Faith Leap: So, Why Do You Believe That?

By Bill Yeargin

What if you had to explain in simple, but clear, and convincing terms why you are a Christian? Could you do it?

Or if you are not a Christian, have you looked closely at the evidence for Christianity?

In Faith Leap, CEO, bestselling author, and popular international speaker, Bill Yeargin, explains in a clear and easy-to-understand manner why he is a Christian.

Yeargin uses fascinating stories from his travels around the globe to demonstrate evidence of God everywhere. He uses the story of Jesus’ teachings, resurrection, and impact over the last 2,000 years to explain why Jesus is God.

Faith Leap is packed with profound insights and information that will:

-Connect readers to their faith in God
-Offer new ways to view God’s role in everyday life
-Demonstrate ways to communicate the importance of faith with others
-Provide unwavering evidence of Christianity and its teachings

Whether you are a Christian, considering becoming one, or a committed nonbeliever, Faith Leap will expand your thinking and give you a new perspective on Christianity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Yeargin
• Release date: Apr 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798985089851

Bill Yeargin

Bill Yeargin is CEO of Correct Craft. Under Bill’s leadership, Correct Craft has won all their industry’s major awards and developed a unique culture of “Making Life Better.”A passionate lifelong learner, Bill earned an MBA and completed post-graduate education at Harvard, Stanford, Villanova and MIT. He has served both the Obama and Trump administrations on cabinet-level advisory councils. Florida Trend magazine recognized Bill as one of “Florida’s Most Influential Business Leaders.”Bill has been published hundreds of times and has travelled the world as a sought-after conference speaker. He and his wife Leigh have two daughters, Erin (married to Ben) and Amanda.

Book preview

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Copyright © 2024, Bill Yeargin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical (including any information storage retrieval system) without the express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations for use in articles and reviews wherein appropriate attribution of the source is made.

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Scriptures marked NLT are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW LIVING TRANSLATION (NLT): Scriptures taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW LIVING TRANSLATION, Copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream,

Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2024905117

Cover design by KMS Arafat

Edited by Judy A. Johnson and Cathy Cruise

Interior design by Jetlaunch

FIRST EDITION

Other Books by Bill Yeargin

What Would Dad Say? Now that He’s in Heaven (With David Nelms)

Yeargin on Management

Making Life Better: The Correct Craft Story

Education of a CEO: Lessons for Leaders

Education of a Traveler: Adventures in Learning Around the Globe

Becoming a grandfather—or Pap—was a game changer

for me. It reminded me how much I could love a little person. Therefore, I am dedicating this book to my granddaughter, Rosemary. I hope one day this book will be meaningful to her.

A person carrying a child on his shoulders Description automatically generated

Thanks

Shortly before starting this book, I was thrilled to reconnect with my high school English teacher, Judy A. Johnson. It has been so much fun to have her serve as my editor on this book, even if getting her comments on my work still makes me nervous after 40 years! Thanks, Judy, you have made this book better.

I also want to thank my family—Leigh, Amanda, Erin, Ben, Doug, and Mom—for your suggestions, encouragement, and help; I love you all.

To my coworkers who reviewed drafts of this book and gave me comments—Brie, Justin, Thomas, and Nikki—thank you. I not only love working with you all, but also appreciate the time you spent reviewing this book and offering suggestions to make it better.

To my friends, Arlan, Brant, Caleb, and Mike, thanks to each of you for your willingness to review this book and provide me with great ideas—I appreciate you all, very much.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Brant Hansen

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1: God-Shaped Hole

Chapter 2: Right and Wrong

Chapter 3: The Resurrection

Chapter 4: The Philosophy

Chapter 5: The Good Done

Chapter 6: Some Other Layers

Chapter 7: But What About...?

Chapter 8: Faith Leap

Chapter 9: So, What Now?

Final Thoughts

Book Club/Discussion Group Questions

About the Author

Foreword

Something that’s blown me away about Jesus, once I noticed it: He never coerces anyone.

Read the Gospels, and you can watch Him watching other people just . . . walk away. He lets them do that. He doesn’t even yell after them, Hey, wait a minute, let me try to put it another way . . .

