How can a good God allow so much evil and suffering in the world? And why do some people seem to suffer so much more than others? According to a recent survey of college students, the problem of evil is the question about Christianity that college students find most difficult to answer. This week, Eric […]
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Apologetics: The Providence of God in Persecution
In his article “For Whom Were the Gospels Written?,” Richard Bauckham points out that a small minority group experiencing alienation and opposition in its immediate social context could compensate for its precarious minority position locally by a sense of solidarity with fellow believers elsewhere and a sense of being part of a worldwide movement destined […]
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Apologetics: Where and From Whom Did the Stories in the Gospels Originate?
The Bible is a difficult book to believe. If you try to read the Bible from the beginning, you’ll find yourself face to face with a talking snake and enchanted fruit before you’ve finished the first three chapters. When you run across such plot devices in the works of Rudyard Kipling or the brothers Grimm, […]
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Peter Gurry and Elijah Hixson: Mistakes Apologists Make About Textual Criticism + “Learning to See” (Van Halen)
Finally, it’s the long-anticipated Van Halen episode, which manages to feature not only Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen but also another important Dutch-born “Van”: Reformed theologian Cornelius Van Til! Plus, New Testament textual critics Elijah Hixson and Peter Gurry are back with us to discuss the mistakes that people defending the Christian faith […]
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Peter Gurry and Elijah Hixson: Was the Bible Copied Accurately? + “You Belong to the City” (Glenn Frey)
Has the Bible been copied accurately? Skeptics such as biblical scholar Dr. Bart Ehrman have suggested that it wasn’t. According to Bart Ehrman‘s book Misquoting Jesus, it makes no sense for Christians to refer to the Bible as God’s inspired Word “because we no longer possess the words that God supposedly inspired. … All that […]
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Jonathan Pennington: What Are the New Testament Gospels and Why Should We Trust Them? + “We Are the World” (USA for Africa)
According to bestselling religious scholar Reza Aslan, the New Testament Gospels “are not, nor were they ever meant to be, a historical documentation of Jesus’s life.” The Gospels are, Aslan claims, fictional compositions from early Christians who re-imagined a Jewish revolutionary named Jesus as an ethereal Christ of faith. But is it really reasonable to read […]
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Doug Blount: What Is the Relationship Between Evidence and Faith? + “Jack and Diane” (John Cougar Mellencamp)
“Faith is,” according to Christopher Hitchens, “the surrender of reason.” But is faith actually the antithesis of reason and evidence? That’s the question Garrick and Timothy explore in the first half of this week’s episode with Doug Blount, who completed master’s and doctoral degrees in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, an institution that may be found—according to some reports—within the borders of Indiana.
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Urban Ministry Podcast: Developing an Urban Missions Ministry in Your Church
How could your church begin to engage the poor, the suffering, and the marginalized? And what might God do in your church, if this became part of your vision for the future? With us today is Jesse Eubanks, the founder and executive director of Love Thy Neighborhood. If neighborhood outreach is part of your church’s vision, you won’t want to miss this episode of Urban Ministry Podcast.
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Grady Adkins and Joshua Swindall: What Christian Beliefs Do College Students Struggle to Defend? + “Don’t Stop Believin'” (Journey)
In this special back-to-school episode, Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones are joined by Dr. Grady Adkins and Dr. Joshua Swindall, two researchers who have spent the past year exploring which specific Christian beliefs are the most difficult for college students to believe and to defend.
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Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: Three Chords and the Truth Live with Five Oaks Church
In this special episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast, Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey join the student ministry at Five Oaks Church, a radical band of young believers who gather near the metropolis of Minneapolis in the wild and crazy land of Minnesota. Students from Five Oaks Church ask questions […]
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: Loving Your Neighbor in the Inner City
GUEST: Jamaal Williams Click here to listen to this episode of the Urban Ministry Podcast. If you’re the pastor of an inner-city church, should you live in the same neighborhood as your church? And, if so, what are some of the unique challenges and opportunities of living in the inner city? That’s what we will […]
[Read More...]Podcast: Caring for Your Family as a Church Planter
What you do for God beyond your home will typically never be greater than what you practice with God within your home. Whether you’re single or married, with children or without, your family has a profound impact on your ministry. That’s why one of the qualifications that Paul gave for pastors was “to manage his own household well.” So how can you as a pastor or a church planter care for your family well? I have with me today two urban pastors–Charles Shannon and Nick Nye–to discuss this topic. If you want to lead your family well as a pastor, you won’t want to miss this episode of the Urban Ministry Podcast.
