Tension in Ukraine & the Priority of Evangelism

Transcript

As tensions remain high along the border between Ukraine and Russia, U.S. military chaplains are making mental, spiritual and strategic preparations in case of conflict.

Chaplains play a key role in coming alongside soldiers to help them prepare for the severity of what they might experience and how that will affect them mentally, emotionally and especially spiritually given the lethal nature of modern warfare and the potential for mass causalities.

Those possibilities afford chaplains the opportunity to build relationships with military personnel and intentionally invest in their lives, learn about who they are and earn the right to talk about their religious convictions.

When danger seemed closest, Doug Carver found soldiers were more willing to talk about their deep spiritual questions and religious needs. Carver is the executive director of chaplaincy and a retired chaplain major general in the United States Army.

The training chaplains receive centers on equipping and instructing them how best to minster to and meet the needs of soldiers during combat. To provide that “ministry of presence,” chaplains need to be as close to their troops as they can and identify the most crucial times and places where those under their care may need guidance and counsel.

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In a meeting with church leaders in Virginia, Gateway Seminary President Jeff Iorg stressed the importance of churches getting outside their own walls.

He said he didn’t grow up in a Christian family and his family never went to church until they visited a booth that a local church had set up at a fair.

That’s where he heard the Gospel and gave his heart to Christ. That very same church discipled him, and he became an associate pastor there before leaving for seminary.

Iorg pointed to a recent Barna survey saying that most Christians believe sharing the Gospel is an important part of being a Christian and they feel equipped to share the Gospel adequately, but still almost half of millennial Christians and 20 percent of Boomers think it’s wrong to try to win others to Christ.

He stressed that it is out of God’s love people for that Christians are commanded to go and make disciples.

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