In this episode of the Theology for the People podcast I speak with Jeff Gipe about what the Bible says about wealth, why it is that so many wealthy people are not “whole,” and what the solution is to this problem.
Jeff Gipe is a pastor in Franklin, Tennessee. Previously, he was a successful businessman in Southern California, who left the business world to plant a church in the area where he lived, which happens to be one of the most affluent communities in the world.
Jeff is a graduate of Western Seminary, and has put in a lot of work theologically and practically into thinking biblically about the topic of money and how it relates to God’s vision for human flourishing.
What does the Bible say about wealth? Why is it that so many wealthy people are not "whole" – and what is the solution?
Jeff Gipe is a pastor in Franklin, Tennessee. He was a successful businessman in Southern California, who left the business world to plant a church in the area where he lived, which happened to be one of the most affluent communities in the world.
He is a graduate of Western Seminary, and has put in a lot of work theologically and practically into thinking biblically about the topic of money and how it relates to God's vision for human flourishing.
Visit the Theology for the People blog at nickcady.org, where you can read articles and suggest topics for future episodes.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theologyforthepeople/support
The Jesus Revolution movie premiers today, and you should definitely go see it!
On Wednesday, our church rented out our local theater for a private showing of the movie before its public release. Tickets sold out fast, and the theater was full of people of all ages.
The movie chronicles the early days of the Jesus Movement, through the eyes of Greg Laurie. At the forefront of the Jesus Movement was Chuck Smith and Calvary Chapel, and their stories are told in this film, along with that of hippie evangelist and preacher, Lonnie Frisbee.
The stories told in the movie are stories that I heard from my pastor, Tom Stipe, over the years: Chuck Smith telling his board members, who were concerned about shoeless hippies ruining the new carpet in the church, that he would rather rip out the carpet than send the hippies away, or make them feel unwelcome; baptizing thousands at Pirate’s Cove in Corona del Mar, the concerts in the tent, and more.
Tom, who passed away in 2020, was good friends with Greg Laurie. When Tom passed away, I had the honor of speaking at his memorial, along with Greg. Unfortunately, Tom wasn’t mentioned in the film, although he was right there in the thick of the events that the movie chronicles.
When I, as a teenager, gave my life to the Lord and started attending church at Crossroads – the Calvary Chapel church which Tom pastored in Arvada, Colorado – my dad told me: “You know, back when I was in high school, I remember there were all these hippies playing ‘Jesus music’ on their guitars.” It was only later on, when I got to know Pastor Tom, that I realized the significance of the experience my dad was sharing with me.
Several times during the movie, I found myself moved to tears. There is something incredibly powerful about the hope of the gospel and the message of redemption.
I was so happy to have my kids be able to see this movie and connect the dots with some of the things we’ve shared with them about the history of our movement. Furthermore, I was proud to have the members of our church who were less-familiar with Calvary Chapel see this depiction of the Jesus Movement, and understand the roots and the values of the movement to which our church belongs.
Something I really appreciated about the movie was how they portrayed the nuances of the relationship between Chuck and Lonnie, and the reasons why they parted ways. The film portrayed that tension in a palpable way.
Tom Stipe used to tell me that what God did through Calvary Chapel and the Jesus Movement in the 1970’s was a story that needed to be shared and never forgotten. This movie tells the story of this important part of American history, which has spilled over and changed the world.
I encourage you to go out, watch the movie, and invite a friend or two. I hope many people will see the movie, and that God will use it to spark a Jesus revolution in our generation as well.
Tim is the Pastor for Preaching at Reality Ventura and Founding Pastor of Reality Church London and Reality LA. A native to California, Tim’s first ten years of church-planting ministry started as the Lead Pastor of Reality LA in 2006, a thriving church in the heart of Hollywood, before planting Reality London in the UK in 2016. In 2021, Tim returned to California to take up the Pastor for Preaching role at Reality Ventura.
In this episode we talk about culture in general, and “gospel culture” specifically. What is “gospel culture” and how is it developed amongst a group of people, whether that be a church, a family, a staff, or elsewhere?
