We don’t have to give in to the algorithm and believe everything one side says and hate everyone on the other side.
We can be for peace and for justice. We can even love our enemies.
Here are the chapters on politics, immigration, people in poverty, and the beauty of ethnic diversity all of which seem just as relevant as ever before…
(If you want a free copy of the entire book, send me a direct message and your U.S. mailing address.)
What does it look like to lead a church that’s anchored in Jesus when everything around you feels like it’s being blown by political winds?
Dr. Derwin Gray, lead pastor of Transformation Church, joins us for an honest conversation about staying focused on the kingdom of God in a divided culture. Derwin challenges us to stop using a 250-year-old country as our biblical filter and instead anchor our churches in first-century gospel truth. The result?
A church family that’s unified and a living example of Hope to those around them. Derwin shares the real secret behind their multi-ethnic church community and why he refuses to let the spirit of the age put him in a box. He talks about his book Lit Up With Love and why evangelism isn’t about perfecting a sales pitch—it’s about living so authentically in God’s love that others are naturally drawn to what they see.
If you’re navigating leadership in these divisive times, this conversation will remind you that people are hungry for the Jesus of Scripture, not a left or right version.
12 I’m not implying that I’ve already received “resurrection,” or that I’ve already become complete and mature! No; I’m hurrying on, eager to overtake it, because Messiah Jesus has overtaken me. 13 My dear family, I don’t reckon that I have yet overtaken it. But this is my one aim: to forget everything that’s behind, and to strain every nerve to go after what’s ahead. 14 I mean to chase on towards the finishing post, where the prize waiting for me is the upward call of God in Messiah Jesus.
15 Those of us who are mature should think like this! If you think differently about it, God will reveal this to you as well. 16 Only let’s be sure to keep in line with the position we have reached.
17 So, my dear family, I want you, all together, to watch what I do and copy me. You’ve got us as a pattern of behavior; pay careful attention to people who follow it.
18 You see, there are several people who behave as enemies of the cross of the Messiah. I told you about them often enough, and now I’m weeping as I say it again. 19 They are on the road to destruction; their stomach is their god, and they find glory in their own shame. All they ever think about is what’s on the earth.
20 We are citizens of heaven, you see, and we’re eagerly waiting for the savior, the Lord, Messiah Jesus, who is going to come from there. 21 Our present body is a shabby old thing, but he’s going to transform it so that it’s just like his glorious body. And he’s going to do this by the power which makes him able to bring everything into line under his authority.
1Well then, my dear family—I miss you so much, you’re my joy and crown!—this is how you must stand firm in the Lord, my beloved people.
– Philippians 3:12-4:1
This passage is about how Jesus people need to be in the present moment.
The resurrection is worldview defining for Paul! The Creator will one day put everything right! God is the good and wise Creator and the just and loving covenant partner so then the promise is resurrection. Creation plus justice equals resurrection. We have proof of this in the resurrection of Jesus.
“We are citizens of heaven” does not mean “Jesus is coming to get us to take us there.” The Philippians were citizens of Rome where they were! They were not supposed to actually go to Rome. This phrase is more about our vocation. This is in line with Jesus’ prayer “on earth as it is in heaven.”
Psalm 8 is being quoted pointing towards Jesus, the One True Human, raising up other true humans in His image.
Phil. 3:12-16 Paul is talking about Christian maturity in the present time. Paul says his point in vs. 12, expands on it with an athletic metaphor in vs. 13-14, and then applies his point in vs. 15-16. Our present life must drawn our future reality as resurrected Messiah people. Paul has not already attained or received resurrection is what he means in Phil. 3:12 but this is obvious when we look at Phil. 3:20-21.Even in the midst of our suffering and trouble, we are to draw on this resurrected life to help us through it all. The mature among us know they are not yet mature.| Once again Paul reminds us this is all about changing how we think so that we think like the Messiah. “Stand firm” and keep in line with the message we have and the identity we have.
Phil. 3:17-4:1 As the new covenant people, we are to imitate Paul rather than the people who play fast and loose with ethics. If there comes a clash between their loyalty to the civic authorities and their loyalty to Jesus, we need to go the way of Jesus. Humility, chastity, and generosity are the virtues of Messiah people even though this was not part of the Roman culture. Paul’s heart was broken by those who were headed towards destruction. Perhaps he was thinking of the pagan society or the Judaizers. Most likely, his heart was broken by those who were supposed to be following Jesus but had turned away and were drifting back into a pagan lifestyle. In their thinking they set their mind on earthly things rather than the ways of Jesus and His Kingdom. They were living as if there was no heavenly kingdom. The created world is good as God’s creation, but we are not to worship the creation.
