Month: September 2023

5 minutes with Eric D. Shin

Eric D. Shin has served as senior pastor of Houston’s New Life Fellowship since its beginning in 1997. Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Shin immigrated to the U.S. with his family at age 13, where they settled in New York City. He trusted Christ as Savior at 18, eventually forsaking plans for a legal career to attend seminary. In 1994, Shin and his family relocated to Houston, where he served at Seoul Baptist Church as youth pastor before founding New Life Fellowship, which follows a house church model. Shin served on the board of the SBTC from 2017-2022. He and his wife, Lynette, have three adult sons: Enoch, Caleb, and Josiah.

How does a house church model differ from traditional worship?

On any Sunday, 480-550 adults plus 180 children and 100 youth will gather to worship at New Life. All of these are part of our 86 house churches that meet on Fridays and Saturdays, also. Sunday is more like a typical contemporary church service with worship and a sermon 50-60 minutes in length. We also have Sunday lunch.

Most of our house churches consist of up to 12 adults plus children. When a house church reaches 12 adults, we multiply them into two. The house churches grow organically. People choose where to join to allow for autonomy and choice. We ask people to reach out and [invite] their own friends. It’s all relational evangelism.

More people attend house church than Sunday worship. About 10 percent who come to our house churches are unbelievers. We call them VIPs, and we offer “receiving Jesus” meetings to those who are interested. We reach out to and welcome all unbelievers. We are stricter with Christians who hop around from church to church. We discourage that.

What is something you’ve been able to celebrate at New Life this year?

We have seen a lot of growth. Even COVID had no effect on us. We did go online for a few months, but house church attendance has steadily increased. We are seeing a lot of house churches multiplying these days.

What is a challenge facing the house church ministry?

We are seeing more house churches forming. It’s not easy. It requires a paradigm shift. There are churches that are doing house churches in Dallas, Austin, across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Japan, South Korea … several hundred all over the world. … I would like to mobilize our gifted church members to come up with resources including a website, videos, and teaching material to spread house church ministry as fast and far as possible.

What is one lesson you’ve learned to this point of your ministry that you know you’ll never forget?

Hold to the Scriptures. Study, pray, and seek God. The Bible is the ultimate and supreme authority. That will lead us to the place we need to go.

How can the other churches of the SBTC be praying for you?

Pray that I can stay the course that God has mapped out. Pray that New Life Fellowship will be used in spreading the New Testament church. Pray that other pastors will be exposed to the house church model.

East Texas church seeing ‘little things that have huge effects’ through student ministry

MARSHALL—For many, youth ministry has a distinctive texture: big and loud.

But for John Bailey, student pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church in Marshall, pointing the next generation to Christ is just as much about things simple, small, and subtle. Though it may never show up on a ministry scorecard, Bailey said he gets excited about brief conversations that allow gospel seeds to be planted. He’s been encouraged by students who once seemed indifferent to Jesus now showing more receptivity and focus during Bible study.

Bailey even sees progress in the fact that many students who once stayed seated during youth worship times now stand.

“We’re not trying to conquer the world,” he said. “We’re really just trying to make a small difference, and we’re seeing little things that have huge effects. What we’re really hoping for is that these little sparks will turn into fires that just can’t be quenched as students continue beyond high school and through their academic careers.”

Bailey said this generation of students is very open and honest about their struggles. While some have an idea about where they want life to take them, many have no direction and don’t know what the future will hold for them. While Bailey admits he doesn’t have the answers to many of those questions, he finds in them opportunities to share truth: “God has a plan for you. You may not know what that is, but He does, and you can have confidence in that.”

Bailey was a student, himself, when someone had an eternal impact on he and his family.

His early life saw him zigzag across much of North America. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but spent most of his formative school years in Portland, Ore. In sixth grade, he played on a soccer team with a teammate whose dad served as the worship leader at a nearby church. The worship leader invited Bailey’s family to church, where they heard the gospel. His parents got saved and baptized within a year, with Bailey deciding to give his life to Jesus two years later.

Following high school, Bailey joined the military and served from 2008 to 2013 and, upon marrying his wife, Leah, moved from Maryland to Texas. While in Texas, Bailey interned as a recreational minister at a church in Universal City while working as a San Antonio firefighter. He eventually was encouraged by leaders in the church to visit a Wednesday night youth service where Leah was already volunteering.

