WASHINGTON (RNS)—There are more Latino voters in the United States than ever. As reporters and pundits seek to understand this important voting bloc, they’re digging into the faith of Hispanic communities.

But as this election cycle brings yet another flurry of trend pieces about Latino evangelicals, some narratives distort the big picture of Latino faith. Others are just myths.

Consider the facts about Latino voters and their faith:

The share of U.S. Latino adults who are evangelical has been relatively steady in the last decade.

Many trend pieces about Latino voters claim that there has been a significant spike in the Latino evangelical population. However, that narrative doesn’t bear out in the polling.

In 2022, Pew Research Center found 15 percent of U.S. Latino adults were evangelical, the same percentage that was evangelical in 2012. In the years in between, that statistic has dropped to 14 percent or been as high as 19 percent.

The Public Religion Research Institute found in 2013 Hispanic Protestants, a category that also includes nonevangelicals such as mainline Christians, made up 3 percent of Americans. In 2023, those numbers grew to 4 percent.

The small growth PRRI has tracked comes as the overall number of U.S. Latinos is growing, as is the share of the U.S. population they represent. In 2022, Latinos made up nearly 1 in 5 Americans, up from 16 percent in 2010.

This growth does not translate to a significantly expanding Latino evangelical population, yet this misunderstanding persists.

A segment on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Sept. 5 broadcast that narrative, with journalist Paola Ramos saying, “You even have some scholars like Mark Mulder from Calvin University that predict that by 2030, over 50 percent of Latinos will identify as evangelical.”

In an email, Mulder told RNS Ramos had misquoted a prediction he and others made in a 2017 book that included all Latino Protestants, a larger category.

Asked whether he stood by that prediction in 2024, Mulder pointed out the book had been written in 2015, almost a decade ago.

“Right now, no, that does not seem plausible,” he wrote.

A December 2023 poll by PRRI also found Hispanic Protestants’ net gain in membership is relatively small. Only 1.4 percent of the U.S. population has become Hispanic Protestant after growing up with a different childhood religion, but 0.9 percent of those raised Hispanic Protestants have left the faith.

In polling released in August, PRRI found younger Latino adults in both the 18-to-29 and 30-to-49 age cohorts were more likely to be Protestant than older generations, a trend that has held over the last decade.

But while evangelical Protestants have almost always outnumbered nonevangelical Protestants by more than 2-to-1 overall, that gap has been smaller in the 18-to-29 age cohort over the years, with relatively higher representation of nonevangelical Protestants. PRRI pollsters caution that it can be difficult to draw certain conclusions when sample sizes are small.

Eli Valentín, an ordained Pentecostal and founder of the think tank Institute for Latino Politics and Policy, said although Latino evangelical political engagement is currently peaking, this group’s involvement in the religious right began during George W. Bush’s presidency.

While many Latino evangelical traditions began after white evangelical proselytization, the groups had more distance between them in political engagement and worship traditions until recently, said Valentín, a Democratic strategist. Still, Latino evangelical Protestants remain politically diverse.

In 2022, Pew found half of Latino evangelicals identify as Republicans or lean that way, and 44 percent identify as Democrats or lean that way, making the group more conservative than Catholic or religiously unaffiliated Latinos.

A poll from The 19th and SurveyMonkey conducted Aug. 26 to Sept. 4 and released Sept. 10 found 63 percent of Hispanic Protestants would vote for Donald Trump if the election were held today, and 29 percent would vote for Kamala Harris.

More Hispanic Protestants than the national average (36 percent) said inflation and the cost of living was the issue that mattered most to them, with 44 percent identifying that as a priority. And while only 6 percent identified abortion as their top issue, 57 percent of Hispanic Protestants said abortion should be illegal in most or all cases.

Religiously unaffiliated Latinos are seeing the largest growth of any faith category among Latinos.

In 2022, 30 percent of U.S. Latino adults were religiously unaffiliated, up from 10 percent in 2010, according to Pew polling. But the trend pieces haven’t followed. Almost half (49 percent) of U.S. Latinos ages 18 to 29 are religiously unaffiliated, while older generations tend to affiliate with religion.

This group leans significantly Democratic, with 66 percent identifying with the party or leaning that way and 24 percent identifying with Republicans.

In The 19th’s Sept. 10 poll, 59 percent of Hispanics who said their religion was “nothing in particular” indicated they would support Harris if the election were held today, and 28 percent said they would support Trump. Three percent indicated support for a third candidate, and 10 percent were undecided.

Atheist and agnostic Hispanics, who make up only about 5 percent of Hispanics polled, more heavily favored Harris, with 68 percent support. Less than a quarter (22 percent) said they would support Trump, and 4 percent said they would support a third candidate, with 5 percent remaining undecided.

Both groups have high support for abortion rights, even as fewer than 1 in 10 in each group cited it as their top issue. Eighty-seven percent of Hispanics whose religion is “nothing in particular” think abortion should be legal in most or all cases, and 94 percent of Hispanic atheists or agnostics say the same.

Like other groups, a plurality of Hispanics whose religion is “nothing in particular” say inflation and the cost of living is the top issue (39 percent), and 32 percent of Hispanic atheists and agnostics agree.

Catholics are still the largest religious group among Latinos.

Even as Catholicism experiences a strong trend of disaffiliation, 43 percent of U.S. Latino adults are Catholic, according to Pew data from 2022.

PRRI found in 2023 that 11.6 percent of the general U.S. population are Hispanic Catholics. In the general U.S. population, 3.7 percent are former Hispanic Catholics and 0.4 percent are Hispanic Catholic converts.

While white Catholics are more likely to be Republican, Latino Catholics are more likely to be Democratic. In 2020, Latino Catholics backed Joe Biden over Trump by a 35-point margin.

In a 2023 Pew poll, 60 percent of Latino Catholics said they were Democrats or leaned Democratic, while 35 percent said they were Republicans or leaned Republican.

In the 19th’s Sept. 10 poll, a third of Hispanic Catholics (33 percent) said they would vote for Trump if the election were held today, while about half (52 percent) indicated they would support Harris. About 1 in 10 (11 percent) are undecided, and another 2 percent plan to vote for a third candidate.

Like other groups, 40 percent of Hispanic Catholics said inflation and the cost of living is the most important issue.

While only 1 in 20 (5 percent) cited abortion as their top issue, 70 percent of Hispanic Catholics said it should be legal in all or most cases, despite U.S. Catholic bishops’ teaching that the “threat of abortion” should be Catholic voters’ “preeminent priority.” About a quarter (28 percent) said it should be illegal in most or all cases.

