PERSONAL BEGINNING

For Roland Warren, the pro-life conversation is more than a public cause. It’s personal. He was a 20-year-old student at Princeton University when his life changed. His girlfriend, who would later become his wife, found out she was pregnant. The two of them walked into the campus health center unsure of what to expect. The nurse listened, then gently suggested they consider abortion. She explained that continuing the pregnancy would make it hard for his girlfriend to finish school or become a doctor. But that wasn’t the path they chose.

Instead, they got married. She stayed in school. Not only did she graduate from Princeton with a child, she had a second baby before finishing her degree. Eventually, she fulfilled her dream and practiced medicine for more than 30 years. That experience shaped how Warren sees everything. He often compares it to the story of Mary and Joseph. An unplanned pregnancy. A moment of uncertainty. And a decision to trust God’s plan anyway. "I saw myself as Joseph and her as Mary,” he recalls. “God was calling us into something bigger than we could understand." Through that lens, Warren began to see the life issue differently. It wasn’t just about the woman or the baby. It was about family. About responsibility. And about how the right kind of support can turn fear into faith

FROM PRO-LIFE TO PRO ABUNDANT LIFE: ROLAND C. WARREN’S CALL FOR A BETTER WAY

When you talk to Roland C. Warren, one thing becomes clear fast: he’s not here to argue over buzzwords or party platforms. He’s here to talk about people, mothers, fathers, families, and the deeper calling the Church has to serve them. As the President and CEO of Care Net, one of the most influential pro-life ministries in the country, Warren has spent years rethinking what it really means to be “pro-life.” And in his view, the term has lost its way. 

WHEN POLITICS TAKE THE LEAD

Warren doesn’t hesitate when asked what’s wrong with the current pro-life conversation.
“We’re out here celebrating 15-week bans that still allow 96 percent of abortions,” he says. “So what does that even mean anymore? We’ve taken an issue that’s life or death, and somehow made it negotiable.” He’s not just critiquing legislation. He’s calling out the mindset that has crept into the Church, one that trades moral clarity for political safety. “Pro-life takes you to the polls. But Pro Abundant Life? That takes you to the cross.”

Warren isn’t suggesting we ignore politics. He’s saying it cannot be the driving force. He’s seen how the movement has flipped the priorities: politicians and material support at the top, and the Church and its calling at the bottom. “That’s upside down,” he says. “The Church is supposed to lead. That’s where real transformation happens.”

A BIGGER VISION: FAMILY, DISCIPLESHIP, AND REAL SUPPORT

For Warren, the answer lies in something richer and more rooted: discipleship. He doesn’t just want babies saved. He wants families restored. He wants mothers supported. Fathers involved. And churches equipped to walk alongside them long after the crisis moment passes. “The sanctity of life is tied to the sanctity of family,” he says. “And if we’re serious about saving lives, we need to see this through the lens of the Great Commission.”

That’s what “Pro Abundant Life” is all about. At Care Net, it’s not just about pregnancy tests or crisis calls. It’s about showing up with resources, with mentors, and with the gospel. It's discipleship, not just intervention. And it’s deeply personal for Warren. He’s seen too many families fail, not because they didn’t want to do better, but because no one walked with them. “Jesus didn’t come just so we could live,” he says. “He came so we could have life abundantly.”

MORAL COURAGE: WHAT LINCOLN AND DOUGLASS TEACH US

In a culture where abortion is often treated as a political issue rather than a moral one, Roland C. Warren believes history offers a powerful mirror. The way Americans once navigated the question of slavery, he argues, closely parallels how we approach abortion today. To make this point, Warren draws on the tension between President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. These were two men who agreed that slavery was wrong, but responded to it in profoundly different ways.

“Lincoln was anti-slavery. He believed it was morally and politically wrong, but he wasn’t willing to risk the Union to end it,” Warren says. “Douglass? He challenged Lincoln from the pulpit. He said, if you really believe it’s wrong, you don’t just try to contain it. You abolish it.” Warren sees Lincoln’s shift from cautiously preserving the political order to boldly embracing moral clarity as a lesson the Church must learn today. Lincoln did not fully step into abolitionist territory until his second inaugural address, when he acknowledged that the nation could not survive half-slave and half-free. For Warren, the Church is now facing its own version of that moment.

“Too many of us are standing at the podium when we should be in the pulpit,” he says. “We’ve let politics define what we stand for, instead of leading with conviction.” Warren is not suggesting that the Church disengage from public life. On the contrary, he believes it should engage more deeply, but from a place of moral courage rather than political calculation. “We’re not called to just save lives,” he says. “We’re called to transform them.”

To find out more about Care Net click the LINK! And for more information about Roland C. Warren click the LINK! 

