Recorded

If we have learned anything from our last two technological waves—smart phones and social media—then we know one thing: Those who are probably going to be most harmed by AI are our kids. AI is already taking over their education. It’s trying to build emotional relationships with them. And it might take away their jobs. But our theology tells us AI does not surprise or alarm God. He is sovereign ov...

Gen Z is the most secular generation on record—the least likely to believe in God, go to church, or have a religious affiliation. One reason for this is their parents—Gen Z is also the generation least likely to have grown up in church, attended Sunday school, or prayed over a meal with their family. But Gen Z hasn’t been hostile to the faith. They’re not protesting Christian speakers or telling s...

Can you trust AI? Mike Graham, program director for TGC’s Keller Center, decided to find out. He asked seven major AI platforms seven basic questions about the gospel. Since AI platforms largely rely on the same technology and draw from the same body of information, he figured the answers would be similar. He was wrong. Not only were the answers different, but only two platforms nudged a searcher...

Thirteen years ago, pastor Alton Hardy planted a church in an underresourced African American community near Birmingham, Alabama. Alton worried about the crime, poverty, and lack of education he saw around him. But more than that, he worried about families. And most of all, he worried about fathers. In 2023, the CDC recorded that 70 percent of African American babies were born to single mothers. O...

Two and a half years ago, a plane went down in a Texas pasture. On board were five men—the lead pastor, the executive pastor, an elder, and two faithful members of Harvest Church near Memphis, Tennessee. Four of the men were killed instantly—experts later determined the chances of survival were zero percent. But one of the men—lead pastor Kennon Vaughan—lived. This is his story. But this is also t...

Over the past few years, we’ve been hearing rumblings of revival on college campuses. To chase down the story, Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra headed over to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, to see what was going on with the largest campus ministry you’ve never heard of—the Salt Company. Salt Company does a lot of things you’d expect—large worship gatherings, small group Bible studies, and summer missio...

Join Collin Hansen and Melissa Kruger for their annual discussion as they look back on the top theology stories of 2024. They also share their favorite books from 2024, updates on personal projects, and what they're each looking forward to in life and ministry in 2025.  They discuss:  The rise in Bible sales in 2024 Declining fertility rates worldwide Big changes for the United Methodist Church an...

Over the last few decades, church music has shifted. Congregations sing fewer hymns and more praise songs. We hear fewer organ chords and more guitar riffs. We read lyrics that are less theological and more generic. The move toward quicker and more casual songwriting means new music hits our Spotify—and CCLI—lists more quickly. But it also means Christians are sometimes singing repetitive choruses...

Registration fees. Weekend tournaments. Travel teams. Youth sports in America has shifted over the last several decades. Instead of playing ball in the backyard with friends after school or on Saturday mornings, our kids climb into the minivan so we can drive them to practice, pay for uniforms and court fees, and pick up dinner from the concession stand. Youth sports, it seems, is a merry-go-round...

Join Collin Hansen and Melissa Kruger for their annual recap discussion on the biggest stories affecting the church around the world in the last year. This conversation was originally featured on TGC's Gospelbound podcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nearly all American teenage boys— 97 percent  of them—play video games. On average, they spend  more than two hours  a day maneuvering in digital worlds.  For two out of five teen boys, that feels like  too much time . They’re probably right. Though  it’s impossible to draw a direct link, it’s hard not to notice that as  gaming grows , males are falling farther behind girls in school, in joining t...

When Sinclair Ferguson was growing up in Scotland in the 1950s, the culture was not only Christian but also Reformed. Ferguson memorized Bible passages at his public school, learned nighttime prayers from parents who weren’t believers, and attended church for years before converting to Christianity. In the years since, Ferguson has written more than 50 books, spoken at virtually every Reformed con...

In 2009, about a quarter of American high school students said they had “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” By last year it was up to 44 percent, the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded. For girls, the rate rose to 57 percent. That means more than half of teenage girls feel persistently sad or hopeless. If you stood a teen from 2009 next to a teen from 2022, what would be...

When Joe Biden announced last April that all American troops would be leaving Afghanistan, those familiar with the country knew it would eventually fall to the Taliban. But nobody predicted it would collapse before the Americans had even left the country. Caught off guard, Afghans began to run, especially those who feared for their lives—former government employees, American interpreters, and Chri...

“It’s time for American troops to come home. We’ll do it responsibly; deliberately and safely and responsibly,” announced President Biden last summer. Instead, we watched panicked Afghans swarming the tarmac of the Kabul airport and hanging off the fuselages of departing jets.  In August 2021, before American soldiers had even cleared the airport, Taliban troops overran the entire country. You kno...

Last month, Mark Dever and Ligon Duncan announced that the T4G conference planned for April 2022 in Louisville would be the last. The successful pastors' conference spanned 16 years, gathering Reformed pastors from a range of denominations. The last in-person conference, in 2018, drew more than 12,000. Attendees loved the preaching, the music, the books, and the fellowship. So it was a surprise to...

On September 11, 2001, Christina and Brian Stanton were blown back into their apartment and knocked unconscious by the impact of the second plane hitting the south World Trade Center tower. Four miles north, the staff of Redeemer Presbyterian Church climbed out a window onto a balcony. From there, they saw both towers collapse. Four hours south, the staff of Capitol Hill Baptist Church could feel...

In this episode, you'll hear how God worked in and through the tragedy of September 11, 2001 to draw Christina and Brian Stanton into a deeper faith.  Pastors Tim Keller, Mark Dever, John Piper, and Bert Daniel, along with several Redeemer Presbyterian Church elders and staff, also share their stories of how this particular collective suffering changed their lives, their ministries, and their chur...

In this two-part series, we’ll follow the story of Christina and Brian Stanton, who were standing on their New York City apartment terrace when the second plane roared over their shoulders and changed their lives on September 11, 2001. We’ll hear how pastors like John Piper and Mark Dever handled the tragedy, and we’ll learn how God worked in and through Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church,...