A birds-eye view of the data shows the Latino evangelical population is not significantly growing. Instead, religious disaffiliation is chipping away at the Catholic base. The impacts of these trends on this year’s election remain to be seen.

“When it comes to Latino voters, the faith component, the religious component is still underexplored,” Valentín said.

NASHVILLE (BP)—The Southern Baptist Convention is a diverse, cooperative “force for good” that is poised to move forward on mission, Jeff Iorg said at his installation as the eighth president of the SBC Executive Committee Sept. 16 in Nashville.

Whether in Christian youth education and discipleship, church planting and development, pastoral and ministerial preparation, evangelism, national and international missions, women’s ministry or financial giving, Southern Baptists have excelled through cooperation, Iorg said.

“Southern Baptists, cooperation around God’s mission is a convictional mindset worth preserving,” Iorg said. “My willingness to serve as president of the Executive Committee rests on God’s call, my gratitude to Southern Baptists and my bedrock conviction that Southern Baptists are a force for good.”

He described himself and his wife Ann as “a product of Southern Baptists at their best,” who accepted his leadership role at the Executive Committee in appreciation for all Southern Baptists have done for the two of them.

“Southern Baptists are a compassionate, devoted, sacrificial people who obey the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment. We are on mission to share the Gospel with every person and express God’s love in every context,” Iorg said at his installation at the September Executive Committee meeting.

“We believe the Bible is truth—and while we argue often over how to interpret the Bible, we are uncompromising in our commitment to it as our absolute authority.”

Iorg pointed to a Southern Baptist “force for good” that:

• Operates the largest missions sending agency, with more than 3,500 international missionaries deployed.
• Operates the largest domestic church planting movement with a network of nearly 47,000 churches.
• Gave $10 billion in tithes and offerings in fiscal 2023, with more than $457 million of that forwarded to the Cooperative Program to support national and international missions.
• Operates the largest seminary system in the United States with 22,000 students preparing for ministry leadership at six SBC seminaries and their five colleges.
• Has 270,000 students enrolled in more than 50 Southern Baptist affiliated colleges and universities.
• On a typical Sunday, has more than 4 million people gathered in churches for worship and 2.5 million for Bible study.
• Celebrated more than 3,500 confessions of faith in Christ among 114,000 teenagers and children at Lifeway Christian Resources summer camps in 2024, with 1,500 of them expressing a call to ministry.

In 2023, Southern Baptists responded to disasters through the strength of 32,000 volunteers, and supported those in need globally by giving more than $43 million to Send Relief, the SBC’s international compassion ministry arm.

Through entities, state conventions and partners, Southern Baptists provide such services as residential care for children, adoption facilitation, collegiate ministries and financial aid to widows.

Work on shortcomings, pursue God’s mission

Iorg implored Southern Baptists to reject the “debilitating myth” that they must be perfect in order to persuasively spread the gospel, but must instead work on our shortcomings while pursuing God’s mission.

“Spiritual maturation and missional advance are parallel, not sequential, experiences,” he said. “Our gospel integrity rests on humbly and honestly acknowledging our sins, not eliminating them before we can share the gospel with others.

“Unbelievers are willing to receive a clear witness about Jesus from authentic, imperfect believers. When our attitude is right, unbelievers are far less judgmental of us than our critics claim.”

He defended cooperation as “the best way for thousands of autonomous churches to work toward the common good of sharing the gospel with the entire world,” despite the process “being under attack from both external critics and internal detractors.”

Continue to cooperate, he encouraged, because it works, because the Bible says we can do more collectively than by ourselves, because it expresses unity and because while our churches are autonomous, they are not independent.

“While other denominations strain to preserve loyalty through top-down control, experience doctrinal error when power is vested in a heretical few, demand financial support through assessments, and struggle to produce leaders loyal to their movement,” Iorg said, “our cooperative efforts have excelled and expanded for more than 175 years.

“We cooperate because cooperation works—producing supernatural spiritual results which reflect God’s grace, power and favor on our movement.”

Servanthood emphasized

Servanthood was the focus of the installation that included many who have been impactful in Iorg’s ministry, including Burtis Williams, who led Iorg to Christ at a county fair 50 years ago in Texas—and 25 years later led Iorg’s mother to Christ.

Victor Chayasirisobhon, associational missions strategist for the Orange County Baptist Association, spoke of Iorg’s commitment to service. David Johnson, executive director and state missionary of the Arizona Missionary Network of Southern Baptists, testified of Iorg’s commitment to partnerships.

Neal Hughes, who led the search committee that recommended Iorg as Executive Committee president, shared the selection committee’s journey to Iorg as the candidate for the post.

Vernon Dee Stokes of Midland, longtime public educator and trustee of Wayland Baptist University, died Sept. 14. He was 85. He was born Jan. 1, 1939, in Arch, N.M., to Scott Smith Stokes and Alma Rachel Copeland Stokes. He lived his early years in eastern New Mexico until his family relocated to Sundown, where his father worked in the oilfield. After graduating from Sundown High School, he went to college at Wayland Baptist College, where he graduated in 1959. At Wayland, he met Belva Ramsey, and they married Nov. 1, 1958. Stokes’ career in public education spanned 40 years. He was first a classroom teacher and coach, then a high school administrator.  He received his master’s degree in 1966 and his doctorate in education from Texas Tech in 1970.  He worked as a consultant at West Texas Education Center in Midland—later Region 18 Education Service Center—before becoming assistant superintendent for the Burleson Independent School District. In 1981, he became deputy director and later executive director of Region 18. When he retired from that role in 1996, he almost immediately was called to serve as interim superintendent of Ector County Independent School District. He finished his years in public education in 2001 as superintendent of schools at Ector County ISD. His commitment to higher education was lived out through his longtime support of Wayland Baptist University. He served on Wayland’s board of trustees for 19 years and chaired the board for three years. “Dr. Stokes was a beacon of leadership and a pillar of the Wayland family,” said Wayland President Donna Hedgepath. “His profound impact on education and his unwavering dedication to serving others embody the values we hold dear at Wayland. We are deeply grateful for his numerous contributions and his enduring legacy.” Wayland named Stokes as Distinguished Alum for Leadership in 1987, and he received the Keeper of the Flame Award in 2015. He was named Wayland’s Distinguished Alumni Benefactor in 2019, and he received the President’s Award in 2022 and the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2024. Beginning when he was a teenager, Stokes led music and served in other staff positions at various churches. He taught Sunday school more than 60 years, and he was a deacon. He served the Baptist General Convention of Texas as a member of the Christian Education Coordinating Board. He was preceded in death by daughters Shelly Stokes Coll and Shauna Stokes Sanderson and by a great-granddaughter. He is survived by his wife of nearly 66 years, Belva; son Shane Stokes and wife Kim; son Shannon Stokes and wife Kimberly; 15 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren and four sisters. A memorial service is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 20 at First Baptist Church in Midland. Memorial gifts can be given to Ezekiel Department Benevolence Fund at First Baptist Church, InStep Ministry or the Stokes Endowed Scholarship at Wayland Baptist University.

