Author: Russell Lightner

The 5: Strengthening your study of the Bible in 2023

For the next six months, I want to help you grow in your spiritual disciplines, which my friend Don Whitney defines as “those practices found in Scripture that promote spiritual growth among believers in the gospel of Jesus Christ.” This month, I focus on strengthening your Bible study.

1

Have a plan.
It’s tough to stay faithful in Bible reading when you have no plan in place. Regardless of what that plan is, you need to know ahead of time what you will read for the next day. At least for me, having to figure out what to read each morning is an invitation for me to find something else to do. Having a plan (which I generally find via an Internet search) lessens the possibility of my not reading each day.

2

Read something every day.
My general philosophy is that consistency plus quality and accountability is greater than quantity in Bible reading. Even if you read only one verse a day, I would rather you do that than read one full chapter one day each week. The greater quantity of reading one chapter each week might seem better, but the daily consistency is likely to lead to deeper reading and even more quantity.

3

Use a good study Bible.
I use a study Bible primarily to help me understand background, names, history, etc., as I read. In fact, I look to the notes only when something’s not clear to me. Find a study Bible with enough notes to be helpful, but not so many that they become distracting or overwhelming. I have enjoyed using the CSB Everyday Study Bible, which is a concise version of the more extensive CSB Study Bible.

4

Journal what you learn.
I’m not by nature a journaler, but I’ve learned the importance of writing down what the Lord is teaching me. If I don’t take notes, I too quickly forget what I’ve read. Maybe the plan I’m following this year will help you: I’m writing insights or ideas in the margin of my Bible. That way, I not only keep my Bible open as I write, but I will also have a marked-up Bible to give someone at the end of the year.

5

Tell somebody else what you’re learning.
For years, I’ve done this by sending a daily email to a group of believers after I’ve read the Word. The email is not long, and I use it simply to say, “Here’s what I’ve read. Here’s what I’m learning. Here’s how you can pray for me.” You might send this kind of message to other church leaders, to people you’re mentoring, to your adult children, or even to a non-believer interested in hearing what you’re learning.

Chuck Lawless is dean of doctoral studies and vice president of spiritual formation and ministry centers at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. For more from Lawless, visit chucklawless.com.

What’s your story? If God can do it for me, he can do it for anybody!

Igrew up in church. My mom kept us in church growing up, but just like many teenagers, I kind of strayed away, going off to college to do my own thing. I struggled with finances and grades in college and developed depression and mental illness problems. I was in jail a few times and was put in hospitals a few times.

Fast forward a little and I had to drop out of school. The illness pretty much hampered my life, putting me in debt because of spending sprees and medical bills. Through it all, I’m aware that God kept his hand on me, protected me so that I didn’t hurt myself or anyone else.

I met my wife, Crystal, about 21 years ago. She was a nursing student and I thank God she was there when I went into the hospital again. She was my confidante; she kept me going. I’m grateful she knew how to guide me as far as medicine and doctors. With her encouragement, I got back to school and finished. God used her to motivate me to get into a career. I haven’t had any of the old issues in 21 years.

Crystal and I have been married nearly 19 years. Though I grew up in church, Crystal wasn’t really a church-going person, but God had His hands on us and kept us together. As we started our family, had our first child, and then lost our second child, a little girl, we grew closer together. We also began to be closer to God and started to look for a church.

I work in telecommunications but also have a side business screening logos on shirts and other items. I was driving to work one day, and I looked over to the left and saw this huge white church with a blue roof, Mesquite Friendship Baptist Church.

I was thinking of connecting with them to do business with them. Early one morning, I went to the church when no one was there. I stuck a business card under the door, hoping I didn’t set off an alarm or anything.

"This ministry has been a blessing in my life. We get a chance to disciple the boys, teach them about God, teach them about Bible lessons, but also lead them on field trips such as bowling or fishing. "

Antonio Oliver Tweet

A couple of years later I met up with a customer that I was doing some side business with. He was a member of that church and he said, “Hey, I need you to do some shirts for our church.” I just accepted the order and went about my day.