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Sean McDowell: Did the Apostles Really Die for Their Faith? + “Dust in the Wind” (Kansas)
One of the strongest evidences for the truth of the resurrection of Jesus is the martyrdom of his apostles in the decades that followed his death–or at least that’s what many Christian apologists have claimed. But is this claim sustainable on the basis of historical evidence? Did nearly all of the first followers of Jesus […]
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: Developing Deep Community in Urban Contexts
Suppose God has called you to plant a church in the city, and you’re struggling simply to gather an initial core group to launch the new congregation. When someone asks you about small groups, you might wonder, “Do I really need to think about small groups? Why isn’t enough simply to have an outstanding Sunday morning worship experience and deal with groups later, after the church is growing?” If you think that gathering in small groups is optional, you need to listen to this episode of Urban Ministry Podcast. Today, my guest on the Urban Ministry Podcast is Brad House, the author of Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support and the coauthor with Gregg Allison of the book Multichurch. The focus of our discussion is the unique dynamics of small groups in urban contexts and the need for small groups even in the early stages of church planting.
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Sean McDowell: Resurrection, Sacrifice, and Why Sean McDowell Didn’t Love Avengers: Endgame + “Hotel California” (The Eagles)
Sean McDowell joins Garrick and Timothy to talk about love, sacrifice, superheroes, and resurrection. Then, Garrick and Timothy go looking for transcendent truth in the Grammy Award-winning classic “Hotel California.” Along the way, they talk about Sehnsucht, plagiarism, and that one time when Timothy was looking for the founder of the Church of Satan but couldn’t find him.
[Read More...]Podcast: Caring for the Souls of Singles in Urban Contexts
There are more than 100 million single adults in the United States. In 2016, 53% of adults in the United States were unmarried, and 64% of these individuals had never been married. Since an overwhelming percentage of singles are moving into urban contexts, urban congregations must learn to minister effectively with single adults. In this episode of the Urban Ministry Podcast, Lilly Park—professor of biblical counseling at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—joins me to talk about how churches in the city can help single adults to pursue God’s calling for their lives.
[Read More...]Podcast: Caring for Your Soul in the City
Ministry is exhausting! But God’s calling is for us to “fight the good fight, keep the faith, and finish the race” well. If you want to finish the race well, it’s essential that you learn to care for your soul—but many of us have never received guidance when it comes to caring for our own souls. On today’s episode, I’ll be talking with two pastors—Nick Nye from Apostles Church Union Square in New York City and Charles Shannon from The Mission Church in Norfolk, Virginia—about the habits and disciplines that we need to care for our souls as pastors. If you’re tired and burnt out, or if you’re simply wanting to start well in ministry, this episode is for you.
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Timothy Paul Jones and Garrick Bailey: Three Chords Goes to the Movies: Avengers: Endgame
In the 1960s, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby began creating comic book storylines that were interconnected in a shared universe and told a single story through many individual stories. In the early twenty-first century, that’s what Marvel Studios decided to do through the films that became the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first of these films was released in 2008. Now—eleven years and twenty-two films later—all of these storylines have culminated in a single film, Avengers: Endgame. In this special episode of Three Chords and the Truth, Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones take a careful look at Avengers: Endgame.
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Family Ministry: Why the Church Needs Single Parents and Single Parents Need the Church
Some time back, I was interviewed by Ruth Moon Mari for an article on single parents and the church. Here’s an excerpt from the article.
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: What I Wish Someone Had Told Me About Urban Ministry
Ministry is filled with surprises—but the types of surprises you face in ministry will be different, depending on your context. Paul, for example, urged Timothy against “myths and endless genealogies” in Ephesus—but the warning he gave to Titus in Crete was against “empty talkers and deceivers.” This week, our goal is to help you to pay attention to the unique challenges of the context where God has placed you. On today’s episode, Timothy Paul Jones talks with Charles Shannon of The Mission Church about the challenges he’s faced in his first year as an urban church planter.
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