John Theodore “Ted” Sanders, former trustee and distinguished alumnus of Wayland Baptist University, died Sept. 8 in Angel Fire, N.M. He was 82. He was born Sept. 19, 1941, in Littlefield to John “Jay” Duff Sanders and Phyllis Sanders and grew up in Friona. A basketball scholarship enabled him to attend Wayland, where he met Beverly McSwain at a hayride. They married during their senior year of college. After he earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Wayland, he went on to earn a master’s degree from Washington State University in Pullman and his doctorate from the University of Nevada at Reno. His career spanned several significant roles, including senior leadership positions in the New Mexico Department of Education, and as state education chief in Nevada, Illinois and Ohio. He also served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush and was president of the Southern Illinois University system. “Dr. Sanders was a visionary leader whose passion for education was matched only by his dedication to serving students and educators across the nation,” Wayland President Donna Hedgepath said. “His remarkable journey from a student athlete at Wayland to a national leader in education exemplifies the transformative impact of lifelong learning and service. We are profoundly grateful for his contributions to our university and his enduring legacy.” He is survived by his wife Beverly of Frisco; daughter Audrey Sanders Wright of Texarkana, Ark.; son John (Drew) Andrew Sanders and wife Angie of Overland Park, Kan.; daughter April Sanders Helm and husband Matthew of Deforest, Wisc.; son Anthony (Tony) Sanders of Elgin, Ill.; eight grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and brothers Thomas and David Sanders.

CHICAGO (RNS)—Good leaders often are told to play to their strengths and hide their weaknesses. That really never has worked for disability activist and nonprofit leader Joni Eareckson Tada.

Paralyzed from the neck down, she can’t disguise what many people perceive as a weakness. And, ultimately, that has been pivotal to her success, said Tada, 74.

She wasn’t tempted to pretend she could do it all herself and she has always been well aware she needs help.

So, when Tada, an author and artist known mostly as just “Joni,” took the stage at this summer’s annual Global Leadership Summit held at Willow Creek, a Chicago-area megachurch, she told the pastors and other leaders gathered that if they want to succeed they are going to have to admit their imperfections.

“The most effective leaders do not rise to power in spite of their weakness,” she said. “They lead with power because of their weakness.”

That lesson is a day-to-day reality for Joni, who was paralyzed at age 17 more than 50 years ago. As a result, she relies on others for the most mundane of tasks.

With that help, she became a best-selling author, a popular speaker, an artist who paints by holding the brush in her mouth, and leader of Joni and Friends, a nonprofit with a nearly $40 million-a-year budget that assists families living with disabilities.

She spoke with RNS in late August about her speech to the Global Leadership Summit, her latest book, and what she has learned in four decades as a nonprofit leader. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The speakers at the Global Leadership Summit are often folks who have had unprecedented success and tell stories focused on winning. But that’s not exactly your message, is it?

My speech was mainly about how God delights in recruiting people who don’t naturally shine with their giftedness. He delights in using their weakness to get things done.

The whole point was to talk about how God loves to leverage weakness and minimize power. That’s not the way the kingdoms of this world work, but it is the way of what many call the upside-down kingdom of the Bible. You have to be poor in order to be rich. You have to be weak in order to be strong. You have to be humble in order to be exalted. Those kinds of things.

Those things are not necessarily considered leadership skills or leadership tactics.

Most gifted leaders tend to rely on their own strengths without relying on the strengths of others—and especially the strength of God. I think leadership is a spiritual gift. So, if leadership is a gift from God, then he is the source of the strength, the ingenuity, the passion and the vision that leaders have.

You are a successful writer and speaker and have an ability to connect with people. You lead a thriving nonprofit. And yet, you also have to rely on others for the simplest of things. What have you learned from that?

I have to rely on people just to help me with the most menial tasks—bathing, dressing, getting me up in my wheelchair. There are countless times when I must rely on others, and that teaches you to be grateful and to admit I can’t do this by myself. I’ve got to ask for help. And when help is provided, I’d better be grateful.

A lot of those things have translated into the way I lead. I surround myself with capable leaders, people who are more gifted than I am—people whose ideas I welcome. Just because I’m the CEO does not mean that I hog the spotlight. It’s always a team effort.

That’s why it’s called Joni and Friends.

Joni and Friends has been around for 45 years. Have you seen things change in how churches deal with disabilities during that time? 

I think churches, for the most part, have been woefully behind our society in many respects. I helped draft the original Americans with Disabilities Act, and we have gotten rid of discriminatory policies that prevented qualified people with disabilities from getting jobs, and barriers have been removed. But the church is exempt from a lot of that, and so the church lagged behind for many years.

My campaign for the last 45 years has been to help the church see that God thinks people with disabilities should be treated with special honor, and they should be embraced and welcomed.

The church is stepping up to speed now. We are excited to see so many congregations across the country developing effective outreaches to those with disabilities, putting people with disabilities in places of leadership, and accommodating more people.

I wanted to pivot for a second and ask you about your book about Brother Lawrence, the monk who wrote about finding God’s presence while doing mundane tasks like working in the kitchen. Why revisit that book now?

Well, I read that book back in the ’60s, when it was very popular, and everybody seemed to be reading it. Then when COVID occurred in 2020, and we were all sequestered and reading everything we had on our bookshelves, I pulled it down, reread it, looked at it, and thought, “Oh, my goodness, this is the way I live.”

I practice the presence of Jesus every single day. Except I’m not working among pots and pans in a kitchen. I’m working with wheelchairs and battery chargers and leg bags and bedpans and things like that.

It was an interesting journey looking through it and thinking, “Wow, I can write something a little more current,” but yet, at the same time, introduce a whole new generation to Brother Lawrence, in hopes that they will pick his work off the library shelf as well.

RNS does a lot of reporting on the changing religious landscape and the way that the loss of influence has made religious people very tense and worried. What do you say to people who worry about losing cultural power?

Culture is not changed just because you vote somebody into office. It begins with your own life, the way you relate at the grocery store, the way you relate to your neighborhood. If everybody who is worried about losing influence would just start influencing for good the people in their neighborhood—the elderly person down the street, the mom with a special-needs child—we can make a difference. That’s where culture happens.

