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Restore Minnesota April '25 Newsletter
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Contents:
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The Cross of Christ Pastor Dale Witherington
- Actions Display Character Sara Bertschinger
- Not Your Mother's ERA Sara Bertschinger
- Hand Off! Prayers On! Sara Bertschinger
- The Value of Life and Proposed Legislation Sara Bertschinger
- Robin Sertell, Abortion Survivor, is coming back to Minnesota
- Church at the Capitol - May 10 at 10:30 am
- Other Restore Minnesota News:
- Beltrami County Community Action Team Shirlee Walker
- Greetings from Western Minnesota Steve Boyd
- 7 Tips for Building a Community Action Team Sara Bertschinger
- Current list of Restore MN Community Action Teams
- plus our Restore MN website and more.
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The Cross of Christ
The messages arrived almost all at once from several sources. “They tore down the cross. They stole the Ten Commandments. They left a vulgar sign.”
This was the result of a group of trans activists protesting for their “rights” at the Minnesota State Capitol on March 31st.
It is likely that this demonstration of hatred will be perceived as nothing more than a trivial political statement. It might be that, but it is far more than only that.
It was a demonstration of spiritual and moral bankruptcy.
Decent people with a moral compass need not be surprised, much less discouraged, by such destructive behavior. It’s the type of behavior that exemplifies hatred for God, hatred for others and, maybe most of all, hatred of self. It is a Romans 1:28 moment: “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not be done.”
“God gave them up.” To me, these are both the saddest and scariest words in all of the Scriptures.
We are saddened any time someone desecrates those things that represent a God who sent His one and only Son to offer love, hope and restoration. We are scared because we join with the author of Psalm 73:17 who had a personal wakeup call and acknowledged, “. . .then I discerned their end,” as well as the author of 2 Thessalonians 1:9 which describes their end this way, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.”
We do not condone the behaviors of the few at the State Capitol who conducted their cowardly demonstrations of hate. Neither do we condemn the one(s) who destroyed the symbols of the God of our nation. In the end, love, and justice will be served. We pray that end not be one of condemnation. That will be decided by those perpetrator(s) of hate as each one comes face to face with God and is held accountable for his or her deeds.
The cross of Christ. It is either a reminder of our guilt before God or His forgiveness offered to us.
Which is it for you? The choice is yours.
Dale
Rev. Dale A. Witherington, Chief Steward
Restore Minnesota
651.785.3647
Thank you to all of you who ordered our new book:
Courageous Christianity: Living A Life Of Faith In A World That Desperately Needs Jesus!
The book is actually performing pretty well at Amazon.com. You can help us do better! Please take 5 minutes and write a review (hopefully 4 or 5 stars!) of the book. It is not hard to do. It is as easy as:
1. Read the book. Then highlight or underline things you really like and make notes in the margins.
2. Login to your Amazon account.
3. Search for the book, Courageous Christianity: Living A Life Of Faith In A World That Desperately Needs Jesus by Dale Witherington.
4. Scroll down for customer reviews.
5. Click on “Write a customer review.”
- Now, tell the world one, two or three things you really liked about the book. You’ll identify those from your highlights, underlining and margin notes.
- Do not make mention of any particular connection to the author.
- Focus on what the information has contributed to your life.
6. Click “submit.” Your review should show up in a day or two.
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Please remember, the more reviews we get, the more visibility we all get. The more visibility we all get, the more sales we make. The more sales we make, the greater the opportunity for starting CATs in other places. THAT is the objective!
Join our “Ministry Expansion Team” by submitting a review TODAY!!
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The Erosion of Rights Bill!
The proposed Equal Rights Amendment Bill — HF 510 — has come back in the ‘25-’26 legislative session. This is a bill proposes bringing before the voters on the 2026 ballot a constitutional amendment that will add abortion rights and “gender identity” rights to the Minnesota State Constitution, while failing to include ANY language to protect religious liberty or conscientious rights.
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by Sara Bertschsinger on April 5, 2025
Romans 12:21 – Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good.
Isaiah 5:20 – Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
The Battle is Fierce because we are at the Threshold.
