Daily Faith with Philip Cameron: Special Guest Pastor Rich Butler
About this episode
Pastor Rich Butler of Hope Church in Spartanburg, South Carolina joins Philip Cameron for a timely conversation about what it means to pastor boldly in a culture that has drifted from its biblical foundations. Rich shares the remarkable story of Hope Church's acquisition of a notorious strip club at the gateway to Greenville, South Carolina — a building that had been the subject of intercessory prayer for nearly two decades — now being transformed into a place of worship and gospel proclamation. Drawing on the parable of the wise and foolish builder, Rich warns that the church, like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, has developed a dangerous tilt over time due to a faulty foundation. "We have to drop a plumb line and say we're gonna stand on the truth of the Lord," he declares, calling pastors to preach without apology on abortion, gender, sexuality, and Israel. He recounts how Hope Church stayed open during COVID-19, laying hands on the sick in faith, and how a CDC representative challenged them for "denying the science" — a moment Rich used to reaffirm that the church is built on faith, not human intellect. Rich and Philip agree that America's crisis is a church crisis, not a Washington crisis, and that dark times are precisely when the light of the gospel shines brightest. For more on Hope Church, visit hopesce.org.
Part of our Pastors collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“The separation of church and state was designed to keep the government out of the church, not to keep the church out of the government.”
“For nearly 20 years it was a notorious strip club when we had the opportunity to take a look at it and pray within the walls. For decades, many churches in the region, intercessors had been praying, prayer walking, just asking God to shut that place down and transfer it into the hands of the righteous. Little did I know that nearly 20 years later God would entrust — and I say trust, even though we're purchasing — we just feel like we're stewards. It's God's building, and we want to build a place for God to dwell right at the gateway to Greenville, where we're gonna preach the gospel and host the presence of the Lord.”
“As things are getting darker, listen, that's where the light begins to work. Light is created to illuminate the darkness. And so we're not leaning away from it here in the upstate of South Carolina. We're going into the heart of darkness and we're preaching Christ.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Rich Butler of Hope Church — one church in three locations across Spartanburg and Greenville, South Carolina — discusses the church's mission to "lead people into the life-giving presence of God." He details the acquisition of a former strip club at the gateway to Greenville, the fruit of nearly 20 years of intercessory prayer. Using the Leaning Tower of Pisa as an extended metaphor, Rich argues that the church has drifted from its biblical foundation and calls pastors to preach boldly on abortion, gender, sexuality, and Israel. He recounts Hope Church's decision to remain open during COVID-19 and a subsequent challenge from a CDC representative, which Rich answered by affirming the church is built on faith, not science. Both Philip and Rich conclude that America's moral crisis originates in the church, not Washington, and that revival — centered on King Jesus — is the only remedy.
- Hope Church's Three-Location Mission
- Transforming a Strip Club into a House of Worship
- Leaning Tower of Pisa and Faulty Church Foundations
- Preaching Boldly on Abortion Gender and Israel
- Scotland's Fishing Revival and Dark Times as Harvest Season
- Hope Church Stays Open During COVID-19
- Church Crisis vs. Washington Crisis
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Hey, welcome to Daily Faith today. Now at the very front of the program, in our warmup show before we get to the actual show, I need to apologize for all the mistakes I'm about to make. Normally my son Andrew is with me, and he sits over in the chair and I've got these screens all around me, the camera that I'm talking to, and he's giving me prompts and telling me what's coming up next. And he does all these wonderful things. The only problem is he's on the other side of the world today in Moldova, and I'm in the studio with all these cameras and all these TV screens, and I have not a clue what I'm doing.
Philip:So if I make a mistake just now, I just wanna apologize. So you know, it's happened. Because my brain is on the other side of the world, I am delighted to have you with me, and on today's program we have got a tremendous guest. Goodness gracious, this man is doing extraordinary things, building churches where once darkness reigned. He's claiming darkness for the kingdom of God, and we'll get an update from him. I'm amazed. I don't know if you're watching the news this last few hours.
Philip:What used to take a month or two months or three months to open up and develop, we are having news cycles that are lasting for 30 minutes, it seemed. One thing comes up and the country's in shock over it, then the next thing something else has happened. And as we're recording this program today for you to see — it'll be live on social media, then it'll be shown on the networks that we show the program on — but as we are sitting now in the studio, we've just had this insane few days in Lebanon where Israel managed to put 4,000 pagers. How they got them between Taiwan, Budapest, and Lebanon, and they were able to get these pagers and arm them. And two days ago, from where I'm sitting just now, they blew up 4,000 of these pagers.
