When Apathy and Passivity Collide
About this episode
Pastor Scott Ethridge of The Healing Place Church in Shreveport, Louisiana joins Philip Cameron for a raw, unscripted conversation about one of the most overlooked spiritual dangers facing the American church today: passivity and apathy. Drawing from a 21-day breakthrough series rooted in Micah 2, Scott unpacks how comfort and complacency quietly erode a congregation's spiritual edge — and how breaking free from passivity is the essential first step toward genuine breakthrough. "Practical becomes supernatural when done in the name of Jesus," Scott declares, capturing the heart of the episode. He explains that a cup of cold water is just a cup of cold water — until it's offered in Jesus' name, at which point it carries eternal value. This framework dismantles the lie that ordinary believers must wait for perfect conditions, perfect finances, or perfect courage before stepping out in faith. Scott also shares how The Healing Place responded to a challenge to give sacrificially, growing from a few hundred dollars in monthly change collections to over $80,000 in a single year — proof that a small, activated church can carry a global footprint far beyond its Sunday attendance. Tune in for a faith-stirring call to advance, not retreat. Follow Scott Ethridge and The Healing Place at facebook.com/1900RCM.
Part of our Faith collection of conversations.
Quotes worth sharing
“It's apathy and passivity that then leads to fear. Because when you're passive and apathetic, whenever there's a challenge that comes against that apathy and passivity, fear comes. And that is to make you further retreat. But to break out and to break through literally means advance. It doesn't mean that you have all the answers. It doesn't mean you have all the courage in the world. It doesn't mean that you have all the finances. It doesn't mean you have any of that. It simply means that you serve the Lord of the breakthrough.”
“If the devil can keep you placid and sitting down and looking around and saying, well, it's not a good time, you can make a million excuses every day not to do something. But the moment you stand up and say, I'm starting, all the dominoes start working down the line from where you are going. You may not see them, but the miracles start clicking in place.”
“When you take that step, God will give you a footprint that's so much bigger than the number of people in a room on a Sunday morning. I can have a thousand people in the room on a Sunday morning, but if they're apathetic and passive people who just wanna be there, then the footprint's gonna be actually smaller than it needs to be.”
What's Discussed
Pastor Scott Ethridge of The Healing Place Church in Shreveport, Louisiana joins Philip Cameron for an unscripted discussion on breaking free from passivity and apathy in the American church. Anchored in Micah 2 — where the prophet rebukes Israel's internal complacency before introducing the Breaker, the Lord of breakthrough — Scott outlines a 21-day breakthrough series whose pivotal seventh day targets passivity specifically. He argues that apathy breeds fear, and fear causes further retreat, while genuine breakthrough means advancing in faith without needing all the answers or finances. His key insight: "Practical becomes supernatural when done in the name of Jesus." Scott illustrates this with The Healing Place's own journey from small monthly coin collections to over $80,000 in annual giving — demonstrating that a church's spiritual footprint can far exceed its Sunday attendance when its people step out in activated, obedient faith.
- Kairos Moments vs. Scripted Ministry
- American Church Comfort and Complacency
- 21-Day Breakthrough Series Overview
- Micah 2 and the Lord of the Breakthrough
- Day Seven: Breaking Free from Passivity
- Practical Faith Becomes Supernatural
- Small Church Carrying a Global Footprint
- Faithfulness and Obedience as Supernatural Disciplines
Scripture in this episode
Episode Transcript
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Intro
Philip:Welcome to Daily Faith. My name is Philip Cameron, we are so happy to have you with us today. Daily Faith is a program that is designed to be a part of your daily walk with Jesus. Faith comes by hearing, and what we try to do every day is to bring something into your life, into your world, into your spirit that will lift up your inner man and exalt you in the faith.
Philip:Today we have got someone that is gonna bless you tremendously. Scott Ethridge is my guest, a great man of God, a great man of faith, and he's got a word for you. He's my friend. We texted yesterday — I was coming back from doing something and he said, you know, what do you wanna talk about tomorrow? I said, whatever you wanna talk about. So we have made no plans. Whatever the Lord leads us on today's program, we are gonna follow his will. And we are so excited to have him with us.