CREDITS

The Alternative to Abortion. A graduate of Princeton University and the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, 20 years in the corporate world (with IBM, Pepsi, and Goldman Sachs), He is a sought-after speaker at national conferences, church events, and in the media, with appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, and Black Entertainment Television

“My cell phone rang, and the nurse said, ‘Do you know a John Futrell?’ And I said, ‘Yes, ma'am, that's my husband’." Even half awake, Debra Futrell knew an early morning call from a hospital couldn’t be good. She says, “And then I just asked her ‘was he dead’?”

Her husband, John, wasn’t dead.  He had been airlifted to VCU medical center in Richmond, VA -- a hundred miles from their home in Murfreesboro, NC.  Not long after, Debra and her son, Brent, were racing toward Richmond. Brent thought, “How is he? Is he going to live? How bad is it? I mean, all that was going through me all the way to Richmond. I prayed all the way.” By then they had learned John and two co-workers were on the way to work, when their truck ran off the road, hit a tree, and caught fire. John was the only one who survived the crash. Debra says, “He's always been a backbone for this family. I just, you know, cried out to the Lord and I said, ‘And he just can't die’." With Brent driving, Debra contacted everyone… family, friends, and their church - asking for prayer. Their pastor, Sandy Outlaw of New Vision Ministries, rushed to meet them at the hospital. He says, “It was very heart-wrenching. To hear this news of John, I not only a congregation member, a strong member, a pillar in our church, but as a good friend, yes, very emotional time for me.”

An hour and a half later, Debra and Brent were at the hospital. The doctor told them there was little hope for John. Debra recalls, “She says, ‘Well, he's got a broken neck, broken back, broken shoulder, 10 broken ribs, broken sternum, and third-degree burns.’ Our youngest son, Brent, he said, ‘What's his chances of living?’ She says, ‘Zero.’ She said, ‘If he makes it 24 hours, he's going to have to be a strong man.’ And he said, ‘Well, my dad is a strong man and he'll make it’." Brent remembers, “The first time I saw him laying the hospital bed, whew, it was tough. It was really tough. Is this the last time I'm gonna see my father?” By then their older son, Jonathan, had arrived. He says, “That’s when I hit my knees. I said, ain't nothing I can do physically, but pray. I said, ‘God,’ I said, ‘we can do nothing. You-you, control these doctor's hands. You do what you got to do to take care of him and my mom’."

Although it was touch-and-go, John did survive the first 24 hours. At the 48-hour mark, he had stabilized, and doctors put him in a medically induced coma.  However, John couldn’t lie on his stomach which had 3rd degree burns preventing doctors from operating on his broken neck and back. If they couldn’t operate soon, it was likely John would be paralyzed. There was little anyone could do except wait and pray. Pastor Outlaw recalls, “There was a lot of prayer going up for John during this time. And so, we were confident that God was with him and that no matter the outcome for John, John was going to be okay spiritually. Course we wanted his physical body healed and that's what we were praying for.”
  
Over the next 3 weeks, John underwent 10 surgeries to repair the damage from his burns. In the meantime, people continued praying, and John’s heartbeat grew stronger. A few days later, John’s neurosurgeon shared some amazing news. John’s neck and back had completely healed! Debra remembers, “He said, ‘Look at the x-rays. He's healed on his own, laying in the bed.’ I said, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’. He did not have surgery. Nope.” John was soon brought out of his coma, and after 41 days in the hospital, he was well enough to be transferred to a rehab center where he still had a long way to go. John recalls, “I hadn't slept, couldn't sleep. The pain. I mean, the body brace that I had to wear, it was just more than I could take emotionally.” He says it was the prayers and faith of his family and community that gave him the strength and hope to keep going. John says, “I was begging God that I would not be left like this.”  Pastor Outlaw says, “We believe in the miracle-working power of God. He's still God, He hasn't changed. And so, we just believed that. And so, we had great anticipation and expectation that God would be healing John, and he would come out of this.”

Sure enough, over the next three weeks, John improved rapidly. Jonathan recalls, “I mean, that was just a weight taken off. When I first saw him walk, that was the end of it then. I knew right then, I said, ‘It's just a matter of time. He'll be fine." Debra says, “He was a strong man. And he was going to do it. He's not going to lay in that bed. He wanted to get up and do it.” On May 19, just over two months after the accident, John was finally released to go home. John recalls, “Oh gosh, it was. It was one of the most happy, joyous feelings I've ever had.” Debra says, “It made me feel wonderful and the children and him too, I think. The Lord gave him back to me.”

