TGC Podcast

Jason Cook delivered a message at TGC’s 2018 Carolinas Regional Conference titled “I Am Your Neighbor” as a part of their series “Equipped for Every Good.” Teaching from Luke 10, Cook addressed the nature of discipleship, particularly as it pertains to engaging culture, to the end that a disciple is one who loves God and his neighbor. Cook added the caveat that what we often consider to be love for neighbor may not actually reflect what it means to love others as ourselves.    

Paul Tripp delivered a message during PasCon2018 at Bethlehem College titled “Danger of Familiarity.” Directly addressing the pastors in the room, he directed their attention toward a single danger of life in the ministry—familiarity with the gospel. The overwhelming privilege of spending a life dedicated to understanding, declaring, and ministering the gospel can have the adverse effect of numbing pastors to the splendor of God and the gospel. Knowledge and experiences that once led to worship subtly fade and actually become irritants that produce selfishness and self-worship. The danger is that, in the midst of serving God in a life of ministry, pastors often lose their awe of God—the principal shaper and motivator of pastoral ministry.   

The current president of the Southern Baptist Convention is J. D. Greear, pastor at The Summit Church in North Carolina. The Summit Church has sent out more than 1,400 missionaries and planted more than 40 churches. Over the past few years, Greear has watched the SBC wrestle through sex abuse scandals, COVID 19, and the contentious presidential election. He’s got a pretty good handle on where the denomination sits and where he hopes it’s going.TGC senior writer Sarah Zylstra wrote about Greear in her book with Collin Hansen, Gospelbound: Living with Resolute Hope in an Anxious Age. In this episode of TGC Podcast, she sits down with Greear to discuss his experience as SBC president, future hopes for the SBC and the global church, and the importance of keeping the gospel at the center of it all. 

"One of the best things you can do to learn to pray is to follow the best models, and they're in Scripture." – Don CarsonDon Carson led a session for TGC’s 2018 Bay Area regional conference titled “New Power” as a part of the series “Being the Church in a Foreign Land.” All new believers, he taught, learn to pray through imitation—by hearing and practicing the prayers of the more mature believers around them. His admonition to his listeners was that believers also imitate the Pauline prayer found in Ephesians 3:14-21, specifically focusing on two petitions and the final doxology found in the prayer.

Russell Moore led a session for TGC’s 2017 Arizona regional conference titled “Discipleship and Temptation” as a part of their series “Help Me Follow Jesus.” In his message, Moore addressed four questions that arise from Genesis 3:1-13 and serve as a warning for all of those who lead others to faith in Christ, disciple them, and teach them the Word of God. The questions posed were:Who are you (are you tempted to think of yourself higher or lower than you ought)? What do you want (does it align with God’s desires)?Where are you going (do you live with an understanding of the coming judgment)?What have you done (are you allowing your sin to be exposed in order to overcome it)?“If you and I are discipling people,” he said, “leading people to faith in Christ, and leading people in the Word of God, we must understand what it means to wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers in the heavenly places, which means we have to understand the nature of temptation as it intersects with discipleship.”This episode of The Gospel Coalition Podcast is sponsored by Lifeway, publisher of Jen Wilkin’s newest Bible study, God of Deliverance: A Study of Exodus 1–18.  Learn more at lifeway.com/deliverance.

It’s fair to say we’re coming out of a hard year. Everything we’ve done for the past 12 months has taken more effort and resulted in less productivity. Perhaps we would’ve been better prepared if we’d all read a book Alex Harris wrote with his brother Brett a dozen years ago called Do Hard Things. In it, Alex and Brett proposed that doing hard things prepares you to do even harder things. You should get up early, they said. Step out of your comfort zone. Do more than what’s required. Find a cause. Be better than your culture expects.So how did this teenage message prepare Alex for this last year as an adult carrying weighty responsibilities? In this special bonus episode of The Gospel Coalition Podcast, TGC senior writer Sarah Zylstra asked Alex about his experience clerking for two U.S. Supreme Court justices and editing Harvard Law Review, his brother Josh's high-profile deconstruction of his faith, whether evangelicals invest too much import in presidential politics, and much more. You can hear more from Alex in Zylstra's new book, Gospelbound: Living with Resolute Hope in an Anxious Age.This episode of The Gospel Coalition Podcast is sponsored by Lifeway, publisher of Jen Wilkin’s newest Bible study, God of Deliverance: A Study of Exodus 1–18.  Learn more at lifeway.com/deliverance. 

