Strangely enough, the fire has recentered people on the hope of the gospel. God’s timing is infinitely kind. I think this could be a severe mercy from the Lord and may open up tremendous opportunities. When we were sitting on folding chairs in the fellowship hall on Sunday, I thought, This feels like a church plant to me.

The 911 call came in just before 11:00 p.m. last Saturday.
Someone driving by the historic College Hill Presbyterian Church in Oxford, Mississippi—the one founded nearly 180 years ago, the one that served as a Civil War hospital, the one where William Faulkner got married—had spotted smoke.
Firefighters arrived within a few minutes, but the building—including the original pulpit and pews—was already aflame.
“The fire was in full blaze by midnight,” said Clint Wilcke, who works as catalyst for the Mid-South Church Planting Network of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Since College Hill Presbyterian is between pastors, he also preaches there a few times a month, organizes their pulpit supply, and shepherds the elders and staff. “It seems there was an electrical fire in the back of the church, but it’s still under investigation.”

Wilcke’s phone was set to silent, so he didn’t hear the news until he saw a morning text from a friend. “So sorry to hear about College Hill,” it said.
Uh-oh, Wilcke thought. What’s he talking about?
“I reached out to some folks, and we drove straight there,” he said.
He remembers pulling in. “I thought there would be more of a structure left,” he said. “It was hard to look at—just devastating. It was a complete ruin.”
The brick walls, which had been reinforced in the 1940s, were still standing. But the interior walls and roof and original wood pews were ashes. The communion table and hymnals and stained glass windows were gone. The pulpit was a charred stump.
But not all was lost. No one was hurt. One of the firefighters grabbed the Bible from the pulpit—the Bible pastors had been marking up and preaching from since the 1860s. And the fellowship hall, which had been built much later, was untouched in a separate building 200 yards away.
That’s where College Hill Presbyterian Church met on Sunday, seven hours after the fire was extinguished.
The Gospel Coalition asked Wilcke about that service, the reaction of the congregation, and how he’s seen God’s faithfulness over the past week.
What was the church service like on Sunday?
A lot of people were flat-out weeping and really struggling, because they were married in that church, and baptized there, and came to Christ there. Place matters.
But there was also tons of hope and encouragement. The elders have done a good job of listening and praying and coming alongside the members. The longest-standing ruling elder, Bill, was preaching that morning. He never even went out to the fire; when he heard about it, he knew he had to work on the sermon instead. I really appreciated his focus.

Some of the other elders went out to the fire and then put together emails in the middle of the night. Sunday morning, everyone jumped in—moving chairs and hymnals over to the fellowship hall. There was some crying and hugging and looking at the ruins in disbelief, but then everyone was focused on worship.
Bill’s texts were Romans 8:28, Ephesians 1:15–22, and 1 Peter 2:4–10. He did a great job celebrating the history of God’s work and reminding us that we are the church, the building, the body, the bride of Christ.
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Certainly, the opening ceremonies failed when it came to the billions in the world who love and follow Jesus Christ. For sure the ceremony highlighted sexual debauchery, a decapitated head singing, drag queens recreating the painting of Jesus’ Last Supper, and more. Regardless of the stated goal, the opening ceremony both provided offense to billions as it portrayed an anti-Christian, vile, sexualized message.

