Gospelbound

Sometimes advice isn't just bad. It's delusional.That's what Jean Twenge writes in her new book, Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future. She makes this comment about “the most optimistic and self-confident generation in history.” My generation. The Millennials.Here's the advice we heard over and over growing up: “just be yourself,” “believe in yourself and anything is possible,” “express yourself,” and “you have to learn to love yourself before you can love someone else.” Her counterpoint: what if you're a jerk? Or even a serial killer? No, not anything is possible. You're delusional. She writes, “People who really love themselves are called narcissists, and they make horrible relationship partners.”That's tough medicine for us Millennials! But she's right. I felt understood in this book. And it helped me to understand other generations both older and younger. Because in many ways we have less in common with each other than ever before. Dr. Twenge, writes, “The breakneck speed of cultural change means that growing up today is a completely different experience from growing up in the 1950s or the 1980s—or even the 2000s.”Twenge is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and widely published researcher. The book is full of important insights. She describes same-sex marriage as the most rapid change of public opinion on a social issue in history. Not coincidentally, she says all signs point to further retreat from religion. In place of religion we get politics. She warns, “World history suggests that transferring religious beliefs into politics will not end well.”I had to agree with her sense that optimism has been lost in the United States since the Great Recession. And that our society—built on abstract ideas—depends on trust and truth that we don't often enjoy today.Generations is a bracing book, and an important one, whether you're a parent or pastor or politician or just want to learn more about yourself and your neighbors. Jean joined me on Gospelbound to discuss how generational differences might be shaping America's future, why technology isn't all bad, and more. 

“For as much as I'll miss, [Tim Keller] gave so much more—by God's grace—that no one or nothing can ever take away from us.” – Collin HansenMelissa Kruger hosts a special edition of Gospelbound where Collin Hansen reflects on the life and ministry of Tim Keller. Hansen talks about the first time he met Keller, his experience writing a book on Keller's spiritual formation, discovering how important prayer was in the latter part of Keller's spiritual journey, and more. Through Hansen's reflections, we gain insight into the profound impact Tim Keller has left behind.

For 20 years, I've felt like Molly Worthen and I have lived parallel lives. We graduated college the same year. We wrote for some of the same publications, on some of the same subjects. But I chose to head into church ministry, while she settled into the academy and earned her PhD from Yale.Molly is associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You may have read her work in The New York Times, Slate, or Christianity Today.She is perhaps best known for her award-winning book, Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism (Oxford University Press, 2014.) In that book, Molly wrote that evangelicals “craved an intellectual authority that would quiet disagreement and dictate and plan for fixing everything that seemed broken with the world. They did not find it, and are still looking.”In his critical review for The Gospel Coalition, Al Mohler wrote, “This is a book to be reckoned with. In terms of its comprehensive grasp of the evangelical movement, its detailed research, and its serious approach to understanding the evangelical mind, Apostles of Reason stands nearly alone in the larger world of academic publishing. Any serious-minded evangelical should read it.” He also described the book as infuriating and described Molly's work as sometimes snarky toward evangelicals.Well, much has changed in a decade. Molly joined me on Gospelbound to discuss her scholarship, as well as her experience in the church and academy. 

The Gospel Coalition's Foundation Documents include a “theological vision for ministry,” originally drafted by Tim Keller. I had never heard of theological vision before I read this statement in 2007. Soon I learned that the concept originated by Richard Lints in his book The Fabric of Theology. Theological vision is the space between your doctrinal beliefs and your ministry programs. Theological vision helps you adapt your ministry to changing conditions while keeping centered on the unchanging gospel.Richard Lints has published a new book, Uncommon Unity: Wisdom for the Church in an Age of Division, which includes a foreword from Keller. In this book Lints exposes problems with the inclusion narrative of democracy and offers a better way forward to find unity amid unprecedented cultural diversity in our day.He writes, “The main thing I want to do in this book is to view the gospel story as the interpretive lens through which we best understand the telos of creation as a rich, deep, and complex unity-in-difference.”In this special season of Gospelbound, we're exploring in depth several key influences that appear in my book Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation. Lints is himself one of those influences. He is senior consulting theologian at Redeemer City to City in New York City. Previously, he served as Andrew Mutch Distinguished Professor of Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, alma mater of Tim and Kathy Keller. I was grateful for this chance on Gospelbound to talk with him about unity, diversity, theological vision, and much more.

