Reasons we have neglected the public reading of Scripture are numerous. Perhaps we cater to short attention spans, offering bite-sized portions of Scripture. Perhaps we reduce worship to songs and sermons, leaving little space for the Bible to speak in its own words. Perhaps our preferred translation has sacrificed literary aesthetic for literal equivalence. Perhaps our readers lack passion or fail to practice.

Whatever the reasons, we must revisit Paul’s imperative to Timothy: “Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Timothy 4:13, NIV).

A mentor and former professor of mine has challenged me to rethink how we read Scripture in our worship gatherings. Dr. Brent Sandy has dedicated the latter half of his career to studying the oral nature of Scripture. In Hear Ye the Word of the Lord: What We Miss If We Only Read the Bible, he makes a compelling case for reading Scripture well in worship (1 Timothy 4:13).

Jeffery Arthurs, professor of preaching at Dallas Seminary, makes a similar argument in his book Devote Yourself to the Public Reading of Scripture: The Transforming Power of the Well-Spoken Word. He writes, “Surveys of church members rank the public reading of Scripture as one of the dullest portions of the gathering. Yet when the Bible is read well, it can minister as deeply as a Spirit-empowered sermon!”

One practical outcome of Sandy’s scholarship is a heartfelt plea to “perform” Scripture. He explains, “I use the word ‘performing,’ not in the sense of drawing attention to yourselves, but with the goal of helping hearers to be in awe as the Holy Spirit launched the early church.”

Sandy wrote these words to a select group of Scripture readers at our 2026 Charis Fellowship Conference [link]. He wanted them to “feel the force of the powerful words of the Lord” and recognize that the story of Acts continues in our day.

Reading effectively includes speaking slowly, taking pauses, clear articulation, vocal inflection, eye contact, and use of hands. Additionally, readers should rehearse, becoming familiar with the text and its “performance.”

During this year’s conference, one group of readers performed a portion of the Pentecost story (Acts 2) in seven languages (i.e., tongues), and another group performed a reading that summarized the explosive growth of the church. Both groups conveyed the power of God’s inspired Word. We felt His breath. We were awed.

Our Fellowship values biblical truth. It is our foundation. It shapes our common commitments to mission and identity. We preach the Bible. We study the Bible. We encourage people to read and apply the Bible. These are good and essential practices.

However, I am convinced our churches could become better at listening to the Bible together. God’s inspired Word needs more space to breathe in our weekly gatherings. Sandy reminds us: “God’s Word is the most transformative, trustworthy, triumphant words ever spoken, and people need to hear them.”

Let’s take Paul’s command to devote ourselves to the public reading of Scripture seriously. Let’s speak the words of God as though he were speaking through us (1 Peter 4:11). Let’s perform Scripture well.

Written by Tim Sprankle

NOTE: If interested in sample readings, contact bsandy@grace.edu. Brent and his wife Cheryl attend Winona Lake Grace Church, where Brent provides Scripture readings for their worship services. Here is a recording of a class he led at Leesburg Grace Church in performing Scripture: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2JzP6JGyeEFEhfgxW5VRk0?si=MQKeNk5dRcaxKcXNd50dBQ  

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That sentence may read a little plain on a computer screen, but believe me, it did not feel plain in the courtroom. There were no thunderclaps. The heavens did not open. Nobody brought in a brass band (and even if they attempted, I’m pretty sure the bailiff would’ve put a stop to it.) A judge simply asked us a few questions, a gavel was hammered, and a pen moved across a piece of paper.  Courthouses do not generally traffic in poetry, but that afternoon a few legal words became poetry to us. Our daughter received a new name, a new legal identity, a permanent home, and an inheritance. Our family became her family. Our story became her story. Everything that belonged to us now belonged to her — not because she had earned any of it, but because we had chosen to give ourselves to her. 

