Insights from two influential theologians, Augustine and David Lipscomb, provide valuable guidance for Christian engagement in the political process. Augustine, in his book “The City of God,” introduced the concept of dual citizenship: the “City of God” and the “City of Man.”

While Christians live in the earthly city, their ultimate allegiance is to the heavenly city. This dual citizenship requires engaging in worldly affairs, including politics, with a mindset oriented toward Christian principles.

Under Augustine’s guidance, we are encouraged to participate in politics to promote justice, peace and the common good. Augustine acknowledged human government’s imperfections but believed Christians should work within these systems to reflect God’s justice and priorities.

Related: On Episode 78 of The Christian Chronicle Podcast, two Christians — Shay Cathey, a Democrat from Texas; and Michele Woodhouse, a Republican from North Carolina — discuss their approaches to politics.

His approach recognized that no earthly government will ever be perfect, yet Christians have a duty to advocate for policies that align with their values, such as protecting the vulnerable and promoting ethical governance. This active political engagement seeks the common good in a fallen world while holding firm to your ultimate place in God’s Kingdom.

In contrast, David Lipscomb, a prominent figure in Churches of Christ, advocated for a more separatist approach in his book “Civil Government.” Lipscomb argued that human governments are inherently corrupt and that Christians should refrain from participating in political processes, including voting.

David Lipscomb, right, co-founded Lipscomb University with James A. Harding, left, as the Nashville Bible School in 1891.

He believed that Christians should focus on the Kingdom of God and live out their faith apart from worldly political systems. His views have powerfully shaped our churches and our consciences since the late 1800s.

Lipscomb’s view was that Christians should avoid entanglement with governmental affairs, seeing such involvement as compromising their spiritual integrity. He suggested that true allegiance to God’s Kingdom requires complete separation from the political machinations of the world.

In Oklahoma, a line of voters three-hours long stretches around the Edmond Church of Christ building during early balloting in 2016.

This perspective emphasizes the importance of living out Christian values through personal conduct and communal life rather than through political means. His approach calls for Christians to demonstrate their faith through acts of love, charity and peaceful living, rejecting the use of political power to achieve their goals.

Often, one of these two views — Augustine’s or Lipscomb’s — are present in the people we meet in our churches. It can be helpful while listening to someone think politically to ask which approach they are taking.

But what about your own thinking? Both Augustine and Lipscomb help us think about politics. While Lipscomb’s emphasis on nonparticipation highlights the dangers of political idolatry and corruption, Augustine’s approach offers a practical framework for engaging in politics without losing sight of one’s ultimate allegiance to God.

In the end, Christians should engage in prayerful discernment, seeking God’s guidance in their political choices. Following Lipscomb, we might affirm that government, though instituted by God, is imperfect at best and harmful at worst, a point which calls for measured participation and taking care not to idolize the political choices we make.

Following Augustine, we should evaluate candidates and policies critically, considering how they align with our Christian values and principles.

Informed by both thinkers, we should participate in the political process where it can promote the common good and reflect Christian ethics, while maintaining a critical distance from political idolatry. Both thinkers would encourage us to see that our ultimate allegiance is to the Kingdom of God.

MATTHEW DOWLING is preaching minister for the Plymouth Church of Christ in Michigan and a hospital chaplain working in the surgical ICU and oncology floors at Trinity Health Ann Arbor hospital.

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The post Thinking about politics appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

I was two weeks old when I first attended.

Except for the crazy COVID-19 period, I’ve spent most every Lord’s Day in the pews.

In two decades with The Christian Chronicle, I’ve reported from all 50 states and 18 countries (I’m only 74 countries behind Erik Tryggestad).

Given what I know, I have a pretty good idea when certain articles are going to be controversial.

Such is the case with our profile of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public instruction. Walters, a member of the North MacArthur Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, has been on the Chronicle’s radar for a while. But we had not written about him until now.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, listens to a question during an interview with The Christian Chronicle.

Our reason for the delay: We focus on news of national and international significance, and we deemed Walters a state official. But we also knew reporting on such a divisive figure would ignite a firestorm — a prospect we did not relish.

However, Walters burst into the national headlines with his mandate to teach the Bible in every Oklahoma classroom. This changed our perspective. We are a newspaper, after all, and he is a part of our fellowship. We could not ignore the story.

So we attempted to report on Walters as fairly and accurately as possible, reflecting his perspective as well as that of his critics — and including as much relevant context as space would allow.

A few readers accused us of promoting Walters’ policies. A few on the other side charged us with anti-MAGA bias.

But most praised the delicate way we handled a difficult subject.

We are extremely grateful for that encouragement.

While we don’t claim journalistic perfection, we strive — with a lot of prayer and reliance on our Savior — to report real news in a way that honors God.

While we don’t claim journalistic perfection, we strive — with a lot of prayer and reliance on our Savior — to report real news in a way that honors God.

Another story that generated controversy is our feature on a Tennessee church that sold its building, reallocated the money to various ministries and launched a new, community-focused congregation in a public school.

As we note in our report, this less traditional congregation worships with instruments and allows increased roles for women. We discovered those practices, which vary from most Churches of Christ, during our reporting process.

Again, some accused us of promotion. But that is not our intent. Again, our role is to report the facts as fairly and accurately as possible. Readers deserve to be informed. Faithful Christians can make their own judgments about doctrinal matters, based on their Bible study and understanding of God’s word.

We have said this often, but it bears repeating: We are not a teaching or doctrinal publication. We are a newspaper with news and opinion content in clearly labeled sections.

We thank you for your readership and support. We pray that God will bless you. And we ask that you pray that he keeps blessing the Chronicle, as he has for 81 years.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Before I got my start in religion reporting 25 years ago, I covered education news for The Oklahoman, the daily newspaper in Oklahoma City.

Way back in 1997, I did a piece on the national debate over teaching the Bible in public schools.

The top of the front page of the Nov. 19, 1997, edition of The Oklahoman.

In 1999, I delved into the hot-button topic of school vouchers. The question: Should parents be able to tap public funding to send children to religious schools?

A quarter-century later, the culture wars over such issues have not disappeared.

If anything, such fights have intensified.

Just this week, USA Today’s Kayla Jimenez and Murray Evans explored why GOP leaders in states such as Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas are pushing religion in public schools. (Full disclosure: Evans is a former Christian Chronicle correspondent and was a roommate of mine in our Oklahoma Christian University days.)

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In a similar piece, Reuters’ Liya Cui and Joseph Ax tackled “How U.S. public schools became a new religious battleground.”

For my part, my background in education and religion writing came in handy as I profiled Ryan Walters for the Chronicle. Walters is Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, overseeing a $4 billion-a-year educational system with 700,000 students.

This summer, a week after Louisiana leaders directed every classroom to display the Ten Commandments, Walters ignited a national furor with a mandate requiring Oklahoma schools to incorporate the Bible into academic instruction.

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, listens to a question during an interview with The Christian Chronicle.

For those seeking to understand the wrangling over religion in public schools, consider these three questions:

1. What do politicians such as Walters mean when they talk about “putting the Bible back in our schools?”

The Pew Research Center offers an excellent primer on the history of battles over religion in America’s schools.

A crucial chunk of context from Pew:

Conflicts over religion in school are hardly new. In the 19th century, Protestants and Catholics frequently fought over Bible reading and prayer in public schools. The disputes then were over which Bible and which prayers were appropriate to use in the classroom. Some Catholics were troubled that the schools’ reading materials included the King James version of the Bible, which was favored by Protestants. In 1844, fighting broke out between Protestants and Catholics in Philadelphia; a number of people died in the violence and several Catholic churches were burned. Similar conflicts erupted during the 1850s in Boston and other parts of New England. In the early 20th century, liberal Protestants and their secular allies battled religious conservatives over whether students in biology classes should be taught Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Check out the full primer (it’s an easy and relatively quick read) for helpful insight on various U.S. Supreme Court decisions concerning prayer and religion in schools.

Do note this: The Pew piece was published in 2019 so doesn’t include more recent cases such as a Washington state high school football coach winning the right in 2022 to kneel on the field for postgame prayer.

2. Why is the push for placing the Ten Commandments and the Bible in public school classrooms happening now?

Reuters noted:

The movement is fueled by opposition to what conservatives call liberal curriculums, including a focus on diversity and LGBT rights, and by the U.S. Supreme Court’s willingness to overturn precedent as it moves American law rightward.

A critic of Walters whom I interviewed — Oklahoma state Rep. Mark McBride, who is a Republican and a longtime Southern Baptist — voiced concern that classrooms have become battlefields.

“I want people to go to school and learn reading, writing and arithmetic and not have the distraction of having to be taught the Bible in school,” McBride told me. “But I don’t want the gay pride flag in the classroom either.”

I quoted Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel at religious liberty law firm Becket, in my recent Weekend Plug-in column on released time religious instruction.

Attorney Lori Windham, an Abilene Christian University graduate, is a member of the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia.

Such programs, as you may recall, allow students to be released from public schools during the school day to study the Bible or another religious text, such as the Quran or the Book of Mormon. A 1952 Supreme Court decision set the legal precedent that governs released time.

“The Supreme Court approved released time back in the 1950s when you had a very separationist Supreme Court that was really policing the boundaries of religion in schools,” said Windham, a member of the Fairfax Church of Christ in Virginia. “Now we have courts who recognize that religious expression in schools is OK.”

To put it another way: The court’s conservative majority gives religious mandates in states such as Louisiana and Oklahoma “a better shot at prevailing,” according to a prominent law professor quoted by USA Today.

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Paul wrote to Timothy, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”

I know. He includes instructions in the admonition. Regardless, the flipside must certainly be, “Don’t look down on anyone because they are young.”

But we do. And it’s killing us. Young people are leaving, losing heart, losing sight of all they could accomplish for the Lord if we will let them.

I spent my entire career — before I retired and began a new one — on a university campus surrounded in succession by Generation X, the millennials (also known as Generation Y) and Generation Z. And I loved them. And not just the two 30-somethings who bring their clans to have Christmas morning with Mom.

Cheryl Mann Bacon with her son Michael Bacon and daughter Kate Ashby at a Texas Rangers game.

I loved their energy, their quirkiness, their questions, their neuroses. I loved their commitment to each other — and to better health and a better world. 

Their priorities challenged me. Their artistry awed me. I like to think they kept me young and open to new ideas. I loved how they embraced Jesus’ love for the least of these. At least a few of them seemed to love me back. And welcome some wisdom and instruction from me as well, a welcome I treasured.

Friends knew I’d object when they complained about some young employee’s flagging enthusiasm or about the pierced and tattooed barista. Or about one who wandered into church, shall we say, casually attired. 

Meh. I just loved them. And I learned a lot from them, including how to use “Meh.”

I also remembered that in the 1970s — now that was a weird time to come of age — the Greatest Generation was not thrilled about the baby boomers. And despite the complaints of those before and after us, we turned out all right, too.

Beyond the Starbucks counter and Sunday morning faded jeans, I’ve also seen Christians shake a worried head at the prospect of someone in their late 30s or early 40s becoming a church elder or filling a pulpit previously occupied by someone a generation or two older. 

“They’re so young.” 

Exactly. 

Young, but older than Jesus. Young, but older than the apostles. Young, but older than David or Esther or Mary or . . . well, you get the point. I hope.

Ageism is not limited to condescending descriptors of those who qualify for AARP cards. 

Most of us of a certain age have more or less earned the devotion or derision that comes our way. We’ve had our chance to be noble and wise and worthy of respect. Or not. Years accumulated do not entitle us to disrespect or deride the generations that follow us. Years accumulated are just that — years. 

On Aug. 29, I’ll have accumulated 70 of them. Zero birthdays can be a bit jolting. But I’m resolved to do this time what I tried to do at 30, 40, 50 and 60 — embrace it. Like all those other zeroes, 70 brings some privileges, and one of them is expressing opinions on what birthdays may mean. 

Are Joe and Donald too old to be president? Yes. 

Would it be good for many elderships to rotate in some younger, qualified leaders? Yes. 

Can young ministers preach the word in season and out of season, with power and relevance and compassion? Yes. I hear one every Sunday.

A more informed populace would have understood that the Founding Fathers, save Benjamin Franklin, were mostly very young men, an understanding that might have spared us the better part of a decade arguing about two old White guys.

And a more informed fellowship should understand that young people are not “the future of the church,” as we too often say with a wink. They are today’s church. And our willingness to anoint them, encourage them and yes, follow them, is not a failure but a sign that we are not afraid to embrace the zeroes.

Want to celebrate my birthday with me? Take a young person to lunch or coffee. Refrain from sharing your wisdom. Just listen. And let me know what you learn.

Want to celebrate my birthday with me? Take a young person to lunch or coffee. Refrain from sharing your wisdom. Just listen. And let me know what you learn.

CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact cheryl@christianchronicle.org.

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I learned that much during my visit to this Southeast Asian city, about an hour south of Kuala Lumpur. I experienced care, concern, respect and love from so many brothers and sisters in Christ after I had the kind of accident that, up until now, I’ve only heard other international travelers talk about.

I was covering a four-day retreat for ministers and ministry leaders, especially those who care for orphaned and abandoned children. Steve Shaner, board chair for Agape Asia, invited me to attend. I met dedicated believers who serve the “least of these” — as Jesus says in Matthew 25:40 — from China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar and Mongolia.

The retreat was a model of congregational cooperation, with the Pasir Panjang Church of Christ in Singapore coordinating and the Seremban Church of Christ hosting.

Thomas Teng, a member of the Seremban church, invited me on a Friday evening hike.

“He’s in his 60s, so how tough could it be?” I asked myself. Later, I learned that Thomas’ nickname is Mountain Goat.

I reached the church building just as Thomas was pulling away in his truck. He honked, I jumped in, and we headed for the trail.

My friends from China and Singapore use ropes to begin the challenging climb to the top of Kepayang “Hill.” For me, this was the first indication that I had bitten off more than I could chew, climbing-wise.

It wasn’t hiking so much as it was climbing. Thomas led me, a family from China and a guy from Singapore up a winding set of switchbacks that required ropes and (for me) a lot of prayer. I was an unkempt mess of sweat and dirt as I finally dragged myself to the summit of what I assumed was a mighty Malaysian mountain.

At the very top was a sign that read “Kepayang Hill.”

At the top of Kepayang Hill, I posed for this photo. At the time, I thought my troubles were over. I was blissfully unaware of the big break that would come my way a few minutes later.

The trail down was supposed to be easier. Nonetheless, I stepped on some loose rocks, and my left foot flew out from under me. My right leg buckled — not at an awkward angle or anything, but I knew something was wrong. It hurt terribly to walk. I stumbled off the trail and onto a bench. 

A passerby named Alice became the first of many angels who would help me in the days to come. She massaged my ankle, lent me her walking stick and accompanied us on the agonizing walk back to Thomas’ truck. My brother from Singapore bought me bottled water and Nescafé — essentials for an invalid, as I saw it — and helped me back to my hotel room.

Alice, left, was one of the first of many angels I would encounter in Southeast Asia. She wasn’t a part of our group — just a passerby who saw I needed help.

I iced down my ankle overnight, but the pain remained intense when I put weight on it. I messaged the retreat group on WhatsApp and told them I couldn’t join them for the tour of historic Malacca, and I might need to see a doctor. Betty Chukka from India gave me her shoulder to lean on as I limped to the restaurant where everyone was eating breakfast. Tan Beng Chuan, one of the ministers at Pasir Panjang, was there and had set up a ride to the hospital.

Betty Chukka helped me limp along after my injury and checked up on multiple times. This is us just before Sunday worship with the Seremban Church of Christ.

Minutes later, Seremban church member Julia Cheah pulled up and helped me into her car. Julia had worked at the facility, now known as CMH Specialist Hospital, and knew a bunch of the folks there. She had already set up a visit with the ER doc, who sent me for X-rays. The polite tech told me, “You have a fracture.” Thankfully, the orthopedic surgeon was in and could see me.

