Category: Featured & Foundational

Why Rooted & Raised Exists

Rooted in Scripture. Raised in Christ.

It began with a question I could no longer answer casually: What does it really mean to follow Jesus according to His Word?

That question brought me back to the Sermon on the Mount. I had read Matthew 5–7 many times. The words were familiar: love your enemies, forgive, pray for those who persecute you, give without seeking recognition, trust your Father rather than living anxiously, seek first His Kingdom, enter through the narrow gate, and build your life upon Christ’s words. But familiarity can sometimes soften the force of words we have heard repeatedly. This time, I found myself confronted by them.

Jesus concluded His sermon with the picture of two builders. One heard His words and did them. The other heard the same words and did not. One house remained standing when the storm came; the other fell. Jesus said: “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24). The difference was not hearing. Both men heard. The difference was obedience. And before I could examine anyone else’s Christianity, I had to allow those words to examine mine. Was I merely familiar with the teachings of Jesus, or was I actually living them? Did I love those who opposed me? Did I forgive when forgiveness was costly? Did I seek God’s Kingdom before my own comfort? Did I trust Him when obedience carried consequences? Was Christ simply Someone I believed in, or was I actually following Him? Those questions became increasingly difficult to avoid.

As I continued studying Scripture, I also began reading about Christians who lived during the generations immediately following the apostles—the believers we now commonly call the Ante-Nicene Christians. What I found was both encouraging and uncomfortable. They were not a perfect Church. Their writings reveal disagreements, false teaching, temptations, struggling congregations, doctrinal controversies, and believers who needed correction. They needed the grace of Christ just as desperately as we do. Their writings were not inspired Scripture, and they were capable of error. But amid those very human struggles, I repeatedly encountered Christians who seemed to take the words of Jesus with striking seriousness.

Imagine being a believer during the second or third century. Following Christ might affect whether your neighbors accepted you, whether you could participate in certain trades or public celebrations, or whether authorities viewed you with suspicion. In seasons of persecution, faithfulness might cost property, freedom, or life itself. Yet Christians gathered. They prayed. They cared for widows, orphans, prisoners, the poor, and the sick. They shared what they possessed with believers in need. They carried the gospel into homes, workshops, marketplaces, and communities throughout the Roman world. And when society misunderstood or opposed them, some sought to answer hostility with the kind of love Christ had commanded.

Tertullian, writing around AD 197, described outsiders looking at Christian communities and saying: “See how they love one another.” Those words stayed with me. Not because I wanted to romanticize the early Church, and not because I believed the solution to modern Christianity was somehow to recreate the second century. The question became much more personal: If they sought to follow the same Christ I follow, what might their faithfulness expose in me? That question changed the way I approached church history.

The Ante-Nicene Christians did not become my authority. Scripture remained that. Their writings became something more like witnesses from another generation—believers whose lives could sometimes help me see familiar passages with fresh seriousness. When they reflected Scripture faithfully, their example encouraged me. When their conclusions went beyond Scripture, Scripture remained the standard by which they had to be tested. That principle has become foundational to Rooted & Raised.

We are not returning to the early Church as though everything ancient must therefore be true. We are returning continually to God’s Word. Paul instructed believers: “Test all things; hold fast what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). That means Scripture must examine our traditions, assumptions, theology, cultural loyalties, historical interpretations—and our own hearts. None of us stands above that examination. Church history can help us ask questions. Teachers can help us understand difficult passages. Brothers and sisters can sharpen us. But Christ remains our Lord, and His Word remains our standard.

That conviction also changed the way I began thinking about the Church today. It is easy to look at compromise around us and begin pointing fingers. It is much harder to open Scripture and ask, “Lord, where have I compromised?” It is easy to lament that Christians do not love one another as we should. It is harder to ask, “Do I?” It is easy to criticize a comfortable Christianity. It is harder to ask what I am unwilling to surrender if obedience to Christ requires it. That is where this journey must begin. Not with them. With me.

Jesus never concealed the cost of discipleship. He told the crowds following Him: “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). In the surrounding passage, Jesus speaks about allegiance to Him taking precedence over even our closest relationships, about counting the cost before beginning, and about relinquishing our claim over everything we possess. His point is not that every disciple must abandon family, property, or ordinary responsibilities. His point is much more searching. Nothing can occupy the place that belongs to Christ. Not family. Not possessions. Not reputation. Not security. Not comfort. Not even life itself. That kind of discipleship cannot be produced merely by determination.

Jesus promised His disciples the Holy Spirit, and throughout the New Testament we see believers depending upon Him for strength, conviction, wisdom, holiness, and courage. The Christian life is not an attempt to imitate Jesus through human effort. It is a life of abiding in Christ and walking by the Spirit as He transforms us through the truth of God’s Word. And we were never meant to walk that road alone.

I need brothers and sisters who will pray with me, encourage me, correct me when necessary, and remind me of truth when I am weary. I need iron to sharpen iron. I need the Body of Christ. And perhaps you do too. Maybe you have read the words of Jesus and found yourself asking some of the same questions. Maybe you love Christ but recognize areas where comfort has quietly replaced obedience. Maybe you are tired of Christianity being reduced to attending services, winning arguments, or accumulating biblical information without seeing that truth transform everyday life. Or perhaps you are simply hungry to know Christ more deeply and follow Him more faithfully. If so, this is why Rooted & Raised exists. Not to create another Christian camp. Not to convince anyone that we have rediscovered a lost form of Christianity. Not to place the early Church on a pedestal. And certainly not to suggest that we have arrived.

This is a place to open God’s Word together. To examine Scripture carefully and in context. To learn from believers who walked before us without confusing their words with God’s Word. To ask difficult questions without being afraid of where biblical truth leads. To encourage one another toward love, holiness, courage, humility, and faithful obedience. And above all, to keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus Christ.

The faithful Christians who came before us are not the destination. They simply remind us that generations before ours have faced the same question we face: Will we follow Christ faithfully in the time and place God has given us? I cannot answer that question for anyone else. But I can continue bringing my own life before Scripture and asking God to expose what needs changing, strengthen what is weak, correct what is wrong, and teach me to obey what He has already revealed. I will stumble. I will need correction. I will need grace. But Christ is faithful.

So this journey is not about becoming extraordinary Christians. It is about ordinary saints learning to walk faithfully with an extraordinary Savior. If that is the road you want to walk, welcome.

Let’s walk it together—rooted in Scripture, raised in Christ.

Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.