastor Services

By Shawn McMullen

Recently Christian Standard met with three leaders who serve with Transitional Interim Pastor Services, a ministry of NXTStep Church Services (yourncs.org), to learn about their unique approach to interim ministry.

John Cutshall , a graduate of Cincinnati Christian University, has been in ministry for more than 40 years. He spent his first 20 years in youth ministry before serving in senior ministry positions.

Greg Comp , also a graduate of CCU, is a second-generation minister. Following his graduation from Bible college, Comp served as an associate minister. At age 30 he entered the preaching ministry and has been engaged in that work ever since.

Lonnie Bullock , a first-generation Christian, served in ministry with the Nazarene church as both a youth minister and preaching minister. For the past 24 years, Bullock has been involved with NXTStep Church Services, serving as executive director for the past 15 years.

WHAT IS THE HISTORY BEHIND NXTSTEP CHURCH SERVICES AND TRANSITIONAL INTERIM PASTOR SERVICES?

Bullock

A friend and I started the ministry 24 years ago. We were both involved in church planting and starting new churches and had a passion to equip and coach church pastor-planters. In 2005 we felt called to launch Transitional Interim Pastor Services, or TIPS.

We spent two years engaged in a research project that looked at interim ministry within several religious groups. We wanted to understand what worked and what didn’t. Based on our research, we developed a training and assessment process for interim ministers, recruited our first two TIPS pastors, led them through our training and assessment, and sent them to churches. Today we have 40 interim pastors serving all around the country. We’ve worked in all 50 states now.

WHY WOULD A CONGREGATION CHOOSE TO GO THIS ROUTE, RATHER THAN SIMPLY HIRING A SUPPLY PREACHER AS THEY LOOK FOR THEIR NEXT LEADER?

Bullock

Our research showed that in the 1990s a typical interim ministry lasted 3 to 4 months. Today interim ministries are lasting 9 to 12 months. The church often loses momentum during this extended time. We also learned that when the previous minister had been with a church 10 years or longer, the minister that followed stayed less than 2 years. That was true 72 percent of the time, and the breakup was usually painful. The pastor suffered and the congregation suffered. There had to be a different way to do interim ministry. So, we asked, “What would happen if we became more intentional about the interim process and really helped the local church prepare for the future?”

Comp

Many churches think all they need is a personnel change. Their attitude is, “Let’s just get our next minister and keep going.” What they really need is a paradigm shift. And until they make that paradigm shift, they really shouldn’t hire the next guy because there’s going to be all sorts of comparisons. An experienced interim minister can help a congregation walk through that process. The assessment we do on the front end provides an accurate picture of the church as well as a road map for going forward. It’s a great system.

Cutshall

One thing I’ve learned is that church growth doesn’t always produce church health, but church health always produces church growth. The thing that TIPS does very well is help a church become healthy. It gives a church an opportunity to examine itself and figure out who they are so they can bring someone alongside them to help them move forward.

WHAT IS THE OVERALL PROCESS OR STRATEGY OF AN INTENTIONAL INTERIM MINISTRY?

Bullock

Our approach to interim ministry is built on four pillars drawn from the book of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. We begin with assessment, helping the local church understand its current reality and the issues that need to be addressed. From there we move to spiritual renewal, challenging the congregation to focus on prayer and on listening to the heart of God for their future. Next, a transition team is selected to develop a plan based on the assessment. The final pillar is implementation. We assist here by coaching and providing resources to help the congregation put its plan into action.

WHAT KIND OF TRAINING DOES A TIPS MINISTRY CANDIDATE RECEIVE?

Bullock

We start by vetting the candidates. Then we take the candidates through a four-day training process. At the end of the training, we make a final decision on the candidate, and we ask the candidate to make a decision about TIPS.

We assign a coach to each new TIPS pastor. [The coach] will walk them through their first assignment. At the end of that first assignment, we do an analysis review. We ask the pastor, the church they served, and their coach about their performance and the outcomes.