Julia and Beng Chuan sat with me in the waiting room as the reality of my situation crept in. If only I’d arrived at the church building a few seconds later, I lamented. I would have missed the truck, and none of this would have happened. Now I was halfway around the world from home with a broken leg — and nearly 20 hours of flight time to get home. And, after that, I was taking my family to Disneyland.

This was my view from a wheelchair in the waiting area of the CMH Specialist Hospital in Seremban. Tan Beng Chuan, left, waited with me. He’s a minister for the Pasir Panjang Church of Christ in Singapore and a longtime friend.

Sensing my depression, Julia phoned our mutual friend Dennis Cady, a former missionary to Malaysia. Days earlier, on the island of Nias in Indonesia, I had seen the hotel where Dennis stayed while he did relief work after the 2004 tsunami. As a terrible earthquake shook Nias, he jumped out of a hotel window, fracturing something (or several somethings). From his home in Wichita Falls, Texas, Dennis commiserated with me and kindly informed me that, just perhaps, I wasn’t as young as I was when I started traveling for The Christian Chronicle back in 2001. I laughed and felt better.

My fractured right leg.

The surgeon, Dr. Maidin Bin Sarman, took a look at the X-ray and said, “Whoa!” It’s definitely gonna hurt, he told me, and it’s going to take a while to heal. But the fracture was high enough on the tibia that there shouldn’t be a need for surgery, nor even a cast or a boot. (My doctor in Oklahoma later confirmed all of this.)

I was relieved — and pleasantly surprised when the charges for the consults and X-rays came in at just under $60 U.S. I would have racked up that much in copays in the States.

Dr. Maidin Bin Sarman took good care of me.

Julia and Beng Chuan took me to get crutches. There was no parking at the pharmacy, so the techs (whom Julia also knew) met us in the middle of the street to adjust them to my height. Julia, who teaches English, had to rearrange her schedule to help me. She treated us to a lunch of Indian cuisine before driving me back to my hotel.

Kenneth Gong welcomes visitors during Sunday worship in Seremban, Malaysia.

The next day, Sunday, I worshiped alongside my brothers and sisters from across Southeast Asia, and I thanked them for their prayers. I had to miss the afternoon tour of Kuala Lumpur, but a couple kindly brought me back some candy and a refrigerator magnet of the Petronas Twin Towers.

Using his two working legs, Steve Shaner got this awe-inspiring photo of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

On Monday I joined the group from Pasir Panjang for the bus ride to Singapore. John Lim, one of the church’s ministers and a longtime friend, gave me a tour of the church’s refurbished building. John’s parents took us out for pizza and dropped me off at the Moulmein Church of Christ, which I had last visited just before the demolition of the church’s old building in 2015. Another longtime minister friend, Mit Vikraman, gave me a tour of Moulmein’s new facility. I had dinner with a group of good friends who worship at Moulmein. One of the church’s members, Sung Kok, drives for Grab, a Southeast Asia version of Uber. He took me to the airport and made sure I got a wheelchair.

John Lim and I have run into each other unexpectedly on multiple continents over the years. We met at the Pasir Panjang Church of Christ in Singapore in 2015. We saw each other again in Cambodia at the Angkor of Faith youth mission the next year. In 2018 I was worshiping with the Glyfada Church of Christ in Athens, Greece, when he showed up with his fellow Harding University students who were participating in the school’s semester abroad program. In 2019, I was covering Keith Lancaster’s Worship Leader Institute in Madison, Tenn. “We’ve even got a student here from Singapore,” Keith told me. “Lemme guess, John Lim,” I said. Here we are in 2024 eating pizza with John’s parents. My crutches are against the wall.

I’m still in pain, and I mourn the loss of mobility. It will take months for things to get better, the doctors tell me. Perhaps I can use this time to focus on the importance of accepting hospitality — letting others do for me what I can’t do for myself.

That’s a tough lesson. I spend so much of my energy in pain avoidance or reduction, and I pride myself on my perceived self-sufficiency. But this is all futility and mythology. We’re all dependent upon the unearned grace we receive from our Father. And perhaps, just perhaps, my multiple encounters with the many angels of Southeast Asia will teach me that.

I was blessed to have dinner with some good friends at the Moulmein Church of Christ. From left are Dave Hogan, Chan Kim Kai, Tommy Chia, me, Mit Vikraman and Edwin Choy.

Here I am with a group of Christians from Singapore and Malaysia after Sunday evening worship. Since I was unable to take a tour of Kuala Lumpur, I accompanied these folks to a new facility overseen by the Seremban Church of Christ. The new meeting place, dedicated in 2020, is located in a development called Seremban 2. Members of the Seremban church use the facility for Sunday night worship and hope to launch the work as a church plant, the Sendayan Church of Christ, in the years to come.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X at @eriktryggestad.

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It was 1977, and Mariko was part of an exchange program that had started three years earlier between Ibaraki Christian and Oklahoma Christian University. We toured the Philbrook Museum of Art and the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Okla.

In 1986, Connie Penick spends the summer with a Japanese family and attends Ibaraki Christian.

Nine years later, I was the exchange student, spending my summer living with a Japanese family and taking classes at Ibaraki Christian. I became good friends with Tomoko, a close friend of my host family’s daughter.

Forty-seven years after that first meeting with Mariko and 38 years after hanging out with Tomoko, I reunited with both of these wonderful women in Japan as we celebrated a half-century of cultural exchanges between Ibaraki Christian and Oklahoma Christian. It’s the longest continuous mutual exchange program between any two schools in the U.S. and Japan, said John deSteiguer, Oklahoma Christian’s chancellor, who traveled to Japan for the commemoration.

Connie Penick and Mariko reunite in 2024.

My father, Joe McCormack, was on faculty at Oklahoma Christian when the schools became sister campuses in 1974. He sponsored some of the first groups who made the journey from Oklahoma to Japan. It’s because of my father that I was in Tulsa that day in 1977 — and he’s why, while I was a student at Oklahoma Christian, I spent the summers after my freshman and junior years in Japan. My dad’s love for the program played a role in my decision to spend a year in Japan in 1992, teaching English at a junior high school.

The relationship with Ibaraki Christian has changed lives for eternity in both countries. In 1980, I witnessed my friend Emiko give her life to Christ on a frigid day in Japan. The baptistery was built into the stage floor of an unheated auditorium on Ibaraki’s campus. Emiko went into that ice-cold water so that she could be united with Christ and become my sister.

Mariko, whom I met back in 1977, met her husband, Larry Weatherford, through the exchange program. So did Tomoko, who spent a year at Oklahoma Christian. There she met Mike McLain. Now they run an English school in Japan.

Although Ibaraki Christian has roots in Churches of Christ, most of its 2,500 students do not come from a Christian background.

Oklahoma Christian University professor Joe McCormack teaches students from Ibaraki Christian University as part of the two institutions’ exchange program.

Christianity is a minority faith among the 125 million souls in Japan, and the country has fewer than 1,200 Church of Christ members.

That’s why the partnership between Ibaraki Christian and Oklahoma Christian is so important. It has helped missionaries strengthen congregations across Japan. Short-term mission teams study the Bible with Japanese English students, many of whom would never hear the Gospel otherwise. In Oklahoma, OC students invite visiting Ibaraki students to church.

Earlier this year, OC hosted a visiting group of administrators, faculty and staff from Ibaraki Christian, including outgoing president Naomi Ueno. Oklahoma Christian unveiled a carved stone on campus that commemorates the 50-year partnership.

On Ibaraki’s campus, the university hosted a standing-room-only reception for those of us visiting from Oklahoma. Yoshiya Noguchi, Ibaraki Christian’s chaplain, led “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” in Japanese and English. Jim Batten, an Oklahoma Christian alum, was there with his wife, Michiyo. The Battens dedicated their lives to Ibaraki Christian, where Jim served as a professor and chancellor. Also present was Randy Voss, who was part of the first exchange program in 1976. He now serves as principal for Ibaraki Christian’s junior high and high schools.

The celebration was an example of a Japanese concept of ichi-go ichi-e, “one time, one meeting.” My brother, Dr. Jeff McCormack, discovered the term while reading our father’s journals, which spanned three decades of travels to Japan. Jeff recently retired after serving as Oklahoma Christian’s chief academic officer. He loved the exchange program, just like our dad, who passed away in 2022. The 50-year celebration was an ichi-go ichi-e gathering that occurs once and never again, Jeff said.

Earlier this year, OC hosted a visiting group of administrators, faculty and staff from Ibaraki Christian, including outgoing president Naomi Ueno.

But the partnership between the two universities is far from over, said Ibaraki Christian’s new president, Hiroshi Shoji.

“It feels like there is still so much ahead,” he said.

John deSteiguer agreed, adding, “Mark your calendars for May 17, 2074. We’ll be back for the 100th.”

CONNIE PENICK is an administrative assistant for The Christian Chronicle. She and her husband, Jay, worship with the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.

The post Life-changing exchanges appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

The immaculate simplicity of the Irpin Church of Christ feels like a warm embrace, an answer to the chaos outside these walls — two years of tanks and bombs, bombs and guns.

The Irpin Church of Christ near Kyiv worships on a Sunday morning.

Most of the congregants are older women. Standing behind them, a young woman leads singing, waving her arms as she follows the lyrics projected on one of the bright, white walls. It’s a Ukrainian-language translation of “10,000 Reasons,” a song that challenges us to bless the Lord, even when our strength is failing.

“For all Your goodness I will keep on singing; 10,000 reasons for my heart to find.”

“You are mighty, God,” prays Ruslan Adamenko. Two days earlier I watched him graduate from the Ukrainian Bible Institute. “Unify us as one body of Christ. May we hear your Word and apply it to our lives.”

Moments later, my friend Dennis Zolotaryov asks the Lord to “strengthen the families that are separated right now.”

Soon, it’s time for me to offer prayers for the Lord’s Supper. I’ve been struggling to find the words to say since the church’s minister, Sergey Shupishov, asked me to speak. I tell my fellow Christians how proud I am of what God has done through them. When the bombs drop, when the lights go out, they keep finding reasons to bless the Lord.

“Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening comes.”

Then Richard Baggett, who I’ve accompanied to Ukraine multiple times in the past 20 years, delivers the sermon. He shares a bit about post-traumatic stress disorder and the impact it’s had on his family. He reads from the Old Testament book of Job, a man who endured unimaginable suffering but held fast to his faith.

Richard Baggett preaches while Inna Kuzmenko translates during the Irpin Church of Christ’s Sunday worship.

“I’m going to live like God is good because I believe he is good, even when I can’t see it,” he says, summarizing Job’s belief. “God is just, and there will be justice. He will not allow any evil to go unpunished.”

One woman in the audience responds, in Ukrainian. “Hope it’s gonna happen soon!”

That’s what most of the psalmists in the Bible said, Richard replies. “God, please come soon!”

After the sermon, we celebrate with Tamara Petrina, who was baptized just a few days ago. She and her daughter were in the capital, Kyiv, when the war started. Her husband and her mother hid in a basement here as Russian troops invaded. Petrina worried that her mom, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, would scream. Her husband did his best to keep his mother-in-law calm.

Richard Baggett and I ask Petrina how she learned about the Church of Christ. They gave her bread, she explains. In the days after Ukrainian forces repelled the invaders from Irpin, the Church of Christ distributed aid to people as they returned home.

“I had never been to church in my lifetime,” Petrina says, but she had to know more about these people. Now, they’re family.

Another woman, Rimma Bukova, pulls Richard aside to tell him how much she appreciated his sermon. Her son is serving in the military. Weeks pass between messages from him.

Richard Baggett, left, speaks with Rimma Bukova after Sunday worship in Irpin, Ukraine.

There’s a brace on her right arm. Recently, she got a call that her son was missing, she explains. She got so distraught that she fell and fractured it.

Eventually, she heard from her son. He’s OK, but he’s changed. He told her, “I pray every day for forgiveness from God for the things I’m doing.”

Sergey Shupishov, the Irpin church’s minister, also got a call from the Ukrainian government. The squad his brother, Dima, was serving in is missing in action.

That call came more than four months ago.

As we wait for lunch at a Georgian shish kebab restaurant, I ask Sergey to tell me about his brother. He pulls me aside to a corner booth and shows me photos on his phone of the two of them, together. They had a rough life, growing up in eastern Ukraine. While Sergey got baptized, married and studied at Ukrainian Bible institute, Dima got caught up in crime and went to prison in the city of Zaporizhzhia for stealing.

Dima Shupishov teaches Bible to a Church of Christ in Chernihiv, Ukraine.

God didn’t give up on Dima. He got involved in prison ministry and got baptized, eventually joining his brother in Irpin. Then he joined a team of evangelists in Chernihiv, just south of the Belarus border. Dima was making a big impact in the small city, his brother says. Then Dima was called into military service.

“He is a person who loves people very much. … And you’ll notice that I’m speaking about him in the present tense because I don’t want to believe that he’s not here.”

Since his brother went missing, it’s been hard to preach, Sergey says. But he’s had little choice. There are so few men left in our congregations. Ukraine is short on soldiers and has intensified its draft. Sergey is exempt from that draft now because of his brother’s sacrifice, he says — a kind of “Saving Private Ryan” rule.

He doesn’t know if he’ll see his brother again on this earth, Sergey says. But he will see him again.

Sergey Shupishov, left, with his mother and his brother, Dima.

We return to the table with the rest of our small fellowship. I sit next to Oleksandr Sikorskii, one of the Irpin church’s elders. He fought with the Soviet army in Afghanistan. I ask him if he knew Dima.

“Yes, I know him,” he replies. “He is a person who loves people very much.”

Dima answered the call to serve in Chernihiv without hesitation — without even visiting the city first, Sikorskii says.

“He’s a kind person, a worthy example,” the elder adds, “and you’ll notice that I’m speaking about him in the present tense, because I don’t want to believe that he’s not here.”

And on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come, still my soul will sing your praise unending, 10,000 years and then forevermore.

Dennis Zolotaryov, left, and Sergey Shupishov speak after the Irpin Church of Christ’s Sunday worship. The congregation meets in a building near the city’s downtown square.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X at @eriktryggestad.

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Fifty years later, my fond memories of that time remain strong.

I was reminded of that experience as I perused the booths at last week’s inaugural Polishing the Pulpit conference in Branson, the popular vacation destination in the Ozark Mountains.

More on that in a moment. But first, a bit of background: Polishing the Pulpit began with three preachers — Allen Webster, Mark Howell and Floyd Bailey — getting together to brainstorm sermons 30 years ago.

Now, 5,500 men, women and children gather each August in Sevierville, Tenn., at the edge of the Smoky Mountains. The weeklong event has become so popular that organizers added a second Polishing the Pulpit this July in Branson, nearly 700 miles west of the East Tennessee location.

“The thought was that we would take some pressure off the Sevierville location because we’re maxing it out,” said minister Todd Clippard, who spoke to The Christian Chronicle at the request of Polishing the Pulpit’s directors. “And second, the Polishing the Pulpit in Sevierville is always the third week of August, and you have a lot of parents who can’t come because their kids are in school.”

A giant “PTP” sign — short for “Polishing the Pulpit” — greets attendees at the inaugural conference at the Chateau on the Lake Resort Spa and Convention Center in Branson, Mo.

Clippard, who preaches for the Burleson Church of Christ in Hamilton, Ala., characterizes Polishing the Pulpit as a spiritual feast.

The Branson conference featured more than 150 speakers and 500 classes for various age groups. Special tracks were geared toward preachers, elders, women, teens and children. Worship assemblies brought together the entire crowd for singing, prayer and preaching.

“You’ve got 2,000 people who are all on the same page, all striving toward the same goal,” Clippard said of the Branson gathering, which drew 1,944 attendees. “You see people — from newborns to 100 years old — who are still fighting the good fight.”

Dan Winkler preaches during the inaugural Polishing the Pulpit conference in Branson, Mo.

A minister’s ‘getaway’

Doug Gregory, pulpit minister for the West Side Church of Christ in Elkton, Ky., drove 420 miles to Branson with his wife, Annetta, and three sons.

Doug Gregory preaches for the West Side Church of Christ in Elkton, Ky.

Gregory, who recognized me from my picture in the Chronicle, calls Polishing the Pulpit his “getaway.”