We must be careful to avoid “easy-believism” or offer assurance of salvation to all who raised their hand in an emotional moment as a child. We want to communicate clearly what the invitation of following Jesus means – becoming Messiah people who experience new life and bring new life. Jesus is the Savior, the Lord, and the King.
Jesus will come to deal with the problem not to take us away from it! He will come to complete the work of new creation!
When He comes, He will transform those who are Messiah people who are still alive and resurrect those have been with Him waiting for this glorious day of the Lord!
Christology opens up to give us a vision of humanity becoming what God had always intended. God already has our new body ready! God already knows the glorious and unique person He created me to be! Because of the promise of the resurrection and new creation, we are currently just a shadow of our future selves. We will be “glorified” which means installed as the royal priesthood of God’s new world. “Glorified” does not mean far away from earth in a far off place as glowing souls.
And then the reality of this broken world interrupts this beautiful vision of the new heaven and new earth…
2 I have a special appeal which goes jointly to Euodia and Syntyche: please, please, come to a common mind in the Lord. 3 (And here’s a request for you too, my loyal comrade: please help these women. They have struggled hard in the gospel alongside me, as have Clement and my other fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.) – Philippians 4:2-3
Though we don’t know why Euodia and Syntyche are in conflict, we absolutely know this situation as we have all faced this. Paul wanted them to reframe how they are thinking and think more like Jesus.
4 Celebrate joyfully in the Lord, all the time. I’ll say it again: celebrate! 5 Let everybody know how gentle and gracious you are. The Lord is near.
6 Don’t worry about anything. Rather, in every area of life let God know what you want, as you pray and make requests, and give thanks as well. 7 And God’s peace, which is greater than we can ever understand, will keep guard over your hearts and minds in Messiah Jesus.
8 For the rest, my dear family, these are the things you should think through: whatever is true, whatever is holy, whatever is upright, whatever is pure, whatever is attractive, whatever has a good reputation; anything virtuous, anything praiseworthy. 9 And these are the things you should do: what you learned, received, heard and saw in and through me. And the God of peace will be with you. – Philippians 4:4-9
The God of peace wants people to be reconciled as He is the God who reconciles! (See also Romans 15:33) The eschatological reality of Jesus being with us should shape how we live.
Get the transformed mind and other things will fall into line; therefore, rejoice! Celebrate! Followers of Jesus are to be celebration people! Celebration rinses the mind of the nagging doubts and fears. Celebration opens new neural pathways for God to do His new thing in us and through us! The world around should know us gentle and gracious!
Paul tells us not to worry about anything (even though he often expresses his anxieties in his letters). This is a spiritual discipline we need to continue to work out in our lives. God will translate our stumbling prayers into what we really need. He is with us! He is the Source of our peace!
Phil. 4:8-9 There are lots of virtues we should pursue. Celebrate God’s goodness wherever we find it in our world AND have a commitment to the holy way of Jesus as Paul was trying to live out as an example to them. Both are important!
We can become slaves to our screens. Most of the world is telling us other things to be thinking about (fake news and conspiracy theories) other than the One who is Truth.
Paul’s example (along with Timothy and Epaphroditus) includes holiness, kindness to the poor, a knowing of Jesus, and a witness to the world.
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I in turn may be encouraged by getting news about you. 20 I have nobody else of his quality: he will care quite genuinely about how you are. 21 Everybody else, you see, looks after their own interests, not those of Messiah Jesus. 22 But you know how Timothy has proved himself. Like a child with a father he has worked as a slave alongside me for the sake of the gospel. 23 So I’m hoping to send him just as soon as I see how it will turn out with me. 24 And I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come very soon as well.
25 But I did think it was necessary to send Epaphroditus to you. He is my brother; he has worked alongside me and fought alongside me; and he’s served as your agent in tending to my needs. 26 He was longing for you all, you see, and he was upset because you heard that he was sick. 27 And he really was sick, too; he nearly died. But God took pity on him—yes, and on me as well, so that I wouldn’t have one sorrow piled on top of another.