Jim McKay, Howard Cosell, Al Michaels, and Keith Jackson are some of the historic voices of my Olympic memories. World class extraordinary wins for the USA, fascinating ‘Up Close and Personal’ features, historic theme music, and beautiful introductions to foreign lands flood my memories when I think of the Olympics. Beginning in the 70’s, when the Olympics would come around, my family and I would stop typical daily habits and make time to watch as much coverage as possible. Key events in the Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics fascinated us. In the past many years, Michael Phelps held us captive as he went for Olympic record (and gold) after Olympic record. Enter the opening ceremony from Paris Summer Olympics 2024. I responded to this year’s presentation with disappointment, sadness, and, in honesty, anger. I am seeking to work through my response as a disappointed and saddened fan of the Olympics.
Editor’s Note: It is now Saturday [7/27/2024] evening. I have searched for clear explanations of the artist’s intent in the presentation. This AP article says the ceremony director did not deny it was the Last Supper, although some are suggesting it was just a Greek god feast. However, the naked blue man is both interviewed and described here: “The ‘naked blue man’ who starred in the bizarre Last Supper parody at Olympic opening ceremony has broken his silence on the controversial stunt. French actor and singer Phillippe Katerine was playing the role of the Greek god of wine Dionysus in a recreation of the famous biblical scene of Jesus Christ and his twelve apostles sharing a last meal before the crucifixion.”
THE 2024 DEBACLE
According to a thepinknews.com article by Chantelle Billson, the queer Olympic opening ceremony director Thomas Jolly wanted everyone to feel represented. In fact, the slogan for the Paris 2024 games is Games Wide Open. Tony Estanguet, the head of the organizing committee for the Games, explained the slogan represents the power to open hearts and minds and help people stop seeing differences as obstacles. He promised: “Bold and creative Games that dare to take a step outside the box, to challenge the current models, our ways of seeing things, our paradigms, to give us the opportunity to come together, to be proud together, to experience together.”
Certainly, the opening ceremonies failed when it came to the billions in the world who love and follow Jesus Christ. For sure the ceremony highlighted sexual debauchery, a decapitated head singing, drag queens recreating the painting of Jesus’ Last Supper, and more. Regardless of the stated goal, the opening ceremony both provided offense to billions as it portrayed an anti-Christian, vile, sexualized message.
Should we have expected less from the head of the organizing committee (Estranguet) and queer ceremony director (Jolly)? I sure did.
In fact, I would have expected NBC on behalf of its American audience and advertisers to insist on something better. But should I?
THE REALITY OF OUR WORLD
In all reality, what we experienced on NBC network television as simulcasted across the world simply represents the heart of mankind.
Jesus said:
““If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’” (John 15:18-25)
It should not surprise us that they egregiously blasphemed Jesus Christ.
Did they blaspheme Mohamed? Buddha? Gandhi? No. However, none of them proclaim absolute truth. No other world or religious leader proclaims to be and is God. Just as Jesus said, in Him, ‘they have no excuse for their sin.’
The Apostle Paul also explained this to us. He wrote:
“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (Romans 1:24-32)
This is exactly what we experienced on our television screens, phones, computers, and other streaming devices in the opening ceremony.
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The Church and its Christians are not respected on the public stage any longer. Both are being muscled out through mockery, furore, indignation and false humility, all at the behest of the new pagan ideals. The pagan adherents hate Jesus and they act on it by shaming and punishing his followers (Jn 15:18–25).

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. (1 John 3:13).
God told us not to be surprised. But I’ll admit it, sometimes I’m still surprised!
We Australians have failed to teach our children in the nurture and admonition of the LORD, so subsequent generations have spurned Him. Like the Israelites, we have grown lazy in our wealth and not given proper honour to the Giver of all good gifts. What used to be a Christianity-infused nation is fast driving out anything Christian-related.

What will fill its place? We are creating a new national religion that is broadly a copy of the same religion being formed in other western nations. We are made to be worshippers, so if not the LORD God, we will find idols to worship.

Wherever you look around the world, people live in groups that often become nations. These groups are usually tied together by shared cultural, geographical and religious identities. Australia is part of the multi-cultural globalisation experiment, where we have tried to create a nation that has no shared cultural or religious identity, and, many of us are removed from our geographical roots. We have little that ties us all together except a citizenship.
The cliché says “nature abhors a vacuum,” and more pointedly, Satan will leverage any opportunity to oppose God. With the decline of Christianity and its cultural effects comes something else to fill its place.
We Christians were deceived. We thought that with the rise of more religions and more “alternative” points of view in Australia that Christianity would simply be a voice among the many, and a loud voice at that. After all, we can just be tolerant and respectful of differing views, right?
We thought that in the public sphere that it would be a true contest of ideas, where the best ideals for humanity would be vigorously tested and enshrined in law for the good of us all. Surely God knows best, so His ethics and ideals would always win, right? If it were a fair debate, with unbiased participants, that would be the case.

Alas, when the masses are left to their own devices, their carnal desire drives the agenda. It is only by the grace and design of God that anything but godless chaos can come out of us.

The fool says in their heart “there is no God, and I hate Him.” And so it is no surprise that when given the option, most people will trend away from the LORD and His Word. Fools despise wisdom and instruction (Pro 1:7).
What is this new religion being formed in our society? It is a new paganism. It is disguised as being no religion at all, it is portrayed as the progressive movement toward a utopian society (just like communism before Christians are oppressed, murdered or exiled).

The new paganism is much like the old versions, seen in animism, Hinduism or Greek/Roman religions. There is a proliferation of gods and associated idols. There are respected priests and temples. There are rituals to be observed. The state will endorse certain elements of the religion, and rejection of this religion is seen as being incompatible with one’s cultural identity. In fact, refusal to pay homage invites the wrath of the spirits or gods, and so people who won’t bow the knee must be excised from society for the safety of everyone else. Perhaps this paganism can tolerate our subversive faith, but only if we keep quiet and hidden.

It’s worth exploring the shape of this religious development further, but there is not the space here. Instead, let’s look at the fruit, or evidence of this shift that is quite visible to Christians right now.
The Church and its Christians are not respected on the public stage any longer.
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