Over the last few days I’ve received several invitations for speaking engagements next year. In March, I’ll be appearing at the prestigious Lee’s Hill '55 Club (topic: TBD), and in April, I’ll be the guest speaker for that month’s SPC Community Lecture Series (topic: Historical Churches of Fredericksburg). June will have me at the third annual Gathering of Eagles in Winchester, and I have several radio spots lined up in between. Still, with baby Jackson arriving in under 8 weeks, I’m trying to limit my schedule to just a few events. I had to turn down a magnificent offer to be a guest lecturer at the 2008 Faith Writer’s Conference in Nashville Tennessee, but I hope to appear at the 2009 event.

There was a time when I regularly declined offers to do public speaking, but over the last year or so, it has become my favorite part of being a local author and historian here in Fredericksburg. The people that I have had the honor to talk to this year were extraordinary and I am so very thankful for their interest in my work. I especially like speaking to church groups as the intent of my message immediately goes above and beyond the usual secular Civil War talk.

My 'Faith Under Fire' program that I did for the Spotsylvania Presbyterian Men’s Ministry last month was responsible for these newest invitations and it has also manifested itself in several church-related projects. The idea of discipleship was the backbone of that talk as our church was just beginning a new series called 'The Discipleship Challenge'. Today we learned about the challenges of practicing charity and grace and had the opportunity to take a pledge to pray for an unchurched-adversary, or a person that we have recently had differences with. After last week's episode, I nominated a certain VA high school teacher on my card. In a nutshell, the 'Discipleship Pledge' is a promise to prayerfully consider an individual during our daily scripture study or meditations. It’s easier said than done, and I suspect that there will be some sarcastic posting somewhere poking fun at the act. However, this pledge is not about me, so I’ll take it.

The idea of using this genre of historical narrative to Witness for Christ is nothing new. It’s the foundation for most of my personal projects (minus my magazine and newspaper gigs) and has been the backbone of my book-publishing career. Still, there is a time and place for sharing the Good News and the key is NOT to force it down people’s throats, or come off as being too aggressive. I may be an Evangelical Protestant, but I’ve never agreed with the ‘banging door-to-door’ theory, or the old ‘fire and brimstone’ ambush method. Nothing turns people off to religion more than attacking them and coming off as some self-righteous zealot. People find religion when they want to. Or they don’t. I have plenty of non-Christian and/or agnostic associates who I get along with wonderfully.

Another group that is sharing the Gospel within the context of Civil War history is the Sons of Confederate Veterans Chaplain Corps. This blessed organization of battlefield believers has recently become an interest of mine (I am an Associate SCV member), and I am planning on contacting them this week to see if I can assist them in promoting their mission. Each month, they publish a 20+-page newsletter that is filled from beginning to end with inspirational stories and spiritual nourishment. It’s titled the 'Chaplain’s Chronicle' and features a wealth of positive prose including biographies of Christian Soldiers, sermon notes, prayer considerations, and reprints of general orders. Here is a PDF of the October issue.

Along with our good friends over at the Re-enactor’s Missions for Jesus Christ, these groups are using their time and talents for sharing the glory of their God, while simultaneously preserving the storied history of our culture and our country. Well done gentlemen. Well done!