Quote from Greg Clemens on May 31, 2024, 5:03 pm

The vast majority of the Executive Directors of the clinics and related nonprofits we speak to have expressed frustration over their churches not engaging with them in ways that could help them change the mind of moms tempted by abortion.  We're frustrated by that as well but what good is it to keep banging your head against that wall?  Instead, we suggest asking God to do what He's always done when His people/leaders have bent their knees to the gods of their culture.  Ask Him to raise up a remnant.  Below is a suggested email you can send out to donors, friends, small group leaders challenging them to see if He's leading them to be the remnant God is raising up for this crisis.  Feel free to edit as you wish.

 

Subject Line: Why we haven’t changed the culture on abortion.  Are you the pro-life remnant we’re looking for?

 

There comes a time in every generation when we must assess the times we’re living in and ask ourselves, “Am I doing what God has asked of me?”  When it comes to the issue of abortion, the greatest human rights crisis the world has ever known, there isn’t a more pressing question.  Even after the overturning of Roe, we’re still seeing enough abortions to fill every seat in 10 football stadiums every year.  This past year alone, abortions in the US reached their highest levels in over a decade (1,000,000+).  It’s time God’s people recognize that launching thousands of prolife clinics and related nonprofits and passing bill after bill of prolife legislation as important as they’ve been, just hasn’t worked.  Our young women and especially moms living at or below the poverty line, stuck in cyclical patterns of destruction who are tempted by abortion, simply aren’t influenced by what we’re offering.  Why is that?  The answers could be numerous, but we know this for certain.  The church, when operating as it should has always been a culture changing force.  No matter the time, the place or persecution we were under, we influenced cultures…we changed empires.  Why have we lost our influence? Have we stopped short of what God wanted from us for these moms?  What are we missing?  What about us has changed?

Our understanding of the gospel has changed  

The thing that made the early church a culture changing force was its message AND its method.  Yes, the message of justification through faith in a risen Savior was unlike anything the world had ever heard.  The idea of unconditional love, grace and mercy at Christ’s expense spoke to the depths of our hearts and drew us in.  It was divinely revolutionary.  But it wasn’t just that message.  Jesus also heralded the arrival of a new kingdom and that kingdom had a method to it.  It was/is to be a place where we could experience dignity, purpose, grace, truth, forgiveness, reconciliation…a place where your sense of belonging could be restored.  It was a place where we could experience the type of Trinitarian fellowship Jesus invited us into in John 17:20-21, the kind of fellowship we were made for and all of us long for.  The church was/is that new kingdom.

But not the church experience you probably have in mind

 The early church seemed to understand the importance of how individuals fellowshipped with one another.  They understood the importance of being in an environment where each of us could be fully known and yet still deeply loved and accepted.  They understood we needed environments where you could confess your sins, share your struggles and burdens, meet needs and break bread together.  It was an environment where you’d be personally encouraged to no longer live for yourself but for the one who died for you, to seek first his kingdom, to be spurred on toward love and good deeds and reminded of God’s promises of the life to come. The early church understood how these kinds of fellowships were life-giving, how they played a large part in our own sanctification as well as how our visible, tangible love for one another, made the lost world lean in for a closer look.  It changed hearts.  It changed cultures.

Today, with the overemphasis on the Sunday Morning Service and the deemphasis on smaller fellowships meeting regularly in our messy homes, where we see our messy families, we’ve lost the kind of authentic fellowship God had in mind.  Those kinds of fellowships, once the rule, are now the exception.  By giving in to the cultural pressures of our day, we’ve squeezed our times of “fellowship” down to a mere hour and placed them in environments where we go unnoticed, hidden.  We all desperately need what we’ve lost and a lost world needs to see it as well.  By deemphasizing these smaller fellowships, we’ve abandoned our most influential evangelistic tool and it’s why we’re no longer the culture changing force we once were.  The lost world can no longer witness the full gospel in any tangible or influential way.  They no longer see a community that can help usher in a new life in a new kingdom.  

We’re not expecting the institutional church of our day to change but we are praying for God to do what He’s always done during times like this.  We’re praying He raises up a remnant.  Throughout history, when God’s people had bowed their knees to the god of that age, He has always preserved a remnant to stand against the tide. We’re wondering if you might be one of those people.  Would you watch the following video and pray if God would have you start a home group that welcomes, among others, moms tempted by abortion?*  We believe this remnant can help return the church to the culture changing force she once was.

Thank you in advance for watching the video and praying.

Blessings be upon you.

Your Signature

 

*We also have a guidebook we can go through together that will answer a lot of the questions you may have.

