Why Courageous Faith? Why now?

A mere three days before William Wilberforce died, the U.K. Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833—the result of Wilberforce’s long fight against slavery. In 1945, at the age of 39, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed. He never saw the end of the war. While Wilberforce witnessed a cultural and spiritual recovery, Bonhoeffer did not. And yet, neither man was a failure. The banner over both of their lives was faithfulness. We have the same calling that they did: to live with courageous faith where God has placed us. It’s the mission of the Colson Center to help every Christian do that well.

Because the Christian worldview is big enough for all of life, we seek to equip and empower Christians across diverse spheres of influence to see God’s restoration extend to the ends of the earth—including school hallways, industrial warehouses, corporate boardrooms, and dinner tables. In God’s kindness, your generosity makes this work possible. That generosity goes beyond financial support. You have been generous with your words as you pray and write in to encourage us. You are generous with your time as you listen to our programming and share it with others, and when you invest in the deep worldview formation from programs like the Colson Fellows and Colson Educators. God has richly blessed us through your generosity, and we recognize the great responsibility of this blessing.

God has placed all of us in this time and this place. It takes Christ-centered courage to lovingly stand for truth rather than conform to the pervasive secular orthodoxy. It takes deeply rooted faith to uphold and teach a Christian sexual ethic in homes and classrooms, or to exhort your church family to uphold the biblical definition of marriage. These social pressures aren’t “out there” anymore. As you face new challenges in the days ahead, we are committed to helping you speak the truth in love wherever God calls you.

We might wonder where our faithfulness today will lead. I don’t have the answer to that question, but I do know that, like Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer, we don’t know the future of our culture. Even more, I know that it is not up to us. As T.S. Eliot wrote, “For us there is only the trying. The rest is none of our business.”

What is up to us is to courageously commit ourselves to truth and virtue, to love of God and our neighbors, and to care for the victims of bad ideas in this cultural moment. Thank you for walking with us and being a profound example of this courageous faith.

In Christ,

JOHN STONESTREET President

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