HOW DOES AN INTENTIONAL INTERIM MINISTRY BENEFIT THE CHURCH’S NEXT MINISTER?

Cutshall

A church that takes nine months or more to evaluate itself and create an action plan is going to be in a much better position to work with their new leader and move into the future. The next minister comes in and doesn’t have to deal with the difficult issues they’ve worked through. So they can hit the ground running.

Comp

NCS doesn’t come in and say, “OK, we’re going to assess you.” Instead, we say, “We would like for you to assess yourselves.” So, when we share our report based on the church assessment, we’re able to say, “This is what you told us about yourself.”

Cutshall

A few months into this ministry, a man in a local church we were working with came up to me and said, “Man, we should have done this three ministers ago!”

Bullock

When a church calls a new minister following a TIPS ministry, we give the new leader a New Pastor’s Handbook. It contains detailed information about what happened during the interim time and updated information about the church’s current reality. We identify key influencers as well as situations and circumstances they will need to pay attention to.

CHURCH GROWTH DOESN’T ALWAYS PRODUCE CHURCH HEALTH.

HOW LARGE DOES A CONGREGATION HAVE TO BE TO HAVE A TIPS PASTOR?

Bullock

Each agreement is uniquely crafted for the individual church. We’ve served churches as small as 20 and as large as 3,500.

DOES NCS HELP A CHURCH FIND THEIR NEXT MINISTER?

Bullock

We can be as involved as a church wants us to be in the process. When asked, a TIPS pastor will provide interview training to the search team. If the search team would like for us to provide names of candidates, we go to our resources and provide that. If a church chooses to go through the process by themselves, we honor their wishes.

HOW LONG DOES A TYPICAL INTERIM MINISTRY LAST?

Bullock

Our agreements are for nine months. If a church finds its next leader sooner than that, we simply end the agreement with 60 days’ notice. We’re also able to extend the agreement as needed.

DOES THE LOCAL CHURCH HAVE A SAY IN WHO THEIR TIPS MINISTER IS?

Bullock

We do the pre-assessment work with both the church and the potential interim and we make a single recommendation to the church. From there, we schedule a virtual meeting so the leadership of the church can get acquainted with the interim. Everyone must agree that this is a good fit before we move forward.

WHAT’S THE COST OF HAVING AN INTENTIONAL INTERIM?

Bullock

The key phrase here is “budget neutral.” We don’t want TIPS to cost more than what the current church budget provides. So, we work within the current salary package of the last minister.

Cutshall

I’ve known cases where a minister leaves and the leaders think, “Oh, this will allow us to bank some cash because we’re not paying the minister’s salary right now.” What they find out in the long run is they should have made the investment.

Comp

This may be a good time to point out that the church also provides housing for the interim minister.

Bullock

If a church doesn’t have a parsonage, they will be asked to rent an apartment or home for the TIPS pastor. We take this into consideration when we make our agreement budget neutral. We determine the average cost of an apartment in that region and reduce the cost they pay by that amount.

CHURCH HEALTH ALWAYS PRODUCES CHURCH GROWTH.

DOES TIPS SUPPORT THE HERITAGE AND PRINCIPLES OF RESTORATION MOVEMENT CHURCHES?

Bullock

Absolutely. A key principle from the beginning of our ministry has been loyalty to the group that you’re a part of.

Cutshall

I was raised in a Restoration church. I love the Restoration church. That’s why I’m excited about TIPS. As I grew up in the Christian church and even now, I see that many of our churches are hurting. Many know they can do more and better, but they just don’t know how. TIPS can help. That’s why we’re so invested in bringing this type of ministry to Restoration churches.

DO YOU HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS FOR THE INTERIM MINISTER’S SPOUSE?

Bullock

Simply put, there are no expectations for a TIPS minister’s spouse. They can be involved as much or as little as they desire.

ANY FINAL COMMENTS?

Cutshall

SOMEONE MIGHT ASK, “AFTER YEARS OF MINISTRY, I STILL FEEL LIKE I HAVE A LOT TO GIVE. COULD SERVING AS AN INTERIM MINISTER WITH TIPS BE RIGHT FOR ME?”