28 This has made me all the more eager to send him, so that you’ll see him again and be glad, and my own anxieties will be laid to rest. 29 So give him a wonderfully happy welcome in the Lord, and hold people like him in special respect. 30 He came close to death through risking his life for the Messiah’s work, so that he could complete the service to me that you hadn’t been able to perform.
-Philippians 2:19-30
Paul commends Timothy and Epaphroditus to the Philippians. Timothy had traveled with Paul to Philippi in the past and the Philippians had sent Epaphroditus with the money for Paul. Perhaps Paul was making sure the Philippians knew that Epaphroditus had not stolen the money since he had not yet returned! Instead he had gotten sick but was now better.
Paul’s Judean Context The Judaizers wanted the Gentiles to follow the law starting with getting circumcised in order to become followers of Jesus. Paul refers to these Judaizers as “dogs.” Jews often called Gentiles “dogs.” Paul also says they are doing bad works rather than good works as they suggest. Paul says they are not the “cutting round people” but the “cut off people.” He may be referencing the way the priests of Baal mutilated themselves when going up against Elijah. Paul insists followers of Jesus are the circumcision and children of Abraham! (See also Romans 2:25-29) Followers of Jesus have access to the Spirit of God and none of this has anything to do with moral good works or ethnic heritage. This happens because of what Jesus has done for us and our faith in His faithfulness.
Justification and Being in Christ Paul deals with this more in other letters, but he includes this here as well. The word “righteousness” is a HUGE word that has picked up lots of baggage along the way. Does it mean covenant faithfulness and loyalty or moral goodness? It means those things and so much more!
So then, my dear family, it comes down to this: celebrate in the Lord! It’s no trouble for me to write the same things to you, and it’s safe for you.
2 Watch out for the dogs! Watch out for the “bad works” people! Watch out for the “incision” party, that is, the mutilators! 3 We are the “circumcision,” you see—we who worship God by the spirit, and boast in Messiah Jesus, and refuse to trust in the flesh.
4 Mind you, I’ve got good reason to trust in the flesh. If anyone else thinks they have reason to trust in the flesh, I’ve got more. 5 Circumcised? On the eighth day. Race? Israelite. Tribe? Benjamin. Descent? Hebrew through and through. Torah-observance? A Pharisee. 6 Zealous? I persecuted the church! Official status under the law? Blameless.
7 Does that sound as though my account was well in credit? Well, maybe; but whatever I had written in on the profit side, I calculated it instead as a loss—because of the Messiah. 8 Yes, I know that’s weird, but there’s more: I calculate everything as a loss, because knowing Messiah Jesus as my Lord is worth far more than everything else put together! In fact, because of the Messiah I’ve suffered the loss of everything, and I now calculate it as trash, so that my profit may be the Messiah, 9 and that I may be discovered in him, not having my own covenant status defined by Torah, but the status which comes through the Messiah’s faithfulness: the covenant status from God which is given to faith. 10 This means knowing him, knowing the power of his resurrection, and knowing the partnership of his sufferings. It means sharing the form and pattern of his death, 11 so that somehow I may arrive at the final resurrection from the dead.
– Philippians 3:1-11
Phil. 3:1-11 Paul is talking about how God’s covenant people are to live. He is not talking about what we must do to get to heaven as so many Westerners think. The inner heart of covenant status is to KNOW JESUS! This is the beating heart of our relationship.
The meaning of “pistis Cristou” is “the faithfulness of the Messiah” rather than “faith in the Messiah” as what is meant so our “faith in the faithfulness of the Messiah” is the more accurate meaning.
Resurrection is the Jewish aspiration! No one else believed this (and really only the Pharisees within Judaism held onto this hope). God has done for Jesus what He promises to do for all of His children. Belief in Jesus makes us Messianic people. Jesus expressed and lived out a new way to be human which meant fully surrendered to God including giving His life. Jesus lived out and experienced the Messianic obedience of the cross, the Messianic vindication of the resurrection, and the Messianic enthronement of the ascension.
Paul sets aside his elite Jewish status to be a Messianic man. Perhaps he is hinting at the need for the Philippians to set aside their special Roman status. Paul goes through his “insignia of honor” which was a common thing to do in their culture. He lists 7 things – 6 of which had nothing to do with his own moral goodness.