“The minister stands in the pulpit every week and is supposed to be a well and pour out,” he said. “But if you don’t pour something in, you ain’t got nothing to pour out.”

He shared how last year’s Polishing the Pulpit in Sevierville galvanized his ministry.

Until then, he spent most of his workweek in his church office. But a series by Chris Donovant, evangelist for the Kensington Woods Church of Christ in Hattiesburg, Miss., changed his perspective.

“To sum it up … Jesus went around to meet physical needs to gain an opportunity to meet spiritual needs,” said Gregory, whose church has launched an addiction recovery ministry and turned its former parsonage into a refuge for the homeless.

Producing gospel preachers

Preaching is, of course, a focus at Polishing the Pulpit.

I couldn’t help but notice all the booths for preaching schools — from the Georgia School of Theology to the Bear Valley Bible Institute in Denver.

The Chronicle has reported extensively on the minister shortage in Churches of Christ, so I was eager to hear from the preaching school representatives.

Tom Moore, who has preached for 40 years, serves as dean of students for the Texas School of Preaching.

I talked to Tom Moore, dean of students for the Texas School of Preaching, a ministry of the BCS Church of Christ in the Bryan-College Station area. Now in its third year, the school graduated its first class of five last summer.

“We want to prepare people to be bold in the pulpit,” Moore said. “We just want to produce gospel preachers.”

“We want to prepare people to be bold in the pulpit. We just want to produce gospel preachers.”

I talked to Ethan Tate with the Tri-Cities School of Preaching and Christian Development — which started in 2001 and has its own building by the Stoney Creek Church of Christ in Elizabethton, Tenn. 

Tri-Cities serves about a dozen on-campus students and more than 50 in distance learning classes.

“Our focus is not just training men to preach the Word of God,” Tate said. “We want to train ladies to be Bible class teachers. … We want to help men become more mature in their position, wherever they serve in the church. 

“We want to help equip all Christians,” he added, “to be able to do the work for Jesus and for God’s glory.”

David Deagel with the West Virginia School of Preaching reports that recruiting students has been difficult.

‘We need students’

I talked to David Deagel with the West Virginia School of Preaching. The 30-year-old school is sponsored by the Hillview Terrace Church of Christ in Moundsville, about 70 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.

Lately, recruiting has been a challenge for the school, which has six students enrolled for the fall.

“You’ve probably seen all the ads you’ve been running in The Christian Chronicle where there are so many churches that need preachers,” Deagle said. “And we need students. But things have been kind of light the past couple of years (in terms of) men taking up that mantle to preach the Gospel.”

I talked to Caleb Griffith, a graduate of the Brown Trail School of Preaching in Bedford, Texas. The 20-year-old serves as a field representative for the school, which opened in 1965 and has six students.

Caleb Griffith serves as a field representative for the Brown Trail School of Preaching in Bedford, Texas.

“We believe there’s a shortage of quality preachers,” Griffith said. “We’re focusing less on turning out the quantity of men so much as the quality of men.”

I talked to Jackie Walker and Wayne Rodgers with the Memphis School of Preaching in Tennessee. Walker, whose late husband, Don, taught at the school, works with admissions and the library. Rodgers and his wife, Cindy, started 4:16 Ministries (based on Ephesians 4:16), which is partnering with the school on stateside mission work. 

Founded in 1966, the school expects about 50 students this fall.

Wayne Rodgers and Jackie Walker work with the Memphis School of Preaching in Tennessee.

“We have a preacher shortage — a sound preacher shortage — and we get calls all the time for preachers,” Walker said. “A lot of preachers are staying at congregations a long time, so the littler ones are struggling to find good preachers.”

I talked to Trent Kennedy and Steven Lloyd with the Southwest School of Bible Studies in Austin, Texas. The school, started in 1974 and sponsored by the Southwest Church of Christ, ranges between 12 and 25 students at any given time.

“There are more pulpits than there are men who want to preach,” Kennedy said. “In rural congregations, the salary is not real high, so a lot of those men will need to work part time and do a secular job of some sort to support themselves and their family.”

And I talked to Brian and Jagie Kenyon with the Florida School of Preaching, hosted since 1969 by the South Florida Avenue Church of Christ in Lakeland.

Brian Kenyon started as a student at the school in 1989 and has directed it since 2009. 

“I’m just full-out fired up about Jesus,” said Kenyon, who grew up in a nonreligious household and found his Christian faith after going through drug rehabilitation.

Brian Kenyon, pictured with his wife, Jagie, directs the Florida School of Preaching.

If everyone shows up, the school will have eight students this fall.

“The foundation you get at a preaching school — the Bible foundation — is something you can use no matter what you do in life,” said Kenyon, who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. 

“Even if you don’t preach, it’ll make you a better husband,” he stressed. “It’ll make you a better elder or deacon in the church. It’ll make you a better employer or employee. It’ll just make you better.”

“The foundation you get at a preaching school — the Bible foundation — is something you can use no matter what you do in life.”

Why choose a preaching school?

In Churches of Christ, four basic criteria help explain the appeal of preaching schools, according to Carlus Gupton, director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.:

• Cost: “Preaching schools are much less expensive.” Most charge no tuition.

• Sense of trust: “Preaching schools are viewed by those who attend and the churches who hire their graduates as being more in line with their understanding of what constitutes sound teaching.”

• Curriculum: “Preaching schools often cover the entire canon of Scripture and related topics and are often focused strictly on those areas instead of requiring other subjects that may be helpful but not necessary for ministry roles.” 

• Community: “Preaching school cohorts are often small and tight-knit, with everyone taking the same classes and often living near each other for a few years. This is part of the reason their lectureships are strongly supported in that they allow friends to reconvene.”

On my 300-mile drive home from Polishing the Pulpit in Branson, I called my 79-year-old father, who still preaches for a rural congregation in North Texas.

While living in West Monroe, La., in the mid-1970s, the Rosses pose for a photo. Pictured are Bob and Judy with son Scott, daughter Christy and son Bobby.

We reminisced about the two years Dad spent at the since-closed White’s Ferry Road School of Preaching, devoting late nights to Bible study, making lifelong friendships and going on evangelistic campaigns across the U.S. — often taking along the entire family.

Ah, the precious memories.

“It was one of the highlights of our lives,” said my father, who later earned a Bible degree from Freed-Hardeman.

Amen, Dad.

Mike Vestal, minister for the Westside Church of Christ in Midland, Texas, poses for a photo with Bobby Ross Jr. during the Polishing the Pulpit conference in Branson, Mo. Vestal attended Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., with Bob Ross, Bobby’s father.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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“Shout, shout. Let it all out. These are the things I can do without. Come on. I’m talking to you. Come on.”

Maggie, my 16-year-old, and I sang along. Between songs, we talked about taking a trip to Washington, D.C., during the kids’ fall break. 

“That’ll be right before the election,” I said with a chuckle. “It’ll be good for y’all to see it before the inevitable rioting.” I meant it as a bipartisan jab. We’ve seen violence on both sides of the political spectrum in recent years.

We were blissfully unaware of the chaos unfolding in Pennsylvania. As we approached the Oklahoma City metro, my father-in-law called and told us about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. After we got home and unloaded the car, I pulled up Facebook on my phone, a sense of dread coming over me.

Sure enough, a few of my brothers and sisters in Christ were letting it all out. 

This is the media’s fault, a couple of folks roared. For years they’ve smeared President Trump with fake news, demonizing him and comparing him to Hitler. Of course someone was going to get the wrong idea. What happened was inevitable. 

This is Trump’s fault, a few others cried. For years he’s spouted angry, belligerent rhetoric, inspiring his followers to commit the deplorable acts of Jan. 6. Now he has reaped what he sowed. What happened was inevitable.

At least they agree on that last point. 

I hate seeing my fellow church members joining in with the howling masses. I hate that my kids see it. These are the things I can do without. And, to borrow another line from Mr. Smith and Mr. Orzabel: “In violent times, you shouldn’t have to sell your soul.”

Social media serves as a kind of release valve. I understand that. But reactionary posts rob us of perspective.

Social media serves as a kind of release valve. I understand that. But reactionary posts rob us of perspective. In addition to the partisan attacks on Facebook, there were laments by people of faith that this whole episode shows how far we’ve sunk as a country. 

My response comes from Ecclesiastes 1:9: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

 The specter of violence hangs over all of us in a fallen world, regardless of political affiliation. Republican Ronald Reagan, while serving as president, survived an assassination attempt on March 31, 1981. Democrat Robert F. Kennedy, while running for president, died in a June 5, 1968, assassination. His brother, Democrat John. F. Kennedy, died Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas.

The only U.S. president with ties to our fellowship, James A. Garfield, was shot at a railway station in Washington on July 2, 1881. He died after languishing for nearly three months. His assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, had campaigned for Garfield and believed that the president owed him a job. Later, he decided that a higher power had called him to kill the president. Guiteau’s family, fearing for his sanity, had attempted to have him committed prior to the attack.

We don’t yet know the motives of this current, would-be assassin. Perhaps he was motivated by projections of Trump’s character in the press. Perhaps Trump’s own words were the spark. Perhaps something else pushed him to take this terrible action. (John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Reagan, did so in an attempt to impress actress Jodie Foster.)

Making sense of the senseless for my girls is tough. All I can say is that, as I’ve traveled abroad for The Christian Chronicle, I’ve seen our Lord moving mountains amid political chaos. Even in Haiti, where the government has all but collapsed, I get reports of the hopeless receiving hope through the support of our churches and nonprofits. 

Everywhere I go, I see God at work, often in spite of us.

Dr. Freddy Juárez takes Emerita Duarte’s blood pressure during a home visit in the community of La Campana, Honduras.

A couple of years ago, managing editor Audrey Jackson and I were in Honduras reporting on the Predisan medical ministry. I spoke with Elvis Tejeda, who works with Predisan, about the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in his country.

On top of that, Honduras was about to have an election, Tejeda said, “And things get pretty crazy around here after an election.”

He paused. “Well … you know what I mean.”

Elvis Tejeda of Predisan talks about a mural near the Good Samaritan Clinic depicting Ramon Navarro, a famous marimba player from Honduras. Navarro and his wife died six months apart from COVID-19.

Sadly, I do. The political violence we endure brings us into mournful kinship with our brothers and sisters around the globe. 

I pray that I can be an example for my children by loving my country — but loving Christ more. May the Lord grant me the fortitude to resist falling in line behind voices that seek to capitalize on — and profit from — anger and rage.

In a world where everybody wants to rule the world (to borrow a line from another Tears for Fears song), may my gaze be ever on the only One who truly rules. 

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X at @eriktryggestad.

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But until this past weekend, that category of memories did not burden our children and grandchildren. Other tragedies have. Columbine. The Oklahoma City bombing. 9/11. Sandy Hook. Too many others. 

But more than four decades had passed since an assassination attempt on a current or former U.S. president — at least since one that was known to the public, one that happened on live TV.

For a time, we told ourselves these events brought us closer as a people. We recall 3-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. saluting his father’s casket and President George W. Bush grabbing a bullhorn to thank first responders digging through the 9/11 rubble. We find bizarre comfort in nostalgia.

But in reality we are a flawed and cynical people, suspicious of all who see things differently. We have not mastered the lessons of history, much less the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount.

We forget that Christians with no political power whatsoever, believing in a risen Christ who never sought nor espoused any earthly power, changed the world in a generation.

They did it without a bully pulpit, without a 24/7 news cycle, without social media.

Amid war, disease and disaster, they fed the hungry, rescued abandoned babies and created hospitals to care for the sick and dying.  

The Romans didn’t change. Christians loved their neighbors anyway.

Heed that lesson.

Your community has hungry people in it. Go feed them.

Former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday in Butler, Pa.

Your state has neglected, abused and unwanted children. Take care of them. 

Your community has immigrants and refugees — legal and otherwise — who are frightened and lonely. Welcome them. 

In the process, you’ll almost certainly discover that someone working next to you votes differently than you do. Let them. Love them. Don’t waste your breath berating them. 

Just work together to help the hurting person in front of you. One of you will lose the election. One will win. Keep serving together anyway.

Paul told the Corinthians, “Christ’s love compels us.”

As we process the violence in Pennsylvania that killed a retired fire chief, Corey Comperatore, and wounded at least three others, including the former president, don’t be consumed with anger. Don’t get caught up in the blame game. “It’s his fault. It’s their fault. It’s the media’s fault.” 

The only path back to sanity is consistently choosing to follow in the steps of the Savior — a path of sacrifice, compassion and generosity to one another.  

Because Christ’s love compels us.

The Hashemis and the Kluvers pose for a group photo at the Afghan refugee family’s Oklahoma home. Christians, including the Kluvers, have helped the Hashemis acclimate to life in America.

CHERYL MANN BACON is a Christian Chronicle contributing editor who served for 20 years as chair of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Abilene Christian University. Contact cheryl@christianchronicle.org.

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The groom, barely 19, borrowed a white sport coat from his younger brother. His black tie matched his perfect flattop.

On July 2, 1964, Bob Ross and Judy Nanney exchanged wedding vows in their southeastern Missouri Bootheel hometown.

Bob and Judy Ross are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.

Long before the simple living-room ceremony 60 years ago, seeds of hard work, Christian faith and commitment to the institution of marriage were planted in both my parents’ hearts.

My father, the third of four children, grew up in a farming family.

My grandfather Lloyd Ross served in World War II and he was shot in the face. After the war, Papa worked as a cotton sharecropper and later as a carpenter and commercial fisherman. My grandmother Margaret Ross helped support the family by sewing in a garment factory.

My mother, the middle child of three siblings, grew up in a less stable — but equally loving — family.

My grandfather Earl Nanney, a sweet man who battled mental illness all his adult life, found it difficult to retain a job. My grandmother Edith Nanney dealt with Grandpa’s frequent stints in jail and mental hospitals and her own chronic physical ailments. Through it all, Grandma fought to keep her family together.

From early ages, both my parents picked cotton in Missouri fields.

The young couple on their wedding day, with Judy’s parents Earl and Edith Nanney, left, and Bob’s parents Margaret and Lloyd Ross, right.

Dad’s family raised cows and pigs, so the Rosses ate meat more often than the Nanneys. Mom’s family relied on its garden for potatoes, corn and tomatoes.

In both households, belief in Jesus was stressed. In fact, my parents first connected at a teen Bible study.

The young couple enjoyed roller skating, drive-in movies and ice cream cones at a local café.

Dad grew up in the Church of Christ. Some of my earliest memories of Papa and Grandma are on a light blue church bus. Every Sunday, they’d drive all over the countryside, picking up children for worship and teaching them to sing “Jesus Loves Me.”

Mom grew up in the First Baptist Church. I still remember Grandpa — when he wasn’t hospitalized — rising before dawn on Sunday and playing gospel music at an ungodly volume.

He loved my dad but couldn’t resist calling him a “Campbellite.” I can’t recall a day, meanwhile, that I didn’t see Grandma open up her Bible and spend time in God’s word.

While they were dating, Mom and Dad visited each other’s church from time to time.

“I went to church just to be with her,” Dad said.

“Our lives have certainly been God-centered.”

“But he wouldn’t sing,” Mom said with a laugh — a reference to his concern over the organ and piano used in the Baptist church’s worship.

About six months after they married, Mom stepped forward at a Church of Christ assembly and asked to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.

“Our lives have certainly been God-centered,” Mom said. “If we didn’t have God to talk to about our kids and our grandkids and ourselves and when terrible things happen, I don’t know what we’d do. I don’t know what people do if they don’t have God.”

Bob and Judy Ross during their early years of marriage. Bob served in the Air Force and spent a year in Greece away from his wife and children.

Mom and Dad were raised to believe that saying “I do” means forever. Papa and Grandma Ross were married 69 years. Grandpa and Grandma Nanney were married 52 years.

As young adults, my parents spent a year apart as Dad joined the Air Force and served overseas — in Greece — during the Vietnam War.

Dad later studied at the White’s Ferry Road School of Preaching in West Monroe, La., and Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., and became a preacher.

In 1982, Mom and Dad began 25 years of full-time ministry as houseparents at Christ’s Haven for Children in Keller, Texas.