Well, that contact led to more business with the church, and I later met Pastor Caleb [Turner]. He walked up to me, saying, “Hey, how you doing? I appreciate you for doing business with us, and are you saved? Have you accepted Jesus Christ in your life?” I said, “Yeah, I am saved.” Because at that point I turned away from sin, though I wasn’t really engaged in a church. I knew Jesus was the Lord of my life. He said, “Okay, well we would love to have you come visit us at church.”

I didn’t think anything of it. My wife and I, we were like, “OK, well let’s go take a visit.” A few months later we visited the church, and from that first visit, we just fell in love with it. We felt comfortable, everyone welcomed us, everyone greeted us. We joined Mesquite Friendship in 2018 with a desire to really give God our all.

With Pastor Caleb’s encouragement, I started helping out with the youth ministry. From there God pressed on my heart to start a young men’s mentoring group, we now call Men in Training. It’s based on the fact that some of the younger boys didn’t have much interaction with men in the church. Some of them didn’t have a father in their homes. We tried to launch in 2020, but COVID prevented us. So we pushed it back to the 2021-2022 school year. We’re currently in our second year.

This ministry has been a blessing in my life. We get a chance to disciple the boys, teach them about God, teach them about Bible lessons, but also lead them on field trips such as bowling or fishing. We have fun and disciple the boys, hoping to form long-lasting relationships. We only meet once a month. Over the past year-and-a-half, I believe we’ve made an impact.

[Eventually] Pastor Caleb talked to me about being a trustee for the church, helping with administrative responsibilities. So now I serve in that capacity as well.

God has brought me a long way. In my life, He moved me up from being a door greeter to having more responsibility and a good living. In my personal life, He’s cleared my debt and protected my health. In my family, He’s given me two sons and a loving wife.

I didn’t deserve it, but in His perfect timing everything just kept lining up. It’s just been truly a blessing ever since I connected with God and started to study the Bible under Pastor Caleb and under his father, Dr. Terry [Turner]. We’ve seen a sustained connection with God, a relationship. Now we can really say that we are helping build the kingdom. We’re participating and we’re investing our lives in God’s kingdom.

So, what’s my story? If God can do it for me, he can do it for anybody else. Give it a try and you’ll see great things happen in your life.

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

Share your story here

Ready, set … wait?

Ihad a major surgery late last year that left me laid up in my recliner at home for several weeks. As a result, I found myself watching most of the World Cup, which has since ended.

Of all the sports I grew to love as a kid, soccer was not among them. I never played it, I didn’t understand the rules, and there wasn’t enough scoring. Not to mention, I could never understand why an attacking offensive player would at times drive hard toward the goal and then suddenly pivot and kick the ball 50 yards backward to a teammate.

As I’ve grown older and come to appreciate soccer a tiny bit more, I now understand that an advancing player often retreats the ball for a number or reasons. Sometimes there are too many defenders who will easily take the ball if he continues forward. Sometimes there are not enough of his teammates in position. In other words, sometimes the offense pulls back a bit because it’s not yet in the best position to score.

Hold that thought.

It’s the first month of 2023, and so many of us use the new year as an opportunity to make resolutions and set big goals. Nothing at all wrong with that, but from a spiritual perspective, I wonder how often we plan all our desired life destinations in such a way that we get ahead of the Lord.

"Some of us are starting what is going to be a great year, while others of us will end this year feeling as if we’ve walked through the valley of the shadow of death. Either way, there is no greater place we could be than in the presence of God."

jayson larson Tweet

We are wired to score. Our culture has conditioned us to attack the goal. It’s incredibly difficult for us to imagine a scenario where we pull back and kick the ball backward, so to speak, because we’re not quite ready to push ahead. Of all the spiritual disciplines, I’ve found that waiting on the Lord is among the hardest.

I can think of a number of circumstances when I prayed about a direction I wanted to go in my life, and immediately after saying “amen,” I was already heading in my predetermined direction—not waiting to see what the Lord might want to do. Because of this, I have a few testimonies (and a few scars) about what happens when you charge ahead toward the goal when the Lord hasn’t cleared the path. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding,” the proverb urges. “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Where do you want to go this year? What do you want for your life? These are legitimate questions we should all think about. But I pray this year that you and I will find that the “what” and the “where” are not nearly as important as “Who” is with us as we walk through the days ahead.