Paul tells his own story to communicate that even he had to die to the law so that he might live for God. He is wanting to see others like him come to faith in Jesus as well. He is not boasting! He is inviting others like him to follow Jesus as the Messiah.
So much of this is grounded in the Christology of Phil. 2:6-11 and Jesus’ invitation to “take up your cross and follow me.”
Just as Jesus did not consider his equality with God as something to exploit, Paul does not consider his elite Judaism heritage as something for him to exploit. These “successes” are not considered “loss.”
Phil. 3:8-11 The personal cost for Paul included losing his family and comfort or identity in his ethnic heritage. But all the loss was worth it to be with Jesus! Paul experienced Jesus’s love for him. There is a deeply personal note of friendship and understanding that Jesus is the King! The Lord of the whole world! The promised Messiah! All that was honoring to him in the past was now just like trash, what you find in the dump.
Knowing Jesus is deeply personal, but it should not remain private. We are to be those who proclaim this opportunity to others! We are to live as royal family and ambassadors to the world as Jesus is King of the whole world!
Roman emperors exploited their power. Jesus, the True King, suffered for us.
If you are in Messiah then you are part of the innermost circle of God’s people. That’s how Paul knows we are the circumcision. We have covenant status with God (diakosune) because of the (pistis) faithfulness of the Messiah himself and our faith in Him. We now have the courage and confidence to be the Messiah’s people in our broken and dark world. We live joyfully in our world rather than hiding in a corner from the world.
The Messiah’s people do not need to wait to find out what our status in with Him. When Paul writes “that I may be discovered in Him” (Phil. 3:9), this is a declaration of his present status not just something to come in the future.
We are not like the Judean community whose identity is based on ethnicity but the Messianic community whose identity is based on who Jesus is and who we are in Him.
We cannot allow ourselves to be sidelined! We are in Him – the One who is King of the whole world! The One whose Kingdom is here!
In this transformative conversation, renowned theologian Dr. N.T. Wright challenges the Western church’s Platonized view of salvation and calls pastors back to the Bible’s actual vision: new heaven and new earth. Discover why understanding resurrection, not just afterlife, changes everything about how we live, lead, and witness today.
Dr. Wright unpacks Ephesians’ cosmic vision, explains how Western Christianity moralized salvation instead of vocation, and shows why the church is God’s multicultural project displaying new creation to watching principalities and powers.
🔥5 Key Takeaways:
The Bible emphasizes a transformative hope for creation, not an escape from it.
The church has a responsibility to engage in social justice and beauty.
God’s kingdom is already present and active in the world.
Misunderstandings about God’s anger can distort the gospel message.
The church should model unity and diversity as a reflection of God’s kingdom as seen in Ephesians.
JOIN US FOR OUR 2026 PASTORAL COHORT WITH N.T. WRIGHT! More info here.
THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:
We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.
Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways and assessments!
“I feel close to people in my local area.” – 63% of Gen Z church goers agree 25% of non-church goers agree
How We Approach Church With Gen Z Is Changing
Seeker sensitive churches morphed into attractional churches which were all copying each other
Trend One
Preaching is becoming less informational and more facilitational. Information used to be scarce but community was everywhere, now the opposite is true.
Gen Z is ready for experiences that lead to transformation. They are drowning in information. They are not looking for an echo of the culture but an alternative to the culture. The preacher’s job is facilitation. We are not the star of the show. God is the star.
It is not manipulation but evocation.
Trend Two
The Church’s future direction is human connection. Authenticity is an increasingly rare and increasingly valued attribute. We appreciate people’s strengths, but we resonate with their weaknesses.
IRL > Online
Example: Church of the Valley offers burgers and pizza at cost just to try to get people to the church. These food kiosks also facilitate community. There are frisbees and kids playing. They have 55,000 people over the weekends.
What do you need to do to connect people on Sunday and off-Sunday?
Trend Three
Evangelism is getting bolder.
Who are you talking to Jesus about personally?
Reaching Gen Z is more about surrender than strategy, a posture not a program.
Gen Z
Luke LeFevre, founder of Holy Work and Author joined Carey and they shared some of the following:
How are we creating an environment for our people to encounter God?
If we are convicted over something it is more likely for those with us to be convicted as well.
They want to be invited into something worth living for and worth dying for.