Bill Edgar began his career as professor of apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary in 1989 and retired last year in 2022. But his Westminster roots run even deeper than his 33-year tenure. Edgar's great-great-grandfather, an elder at First Presbyterian Church in New York City, helped endow Princeton Seminary in 1811. In 1929, Westminster was founded in response to Princeton's liberal drift. By 2017, Princeton Seminary had drifted so far that the school revoked Tim Keller's Kuyper Prize over his views on women's ordination and homosexuality. For more than two centuries, the Edgar family has been wrapped up in the drama of doctrine in Presbyterian seminary education.In this special season of Gospelbound, we're exploring several key influences that appear in my book Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation. Tim Keller taught at Westminster from 1984 to 1989 and earlier earned his doctor of ministry through the school. Edgar's career has intersected with Keller's at numerous points, from Francis Schaeffer to Ed Clowney to Cornelius Van Til and the work of cultural apologetics. We discussed these topics and more in this episode of Gospelbound. 

“When it comes to theologians that contemporary church leaders should be reading, I don't know of a more important one than Herman Bavinck.” So says Timothy Keller in his endorsement of James Eglinton's 2020 book Bavinck: A Critical Biography. Keller first read Bavinck some 50 years ago in class with Roger Nicole at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. But not much of Bavinck's voluminous work has been translated until recent years. So, we live in a renaissance of appreciation for this Dutch theologian who died in 1921.Probably no one is more responsible for this renaissance than Eglinton, the Meldrum senior lecturer in Reformed theology at the University of Edinburgh. He also serves as a fellow for The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. In this special season of Gospelbound, we're exploring in depth several key influences that appear in my book Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation. James Eglinton and I discussed neo-Calvinism, whether he disagrees with Bavinck about anything, a beginner's reading list, and Eglinton's upcoming projects. You'll find few high-level academics who can match Eglinton's gift for clear thinking and teaching, as you'll hear in this interview.

In their booklet “Gospel-Centered Ministry,” TGC cofounders Don Carson and Tim Keller describe how the redemptive story of Scripture, or biblical theology, culminates in Jesus Christ and his gospel. And from Christ, that gospel then guides us in how we live every aspect of our lives.I've never seen a book do this work more effectively than Christopher Watkin's Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life. It's simply one of the best books I've ever read. Not that the book is simple, at nearly 700 pages. It's profound in its depth of insight drawn from observation of culture as well as close reading of Scripture. Watkin does not try to explain and defend the Bible to the culture. Instead, he seeks to analyze and critique the culture through the Bible. He writes, “There is nothing quite so radically subversive today as sound doctrine and godly living.”Tim Keller wrote the foreword for Biblical Critical Theory. And in this special season of Gospelbound, we're exploring, in depth, several key influences that appear in my book Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation (Zondervan Reflective). Watkin teaches at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and Hansen asks him about the philosopher Charles Taylor and social criticism, which have played such a key role in Keller's intellectual formation especially since the mid-2000s. Watkin is an inaugural Fellow for The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics, and he'll be leading an interactive, 8-session online cohort on Biblical Critical Theory that starts on May 10.

In his forthcoming book, Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation,  Collin Hansen aims to add to our understanding of evangelical history in the second half of the 20th century into the early 21st century. Keller's life spans and intersects with many of the most significant people, events, and trends within Christianity during the last 75 years.The same can be said of John Piper, who along with Keller is a founding Council member of The Gospel Coalition. Piper is nearly five years older than Keller. Between them, they've studied in many of the most influential institutions of the post-war “new evangelicalism,” such as Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. They themselves have built several of the most influential institutions of the “new Calvinism,” such as Bethlehem College and Seminary, Desiring God, and The Gospel Coalition.They share something else significant in common: both list Jonathan Edwards and C. S. Lewis among their top influences. In this special season of Gospelbound, we're exploring, in depth, several key influences that appear in Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation. John Piper joins Collin Hansen on this episode of Gospelbound to discuss Edwards, Lewis, evangelical feminism, and the reception to his own expansive writing and teaching.

