Gospelbound

On today’s bonus episode of Gospelbound, we’re featuring a selection from TGC’s narrative podcast, Recorded. In "Escape from Kabul", TGC senior writer Sarah Zylstra tells the story of God's dramatic work through the underground church in Afghanistan. To hear the full episode, subscribe to Recorded on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In her book, Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World, bestselling author Jennie Allen describes our problem today like this:“We fill a small, little crevice called home with everything we could possibly need, we keep our doors locked tight, and we feel all safe and sound. But we’ve completely cut ourselves off from people outside our little self-protective world.”Jennie Allen joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss the difference between complaining and vulnerability, the importance of time, and the complication of ministry relationships. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In his book, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith, Russ Ramsey helps his readers learn how to appreciate art without needing to be an expert. “If you have not yet learned to love beauty,” he writes, “learn to love it late.” We’re made to achieve perfection, at least on the other side of glory, he says. Beauty is glimpsing a preview of that perfection in what we make here and now of goodness and truth. God didn’t need to make this world beautiful. He didn’t need to make humans in his image, concerned with goodness and truth. But he did, so that beauty might awaken us from spiritual stupor. On this episode of Gospelbound, Russ Ramsey and Collin Hansen discuss Rembrandt and Van Gogh, Kincaid and Caravaggio, and how appreciating art mirrors the Christian life. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you live in the West, in much of Europe or North America or Australia, you don’t know the world apart from Christianity. It’s the water you swim in, the air you breathe.That’s the main point of Glen Scrivener’s new book, The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality, published by The Good Book Company. Glen is an ordained Church of England minister and evangelist who preaches Christ through writing, speaking, and online media.Glen Scrivener joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss the patriarchy, consent, Christianity for weirdos, and more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Starting May 4, The Gospel Coalition is releasing a five-part video debate series called the "Good Faith Debates", featuring prominent Christian thinkers discussing some of the most divisive issues facing the church today—ranging from gun control to woke churches to abortion to racial injustice to evangelical self-identity.When we keep the gospel central, we can disagree on lesser but still important matters in good faith. In the Good Faith Debates, we hope to model this—showing that it’s possible for two Christians, united around the gospel, to engage in charitable conversation even amid substantive disagreement.The moderator of these debates is Jim Davis, teaching pastor at Orlando Grace Church and host of the As in Heaven podcast. He joins Collin Hansen on this episode of Gospelbound to discuss what surprised him, what helped him as a pastor, and whether he changed his mind on anything, among other issues. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What happens when you get diagnosed in April 2021 at age 33 with a rare form of cancer—so rare, in fact, that the odds of contracting it are 25 million to 1? What happens when the doctors can’t tell you if you have five months or five years to live? And what happens with your son, born at the end of March 2020 at the outset of a global pandemic?That’s the story of Jonathan Tjarks, who has covered basketball for The Ringer since 2016 and is a host on The Ringer NBA Show. He loves Jesus and Dallas, in that order. And he wrote about cancer, his son, and his church in a remarkable essay for The Ringer called “Does My Son Know You?” In his essay, Tjarks concludes this way:“I have already told some of my friends: When I see you in heaven, there’s only one thing I’m going to ask—Were you good to my son and my wife? Were you there for them? Does my son know you?”Jonathan Tjarks joins Collin Hansen on this episode of Gospelbound to discuss basketball, his journalistic career, and the reception to his memorable essay. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In singer-songwriter Sandra McCracken’s new book, “Send Out Your Light: The Illuminating Power of Scripture and Song”, you’ll find the same depth of spiritual insight and emotion that characterize her songs. She writes, “If we sing songs with thin ideas, superficial hopes, and more hype than authenticity, we will find ourselves depleted in the times when we need some truth to fall back on. We need songs sturdy enough to sing at the bedside of a dying friend.”Sandra joins Collin Hansen on this episode of Gospelbound to discuss embodied worship, tortured artists, the Nashville sound, deconstruction, and more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In his latest book, Recovering Our Sanity: How the Fear of God Conquers the Fears that Divide Us, Michael Horton argues that we can only conquer the wrong kinds of fear by embracing the right kind of fear, and that’s what he means by sanity.For Horton, revival breaks out when Christians show up to church and hear from God and his Word. It’s so simple, and that’s his point. We don’t need spectacular miracles—we need basic obedience.Michael Horton joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss preaching and practicing, hating and fearing, persecution and apostasy, among other serious topics. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Did education give you a love of learning and a desire to cultivate your mind over a lifetime? Or did you learn how to pass tests to graduate and get a job?These goals don’t need to be mutually exclusive, but they are for many of us. Any serious attempt at reforming Christian political witness must include a vision for education. Jake Meador offers such a classical vision for education but also ventures into sex, race, technology, family, the environment, and more in his new book, What Are Christians For? Life Together at the End of the World, published by IVP.Jake Meador joins Collin Hansen on this episode of Gospelbound to discuss industrialism, technology, debt, whiteness, and more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jordan Raynor offers seven biblical principles for being purposeful, present, and wildly productive in his new book, Redeeming Your Time (WaterBrook). These principles include starting with the Word, eliminating all hurry, and prioritizing your “yes.” You’ll also learn in this book how to say no more often. The book mixes time-tested productivity tips with timeless biblical wisdom.Raynor joins Collin Hansen on this episode of Gospelbound to discuss selective ignorance, inbox zero, and how to be productive by doing less and resting more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mark Sayers doesn’t mince words about the challenges our world is currently facing. In his new book, A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World Will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders, he sees these challenges as a potential prelude to revival. He writes, “We feel the gap between the vision of the church we encounter in Scripture and the reality on the ground. This gives rise to a deep desire for God’s church to be refreshed, empowered, and renewed.”Sayers serves as senior leader of Red Church in Melbourne, Australia. In this episode, Mark Sayers and Collin Hansen discuss tribalism, anxious systems, maturity, hardship, and more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

George Yancey describes colorblindness as a path that goes nowhere and anti-racism as a path full of dangerous animals. As an alternative, he proposes mutual accountability. He believes this approach will produce a group that wants to address and not ignore unfair racial outcomes. That’s why he wrote Beyond Racial Division: A Unifying Alternative to Colorblindness and Antiracism.Yancey is a professor at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, specializing in race/ethnicity and religion. He joins Collin Hansen to discuss why he’s skeptical of activism and protest, why he doesn’t call America racist, why diversity training doesn’t work, and why he thinks we need unity before justice, among other topics. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In his new book, You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News ,Kelly Kapic aims to lift from our shoulders the sense that we carry the weight of the world.Kapic, a professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, situates theological truth in contrast with cultural expectations. He writes, “What an irony that our modern age, on the one hand, exhausts us by its calls for complete self-expression and, on the other hand, suffocates us by its pressures to conform.”Kelly Kapic joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss the good news of human limits, living in the moment, the fear of the Lord, and our identity in Christ. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In his latest book, Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t: The Beauty of Christian Theism (Baker Academic), Gavin Ortlund discusses the problem of evil and deconstructs arguments against Christianity, while also displaying the beauty of God.Gavin Ortlund joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss our deepest intuitions, beauty, creation, love, and all kinds of other good stuff. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Proverbs 31 commends men who do justice—men of wisdom, self-control, and courage. In his new book, The Intentional Father: A Practical Guide to Raise Sons of Courage and Character (Baker), Jon Tyson writes, “Men who use their energy like this, courageous men, wise men, self-controlled men, just men—these kinds of men are the need of the hour." Tyson’s book equips intentional fathers to help their sons reach their redemptive potential.In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen and Jon Tyson discuss fatherhood, risk, discipleship, and more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week on Gospelbound, Collin Hansen is joined by Dave Harvey, president of Great Commission Collective, a church-planting ministry and author of the new book, The Plurality Principle: How to Build and Maintain a Thriving Church Leadership Team (Crossway, TGC). Dave brings more than 30 years of pastoral ministry to this conversation and gives wise counsel for pastors and other church leaders hoping to build thriving leadership teams. Dave argues that “the quality of your elder plurality determines the health of your church.”At TGC, we seek to help believers live a life that is bound to the gospel of Jesus. We do this through the articles, videos, and podcast shows we produce, and these resources are free because of our generous community of financial supporters. Would you consider becoming a TGC partner today, helping support the ongoing creation of this show and other gospel-centered content? To make a financial gift, you can visit tgc.org/give. Thank you! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In his new book, Talking about Race: Gospel Hope for Hard Conversations (Zondervan Reflective), Isaac Adams argues that if we could just hold our beliefs—and also our tongues—loving across racial lines in the American church “could become one of the most powerful testimonies to a divided and dividing world.” Isaac joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to explain blocking, race as a “Velcro issue,” abortion, cultural preferences, and the mission of the church, among other topics. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In his new book, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership (IVP), Tom Nelson observes a dripping irony. Though surrounded by many people, pastors are often intensely lonely and socially isolated. They work with the things of God but are tempted by the seduction of accomplishment at the expense of intimacy with God.Shepherd leaders, according to Nelson, are forged on the anvil of obscurity and refined in the crucible of visibility. They get into trouble when they attend more to the church than to their own soul, or when they get sucked into partisan politics and lose track of their disciple-making vision.Tom Nelson joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss flourishing pastors, congregational expectations, friendship, failure, Dairy Queen, and much more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to a special edition of Gospelbound and Let’s Talk! Join hosts Collin Hansen and Melissa Kruger as they discuss their favorite recent reads and the top 10 theology stories of 2021. They also preview the year ahead in 2022—and reveal a surprise for 2023. Thank you for listening and encouraging us in this work!09:20 Deconstruction14:52 Cultural and historical shape of evangelicalism scrutinized15:58 The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill25:31 Vaccines and Covid mandates31:32 Christian Nationalism and the U.S. Capitol storming39:15 2021 Gospelbound highlights39:35 What's Next for Our Culture