When we care for people in our neighborhoods, in the grocery store and in the marketplace, we invite other people to care, and we invite other people to experience what community should be like. Culture changes on a local level, (with) prayer and a good solid witness. In other words: “Here’s my life. What can I do to make your life happy and more meaningful? How can I serve you today? What can I do to assist you?”

I mean, we’re all starved for that kind of person in our lives. Each of us can be that person in our communities, and I think that’s where the influence starts.

PHILADELPHIA (BP)—Generation Z, the first to grow up with smartphones and tablets, is the most fearful and anxious of any age, the American Bible Society said in its latest release from the 2024 State of the Bible.

But regular Bible engagement, a practice that attracts only 11 percent of Gen Z, reduces anxiety by half and can improve other markers of emotional health, study authors said.

“Our youngest adults (ages 18-27) have more fears, greater anxiety, lower self-esteem and less affirmation from peers than any older generation. This news sounds an alarm for all Christians to do what they can to help,” said John Plake, American Bible Society chief innovation officer and State of the Bible editor in chief.

“The good news is that our data shows the Bible makes a major difference. For instance, Gen Z reports far more clinical anxiety symptoms than any older group. But young adults who engage with the Bible—reading it regularly and applying it to their lives—experience half the anxiety of their peers.”

Impact of Bible engagement

Scripture-engaged Gen Z can score just as well as any other group on several measures of emotional health, but the group ranks lowest in Scripture engagement among all generations. As such, all findings regarding Bible engaged Gen Z members are from a comparatively small cohort, study authors said.

Extreme fears of grief and loss, family stress or trauma, and financial stress or hardship are chief among their concerns, cited among nearly a third of Gen Z respondents, followed by moderate levels of fears of those matters among 45 percent of Gen Z, study authors said.

Researchers gauged anxiety on a scale of 0 to 20, based on responses to five questions about clinical symptoms of anxiety. Overall, Gen Z fell at 6.6 on the anxiety scale, followed by Millennials at 6.1, Gen X at 5, and Boomers+ at 3.3.

Differences were found when Gen Z was separated into older and younger groups and by gender, but study authors were careful to draw conclusions, based on the small size of the study subset. Still, older female Gen Z members, ages 23 to 27, scored 7.9 on the anxiety scale, compared to young Gen Z females, who scored 6.6.

“The Bible says, ‘God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him’ (1 Peter 5:7); ‘Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything’ (Philippians 4:6); and ‘Don’t worry about tomorrow’ (Matthew 6:34). From these and another dozen references, we see the Bible promoting trust and prayer as powerful responses to anxiety,” study authors wrote.

“So, do people who engage with Scripture report less anxiety? Yes, and the difference is stunning.”

Bible-engaged Gen Z members, on the whole, ranked 3.4 on the anxiety scale, about the same as Bible-engaged Boomers+, 3.1. But Bible-disengaged Gen Z members registered anxiety levels of 7.1.

Gen Z is the least likely to turn to the faith community and medical professionals for help navigating mental health issues, researchers found. Instead, Gen Z is more apt to turn to a trusted family member or social media for help, although only 15 percent of Gen Z would turn to social media platforms for help.

Regarding fears, financial stress or hardship strikes extreme fear in 31 percent of Gen Z, compared to 21 percent of Gen X, 20 percent of Millennials and 12 percent of Boomers.

Grief and loss? Thirty-one percent of Gen Z are extremely fearful, outpacing 21 percent of Millennials, 19 percent of Gen X and 14 percent of Boomers. Extreme fear of family stress or trauma befalls 29 percent of Gen Z, 20 percent of Millennials, 19 percent of Gen X and 10 percent of Boomers.

Other concerns cited, all falling below 20 percent for all generations, were fears of physical and sexual assault, verbal attacks or bullying; racism, bigotry or discrimination; or fear of hostility from people one has offended. People are fearful of war and civil unrest, mass shootings and the effects of global warming.

Among other findings:

• 52 percent of Americans have personally experienced or witnessed trauma, and a fifth are affected by it most or all of the time.
• 23 percent of Gen Z say trauma overwhelmingly impacts their lives.
• Millennials, at 27 percent, are the most likely to have met with a mental health counselor in the past year; followed by Gen Z at 24 percent, Gen X at 23 percent, and Boomers+ at 12 percent.

State of the Bible is based on a nationally representative survey conducted for the American Bible Society by NORC (previously the National Opinion Research Center) at the University of Chicago, using the AmeriSpeak panel. Findings are based on 2,506 online interviews conducted in January 2024 with adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (RNS)—“Jesus said that he is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is with us in truth. And the truth is that Haitians are not eating pets in Springfield,” said Pastor Carl Ruby, gripping the pulpit of Central Christian Church in Springfield, Ohio.

Moments later, the 60-person congregation rose to its feet, applauding the five Haitian community leaders visiting on Sept.15.

“We love you,” Ruby said to them. “We are glad you’re here.”

Earlier in the week, the small church hadn’t been certain they would be worshipping on Sunday. Bomb threats and the presence of hate groups had the city on edge. But the board voted to meet, and Ruby took the opportunity to appeal to both President Biden and former President Trump.

“I call on our former president, President Trump, out of the goodness of his heart, out of the divine spark of God’s image that lives in every human being, to let people know that he was misinformed about what’s happening in our community, and to ask hate groups who are here to leave,” Ruby said.

He also called on President Biden to provide additional resources to support the expanding city, which has seen an influx of as many as 20,000 Haitian migrants in the past decade.

Bomb threats and verbal attacks

The appeal came after the midwestern city was thrust into the national spotlight during the most recent presidential debate, when former President Trump claimed Haitian migrants are “eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Since then, the debunked pet-eating line has become a “memeified” punchline. But for community members, effects of the remark have been no joke.

On Sept. 12, two schools, Springfield City Hall and Clark County offices closed in the wake of bomb threats. On Saturday, two Springfield hospitals closed due to bomb threats.

Flyers claiming to be from the Trinity White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan—a Kentucky offshoot of the white supremacist group—reportedly were distributed in Springfield.

“Foreigners & Haitians Out,” the flyers read, according to a photo obtained by RNS. “Join us and stand against forced immigration.”

Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio, which provides legal and case management services in Springfield but does not resettle migrants there, has faced verbal and written attacks, chief executive Tony Stieritz told America Magazine.

“My daughter asked me, ‘What’s going on dad?’” said Harold Herard, an engineer and member of the Haitian Community Help & Support Center who visited Ruby’s church on Sunday. “I tried to explain to her the situation, but I don’t want to put her in a situation of feeling fear about school.”

