Pursuing Sinners

As fire threatened people in Jasper National Park, Colleen Knull sprang into action. “I like to be able to help people,” said the 18-year-old. “I like the fact that what I do in my work does good.”

Knull is a volunteer firefighter in North Okanagan in Alberta, Canada. She was working a summer job as part of the kitchen staff at a Jasper lodge when one night an evacuation order was issued for the area. “The smoke was coming up from the mountainside,” said Knull. “It was big.”

Knull quickly spread the word to guests of the lodge and tracked down any other people camping out in the area. In total, she rallied 16 people together for a four-hour hike in treacherous terrain to safety.

Rebecca Tocher, a hiker who was in Knull’s group said, “There was more intense smoke, my eyes were burning, there was ash falling constantly. She was an amazing leader and was just making sure that everyone was working together.”

Knull used her knowledge of the area and tracking skills to navigate in the dark. Knull said:

I had previously ridden a horse up to that lodge on that same trail and throughout the way me and my employer, we had cut logs on the way up," said Knull. "There were 67 logs, so there would be 67 cut logs on the way down…So, I used my tracking skills – following horse tracks, and horse manure.”

“She was just on it and she led it, the whole way,” said David Richmond, another hiker in the group.

“I do it because at the end of the day, I’d want somebody there to help,” said Knull.

During the hike down, the group was able to communicate with search and rescue crews to help with the evacuation. Knull eventually drove all 16 people in her pickup truck out of the evacuation zone. No one was seriously injured.

Knull said the experience reinforced her motivation to become a full-time, professional firefighter.

Possible Preaching Angles:

1) Rescue; Salvation; Savior, Christ only - Christ, our compassionate Savior, personally leads us through the valley of death, just as He promised, 'Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me' (Psalm 23:4). His prior experience ensures our safe passage. 2) Evangelism, Witnessing - Christians can show others the way to safety in the Lord since they know the way (John 14:6).

When jurors are seated onto a panel for a trial, they’re expected to assist in the pursuit of justice. But rarely does it result in a literal foot pursuit.

However, the trial of Nicholas Carter was the exception to the rule. The Portland Press Herald reported that 31-year-old Carter had just been convicted of aggravated assault against a 14-month-old when he attempted to escape custody by running out of the courtroom while his hands were cuffed.

Detective Jeremy Leal was present in the second-floor courtroom at the time. After Carter bolted, Leal and several judicial marshals immediately gave chase, following Carter down the stairs and toward the exterior door.

“All of sudden, we hear this huge bang. Crash. Boom,” said attorney Dawn DiBlasi. “And this guy comes running down the stairs. He’s handcuffed or shackled. He’s trying to escape. Literally, he’s got his hands on the railing, coming down, trying to jump three stairs at a time. His feet weren’t shackled.”

Security footage from the incident shows another attorney, who happened to be waiting in the hallway, attempting to thwart Carter’s escape, but he was unsuccessful. Carter eventually made it outside, crossed the street, and then tripped and fell in a yard.

That’s when he was apprehended by two other men, bystanders who just happened be to serving the court as jurors in a different case, according to Sheriff Dale Lancaster. As they held him down, Detective Leal was able to bring Carter back into custody.

Nicholas Carter now faces additional charges for the escape attempt.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Just as this guilty man tried to run but was captured, there is no one fast enough or wily enough to escape the Lord’s judgment.

During an office hiking retreat in Colorado’s San Isabel National Forest, an unnamed worker was rescued after being abandoned by his colleagues on Mt. Shavano, a 14,230 feet mountain. The incident occurred after a group of 15 hikers split into two teams: one headed to the summit while the other ascended to a saddle area before turning back.

While 14 of the hikers descended safely, the unnamed person continued to the summit, reaching it around 11:30 a.m. However, he became disoriented on his descent. His colleagues, already on their way down, inadvertently collected markers that were left to help guide the descent. This confusion left the man struggling to navigate the steep boulder field on the northeast slopes of the mountain.