Comp

NCS does a great job of vetting people. So, if you think you might want to pursue this ministry, they will help you make that decision. TIPS gives you the opportunity to lay a foundation for other people’s success.

DO TIPS MINISTERS GET TIME OFF DURING AND BETWEEN ASSIGNMENTS?

Bullock

Yes. We’ve found churches to be incredibly generous toward their interims, going above and beyond to make them comfortable. As far as breaks between assignments, that’s totally up to the TIPS pastor. Some interims will complete an assignment and take three or four months off because they want to go hang with grandkids or take a vacation. It’s totally up to them.

Most churches want help. Once the surveys are completed and the assessments compiled, Lonnie presents the findings to the entire congregation, not just to the leadership. Through this process the congregation understands that they shoulder as much responsibility as the leadership. Comp

I’m grieved when new ministers go into a situation with enthusiasm but soon run into a wall and get beat up and burned out. Some not only leave that church; they leave the ministry. And the church gets in a cycle of hiring and firing ministers routinely. We need to stop repeating a cycle that pushes our younger and next-generation leaders away from the church.

As John and I have discussed, Christian Churches and Churches of Christ can really benefit from this ministry. That’s why we want to promote this among retired pastors and even younger guys who have the aptitude and vision to help. Many of our churches are hurting and struggling with viability, and that’s precisely where NCS can help—with assessment and a plan for the future. 

Discover more about NXTStep Church Services and TIPS on their website: www.yourncs.org. Contact TIPS coordinator Greg Comp at gregorycomp@gmail.com.

Recently retired, Shawn McMullen serves part-time as minister of the Vevay Church of Christ in Vevay, Indiana, while pursuing a writing ministry.

CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND CHURCHES OF CHRIST CAN REALLY BENEFIT FROM THIS MINISTRY.

ARM PRISON OUTREACH CELEBRATES 50 YEARS

BY LAURA MCKILLIP WOOD

Joe Garman started American Rehabilitation Ministries (ARM) in 1973. Later, the ministry’s name was changed to ARM Prison Outreach. On May 11, the ministry celebrated its 50th anniversary at its offices in Joplin, Mo.

Garman never intended for prison ministry to be his life’s work, however. Not long ago for the Our American Stories podcast*, he told an interviewer the story of how God set him on a new ministry path. . . .

SERVING IN SOUTH KOREA

Joe and Linda Garman were serving as missionaries in South Korea in 1969 when a U.S. military chaplain asked him to fill in for him by meeting with four American servicemen being held in a Korean prison.

Garman reluctantly agreed to do it just one time. He’d never planned on doing prison ministry and wasn’t particularly interested in it. Besides, he had many other ministry obligations.

“I said yes, but in my heart, I said no,” Garman told the interviewer. His wife encouraged him by saying, “You just might like it.”

On the appointed day, Garman met with the American prisoners.

“I spent 45 minutes with those guys, not 46 . . . and I was on my way out.”

As he was leaving, a Korean prison chaplain asked Garman to come back later to speak with Korean prisoners. Again, Garman reluctantly agreed. When the day arrived, the Korean chaplain led Garman to a packed gym filled with about 400 prisoners sitting cross-legged on the floor.

As he preached, with the aid of a translator, “I could see the hunger in their eyes. The Spirit moved upon me. I preached like a dying man to dying men. . . .”

When he finished, since there was no room to come forward, he asked that anyone who wanted to make a commitment to Christ to stand.

“The whole room stood as one body,” Garman said. “I turned to Mr. Kim [the translator] and said, ‘They must have misunderstood. Have them all sit down.’”

Garman then had his translator recap his sermon (“Tell them exactly what I said”). When the translator finished,

Garman told him to say, “Only those who want to make a commitment to Christ, and become Christians, and leave all other religions behind—please stand. And the whole room stood like one body.”