On Sunday, patrons and cashiers at a Dunkin’ Donuts in the south end of the city traded rumors about Haitians being arrested and consuming pets.

Churches say, ‘I am with you in the difficulties’

But later that afternoon, a different narrative unfolded just around the corner, where about 60 Haitians met at First Evangelical Haitian Church of Springfield for a weekly English-Speakers-of-Other-Languages course. Normally, the classes are stretched to find English-speaking conversation partners. But this week, about 30 volunteers—many from local churches—participated.

“I am with you in the difficulties,” the Haitian students practiced speaking in English. “Mwen avèk ou nan difikilte yo,” the English-speakers learned to respond in Haitian Creole.

At the end of the event, the English speakers distributed flowers and baked goods, while Haitian leaders thanked them for their solidarity.

“We are in amazement at how so much good is coming out of such difficulty,” said Heidi Earlywine, an English teacher and advocate who co-coordinates the ESOL classes.

Despite the welcoming atmosphere, some Haitian ESOL students voiced concerns about the level of scrutiny they’ve faced in Springfield this week, saying the toxic atmosphere had pushed them to consider relocating out of state.

Viles Dorsainvil, president of Springfield’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center and a former Moravian pastor, said he’s also heard Haitians debating whether to leave Springfield. But he hopes people stay a few more weeks before deciding.

“We have so many good leaders working with us,” Dorsainvil said. “And we do our best in our nonprofit to work through this situation with the community. I think that if we just take our time, we will navigate this together. But the tension is here. The fear is here.”

Skilled workers bring ‘tremendous gifts’

Once a bustling manufacturing town that produced farm equipment and other machinery, Springfield faced race riots in the early 20th century, and struggled with closing factories and a declining population at the tail end of the century.

Then, about a decade ago, the city launched a successful effort to bring in several businesses and companies that created thousands of new jobs. Haitian migrants facing political turmoil and gang violence in their home country began to arrive, filling job shortages and opening churches, shops and cafes.

“First Baptist Church is one part of a larger faith community and group of public service agencies that believe in the tremendous gifts that come along with the increase in population,” said Pastor Adam Banks, who pointed out the benefit of welcoming skilled Haitian professionals, including educators and health care specialists. “As a city that has seen its population decline for decades, this increase provides a great deal of hope.”

Countering rumors that resettlement organizations have been “bussing in” migrants, Herard said Haitians have arrived organically after hearing about jobs from other Haitians in the area.

The vast majority are here legally, many as recipients of Temporary Protected Status due to conditions in Haiti. Springfield’s Haitian population has swelled to between 12,000 and 20,000 in recent years, city officials estimate.

Influx of residents a boon but carries costs

Some longtime Springfield residents called the “pet-eating” rhetoric a distraction from the very real strains on local health, education and government resources facing the city.

The influx of residents has, according to many business owners, landlords and city officials, been a boon for the declining city, but it has also come with costs. Schools and hospitals are struggling to keep up with the growing population and the need for translation services and ESOL classes. Housing costs have risen, and the sudden increase in new drivers has prompted safety concerns.

In August 2023, tensions between Haitians and longtime Springfield residents ruptured when 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed in an accident caused by a Haitian migrant who crashed into a school bus. Clark’s parents have since asked that their family’s tragedy not be used to stoke hatred or be exploited for political gain.

City Council meetings were suddenly flooded with concerned residents, and Haitians became the targets of beatings and robberies. First Evangelical Haitian Church of Springfield was reportedly broken into.

But the fractures were subsiding when, this summer, Republican vice presidential nominee and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance cited Springfield as a failure of Biden’s immigration strategy.

“It really kind of quieted down until our local leaders reached out to J.D. Vance for help getting financial assistance,” said Ruby. “And instead of providing financial assistance, he politicized it.”

Herard said Springfield’s Haitian community is most in need of better translation services, as well as mental health support, particularly in the wake of last week’s debate. For now, many of Springfield’s churches are giving support by way of English classes, correcting misinformation, and displaying solidarity.

At the end of Central Christian Church’s Sunday service, congregants shuffled to the front of the sanctuary where they took Communion elements and bundles of small fliers intended for distribution.

“Mwen byen kontan ou la. Kris la renmen ou e mwen menm tou,” the fliers said in Haitian Creole. “I’m glad you are here. Christ loves you, and so do I.”

To Herard, the service was a welcome respite.

“It was a tough week,” he said. “Fear. Confusion. But today, we feel free.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Americans who hold Christian nationalist views are also likely to express support for forms of authoritarianism, according to a new report from the Public Religion Research Institute.

The report points to a possible link between those who advocate for a Christian nation and people who agree with statements such as the need to “smash the perversions eating away at our moral fiber and traditional beliefs.”

Melissa Deckman, CEO of PRRI, framed the study as an effort to connect recent research on Christian nationalism with longstanding efforts to assess authoritarianism.

“While most Americans do not espouse authoritarian views, our study demonstrates that such views are disproportionately held by Christian nationalists, who we know in our past research have been more prone to accept political violence and more likely to hold antidemocratic attitudes than other Americans,” Deckman said.

The survey included questions from PRRI’s ongoing study of Christian nationalism, which tracks support for the ideology by rating people on a scale of Adherents, Sympathizers, Skeptics or Rejecters.

Respondents also were asked whether they agree with statements such as, “What our country really needs is a strong, determined leader who will crush evil, and take us back to our true path,” and whether they think children should exhibit traits such as obedience and curiosity.

Measuring authoritarian leanings

Such questions were based on two well-known rubrics to measure authoritarian leanings: the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale, developed in 1950 by a group of scholars at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Child-Rearing Authoritarianism Scale, which social scientists use to measure similar trends with child-rearing preferences as a framework.

Researchers found striking connections in the responses. A large majority of Christian nationalism supporters (namely, Adherents and Sympathizers) also scored high on both the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (74 percent) and Child-Rearing Authoritarianism Scale (61 percent)—significantly more than Christian nationalism Skeptics and Rejecters (30 percent and 31 percent, respectively).

In addition, about half (51 percent) of those who scored high on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale also qualified as Christian nationalism supporters. The reverse was true among those with low Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale scores: only 7 percent could be classified as Christian nationalism supporters.

And while few Americans overall (34 percent) agreed the U.S. needs a “strong leader who is willing to break some rules,” the statement was supported by majorities of both Christian nationalism supporters (55 percent) and those who score high on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (59 percent).

Patriots or insurrectionists?