Using his cellphone, the hiker pinned his location and sent it to his team, who advised him to return to the summit to find the correct trail. Shortly after receiving this advice, a severe storm with freezing rain and high winds struck, disorienting him further and losing cellphone signal in the process.

When he failed to check in, his colleagues reported him missing at 9 p.m., approximately eight-and-a-half hours after he started his descent. A search was immediately initiated but was hindered by harsh weather conditions that affected both ground searches and aerial drone operations.

The following morning, the missing hiker managed to regain some cellphone service and called 911. Rescue teams, who had been searching through the night, were then able to locate him in a gully near a drainage creek. He was airlifted to a hospital, where he was found to be in stable condition.

The hiker reported falling at least 20 times and expressed his gratitude for being able to call for help despite his dire situation. Rescue officials noted that his recovery was fortunate given the challenging circumstances.

Possible Preaching Angle:

No matter what mistakes we’ve made or how we’ve been mistreated by others, God will never leave us or forsake us. Even when God chooses not to deliver immediately, he will walk with us and enable us to endure our moments of trial.

When it comes to fulfilling the Great Commission, how can the “1 percent” of Christians who work in professional ministry help the “99 percent” who don’t?

Consider the difference between how frogs and lizards get their food. The frog just sits and waits, and lets the food come to him, while the lizard cannot afford to sit and wait, but must go out into the world.

Pastors are like the frog. They get trained in ministry, join a church staff, and then everyone knows they work full-time to meet spiritual needs. Ministry opportunities come to them.

In contrast, when it comes to ministry and evangelism, lay people are like the lizard. They must learn to hunt by building bridges at work or in neighborhoods, earning a right to be heard, and then winsomely, creatively, prayerfully, courageously proclaiming Christ.

Unfortunately, there are many sad lizards out there who think that to have a ministry, they must act just like frogs. Many ill-equipped laypeople sit under-deployed. Even as hostility toward Christians grows stronger, Christ’s Great Commission mandate has not changed, and a pathway for spreading the gospel remains wide open—as it has since the days of the early church—through personal relationships between believers and nonbelievers who work together.

Church historian Alan Kreider sums up the strategic advantage of the workplace: “What happened was this. Non-Christians and Christians worked together and lived near each other. They became friends.”

This is what makes the workplace so key to the Great Commission. Here believers have daily opportunities to offer living proof—through their actions, attitudes, and words—that the gospel is indeed good news.

Britain's so-called "loneliest sheep," which was stuck at the foot of a remote cliff in Scotland for at least two years, has been rescued. Cammy Wilson, who led the rescue mission, said it was a risky one. That's why, despite past attempts by others, the sheep had been stuck for so long.

The sheep was first discovered in 2021, on the shore of the cliff in Brora by kayaker Jillian Turner. Photos show the sheep at the base of the cliff surrounded by steep rock on one side and water on the other.

In October of 2023 Turner said she has spotted the sheep several times since and the sheep hasn't been able to move off her spot on the base of the cliff. Turner said, “It is heart-rending. We honestly thought she might make her way back up that first year.”

Wilson, runs a Facebook page called "The Sheep Game" that chronicles his life as a farmer. After another farmer brought the sheep to his attention, he named the sheep Fiona and continued to give updates about her on Facebook.

Wilson then had an exciting update for followers. He and four others used a winch, a mechanical device that can act like a pulley, to get to Fiona. One person stayed at the top of the cliff, while the others traveled about 820 feet down the cliff to get to her.

In a statement, the Scottish SPCA said the group was notified of the rescue. Scottish SPCA said, "Our Inspector checked over the sheep and found her to be in good bodily condition, although needing sheared. The ownership of the sheep then was handed over to Dalscone Farm, a tourist attraction in Edinburgh with activities for children.

You can view pictures of the sheep and the cliff here.

Evangelicalism is now the largest religious demographic in Central America, according to a poll of about 4,000 people in five countries. More than a third of people from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica told researchers that they are evangelical, while another 29 percent said they are “nondenominational believers.”

