Imprisoned For the Gospel w/ Tim Stephens
For the Gospel Podcast
Costi Hinn
5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 14 August 2023
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Like many pastors and churches, when COVID-19 hit the news and shut down orders spread across the globe, Tim Stephens and Fairview Baptist Church stopped holding services and assessed the situation. Not knowing what they were dealing with, they took every step necessary to use wisdom and prudence in their decision-making. But as it became clear that this virus was not all that the government made it out to be, Tim’s convictions stirred to re-open the church and begin preaching and holding worship services. His decision to re-open had a wide ripple effect that ultimately led to his imprisonment. As a husband, and a father to 8 children, Tim and Raquel Stephens had so much to lose. As fines piled up and public pressure mounted, Tim’s convictions remained anchored. To end the whole ordeal all he had to do was sign an agreement stating that he would not go back and re-open the church. He refused. This interview is the entire story in his own words.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to The Further Gospel Podcast, where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. |
| 0:14.7 | I'm your host, Kosti Han, and on today's episode, I have a very special interview for you |
| 0:19.5 | with a dear friend and brother named Tim Stevens. Tim is the pastor of Fairview Baptist Church |
| 0:25.2 | north of the border in Canada, and I've gotten to know him pretty well from our time together |
| 0:31.1 | as classmates at the Master's Seminary in the Doctor of Ministry program in Expository Preaching. |
| 0:37.2 | Tim is faithful and has quite an aversion to a lot of attention and fanfare and public recognition, |
| 0:44.0 | so he was in a little bit of a tough spot when he found himself on national news and really global |
| 0:51.8 | in 2021 when he refused to keep his church shut down and he refused to stop preaching. |
| 0:59.6 | It was 2021 and the Canadian government had said no more church, no more gatherings, |
| 1:04.1 | and he, along with others like James Cotes, who maybe you know and have heard of, |
| 1:08.1 | kept on preaching and opened their churches to allow people to come. |
| 1:13.6 | What I love about Tim and what you're going to hear in this interview is he's a prudent man |
| 1:17.9 | and they're a prudent church. They took some time for a season to assess things, they weren't |
| 1:22.4 | just cavalier and didn't care about what anyone would think to the point that they were insensitive, |
| 1:28.0 | but Tim had come to a conviction and when it was time, he said, I'm going to preach we're going |
| 1:34.1 | to worship and anyone who wants to come can come. Tim found himself in prison with the option |
| 1:43.2 | to get out and be released if he would just sign a piece of paper that said, |
| 1:47.2 | you won't go back and open the church and keep on preaching. His situation is an interesting one |
| 1:54.4 | because Tim married to his wife Raquel is the father of eight kids and with a family and tears |
| 2:01.6 | and the weight of the world seemingly on his shoulders and really all the eyes of the world |
| 2:05.9 | watching, he refused to stop preaching and refused to sign the paper that said he would close |
| 2:13.4 | the church and keep it closed. This is his story in depth and in detail with so many lessons |
... |
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