with COVID: Andy Crouch40:30 How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us: Morty Schapiro and Saul Morson41:25 Why Americans Quit Church: Ryan Burge44:50 TGC Book Awards46:20 The Bomber Mafia by Malcom Gladwell49:25 How Christianity Transformed the World by Sharon James51:46 TGC 2022 Women's Conference54:23 TGC 2023 Conference Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What ails your church? Hopefully the answer doesn’t come too quickly! Hopefully your church is the picture of health, where everyone’s growing in love of God and love of neighbor. Or maybe your church has a discipleship disease. If so, then JT English can help with his new book, Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus, published by B&H. English serves as the lead pastor of Storyline Fellowship in Arvada, Colorado. Previously, JT served as a pastor at The Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas, where he founded and directed The Village Church Institute, which is committed to theological education in the local church JT sees churches worried about being irrelevant, worried they’re asking too much of busy people. Many Christians seem to think the church has gotten too deep. But JT English couldn’t disagree more! As you might guess from his book title, he says most churches aren’t nearly deep enough. He writes: People are leaving not because we have given them too much but because we have given them far too little. They are leaving the church because we have not given them any reason to stay. We are treating the symptoms of the wrong disease. Deep discipleship is about giving people more Bible, not less; more theology, not less; more spiritual disciplines, not less; more gospel, not less; more Christ, not less. The good news is that deep discipleship does not require massive resources, a large congregation, or an enormous ministry staff. It starts with not apologizing when we ask Christians to make commitments. JT joins me now on Gospelbound to discuss Sunday school and small groups, travel baseball, active learning, and commissioning culture. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

During the last decade, one in 20 Americans has shifted from identifying with a religion to claiming “nothing in particular.” And this group is also the least likely of any position on religion to hold at least a bachelor’s degree.Those are just two of the many findings that jump from the page in Ryan Burge’s new book, The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going, published by Fortress Press. Together with atheists and agnostics, sociologists categorize the “nothing in particular” group as “nones.”Today, as many Americans don’t affiliate with any church as belong to any major religious group. We’re talking about one of the largest religious trends, if not the largest, in the last 40 years. Burge’s book seeks to explain how these so-called nones grew from statistically irrelevant to around one-quarter of the entire American population.Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. And he’s also been a pastor in the same American Baptist Church for the last 13 years. So his work goes beyond the descriptive into the prescriptive. For example, he observes that among the nones, Christians should focus on this “nothing in particular” group, which is open to returning to religion.He joins me on Gospelbound to discuss the implications of his findings for evangelicals, for Black Protestants, for the mainline, and for politics. I’ll also ask him why so many Americans left the church between 1991 and 1996 and his best guess at the most significant cause behind this trend. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

“Our cause is sacred. How can we doubt it, when we know it has been consecrated by a holy baptism of fire and blood?”So said a North Carolina minister about the Confederacy in the aftermath of the South’s defeat at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. This arresting quote contributes to the title of James P. Byrd’s new book, A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood: The Bible and the American Civil War, published by Oxford. He writes, “This is a book about how Americans enlisted the Bible in the nation’s most bloody and arguably most biblically infused war.”Byrd is chair of the graduate department of religion and associate professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. And if you’re interested in this book you need to also pick up his book Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution.Just at the Battle of Antietam, four-times as many American soldiers as died as 80 years later on the beaches of Normandy in World War II. Twice as many Americans died that one horrible day outside Sharpsburg, Maryland, as in the War of 1812, Mexican War, and Spanish American War combined. Americans should have known from the Bible that civil wars are the worst wars, and even God’s chosen nations could self-destruct, Byrd argues. They may not have expected such a tragedy at the outset of the war. But by the end they had draped the whole conflict in Scripture, culminating with Father Abraham killed on Good Friday after setting the captives free. Byrd writes, “Americans were never in more disagreement over the Bible, and yet never more in agreement that the Bible proved the sacredness of war.”Byrd joins me on Gospelbound to discuss the jeremiad, Achan, Exodus, camp revivals, Frederick Douglass, and abolitionist views of inerrancy. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

“Do I exist for God or does God exist for me?” That’s the question that I think animates Dean Inserra’s new book, Getting Over Yourself: Trading Believe-in-Yourself Religion for Christ-Centered Christianity, published by Moody. Or, maybe it’s this line: “We can’t make Christianity cooler.”He explains his argument this way: “The entire premise of this book is that spiritual victory and earthly victory are not synonymous.” He identifies a new kind of prosperity gospel that promises earthly success along with spiritual abundance. But he can find no such Christianity in the Bible.Dean serves as founding pastor of City Church in Tallahassee, Florida. And I thought this description explains what I appreciate about his book. Dean writes, “In a therapeutic society, the achievement of self-fulfillment with God’s apparent stamp of approval is the perfect recipe for Christians to desire the things of this world while still feeling as if they are close to Jesus and He is very pleased. It appeases our need to know God isn’t mad at us while giving us license to continue on making much of ourselves.”So what’s his alternative? Dean says, “I want to win people with a message that would still apply if my church was in a third world country, meeting in secret with nothing more than a single, shared Bible: the message of Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and ascended.”Dean joins me now on Gospelbound to discuss the divide between seminary classrooms and popular Christianity, Instagram as instigator in crisis counseling, and why he doesn’t think God wants us to be happy. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s the fundamental lie of modern life, says Alan Noble: that we are our own. Compared to our ancestors, we’re less worried about war. We’re less worried about starvation and famine. But by believing that we are our own, we tend to struggle with new problems: the loss of meaning, identity, and purpose.Noble says this in his new book, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World, published by InterVarsity:Everyone is on their own private journey of self-discovery and self-expression so that at times, modern life feels like billions of people in the same room shouting their name so that everyone else knows they exist and who they are—which is a fairly accurate description of social media.Noble’s book feels like a douse of cold water that wakes us from our delusion. His book builds off the first question and answer of the Heidelberg Catechism. And he helps us find our way back to this well-worn path of divine wisdom. He writes, “Our selves belong to God, and we are joyfully limited and restrained by the obligations, virtues, and love that naturally come from this belonging.”Noble is assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University and co-founder and editor in chief of Christ and Pop Culture. You may know his previous work, Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If you want to sell millions of books, tell readers they can be their own hero. Tell them if they don’t have what they want, they need to demand it. Tell them that they can have everything if they work hard enough: the beautiful family, the booming business, the world-changing nonprofit venture.For Ruth Chou Simons, being her own hero doesn’t seem all that freeing. It looks exhausting.She has one overarching message in her new book, When Strivings Cease: Replacing the Gospel of Self-Improvement with the Gospel of Life-Transforming Grace, published by Nelson Books.“The one thing I want you to know, more than anything else,” she writes, “is that if you are truly in Christ, you can stop trying so hard to be who you already are in Jesus.”Simons is an artist, entrepreneur, and speaker. She and her husband, Troy, have six boys. Her previous works include GraceLaced. Simons goes on to explain in When Strivings Cease, “We’re working so hard to bloom, to bend, to please that we’ve neglected the soil from which we flourish.” And she concludes with a question: “What if our striving is really worship of ourselves as god?”Simons will be leading three breakout sessions at The Gospel Coalition’s 2022 Women’s Conference, June 16 to 18, including one on her new book. Given the prevalence of what she calls the self-improvement gospel, I’m grateful for this work that focuses on the grace of God. Self-acceptance, she reminds us from God’s Word, doesn’t come from self-love but from the redemption of Jesus Christ, where God demonstrates his love for us as sinners. That’s why she can write, “[S]elf-righteous striving is more hopeless than you want to believe, but grace is more life-transforming than you realize.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is faith? Is it a feeling? Is it hope against hope? Belief without evidence?Jen Michel says faith is a habit. It’s not against evidence but careful consideration of evidence. It’s trust in the story that makes sense of the world. It’s curiosity. It’s where the habits of humility take us.“Try practicing your way into faith,” Michel writes in her new book, A Habit Called Faith: 40 Days in the Bible to Find and Follow Jesus, published by Baker. “Go to church, follow the liturgy, act the part. Let habit take you by the hand and lead you to God.”Michel says that faith pushes back against the technological advances that convey the illusion that exertion is our enemy. In this book designed to help introduce the Bible to anyone curious about faith, Michel guides readers on a 40-day journey through the wilderness of doubts to the promised land of hope in the promises of God. She writes:We can feel small in this world and frightened by our smallness. The invitation of faith isn’t to pretend that there aren’t big, bad scary wolves; that life can’t wreck with a sudden change of weather; that we don’t feel angry or sad or disappointed—even occasionally abandoned. But it is to say that we keep at the habit of believing the improbable; we’re not left or forsaken; God is with us. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Breaking news! (Insert dramatic gong sound here.) Find out if you’re on the right side of history. Learn about the latest celebrity you should cancel for the wrong view on oat milk. After this commercial break. Not so fast says Jeffrey Bilbro, editor in chief of Front Porch Republic and the author of the new book Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News, published by IVP Academic. Bilbro warns that “objects on screen are more distant than they appear,” and that “the public sphere is simply not conducive to the formation of loving, sustaining communities.” He writes this: When the news sets itself up as the light of the world, it is usurping the role that rightly belongs only to the Word proclaimed in the gospel. But when the news helps us attend together to the ongoing work of this Word, it plays a vital role in enabling us to love our neighbors. So take a walk! Carve some wood. Spend time in embodied communities. And don’t worry too much about that next election, he says:Epistemic humility, particularly regarding the workings of Providence, requires us to acknowledge that even when our candidate loses, or when a court case is decided in a way that seems wrong, or when tragedy strikes, God is still working out his will—and he cannot be defeated. The reverse holds true as well: it may be that just when we think we are winning, we are going astray from God’s kingdom. A high view of Providence and a chastened sense of our ability to recognize God’s methods of victory frees us from worrying about whether a given event is good or bad. Bilbro joins me on Gospelbound to discuss the perverse incentives of our media ecosystem, holy apathy, and whether anything good can come from TV news. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In his day job for the last 15 years, Daniel Strange has taught church leaders about culture, worldview, and apologetics. He’s studied worldviews and philosophy. He talks about “plausibility structures” and “social imaginaries” and “cultural liturgies.” But it’s not some kind of vain philosophical exercise. He’s trying to help people grow in how they present the person and work of Jesus to their skeptical neighbors.After years as director of Oak Hill Theological College in London, he now directs Crosslands Forum, a center for cultural engagement for mission. And he’s the author of the new book Making Faith Magnetic: Five Hidden Themes Our Culture Can’t Stop Talking About and How to Connect Them to Christ, published by The Good Book Company. In this book, he tries to help non-Christians find their way to God through the darkness of a skeptical age. He writes:In the 21st-century West, in our version of this history, God is the one who has done the hiding and we are the seekers. And God must have found a great place to hide because we’ve looked for him everywhere but he’s nowhere to be seen.Strange features five magnetic points that he thinks can help non-Christians connect to Jesus. His book explores totality, norm, deliverance, destiny, and higher power. In this episode, we’ll talk about J. H. Bavinck, the totality, Goth culture, disenchantment, and more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Blair Linne’s mother planned to abort her before a Baptist minister’s words changed her mother’s mind. Linne moved 25 times before she set out on her own as an adult. She did not grow up with a father. I won’t spoil her new book, Finding My Father: How the Gospel Heals the Pain of Fatherlessness, published by The Good Book Company. But it’s a raw, sometimes shocking memoir with a surprise ending.Blair Linne describes fathers as a covering, a shield from danger. But where do you go when your dad needs a place to hide, too? Linne points all of us, no matter how good or bad our dad, to the hope of the gospel. We’re not defined by the consequences of fatherlessness, Blair writes:We are not bound to repeat those mistakes and pass on the consequences to another generation. The cross can break any consequences of the sin of the generation before, so that it is not felt by the generation to come.And she points us to the church, where we find our family after God becomes our Father. Linne writes, “[A]ll it takes is a Christian village to break the one-parent-absent-father stranglehold that can burden a child.”Blair Linne joins me on Gospelbound to discuss systemic injustice and personal responsibility, victims and rebels, diverse churches, and family trees. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For as long as I’ve been paying attention, some 20 years, I’ve heard Christians complain that we need more attention on the body. I’ve heard that Catholics have much deeper, more comprehensive theology of the body. I’ve seen Protestant evangelicals try to make the case, but for some reason or another their arguments don’t land. I don’t know how to explain the disconnect. We worship the God who became flesh in the incarnation of Jesus. When Paul talks about the body, he’s referencing all of life. That’s how far our views have diverged from his. We live in a time that esteems self-expression, mind over matter, not self-sacrifice of the type that engages the body. But Sam Allberry aims to help us in his new book, *[What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves](https://www.amazon.com/What-God-Has-about-Bodies/dp/1433570157/?tag=thegospcoal-20)*, published by Crossway. Allberry is a world-traveled speaker and apologist and serves on the leadership team at Immanuel Nashville. In this book he encourages Christians to look forward, but not to a time when we’ll have a full head of hair and flat stomachs. Instead, we anticipate resurrected bodies that glorify and serve Jesus perfectly. And what good news that is for our broken bodies. Sam writes: The problems we experience *with* our body were never ultimately going to be solved *by* our body. We may be able to ameliorate some aspects of our bodily brokenness—we can cure some ills and ease some pains. But we cannot fix what has been broken. The only hope for us is the body of Jesus, broken fully and finally for us. And by looking to his broken body we find true hope for our own. Sam joins me on Gospelbound to discuss intimacy, technology, *Avatar*, color blindness, masculinity and femininity, and much more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We’re long past the time when we could assume even that dedicated believers in Jesus Christ understood why they should bother with church. The number who identify as Christians is far larger than the number who attend a weekly meeting. Even then, the bulk of the serving and giving in our churches tends to be done by only a few. So it’s not as if COVID-19 suddenly convinced Christians they didn’t need church. Millions had already made that decision even before gathering involved online registration, social distancing, and masks. Last year church membership fell to less than 50 percent for the first time since Gallup started recording the data 80 years ago.COVID-19 accelerated a long-trending separation between personal faith and organized religion. The shutdowns caught all of us by surprise in their sudden onset and ongoing duration. And it’s hard to get back in the habit once it’s been broken for months—now, even years, without a clear end in sight.Even so, the body of Christ is essential to our faith. A Christian without a church is a Christian in trouble. That’s why Jonathan Leeman and I wrote Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential, published by Crossway in partnership with 9Marks and The Gospel Coalition. Leeman serves as editorial director of 9Marks and joins me on Gospelbound to discuss virtual churches, biblical authority after Mars Hill, and fellowship across difference, among other topics. Welcome, Jonathan. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s new book, Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square (Nelson Books), he asks, “Do our political actions match our theology, or has our theology been taken captive to our political beliefs?”A political book that’s driven by theology, Faithful Presence offers a stirring call to justice and mercy with humility. Gov. Haslam sees the “image of God” as the foundational truth that can bridge the gap in our polarized political culture. He says humility is the key to overcoming these differences—when you listen to others, and admit your faults, others will be more likely to listen to you. The only biblical way for us to walk into the public square is the way Jesus walked toward the cross. His was motivated by love for a broken and hurting people, not to be proven right, or to win the argument, or to gain power for himself.Gov. Haslam joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss political theology, intolerance, his ideal congregation, and why Christians shouldn’t give up on politics. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jasmine Holmes is the author of Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope (InterVarsity Press) and cohost of TGC's new podcast for women, Let's Talk. Holmes joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss politics, race, police brutality, abortion, and everything else you’re not supposed to bring up in polite company. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tim and Kathy Keller joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss the link between decreasing marriage and decreasing religiosity, how to know you’re ready to get married, how to raise children to prepare them for marriage, and more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today’s bonus episode of Gospelbound, we’re featuring a clip from an interview between TGC senior writer, Sarah Zylstra and her guest, J. D. Greear as they discuss his experience as SBC president, future hopes for the SBC and the global church, and the importance of keeping the gospel at the center of it all. To hear the full episode, head to TGC Podcast episode 169. You can hear more about J. D. in the new book, Gospelbound: Living with Resolute Hope in an Anxious Age. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today’s bonus episode of Gospelbound, we’re featuring a clip from an interview between TGC senior writer, Sarah Zylstra and her guest, Alex Harris about his experience clerking for two U.S. Supreme Court justices and editing Harvard Law Review, his brother Josh’s high-profile deconstruction of his faith, whether evangelicals invest too much import in presidential politics, and much more. To hear the full episode, head to TGC Podcast episode 166. You can hear more from Alex in the new book, Gospelbound: Living with Resolute Hope in an Anxious Age. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Because of the gospel, there’s always hope. Even in the rubble, you can find defiant new growth poking through the rocks. A similar hope can be seen in seminary education. One of the greatest success stories can be found in Kansas City at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.The president there is Jason Allen, and under his leadership, the school has grown in enrollment and resources and in quality of education. It's exciting to consider what this turnaround means for generations of churches in the Southern Baptist Convention and beyond.Jason says that “never before in the history of the church has theological education been so accessible—and so needed.” In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen welcomes Jason Allen to discuss his new book, Succeeding at Seminary: 12 Keys to Getting the Most Out of Your Theological Education (Moody).In this episode, Collin and Jason talk about the promise and peril of online education, why students should still consider residential relocation, and how you know if you’re really ready for this momentous step.This episode Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Faith For Life. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For Shai Linne, the cultural differences in music and dress never seemed to matter compared to unity in the crucified and risen Christ. Shai became a key figure in the growing movement of Christian hip-hop, musically like Wu-tang Clan but lyrically like Billy Graham. The style was appealing, but the crowds seemed more excited about Jesus than anything else. He’s convinced that we’ll look back one day on this era, between 2002 and 2012, as a revival much like the Jesus Movement of the late 1960s and early ’70s.In 2012, ethnic differences began to re-emerge with the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. As Shai writes in his new book, The New Reformation: Finding Hope in the Fight for Ethnic Unity (Moody), the subsequent high-profile shooting deaths of black men and women did not surprise many African Americans. His sense as a 16-year-old was that police beat up Black people all the time. But Christian hip-hop began to decline when White and Black Christians realized they did not see these incidents the same way. He writes: “White Christians were happy to have us as long as we just rapped about the gospel and kept quiet about the things we talk about among ourselves all the time that deeply affect us. But the moment we expressed the pain we felt about ‘racial injustice,’ many White Christians were quick to dismiss us, rebuke us, or silently ignore us.”Even so, Shai’s book points to hope for ethnic unity. It’s a book that cuts through the anger, sarcasm, unforgiveness, and mockery that characterize much Christian discourse today on this sensitive subject. He points us toward a better way of humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love. Apart from massive revival, we may not expect the world to overcome these divisions. But in the church, through the power of the gospel, we can strive for unity and be a clear and compelling witness to the world.Shai Linne joined me on Gospelbound to discuss the importance of ethnic unity and how we might get there.This episode Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Faith For Life. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this live episode of Gospelbound from TGC’s 2021 national conference, Collin Hansen is joined by two esteemed guests who can help explain the origins and shape of Christian nationalism with a view toward the promises of the gospel. Michael Horton is the J. Gresham Machen professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. Justin Giboney is cofounder of the AND Campaign, an attorney, and a political strategist in Atlanta.Whether or not your church would advocate Christian nationalism, it’s become an apologetics challenge for church leaders with public perception. Mike and Justin help by answering a few questions and candidly discussing this topic.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Brave by Faith by Alistair Begg. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