PRRI also asked questions about current events, such as whether respondents agreed that those who were convicted of crimes for participating in the Jan. 6 insurrection are “patriots” who are “being held hostage by the government,” or that Donald Trump should do “whatever it takes to be president” if he is not declared the winner outright in November.

Few Americans overall agreed with either statement (23 percent and 14 percent, respectively), but support was noticeably higher among supporters of Christian nationalism (44 percent and 28 percent) and those who scored high on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (38 percent and 24 percent).

Researchers also asked respondents whether they were supporters of “7 Mountains” theology, a belief system popular in some conservative circles that calls on Christians to seek control over the seven “mountains” of society, including politics.

Most Christian nationalist Sympathizers and Adherents (57 percent) said they backed the sentiment, as did significant percentages of those who scored high or very high on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (43 percent) or the Child-Rearing Authoritarianism Scale (35 percent).

The theology found its greatest support among white evangelical Protestants in the survey (48 percent), followed by around 4 in 10 Black Protestants (42 percent) and Hispanic Protestants (42 percent).

“Our new survey shows, too, a close intertwining of apocalyptic and dominionist views among Americans who support authoritarianism. In short, authoritarianism in America is not wholly secular, but has important religious dimensions,” Deckman said.

Supporters of Christian nationalism were also highly likely (84 percent) to agree that “the final battle between good and evil is upon us, and Christians should stand firm with the full armor of God,” as were those who scored high or very high on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (70 percent) and the Child-Rearing Authoritarianism Scale (61 percent).

While no group exhibited majority support for the idea that “American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country” (only 16 percent of Americans overall agreed), the idea was most popular among Christian nationalism supporters.

The survey revealed 33 percent of Adherents and Sympathizers saying they agreed, while 28 percent of those who scored high on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale and 21 percent who scored high on the Child-Rearing Authoritarianism Scale agreed.

ARLINGTON—For 38 years, Mission Arlington has existed to meet the needs of its community and “take church to the people,” founder and director of Mission Arlington Tillie Burgin explained.

Born in Arlington Aug. 24, 1936, Burgin recently celebrated her 88th birthday. But according to the Mission Arlington/Mission Metroplex Facebook page, she “still arrives early 7 days a week, and leaves late, passionate about serving her Lord and this precious community.”

Burgin does not see Mission Arlington as an organization. Instead, she said, “It is a way of life.” Other times she described it as “a church” or “a family.”

Burgin explained the idea for Mission Arlington grew out of a question she asked herself that she just couldn’t shake, “If you can do missions in Korea, why can’t you do it here?”

How it began

The history link on Mission Arlington’s website, explains the question goes back to before she and her late husband, Robert, served as missionaries with the Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board), teaching in South Korea.

Her father operated a gas station in Arlington, just around the corner from Mission Arlington. He was Methodist, but as he generally worked on Sundays, he rarely was in church.

He lived out his faith in serving his customers, but he was not on board with Tillie taking her two sons to move with her husband oversees.

He was the one who first posed the question, the mission’s history account explains. He saw no need for his daughter to head to South Korea. There was plenty to be done to care for people right in the family’s hometown of Arlington.

Burgin and her family went anyway. She said: “We didn’t fit then, either.” They were the first missionaries appointed through the Foreign Mission Board to serve as teachers, she explained.

Citing God’s hand in the process, Burgin said IMB hiring personnel told her they would not have considered the Burgins’ application to serve, had a request for teachers in South Korea not just come across the desk the day they received it.

Plans for medical growth

In May, Texas Baptists presented Mission Arlington/Mission Metroplex with $125,000 to expand their health clinic.

Burgin hopes the expanded clinic will make new types of care possible, but “the infrastructure has got to be strong, and that takes resources.”

Mission Arlington leaders are praying about how best to expand the clinic, Burgin said. They have had optometry equipment donated, but do not currently have an optometrist who can use it.

Hearing aid people come, but it’s only every six months. People are grateful when they can hear again after years of not being able to, but vision and hearing treatment are areas where they’d like to see an increase in their ability to provide care, Burgin said.

The clinic has an orthopedic doctor who regularly serves at Mission Arlington every Monday. She said no one goes through his office without hearing the gospel. “It could be me, and I’m going to hear it,” she laughed.

The holistic care Mission Arlington provides is a draw to interns and doctors, Burgin explained. Providers want to serve where they not only can treat a wound but can care for a whole person.

The health care providers are glad to serve knowing their patients’ nutritional and other needs also can be addressed through the mission’s other ministries, Burgin said. It just takes time, prayer and preparation to discern which expansions they are able to support best.

The clinic is always open six days a week and one evening.

Burgin told a story about a young man who came in for help wearing a hoodie in the heat of the summer. Under the hoodie, he had a large growth down to his shoulder that he didn’t want to show. It was interfering with his ability to have a job.

The doctor he saw through Mission Arlington’s clinic was able to remove the growth. With it gone, the young man was able to go back to school, complete school and find employment.

“People find themselves in that kind of trouble, and we always want to be that place for them,” their “home” health clinic. Burgin said.

Burgin explained she prayed about the vision God gave her about doing missions in Arlington for seven years, until she met a lady who needed help with her electricity bill.

“Standing in her apartment, I said: ‘Can we start a Bible study in your apartment? And we’ll get your electricity turned on.’” And the ministry has grown since then, Burgin explained.

There were more people outside the walls of the church than there were inside, Burgin explained. And she knew from their service in Korea that “hanging out” where the people were could lead to ministry opportunities, but she said: “I never had a vision for this. God had the vision, and he just said: ‘Come along.’”

‘God’s Timing. God’s ways.’

“You can’t explain it,” she added. “All you have to do is experience it—God’s timing, God’s ways.”

Burgin said God had protected them from “so many things she’d wanted to do” with Mission Arlington. And many times, they’d figured they’d “done all they could do,” then God would use the ministry in a new way.

For instance, they were given multiple pallets of bottled water a few weeks ago. She said they set it to the side.

“I said, ‘Something’s going to happen, if we’ve got all this water,’” she recalled.

On Sept. 4, they took 12 to 15 pallets of water to Grand Prairie to help when the city’s water was deemed unsafe due to a foaming agent.

“We are not an organization. It is a way of life,” Burgin said.

They’re still doing things the way they always have, she said—praying about the next ministry, giving people opportunities to serve and give back when they have been served, keeping John 3:16 front and center, taking church to the people.

“And our definition of church is what we do almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she continued.

Then her cell phone rang.

“Excuse me. Let me answer this,” she said.

The young woman on the other end, frantic because she couldn’t get her car started, said she didn’t know if she should call.