Philip:As you know, our ministry works in Eastern Europe. We have a home, or actually a village of homes, in a country called Moldova. You may have watched it on the news with all of this situation with Ukraine. Moldova is one of the countries that borders Ukraine, and 800,000 plus refugees from Ukraine and the war there came to Moldova. And the kids that we've rescued from orphanages at our village called Vara Village — a beautiful place right on the largest lake in Moldova — our kids became missionaries.
Philip:And for this last year, they have been helping and feeding constantly the refugees that still are in Moldova and are homeless and have no home to go back to and don't know where their husbands are, because all the men folk have got to stay in and fight.
Philip:That is one of the great pictures of our ministry's history. That is two young ladies. The girl in the green — as they say — her name is Nadia. She is the head, she's a leader of the ministry in Moldova. Next to her is Catalina. And they were there in a blizzard at the border. That picture was taken at no man's land. And they spent days on end sleeping on the floor and having food ready for the refugees that were running for their lives.
Philip:And these young people that everyone said, you're nothing, you're garbage — their mothers and fathers didn't want them — they became the missionaries that have gone back and are still going back into Ukraine. They just sent us a video the other day. All the young people you see giving out stuff are once orphans that are now part of our ministry. You're gonna love this. Watch this video.
Despair is lived one day at a time, takes an eternity as we hear, live our blessed life. Can you imagine living an existence that threatens to kill you every second, every minute, every hour, every day. The wails of sirens, warning of missiles all through the night, causes every nerve in your body to scream.
There is no water, no power, no heat. The village, as you remember, it no longer exists. The streets and homes only survive in your mind.
The men folk are all gone, alive or dead. You don't know. Fear is your neighbor, the guest at every meal, your bedfellow every night.
The young men and women from Moldova have come. They tell us there are new coats and other things. Why do they care? Why have they come to hell? We'll go and see if what we heard is true.
Grace is waiting, kindness and love. A moment to smile. The strangeness of a hug. It's true. They are here waiting for us in the middle of darkness.
The love of God meets the broken and hope is born again.
Philip:On the other side of the world, today orphans are giving away coats. 15,000 new coats were gathered together. Many of you watching helped us, many of you gave to make it happen. And those coats today are being given out along with blankets and, most of all, time and love and kindness. Every week our young folk feed thousands of people. They have no normal, real, regular way to eat. And we need your help.
Philip:This is way bigger than we are. We are a small ministry that thinks we're a big ministry and acts like a big ministry and reaches way beyond ourselves — way beyond what people are saying, don't get out over your skis. We are so far over our skis right now. We are upside down and only God is keeping us up. But we just want to thank those of you who have given. Part of the miracle of what we do every day in Ukraine — at this season, we're coming in as June and July comes — that's where we gather new kids to come to live in Vara Village, the village that we have in Moldova. And so this is a great time of expansion where we take more kids in, but that increases the cost and the challenge of what we do.
Philip:And yesterday something momentous happened — yesterday we bought a home in Odessa, Ukraine. And one of the staff from this ministry, her name is Mary, went up to Ukraine with one of the men from the ministry in Moldova — the one that's married with the silver hair. And that house in the background is the house we bought yesterday. It's crazy — that house will hold 24 girls and we will be able, in a war zone, to house them. We bought a house in a war zone.
Philip:And so that is a crazy step of faith. She signed the papers yesterday and they're interpreting them into Ukrainian over the next couple of days. And then on Friday she drives back to Ukraine and signs the final paperwork. All of that is being done by someone like you saying, I want to help this world. You can curse the darkness, you can talk about how bad things are all you want, but unless you are prepared to put yourself out and say, I will light a candle, I will be a point of light in this world, I'm gonna be salt and light in this world.
Philip:And by being a part with us in this mission, growing continuously — a pastor from Istanbul, Turkey, whose wife is Moldovan and has been watching us do what we do in Ukraine and Moldova, we didn't know this for years. And they're Christians and they are not well received in Turkey. Turkey is an Islamic state. And they contacted us and said, is there any way that the Orphan's Hands can help us? And we sent a team from Moldova in one of our vans, and they drove all the way down through Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria — bought a tank full of diesel that was bad and destroyed the whole fuel system of the van, that had to be replaced in Bulgaria.
Philip:Got down to Eastern Istanbul. My son Andrew flew to Eastern Istanbul and they went down to the earthquake in Turkey. You don't know this — it was given very little news — but Turkey is the worst natural disaster ever. One city, 1.6 million inhabitants, 90% of that city has been destroyed. And that's one city. The tear in the earth is almost 300 miles long.
Philip:And there are tens of thousands of people still lost under the rubble. And these people have nowhere to stay and no regular source of water or food. And that is one of our vans — one of the Orphan's Hands vans — in the middle of an earthquake zone, with orphan kids giving out food. We found a warehouse where we got boxes — 40 pounds in weight — boxes of necessities, groceries, supplies, cleaning supplies, wet-wipe type things. And our van fared back and forth from the warehouse, back and forth feeding these people.
Philip:And we also gave away dozens of tents. We went and literally put them up. Our kids went and erected these tents for families — Christian families in Turkey. And the other day the pastor contacted us and said, all the tents are full and all the food is gone. So we are believing God to send our team back there again. We just need your help. We just need someone today to watch and say, one of those tents — the tents cost us $620 for one tent.
Philip:The food boxes — 40 pounds of food — is costing us $30 per box. You could sponsor one of those boxes. You may sponsor one of those tents. But you can make a tremendous difference. You can change someone's world by showing the love of God through your hands and your heart. You can give today. Just make a check out to the Orphan's Hands, PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716. PO Box 25, Clinton, Tennessee 37716.
Philip:You can give by going to Daily Faith TV. And you can give right now — you can use your credit card, your charge card, and just transfer the funds so we can get that money. And if you want to help, if you sell out to buy a tent, designate it as a tent and that's where the money will go. If you want to buy a box of food, designate it as a box of food and that's where your money will go — all of it will go to that place. So we want you to be a part of this miracle and let's change the world we live in.
Philip:Don't curse the darkness. Don't sit there and tell me how bad things are. I know how bad things are, but I refuse to allow the badness to stop me from being good and doing good things. And I challenge you to do the same. If you're a church, if you're a pastor of a church or you're part of a church fellowship, get in contact with the Orphan's Hands. We'll send you videos and stuff that you can share with your people and help this miracle happen.
Philip:I am delighted to have a friend — not just a pastor friend, but a friend of mine. And he has been a great inspiration to us. Their church, called The Healing Place in Shreveport, Louisiana, caught the vision of what we've been doing with Ukraine, with Turkey, with these kids in Moldova. And they have given more than any other church in all of our church partners. This church — not a big church — but boy, have they caught the vision, and they have given tens upon tens of thousands of dollars in this last year.
Philip:And Scott Ethridge, I am so delighted to have you with us today, my brother. How are you doing? I just want you to know that I love you very, very much.
Scott Ethridge:Love you too. And thanks for having me today. I just wanna say, as we were watching the video — you and I, we've been on scripted shows and we go to shows that are scripted and everybody knows what everybody's gonna say. And I think when we do that, I mean, that's great and it's fine. It's a chronological word from the Lord. But there is also a kairos moment, which is like right now. And as soon as the music hit for the video — I had not seen that video yet — as soon as the music hit, I said, Dallas, this is different. This is different.
Kairos Moments vs. Scripted Ministry
Scott Ethridge:And the choice of music — you know, production is one thing — but hearing from the Holy Spirit of what to put together, the moment we heard the music I just looked at Dallas and I was like, okay, this is different. Let's pay attention to this. And then the vocal coming from the Ukrainian people, you know, why would you come to hell? Why would you? So I don't want to say just good production. I wanna say that the hand of God is upon that, the anointing of the Holy Spirit is upon that. When people hear the music, there's gonna be something that strikes their hearts and it's gonna hit a place in them that they didn't see coming.
Philip:I think this is important to say — that video isn't produced by us. We don't have a professional team that does video. That's done by our own kids. The voice you hear is Ja Gu, one of our house parents.
Scott Ethridge:They videoed that. They take these video cameras when they go to a place, and it's mostly for documentation. One of the things that we've found in the ministry — it's important when I come to your church and talk about, we need a van, for example, and the church gives the money for a van or part of the money for a van — I will send you back a video of your van where it's meant to be, doing the work of God. And we've been doing this with you guys since our first relationship. So those videos aren't made to be heart-tugging videos — and they are — but they're made by the kids that were rescued as orphans.
