In this live episode of Gospelbound from TGC’s 2021 national conference, Collin Hansen is joined by two esteemed guests who can help explain the origins and shape of Christian nationalism with a view toward the promises of the gospel. Michael Horton is the J. Gresham Machen professor of systematic theology and apologetics at Westminster Theological Seminary in California. Justin Giboney is cofounder of the AND Campaign, an attorney, and a political strategist in Atlanta.Whether or not your church would advocate Christian nationalism, it’s become an apologetics challenge for church leaders with public perception. Mike and Justin help by answering a few questions and candidly discussing this topic.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Brave by Faith by Alistair Begg. More information at thegoodbook.com.

These days, you’ll see many Christians defend the faith by pointing out the problems with others. But owning up to ways the church has fallen short of its own ideals may be the more appropriate path. In his new book, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History (Zondervan), John Dickson takes an honest look at the church’s successes and failures.Dickson sums up history by observing, “Bullies are common. Saints are not.” So on Gospelbound, I dug in on his survey and asked whether Christianity has been a bigger contributor to evil compared to atheism and Islam; his high and low points in Christian history; and why Christians are cheerful losers.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of the God’s Word for You expository Bible study guides. More information at thegoodbook.com.

Maybe you imagine the biggest problem facing Christians in the West today is hostility, whether from media or government or schools. You wouldn’t be wrong to notice how these venues don’t usually look kindly on orthodox, observant Christians these days.But what if we actually face a bigger problem? What if the problem isn’t that our unbelieving friends and family care too much about what we believe—it’s that they don’t care at all what we believe? That’s not a challenge we’re typically prepared to address.Until now, thanks to Kyle Beshears in his new book, Apatheism: How to Share When They Don’t Care (B&H). Kyle is teaching pastor at Mars Hill Church in Mobile, Alabama. I met him when he taught worldview and apologetics at the University of Mobile. Kyle explains of his book, “Atheism believes that God does not exist; agnosticism believes that we can’t know whether or not God exists; apatheism believes God’s existence to be irrelevant.”Kyle Beshears joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss the causes and cures of apatheism.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of the God’s Word for You expository Bible study guides. More information at thegoodbook.com.

Has anyone ever confided in you, “I’m deconstructing”? Maybe you don’t know the phrase, but you know the phenomenon. Yet another social-media post announces departure from the Christian faith. The cause could be sex, race, politics, social justice, science, hell, or all of the above. For many, Christianity is becoming implausible, even impossible to believe. It might be tempting to leave the church in order to find answers, but the new book Before You Lose Your Faith: Deconstructing Doubt in the Church (The Gospel Coalition) argues that church should be the best place to deal with doubts. Deconstructing need not end in unbelief. In fact, deconstructing can be the road toward reconstructing—building up a more mature, robust faith that grapples honestly with the deepest questions of life.Karen Swallow Prior, Jay Y. Kim, and Derek Rishmawy joined me on Gospelbound to discuss deconstruction and the hope that lies in the person and work of Jesus.Gospelbound Book Giveaway Entry Steps: Write a review about the Gospelbound podcast on Apple Podcasts  (reviews can take up to 48 hours to appear in the ratings and review section, so be sure to check back after that time period to see your review)Take a screenshot of your reviewEmail us your screenshot to podcasts@thegospelcoalition.org  by Friday, April 23We'll pick the first 10 entries on April 23 to receive a free copy of Gospelbound, the book.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Brave by Faith by Alistair Begg. More information at thegoodbook.com.

In this episode of Gospelbound, Collin Hansen is joined by Morton Schapiro and Gary Saul Morson, authors of Minds Wide Shut: How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us (Princeton University Press). Schapiro and Morson describe fundamentalism as “radical simplification of complex questions and the inability to learn either from experience or from opposing views.”Among their proposed solutions is a recovery of casuistry, or employing case studies especially from great literature for experience-based learning.Gospelbound Book Giveaway Entry Steps: Write a review about the Gospelbound podcast on Apple Podcasts  (reviews can take up to 48 hours to appear in the ratings and review section, so be sure to check back after that time period to see your review)Take a screenshot of your reviewEmail us your screenshot to podcasts@thegospelcoalition.org  by Friday, April 23We'll pick the first 10 entries on April 23 to receive a free copy of Gospelbound, the book.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The End of Me by Liz Wann. More information at thegoodbook.com.

