Op-Ed: Smacking Wolf Snouts is a Small Part of What We Do

There is an oft-repeated narrative that all we ever do here at Protestia is gripe, pick on people, and generally behave in a surly, obstreperous way. That we spend our days throwing sticks and stones at anyone who steps into our path for no other reason than we like the sound of hearing other believers scream. They declare that we’re a self-contained, independent parachurch ministry that does its own thing and is accountable to no one- off the rails and happiest when we’re picking fights.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Protestia, (formerly Pulpit & Pen), is a media outreach ministry of Fellowship Baptist Church in Sidney, Montana, where pastor Jordan Hall presides as Senior Pastor.

FBC Sidney is a congregation-governed and elder-led church, founded in 1980, and holds to the 1689 London Baptist Confession. You can find their website here. The church is active in their community, operates a food pantry for the needy, and has won an award from the Montana Governor’s Office for their help to the unfortunate and underprivileged.

FBC is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization, a member of its local Chamber of Commerce, and supports and serves its community while honoring the laws of the land and striving to live peaceably with all men. The church is in communion with a number of like-minded churches in their surrounding region.

Protestia’s general direction and purpose is overseen by that local congregation’s leadership, while its day-to-day operations and media publishing is managed by the Gideon Knox Group, a consortium of individuals from various fields (religious, business, marketing, design, and legal) who work together to help Christian conservatives and grassroots activists articulate their message. Through their help, small churches are able still to have a huge impact and a global witness.

All Protestia writers and volunteers are members in good standing of a local, New Testament Church and under the authority of elders and, ultimately, their congregation with Christ as its head.

And so despite what some may suggest, Protestia is not its own thing: it is a ministry of a church. People complain that all we ever do is nitpick and take potshots, as if that’s the sum of what this thing is. Sure, we slap wolf snouts from time to time and point out varmints creeping in, but that’s a small fraction of a greater whole.

While we’re over here sounding the clarion call through Protestia, church leaders also driving two hours away to give bible studies to 10 people who live in the middle of nowhere. We’re visiting people in prison. We’re operating a food bank that our church gives sacrificially to. We’re counseling those addicted to drugs and alcohol and supporting men and women with crushing mental health issues.

We’re preaching and teaching. Leading worship. Practicing church discipline. Presiding over funerals of babies who died of SIDS or leukemia. Comforting grieving parents. Providing safety for abused women. Providing an unmovable force that abusive husbands shatter upon.

We’re lending compassion to parents whose children have been molested. Speaking prophetically to our local leaders and politicians about ‘drag queen story hour’ and other LGBTQ monstrosities, and generally doing all we can to preach the gospel, fulfill the great commission, and see families become conformed to the image of Christ.

And in the midst of all that, we have this side ministry that gets criticized for being too mean sometimes, while critics complain and bemoan ‘all you guys ever do is pick on people. Don’t you have anything better to do?’

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