Malachi Tresler led a breakout session at TGC’s 2019 Arizona Regional Conference titled, “The Impact of Revivalism on Contemporary Worship.” He taught from the thesis that revivalism has affected modern worship in two ways: pragmatism and emotionalism. Beginning with the Great Awakening in 1734, Tresler walked through a brief history of the birth of revivalism and how it shaped worship over the years, including how worship services are designed, their expected outcomes, and even our expectations for leadership in them. In response, he encouraged his listeners to remember three things in regard to worship:Worship is a goal in and of itself.We need a long view of God’s work.We must rely on the Spirit’s power for obedience. This episode of The Gospel Coalition Podcast is sponsored by Lifeway, publisher of Jen Wilkin’s newest Bible study, God of Deliverance: A Study of Exodus 1–18.  Learn more at lifeway.com/deliverance.   

Ray Ortlund led a breakout session at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana titled, “Pastor, You and Your Church Can Get Healthy Again.” Framing the conversation according to Paul’s affirmation of the church in Colossians 2:5, he addressed the issue of church health according to one indicator that combined good order and firmness of faith. When held together in tandem, the combination of those two seemingly dichotomous glories, Ortlund posited, reveals a church that is informed, united, convicted, and steadfast, reflecting the complexity and vitality of Christ. He closed out the session with four encouragements for pastors seeking health:For your own soul’s sake, read The Whole Christ  by Sinclair Ferguson.In your public ministry, preach through whole books of the Bible, especially the books you’ve never dared to preach from.As you lead your church forward, never stop affirming your church.Spread a sense of cheerful adventure by showing your people that you are growing.This episode of The Gospel Coalition Podcast is sponsored by Lifeway, publisher of Jen Wilkin’s newest Bible study, God of Deliverance: A Study of Exodus 1–18.  Learn more at lifeway.com/deliverance.

The Gospel Coalition hosted a panel discussion at the 2018 Women’s Conference with Colleen McFadden, Jen Wilkin, Courtney Doctor, and Danielle Anderson titled “Shaping Women’s Ministry in the Local Church: A Practical Discussion.” They defined and framed women’s ministry as holistic, in order to address all the needs of each woman—heart, soul, mind, and strength. Throughout the ensuing conversation, they touched on the very practical considerations necessary for building a healthy women’s ministry in the context of the local church. Many of the necessities were not unique to women’s ministry, per se, but certainly unique in their application, including development of a vision, strong support from top-down leadership, avoiding the ministry silo, growth, development of leaders, and telling great stories among many others.   This episode of The Gospel Coalition Podcast is sponsored by Lifeway, publisher of Christine Hoover's new Bible study, Seek First the Kingdom: God’s Invitation to Life and Joy in the Book of Matthew. Learn more at lifeway.com/seekfirst.

David Platt delivered a message at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana titled “Paralysis and Forgiveness.” Expounding on the story of the paralyzed man brought to Jesus on a mat by his friends in Mark 2:1-12, Platt drew out the central theme of the book and the parable—the primacy and power of Jesus’s Word.Platt also highlighted the two urgent needs of the paralytic—physical and spiritual—and the attributes of Jesus by which he was able to minister to both. He addressed four characteristics of the paralytic man’s four friends that should be understood and mimicked by all believers. From the parable, Platt then exposited five expectations for believers in evangelism.This episode of The Gospel Coalition Podcast is sponsored by Lifeway, publisher of Christine Hoover's new Bible study, Seek First the Kingdom: God’s Invitation to Life and Joy in the Book of Matthew. Learn more at lifeway.com/seekfirst.