For six months, love had been saying what law could not yet say. That afternoon they finally caught up with each other. If you’ve ever been part of an adoption, you know it can be difficult to explain. Adoption is beautiful, but the beauty grows in soil that has known sorrow. Somewhere beneath every adoption is loss. There are no tidy stories, only people learning to love one another amid circumstances none of them would have chosen. Our road to that courthouse had been paved with prayers, tears, late-night conversations, and long stretches of waiting without knowing what would happen next. We loved this little girl with our whole hearts while knowing that her future was entirely out of our hands — which, come to think of it, is where the future usually is, though some of us expend a great deal of energy pretending otherwise.  But that afternoon, the judge spoke, and the waiting was over. The child we had held in our arms for six months would carry our name for the rest of her life. 

As I looked at my daughter that afternoon, I was reminded of what Paul says in Galatians 4. When the time was just right, God sent His Son to redeem us so that we might be adopted as His sons and daughters. That’s the Gospel. And to quote the theme from Charis Fellowship Conference a couple of years ago: How *good* is the Gospel? Most of us know the doctrine. We’ve preached it, taught it, and sung it. But every so often, God shows you the doctrine through a little girl in a white dress with yellow flowers who you hold in your arms. 

The Gospel does more than change our verdict. It changes our family. We were not standing outside God’s house with our noses pressed against the glass, hoping He might notice how sincere we looked. We were not basically good people who needed a little help finding the front door. Left to ourselves, we were lost in sin — guilty, spiritually dead, far from home, and unable to find our way back. So God came for us. He did not shout directions from heaven. He sent His Son. Jesus entered our wreckage and took on flesh. He lived the life we could not live, loved the Father as we had failed to love Him, and obeyed every law we had broken. Then he carried our sin to the cross. 

The true Son was condemned so that rebels could be welcomed. He was cast our so that we could be brought in. He bore the curse so we could receive the family name. At the cross, Jesus cried, “My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me?” so that those who had abandoned God could cry, “Abba, Father!” Our adoption was purchased with the blood of Jesus. Then, on the third day, Christ walked out of the grave. The stone rolled away, death lost its grip, and the door to home swung wide open once and for all eternity. 

Everyone who turns from sin and trusts in Christ is not merely pardoned. We are welcomed — not as hired hands, distant relatives, or guests who ought to know when they have overstayed their welcome. We were brought in as beloved children. That is Charis. That is the family name we all claim. That is grace. Grace does not leave us standing nervously on the porch. Grace brings us inside, pulls out a chair, and gives us a place at the Father’s table. Grace places God’s name upon us. It clothes us in the righteousness of Christ and gives us the Holy Spirit, who teaches our frightened hearts to call the holy God of heaven “Father.”

In Christ, everything changes. His righteousness becomes ours. His Father becomes our Father. His home becomes our home. His inheritance becomes our inheritance. Even His resurrection becomes the promise of our resurrection. And we do not earn a single bit of it.

My daughter did not contribute much to the court proceedings that day, aside from being remarkably cute. At six months old, her resume is brief. She did not fill out a form, make a case for herself, or promise to become the sort of daughter we could be proud of. Her primary responsibilities were to look adorable and allow the adults to handle the paperwork, which was probably the wisest arrangement for everyone involved. She simply received what love had chosen to give her. 

Church, so it is with us. Our place in God’s family does not rest on the strength of our faith, the consistency of our obedience, the cleanliness of our past, or the fruitfulness of our ministries. It rests entirely on Jesus — His perfect life, His atoning path, and His victorious resurrection. 

Those of us in ministry may be especially prone to forgetting this. Somewhere between sermon preparation, counseling appointments, hospital visits, and church meetings, we can begin to forget that we are sons and daughters and not simply hired hands.  But the verdict has already been spoken and its remarkably clear. Listen to the good news of Galatians 4:7: “You are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.” No longer a slave. No longer an outside. No longer condemned. No longer alone. In Christ, you are a child of God. Your adoption rests on something sturdier than your emotions, your performance, or your ministry results. It rests on the finished work of Jesus Christ. No accusation can overturn it. No failure can erase it. No season of suffering can sever it. You bear his name. You have a place at His table. 