Now retired, they dote on their seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren and remain madly in love. Dad still preaches at a little country church in Greenwood, Texas, about 55 miles north of Fort Worth.

Bob and Judy Ross hold a portrait of their extended family at a wedding.

I thank God for giving me Christian parents who shared their legacy of faith with me, my brother Scott, my sister Christy and our entire extended family — not to mention the hundreds of girls for whom they cared at Christ’s Haven.

I’m reminded of Brad Paisley’s 2001 hit song “Two People Fell In Love.” I’m so incredibly blessed that my parents fell in love.

Happy 60th anniversary, Mom and Dad!

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

Editor’s Note: This column is adapted from one originally published at the Rosses’ 50th anniversary.

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He had just asked me if I was a farmer since I live in Oklahoma. So this question seemed much less stupid.

“Kyiv,” I said.

“Why?” the guard asked, with a hint of snark in his voice.

“Preacher training school graduation,” I said. He waved us through.

Crossing the border into Ukraine felt different than it did two years ago, when Audrey Jackson and I accompanied a small group from Sunset International Bible Institute and the Program for Humanitarian Aid. Back then, as we approached the border near Siret, Romania, no fewer than seven uniformed men surrounded our van. Our driver, Adi Voicu, talked to them as I feared the worst. They’d spend hours looking through our bags of relief supplies, I thought.

But no. “These guys want to help us carry our bags to the border,” Adi said. They were volunteer firefighters and emergency workers. Along the path to the checkpoint, we saw tents manned by priests and aid workers offering coffee and sandwiches. When we returned to Romania the next day, they asked us if we were OK, if we had a place to stay.

Border volunteers in Siret, Romania, help a team of church members bound for Ukraine with their bags in April 2022.

Two years later, in Poland, we chose to cross at a small checkpoint in Zosin. Days earlier, Polish farmers had blocked a bigger checkpoint that leads to Lviv, Ukraine, in protest of the European Union lifting import duties on Ukrainian grain after the war with Russia began. “Ukrainian grain is flooding Poland,” one farmer told Al Jazeera, “and we’re getting poorer and poorer.”

@christianchronicle IRPIN, Ukraine — Erik Tryggestad traveled abouy 15 hours from Warsaw to reach this suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine, where he will cover a ministry meeting and graduation at the Ukrainian Bible Institute. #ukraine #irpin #warsaw #polandtoukraine #ukrainianrefugees #poland #churchofchrist #ukrainewar #ukrainerussia ♬ Song for Ukraine – SALSABILA

I came here to attend a workshop and graduation ceremony sponsored by the Ukrainian Bible Institute. I accompanied Richard Baggett of Sunset; Jay Don Rogers, who directed the Bible institute for 19 years; and Rogers’ wife, Mary Lee. Inna Kuzmenko, a Christian from the hard-hit town of Kharkiv, was our translator. Our drivers, Oleksander Sikorski and Philip Mocknuk, serve with Volunteer Brothers. For two years, workers with this ministry have driven shipments of relief supplies to churches and community centers near the front lines.

In the early days of the war, we were united in purpose. I didn’t know what to expect now. My Ukrainian brothers and sisters must be exhausted, I thought. And they have to know that support has wavered in the U.S. — that some politicians have called for my country to drop its financial support for Ukraine.

Would I find tired, resentful faces this time?

I underestimated my Ukrainian friends. More than anything else, they were grateful that we made the 15-hour journey from Warsaw to Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv that bears terrible scars from the early days of the war. The burned shells of cars form a makeshift memorial on the side of the road. The city’s cultural center is in ruins, festooned with promises that it will be rebuilt.

@christianchronicle IRPIN, Ukraine — A scrap pile of torched cars has become a memorial for the lives lost in this northern suburb of Kyiv during the 2022 Russian invasion. #irpin #ukraine #irpincars #russianinvasion #ukrainerussiaconflict #ukrainerussia ♬ original sound – The Christian Chronicle

During the three-day conference, I talked to church members who made the dangerous journey from Kharkiv, Kramatorsk and the Donetsk region, just miles from the frontlines. Air raid sirens and explosions have become common, “like birds singing,” one woman told me.

But they keep on praying. They keep on helping those in need. They keep studying their Bibles and baptizing. When the power goes out, they worship in the dark.

“Air raid sirens and explosions have become common, ‘like birds singing,’ one woman told me. But they keep on praying. … They keep studying their Bibles and baptizing. When the power goes out, they worship in the dark.”

Prayers seem to mean more now. So do goodbyes.

On the first day of the war, I put together a piece titled “Why Ukraine matters to Churches of Christ,” drawing on the 20-plus years I’ve covered the fellowship in Ukraine. I wrote about how the free-thinking coal miners of eastern Ukraine provided a white field for harvest when the Iron Curtain fell. Ukrainian Christians have taken their zeal for the Kingdom across their country and, now, across Europe.

I don’t know when or how this war will end, but I’m so encouraged, so proud, to see God working through our Ukrainian brothers and sisters. Truly, this is faith under fire.

I said as much on this most recent trip when I presided over the Lord’s Supper for the Irpin Church of Christ. There were about 35 of us there. Several women had sons serving on the front lines. They shared photos and shed tears as they told us their stories.

The Irpin Church of Christ near Kyiv worships on a Sunday morning.

The church’s minister, Sergey Shupishov, told me about his brother, Dima, who’s also a minister. Dima was called into military service, and his unit went missing about four months ago. I’ll share that story — and many more — in future issues.

Before we left Ukraine, Sergey gave me a military patch from one of Dima’s uniforms. It reads “Simul ad Victorium” — “Together to Victory” in Latin. Sergey said it was a way to honor his brother and thank us for our visit, for remembering them.

I find myself stunned and speechless by this act.

A patch worn by Dima Shupishov on his military uniform reads “together to victory” in Latin.

Remembering is important. There are plenty of verses in the Bible about how important it is for us to remember what God has done for us. God also remembers us. When the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt, God “heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:24).   

I remember the words Ukrainian minister Yura Taran told me two years ago: “This is our Exodus. Soon, we will find the promised land.”

I will continue to remember. I will continue to pray.

Ukraine still matters.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X at @eriktryggestad.

PODCAST: Erik Tryggestad reports from Ukraine with Richard Baggett of Sunset International Bible Institute and Inna Kuzmenko of Kharkiv, Ukraine. Listen to Episode 67 of The Christian Chronicle Podcast.

Ukranian flags line Kyiv’s Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square), each honoring a Ukrainian who lost their life in the war with Russia.

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A military brat who spent time as a child in Japan as well as Florida and Tennessee, the father of three prepares his lesson in English. 

ChatGPT has helped improve missionary Leslie Taylor’s sermon preparation process.

Then he goes through his manuscript — sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph — to translate it into Japanese.

“That translation aspect can obviously be very difficult at times,” said Taylor, who earned a master’s degree in ministry from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn. 

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot made by the company OpenAI, has helped improve the missionary’s process.

“I do as much as I can by myself, but sometimes it helps with particularly complicated sentence structures,” Taylor said of the AI program, “or I may ask it to explain a nuance, etc.

“It’s still necessary to know Japanese because sometimes it gives mistaken translations — or just slightly off my meaning — so I need to discern,” he added. “But it is a helpful tool in the process to be sure. I would never even consider it as a source for any actual content, however.”

Roughly 6,500 miles away, Dion Frasier, senior minister for the Reynoldsburg Church of Christ in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, relies on ChatGPT to translate his sermon into Creole.

“We have a growing Haitian population in our area, and they are starting to attend church regularly,” Frasier explained. “We translate and hand out copies to families each week.”

Above, missionary Leslie Taylor takes a selfie with his wife and children in Japan.

Translating the Bible at a faster rate

The number of languages with full Bible translations tops 700 — accounting for the native tongues of 80 percent of the world’s population, the American Bible Society notes. 

About 3,750 vernaculars lack full translations, but AI could help speed the process of taking the Bible from its original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into more languages, according to ReligionLink.com.

A team at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute “is using natural language processing, which enables machines to understand and respond to text or voice data, to help increase the efficiency of Bible translation and allow for more languages to be reached at a faster rate,” reports Ken Chitwood, ReligionLink.com’s editor.

Christians in the U.S. express complicated feelings about AI, with 30 percent believing it is exciting but 34 percent seeing it as scary, according to a recent survey by the Barna Group in partnership with Gloo. (A Catholic advocacy group in California recently dismissed a robot priest who advised its followers to “baptize children in Gatorade.”)

Mary Nelson, a missionary with her husband, David, in Tauranga, New Zealand, identifies with both the enthusiasm and wariness toward AI.

“Myself, it makes me nervous — the whole AI arena,” Nelson said. “Automatically, our mind goes to all the different problems that can come about from AI and still may. But if there’s a tool that means we can get Bible lessons out quicker … I can’t think of why we should just say no.

“I think we put all the precautions in place and use the tool but use it intelligently,” she stressed. “If we use our own human intelligence to use this artificial intelligence, then I think it’s really good.”

“Myself, it makes me nervous — the whole AI arena. … But if there’s a tool that means we can get Bible lessons out quicker … I can’t think of why we should just say no.”

‘Maybe we should be using AI’

A decade ago, Nelson developed an online ministry called Mission Bible Class.

Now sponsored by the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City, the ministry provides free resources to teach children around the world. 

Nelson’s collection of more than 170 Bible stories — all in English — draws about 8,000 pageviews a day. For years, she has dreamed of making the materials available to the world’s roughly 500 million Spanish speakers.

To pursue that goal, she and a team worked with translator Tae Perkins — a former missionary to Chile who lives in Lubbock, Texas — to develop a plan estimated to cost $100,000 and take two years.

But then ministry supporters asked if they’d considered enlisting AI.

They had — and rejected it.

Still, they tried it again, unaware how quickly — and how much — the technology had advanced.

“We were basically just testing it out,” said Gina Nored, who works with Nelson in New Zealand through Memorial Road’s Helpers in Missions program. “The logic kind of was: Let’s give some reason to why we’re not using AI. And then we realized: Maybe we should be using AI.”

They discovered ChatGPT could translate the English lessons into Spanish in an easily editable format.

“It takes me about two to three hours to translate one of her lessons,” Perkins said of the previous manual process — which was followed by an additional hour for editing.

“By using AI, it allows us to be more efficient in projects that we feel passionate about.”

By comparison, AI requires less than 15 minutes to translate the same lesson before it goes to the human editor. Then, Perkins said, “It takes me about 30 to 45 minutes to edit one that’s been passed through the AI.”

Suddenly, the expected overall project cost dropped 75 percent to about $25,000. The anticipated timeline split in half to one year.

“By using AI, it allows us to be more efficient in projects that we feel passionate about,” said Nored, who earned degrees in ministry and elementary education at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. “But then it allows us to have more time and energy and resources spent on other things that we would otherwise have to put on the back burner or just not be able to do.” 

In a Zoom interview, Tae Perkins, top, and Mary Nelson and Gina Nored, bottom, discuss the use of artificial intelligence by the online ministry Mission Bible Class.

Better technology, lower costs

Veteran minister James Nored, Gina’s father, speaks just one language: English.

“I took Greek and Hebrew and all that, but I’m not all that fluent in another language,” said Nored, who holds degrees from Oklahoma Christian University, Harding School of Theology and Fuller Theological Seminary. 

But through the magic of AI, his voice can be adapted to numerous languages — from Arabic to Portuguese.

Nored serves as executive director of Next Generation for Christ, a Virginia-based ministry focused on evangelism, discipleship and missions. He wrote and produced the Story of Redemption Film Series, filmed in Israel and other countries. It’s available in more than 60 languages.

“Most of our languages for our Story of Redemption series have been done by humans and professional translators, who are often assisted by AI tools,” Nored said. “And we have found some really great, talented people to do voiceovers.”

But AI advancements allow the ministry to “quickly produce” computer-generated voiceovers for videos and subtitles, he said. That’s especially helpful, he noted, when faced with scarce funding, voice talent or time.

He cited a ministry to the blind in Albania as an example.

“We had the video series with subtitles, but that obviously would not be very helpful for this people group,” Nored said. “We were able to quickly produce an AI-generated Albanian voiceover, and it worked well.”

James Nored shoots a video in Israel for the Story of Redemption Film Series.

A sacred task

Back in Japan, Taylor stresses that his sermon represents more than words on a piece of paper.

When he stands before his multicultural congregation, which includes American, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Lithuanian members, he’s not just conveying information.

He’s sharing the Gospel.

“It’s sharing the heart of the text, obviously,” he said. “But I mean, if I really think about it, it’s very humbling because you’re really representing God to people. … And so I think it’s a sacred task that needs to be taken seriously.”

AI, he believes, can help with that task.

But it can’t replace the value — and necessity — of humans interacting intelligently with the Holy Bible.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Ross writes the Weekend Plug-in column for ReligionUnplugged.com, where this piece originally appeared. He uses an AI program called Otter to transcribe his interviews. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

The post Christians use AI to share Jesus appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

For most, the rising temperatures signal a more relaxed time of year, characterized by lazy days playing in the water, road trips to see loved ones and all sorts of fun and games.

For many members of Churches of Christ, the warmer months bring beloved traditions that go back years and even decades. Teens crowd into church vans and travel to areawide youth nights. Church ladies prepare cookies and Kool-Aid to serve at Vacation Bible Schools. Preachers hit the road to speak at Wednesday night sermon series.

Pharaoh faces off against Mario during an Exodus-themed Vacation Bible School at the Northside Church of Christ in Mayfield, Ky., in 2023.

We do our best at The Christian Chronicle to report on exciting news happening in Churches of Christ across the U.S. and around the world.

But summertime reminds us just how big our God is — and just how unequipped we are to reflect the full range of blessings he bestows.

So we provide snapshots that we pray provide an inkling of the Lord’s work in us and among us.

Picture the McAdams family from the McDermott Road Church of Christ in Plano, Texas. Nearly 600 miles from home, they enjoy singing, fellowship, fun, eating, Bible learning and encouragement at Camp Blue Haven in Las Vegas, N.M.

Hollee McAdams listed some of her favorite parts of the week: “(Son) Noah’s best friend putting on Christ, visiting on the porch with fellow teachers, (son) Malachi coming up and talking to us throughout the week and him praying over his dad (Wes), both boys leading prayers during devos, our class of great kids, learning a new song, ‘Gratitude,’ and being with my hubby all week.”

Noah McAdams sticks out his tongue as a staff member snaps a photo at Camp Blue Haven.

Picture Adam Metz, a minister for the Alum Creek Church of Christ in Lewis Center, Ohio, laboring alongside young people at the 20th annual Central Ohio Work Camp.

“We’ve painted nearly 150 houses in those years,” Metz shared. “Excited for the crew I get to work with.”

Picture sister congregations in Middle Tennessee meeting as one racially diverse body for four straight weeks — for the third summer in a row — for a special unity emphasis dubbed Greater Together.

Christians worship a Greater Together service at the Tusculum Church of Christ in Nashville, Tenn., in 2022.

Greater Together’s theme this year: “Broken but Beautiful.”

Picture hundreds of teens from predominantly African American congregations converging on a college campus in Louisville, Ky., for the 72nd annual National Youth Conference.

“We are grateful to be a part of this storied summer tradition,” said Lamont Ross, senior minister for the Marsalis Avenue Church of Christ in Dallas. “We are indebted to Orum Trone Sr., who established the National Youth Conference in 1952, and all of the dedicated men and women who have served … so that generation after generation can participate in this unique experience.”

The same could be said about countless other traditions, from mission trips to preacher training camps to big gatherings like Polishing the Pulpit and the Red River Family Encampment. All help bring the faithful together this time of year, and we praise God for them.

Ah, summertime.

“We are grateful to be a part of this storied summer tradition.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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I keep running into Ethan Bilbrey … and I keep quoting him in The Christian Chronicle.

The funny thing is, I had never met him — or even heard of him — until three months ago.

Scott Laird, a longtime Montana minister who serves on the Chronicle’s national board of trustees, introduced me to Ethan at the Equip Conference, hosted by York University in Nebraska in March.