Tim’s first two books, Better: How Jesus Satisfies the Search for Meaning and The Truth about Lies, were projects which came from lessons learned while living and pastoring in urban areas. Pastor Tim and his wife Lindsey care deeply about the ministry of the local church and seek to devote themselves to helping churches begin and flourish in their mission to share and reflect the gospel.
Tim and I will both be speaking at the Calvary Chapel / CGN International Conference in Orange County, California, June 26-29. More information and registration can be found here at conference.calvarychapel.com
If you find this episode interesting or helpful, please share it with others and leave a rating and review on your podcast app, as that helps other people discover this podcast and its content.
Tim Chaddick is the Pastor for Preaching at Reality Ventura and Founding Pastor of Reality Church London and Reality LA. A native to California, Tim's first ten years of church-planting ministry started as the Lead Pastor of Reality LA in 2006, a thriving church in the heart of Hollywood, before planting Reality London in the UK in 2016. In 2021, Tim returned to California to take up the Pastor for Preaching role at Reality Ventura.
In this episode we talk about culture in general, and "gospel culture" specifically. What is "gospel culture" and how is it developed amongst a group of people, whether that be a church, a family, a staff, or elsewhere?
Tim and I will both be speaking at the Calvary Chapel / CGN International Conference in Orange County, California, June 26-29. More information and registration can be found here at conference.calvarychapel.com
Tim's first two books, Better: How Jesus Satisfies the Search for Meaning and The Truth about Lies, were projects which came from lessons learned while living and pastoring in urban areas. Pastor Tim and his wife Lindsey care deeply about the ministry of the local church and seek to devote themselves to helping churches begin and flourish in their mission to share and reflect the gospel.
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Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theologyforthepeople/support
Recently I had the opportunity to be a guest on the Basics of Life Podcast with Rob Salvato.
The Basics of Life is not only Rob’s podcast, but the episodes are broadcast on KWVE Christian radio in Southern California.
Rob is currently doing a series on that podcast on “the hard sayings of Jesus,” and he asked me to tackle John 6:52-55, which says:
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
John 6:52-55
Not Cannibalism Nor Communion
When people originally heard Jesus say these words, they thought he was talking about cannibalism – but he most certainly wasn’t!
Many readers since that time have assumed that Jesus is talking about communion, i.e. the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist. This assumption is understandable in light of the fact that Jesus called the elements for the Lord’s Supper his “body” and “blood” – and yet, that is not what he is talking about here either.
What Jesus is talking about here can be understood by reading the passages which come before and after (context is king!). I share what Jesus is talking about in the conversation with Rob, which is linked below.
Why Be Cryptic?
And yet, even if it can clearly be derived from the context what Jesus was referring to, the question remains: Why did Jesus speak in a way that was cryptic or hard to understand? Didn’t he want people to understand what he was saying? Why would he speak in a way that people could misunderstand, and perhaps even choose to not follow him because of their misunderstanding?
I answer this question in the podcast episode linked below, but this is something we see Jesus did on more than one occasion! For example, we see this from Jesus in John 9 and Matthew 13, where Jesus speaks in a way that those who want to understand will lean in and seek to understand, but those who weren’t willing to lean in and seek the truth could misunderstand or easily miss.
Clearly Jesus is communicating that a desire to understand is a prerequisite for spiritual understanding.
Pastor Nick Cady joins Pastor Rob Salvato to talk about what Jesus meant when He thinned out the crowds after the feeding of the five thousand.
Rob Salvato
Pastor Rob is the lead pastor of Calvary Vista, in San Diego County, California. Calvary Vista is my wife Rosemary’s home church, which sent her out as a missionary to Hungary years ago. Later, after Rosemary and I met in Hungary and got married, Calvary Vista became our home base and one of our main supporting churches. We love Rob and his wife Denise, and he has been a faithful pastor over that wonderful congregation for many years. Right now the church is experiencing a time of growth and a real move of God. Pray for them during this exciting time!
