Like me, you’ve no doubt read the stories of the rise and fall of celebrity pastors and leaders in secular and Christian news. Both the believing and unbelieving world wonder how Christian influencers, renowned for their powerful preaching and compassionate prayer, can also be participants in the very sin and escapes they condemn in their pulpits, podcasts, and publications.
And why do Christians who have professed faith and been leaders or active participants in faith communities and churches walk away from those beliefs and convictions? My heart breaks for well-known and lesser-known Christian leaders who have traded lives of worship, sanctity, and belief for crime, drugs, addiction, fraud, secrets, and apostacy.
Maybe this is your own experience, to greater or lesser degrees. Or maybe you’ve always held God at arm’s length, waiting for leaders like me and my colleagues to represent him more perfectly. Christians have disappointed you.
If this is your experience, keep reading. Good news is coming …
Falling
The first portion of this first blog for 2026 comes from the first chapter of our emerging resource, inSPIRE®—Faith for a “Whole” Life. We begin the book reminded by Scripture that we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and that we are prey to a thief seeking our destruction (John 10:10).
It’s clear that a humble admission of our frailty is a good starting place for the inSPIRE Journey. With that awareness, we’re even more amazed by the invitation that God gives us to participate in the greatest love story ever written.
Reaching Out
The good news is that God reaches out across time and place to pursue us. History records our failures, even as God calls us out from them to restoration and hope.
Throughout the Old and New Testaments, we are invited to love God with heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love others (Mark 12:28-31). We are not simply spectators in God’s story but incredulously welcomed as participants! That means we can walk with God, talk with God, and find our identity and belonging in the family God. What a grand invitation and high calling.
All this is made possible through faith in Jesus (John 3:16).
Guided
The Bible and the Holy Spirit are available to guide us along the way. So, relying on those powerful gifts, we examine our lives against God’s timeless principles. Then we grow as followers of Jesus, increasingly led by his Spirit. We immerse ourselves in caring communities of faith and live as witnesses to those who don’t know these marvellous things.
But there is effort involved in protecting our hearts from the thief who seeks to steal it away. Just as we unapologetically protect our earthly valuables, let’s unapologetically protect our hearts!
Strengthened
As we finish up, I pray these new blogs in 2026 will strengthen and encourage you towards faith that filters in and through every area of your life.
I hope you’ll anticipate the completion of our new resource, inSPIRE® Faith for a “Whole” Life, with its stories, practical prompts, and exercises to help you follow Jesus.
I trust that as you find faith for a “whole” life you will be a witness to the disillusioned searching for a Saviour.
4 Responses
I think we often forget the importance of protecting our hearts even more than our earthly possessions.
We do indeed need eyes for our souls! We can be so distracted by the next deadline, the next purchase, the next … all while the heart is neglected.
We must focus on Jesus, and pray that God will protect us from the evil one. Satan is very real and we need to be strong in the Lord. Reading our Bible each day and having devoted Christians as our friends is important. 🙏 ❤️
Those are great ingredients for a strong faith walk!