In John 10, Jesus explains that he has come to offer abundant life. Roland Warren, president and CEO of Care Net, joins Today’s Conversation podcast to share how Jesus’ vision for abundance impacts and transforms pro-life ministry. He also argues that Christian discipleship is at the center of this issue.

Hosted by NAE President Walter Kim, this conversation provides insight into what pro-life ministry looks like in a post-Roe context, how the sanctity of marriage and family upholds God’s vision for those inside and outside the womb, and what we can do to support family structures.

You’ll also hear: 

  • How the story of Jesus’ birth reflects God’s design for family;
  • What critiques of the pro-life movement need to be addressed;
  • What initiatives support strong family structures; and
  • How holistic discipleship empowers people to think differently about abortion.

Read a Portion of the Transcript

Walter: You talk about a pro abundant life ministry, not simply a pro-life ministry. What do you mean by that?

Roland: It’s interesting. It’s not like marketing or trying to be different, but it actually comes from John 10:10 where Christ said that he came so that we might have life and then have that life abundantly. When I started at Care Net, God downloaded that verse into my brain, and I just began to meditate on it, look it up in Greek and really try to understand what Christ was saying in that moment, and there’s a number of things he’s saying there because that is Jesus’ “why” statement.

When you look at that verse, he’s talking about two types of life. He’s talking about physical life, if you will, where the Greek word is bios but he also was referring to a spiritual life, zoe, a unique type of spiritual life that only comes from a relationship with God. So essentially what he’s saying is, “I came to link your bios to my zoe that you might have abundant life.”

When I started to think about that in terms of the life issue, I said, “My goodness, Jesus wasn’t pro life. He was pro abundant life.” Because see, you can be an atheist and be pro-life because you’re solving for the life, the heart beat and saving a baby, and again, that’s God-honoring and we should be doing that. But as Christians, we should be solving for heartbeats that are Heaven-bound. That’s the distinction — heartbeats that are Heaven-bound, or in other words, linking bios to zoe.

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Today’s Conversation is brought to you by World Vision.

 

Roland Warren

Roland Warren is the president and CEO of Care Net, a nonprofit organization that empowers women and men considering abortion to choose life for their unborn children and find abundant life in Christ. Previously, Warren spent 20 years in the corporate world working for IBM, Pepsi and Goldman Sachs and 11 years as president of the National Fatherhood Initiative before joining Care Net in 2012. He is the author of several books, including “Raising Sons of Promise: A Guide for Single Mothers of Boys” and “Bad Dads of the Bible: 8 Mistakes Every Good Dad Can Avoid.” He is a graduate of Princeton University and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Walter Kim

Walter Kim became the president of the National Association of Evangelicals in January 2020. He previously served as a pastor at Boston’s historic Park Street Church and at churches in Vancouver, Canada and Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as a campus chaplain at Yale University. He preaches, writes and engages in collaborative leadership to connect the Bible to the intellectual and cultural issues of the day. He regularly teaches in conferences and classrooms; addresses faith concerns with elected officials and public institutions; and provides theological and cultural commentary to leading news outlets. He serves on the boards of Christianity Today and World Relief and consults with a wide range of organizations. Kim received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, his M.Div. from Regent College in Vancouver, and his B.A. from Northwestern University.