15 minute read
Jeff Bethke
The bestselling author, broadcaster and influencer still loves Jesus, and is addicted to grace.
In 2012, Jeff Bethke became a YouTube sensation with his “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” video (left). Faith & Friends profiled the “Viral Visionary” in the September 2012 issue (top right), just as Jeff was on the cusp of worldwide fame. Profiled in Time as well as other major publications, Jeff is now married
Married With Children (left) Alyssa and Jeff Bethke with their children, Lucy, Kinsley and Kannon
with three children but is still “just a nobody trying to tell everybody about a Somebody.” Here, he shares how he finds a balance not only with his job but also his relationships with his wife, family and God.
Why do you think that first video went viral? It was eight years ago now, but that was an accidental viral video. My friends and I were just doing it for fun, but it gave us this opportunity to do what we want. It’s been fun the last eight years to see how it’s taken shape.
You and your wife, Alyssa, have created a brand together. What is it that you do exactly? There are a million different things that we do, but the thing I like to say is we work for the Internet. Another way I put it is we like to make people think about Jesus in fresh and unique ways in our cultural moment. We’ve created a podcast, written books, participated in speaking engagements—just about anything, really. It plays out in a bunch of different ways and sometimes it includes Alyssa and sometimes not.
Viral Visionary
In his wildly popular YouTube videos, Jeff Bethke has a delivery as powerful as any stand-up comedian but with a much more serious message. He has all the “in your face” confidence of a rapper but none of the sleaze or profanity. Instead, the only four-letter word he favours is “love.” How Jeff Bethke’s “Why I Hate Religion” became a YouTube sensation by Jayne Thurber-Smith
As Jeff talks, he looks straight at the camera, without pretence, as if he has the best secret in the world he wants to share with you.
And he does. The equation is simple: Jesus > Religion. “A successful life is all about a relationship with Jesus, not rules,” Jeff states.
“Follow the King”
And people are listening. His YouTube presentation “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” had six million views three days after its release this past January. By June, the number was more than 20 million. Along with the praise, the video has garnered critiques from pastors and columnists, which Jeff weathers with disarming modesty. As he mentioned in a recent 20 | FAITH & friends September 2012
Time interview, his theology may not be “airtight,” but his intent in writing “Why I Hate Religion” was “to help people get the blurriness out of their eyes so that they could see Jesus for who He really is.”
Jeff has produced and written other inspiring yet controversial videos, the second of which, entitled “Sexual Healing,” is the antithesis of Marvin Gaye’s suggestive song from the ’80s. In the video, Jeff counsels:
You don’t have sex with a body, you have sex with a soul. Dudes, think twice before you desire her just ’cause she’s hot, ’Cause the truth is your body makes a promise whether you do or not. Jesus loves and accepts us
Photo: © Alyssa Fenton
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“A successful life is all about a relationship with Jesus,” says Jeff Bethke
Since you both work together most of the time, what are some of the hardest parts of that? And the best parts? Even though we’ve gotten pretty good at this, one of the hardest things is when you work with your spouse, you have to set boundaries, separating those moments together into separate categories. Is this a work moment? Is this a marriage moment? Is this a family moment? Is this a kid moment? Is this a date moment? It’s one of the harder aspects, but it’s a gift, too. The best part is that you grow so much closer together simply by pure math. The more time you spend together, the closer you grow. It’s the amount of time, which is really enjoyable and special.
JEFF BETHKE
Do you have any tips or advice for people who are in similar situations? Set boundaries and commit to times that you dedicate to work and times that you dedicate to date nights. We have something called a “business meeting.” On Sunday nights, we spend 30 minutes going through all the logistics it takes to run a family, a marriage and a business. We discuss our schedules for the upcoming week and we plan it all together. And then we have a date night, that’s separate from that, and absolutely no work talk is allowed. We rarely even talk about the kids that much; we use that time to connect our hearts on a deeper level. A lot of times, it happens that a date night can turn into a logistical meeting. And that’s when it gets convoluted and confusing.
When do you find time for yourselves as individuals? We are both morning people in the sense that we both spend the first two to three hours of the day alone. We don’t see each other. We don’t talk. And that’s big for us.
Some influencers choose not to be open about their faith online because they’re afraid of the backlash. Do you feel this way? The influencer industry paints this picture of perfection. The thing is, I think people want authenticity. And usually, faith lends itself to you being vulnerable and honest, which is what people relate to.