Students and Equip Conference attendees stand to sing during chapel at York University.

Ethan did a two-year apprenticeship with Scott and the Great Falls Church of Christ before moving to the Minneapolis area, where he has preached for the Richfield Church of Christ since 2016.

The theme of the York event was “Hope for Churches,” so I interviewed Ethan about the congregation he serves.

“We’re like a lot of Churches of Christ,” he said in my Equip Conference story, “who have had better years in the past, who’ve experienced decline over the decades and want to see new life and hope and the Gospel continuing to spread and new disciples being made.”

(Ethan also told me that he enjoys the Chronicle’s podcast, and I couldn’t resist shooting a quick video of him saying that and sharing it with host B.T. Irwin.)

About a month later, I saw Ethan again — this time in Memphis, Tenn.

As Harding School of Theology prepares to relocate to the university’s main campus in Searcy, Ark., students, alumni, faculty and staff came together to celebrate the seminary’s past — and pray for its future.

Attendees applaud a speaker at a recent reunion at Harding School of Theology in Memphis, Tenn.

Ethan, a 2018 HST graduate, traveled to Tennessee for the reunion.

When I talked to him, he called the move to Searcy “disappointing.”

“Like a lot of alumni, we understand why it’s happening, but we also believe the process was done very poorly,” he said in the story I wrote.

I mentioned to Ethan that I planned to visit the Minneapolis Central Church of Christ to report on its growing food ministry. I asked if he had any ideas for other stories in the area.

He told me about Richard Inyang, a native Nigerian preacher who serves a predominantly African immigrant congregation in Roseville, a suburb that borders both Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Ethan explained that Inyang had suffered severe burns in a grease fire and that Churches of Christ in the Twin Cities area had rallied around him and his family.

The Inyang family poses for a photo by the Roseville Church of Christ sign. Richard Inyang has served as the congregation’s minister for 15 years.

That sounded like an amazing story (and it was).

Again, I quoted Ethan.

“What a blessing to see our congregation and other Churches of Christ in Minnesota praying for Richard and his family, bringing meals and making significant financial contributions to help offset medical costs,” Ethan said in my story, published today.

Ethan and his wife, Skylar, both grew up in the Monterey Church of Christ in Tennessee. Both earned bachelor’s degrees from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tenn., Ethan majoring in biblical studies and Skylar in elementary education. 

Beyond his FHU and HST degrees, Ethan is pursuing a doctorate in ministry through Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Mass.

Ethan is a friendly, soft-spoken minister who impresses me as anything but a self-promoter. Perhaps that’s why I find him so quotable.

He invited me to join him and his family for lunch while in Minnesota. We met at Pizza Luce, a Richfield eatery not far from the airport.

That handmade gourmet pizza is special to the Bilbreys because it’s what the couple ate after the birth of their oldest child, Sage, who is 6 years old. Their other two children are equally delightful: 3-year-old Judah and infant Cedar. 

Ethan and Skylar Bilbrey with their three children

I asked Sage about her school, and she spoke highly of her teacher. I’m glad she said kind things because it turns out that Skylar homeschools her.

I may have mentioned — once or twice or a million times — that I’m a big fan of the World Series champion Texas Rangers.

I made my first visit to Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins, during my reporting trip. Conveniently, the Twins were playing my Rangers.

Ethan is not a sports nut like me, but he joined me at the game. We parked at the Mall of America in Bloomington and took the light rail to Target Field.

Patrick Doherty and Steve Countryman — who serve on the ministry staff of the Woodbury Church of Christ, east of Minneapolis — met us at the ballpark, along with Patrick’s son Liam. 

We all had a terrific time, although they might have enjoyed it just a little more since their team won!

For the record, I’ll probably wait a month or two — or perhaps longer — before I quote Ethan again.

“I will try to give you a ‘No comment’ the next time we meet,” he joked.

Seriously, I thank God for putting Ethan and his family in my path. They are wonderful, and I am blessed to get to know them.

Ethan Bilbrey and Bobby Ross Jr. at Target Field in Minneapolis.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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I traveled to the poor Caribbean nation in 2018 to report on Healing Hands International, a Christian humanitarian aid organization, drilling water wells.

As water gushed from a new well in one remote mountain village, a woman gleefully splashed the clear, flowing liquid on her face. Little boys and girls giggled as they cupped their hands under the spout, taking big gulps before filling plastic buckets to take home.

I witnessed a similar exuberant scene in a community near the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

In a country beset with challenges, I saw hope. So much hope. And so much promise.

But now?

Heavily armed gangs have overtaken Haiti. Fatally weak political institutions have collapsed. Kidnappings and homicides have surged, as noted by a United Nations report.

Just last week, an American missionary couple — Davy Lloyd, 23; and his wife, Natalie Lloyd, 21 — were killed in a gang ambush in Port-au-Prince.

They died along with Judes Montis, 47, a Haitian father of two who worked for more than 20 years with Oklahoma-based Missions in Haiti Inc. Davy’s parents, David and Alicia Lloyd, founded the faith-based organization in 2000.

“It wasn’t Haiti that killed our children, it was selfish evil men who only have evil purposes, they do not represent Haiti,” a post on the organization’s Facebook page declared Thursday. “Haiti continues to cry for help and prays the world doesn’t continue to turn their backs on the terrible conditions that these wicked men are making a country live through. Continue to pray for God’s deliverance.”

As tears flow, Jason and Jennifer Carroll keep praying for the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

A decade ago, the couple moved to the developing island nation to work with Healing Hands, which is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, but funds clean water projects around the world. The nonprofit is associated with Churches of Christ.

The Carrolls quickly fell in love with the people and one boy in particular — a newborn named Edyson whose mother had died in childbirth. They took in “Edy,” now almost 10, and began efforts to adopt him. (Years later, they’re still engaged in that arduous process.)

I met the family — including two of their three biological children — on my 2018 trip.

In 2018, the Carroll family poses in front of Healing Hands International trucks in Haiti. Pictured, from left, are Cole, Callie, Edy, Jason, Jennifer, Chantry and Edy’s sister, Rogeline.

They returned home to Kentucky the next year.

“It was just getting really bad,” Jason said of the security situation. “Jen and all the kids had to evacuate out by helicopter. So it was just getting too dangerous.”

Jason served as Healing Hands’ water project coordinator in Haiti, where the nonprofit drilled 350 wells. Back home, he rebuilds municipal water filters. Jennifer works as a dental assistant.

Bowling Green, where the Carrolls attend Hillvue Heights Church, is roughly 1,500 miles — and a world away — from Port-au-Prince.

Still, news of the slayings of the Lloyds and Montis hit the couple hard.

“It’s just a horrible, horrible, horrible thing,” Jennifer said in a telephone interview.

“I know they must be absolutely broken. Please pray for their family.”

“I took Edy to school there four days a week,” she said of Missions in Haiti’s Christian preschool, about 15 minutes from Healing Hands’ gated complex north of the capital.

Jennifer knew Davy Lloyd’s parents and had met Montis. She describes David and Alicia Lloyd as “sweet, kind people who really had a heart for Haiti.”

“I know they must be absolutely broken,” she wrote on Facebook. “Please pray for their family.”

Jason told me: “It’s just really hard because we’ve still got friends and family (of Edy’s) there. It’s just really sad that the country is in such turmoil and chaos, and the gangs have taken over everything.”

Despite the sadness, the Carrolls maintain their faith in God.

In 2018, a Haitian girl pumps a water well drilled by Healing Hands International.

They pray that the situation in Haiti will improve, even as they work to help loved ones — including Edy’s biological father and brothers — leave the country. His older sister, Rogeline, 22, already is in the U.S.

Jennifer urges fellow people of faith to keep lifting up Haiti to the Lord.

“Yes, there’s a tremendous amount of gang violence and everything,” she told me. “But there are so many good, good, good Haitians that are just caught and just struggling daily to get food, get water, take care of their family, take care of their children.

“And we pray that someday our missionary friends who want to return can go back there,” she added, “because so many of them really made a difference.”

Jennifer’s voice choked with emotion as she spoke.

“I just hope and pray,” she emphasized, “that God will make a way.”

“There are so many good, good, good Haitians that are just caught and just struggling daily to get food, get water, take care of their family, take care of their children.”

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged, where this piece originally appeared. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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It wasn’t that the pews were packed, though there was a good crowd that day. And it had nothing to do with me worrying about taking someone’s “assigned” seat. Quite the contrary.

I could not sit down because people kept jumping up, welcoming me and asking me to sit with them. I kept saying, “I’m sorry! I already told those folks up there I’d sit with them. But thanks!”

That’s how it was during my three years at Campus View, the warmest family of faith I’ve ever encountered. And now, 25 years later, I was back in the church’s bright white auditorium to say farewell to one of its kindest, most genuine members, Debbie Cosgrove.

Debbie Cosgrove

Debbie and her husband, Bill, were my Adopt-A-Dawg parents. My schedule as a graduate student made it tough for us to spend time together, and I found myself apologizing to them a lot.

But I made occasional trips to their home in rural Oglethorpe County with our campus ministry. I still remember my friend Dustin Rector singing “See you at the Cosgroves’” to the tune of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s “See You at the Crossroads.”

Debbie raised horses and a variety of plants — all native, of course.

She had a master’s in horticulture and balked at those who added flora not suited for northeast Georgia’s climate to their landscapes for pure aesthetics. Even her son, Cary, got an earful about his gardening choices, he said during the memorial service.

Friends and family pack the pews of the Campus View Church of Christ for Debbie Cosgrove’s memorial service.

One of Debbie’s sons-in-law, Paul Minor, mentioned her ever-present smile and the frail, whispery way she would say, “Hey Paul,” as if seeing him was the thrill of a lifetime. She was the same with me and the other university kids. Even back in 1996 we could see signs of the autoimmune pulmonary disorder that would eventually take her life at age 68.

It never took her spirit. It rarely slowed her down.

Our campus ministry, the Georgia Christian Student Center, was just a handful of students in the mid-90s, but ministers Todd Stancil and Barrett Coffman helped us build it to more than 50. We did a musical, “I was a Teenage Christmas Tree,” for the church. Todd convinced me to play intramural softball, something I’d never done. Somehow I got an RBI, batting in my roommate, Erik Benson. Barrett called me Babe Ruth for weeks. (That may have had more to do with my shape than my athletic ability.)

Joy Crosby, Andy Womack, Terry Norwood, Jason Pritchett, Erik Tryggestad and Donnie Holliday reunite at Debbie Cosgrove’s memorial service.

It was the church’s families — the Cosgroves and the Norwoods, to name just two — that really made our campus ministry special. At one point I could think of five homes I had not just visited, but I knew where to find the forks and spoons. These folks let us into their lives, and they loved us.

“At one point I could think of five homes I had not just visited, but I knew where to find the forks and spoons. These folks let us into their lives, and they loved us.”

Six of us from my campus ministry days made it for Debbie’s service. After food, hugs and some catching up, I stayed at the home of Walt and Jann Moore, who treated me like a long-lost son.

Walt’s parents, the late Bill and Tweet Moore, were the backbone of the Campus View church for decades.

@eriktryggestad ATHENS, Ga. — The 2024 Georgia Bulldogs make the Dawg Walk into Sanford Stadium during the University of Georgia’s spring game. #uga #dawgwalk #georgiabulldogsfootball #gday #gday2024 #sanfordstadium #athensgeorgia ♬ original sound – Erik Tryggestad

Bless Debbie’s heart. Her service was the night before G Day, the annual spring football game at the University of Georgia.

I made a gleeful pilgrimage from the Moores’ house to Sanford Stadium to watch our back-to-back national champion Bulldogs do battle between the hedges. I saw the game with fellow Campus View alum Joy Carter, now Crosby. I met her husband, Charles, and their two kids, clad in beautiful red and black. The family worships with the Ridge Avenue Church of Christ in Tifton, Ga.

@eriktryggestad ATHENS, Ga. — Carson Beck connects for a touchdown during the University of Georgia’s spring game 2024.#gday #carsonbeck #georgiabulldogs #georgiabulldogsfootball #sanfordstadium ♬ original sound – Erik Tryggestad

The game ended in a 20-20 tie — the best possible outcome for Georgia vs. Georgia.

Campus View, once again, is down to a handful of university students. The church just hired Ben Brinkerhoff, the son of the late, legendary Auburn campus minister Jim Brinkerhoff. Jim mentored countless campus ministers, including Todd Stancil. I’m praying for growth in the years to come.

Before I left town, I once again mooched off my Campus View family, just like old times, as I crashed a burrito banquet honoring six students who were about to graduate from UGA.

“We burst with pride for what you’ve accomplished,” Jann Moore told the graduates. She and Walt host a weekly Bible study for the students in their home. Beyond mere academics, “we’re proud of your faith,” Jann said.

I spoke with Laurel Tipps, who grew up in the North Boulevard Church of Christ in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and came to UGA to earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. Her first year coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. When she finally was able to visit Campus View, “I sat in the back,” she said. Nonetheless, “there were, like, five people who stopped me after church” with words of welcome.

She got involved with the Bible study and started inviting her fellow students. Three of them, all veterinarians, were honored at the banquet. None of them came from Churches of Christ.

Laurel’s mom, Lisa Trail, also was at the banquet. She told me that Campus View has been like a second home for her daughter.

Laurel Tipps and Lisa Trail

“This small church has just surrounded her with love,” Lisa said. “She’s felt at home. I bet she’s been in half of these people’s houses.”

“This small church has just surrounded her with love. She’s felt at home. I bet she’s been in half of these people’s houses.”

I know the feeling. A lot has changed in Athens in the past quarter-century, but I’m so glad that Bulldogs still get adopted here.

As for my own adopted mother, Debbie Cosgrove, I know I’ll see her one day at the crossroads — in an eternal garden where all the plants are native and all the souls are as genuine as hers.

Holding one of his grandchildren, Bill Cosgrove hugs Katie Shields, one of his two daughters, during the memorial service for his wife, Debbie.

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X at @eriktryggestad.

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Pilate struggled between what he knew to be true and what he thought was politically best. He knew Jesus was innocent. He also knew Jewish leaders would not accept acquittal. So in an act of historic cowardice, Pilate deflected responsibility to the crowd. Should he release Jesus or Barabbas?

The choice was not simply between two prisoners. The choice was between radically different understandings of God’s kingdom. Barabbas represented the well-worn desire for power, violence and control. Jesus offered something different: justice, love and mercy.

Today’s church faces a similar choice. If we are not careful, we risk reducing the Gospel to little more than a tool of partisan battle rather than upholding it as God’s power to save. We are tempted to toss parts of Scripture toward political opponents while overlooking its impact on our lives.

Hear David French discuss how Christians should exhibit the fruits of the Spirit as they engage in politics in this episode of The Christian Chronicle podcast.

Consider a typical Sunday. The opening prayer asks God to “lead this nation back to you,” and we disagree on whether the country was ever with God. The sermon addresses what it means to bear God’s image, and we wonder whether the preacher is attacking abortion or treatment of “illegal aliens.” And if Bible class happens to land us in the Sermon on the Mount, we sit on edge, wondering if talk of lust and divorce is code for the LGBTQ debate or the accusations against a particular candidate.

And then comes the conversations in the foyer or over lunch. “I don’t see how anyone can call themselves a Christian and vote ____” (insert party affiliation or candidate here).

“Whether we admit it or not, politics are dividing the church. We have allowed our politics to shape our faith, rather than letting our faith shape our political engagement.”

Whether we admit it or not, politics are dividing the church. We have allowed our politics to shape our faith, rather than letting our faith shape our political engagement. The Gospel is political by nature, but not in ways playing out this year or in any other election cycle. The Gospel should make people of every political persuasion take note.

The problem is not in voting for this party or that party, this candidate or that candidate. Neither is it choosing to abstain from voting at all. The problem is the idolatrous trust placed in any party or candidate.

The real sin comes when the church delegates our responsibility of being a “City on a Hill” to a nation or leaders whose goals are power, wealth and control rather than justice, love and mercy.

When the church gathers for worship, we declare to the world that Christ alone is King! That is what defines our fellowship.

