Adam Mallette

A New Ebenezer

Today, our family erects an Ebenezer.

In 1757, Robert Robinson penned the words to the great hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” At the young age of 22, Robinson reflected on his recent conversion to the faith at the preaching of George Whitfield. In his hymn, he cried out to God saying, “Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I’ve come.” He was referencing 1 Samuel 7:12-13 which says: “Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, explaining, ‘The Lord has helped us to this point.'” Samuel erected a stone to acknowledge and remember the Lord’s help. An Ebenezer. Today marks a day for our family to acknowledge and celebrate the Lord’s help.

The path for Adam and Heather is full of such stones. The day we were baptized. The day we were engaged. The day we wed. The day our children were born. The day they were baptized. The day we kissed goodbye for combat. The day we reunited. Our calling to ministry. Our calling to Las Vegas. Our lives are full of those moments frozen in time and fixed in our memory. Moments that forever mark our lives. Moments made possible by the divine and those in His service.

On December 6, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas a new Ebenezer was erected. Today, I had the privilege of earning a PhD in Pastoral Ministry from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I completed the 31st grade, and for the first time since 2012, am no longer a student at Southwestern Seminary. My doctoral studies spanned 8 years, 3 ministry positions, 3 seminary administrations, 3 family moves, and everything in between. The dissertation covers 7 chapters, 189 pages, and over 55,000 words. My heart cries out to the Lord: Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I’ve come. The Lord has rescued us indeed!

This day isn’t possible without God’s help and the help of those who have blessed our family. There are too many to name, but God knows who they are. And perhaps the opening pages of my writing summarize my heart best. So, let me conclude with the page of acknowledgment from the dissertation entitled: “Pastoral Exemplar: James T. Draper, Jr’s Diplomatic Role in the Conservative Resurgence of the Southern Baptist Convention.”

Acknowledgements

The list of those who have made this dissertation evolve from concept to reality is extensive. Drs. Tommy Kiker and Madison Grace have been the unseen heroes in this project, faithfully shepherding my efforts to completion even as the seminary transitioned administratively. Men like Drs. Steven Smith, Matthew McKellar, and Deron Biles have faithfully aided in this project from conception. A special thanks is due to Dr. Jill Botticelli Cabal and the team of archivists at Southwestern Seminary.

This work could not have been completed without my colleagues at Southwestern Seminary and those faithful churches in which I have had the opportunity to preach and serve. Most especially, I owe my gratitude to the elders and people of King’s Church in Las Vegas, Nevada. Thank you for loving our family. It is my great privilege to be among you and to be your pastor.

Most importantly, I owe thanks to my family. To my children, thank you for praying for your daddy and giving me the time away to finish this task. Thank you for being patient with me as God works on my heart and helps me to be more like him. To my bride I owe my deepest gratitude. Thank you for your commitment to Christ. Thank you for your investment in our family. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for following me from duty-station to duty-station and ministry assignment to ministry assignment. In the best of times and the darkest hours. I simply don’t finish this work without you. If I lead our home it is only because you follow.

Adam Mallette

The Top 10 Things Search Teams Get Wrong

Last weekend I had the opportunity to speak at the Nevada Baptist Convention’s Equip Conference. Kudos to state leadership Damian Cirincione and Bradley Linkins for orchestrating this conference. The conference was intensely practical and successful by all accounts.  

Ministry practitioners from Nevada and across the United States gathered to equip local church volunteers serving in different facets of church ministry.  The focus of my breakout session was to speak on the mistakes churches make in the search for their next pastor or staff member.  The below are just a few reflections from that session for those churches entering that process now or in the future.

The search process for a Pastor or ministry staff member is often fraught with missteps and anxiety.  Search Teams find themselves in the difficult position of finding the next person God has for their church without a clear sense of where to begin and what direction to proceed.  This lack of understanding often leads to mistakes being made in the search.  

God has shown He is capable of using flawed people and processes to find the right answer.  And yet, 1 Corinthians 14:40 demonstrates there is still the biblical call to do everything in good order.  Further, both the church and the candidate would want to exercise Matthew 7:12’s “Golden Rule” in their relations with each other.  

Consider this truth:  In most settings, Pastors and their families are the only people asked to join a church after worshiping with them one time.  While there is certainly the sense that developing a future leader from within would be beneficial, the reality is this is not the case in most Southern Baptist churches.  Lead Pastors are often found outside of the church and the process for finding them can take many twists and turns.  Those twists and turns can lead to mistakes, and its those mistakes I’ve outlined below:

#10 Mistake:  Having an Unrealistic Timeline

The general rule of thumb is one month of search for every year the previous pastor served.  Of course, this rule operates on a curve.  A forty year pastorate does not guarantee a forty-month search.  Yet, experientially, churches often underestimate how long it will take them to find a candidate.  This staffing situation is unlike anything typical in a corporate setting.  

#9 Mistake:  Starting with an Unclear and Poor Process

Many who serve on search teams are unaware of exactly how to go about the process of finding their next pastor.  There is the temptation to launch right into soliciting resumes from an advertisement in the state baptist paper.  There is the temptation to view this process through an overly secular lens.   

After beginning in prayer, the team must outline the process for finding their next pastor.  Who will serve as the chairperson, vice-chair, and secretary for the team?  In what order will the search proceed and how frequently will the team meet?  All of these questions and more must be answered.  Oftentimes, this will be done in consultation with the outgoing pastor, a convention or associational staff member, a transitional pastor, or a trusted local church pastor.  

Make wise decisions about who you invite to speak into your search process.  Not all consultation is wise, neutral, or aware of your unique church culture.

#8 Mistake:  Communicating Poorly

When the search team enters the candidate’s life, the candidate and his family are now riding an emotional roller coaster.  Perhaps they were seeking out this opportunity.  Perhaps it just found them.  But there is an emotional upheaval once the process begins.  With that said, great care has to be taken to communicate well.

The process of interacting with a candidate is more dating than job search.  You are trying to discern if they are God’s man for you and they are trying to discern if your church is right for them.  A failure to communicate regularly with the candidate will almost always lead to a failed search.  After all, who would continue to seek out a prospective suitor if they didn’t return your calls or emails?  

As a rule of thumb, your chairperson should be the lone individual communicating with them.  Which means that your chairperson not only needs to be a person who can lead your team meetings, but he or she needs to have a high-social IQ.  After all, the candidate will assume the best (or the worst) of your church based upon their interactions with the chairperson.

Further, the team needs to communicate with the church!  Seek the church out to understand their sense of the needs for the position as well as their understanding of the process.  Keeping the body informed of your process will often prevent misunderstandings and quell anxiousness.

#7 Mistake:  Poor Self-Assessment

Churches are often the worst at fairly assessing their current condition.  They often view their physical, spiritual, and financial health through rose colored glasses.  And while we all want to be proud of our church, we need to see things as they are, not as we remember them in their glory days.  

As a candidate, I’ll ask the church to produce their constitution and bylaws, along with a budget vs. actual financial statement.  If I need to drill down deeper, I’ll ask the church to produce their Annual Church Profile (ACP) from the last 10 years.  The numbers don’t lie, and those documents will give me a great sense of the church’s health.  

Unfortunately, a poor self assessment of the church’s condition will often lead to a misinformed idea of the type of candidate they need.  

#6 Mistake:  The Pendulum Effect

Given a poor assessment of their own condition, churches will choose a pastor to remedy a perceived problem instead of an actual problem.  They will choose a candidate to “offset” the perceived weaknesses of their previous pastor.   This is the pendulum effect.

Each church has a DNA.  And while the previous pastor may have had issues, the church need not overreact.  If the previous pastor’s ministry was unsuccessful or the church has been struggling in his waining years, you may need to go a very different direction; to swing the pendulum.  But, if the previous pastor’s ministry was largely successful, and the church is in relatively good health, then DON’T pick a candidate radically different from him!  If he had a strong pulpit presence and believed in on campus groups–and it was successful–pick someone with that same methodology.  In that situation, the last thing you want to do is pick a candidate who’s an average preacher and an off-campus group advocate.  In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

The church needs to create a candidate profile BEFORE they begin soliciting resumes.  Not an overly specific checklist, but a rubric of what is important and in what order.  And in creating this profile, prioritize character over gifting.  Look to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 for the scripture’s profile.  Once you begin looking at resumes and listening to sermons, the process becomes emotional.  Build the profile before it becomes emotional.  

