Reconstructing Faith with Trevin Wax

At the beginning of this season, we asked a question, what goes into the making of a disciple? How does a follower of Jesus become so well-formed, so well-prepared that when the time of testing comes, whether it’s a crisis of courage or a call to quiet faithfulness, they step into their destiny as the person God has always planned for them to be? On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he turns to the words of Jesus for a blueprint of what life in God’s kingdom looks like. The only way we will be ready to rebuild is if, by the power of the Spirit, we live in ways that align our character with the words of Jesus so that we resemble the King who calls us to this holy task. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

The real test of a movement is in its ability to accelerate and accomplish Christ’s command to make disciples. And you can’t gather a large group of people without disagreement and debate over what shape the church’s faithful witness should take in our day. Real collaboration with Christians from around the world involves conflict. It’s messy. The conversations are tough. The debates are real. And this has always been the story of the Christian church. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he examines seven of the big challenges facing the church worldwide. And take a closer look at what lies ahead for the global church as we seek to follow Christ faithfully. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

As words like toxic and abusive are increasingly applied to ordinary stresses, the way we interpret and respond to conflict changes. This isn’t just a cultural issue. It’s impacting the church, too. There’s a generation gap developing when it comes to leadership, authority, and resilience in church relationships and ministry. Older leaders don’t always share the same assumptions or expectations as younger leaders. The loss of common language and outlook can lead to relational breakdown. We will not be able to rebuild in the coming years unless we are resilient, unless we persevere through heartache and disappointment. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: how do we serve together through pain and conflict? How do we deal with disappointment in our pursuit of church renewal? What does spiritual resilience look like in a world that needs resolve? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

Digital technologies have woven a complex web that alters our perceptions and interactions. We think of ourselves differently now, and we experience life differently than 20 years ago. How does this shift, this digitization of the self, affect our understanding of what it means to be human? In this environment, spiritual formation will have to be, in some ways, counter-formation. An alternative to the digital habits and assumptions that form us, often unthinkingly, in machine-like dehumanizing ways. Renewal will require us to ask hard questions about who we’ve been, who we are, and who we’re becoming. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: How does the digital age shape, inform, or deform our understanding of discipleship and spiritual growth? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PQSMt3J9kw8 Faithful Bible teaching, delivered well and received well, is a cornerstone of the church’s renewal. Too often, our preaching and teaching doesn’t hold the interest of people, either because we failed to deliver the message of the scriptures faithfully or because we failed to construct a bridge from the biblical text to contemporary concerns. And so, we miss the opportunity to bring scriptural truth into the sharp edge of conflict with whatever passes for common sense in the world. Whether you’re a pastor, a Bible study leader, or a faithful church member hungry for truth, if we’re going to be involved in the rebuilding work ahead of us, we’ve got to lean in here. We need sharper sermons that deliver truth, and we need sharper listeners attuned to God’s word above all else. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: How will preaching and teaching enable us to contribute to the renewal of the church? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

Fewer people read books these days, and those who do, read less often than before. For Christians, this trend hits harder. We are people of the Book. Our faith is anchored to the Scriptures. If we want to be people of substance in a world of superficiality, if we want to be spiritually healthy, if we want to embody a fortified faith that can contribute to the renewal of the church, we must begin with Scripture. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: what does faithful engagement with God’s Word look like in a world where fewer and fewer people read, not just the Bible, but anything at all? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

Prayer is essential. The absence of prayer exposes and unmasks our self-sufficient spirit. It’s frightening to consider how easily we can busy ourselves in all sorts of activity in the name of a God we rarely invoke. The more we push God to the periphery, the more we take center stage. We lose eternal perspective because the Eternal One plays only a supporting role. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: What if the biggest temptation we face in seeking to restore and rebuild the witness of the church is not despair, or disillusionment, or cultural pressures, or internal corruption? What if the biggest temptation we face is prayerlessness? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

Before we can even hope to contribute to renewing the church, we must be rebuilt and renewed ourselves. But here’s the danger: in our zeal for spiritual formation, we might mistake discipline for dependence. There’s no magic formula for spiritual growth and no silver bullet to spiritual renewal. God offers us means of grace—postures and practices his Spirit works through, to transform our hearts so that we become more like Jesus. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: What are those practices? Why do they matter? What is the promise and peril in seeking habits of holiness? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

Nothing alters a terrain like water. In severe cases, like flooding from hurricanes and storms, or mudslides in the mountains, or a tsunami overtaking everything in its path, water can leave a landscape totally transformed. But even in mild cases, wind and waves can leave behind noticeable changes to the scenery. Waves affect the landscape of the church also. There are subtle echoes of movements that have shaped churches across the country, regardless of denomination. You might not see them, but they’re there, shaping how we worship. Cultural currents carve out different streams. Movements rise and fall, personalities come and go, and ministry philosophies shift, leaving the terrain transformed. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks the question: What waves have shaped the landscape of evangelicalism? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

For two seasons now, we’ve looked at the credibility crisis facing the church today and some of the challenges that stand in the way of our attempts to renew and restore the church’s witness. We’ve heard guest after guest give us truth and point us toward hope. We’ve talked about rolling up our sleeves and finding our place on the wall, doing whatever we can for the church to reconstruct, to rebuild, to restore, to renew. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks the question: What if we’re not up to the task of rebuilding the witness of the church? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook subscribe to Trevin’s email newsletter Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