They just get to leave. Yes, Jesus has the words of life. Yes, His way of living is our way of flourishing, and yes, He knows it. But coercion? That’s not His thing.

This is one reason I love the tone of the book you’re about to read. Bill Yeargin manages to be a world-class CEO, but as you’ll see, his style is not manipulative. It’s straightforward. It’s humble. It’s thoughtful.

And it’s respectful. Bill knows you can think for yourself, and he’s for you.

As a longtime friend, I can tell you that what you read here is what you get from Bill in real life: openness, consideration, and a deep curiosity. That’s why he’s so much fun to talk to, and why I’m glad he wrote a book like this.

If it weren’t a genuine expression of who he really is, I wouldn’t have enjoyed reading it. And I certainly wouldn’t be writing this foreword.

But here we are, and I humbly hope you don’t walk away.

Brant Hansen

Brant is a national Christian radio personality, popular speaker, and author of five books including the mega-bestseller Unoffendable.

Preface

You and I are walking down the street—because we like to do that—and a reality show producer stops us to ask if we want to be on their program with several other contestants. The reality show pays $1 million to the contestant who gives the most convincing response to the question Why are you a Christian? Though it’s unlikely that this hypothetical reality show will ever exist, this book covers my answer to the question.

Faith Leap is an effort to share my story, hoping it will help those who may not be confident they can believe in Jesus, or even find a path to belief. More importantly, and selfishly, it is a book that I hope will inspire future generations of my family to know they can believe in Jesus and remain solid in their faith.

This author is clearly not a theologian will run through the minds of those who read Faith Leap, and they will be correct. While being a theologian would be mentally exhilarating, my life has not taken me down that path; I am definitely not one. I have attended church all my life and graduated from a Christian high school. However, despite that experience, there is a huge gap between what I know about Christianity and what those who have been formally trained know.

So, why write a book about apologetics—why we can believe in Jesus—when many brilliant people much more intelligent than I have tackled the topic both expertly and admirably? While there is nothing new that I can add to their work, I can tell a story that will encourage and hopefully even inspire others; it’s a story known well to me because it is the story of why I am a Christian.

One more thing. When telling people about this book and its name, Faith Leap, I have been asked if it is based on the work of Danish theologian Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard argued that faith involves a subjective and passionate commitment to beliefs that cannot be fully proven or understood by reason alone. While I am familiar with Kierkegard’s work, I have not studied it, so any resemblance is coincidental.

Throughout this book I share what to me are layers of evidence that lay an intellectual foundation for belief in Jesus. But as I describe in the chapter titled Faith Leap, an intellectual understanding may be cerebrally stimulating, but it does not create a relationship with God or make one a Christian; that takes belief, or what the Bible calls faith.

Let’s get started.

Introduction

Faith has always played an important role in my life. Many of my earliest memories center on Northwood Baptist Church (Northwood) in West Palm Beach, Florida. My grandmother was the church secretary, and as a child, I would often go by her office for a visit when my Sunday School class ended. Wednesday night was time for Royal Ambassadors (RAs), a great program for young boys involving classes, fun activities, camping, and most importantly, killer ball, which was basically dodgeball played on a fenced-off flat portion of the church’s roof. Being very active at Northwood, I was once recognized as RA of the Year, a significant recognition in that church, at least for my family.

My parents were married at Northwood before I was born, but I was around for the weddings of my three aunts in the same place. The church was a meaningful part of my early life.

Despite having a wonderful, life-forming experience there, I don’t recall Northwood being evangelistic. However, when I was in the sixth grade, my parents enrolled my brother, Doug—who was then in fourth grade—and me in Berean Christian School (BCS), which was highly evangelistic. It didn’t take long at BCS before I realized the need to make my faith personal. With the guidance of my sixth-grade teacher, Rick Frisch (now a retired pastor), I did that, putting my trust in Jesus.

Baptism at Northwood was my next faith step and one of our last family events there. Shortly after I was baptized at Northwood, my parents decided to move our church membership to Berean Baptist Temple (Berean), the home of BCS.

Berean was not only highly evangelistic but also conservative, fundamental, independent, and very legalistic, i.e., all about the rules. Salvation was by faith in Jesus, but everything else was rules-based. For instance, girls in my high school were required to wear dresses instead of pants, and even on church trips to our local