Do you have any advice for anyone struggling with their relationship with God? Just make sure you’re not trying to figure it out or do it alone. Struggle is real. Doubt is real. All these things are a normal part of the faith process, but make sure that you’re leaning into the Lord and community and Scripture and surrounding yourself with boundaries and barriers that keep you on a focused path, so you don’t fall off a cliff, you know, metaphorically. Make sure that you’re around people who know you for who you truly are. Reprinted from The War Cry (U.S.), February 2020
Faith&Friends GOD IN MY LIFE
Photo: June Li
Saved to Serve: “The power of God transformed my life,” says Kevin
Volunteering to Recovery
Recovering from addiction is a long journey, and Kevin should know.
“When I first came to Bloor Central, I was in terrible shape,” he says. “But that was six years ago. Today, I am sober and it is all because of this place.”
And all it took was a question. Familiar Refuge After years of battling a drug addiction, Kevin ended up in the hospital for nearly three months as he recovered from heart surgery.
“I was addicted to IV drugs and, unfortunately, I had a fungal infection that affected my heart because I was using dirty needles,” Kevin explains. A simple question changed the course of Kevin’s life. by June Li
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Serving Bloor Central’s community meals allowed Kevin to focus on others rather than his own struggles.
When Kevin was discharged, he was unemployed and had no money. Seeking assistance, the hospital referred him to a Salvation Army food bank.
For Kevin, The Salvation Army was a familiar place. “I’ve been to jail many times in the past, and The Salvation Army had always been there for me. I knew that this time would be no different.”
Life Changer For four months, Kevin visited an Army food bank to help him make ends meet. Hopeful to make a positive change in his life, he began going to Alcoholics Anonymous and became physically and mentally stronger.
One day, he ran into Major Douglas Hammond, the pastor at the Army’s Bloor Central Corps (church) in Toronto.
“Major Douglas asked if I wanted to volunteer at their community meal program,” he says.
From that day, this simple question changed the course of Kevin’s life.
Volunteering helped Kevin escape addiction and stay sober. By serving Bloor Central’s community meals, he was able to focus on others rather than his own struggles. Through the power of volunteering, Kevin no longer felt trapped in addiction; rather, he was connecting and building relationships with people in the community. He began to feel a new sense of purpose, make new friends and develop job skills.
“Volunteering at Bloor Central is something that is dear to me,” Kevin says, tears filling his eyes. “But more than that, the power of God transformed my life, and made me the person I am today. Bloor Central rejoices in that, and I am grateful.”
Bell-Ringer A happy Kevin takes a turn at a Salvation Army kettle over the holidays
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Breaking Through God bless you, Kevin (“Volunteering to Recovery,”
January 2020). My own story is similar. My drinking ended after a devastating physical and mental breakdown. The Salvation Army stood by me and never gave up on me, even on days I had given up on myself. Five and a half sober years later, I am now an official member of The Salvation Army, in AA, have my family back and I’m working full time. At the time, I could not understand why it had to be me, but I now know God sent me my breakdown to give me the breakthrough I needed. God has done for you and me what we could not do for ourselves. —Rebecca Gardner
Faith&Friends COVER STORY
Three Lives,
KEITH AND SHONA PIKE ALWAYS TOOK THE “IN SICKNESS AND IN HEALTH” PART OF THEIR MARRIAGE VOWS SERIOUSLY, BUT NEVER MORE SO THAN WHEN KEITH NEEDED A NEW KIDNEY. by Ken Ramstead
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Canadians Across the Pond Majors Shona and Keith Pike are Salvation Army pastors currently stationed at International Headquarters in London, England
Transplanted LoveTransplanted Love
Photo: Courtesy of National Recycling Operations
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Intertwined I recall the day that John Pike donated his kidney to his
brother, Keith, and how grateful we all were in The Salvation Army Student Fellowship at Memorial University of Newfoundland that the transplant was successful (“Transplanted Love,” February 2020). I’m thrilled that Keith’s wife, Shona, was able to donate this second kidney. It seems that the recovery time was much shorter this time, probably due to improvements in medical technology and techniques, but certainly through God’s grace as well. Bless you both! —Paul Bishop
Faith&Friends
BETWEEN THE LINES
Good Book Turned Bad?
Correcting misconceptions about the Bible. by Andrew Stone
Author Nick Page has a surprising opinion on what is arguably the best known book in the world.
“We’ve been told wrong things about the Bible,” he says. “We’ve been misinformed.
“For example,” he continues, “sometimes we’re given the impression that God wrote every word in it, but the Bible is the writing of many people across thousands of years.
“Some other Christians treat the Bible like it is God and end up worshipping it. But the Bible isn’t God—it was written and created by men.” Bible by Committee Another problem Nick identifies is that people do not always realize that the Bible is a collection of writings.
“Because it is bound together, some people think the Bible is one book,” he explains. “The fact is, it wasn’t bound together until about 350 AD. Before then, some of it would have been on scrolls and some on codices, early forms of books.
