Centre for Christian Living podcast

It seems if you talk to anyone and ask them how they’re doing, one of the most common things they’ll say is that they’re feeling tired. I think that’s true of Christian and non-Christian alike. What we all need is rest. In this episode, Peter Orr talks to Jocelyn Bignill about some recent thinking she did in a talk on rest, and how we can rest spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally. It’...

Our culture is obsessed with identity: we’re often told, “You do you” and encouraged to live according to our “true and authentic self”, expressing publicly how we feel about ourselves internally. However, the very concept of personal identity is inherently slippery. It encompasses things like ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, religion, belief, educational background, profession and personality...

Peter Orr speaks with Jocelyn Loane about her new book on Christian motherhood from Matthias Media: Motherhood: How the gospel shapes our purpose and priorities . In the book and in our conversation, Jocelyn helpfully shows how the gospel, more than anything else, should shape Christian motherhood. It’s very easy to read parenting books that contain a lot of helpful things, but in this conversatio...

The Centre for Christian Living exists to bring biblical ethics to everyday issues, and on each episode of our podcast, we seek to do exactly that. But every now and then, we like to share stories of how God’s people seek to apply biblical ethics to the everyday and specific issues in their own lives. In this episode of the CCL podcast, we get to know yet another member of our student team: a Moor...

For centuries, theologians have debated the doctrine of total depravity, the belief that people are wholly and naturally corrupt due to original sin. In this episode, Peter Orr speaks with Jonny Gibson, who has edited a 1,000-page book on this topic. They talk about why it’s important for Christians to have a clear grasp of sin, and what can go wrong if we don’t. For an edited transcript and show...

In this episode, Peter Orr chats with Nick and Dorothy Jones about their life as a family—particularly loving and caring for their son William, who suffers from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Nick and Dorothy reflect on how their Christian faith sustains and strengthens them as they love and care for William, and they offer some very helpful insights not only about caring for a child with a signific...

The world is becoming wealthier and wealthier. Since the turn of the century, the net worth of many countries in the West and in Asia has tripled, poverty rates have fallen, and life expectancy has increased by more than six years. At the same time, the divide between rich and poor has increased, with the richest one per cent owning almost fifty per cent of all the world’s wealth. Five to ten per...

In this episode of the CCL podcast, we hear from Susanna Baldwin, a Bible translator in Darwin. She speaks about her work on the Plain English Version, the challenges of Bible translation, and also helps us to think through what questions to ask when we are considering which English version to read. For an edited transcript and show notes, visit our website . Support the work of the Centre by maki...

Psalm 23 is perhaps the most famous portion of the Bible. It’s a psalm that has brought comfort to Christians throughout history. In this episode, Peter Orr speaks to David Gibson, who has released a book that walks through the psalm in detail—“The Lord of Psalm 23: Jesus our shepherd, companion and host”. David shows us that there are wonderful depths that are easy to miss, and how, in so many wa...

In this episode of the CCL podcast, we speak to Jackie Gibson about her book, You are Still a Mother . The book recounts how Jackie and her husband Jonny lost their daughter Leila just before she was due to be born. Through this terrible experience, Jackie came to appreciate the comfort of the Lord Jesus. We hope this episode is of comfort to you if you’ve experienced this kind of grief, or that i...

Artificial intelligence or AI is one of the most important concepts that people are discussing today. It’s something that, as Christians, we need to think carefully about. Akos Balogh spoke about AI at our March event earlier this year. In this episode, Peter Orr talks to Stephen Driscoll about his new book on AI—“Made in Our Image: God, artificial intelligence and you”—particularly looking at how...

The sexualisation of society is not new. But the untethering of sex from all relational foundations has posed new problems. No longer is sex between a man and a woman, or even between a boyfriend and girlfriend, and nor is it even with another person you’ve met through an app; sex in our culture can now be with whomever you want, in whatever way you want—even with non-human devices. Obviously thes...

Politics might be something that we shy away from because it’s so divisive—particularly in the current climate. But the gospel shapes us in the way we relate to our neighbours, and it gives us a fundamental lens to use in thinking about how we relate to one another and how we engage in political discourse. In this episode of the CCL podcast, Peter Orr speaks to Michael Jensen about his new book, “...

Most of us experience relatively good health. Occasionally we might get sick, then recover a couple of weeks later and return to normal life with no lasting ill effects. But what happens when you’re struck with an ongoing health issue that doesn’t go away—not two, three, six months or even a number of years later? What impact does an ongoing illness have on your physical health, mental health and...

In the latest episode of the CCL podcast, Peter Orr has a chat with Paul Ritchie, a pastor in Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, about his long-term struggle with different mental health challenges and how he thinks about these as a pastor. They also discuss Paul’s book, “Is it Unspiritual to be Depressed? Loved by God in the Midst of Pain”, the relationship between the medical and the spiritual...

Many Christians have testified to the power of good Christian books and how the Lord has used them in their lives. In this episode of the CCL podcast, Peter Orr talks to Jane Tooher about the different Christian books that the Lord has used in her life. We hope you find it encouraging. You might be prompted to read some of the titles that Jane mentions, or to think about different areas of your Ch...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being widely embraced across our society. When OpenAI launched ChatGPT, a large language model-based chatbot, the application became the fastest-adopted new tool in human history. Its impact—and the impact of AI more broadly—is only beginning to be felt. Many AI researchers are concerned that AI will harm humanity, with some even sounding the alarm about humanity’s...

In this episode of the Centre for Christian Living podcast, we talk with Andrew Sach, who has recently released a book with Jonathan Gemmell entitled, “Are You 100% Sure You Want To Be an Agnostic?” Andrew discusses the difference between agnosticism and atheism, and thinks about how we can share the gospel with our friends who might be agnostic or who might have other beliefs. For an edited trans...

The last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation, is a book that many of us are intrigued by. We read its symbolism and the different imagery, and sometimes we don’t know what to do with it. In this episode of the CCL podcast, Peter Orr speaks with Tom Schreiner, who has recently released a couple of books on the Book of Revelation. Tom helps us think about how we should read the book and talks...

In our last episode, we heard from Lionel Windsor, who talked about his new book, “Truth Be Told: Living truthfully in a post-truth world”. In this episode, we’re going to focus in on one chapter in Lionel’s book, looking at how, as Christians, we can live truthful, godly lives in a world that is becoming more and more technologically complex. Technology is not all bad; you listen to this podcast...

Jesus told his disciples that he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). The truth is absolutely vital to us as Christians. But in an era of fake news, media spin and social media manipulation, it’s never been more important as Christians that we are clear on what the truth is and how we as Christians should live as truthful people. In this episode, Peter Orr talks to Lionel Windsor about...

Matthew, Mark and Luke all describe Jesus ascending a mountain and then being transformed in front of three of his disciples (Matt 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36). This is the event that Christians call the “transfiguration”. But why is it such an important event? What does it actually tell us about Jesus? Does it have anything to do with the Christian life? In this episode, Peter Orr talks to...

How can we as Christians care for those who are on the margins of society? How can we share the hope of Jesus with those who, from a worldly perspective at least, look like they have the least reason for hope? In this episode of the CCL podcast, Peter Orr speaks to Ben Gray, minister of All Saints Petersham in Sydney’s Inner West, about how as a church they reach out to the homeless with the hope...

Christians can often be caught off-guard by how difficult life can be. When grieved by loss, deserted by friends and family, faced with a hostile workplace culture or plagued by an existential crisis, it is easy for Christians to be tempted to give up or to doubt God’s goodness. Yet the Bible encourages us to persevere in the midst of hardship, reminding us that suffering is not a sign of God’s ab...

The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian church that when he was with them, he preached Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 1:23). The cross is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian. It’s the means that God uses to secure our salvation. But it’s also so much more than that. In this episode of the Centre for Christian Living podcast, Peter Orr talks to Rory Shiner about his book, “Forgiven Foreve...