March 2026 – Return

RETURN
Dear Friend in Christ:

Years ago, I was traveling on mission in Mexico with a group of men from Covenant Church of Mobile. I was serving as Senior Pastor for Covenant Church, and we had been partnering with a local pastor to build a building and help further establish the ministry of that church in the community there. After the building was completed, we continued to send teams there to encourage and minister among the people.

On this trip, there had been another strong outpouring of the Holy Spirit among us and the people there. We witnessed people coming to faith in Jesus, experiencing dramatic healing and deliverance, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and other signs and wonders. The joy in the room and spilling out onto the streets was like a river in the desert.

Following the Sunday service, we piled back into our church van for the 12-hour ride back to Mobile. We were physically tired but spiritually renewed. As we pulled out of the parking lot, one of the brothers asked, “Why do we see this happening here, but not at home?” The answer came to me immediately: “Because they are hungry.”

They were hungry in a literal sense because there was a shortage of well-paying jobs and the community was struggling economically. There was violence in the region and families lived under threat. But beyond the physical struggles, the people were spiritually hungry. They wanted to see a move of God because they needed a move of God. Jesus was the only answer they could see. The other structures, props, and “sweetest frames” that so many of us lean on—especially in America—were not available to these dear Mexican brothers and sisters.

So, they had been praying and fasting before we gathered. The Mexican soil had been watered by the tears of the saints. The night streets had echoed with their cries of prayer and praise to God. They had full expectancy that God was going to do something powerful that weekend. The Holy Spirit was watching and listening. And … He answered!

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), which many have called “The Constitution and Bylaws of the Kingdom of God,” begins with a section called, “The Beatitudes,” where Jesus makes a series of promises for blessings to His followers. These promises are in response to certain attitudes and actions that His authentic followers take; a posture of humility before God, recognizing our utter dependence upon Him for all our needs.

In Matthew 5:6, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” I often heard my Dad say, “It is the hungry who get fed.” May I ask, how hungry and thirsty is the Church in the Western World for righteousness? Let’s make this personal: how hungry and thirsty are you for righteousness? How hungry and thirsty am I? For the sake of this Pastoral Letter, we will simply describe righteousness as “having a right relationship with God.”

My observation, with deepest lament, is that much of the Western Church, especially the Church in America, is not very hungry and thirsty. I don’t want to offend anyone, but if I do, it is better to get aggravated enough to act than to sit in blind, contented complacency. It strikes me that too often, we either fail to recognize our needs, or we are looking to the wrong sources to fill them.

This is not a letter of rebuke or doom, but it is an urgent call for us to return to the Lord and to those priorities He has set before us. Our hope will not be found in the wisdom and strength of man, the wealth of gold, the power of politics, or the fire of bombs. Our hope cannot be purchased by our money, but has, in fact, already been purchased by the precious Blood of Jesus.

In short, we are in desperate need at this moment, and if we look to the wrong source, we will starve and we will fall. If we are praying according to the wrong priorities, we cannot expect God to give us the answers we need. If we invest in scams and schemes, we cannot expect a harvest. If there is ever an hour when we need a singular, proper focus, it is now. Seeing the correct target upon which to focus is a matter of life and death.

OUR FAVORITE SUBJECT
We cannot have peace with God while walking in disobedience to God. To sin simply means “to miss the mark; to fail to hit the target.” Some sin unintentionally. They wanted to hit the target. They really tried, but they missed. Others sin intentionally, even gleefully. But, regardless of intention, the result is the same: the mark has been missed. And guess what? All of us are in the same boat together!

Scripture says it plainly:

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

What we have here is a conundrum. Sin puts us on the road to death. But all have sinned! Romans immediately provides the answer: God has given us the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus—our Lord. Receiving the Lordship of Jesus Christ brings salvation and direction, putting us on the righteous road that leads to life. Lordship, mind you; not “Cosmic Buddyship.”

These two verses are part of what many old-timers like me call, “The Roman Road to Salvation.” Here are two more verses that point us—and those we want to reach—to life in Christ:

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

“If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

This is the simple Gospel—the Good News! It is not good news that we have sinned or that sin leads to death. But it the most wonderful news that God, in Christ, has provided a Way for us out of our sin, into redemption, and life.

ROAD TRIP
Here in Mobile, Alabama, Interstate 65 comes to an end and runs into Interstate 10. Before accessing I-10, there is a sign offering a choice: West to Mississippi or East to Florida. Let us say that I want to visit Ocean Springs, Mississippi, where my girlfriend lives. (OK, she’s my wife now, but she used to live there, and I’m going to need you to stick with me here, folks.) So, I exit from I-65, but somehow, I’ve taken the Florida off-ramp.

Now, I’m heading to the wrong destination. I have sinned! (Sorry, Florida.) I can be remorseful of my mistake. I can fret over it. But I’m still going 65 miles per hour towards Florida. It is not until I exit and get back on the road heading West that I have truly repented. I’m going in a new direction— the correct one!

Repentance is the gift of God. It is not initiated by us. We are clueless until God shows us, we are heading to death. In His love, He says, “Turn the car around, and I’m giving you an exit ramp right now.” Once again, the Apostle Paul writing in Romans 2:4 asks, “Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness (kindness) of God leads you to repentance?”

If I want to go to Mississippi, but I’m heading towards Florida, and my map app says, “You need to repent,” it’s not because the computer app is mean. The computer is not trying to condemn me or make me mad. The computer is trying to save me from going to someone else’s girlfriend’s house, which would be bad, bad, bad!

Look, the Gospel isn’t always easy, but it’s really pretty simple. Lots of folks want deliverance from sin or trouble; they want the restoration and all of the goodies. But they want to do a detour around the Cross of Christ. THAT’S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS!

There is no restoration without repentance. Before salvation comes recognition, conviction, humility, confession, and embracing the Cross. It is at the Cross when our old life passes away and we receive a whole new life in Jesus. It is there that hope and refreshment come. And whether it’s your first visit to the Cross, or your 7,777th time to kneel there, remember this:

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

I have been convicted recently by the Holy Spirit that because of so much excess and error in today’s Evangelical/Charismatic/Prophetic/Apostolic streams—my streams—of Americanized Christianity, I have become sometimes shy or reticent about moving in the present-day gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit. Please forgive me. I repent.

I am hungry, even desperate, to see the Holy Spirit move among us in a fresh, authentic way in our generation and in generations to come. We cannot allow the counterfeits to steal our daily bread. Revival—real Christ-centered, Cross-embracing, heart-changing, community-transforming revival—is as essential to the 21st Century Church as CPR is to a man who is choking, unable to breathe, with his heart stopped.

Will you join me in this prayer and in support? At CSM, we have been committed to developing and providing fresh resources for sharing the Gospel, Bible teaching, discipleship, and life in the Holy Spirit. We’ve taken bold steps of faith, such as with The Covenant and the Kingdom Bible Study App and new media, even as our own finances have been extremely tight over the past two years since my father’s passing. We are reaching many new fields and many people, but we are asking those who have stood with us in the past to journey with us into the future.

We are committed to preserve and expand the teaching legacy of my Dad and the other teachers who faithfully served the Lord with him. At the same time, we are venturing out into new expressions of Christ’s Kingdom to serve and equip the next generations. Do you believe that we together have something yet to say and do in our time? I do. Who is with me? To continue forward, I really need to hear from you.

Thank you for your friendship, patience, prayer, and giving in the midst of our life-and-death health issues. I’m not giving up; I’m doubling down.

In Jesus,
Stephen Simpson
President