Kay Smith, the wife of pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, passed away last week. While Chuck was well known for his radio ministry, books, and leadership – Kay played a big role in what God did through Calvary Chapel and in the church as a whole in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
For example, it was Kay who had a heart for the hippies and would go and pray for them, broken-hearted over these lost youths filling the beaches and streets of Southern California in the 60’s, and urging Chuck to reach out to them.
Furthermore, Kay’s women’s ministry, Joyful Life, was very large and influential, and played a big role in popularizing “women’s ministry” and a certain type of women’s Bible study that is now considered common in many churches.
This week, Calvary Chapel published an article and a podcast featuring my wife, Rosemary, who is a member of the Women’s Task Team for Calvary Global Network.
You can listen to the podcast here, and I’ve copied the article below:
Today, on When She Leads, we are discussing the question: should a church have a women's ministry? Women's ministries come in all shapes and sizes and we'll discuss all the facets and how it can be effective and healthy.
Reference article by Rosemary Cady.
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When She Leads is a podcast for women in ministry hosted by Brenda Leavenworth, Jenn Benham, Rosemary Cady, and Kelly Bell.
Email us at whensheleadspodcast@gmail.com
Follow us on Instagram at @whensheleads
There is a growing controversy today with churches assessing whether or not to have a women’s ministry. Is it mandated in scripture, always beneficial, or not necessary at all? These are questions church leaders are asking. A large church in our town dropped their women’s ministry to promote community groups instead. I have friends whose churches only have an occasional women’s ministry event, and we have women who join our church because their old church did not offer a women’s ministry.
Women’s ministry can look different in each church. So first, let’s define it. The word “ministry” means “spiritual service.” Therefore, in a church, a women’s ministry would be where women go for spiritual, emotional, and social needs.
WHAT DOES SCRIPTURE SAY?
The Bible does not mandate that churches have a women’s ministry; scripture never explicitly introduces the idea. And while it does describe principles for ministry, the Bible stops short of giving us methods to accomplish it. This gives us the freedom to minister in ways that are effective for our time and culture.
It’s true; one cannot reasonably argue that scripture mandates we have a women’s ministry. However, I think we can conclude that women ought to be engaged in ministering to other women. Titus chapter 2 tells older women to “train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God” (Titus 2:4-5 NIV). Paul charged Titus to equip the older women in his church so that they might be ready to teach the younger women. The list of what to teach younger women regards their character and matters of the home. With this in mind, we look for the best way for women to learn God’s heart for these things by teaching them scripture and how to apply it to their lives. Furthermore, Ephesians 4:11-13 says that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to the church “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature” (NIV). One integral way to bring about this maturity of faith is to teach women the Bible (cf. Romans 10:17).
There is no one model for how to minister to women, but many possibilities. It is imperative that a church show they care for women, which can occur in a variety of ways, but the key is spiritual health. From thriving Bible studies with hundreds of people to small prayer groups and everything in between, the women will grow in their faith if they are taught the Bible well.
BENEFITS
Women express that they are encouraged in their faith from the fellowship they experience in a women’s ministry, finding the strength to go on in life despite the trials, realizing they do not walk this journey alone.
Other benefits include:
· A safe space to share struggles and prayer requests, uniquely as a woman.
· Develop meaningful friendships.
· Accountability.
• Spiritual growth.
• Other relationships in their lives are blessed by their maturing.
· Opportunities to serve and use spiritual gifts.
Women have shared private matters and gained wisdom from others in women’s groups that they never would’ve with men present.
DIFFICULTIES
A basic difficulty is simply that some women feel anxious gathering with groups of women. Even seeing the words “women’s fellowship” strikes fear in their hearts! A simple group introduction or invitation to pray out loud can send someone out the door, never to return. These are women I’ve met at my church. One woman at our church in Hungary was skeptical about coming, saying, “What, are you going to teach me how to wear a dress?” Ministry leaders can help such women if they realize that they come through the doors with fears, anxieties, and horrible past experiences. Women with similar proclivities will come to your meetings, wondering whether they can trust those around them this time.
