The Times: Our Role as Christians in Today's Culture
“To bring back truth, on a practical level, the church must encourage Christians to be not merely consumers of culture but makers of culture. The church needs to cultivate Christian artists, musicians, novelists, filmmakers, journalists, attorneys, teachers, scientists, business executives, and the like, teaching its laypeople the sense in which every secular vocation–including, above all, the callings of husband, wife, and parent–is a sphere of Christian ministry, a way of serving God and neighbor that is grounded in God's truth.”—J. Gresham Machen
The Essential Summit 2024
Cultural Commentaries
Celebrating What Is Good - This article provides a couple testimonies honoring the life of Phil Robertson, a good and faithful servant of Jesus Christ whose exemplary life demonstrates how we should live to honor our Lord and Savior.
Creating What Is Missing - In this article, Calder McHugh writes about "Faith-based production companies" who are "...selling a vision of American culture to an audience that’s sick of liberal Hollywood."
Restoring What Is Broken - This article, in the style of CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters in which the "Enemy" is God, describes how "The Enemy’s schools, once dangerous bastions of moral clarity and spiritual enthusiasm, have steadily transformed into respectable institutions indistinguishable from their secular counterparts in the souls they produce. And all thanks to the worship of a little piece of paper [a diploma]."
Ending What Is Evil - In this article, Carl Trueman describes the Sexual Revolution and how Pride Month is a form of exhibitionism that seeks to damage the institutions God designed for our good and His glory. According to Trueman, "Ours is a culture not merely characterized by the death of old moral values but their intentional and exultant destruction" to the detriment of childhood, sexual modesty, and the sanctity of marriage and family.
Legislative Update
Take a moment to review where all of the Center for Christian Virtue (CCV)-backed bills currently stand in the 136th General Assembly and pray over the bills that are moving in 2025.
Pray for Ohio
Prayer at the Statehouse November 2024
Ohio Prayer Guide
We have partnered with Pray For Ohio to bring you a monthly topical prayer guide that can be shared with your church!
The Prayer Guide for July, along with the accompanying prayer letter, focuses on praying for the nations.
Prayer Requests
Pray for the pastors who will be participating in the fall semester of The Minnery Fellowship starting in August.
Send prayer requests to Ruth Edmonds at ruthedmonds@ccv.org so our team and intercessors around the state can be praying.
Resources
CCV has created a Hope and A Future Solution Guide in partnership with Communio.
On CCV's The Narrative podcast, Roland Warren—an ambassador for Christ, Toledo, Ohio native, graduate of Princeton University and University of Pennsylvania, Former President of National Fatherhood Initiative, current President of Care Net, columnist for Patheos.com, and co-host of Care Net's podcast, talks about why it isn't enough for Christians to be simply pro-life because the Church has a greater calling.
Rosaria Butterfield, an accomplished Christian author who will be speaking at the Essential Summit on Thursday, October 2, shares her inspirational testimony in this video.
If you believe other pastors in your network would benefit from receiving The Times, please forward this to them and encourage them to subscribe!
Upcoming Events
Our Click here to register for the Essential Summit on Thursday, October 2. This is CCV and CAN's annual conference, which brings together hundreds of believers from across the state and nation to discover how they can put their faith into action. Our keynote speakers for the upcoming Essential Summit include Carl Trueman, Rosaria Butterfield, and Willie Robertson.
Save the Date: Our August livestream with Josh Zeichik, Director of The Focused Pastor at Focus on the Family, is scheduled for Tuesday, August 12.
Pastor Testimony
"Since the gospel of Christ is the center of all things, Christian virtue must reach into all of life, including the public square. Not only is CCV an incredible resource to the churches of Ohio in helping us understand the direct connection of the gospel to the most significant social and political issues of the day, but they also provide simple ways for Christians and churches to be able to meaningfully engage our culture, policies, and the next generation. They are focused, prayerful, faithful, and effective. What a gift!" —Pastor Scott Burns, Senior Pastor at Cross City Church, Columbus
Closing Thoughts
“The way we engage culture as Christ followers matters. It matters a lot.
We need more culture engagers and more churches engaging culture.
We need more Christians in culture creation and we need more churches encouraging them that way.
We need more culture defenders and churches that will stand winsomely for the truth.”—Ed Stetzer, Executive Director of LifeWay Research Division
A number of churches have decided to support CCV and the Church Ambassador Network financially through their budget. To set up a recurring monthly donation to CCV, please visit CCV.org/Donate and make sure to click the check box at the end of the form, above the comments field, before submitting your gift.
We would be honored if you chose to invest a portion of God’s resources into our effort to serve and support churches in Ohio with resources to help them carry out the Great Commission in the spirit of The Greatest Commandments in our current cultural context.