“Always call me, OK? Yeah, we’ll send somebody to you,” she said.

Burgin said she tells them: “Always call. And that’s kind of what we do.”

“Whatever it takes,” she said, “that’s what we need to do” to follow God’s calling.

FORT WORTH (BP)—On Sept. 15, 1999, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary alumnus Jay Fannin was helping at a youth event he had organized at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, where he had been named the youth minister 20 months previously.

But that time of prayer and worship that was attended by 14 area church youth groups quickly turned into a tragedy when an armed man walked into the sanctuary and began shooting.

Eight people were killed and seven injured in the Wedgwood shooting, reportedly motivated by anti-Christian hate. Among the victims were teenagers attending the See You at the Pole prayer event, church members and seminary students and alumni.

Victims included alumna Sydney Browning, 36; students Shawn Brown, 23, and Susan “Kim” Jones, 23, who was about to start her first semester; Kristi Beckel, 14, daughter of alumnus Robert Beckel; and teens Cassandra Griffin, 14, Joseph Ennis, 14, and Justin Ray, 17.

Alumni Jeff Laster and Kevin Galey, staff counselor at Wedgwood, were injured.

‘Hearing noise and yelling and screaming’

Chris Shirley, dean of the Jack D. Terry School of Educational Ministries at Southwestern Seminary, was on staff at Wedgwood overseeing the adult education and singles ministries. He recalls that Wednesday night when he suddenly heard screaming coming from outside his teachers’ meeting.

“Things were happening all around church,” Shirley said of what started as a normal Wednesday night. His 10- and 4-year-old children were in their normal classes, and his wife was at the youth event.

“We started hearing noise and yelling and screaming. … And about the time we got up to figure out what was going on there, somebody came into the room where we were and told us what was happening and that we needed to get out.”

Jeff Laster, who at the time was preparing to graduate with a diploma in Christian education and served at Wedgwood as the facilities manager, was the first to encounter shooter Larry Ashbrook when he entered the church building.

Laster approached him to welcome him to the church and asked him not to smoke in the building, his hand stretched out to shake hands with him, when Ashbrook pulled a weapon and shot Laster in the abdomen and the arm.

Even while Laster saw the shooter move past him and begin firing at others, he recalls thinking: “I’ve been shot. I may die from this.” But almost simultaneously, he said he felt a sudden warmth and peace and believes God told him, “You’re not going to die.”

After shooting others in the lobby area, including Browning, who Laster said was one of his best friends, Ashbrook entered the sanctuary.

Initially thought it was an ill-advised prank

Fannin said he had been running the PowerPoint for the band that evening from the sound booth located in the balcony, as the regular teen A/V worker had not come that night.

When he heard the popping from the gunfire, Fannin said his first thought was that he was going to need to confront a student pulling an ill-advised prank. Columbine was still fresh in his memory.

But when he reached the hallway outside of the sanctuary and smelled the smoke and saw blood, he realized it was a real event.

The next minutes were filled with confusion, as Fannin said the shooter continued shooting, students tried to run away, and rumors of a second shooter and a hostage situation spread. Fannin led a couple leaders, including Brown, toward an office with the goal of calling 911, and sent someone to warn people in the nursery and other areas of the church.

Fannin said Brown would not enter the office but remained outside the door. Witness reports say Brown tried to speak with and stop the shooter, but within moments, Fannin heard the shots that killed Brown.

When he made his way back to the sanctuary, Fannin was relieved to see his wife run out. Her first words were ones Fannin believes God gave her: “Jay, this wasn’t your fault.”

Entering the sanctuary less than a minute before the police did, Fannin finally saw the result of the event. He saw parents trying to remove their injured children and students trying to carry out a friend who had been killed. He checked on other students who had been killed.

Rejuvenated by unity and prayer

Once outside the church building, gathering with the teenagers in a place that now holds a memorial of the event, Fannin said the magnitude of what happened finally struck him.

“All the kids came up and just surrounded me,” Fannin said. “And kind of in that moment, everything just kind of hit. … We all went to the ground and some guy, to this day, I don’t know who he is, began praying over me.”

Rejuvenated by that moment of unity and prayer, Fannin turned his focus to helping those around him.

Tears still come to Shirley’s eyes, even 25 years later, when he remembers how he felt evacuating the building and going to an elementary school across the street, and the relief he felt when he found his wife and children. He began to look for how he could serve the people around him.

“I was just kind of there for pastoral care during that period of time—talking to people, helping people, you know, trying to relay messages and things to people, and just be whatever help I could,” Shirley said.

That same night, Shirley and others in his singles ministry visited Laster, who was a member of the singles community, at the hospital. Laster remained in the hospital a month, delaying his graduation until the next semester. His doctors later told him they were surprised he survived.

Kenneth S. Hemphill, Southwestern president at the time of the shooting, came to the church the night it happened.

“Distraught parents searched for their children,” Hemphill wrote in an article he penned for a special edition of the Southwestern News printed not long after the shooting. “I stumbled through the scene as if watching from a distance. Soon, I would learn how deeply Southwestern had been affected.”

Support through the healing process

Southwestern provided support during the healing process, hosting the funeral for alumna Browning, holding a chapel service to pray for those impacted, and providing counseling to Wedgwood staff and members.

In weeks following the shooting, Dan Crawford, who was a member of Wedgwood and Southwestern faculty at the time and is today the senior professor emeritus of evangelism and missions, was commissioned by the church to write the story of what had happened.

Crawford interviewed about 100 people who witnessed or were directly impacted by the shooting and used those interviews to write the book, Night of Tragedy, Dawning of Light.

By the 20th anniversary of the shooting, he wrote a follow-up book, The Light Shines On, relating the story of the healing that followed as told by 46 people he interviewed, saying it was “their testimony of God’s grace over the 20 years since the shooting.”

The impact of the event continues for each of those involved, though in a variety of ways.

“I still can remember that the biggest lesson I learned through it was the influence of the body of Christ, the realness of the body of Christ,” Shirley said, adding over the months and even years that followed, the unity of the church strengthened as they healed together.

The global church also united behind them as Wedgwood received messages of encouragement and prayers from people from every continent except Antarctica. The walls of their hallways soon were covered with those messages and other gifts. One such gift, a poster with an angelic image and a Bible verse, is framed and hangs on the wall of Shirley’s office today.

Laster went on to graduate from Southwestern and continues to serve on staff at Wedgwood, now as the associate pastor for administration and missions.

“God brought me through it,” Laster said, though he adds the shooting still has a physical impact on his body. But while his role in the event has become a part of his testimony, Laster said it did not change the fact that God had a calling for him, which had led him to quit a job and move to Fort Worth to attend seminary.