In this unique episode of Gospelbound, pastor Jim Davis from Orlando Grace Church invites Collin Hansen into the interview spotlight to go behind the scenes of writing Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation.Jim Davis says, "Five hundred years from now, maybe two pastors or theologians will be remembered. I believe that Tim Keller will be one of them."Keller's influence comes from his sermons, books, and teaching as well as founding Redeemer Presbyterian Church, The Gospel Coalition, and Redeemer City to City. The book traces this influence back to the people and ideas that have shaped Keller. Jim Davis asked Collin Hansen how Tim Keller has influenced his life and ministry, the most surprising things Hansen discovered as he researched and wrote the book, Keller's legacy 100 years from now, and more.When you pre-order Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation, you'll receive:Exclusive video (more than 120 minutes) with accompanying 65-page ebook reflecting on key themes in Tim Keller's Center Church. Contributors include Michael Horton, Alan Hirsch, and Gabriel Salguero, all in conversation with Tim Keller.The 10 Most Important Christian Books Written within My Lifetime, a list by Tim KellerThe Essential Tim Keller: Recommended Reading, a list by Collin HansenThe first three chapters of Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation (book and audiobook)An invitation to a virtual book discussion and Q&A with Collin Hansen (February 2023)Learn more and submit your pre-order to download this bonus content at TimothyKellerBook.com. 

In this special edition episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen is joined by Melissa Kruger as they look back on the big stories and trends of 2022, discuss how God has moved in and through their ministries, and share books that have stuck with them. They also take some time to thank you, their listeners, for encouraging them in the work of Gospelbound and Let's Talk.We discuss:Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin Hansen, and the idea of self-forgetfulness (5:36)His Grace Is Enough by Melissa Kruger, written for kids and young adults alike (10:05)The internet revolution and exposing abuse in the church (15:40)How we can love the church unabashedly and with awareness (19:02)Gospel advancement in the midst of world conflict (20:11)2022, the year that history began again (21:55)The state of the church in Russia and Ukraine (23:26)The state of the church in China (24:20)How culture tries to answer the reason for hopelessness and lostness (31:27)How the church can positively affect kids and teens (36:33)How do parents discuss biblical sexual ethics with their teens? (40:00)The overturning of Roe v. Wade (48:19)The most memorable Gospelbound interviews of 2022 (54:52)Upcoming Gospelbound interviews for 2023 (1:01:00)Why this episode of Let's Talk was the most downloaded (1:02:36)Books that have stuck with us (1:06:49)How the internet can help you grow your ministry (1:23:40)Favorite things (1:28:55)Mentioned in this episode:"My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2022" by Collin Hansen (article)Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin HansenHis Grace Is Enough by Melissa KrugerSocial Sanity in an Insta World by Sarah Eekhoff ZylstraBully Pulpit: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church by Michael J. Kruger"Transformation of a Transgender Teen" by Sarah Zylstra (article)"Defiant Faith in the Face of Suffering" with Bill and Will Kynes (podcast)"Does My Son Know You?" with Jonathan Tjarks (podcast)"Everything Sad Is Untrue" with Daniel Nayeri (podcast)"Let's Talk: When Others Fall Away" (podcast episode) 

Jen Pollock Michel offers eight habits for reimagining productivity, resisting hurry, and practicing peace in her latest book, In Good Time. She invites us to seek wisdom that is more concerned with ethical practice than Type-A respectability. She helps us recognize that we detest waiting because we have to believe that God is acting when we are not.On this 100th episode of the Gospelbound podcast, Collin Hansen and Jen Pollock Michel discuss why we should redefine busyness and how to say yes to the right things.