“That’s the day that I saw where I needed to be,” Garman said. “I went home that day and I told Linda we’re going to go full-time into prison ministry.”

Sometime later, when his ministry duties in South Korea were firmly established, the Garmans turned their work over to local churches and returned to the United States.

A NEW BEGINNING

At the urging of Cecil Todd of Revival Fires Ministry, Garman set out to start prison ministry in the U.S., where almost no one was doing ministry among prisoners in an organized way, he said. Garman wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed, but decided the place to start was Washington, D.C. He heard that the chief of chaplains over the federal prison system was in the Pentagon, so he went there, and spoke with the man’s secretary . . . but Garman had neglected to make an appointment.

No matter, “within five minutes I was sitting down at [the chief chaplain’s] desk. I learned that day that that’s exactly where I should have gone.” New rehabilitation programs start at the federal level and “trickle down” to states, counties, and cities.

“I still get shivers just thinking about it,” Garman told the podcast interviewer. “He gave me a letter to get into any federal prison in America. I mean, this is the first time I met the man.”

In 1973, when American Rehabilitation Ministries/ARM Prison Outreach started, America’s prison population was 243,000, according to ARM’s website. Numbers have increased significantly since then. Now, more than 1.8 million people are incarcerated in America’s 1,500 state and federal prisons, with another half million in America’s 3,200 jails.

In 2001, ARM turned its eyes internationally, reaching out to prisons in Mexico, Africa, India, and Russia. Today ARM works in prisons and jails on six continents and has five international branch ministry locations.

“Now we are in all 50 states plus all five of the territories and many nations overseas,” Garman said. Prisoners around the world hear the gospel through their work.

CARD MINISTRY

ARM Prison Outreach provides resources for chaplains and others ministering in prison settings. For example, the ministry partners with Dayspring to provide inmates with Christian greeting cards. These are cards retailers return to Dayspring when they do not sell in stores. Dayspring sends them to ARM, where they are sorted and packaged and shipped to chaplains working in prisons for distribution to inmates. Prisoners and inmates use these cards to stay in touch with loved ones and maintain relationships outside the prison walls.

BIBLE AND BIBLE STUDY DISTRIBUTION

In Korea, Garman helped provide Bibles to the prisons. Later, he discovered some prisons were using Bible pages for toilet paper. Upon hearing this, he angrily vowed never to provide another Bible to a prison. Then he received a letter from a Chinese prisoner who told him he had read “God is love” on the paper he was planning to use. The message was life-changing for him. He asked for a complete Bible, and Garman decided to resume Bible distribution to prisons.

ARM Prison Outreach now partners with the American Bible Society to provide Bibles and Bible study courses to inmates. ARM provides approximately 17,000 Bibles to prisoners in 195 institutions yearly. ARM has also partnered with the American Bible Academy to provide high-quality, advanced Bible correspondence courses. Inmates receive these courses free through a scholarship program, and their spouses can also take the courses.

BAPTISTERIES

ARM Prison Outreach also offers handcrafted Communion tables that contain molded fiberglass tanks so that prisoners who accept Jesus can be baptized. The baptisteries are light enough to be moved easily by two men. ARM also offers a collapsible and portable baptistery designed for use by missionaries or in churches or jails; it can be folded into the size of a large suitcase and weighs only 30 pounds. It is free for prison ministries; they pay only shipping costs. ARM’s website says the portable baptisteries have been used for tens of thousands of prisoner baptisms.

The ministry’s website states, “ARM’s primary mission is to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those in prison and to provide resources for those who are preaching and teaching the Gospel in a variety of mission fields.” 

Learn more about ARM Prison Outreach, donate to help provide resources, place an order, or sign up to volunteer at www.arm. org.

*From “The Story of Joe Garman and One of the Largest Prison Ministries in the World” episode of the Our American Stories podcast; May 1, 2023; accessed at www. iheart.com.

ARM PROVIDES APPROXIMATELY 17,000 BIBLES TO PRISONERS IN 195 INSTITUTIONS YEARLY.

