God does not quit on His people. He keeps His word.

Steve and Becky Riggle’s story began the old-fashioned way. Steve saw Becky in college, was immediately smitten, pursued her, and 9 months later, they were married; Steve was barely 19, Becky was 20. More than 55 years later, their life together stands as a testimony to God’s faithfulness, covenant, and sustaining grace.

Their road, however, has not been easy. After early pastoral assignments, the Riggles joined Grace International Churches and Ministries in 1974 and planted a church in Livermore, California, which grew to become the largest Protestant church in town. Then came the crucible.

In 1978, while ministering in a prison in the Philippines, they were taken hostage during an attempted escape. Steve was stabbed 7 times and nearly died. Becky was shot, spent 9 months in a body cast, underwent 5 surgeries, and then endured another 9 months learning to walk again. Yet the Lord preserved them, and what the enemy meant for evil, God used for good, as a testimony to His faithfulness and covenant.

God does not quit on His people. He keeps His word, honors His promises, and proves Himself steadfast across a lifetime. And in His mysterious economy, Heaven’s favorites are often forged in the crucible, not pampered in comfort. God often does His deepest work in the dungeon, the den, the tempest, the prison, and the place of apparent ruin.

A.W. Pink observed in his classic, The Life of David that “The high favorites of Heaven are sometimes to be located in queer and unexpected places. Joseph in prison, the descendants of Abraham laboring in the brick-kilns of Egypt, Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah in the great fish’s belly, Paul clinging to a spar in the sea, forcibly illustrate this principle.”

In 1983, the Riggles moved to Houston to plant Grace Community Church, which grew to 17,000 members and built a 250,000-square-foot worship center on 80 acres. Today, they serve as the Founding Senior Pastors of Grace Woodlands in The Woodlands, Texas. Steve also serves as President of Grace International, a fellowship of more than 5,400 churches and ministries with over 500,000 members in 130 nations.

Together, Steve and Becky have poured their lives into building the Kingdom by launching ministries for women and families in need, founding FORGE to train pastors who will shape the nation, and leaving behind more than buildings and numbers. They have left a legacy of faithfulness, courage, and generational output.

And that legacy now includes another form of stewardship: sending believers into the rough-and-tumble of the public square and the ministry of civil government. Scottish Old Testament scholar William McKane [1921-2004] rightly observed that wisdom shapes “the policies of nations and the lives of men,” becoming a force in the world for righteousness and material prosperity.

Jewish Hebrew scholar Michael V. Fox [1940-2025] makes the same point from another angle: wisdom does not speak from the sidelines, but in the very places where the contest is fiercest, i.e., amid the noise, distractions, disputes, and pressures of daily life, business, and politics. In other words, Biblical wisdom is neither esoteric nor theoretical. It enters the marketplace, the council chamber, the legislature, and the public square.

That is why American Christendom must begin once again launching spiritual men and women - Gideons and Rahabs - into the public arena in obedience to Jesus Christ’s ekklesia assignment in Matthew 16:18. They must be in the room where choices are discussed and decisions are made that shape the public square and the moral perspective of the next generation.

As for Pastor Riggle and Grace Woodlands, the fruit is already visible. In the March 3, 2026, Texas primary, a number of his congregants prevailed as candidates: Steve Toth for Congress; Jessica Steinmann for Congress; State Representative Valoree Swanson; State Board of Education candidate Tiffany Nelson; Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough; Montgomery County Clerk Brandon Steinmann; Montgomery County GOP Chair Gwen Withrow; and Montgomery County GOP Precinct Chairs Peter Stees, Steve Lawrence, and Charles Shirley.

Add to that the stable of Grace Woodlands members already serving in elected and civic leadership across city government, school boards, utility districts, hospital governance, and precinct organization: Shenandoah City Councilman Joe Summerlin; Montgomery County Hospital District Board Director Charles Shirley; Conroe ISD Board President Misty Odenweller, Vice-President Melissa Dungan, and Trustees Nicole May and Aggie Gambino; Montgomery County Municipal Utility District Board Directors Brad Reels, Dianne Nielsen, Steve Lawrence, and Martin Etwop; Montgomery County GOP Precinct Chairs Cathie Locetta, Luis Yepiz, Theresa Rosa, Melinda Olinde, Lorraine Rice, and Theresa Haag; and Harris County GOP Precinct Chair Shirley Kitchens.

“I will build My ekklesia, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” The Church is being called out from behind the four walls of the building, to disciple nations, shape moral imagination, restrain evil, and bear witness to the Lordship of Christ in every realm of life.

When pastors recover their Biblical courage, when they step out of the sanctuary and into the contested spaces of public life, when they raise up Gideons and Rahabs and send them into the gates of the city, the balance shifts. Grace Woodlands is living proof in Texas.

The time has come for pastors and parishioners across America to stop outsourcing the future, stop apologizing for Biblical conviction, and step once more into the arena. The Church is not a chaplaincy to a dying culture. She is Christ’s ekklesia, and the gates of hell will be vanquished.

You’re Worthy Of It All

Gideons and Rahabs have begun to stand.

David Lane

American Renewal Project