Today John’s back to work as a fulltime logger. He’s made a complete recovery from the accident and attributes it all to the power of prayer. John says, “There were so many people lifting prayer up to God on my behalf.  I believe that was the strongest thing involved in my recovery, my healing.” Debra believes, “Prayer works, because he'd have never made if it weren't for prayer.” Brent says, “There is a God and prayer does work.” Jonathan says, “I think prayer was instrumental in saving him. I really do.” Pastor Outlaw believes, “No matter what your situation, no matter where you are, prayer works, prayer changes things, and God is still in the miracle-working business.”
 

“It is very difficult to describe the misery of burning lungs,” Carol Lazur said while thinking back on the aftermath of her operation. “There was no sleep, no eat, no drink, no nothing. It was just unbearable.”

“I had atrial fibrillation for years,” Carol said. “It would come and go. I just felt terrible. I couldn't exercise. My legs felt like tree trunks. I mean, I just couldn't even move. So, that's when I decided I had to do something. The surgery was successful, but when I came out of the surgery, I had a terrible fire and I couldn't breathe in my lungs. The nurse that took care of me after the surgery said, ‘It's from the breathing tube.’

“I came home, I coughed, I couldn't sleep, I mean, it was just very uncomfortable,” Carol said. “It was like my lungs were on fire and it was all the way down to my stomach. I couldn't eat, I couldn't drink, I mean, everything was just on fire. It felt like we were just never going to get to the end of feeling so poorly. So very discouraging. I was just praying for relief.”

I normally watch The 700 Club every morning,” Carol said. “I had just sat down, I raised my hand to pray with Andrew.

“Someone’s having trouble breathing,” Andrew Knox prayed. “It’s not completely debilitating, but it’s from your gut to your chest. You’re just having trouble with catching a breath. It’s relatively recent and the Lord wants to heal and is healing. Just raise your hands and thank God for what He’s doing. You will breathe normally, and that pressure is going to subside in Jesus’ name.”

“And I claimed that healing,” Carol said. “Within 15, 20 minutes, I was breathing normally. The fire in my lungs had disappeared and I praised God.”

“I was amazed,” Carol said. “I was absolutely amazed that God would hear my prayers, because that's all I prayed for was to be able to breathe comfortably. It is an absolute miracle the difference I feel. My husband and I are back to the gym. We’re out biking. It's no longer a struggle to even take a step or two. Very different than what it was before. I thank God.”

“’Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding,’” Carol recited from Proverbs 3:5-6. “’In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.’ That's the Bible verse that I held on to during the whole process. God hears your prayers. There is no doubt in my mind that He hears every single one of us, and He is just a prayer away. He's not a million miles, He's right here, right beside you. All you have to do is reach out and ask for the help.”

CHRISTMAS IN THAILAND

In 2004, when Riley was ten she and her family went to Thailand to visit her grandfather for Christmas. They met up with their extended family and all twelve of them enjoyed celebrating Christmas together. The next morning (December 26, 2004), Riley woke up to sudden shaking. She thought maybe her sister was trying to play a joke on her, but her sister was not in the room. Riley ran to her parent’s room, and they calmly told her the rumbling was an earthquake, but they would be fine. A short time later, Riley and her sister headed to the beach to build sandcastles with their dad while her mom stayed behind in the resort lobby to make a phone call. After the girls played for a while, their dad decided it was time for them to return to their room. As they began walking back to their room, Riley noticed something odd. She didn’t hear animal sounds any longer which was unusual because there were a ton of monkeys in the area. Then, they started to hear people scream. “I looked over my shoulder toward the beach – and where the water had just been there was now only sand. 

All the water around the beach had left…I watched while people started to run in all directions; nobody seemed to know what was going on. I saw a thin white line in the distance and, somehow, the white line was growing bigger and bigger by the second,” shares Riley. The white line was a giant tsunami coming directly at the resort.

Her mom was in the lobby and saw the water receding, she knew exactly what was happening. She ran to the beach where she thought her children were building sandcastles. There were hundreds of people on the beach panicking and running all around her. In the middle of the chaos she asked the Lord, “Where are they?” She heard one word: flee. As Riley’s mom began to sprint back to the room, she ran into her family on the beach. The five of them began running to the other side of the resort. Her dad carried her seven-year-old sister Sierra, and her mom carried her five-year-old sister Bronte. Riley, who was ten, ran between her parents. As they tried to escape, she could hear wood being crushed from crumpled buildings and screams from those who had not acted quickly enough. 