Only about a third of people in the region said they were Catholic—down from about 60 percent in the 1970s. Some scholars have attributed the shift to internal Catholic conflict and the long fallout from the church’s political affiliations on the extreme right and left, along with the disruptions of urbanization.

Evangelical theologian Samuel Escobar, noting the trend in an interview in 2006, said Catholics who moved to Central American cities found empowerment in their evangelical conversion. He said, “Their decision to accept Christ meant a change in patterns of behavior which helped people to reorient their lives.”

When officers from the Michigan State Police (MSP) were asked to provide traffic control for a recent incident, they didn’t know they were signing up for snarky posts with viral video clips.

But that’s exactly what happened when police cordoned off a section of Interstate 75 on a recent Sunday afternoon to help animal control officers wrangle an errant steer named Lester who’d been seen roaming the nearby countryside. “It was pretty wild — cars were still flying by when I went after him,” said Ricky Littlejohn, a local wrangler hired to retrieve the errant bovine whose heroism prompted the road closure.

The original post on MSP’s social media read, “We know that if there are no pictures or video it didn’t happen.” The post was accompanied by a clip of dashcam footage featuring the steer trotting down the freeway as cowboy-hat-clad wranglers rode horseback, twirling ropes in hot pursuit.

The traffic control initiative likely saved Lester’s life, either by preventing a motorist from crashing into the errant cattle, or from an intervention by law enforcement resulting in lethal force, like what happened a month prior in a nearby area.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God cares enough about us to go to great lengths to rescue us from harm and correct wayward behavior that can lead to destruction.

A sheep named Baarack received a much-needed shearing after rescuers in Australia found the abandoned animal with more than 75 pounds of wool weighing it down. A video of his transformation on TikTok has more than 18.5 million views. After rescuing Baarack, sanctuary staff gave him the long-overdue shearing and found the fleece clocked in at about 78 pounds.

According to Kelly Dinham with Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary, sheep need at least yearly shearing to keep their coats light enough for the animals, otherwise it will continue to grow. Despite his heavy fleece, Baarack was actually underweight after being sheared. The wool around his face impaired his vision, too. Dinham said they found grit and debris "pooling in the gap between his cornea and the lid." And a grass seed stuck in there had caused an ulcer.

If a sheep goes for an extended period of time without adequate care, the overgrown wool can lead to build up of manure and urine that then could lead to infection, according to a North Dakota State University fact sheet on sheep shearing.

Possible Preaching Angle

This illustration easily applies to the Chief Shepherd and his sheep (and the undershepherd and their flock). As the sheep of his pasture, we need to be under the care of our Shepherd, otherwise we can wander off (Luke 15:4) or be attacked (Acts 20:29). We need those peaceful streams and quiet pastures, and his loving care (John 10:1-18; Psalm 23:1-6).

Almost five years to the day after he returned home the first time, the prodigal son emptied his bank account, packed a few changes of clothes, and snuck off for the faraway country. Again.

The first year back he was just glad to be home.

The second year was toughest; he still couldn’t get (rid of) … the shame that chewed away at his soul.

The third year, things leveled out a little. He started feeling more at home, back in synch with his former life.

The fourth year, certain things began to irk him. His old itches longed to be scratched.

And the fifth year, it happened. All the former allurements came knocking, rapping their knuckles on his heart’s front door.

And so the prodigal relapsed. Re-sinned. Re-destroyed his life.

You know him—or her. Maybe it’s your best friend. Maybe it's your child. Or maybe it’s you. That thing you swore you’d never do again, you did it last night. You left the straight and narrow. Prodigals have a way of finding themselves right back in the pigsty.

In that moment … heaven and hell contend within you. Hell shouts, “Now you’ve gone and done it. You stupid piece of garbage. You’re a lost, lonely, hopeless cause. You’re a pig. And that’s all you’ll ever be.”