Philip:They were being — it was a means by which the terrorists communicated with each other, and all at one time, three-thirty in the afternoon, they all started blowing up all over the country. And then yesterday, when the world was shocked at the genius and the ability of Mossad to do this — of course no one is claiming any responsibility for it — but yesterday, as in Islam they buried the body the next day of death, and they had thousands of people on the streets chanting, you know, death to Israel as they normally do. And then the walkie talkies, the big walkie talkies that they used to talk to each other, they blew up.
Philip:Several hundred of those blew up and they killed more people yesterday than they did the day before. And what this has done in Lebanon — Hezbollah is the terrorist organization that literally occupies Lebanon. Lebanon was a Christian country, and now it is occupied by these killers, the terrorists. But what it's done is, if you're a terrorist, they say they were throwing their devices and phones in garbage buckets, taking the batteries out and throwing the batteries away, because they were absolutely terrified. And what it has done is it has silenced the enemy, because how do they talk to each other? They used pagers because they knew that the Israelis could listen to their phone communication. So they got these old-fashioned pagers to thwart the enemy from hearing them talking and communicating. That's all gone. And the walkie talkies are dead.
Philip:So how do you coordinate an attack in response when you can't talk to anyone unless you're all in one room? And if you all get in one room, the boys with the eyes in the skies know how many guys are in this house. So that's incredibly dangerous. It is just the genius of what they did. It shows that Mossad is by far the most advanced military planning and spy agency in the world. But what it tells me is we are living in the last days, man. This kind of trouble, this kind of peril, lets you see and lets you understand — when you see these things, lift up your head, redemption draws nigh.
Philip:Because they reckon that Taiwan was part of this chain of these pagers. And you know, who's next door to Taiwan? The Iranians and the Chinese have got a pact. It's all coming together for one configuration. And we just need to be on our toes as the church. We need to be alert and aware. And in the fields that are white unto harvest, we have a labor issue in the church. The fields under harvest are not the problem. It's the church that doesn't have the laborers that go into the harvest.
Philip:So please pray for Israel. Really pray that God will put a cloak of protection. Literally, as I was about to begin the program, my phone alerted me — I get alerts from the BBC — and as we speak right this second, Israel is attacking Lebanon by air. And I think that this pager issue was not just an event in itself. I think this may be the beginning of Israel now going into Lebanon as they have done in Gaza.
Philip:We are living in dangerous times. We need to know whom we have believed in these days, and we need to understand that Jesus is the only hope of the world. Let me tell you something. I am a Republican and I believe — I'm voting and I'm political — and I am outspoken that Donald Trump is a better choice in this election because we need someone that's strong to face all of this stuff. But let me tell you, Donald Trump is not our answer. Kamala Harris is not our answer. Jesus is the answer. And as we look to him who is the author and the finisher of our faith, that is when we will have confidence to know that everything is going to be all right.
Philip:So we just pray today. Father, we pray for Israel. We pray that God will build a hedge around them, give them wisdom and insight that's supernatural, that we can see this, that peace can come, in Jesus' name. Amen. We've got a great program to be with you today. I believe that God's gonna speak to your heart today. Let me tell you something. The reason why Daily Faith exists is that we want to invest in your life every day with information and ministry — in one hand joining with the other — so we can let you know that you are loved by God. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. You belong to him. You are his. And the devil can shout and scream and threaten you, but he can't lay a finger on you because you're protected by the blood of Jesus. And don't you be afraid of the circumstances. When you see these things come to pass, the Bible says lift up your head, your redemption draws nigh.
Philip:I am delighted to have you with us. You're gonna enjoy today's program. My friend Rich Butler is with us, and he's got a word from the Lord for you. Welcome to Daily Faith.
Philip:Welcome to Daily Faith today. My name is Philip Cameron. And boy, do we have a great program for you. I believe that God is moving today by his power, and we are seeing God's hand. You see, what happens is we tend to look at the natural things. We tend to look — if you'd been to Calvary and you'd watched Judas kiss Jesus, and you watched the soldiers take him away and put forty-and-one stripes on his back and pull the beard off his face and put the crown of thorns and the cross — you'd be thinking, oh my goodness, the end of the world has happened. It's over. The disciples sure did, 'cause they all ran away.
