Sanctuary churches, also dating advice

Defeat is not due to losses but to the destruction of the soul of the leaders. —General George S. Patton

Faithful discipleship is at the core of resistance.

The foolish, weak, based, and despised things are leading a grace-powered revolt against the wise and strong things of this world. And we will win because “God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”

As John Macleod notes in Scottish Theology:

A people instructed, interested, and evangelised proved the anvil on which the hammers of royal absolutism and oppression rained their blows in vain.

Hence, pastors should be leading the resistance.

They should be fighters who can lead by example, be on the front lines in facing down the world, and able to bid their troops follow them. They should not be softening the Christian life or pretending that God does not require hard things of us. Consider the books of James and 1 Peter—how they call believers to see God’s per…