But there is another voice. It’s the voice of heaven, the familiar lilt of a Dad’s voice, echoing down the long hallways of hope … down to the deepest, darkest caverns of your pain. He doesn’t accuse. He doesn’t berate. He only mouths two simple words … of heaven’s redemptive love: “Come Home.”

The second time, the third time, the thousandth time, he will sprint … to meet you down the street, throw his arms around you, kiss you, and command that the fattened calf be barbecued. The Father is standing on the porch, his hand shading the sun from his eyes, scanning the horizon for the familiar image of the one who will ever remain, his precious, beloved child. “Come home.”

Joy Davidman was a Jewish American atheist poet who as a young woman became a communist to satisfy her thirst for justice. She married a fellow writer, Bill. (After Bill’s death she married C.S. Lewis.)

At one point she said, “Of course, I thought, atheism was true, but I hadn't given quite enough attention to developing the proof of it. Someday, when the children grow older, I'd work it out.” But between marrying Bill and meeting C.S. Lewis, Joy met Jesus.

Bill was a workaholic, an alcoholic, and unfaithful. One day he called Joy from his New York office and told her he was having a nervous breakdown. Then he hung up. There followed a day of frantic telephoning. By nightfall Joy recalls, there was nothing to do but wait and see if he turned up, alive or dead. She put her children to sleep and waited. And in that silence, something happened:

For the first time in my life, I felt helpless; for the first time my pride was forced to admit that I was not calm after all, the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. All my defenses … all the walls of arrogance and cockiness and self-love behind which I'd hid from God … went down momentarily, and God came in … There was a person with me in that room, directly present to my consciousness—a person so real that all my previous life was by comparison, a mere shadow play, and I myself was more alive than I had ever been; it was like waking from sleep.

A farmer's sheep and pig had escaped. Together they had found a weak rail in the fence and had pressed upon it until it broke under their weight. Seeing their opportunity, they quickly bolted from the field and began to explore their new and unfamiliar surroundings.

It did not take long for the farmer to notice that two of his animals were missing and to set out to find them. But the animals had wandered far and had not left much of a trail behind them. Day soon turned to night and after resting fitfully, he resumed his search in the morning. The animals had now been gone for more than 24 hours and he began to wonder what could possibly have happened to them.

It was in the afternoon of the second day that he began to hear a distant bleating, the sound of his sheep crying out. He then began to follow the sound as it led toward a nearby bog. And it was there that he found his missing sheep and his missing pig. Both had fallen into a deep ditch, both had become coated in muck, both were unable to scramble out. But where the pig had been content to wallow in the mud, the sheep had known to bleat pathetically until the farmer had come to rescue it, to lift it out, and to cleanse it.

Then, said the farmer,

If you are ever deceived into a sin and overtaken by a weakness, don’t lose heart. Go at once to your compassionate Savior. Tell Him in the simplest words the story of your fall and the sorrow you feel. Ask Him to wash you at once and to restore your soul. For if a sheep and a sow fall into a ditch, the sow wallows in it, but the sheep bleats pathetically until she is cleansed by her master. Be the sheep, my friend, and not the pig.

Kathy Troccoli has been a successful Christian singer, songwriter, author, and speaker for over three decades. She also found success in secular music through hits on the Billboard charts, and a collaboration with the legendary group, The Beach Boys.

Kathy initially grew up in a family that wasn't too religious and once said, "The Bible in my family was a book on the end table that was never touched." However, in 1978, while working during the summer at a local pool, Kathy's spirituality was challenged when she noticed a co-worker faithfully reading her Bible during her lunch breaks.

As Kathy began to talk to her colleague about her love for the Bible, the friend began to answer her questions in a way she had never heard before. Kathy said, "I never heard about Jesus in the way she described Him to me.” The co-worker subsequently gave Kathy a copy of the New Testament to read, and invited her to church, where she committed her life to Christ.