The day before the tsunami hit, Riley and her mom had discovered a goat path which led to one of the cliffs on the southern side of the peninsula by the sea. They found the path and began climbing to higher ground grabbing tree limbs and pulling themselves up. Riley kept shouting, “God, help us! Lord, rescue us. We need You!” They climbed up the path and prayed they would be high enough above the spot where the wave crested. Riley was exhausted and began to fall behind. For a moment she looked back down to the beach, but wished she had not, “Our altitude afforded a grand view of the resort, and what I saw was like a scene from the apocalypse. The wave was annihilating everything in its way – people, animals, buildings, and boats.” Then she heard her dad say, “Riley! Run!” She focused on her father’s voice and caught up with her parents. When they reached the top of the cliff, they were 100 feet from ground level. Riley fell to her knees and thanked God for saving them and asked Him for peace. Instantly, she felt what seemed like a blanket being wrapped around her, it was His presence. Riley was thankful to be alive, but she was also left wondering why she had survived such a traumatic event that had killed over 230,000 people.         
    
AFTERMATH

The weeks and months following the tsunami, Riley struggled with PTSD. She would sometimes have nightmares and needed help adjusting to reality after her near-death experience. Her greatest fear after her near-death experience was the ocean because she had seen it kill countless people. To help her get over her fear, her parents enrolled her and her sisters in a beach lifeguarding program in New Zealand for kids of all ages that summer. Riley was terrified to do the course, but her father told her, “Riley, either courage or fear will exist in your life, and you get to choose which one wins. All you need is a little more courage.”

Riley also received therapy to help process her trauma and she learned how to allow herself to feel emotions like sadness, anger, and disappointment. 

SMALL ACTS OF BRAVERY

Riley was born with a hearing impairment that her parents didn’t even realize until she was six years old. Kids in school would make fun of her because she couldn’t hear or speak well. To improve her hearing, tiny tubes were put into her eardrum, but hearing still proved to be difficult. She learned to read lips and went through speech therapy. In high school the bullying continued. She was often called names and made fun of for her Christian beliefs. She began writing letters to her future self to help overcome whatever fear she was facing. Over time, she grew stronger and more confident.

“We are most often not in control of the hardships that hit our lives, but we are responsible for the way we respond. We can choose to cower in fear or freeze in indecision. Or we can choose to rise up: fear is a feeling, but courage is a choice,” shares Riley. Every day she exercises three seconds of wild courage by saying 3-2-1 when faced with a challenging situation. This formula allows her to engage in whatever the situation might be even when fear is present. Below are some of the situations in which Riley has used wild courage:

• One day, she was walking on the beach when she heard someone screaming for help. As she scanned the horizon, she saw a man who had been swept out by a riptide frantically waving his arms. As she began to run towards him, she felt fear rise in her. Then she applied her wild courage technique and ran into the water to save him despite her fear. By the time she swam to the man he had drowned. She began CPR in the water and continued until she felt a pulse. By helping this man, Riley truly beat her fear of the ocean. 

• After earning her undergraduate degree in New Zealand, Riley began to grow restless. Although she had a great job working for a charity and helping people Riley decided she wanted to attend Fuller Seminary for their Global Leadership program to get her master’s degree. At twenty-one, Riley applied, but received a rejection letter. The prerequisite for admittance into the program was five years of full-time leadership experience in ministry. Instead of giving up her dream, Riley responded to their rejection email with the reasons why she should be in the program and then she prayed. She felt God tell her to go to the school, so she used wild courage and quit her job, packed her bags, and decided to move to America. After one week living in America, she received an acceptance letter from Fuller Seminary. 

• One night after work, Riley was driving home when she saw a sixteen-year-old boy named Mason sitting in the middle of a bridge with his feet dangling over a sixty-foot drop. She counted 3,2,1 then climbed over the bridge railings to sit beside the kid. She listened to the pain Mason was experiencing in his own life and found an opportunity to offer him hope. Then, Riley and he moved off the bridge and she shared with him how much God loves him. That night, he asked Jesus in his heart. Riley shares, “Loving people well takes courage…but we cannot be courageous and not sacrifice. Loving others always costs something – your time, your energy, your pride, your privacy, your heart.” 

Riley is compassionate for people experiencing fear because she knows what that feels like. She feels called to help others who are going through their own tsunamis. Riley is a speaker and podcaster who seeks to convey a profound truth: “With God, you can beat fear.”

To order Riley's book Three Seconds of Courage click the LINK!  

CREDITS

Author, Three Seconds of Courage, (Baker Publishing, 2025); Speaker featured on a TEDx Talk, interviewed by William Shatner for The History Channel; Cohost of Called for More podcast; Received her Commercial Law and Management degree from Auckland University (New Zealand) and her Master’s degree in Global Leadership from Fuller Theological Seminary; Surfer, Equestrian rider, Beach lifeguard and Mixed martial artist; Married to Jack; Child: Esther