THE LOOKOUT

OUR FREE WEEKLY BIBLE STUDY MATERIAL IS AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH CHRISTIANSTANDARD.COM AND OUR “+LOOKOUT STUDY” NEWSLETTER.

To access our weekly lesson material, simply visit ChristianStandard.com in your web browser and select +The Lookout in the main menu.

There you will find the most recent

• Study by Mark Scott (longtime Christian college professor)

• Application by David Faust (veteran Christian educator and minister)

• Discovery questions by Michael C. Mack (editor and experienced curriculum writer)

A new block of related lessons begins every month, so your group can jump in at any time during the year.

Many small-group leaders and participants prefer to receive our lessons via newsletter, which we send out monthly at least 10 days in advance. The newsletter provides a link to a download of the next month’s lesson material all in one easy-to-print pdf. (Send an email including the title “The Lookout Study” to cs@christianstandardmedia.com to be added to our mailing list.)

You have our permission to print as many copies as you need for your group or class, or you can forward the link or share the pdf via email with your friends.

A final thought: Our Discovery questions are designed to foster conversation and “discovery” of biblical truth among groups and individuals with much Bible knowledge or no Bible background. Try it out! It’s free!

SONG OF SOLOMON SPEAKING OF LOVE

Long before Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages (words, time, gifts, service, and touch) from 1992, there was the Song of Solomon (also known as the Song of Songs, or literally, “The Finest Song”). This is sexual wisdom literature at its most holy eroticism. The book of romantic love poetry was placed in the Writings section of the Old Testament. It was written by Solomon or dedicated to him. It certainly is a strange book to be in the Bible unless God’s love for our souls is likened to the strong love between husband and wife. Students will learn of a woman’s love for her husband, the husband’s love for his wife, the watchful celebration of their love by the couple’s attendants, and the Lord of love whose love is the basis for all other loves.

ACTS (PART 1) THE CHURCH BEGINS

Since the creation of Adam and Eve, God has always had a people, but he has not always had a church. Even though the church was envisioned in the great commission of the Old Testament (Genesis 12:1-3), predicted by the prophets during a locust plague (Joel 2:28-32), and promised to the apostles at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13-20), she was not actually born until the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41). But after her birth, the church spread like fire across the Roman Empire. In this first part of our study of Acts, students will learn about that birth, how the early disciples shared their possessions with any who had need (especially widows), and how Philip the evangelist and Peter the apostle stretched that early church to be more inclusive.

Andy Pryor Tyler McKenzie affirms the attitude all of us should have as followers of Jesus [Engage, “Gradations of Unity,” by Tyler McKenzie, May/June 2023, p. 14]. We are never to be the cause of division. Rather, he calls us to be peacemakers. Being a peacemaker is no big deal when everyone agrees with us. The big deal is making peace when no one sees it our way.

Bruce Webster In 1 Corinthians 12:3, Paul says, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” It seems to me the simplest interpretation of that passage is that you can’t say, “Jesus is Lord” unless you have the Holy Spirit living in you, which would make you a Christian and my brother in Christ. If you are my brother in Christ, no matter how much I disagree with you or dislike you, I need to treat you like my brother. That can be hard to do, but it would solve a lot of our problems.

THE PROS AND CONS OF NONDENOMINATIONALISM

Jon Weatherly Ben, I appreciate this piece very much [“A Movement Away from Denominationalism: What’s It Mean for Us?” by Ben Cachiaras, May/June 2023, p. 66]. This trend is long and will likely continue. Congregations, leaders, and church planters are realizing denominational identity often consumes more than it contributes. Little wonder we see what we do.

This can be no less true for our undenominational denomination in its tendency to become a uniformity movement, as you so aptly term it. I would consider my own story to be an expression of that tendency.

