America feels increasingly divided, fragile, and unprepared for crisis, but former Army Ranger and longtime war correspondent Chuck Holton believes there’s still time to course-correct.
Holton talks about some solutions in his new book RED Teams: Building Brotherhood, Preparing Communities, and Becoming the Church America Desperately Needs.
From disaster response and community leadership to loneliness, family breakdown, and spiritual passivity, Holton argues that the “collapse” many fear isn’t just future catastrophe – it’s already visible in everyday life.
Holton says some people are so focused on a so-called “zombie apocalypse” or societal collapse that they miss real crisis that’s already underway, often occurring in the immediate vicinity.
“The apocalypse is the elderly man that’s living two doors down from your church whose wife died three years ago and he hasn’t had a visitor since. The apocalypse looks like a single mom who doesn’t have a man around. That’s what the apocalypse looks like,” he says.
Rather than leaving them to rely entirely on government systems, he believes churches should once again become the first place communities turn when things fall apart.
“What are we doing in our own communities to map out the needs and the abilities and the resources that are in our own communities? And in so doing, we uncover these elderly and sick and single moms and people who just need God in their lives.”
Holton argues that men’s ministries should focus on practical abilities to foster stronger relationships and utility: “Let’s bring in a guy that knows that, that’s a master electrician and have him give a basic electrician course to our guys… let’s make our church more than just the place people go to get entertained for an hour on Sundays.”
He says now is the time for Christian communities to take steps to help our society move away from reliance on government systems.
“It’d be so healthy for America if churches stopped abdicating their responsibility to care for the widows and orphans and aged and infirm and took that back upon ourselves because it’s our job according to the Bible to do that, not the government’s job,” he says.
Find Holton’s book RED Teams here.
