The Times: Restoring God’s Truth
Truth is the agreement of our ideas with the ideas of God.
―Jonathan Edwards
A keynote session from Center for Christian Virtue's inaugural Essential Summit in 2024
Cultural Commentaries
Celebrating What Is Good — Some exciting news is coming out of the UK. The Bible Society’s recent report, The Quiet Revival, shows encouraging trends in church engagement and spiritual disciplines, especially among young adults. (In 2026, Church Ambassador Network is going to be focused on revival. God has some exciting things happening in Ohio!)
Creating What Is Missing — As technological advances rapidly expand the boundaries of what’s possible, we urgently need the church to speak into the boundaries of what’s ethical. In this article for World Opinions, Andrew T. Walker explores the consequences of When Science Plays Parent and provides a clear ethical framework for the Christian response.
Restoring What Is Broken — The Death of Mainline Protestantism appears to be on the horizon. Today’s culture operates on distortions of truth that have successfully led mainline Protestant churches astray over recent decades. These churches have acted out of cowardice incited by “high political stakes” and have succumbed to temptations to neglect the Church’s true mission in favor of selfish ambition. Carl Trueman details his observations of these mainline Protestant churches’ steady decline and predicts that their decline will begin to hasten toward their demise. Whether Trueman’s predictions prove accurate or not, we have a role to play in restoring God’s truth among His Church.
Ending What Is Evil — John Stonestreet and Shane Morris present new research confirming that You’re Not A Monkey’s Uncle. This lie has done significant damage to theological anthropology, and there is a valid argument that it should be removed from the social imagination.
SEEKING THE GOOD OF OUR NEIGHBOR
Center for Christian Virtue Policy Director David Mahan speaks at the Ohio Statehouse during a press conference regarding parental controls on their kids' electronic devices
At Center for Christian Virtue (CCV), our Policy team is working hard to advocate for laws that protect the sanctity of human life, marriage, and families in the state of Ohio. House Bills 410 and 324 and Senate Bill 167 reflect that endeavor to seek the good of our Ohio communities by enacting policies that instill biblical principles within our state ordinances. See the following for brief descriptions of the purpose each bill, if enacted, would accomplish:
HB410 – Prohibiting Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood
Psalm 127:3 – “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.”
We need to protect the precious, innocent lives of unborn children who are defenseless against the abortion industry’s efforts. HB410 would align Ohio law with recent Federal budget decisions, which prohibit Medicaid funds from being given to certain abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood.
HB324 – Patient Protection Act
Isaiah 1:17 – “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, please the widow’s cause.”
HB234 would establish new prescribing requirements and, in certain cases, ban the sale of certain drugs linked to severe adverse effects among patients.
HB226 – App Store Accountability Act
Psalm 82:3-4 –“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
We seek to establish conditions that will improve online safety for children. HB226 would require app stores to obtain parental consent and provide specific privacy and safety disclosures before allowing minors to download certain applications to their devices.
Legislative Tracker
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
August 2025 Prayer at the Statehouse
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 September, along with the accompanying prayer letter, focuses onthe sanctity of life.
BONUS: Check out this photo gallery of Center for Christian Virtue's August 2025 Prayer at the Statehouse taken by The Columbus Dispatch.
Prayer Requests
Pray for the pastors who are starting the fall semester of The Minnery Fellowship this month!
Send prayer requests to Ruth Edmonds at ruthedmonds@ccv.org so our team and intercessors around the state can be praying.
Resources
The future of the family depends on fathers who lead with conviction and faith. Listen to Biblical Fatherhood with Kent Evans, a recent episode of The Narrative podcast that addresses the joys and challenges of fatherhood—and how men can lead their homes with purpose, faith, and strength.
Watch this month’s recorded livestream Training the Next Generation of Pastors Well, featuring Josh Zeichick. See our Upcoming Events section below for details on the livestream coming up in September.
We want to hear from you about your experiences as a pastor connected with CCV and CAN to learn more about how we can better serve and equip you for the work of your ministry. To share your feedback, please take this quick survey.
If you believe other pastors in your network would benefit from receiving The Times, please forward this to them and encourage them to subscribe!
A Church Leadership Breakout session at the 2024 Essential Summit
Upcoming Events
ClickClick here to register for The Essential Summit on Thursday, October 2. Our keynote speakers are Dr. Carl Trueman, Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, and Willie Robertson, plus four great breakout sessions for church leaders.
Use code Pastors25 for a 25% discount on general admission tickets. That means your ticket includes breakfast, lunch, all four keynote speakers, AND all four breakout sessions for less than $100!
Church leaders are invited to a separate VIP Lunch with several of our speakers presented by our Hope and a Future partner, Communio! This luncheon is limited to the first 100 to register, and preference will be given to Lead and Executive Pastors.
On our September CAN livestream, we will talk with guest speaker David Eaton, Cofounder and CEO of Axis Ministries. The Times newsletter for September will include a link to the recording, as we will not be able to host this conversation with a full audience.
Rest and Renewal
Focus On The Family offers free all-inclusive marriage retreats for pastors! We are pursuing the possibility of establishing a location with them here in Ohio but encourage you to take advantage of one of the existing locations today!
If you have other Rest and Renewal suggestions that we should share with the pastors in our network, let us know! We are building out a list of properties/retreats that we will begin sharing each month in The Times soon!
Pastor Testimony
"It is an incredible blessing that we have Center for Christian Virtue in Ohio to advocate for us. Our work would be much harder without their efforts to enact public policy that reflects the truth of the Gospel. Ultimately, in this world today, it would be disastrous... I encourage you to join us in supporting this organization that protects pastors—both as individuals and as the leaders of our congregations, defends the rights of Christians to live out our beliefs, and preserves our ability to preach Truth." – Pastor Ken Harrell
Closing Thoughts
Meghann and I (Chris Lightfoot) have been reading through the Bible, one story each evening with our kids since our oldest was just beginning to talk. It’s a nightly habit that is forming the foundation of much deeper conversations to come.
We are in the middle of the stories of Daniel and his friends in Babylon, so this quote from John Lennox caught my attention recently:
“The story of Daniel and his friends is a clarion call to our generation to be courageous; not to lose our nerve and allow the expression of our faith to be diluted and squeezed out of the public space and thus rendered spineless and ineffective. Their story will also tell us that this objective is not likely to be achieved without cost.”― John C. Lennox, Against the Flow: The inspiration of Daniel in an age of relativism
Serving and Resourcing Pastors in Ohio
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.