After 32 years teaching in colleges and seminaries of the Independent Christian Churches, I am now ministering in a nondenominational church located adjacent to an R1 state university. To some I suppose I have “left the Restoration Movement.” I don’t see it that way. I considered making such a move because in my former position the pressure to conform to a particular partisan political stance, or at least not to speak against it in any way, simply became unbearable for me. I embraced this position not because I found myself in perfect theological agreement with the congregation (I have never found myself in perfect theological agreement with anyone) but because, without any historic connections to the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, this church clearly articulated a commitment to unity in essentials and liberty in nonessentials while pursuing a vigorous ministry of nurture and evangelism embracing the diverse, international university community it faces. They took me as I am, an unrepentant Campbellite, and invited me to serve with them. And I was thrilled to be a part of such a ministry at this stage of my life.

Ironically a nondenominational church can become as consumed in its nondenominational identity as any denominational congregation is consumed by its denomination. I can see that tendency in this congregation’s history. I suspect we can mitigate those tendencies by approaching new or newly nondenominational churches—not inviting them to join us, but asking how we can help them and cooperate with them. A congregation added to our numbers is not a trophy, but a congregation we serve in love and humility is a family member we embrace as co-equal.

And notice I use the first-person plural to refer to the fellowship with which I have identified all my life. I still do. I serve where I am in pursuit of genuine Christian unity under the authority of Scripture. I didn’t leave the Restoration Movement, and neither do I believe it left me. We simply need to work harder and smarter at maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Diana Murphy Thank you for this article. Pointing out these cautions should only encourage us to stay true to God’s truth and to continue making disciples. Our mission hasn’t changed. Thanks for helping us understand the times.

INTERACT (CONT'D)

Dale Reiser Our company works with a variety of churches, [assisting] with facility design and construction. We interface daily with elders, deacons, pastors, ministry leaders and their funding sources, to name a few. The open hearts and fervor to reach and teach the lost that we see when working with independent nondenominational churches is palpable. Generally, their overwhelming purpose is to put the church in the best possible position to reach the most people possible for Christ. These churches do so in innovative and authentic ways. The Restoration Movement is refreshing, authentic, and seemingly sustainable as we remain humble and dependent on God’s continued blessing.

S As an outsider looking in, I view nondenominational/unaffiliated churches as being at increased risk for developing into cults, in both the traditional sense and in the “personality cult” sense, due to a lack of external accountability. Some random, charismatic figure can babble himself into an abandoned Fred’s store, stick a banner made at the UPS store over where the store name used to be, start taking the money of vulnerable people who are barely surviving, proclaim absurdities, and enforce rules based on his whims, while telling others these rules are “biblically based.” The congregation is following the man at the pulpit, not Jesus, which is why certain congregants will follow him to his next stop. They are following the preacher, not a long-tested, well-defined belief system. Structure and accountability are necessary safeguards.

Al Edmonds If nondenominational Restoration churches are growing because “they are holding to timeless truth by conserving scriptural authority, [and if] they are providing hope and answers to real-life problems,” then why are so many abandoning fellowship with the brotherhood . . . [meaning the] Bible colleges, missions groups, etc., training and hiring their own staff, and why are they abandoning baptism as a biblical command for salvation?

Roger Lee Wever It is exciting to be a part of a nondenominational, or as some have expressed it, predenominational context. . . . So far, we are finding that those who come from different backgrounds have not been taught Scripture. They [primarily] have been taught their denominational or religious distinctives through their creeds or prayer books or extrabiblical sources. So, for us it’s not transfer growth, it’s actual apologetics, evangelism, new growth because they really know little if anything about Scripture itself. . . . [They] heard the true gospel, but they were told incorrectly how to accept it.

It has been our privilege to present the whole counsel of God to them. They are fully satisfied when they have fully accepted, according to the Scriptures, and we celebrate with them that they have come into the fold of his church and experience the same great salvation that the Scriptures speak of with us.

