Impact 360 Institute

How do we train and equip our students in this culture without protecting them too much? What is the purpose of education and what is our role as parents and educators in that process? What are some of the current cultural undercurrents that we need to be aware of for our students? What are some of the dangers we encounter with technology when it comes to spiritual formation? Walk through these questions with us as more as we talk to Brett Kunkle, Student Impact Director at Stand to Reason and author of new book A Practical Guide to Culture.  He is passionate about seeing students and adults “transformed by the renewing of their minds.”  Brett has more than 24 years of experience working with junior high, high school, and college students.  He spent 11 of those years in the local church, as a pastor to students and young adults.

Enjoy part 2 of an interview with Jay Richards about how to end poverty in 10 tough steps!

Here is an interview with Jay Richards about how to end poverty in 10 tough steps. Hope you enjoy!

What is the Benedict Option? What can we lay Christians in the 21st century learn from the lifestyle pioneered by the monks in the 6th century? Are our Christian young people being well prepared to understand the basic Christian doctrines? How can we help Christians in this post Christian culture to better engaged with these ideas? How do we order our lives to prioritize the habits and spiritual disciplines in a chaotic culture? Does this mean we need to withdraw like a monk? If not, what implications does this impose on our lives in today’s culture? How can we disciple ourselves so that our whole lives can be a work of evangelism to a world that desperately needs Christ? We will discuss these questions and more with Rod Dreher. Rod Dreher is a senior editor at The American Conservative. He has written and edited for the New York Post, The Dallas Morning News, National Review, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Washington Times, and the Baton Rouge Advocate. Rod’s commentary has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, the Weekly Standard, Beliefnet, and Real Simple, among other publications, and he has appeared on NPR, ABC News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and the BBC. He lives in St. Francisville, Louisiana, with his wife Julie and their three children. In addition to his new book, The Benedict Option, Dreher has also written two books, The Little Way of Ruthie Leming and Crunchy Cons.

What happens when comedians Stephen Colbert and Ricky Gervais debate atheism on the late show? Great TV! It’s also an awesome opportunity to better understand what you believe and why you believe it. In this episode, we will analyze some of the slogans and soundbites that came up between atheist comedian Ricky Gervais and Stephen Colbert on the Late Show. We’ll explore questions like: Can you prove God exists? Why is there something rather than nothing? Is Atheism the rational starting point for the conversation about God? And more…

Is intelligent design undeniable? Can evolution explain the origin and complexity of life? How do we make the case for design? Is there such thing as common sense science? Are humans just cosmic accidents? Where did Charles Darwin go wrong? What is Neo-Darwinism? In this podcast Jonathan Morrow will explore these questions and more with author and researcher Dr. Douglas Axe. Dr. Douglas Axe explains one of the ways design intuition has really triumphed over the Darwin’s evolutionary story, “These extraordinary improbabilities of the coincidence you would need for accidental processes to do something that looks brilliant. Accidental causes are not brilliant they are stupid. So, for a stupid process to do something that makes it look like a genius is a coincidence and it’s an extreme coincidence.” Dr. Douglas Axe, author of the book Undeniable, is the director of Biologic Institute. His research uses both experiments and computer simulations to examine the functional and structural constraints on the evolution of proteins and protein systems. After a Caltech PhD he held postdoctoral and research scientist positions at the University of Cambridge, the Cambridge Medical Research Council Centre, and the Babraham Institute in Cambridge. His work and ideas have been featured in many scientific journals, including the Journal of Molecular Biology, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Nature, and in such books as Signature in the Cell and Darwin’s Doubt by Stephen Meyer and Life’s Solution by Simon Conway Morris.

What is philosophy and why study it? Isn’t theology more important? How does philosophy and theology relate? If Ephesians sheds a little bit of negative light on philosophy, how can we support the study? Isn’t philosophy atheistic? What does it mean to doubt wisely? Do we need to have absolutely certainty in order to know things as Christians? “The Philosopher, Alvin Plantinga said that, ‘Philosophy is just hard thinking about things: in particular hard thinking about ethnics, about knowledge, about reality.’ And, theology is going to involve hard thinking about God. And so it’s not as though we are going to make a hard and fast distinction between theology and philosophy because philosophy is also going to include thinking about God.” – Dr. Paul Copan Those are some of the important questions we are going to be talking about today in this podcast with Dr. Paul Copan (Ph.D., philosophy, Marquette University) is Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He is author of "True for You, But Not for Me" (Bethany House), "That's Just Your Interpretation,""How Do You Know You're Not Wrong?", When God Goes to Starbucks: A Guide to Everyday Apologetics (all with Baker), and Loving Wisdom: Christian Philosophy of Religion (Chalice Press). These are all books that seek to make available accessible answers to the toughest questions asked of Christians. He has co-authored (with William Lane Craig) Creation Out of Nothing: A Biblical, Philosophical, and Scientific Exploration (Baker Academic). He is co-editor of three books on the historical Jesus and of three other books in the philosophy of religion, The Rationality of Theism (Routledge), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion (Routledge), and Philosophy of Religion: Classic and Contemporary Issues (Blackwell). He has co-edited (with William Craig) Passionate Conviction and Contending with Christianity's Critics. He has contributed articles and book reviews to various professional journals as well: Philosophia Christi, Faith and Philosophy, Trinity Journal, Southern Journal of Theology, the Journal for the Evangelical Theological Society, and The Review of Metaphysics. He is presently writing a book on Old Testament ethics and co-authoring a book on the moral argument.

What does the attack on HGTV’s Chip and Joanna Gaines, their church, and their position on same-sex marriage say about the current cultural climate for Christians today? In this podcast we will talk about these and other questions: • When it comes to the Biblical positions that we hold as Christians, is being “nice” enough in today’s cultural climate? • When it comes to the issue of God’s design for sexuality being critiqued, is being artful and attractive in the ways we talk about things enough? • What do we need to be aware of in the 21st century as a Christian with theological beliefs under scrutiny? • How can Christians be faithful with the call to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have yet to do it with gentleness and respect? “Society tolerates the practice of the Christian faith in private devotions and in church serves, but it increasingly deprecates public witness. To the relativist and secularist, public witness to faith in God smacks too much of proselytizing and fundamentalist extremism. They therefore regard it more and more as a threat to social stability and human freedom.” - John Lennox For an interesting perspective on the LGTB conversation with the church check out this article in the Washington Post: BuzzFeed’s hit piece on Chip and Joanna Gaines is dangerous.

Should Christians just keep their faith to themselves? Whose free speech matters most? How should Christians balance turning the other cheek versus taking a stand on principle? Are Christians bullied on college campuses today? What do parents need to know (and do) before sending their students off to college? Author and popular speaker Jonathan Morrow talks about these and other important questions facing students and parents in this episode of the Impact 360 Institute podcast. George Yancey is professor of sociology at the University of North Texas. He is the author of numerous books, including Compromising Scholarship: Religious and Political Bias in American Higher Education and Dehumanizing Christians: Cultural Competition in a Multicultural World, and Hostile Environment: Understanding and Responding to Anti-Christian Bias. His teaching and research focus on race and religion. He blogs for The Stream as well as at Patheos.