#5 Mistake:  Unfair Compensation Packages

Churches are often guilty of forgetting 1 Timothy 5:17 and the biblical truth that a worker is worthy of his wages, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.  And while 1 Timothy 3:3  makes it clear that the Elder should not be greedy, there is no reason to equate that verse to mean that a pastor should be poor.  

Some churches take pride in keeping their pastor humble by keeping him poor.  Churches want a unicorn candidate who is 35 years old with 10 years of ministry experience, a doctorate in hand, a loving wife who plays the piano and 2.2 kids.  They want a candidate of value, but they don’t want to compensate him commensurate with his value.  

Pay your pastor as well as you can!

Here are some things to consider in your compensation packages:  

  • Base Pay + Housing:  Take into account the mean salary of your church members, coupled with the pastor’s family obligations, education, and experience.  
  • Insurance:  Health, Life, AD & D, Dental, Vision (For whole family)
  • Social Security Offset:  Your pastor is required to pay both halves of the social security.  Help him by picking up the half a normal employer would.
  • Cell Phone Reimbursement:  He’ll spend most of his time talking to the church members or conducting church business.  Help offset these costs.
  • Conference Expenses:  If you expect him to represent you at the Southern Baptist or State Conventions, then provide for his expenses to do so.  And consider additional help to provide him and his wife with a Refresh Retreat sponsored by the North American Mission Board.
  • Hospitality Expenses:  Your pastor will host members and prospective members for coffee and lunches.  Consider an allowance in your budget to help him defray those costs.
  • Book Allowance:  At a minimum, this will help your pastor defray the cost of purchasing commentaries for his preaching.  
  • Tech Allowance:  There is the periodic need to have a laptop or iPad in the course of his duties.  Perhaps the need to upgrade their Logos bible software.  This tech allowance provides for those types of needs.
  • Retirement:  Guidestone offers ministers a variety of retirement investments.  Consider contributing towards your Pastor’s retirement and/or matching his personal retirement contributions.
  • Vehicle Use or Mileage Reimbursement:  Your pastor will travel extensively on behalf of the church.  Consider providing him with a vehicle to accommodate those travels or reimbursing him for his mileage.  
  • Theological Education Assistance:  If a church desires their pastor to continue to grow academically, then they should be a part of helping in that endeavor. 

To Pastor Candidates, the Lord will never call you to a place where you cannot provide for your family.  Where God guides, He provides.  There is no promise that ministry will ever bring wealth, but you and your family should not lack for your daily bread and normal needs.  

#4 Mistake:  Not Asking Hard Questions

As a member of a search team, you represent the larger body in finding their next pastor.  It is incumbent upon you to exercise your due diligence in the hiring process.  Unfortunately, many churches don’t take the necessary care in this process.

There is a failure to check the accuracy of the resume.  

There is a failure to do credit and background checks.  

There is a failure to check the references. 

There is a failure to check the references provided by the references.

But beyond the normal things expected of any human resources hiring process, there is also a failure to ask the difficult questions.  There is a failure to ask the right theological, methodological, and chemistry questions upfront.  Further, many don’t look at the candidate’s social media history to determine any red flags in doctrine or character.  

To the search teams, questions go both ways.  And a search team needs to be prepared to answer those difficult questions.  Any candidate worth his salt is going to ask good questions and attempt to understand the church he is possibly going to covenant with.  In the same way you will be asking invasive questions to determine his suitability, you should expect the same from him.  

Here are some possible questions you may expect to get:

  • Has there ever been a church split? What were the issues involved?
  • What has been the biggest conflict in the church in the past 5, 10, 20 years? 
  • What is the biggest conflict in the history of the church?
  • In your opinion, what was the best quality about the former pastor? What was the worst quality about the former pastor?
  • Why did your previous pastor leave? How long did he serve the church?
  • Over the last 30 years of the church how long is the pastors average tenure?
  • What do you think he would say was the biggest difficulty in pastoring this church?