MORE HUMBLE PIE, PLEASE

Sam Hastings This is so very true: “But until we learn to sit and eat at the same table with our own family, I’m afraid the Restoration Plea will go largely unnoticed. We can’t be a family until we come to the Lord’s table, take the bread, take the cup, and don’t forget the humble pie” [“A Homecoming of the Heart: The Secret in Our Search for Unity,” by Drew Baker, May/June 2023, p. 72]. We in the ICOC, especially, must take this to heart. A good friend, who just recently went Home, said, “We talk of independence and autonomy, but we are neither independent nor autonomous. We are just downright antisocial!”

Wesley Paddock Our emphasis on correctness has been in itself an overcorrection. A noted saint said to me on one occasion, “I know of only two true Christians in the world, and [speaking to me] you are not one of them.” The battles over minor items has been destructive. Thank you for your article. We need more of that in the Restoration Movement.

Chris Bushnell Thank you, Drew! Humility and a teachable spirit seem to be in short supply in our world today, both inside and outside the body of Christ. Such a needed message for all of us.

Gary Sheets My feelings exactly! I’ve felt this and said this for decades like a voice crying in the wilderness! You can be so right that by your actions and attitudes, you become wrong. Unity is not conformity!

Michael “Unfortunately, these whispers of unity were difficult to hear over the roaring demands for intellectual and liturgical conformity.” Or, perhaps the point they contended for has been missed. Unity itself is not of high value. The highly selective examples from Stone and Campbell are interesting, to say the least. None of those “restorationist” guys thought that conformity to New Testament doctrine was optional. You shouldn’t either. They thought it was a sin to be in open rebellion to New Testament teaching. You should too. That kind of rebellion (and openness to it) is happening a lot today. From Pentecostalism, to prosperity gospel, to denials of the deity of Christ, to women in pastoral ministry, to acceptance of homosexual lifestyles . . . we tolerate all kinds of open rebellion for the sake of unity. Liberty is for areas where the Bible is silent. Unity is not a value in itself. Unity in Christ. Being of the same mind. Submitting to the same Lord and his commandments. That is the unity that is a value. A polemic against insistence on sound doctrine is a polemic against the teaching of the Lord himself. Insisting on following the New Testament is not insistence on doctrinal dominance. Unity in truth is the way to go.

INERRANCY/INFALLIBILITY

Michael Hines I read with interest [David] Kiger’s letter and Jerry Harris’s response [“My Response: Inerrancy Is a Hill to Defend to the End,” by Jerry Harris, May/June 2023, p. 82]. Thank you, Jerry, for standing up for the inerrancy of Scripture. I must point out, though, that “infallible” is a weaker term than “inerrant.” It can be argued that Scripture is “infallible in its result” rather than without error. But . . . we’ve been through this before! The 1970s and early ’80s saw the debate played out in Christian Standard and in a debate at the North American Christian Convention. For the most part, the argument flared up and raged for a few years then was “swept under the rug” without reaching a real conclusion. Several “scholars” and at least one seminary continued denying biblical inerrancy and this denial persists, as evidenced by Kiger, in some circles of both independent and a cappella churches. Such is the result of our independent and non-creedal position.

Steve Carr I truly appreciate this dialogue as it allows us to revisit, as Mr. Hines observes in his comment, an historical argument from recent decades. The reason we continue to circle back to it is that it’s an issue fraught with complexity. Our churches practice a more primitive theology that leans toward simplicity so this goes against our preference to settle matters quickly.

The words “inerrant” and “inerrancy” took on an entirely different meaning and position in the first quarter of the 20th century with the rise of fundamentalism. Thus, comments about “inerrancy” by Movement leaders before the spread of theological liberalism (late 1800s/early 1900s) aren’t necessarily culturally compatible. More recent critiques of the word center not on the concept of biblical authority but on the deep implications of its use. God’s Word is perfect, but human language is mutable/malleable. How do we stand on biblical truth but not confuse it for misguided interpretations?

Ultimately, this is a semantical disagreement more than a theological one. I don’t observe any view here that denies or deemphasizes the unparalleled importance of the Word of God. Without a doubt, the Restoration Movement has historically embraced biblical authority and its inspiration. We must continue to hold to this high view of the Bible. Our churches must submit to the authority of Scripture.

