Presenting the gospel from the Old Testament really helps someone who is Muslim relate to what I’m saying because they are familiar with those stories in the Quran. I’m now able to explain how to see Jesus in the Noah story. And I see more Muslims responding to the gospel. Some of them will say, “We’ve never heard the gospel preached this way.” And I say, “Well, I also just learned it.” And I’m not seeing the same hostility toward the gospel.
Although 85% of the population of Madagascar identifies as Christian, Tank says the gospel message is often eroded. “Religiosity mixed with a health and wealth message is very challenging right now. Due to that, many people are being tossed back and forth, deceived and blinded. Lots of syncretism where people are trying different religions and hoping that maybe one will work and sort out all of life’s problems, especially poverty.”
Christians in the arts—theater, dance, music, etc.—face suspicion from both their colleagues and from their fellow Christians. Max McLean’s story is one of immersing himself in theater and finding a better way with the gospel, of both pursuing his calling and honoring his Lord.
Our church doubled in size during the pandemic and when the war started, it almost doubled in size again. Because of Krakow’s location, the city has been serving as a gate to safety because Krakow is one of the first large cities you hit once you have crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border. We were given an incredible opportunity and privilege to serve those who were fleeing from cities that were under the Russian attack in Ukraine and we primarily served women with children.
…Increasingly the culture doesn’t believe in facts or truth. It believes that people create their own truth, they create their own facts. There’s no certainty on what the right take on reality is. And so here we have the Christian church of all things being the center of emphasis on the idea that there are historical facts that can be verified.
As I began to go into shock, I heard a shot close by and felt a body collapse on top of me. Blood ran over me, and I tried to crawl out from underneath it. When I got free, I looked back and could see it was an old man who the police had killed. Then I passed out. When word of the violence spread, my relatives raced to every clinic and hospital searching for me (Xolani had made it out ok). They couldn’t find me, and assumed I’d been killed.
In Philippians 1:9-11, Paul tells us his prayer is that “Your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.” We can only imagine how different our work will be if we see it as a place where our experience of the gospel makes us more loving to our neighbors in and through our work.
Whether it is washing dishes or building spaceships, we have the image of God in us as ones who bring order out of chaos and call it good. In giving us his creation mandate, God asked men and women to discover the potential in his creation and care for it. With the publication The Creator in You, this message has been clearly and attractively presented to children.
Pastors and ministry leaders carry a heavy weight when caring for the needs of so many people in their congregation and surrounding community.
Like many New Yorkers, I lived (and often still live) from a place of unhealthy reliance on my work as a source of my identity, rather than as a healthy expression of it. So I went through a process of relearning to hold my identity (lower-case i) as a performing artist in New York much more loosely in particular. I had to hold that gift out to God and say “Lord, use this gift (and me) as it seems best to you.”