We are in a struggle for the heart and soul of our Nation.
Now is the time for Prayer in Action.
Hands Off Protests
Far-Left Activists have been organizing multiple protests around the states ever since Trump won the election.
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by Sara Bertschsinger on March 17, 2025
Unborn Lives Matter
God values the Life and Dignity of the Unborn.
When will MN get on board?
Born alive act
Most Minnesotans agree; Unwanted Children deserve basic human rights!
Every individual has the inherent right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. In America we have a constitution that upholds these God-given rights. So then why in MN are we denying these inherent and constitutional rights to children who survived a botched abortion? Does the fact their existence was unwanted somehow make them subhuman!? Why was language stripped from MN statute last session that denies these babies “Life-Saving Care”!?
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Announcing Another Robin Sertell Tour in Minnesota
She was here last August sharing her incredible life story and her heart for the unborn. Please share this with people you know in these areas. Some of the meeting details will be finalized soon.
Our article called "A Light in the Darkness" about Robin's 2024 Minnesota tour can be found here:
Restore Minnesota September '24 Newsletter
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Church at the Capitol
Saturday, May 10, 10:30 am
in the Rotunda
Christians from across the state will gather at the Minnesota State Capitol to worship and pray on three more Saturdays in 2025. Details for the future dates of August 2 and November 22 will be provided as each date approaches.
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Other Restore Minnesota News
Beltrami County Community Action Team by Shirlee Walker
The Beltrami County Community Action Team is a new group in our Restore Minnesota family. We got started officially about three months ago, but it was natural progression from how we began. As an action team, 34 of us began working together as a Trump Force 47 group starting in July, 2024. Our purpose was to encourage and help low propensity voters in Beltrami County get out and vote. We focused on the churches and soon realized we needed more intense work with the pastors. So we morphed into Vote Bible Bemidji, meeting and sending emails to help pastors encourage their congregations to vote the Bible.
After the election, not wanting to have the positive election results decrease our momentum, we found Restore Minnesota. What a blessing!! Dale and Sue Witherington met with us three times in Bemidji, launching us into a viable Community Action Team (CAT).
The overall purpose of the Beltrami County CAT is to help restore righteousness and governmental common sense to Bemidji and all of Beltrami County. At our third meeting, we brainstormed direction, based on that purpose and the interests of our group. Two interests emerge.
- Train trainers on the Constitution Alive class offered by Patriot Academy. After having taught that class six times, it is evident that citizens do not know what is in the Constitution. This class makes it abundantly clear that our nation was founded on biblical principles and as a society we have strayed.
- Become involved in monitoring our three local governing boards, the School Board, the City Council, and the County Commissioners. We need to know what the issues are in our community and county to be able to make an impact.
As the leader of the group, I believe that we all need to do ‘something bigger than ourselves’ and we need to become ‘force multipliers.’ That is the reason we offered a train-the-trainer course so that there would be a cadre of people trained to teach the class in their circles of influence. Six people took that class, which was completed last Thursday, April 3. Now our CAT will brainstorm where and how to offer the class.
The next thing will be to get team members to volunteer to attend local board meetings of their choice. We hope to get three people assigned to each Board and report back what we need to do to make an impact.
Another activity will be to work with the local Chamber of Commerce to set up a Civics Bee, with much the same format as the Spelling Bee. We are gathering information on that right now.
Because we have just started, we are leaving our activities somewhat open. However, our purpose will remain to help restore righteousness and governmental common sense to Bemidji and throughout all of Beltrami County.
By Shirlee Walker, who is leading the Beltrami County CAT and stepping into a staff role by doing Northwest MN Ministry Development for Restore MN.
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Greetings to you all from Western Minnesota! by Steve Boyd
It was great to see and meet so many of you at the RMN Workshop on March 22nd. I was so encouraged by the enthusiasm and passion of all of you. I have been to my share of workshops and conferences and rarely have I seen the level of focus and energy that I observed that day. It was an amazing opportunity to connect and share ideas with others from across the state that are working towards the same goal and it was really interesting to see how the task forces can lend the expertise from their focus area to help fight the battle in another focus area.