Today, Kathy has found success as a Christian artist and received many awards which includes Dove Awards, besides Grammy nominations. But her journey in the Christian faith began because a co-worker served faithfully as a witness for Jesus.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Like Kathy's co-worker friend, let's be a faithful witness for the Lord, wherever he may place us. Who knows what impact our life may have?

Three years ago, Debra Mejeur and her husband Steven took Lola on a trip to Elk Grove, a suburb of Chicago, to visit friends. Then they received a call from neighbors that Lola was running down the street after escaping from the chain link fence and commenced what would turn into a lengthy search for her.

For two months, Debra and her husband drove three hours to Elk Grove every weekend to look for Lola, but the trips became costly and the trips slowed down. It was emotionally and physically exhausting. Debra said, “It was just devastating. I hated leaving Elk Grove because it just felt like I was abandoning her.”

Debra held out hope for finding Lola. She joined every Elk Grove neighborhood group she could find and would post every year on the anniversary she went missing asking if anyone had seen her. She even sought advice from a professional dog rescuer. She hoped that if someone out there had taken Lola in that they would care for her as much as she did.

Debra’s wish was granted and a couple in Glendale Heights did look after Lola. They noticed her in the woods and set out food and water for her for a year. Finally, they gained her trust enough to put a leash on her and take her to the DuPage County Animal Services. Debra received a text saying her pet Lola’s microchip had been detected and to contact Animal Services in Illinois. Debra said, “They are amazing people who did a very selfless act.”

In the yard in front of the animal shelter Lola was timid at first and hid behind the vet. She then gave Debra a few sniffs and a big lick on the forehead before her tail started wagging wildly and she burrowed into Debra for a hug. When she noticed Debra’s husband, Lola bounded over to him knocking him to the ground with excitement.

Lola was in good health with no noticeable signs of injury or trauma, although she had lost 10 pounds. Debra said, “I wish she could talk because I would probably give her a little lecture, too. ‘You’re not supposed to run away. Don’t do it again.’”

Possible Preaching Angle:

1) Identity in Christ; Security in Christ – Debra’s missing dog was found because it was marked with a microchip. Believers can never be lost because we are marked with God’s seal of ownership (Eph. 1:13). 2) Lost; Lostness - We have also wandered away from God, but he never stops searching for us. (Luke 19:10)

In a YouTube video, a young boy comes across a small sheep stuck headfirst in a long narrow trench which has been dug beside a road. The boy uses his hands and a belt around the leg of the sheep to rescue the trapped sheep.

Immediately on being set free, the sheep takes a few stumbling steps, and then a couple of joyful leaps … only to land headfirst back in the same trench further along the road. The audio then records then sheep baaing helplessly after finding itself right back in the same condition.

Some of the comments that accompany the video make the application very easy:

Duarte Santo – “The story of my life”

Browill9 – “That’s why Jesus called us sheep”

Tim Walker – “Me and Jesus on a regular basis!”

victor carjan – “Jesus said in John 5:14 … Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.”

Keefe Ulmschneider – “This is a great representation of what believers do after Christ Jesus drags us out of the ditch, we fall/ jump right back in and need to be saved again. Wretched sinners we are ...”

You can watch the 29 second video here.

Hollywood stuntman Robert Wilton shares his journey through doubt and fear to faith in Christ.

Beginning in my 20s, I worked for decades as a film and television stuntman, facing injury and even death for a living. On the set, I rubbed elbows with celebrities and movie stars. I was living my dream. At age 26, however, I received a gut punch when my 32-year-old brother suddenly collapsed dead from a heart attack. In rare moments of quiet, usually after a considerable intake of alcohol, I would ponder the senselessness of his death.

While doing film work one day, I overheard someone talking about God with one of the stunt guys. To my utter surprise, it was none other than the movie stunt coordinator himself. Eavesdropping on that conversation conjured up some old memories and questions. Did I still believe in God, or had I outgrown the childishness of Sunday school stories?

