Gospelbound

You are not in control. You never have been. You never will be. That fact of life is tough for many of us to swallow. “The cultural air I breathe has trained me to think that life should be more carefree, predictable, and in control than it is,” Scott Sauls writes in his new book, Beautiful People Don’t Just Happen: How God Redeems Regret, Hurt, and Fear in the Making of Better Humans , (Zondervan...

“We are all like Job,” write Bill Kynes and Will Kynes in their new book, Wrestling with Job: Defiant Faith in the Face of Sufferin g (IVP Academic). We are “engaged in a mysterious cosmic battle, as every day our faith is put to the test, and God himself is honored when we trust, obey, and worship him as the great and glorious God that he is.” In this book, Bill and Will Kynes find in Job real fa...

In his book, Everything Sad Is Untrue , Daniel Nayeri offers readers a refugee’s inside look at religion and geo-politics through his personal tale of a boy separated from his father and the only world he knew and loved. A world that he’s not even sure he can remember. But it’s Daniel’s mother who is the hero of this book, which released in 2020 and was named a book of the year by The New York Tim...

As Christ's church continues to expand across the world, so does persecution. In this episode of Gospelbound from TGCW22, Collin Hansen talks with Karen Ellis and Kori Porter about how God's people fight for faith when it can cost their lives. Through this discussion, we'll learn how other Christians can support the persecuted church in prayer and advocacy. Use code “ GOSPELBOUND ” for 25% off tui...

On today’s bonus episode of Gospelbound, we’re featuring a selection from TGC’s narrative podcast, Recorded .  In "Escape from Kabul", TGC senior writer Sarah Zylstra tells the story of God's dramatic work through the underground church in Afghanistan.  To hear the full episode, subscribe to Recorded on Apple Podcasts .  Use code “ GOSPELBOUND ” for 25% off tuition.  Learn more at downlinemem...

In her book, Find Your People: Building Deep Community in a Lonely World , bestselling author Jennie Allen describes our problem today like this: “We fill a small, little crevice called home with everything we could possibly need, we keep our doors locked tight, and we feel all safe and sound. But we’ve completely cut ourselves off from people outside our little self-protective world.” Jennie Alle...

In his book, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith , Russ Ramsey  helps his readers learn how to appreciate art without needing to be an expert.    “If you have not yet learned to love beauty,” he writes, “learn to love it late.” We’re made to achieve perfection, at least on the other side of glory, he says. Beauty is glimpsing a preview of that perfection in wha...

If you live in the West, in much of Europe or North America or Australia, you don’t know the world apart from Christianity. It’s the water you swim in, the air you breathe. That’s the main point of Glen Scrivener’s new book, The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality , published by The Good Book Company. Glen is an ordained Church of England ministe...

Starting May 4, The Gospel Coalition is releasing a five-part video debate series called the " Good Faith Debates ", featuring prominent Christian thinkers discussing some of the most divisive issues facing the church today—ranging from gun control to woke churches to abortion to racial injustice to evangelical self-identity. When we keep the gospel central, we can disagree on lesser but still imp...

What happens when you get diagnosed in April 2021 at age 33 with a rare form of cancer—so rare, in fact, that the odds of contracting it are 25 million to 1? What happens when the doctors can’t tell you if you have five months or five years to live? And what happens with your son, born at the end of March 2020 at the outset of a global pandemic? That’s the story of Jonathan Tjarks, who has covered...

In singer-songwriter Sandra McCracken’s new book, “Send Out Your Light: The Illuminating Power of Scripture and Song”, you’ll find the same depth of spiritual insight and emotion that characterize her songs. She writes, “If we sing songs with thin ideas, superficial hopes, and more hype than authenticity, we will find ourselves depleted in the times when we need some truth to fall back on. We need...

In his latest book, Recovering Our Sanity: How the Fear of God Conquers the Fears that Divide Us , Michael Horton argues that we can only conquer the wrong kinds of fear by embracing the right kind of fear, and that’s what he means by sanity. For Horton, revival breaks out when Christians show up to church and hear from God and his Word. It’s so simple, and that’s his point. We don’t need spectacu...