Philip:But God's plan was bigger. Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan, oh, the grace that brought it down to man, oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary. And what happens is we get so caught up in the things in front of our face that we don't understand that God is a bigger God than we can ever imagine. And he's working all things together for good. So if you are in a storm today, if you are in the wind and the waves like the boys were in the boat — remember they said, Jesus, don't you care that we perish? And Jesus, when you're Jesus and you know that the wind and the wave obey you, he just threw up his hand and says, peace be still. And in your circumstance, you might have all kinds of waves coming across the bow of your boat, and the devil's trying to scare you into making a decision. It's a panic decision. Never make a decision in a panic. Never. Instead of talking, keep your mouth shut, whisper the name of Jesus, plead the blood of Jesus. And I'll tell you what, he'll bring peace in your storm.
Philip:But I'm here to tell you this. Listen to me. God's plan is working and he's got a bigger plan. The moment you are in, he's seeing for tomorrow or the next day. Some of the worst things that happened to me have ended up being the best things that have happened to me, because I've allowed God to work the plan out in his time. So I'm excited for you today. As you know, we have a mission work in Moldova and Ukraine. We were in Ukraine six years before the war broke out. We've got some precious little girls that have just come in, new girls that have just come into our house there.
Philip:But in our main village, in Vatra Village, we're at the most crazy beautiful place. A village of houses right on the biggest lake in the country. And it was built for rich people to have their homes beside the lake. That's it right there. And they poisoned the lake with algae killer to kill algae, and they killed this project. And those houses sat empty for nine years and we bought them. And today, where rich folk would've been, should have been staying, kids that have been abused and neglected and abandoned are coming in. And right this minute is our transition period, when the girls that have graduated are now getting an apartment and we help them get an apartment, and they come and get food from us if they need it and stuff. And it's like having your kids in college, kinda. And it's always bittersweet when they leave. And one of our lovely girls just got married — she got a lovely Christian guy — but you know, the emotions. And just the other day, a whole bunch of new girls, brand new girls, carried their bags into our Vatra Village, and our cameras were there to capture it.
They have found the place for their weary hearts to rest. The abandonment and abuse, the poverty and loneliness of yesterday gives way to hope and peace. Their world is held in a small bag. The welcome top of clothes are more than they have ever seen, but most of all, it's home. Elevate Life. Home begins again. The miracle of restoration. The torn threads can be repaired by the love of our house parents. As these precious girls are pointed towards the cross, you by giving have made this miracle happen again. It opens the heart of God to repay those who have given to the poor. Thank you for loving generously.
Philip:That lovely lady in blue, her name is Natalie. She is our house parent, her husband and her. And she's led with two lovely kids, and they've been with us for, oh my goodness, nearly 20 years. And every time a whole bunch of new girls come in, she's there to pray with them and love them. And that house — you may have heard — Elevate Life is also a house sponsor. And she's the woman you heard speaking. That house was sponsored by Elevate Life Church in Frisco, Texas. And so every time new kids come in, the gift of Elevate Life Church works and works and works again.
Philip:We need your help. As I said, we've just taken in 25 girls. Every girl you've just watched in that video — if the trafficker were to get them, if a trafficker could get their hands on that girl and capture her, they don't go by free will, believe me. But if a trafficker could get that girl, just one of them, they could make $300,000 a year from one girl. One. And I think if she is worth $300,000 a year to the trafficker, I think she's worth supporting as a Christian, don't you think? A dollar a day. Everything. You see, all of the homes, all the vehicles we drive — it costs over $3,000 a month just for bus tickets to send them to all the different schools and colleges across Chișinău.
Philip:All of that is done by someone just like you giving $1 a day, $30 a month. That doesn't change your financial situation as far as impoverishing you. In fact, it will enrich you, because when you give to the poor, you lend to the Lord. But your gift can change a young lady's life, a young boy's life. In fact, Andrew this morning contacted me. He was sitting with a young man — brand new guys come in, new men, they're used as slave labor workers. And we just need you to stand with us if you could.