Bailey admits he did not feel like youth work was a good fit for him, considering his background in the military and in firefighting. Even so, he decided to take a chance and help with the youth. In the process, he got hooked on youth work.

Before long, a part-time staff position ministering to middle school students opened up at the church and Bailey answered the call to serve—setting the tone for how the Lord would use him upon transitioning to Immanuel in Marshall.

Immanuel is seeing about 60 students attend on Wednesday nights thanks, in part, to opportunities the Lord has provided outside the church. IBC hosts a monthly prayer and devotion time at the local high school, and they also meet in front of the school at the flagpole the first Wednesday of every month. Six students showed up at the first gathering this past spring. They prayed and studied 1 John 4:7-21, about God’s love for us and the love that we are to have for one another. By the time the group held its final meeting of the spring, 10 students had started regularly attending.

Through continued hard work and faithfulness to teaching the simplicity of the gospel, Bailey said he anticipates the next generation catching fire for the Lord and impacting a world in ways that can’t be measured.

“Just the idea that any one of these students could have an impact on the kingdom is amazing,” he said. “We will follow Christ’s example and then hopefully these students will go out into the world after high school and have or continue a relationship with Christ that impacts the world.”

IMB using telemedicine to create gospel access

Sitting in a home office in Ohio, a doctor logs onto her laptop at 3:30 a.m. Across the globe it’s mid-morning. The doctor smiles at a face that pops up on her screen. Consulting with her patient, she asks what brought him in today. Then she listens, in real time, to his heartbeat.

Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump.

His heart sounds stable. That’s a good sign. Next, a nurse next to the patient in the clinic holds an otoscope to the man’s ear. A live video of the veiny, flesh-colored ear drum appears on the doctor’s screen in the U.S.

As the doctor does a visual assessment of the patient, she diagnoses him. The infection that has been causing pain in his ear is curable, with the right medicine. She then consults with the nurse, and the team is able to get the patient treatment.

Through telemedicine strategies employed by the International Mission Board, missionaries around the globe are able to provide a reinvented mobile medical clinic. Thousands of miles across the Atlantic, doctors are able to treat people in desperate need of physical and spiritual care. Technology makes this possible, as well as the gifts of Southern Baptists that provide the medical clinics’ kits.

When COVID-19 hit, most of the Western world became acquainted with telemedicine. Just as one would FaceTime their grandma across the country, people now often consult with their doctor via a video screen. Geoff Little, an engineer turned physician who volunteers his time meeting needs across the globe, wondered why this same strategy couldn’t be employed to increase gospel access in hard-to-reach places. To fill a need, he created the kits.

Because of the kits and clinics, Little was able to see Amahle’s eternity changed. Amahle is an 11-year-old daughter of a witch doctor. Everyone around her was convinced she was possessed by a demon.

For as long as her parents could remember, their daughter had suffered violent seizures – three per day. Their area is isolated from most medical care. To protect her, the family chained Amahle to a tree in their compound.

In desperation, the village witch doctor reached out to Christians in a local church. Was there anything they could do? He asked them to pray for his daughter. The church prayed and connected with IMB missionaries several hours away, asking for help.

The desperate dad was right – all the witchcraft in the world couldn’t solve her problems. However, through the clinic, Little diagnosed her correctly and prescribed medicine and a care plan for her seizures.

On any given Sunday now, Amahle can be found in the local church, smile on her face, praising Jesus who she recognizes as Savior. Through the IMB workers, national Christians, and Little, her mother also saw her greatest need – spiritual lostness – met alongside the physical needs of her daughter. While the family still prays for the salvation for Amahle’s father, a new church has been planted in a nearby village.

The kit that saved Amahle’s life was funded through the IMB’s Dr. Rebekah Naylor Preach and Heal Fund. It’s a fully equipped telemedicine kit. It’s about 14 inches wide, and inside, there’s a Microsoft Surface pro tablet, a speaker phone, a webcam, a stethoscope that plugs right into the computer, and a Bluetooth enabled blood pressure cuff and pulse oximeter. Currently, the IMB has two of these kits and has done telemedicine consultations in 10 countries. The hope is to soon have many more kits on the field to connect the least reached to medical providers.

“There are people all over this world that have to go a tremendous journey to see even the most low-level medical provider,” Little said, explaining his heart for this ministry. Now through this ministry, a clinic is taken via a mobile phone right to their villages.

