Remembering Resilience

By Justin Jeppesen

Recently, our team here at Strategic Renewal had the immense privilege of hosting the Resilience Conference with our amazing brothers and sisters at First Baptist Church Woodstock. If you happened to miss this experience, whether in person or digital, don’t worry—we will be making the recorded digital conference available soon, Remembering Resilience.

Defining Resilience

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines resilience as “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences, especially through mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility and adjustment to external and internal demands.”[1]

While the word “resilience” is not specifically mentioned in the Scriptures, its concept is indeed woven throughout their storyline. Perhaps one of the most profound and succinct passages where we see this concept of resilience is in the opening lines of Hebrews 12. Following what many have referred to as the “hall of faith” in chapter 11, which overviews the strenuous yet hopeful journey of God’s people toward their heavenly home, the author describes our need to endure. Mentioned three times in the first three verses, the word translated “endure” conveys the idea of “the capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty with patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, and perseverance.”[2] If this kind of endurance—or we could say resilience—was needed by the saints of the Old Testament, but more importantly by Jesus as He walked according to the will of His Father, how could we not need it?

Our Need to Be Resilient

Resilience has recently been a prominent theme for the research experts at Barna for both pastors and disciples alike. According to one study, only 20% of U.S. Christians would be considered resilient disciples.[3] Additionally, more churches are closing their doors than are being planted, clergy are aging out, and a significant number of pastors have given serious thought to quitting the ministry with no intent to return.[4] Coming back to the admonition of the author of Hebrews, perhaps this word is more relevant than ever: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3).

With the Bible’s clarion call to endure and our clear need to be resilient in this day and age, how can pastors and disciples cultivate this vital ability to joyfully bounce back stronger in the face of adversity and trial? The following are five highlights from our plenary sessions at the Resilience Conference that I believe lay out some tracks for us to run on as we “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

How to Be Resilient

Daily Renew Your First Love

We can learn much from the consistent rhythms that Jesus Himself established, namely His life of prayer. How we begin our days sets the tone and the trajectory of our waking hours. After a busy season and busy day, we find Jesus in Mark 1:35-38 rising early in the morning before dawn to delight in His Heavenly Father. Jesus prioritized personal intimacy before public ministry, and as Pastor Jeremy Morton summarized, “The people were looking for Jesus, but Jesus was looking at His Father. There’s no substitute for the secret place. Like Jesus, we must prioritize the place nobody sees.” In other words, the starting place and foundation of being resilient is to daily renew our first love of Christ.[5]

Commit to Unashamed Integrity

Resilience is the expression of conviction that’s lodged in integrity, and our character is built by the choices and decisions we make.[6] Therefore, our aspiration as pastors and disciples is to value integrity and character more than any platform of ministry, popularity, or positions of influence. Even if we are stumbling towards obedience in an imperfect yet passionate pursuit of Christ, we are to demonstrate a life that reflects the weight of our calling.[7] Yet this gospel call cannot be realized in the idolatry of people pleasing or in the isolation of an attempted solo walk with Christ. A transparent life lived in the authentic accountability of community is the key. Together as the Church, we are to be consumed with the approval of one master, delight in truth in the inward being (Psalm 51:6), and keep our hearts with all vigilance (Proverbs 4:23; 1 Corinthians 9:24).

Learn to Deeply Abide in God’s Promises

There are many astounding aspects of the Holy Scriptures, but one highlight is that the Bible’s storyline of redemption contains 8,810 promises.[8] One of these promises gives a much-needed pathway into the glory of God and is found in John 15:7-8. According to these astonishing covenantal words of Jesus, when we learn to deeply abide in Christ by having His words abide in us, we can boldly pray according to the will of God and see His promises fulfilled in, through, and around us. Indeed, one of the most difficult and perplexing realities we face as we follow Christ are unanswered prayers, or at least prayers answered in ways we didn’t expect and could not have anticipated. But abiding in God’s promises gives us a pathway to persevere even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Develop a Pattern for Passionate Kingdom Advancement

In order to be resilient, it is imperative that we develop an eternal perspective that focuses on building God’s kingdom over our little ministry fiefdoms. According to Paul’s words to an immature yet gifted church in Corinth, this requires a pattern of experiencing daily inward renewal, building our comparisons in eternity, and focusing on what is invisible (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).[9] One of the primary ways we can put these truths into practice is to posture ourselves with a “consecrated and empathetic curiosity”[10] towards the next generation. The Lord is moving in remarkable ways among college students across North America and beyond, and we have an opportunity to join Him in this work. The Lord delights in advancing His Kingdom with and through His family. Perhaps very few other things will reignite hope for the future like investing your life in the next generation as a spiritual parent or grandparent.

Serve in the Resurrection Power of Jesus

Lastly, we can be resilient because there has been and will be a resurrection. Because Jesus has risen from the dead, we can be “steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:58). Because Jesus has risen from the dead, we can have power in the work of the Lord, and we can resiliently serve because we have the promise that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Therefore, our motivation for serving in the resurrection power of Jesus is that there will be a future resurrection of His people that will consummate the victory Jesus has already accomplished. When we embrace the “right now realities of the resurrection,”[11] we will indeed be resilient in our service unto the Lord! So do not give up!

Dear brother and sisters, consider these truths in the days and weeks to come, and remember that we are called and can be resilient pastors and disciples to the glory of God!

Copyright © 2025 Justin Jeppesen. All rights reserved.

[1] https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience

[2]  William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 158.

[3] See Barna’s resilient disciple definition here: https://www.barna.com/research/resilient-faith-spiritually-open/.

[4] See more here: https://www.barna.com/research/cpw-packiam/.

[5] https://www.barna.com/research/cpw-packiam/

[6] Summarized from Crawford Loritts at The Resilience Conference. March 18, 2005.

[7] Ibid

[8] Pastor Nirup Alphonse, The Resilience Conference, March 19, 2025.

[9] Points are summarized from Pastor Adam Ballie at The Resilience Conference, March 19, 2025.

[10] Phrase taken from Zach Meerkreebs at the Resilience Pre-Conference Session, March 18, 2025.

[11] Phrase quoted from Pastor Troy Keaton at The Resilience Conference, March 20, 2025.