Philip:Today, as I'm saying, we're growing — every bed and every house is full. We're now looking at new houses. We've got an amazing opportunity coming up. We've got two new houses and a farm all in one property that we're buying. And we're looking for sponsors for the houses. We're looking for sponsors to help us change the barn into a great big kids' camp. But it can also be a relief place that our kids from Ukraine can come if war breaks out in Odessa. And if they try to capture Moldova, which is on the red zone as far as Russia is concerned, we can move all our kids to Ungheni, which is right on the Romanian border. That's huge challenges. It is gonna cost hundreds of thousands of dollars that honestly we just don't have.
Philip:But I've never begun a vision and a purpose with the money that I needed. I've always stepped out of the boat and said, well, here I go. And every time I have, God has been faithful. And I believe I'm watching someone right now — you're listening to this for a purpose and a reason today. And I pray that the Lord will speak to you. Our address is so simple. You can contact us, and I don't have the address written in front of me, so you'll have to — they'll put it on the screen. There you go. I'm missing my son Andrew. I told you I'd make a mistake before this was over.
Philip:But our address is on the screen in Clinton, Tennessee, and you can contact us. There's a phone number you can call: 1-833-DAILY-FAITH. You can go to dailyfaith.tv, and there's a giving page there. Please let the Lord talk to you, because these are important days for those kids. And all of those young girls you just saw walking into the house, their lives will never be the same. Who they marry is different. Their kids will be different. They'll grow up — their children will grow up in the church because you decided to help them. Let the Lord talk to you.
Philip:I'm delighted today to have a dear friend of this ministry, a great help in our work that we do in Moldova. And he pastors a church called Hope Church in Spartanburg. And he also has a branch church. And I'm gonna let him talk to us about today. Rich Butler, I'm delighted to have you with me, my friend. It's good to see you again. And I'm sorry that Andrew's not here and I'm fumbling and bumbling around here, so I know you're gonna have to help me.
Hope Church's Three-Location Mission
Rich Butler:Philip, it's good to be with you, even without Andrew. We'll miss him. But I think you're doing a great job by yourself.
Philip:Well, thank you so much. I'm really interested and I pray constantly for the church that you're building in Greenville, South Carolina. Give us an update, if you would.
Rich Butler:Well, we're one church in three locations. Our mission is simple. We exist as a church to lead people into the life-giving presence of God. We believe that the local church is God's plan A for the world in crisis. And the name of Jesus and the blood of Jesus still has as much power today as it ever did. And so we have had an unbelievable opportunity come our way, and it's to occupy a facility at the gateway to the city of Greenville. For nearly 20 years it was a notorious strip club when we had the opportunity to take a look at it and pray within the walls. It was tied up in South Carolina state Supreme Court litigation. But for decades, many churches in the region, intercessors had been praying, prayer walking, just asking God to shut that place down and transfer it into the hands of the righteous.
Transforming a Strip Club into a House of Worship
Rich Butler:I was a part of that group along with hundreds of others. Little did I know that nearly 20 years later God would entrust — and I say trust, even though we're purchasing, we purchased the building. We just feel like we're stewards. It's God's building, and we want to build a place for God to dwell right at the gateway to Greenville, where we're gonna preach the gospel and host the presence of the Lord.
Philip:I've been in Greenville hundreds of times. I was on Channel 16 with Jimmy and Joanne Thompson for decades. And I've always had a great soft spot for Greenville. I've driven up that road from Montgomery, Alabama, looked at it hundreds of times. And I knew the building that you've described. I've passed it, and for it to become — for a cesspool to become a place of praise and worship is, to me, just the evidence of grace and the redemptive power of Jesus. And I just so commend you. I think about it often. I pray for you often, 'cause I know that you are going into the enemy's camp and you're taking back what he stole from us in the name of Jesus. And if anyone is ever in the Greenville area, you've got to go and see this place. I understand it's getting close to being open, and I'm just so excited. Thank you so much.
Rich Butler:We want to just offer a healing balm to the brokenhearted in Greenville, South Carolina, in the name of Jesus. And we have an opportunity to do that.
Philip:We, at the beginning of the program — if you're watching just the shortened edition before we came on — I mentioned what's been taking place the last few days in Israel and with Hezbollah, the pagers and the walkie talkies and stuff. We are living in incredible days, Rich. And how does a pastor keep a church's focus on the seasons that we are in, and at the same time keep a church believing in faith? Because sometimes if you look to the natural, you'd be thinking, oh my goodness, the sky's falling down. But that's not the case.