More than 30 providers comprise Little’s team. They are physicians, physician’s assistants and certified registered nurse practitioners in many specialties who have the desire to preach and heal. Little recruits them at events like the IMB’s MedAdvance conference and through other IMB healthcare strategies.

Through the local clinic and national doctors, medication or follow-up care is prescribed, and lives are changed. More than 20 have made professions of faith due to this telemedicine strategy.

As each person enters the clinics, national believers and IMB missionaries greet them and share hope of the gospel as well as the hope that proper medical care provides to improve their quality of life on this side of eternity.

Tom Hicks, the IMB’s new director of Global Health Strategies, expressed his gratitude for the impact of the project. “By partnering with national believers and healthcare providers, we can capitalize on openings for clinics in days rather than months. We can see an opportunity to care for hurting people on Thursday and be doing clinic with national partners by Monday morning.”

Hicks explained that because the clinics work with national partners, the patients can connect with local churches and believers. “Our telemedicine consultants work with the technology and national translators and church planters to see the gospel get to the lost in new and exciting ways,” he said.

Rick Dunbar, an emergency room doctor and chairman of the IMB’s health strategies advisory group, commented, “Geoff (Little) is using his skills and training to create gospel access. Through this strategy, he’s also creating jobs for nationals. And the teams are getting behind closed doors and getting the chance to share the gospel with the unreached while taking care of them medically.”

“Isn’t it amazing?” he asked.

*Some names may have been changed for security purposes.

Fall, football, and cooperation

love the fall. The heat begins to fade and cooler weather moves in. Leaves begin to change colors and, of course, football season begins. Every week there is football for me to watch from Thursday through Monday night.

This season there has been a lot of buzz around the trade of Aaron Rodgers, one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He is a four-time league MVP and a future Hall of Famer who was traded to the New York Jets this past offseason.

What does Aaron Rodgers have to do with anything? Well, he made his Jets debut on Sept. 11. The entire stadium was filled with anticipation as he took the field for the first time with his new team. Jets fans believed their new superstar would make them immediate Super Bowl contenders.

However, something unexpected happened. In the first quarter, Rodgers left the game with a season-ending injury. A season of hope and expectations now seems to be lost because of the status of their superstar who they felt would lead them to victory.

This is the tragedy of putting expectations on one player instead of the entire team. If that player goes down, it causes you to lose hope. You see, the best way to build a strategy for winning is not to build around one, but rather, all 11 on the field.

"I pray we sense the magnitude of the opportunity God has given us and suit up together every day as a team of churches and advance the mission together."

Nathan Lorick Tweet

The same is true with cooperation between churches. There are no superstar churches—only local churches seeking to reach their communities with the gospel. That’s the beauty of a network like the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. We have an entire team of churches working together to move the ball down the field, or better yet, the gospel across Texas. We truly execute better when we are doing this as a team.

The SBTC is a network of more than 2,700 churches that love the mission God has given us. We operate together to reach Texas and impact the world. We give together, go together, grow together, send together, plant churches together, and so much more. We do it so effectively because we cooperate to do it together. When one is down, we have so many others to pick them up. When one is experiencing success, we have so many others to celebrate with them. We know it takes all of us working together around doctrinal and missional unity.

I have never in my life been more grateful for a network of churches as I am today for SBTC churches. We know God has given us a clear mission field. We know He has strategically placed each church in Texas where it is for such a time as this. I pray we sense the magnitude of the opportunity God has given us and suit up together every day as a team of churches and advance the mission together. The time is now, the need is great, and the opportunity is in front of us. Let’s do this together!

Let me encourage you to attend our 2023 SBTC Annual Meeting being held at Cross City Church in Euless Nov. 13-14. It is going to be an incredible time as we celebrate 25 years of ministry together in Texas. I hope to see you there. I love you and am honored to serve you!

What’s your story? ‘Here I am Lord, use me!’

My first English as a Second Language (ESL) student was named Claire. At that time, about 12 years ago, I was a volunteer with the Christian Women’s Job Corps and we were asking a group of women what they wanted to learn. We got the usual answers pertaining to job skills until Claire said, “I want to learn English and I want to learn about God.” I wasn’t sure how I was going to help at the Job Corps, but when she spoke up, it was just like, “Oh yes, that’s where I want to be.”