Philip:Yeah. One of our girls — you may have met her, I think you met Oliana. She is in charge of the little team that goes around and does the videos, basically to explain what we're doing and show and report back to people that help our ministry. And you're right — when I saw that video and that old man saying that the Russian soldiers came and said, where's your wife? In hospital? Well, we're gonna find out where she is, and we are gonna make you watch what we do to her in front of you, and then we're gonna kill you. Can you imagine living in that kind of world?
Scott Ethridge:It's unbelievable. And I think you and I talk about this all the time. We talked about it before we got on — is that in the church, we as the American church — I'll say American church, I don't think this is true everywhere — but in the American church there has been a comfort level, not only in people, but in leadership. A comfort level.
American Church Comfort and Complacency
Philip:So true.
Scott Ethridge:You know, we've been walking through this thing we're calling 21 to Breakthrough, and it's not your typical 21 days of prayer and fasting. It's a little bit different. And we've broken it down into three weeks. And the first week is breakthrough in us. Let's deal with us first. And day seven — you think about breakthrough in yourself — it's all based on Micah 2, where he says the Assyrians have come externally and they're coming after them. And basically the Lord sends the prophet Micah to them and says, listen, it's not the Assyrians, it's you, it's your own hearts. It's what's going on inside of you. It's not external, it's internal.
21-Day Breakthrough Series Overview
Scott Ethridge:And he gives them this word of rebuke to come back to the Lord. And then in the middle of it, he brings this amazing ray of hope where he says, the Breaker, the Messiah, who opens the way shall go up before you and you will break out. And then they call the place Baal Perazim — the Lord of the breakthrough. So in the middle of this rebuke and what's happening inside of them, their passivity has now led them into worship of false idols and all manner of things because they've been passive and apathetic.
Micah 2 and the Lord of the Breakthrough
Philip:And it always ends up that way. That's where you end up every time.
Scott Ethridge:That's right. And so he gives this word of, listen, the Lord of the breakthrough is here to break you out. And so we kind of based it all on that. And so the first week, of course, we're all thinking, okay, breakthrough in us — so that's gonna be, we're gonna be taking care of impurities and thoughts and all that. But day seven, I thought this was so important. Day seven was: break free from passivity.
Day Seven: Breaking Free from Passivity
Philip:Wow.
Scott Ethridge:And I think that we don't think about that. We don't think about needing breakthrough from passivity, because we've gotten so comfortable with all of the things — with all of the church, with all of the music, with all of the video production. We've become comfortable with all of these things and we miss really what God is doing.
Philip:The point. And it's a fear. It's a fear that's come on the people of God.
Scott Ethridge:It's apathy and passivity that then leads to fear. Because when you're passive and apathetic, whenever there's a challenge that comes against that apathy and passivity, fear comes. And that is to make you further retreat. But to break out and to break through literally means advance. It doesn't mean that you have all the answers. It doesn't mean you have all the courage in the world. It doesn't mean that you have all the finances. It doesn't mean you have any of that. It simply means that you serve the Lord of the breakthrough. And that is the first step — that in me, and in that breaking free from passivity.
Scott Ethridge:It said this: practical becomes supernatural when done in the name of Jesus. Practical becomes supernatural. So we think people have become passive and apathetic because they don't think that they can function in the supernatural. But the practicality — a cup of cold water meets a need in that moment. But a cup of cold water in Jesus' name has eternal value. It has value that goes beyond. You guys just purchased a house in a war zone. That's crazy. That's insane. That doesn't make sense. Some would say it was stupid, some would say it was courageous. But what we know — because I know you — is that it was in faith. That's what it was in. It was in faith.
Practical Faith Becomes Supernatural
Philip:Absolutely.
Scott Ethridge:And it was a step, and it seems very practical — buy this house. That's practicality. But it's in Jesus' name. So now the house becomes supernatural. What happens with the house can become supernatural. And that is one of the main things that can help us to break through our passivity and our apathy — is realizing that we don't have to go and conquer the world. We just simply have to step out in faith in Jesus' name.