These are just some of the questions a worthy candidate will ask of his search team.

#3 Mistake:  Ignoring Red Flags

As you look at resumes, examine their social media accounts, and listen to their sermons it is very possible you will come across red flags.  DON’T ignore them.  God has given you a conscience and the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Trust God’s leading in this process.

A Red flag is not an automatic disqualifier, but it should not be ignored.  Dig into that area of concern with well asked questions and transparent discussion.  Consider how they respond to the questions asked in both honesty and temperament.  Perhaps there are extenuating circumstances that offer a reasonable explanation to your concern.  Or perhaps there is a character issue that disqualifies the candidate.  But in either case, don’t ignore the red flags.

#2 Mistake:  Neglecting Prayer

Churches and search teams are often guilty of launching into the search process without bathing it in prayer.  The beginning, middle, and end of the process should be prayerful.  And not simply the cursory prayers to open the meeting, but a deep and purposeful plea to the Lord to aid in the process and in finding the right person.  

Trust the promise of Philippians 4:6 and “Pray about everything.”  The Lord will help you to find the right candidate even with an imperfect team and imperfect process.  

#1 Mistake:  Choosing the Wrong Team

Oftentimes search teams are selected like political campaign tickets:  on the basis of their influence within different spheres of the church.  

Some old and some young.

Some long time members and some new members.

Some power brokers and some “Yes” men.

All with the purposes of representing the desires of their various constituencies in the candidate selection process.  And all with the purposes of going back to their various constituencies and influencing them for the final approval at the church vote.

To which I say, is this a church or a political campaign?  Are we trusting in the Lord or leaning on our own understanding?  The promise is that trusting in the Lord leads to him making your path straight.

Arguments can–and have been made–for congregationalism expressed in both a single or plural elder models. To say, single elder is to mean a model which often functions with a staff of associate pastors, ministers, and directors.  A model which utilizes ministry teams for church governance, to include a search team for pastoral searches.  And while my purpose is not to rehash the existing arguments, let me submit to you that there is goodness in having a plurality of elders who lead the church. 

To say plurality is not necessarily to imply parity.  The person who has the primary preaching duties on Sunday will always emerge as the first among equals.  Yet, there is reason to believe that a plurality of elders is the normative pattern in the New Testament.  Further, there are many practical benefits to having an eldership.  And in the context of this post, there is a goodness in having your Elders function as the church’s search team.

There’s an old adage:  It takes one to know one.  One who is already making disciples, exhibiting the ability to teach, and is living a life above reproach will know a peer when he sees one.  The downfall to having a congregationally sourced search team is there is often the occasion to have a person on the team who doesn’t meet the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 evaluating a candidate who needs to have those qualifications.  From the candidates perspective, “Who wants to be evaluated by people who don’t meet the qualifications they are asking you to meet?”  If an elder is above reproach, he is in a better position to evaluate a prospective elder.

Further, an eldership will already be read into the physical, spiritual, and financial affairs of the church and be able to answer the candidate’s questions with accuracy and honesty.  Additionally, true elders will have the ability to bear the teaching and preaching load during the season of interim.  This gives the church a greater flexibility in conducting the search and in determining if interim or supply preaching is even necessary.

The church body should have the FINAL say on their future pastor.  But that doesn’t mean it has to have the FIRST say.  Allow your elders to conduct the search process and present to the body a candidate worthy to be a peer among them.  

*Photo by Clem Onojeghuo

Adam Mallette is the Lead Teaching Pastor at King’s Church in Las Vegas, Nevada.  He is married to Heather and a father of four.  Adam is currently a Doctor in Philosophy (ABD) student in Pastoral Ministry from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  He is a former commissioned officer in the United States Marine Corps.  More can be found at kingschurchlv.com.  

Adam Mallette

A Blurry Lens

Critical Theory is a blurry lens from which to view the world. It is not simply a matter of being imperfect or misguided. It is a fundamentally and irretrievably flawed worldview that permeates many tangential theories. Theories such as Critical Gender Theory, Critical Legal Theory, Critical Economic Theory, and Critical Race Theory. They are defective in their attempts to understand the world or offer any real hope. They are, as their name suggests, critical.