Some of us are starting what is going to be a great year, while others of us will end this year feeling as if we’ve walked through the valley of the shadow of death. Either way, there is no greater place we could be than in the presence of God. Not behind Him, not ahead of Him, but right there with Him—even if He doesn’t seem to be opening the path for what appears to you to be a clear opportunity to score.

In the game of life, that’s the real win.

What happened at our church when we prayed like we’ve never prayed before

The Lord challenged me at the beginning of last year, in a time of personal prayer, not just to lead a church that prays but to lead us to become a praying church. There is a difference. And as we’ve made that transition, the power of heaven has poured out upon us.

This past year, our local congregation in the DFW area has seen more miracles than any other year in its 67-year history. We have seen two cases of people healed from stage 4 cancer. A man has been healed of chronic headaches he’d suffered for more than 30 years. We’ve seen marriages hanging on by a thread completely redeemed. A man testified that after 20 years of sharing the gospel with his father, after and lifting his father up at a prayer gathering, he placed his faith in Christ the next week. These are genuine miracles.

The most unexpected miracle, though, has been the number of people who, like the Ethiopian eunuch who could hardly wait to be baptized, have decided to express their newfound faith in Christ before they even leave the morning service. As of the writing of this article, 258 people have been baptized in just over eight months at our church. Nothing like that has ever happened at Fielder Church.

One couple, watching the online service, drove up to the campus to be baptized because the Spirit prompted them to respond to the gospel that day. One young lady, her first time ever setting foot in a church, came forward at the end of the service to place her faith in Christ and be baptized. The services have been filled with a power they’ve never had before.

"When you’re desperate enough for God to move, when you’ve come to the end of yourself and realize no other strategy will work, that’s when you’ll change anything, move anything, and leverage anything to seek the power of God rather than your own."

Jason Paredes Tweet

I have to be very cautious as I tell the story of what the Lord has done at our church. The temptation always exists to claim credit where it isn’t due.
I don’t tell you this to discourage you if you aren’t seeing these results. I share this to whet your appetite for what the Lord can do in your congregation as well.

Hear me: these results have not been the result of strategy, hard work, or talent. We’ve had those for decades and not seen a move of God like we are right now. There has only been one explanation for this power—prayer. Fielder Church has prayed like we’ve never prayed before and seen the power of God like we’ve never seen before.

This past March, we began weekly prayer gatherings for an hour-and-a-half on Wednesday nights, praying for the lost, praying over needs in the congregation, and inviting the Spirit to move among us. And as He always does, the Lord has answered. My greatest regret has been taking so long to arrive at such a simple conclusion. Prayer is our most important work.

I’m not alone in seeing these results. As I’ve spoken with other pastors in Texas and beyond, I’m hearing more and more churches starting prayer ministries and seeing unprecedented results. All of us have a common story—the prayer ministry was born from desperation.

When you’re desperate enough for God to move, when you’ve come to the end of yourself and realize no other strategy will work, that’s when you’ll change anything, move anything, and leverage anything to seek the power of God rather than your own. That’s my story, and I pray it becomes yours as well.

God made history in 2022, and we got to document it

In a sense, the Southern Baptist Texan is the culmination of tens of people putting in hundreds of hours of work, expressed in thousands of words read by tens of thousands of subscribers.

And yet, each month, all of this begins with a simple and singular—yet weighty—mandate: tell the stories of what God is doing in our Southern Baptists of Texas Convention churches.

My calling here is as much historian as journalist. In 100 years, I’ll be long gone and mostly forgotten. But the stories of what God did in 2022 will remain. He is, after all, the God of lasting impressions.

As much as the end of this year sends my thoughts ahead to 2023, I can’t help but reflect on the privilege we have had this past year of documenting and sharing with our readers some of the most inspiring stories you’ll find anywhere.

"In 100 years, I’ll be long gone and mostly forgotten. But the stories of what God did in 2022 will remain."

Jayson Larson Tweet

In January, we told the story of how God moved in the life of Jack Peaslee. After nine decades of living, he finally—for the first time—heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. In response, he surrendered all. The words of his pastor, Michael Gossett at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, stuck with me all year long: “God is always pursuing us. He is never finished with us.”