“People come up and say, ‘Well, God has a plan for you now.’ God had a plan for me before. God wasn’t waiting until I got shot to have a plan for me,” Laster said, adding this experience led him to further believe in God’s sovereignty over every circumstance.

Fannin, who ended up serving as youth minister at Wedgwood 22 years and now is pastor at Shady Oaks Baptist Church in Hurst, also said the tragedy has created opportunities for him around the nation, as he speaks with police officers, churches and radio and television stations. Recently, he said he spoke with pastors and youth ministers in Georgia after a recent shooting at a school there to share with them a message of hope and healing.

“God is so good,” Fannin said. “I look back at the shooting honestly with a lot more appreciation for who God is and how he gets us through things and … that he works all things for good, even though it doesn’t seem like that’s possible.”

WACO—Simultaneously leading two Chicago churches as pastor demands resilience rooted in biblical truth, Charlie Dates told participants at a Baylor University leadership conference.

Dates, senior pastor of both Salem Baptist Church and Progressive Baptist Church in Chicago, offered leadership lessons at the “Leadership for the Long Haul Conference,” sponsored by the Program for the Future Church at Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary.

A resilient church leader must be a genuine servant who practices humility, Dates observed.

“I’ve come to see that servanthood has to be my identity, not my strategy,” he said.

The opening verses of the Old Testament book of Joshua identify Moses as “the servant of the Lord” and Joshua as “the servant of Moses,” he noted.

“It’s as if Joshua has to prove his person as a servant before he is called upon to be a leader,” Dates said.

People typically care little about the leadership courses a pastor has taken or the books on leadership he has read, he observed. But they care deeply when he shows up to provide comfort in their times of loss or bereavement.

“I’m learning that you’ve got to take the posture of a servant that kind of lets go of the cultural norms of greatness. … When it’s all said and done, only God is great,” Dates said.

Joshua’s call from God came when Moses died. While the man of God died, the mission of God continued, he noted.

“One of the pillars that helps us overcome our sense of inadequacy—my sense of inadequacy—is that while one major leader leaves, God has not left, and the work must continue forward,” Dates said.

Need ‘a prevailing commitment to truth’

A resilient leader must have “a prevailing commitment to truth,” he added.

God spoke to Joshua, and Joshua delivered that revealed truth to the people of Israel.

“There’s such a temptation to leave truth these days—to appeal to crowds,” Dates said. “I’m coming to discover that since we have a speaking God, I must speak for God the things God already has spoken.”

The opening chapter of Genesis reveals the power that is unleashed when God speaks, he noted. God spoke into being all of creation.

“There’s never been a moment in your life when God spoke and nothing happened,” Dates said. “When God speaks, things happen.”

When God spoke to Joshua, he offered assurance: “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.”

Resilience in pastoral leadership is made possible by “the undying, almost indefatigable realization that God is with me, even when I feel like I am by myself,” Dates said.

“Any leader who has ever been worth her or his salt has done so because God was with them.”

WACO—True leaders not only build trust, but also draw upon trust to bring about transformation, author Tod Bolsinger told church and nonprofit leaders during a conference at Baylor University.

“There is no transformation without trust,” Bolsinger told participants at the “Leadership for the Long Haul” conference, sponsored by the Program for the Future Church at Baylor’s Truett Theological Seminary.

However, if leaders want to produce transformation, they cannot just build a big “trust account” for the sake of securing their own positions, he emphasized.

“Leadership is engaging a community of people toward their own transformation so that they can accomplish a shared mission,” said Bolsinger, author of Canoeing the Mountains: Christian Leadership in Uncharted Territory. “Transformation requires us to take risks.”

Invest trust in transformation

Adaptive leaders who guide their people through changing circumstances understand they must “invest trust in transformation,” he insisted.

Effective leaders build trust with an eye toward transformation, putting together teams who help identify the unique gifts of the organization and determine how those gifts can be used to meet the needs of the world beyond the organization, he stressed.

“Pay attention to the pain points,” Bolsinger urged.

Recently, Bolsinger worked with leaders at Baylor to develop the university’s new strategic plan, “Baylor in Deeds,” focusing on the question: “What does the world need Baylor for?”

The strategic planning team led 93 listening sessions with 2,300 participants, received and tabulated 310 listening group surveys, received 114 white papers from 521 individuals who offered proposals, and conducted 71 external interviews.

Bolsinger echoed advice he learned from a conversation with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley: “Nobody cares if your institution survives. They only care if your institution cares about them.”

Charting a leadership journey

He pointed to the recent history of Baylor University as a case study in transformational leadership, building on President Linda Livingstone’s presentation about her “leadership journey” at Baylor.

Livingstone began service as Baylor’s 15th president in June 2017 during what she candidly described as “a dark time” in the school’s history, after an “institutional failure” to respond appropriately to sexual assault and sexual misconduct by student athletes.

“Baylor lost a tremendous amount of trust,” she said.

Pointing out there was “no honeymoon” period when she arrived, Livingstone immediately went to work to regain trust with alumni, students and potential students, parents and donors.

She and the board of regents chair held listening sessions with the “Baylor family” to allow them to be heard.

“We learned from our mistakes and made significant changes,” she said.

Those efforts bore fruit. In 2022 and 2023, national surveys revealed Baylor was among the nation’s Top 10 Most Trusted Universities, scoring the highest marks in Texas and in the Big 12 Conference.

“God’s love can redeem and heal broken trust,” Livingstone said. “God is working in ways we may not even realize.”

Focus on a future anchored in hope

Rather than simply build a trust account for its own sake, Bolsinger noted, Livingstone invested trust in transformation by focusing on the future.

Under her leadership, the university developed its “Illuminate” strategic plan, set an ambitious fund-raising goal and cast a vision to see Baylor become “a preeminent Christian research university.”

“As a leader, you must anchor yourself in hope during challenging times,” Livingstone said.

Baylor attained Research 1 status in December 2021—three years earlier than expected—and surpassed the $1.1 billion giving goal for its Give Light philanthropic campaign, raising a record $1.5 billion.

At the same time Baylor was navigating the trust-rebuilding process following the sexual abuse scandal, the university also had to “pivot and change” due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, she noted.

Effective leaders and the teams they build must “be nimble and flexible,” communicate honestly and transparently, rely on experts for the best information available at a given time, and “signal hope for the future,” Livingstone said.

“Don’t shy away from difficult situations, even when you don’t feel prepared,” she urged. “Each experience prepares you for the next challenge. Recognize God has placed you in a position of leadership for such a time as this.”