66-72% of Gen Alpha said they would attend a church if they were invited. Get Gen Z and Gen Alpha to invite their friends on a Sunday and include a proclamation of the Gospel with an opportunity to respond with an altar call.
Gen Z wants raw and hard truths.
A bunch of people coming to Christ would not be revival. Revival is the return of the manifest presence of God, and even a crushing reality of the fear of God.
When God is in a room, people cannot help but repent because His holiness.
The saturated presence of God in a community
There is a despair in Gen Z that is turning into a desperation that is causing them to turn to God. This will get worse and worse. Within the next decade we could go from 10% of people responding to 40% responding.
“Barring a move of God the church in the United States is irrevocably in decline” was what people have long believed. Stats now say otherwise.
In the next 60 years we will see 100,000,000 people come to Christ in North America.
This is the moment to go all in on the Gospel.
Gen Z loves the challenge of being asked to repent, and it is in that repentance they experience forgiveness and the presence of God!
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” – Matthew 24:9-14
The challenge of the hour will be to keep your love for God hot! The best way to serve Gen Z is to keep your heart burning for Jesus. Do whatever it takes to stay there.
Losing our first love is a lamp-removing offense. That means the removal of God’s manifest presence.
Five Major Disruptions We’re Facing (6-36 months):
1. White-collar job loss (“a blood bath” – Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei) 2. Rise of the super-elite (top 10% in the U.S. spend almost 50% of what is spent) 3. Deepfake 4. Brain rot 5. Artificial intimacy
So what do we do?
The church’s future direction is human connection.
Elevate relationships.
Sundays can’t keep being gatherings of randomly assembled people.
Connect people with one another. (Make sure it doesn’t all go through the communicator).
No staff can handle the depth of human need. But the church can.
We need to train the body of Christ to care for the body of Christ.
Model authenticity.
Your advantage isn’t polish – its presence: transparent, human, and honest.
No one is better positioned to provide what the world needs than the church.
As the world becomes artificial, the church should become more human.
The church’s future direction is human connection.
A few of us from our team at Gateway Austin had a chance to participate at The Art of Leadership Live with Carey Nieuwhof and 250 other pastors. It was a powerful time and insightful time If you aren’t learning from Carey through his podcast or website, I highly recommend him to you!
Carey Nieuwhof’s mission is to help pastors reverse the decline in the church.
A lot of insights from this come from the research and books by Warren Bird.
Decline is depressing, and growth is overwhelming.
Growing Fast + Needing to Scale
Churches that reach people structure bigger to grow bigger.
“I assume you are praying and reading the Scriptures. There are others in the Church to go to for discipleship and evangelism.”
The Scriptures include structure especially in moments of growth and when the leaders are overwhelmed. See Exodus 18 and Acts 6 as these address structural issues.
85% of churches never break the 200 people in Sunday attendance barrier. Most church plants do not make it to 5 years. 2% of churches never break the 1000 people in Sunday attendance barrier.
Do you run your church like a Mom and Pop Shop or a supermarket?
Most churches function like a Mom and Pop corner store. In these churches, the pastors do everything. In these churches, the pastors are actually more of a pastor-centric church than a megachurch would be (even if they are featured in the videos and social media).
The 200 Barrier: Pastoral Care
Hospital visits, counseling, and weddings can become overwhelming. “The church didn’t do anything” is often code for “the pastor didn’t do what I wanted or thought I needed.”
98% of pastoral care is having someone who cares. It does not have to be the pastor!
The pastor’s job is to raise up the people for the work of ministry (Eph. 4).
When you build teams where care is built in, then this will scale and you will have a caring culture.
The 400 Barrier: Hiring Doers, Not Leaders
We hire doers to make our problems go away, but this is short-sighted.
The best way to spot new leaders is to find people who are already leading something.
In legacy churches people in leadership roles aren’t actually leaders. They are actually loyalists. We need leaders, not just people who are loyal.
You can tell a leader by seeing if others are following them.
Many can switch to missional beyond just being loyal as people are being reached and the church begins growing.
The 600 Barrier: Micromanaging Boards
The church is still small enough for the board to be involved in alot of the decisions. A board is incapable of managing any complex organization. They can lead it, but they cannot manage it.
A healthy way to go: Staff led, Elder guided, and People gifted
The elders are wise counsel to the senior pastor. The people get to do the work of the ministry. The staff equip the people.