For one film gig up the coast, I caught a ride with the stunt coordinator—a man I dubbed “the Preachernator.” When conversation inevitably turned to religion, I told him I was doing fine without God. I began regaling him with stories of my close calls and narrow escapes on set. There was the time, for instance, when I was tapped for a fire stunt. The idea was to paint myself with a flammable substance, land on the roof of a car, whose driver would set me on fire, and peel out toward a wooden wall. But nothing went according to design. First, my rope line snagged. Then the fire wouldn’t light and I gave up and signaled for the driver to floor it. When he stomped on his brakes, I went flying through a wooden wall, only not on fire as planned.

As I picked myself up my heart leapt into my throat. I realized I had completely forgotten to apply the protective stunt gel to my head and face. Had I actually been set ablaze, I almost certainly would have sustained serious, possibly fatal, injuries.

The Preachernator listened to my story and said, “Sounds like God was still looking after you.” His words cracked my pride; Could God have been looking out for me, even when I was so far astray? I found myself thinking about God on a daily basis. Could he really love me again after I had turned my back on him?

Everything came to a head one night. I had been hired to jump off of a 60-foot-high catwalk, grab a chain with one hand and slide down to the cement floor below while firing a pistol. Fear began to overwhelm me, and I couldn’t shake the thought of possible catastrophe. I wondered if the moment to give my life to Jesus had finally arrived.

An internal debate raged within. One side of me said, “You’re only doing this because you might die, you hypocrite! Do it after you finish the stunt.” But another side said, “No, the whole point in giving my life to Jesus is in case I die. It’s smarter to do it right now.” So that’s what I did.

The following weeks confirmed (that) God had indeed heard my prayer. Before long, I worked up the confidence to evangelize my fellow crew members. God granted me dramatic change in some areas, but in others he gave the gift of struggle. In fact, I have experienced some of the greatest grief life has to offer. Once, a crew member asked me why his friend’s child had died. Where was God in this tragedy? I tried explaining God’s heart to him. The crew member said that much of what I shared made sense. But he also wondered whether my faith would survive the death of one of my own children. So did I.

I think of this conversation from time to time, because the question has been answered. I have lost children since that day. I watched my wife as she rocked our 19-day-old son while he died in her arms. Three years later, my wife watched me cradle our newborn daughter as she met the same fate.

God never promises us a life without pain and suffering. However, he more than sustains us through challenges. From the tremendous joy of a beautiful, 20-year-old daughter to the depths of deep sorrow, my life attests to the truth that absolutely nothing can separate me from God’s love (Rom. 8:39).

Dr. Emily McGowin, assistant professor of theology, at Wheaton College writes:

When I taught high school, one of my favorite assignments was having my ninth-graders write their own Beatitudes. I asked them to speak to people the world might consider "unblessable." Here are a few:

-Blessed are drug addicts and felons, people who try everything but still buckle under the pressure of their past lives and can never get back on their feet, for even they belong in the Kingdom of God.

-Blessed are the orphans and foster children of the world because they are exactly who God wants in his Kingdom.

-Blessed are the homeless because the Kingdom of God belongs to them too.

-Blessed are the abusers who take out their anger on the weak, for even they can repent and receive the Kingdom of God." (This particular student was abused by a parent and removed from the home because of it.)

When Rebecca Pippert was an agnostic, she had one question she continually wrestled with: How can finite limited human beings ever claim to know God? How do they know they are not being deceived?

Pippert writes:

One sunny day I was stretched out on the lawn … when I noticed that some ants were busy building a mound. I began to redirect their steps with twigs and leaves. But they simply bounced off and started a new ant mound. I thought, This is like being God! I am redirecting their steps, and they don’t even realize it!

At one point, two ants crawled onto my hands and I thought, Wouldn’t it be funny if one ant turned to the others and said, “Do you believe in Becky? Do you believe Becky really exists?” I imagine the other ant answering, “Don’t be ridiculous! Becky is a myth, a fairy tale!” How comical, I thought--the hubris of that ant declaring that I don’t exist, when I could easily blow it off my hand. But what if the other ant said, “Oh, I believe that Becky exists!” How would they resolve it? How could they know that I am real? I thought. What would I have to do to reveal to them who I am?