That afternoon in the courtroom, I held Willow and wished she was old enough to understand what had just happened. I wanted to tell her, “You are ours. You are wanted. You are loved. You will never have to earn your place here.” She was too young to understand any of that, of course. So I simply held her. Her place in our family did not depend on her ability to understand what the judge had declared. It depended on the promise that had been made over her. 

The same is true for us. In Jesus Christ, the father has brought us into His family. Not reluctantly, but joyfully. Not because we are worthy, but because Jesus is. His name is our name. And His house is where we belong.

Written by Josh Rollins

The post Adopted as Sons and Daughters first appeared on Charis Fellowship.

Ryan Ritchey is an example of faithfulness, obedience, and serving where the Lord puts you. He was first hired as a worship director at Martinsburg Grace Brethren Church in Western Pennsylvania in 2013. Ryan began volunteering with the youth worship team, building relationships and training students to lead. When the church was without a youth pastor for several years, Ryan offered to step into that role more formally.

This summer Ryan received the Youth Pastor of the Year Award from Momentum Ministry Partners. The award is presented at Momentum Youth Conference with the goal of honoring a youth pastor who is faithfully discipling the next generation and investing in the lives of students. This person is selected by a panel of Momentum staff, based on meeting certain criteria.

Eric Miller, executive director of ministry at Momentum, presented the award. Eric said, “Ryan joined a Momentum PRO Student Ministry Cohort in order to learn as much as he could. We’ve watched him thrive as he’s become a sponge taking in everything he could and even integrating students into his regular rotation within the worship team. He’s raising the bar on both levels and God is blessing what Ryan’s doing. Their student ministry is growing as students are leading, being equipped, and bringing their friends.”

“I started going to Momentum 12 years ago and have built relationships with some great youth pastors,” Ryan said. “My honest thought when they started presenting the award was, ‘I hope one of my buddies gets this!’”

When asked how it felt receiving it, Ryan said, “The reaction from my students was probably the biggest highlight. It was also a really cool moment for Eric Miller to be the one to hand it to me. Eric was our speaker at Camp Mantowagan 15 years ago and we bunked together. I had a cancer diagnosis that summer and was undergoing chemo treatment at the time. He’s been a constant source of encouragement ever since then!”

Ryan described his work at the church as a team effort. “We have an incredible team of about 30 volunteer adults who are hands-on with the students. Also, since I work in a dual-role (youth and worship) our church has allowed me to hire several young adults in part-time roles to make sure things run smoothly. Many of them came up through our youth ministry and it really is a joy to now serve together.”

Not only is Ryan an integral part of ministry at his home church, but he is also active in the Charis Fellowship. Each summer he serves as a program director at Camp Mantowagan in Western Pennsylvania, and several times he has helped lead worship at the East Focus Retreat in Ocean City, Maryland. In both roles, just like at church, Ryan is intentional about bringing people into the leadership process with him and creating space for people to use their gifts.

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Thrive will transition from the umbrella of Charis Women into partnership with Inspire. Megan Johnson will continue leading Thrive, carrying its vision of providing pastors’ wives with refreshment, resources, and relationships. She will also work alongside Inspire’s board to help provide more holistic care and shepherding for couples in ministry. 

“One of the greatest strengths of the Charis Fellowship is our spirit of partnership, and the transition of Thrive to Inspire is a meaningful expression of that strength,” said Jenn Avey, executive director of Charis Women. “By placing this shepherding ministry within Inspire’s broader care for pastors and their families, we can provide focused support for pastors’ wives while Charis Women continues to deepen its mission of equipping women to disciple, lead, mentor, teach, and serve throughout the Fellowship. Together, Charis Women and Inspire are creating greater opportunities to strengthen women, care for pastoral families, and serve our churches for the sake of the Gospel.”

The transition brings Thrive alongside a network whose mission has long been to encourage and equip Charis Fellowship pastors. It also underscores an important conviction: caring well for pastors must include caring well for their wives.

Two Roles, One Calling

For Megan, that conviction is both personal and practical. In addition to directing Thrive, she has served with Assist Church Expansion since March as Coordinator of Shepherding for Ministry Wives. There she cares particularly for the wives of pastors involved in church planting and revitalization — settings that can bring unusual pressures and limited support. 

