One of the blessings of my current ministry setting is the marriage of two of my passions: soldiering and Christian ministry.

Currently my guys and I are going through the book of James in the New Testament. And we are loving it.

Why such love? The reasons abound:

• New soldiers come almost each week.
• A sense of Christian fellowship is growing and deepening.
• Men are confessing sins.
• James is practical; it’s “operational Christianity” and soldiers love actionable doctrine.
• Very capable, strong, rugged men are humble.
• They are asking solid, sincere, doctrinal questions about the gospel.
• They are in the Scriptures; they (the Scriptures) are the authority–not me, not the church, not any council, but Christ and his Word.

As I prepare each week, in the forefront of my mind is always the question, “Will they come today? Will they show up? Will they want to hear the Word?”

And each week, they come. They share.

And we listen to the Word as I read it. We fellowship. We eat pizzas together and we pray. But most of all, we just listen to what the Scriptures teach.

It’s such a simple thing, in a sense. A room of men gather to break bread, fellowship, pray, sit under the teaching of the Scriptures, and then we go out. It’s a simple thing, but it’s also the fundamental and foundational thing.

Because that is the way lives are changed via the gospel–it is often one man, one woman at a time, bathed in Scripture, edified by fellow saints, bearing witness, not just hearing but doing.