Politicians, advertisers, talk radio hosts, social media engineers—you name it, they want your attention. They want you to be angry and afraid. But as Christians, we’re called to faith and love—even when we’re scared, even with people who don’t like us.We need to get back to the gospel so we can move forward—together. That’s why we wrote the new book Gospelbound (Multnomah), to help Christians live with resolute hope in an anxious age. My co-author and guest on this episode is Sarah Zylstra, one of my dear friends and a longtime colleague first at Christianity Today and now with The Gospel Coalition, where she is our senior writer. We wrote this book to boost your morale with stories of Christians around the world living for God and loving their neighbors. They’re caring for the weak, loving their enemies, and giving away their freedom for others. They are gospel-bound Christians because they’re bound to the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ—they cannot be shaken by this turbulent world. And they’re bound for glory someday, which is how they can live with such hope in the here and now.Not only will they boost your morale, but these gospel-bound Christians will also give you a model for how live in the chaos. So for more on these stories, I turned to Sarah in this episode of Gospelbound. Gospelbound Book Giveaway Entry Steps: Write a review about the Gospelbound podcast on Apple Podcasts  (reviews can take up to 48 hours to appear in the ratings and review section, so be sure to check back after that time period to see your review)Take a screenshot of your reviewEmail us your screenshot to podcasts@thegospelcoalition.org  by Friday, April 23We'll pick the first 10 entries on April 23 to receive a free copy of Gospelbound, the book. This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The End of Me by Liz Wann. More information at thegoodbook.com.

When church leaders assume that they can only scan for attacks in one direction, they leave Christians vulnerable to different dangers. What the church needs, then, is what Trevin Wax calls multi-directional leadership—leaders who combine dexterity and discipline. Leaders today must demonstrate faithful versatility. And that’s what Trevin Wax commends in his new book, The Multi-Directional Leader: Responding Wisely to Challenges from Every Side, published by The Gospel Coalition.Wax applies multi-directional leadership to the most contentious issues facing churches right now, including race and politics and gender. Unity and truth can still triumph in a divided age, and that’s what I wanted to talk with Trevin about in this episode of Gospelbound.Gospelbound Book Giveaway Entry Steps: Write a review about the Gospelbound podcast on Apple Podcasts  (reviews can take up to 48 hours to appear in the ratings and review section, so be sure to check back after that time period to see your review)Take a screenshot of your reviewEmail us your screenshot to podcasts@thegospelcoalition.org  by Friday, April 23We'll pick the first 10 entries on April 23 to receive a free copy of Gospelbound, the book. This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of Faithful Leaders and the Things That Matter Most by Rico Tice. There are many books on leadership strategies and church structures, but this one looks at what matters most: the character and attitude of church leaders. More information at thegoodbook.com.

This podcast explores the intertwining of religious beliefs, political ideologies, and social issues, discussing the challenges of reconciling America's self-identity with racial inequality. It also delves into the complexities of oppression and victimhood, the rise of bisexual identity and sexual fluidity, and the controversies surrounding transgender rights and identity. The importance of engaging in meaningful discussions, finding calm in challenging times, and recognizing the impact of black Americans and immigrants in preaching the gospel are also explored.

Joseph Henrich is chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and author of many important works. His latest is The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous. In it, you’ll get pretty everything you want: theology, history, neuroscience, biology, social science, economics, and more. Henrich weaves everything together to explain what separated the West from world history. But his story is neither inevitable nor triumphalist. He argues that if you looked at the world in the year 1000, you’d never imagine that Europe would eventually surpass China or the Islamic world in power and wealth. Joseph Henrich joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss his new book and what it means to be “WEIRD,” an acronym that describes tenants of Western culture.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The Garden, the Curtain and The Cross by Carl Laferton. This storybook takes children aged 3 to 6 on a journey from the Garden of Eden to God’s perfect new creation, teaching why Jesus died and rose again and why that’s the best news ever. More information at thegoodbook.com.

Andy Crouch and his colleagues at The Praxis Journal wrote an article titled, “Leading Beyond the Blizzard” on March 20, 2020, just one week after the national COVID-19 shutdown began in the United States. Crouch and his team warned us that this crisis would not be a blizzard that rages for a few weeks or a winter that lasted a few months, but an “ice age” of 12 to 18 months that would change our way of life for good, and they were right. Crouch joined Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to lament the losses brought on by COVID-19, assess our levels of social trust inside and outside the church, and look forward to God’s purposes in the next year and beyond.This episode of Gospelbound is sponsored by The Good Book Company, publisher of The Garden, the Curtain and The Cross by Carl Laferton. This storybook takes children aged 3-6 on a journey from the Garden of Eden to God’s perfect new creation to teach children why Jesus died and rose again and why that’s the best news ever. More information at thegoodbook.com.