A Time to Think

Is tuning in the best way to turn off? In our pursuit of rest and relaxation, we often turn to technology (tune in) in order to quiet our minds and escape from the burdens of our lives (turn off). However, we find that turning on media of any sort usually doesn't provide us the rest we desire. Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh discuss this conundrum and what to do about it.

Each time we log on or tune in to digital technology, something is done to us. We are not merely passive engagers in social media or television, we are changed by it. Whether we tend toward anger or anxiety, depression or envy we know that our hearts and minds are affected by the amount of time we spend consuming media and the type of content we consume.

If you don't have a purpose for your device, it will use you rather than you using it. Instead of you controlling your time, television or social media will control your time. In order to not be consumed by our technology, we must pause to reflect on how we purposely engage with the vast amounts of media around us.

Time is a non-renewable resource. When it passes, we cannot get it back. Pondering the fleeting and finite nature of time causes us to consider how much of that non-renewable resource we use on devices. Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh discuss how God reminds us about the nature of time and calls us to use it in a way that honors him.

Headphones have dramatically shifted how we interact with media. Instead of a community of people gathering to listen to a speaker or a musician, now content and music is in the ear of the individual. You may have no idea what the person beside you on a plane or in line at the grocery store is listening to. How does that affect our culture and the church?

Short, opinionated news media has made us disagreeable people. The media we consume has led to a decline in our ability to have basic discourse with others, and instead we spend much of our time focused on how we disagree with others rather than pursuing conversation with them. Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh set aside A Time to Think about the difference between disagreeing and discourse.

Every channel on TV is designed to entertain. Politicians seek to entertain and often pastors do as well. Entertainment culture seeps into every way we encounter information, so Pastor Chris Tillman and Pastor Josh Holland help work through how to approach media content in an entertainment driven world.

We are tempted to spend the great majority of our time thinking of trivial things. Social media, TV entertainment, and the vast amount of content available to consume on the internet lead us to be bombarded by and focused on insignificant things. Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh discuss how to divide our time on media between the trivial and the significant.

For the Christian, being counter-cultural is about more than criticizing ideas outside of the church. The Christian must also fight by creating a better, more persuasive culture within the church. Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh give ideas on how to build attractive cultures which are more beautiful than the competing ideas around them on this episode of A Time To Think.

How do Christians think through being called a bigot or being charged with hate speech? How do thinking people respond in a society which is quick to level personal attacks prior to discussing the substance of an idea? Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh discuss in A Time To Think.

We think we have freedom to chart our own path or create ourselves as we want to be. However, we are not truly free to create ourselves, because we ultimately need someone to like what we create. We need the people around us to affirm or "recognize" who we are as good and right and true. Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh discuss our culture's deep longing for recognition.

We are plastic people in a liquid world. Technological advancements in the realms of transportation, communication, and medication have all lead us to feel that we can shape the world around us and determine our own shape as well. Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh discuss the issues with these changes in thought.

Pastor Josh and Pastor Chris discuss how Sigmund Freud led us to believe that we are primarily sexual creatures.

Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh discuss views of morality divorced from God held by Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche.

Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh discuss what it means to live free.

Pastor Chris and Pastor Josh discuss the Supreme Court's ruling which had massive consequences for the legality of abortion in the United States.

Pastor Josh and Pastor Chris engage with five common arguments from the Pro-Choice side of the debate about abortion.

Pastor Josh and Pastor Chris discuss how the other is the problem.

Pastor Josh and Pastor Chris discuss the priority of the inner.

Pastor Josh and Pastor Chris talk about when authenticity becomes a problem.

Pastor Josh and Pastor Chris discuss how the ideas of scholars and philosophers trickle down into our everyday lives.

Pastor Josh and Pastor Chris from Downtown Mission Church discuss the question of what exactly the "sexual revolution" is in relationship to the new self in western culture.

Pastor Josh and Pastor Chris talk about expressive individualism and how it creeps into the church.

Pastor Josh and Pastor Chris discuss how we came to view individuals as a "self" and how this impacts our discussions of gender and sexuality.

Two Downtown Mission Church pastors explain why they want to engage cultural issues in a way that helps the people in their church.