So, it was a one-on-one semester with Claire, and then the next semester we had maybe five students and the next year, five or six. The program just kind of evolved until there were fewer people who needed job skills and there were more and more people coming in who needed ESL. So the coordinator at the time said, “We’re going to change this to an ESL program.” I worked as a volunteer teacher for a couple of years, until the coordinator retired. The program had no leader at that point, and I was about to retire from my job, so I was happy to step in and serve in that capacity.

I served as coordinator of the ESL program for the next nine years. At first, we were called Life Bridge and came under the umbrella of a ministry in Austin. Since then, we’ve become part of the Great Hills Baptist Church ministry. In 2022, when we became part of Great Hills’ ministry, we had 159 people attend at some point and 93 regular attenders. We had another 30 to 40 who were learning online. The Great Hills transition has been huge for us.

And the wonderful thing was, these people were hungry for the gospel. We do one hour of Bible study and then about an hour and a half of English on top of that. Sometimes in the past, people would skip Bible study because it was the first hour and they would just come for the English. Last year, they were coming for the Bible. They were hungry to know more. In 2022, we showed “The Jesus Film” and Daniel Van Cleave, the pastor we worked with, wanted to have everybody in the same room hearing it in their own language at the same time. We worked it out so that we could show the movie on a big screen. Everybody was able, using their phones, to hear it in their own languages using earbuds. We had people listening in 12 languages at the same time.

"What’s my story? My God is faithful! Greater is He who is in me than he that is in the world."

Nancy Gibbs Tweet

It was so exciting because they got to hear in two hours, in their own heart language, what we’d been trying to teach all year long in English in bits and pieces. So, for everyone to hear the story of Jesus in their heart language was amazing. You could hear a pin drop in the room when they were watching this movie and there were gasps like, “Oh!” when Jesus rose from the dead.

We had decision cards in their own languages, and we had some who wanted to follow Jesus. We had others who wanted to know more. So, one of our Bible study teachers started a Bible study on Sunday mornings to answer their questions and help them explore the Bible. That same person is going to be starting an official ESL Sunday school [class] because there are people coming to the church wanting to have an ESL class on Sunday mornings. We have just seen this hunger and a response to the gospel this last year like never before. God has been so faithful. Sometimes I just feel like I’m on this ride watching Him work—I’m just one little spoke in the wheel. God’s doing this amazing thing that I just get to participate in and watch, and I praise Him mightily for all that He’s doing.

I have made friends—lifelong friends—both with students and the teachers. I never expected that. There have just been so many blessings in addition to seeing the faithfulness of God. Last year, we started seeing more people than ever before following the Lord. There was one young woman from Iran—and it’s dangerous to become a Christian if you’re an Iranian—who came running down the hall about five or six years ago saying, “Nancy, Nancy, I’m your sister.” And I said, “What?” She said again, “I’m your sister,” and she meant, “I’m your sister in the Lord”—that she had made a decision to follow Christ. You can’t trade that for anything. It’s just been the most wonderful journey.

I’ve recently retired as coordinator and now direct our online ESL program. My husband, Wayne, and I have five grandchildren scattered all over, so it came time to retire, and I realized I could still teach by Zoom from just about anywhere.

What’s my story? My God is faithful! Greater is He who is in me than he that is in the world. The evil one will throw you curveballs, but the Lord always proves Himself greater.

Want to share a story of what God is doing in your life or your church?

Share your story here

Young adults pack BT Church’s growing Move Conference

McALLEN—Danny Rangel, online and young adult pastor at BT Church in McAllen, says people ages 18-29 face what he calls “life’s big decisions” regarding beliefs, ideologies, college, career, relationships, and marriage.

To help them navigate those challenges, BT Church hosted its third annual Move Conference on Aug. 25-26. More than 200 young adults attended—an increase of 40 percent from last year.

The mission of BT’s young adult ministry is to help young adults “move faithfully in the culture while following Christ,” Rangel said. The 2023 Move Conference expanded on that. Guest speakers and breakout leaders focused on topics including discipleship, faith in the workplace, mental health, finances, career mapping, social media as ministry, and studying Scripture.