Leaning Tower of Pisa and Faulty Church Foundations
Rich Butler:No, it's not the case at all. And it's incredibly complicated to pastor in 2024. Because everything's changing around us. Families are changing. Many churches are changing. And as our staff and church have been going through some foundational biblical principles, just some essential doctrines of our faith, I was reminded that in the 12th century there was a superstructure that was built. It was a freestanding bell tower called Pisa. And when the architects and engineers took it from the first floor to the second floor, they quickly realized that it had a faulty foundation. The ground was soft and unstable, and it began to sink on one side. And even in the nineties, engineers came around it to try to support the structure. They could only bring support to a degree and a half of correction. And they said in the 1990s that eventually the Tower of Pisa would collapse. Now it's known worldwide today for its unintentional tilt. We call it the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Philip:I've been there.
Rich Butler:But it wasn't constructed to lean. It just developed a lean over time because of a faulty foundation. And I think that's exactly what's happened in our culture. That's what's happened in the church. Jesus said this right after the Sermon on the Mount — his constitution of the kingdom — he told a parable of a wise and foolish builder. And he said these two structures that were built would undergo the same elements, same stress, the same weather patterns, the same storms that you were talking about. The rain will fall, the winds will blow, and the flood waters will rise. The house that is not built on a firm foundation will not only lean, it will have a great collapse.
Rich Butler:And then he explains to the disciples what the foundation is. And he said the foundation, the bedrock, are those who hear the word of the Lord and not just walk away and do nothing, but it's those who hear the word of the Lord and put it into practice. And I think because the lean is so demonstrative in our generation, God is calling the church — pastors, missionaries, those who are doing ministry like yourself — to herald the truth and say, we have to come back to foundations. I don't care how politically incorrect it may be or how offensive it may be to some. If the church in this hour doesn't drop a plumb line and say we're gonna stand on the truth of the Lord, then we're gonna have a great collapse on our watch.
Preaching Boldly on Abortion Gender and Israel
Rich Butler:When they built the tunnel, the tunnel between France and England, both countries began at the same time drilling under the soft white chalk stone of the white cliffs of Dover. And as it channeled down under the English Channel, if each side had started out a millimeter — a millimeter, you can hardly see what a millimeter is — but by the time they got into the middle where they were joined, they would have completely missed each other. And the church has been digging, and we haven't been paying attention to where our foundations have been being set.
Philip:And I say this constantly, Rich, that the mess that America is in is not laid at the doorstep of Washington, D.C. It's laid at the doorstep of the church. Because when America was founded, the schoolhouse was the church house. The hospital was the church house. The church was the central point of this nation. It was the bedrock, it was the foundation point. And what's happened is over the years and the generations, we have literally cut and chopped and dissected the church and taken it off the main stage, so that we are now laughed at and mocked at by the secularists. And the fact of the matter is that they have taken away the voice and the conscience and the clarity of what America — I'm Scottish. I came here in 1969. I came from a country that was once great. Great Britain was once the empire. The British Empire, the sun never set on the British Empire.
Scotland's Fishing Revival and Dark Times as Harvest Season
Philip:All the pink — when I was a boy in school, our maps were old and it was still the empire maps. And our teacher would say, all the pink used to belong to the British Empire. And the sun never set. India, Africa — I mean, just massive. And England turned its back on God. And today it is secular. There is strife, there is almost civil war going on right now. So America is not too big to fail. We are not so big that we can't fail. And we need a remnant of people. I just discovered the other day that 40% of Christians don't even vote.
Rich Butler:Wow. 15% aren't even registered to vote. How do we expect our voice to be heard if we won't stand up for what we believe? In fact, a lot of pastors today are shying away from political issues because they're afraid of the ramifications of the culture, or they hear this myth of separation of church and state, to say that the pulpit should have no influence upon government. Listen, the separation of church and state was designed to keep the government out of the church, not to keep the church out of the government.