Did education give you a love of learning and a desire to cultivate your mind over a lifetime? Or did you learn how to pass tests to graduate and get a job? These goals don’t need to be mutually exclusive, but they are for many of us. Any serious attempt at reforming Christian political witness must include a vision for education. Jake Meador offers such a classical vision for education but also v...

Jordan Raynor offers seven biblical principles for being purposeful, present, and wildly productive in his new book, Redeeming Your Time (WaterBrook). These principles include starting with the Word, eliminating all hurry, and prioritizing your “yes.” You’ll also learn in this book how to say no more often. The book mixes time-tested productivity tips with timeless biblical wisdom. Raynor joins Co...

Mark Sayers doesn’t mince words about the challenges our world is currently facing. In his new book, A Non-Anxious Presence: How a Changing and Complex World Will Create a Remnant of Renewed Christian Leaders , he sees these challenges as a potential prelude to revival. He writes, “We feel the gap between the vision of the church we encounter in Scripture and the reality on the ground. This gives...

George Yancey describes colorblindness as a path that goes nowhere and anti-racism as a path full of dangerous animals. As an alternative, he proposes mutual accountability. He believes this approach will produce a group that wants to address and not ignore unfair racial outcomes. That’s why he wrote Beyond Racial Division: A Unifying Alternative to Colorblindness and Antiracism . Yancey is a prof...

In his new book, You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News ,Kelly Kapic aims to lift from our shoulders the sense that we carry the weight of the world. Kapic, a professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, situates theological truth in contrast with cultural expectations. He writes, “What an irony that our modern age, on...

In his latest book, Why God Makes Sense in a World that Doesn’t: The Beauty of Christian Theism (Baker Academic), Gavin Ortlund discusses the problem of evil and deconstructs arguments against Christianity, while also displaying the beauty of God. Gavin Ortlund joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to discuss our deepest intuitions, beauty, creation, love, and all kinds of other good stuff. Use code...

Proverbs 31 commends men who do justice—men of wisdom, self-control, and courage. In his new book, The Intentional Father: A Practical Guide to Raise Sons of Courage and Character (Baker), Jon Tyson writes, “Men who use their energy like this, courageous men, wise men, self-controlled men, just men—these kinds of men are the need of the hour." Tyson’s book equips intentional fathers to help their...

This week on Gospelbound, Collin Hansen is joined by Dave Harvey, president of Great Commission Collective, a church-planting ministry and author of the new book, The Plurality Principle: How to Build and Maintain a Thriving Church Leadership Team (Crossway, TGC). Dave brings more than 30 years of pastoral ministry to this conversation and gives wise counsel for pastors and other church leaders ho...

In his new book, Talking about Race: Gospel Hope for Hard Conversations (Zondervan Reflective), Isaac Adams argues that if we could just hold our beliefs—and also our tongues—loving across racial lines in the American church “could become one of the most powerful testimonies to a divided and dividing world.”  Isaac joins Collin Hansen on Gospelbound to explain blocking, race as a “Velcro issue,” a...

In his new book, The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership (IVP), Tom Nelson observes a dripping irony. Though surrounded by many people, pastors are often intensely lonely and socially isolated. They work with the things of God but are tempted by the seduction of accomplishment at the expense of intimacy with God. Shepherd leaders, according to Nelson, are forged on t...

Welcome to a special edition of Gospelbound and Let’s Talk! Join hosts Collin Hansen and Melissa Kruger as they discuss their favorite recent reads and the top 10 theology stories of 2021. They also preview the year ahead in 2022—and reveal a surprise for 2023. Thank you for listening and encouraging us in this work! 09:20 Deconstruction 14:52 Cultural and historical shape of evangelicalism scruti...

What ails your church? Hopefully the answer doesn’t come too quickly! Hopefully your church is the picture of health, where everyone’s growing in love of God and love of neighbor. Or maybe your church has a discipleship disease. If so, then JT English can help with his new book, Deep Discipleship: How the Church Can Make Whole Disciples of Jesus, published by B&H. English serves as the lead pastor...

During the last decade, one in 20 Americans has shifted from identifying with a religion to claiming “nothing in particular.” And this group is also the least likely of any position on religion to hold at least a bachelor’s degree. Those are just two of the many findings that jump from the page in Ryan Burge’s new book,  The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going , pub...