Faith Facts

• Garth Pleasant served as a preacher for over fifty years and is retiring this weekend from Horton Road Church of Christ in Jackson, Michigan.
• Pleasant coached basketball at Rochester Christian University for 38 years, winning 720 games and four national championships.
• He has been married to his wife Pat for 55 years and always placed family above professional success.

Garth Pleasant, the legendary small-college basketball coach and longtime preacher, is retiring after decades of service in the pulpit and on the court. His simple wisdom has shaped generations of players, students, and church members.

While attending the Michigan versus Oklahoma football game last Saturday, Pleasant shared five life lessons drawn from his roles as preacher, educator, coach, family man, and sports fan.

“I don’t consider myself a theologian,” Pleasant stressed. “I don’t have a master’s in theology or anything like that.”

He rejected the idea that ministers should leave congregations wondering what was said. Instead, he focused on practical messages that helped people facing real struggles like incarceration, divorce, and illness.

“I always said, ‘I’m preaching to myself.’ I tried to talk on topics that I thought people might be struggling with,” he recalled.

As an educator for nearly fifty years, Pleasant valued the classroom above all else. He emphasized critical thinking over indoctrination and made learning engaging with field trips and personal interaction.

“I feel like (too often) in education, we don’t teach kids the critical thinking — we indoctrinate them,” he said.

Coaching changed dramatically during Pleasant’s career. He moved from a strict, dictatorial style to one that involved players and showed greater compassion.

“I said, ‘I’d rather be with all of you in heaven and not win national championships than win national championships and not be with one of you,’” he explained.

Family always came first. Pleasant took his sons on team buses to away games and never let wins or losses affect his home life.

“I took my family with me. My boys rode on the bus with me. I’d get them out of school, and it was a family affair. Wins should not come before your family.”

Even as a sports fan, Pleasant has mellowed with age. He now switches to wholesome shows like Little House on the Prairie when games become too intense.

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Faith Facts

• Christian parents in Pakistan’s Punjab province report that their 15-year-old son was pressured to convert to Islam while working at a local factory.
• Rights advocates warn that similar cases of underage Christian boys facing forced religious conversion are increasing across the region.
• Believers in America are called to stand with persecuted Christian families worldwide who endure coercion for their faith.

The Christian parents of 15-year-old Sagar Masih are appealing for his return after they say he was pressured into converting to Islam at a factory job in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

A rights group says the case is one of a growing number of similar reports involving underage Christian boys in that country.

According to the family, their son was approached while employed at the factory and faced repeated pressure to abandon his Christian faith in favor of Islam.

Christian parents across the region continue to express deep concern over the safety and well-being of their children in environments where religious coercion is increasing.

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Faith Facts

• Scripture warns against creating images that could lead to idolatry, as seen in the account of the golden calf in Exodus 32.
• The Bible teaches that God alone deserves worship, and any object resembling a pagan deity raises serious spiritual concerns.
• Christian leaders have long called for vigilance against cultural influences that could subtly compromise faithfulness to biblical truth.

A senior official in the Trump administration has reportedly raised concerns about plans to display a bull statue at an international exhibition, citing its resemblance to the golden calf condemned in the book of Exodus.

The official expressed worry that the statue could be interpreted as honoring a Canaanite deity rather than serving as a neutral cultural artifact.

“We should not be participating in something that could be seen as promoting idolatry,” the official stated, according to reports.

Critics of the exhibit argue that such displays risk normalizing symbols once associated with pagan worship, especially at a time when many Americans are seeking to reaffirm biblical values in public life.

Supporters of the display claim the statue is merely artistic and historical, but faith-based observers remain unconvinced that context alone removes the spiritual implications.

Concerned believers point to Exodus 20:3-5, which commands, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” as a clear reminder that God’s people must avoid anything that could lead to misplaced reverence.

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