“In a sense, we need to unbind it. Then we would have more awareness that these are different books written by different authors.
“As well as being bound together, it is also translated by committees, which flattens all the voices so that it sounds like it has one author.
“For example, the final book of the Bible, Revelation, was written in extremely bad Greek, by someone for whom Greek was their second language. It’s a very important piece of
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writing, but it would have been full of grammatical errors. You never find the grammatical errors in the translations, though—it’s always tidied up.” Encountering God In an attempt to rectify such misconceptions, Nick has written The Badly Behaved Bible.
“The aim of the book is to come to the Bible and see what it actually is as a text,” he states. “We have to remember that it’s an ancient text, and its writers didn’t have the same categories of writing that we do. We go to it expecting the history parts to be our type of history. But the writers had no concept of writing history as we have.”
Nick makes his point by highlighting the first book of the Bible, Genesis, which has an account of God making the world in six days— something at odds with the scientific evidence of today.
“It doesn’t matter to me whether or not everything in Genesis actually happened,” he disarmingly admits. “Genesis is not a scientific treatise, so expecting it to be is wrong.
“The first two chapters of Genesis contain two different accounts of creation. The people who put Genesis together didn’t see any problem with including two accounts. So I don’t see that they were ever trying to deliver an absolute statement on how the earth was created.
“I see in Genesis primal stories about what it is to be human. Genesis tells us that human beings are made in the image of God. Now, that’s a massive statement, because it means that every human being is precious and unique.
“Genesis also talks about a God who has personal relationships— that’s a constant of the Bible in whatever part we’re reading, and I believe the Bible is a place where we can encounter God and begin a relationship with Him.”
Making Sense of Scripture “Genesis is not a scientific treatise,” says Nick Page, “so expecting it to be is wrong”
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Genesis of an Idea Thank you for the article/book review in which Salvation Army
officer Major Andrew Stone implies that one needn’t consider the Genesis creation account as literal (“Good Book Turned Bad?” February 2020). It’s encouraging that this can be said publicly! I think more young people need to know that older members of The Salvation Army don’t all believe that God created the world in six of our days, but that we accept known science. As someone has said, “Science is man trying to figure out how God does it.”—Heather Allington
Faith&Friends
FEATURE
Corey Koskie went all the way from hitting rocks with a wooden bat on a farm outside Winnipeg to manning third base for the Minnesota Twins. After enjoying seven years with the Twins, he played for a year with the Toronto Blue Jays and then went on to the Milwaukee Brewers.
But three months into that 2006 season, Corey went from living the taken to the training room, where he was diagnosed with a concussion.
When Corey got home that day, he thought he could just rest it off, but he continued to feel weird sensations, such as the room spinning and the floor moving when he tried to walk. For a week and a half, he tried to minimize what he was experiencing and push through it, and finally the symptoms went away.
PCS A big thank
THIRD-BASEMAN COREY KOSKIE THOUGHT NO ONE UNDERSTOOD HIS BATTLE WITH POSTCONCUSSION SYNDROME. BUT SOMEONE DID. by Jayne Thurber-Smith All in His Head
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Forget about a baseball comeback— Corey feared he would never get his life back.
dream to a waking nightmare. It began when he tried to chase down a routine pop-up in a game against the Cincinnati Reds. A Personal Prison “I sprinted to the spot where I thought the ball would land,” he recalls, “but when I looked up, the ball was behind me. I fell backward and got my glove underneath the ball. When my glove hit the dirt, the impact sent the ball back in the air. Our shortstop was right there to catch it. The crowd went wild.”
Unfortunately, as the game progressed, Corey began to hear all sounds as a jumbled mess, and the ground felt mushy underfoot. He tried to shake it off but couldn’t concentrate no matter how he tried. He finally told the trainer he didn’t feel well and was
“I felt great,” he remembers, “until I stepped on the field. After warming up, I felt sick.”
The team sent Corey back to the hotel to sleep it off.
“When I woke up, I had the worst head pain of my life,” he says. “My symptoms went from a zero to a 10, just like that. For the next two and a half years, I battled these symptoms. Every day, all the time. I’d try to do little things around the house, and the room would spin. I had bouts of anxiety, depression and obsessive thoughts.”
Forget about a baseball comeback— Corey feared he would never get his life back.
Making him feel even worse was the fact that no one really understood what he was up against, because everything he suffered was internal.
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you to you and your team for including this article on post
concussion syndrome (PCS) in the latest Faith & Friends (“All in His Head,” March 2020). I can relate in so many ways, but especially to the words quoted from Philippians 4:6 at the end of the article: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” —Karen Hollman Allington
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