Olivia Thai, a corporate media executive from New York City, shared practical career counsel—including resume-building and interview tips—during a breakout session. Thai is a member of a NYC church planted by Rangel. Israel Mendez, a church planter from San Antonio, spoke on “Moving with Jesus,” focusing on spiritual disciplines and practices.

Luke Lefevre, author and founder of the Consecrate movement, delivered the keynote message on holiness and revival. Lefevre also participated in a question-and-answer session on revival with Rangel. Music was led by Dallas worship leader Chichi Onyekanne.

Young adults delivered short talks onstage. These mini sessions of “young adults speaking directly to young adults” were new this year, Rangel noted.

“I really believe this year we were challenged and encouraged to pursue Jesus to experience holiness more realistically,” said a conferencegoer named Angelo. “I definitely left refreshed and excited to seek out revival in my every day.”

“I wasn’t expecting the presence of the Lord to be there so quickly or be so strong, but Friday, as soon as worship started, I could feel Him and it was powerful,” added Jessica, another attendee.

SBC president Bart Barber shares optimism for future during NAMB visit

ALPHARETTA, Ga.—Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber shared his optimistic outlook for the future as he visited the offices of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) on Sept. 6.

“I’m going to predict that spiritual awakening is coming for America, and that we’re going to have the opportunity to benefit from that and participate in that, and it’s not just wishful thinking,” Barber said in response to a question from NAMB president Kevin Ezell about the future of the SBC. “As a student of our history, the spiritual awakenings that we’ve had before have come in times of profound darkness. Just because that feels like a trend right now doesn’t mean that we’re stuck in that.”

In describing the challenges facing the next generation, Barber described their situation as inheriting a “raw deal.” He referred to statistics that show how 46% of adolescents today are reporting that they consistently deal with feelings of anxiety and depression.

“They’re unhappy with what their culture has handed to them,” Barber said. “There’s going to be a profound opportunity to point them toward answers to the longings and questions that they face, and that’s always [been] there. But, I think it’s going to come in a deeper, more profound way. I think that Southern Baptist churches are going to be one group of churches that are still around actually preaching the Gospel whenever that moment comes. I’m optimistic about where things are headed.”

Before speaking to the future of the SBC, Ezell asked Barber to share more about what the last year and half have been like serving as president, and Barber discussed the joy of meeting Southern Baptists from across the nation. Hundreds of people and churches have sent him messages of encouragement, letting him know that they have been praying for him.

But neither Ezell nor Barber shied away from the ongoing challenges facing the SBC.

“There have been some ways that God has blessed us amazingly over the last couple of years, but there have also been some obvious ways that God’s hand that’s on the SBC to bless the SBC, is also on the SBC to humble the SBC,” Barber said. “Serving in a time like that poses some additional challenges.”

Despite the challenges, however, Barber maintains that the SBC remains the best way for Baptist churches to partner together for the sake of the Great Commission.

“Over the course of time, we have repeatedly found reasons to cooperate instead of reasons to separate,” Barber said of the history of Southern Baptists. “There have always been reasons to separate from the beginning … but even with reasons to separate in front of us all the time, God’s continually led us to reasons to cooperate that have overcome the reasons to separate.”

Barber called the SBC’s Cooperative Program “genius” and went on to use the church he pastors, First Baptist Church of Farmersville, Texas, as an example of how a congregation in a small town supports missionaries around the world and can travel to serve alongside and learn from those on the mission field.

“Even the things that we do on our own,” said Barber, who pastors FBC Farmersville in North Texas, “are enhanced and made stronger, made wiser and more efficient, by the fact that we’re able to draw from the knowledge, planning, encouragement and training that comes out of this thing we’ve all built together. It’s a beautiful, I believe divinely inspired and planted, thing that’s going on in the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Before closing the meeting, former SBC president and current president of Send Relief, Bryant Wright, prayed over Barber and the days ahead for the Southern Baptist Convention.

More than 150 U.S. soldiers baptized during basic training in Missouri

FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (BP)—SBC Chaplain (CPT) Logan Lair recently baptized more than 150 U.S. Army soldiers as a part of summer chapel services during basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

Lair told Baptist Press 84 new trainees were baptized in July, and 73 in August.

“Trainees, typically from my perspective, have been pretty hungry to learn about spirituality and their spiritual strength,” Lair said.

“It’s great to see their spiritual strength grow through basic training. It’s an amazing blessing for me as a chaplain to be able to see where those trainees have come from and then to see where they are going. I get excited every baptism Sunday. … It’s such a joy to see.”