Suddenly I realized: the only way to reveal who I am, in a way that they could understand, would be to become an ant myself. I would have to identify totally with their sphere of reality. I sat upright, and I remember thinking, What and amazing thought! The scaling-down of the size of me to perfectly represent who I am in the form of an ant! I know; I would have to do tricks! Things that no other ant could do!

Then it hit me: I had just solved my problem of how finite creatures could ever discover God. God would have to come from the outside and reveal who he is.

Lord Kenneth Clark, internationally known for his television series Civilization, lived and died without faith in Jesus Christ. He admitted in his autobiography that while visiting a beautiful church he had what he believed to be an overwhelming religious experience. He wrote, “My whole being was irradiated by a kind of heavenly joy far more intense than anything I had known before."

But the "flood of grace" as he described it, created a problem. If he allowed himself to be influenced by it, he knew he would have to change, his family might think he had lost his mind, and maybe that intense joy would prove to be an illusion. So, he concluded, "I was too deeply embedded in the world to change course."

The Billy Graham Center commissioned a survey of 2,000 Americans who don’t actively participate in religion—the “unchurched.” The survey asked these people about how they perceive Christians and Christianity. This included their view of Christianity, their willingness to talk about faith matters with Christians, how they would respond to being invited to a church event, and which types of invitations would they be most willing to accept.

The data found that many unchurched Americans think well of Christians and are open to engaging matters of faith. For example, 42 percent of the unchurched think that Christianity is good for society, 33 percent admire their Christians friends’ faith, and up to 67 percent would be willing to attend a church event (depending on the type of event). Richardson concludes that the unchurched include “a massive number of people who are open to being invited, persuaded, and connected to a local congregation.”

This analysis counters misconceptions about the unchurched. Christians commonly overestimate the hostility of the unchurched in matters of faith. We can slip into viewing them as mini-versions of Richard Dawkins—hostile to all things Christian. Not all of them will constructively engage us, of course, but many will.

Something tugged at Ronald Reagan on that August weekend in 1982. The President noted in his diary: “More of Saturdays work plus a long letter I have to write to Loyal. I’m afraid for him. His health is failing badly.” Loyal Davis, Reagan’s father-in-law and a neurosurgeon, was just days away from death.

Something else worried Reagan: The dying man was an atheist. Davis once wrote, “I have never been able to subscribe to the divinity of Jesus Christ nor his virgin birth. I don’t believe in his resurrection, or a heaven or hell as places.”

Reagan, on the other hand, believed everyone would face a day of judgment, and that Davis’ was near. So the most powerful man in the world put everything else aside, took pen in hand and set out on an urgent mission—to rescue one soul.

This letter was found in the Reagan Library as part of Nancy Reagan’s personal effects:

Dear Loyal, I hope you’ll forgive me for this, but I’ve been wanting to write you ever since we talked on the phone. I’m aware of the strain you are under and believe with all my heart there is help for that. . . .

It was a miracle that a young man of 30 yrs. without credentials as a scholar or priest had more impact on the world than all the teachers, scientists, emperors, generals, and admirals who ever lived, all put together. Either he was who he said he was or he was the greatest faker & charlatan who ever lived. But would a liar & faker suffer the death he did?

Reagan wrote out John 3:16 for his father-in-law and then added:

We have been promised that all we have to do is ask God in Jesus name to help when we have done all we can—when we’ve come to the end of our strength and abilities and we’ll have that help. We only have to trust and have faith in his infinite goodness and mercy.

Did the letter have any impact? Nancy Reagan, who was with Loyal Davis when he died, and who saved the letter he received from his son-in-law, would later claim that her father did turn to God at the end of his life.

Possible Preaching Angle: Regardless of our political views, we can appreciate Mr. Reagan’s heartfelt concern and his clear presentation of the gospel.