These days, you’ll see many Christians defend the faith by pointing out the problems with others. But owning up to ways the church has fallen short of its own ideals may be the more appropriate path. In his new book, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History (Zondervan), John Dickson takes an honest look at the church’s successes and failures.Dickson sums up history by observing, “Bullies are common. Saints are not.” So on Gospelbound, I dug in on his survey and asked whether Christianity has been a bigger contributor to evil compared to atheism and Islam; his high and low points in Christian history; and why Christians are cheerful losers.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of the God’s Word for You expository Bible study guides. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Maybe you imagine the biggest problem facing Christians in the West today is hostility, whether from media or government or schools. You wouldn’t be wrong to notice how these venues don’t usually look kindly on orthodox, observant Christians these days.But what if we actually face a bigger problem? What if the problem isn’t that our unbelieving friends and family care too much about what we believe—it’s that they don’t care at all what we believe? That’s not a challenge we’re typically prepared to address.Until now, thanks to Kyle Beshears in his new book, Apatheism: How to Share When They Don’t Care (B&H). Kyle is teaching pastor at Mars Hill Church in Mobile, Alabama. I met him when he taught worldview and apologetics at the University of Mobile. Kyle explains of his book, “Atheism believes that God does not exist; agnosticism believes that we can’t know whether or not God exists; apatheism believes God’s existence to be irrelevant.”Kyle Beshears joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss the causes and cures of apatheism.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of the God’s Word for You expository Bible study guides. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Has anyone ever confided in you, “I’m deconstructing”? Maybe you don’t know the phrase, but you know the phenomenon. Yet another social-media post announces departure from the Christian faith. The cause could be sex, race, politics, social justice, science, hell, or all of the above. For many, Christianity is becoming implausible, even impossible to believe. It might be tempting to leave the church in order to find answers, but the new book Before You Lose Your Faith: Deconstructing Doubt in the Church (The Gospel Coalition) argues that church should be the best place to deal with doubts. Deconstructing need not end in unbelief. In fact, deconstructing can be the road toward reconstructing—building up a more mature, robust faith that grapples honestly with the deepest questions of life.Karen Swallow Prior, Jay Y. Kim, and Derek Rishmawy joined me on Gospelbound to discuss deconstruction and the hope that lies in the person and work of Jesus.Gospelbound Book Giveaway Entry Steps: Write a review about the Gospelbound podcast on Apple Podcasts (reviews can take up to 48 hours to appear in the ratings and review section, so be sure to check back after that time period to see your review)Take a screenshot of your reviewEmail us your screenshot to [email protected] by Friday, April 23We'll pick the first 10 entries on April 23 to receive a free copy of Gospelbound, the book.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Brave by Faith by Alistair Begg. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen is joined by Morton Schapiro and Gary Saul Morson, authors of Minds Wide Shut: How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us (Princeton University Press). Schapiro and Morson describe fundamentalism as “radical simplification of complex questions and the inability to learn either from experience or from opposing views.”Among their proposed solutions is a recovery of casuistry, or employing case studies especially from great literature for experience-based learning.Gospelbound Book Giveaway Entry Steps: Write a review about the Gospelbound podcast on Apple Podcasts (reviews can take up to 48 hours to appear in the ratings and review section, so be sure to check back after that time period to see your review)Take a screenshot of your reviewEmail us your screenshot to [email protected] by Friday, April 23We'll pick the first 10 entries on April 23 to receive a free copy of Gospelbound, the book.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The End of Me by Liz Wann. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Politicians, advertisers, talk radio hosts, social media engineers—you name it, they want your attention. They want you to be angry and afraid. But as Christians, we’re called to faith and love—even when we’re scared, even with people who don’t like us.We need to get back to the gospel so we can move forward—together. That’s why we wrote the new book Gospelbound (Multnomah), to help Christians live with resolute hope in an anxious age. My co-author and guest on this episode is Sarah Zylstra, one of my dear friends and a longtime colleague first at Christianity Today and now with The Gospel Coalition, where she is our senior writer. We wrote this book to boost your morale with stories of Christians around the world living for God and loving their neighbors. They’re caring for the weak, loving their enemies, and giving away their freedom for others. They are gospel-bound Christians because they’re bound to the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ—they cannot be shaken by this turbulent world. And they’re bound for glory someday, which is how they can live with such hope in the here and now.Not only will they boost your morale, but these gospel-bound Christians will also give you a model for how live in the chaos. So for more on these stories, I turned to Sarah in this episode of Gospelbound. Gospelbound Book Giveaway Entry Steps: Write a review about the Gospelbound podcast on Apple Podcasts (reviews can take up to 48 hours to appear in the ratings and review section, so be sure to check back after that time period to see your review)Take a screenshot of your reviewEmail us your screenshot to [email protected] by Friday, April 23We'll pick the first 10 entries on April 23 to receive a free copy of Gospelbound, the book. This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The End of Me by Liz Wann. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When church leaders assume that they can only scan for attacks in one direction, they leave Christians vulnerable to different dangers. What the church needs, then, is what Trevin Wax calls multi-directional leadership—leaders who combine dexterity and discipline. Leaders today must demonstrate faithful versatility. And that’s what Trevin Wax commends in his new book, The Multi-Directional Leader: Responding Wisely to Challenges from Every Side, published by The Gospel Coalition.Wax applies multi-directional leadership to the most contentious issues facing churches right now, including race and politics and gender. Unity and truth can still triumph in a divided age, and that’s what I wanted to talk with Trevin about in this episode of Gospelbound.Gospelbound Book Giveaway Entry Steps: Write a review about the Gospelbound podcast on Apple Podcasts (reviews can take up to 48 hours to appear in the ratings and review section, so be sure to check back after that time period to see your review)Take a screenshot of your reviewEmail us your screenshot to [email protected] by Friday, April 23We'll pick the first 10 entries on April 23 to receive a free copy of Gospelbound, the book. This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most by Rico Tice. There are many books on leadership strategies and church structures, but this one looks at what matters most: the character and attitude of church leaders. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Maybe you’ve seen a sign in your neighbor’s yard that reads something like this:"In this house we believe that:Black Lives MatterLove Is LoveGay Rights Are Civil RightsWomen’s Rights Are Human RightsTransgender Women Are Women"If the “we believe” format and propositions sound familiar, that’s because they are. It’s a creed, albeit a secular one, without reference to transcendent moral authority, whether divine or historical. Rebecca McLaughlin’s provocative new book, The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims, published by The Gospel Coalition, helps us disentangle the beliefs Christians gladly affirm from those they cannot embrace. And she invites us to talk with our neighbors about the things that matter most—what we’re willing to fight for, our vision of the good life for ourselves and others.Many non-Christians believe these statements will make unity and peace possible. But McLaughlin shows why Christianity is the original source and firmest foundation for true diversity, equality, and life-transforming love. Books referenced in this episode: Homegoing by Yaa GyasiTranscendent Kingdom by Yaa GyasiTen Questions Every Teen Should Ask (and Answer) about Christianity by Rebecca McLaughlinThis episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most by Rico Tice. There are many books on leadership strategies and church structures, but this one looks at what matters most: the character and attitude of church leaders. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Joseph Henrich is chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and author of many important works. His latest is The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. In it, you’ll get pretty everything you want: theology, history, neuroscience, biology, social science, economics, and more. Henrich weaves everything together to explain what separated the West from world history. But his story is neither inevitable nor triumphalist. He argues that if you looked at the world in the year 1000, you’d never imagine that Europe would eventually surpass China or the Islamic world in power and wealth. Joseph Henrich joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss his new book and what it means to be “WEIRD,” an acronym that describes tenants of Western culture.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The Garden, the Curtain and The Cross by Carl Laferton. This storybook takes children aged 3 to 6 on a journey from the Garden of Eden to God’s perfect new creation, teaching why Jesus died and rose again and why that’s the best news ever. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Andy Crouch and his colleagues at The Praxis Journal wrote an article titled, “Leading Beyond the Blizzard” on March 20, 2020, just one week after the national COVID-19 shutdown began in the United States. Crouch and his team warned us that this crisis would not be a blizzard that rages for a few weeks or a winter that lasted a few months, but an “ice age” of 12 to 18 months that would change our way of life for good, and they were right. Crouch joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to lament the losses brought on by COVID-19, assess our levels of social trust inside and outside the church, and look forward to God’s purposes in the next year and beyond.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The Garden, the Curtain and The Cross by Carl Laferton. This storybook takes children aged 3-6 on a journey from the Garden of Eden to God’s perfect new creation to teach children why Jesus died and rose again and why that’s the best news ever. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You know an author is worth reading if he can make stones interesting. But after reading Andrew Wilson’s God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World (Zondervan), you’ll be seeing stones everywhere in the Bible, and you’ll understand their significance in ways you never imagined before.Andrew Wilson is teaching pastor at King’s Church London and has theology degrees from Cambridge, London School of Theology, and King’s College London. He is a columnist for Christianity Today and has written several books, including Echoes of Exodus and Spirit and Sacrament. His newest book, God of All Things, teaches about God through the ordinary, physical things we see every day.If you don’t normally enjoy reading theology, I recommend this book. You’ll learn a lot about God, you’ll develop a strong biblical theology from Genesis to Revelation, and you’ll see your ordinary world with new eyes in the process.Andrew joined me on Gospelbound to discuss viruses, pigs, sex, children, trees, and more. This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Being the Bad Guy by Stephen McAlpine. The church used to be recognized as a force for good, but this is changing rapidly. Author Stephen McAlpine offers an analysis of how our culture ended up this way and encourages Christians not to be ashamed of the gospel as it is more liberating, fulfilling and joyful than anything the world has to offer. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Veneetha Rendall Risner has dealt with more than her share of trials, which she recounts in her new book, "Walking Through Fire: A Memoir of Loss and Redemption", published by Nelson Books. She opens up her thought process for a raw look at the emotional and spiritual wrestling of suffering, anger toward God, and the reason for suffering.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Being the Bad Guy by Stephen McAlpine. The church used to be recognized as a force for good, but this is changing rapidly. Author Stephen McAlpine offers an analysis of how our culture ended up this way and encourages Christians not to be ashamed of the gospel as it is more liberating, fulfilling and joyful than anything the world has to offer. More information at thegoodbook.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.