Lair explained Fort Leonard Wood typically experiences a “summer surge” of initial entry trainees beginning in June because of soldiers enlisting after high school graduation. The high-pressure environment often prompts spiritual conversations, said.

“It goes without saying, basic training is stressful,” Lair said.

“[A trainee] graduates high school, maybe a day or two later gets on a bus to go an army base. As soon as they get off the bus, they’re immediately encountering drill sergeants, army structure and discipline, and it doesn’t stop for a couple weeks. That’s inevitably a stressful situation for them.

“The Chaplain plays a great role in all of that because we create a safe place for a trainee to process and vent. As a Chaplain I get a lot of tears, in fact I carry tissues on my uniform and usually go through about a pack a day. Many times, those conversations are spiritual conversations, and we’re able to talk about that spirituality piece.”

Lair said occasionally, a trainee will ask him about his faith, and he’s able to share the Gospel, something he calls “an honor and a joy.”

Lair said two chapel services and various Bible studies are offered on Sundays, in addition to spiritual guidance and counseling services available through several Protestant chaplains working at Fort Leonard Wood.

As many as 2,000 trainees will attend the services, and baptism services are held on the third Sunday in July and August.

Lair is thankful for the opportunity to minister to the trainees and said Fort Leonard Wood’s baptisms are just one example of God moving in the military.

“That baptism service is one of many testimonies of the good work Army chaplains are doing all around the world in our nation’s military,” he said. “My counterparts, other chaplains, are doing amazing things on other posts (basic training locations) that have similar stories. It’s an absolute blessing to each and every one of us. It’s a team effort.”

Lair, a North American Mission Board-endorsed chaplain and graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was commissioned as an active-duty Army chaplain in 2019 and came to Fort Leonard Wood in January of this year.

“I was a civilian pastor and church planter for a long time,” he said. “The connections I make, the counseling that I do, the highs and lows that I walk with people on a daily and weekly basis is not even comparable to my civilian ministry,” Lair said.

“It’s an amazing joy for me to walk with soldiers and family through their challenging days and their joyful days. A chaplain definitely gets to experience the highs and lows of life with people. Words can’t explain how joyful it is to be a part of that. Chaplaincy is the best job in the Army. I’ll fight anybody over that.

“Southern Baptists can be encouraged and should be praying for chaplains to be able to speak a spiritual component into the lives of soldiers. … There are great, life-changing moments that are happening at almost every moment.”

This article originally appeared on Baptist Press.

How to lead people who may not always like you

As pastors, sometimes it’s hard to imagine there are people in the church who don’t like us. Maybe it’s a small minority, even just one or two people. But it’s true—sometimes people won’t like you. Maybe it’s because of decisions you’ve made. Maybe it’s your priorities or personality. Maybe it’s your preaching or even your clothing.

No matter the reason, this can be a hard thing for pastors to accept. Even if you’re not bothered by the opinions of others, it can be difficult to lead those who may be upset with you. So how do you lead people who seem like they don’t like you? Three simple, perhaps unsurprising ways:

1. Be glad they love Jesus.

It’s not about you. It’s not about me. It’s all about Jesus. Therefore, if these individuals truly love Jesus, this is something to celebrate. Even if they’re upset over trivial or secondary things, we can be glad they have the main thing—and that’s Jesus. Perhaps this isn’t true of all, but for those who love Jesus and just disagree with you, you still have more in common with them than anyone else in the world. You have experienced the same grace of God in Jesus Christ. This is something to be glad about.

2. Empathize with them.

Depending on why they’re upset, this may be difficult. But it’s at least possible to genuinely empathize with people you feel are in the wrong. If someone is upset (even over secondary things like music style or how long you preach), we can genuinely try and understand why they’re upset. At a minimum, trying to understand where they’re coming from may help limit your frustration. Of course, there may be exceptions to this rule.

3. Love and serve no matter what.

I tell my church family often that one of the most important times to gather with God’s people is when we don’t feel like gathering with God’s people. The same is true for us as pastors. One of the most important times to love and serve God’s people is when we don’t feel like loving and serving God’s people. And this includes the people who may not be very happy with you.

