In this engaging dialogue, we are joined by Bo Linham, the founder of Hope Beyond Abortion, who passionately articulates the pressing need for the Church to actively confront the issue of abortion. He emphasizes that the local church possesses the formidable authority to effectuate change, contending that abortion clinics persistently operate not due to governmental mandate, but rather through the tacit acquiescence of the Church. Linham provides a compelling call to action, urging congregations to mobilize and engage directly in this critical moral struggle, thereby disseminating the transformative power of the Gospel in the most challenging environments. His insights provoke a profound reflection on the responsibilities of the Church in addressing societal issues and highlight the necessity of fostering an environment wherein both mothers and families can thrive in faith. This conversation serves as an exhortation for believers to transcend passive approaches and to embody a proactive stance in the realm of life-affirming ministry.

Takeaways:

1. The current societal climate has led to a troubling acceptance of abortion, with many women believing it is their right to choose, which necessitates a profound examination of moral values.
2. The church's silence on the issue of abortion is alarming, as it should be leading the charge against this moral crisis rather than relegating the responsibility to politicians.
3. Bo Linham's journey into abortion ministry began with a conviction that Christians must actively engage in the fight against abortion by providing hope and support to women in need.
4. Effective outreach involves more than just saving unborn lives; it is imperative to connect mothers who choose life with the local church for ongoing support and discipleship.
5. The power of the local church is pivotal in influencing societal change regarding abortion, and its active participation can significantly diminish the prevalence of abortion clinics.
6. Partnerships with biblically sound churches are crucial, as they ensure that those receiving help are nurtured in a healthy spiritual environment, promoting holistic family care.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. stopandthinkpodcast.com
2. soulfishingministries.org
3. lovelife.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Hope Beyond Abortion
2. Love Life
3. Soul Fishing Ministries

We live in a world where people are saying, what is it?

And then we have women who are mothers saying, believing that that's their body and inviting doctors to assassinate the baby in their womb.

How did we ever get here?

And why are we continuing?

And how in the world can so many churches actually be silent on this and just relegate voting for conservative politicians to fix the problem when it is the job of the church to address the issue?

Hello?

Hello?

Anybody home?

Think, McFly, think.

I'm thinking.

I'm thinking.

What were you thinking?

I'm trying to think.

But nothing happens.

Didn't say anything.

Now just think about it.

You're listening to Stop and Think About It, a podcast for the Christian thinker.

In a day when sound biblical preaching has been replaced by man centered entertainment and the church is becoming increasingly anti intellectual, this podcast will encourage believers to think biblically and theologically.

So please join me as we get ready to stop and think about it.

Welcome, friends and foes, saints and sinners, to another episode of the Stop and Think about it podcast.

We're here at the G3 conference in Atlanta, Georgia for our fifth time, but this year we're doing our podcast here, and so we're very excited.

We met Bo yesterday, and Bo is involved in an abortion outreach ministry.

And so he has a like heart like ours.

He wants to see this thing abolished and put to death once and for all.

So, Bo, welcome to the Stop and Think about it podcast.

Tell us who you are.

Tell us about your ministry.

Yeah, man.

Thank you guys for having me clear the air.

I really do sound like this.

Okay, I'm from Alabama.

I can't help it.

All right, So I know your listeners hear your accent, then they hear my accent, and they're probably thinking, what in the world's going on?

They're like, what borough from New York City is he from?

Southern New York?

He's.

I'm an apologetics nerd at heart.

I love it.

All right, so some of the apologists that I followed and I read their books and was trying to learn, I kept seeing videos of them standing in front of abortion clinics, and I finally clicked on one of them.

And it was one of those just absolute gut punch moments in my faith where the Lord really convicted me and said, hey, you know, I built you for hard things.

Why aren't you doing that?

Why aren't you?

You're that guy telling people you're pro life.

You're that guy telling people abortion's murder.

Why aren't you doing that?

And dude, it was convicting.

And I started going to abortion clinics.

Then about a year later actually got invited to come on staff full time with our church as a pastor.

I was our outreach pastor and oversaw stuff like fostering adoption, prison ministry, homeless outreach.

And I asked our elders, would you let me start an abortion ministry?

And they gave their blessing on it.

And I started going like every week like clockwork for five, six, seven hours, going to the local abortion clinic.

And God used that to push me actually out of, you know, kind of typical pastoral ministry into full time abortion ministry.