The seismic event for the Independent stream of the Restoration Movement was the infiltration of theological liberalism into our churches, seminaries, and publications. For nearly 100 years, those of us left in the wake have feared such a reemergence and have sought to prevent it at any cost. But past threats aren’t necessarily the most critical challenges to our futures.

INTERACT (CONT'D)

Larry Jackson As is so often the case with controversy, you’re both right. Preach on, Brother Jerry. Defend the word, contend for inerrancy. But keep reminding us, Brother David, of our heritage. If was for freedom that we were set free. “Inerrancy” is not one of the “Bible names for Bible things” that we have contended for. It is not in our “ethos” to exclude brothers with whom we disagree. We know how that works out. Nor is it our “ethos” to disbelieve the Bible. We know how that works out, too. You’re both right. And you are both free to “contend earnestly” for your understanding. Doing so in a kind way reflects the best of our heritage as “people of the Book.”

Dwight Webster I would like to see specific examples of how the meaning of a passage is interpreted by those who argue for the use of the term “inerrancy” and those who argue against it. One of my biggest concerns about what is going on in the church today—including Restoration Movement churches—is the attitude Christian leaders have taken toward the Genesis account of creation. This is the hill I would recommend we defend to the death. Tragically, in my mind, I seem to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness. I am convinced that the reason so many young people have rejected Christianity in America today is that they believe the Genesis account of creation has been proven wrong, which, in turn, undermines everything the Bible teaches. Attempts on my part to discuss the subject with preachers and educators have met with resistance that seems to communicate a desire to steer as clear as possible from dealing with this “hot potato.” Failure to take a stand on the Genesis account is, to me, a much greater threat than what feels like a semantics issue regarding inerrancy. Does the limitation of language rule out the use of the term “inerrancy”? Does this issue cause doctrinal issues? Would agreement on the use of the term “inerrancy” resolve all doctrinal issues? As Professor R. C. Foster used to say in class at Cincinnati Bible Seminary, “I think not.” I have a feeling that most, if not all, of those involved in this discussion would agree on all (or virtually all) doctrinal issues. I also feel if there are any doctrinal issues that need to be addressed, agreeing on the use of the term “inerrancy” will not solve the issues. Jesus’ reference to “straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel” is, I believe, applicable in this case. The Bible must be seen as authoritative at a level that will convince people to fear God and keep his commandments. When we have addressed that fundamental issue, we can debate whether the imperfections of language make “inerrancy” a flawed concept for the study of Scripture.

Michael Bratten Spend time embracing the authority of Scripture and we spend time knowing and espousing the truths of God. Regardless of what other words are used, “All Scripture is God-breathed” are the ones I appreciate most. My opinion/your opinion, my logic/your logic . . . it all gets confusing for me, especially when walking with those who are “more learned.” In the words of Mark Twain, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” My part is to share what little I do understand with those who need to know about the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Brian Gilroy Thank you, thank you, Jerry Harris! I appreciate that you stand for truth and doctrinal integrity. I grew up in the Disciples of Christ branch of our Restoration Movement and witnessed firsthand the implosion that took place. This self-destruction started with liberal theology, wayward principles, and rejecting the inerrancy of Scripture and the fact that the Bible is authoritative and can speak into our lives. This is a slippery slope we’re heading down (and is more apparent in our academic institutions), and it pains me to see this happening in our Independent Christian Church/Churches of Christ. May more people lead with conviction like Jerry Harris, regardless of the ire it creates among some in our Movement, or we might soon find ourselves a nonentity and facing the judgment of God that certainly wouldn’t be pleasant.

For space, length, readability, relevance, and civility, comments sent to Interact may remain unpublished or be edited. We do read them all and prayerfully take them to heart. If we publish your comment, we will try to honestly reproduce your thoughts with those considerations in mind. Where we disagree, let’s continue to keep P.H. Welshimer’s words in mind to “disagree without being disagreeable.”

@chrstandard @christianstandardmagazine