A Message from the President

John Stonestreet

Twenty years ago, we were told that God is a delusion and religion poisons everything. Today, many of the same people who made these claims are declaring the importance of faith for individuals and societies. Just recently, a gay atheist told a gathering of global thought leaders to read the Bible!

The secular experiments of radical autonomy and moral relativism brought both personal and cultural breakdown. The family, education, politics, science, and even the most basic categories of reality are in crisis. In response, many are not only beginning to wonder if we got it wrong, but also revisiting how Christianity was the source of so much historical and cultural good.

Something is clearly happening. People are hungry for cultural renewal. All alternatives to Christianity have proven insufficient, inadequate, and untrue. Only Christ, working through His church, can bring renewal. As the Apostle Paul wrote:

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

— 2 Corinthians 5:18-19a

As Chuck Colson often said, What the world needs most is for the Church to be the Church.

First and foremost, that means proclaiming the Gospel. Christians should never be content to merely pursue social change or advance “cultural Christianity.” In Christ, God is reconciling “the world” to Himself. Christ has commissioned His Church to participate in that work. Our role is unique and indispensable because unlike governments, businesses, or social justice coalitions, the Church has been entrusted with the truth about all of reality, including the truth about humanity, and has been commissioned to do this work with the power of the Holy Spirit.

As the Gospel goes forth, the Church proclaims that broken lives and a broken world can be restored. It is for this work that the Colson Center strives to equip the Church. Every product, podcast, digital course, and ministry partnership seeks to help God’s people answer four questions that shape the Church’s calling:

What is broken that we can restore?
What is missing that we can add?
What is evil that we can resist?
What is good that we can protect and celebrate?

In the pages that follow, you will find several stories of the Church being the Church. I hope these stories encourage you while providing a glimpse of what the Colson Center team has been up to this year.

God is on the move. Our job is to participate in what He is doing in and around us. The Church is not somewhere Christians go. The Church is who we are. Christ has called His church to go to the ends of the Earth.

John Stonestreet President, Colson Center

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