The Disrupters: Faith Changing Culture

16th century priest Antonio de Montesinos once said to a group of American Christians: “God gave you the opportunity to share about Jesus and love, and instead you are exploiting it for greed. If you don’t repent, God’s gonna send you to hell.” This is the first social justice sermon preached in the Americas, one that inspired Robert Romero, author of The Brown Church's, own personal mission. Romero uses his voice to educate people on the history of the Brown Church and the role it has played in the most pivotal moments throughout history. Consistently a voice for the voiceless and a home for the homeless, the Brown Church has much to teach us, if only we would listen.SPECIAL OFFER | Effective Jan. 1st, 2024, all promo codes/opportunities mentioned in this episode are expired. Please use the code IVPOD25 at ivpress.com for 25% off your order.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

"Sometimes, you don't think about whether you're going to say something. You know you have to." In 2016, Beth Moore found herself struggling to reconcile the gospel with the church's reaction to a political sea change. "All at the same time, I am watching nationalism, I am watching sexism, and I'm watching racism." "It was like we were being blown back decades. We never made the ground that we needed to make. But I saw us going in reverse instead of making any advancement whatsoever in the gospel role of justice." Beth Moore doesn't write brazen, disruptive books about social issues. Her life's purpose is to study the Bible, and to share the insight and unadulterated joy that comes from God's word. Her latest Bible Study, "Now That Faith Has Come," is a simple, unassuming study of the book of Galatians. But if you wanted her to tip-toe around prominent, controversial social issues, you'd be sorely disappointed. While Moore did little more than speak what she believed the Bible had to say to the American church, that message suddenly became perceived as disruptive to her brothers and sisters in Christ. In this episode of The Disrupters, Esau McCaulley and Beth Moore discuss their shared experiences in the American Church, the ways they've dealt with feedback, and the unmatched clarity they find in the Word of God.SPECIAL OFFER | Effective Jan. 1st, 2024, all promo codes/opportunities mentioned in this episode are expired. Please use the code IVPOD25 at ivpress.com for 25% off your order.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Justin Giboney is fundamentally invested social justice. But he doesn't have to prove that to you. For people who are serious about their Christian faith, there's a stereotype of the political issues that they might be called to address. Justin cares about religious liberty and the sanctity of life. But he also cares about the immigrant, the poor, police reform, and all these other things. Through the AND Campaign, Justin is intentional about how he uses his voice. He asks, "What is the most fruitful way to engage in the work for justice in our society?" He's more concerned about speaking for those that don't have a voice than he is about making his voice heard. Justin Giboney is one of the founders of the AND Campaign, and one of the authors of Compassion (&) Conviction: The AND Campaign's Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement.SPECIAL OFFER | Effective Jan. 1st, 2024, all promo codes/opportunities mentioned in this episode are expired. Please use the code IVPOD25 at ivpress.com for 25% off your order.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Lecrae, Grammy award-winning rapper is used to people trying to box him in—as if they could box in a man who lives to tell the truth. In this episode of The Disrupters, Esau McCaulley and Lecrae discuss what it takes to break out of a predetermined box, the backlash the hip-hop artist faced for speaking out about the black experience in Evangelicalism, and his perspective on what it means to deconstruct his faith. Lecrae's latest album is Restoration.SPECIAL OFFER | Effective Jan. 1st, 2024, all promo codes/opportunities mentioned in this episode are expired. Please use the code IVPOD25 at ivpress.com for 25% off your order.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

The world is different on the other side of a pandemic. The same kinds people who were ignored are now in the center of the conversation. The question is: when people are ready to listen, what do you have to say?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

For African American Christians in the evangelical church, cognitive dissonance is a way of life. As African Americans approach cultural change, there’s a long-standing tension between working within mainstream institutions, seeking to provide insight and challenge whenever possible, and then finding their work most effective outside of those institutions. That’s where Jemar Tisby finds himself: “I want to be very careful about where I place my voice.” In this final episode of The Disruptors, a conversation between Esau McCaulley, an African-American professor at a majority white institution, and Jemar Tisby, founder and president of The Witness and author of The Color of Compromise, illuminates the dissonance. More importantly, this conversation clearly demonstrates how this tension serves as an ever-present reminder that the racial struggles we face in the American church flow from historical struggles.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Despite the fact that the protection of those who are sexually exploited and abused in the church is of utmost importance, the issue continues to exist because of its very nature. Uncomfortable and unwilling to engage a topic that demands so much introspection of the church, many turn their gaze elsewhere. Ruth Everhart, author of The #MeToo Reckoning: Facing the Church’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct, wants us to grapple with the reality on the ground and our role in confronting it. We all have a part to play to make the church a safer space for people.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Immigration hasn’t always been as controversial as it is now. In the past, churches seemed to agree that any opportunity to bring the gospel to the foreigner would be welcomed. But in the last several years, Jenny Yang has found herself in the midst of a great transition. So, how has Yang, the Senior Vice President of Advocacy & Policy at World Relief and author of Welcoming the Stranger, coped with the church’s moral whiplash? By focusing on reassessing assumptions. “I'm hopeful despite all of this,” says Yang, “because my sense is that this is perhaps a season that's giving us, as a church, time to reflect on what we really believe about the role of the church, not just in ministry but [also in] political engagement.”Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

For 25 years, Sheila Wise Rowe has counseled trauma and abuse survivors. Many of Rowe’s counselees struggle under the weight of history. For those who suffer from racial trauma, history is not an abstract concept; it’s re-lived with every racial slight or microaggression. We often choose to remember the good things in our past. We celebrate moments that make us happy, give us purpose, or lift our country up. It can be too easy for those in power to forget the darker moments, like when human beings were exploited for the sake of our country’s best interest. But not everyone has the ability to forget. For Sheila Wise Rowe and those she counsels that memory is in their bones.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Within certain Christian communities, there’s tremendous pressure to fit within a box, to stay within your lane. Jasmine Holmes, a black Christian mother and author of Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope, has faced that pressure since she was young.  But through it all, Jasmine fought to make her faith her own. She learned to embrace her identity without falling into pre-written narratives. And she discovered the deep, genuine joy and pain of motherhood in the face of personal upheaval.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands