Hill Country Institute Live: Exploring Christ and Culture

Send us Fan Mail Seen in its proper light, the market order is as awe-inspiring as a sunset or a perfect eclipse. It might not be enough to convince a skeptic that God exists, but surely the believer should see in it God’s glory. At the very least, it should settle the question: Can a Christian support free enterprise? The answer is surely yes. — Jay Wesley Richards, Money, Greed, and God: The Chr...

Send us Fan Mail Pastor Dukes is a friend and classmate of Larry's from junior high school and high school. In this interview, Larry and Pastor Dukes discuss their experiences growing up in a small town in Texas and going through integration together. Pastor Phillip M Dukes is African American and Larry is European American, so their lives as young people were quite different. Black people we...

Send us Fan Mail Ed Brown is Director and CEO of Care of Creation, an organization which partners with the Lausanne Movement and the World Evangelical Alliance to encourage Christian stewardship of God’s good creation. Ed has recently completed a series of twelve consultations around the world with pastors and leaders in various geophysical areas to address how the Body of Christ might come to bet...

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Send us Fan Mail Living a Holy Life is an aspect of our calling as Christians. Have you ever considered how we treat our garbage as a part of being Holy? We’re called to take care of God’s good creation, but trash and waste encroach on the beauty of the earth and its capacity to support life. Caleb Haynes is the author of Garbage Theology: The Unseen World of Waste and What It Means to Every Perso...

Send us Fan Mail Larry talks with Frank McCamant, independent consultant with over 35 years’ experience as a leader in the electric power market in Texas. He works with many participants in the market for electricity-evaluating investment opportunities, structuring joint ventures, advising on regulatory issues, and more. They discuss how he lives his Christian faith in the workplace, the complexit...

Send us Fan Mail Larry chats with Emily Jansen, author of A Wilder Eden: How to Keep Dreaming in a World of Disappointment.  Emily encourages us to acknowledge the dreams which have not worked out, to step into our own identity and uniqueness as a beloved child of God, and to step into a new place, a place of yieldedness to God, a place she refers to as "A Wilder Eden". In her book, Emil...

Send us Fan Mail Perspectives of an African American and a European American on growing up in a town with Jim Crow restrictions such as white only restrooms and closing the separate schools for black students when Greenville, TX, integrated.

Send us Fan Mail Eric Bryant, Pastor of Gateway South in Austin and author of "Not Like Me: Learning to Love, Serve and Influence Our Divided World", interviews Larry on environmental stewardship. They discuss the biblical calling to care for God's good creation, the issues we face today, and how the Body of Christ can be involved in solutions to those problems. We consider caring f...

Send us Fan Mail Larry speaks with Dr. Reyes about her new book and how we learn from people with diverse cultural backgrounds and develop relationships, and how Christmas traditions from other cultures can both help us to better understand aspects of the Advent and Christmas stories and how diverse cultures celebrate this special time.

Send us Fan Mail Larry talks with Richard Battle, award-winning author of eight books,  advisor to for-profit and non-profit organizations, and an accomplished speaker, about vocational calling, service, and trusting Christ in difficult times. 

Send us Fan Mail In both Austin and San Antonio, there have been recent outbreaks of anti-semitic acts including banners with anti-Semitic language hung by members of a hate group on overpasses in areas with large Jewish populations, a fire set at a local synagogue, hate speech painted on the parking lot of a local high school, and others. How is a Christian to respond to such heinous acts? Are al...

Send us Fan Mail Larry talks with Father Matt about the life experiences and culture which have impacted those who are under forty. What influences this age cohort-Millennials and Gen Z-to hear, resist, or embrace the gospel message? And for Christians under forty, what are they seeking in the church? They discuss community, the impact of technology, seeking justice, and more. 

Send us Fan Mail Larry talks with Liuan about how we can broaden our understanding of the life of Asian Americans. What is the history and current place of Asian Americans in the US, and in the church? What would Asian Americans want us to know about their lives and how they are treated? How has Covid contributed to increased prejudice and violence against Asian Americans? How might we come alongs...

Send us Fan Mail Larry and Jon will discuss the vocational calling of caring for creation, as well as how each of us can personally participate in this Biblical mandate. They also consider some of the environmental issues which are common to both Michigan-Au Sable’s home base-and Texas, including industrial, plastic, and air pollution, algae blooms and dead zones, and the impact of a warming earth...

Send us Fan Mail Larry and John discuss what it means to be made in the Image of God, our identity based in our relationship to Christ, and some issues of our times including sexual orientation, gender identity and racial relations. 

Send us Fan Mail Winter Storm Uri, Icepocalyse, the Big Freeze in February — whatever you call it, we in Austin are still trying to understand what happened and how to prepare for the future to avoid power outages. Frank McCamant returns to Hill Country Institute Live to update us on what the data has revealed, plans that are being made for the future of the electric power grid in Texas, and the i...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Hugh Ross and Larry discuss his book, Weathering Climate Change: A Fresh Approach. The natural history of the earth shows substantial volatility in its climate. However, for the last 9,500 years, humans have benefited from climate stability and civilization has flourished. How did the activities of man slow the global cooling which would have been consistent with the cycle of...

Send us Fan Mail Alan Graham, Visionary, Founder, and CEO of Mobile Loaves and Fishes and Community First! Village, discusses with Larry why and how people fall into homelessness; how the community lives together with respect and dignity; the micro-enterprises which many in Community First! operate (artisans, blacksmiths, and more); Genesis Garden, where they raise organic vegetables, fruits and n...

Send us Fan Mail Larry interviews Winn Collier, author of A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson . Winn was one of many pastors who Pastor Peterson mentored. They had a long-term friendship and Winn was granted exclusive access to his personal papers to write the biography. Larry and Winn discuss the influences on Pastor Peterson’s life and spirituality, his personal...

Send us Fan Mail Is artificial intelligence a welcome addition to our advancing knowledge and capacity to improve human life or an uncontrollable force that will dominate our lives? Jay Richards, author of The Human Advantage: The Future of American Work in an Age of Smart Machines, reviews the history of technological advances and the benefits which they offer to our lives and society, even as we...

Send us Fan Mail Joe Pojman, Executive Director of the Texas Alliance for Life, updates us on pro-life legislation which is currently in process in the Texas Legislature. Joe is asking for all of us to call our State Representatives in support of the seven pro-life bills which have passed out of the Senate to the House, including Senate Bill’s 8, 9, 394, 650, 802, 1173, and 1657. For additional de...

Send us Fan Mail How did the agricultural producers in Texas fare in Icepocalypse, now officially known as Winter Storm Uri? Will we have beef, grapefruit, and other food items from Texas in the future? How do farmers and ranchers prepare for the weather extremes we are experiencing including the ongoing drought? How much did the storm cost our agricultural community in Texas? How do the losses co...

Send us Fan Mail When most of us went to bed on Sunday night, Feb. 14, the power was on and we enjoyed pleasant dreams. In the early morning hours on Monday, Feb. 15th, the dreams, and the power, were gone. What happened? How does the electric market work in Texas? What is ERCOT and the PUC and what do they do? Power generators, transmission companies, and distribution companies bringing power to...

Send us Fan Mail John Hall, a longtime Texas leader who brings businesses, elected officials, and community leaders together to grow jobs, restore and maintain clean air and water, and take care of those who are poor and suffer most from pollution, is our featured guest on this episode of Hill Country Institute Live. We discuss the impact of John’s faith on his career, air quality issues (the five...