Church planters and ministry pioneers are at the forefront of the mission to carry the good news of the Kingdom to as many places as possible. In many ways, this requires fresh and innovative thinking. But it also requires an understanding of the ways God has been working in the church throughout its history, and a commitment to thinking about church planting in a theologically robust way that underpins the practical planning, strategy and commitments required.  On this episode of TheoDisc, Kenny talks with with Alain Emerson and Roger Ellis, who teach Ecclesiology as part of WTC’s Graduate Diploma in Church Planting & Leadership. Whether you are planting a church, leading in a church, or are part of a church family, this conversation will cause you to think about the rich history of God’s people as they have allowed the Scriptures and the Spirit to deeply affect their thinking, and how this should shape our future thinking on what the church should be.

In this episode, Kenny is joined by Nigel Langford, and they go on an exploration of theological understanding and revelation of God’s character through Nigel and his wife, Nicky’s adoption story. Enjoy!

Welcome to TheoDisc episode 27! In this episode we welcome Prof Sandra Glahn of Dallas Theological Seminary. Kenny and Sandra explore her new book, Nobody’s Mother, and the implications of archaeological, cultural, historical, literary, and biblical evidence for our understanding of Paul’s letters, and in particular the passage in 1 Tim 2:15.

In this episode of TheoDisc, Kenny was in conversation with Aaron White, and they addressed these questions and more... Is it possible that the narratives, themes and words that we see in our popular culture can be avenues for God to speak? How can we engage film, literature, music and more with our ears open to the gospel of the Kingdom? And can our engagement with art help us to minister in the world more effectively? 

At WTC, we believe that theological education should be accessible to everyone, not just those in paid ministerial work. As a result, more than half of our student body aren’t in paid Christian ministry, but are working in the marketplace, education, health, trades, and other venues. Our guest on this episode, Marijke Hoek, believes that professionals should be viewed as those on kingdom mission in the world and should be supported, equipped, and learned from in their communication of the gospel. This was such an interesting and thought-provoking discussion and we hope you enjoy it.

In recent years we’ve seen a crisis of leadership in the western Evangelical world. We can all name names and shake our heads, but perhaps we ought to step back and think more widely about the models or leadership we’ve adopted and put into practice. In this episode of TheoDisc, Kenny talks with Professor Andrew Parker about the ways in which we need to re-engage with and train people in the kind of leadership modelled by Jesus - servant leadership. Enjoy. This is our 24th episode of TheoDisc, so if you haven’t heard all our previous episodes, please dig into our back catalogue. You can receive all future episodes by subscribing to TheoDisc on whatever podcast platform you use.

In this episode of TheoDisc, Kenny chats with Alister Wallace about how the books of Judges and Ruth ought to be read together, and how women and the treatment of women are vital to the theological trajectory of these books. Our often simplistic presentations of Biblical figures like Gideon and Samson can obscure the fact that the book in which they feature, Judges, is a grim exploration of Israel’s inability to remain faithful to their covenant with God and the resulting consequences. By contrast, the book which immediately follows Judges is Ruth, a book brimming with displays of covenant faithfulness. 

On today’s episode, Kenny had a  conversation with the wonderful Dr Carmen Imes. Carmen holds a PhD from Wheaton College and is the Associate Professor of Old Testament at Biola University in California. In her work, Carmen shows a real passion to help everyone engage with the Old Testament and to discover how it is still relevant for us today. She does this through her Torah Tuesday Youtube Podcast and through her books ‘Bearing God’s Name’ and her most recent work ‘Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters” where she explores what it means for us to be made as the image of God. Kenny had a chance to talk with Carmen about her latest book and we hope this will provoke your own thinking about how you live out this core identity. Enjoy.

In this episode, Kenny chats with Scot McKnight about his latest publication - The Second Testament - a new Bible translation of the New Testament. Enjoy! Episode 21 Outline: Start-01:37 - Introduction. 01:37-04:20 - Welcome to Scot and 3 questions. 04:29-13:39 - What was your motivation for The Second Testament behind the translation project? How does this Bible translation differ from other more familiar ones? How have you resisted compromise by staying close to the Greek text? 13:48-28:33 - When translating from the Greek, how do you consider the history of established English tranlations in the process? Was this familiarity  an issue for you? Your use of 'new' words for well-known ones, is very interesting, so how did you make these decisions? Discussing examples of these, including 1 Cor 11. 28:41-36:10 - As a translator, you make certain decisions that have consequences, so how do you make the choice in a faithful way? For those who don't speak or read Greek, how can you reassure them that the translation process is being faithful to the text? 36:18-End - Close and further information.  

In this episode, Kenny chats with Rev Nick Crawley about engaging with the Bible in meaningful ways and how this grounds our discipleship. Enjoy! Episode 20 Outline: Start-01:31 - Introduction. 01:31-04:10 - Welcome to Nick and 3 questions. 04:19-13:03 - How did Bible for Life get started? What has your own journey with the Bible been like? How can Christians engage more with the habit of studying the scriptures? 13:11-26:50 - Discussion of the book of 1 Thessalonians based on the 'whole book' idea. What are some of the ways you recommend others to dig into the Bible in this way? What are some of the tools on the Bible for Life website? 27:01-30:10 - What effect has Dallas Willard had on you personally and also on the approach of Bible for Life? 30:18-End - Close and further information.