Philip:My experience has taught me that my job — Philip Cameron's responsibility — is to stand up and walk. Everything I've ever done in my life, whether it's in building Bible schools or building youth camps or building whatever, all the missions, all the stuff I've done — I've never had the money I needed when I started. But something happens. A divine spark takes place in the circumstance, a divine ignition starts when you say, I'm standing up.
Philip:If the devil can keep you — listen to me, pastor watching us today, listen to me, businessman, mom, listen to me — if the devil can keep you placid and sitting down and looking around and saying, well, it's not a good time, you can make a million excuses every day not to do something. But the moment you stand up and say, I'm starting, all the dominoes start working down the line from where you are going. You may not see them, but the miracles start clicking in place.
Philip:I came to you guys and I had no idea that when I came into The Healing Place, that I was walking into my church that would catch fire. I forget how many tens of thousands of dollars you gave this last year — way more than you've ever seen before — because the spark, the divine spark of God, caught a hold of the church and everything changed. That's what God's looking to do with everyone watching us today.
Scott Ethridge:Yeah. And that's — we had no idea. And we were giving to Orphan's Hands every month for years. And we've been doing it through our children and their little barrels and all of that. And of course they collect change once a month. So Pastor Dana — she's shy, but when it comes to Orphan's Hands and BGMC, she is not shy. She's like, bring your coins, bring your dollars, bring your checks. You can give online. And of course it's personal to her because she's been to Moldova, she's been there. She knows the people that you just named. She's touched the ground there and it's touched our heart.
Scott Ethridge:And so when we started doing that, even in COVID — when COVID came and for the first few weeks we weren't meeting — well, a BGMC Sunday hit. And it was like, all right, well, what are we gonna do? It's BGMC. Okay, we're gonna have a drive-through BGMC. And people are driving through the church parking lot — the sunroofs are open and kids are sitting on top of cars and they're throwing change in buckets and they're doing all these things. We had no clue, though, that this last year when war broke out, we had no clue what was then going to happen.
Scott Ethridge:It was like the enemy thrust forward to bring this invasion. And you guys responded. You just took a step because you didn't know. Like some people think that we have it all figured out when they see the results, but it's like you don't. Like you're going to a land not of — you have no clue. It's like you're just taking a step. And like you said, when you take that step, then all of a sudden breakthrough comes.
Scott Ethridge:Listen, God doesn't want us to live in breakthrough, but he gives us breakthrough to live in the disciplines of the faith every single day — faithfulness, obedience, giving, serving, the word of God, prayer. Those things are not boring. Those things are supernatural. And when we are in that stream, then God gives us a breakthrough in moments to then advance us beyond where we could ever be ourselves. And that's even in spite of ourselves. Like this word came to the people — Micah gave them the word and they were corrupt in their hearts, yet God is saying, the Lord of the breakthrough's gonna go before you and he's gonna break you out.
Small Church Carrying a Global Footprint
Scott Ethridge:And so we had no clue. And then when you put out the challenge and said, listen, here's what's going on and here's what we're doing, and then I said, here's what's happening, what are we gonna do? And all of a sudden I think that first BGMC Sunday was like $11,000, where normally it's like four or $500 in change. It's like $11,000. And I was like, what just happened? And they're like, we don't know.
Scott Ethridge:And so it was like the next month it was like $12,000, next month it was like $13,000, next month it was like — and so we got to the end of the year and we were like, okay, what is it? Just BGMC that went to Ukraine and Moldova — like $54,000 or something like that.
Faithfulness and Obedience as Supernatural Disciplines
Philip:Crazy.
Scott Ethridge:It was crazy. And then we looked at what was given to Orphan's Hands overall and it was like — I don't know — it was like 80-something, 90,000, whatever it was.
Philip:Over $80,000.
Scott Ethridge:Yeah. And so it's like, okay, well — megachurch of 5,000 people, I'm like, okay. But when you take a step, God will give you — this is something the Lord's been speaking to me about — when you take that step, God will give you a footprint that's so much bigger than the number of people in a room on a Sunday morning. I can have a thousand people in the room on a Sunday morning, but if they're apathetic and passive people who just wanna be there, then the footprint's gonna be actually smaller than it needs to be.