A few months later, we shared with you the story of Earl Alcazar, a Filipino pastor in the Houston suburb of Stafford who couldn’t help but notice a growing population of Afghan refugees moving into his neighborhood. He admitted to being afraid to reach out to them because of their cultural differences, but asked the Lord to provide a way. The Lord answered, and before long, Alcanzar started noticing some of those refugees showing up at his church. If that doesn’t make your goosebumps raise their hands in worship, I don’t know what will.

I love the story we got to tell over the summer of Daisy, who heard the message of hope because an Arlington pastor dialed the wrong number one day while making visitor follow-up phone calls. Turns out it wasn’t so wrong after all, and Daisy ultimately gave her life to Christ.

People, God is alive and moving every … single … day. Our job—and I mean all of us—is to tell a watching world about it. There are millions of people who have never sensed the presence and the power of God and millions more who don’t even believe He exists.

Let’s work together in 2023 to show them something that can’t be denied. Let’s join with our Lord in making history.

Lone Star Scoop • December 2022

Rural church completes 400 consecutive nights of preaching

KRUM After 400 days of preaching, pastor Tim Robinson of Plainview Baptist Church ended a sermon streak begun more than a year before in late October 2022.
The 400 days of preaching involved more than 500 sermons, since Robinson preached twice on the 57 Sunday mornings during the streak and also did Sunday evening services. Members invited friends to come to “the church that meets every night.” Weekday sermons featured simple hymns to keep things “relaxed and less formal.”
Holidays fueled the streak. At the church’s recent fall festival, Robinson preached about the Holy Spirit to about 400 guests, “the largest gathering of any kind in the church’s 128-year history.”
The goal was “to see more souls saved,” and the church added a Roku channel and streamed the sermon series on Facebook each night. Demographic reports from Roku and social media revealed Plainview Baptist had reached more than 20,000 across the country and internationally, Robinson said.

—Jane Rodgers

5 SBTC pastors among those honored by SABA

San Antonio The San Antonio Baptist Association honored 19 pastors with an accumulated 573 years of ministry service at its 164th annual gathering on Oct. 16. Among the honorees were five current Southern Baptists of Texas Convention pastors: Steve Branson of Village Parkway Baptist Church (28 years of service), Carlos Navarro of Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville (29 years), H. Statt Riddlebarger of Pearsall Road Baptist Church (28 years), Dennis Wall of The Hills Church (44 years), and Robert Welch of Parkhills Baptist Church (28 years). Each pastor honored received a special plaque bearing images of the San Antonio area. On the opportunity to honor long-serving pastors, SABA Executive Director Darrell Horn said, “When some Baptist associations across the U.S. might only have 19 churches, we are grateful to have 19 pastors who have served 25 years or more in one church. They are an example of faithfulness and longevity in ministry. These men leave a legacy for others to follow.” —Jane Rodgers

Pastor, former SBTC president Bowman to step aside in 2023

AUSTIN J. Kie Bowman, senior pastor of Hyde Park Baptist Church and The Quarries Church, announced plans to transition from his pastoral role in March of 2023, following 25 years at the Austin church. Bowman told congregants in a special video announcement that being called as senior pastor of Hyde Park in 1997 was “the greatest privilege” he had ever been offered. “I have loved every minute of this journey, and I still love it today,” the pastor said. In addition to his time in the pulpit, Bowman has authored six books and contributed to 13 others. His prayer literature has been read by more than 1 million people. In 2018, he was chosen to preach the keynote sermon at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Dallas. He also served more than a decade on the executive board of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, including two terms as president in 2020 and 2021. —Hyde Park Baptist Church

What’s your story? Through the toughest challenges life can bring, Jesus is everything

It all began during the 2021 ice storm. During that time, Jim and I stayed away from people as much as possible because our daughter was going to have her third son. Jimmy was going to be the one to take care of the kids while I went to the hospital. So, we were trying to stay COVID-free. The storm hit, and Jimmy got COVID, and then I got COVID. But he decided that it wasn’t that bad; he didn’t need to go to the doctor, and he wasn’t going to get out in that ice to do it. Well, he got worse. And on the 19th of February, he went to get an IV treatment.