Rich Butler:I believe with all of my heart, and I have a deep conviction along with you and so many others in the body of Christ, that the only hope for America is revival. And that is elevating King Jesus, standing upon his word, taking the next generation by hand and saying, let's get back to the ancient paths. Let's walk the ancient paths. We can't innovate to support this lean that we're experiencing. Just like the engineers could not fix the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we can't fix our issues. Only Jesus Christ can fix these issues. And so we're preaching boldly about things like God's heart for the unborn and the horrors of abortion. We're talking about God's design for gender and sexuality, about how we must stand with Israel in this hour. If we don't, we will continue to lean and we will be on a fast track to a great collapse. And it's a great day to be alive, Philip. I'm not scared. As things are getting darker, listen, that's where the light begins to work. Light is created to illuminate the darkness. And so we're not leaning away from it here in the upstate of South Carolina. We're going into the heart of darkness and we're preaching Christ.
Philip:I am so proud of you and I love it. I love it. In our town — I come from a wee fishing town in the northeast corner of Scotland. And a hundred years ago, the fishing failed. There was no fish. The herring failed, and boats were being sold for a dollar with the fish inside the hold. No one would buy it. And our whole economy crashed. The whole part of people were starving in the northeast of Scotland. And a young man called Jock Troup began to preach. As the fishermen came out of their boats in despair, he would be on the pier sharing the gospel with them. And a revival broke out amongst our communities all along the coast of Scotland.
Philip:And I believe that dark times are the ripe times for harvest. When you see these things, suddenly there's such a dark, stark contrast. Before, you know, goodness — it was kind of a wishy-washy mixed thing. Let me tell you, there's no — you know what's bad. When they're trying to get us to change the gender of our children without telling us, you know something's wrong. And when our society has polluted and perverted natural law so that a guy can say I'm a girl and end up in a shower with other girls, we have lost the plot, as they say in England. And I believe that a clear voice — and as you mentioned, this separation of church and state, Johnson — not President Johnson, but when he was senator — that's when this whole thing was run out. And it has been used to scare the church for decades. And President Trump took this out in the open and says, that is done with.
Philip:And so if you're a pastor watching today, for crying out loud, don't be so afraid to talk the truth. And if you speak truth and you lose someone, I promise you you'll gain 10 people that will say, thank God you have enough courage to speak up in relevant matters in the world we're living in today.
Hope Church Stays Open During COVID-19
Rich Butler:In 2020 when COVID broke out, we didn't know what was going on like the rest of the world. But our elders got together and prayed, and we decided that we're gonna open the church. The church is essential. The body of Christ is essential. And the way we do church, we're Christ-centered, Spirit-filled, which means we open our altars and we let people encounter the life-giving presence of God. One of our broadcasts went out where we had hundreds of people that were broken and hungry for a touch from God at the altars. I got a phone call a few weeks later from a representative, I think of the CDC, asking to do an interview. And they wanted to know why we were laying hands on people's faces and getting close to people. And what they said was, it appears that you're denying the science. Would you be okay if I sent you some packets on the science behind this?
Rich Butler:And my response was not arrogant, it wasn't combative. I said, with all due respect, our movement is not built on science. We believe that there is scientific proof of our faith. However, our Messiah was born of a virgin. We lay hands on the sick and expect them to recover. This movement's not built on science. It's built on faith, and people need the presence of the Lord. And we just have to get back to being people of the Word of God, people of faith. And like the Apostle Paul said in the book of Romans, the culture has traded the truth for a lie. They've suppressed the truth by elevating human intellect, by calling good evil and evil good, by celebrating pride and those things that the Lord calls an abomination. And we have to get behind pulpits again and the body of Christ, and we have to call it like it is.
Rich Butler:This is a sin issue. You can't rehabilitate original sin. I'm not sure what you say you're born with, but I know one thing — you weren't born again with these leans and these issues. And so that's why you must be born again. And we just have to preach the truth in this generation.
Church Crisis vs. Washington Crisis
Philip:Oh, it is so refreshing to hear a pastor who knows whom he has believed. And I'm telling you, listen, if you're watching us today, find a church with a pastor that isn't afraid to tell the truth and to speak the truth. Because I said this the other day in church — the devil isn't mad at Washington. The devil has got Washington. He doesn't have to fight Washington. The one thing that the devil is most scared of is the body of Christ, the church. And all the stuff you're seeing, trust me, is not to get to Washington. It's to close down your church and to stop the gospel coming out of your place of worship.