Given the increasing adoption of Critical Theory in the larger culture, Christian’s must ask these questions:

  • What is Critical Theory?
  • How am I to understand it from a Biblical Worldview?
  • Are there any aspects of it that can be helpful?
  • What should I be cautious of ?
  • How should I move forward in light of it?

In an effort to better understand Critical Theory, it may be helpful to analyze one of its tangential theories: Critical Race Theory (CRT). In his recent article published for the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Dr. Adam Day conducted a “Biblical Analysis of Critical Race Theory.” He interacts with Jemar Tisby’s bestselling book The Color of Compromise while seeking to define and biblically critique CRT. In the interest of making this accessible and applicational, let me offer some of his observations below:

Cautions for the Church

  • Beware of the Redefinition of Racism: CRT has come to redefine racism as “prejudice plus power” instead of “prejudice based on skin color.”
  • Beware of the Power Dynamic: A tenet of Postmodernism and CRT holds that “all relationships are about power.” Instead of power being one of many dynamics that can bring about differences and disparity, it is seen as the only explanation for those differences.
  • Beware of the Guilt Trip: There is an “assumed guilt on the part of all white American Christians.” In this view, the modern presence of racism is connected with seventeen century racism irrespective of the different ways they are manifested. There is no acknowledgement that “racisim may have diminshed over time” or have been “ameliorated” in any way. Further, there is an assumption of “Christian complicity” by saying that “Nowadays, all the American church needs to do in terms of compromise is cooperate with already established and racially unequal social systems.”
  • Beware of the Lens: Day writes, “The particular danger of Tisby’s claims is that everything is viewed through the lens of race. Race does not account for every inequality nor is it the explanation for every difference–gender, socio-economic status, religion, and many other features combine to explain the many complexities of historical and social dynamics.”

Moving Forward

In the concluding portions of his article subtitled “How Then Shall We Live?”, Day offers several principles for moving forward in a world that has embraced CRT. He suggests:

  • Believe True Narratives: We are called to be a people characterized by truth. A people who speak the truth in love and refrain from bearing false witness. According to Day, one practical implication of this is “Christians must wait to respond to events in our world until we know what the facts are.” Too often, we are prone to arriving at a conclusion and offering a subsequent opinion with little known about the facts.
  • Seek True Explanations: Not every inequality is the function of racism or a power dynamic. CRT advocates the notion that inequality of outcome is the evidence of systemic injustice. But as Thaddeus Williams notes, “different people with different priorities making different choices will experience different outcomes.” Day goes on to say, “When we repeat an incorrect narrative or argue every unequal outcome is systemic injustice, it actually undermines our efforts at true justice.”
  • Avoid Broad Statements: One of the greatest arguments against racism is the imago dei. When we see people as made in the image of God, we appreciate their uniqueness, dignity, and value. Broad statements often undermine that uniqueness. To say that “all white people are guilty of racism is actually racist because it indicts people solely on the basis of their skin color.”
  • Admit When We Are Wrong: Our current culture tends toward outrage as we often only interact with those who carry our positions. We assume the worst, operate in the extremes, and live in a “perpetual echo chamber.” As Christians, we should be willing to hear the petitions of our neighbors and consider them fairly. We should be willing to admit when we have been wrong and move forward seeking to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. But above all, we should be people who pursue the truth. Because as Williams notes, “truth is the decisive factor between doing justice and thinking we are.”

Day concludes by noting that CRT has pointed to some “under-evaluated aspects of race.” He admits that CRT “highlights the fact that institutions and systems can promote racism and racial inequalities” and that it can serve as a “useful, though limited, analytical tool.” But he asks the question that is most prescient for the Christian: “Does utilizing this tool add anything that we not already obtain from a Christian Worldview?”

In his view, and in my own, “the answer seems to be no.”

*Photo by Josh Calabrese

Adam Mallette

Technology and the Christian

“Does an ax exalt itself above the one who chops with it? Does a saw magnify itself above the one who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the ones who liftit! It would be like a staff lifting the one who isn’t wood!” – Isaiah 10:15 (CSB)

To paraphrase Isaiah:  Are you using technology or is technology using you?