And we were more of like local to Tennessee outreach ministry, going working meals, sharing the gospel with moms, Saw a lot of babies saved by the grace of God, getting churches involved.

But we kind of hit that point where as a one man operation with kind of like a handful of volunteers, this is as big as we could ever be.

And then I met the guys at Love Life and we started realizing like, man, we really are running down parallel lanes here.

They already had this nationwide network built.

Why wouldn't it make more sense to just switch T shirts, quit wearing a Hope Beyond Abortion T shirt, put the Love Life T shirt on and get to do more of this.

And you know, this is where we have to say like, I don't care about the credit.

I don't care whose name's getting put on it.

I just want to do hard work for the kingdom.

I want to put my hand to the plow.

I want to get to heaven tired and sweaty with calluses on my hands, like, I want to do work.

And God provided this avenue to do more work.

So now instead of just being a guy in Tennessee, I'm constantly in New York, I'm in your neck of the woods.

Detroit, Chicago, Philly, D.C. i'm going everywhere that I stick out like a sore thumb to take the message to churches that this is not something that we can just sit on our hands and be quiet about.

That the church, the Church of Christ Jesus, is the most powerful force on this planet.

And if the church really did stand up and say, we've had enough of abortion, it wouldn't exist anymore.

It wouldn't.

The church has that authority through Christ Jesus, through the Great Commission, through the call that says with all power and authority that therefore go make disciples.

Well, why wouldn't we try to go make disciples in front of an abortion clinic?

Why wouldn't we try to go make disciples with our state legislators?

Why wouldn't we try to make disciples in dark, horrific places like an abortion clinic where the gospel is needed most?

And that's what we do.

We've built an entire church network nationwide with Love Life to get churches activated.

Not just how do you go work an abortion clinic, but how do you train a church to accept that mom in who chose life?

Like, we got to be prepared.

The most unchristian thing I could do is ask you to not kill your baby.

You agree with me, and then I just high five you and tell you, good luck, be warm and filled.

Adios, Adios, go.

That's not what we're supposed to do.

So our ultimate goal is not even really to save a baby.

Saving a baby is the fruit of our ultimate goal.

Our ultimate goal is to show up in hard places, to bring the power of the gospel, the power to change hearts, the power to bring conviction by the Holy Spirit.

We want to show up in hard places, take that hope, take that light, to push back against darkness.

And then when that mom does choose life, we need to plug her into the local church.

Because tell me, where else should you put a mom that needs to learn how to be a godly mother?

Where else should you put a dad who needs to learn how to be a godly father?

Where else should you put a young family that needs to understand good financial stewardship from a biblical perspective?

How to discipline children from a biblical perspective?

How to be the leader of the home from a biblical perspective?

Why would we try to outsource that when we already have the answer?

And that answer is to plug them into the church?

Do you make sure that the churches that you're partnering with, how do you make sure that they're solid biblical churches?

Because there are a lot of churches that can maybe think to jump on board with you, but they're not healthy churches.

And so although the baby is saved and the family or the mom may be in a church, they're not going to grow there because it's an unhealthy place.

So we have a. I would say.

I would call it a very selective big tent approach.

So we do not.

And this is not me bashing them, but they have a different gospel.

We just have to call a spade a spade.

It is what it is.

We don't partner with Catholics.

We don't partner with Mormons.

We don't partner with Jehovah's Witnesses.

We don't partner with, like, wonky, you know, hyper charismatic prosperity Gospel type churches, we partner with biblically sound evangelical churches.

Now we do have to have an approach that does allow for some differences and what we would call maybe second and third tier theological differences.

But if you can't line up with the rails of evangelical orthodoxy, if you cannot line up with that, we can't partner with you.

Because ultimately, when a mom chooses life, I'm going to answer one day to my maker, bo, why did you let that woman partner with that church?

I'm going to answer for that one day and I take that call seriously.

So you don't just sign up to be a love life church.

We're looking at your statement of faith, we're looking at your missional statement.

We're all over your church's website.

We're going to talk to your lead pastor, we like to talk to your whole pastoral staff.

We want to know where do you stand on these things?

Because you know, what good have I done this woman to plug her into some super woke church that just the one thing we happen to agree on is abortion is murder.

Right.

Why would I do that to that mom?

So you know, we are, we're not denominationally specific.

I'm a reformed Baptist guy.

I mean, that's my theology.

That's my theology.

That's what I believe in.

But you know, I'll partner with a Presbyterian brother in a heartbeat.