Another difficulty arises when a women’s ministry becomes a church within a church. Suppose women can attend women’s ministry activities without ever attending church services. In that case, it could be a red flag to the ministry leader that the ministry has created a church of their own. Such an ascription of authority to the women leaders may usurp authority from the pastors of the church.
Those leading must be motivated by love, having a heart for women, and displaying a good character, not self-serving or self-promoting. Skills can be taught; a heart to serve has to develop from within. It has been said that “everything rises or falls on great leadership,” so having the right women in place is essential.
PUSH-BACK
What if a Lead Pastor is not interested in having a Women’s Ministry? Prayer would be the best place to start in this situation, and possibly a meeting with the pastor to hear his heart on the matter and share yours. The Women’s Ministry must follow the Lead Pastor’s vision for the church and help serve the needs of the women within it.
What if the women’s ministry leaders are gossips, slanderers, spiritually immature, or are running a ministry where power and position are more valuable than understanding and obeying scripture? Sometimes, a pastor’s best course is to shut down an unhealthy ministry and re-launch it with a healthy vision and leaders to match. To establish a healthy ministry, leaders must be mature in doctrine, character, service to the women, and submission to their pastors and elders.
IN CONCLUSION
Although scripture doesn’t mandate Women’s ministry, it is beneficial if teaching the Bible is foundational and is done with mature leadership and healthy guidelines. The benefits reaped are creating a community where spiritual growth flourishes, training takes place, spiritual gifts receive room for use, and the community provides support and encouragement in a loving environment with hearts oriented towards God.
Look for the next steps in our post on how to start a Women’s Ministry!
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Our most recent episode of “When She Leads,” a podcast for women in ministry, is a companion episode to this article. Listen in as our team discusses whether or not churches must have Women’s Ministries. Each month, we gather around the table to consider the complexities and realities of leading as a woman.
My friends and co-laborers, Ted Leavenworth and Rob Salvato, both pastors in Southern California, started a new podcast called Leadership Collective, in which they curate helpful conversations with church leaders about relevant topics.
I had the pleasure of being a guest on the podcast along with Dr. Mark Foreman. Our discussion was about the nuts and bolts of how we develop, cast, and implement “vision” in our churches. Mark pastors a mega-church in Southern California, and I pastor a medium sized church on the Front Range of Colorado, so there are some pretty big differences in how we go about this process, but many similarities as well.
Earlier in my ministry I used to hate the word “vision” because it seemed so nebulous and abstract. However, since then I have come to understand that “vision” can simply be defined as: “a desired outcome.” Putting it in those terms, the question of “vision” becomes much more manageable. Beginning with a desired outcome, you can then begin thinking about the way to achieve that outcome, and break it down into a process with steps, depending on the given time-frame.
Not only is it imperative that we have vision as leaders, it’s also important for us to communicate it. What I have learned is that most leaders unwittingly under-communicate vision, and it’s very rare for people to feel that leaders over-communicate vision. The point is, for most of us, we need to communicate vision more than we currently are, and more than we think we need to.
Pastor Mark Foreman of North Coast Calvary in Carlsbad, California joins Pastor Nick Cady of White Fields Community Church in Longmont, Colorado to discuss the topic of vision.
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North Coast Calvary Chapel — northcoastcalvary.org
White Fields Community Church — whitefieldschurch.com
A few months ago, on a long car ride, a friend asked me an honest question: “If there is no pain in Heaven, how can there really be joy?”
He went on to explain how all of his deepest joys in this life have, in some way, included pain. Whether it was love, faithfulness, or comfort set upon a backdrop of heartache or suffering, or whether it was a great obstacle which was overcome, it seems – he said – that in order to have great joy, there must be some sort of pain involved.
At first, this might sound like a strange question; after all, who wants pain? Wouldn’t the absence of pain equal joy? Isn’t the great hope of Heaven the absence of pain?
But on further examination, it seems there may be something to my friend’s question.