In the first episode of this season, we looked at the reconstruction of Notre Dame after the fire, the painstaking work of refashioning and rebuilding a place that took centuries to construct. Rebuilding requires sacrifice… a dogged commitment to seeing the task through. If this is the case for churches, it’s also the case for families of churches, for networks, partnerships, conventions, and denominations. In episode two, we looked at the trend of “dechurching.” People drifting away from the church is one of the biggest stories in religion reporting right now. But the other big story is about the shifting landscape of those who do belong to a church. I’m talking about the decline of most denominations in America, and the rise of non-denominational churches in Protestant Christianity. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks how we look beyond our congregation to the health of the evangelical movement as a whole. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

The iconic family scenes we see in classic TV are not the norm for most people in American society today. Divorce has disrupted more families than ever before in our history. And the ripple effects go beyond the obvious heartache and loss, affecting even the banalities of annual rituals and traditions. Challenges to family life aren’t new. But the challenges in our day have multiplied. And these problems aren’t unrelated to the difficulties we face as God’s people, especially since we see in the New Testament how the church is to be the family of God. We are in relationship to one another as brothers and sisters, as fathers and mothers in the faith. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he considers the church’s responsibility in the era of family breakdown. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

In the latter decades of the 20th century, many churches across the country shifted from a formal style of worship, with traditional and classical music, to a more informal style of worship, with praise choruses and rock-influenced instrumentation. These changes in worship didn’t happen without conflict. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, controversies became so heated in some churches that some observers began calling them “The Worship Wars.” Today, we may be well past the worst of the worship wars, but we’re never going to be in a season where discussions over what we do as gathered members of the body of Christ go away. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he considers the formative influence of how we worship and how that will affect what the future looks like. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

For the past few years, sociologists and journalists have been describing millennials as “the burnout generation.” Now, there are reports that burnout and stress are on the rise with Gen Z as well. And then there’s the reality of spiritual burnout, the inability to feel the presence and power of God, a loss of desire for spiritual things. In the Bible, we see examples of spiritual disillusionment, from the frustrations of Moses as he led the children of Israel, to Elijah fleeing into the wilderness, feeling isolated and forgotten. Read the writings of monks in monasteries in medieval times and, even there, you find similar battles with spiritual apathy, a loss of passion and compassion. Burnout isn’t just a pastor problem. It isn’t just a workplace problem. It’s a spiritual problem, and this challenge affects the church. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks why burnout is happening and how we can respond. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

We’ve entered a new era in terms of technology. AI is the most powerful predictive tool we’ve ever created. It’s really good at analyzing and predicting human behavior… like, scary good. And the new world of AI is leading to ethical dilemmas previous generations would have found unimaginable. What will happen when in the future, it becomes even harder to discern truth from falsehood, human fingerprints from AI creations, when we no longer agree on common narratives because we’re living in parallel online AI-influenced universes? What does unity and division look like in the church when these problems arise? And how will we address some of the ethical questions that arise? On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he discusses the challenges and opportunities AI will provide for the church, as we seek to fulfill our mission faithfully. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

There will be no avoiding conversation about sex and gender in the days ahead, and as Christians, the starting place must be our convictions about reality. All our choices must flow from those convictions. Strong convictions are the prerequisite for true conversations. And convictions and compassion aren’t in opposition. When the world is falling en masse for a bold and terrible lie, the most important and compassionate thing the church can do is uphold the courageous and irrepressible truth. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks the question, how can we best present the Bible’s vision of the body as good, as a gift, in a time of radical individualism, digital reinvention, and technological promises? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

More and more commentators speak openly about the social and mental health consequences of porn: the degrading nature of warped expectations, the ever-more transgressive practices, the normalization of violence, and the dark underside of human trafficking. But most of the time, they stop short of pronouncing moral judgment about pornography in general. As people who follow Jesus Christ, we go further. We don’t oppose pornography merely because of bad outcomes. We oppose pornography because we know, deep down, our hearts are to be pointed in a different direction. But we fool ourselves if we think porn is something only out there, in the world. The pervasiveness of pornography affects the church as well—young people and old, men and women. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he discusses how to address this secret catastrophe, the challenge that pornography poses to hearts and minds inside the church, not just out in the world. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

All across the spectrum, you find commentators chattering away about the crisis of manhood in the wake of gender confusion, the denigration and disparagement of men traditionally involved in “men’s work,” and the quest for significance and identity among men who seem to be lost and lonely in our strange new world. What happens in a society where markers of manhood, the passing from adolescence into adulthood, become obscured, where men stagger forward without mentors or friends? What happens to a society that pathologizes competition, achievement, roughness, and the aggression required to protect the weak or pursue what’s good? How does it make sense to push back against toxic expressions of masculinity without a clear picture of actual manliness, a positive vision that shatters the caricatures? On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he considers how the church can respond wisely to the challenges facing men today. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

In the United States, we are experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country. Recent research shows about 15 percent of American adults — that’s 40 million people — have stopped going to church, and all of this, within the past 25 years. It’s a drop that has affected every region in the country, every theological tradition, every age group, every ethnicity, every education level, every income bracket. You might look at the data and assume that we’re headed for a non-religious, non-spiritual kind of culture in the next thirty years. But the religiously unaffiliated—the fastest-growing religious demographic in the United States—are often still religious in personal and privatized senses, only that their religious identities are in flux, mixing and matching various practices. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he discusses what rebuilding looks like in the aftermath of this massive cultural decline in churchgoing. Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

The continuing decline of institutional trust represents a seismic shift in our culture and society today. Some of that distrust is warranted. In season one, we looked at the credibility crisis facing the church on several fronts. We’ve considered the rot that’s in the church—rot that needs to be removed. But some of our institutional distrust comes from an overly idealistic expectation of what institutions can provide, and from the acids seeping into all areas of our culture, slowly dissolving the structures of the past. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks the question: how do we rebuild in the aftermath of so much institutional turmoil and destruction? Connect with Trevin on Twitter: @TrevinWax on Facebook Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].