I'll partner with the conservative side of the Methodist church.

I'll partner with a non reformed Baptist church.

Right.

We have a lot of assembly of God churches that we partnered with, but they're on that very conservative side of the assembly of God.

The more traditional.

Yeah.

So you know, you have to be big tent enough to build your network.

Because if we said, hey, we only partner with reformed confessional Baptist churches, well, there's not that many of us out there.

Right.

But we do have to put those guardrails up that we're not putting a woman in a bad spot by sending her to that church.

Yeah.

So we have a parachurch ministry which this podcast is under soul fishing ministry.

So we placed our parachurch under our local church for authority purposes.

Are you guys under a particular local church that if.

Not that I'm saying you would, if you went off the rails, that your local church can say, bo, you're out of line here and you gotta get back on track.

Yes.

So we do not have what we would guess maybe call a host church.

Okay.

Right.

But everybody that's on our national staff, we are all accountable to our elders for how we do this.

Ministry.

Right.

So let's, you know, God forbid, but let's say I just took a hard left turn.

Let's think, you know, I'm preaching a Kenneth Copeland private jet gospel to some mom.

Right.

My elders of my church would be putting me under church discipline, which therefore I would be under that church discipline under the umbrella of love life as well.

Okay.

And I can tell you all the people on our national staff belong to some rock solid church.

Most of us are reformed that are on national staff.

There's two.

There's two of us that you would call very classical Arminian.

They're good brothers.

I love them to death.

Sure.

They're willing to do hard things for the kingdom.

They love the Lord.

We disagree on soteriology.

Right.

But other than that, you know, we can do work together.

I understood we're probably not going to go to each other's churches.

Right?

Right.

But we can do ministry together.

Right?

Right.

Right.

Why do you think so many churches are just relegating and hoping?

Let's just vote the right political people into office and let them take care of the problem.

Like, I like the word use.

Outsourcing.

Why has that been the approach?

Outsourcing?

Instead of we have the power, like, where did.

Like where did that come from?

And like, why are we.

Why are so many churches following along those lines?

So I would, I would say it like this.

If Paul had to write a letter to the modern American church, would he write an Ephesians letter or would he write a Galatians letter?

And I think he'd write a Galatians letter because the majority of the modern era American church, we operate out of a fear of man over a fear of God.

And a lot of pastors know that their congregations, for the most part, are filled with at least lukewarm conservatism.

Right.

They're probably gonna vote for the Republican anyway.

Right.

So I can just say, hey, let's vote for the guy with an R by his name and let him do the work.

He doesn't have to bring that pastor doesn't have to bring up the hard thing to his congregation.

That's a specific sin.

That's a specific abomination against our God.

Like abortion.

Right.

So if I bring up abortion for what it is, there's a real good chance I'm going to make people mad at my congregation.

I'm going to run people off from my church.

Right.

That's that fear of man versus fear of God.

Right.

That's the Galatians letter we would get from Paul, where it's just.

It's easier, it's less conflict, it's less mad people, it's less emails.

Right.

It's less meetings.

If you're, if, you know, if you're one of those churches that has an advisory board for everything right now, you've got to go sit in front of the advisory board for what you said.

Right.

When I could avoid all that and take the easy way out and just say, hey, if you'll keep voting for that guy with an R by his name, he'll do it for us.

Yeah.

Because some.

Some of these guys aren't even Christians.

No, the majority of them aren't.

So they really don't have a reason why abortion is wrong.

Yeah.

Like I've asked people, young people, is murder wrong?

And they say, yes.

I said, well, why?

They said, because you're killing somebody.

I said, well, we've acknowledged that, but why is it wrong?

Well, because you're taking someone's life.

Well, you agreed, but why is it wrong?

And when you, when you get to the why, they don't know.

Because the why has to come from.

From God.

It's got to come scripture.

And if y comes from anywhere else, you know, just.

Just from studying, using the tools of science to say, well, that's a baby.

That's life.

Okay, that.

Yes.

But that still doesn't answer.

Using the tools of science doesn't answer moral questions.

Why exactly does he have the why?

I'm a. I'm a bonson disciple.

Another one.

Boom.

I'm a. I'm a hardcore presuppositionalist and talking about all day.

I like this guy.

You bring up the why.

Yes.

Okay.

So that why can only be answered from a standard.

Yes.

Why is vanilla ice cream better than chocolate ice cream?