The Single Note on the Piano
I have friends who live in Southern California, where the weather is “perfect.” Year-round temperatures are mild. It’s dry, but not too dry. There’s an abundance of sunshine. Several times I have flown out of Denver in the snow, to arrive in SoCal to beautiful, warm, sunny weather – no matter what month of the year.
But that’s exactly it: the weather is the same all year long. It’s great – but there’s no variation. There’s no opportunity to wear coats, or layer up. They don’t experience four seasons.
It’s like playing a single note on the piano: it might be a wonderful note, but if there’s no variation, even the best note gets old…
Will Heaven be the same way: a single note on the piano? Even if it is the most beautiful, good, glorious note that has ever existed, won’t that single note get old after some time – much less for eternity? How will we appreciate goodness, if there is nothing bad to cause us to appreciate the good? Can there really be joy apart from pain?
Pain Without the Curse
Recently I’ve been climbing some of Colorado’s highest mountains. My goal is to climb all 54 of Colorado’s 14ers: peaks over 14,000 feet (4267 meters) above sea level. Every climb is difficult. It saps your energy. You end up hurting and tired. It takes days to recover. And yet, there is something great about it, something addictive and enjoyable – despite the pain.
On the summit of La Plata Peak (14,343 ft / 4,372 m)
This year I’m working on running 1000 miles by the end of the calendar year. Oftentimes when I head out the door I tell my wife, “I hate running.” It makes my heart beat out of my chest. I sweat. I breathe hard. It hurts. I can’t wear sandals because I have several missing toenails. And yet, I actually love running – just not when I’m walking out the door.
Whether it’s climbing mountains or running, or something you voluntarily do which involves choosing pain, the pain of those activities is not the result of the curse of sin and death.
The gospel, the core message of the Bible, is that the world, and all of us in it, have been corrupted by the curse of sin. This curse affects all of creation, and it affects us in myriad ways: physically, mentally, and spiritually. This curse is the cause of sickness, disorders, and death. It affects our very nature, to our ability to comprehend, to our ability to do what is right. It is what is at the root of racism, hatred, pride, and malice of all sorts. And the good news of the gospel, is that Jesus Christ came and took this curse upon Himself in order to put it to death and set us free from it.
The promise of the gospel is that the day is indeed coming when, because of what Jesus did, those who have received His grace by faith will dwell eternally with God, and “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)
Adventure Awaits!
Heaven is described as a garden city where we will dwell on a “new Earth.” In this city, we see the restoration of Eden from Genesis 1-3: the garden paradise God created for the people He made. In this New Jerusalem we will be reunited with the Tree of Life (Genesis 2:9, Revelation 22:2), which gives healing and life forever.
The New Jerusalem that awaits us, AKA Heaven, is not only the restoration of Eden, but the fulfillment of what Eden would have been if sin had never entered the world!
And here’s what is interesting: In Eden – God gave his people work to do! What this tells us, is that Heaven will not be an ethereal experience of floating on clouds, bored out of our minds for eternity, but it will be a tangible, physical place – a new Earth, but without sin and its curse!
In other words, we can expect that Heaven will be full of meaningful, fulfilling work, as well as opportunities for adventure and discovery.
I expect there will be hikes and games that make your legs burn! Physical work and activities which push your muscles to their limits. Yes: pain – but the kind of pain which is not the result of sin, rather that which accentuates and enables greater joy!
The ultimate joy of Heaven will be the immediate presence of the Lord. He will be our light! And the joys of this world are but a foretaste, a faint whiff of what is to come! Maranatha!
He recently wrote a short and helpful book about Christian sexual ethics, in which he also talks about his own experience of same-sex attraction, titled “Is God anti-gay?”.
Key Points from Sam’s Message
In the West, we live in a place where people’s “moral intuitions” have shifted. People are not morally relative, nor are they amoral. Rather, their “intuition” of what defines morality has changed. People now base their determination of morality on these questions:
Is it fair, or does it discriminate?
Is it freeing, or is it oppressive?