Jimmy had a kidney transplant 45 years ago. Because of that, his immune system was almost non-existent. But anyway, the IV didn’t help and that night I had to put him in the hospital. It was about 10:00 that same night. I didn’t know that was going to be the last time I saw him. I had to drop him at the hospital and go home. None of the family was able to go be with him. He was in isolation.

And then of course I had COVID and was by myself at home. He lived four days. On the 24th of February, Jimmy went home to be with the Lord. The kids could not come be with me because they had not had COVID shots. The Lord provided three sisters in Christ who had either already had COVID, or had the shots, to stay with me and take care of me. At the time, doctors didn’t know what strain of COVID I had. I feel like these women put their lives on the line for me; they had families, too.

They ended up taking me to the hospital four days later. It was February 28. My oxygen level was low and I was in the hospital. My children planned their father’s funeral without me. My daughter was in the hospital when her dad passed away because of the C-section that she’d had. We couldn’t be together through this time of grief.

The second day I was in the hospital, I was feeling hopeless and helpless, in a fog, shocked. I was talking to the Lord and said, “I’ve got to have you. I’ve got to have you.” And I remembered that some of the biggest blessings for me are hearing people’s testimonies and thought, “Well, what do I have to lose? I could be dying. I’m just going to ask people.” So, when the hospital staff came in, I just started saying, “I need to talk. Do you have a minute?” They’d say yes, of course. “Well, I just need to know if you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.”

Most of them said they did and most of them told me their testimonies. I did have some chances to witness. Some of my doctors were believers and would actually come and put their hands on me and pray over me. All of this because I said, “I need to hear from God.” So, I feel like He spoke to me through these people. On the seventh day, some sweet friends who had already had COVID were able to be in my room so that I would have someone with me during Jimmy’s funeral.

Before the funeral started, my friends were praying over me, and a nurse bebopped in and happily announced that I was COVID-free and was able to have others visit with me. Those same three friends who had already had COVID stayed with me around the clock. They took care of my physical needs. They prayed over me. And God healed me.

I still am indebted to them. All through it, I had my church family, and people were reaching out to me right and left. But that was only the beginning of the struggle. Now, I had to go home alone and face grief without Jimmy. He was my soulmate for 41 years and fellow servant of Christ. My physical provider, best friend, and pastor.

I’m still dealing with grief a year and a half later. But another blessing is from one of my favorite verses, and it’s 3 John 4 that says, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” Well, God gave us three kids, and man, they’re a wealth of wisdom like their dad. Anytime I reach out to them, they give me very much the same godly counsel that he would. One of them, in one of my days of going through grief, said, “Mom, go to what you know. Go to the foundation.”

I started thinking about the foundation of Christ and what He’s provided. So I went back to the very first, when I came to know Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, and I thanked the Lord for that. I went back to his living Word. One of the blessings that God gave me is Jimmy’s sermons. I would go back and dig and find sermons that would minister to whatever I was going through at that time. I started asking God to provide for me because I didn’t know how to get out of this wave of grief.

A favorite verse is, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not into your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” My understanding was a mess, but I had to trust in the Lord and trust that He will direct my path. I also go back to thinking that His mercies are new every morning. And so I started just praising Him every morning for a good night’s sleep. A lot of widows do not have a good night’s sleep. I’ve not struggled with sleep. I asked the Lord to restore the joy of my salvation and He has.

So, I’m now back home at First Baptist Forney. My intention is to serve the Lord wherever He wants me. One of the last things Jimmy said to me through his struggle of breathing was, “I fought the good fight, and now I’m leaving it to the next generation.” Well, I have a new pastor, and Nathan and Nicole [Lino] have welcomed me with open arms. They pray for me, and they make me feel like I’m one of their own. I couldn’t ask for better.

So, what’s my story? I would leave it with this very last thing. And it’s the way Jimmy signed everything. It’s what he said to people: “Jesus is everything.”

So, what’s my story? I would leave it with this very last thing. And it’s the way Jimmy signed everything. It’s what he said to people: “Jesus is everything.”