Thrive and Assist serve women in different contexts, but Megan’s purpose in both roles is the same: to help ministry wives know they are seen, valued, and not alone. She has lived that need herself. Megan and her husband, Adam, served together for a decade in youth and young adult ministry before helping plant JOURNEY Church near Philadelphia. Adam serves as lead pastor, while Megan is director of discipleship. The couple also has four children. 

“The biggest catalyst in seeing the need for this ministry has simply come from being a pastor’s wife for 20 years,” Megan said. “We’ve experienced both deep joy and deep pain in this calling, and I often felt isolated and alone.”

She hopes to offer women some of what she did not have during her early years in ministry: resources that promote spiritual health, opportunities for rest, and relationships that encourage the heart. 

Seen, Known, and Supported

Scripture gives no separate job description for a pastor’s wife, yet churches may have spoken or unspoken ideas about how she should serve, relate, parent, or participate in church life. Those expectations can leave little room for each woman’s gifting, circumstances, and season of life. 

Ministry wives can also feel set apart within their own congregations — surrounded by people but uncertain where it is safe to be fully known. Careers, parenting, marriage, grief, and past wounds continue alongside the needs of a church family. A woman can genuinely love her church and calling while also feeling tired or discouraged. She does not need a pedestal; she needs to be known. 

Painful seasons taught Megan the importance of trustworthy ministry couples and dependence on God’s Word. 

“Times of suffering forced me to mine the deep parts of my heart, apply the Gospel to my own life, and root my identity firmly in Christ,” she said. “I don’t want to shy away from the hard or give pastors’ wives pithy advice, strategies, or anecdotes. I want to feed them God’s Word and remind them of who He is, what He’s accomplished, and who they are in Him.”

Her passion was also shaped by friendship. God brought other pastors’ wives into her life with whom she felt safe, seen and supported — the kind of friends who could hear an honest admission and respond, “You, too?” Together they rested, cried, laughed, prayed, and spoke truth to one another. 

Thrive seeks to make those connections possible across the Charis Fellowship. Its new partnership with Inspire creates an opportunity to strengthen that work while caring more intentionally for pastoral couples and families. 

A Call to the Church

Church members have a role in caring for their pastor’s wife. Meaningful support can mean something like writing a note, providing a meal, offering to watch the children, or praying faithfully for her. It means examining whether expectations placed on her are biblical or merely cultural, respecting her boundaries, and pursuing genuine friendship without an agenda. 

Megan has described pastors’ wives as “corner pillars”: valuable, load-bearing, and sometimes overlooked because they quietly support so much. Through Thrive’s partnership with Inspire, Megan’s complementary work with Assist, and the care of local congregations, the Charis Fellowship aims to ensure that pastors’ wives are seen, strengthened, and reminded that they do not carry the joys and burdens of ministry alone. 

The post Strengthening Care for Pastors’ Wives first appeared on Charis Fellowship.

At Charis Fellowship Conference 2026, held July 21–23 at Grace Fellowship Church in Pickerington, Ohio, main session speakers walked through the book of Acts. The theme verse for the week was Acts 28:31, and each message focused on a different aspect of the book, intentionally connecting how witness, prayer, Holy Spirit, expansion, and suffering allow the Gospel to go out unhindered. Speakers were Keith Minier, Kip Cone, Jeremy Kimble, Andrew Royer, and Bartley Sawatsky. Personal testimonies on each topic were also shared in sessions from Tim Wilmetti, Ethan Bunce, Nate Bosch, Barb Wooler, and Betsy.

The schedule for conference was designed to allow free time and select planned events in the evenings, creating space for fellowship and connection. On Monday pre-conference activities included the Charis Symposium with papers on the book of Acts, food trucks, and a dessert for newcomers where Executive Director Tim Sprankle explained core aspects of the Charis Fellowship and various national ministry leaders shared about their organizations.

