Personal Letter v2

If you want to change the world, pick up a pen and write. Martin Luther

If you want to change the world, open your keyboard and write. With apologies to Martin Luther. Bill Hull

Dear Readers and Friends,

THANK YOU those of you who took the time to support me by becoming a paid subscriber to my No Longer A Bystander columns—I am greatly encouraged! While we have a good start we want to give everyone a chance to make the switch to paid. If you are benefitting from the column we would appreciate it if you would do so. Right after Thanksgiving we will resume the column. That will give us a few days for this transition period. We do want to be clear that if you do not want to do this, the column will continue to be free as well.

Here is a message I recently gave to leaders in Nashville (approx 30min). It will encourage you. thebonhoefferproject.com/forum   —Scroll down to SESSION2 Bill Hull—Password: tbpgg2022s2

I start many a week with my head in my hands groaning and praying, asking God to give me something. God called me to be a writer. Yes, I started as a pastor, where I learned to study, teach, and lead people based on scripture. But the fundamentals of my life have always been to study and write. I entered adult life writing and now after pastoring churches and founding training ministries such as T-NET International and The Bonhoeffer Project, I am focused exclusively on writing and teaching once again. This is in no way a retreat or slowing down. The rigors of developing new material remains the hardest thing I have ever done. Each day I must make a choice, “Will I create today?” No one is telling me to work, the world is not on the edge of their chairs waiting for my columns. But the calling of God gets me from the breakfast table to the writing desk.

We live in a world gone mad. You as my readers know what I think and what I recommend. I believe that the problem is simple. We, as a church, have preached and live a gospel that says, “You can become a Christian and not follow Jesus.” It is a cheapened gospel, weak in faith and drowning in a passive grace, that gives grace and faith a bad name. When we separate conversion from discipleship, we get a gospel divorced from its power source and ability to transform. The church has stood by for the last fifty+ years and watched as the enemy has taken our culture, our lives, our families, and our institutions and wreaked havoc on them.

So, in the words of Martin Luther, each week I strike a blow for a gospel with demands. A gospel that includes discipleship as a natural part of what it means to be saved. A gospel where faith means to follow, where all who are called to salvation are called to discipleship—no exceptions, no excuses. Discipleship as a life, not a program. Discipleship as an apprentice of Jesus. Discipleship that follows Jesus even when we are afraid and we don’t know where he is taking us. Discipleship where we will repent of our sins, believe the good news, and follow him. Where we are NO LONGER A BYSTANDER.

I am into the second year of weekly columns. It takes a good deal of time to identify subjects, do the research, and write the column. My very capable editor, my wife, Jane spends an equal amount of time weekly to polish, question, illustrate, and sometimes correct the text. There is no taking the easy way out under her watchful eye. We published last year’s columns in the volume No Longer A Bystander which is available in print and kindle at amazon.com.

I need your encouragement and affirmation—PLEASE SUBSCRIBE

You can join Jane and me in this ministry by becoming a paid subscriber at 10.00 a month. You can do this by going to billhull@substack.com and selecting a payment option. The articles will always remain free and we hope you will continue to read and share these columns with others.

I am calling the church to Repent of our sin of compromising our gospel. To Rethink our gospel, and finally, Rebuild our gospel. The result will be effective, well prepared disciples who are willing to speak up, stand up, and engage the false ideas and strongholds that keep people from knowing God.

If you decide to help us continue this work, there is a prompt on this letter which will be a link to subscribe. Substack uses Stripe to handle subscriptions. FYI Substack charges 10% and Stripe 2.9% + 30 cent transaction fee.