Scott Ethridge:I can say we're running 1,500, 50,000 people — that's fine. But that's on a Sunday morning, contained. But if I've got a few hundred people and all of a sudden that footprint now goes global around the world because we've just taken a step — not been unwise, not been ignorant, not been bad stewards, not making horrible decisions — but knowing when God says take a step, not knowing where that's gonna lead, but just taking that step and then God moves.
Scott Ethridge:And that's just like — you know, you've said this throughout this whole process — the news cycle's gonna move on, just like it did with Turkey. It's like nobody knows what's going on. The news cycle moved on from Moldova and Ukraine pretty quick. And it was like, okay, what's gonna happen on the backside of this? And you had been talking about how some churches will pull back, because that's the way the apathy and the passivity works — it's not in the frontal cortex anymore, let's move back. And then other people will be like, no, there's something still going on.
Scott Ethridge:And so last month, I think it was last month, I sent you a thing.
Philip:Oh, he's frozen. I've lost him. That is Scott Ethridge, pastor of a great church called The Healing Place. They gave, they stood up and did something. And I am just amazed at what God has done through them. I'm in contact with them. Scott has got a tremendous side business that I think is brilliant. He's called 1900 Roasting Company — go to Facebook forward slash 1900 RCM. It's up on the screen right now. You need to check this man out. He is everywhere. He's one of those great ones — he's involved in human trafficking awareness, he's involved in everything you can imagine. And he's a great man of God. And their church has been a fabulous blessing to our ministry.
Philip:Pray about being part of this. If you could help us do something today — God used him to do so much through the ministry in Moldova, Ukraine, and Turkey. And God can use your church to stand up and do something about it. Please, we just love you. We are glad you're here. Thank you for watching Daily Faith today. Love you. See you again. Bye-bye.
Common questions
What does Scott Ethridge mean by 'breaking free from passivity' and why does he think it matters?
Scott says that in the American church, people and leaders have settled into a deep comfort level that breeds apathy and passivity. He built an entire day — day seven of his '21 to Breakthrough' series — around this idea, arguing that when a challenge confronts that passivity, fear rushes in and pushes people to retreat even further. Breaking free from passivity simply means taking a step forward in faith, not having all the answers or finances, but trusting the Lord of the breakthrough to go before you.
What is the '21 to Breakthrough' series Scott's church is doing, and what is it based on?
Scott describes it as a 21-day prayer and fasting journey broken into three weeks, with the first week focused on personal breakthrough — dealing with what's happening inside yourself before looking outward. It's rooted in Micah 2, where the prophet tells Israel that their real enemy isn't the Assyrians but the passivity and idolatry in their own hearts, yet God promises that 'the Breaker' — the Messiah — will go before them and open the way.
How does Scott explain the idea that 'practical becomes supernatural when done in the name of Jesus'?
Scott says many people stay passive because they think they can't operate in the supernatural, but the key is that an ordinary, practical act — like handing someone a cup of cold water — takes on eternal value the moment it's done in Jesus' name. He used the example of Philip's ministry buying a house in a war zone: on the surface it looks like a simple real-estate transaction, but because it was a step of faith in Jesus' name, the house itself becomes supernatural in what God can do through it.
How much did The Healing Place end up giving to Orphan's Hands and Ukraine relief, and how did it grow so fast?
Scott says the church had been giving modest monthly amounts for years, but when the war in Ukraine broke out and they leaned in, their BGMC giving exploded — jumping from a few hundred dollars in change to $11,000 in a single month, then $12,000, $13,000, and so on. By year's end, BGMC giving alone to Ukraine and Moldova was around $54,000, and total giving to Orphan's Hands came to over $80,000 — all from a congregation that is not a megachurch.
What does Scott say about a church's 'footprint' versus its Sunday attendance numbers?
Scott argues that raw attendance numbers mean very little if the people are apathetic and passive — a room of 1,500 passive churchgoers can actually have a smaller real-world footprint than a few hundred people who take a step of faith. When a congregation acts, he says, God can give them a footprint that goes global and far exceeds what any Sunday morning headcount would suggest.
Topics
scott ethridgepassivitybreakthroughapathyhealing place churchmicah 2bold faith