There are occasions when it is good and right to consider topics that impact life.  And in today’s sermon at King’s Church we had the opportunity to think through the issue of technology biblically. To ask the question how does a Christian utilize technology? 

After defining what we mean by technology and examining its positive and negative impacts, I presented a biblical understanding of technology and offered questions to ask and principles to apply. Here are the two questions to ask:

Question 1:  How does this technology Advance God’s Kingdom?

Question 2:  How does this technology Impact Life?

The Christian must evaluate whether, on the whole, God’s Kingdom is Advanced by a particular technology.  While some technologies have advanced God’s Kingdom, their negative impacts outweigh their positive.  And if we are honest, they advance the kingdom of darkness more than the kingdom of light.

Several interrelated questions must be considered when measuring technology’s impact.   Questions like:  How can it be misused? What are the risks?  Do those risks make it unwise or dangerous?  Is it unwise for adults?  Is it unwise for children? What about for people without training?  How about for people with no self-discipline?  A Christian intent on honoring God with their lives will think thru these questions when developing and utilizing various technologies.

The issue of technology is a wisdom issue.  The answers are often found in asking the right questions and employing the right principles.  Proverbs 1:7 reminds us “The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom.” And that beginning is not simply a starting line for wisdom, but the boundaries in which to live the Christian life.  Here are six wisdom principles to help in engaging technology biblically:

Principle 1 – Ask God for Wisdom

Principle 2 – Do all things for God’s Glory

Principle 3 – Set a Daily Limit

Principle 4 – Have a Daily Device Free Hour

Principle 5 – Love People and Use Things

Principle 6 – Regularly Fast

The Christian that commits to asking these questions and applying these principles will master their tools.  Technology will be an axe in their hand.  Christian flourishing—that is life and life abundant—comes by way of wisdom.  And wisdom teaches us that Technology is not neutral:  It is a tool for good or a weapon for evil.

Several Resources were utilized and cited in the sermon “Biblical Technology:  A Christian’s Guide to Utilizing Technology.”  Here are the more prominent resources:

Andy Crouch, The Tech-Wise Family
Daniel Heimbach, Fundamental Christian Ethics
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
Tony Reinke, God, Technology, and the Christian Life
Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You
Sherry Turkle, Reclaiming Conversation

*Photo Credit: Todd Quackenbush

Adam Mallette

The Veteran’s Pain: Reflections on the Afghan Withdrawal

*Photo by Mohammad Rahmani

The past few days have featured chaos in Afghanistan.  Coinciding with the US withdrawal, threats of Taliban violence have prompted an exodus from their sitting President, along with thousands of others.  Missionaries are fearful for their lives and women fear for their safety.  In many respects, the scenes depicted in news outlets portray images making one wonder if an American presence was ever really there?

After a few days of praying thru the many emotions, I feel compelled to offer some thoughts on Afghanistan.  

The Fighting Men & Women

Only the person who’s been in combat can fully appreciate what it means to be at war. There is a point in your deployment when you stop fighting for “Uncle Sam and Grandma’s apple pie” and you start fighting simply for the right to come home. All of the political rhetoric and the “red-white-and-blue” is good enough to get you to take an oath.  But what gets you home is the person fighting alongside you, and the hope of returning to your family.  It becomes less about the cause, and more about your people.

Winning a War

What does it even mean to win a war? Does anybody win a war? There may be victories won. But when we fight, on some level, everyone loses.  Sometimes it’s a very necessary fight—but check your ideas of winning at the door.  You may win certain battles, but nobody comes out unscathed. Nobody comes out untouched. This isn’t paintball.  This isn’t Call-of-Duty.  This is something entirely different.  Nobody returns from a deployment the same as they departed. 

I don’t know that anyone was ever going to win in Afghanistan—as in “white flag surrender of our enemies” type of win. They’ll be no peace treaties signed in Versailles or on the deck of a navy ship.  The Russians couldn’t do it in a decade and we haven’t done it in two. 