Other evening activities throughout the week included a young adult event hosted by Assist Church Expansion, a game night hosted by Charis Women, a dessert for solo pastors and their wives, and a ministry discussion with Pastors Jeff Bogue and Keith Minie

Many national and cooperating ministries represented as exhibitors, and Grace College, Encompass World Partners, Grace Financial, Eagle Commission, Assist Church Expansion, Charis Women, and Inspire Pastors Network sponsored meals where they introduced key staff and board members, held their annual business meeting, and shared ministry highlights.

Each day also had two opportunities to attend workshops and roundtable discussions. They were facilitated by a variety of people including pastors, ministry leaders, global workers, and organization representatives. Topics included next generation ministries, succession and retirement planning, children’s ministry, women’s ministry, process of ordination, Charis Fellowship history, missions, leveraging AI, volunteer recruitment, and more. Thursday morning also included the Charis Conversation, the delegate’s meeting of the Charis Fellowship, where Tim Sprankle, Tim Hodge, and Andrew Saunders gave updates and presented items that would be voted upon by the delegates in the following week.

Conference concluded Thursday afternoon with threefold communion. Tim Sprankle read through parts of the Charis Manual of Procedure and led the three elements with thoughtful reflections.

The post Unhindered: Charis Fellowship Conference 2026 Recap first appeared on Charis Fellowship.

Tim Hodge (Fellowship Coordinator) shared highlights from the Statistical Report, including the fact that our average attendance in 2025 was the highest in our history, and that the number of baptisms in 2025 was the highest in 25 years. We also celebrated a new Associate Member church: Church at the Well in Towson, Md. Andrew Saunders (Networking Coordinator) reviewed the 2027 budget which is slightly reduced from the previous year and reflects the Fellowship’s healthy financial status. 

Tim Sprankle (Executive Director) explained and read through a Clarification Paper on Eldership that the Fellowship Council has been working on since last year and has recently approved. He also shared the intent of the document in describing viewpoints that are broadly shared by churches within the Charis Fellowship, while also respecting the autonomy of each church. The Clarification Paper is available through a link on the Position Statements document posted on the Charis Fellowship website.

Voting was then conducted throughout the week following Conference through a secure online ballot. 176 registered delegates from Charis Fellowship churches across the US and Canada participated in the 2026 vote, and all items voted on were approved.

In addition to Kip Cone being affirmed as the executive director-elect to begin a three-year term in August 2027, three men were elected to begin serving a full five-year term each on the Fellowship Council: Bart Blair, Timothy Clothier, and Greg Foote.

The 2027 Charis Fellowship budget was approved. The ratification of the Fellowship Council’s annual appointment of Tim Hodge as Secretary and Doug Courter as Treasurer were both approved, and the list of potential nominating committee members was confirmed by delegates in order of preference. 

Thank you to all delegates who participated this year, and to all churches who submitted their statistical report and Fellowship contribution. Also, to the three men who completed their terms serving on the Fellowship Council, thank you for serving the Fellowship well: Nick Cleveland (2021–2026), and Devin Livingston (2021–2026) who both served a five-year term, and Mike Silliman (2024–2026) who stepped in to complete an incomplete term. If you have any questions or need additional information, contact the Fellowship Office here.

The post Charis Fellowship Annual Meeting Report 2026 first appeared on Charis Fellowship.

The five-day conference was held at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind., and welcomed 2,500 students and adults from nearly 100 different churches. Attendees traveled from 23 states and two Canadian provinces, including 8 churches who attended for the first time. Messages for the week focused primarily on the good news of the Gospel, and more than 500 students gave their lives to Jesus. Additional responses included more than 100 students being called to pursue missions, nearly 200 to full-time ministry, and over 250 to missional marketplace leadership.

Of the eight main session speakers, five were Chairs Fellowship pastors. Thursday morning Pastor Jim Brown of Grace Community Church (Goshen, Ind.) walked through the book of Hosea, emphasizing the story of forgiveness. He not only challenged students to understand and receive God’s forgiveness, but to consider who in their life they needed to forgive. “Forgiveness is not saying the offense didn’t matter,” he said, “it’s refusing to let someone else’s sin be your prison.”