Is it harmful, or benign?
Anything seen as limiting freedom is seen as creating an existential conflict.
As a result, whereas biblical sexual ethics in the 1950’s-1980’s, for example, were considered prudish, they are now considered immoral.
What is needed is for us to learn to listen well, show people the goodness of God and provide a true and better narrative.
It’s worth listening to Sam’s entire message. Here is the video of it, as well as a follow-up interview he did afterward.
For the past week we have been on vacation in California. For the first week of it we were in Orange County where I attended the Calvary Chapel pastors conference in Costa Mesa. Rosemary and the kids spent time with friends and at the beach, and Rosemary was able to attend some parts of the conference as well. The conference was refreshing; a great time of focusing on the Lord and recentering as well as reconnecting with friends from all over the world.
After that we went down to North San Diego and visited friends and family there, and then came to Los Angeles to stay with family. We’ll be back in Colorado for church on Sunday.
Overlooking Los Angeles from the Griffith Observatory in the Hollywood hills
One of the books I’ve been reading on vacation is Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Several years ago I read Crime and Punishment and it became one of my favorite books. I think Dostoyevsky was a brilliant writer, particularly how he developed characters and got inside their minds.
What was interesting about Crime and Punishment was that it wasn’t only a novel so much as it was a platform for Dostoyevsky’s view of human anthropology – in other words: what makes us tick. What I found even more interesting, as I looked more into Russian literature from that time period, was that the other great Russian author, Tolstoy, did the same thing with his novels, but he had distinctly different views.
Tolstoy was a pacifist, who considered himself a Christian, but didn’t want anything to do with church in any way. In fact, the more you get to know his views, you realize that he was extremely legalistic and held many strange interpretations of Biblical passages. For example, Tolstoy said that since Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not resist an evil person” (Matthew 5:39), that means that we should not even have police, because the role of the police is to resist evil people. What he was arguing for was beyond pacifism to a form of anarchy, which was based on his fundamental belief in the basic goodness of humankind: that left to our own devices, with no outside intervention, people would trend towards good rather than evil, and that the trajectory of the human race is towards greater virtue, peace and harmony. Tolstoy’s views were a major influence on Ghandi and others.
Dostoyevsky on the other hand, did not share Tolstoy’s views about humanity. Dostoyevsky considered himself a serious Christian, something which is very apparent in his writing, and he held much more traditional (and biblical) views about the nature of humankind and what makes us tick.
In Crime and Punishment, for example, the main character is a university student who ends up killing the older woman he lives with. The popular thinking at the time (and still in our time as well) was the Englightenment theory that people are basically good, and that when people do things that are wrong, the reason they do them is either because of lack of education or because of poverty. Thus, the thought is that if you can educate people and bring them out of poverty, then crime and violence, as well as racism and hatred will cease to exist. The Bible does not agree with this theory, and says that the reason people do bad things, is because we are sinful and broken, and sin doesn’t just affect us, but it dwells within us, it is part of our very core. We weren’t designed by God to be this way, and it is for this reason that Jesus came, to redeem us from the curse of sin and death. But apart from redemption, all people are sinful, which is the reason we do sinful things.
If there is any question about this, Nazi Germany is a perfect case study of how the most educated society in the world, which was well off economically, committed some of the worst atrocities the world has ever seen. If the Englightenment theory was true, that shouldn’t have happened, but the Biblical view would say: educated and rich people are still sinners, they’re just educated and rich sinners. What all people need is a new heart, something which can only be found in and through Jesus Christ.
In Crime and Punishment the main character is an educated young man who kills his landlord simply because he wants to, because he’s curious what it will be like, and then he justifies his actions to himself. Why do people do bad things? Because sin dwells within us, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, Dostoevsky would say.