“The real sin comes when the church delegates our responsibility of being a “City on a Hill” to a nation or leaders whose goals are power, wealth and control rather than justice, love and mercy.”

When Pilate offered the crowd a choice, they chose to keep doing what had always been done. They voted yet again for the failed approach of violence, force and hatred over the true Kingdom of God.

What if the crowd could know what we know — that the true Son of the Father would soon rise from the dead? Would they have chosen differently?

And yet, we do know. God help us make the better choice.

JEREMIE BELLER is opinions editor for The Christian Chronicle. He is dean of Bible and director of church relations for Oklahoma Christian University. He serves as the congregational minister for the Wilshire Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.

The post Editorial: Faith, politics and the true Kingdom of God appeared first on The Christian Chronicle.

OKLAHOMA CITY — We never know where we will end up in life. However, if we trust in the Lord, we can use our calling to glorify him.

I never expected to serve as the summer news intern for The Christian Chronicle. 

I grew up in Brandon, Fla., with my parents, Lisa and Lenny, and my sister, Isabella. Our family has attended the Creekside Church of Christ in Valrico, Fla., formerly known as the Bell Shoals Church of Christ, since 2004.

Lenny Fraraccio prays for his son, Nic, as he begins his summer internship with The Christian Chronicle. Lenny and Lisa visited the Chronicle’s office in Oklahoma City.

I loved being a part of the youth group. Guided by former youth minister Logan Butler, my faith grew abundantly. 

I still remember the lock-ins. Kids would stay up all night at the church building — playing games and learning more about the Gospel. 

At age 16, I put on the Lord in baptism. My growth with God and my church family led me to make this life-changing decision. I will cherish that moment for the rest of my life. 

Following my baptism, I preached to the congregation during youth-led worship services. I always count it an honor to speak in front of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

When I attended Foundation Christian Academy in Valrico — about 15 miles east of Tampa — I excelled in most of my classes. I loved history with Mrs. Margaret Reeves and flourished in math with Coach J.P. Smith.

However, I struggled in English. Writing was not my forte, and I did not enjoy reading except for a sports magazine. I did not see storytelling as my strength. 

Nic Fraraccio poses for a photo with Gandalf, The Christian Chronicle’s chief emotional support specialist.

During high school, I leaned on my own understanding of what the future held for me. I dreamed of becoming an analyst for a sports network in America. Little did I know my time at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., would flip my aspirations upside down.

Before my sophomore year at Harding, I discovered my multimedia journalism major — with a concentration in sports —  included a class called Newspaper Practicum. The course required a weekly 400-word story about an event within the Harding or Searcy community. I was not thrilled to take this class. I never thought I had the creativity or passion to be a good writer.

But I loved talking with new people. The interviews and phone calls inspired me to connect with others at Harding. Because of my love for sports, I primarily wrote stories about the Bison baseball and softball teams.

Surprisingly, my creativity flourished with the pen and paper. My sports coverage hit the press strong, and my peers loved reading my work. 

Following my semester as a student writer, I joined The Bison, the Harding student newspaper, as the sports editor. The editor-in-chief, Tiane Davis, last year’s Christian Chronicle summer intern, constantly encouraged me to explore my growing passion for writing.

Tiane was the first person to tell me about the Chronicle’s summer internship. The first thing she mentioned to me was Editor-in-Chief Bobby Ross Jr.’s fandom for the Texas Rangers.

Nic Fraraccio and his mom, Lisa, attend a Tampa Bay Rays vs. Texas Rangers game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas., in 2023.

At first, I was hesitant to apply considering my Tampa Bay Rays have lost three straight playoff matchups against the defending World Series champions. After much consideration, I decided to put aside my baseball “grudges” and apply for the internship. (I’m joking. Kind of.)

My hard work and dedication to The Bison eventually led to my appointment as the editor-in-chief for next school year. I am excited to take on the challenge.

I am blessed with the opportunity to integrate my passion for writing with my love for God. I will always strive to glorify his name when writing for the Chronicle. 

Although I never thought I would end up in Oklahoma City, my passion for God and storytelling is at an all-time high. I am blessed to work with an amazing group of people at the Chronicle this summer.

NIC FRARACCIO, a senior journalism major at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., is The Christian Chronicle’s summer intern. Reach him at nic@christianchronicle.org.

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I was not yet 9 years old when my family arrived, sight unseen, in Perth. We came to the city on the western coast of Australia to join a mission team of other American families, Rudy and Melodee Wyatt and Ron and Fay Durham. We traveled halfway around the globe in hopes of starting a Restoration Movement congregation in this city of 750,000.

Over the years the Lord blessed this commitment with the establishment of the first nondenominational Church of Christ in the western third of Australia — followed by another, and then others. Our parents, Marvin and Dot Phillips, eventually handed the preaching baton to a young and eager Aussie evangelist, Ron Bainbridge, fresh out of Sunset International Bible Institute in Texas.

Our family returned “home” to a new mission challenge in Tulsa, Okla., a work that would later be known as the Garnett Church of Christ.

Middle, Ron Durham, Marvin Phillips and Rudy Wyatt, the original American missionaries to Perth, in the early 1960s.

But Perth never strayed far from my heart.

My brother, Mark, and his family served a brief stint as missionaries in Perth. I served for a decade on the staff of Mission Resource Network, directing South Pacific church planting. My sister’s family invests in kingdom partnerships in southern Africa. Our parents have passed away, yet their influence keeps us connected to the mission in Australia.

After two years of planning, Mark and I recently embarked on a month-long, bucket-list trip back to Perth, now a metropolis of 2.3 million people. We returned to sites, tastes and friendships of our youth. But our main reason for visiting was to see what the Lord has done in the past 60 years.

We consulted the personal journals that our father kept in his library. These writings guided us to reconnect with some of the families of faith from the 1960s and those that have come along since.

Worship on a Sunday at the Malaga Church of Christ in Perth, Australia.

We worshiped with the Malaga Church of Christ, one of the largest and most diverse congregations in Australia. Nearly 200 gathered on each of the three Sundays we attended. The church meets in debt-free facilities and is led by four elders — two of African descent and two Aussie nationals, sons of first-generation Christians from those church-planting years. Tears flowed as I watched one of the elders, Roger Tyers, lead children in singing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

We got to know Eddie Legg, the church’s minister. He moved here from the U.S. and has served the church for 18 years with his wife and their two children. The Malaga congregation provides their support with no American funding. When we visited his home, brother Legg joyfully told us that he’s not seen here as a foreign missionary, “but rather as simply one of the Aussie evangelists.”

A number of smaller churches meet in western Australia, some in rented facilities and some in homes. We met with about 25 people for a Wednesday night Bible study led by George Funk, a native of South Africa who launched the well-known Gospel Chariot ministry. He and his family live in Perth, where he trains and competes in triathlons. He shares his faith with fellow athletes.

We also reunited with one of the most effective Aussie evangelist couples over the past half-century, Ron and Moya Bainbridge. Ron took over my father’s role as preacher in Perth in 1970. Ron helped to launch other congregations in the area. His radio and internet work, A Better Life Ministries, reaches around the world. We shared a video greeting from Rudy Wyatt, the American missionary who baptized Ron in 1964.

On our final Sunday in Perth, the Malaga church’s elders invited me to share a few thoughts. I realized that six decades prior, my father was sharing the saving message of Jesus with a tiny band of seekers gathered in a small, rented hall in Perth. Now I was speaking to a much larger audience, some of them first-, second- and even third-generation believers, in their own facilities, under the servant leadership of faithful, respected elders.

“The seed does not return void. For ‘He Holds the Whole Word in His Hands.’”

Indeed, the seed does not return void. For “He Holds the Whole Word in His Hands.”

ALAN PHILLIPS is stewardship officer for The Christian Chronicle. He and his wife, Donna, worship with the New Hope Church of Christ in Edmond, Okla. Contact alan@christianchronicle.org.

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It’s just one of the famous, or maybe infamous, one-liners for which Monty Daffern was known.

Over nearly 30 years, thousands of students who passed through the Oklahoma State University campus ministry — dubbed “UC@OKState” — at the Stillwater Church of Christ heard Monty share those words.

I was one of them. 

From fall 2000 to spring 2004, I was blessed to be a part of that ministry. Monty was, for many of us, the builder of the bridge that took us from the faith to which we were born into the faith we could claim as our own. 

He taught us how to see God not in the words of our parents but in our own lives. And he taught us the importance of growing that faith wherever we go — to “worship where you are,” as he told us in his “Going Home” sermon at the end of every semester.

It’s hard to know how many lives Monty touched, but now that he’s gone, it’s heartbreaking to think how many will miss out on the chance to learn from, laugh with and be loved by him.

Monty was called to his eternal home on May 13, 2024, at the age of 54. He was born Oct. 31, 1969, to Gary and Jeannie Daffern. He grew up in Hooker, Okla., with his sister, Tonya, and brother, Casey.

Monty had attended Oklahoma State University in the early 1990s. As he wavered in his faith, he found the University Center at the Stillwater church a place to belong and grow. He went on to attend Abilene Christian University, where he received his Master’s in Biblical Studies, before returning to Stillwater in 1994 to serve as campus minister.

In 1995, he married Jenny. Together they had three children, Harrison (who is married to Hannah), Melanie (who goes by Mellie) and Kyeson.

It was in 2013 that Monty’s health took a hard hit. He was diagnosed with Isaac’s Syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder with less than 200 known cases. But Monty was a fighter and refused to give up. He stayed in ministry and kept touching lives.

Monty Daffern on one of the many mission trips he made to Mexico.

In 2016, after a trip to the Mayo Clinic, a medication combination was worked out enabling him to live a fairly normal life. In August 2022, he got COVID-19, and from there, things gradually began to break down.

In a sermon last fall, Monty — in a wheelchair and struggling with his speech after spending several weeks in the hospital —  talked about Isaac’s Syndrome.

“It’s like Parkinson’s and MS (multiple sclerosis) had a baby,” he quipped.

In January this year, he was hospitalized again. In addition to Isaac’s Syndrome, he was diagnosed with Morvan Syndrome, another rare disorder with only 14 reported cases. He went through several rounds of an experimental treatment. For a while he seemed to be improving, until he wasn’t.

From hospitals to rehabilitation facilities to a nursing home — and then in May came word he had once again entered the Stillwater Medical Center. Doctors had put him in hospice care. His family gathered close.

Within days, the man who had touched so many lives was gone.

Tributes poured out on social media as former students and friends shared the things Monty taught them and the impact he made on their lives.

Those tributes continued at a memorial service this past weekend, where hundreds showed up to grieve together, with others joining online from around the nation.

Greg Summers, a children’s minister for Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Ark., said he often tells students, “I came to saving faith in Jesus at 14, but I got to meet Jesus in my 20s, and I got to meet him through this man named Monty. Because Monty lived with the spirit of God just dwelling inside of him, and every time you interacted with him you got to see a little bit of Jesus.”

Monty Daffern with his wife, Jenny.

Summers served as an intern in the Stillwater campus ministry from fall 2005 to spring 2007. He is one of many campus ministry students who became a minister himself.

Monty believed finding a place to belong was essential to helping students come to believe in the Gospel. That relationship building was a huge part of his ministry. He was a mentor, a friend and a wise teacher. 

“Monty, you were … quirky,” Matt Mills chuckled as he listed things like Dr Pepper, the Green Bay Packers and Elvis. “But you loved what you loved. You loved the Lord. You loved your family. And we’re so glad you loved us. You will be missed dearly.”

Mills, preaching minister for the Perkins Church of Christ, south of Stillwater, is also a former University Center student. He later worked alongside Monty as an associate campus minister.

Matt Mills preaches for the Perkins Church of Christ, south of Stillwater, Okla.

Mills reminded everyone how Monty often quoted Romans and was known for other one-liners, including, “The process is more important than the task — that’s my least favorite one. Don’t start a relationship during finals week. And, if you don’t know what to do, wash feet.”

Washing feet was something Monty led student interns through each year, a group I was fortunate to be a part of.

As one group of interns left, they’d ceremoniously sit with the interns chosen to serve the next year. They’d take buckets of water and rags — washing feet while sharing lessons learned that might help the new interns.

“He embodied what it means for a Christian to wash feet,” said Barry Bachman, who had served alongside Monty for the last several years and now leads the campus ministry. “I can’t tell the times I walked in to find Monty washing dishes, moving chairs, doing the things that maybe nobody wanted to do.”

Many laughed as Monty’s “bromance” with Paul, the writer of Romans, was referenced. Monty loved to teach Romans and frequently offered a study of Romans class to the University Center students for college credit.

Monty Daffern in his office.

While ministering to students was his career, Monty was so much more than just a campus minister.

He was a father, a brother, a son. Jenny and their children have also been instrumental in the ministry. Students have watched his children grow up and admired the marriage he and Jenny had.

He counseled many young couples and officiated countless weddings — ending each couple’s vows with the phrase “until I lay you in the arms of Jesus.”

It’s something his sweet wife has now done, much sooner than she, his children, his family or anyone who knew him would like. 

But we are confident that those arms are exactly where Monty is now — worshiping where he is, as he taught us all to do.

CHELLIE ISON is a freelance journalist and works as a social media and video production manager. She and her family attend the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City.

Memorial donations

Monty Daffern always talked about and hoped to leave behind a new facility for the students at the University Center before he retired. If you would like to make a memorial donation toward the completion of this venture, contribute via this link or mail a check:

UC Foundation Building Campaign

P.O. Box 2168

Stillwater, OK 74076

More photos

Monty Daffern with his family.

In 2023, Monty Daffern was awarded the Stephen Ekstein Lifetime Achievement Award at the Campus for Christ Conference.

Monty Daffern “just being Monty” at the University Center.

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After all, he’s the one who fashioned those sardonic Muppets I started morphing into several years ago.

You know the ones — Statler and Waldorf — the two cantankerous curmudgeons who sit in the balcony and condescendingly judge others while laughing hysterically at their own banter.

The elder statesmen of Kermit’s clan, they pose as affable fellas with dentured smiles and fading silver hair. Internally, though, they are doused with sarcasm and baptized in bitterness.

I recognized in my mid-40s that I could come from the same gene pool as these two grumbling grinches.

And that terrified me!

“I started feeling like a victim of spiritual road rage. I would get upset because people, whom I perceived to be exhibiting non-Christian-like attitudes and behaviors, were zigzagging around me at 100 mph.”

So I earnestly tried to locate the cause of my negative attitude and, as importantly, figure out how to fix it. The result of this introspection: There was a disconnect between how I wanted to navigate life and the current state of society as viewed through my eyes.

Late last year, I started feeling like a victim of spiritual road rage. I would get upset because people, whom I perceived to be exhibiting non-Christian-like attitudes and behaviors, were zigzagging around me at 100 mph.

They were roadblocks because their divergent worldly views caused them to operate differently than the person I was trying to be. Wherever I turned, I saw countless examples of narcissism. Profanity had apparently become the “new normal” on TV screens and in workplace break rooms. I found it harder to escape other people’s poor lifestyle choices and bad behaviors.

It all just seemed like too much.

If we aren’t careful, “life” can chip away at our joy, dim our internal lights and slowly turn us into those miserable Muppets.

Jesus would have used this as an opportunity to teach others by his example — and did — but I dropped the proverbial ball and decided to marinate in my misery instead. I failed to exhibit the peace and love that Jesus spent his earthly life modeling.

One Sunday morning, the song leader began to lead us in a hymn that most of us had sung a thousand times before. But for some reason, on this day the lyrics abruptly shook me in a way they never had before. And it became so clear:

This world is not my home, I’m just a passing thru

My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue

The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door

And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore

“This world is not my home, I’m just a passing thru. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.”

That was it! That’s how I felt — like an outsider.

The lyrics are as poignant as they are simple, and they enveloped me in reassurance and returned my truant inner peace.

When we are in our lowest places spiritually — whether self-induced or beaten down by society — it is important to remember that song’s words. We cannot allow earthly forces to dictate our attitudes and actions.