Afghanistan is tribal and likes it that way.  A centralized government was going to be a 4 or 5 decade proposition, and even then, I’m not sure it would have stuck.  Further, I’m not sure that we ever solved the poppy problem.  How do you convince an Afghan farmer to grow something other than poppy?  It’s like trying to convince a NC tobacco farmer to grow something other than tobacco.  And after all, poppy is used to produce heroine.  Heroine is sold at great profits.  And those profits help to finance international terror networks.  We never had a great answer to that, and I’m not sure that there is one. 

However, if we define winning in terms of holding the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks accountable, then, in large part, we have done that.  If you define victory by the disruption of Al-Qaeda terrorist networks and by keeping the Taliban at bay for 20 years, we have done that.  If you define victory creating some measure of stability in a fledgling government, well, we did that.

The Frustration 

Much of the frustration simmering around our recent withdrawal comes as a result of the way that it was conducted.  Some special operations and intelligence capability needed to be left in country to retain the gains achieved over the last 20 years.  Some presence was needed to protect our Afghan partners that have provided intelligence and supported our efforts from within.  Some presence was needed to be left in country to protect the civilian population or at a minimum see to their safe and orderly evacuation.  If you ask why I assert such a presence was needed?  I give you the nightly news as exhibit A. 

I’m not advocating for a continued large-scale presence with no end-game in sight.  But the policy and military decisions made by our President and his appointed secretaries have been nothing less than a disaster.  And the reason many are disheartened include the giving back of the security and stability gains that had been achieved in the last 20 years.  The frustration centers around the very investment of their lives in a cause that seems to have been sent to the recycle bin based upon political calculations, rash decision making, and poor execution. 

The Pivot 

Let me pivot this conversation from a critique of the administration to a critique of my countrymen. I used to hear the phrase “America is at War”.  When I came back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I actually found America to be at the Mall.  The Afghan issue centers around a decades long investment of human capital in a country only to have the gains achieved so quickly surrendered.  That’s where the veteran’s pain lies.  That’s where the pain lies for our Gold-star mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. 

But to my fellow Americans, you are doing the same thing.  

All of the investment in securing our freedoms has come at great cost—lives and limbs; sons and daughters; visible and hidden wounds.  All of that money, time, and life spent securing your freedoms only to have them surrendered in a year because you are living in fear. America is not at the mall.   America is shopping from home.  America is not taking the hill.  America is living in fear.  America is not fighting for freedom.  America is giving it away.  That’s where the veteran’s pain lies. 

The Ask 

I know it can be tiresome to head to your local polling station to cast your vote and wonder, “is this the best we can do? Are these really the best two candidates we can produce?”  But as we are seeing now, elections have consequences.  How we conduct elections is consequential.  Real lives are at stake— here and abroad.  Please vote, and do so with a sobriety tempered by reality and not social media.

As a Christian, I have a dual citizenship.  One as an American.  One as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.  There is no angst in my soul when I affirm my heavenly citizenship to take priority over my earthly citizenship. Yet, in both realms, I am not called to a spirit of fear.  I am called to life.  Life here and life eternally.   Living life well is the best way to honor the sacrifice of our servicemen and women. Living life in Christ is the best way to honor the ultimate sacrifice of King Jesus. 

The Invitation 

To those veterans who took the time to read this, please know you are loved.  You have accomplished your mission.  And should you ever need someone to talk to, please find me at pastor@kingschurchlv.com. 

To my brothers and sisters in Christ, the church is needed now more than ever—the time is short and the days are evil.  The church is needed to share the good news of Jesus and invite people to respond; to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  The church is needed to be the voice of Christ in a world that so desperately needs the hope he offers.  Pray for our leaders.  Pray for our missionaries in harm’s way.  Pray that we would be resolved to live out our faith in the dual spheres of our citizenship. 

And to those who have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.  Who have never believed that God did in Jesus, what you could not do on your own, let me invite you today to cry out to God and ask him to save you.  To save you from your sins. 

He can do that.  He will do that.  He did do that.  And when you do that—everything changes. 

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Adam Mallette is the Lead Teaching Pastor of King’s Church in Las Vegas.  He served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps from 2002-2012. Adam is currently a PhD student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and has earned a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Oklahoma.