The vast majority of the Executive Directors of the clinics and related nonprofits we speak to have expressed frustration over their churches not engaging with them in ways that could help them change the mind of moms tempted by abortion.  We're frustrated by that as well but what good is it to keep banging your head against that wall?  Instead, we suggest asking God to do what He's always done when His people/leaders have bent their knees to the gods of their culture.  Ask Him to raise up a remnant.  Below is a suggested email you can send out to donors, friends, small group leaders challenging them to see if He's leading them to be the remnant God is raising up for this crisis.  Feel free to edit as you wish.

Subject Line: Why we haven’t changed the culture on abortion.  Are you the pro-life remnant we’re looking for?

There comes a time in every generation when we must assess the times we’re living in and ask ourselves, “Am I doing what God has asked of me?”  When it comes to the issue of abortion, the greatest human rights crisis the world has ever known, there isn’t a more pressing question.  Even after the overturning of Roe, we’re still seeing enough abortions to fill every seat in 10 football stadiums every year.  This past year alone, abortions in the US reached their highest levels in over a decade (1,000,000+).  It’s time God’s people recognize that launching thousands of prolife clinics and related nonprofits and passing bill after bill of prolife legislation as important as they’ve been, just hasn’t worked.  Our young women and especially moms living at or below the poverty line, stuck in cyclical patterns of destruction who are tempted by abortion, simply aren’t influenced by what we’re offering.  Why is that?  The answers could be numerous, but we know this for certain.  The church, when operating as it should has always been a culture changing force.  No matter the time, the place or persecution we were under, we influenced cultures…we changed empires.  Why have we lost our influence? Have we stopped short of what God wanted from us for these moms?  What are we missing?  What about us has changed?

Our understanding of the gospel has changed  

The thing that made the early church a culture changing force was its message AND its method.  Yes, the message of justification through faith in a risen Savior was unlike anything the world had ever heard.  The idea of unconditional love, grace and mercy at Christ’s expense spoke to the depths of our hearts and drew us in.  It was divinely revolutionary.  But it wasn’t just that message.  Jesus also heralded the arrival of a new kingdom and that kingdom had a method to it.  It was/is to be a place where we could experience dignity, purpose, grace, truth, forgiveness, reconciliation…a place where your sense of belonging could be restored.  It was a place where we could experience the type of Trinitarian fellowship Jesus invited us into in John 17:20-21, the kind of fellowship we were made for and all of us long for.  The church was/is that new kingdom.

But not the church experience you probably have in mind

 The early church seemed to understand the importance of how individuals fellowshipped with one another.  They understood the importance of being in an environment where each of us could be fully known and yet still deeply loved and accepted.  They understood we needed environments where you could confess your sins, share your struggles and burdens, meet needs and break bread together.  It was an environment where you’d be personally encouraged to no longer live for yourself but for the one who died for you, to seek first his kingdom, to be spurred on toward love and good deeds and reminded of God’s promises of the life to come. The early church understood how these kinds of fellowships were life-giving, how they played a large part in our own sanctification as well as how our visible, tangible love for one another, made the lost world lean in for a closer look.  It changed hearts.  It changed cultures.

Today, with the overemphasis on the Sunday Morning Service and the deemphasis on smaller fellowships meeting regularly in our messy homes, where we see our messy families, we’ve lost the kind of authentic fellowship God had in mind.  Those kinds of fellowships, once the rule, are now the exception.  By giving in to the cultural pressures of our day, we’ve squeezed our times of “fellowship” down to a mere hour and placed them in environments where we go unnoticed, hidden.  We all desperately need what we’ve lost and a lost world needs to see it as well.  By deemphasizing these smaller fellowships, we’ve abandoned our most influential evangelistic tool and it’s why we’re no longer the culture changing force we once were.  The lost world can no longer witness the full gospel in any tangible or influential way.  They no longer see a community that can help usher in a new life in a new kingdom.  

We’re not expecting the institutional church of our day to change but we are praying for God to do what He’s always done during times like this.  We’re praying He raises up a remnant.  Throughout history, when God’s people had bowed their knees to the god of that age, He has always preserved a remnant to stand against the tide. We’re wondering if you might be one of those people.  Would you watch the following video and pray if God would have you start a home group that welcomes, among others, moms tempted by abortion?*  We believe this remnant can help return the church to the culture changing force she once was.

Thank you in advance for watching the video and praying.

Blessings be upon you.

Your Signature

*We also have a guidebook we can go through together that will answer a lot of the questions you may have.