There has to be a standard of what is the best flavor.

Right.

Why is murder bad versus murder good?

There has to be a standard.

Now you got to ask the next question.

Where can standards come from?

If standards come from man, then a standard is not above man in any authoritative manner.

If I as a man get to make the standard of what's right and what's wrong, well, you as a man, all you simply have to do is disagree with it.

Right.

This is the reason standards have to come from above man.

And the only thing above man is, is the triune God of scripture, the God of Jacob, the God of Isaac, the God of Abraham.

God has to set that standard.

And that's the reason that Christians have to learn to think apologetically when they have These kind of encounters and ask that pro abortion person, ask maybe even that conservative, culturally Christian person person.

The hard question of great, why do you think that way?

Where did you get that from?

That question of why is powerful.

And we, we have to.

I deal with this a lot growing up in the south.

Like we're a very nice, don't rock the boat, let's get along with everybody type people.

So it's pushing against everything in me to look at a stranger and go, yeah, cool, but why?

How did you get there?

Dude?

That goes against everything that I was whooped as a child for.

It's like, no, you're nice to people.

You say yes ma', am, you say no ma', am, you say yes sir, you hold the door.

So like it's ingrained in us to, hey, let's not push too hard.

Let's not be mean when it's not being mean.

You're trying to expose somebody to truth and that's one of the most loving things you could ever do, right?

But to take all that back to talking about the church, right, because that's where all this started.

Abortion clinics are open right now.

By the authority of the local church.

By the authority of the local church.

Abortion clinics are open.

Abortion clinics are not open because the federal government said they can.

Abortion clinics are open because the church said they can.

Do you know what happens in front of abortion clinics when you have a consistent Christian witness?

Their show up rates for set appointments plummets.

Not just people not showing up, but the people who do show up.

They're encountered with the hope of the gospel.

And when that happens, you see mom shoes, life, bro, love life.

We've seen over 5,000 babies saved from abortion at local abortion clinics.

From normal blue collar, white collar educated, non educated men, women, even children showing up to share the hope that the world needs that's found in Christ Jesus in his finished work.

5,000, that's a small town from where I'm from, have been saved because the local church said, no, it's not okay.

Now think about this.

What if every church in this country the average size as Baptist, the average size Baptist church is about 75 people when you average it out.

What if half of those 75 people of every church, all right, roughly 35 to 40 people from every church showed up at every abortion clinic tomorrow and they prayed, they praised God, they sang psalms and they witnessed to moms, with the power of the gospel, you would shut down that Entire industry.

You wouldn't need the federal government to say, you can't.

The church would have said you can't.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, I appreciate your ministry.

Tell us the name of your ministry, your website.

Yeah.

So Love Life, and it's LoveLife.org we're in your neighborhood.

We're in Manhattan, expanding out into Long Island.

We're in Detroit, we're in Chicago, opening up Philly.

We're in Lancaster, in York, Pennsylvania.

We're in Miami, Fort Lauderdale area.

We're all over California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia.

Like, we're in a lot of cities.

But we would love to be in even more.

With Love Life chapters taking the church to the front of the fight.

Praise God.

Well, it's been a real blessing to interview today, Bo.

And you're doing what's in our heart to see souls come to Christ and see families saved.

Because you're not just saving the baby.

You're.

You want to see the family come to Christ.

And so as a ministry, Soul Fishing Ministries, we also go out to the streets.

We go.

We go six feet away from the front door.

We're pleading for life.

Praise God for y', all, man.

We're encouraged by what you're doing locally, globally, throughout all the states in the United States and every city that you can get into.

Many people have abandoned the cities.

They're running away from the cities.

But God told Nineveh, I want you to go to the city and do something there.

And so we need more Jonahs, because when Jonah lifted up his voice, something happened.

And if we don't lift up our voice and we sleep in the boat like he did, God is going to say like he did to you.

He just kind of put.

He put Jonah in a redemptive submarine and said, you're going and you're going in the wrong direction.

Here's the right direction.

Hey, I believe in a God that will send the big fish.

If he wants you to do something, it's going to get done.

The question is, you're going to do it the easy way or are you going to do it the hard way?

Amen.

Amen.

Well, friends and foes, saints and sinners, thank you for taking this time to stop and think about it.

If you would like to contact us, please email us@stopandthinkcrewmail.com.

you could also visit our website at www.stopandthinkpodcast.com.

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Thank you for listening to Stop and Think About It.