{"id":21227,"date":"1999-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-07-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/1999\/07\/01\/from-editor-34\/"},"modified":"1999-07-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:46:40","slug":"from-editor-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>L<\/strong>ike every other Christian in the country, I was both appalled and amazed at the events in Littleton, Colorado, this spring.<\/p><p>Appalled at the horrific cruelty.<\/p><p>Amazed at the clear statements of faith in Christ emerging after the cold-blooded attacks at Columbine High School.<\/p><p>My parents, whose church is in Littleton, sent me e-mail almost daily on the memorial services and community reactions. (Isn&#8217;t it interesting that prayer, Christian faith, and invoking God&#8217;s name&mdash;often seen as inappropriate in public&mdash;are accepted as natural expressions in times of tragedy.)<\/p><p>I grieved the deaths, and I was grateful for the outstanding ministry of the pastors involved. They were well prepared. Their hearts (for God and for people) were strong. Their skills were well developed. They were able to serve well.<\/p><p>But there&#8217;s a story behind this story. Fitness to minister can&#8217;t be manufactured on the spot. Fitness is something you&#8217;ve gotta have before you need it. A crisis reveals your level of fitness; it&#8217;s too late to try to get fit. Becoming fit to minister is done ahead of time.<\/p><p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/le\/1999\/summer\/9l3011.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Pastors in the News&#8221;<\/a> (p. 11), you&#8217;ll see how God and the ministers of Littleton began that necessary preparation three years ago. The crisis revealed the fruit of their faithfulness.<\/p><p>To all the pastors of &#8220;greater Littleton,&#8221; thank you for the way you represented God and the rest of us in Christian ministry.<\/p><p>And now for something completely different. They say a healthy sense of humor is essential to spiritual fitness. (Thus the cartoons throughout Leadership.)<\/p><p>I don&#8217;t know what it says about us, but I need to confess what happens in our editorial offices from time to time.<\/p><p>Shortly after it appeared in our Spring issue, the illustration seen below showed up on our departmental bulletin board, and my co-workers began writing captions.<\/p><figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"182\" height=\"220\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21228\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>They started off mild:<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Open mike night was going well until he told the one about Red Riding Hood.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Don&#8217;t cast your swine before churls.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I lost my voice today, so forgive me for being disgruntled.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote><p>Then they veered church-ward:<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Before I introduce our next speaker, let&#8217;s stand and turn to your neighbor and say, &#8216;God loves you just the way you are, and so do I.&#8217;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Now that we&#8217;ve built up a level of trust, let&#8217;s tell each other what animal he or she reminds you of.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Pastor Higgins had the gift of becoming all things to all men, but his new congregation was really stretching him.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Diversity is all well and good to a point, but I just don&#8217;t think we can allow squirrels into our fellowship and retain our integrity as a body.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote><p>And finally:<\/p><blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Some may disagree and call me a mush sentimentalist, but I believe that when we get to heaven, we&#8217;ll find humans there, too.<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote><p>Good humor? Spiritual fitness? That&#8217;s yours to decide, but that&#8217;s what we live with around here.<\/p><p><em><strong>Marshall Shelley<\/strong> is editor of <\/em>LEADERSHIP.<\/p><p class=\"is-style-article-copyright\">Copyright &copy; 1999 by the author or Christianity Today\/<em>Leadership<\/em> Journal.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/le\/help\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"copyright\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> for reprint information on Leadership Journal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like every other Christian in the country, I was both appalled and amazed at the events in Littleton, Colorado, this spring.Appalled at the horrific cruelty.Amazed at the clear statements of faith in Christ emerging after the cold-blooded attacks at Columbine High School.My parents, whose church is in Littleton, sent me e-mail almost daily on the <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[2429],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[663,156,666],"tax_ctp_tags":[4193,5238],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-21227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-marshall-shelley","tax_publications-1999-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_publications-summer_1999-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-humor","tax_ctp_tags-violence"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>From the Editor - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Like every other Christian in the country, I was both appalled and amazed at the events in Littleton, Colorado, this spring.Appalled at the horrific\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Editor - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Like every other Christian in the country, I was both appalled and amazed at the events in Littleton, Colorado, this spring.Appalled at the horrific\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"1999-07-01T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-09T14:46:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Marshall Shelley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"CMS Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3\"},\"headline\":\"From the Editor\",\"datePublished\":\"1999-07-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-09T14:46:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/\"},\"wordCount\":525,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/\",\"name\":\"From the Editor - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif\",\"datePublished\":\"1999-07-01T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-09T14:46:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"Like every other Christian in the country, I was both appalled and amazed at the events in Littleton, Colorado, this spring.Appalled at the horrific\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif\",\"width\":182,\"height\":220},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From the Editor\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3\",\"name\":\"CMS Admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CMS Admin\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From the Editor - CT Pastors","description":"Like every other Christian in the country, I was both appalled and amazed at the events in Littleton, Colorado, this spring.Appalled at the horrific","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From the Editor - CT Pastors","og_description":"Like every other Christian in the country, I was both appalled and amazed at the events in Littleton, Colorado, this spring.Appalled at the horrific","og_url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/","og_site_name":"CT Pastors","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","article_published_time":"1999-07-01T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-09T14:46:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif"}],"author":"Marshall Shelley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@CTpastors","twitter_site":"@CTpastors","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/"},"author":{"name":"CMS Admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3"},"headline":"From the Editor","datePublished":"1999-07-01T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-09T14:46:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/"},"wordCount":525,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/","name":"From the Editor - CT Pastors","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif","datePublished":"1999-07-01T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-09T14:46:40+00:00","description":"Like every other Christian in the country, I was both appalled and amazed at the events in Littleton, Colorado, this spring.Appalled at the horrific","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/53707.gif","width":182,"height":220},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From the Editor"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","name":"CT Pastors","description":"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization","name":"Christianity Today","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg","caption":"Christianity Today"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors","https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/85018388509706870f1ad6829069e1a3","name":"CMS Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b746e0581dc75423e361301b595167f5234d819bbff5b0a82621db777cbfeb9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CMS Admin"}}]}},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"From the Editor","url":"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/from-editor-34\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Uncategorized","author":"Marshall Shelley","creator":"Marshall Shelley","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"CT Pastors","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"1999-07-01T00:00:00Z","datePublished":"1999-07-01T00:00:00Z","dateModified":"2025-10-09T14:46:40Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"From the Editor\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/pastors\\\/content\\\/from-editor-34\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.christianitytoday.com\\\/pastors\\\/content\\\/from-editor-34\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"\"},\"articleSection\":\"Uncategorized\",\"author\":\"Marshall Shelley\",\"creator\":\"Marshall Shelley\",\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[],\"dateCreated\":\"1999-07-01T00:00:00Z\",\"datePublished\":\"1999-07-01T00:00:00Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-09T14:46:40Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/christianitytoday.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","byline":{"writer_byline":"Marshall Shelley","writer_byline_override":""},"primary_category":null,"secondary_categories":[],"featured_video":null,"related_articles":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21227"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21229,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21227\/revisions\/21229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_authors?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_books","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_books?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_categories?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_field_guides","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_field_guides?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_format?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_multimedia","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_multimedia?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_point_editor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_point_editor?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_publications","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_publications?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_tags?post=21227"},{"taxonomy":"tax_ctp_topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tax_ctp_topics?post=21227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}