Thursday evening Pastor Keith Minier of Grace Fellowship Church (Pickerington, Ohio) asked the question, “Why is the Christian life so hard?” He emphasized that every story has a villain, and that to defeat him we have to discern him. He talked through 1 John 2, explaining the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

Saturday morning Pastor Zac Hess of Grace Polaris Church (Westerville, Ohio) spoke on 1 Peter 4 and how the return of Christ motivates a life for Christ. He talked through four ways our lives are transformed by the return of Christ, calling us to live holy, love one another, serve and build the church, and glorify God. “Every good story has a good ending,” he said, reflecting on how the imminent return of Christ is the good ending to our stories.

Pastor Jeff Bogue of Grace Church (Akon, Ohio) and president of Momentum Ministry Partners concluded the conference on Saturday night in Isaiah 6. He shared his own story of coming to faith, encountering the holiness of God, and being called by God into ministry.

Throughout the week students also participated in dozens of power tracks on topics like being a witness in sports, loving your church family, being shaped by our choices, navigating mental health, exploring careers and calling, sharing your testimony, and studying the Bible. Each day also included different sports tournaments, art classes, outdoor activities, and indoor gaming options.

You can watch the livestream recordings of all the main sessions on Momentum’s YouTube channel here. Youth conference next year will be held at Bowling Green State University on July 13–18, 2027. Get more information about Momentum Ministry Partners on their website here.

Photos by: Lael Nafziger, Jack Nicodemus, & Randi Walle

The post Momentum Youth Conference 2026 Recap first appeared on Charis Fellowship.

June 19, 2016. Game 7. Cleveland Cavaliers versus the Golden State Warriors, who had just won 73 games in the regular season — the most in NBA history — and were playing in their second consecutive Finals. The Warriors had built a 3-1 series lead. No team in NBA history had ever come back from 3-1 in the Finals. Ever. And yet here we were.

I am a Cavaliers fan. Which means I have a complicated relationship with hope. I’ve watched this franchise break your heart in ways that feel almost creative. So sitting on my couch that night, I was not calm. Nobody who loves this team is ever calm. We have been trained, over decades of heartbreak, not to trust the good thing when it’s happening.

The fourth quarter comes. LeBron James — our guy, the kid from Akron who left and came back — makes a chase-down block that still doesn’t seem physically possible. Then Kyrie Irving pulls up over Steph Curry with 53 seconds left and drains a three that silences Oracle Arena. The Cavaliers hold on. 93-89. For the first time in 52 years, Cleveland is a champion.

I don’t have words for what that felt like. I’m not sure I need them. If you’ve ever loved a team and finally watched them win, you already know.

Here’s the thing though. I watched that game again recently, for the ten-year anniversary. And something was different.The fear was gone. Completely. I wasn’t gripping anything. I wasn’t holding my breath when Golden State cut the lead. I wasn’t sick to my stomach in the fourth quarter. I watched the whole thing leaning back, smiling, almost giddy — not because the game was less dramatic, but because I already knew the outcome. I already knew the victor.

Knowing the victor changes everything about how you watch the game.

This concept runs through the entire Bible. But perhaps nowhere does it hit harder, nowhere is it more visible in real human flesh, than the Book of Acts. Specifically, Acts 2. Peter’s sermon.

Read it slowly and let the context land. Mere weeks before this moment, Peter was feeling everything. The fear, the uncertainty, the sick dread of a man watching something he loves fall apart in real time. He had denied Jesus three times in a courtyard and wept bitterly. He had watched the crucifixion from a distance. He had been in that upper room behind locked doors, waiting, not sure what came next.

Then he saw it. The risen Christ. Bodily. Undeniably. The Victor, standing in front of him.

And everything changed. Acts 2:14 — Peter stood up. Two words. The man who was hiding is now on his feet in public. The man who couldn’t hold his nerve in front of a servant girl now opens his mouth in front of thousands. And he doesn’t hedge. He doesn’t soften the message to make it more palatable. He looks at the crowd — the very city that called for the crucifixion — and says it plainly: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.