I am only 20% of the way through The Brothers Karamazov, but am very much enjoying it. It tells the story of a father and his 3 sons, actually 4 – as one of the servants is also the son of the man. The father is a foolish and base man, his oldest son is similarly base, but at least has a sense of conscience which his father seems to lack. The second son is an intellectual and considers himself an atheist, but is torn because he realizes that if there is no God and no afterlife and no Heaven or Hell, then there is no meaning to life. The third son is an apprentice monk at the local monastery, where he studies under a devout elder. There is another elder at the monastery who is crazy, and somehow in his derangedness is more popular with the people than the devout and humble elder who actually says a lot of things which are good and biblical.
One of the points that Dostoyevsky is making in the book is that the life of sincere Christian faith put into practice is the truly good life. Through the characters he is showing the results of a life of sin and the meaninglessness and pain of life apart from God and encouraging the reader to forsake sin and turn to God.
At least that’s what I’ve gotten out of it so far. I’ll let you know if anything changes!
Here are some excerpts:
“Love God’s people, let not strangers draw away the flock, for if you slumber in your slothfulness and disdainful pride, or worse still, in covetousness, they will come from all sides and draw away your flock. Expound the Gospel to the people unceasingly. Do not love gold and silver. Have faith. Cling to the banner and raise it on high.” – Father Zossima, the humble and sincere elder to Alyosha, the third son who is a Christian
“Remember, young man, unceasingly,” Father Païssy began, without preface, “[humanism], which has become a great power, has, especially in the last century, analyzed everything divine handed down to us in the holy books. But they have only analyzed the parts and overlooked the whole, and indeed their blindness is marvelous. Yet the whole still stands steadfast before their eyes, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Has it not lasted nineteen centuries, is it not still a living, a moving power in the individual soul and in the masses of people? It is still as strong and living even in the souls of atheists, who have destroyed everything! For even those who have renounced Christianity and attack it, in their inmost being still follow the Christian ideal, for hitherto neither their subtlety nor the ardor of their hearts has been able to create a higher ideal of man and of virtue than the ideal given by Christ. When it has been attempted, the result has been only grotesque.
This week in Palmdale, California a school not only forbid a boy from sharing Bible verses with his classmates, but forbid him from bringing Bible verses into the school, and finally sent the Los Angeles county sherif to his house to tell him to stop handing them out after school and off of school premises as well.
The student, identified as “C,” would regularly read aloud the Bible verses that his mother, Christina Zavala, would pack away in his lunch. The verses became so popular that other students started asking the boy for their own verses. Ms. Zavala then started providing additional Bible verses for her son’s friends that included short stories for context.
“However, when one little girl said ‘teacher — this is the most beautiful story I’ve ever seen,’ ‘separation of church and state’ was the response, and the notes were banned from lunchtime distribution,” the Liberty Counsel said. “C was told that the school gate was the only location at which he could give the Bible verses to his friends, and only after the bell rang.”
The group said Ms. Zavala and her son complied with the order and started handing out the verses after school at the gate in late April. The activity became increasingly popular, with at least 15 students showing up every day. On May 9, Principal Melanie Pagliaro reportedly approached C’s father, Jaime Zavala, and demanded he and the boy move completely off school property and onto the public sidewalk. The family immediately complied, the Liberty Counsel said.
Later that day, a Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff reportedly arrived at the Zavalas’ home to tell the boy to stop sharing the notes, because “someone might be offended,” the Liberty Counsel said. It was then that the family decided to seek legal help.
My favorite part of the story is what the little girl said: “Teacher, this is the most beautiful story I’ve ever seen.”
I couldn’t agree more. In fact, that statement, from the lips of an innocent child brings tears to my eyes. The story of Jesus, God’s love for us, is the most beautiful story the world has ever known.
I also love the part about how 15 kids would gather daily to receive Bible stories.
What a shame when such a thing is banned out of fear that someone might be offended by it. What a shame that there are so many things pushed on our children which do offend me, but often no action is taken in the name of freedom of expression.
This little boy and his mom planted some seeds in this community. Let’s pray they bear much fruit and that the litigation from the Liberty Counsel succeeds and sets a precedent which allows for freedom of expressing in sharing the Gospel.
Sam is a pastor from Maidenhead, England, who also works with 
Theology for the People 