Throughout Scripture, God calls his people to be faithful and steadfast as we abide in him. Isaiah reminds us our faithfulness is fleeting “like the flowers of the field,” yet our hope is secure when we place it in God, so our strength is renewed (Isa. 40:6, 31).
In the May/June issue of Christianity Today, we consider stories of resilience.
Historian Thomas Kidd shares missionary Adoniram Judson’s hardship and fortitude in Burma (now Myanmar). @embelz reports on Minnesota churches today that are supporting persecuted Karen Christians. Marvin Olasky speaks with @tishharrisonwarren about raising children and technology, and Haleluya Hadero reports on groups who are determined to help Gary, Indiana, achieve a more resilient future.
Plus, additional writing from @russellmoore , @bonnie.kristian , @justinwhitmelearley , Katelyn Walls Shelton, @matthewleeanderson , @aahales , @karenswallowprior , @matt_hewloftus , @karabettis , and others.
You can find the entire issue at the link in our bio, but we think it’s most compelling in print.
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🎨: @johnhendrix
Christians have long asked how a good God can let evil happen. But Gen Z Bible professor Jared Dodson has noticed his students want to know when the evil will get their due.
“One of the clearest examples of this shift came when I covered the life of David in my Old Testament survey course,” he writes.
“My students struggled not with the account of David’s sins against Bathsheba and her husband but with the aftermath. They were deeply concerned that David was let off too easily. Not only that, they wondered, but where is Bathsheba’s vindication in the story? And how could biblical authors subsequently point to David as a positive example of faithfulness?
The difficulty for them was not David’s sin, which they found unsurprising. The difficulty was God’s forgiveness and mercy.”
Read the rest at the link in our bio.
Christian nationalism is on the minds of more US adults than ever before, according to a Pew Research Center study released Thursday.
The report shows a significant uptick in people who know “at least a little” about the term “Christian nationalism.” While precise definitions are a matter of debate, Christian nationalism generally describes a belief that the United States is an inherently Christian nation and the government should preserve that.
The rising awareness tracks with a growing sense that religion is influencing American life.
Read more at the link in our bio.
“When I first taught through Hebrews, I understood doctrine and discipline,” writes Russell Moore. “I did not understand disappointment and disillusionment.
I understood that I was to be on a pilgrimage homeward, but I’d never felt what it was like to be homeless.
I had a stable religious community—the same one into which I’d been born and raised. I knew all our past history, I was in many rooms planning our present reality, and I spent my days training our future leaders. I thoroughly belonged, and I knew I always would. My life would move from a Southern Baptist childhood through a Southern Baptist adulthood to a Southern Baptist heaven at the other end of it all.
That was true not only of the church but also of the world. No matter how much I talked about culture wars, they too were a source of stability. We knew who the two ‘sides’ were, and though the issues might change a little, those categories would always hold.
And then they didn’t.”
Read the rest from @russellmoore at the link in our bio.
Lagoinha Global is the fourth-largest megachurch in the Brazil. One of its pastors is involved in a multibillion-dollar scheme.
Read the report from @iacominifranco at the link in our bio.
Short on lobbying power, Christian small business owners rely on faith to endure rising prices and supply chain threats.
“I think for a lot of small businesses—and I suspect most Christian businesses fall under this—we’re not working with huge, massive amounts of corporate money,” said one woman. “We’re doing these things to follow this call and life the best that we can.”
Read the full report at the link in our bio.
A new proposed Department of Education regulation would label college programs “failing”—and block federal student loans—if graduates don’t out-earn peers without the degree.
The new rule portends a problem in particular for seminaries, theological schools, and Bible colleges at a time when clergy are aging and sometimes in short supply.
By the government’s own estimate, 53 percent of bachelor’s programs for religion and religious studies would be considered “failing” under this new metric. Those programs, which would not qualify for federal loans, are projected to have the highest failure rate of any undergraduate program.
“It’s an existential threat to the future of religious higher education in the US—I don’t think that’s an overstatement,” Philip Dearborn, the head of the Association for Biblical Higher Education, told CT. “It came out of left field.”
Read the full report at the link in our bio.
Online motherhood chatter warns: You’ll be bored. At the same time, panicked. Overwhelmed. At the same time, understimulated.
“Yes, there are challenges,” agrees Kate Lucky about life with a toddler. “But joy persists. I don’t know how to talk about it without sounding as if I’m bragging or dissembling.
This time feels tenuous, like something I must safeguard—perhaps even from the Lord, who may intrude with bad news, an accident, or a grief to teach me something tough, make me wise, or build my character.
That’s not the way to approach our good God. I know that. But in my all-too-human framework, I shy away from suffering, mistakenly understanding it as the only way the Lord offers his lessons.
I don’t want to hide from suffering. I don’t want to be naive, seeing fleeting things rather than our constant God. But I also want to enjoy the gifts I’ve been given rather than always anticipating the other shoe dropping, the change in the weather, the unexpected pain.
I want to revel in the joy of the Lord not just because I know I’ll need it in the trials ahead—I will—but because I get to have it now.
In short, I want to talk about how good it is to be a mom. What a privilege. How I spend my days awestruck by my child.”
Read the rest from Lucky at the link in our bio.
🎨: @nicolexu_
After six years of living as Brycen, God’s voice reached Kyla Gillespie through a compassionate Christian couple.
“My path forward happened through baby steps,” she writes. “Truths, bathed in love. Questions asked—about faith, love, truth, and identity—and answered with total honesty but with kindness and care.
It was an out-of-body experience when God broke through and started to show me intimate truths I could never see before. And it was becoming painfully clear that I had to choose which life I wanted: his or my own. Would I embrace the design he had given me or cling to the identity I had created?
God was asking me to trust him, to have him be my safety net. I wasn’t sure I could physically be a woman again. Yet if I continued in unrepentant sin, always telling God that I knew better than him, would I truly be his forever?
One night I was overwhelmed in the darkness, sobbing in bed, I cried out, ‘What do you want from me?’ There on my bedroom floor, I heard God speak into my heart so clearly that I will never forget it: ‘Return to me, Kyla.’”
Read @kylagillespie.14 ’s full testimony at the link in our bio.
“The infinite scroll is a counterfeit heaven,” writes Russell Moore.
“It offers endlessness without glory, desire without longing, novelty without newness, and rest without resurrection.
Our feeds promise us a world without endings, but only what we cannot yet comprehend can give us a whole new world altogether.”
Read the rest from @russellmoore at the link in our bio.
CT has launched a monthly column called “The Syllabus” that features student opinions on timely national and international topics.
We aim to highlight how evangelical students in the US are thinking about important issues and how the Christian faith informs their worldview.
To submit a response for May’s prompt, go to the link in our bio or visit MoreCT.com/TheSyllabus.
In the trenches, facing serious problems trying to care for their children, Wendy Kiyomi and her husband were convicted: They needed to party.
Kiyomi writes, “Our prayers of lament are an important response to the reality of sin and death, and fasting pushes us to rely on God.
But parties have their place, too, telling of the corresponding reality of God’s mighty salvation.
To gather round and make merry, to flaunt our finery, dance, sing, and celebrate, is to witness to the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ.
Brought into God’s household, we become a party people.”
Read the rest from @wendykiyomi at the link in our bio.
