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Colson Fellows
Restoring What is Broken:
Running Toward the Hurting
How one Colson Fellow and his local church are being the hands and feet of Jesus in their community.
Above: Ryan Johnson, Colson Fellows Alumni & Senior Pastor of Agape Baptist Church in Scottsboro, AL
S. Michael Craven,
Vice President & Dean of the Colson Fellowship
When the Early Christian Church emerged in the first century, they turned the culture on its head through the love of Christ. This remains the mission of the Church today—to proclaim the Gospel and be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. As we participate with God in restoring what’s broken, we demonstrate God’s Kingdom on Earth.
I’m always encouraged when I hear testimonies from churches today that are working to restore what’s broken. I recently heard one from a pastor in Alabama.
Ryan Johnson is a senior pastor and a father of seven. He found the Colson Fellows Program in 2017 while looking for opportunities to deepen his Christian worldview formation after seminary. He told us, “A seminary may prepare you to do ministry in the local church in terms of preaching, teaching, discipleship, and the purpose of the local church. But I think there needs to be another level of training to teach your church how to live in the world. And that’s what the Colson Fellows Program did for me.” The Program proved to be a profound turning point in his personal life and pastoral ministry.
Motivated by the biblical mandate in James 1 to care for widows and orphans, Ryan and his wife stepped into foster care in 2020. They adopted two children and are currently pursuing a third adoption.
The Colson Fellows curriculum also empowered Ryan’s pastoral leadership. As he observed, “I became utterly persuaded that it takes a whole Bible to make a whole disciple. So, I set out to preach through the whole Bible in one year.”
Providentially, one of the books in the Program included the story of a church that had invested in their local, struggling community and, by God’s grace, brought restoration and flourishing. That church was in Ryan’s hometown. Moved by this story, Ryan sought to mobilize his own congregation to be the hands and feet of Jesus in their community.
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
— James 2:15-16
With the help of his associate pastor (another Colson Fellow), Ryan’s church established Community Care Village, a coalition of nonprofits designed to “serve the diverse and critical community needs of Jackson County.” It includes an independent living community designed to solve the problem of loneliness among senior adults; a recovery center for men struggling with drug addiction; a foster care closet that provides clothing and other essentials to foster families and people in crisis; a community garden, and other targeted support services. All this has come together in just over two years.
2024 Colson Fellows Impact
1
0
Colson Fellows in-training in this year’s class
(20% increase from last year)
2
96
Church Affiliates this year
(37% increase from last year)
3
Operating in fifteen international cohorts across nine different countries
The vision for the care village? In Ryan’s words: “For us to run into the brokenness just like Jesus did with us.”
By restoring what’s broken in the community around them, Ryan’s church is being the Church. That is what the Church is called to do—bring the Gospel to broken people and partner with God as He restores all things.
I long to see more churches like Ryan’s restoring what’s broken around them. That’s why the Colson Fellows Program exists. We equip individual believers and congregations with a Christian worldview so they can be the Church and bear witness to God’s Kingdom on Earth.
Ryan’s story is one of many that we hear on a regular basis about the lives that have been transformed through the Colson Fellows Program. To read more stories like Ryan’s, visit colsonfellows.org/blog.
Want to lead your church in restoring what’s broken in your community?
The Church Affiliate Program brings the Colson Fellows Program to local churches, so you can equip your members with best-in-class worldview formation for this cultural moment.
Learn more at colsonfellows.org/churches.