Why could he do that? Verse 24. Because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. The game was already over. Peter had seen the rerun. There was no fear left. Only proclamation. Only victory.

Victory. It’s worth sitting with that word for a moment.

The victory Peter is standing in isn’t abstract. It isn’t wishful thinking or religious optimism. It is the physical, historical, documented reality that a man who was dead walked out of a tomb. That the grave could not hold him. That every power that stood against him — Rome, the religious establishment, sin, death itself — had swung its hardest and come up empty. The resurrection is not a metaphor for hope. It is the announcement that the war is over, the score is final, and we already know who won.

This is what fuels everything in Acts. It’s why Peter and John stand before the Sanhedrin — the same council that arranged the crucifixion — and speak without flinching (Acts 4:13). It’s why the apostles walk out of a flogging rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name (Acts 5:41). These are not unusually brave people. They are ordinary people who have seen the Victor. People who already know how the story ends don’t grip the couch.

So here’s the question that lands closer to home. And I want to ask it gently, because I suspect most of us already feel it.

Pastors. Ministry leaders. Those of us who have given our lives to this — how are we living?

I don’t ask that as an accusation. I ask it as someone who knows what the weight of ministry can do to a person over time. The sermon calendar never stops. The needs in your congregation are real and they don’t wait for you to catch your breath. The programs need volunteers, the budget needs attention, the family at home needs a version of you that isn’t depleted. Ministry is beautiful and it is hard, and sometimes those two things are true on the same day.

But here is what I wonder, and I wonder it about myself as much as anyone: in the midst of all we have built and all we are trying to sustain, have we quietly lost sight of the victory? Not out of unbelief. Not because we stopped loving Jesus. But because somewhere in the volume of it all, we shifted from men and women who know the outcome to men and women who are just trying to keep up?

How are we preaching? Do our sermons carry the weight and the joy of people who have seen the risen Christ — or have we drifted toward careful, managed communication that is more anxious than it is assured? How are we discipling our families, our churches? Are the people watching our lives learning what it looks like to live from the victory or are they watching us grip the couch?

How are we evangelizing? Are we sharing the resurrection like Peter in Acts 2, or have we grown tentative — hoping the conversation doesn’t ask too much of us?

The tomb doesn’t care about our calendar. The resurrection is not waiting on our next sermon series to become true. And yet we carry ourselves, sometimes — if we’re honest — like people watching it live. Tense. Uncertain. Exhausted. Wondering if it’s all going to hold.

Friend, it’s going to hold. Because Jesus is still risen. The same Jesus who met a broken, demoralized fisherman on a beach and turned him into the preacher of Pentecost — He is still in the business of restoring and sending His people. He is not watching your ministry with nervous hands, wondering if you’ll pull it off. He already knows the outcome. He is the outcome. And He is inviting you — in your weariness, in your doubt, in the middle of everything you are carrying — to stop watching the game like you don’t know how it ends.

The tomb is empty. The Victor is alive. Peter stood up. Go and do likewise.

The post The Victor is Alive first appeared on Charis Fellowship.

Who’s on your Mount Rushmore of discipleship? Who are those people who have invested in you, walked alongside you, and mentored you in your faith? Maybe it’s the Sunday school teacher who first explained the Gospel to you. Maybe it’s the neighbor who demonstrated Jesus’ love to you. Maybe it’s your parents who taught you how to study God’s Word. Maybe it’s the pastor who baptized you. Maybe it’s the small group leader who regularly prayed for and with you. Can you narrow your list to only four people, or do you need multiple Mount Rushmores to encapsulate all the people who have discipled you?

Perhaps your list has changed during different seasons of your life. Mine has. Growing up in a Christian home, my parents and grandparents were the first and biggest influences in my faith journey. They will forever remain on my Mount Rushmore as those who consistently point me back to Jesus and model His love for others. As a teenager, my youth leaders were instrumental in developing my understanding of what it looks like to follow Jesus. As a newlywed, couples who read books with my husband and I and modeled godly marriages helped shape our relationship to reflect the selfless love of Jesus. As an adult, pastors who have faithfully taught the scriptures and mentors who have personally invested in my relationship with God have been fundamental to my journey in understanding God’s Word.

