You Can't Say That In Church

Despite an uptick in the social media presence of Christians recently, all church and church membership numbers have been going down consistently for 50 years. What does the future look like for Christianity? Will America not be the place Christianity blooms any more? We are going to look at a lot of stats in this episode and talk about them.

Topic starts at 17:00! That women can lead churches and congregations has almost become an assumption in our "progressive" 2023 culture. But is this what the Bible actually teaches? In this episode we lay out all the major arguments and grapple with the verses and let you come to your own conclusions.

Al Mohler recently said in World magazine that Andy Stanley has "departed biblical Christianity". This is a stunning statement from the president of SBTS. In this episode we do a final deep dive into Andy Stanley, looking at his most recent sermon and the shocking implications of a pastor who has, for the most part, left Christianity.

In this episode Daniel and Andrew delve into Andy's new message from 2 weeks ago "The Fundamental List". Ouch. Feels like he's taking shots at us now! Well we are going to watch his sermon anyway and unpack all of the bad theology contained inside.

YCSTIC has some announcements! We are now on YouTube. Since you brought it up, why not talk about the online space for Christians these days? What is our goal with our ministry? (YouTube, Podcast) What are some pitfalls we've run into? What do we think of other spaces doing similar things? (Apologia, Alisa Childers, etc.)

In this LIVE episode Daniel and Andrew go through and respond to ex-vangelical arguments against Christianity Follow us on youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@The_Reconstruction Follow us on Tiktok! https://tiktok.com/@men_of_god1

With Daniel recently no longer attending a more charismatic church, this has gotten us talking a lot about the common pitfalls between Reformed Theology and Charismatic theology. Our good buddy Nick comes on the podcast to talk about his upbringing in a reformed church and why he has landed at a charismatic church. Follow us on youtube! ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@The_Reconstruction⁠ Follow us on Tiktok! ⁠https://tiktok.com/@men_of_god⁠1

In a recent Q&A session for churches in Arizona, whistle blower Ryan Visconti blew open the whole case on what Andy has been saying behind closed doors about his theological views. We take as charitable a view as possible in this investigation but also compare what Andy is saying with what God teaches. Spoiler alert: it's not looking good for Andy. Follow us on youtube! ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@The_Reconstruction⁠ Follow us on Tiktok! ⁠https://tiktok.com/@men_of_god⁠1

So after a 15 minute intro about videogames, we get into the meat of this week's episode: has the church become too soft and effeminate?We analyze this growing trend in the church along four areas: 1. In worship music 2. In community 3. In church structure 4. In social media Follow us on youtube! ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@The_Reconstruction⁠ Follow us on Tiktok! ⁠https://tiktok.com/@men_of_god⁠1

In case you haven't noticed, a lot of Reformed theology guys make podcasts. Neither Daniel or I attend a Reformed church currently. But Daniel has been flirting with Calvinism and might go full Presby. (Jokes!) In this episode we discuss the things we like and dislike about Reformed theology vs the big box mega church model.

Very important topics covered: Why don't men carry combs any more? Is your primary identity as a Christian or as a republican? Boomers on social media Andrew went to an abortion rally as a child

- Explaining and defining the crisis of masculinity we have today. - Why men abdicating their responsibilities in marriage leads to sin. - Why the most egalitarian and progressive woman still wants to be lead in a relationship. - Why aggressive women can be tempted to lead their man in the relationship.

- Is a small church necessarily more biblical? - Is a big church necessarily more shallow? - By comparing both biblical large churches and biblical small churches we discuss the ways both kinds of churches can serve a purpose.

"Christians are hypocrites", "Christianity has committed atrocities", "Thinking Jesus is the only way is narrow minded" -- we came up with a list of 20 objections to Christianity and thought it would fun to go through the list and answer everything.

Blake has been running a really successful podcast called "Rethinking Christianity" where he has interviewed famous theologians like Ed Litton and Pete Enns. We wanted to ask him his thoughts on Christian Deconstruction, the politics of the evangelical church in America, and much more. This is a good one so check it out!

Sorry for the late post! Still a good short episode we wanted to post :)

The boys discuss the upsides and downsides of going to a mega church. Daniel currently serves at a large church, and I (Andrew) served at the same one for many years and we both have loved our time there. Mega churches, just like small churches, can get a lot right and they can get a lot wrong.

Nujad was too hard for the streets so he came on the pod to drop a dope verse for us. Daniel and I have been getting into some spirited discussions about cussing lately. Can christians cuss? Where is the line? Some of the questions we delve into: - What does the bible teach about profanity? - What do the key passages in greek mean? (Eph 4, Col 3:8) - Does the bible itself use profanity? - Where is it sin for you vs simply personal freedom? Drop a rating and review!

Nujad joins us again to talk about men's groups, discipleship, community, and discipline. We all have different perspectives on how small groups and accountability works best — what we agree on is how badly we NEED them. Even our flawed attempts at finding community God will always use for good. So come hang out with the guys while we talk about our pursuit of men's small groups and what has worked or hasn't worked for us.

So obviously the hosts of YCSTIC have already attained full sanctification. But suppose for a minute we actually had flaws. This episode is a thought experiment based on the idea that we have quote unquote "flaws". We dive right into the common pitfalls with legalism, behavior modification, and bearing the fruits of the spirit. What does it mean to grow in the lord? How do we measure it? The 3 guys try to back up everything we say with scripture and the rest we will throw in for free because we're nice guys.

Andrew doubles down on his idea of Christianity Anarchy. Daniel posits that the gospel thrives in freedom, not Tyranny.

We cover topics like Theonomy, Theocracy, and ideas put forward by Doug Wilson, Jeff Durbin, Timothy Keller, and others. What should the christians role in government be?

- Why it's hard to find - How God worked in our community - Why it's hard to keep going - What should we be looking for? - How does being single and married change things? - What should your non-negotiable's be in looking for a church?

Sections: ⁃What happens when men are told to “be intentional” and “pursue her”? -What does flirting look like in church? - How do men and women miscommunicate this? - How has Shakespeare and western love ideals screwed us up? ⁃ How does this feed into our idolatry? ⁃ Some cultures view marriage as a “duty”. Would that fix us? Hey gang sorry again about the audio. We tried a different recording setup this time and it went a little better. Going to try a 3rd setup for recording next time because we still aren't getting the great audio recording we want. So just to let you know: if the audio bothered you this week we are working on it and it will be better in the future!This will also be our last podcast on dating. So we will be moving on to another topic next time!

On this episode Andrew and Daniel take a hard look at themselves and other men in the church and ask: why are we so bad at dating sometimes? Here are some questions we delve into: - Why do many guys at church not understand how to flirt? - The awful idea of God "owing you something" - Why most men in the church are bad at dating and creepy (Me too!) - How popular christian pastors and books fall short - Red Pill filling the gap - And many more... Follow us on youtube! ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@The_Reconstruction⁠ Follow us on Tiktok! ⁠https://tiktok.com/@men_of_god⁠1