“We would rather have a leader who will beat up our enemies than one who will tenderly care for the sheep,” Michael Kruger writes in his new book, Bully Pulpit: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church, published by Zondervan. Spiritual abuse is a relatively new and amorphous concept. Kruger defines it this way:Spiritual abuse is when a spiritual leader—such as a pastor, elder, or head of a Christian organization—wields his position of spiritual authority in such a way that he manipulates, domineers, bullies, and intimidates those under him as a means of maintaining his own power and control, even if he is convinced he is seeking biblical and kingdom-related goals.It's the opposite of Jesus and his paradoxical ministry model. He didn't lead by demanding his rights but by giving them up. Mike joined me on Gospelbound to discuss how to train pastors who won't abuse their flocks, why he focuses on Reformed churches, whether he's changed his own leadership, and more.

In his new book, The Thrill of Orthodoxy: Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith, Trevin Wax writes, “The thrill of orthodoxy lies in its challenge. We are called to become not merely nice neighbors who are kind and polite, but holy people who look more and more like Jesus.”Trevin Wax joined Collin Hansen on this episode of Gospelbound to discuss why heresy hunters turn out to be heretics, how we can know if something is orthodox, and why he's confident the future belongs to the orthodox.

Thomas Jefferson, whose lofty writings on freedom when compared to his practice of slaveholding are part of the real “wall of separation” in American politics and religion. These contradictions make him the subject of many biographies, including the most recent from Thomas Kidd: Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh. Dr. Kidd is research professor of church history at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City and the author of many outstanding works.Thomas Kidd joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss Jefferson's views on Christianity and politics. They also talk a bit about how Christians should approach history in general.

In the digital age, it feels like life moves too far, too fast.That's why we need wise guides such as Jay K. Kim, author of Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age. Jay writes, “This is where we are in the digital age, existing in an untenable state of unceasing connection to the curated lives of others—all of their highlights, none of their low-lights.”Perhaps the simple solution would be to spend more time offline. But our colorful smartphones make the real world look grayscale in comparison. Jay writes, “Because much of life in the real world is uncomfortable, awkward, or boring, so we opt for digital escape. We increasingly prefer and default to worlds of our own making.”You might know Jay from his previous book, Analog Church. He is lead pastor of teaching at WestGate Church in Silicon Valley and teacher-in-residence at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California. Jay joined me on Gospelbound to discuss comparison and contempt, love on the move, the design of social media, hate and hurt, chronological snobbery, and more.

His latest book, Where the Light Fell: A Memoir, is the culmination of more than 50 years for Philip Yancey as a Christian writer. In it, you'll see a clear display of his two life themes—suffering and grace—which characterize all his books.Where the Light Fell is remarkably honest as Yancey draws inspiration from God's Word. He writes, “I know of no more real or honest book than the Bible, which hides none of its characters' flaws.”Yancey joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss the hinge moment of his life, the scar of his father, the reconstruction of his faith, and more.

In the new book, Faith in the Wilderness: Words of Exhortation from the Chinese Church, Hannah Nation and co-editor, Simon Liu, offer a perspective of what we can learn from Chinese pastors who are facing persecution.Nation says, “We descendants of Christendom fear cultural marginalization, but let us remember that those on the margins often preach the gospel more boldly, fearlessly, and humbly than those at the center, for they have nothing to lose and no stakeholders to upset.”Hannah Nation joins Collin Hansen on this episode of Gospelbound to discuss persecution, pestilence, judgment, and justification.

There is almost nothing so beautiful as forgiveness—but, must we choose between forgiveness and justice? Does forgiveness merely empower abusers?Enter Tim Keller in his latest book, Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I? The bestselling author and co-founder of The Gospel Coalition doesn't neglect the cost of forgiveness. He writes, “Forgiveness is always a form of voluntary suffering that brings about a greater good.” Sometimes that greater good accrues to the one who forgives. It may feel like an optional exercise, but only if we don't consider the alternative. Tim Keller joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss what happens when a society doesn't forgive, whether it's ever ok not to forgive, the two stages of forgiveness, and more.