Discipleship is multifaceted and there is beauty in pursing it with others.

So how do we “go therefore and make disciples”? By building relationships where we speak truth and love into one another’s lives. By studying and teaching God’s Word. By modeling obedience to Jesus’ commandments. By continually pointing others to Jesus and allowing ourselves to be continually shaped into His likeness. This is disciple-making, and this is what Jesus calls us to do. However big or small your Mount Rushmore might be, follow Jesus’ command and be bold enough in your disciple-making that others would add you to their Mount Rushmore.

Written by Randi Walle for the Year in Review 2024–2025, adapted and updated July 2026. Randi serves as the editor and communications manager for the Charis Fellowship. She is a member and life-long attender of Grace Polaris Church in Westerville, Ohio, where she serves as the communications director. She and her husband, Jesús, have been married for eleven years.

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Not a cliffhanger, exactly. It just stops. Paul is in Rome, preaching in a rented house, waiting on a trial whose outcome Luke never records. And then the book is over. No resolution. Nothing that feels like a real ending. Luke was too careful a writer for this to be an accident. More likely, the story simply wasn’t finished. He ends where he does because the story of Jesus’ witnesses was never meant to end with Paul.

The traditional title — “The Acts of the Apostles” — was added later. Luke never called it that. And if you read closely, the apostles aren’t really running the show. The one actually driving the story is the Holy Spirit — showing up at Pentecost, redirecting Paul away from Asia, sending Philip into the desert to meet an Ethiopian official, arriving at a Philippian prison at midnight with an earthquake.

The Spirit drives the whole thing. The apostles mostly just try to keep up.

And they’re not exactly an impressive bunch, by the way. Peter needs a vision repeated three times before he’ll enter a Gentile’s home. The Jerusalem church spends a good portion of Acts arguing about who’s actually in. Paul and Barnabas, of all people, end in a disagreement sharp enough to split them up. Luke doesn’t clean any of this up. The people in Acts feel a lot like the people in your church. Probably like you. Maybe that’s the point.

Acts 1:8 gives us the blueprint: witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The rest of the book is that promise being fulfilled, one unlikely step at a time. By the time Luke stops writing, the Gospel has traveled from a locked room in Jerusalem to the capital of the Roman Empire. Not because the early church was unusually gifted. The Spirit kept moving, kept finding people nobody expected, kept doing what Caesar and the Sanhedrin couldn’t stop Him from doing. Everywhere He carried the church, the message remained the same: Jesus Christ crucified and risen, and forgiveness of sins in His name.

Luke puts down his pen. But the Spirit doesn’t.

The commission of Acts 1:8 didn’t get finished in the first century. Two thousand years later, it still hasn’t. The story Luke started is still being written. And if you follow Jesus, you’re not reading about this from the outside — you’re in it.

We’ve spent so long treating Acts as history — something that happened — that we’ve forgotten we’re still inside it. We read about Pentecost the way we’d read about Gettysburg: important, formative, but over. Except the Spirit who fell that day didn’t stay in the first century. He hasn’t stepped back from the mission that Luke’s book never finished.

Which means your ordinary life — your city, the coffee shop where you’re a regular, the coworker whose story you’ve been carrying, the neighborhood God has placed you in — belongs to this story. It is the story. The same Spirit who redirected Paul toward Macedonia can redirect you. The same One who gave Peter words before the Sanhedrin — words Peter certainly didn’t have on his own — can give you words when you don’t know what to say. He built the early church through frightened, ordinary people. Still does.

You don’t have to feel like you’re in Acts for it to be true. Most of the people in Acts probably didn’t either.

The story isn’t over. And you’re already in it.

Written by Josh Rollins

The post The Book that Doesn’t End first appeared on Charis Fellowship.