The 800 Barrier: Bottleneck Decision Making
A leader who needs to know everything won’t grow anything.
Typically, the senior pastor and/or the executive team becomes the barrier at this point.
Is it on mission? Is it on strategy? Is it within the budget?
If “yes” to all 3 questions then no permission needed.
Then you don’t need to be involved!
Are you the kind of leader who can lead a church that scales? Some of us prefer to be busy so much so that when we are constantly putting out fires it could be we are serial arsonists.
The 1000 Barrier: Complexity
Complexity does not scale. Simplicity does scale.
The problem with program-based churches is that what people become involved in becomes the mission.
The best way to get them on mission is to ensure everything you do is mission-centered.
Churches that reach people structure bigger to grow bigger.
Do you remember where you were on this morning 24 years ago?
Most Americans old enough to have a memory of 2001 definitely remember where they were when they heard about the planes flying into the World Trade Center towers and into the pentagon.
2,977 people died in those attacks. Countless more died from the effects of trying to rescue others that day or fighting in the ensuing war on terror.
Those of us who were adults also remember how unified we were as a nation after suffering these attacks. In my 50+ years living in the U.S.A., I don’t remember being more unified as Americans than we were just after September 11, 2001.
In many ways remembering those who died was best demonstrated by caring for each other.
Sadly, now 24 years later, I don’t remember a time we were more divided.
Tragically, yesterday a young conservative named Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in broad daylight in front of 3000 college students. Just a few months ago progressive Minnesota politician Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were assassinated and Minnesota State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were shot yet survived. Of course, last year President Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Both sides blame the other side for the state in which we find ourselves.
That’s human nature. That’s what most of us do. We like to blame others so we don’t have to take personal responsibility.
In the Scriptures, we see many examples of people of faith who reach out to ask God for forgiveness and for His intervention – even when they may not have been among those who turned away from God.
Daniel’s prayer is one of the best examples of this:
“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws….
Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame… because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our leaders and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you.
Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant….
We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.””
– Daniel 9:4-19 NIV
It takes a tremendous level of humility to take personal responsibility for the sins of your nation.
For all those who follow Jesus, let me encourage you to avoid jumping into the blame game. Certainly we need to work out better laws and better security. All those things are incredibly important. At the same time, we constantly address the symptoms of what is happening in our broken world.
Our soul as a nation is sick. We need supernatural healing – the kind that only God can bring.
The prevalent division in families, co-workers, former friends, neighbors and the racism, classism, polarization, and even hatred for others can only be overcome through an internal change.
In my own life and the lives of so many people I love, I have seen angry, fearful, judgmental, and bitter people find peace, joy, and love through Jesus. When you connect with Jesus and experience forgiveness for your regrets, evil choices, shame, and mistakes, you see others with more grace than you did before.
If you are a follower of Jesus, let’s follow His example by laying down our lives, dying to ourselves, serving others, and bringing new life everywhere we go as His Spirit leads us.
Consider these words from the Scriptures…
“if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land”.
– 2 Chronicles 7:14
If you are an American, let’s remember those who died on this day, by rising above the rancor and vitriol. Let’s make space for those with whom we disagree. Let’s get back to a level of civility that is only possible when we put others before ourselves.
They discuss Jimmy’s ministry serving the poor and shares about the importance of stepping out of comfort zones and entering the pain of those in need.
1. You Can’t Reach the Poor from a Distance—You Have to Live Among Them Real ministry begins when we leave our comfort zones and move into the neighborhoods that need us most.
2. Compassion Is Entering the Pain of Others True compassion means walking with people in their suffering, not just serving from a distance. It’s about presence, empathy, and solidarity.
3. Relationships Are the Heartbeat of Community Transformation Programs don’t change lives—people do.
4. Theological Depth Fuels Real-World Impact When grounded in Scripture, justice and mercy become powerful expressions of the Gospel.
5. Experiential Learning in Hard Places Will Change How You Lead Challenging environments can radically reshape our vision, leadership, and love for people.
THE INNOVATIVE CHURCH LEADER PODCAST AND GIVEAWAYS:
We want to help pastors experience and bring renewal through Spirit-led innovation, reaching new people, and making disciples who make disciples.
Be sure to sign up for our email newsletter at innovativechurchleaders.org/join-us for a chance to win future book giveaways and assessments!