Jeanette Pritchard Tweet

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Emphasis on the gospel—and one another—fuels deaf church in Amarillo

LOUD & CLEAR

On Sunday mornings at Amarillo Deaf Church, the worship is loud with bass that deaf people can literally feel. Congregants watch lyrics on a screen and follow by the beat. They mimic the signs of the worship leaders signing the songs. Pastor Darrell Bonjour signs, rather than voicing, his sermons—using an interpreter to translate his messages into spoken words for those in attendance who can hear.

But these are mechanics. What worship at Amarillo Deaf Church looks more like is a group of believers who have broken barriers of language delay and isolation. They have grown in number, grown spiritually, and have morphed into a self-supporting community that does life together as they reach the deaf for Christ.

Growth has been part of the church’s story since its beginning. Formerly Paramount Baptist Deaf Church, Amarillo Deaf Church began as an interpreting service with three deaf persons on Easter Sunday in 1980. They expanded into a mobile building where they met on Sunday mornings for deaf church and then went into regular service Sunday nights to interpret. They outgrew the mobile unit and moved into Paramount’s chapel, where continued growth necessitated having two services.

“We want people to become obedient followers of Jesus. The gospel is the same. At Amarillo Deaf Church, it’s just presented in a different way.”

Darrell Bonjour Tweet

In 1999, they moved into their current building under the mission support of Paramount, and since 2017 by God’s grace, Amarillo Deaf Church has been independent, taking care of everything, including property and facilities, salaries, and one another.

They give as well. When they left Paramount, members and attendees gave $19,000 annually. Today, giving exceeds $100,000 annually.

“We are actively taking care of ourselves,” Bonjour said. “We struggle, but we are making it here.” The church has approximately 300 members with an average Sunday attendance around 60.

The church produces the fruit of its labor, with congregants taking the lead. Those who were picked up by the church van as children now lead the van ministry or drive the van. They take care of the building and grounds. They visit. They teach. They fix things when things need fixing. Some of the men take care of the internet technology. A deaf team films, edits, and publishes web content.

They do all these things despite unique challenges. Deaf people can tend to isolate, hiding themselves as well as their children. Some, especially those raised prior to early hearing screenings, have faced language delay—a difficulty in understanding or responding to spoken language. Technological aids such as PowerPoint and the American Sign Language Video Bible, completed just last year, have helped with reading and advancing scriptural knowledge. Job opportunities have also been a challenge in the community. Ministry assistant Melanie Lyons compares the church to the early Christians described in the New Testament: community driven and focused on each other. The deaf are very effective at reaching one another because they share the same struggles.

“As a hearing person, I get to be there and support and say, ‘How can I help you as you go out and reach out to other deaf people?’” Lyons said. “I want to be supportive and help in any way possible. If that means I clean the building so they can do that, great!”

October marks the 42nd anniversary of the church’s founding and of Bonjour’s leadership; he will retire at year’s end. They are celebrating with the theme of “See What God Has Done.” Scott Tankersley, who joined the church in 1982 after Bonjour visited his home, will lead as interim pastor, focusing on ministry, while Bonjour serves as an elder to support him. Again, the heart of the hearing people in the church is to help the deaf reach others who are deaf.

“We love God, we love people, but we also love the Word,” Tankersley said. “These three things together are the core.”

Scripture is the focus because that’s where the commonality is–within the gospel. The congregation is diverse: original members from Amarillo, folks from Mexico and other countries, those raised Assembly of God, Catholic, Charismatic—and all with varying levels of language experience.

“We want people to become obedient followers of Jesus,” Bonjour said. “The gospel is the same. At Amarillo Deaf Church, it’s just presented in a different way.”

The 5: A different way to think about your 2023 goals

It’s that time of year when we begin thinking about goals for the next year. Too often, these goals are not related to our walk with God. More than simply setting “New Year’s resolutions” we might break quickly next year, I hope one or more of these goals will become part of your Christian walk in 2023:

1

Tell somebody something about the goodness of God each day.
It’s never difficult to think about God’s blessings, but we usually have to intentionally decide to talk about them. Even if you’re talking with only believers, don’t let a day go by without saying something about God and His grace. You’ll find that you’re more likely to talk with non-believers if you’re already in the practice of speaking about God every day—and your obedience will bring you joy.