Philip:And I mean this — as we see these days approaching and as these days come ahead in the next few days coming up to this election, I'm telling you now you are going to have stuff happen that you would not believe. And you better have your anchor secure in the rock of Jesus. Rich, I love you and I appreciate you so much. You can get in contact with him at www.hopesc.org. And that is how you get ahold of him. The church is in Spartanburg and soon to be in Greenville. And there's one other that I don't know at this particular moment 'cause Andrew's not here. But thank you, Rich, for being with me and for being such a clear voice in the world today. And I pray great blessing on you.
Rich Butler:You too, my friend. It's been an honor to be with you today.
Philip:Thank you, Rich. You are watching Daily Faith, and I am here to tell you that God loves you with an everlasting love, that all the storms of your life are under his control because he is in charge. He knows what's gonna happen and you can trust him. Thank you for watching Daily Faith. Pray for us as Andrew's in Moldova and Ukraine. We love you. Bye-bye.
For over 25 years, the Cameron family has been changing the lives of orphans in Romania and Moldova — from providing running water, flushing toilets, and clean wells to coal for heat, new windows, as well as food and clothing. They champion the physical needs of the orphans in these broken and desolate countries. Many of Moldova's orphans are saved from the horrors of trafficking through homes founded by the Camerons. And in the process, orphans become daughters and sons. They come to know their heavenly Father and are forever changed by the love of Jesus. God helped the Camerons lift these amazing young men and women out of darkness. Now no longer orphans, they want to return and invade that very same darkness with the light of Jesus Christ. The Orphan's Hands equips these daughters and sons to become missionaries. Your monthly gift of $31 will allow us to rescue and take in more girls and boys, saving them from the hell of human trafficking. Your monthly partnership will allow us to care for those in the Orphan's Hands homes in Moldova and Ukraine. If you want to join Philip and Chrissy in taking care of these precious young people, please contact us today by calling 1-833-DAILY-FAITH. You can also give by going online to www.dailyfaith.tv, or by writing to Post Office Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. So many lives depend on what we do. Thank you for loving the lost.
Common questions
What is the strip club church in Greenville, SC that Pastor Rich Butler is converting?
Rich Butler's church, Hope Church, purchased a building at the gateway to Greenville, South Carolina that was a notorious strip club for nearly 20 years. It was tied up in South Carolina Supreme Court litigation, but churches and intercessors in the region had been prayer-walking and asking God to shut it down for decades. Butler says the congregation sees themselves as stewards of God's building, with a mission to preach the gospel and host the presence of the Lord right at the city's entrance.
How does Pastor Rich Butler use the Leaning Tower of Pisa to explain what's wrong with the church today?
Butler explains that the Tower of Pisa was never designed to lean — it developed its tilt over time because it was built on a soft, unstable foundation. He draws a direct parallel to the church, arguing that cultural and spiritual drift has created a dangerous lean in Christianity today. His solution is to return to the biblical foundation Jesus described after the Sermon on the Mount: not just hearing God's word, but actively putting it into practice.
What did Pastor Rich Butler say when the CDC called him about laying hands on people during COVID?
Butler says a CDC representative called him after his church broadcast showed people at the altar receiving prayer with hands laid on them, and asked whether he was 'denying the science.' He responded respectfully but firmly, telling them that his movement is not built on science — it's built on faith. He pointed out that their Messiah was born of a virgin and that they lay hands on the sick expecting recovery, and said people simply need the presence of the Lord.
What does Pastor Rich Butler say is the only real hope for America right now?
Butler says with deep conviction that the only hope for America is revival — specifically, elevating Jesus as King, standing on his word, and taking the next generation back to what he calls 'the ancient paths.' He argues that no cultural innovation or political fix can correct the lean the country is experiencing, just as engineers could not truly fix the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Only Jesus Christ, he says, can fix these issues.
What topics does Pastor Rich Butler say the church must boldly preach about even if it's politically unpopular?
Butler says his church is preaching boldly on God's heart for the unborn and the horrors of abortion, God's design for gender and sexuality, and the importance of standing with Israel. He also pushes back on the idea that the church should stay out of politics, arguing that the separation of church and state was designed to keep government out of the church — not to silence the church's influence on government.
Topics
rich butlerhope church spartanburgbiblical foundationsrevivalbold preachingchurch and culturegreenville south carolina