Unfortunately, we all have a little bit of Statler and Waldorf in us — some of us more than others. It creeps out when we aren’t careful. But we also have a whole lot of Jesus in us, too.

Life is about learning how to stifle the two and allowing The One to breathe and flow freely through us and out of us, with purpose and intentionality.

That’s not always easy, especially when we fix our eyes on earthly things. In those moments we must shift our gazes upward and remember that we are just stubborn drifters on this beautiful planet. Our time here is limited.

“We all have a little bit of Statler and Waldorf in us — some of us more than others. It creeps out when we aren’t careful. But we also have a whole lot of Jesus in us, too.”

God created us specifically for this journey, and we should take that responsibility more seriously than anything else. It should be our top priority.

It must be.

It’s unfortunate that it took a song to remind me of that. I’d like to think my spiritual core was strong enough not to need such a reminder.

That is why it is priceless when we find these serendipitous treasures that keep us focused on what’s most important. That hymn — like a reliable, old friend — did just that for me.

And for that, I am grateful.

It reminded me that it’s not only OK to feel out of place in this world, but it is incredibly healthy.

It reinforced that we must imperatively and joyfully live with the bold recognition and thankfulness that we are, in fact, just passing through.

SCOTT RUSSELL is a tennis instructor and freelance writer from Richardson, Texas. He has attended the Waterview Church of Christ in Richardson since 1990, when he was baptized there as a teenager.

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“In his early twenties, he was too young to be a preacher,” French writes. “But the hiring criteria for country Church of Christ preachers was a car salesman’s enthusiasm, a firm handshake, and baptism by immersion. He preached at a rural church down the road but came to our church for midweek or evening services. His dad was an elder at our church, so he was like church royalty.”

French details how the preacher, whom she identifies only as Conrad, sexually assaulted her and changed the trajectory of her life.

Nancy French. “Ghosted: An American Story.” Zondervan. 2024. 288 pages. $29.99.

Churches of Christ figure prominently — and generally not positively — in the life story of French, a best-selling author and ghostwriter for celebrities and conservative politicians.

The book also recounts French’s less-than-perfect time at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. 

Unresolved trauma from her abuse explains part of her negative experience at the Christian university. Theological differences play a role, too, as the writer favors a style of Christianity with a more direct manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

But Lipscomb provides one major blessing for French: The university connects her to her future husband, David French, a conservative lawyer who later earned a Bronze Star as an Army attorney and now works as a New York Times columnist.

“Ghosted” focuses on how the Frenches lost friends and colleagues alike when they became critics of Donald Trump, the twice-divorced billionaire who won the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 and ascended to the White House. 

“I was a Christian Republican, too, after all,” Nancy French writes. “But why was the party of ‘family values’ rallying behind the guy who made a Playboy cameo? Hadn’t Trump bragged on video about doing to women what the preacher did to me so many years ago?”

Along with her serious exploration of sex abuse and Trump-era politics, French offers a few lighter moments — such as when the newly married couple, freshly arrived in New York City, ended up with the old phone number for David Lee Roth, lead singer for the rock band Van Halen.

“But why was the party of ‘family values’ rallying behind the guy who made a Playboy cameo? Hadn’t Trump bragged on video about doing to women what the preacher did to me so many years ago?”

Undoubtedly, not everyone will appreciate French’s book. 

Those easily triggered by theological or political ideas that might not match their own (based on my inbox, a fair number of such folks exists) probably should avoid it.

So should those who, like the leaders in French’s childhood congregation, favor protecting pedophiles and shunning victims of sex abuse over shining light on evil.

But for those open to learning better ways of dealing with predators in the pews — and for those willing to entertain the rationale behind the “Never Trump” movement, even if they disagree with it — French shares her perspective in a gripping, relatable way. 

I found “Ghosted” both haunting and helpful.

The Christian Chronicle’s Erik Tryggestad even makes two cameo appearances, as The Babbler student newspaper editor during French’s Lipscomb days.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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That was the gist of a Top 10 country song released in 2011.

Trace Adkins’ “Just Fishin’” details a father’s deeper desire for simple time spent with his daughter:

And she thinks we’re just fishin’ on the riverside

Throwin’ back what we could fry

Drownin’ worms and killin’ time

Nothin’ too ambitious

She ain’t even thinkin’ about

What’s really goin’ on right now

But I guarantee this memory’s a big one

And she thinks we’re just fishin’

A baseball game is about more than a baseball game.

That was J.C. Bailey III’s thinking when he invited a group of North Texas ministers — and The Christian Chronicle editor-in-chief — to enjoy a Texas Rangers game from his law firm’s suite.

Fans who pay close attention to the advertising along the team’s home run wall at Globe Life Field might recognize the name Bailey & Galyen. With Phillip Galyen serving as president, it’s the MLB team’s official law firm.

Members of Churches of Christ who pay close attention to giants in the faith might recognize the name J.C. Bailey.

The attorney’s late grandfather, who died in 2001 at age 97, preached for 40 years in Montana and Canada, did mission work in India and served as the founding president of Canada’s now-defunct Western Christian College.

The attorney’s father, J.C. Bailey II, now 89, is better known as John. A 1957 graduate of Abilene Christian University in Texas, he mixed a successful dental practice with regular preaching. After retiring, he devoted himself to medical missions, performing thousands of dental surgeries in more than 20 countries on three continents.

J.C. Bailey III is an attorney and minister in Texas.

J.C. Bailey III goes by “Jay.” An attorney since 1988, he earned his bachelor’s degree from ACU and his law degree from Baylor University. He specializes in probate and estate planning.

But like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him, he’s a preacher, too.

He grew up watching his dad’s bivocational ministry. Earning a living with a day job — and stepping to the pulpit on Sundays — seemed like a natural choice.

Jay Bailey just finished 12 years as the “interim” preacher for the 1,000-member Legacy Church of Christ, his home congregation in the Fort Worth suburb of North Richland Hills. Tim Hall, who wore a red Rangers T-shirt to the baseball game, is Legacy’s new full-time preacher.

Typically, Bailey & Galyen’s suite overlooking home plate at the Rangers ballpark serves business purposes. But Jay Bailey had a spiritual reason for inviting ministry friends to watch Texas play the Washington Nationals on Thursday afternoon.

He knows that ministry can be challenging. Stressful. Even lonely.

Who better understands that than a fellow preacher? So why not orchestrate a setting where — over free hot dogs, nachos, brownies and soft drinks — ministers could fellowship with each other as pitchers fired 95 mph fastballs?

I’m not a preacher, but editing an international Christian newspaper can be demanding at times. So I appreciated Jay including me. 

My father, Bob Ross, preaches for the Greenwood Church of Christ, a rural congregation in North Texas. He joined the group at the game. 

Bobby Ross Jr. and his father, Bob Ross, in the suite at the Texas Rangers game on Thursday afternoon.

We enjoyed catching up with preachers such as Jon McKenzie of the Bridgewood Church of Christ in Fort Worth, Michael Lum of the South Main Church of Christ in Weatherford and Brock Paulk of the Heritage Church of Christ in Keller.

I cheered as the Rangers shut out the Nationals, 6-0. But guess what? That wasn’t what was really going on.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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• • •

OKLAHOMA CITY — My parents must be so proud.

I’ve finally arrived.

That’s right: I’ve reached cartoon status in an international Christian newspaper.

Over the past 19 years, I’ve written more than 150 Inside Story columns for The Christian Chronicle. Readers have become accustomed to seeing my mugshot on Page 3.

“You look just like your picture in the paper,” I’ve heard repeatedly in my reporting travels.

Bobby Ross Jr.

But now my photo is gone — replaced with a professional artist’s rendering of my, um, interesting face.

My first reaction was: Is that what I really look like? My wife, Tamie, said no. My adult children shared giggles and disparaging remarks in the family group chat.

Then I showed the image to my granddaughter, Norah, who is almost 3. She recognized the face immediately.

“That’s Papa,” she said without hesitation.

Well, if a toddler can see the resemblance, I guess we’ll go with it. It could be worse. My cartoon could picture a guy in serious need of a beard trim (sorry, Erik). 

Bobby Ross Jr.’s cartoon rendition.

All joking aside, change can be hard.

This edition of the Chronicle marks the launch of our first major redesign in 24 years. The headline fonts and text styles are new (our old ones had outlived the technology we use to lay out the paper). The page sizes are slightly taller and thinner (I wish I could say the same of myself).

As we previewed last month, the Chronicle hired Metaleap Creative, an award-winning design agency in Atlanta that has redesigned faith-based publications such as Christianity Today, World and Sojourners.

Months of consultation followed with Metaleap’s design team, headed by José and Nikolle Reyes, and with the Chronicle’s printer, Gannett.

I first met José and Nikolle at the Evangelical Press Association convention in Lancaster, Pa., last year. In a workshop, they noted that most publications engage in a redesign process at least once every five years. Suffice it to say that we were a bit overdue.

Working closely with Chronicle staff to retain the paper’s purpose and identity, Metaleap developed the new design to be organized, professional, engaging — and, most importantly, trustworthy.

We hope you like the new look. We expect you’ll find it cleaner, less crowded and easier to maneuver. No longer will you need to flip all over the place to find stories that jump from the front. This should make for a more cohesive and enjoyable reading experience.

And here’s the best part: Our commitment to “real news that honors God” remains the same. Our journalists — devoted to the Lord and the Chronicle’s loyal audience — will keep pursuing our mission of informing, inspiring and connecting members of Churches of Christ. 

Here’s the best part: Our commitment to “real news that honors God” remains the same. Our journalists — devoted to the Lord and the Chronicle’s loyal audience — will keep pursuing our mission of informing, inspiring and connecting members of Churches of Christ.

That’s evidenced by the stories in this month’s pages, from Audrey Jackson’s cover story from earthquake-ravaged Turkey to my National section piece on a Nebraska conference offering hope for small churches to Erik Tryggestad’s International section feature highlighting a revitalized church in Uruguay. 

Keep thumbing, and you’ll find all your favorite content — from the crossword puzzle, games and Brenton cartoon to Erik’s column, the book review and the editorial. Speaking of the editorial, Erik will share an additional thought or two on the redesign there.

So here’s our humble request: Please give our new packaging a chance? If you’d like to share feedback on it — positive or negative — feel free to email us at letters@christianchronicle.org.

And if you’re so inclined, go ahead and weigh in: What do you think of my new cartoon face? 

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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Following are excerpts of that interview from Episode 55, which have been lightly edited for clarity and style.

How do you define minister for the purpose of the book and for the conversation that we’re having today? I fundamentally define “minister” as a servant, as a “doulos” (Greek for “bond-servant”), a slave to Jesus Christ.

The minister is a servant. And fundamentally, ministry is people serving people.

I think we’re living in a time where we’ve become so big on titles.

And often there are titles without any towels. … I mean there’s no manifestation of what the real work is. It’s just the esteem of having the title.

I’ve grown up around ministers my whole life, and I’ve heard them talk about a lot of things — being effective, being faithful, even being successful as ministers — but I don’t think I’ve ever heard them talk about being excellent. … Why did you choose excellence as your theme? Well, this is a good place, B.T., for me to talk about what I call the “excellence paradigm.”

The excellence paradigm suggests that the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is, in fact, the quintessential example of excellence.

And even if you casually read your way through the Bible, one can readily see that everything our God does, he always does with supreme excellence — is always that which is outstanding, superior, above and beyond, is never that kind of “that will do” approach.

Shabazz, center, displays his book, “Excellence in Ministry: A Guide to Protocols and Etiquette for Church Leaders,” at the publication launch party.

So everything, the creations of the heaven and the earth, the creation of mankind, the sending of the Messiah, the body of Christ, her governance — I mean, whatever you consider concerning God, he always does it with excellence. And so I believe that he deserves, desires and demands to be imitated.

And just as he is excellent, all that we engage as relates to ministry and to Kingdom living, should be in the context of excellence — that should be our drive, to be as excellent as our God is.

You talk about the mission of a new minister in the first years of working with a congregation, and you were emphatic on this point because you repeat it over and over and over again in your book. What is that mission? And why is it of first importance? I advise ministers the first year that they go into a congregation: Your immediate mission is to establish yourself as an authority in the Bible.

That means I must pray hard, study hard, research hard, polish my delivery, master that transference from the study to the pulpit. … I think that has to be viewed as a mission, as something you keep perfecting, you keep going after, until you see that it’s becoming more and more excellent. And by the way, I’m not trying to prove myself a smart guy. What I’m trying to do is create a comfort in the minds of members — this man really does know the Bible.

I’m not getting up with a joke and two stories and let that be the meat of my lesson. I’m not getting up with a lot of hoopla that really is gravy, and I have no meat.

Let me tell you another mission: Don’t go in trying to unravel everything.

“That means I must pray hard, study hard, research hard, polish my delivery, master that transference from the study to the pulpit. … I think that has to be viewed as a mission, as something you keep perfecting, you keep going after, until you see that it’s becoming more and more excellent.”

I know you’re new. I know you want to talk to leadership about all these new ideas and concepts and what you see that’s not really functioning and so forth.

Here’s what your mission should be, here is what you’re trying to go, this is how you intend to get there — you’re going to leave things alone.

And just watch. Just observe, whether it’s functional or dysfunctional. My mission is to make this transition peacefully, these changes peacefully.

So what is my mission? My mission is to not go in and dismantle everything because I have a better way. I want to see this succeed for what is in the best interests of the church and the leadership.

Dr. Shabazz, you end Chapter 5 with an exhortation toward a congregational evangelistic movement, as opposed to an evangelistic program. What is the difference? Man, now you’re going to get me excited, B.T.

For many years here in Harlem, we were baptizing 100 people a year. And I mean every year.

I started out with these programs, evangelistic programs. I introduced one called SWAT: soul-winning action teams. And those individuals would target visitors.

Do you have any Bible questions? You know, are you interested in having a Bible study — we’d sit down and have a Bible study with them, and then we’d attempt to baptize them.

Well, the problem with that is that SWAT only involved handpicked people. There were just a few individuals out of the congregation who were involved in that particular evangelism project.

Then I noticed something. In the new convert class downstairs for individuals who had just been added to the church, they were on fire.

Shabazz

What they would do is turn around and invite friends and relatives, and they would come hear the Gospel, and they would be converted.

And then all of a sudden, an excitement got started in the congregation. And it went from there to members coming to Harlem expecting every Sunday to see someone immersed in water for the remission of sins.

You could feel the happiness and the pleasure of knowing that all of these people had made a contribution to what they see going on.

It was a movement, and it was a movement because not just a committee or group of people were identified — the entire congregation had a part in it.

B.T. IRWIN directs and hosts The Christian Chronicle Podcast. He and his family live in Clawson, Mich., and are members of the Rochester Church of Christ in nearby Rochester Hills.

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The El Chaná coffee building in Montevideo once was home to a growing Church of Christ.

One of the missionaries instrumental in purchasing the old building was Dan Coker, a towering figure in Latin American missions with a doctorate in anthropology and a booming voice. Coker envisioned the building as the future home of a Christian university for students from across the continent.

But after 30 years, the school had not materialized.

What would happen to this dream deferred? Was the church giving up on the work of all those who came before, including D.H. Hadwin, Jack Walker, Pablo Lazaga, Miguel and Nela Alem, Michael Strawn and Foree Grove? 

Emanuel Peraza teaches a Bible class for teens during the Montevideo Church of Christ’s Sunday service.

We don’t think so. We believe that brother Coker, who died in 2019 at age 82, would be pleased with what’s happening in Montevideo. The church is growing again — so much so that it’s already testing the capacity of its new meeting place. Waves of immigrants from other parts of Latin America are bringing new life. The church is even making plans to revitalize and plant congregations outside of Montevideo.

Letting go of the past, it seems, was a necessary step toward the future.

Initially, we intended to transition here to a discussion of our new design. It was difficult for us to let go of our outdated logo, which used a narrow font called Binner Gothic, and the globe that accompanied it. A few readers have raised concerns that the words “The Christian” are much smaller on our new logo than before. (We believe they’re also easier to read.) We humbly ask that you judge us not by the size of our typeface but by the quality of our content.

The National Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, right, stands among the buildings of the nighttime skyline in Montevideo, Uruguay.