In Jesus through the Eyes of Women: How the First Female Disciples Help Us Know and Love the Lord, published by The Gospel Coalition, Rebecca McLaughlin explores the life-changing accounts of women who met the Lord. By entering the stories of the named and unnamed women in the Gospels, this book gives readers a unique lens to see Jesus as these women did and marvel at how he loved them in return.Rebecca McLaughlin joins Collin Hansen on this episode of Gospelbound to discuss the Gnostic Gospels, feminism, and more.  

In 2009, around 25 percent of American high school students said they had “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” By 2021, it was up to 44 percent, the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded. For girls, the number was even higher: 57 percent.What could account for such a dramatic change between 2009 and today?If you looked at a group of teenagers then and now, the main difference you'd see is the modern teens hunched over their smartphones.These stats come from an episode of TGC's Recorded podcast, in which Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra shares the stories of young women being shaped by social media. She talks directly to Gen Z about what they think, feel, and believe.Sarah has also edited a book, Social Sanity in an Insta World (TGC, 2022) that brings biblical and theological perspectives to bear on our social media use. Contributors include Melissa Kruger, Jen Wilkin, Ruth Chou Simons, and Laura Wifler. Sarah is senior writer for The Gospel Coalition and coauthor with me of the book Gospelbound: Living with Resolute Hope in an Anxious Age. She lives with her husband and sons outside Chicago.Sarah joined me on Gospelbound to discuss influencers, fasting, and taking advice from strangers.

You are not in control. You never have been. You never will be.That fact of life is tough for many of us to swallow. “The cultural air I breathe has trained me to think that life should be more carefree, predictable, and in control than it is,” Scott Sauls writes in his new book, Beautiful People Don't Just Happen: How God Redeems Regret, Hurt, and Fear in the Making of Better Humans, (Zondervan). Scott Sauls is senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and author of six books. Scott writes with a kind of vulnerability that is not common for many authors, let alone pastors. He tells us that we can find him in the church basement with the marginal characters Jesus seemed to attract. “He wounds us sometimes,” Scott admits, “but always and only to heal us.” Just look around the room sometime when your church sings “It Is Well.” You'll notice it's those who suffered most who sing the loudest. They have forsaken their need to control for the peace of faith. Scott Sauls joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to share what church members would be surprised to learn about their pastors, why deep faith feels like defeat, and how affliction can preach better than a sermon.

“We are all like Job,” write Bill Kynes and Will Kynes in their new book, Wrestling with Job: Defiant Faith in the Face of Suffering (IVP Academic). We are “engaged in a mysterious cosmic battle, as every day our faith is put to the test, and God himself is honored when we trust, obey, and worship him as the great and glorious God that he is.”In this book, Bill and Will Kynes find in Job real faith that holds us together when it feels like our world is falling apart. Defiant faith in the face of suffering takes our anguished questions to God, because he cares for us. Job knows God is good. That's why can't make sense of this evil that has befallen him.In this episode, Collin Hansen talks with Bill and Will Kynes about how and why to preach about the defiant faith of Job.

In his book, Everything Sad Is Untrue, Daniel Nayeri offers readers a refugee's inside look at religion and geo-politics through his personal tale of a boy separated from his father and the only world he knew and loved. A world that he's not even sure he can remember.But it's Daniel's mother who is the hero of this book, which released in 2020 and was named a book of the year by The New York Times, NPR, and The Wall Street Journal. Her conversion was a death sentence in Iran, so the family fled—without her baffled husband.Daniel Nayeri joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss love, justice, eschatology, and the widespread acclaim for his work.

As Christ's church continues to expand across the world, so does persecution.In this episode of Gospelbound from TGCW22, Collin Hansen talks with Karen Ellis and Kori Porter about how God's people fight for faith when it can cost their lives. Through this discussion, we'll learn how other Christians can support the persecuted church in prayer and advocacy.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.”

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.

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. 

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

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.

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.

“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.

“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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.