2

Pray with somebody daily.
If you’re married, pray with your spouse every day. If you’re single, be intentional to find someone to pray with. The prayers need not be long, and you’ll likely need to fit them into your busy schedule—but praying with others should be a priority in our lives. Taking this step is an admission that we need God’s presence guiding us and others walking beside us (and most of us, I fear, could use more of this prayerful humility).

3

Memorize at least two scriptures per month.
I wish I didn’t view this goal as a unique one, but I recognize the struggle with this discipline. At the same time, the godliest men I know—without exception—know the Word so well that it naturally drips off their lips. Here’s a suggestion if memorization is not already your practice: choose two of your favorite chapters in the Bible and memorize them throughout the next year.

4

Get to know a missionary family and ministry this year.
We Southern Baptists are privileged to give through the Cooperative Program that supports thousands of missionaries on the field—but they’re too often only distant, unnamed friends to our churches. We don’t really know them, and we miss the blessing of hearing what God’s doing in their lives. Church leaders, I challenge you to correct this issue this year by connecting with missionaries through the IMB or NAMB.

5

Decide today, and every day that stretches ahead of you in the next year, that you will finish 2023 well.
I realize we’re not even in the new year yet, but I also know that nobody finishes a year well by accident. Faithful church leaders who endure well to the end do so because they commit to finishing each day well. Indeed, I am praying as I write that anyone who reads these words will reject the enemy’s lures over the next year. In God’s grace, you’re included in that prayer.

Chuck Lawless is dean of doctoral studies and vice president of spiritual formation and ministry centers at Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. For more from Lawless, visit chucklawless.com.

Pleading for revival

For the past two years, our church has been praying together weekly, asking God to bring revival to our church, our city, and the churches of our convention. We have been desperate for God to pour out His Spirit in a fresh way, but we reached a place where we needed to step back and understand why we have been praying for revival.

In Isaiah 64, Isaiah recognizes the physical ruins in Jerusalem as reflecting the spiritual ruins of God’s people. The temple in Zion, the city of God, is the place where God’s manifest presence would dwell, but it now lies in ruin. It’s as if they do not even belong to God because His presence and power have been removed. The enemy has completely destroyed them. Can you imagine Isaiah’s agony as he remembers his encounter with God a few chapters earlier (Isaiah 6)? He saw God in His temple, full of power and holiness, but now it is a pile of rubble. The physical devastation revealed the spiritual destruction. We, too, must recognize the real spiritual ruins of our churches today.

We are the covenant people of God and the dwelling place of God. We are to gather weekly to encounter His presence and be transformed by His power. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit and display the glory of Jesus. We are to share and show the gospel daily, pushing back the darkness. But is this what we are seeing in our churches today?

“When we are filled with the Spirit, the church prays, the gospel is preached, worship is authentic, sinners are radically saved, disciples are made, people are healed, marriages are restored, communities are transformed, unity is enjoyed, and Jesus is the hero!”

Todd Kaunitz Tweet

We have become a people who see gathering with God’s people as optional, and many attend with no intention of encountering God. Church members are present but the Holy Spirit is absent. We have innovation but no manifestation. We have programs but no power. This is not about guilt, shame, or poor sinful me—this is about the recognition of reality. But the goal here is not recognition for the sake of depression. It is recognition that leads to desperation. We need to be desperate for God!

Revival is about rescue. Isaiah’s response is not an indictment, but a prayer for intervention. This is the heart of revival prayer. It is coming to the end of ourselves and calling on the name of the Lord. We need a glimpse of Jesus and His glory that leads us to a moment of recognition that leads us to a desperation, allowing for a visitation and resulting in a transformation.

When we are filled with the Spirit, the church prays, the gospel is preached, worship is authentic, sinners are radically saved, disciples are made, people are healed, marriages are restored, communities are transformed, unity is enjoyed, and Jesus is the hero!

As we were challenged at our annual meeting in November, let us become a convention that pursues the presence of God by leading our churches in corporate prayer.