It’s the start of a new year, and here are four key things I think the church should be praying for in 2025.
1. The sheep would recognize which shepherds were for sale
If a Bible-believing Christian from a century ago were suddenly transported through time to our age and found that church leaders today endorse gay civil marriages and ‘Side-B Christianity, supported politicians who advocated for child sacrifice up until birth, advocated for the functional end of nations through unlimited mass immigration, and spent most of their time attacking believers who opposed such positions, all because large Marxist organizations funded their efforts, they would have thought they were witnessing the unbinding of Satan at the end of the age. Our time-travelling interwar saint could perhaps be dissuaded from such a notion by the massive growth of Christianity in Africa, Asia and South America, but even so he would conclude that the West was under the judgement of God. Which it is.
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As Megan Basham expertly detailed in her book Shepherds For Sale it is evident that the church at large collapsed on such positions because its leaders were heavily compromised. And though her work has demonstrated this with painstaking detail, it is still necessary for the sheep themselves to wake up and see that their shepherds have led them not into green pastures and beside still waters, but right to the edge of a dangerous precipice.
A bunch of major western church ministries sadly need to lose their credibility among the masses, and a move by congregations to demand that their leaders walk with integrity, conviction and in pursuit of truth will be a major prayer point for 2025.
2. The rise of courage
Some have noted that certain cultural battles–which are by definition primarily theological battles–are actually being won. Things like the widespread pushback now being seen regarding things like transgender madness, a topic that was deemed untouchable just a few years ago, and Donald Trump’s huge electoral victory, are signs that when Christians actually fight, winning is possible, and that the world around us is growing somewhat tired of the insanity.
This could be the start of a genuine shift in momentum. Courage is contagious, and seeing that fights are winnable encourages people to actually join in. Though it is of course good to notice who stood firm when it was not popular and the fight looked impossible, it is also wise to welcome to our side those who have taken longer than we would have liked to extricate themselves from their seat on the proverbial fence, and to express appreciation for those who have finally opened their mouths after years of silence. Particularly if they do so with something resembling repentance for being slow on the uptake.
So it ranks high on my list of prayer priorities that the Church would recover its courage as a whole, and rather than complaining if they do so that it didn’t happen sooner, celebrate even flawed obedience.
3. Protection from overreacting
Look, I don’t really want to wade headfirst into the whole current debate engulfing the Reformed world, with guys like those at Canon Press, Apologia Studios and James White on one side, and Joel Webbon, the Ogden crew, and Stephen Wolfe on the other. I don’t particularly feel like either side has covered themselves in glory at this particular moment, and I also don’t feel like most of our Clear Truth audience are overly interested in squabbles of that nature.
While the latter group has been subject to slander and mischaracterization that has yet to be acknowledged, I do have a broader concern. People talk about pendulum swings, and my reading is that one of the big challenges facing the Church at this moment is defining what is acceptable on the conservative side of the spectrum. Though words like racist and antisemite are often flung around as slurs to shut down conversation, that does not mean that we shouldn’t watch out for such sinful tendencies. Becoming weirdly obsessed with the “Joos,” claiming to be only talking about Talmudic Judaism and yet lumping all ethnic Jews into that category in spite of the fact almost all Western Jews are secular, or spending weeks seeking to debunk the Holocaust is, at best, foolishness.
I don’t believe that those guys I named have gone quite as far as that, but they also don’t seem to be putting a stop to it. Furthermore, sharing videos that glorify Nazi Germany and actual antisemitic content is sinful behavior. And I get that some of that imagery was snuck in there alongside more wholesome content and was easy to miss — I didn’t spot it until it was pointed out — but when the same guy makes another video of a similar nature three months later, maybe hold fire before hitting retweet. Fool me once, shame on Samuel Holden; fool me twice, shame on me.
And maybe, if you do disagree with that stuff, be clear about rejecting it and why, thereby warning the church against such extremism, rather than ignoring it, pussyfooting around it or deleting it without comment.
There is an understandable tendency when you know you have been lied to repeatedly to begin to question everything, and when certain topics are unjustly considered verboten to therefore act like all speech is suddenly acceptable in the sight of God. But we are called to set guards over our mouths, and it will take wisdom to respond to the spirit of the age without succumbing to another spirit that is not the Spirit of God. I will pray for this more in 2025.
4. Focus on the task at hand
Finally, I think we should pray for a renewed focus on what is actually in front of us. Year 2024, with it being an election year in the States, was one in which a disproportionate amount of mental focus was given to politics, and rightly so. But the fact of the matter is that there are churches to build, children to raise, marriages to strengthen, friendships to work on, books to read, businesses to start, ideas to be understood, souls to be reached, prayers to be said, worship to be offered, and sermons to be preached, most of which should not be centered around the latest White House press release.
The Kingdom of God, though impacting the political sphere, is much broader than that. Many people in your life may not need the finer points of Christian political theory or of the postmillennial understanding of Israel right at this moment. Many of them need to be reminded of the Gospel again, to know more about sanctification, to understand the nature of God, more than they need to figure out what marginal tax rate God would have. Though one does not have to be set against the other, we would be wise in the year ahead to think through our priorities and see which areas, particularly the less political ones, of the enormous mission God has handed us need some extra attention.
And I’ll be praying we do just that.
God bless you in this year ahead.
Originally published at Clear Truth Media.
As a Northern Irishman, Jamie has been in pastoral ministry for over a decade and currently serves as an Associate Pastor in Hope Church Craigavon. He is also a video creator, having amassed over 1 million views on YouTube and 4 million on X in under 18 months. Jamie’s niche interests include Irish church history and most any sport. He is married to his wife Dany, with whom he has two boys.