This may all seem simple. It is. It’s simple to understand, but at times very difficult to implement. Too often, however, our immediate response to criticism is, “Well, I don’t care what people think.” I’m all for caring more about what God thinks than what people think, but let’s not forget: we’re to care for the people in our flock. This means we should care what they think, at least to an extent.

A book that has helped me greatly with leading when people don’t like me is When People are Big and God is Small by Ed Welch. If you are deeply bothered by opinions others may have of you, I encourage you to read this book. It will challenge you in making sure your fear of God always trumps your fear of man.

We should be glad they love Jesus (assuming they do). We should empathize when they disagree or are upset. We should love and serve no matter what. After all, Jesus loved us while we were yet sinners. We can do the same for God’s people.

Initial episodes of ‘Gridiron & the Gospel’ reflect college football-gospel connections

NASHVILLE—George Schroeder’s 25-plus years of covering college football means little surprises him about the sport, including a historic, nationwide change the same week he co-launched a podcast about it.

Conference realignments fundamentally altered the landscape. And sure, it was something for Schroeder and Brad Edwards, co-hosts of “Gridiron & the Gospel: A Faith & Football Podcast,” to discuss. But as the title implies, it’s far from the only thing.

Schroeder is a former Baptist Press editor and award-winning sports journalist for outlets such as USA Today and Sports Illustrated. Edwards, previously an ESPN researcher and sports personality with appearances on SportsCenter and College GameDay, joins Schroeder in discussing the sport and its intersection with the gospel. Both shared their testimonies in early episodes and take part in weekly segments such as “On My Heart,” where they talk about what God has been teaching them lately.

Now the groups and care minister at Storyline Church in Arvada, Colo., Schroeder, it so happens, lives near the center of two storylines covered in the podcast’s early episodes—the departure of the Colorado from the Pac 12 to the Big 12 and the Buffaloes’ potential success under new head coach Deion Sanders.

A production of BP Sports presented by Sunsplash, Gridiron and the Gospel’s episodes are available on its website as well as major podcast platforms.

“The first few weeks have been a lot of fun for us, and I hope for the listeners, too,” Schroeder told BP. “Brad and I know it from our years of covering college football, but there’s never a shortage of interesting things going on in the sport.

“This is my hope for Gridiron and the Gospel, and I know it’s Brad’s, too: That we bring a weekly helping of real insight and just plain fun – but that listeners get so much more than a college football fix.”

That “so much more” comes with the gospel’s connection to those who love college football, whether they be fans, athletes, coaches or Baptist state convention directors.

Episode 3 guest Todd Unzicker, executive director-treasurer for North Carolina Baptists, shared his testimony that began when he was a sportswriter. Covering University of Georgia football introduced him to well-known media personalities and created a SportsCenter-leading stir when he asked new South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier about a player’s arrest.

Unzicker shared on the episode how the next day his shanked golf shot ended up on a different fairway at the feet of … Steve Spurrier. The Old Ball Coach apologized for his reaction before and told Unzicker he could have the first question when USC came to Athens later that season.

But Unzicker, “definitely not following Christ” at the time, wouldn’t be there. Instead, he would be headed to Honduras as a missionary.

This came to be through observing the faith of Bulldogs head coach Mark Richt.

“There was something different about him,” said Unzicker, whose job put him in Richt’s orbit for at least a half-hour almost daily.

“He took time to know our names, ask us about things, how he could pray for us,” Unzicker said. “This went on in a season of [spiritual] bankruptcy in my life. I started going to the church that he went to, because I wanted to see what made him tick.”

Unzicker was warned by a bartender about the church, Prince Avenue Baptist, “because they’re serious about Jesus there.” The warning only intrigued Unzicker, saying it made him want to “go all-in” on seeing how Christ could change his life.

Episode 4 featured a discussion with Mike Sanford, who has coached at the college level for several years in various roles, including as Sanders’ Colorado predecessor in an interim role.

In addition to discussing the life of being a college coach, Sanford talked about God’s work in his life.

“I don’t want to be the person who constricts my worship to Sunday,” he said. “I don’t want to constrict my worship to the prayer right before a meal or putting my kids down to bed. I want spontaneous acts of worship in my life.”

Discussion over the gospel is central to the show.

“We’re passionate about college football. But Brad and I both love God because He first loved us, and we want to encourage people to follow Jesus,” Schroeder said.

This article originally appeared on Baptist Press.