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For example, I was working with the pro life task force group. We of course realize the battle is on multiple fronts to win on this issue. There is political action, education, and activation of the church all needing to happen.
- Education task forces can fight for curriculum that teaches the value of life and where it comes from or help provide alternative education options that teach life is created by God therefore has value from the moment of conception.
- Political action taskforces can help write and advocate for legislation that protects life.
- Taskforces or individuals involved in their local church can encourage more teaching, discussion and speaking out from our pulpits and support for pregnancy centers and young moms from our churches.
This is just one example on one important issue, but applies to a multitude of the issues we are facing. This is how we win back our culture for the glory of God by using the skills, talents and passions God gave us and working together to Restore Minnesota and beyond.
I am looking forward to seeing the expansion of the work of Restore Minnesota in western Minnesota, particularly Congressional District 7 which is essentially the western third of the state. Some may say it will be easy to start Community Action Teams in this area because it is more conservative. Some may say we don’t need them at all because it is already conservative.
I will tell you the battle we face in an area such as this is complacency, which can be more dangerous than adversity.
We get a mindset that everything is fine here, all the problems are coming from the city. Meanwhile our rural schools are teaching the same ideology, our local governments are largely run by people who don’t share our Biblical, conservative values, and our churches don’t want to rock the boat.
We have a huge opportunity right now. All ages, but especially young people are searching for truth.
Many are starting to understand that we have a responsibility to live as Biblical Citizens, but many don’t quite understand what that fully means or how to go about doing so. We can be the catalyst. That is our mission:
“restore righteousness in Minnesota by promoting Biblical citizenship that educates, equips, empowers and encourages Holy Spirit-led engagement - county by county, community by community and family by family - through spiritual and civic transformation based on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
That is what I am looking forward to here in Western Minnesota and beyond.
By Steve Boyd, who is doing Western MN Ministry Development for Restore MN.
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Field Guide for Community Action Teams (CATs)
and Task-Forces:
1- Take the Leap! Start a Group!
- “No one can do everything but everyone can do something.”
- Find 1 person like you and start a group. Something is better than nothing. We dig through a mountain by persistently chipping away at the rock.
- Choose a Name and mission statement.
- Pick a routine and meet regularly in person if possible, to encourage, share, problem solve and motivate. Having a routine meeting also can help facilitate welcoming new participants.
- Reach out and build your crew.
2- Main Issue to Rally behind
- Choose a hot topic focus issue ...
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The Purpose and Mission of Restore Minnesota is to restore righteousness to our state. The strategy to do that is through developing Community Action Teams (CATs) in all of the 87 counties. We currently have 13 active Community Action Teams serving 15 different counties. If you want to be contacted about the details of attending any of these meetings, please inquire at our website...https://restoremn.org/contact-us/
- Anoka County meeting in Linwood - NEW
- Beltrami County meeting in Bemidji - NEW
- Chisago County meeting in Lindstrom
- Crow Wing County meeting in Baxter (This group is known as the Christian Constitutional Conservatives.)
- Dakota County meeting in Lakeville
- Douglas County meeting in Alexandria
- Goodhue County meeting in Cannon Falls (aka Restore Cannon Falls)
- Goodhue & Olmsted Counties meeting in Pine Island (aka Restore Pine Island)
- Hennepin County meeting in Crystal
- Isanti County meeting in Princeton
- Kanabec County (not active)
- Pine County (not active)
- Ramsey County meeting in Shoreview
- Sherburne County meeting in the Elk River area
- Wright County meeting in Buffalo
We will be announcing more NEW Community Action Teams over the next few months.
If you know Christians, Conservatives, and Patriots in these areas that might be interested in Restore Minnesota and our Community Action Teams, please share this newsletter with them or direct them to our website … https://restoremn.org/contact-us … tell them to enter their information. Someone will contact them.
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“Re-forming the Church to Transform the World”
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Note: You are receiving this email because you signed up at a Restore Minnesota Community Action Team meeting in the past, subscribed at our website, or otherwise requested to be added to our list. If you no longer wish to receive this email, simply click the Unsubscribe button below.
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