In our recent discussions with the Heritage 21 Foundation, we note a concern that’s much larger than any font. Across the U.S., many Churches of Christ have dwindled to 10 or fewer elderly members. They know there’s little chance for prolonged survival, yet they are reluctant to sell their property and reinvest the profits in future evangelistic work. That’s one of the avenues that Heritage 21 and a handful of other ministries in our fellowship offer. They also work to help the churches that have a chance of survival to reengage with their communities and reenergize the work. Often, however, this requires the sale of old facilities.

We pray for wisdom, patience and understanding for these churches as they contemplate the difficult decisions ahead — and we plead with them to not put off these decisions any longer. May we not be like the Israelites in Ezra 3 who, upon seeing the foundation of the new temple, wept in bitterness because it would not measure up to what they remembered.

We pray for wisdom, patience and understanding for these churches as they contemplate the difficult decisions ahead — and we plead with them to not put off these decisions any longer. May we not be like the Israelites in Ezra 3 who, upon seeing the foundation of the new temple, wept in bitterness because it would not measure up to what they remembered.

May we instead focus on the words of the prophet Haggai, who spoke to these same Israelites and encouraged them to continue the work of building a new, less grand temple. A step seemingly backward may be the first step forward.

Leonardo Sanchez passes a communion tray during the Montevideo Church of Christ’s Sunday worship service.

And, as the Lord told Haggai, “In a little while … I will shake the nations, and what is desired by all nations will come” (Haggai 2:7). A new house waits for us, and its glory “will be greater than the glory of the former house. And in this place I will grant peace.” 

— ERIK TRYGGESTAD, for the EDITORIAL BOARD

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After three years of preaching and having church over Zoom, being in the service with my daughter, her grandmother and many old friends was sweeter than the cupcakes the host church prepared to go with the fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans minister Kevin Bethea and others served to guests.

En route to Baltimore, we had passed the Francis Scott Key Bridge as we entered the tunnel under the Baltimore Harbor. Two days later, a ship collided with the bridge and sent it crashing into the Patapsco River, killing six road workers.

Many song leaders participated in the service, including Chris Turner, minister at Sunset Road Church of Christ in Burlington, N.J., who led “Let the Spirit of the Lord Fall Upon Us.”

Chris Turner, minister at Sunset Road Church of Christ in Burlington, N.J., led “Let the Spirit of the Lord Fall Upon Us” at a recent Mid-Atlantic gathering.

This was truly an Acts 2:42 moment: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

I sat next to Tony Goodman, a gifted singer and minister at the Capital Church of Christ in Annapolis, Md., and in front of Ed Maxwell, minister of the Clinton Church of Christ, also in Maryland, who is chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Fellowship. Maxwell told those present that the goal of the service was “Building Towers of Unity.”

“The event’s focus is on the whole and not me or you, but to cultivate oneness. Oneness harnesses power. The singing allows many to harness the power of one.”

“The event’s focus is on the whole and not me or you, but to cultivate oneness,” he said. “Oneness harnesses power. The singing allows many to harness the power of one.”

Frequently, when I attend Church of Christ events, it’s as a reporter for The Christian Chronicle or another outlet. This time it was a blessing to sit and sing bass with many of the brothers.

The main sanctuary and two overflow rooms of the East Baltimore Church of Christ were packed during the monthly song service that recently brought together 22 congregations from the Mid-Atlantic area.

I have a hard time standing since having a big toe amputated last year. So it was encouraging when three ministers helped me rise with the others in response to brother Douglas Anthony Goodman’s request that all the ministers stand so he could offer a special prayer on our behalf.

“We always try to unite the fellowship,” Goodman said in an interview. “We do that by showing unity among the preachers. We not only pray for the preachers, but we give them the charge that Paul gave to Timothy to refresh our memory to preach.”

Goodman’s joy was tempered by the loss of Clinton Miles, an assistant minister from the Central Church of Christ who passed away less than a month earlier.

“We all lost a soldier,” said Goodman, who was preaching at the Central congregation for minister Willie Rupert, who was recovering from a recent illness. The church also has a planned gospel meeting featuring three ministers.

In times like these, we must remember Galatians 6:9: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

HAMIL R. HARRIS is a Christian Chronicle correspondent and a veteran journalist who spent two decades with the Washington Post. He preaches regularly for the Glenarden Church of Christ in Maryland.

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There wasn’t a single question about the location where the Israelites stopped just before they crossed the Red Sea. But our kids knew it. Some of them even turned it into a team chant: “One, two, three — PI HAHIROTH!”

@christianchronicle DALLAS — Bible Bowlers from the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City got their team chant from an obscure locale in Exodus 14. #pihahiroth #ntltc #leadershiptrainingforchrist #biblebowl ♬ original sound – The Christian Chronicle

My wife, Jeanie, and I coordinate Bible Bowl for our congregation, the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. This year our team of dedicated adults had more than 50 kids to coach for the North Texas Leadership Training for Christ convention. The subject —  the life of Moses, taken from Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy — was tough! There were so many names to remember, including my favorite, Og king of Bashan.

(Do you know the names of Moses’ parents? There’s a genealogy in Exodus 6 that lists them — Amram and Jochebed. Evidently, Jachebed was Amram’s aunt. So … yeah.)

Bible Bowlers answer questions during the 2023 North Texas Leadership Training for Christ convention.

This was my eighth LTC. I started helping when our daughter Maggie was in third grade. Jeanie did LTC in high school. 

The massive ballroom in the Hilton Anatole never fails to amaze me. Hundreds of kids filled the tables and stayed up late on Good Friday to answer four rounds of 25 questions each. I was a scorekeeper, seated between fellow scorekeepers from the Greenville Avenue Church of Christ in Richardson, Texas, and the Faith Village Church of Christ in Wichita Falls, Texas.

These days, I’m amazed that kids are able to show up at all for LTC conventions — or for Lads to Leaders, the program of my youth. But thousands do, packing hotels and spending their Easter weekend doing puppet shows, Scripture reading, song leading and signing for the deaf. On Easter Sunday, we gather in large banquet rooms to worship alongside our brothers and sisters from across the nation.

Students from the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City do some last-minute prep before Bible Bowl at the 2024 North Texas Leadership Training for Christ conference.

Why Easter? It traditionally hasn’t been a big travel holiday, so it’s easy to get group discounts on hotel rooms. And Churches of Christ, at least in the past, haven’t made as big a deal of Easter as other faith groups. We recognize the death, burial and resurrection of Christ every Sunday.

All of that is changing. More of our congregations are scheduling special activities on Easter. A couple of ministers have grumbled to me about having their most devout members out of town on a weekend when we should be doing our best to impress visitors. Several of our folks forsook the Easter assembly at our hotel and hurried home Saturday night so they could be with the rest of our church for Sunday worship.

Church members sing during an Easter morning worship service at the 2022 North Texas Leadership Training for Christ convention in Dallas.

But the bigger threat, in my opinion, is that Easter is becoming less sacred. This year LTC happened during March Madness. At the same time our kids were deeply immersed in God’s Word, just a few blocks away the University of Houston’s men’s team was battling Duke — that’s right, the Blue Devils. Last year, LTC coincided with a massive volleyball tournament in Dallas.

As more and more stuff happens on Easter weekend, hotel discounts disappear. Sporting events tend to be more lucrative as well, with patrons more likely to frequent hotel bars and restaurants while our church groups prefer to be sustained by the Gospel of John’s — Jimmy and Papa.

Blake McAnally, an elder of the Beltline Church of Christ in Decatur, Ala., directs the Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville, Tenn.

Bobby Ross Jr., our editor-in-chief, spent Easter weekend in Nashville, Tenn., at the big Lads to Leaders convention. He talked to Blake McAnally, convention director and elder of the Beltline Church of Christ in Decatur, Ala.

Parents and grandparents get so excited when they see their kids excel at sports, McAnnally said, and they spend so much money on travel teams to help their kids excel. That’s why it’s so gratifying for him to watch kids walk across the Opryland Hotel stage to get their Lads to Leaders awards, “to be excited because they’re doing something spiritual.”

Travel teams — youth leagues that take kids long distances to compete at a high level — are a growing competitor for Lads to Leaders.

“If they’re playing baseball, they’re probably on a travel team right now,” McAnnally said, “and they’re, unfortunately, playing somewhere on Easter weekend, which to me is just dumbfounding.”

A chorus practices in the atrium of the Hilton Anatole during the 2024 North Texas Leadership Training for Christ convention.

He understands that Christians on travel teams can influence non-Christians on those teams. But the games also take them away from Sunday worship.

It’s a problem in my family. Both of my girls are in a dance company. The competitions require them to perform as early as 8 a.m. Sunday. My wife and I try to trade off so at least one of us can be at worship.

I was glad to see Shelton Gibbs IV at LTC. He’s a district judge in Kaufman County, Texas, and a minister for the Greenville Avenue church. His son, Shelton V, gave a speech on this year’s theme, “Sanctuary,” and the conference organizers selected him to deliver it during the Easter morning service.

I heard the elder Gibbs speak last September at the EQUIP Workshop at the Brown Street Church of Christ in Waxahachie, Texas. As a judge, he’s presided over cases involving murder and all sorts of horrific deeds.

But the thing that keeps him up at night is youth soccer. His daughter plays, and that means a lot of weekend trips to tournaments, some of which include early Sunday matches.

Shelton Gibbs IV speaks on “Parents Saving the Family” during the 2023 EQUIP workshop at the sponsored by the Brown Street Church of Christ in Waxahachie, Texas.

“How can we sacrifice to soccer before we sacrifice to God?” he said. “What kind of message am I sending to my kids?”

During a recent tournament, he asked the staff of his hotel to let him use a conference room. He put together a worship service that included songs, a sermon and the Lord’s Supper — all at 6 a.m. so they would be on time for warmups.

In his speech at LTC, the younger Gibbs talked about how the devil tries to deceive us into thinking that sin is not sin, and that we can overcome sin only through the sanctuary that God provides. 

@christianchronicle DALLAS — Shelton Gibbs V gives a speech during Sunday morning worship at the conclusion of the Nort Texas Leadership Training for Christ convention in Dallas as Victoria Myers interprets for the deaf. Both worship with the Greenville Avenue Church of Christ in Richardson, Texas. #ntltc #leadershiptrainingforchrist #sundaysermon #youthsermon #churchofchrist ♬ original sound – The Christian Chronicle

I think that his father is sending the right kind of message.

The Gibbs family inspired me to do better for my kids. We try to at least have communion devotionals before Sunday dance events. I hope that my girls see that faith matters more than sports.

And I pray that all of the kids we train for Bible Bowl understand how memorizing seemingly trivial facts about Moses helps them in the long run.

Earlier this year we interviewed some of our kids for a video promoting LTC to our church. One of our Bible Bowlers, Wesley LaRue, said something that really got to me: Prepping for the event forced him to dig deep into Scripture and helped “get into the rhythms of reading the Bible” on a regular basis.

Wow. Maybe all that time I spent on Pi Hahiroth wasn’t for naught. 

ERIK TRYGGESTAD is president and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact erik@christianchronicle.org, and follow him on X @eriktryggestad.

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No, I didn’t move to Nashville to seek country music stardom. Sadly, I can’t carry a tune.

Instead, we left our home in Oklahoma and relocated to Music City — hundreds of miles from family and friends — so I could work for The Associated Press. 

We called Middle Tennessee home for less than a year before I transferred to AP’s Dallas bureau — much closer to loved ones — but oh, what a fun 11 months we enjoyed in the Volunteer State.

On the professional side, I covered the 2002 fight over a proposed state lottery in Tennessee (it passed) and a prayer service the night the Iraq War began in 2003.

Other memorable stories ranged from a profile of a man who paid children $10 each to learn the 10 Commandments to a feature on Christian music taking over bars and nightspots during Gospel Music Week to an interview with the 104-year-old widow of famous traveling evangelist Marshall Keeble.

On the personal side, my wife, Tamie, our three children and I saw a few Grand Ole Opry shows and visited the picturesque Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee.

My family found a friendly, loving spiritual home with the Southern Hills Church of Christ in Franklin, Tenn. That’s how we came to experience the Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville for the first time in 2003.

To the best of my memory, our oldest child Brady — who was in the fourth grade and about to turn 10 — did Scripture reading and puppets that year. Before the convention that Easter weekend, fellow Christians tried to describe the enormity of the crowd at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center.

But words failed to capture the overwhelming nature of seeing literally thousands and thousands of young people and adults fill every nook and cranny of the massive hotel complex — all focused on developing leaders to serve in God’s kingdom.

More than two decades later, I returned to Nashville this past weekend and encountered the same awe-inspiring scene.

Lads to Leaders participants from the Karns Church of Christ in Knoxville, Tenn., receive awards during the Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville, Tenn. From left to right are Madison Green, Meredith Green, Carrigan Dresser, Brooklynn Dresser, Makenzie Green and Adalynn Dresser. The two groups of sisters were honored in the year-round songs of praise category.

In every direction, parents and children filled the Gaylord Hotel’s ballrooms, hallways and escalators.

Some wore colorful T-shirts displaying the 2024 convention’s “I Am Not Ashamed” theme from Romans 1:16. Others sported Sunday suits and dresses for Bible speeches and other presentations. 

Attendance in Nashville — the largest of a half-dozen Lads to Leaders sites across the nation — topped 10,000 for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“We were at 10,300 the year of COVID. We had that many registered, and then we canceled,” said Blake McAnally, the convention’s director and an elder of the Beltline Church of Christ in Decatur, Ala. “We went down to about 3,500 (the next year), and we’ve been climbing back ever since. So this year we hit our goal.”

The 2024 number included about 3,600 children and 6,400 adults — parents, coaches and judges — split into red, yellow, blue and green groups. They represented roughly 200 Churches of Christ from Tennessee, Alabama and other neighboring states.

Not all of those Christian families stay at the Gaylord Hotel. 

Some commute locally. 

Blake McAnally, an elder of the Beltline Church of Christ in Decatur, Ala., directs the Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville, Tenn.

Girls from the Camden Church of Christ in Tennessee receive awards during the Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville, Tenn.

But many of the participants spend Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the hotel — making Lads to Leaders one of the biggest, if not the biggest, events of the year for the convention center. Stefanie Ball, a Gaylord spokeswoman, said the company’s guest privacy policies prevented her from discussing such details.

“This hotel has 2,880 rooms, I believe,” McAnally said, “and we (Lads to Leaders participants) will be about 92 percent to 93 percent of the people here.”

Rhonda Zorn Fernandez is a Lads to Leaders board member and the daughter of the late Jack Zorn, the organization’s founder. We’re blessed, too, that she accepted an invitation last year to join The Christian Chronicle’s national board of trustees.

Members of the Tuscumbia Church of Christ in Alabama pose for a group photo during the Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville, Tenn. Read a related story about that church’s “Rick & Bubba Show”-themed puppet skit.

I first met Rhonda in 2015 when I traveled to Alabama to report on the challenges faced by Christians who become caregivers for older parents. No one loves Lads to Leaders as much as Rhonda or finds as many friends to hug at the annual conventions as she does. 

At Rhonda’s invitation, the Chronicle set up a booth at this year’s Nashville event and signed up many new readers. If I missed anyone, click this link to receive our monthly print edition and our weekly email newsletter for free. 

I was blessed to lead a prayer Saturday night at one of the four simultaneous Nashville awards assemblies — each with more than 2,000 people packing the ballroom! I even put on a suit and tie for the special occasion.

For all the rightful concerns about declining church membership and young people leaving the faith, the crowds at Lads to Leaders and Leadership Training for Christ events across the nation provide hope for the future.

“People like to say it’s the future. It’s actually the present.”

Then again, it’s not just the future we’re talking about.

“People like to say it’s the future,” Mitch Henry, president of Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala., said at the Nashville convention. “It’s actually the present.”

Amen, brother.

The present — and yes, the future — of the church never looked so bright.

Present and past Red Coat Award winners pose for a photo at the Lads to Leaders convention in Nashville, Tenn.

BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. Reach him at bobby@christianchronicle.org.

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