The Christian Chronicle Podcast

According to Pew Research Center , immigration is the second-most important issue to White evangelical Protestants who plan to vote in the November 2024 U.S. presidential election. Note: Pew places White Church of Christ members (7 out of 10 Church of Christ members nationwide) in the "White evangelical Protestant" research cohort. So, then, immigration may be one of the top issues for C...

The recent emergence of in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a legal and political issue is raising new ethical and moral questions among Christians. If life begins at conception, when is conception? What is a soul and when does a human being have one? Advances in science and technology mean that Christians know more about the human body than ever before, but those same advances sometimes lead to quest...

LIVE from the campus of Great Lakes Christian College in Lansing, Michigan , we bring you Dr. John Nugent , author of Priestly Presence: A Church for the World's Sake (Fortress Press) . Nugent draws from the levitical priesthood as a pattern for what God calls the church to be and do in the world, most of all during a time when the struggle for power in the world is growing acute. Link to Pri...

Almost one year before he recorded this episode, Rubel Shelly appeared on Episode 39 of The Christian Chronicle Podcast to talk about his book, Male and Female God Created Them: A Biblical Review of LGBTQ+ Claims . That remains the most popular episode of this show. Shelly returns to talk about his follow-up work, The Ink is Dry: God's Distinctive Word on Marriage, Family and Sexual Responsib...

Church of Christ kid and small-town high school athlete Colt McCoy grew up to be one of the greatest college football players of all time before going on to play 13 seasons in the National Football League . Just a few weeks before recording this conversation with The Christian Chronicle , McCoy announced his retirement from playing the sport that made him famous. In this episode, he opens up about...

Darcy Todd ( Woodland West Church of Christ , Arlington, Texas ) is the 2024 Starbucks North America Barista Champion . She recently beat out 17,000 Starbucks baristas for the title. In this episode, she'll not only tell the story of how she did it, she'll explain how working in a Starbucks is not so different from working in a church (one with exceptional coffee!). She'll even thro...

In 2010, Ose Ehimare and her four(!) unborn children faced poor chances of survival unless they could get special medical care not available where they lived in Abuja, Nigeria . God made a way for Ose to come to the U.S. to get the care she needed for herself and her children at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta . But she was 6,000 miles from home and all alone in a strange land. That's wh...

How much should you trust the people in your own congregation to not steal money? This may seem like an almost offensive question, but in this episode we explore the astonishing increase in embezzlement in congregations and ministries around the world. According to data from our guest, 1 in 3 churches will become victims of embezzlement at some point and 6 percent of all Christian giving worldwide...

S.J. Dahlstrom is one of the most award-winning and critically-acclaimed authors of youth fiction. He is the creator of the " Wilder Good " series of nine books that follow the adventures of a 12-year old boy growing up in the American West. Dahlstrom is a four-time winner of the Wrangler Western Heritage Award , five-time winner of the Will Rogers Medallion , four-time finalist for the...

Rochester Christian University , founded in 1959 as North Central Christian Junior College, has deep roots and strong ties to Churches of Christ. Like other colleges and universities in this tradition, Rochester Christian built itself around its school of ministry and theology so that its graduates would become leaders and ministers in churches around the world. In June 2024, Rochester Christian m...

In front of a live audience at Sycamore View Church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee, we interview Josh Ross, author of Coreology: Six Principles for Navigating an Election Season Without Losing Our Witness . So many things that Christians hear, read and talk about these days have to do with how they get along with political opponents or how they use their political power. In this conversation, how...

These days, politics in the United States seems to be a dividing force even among Christians. Over the last few years, how many Christians changed congregations or cut off relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ over politics? How many Christians feel, and sometimes give into, the temptation to attack other Christians because they identify with a different political figure or party? In t...

After years of decline, Hermitage Church of Christ maintain its facility at a cost of $3,000 per week while its ministry languished. So the congregation sold its building and became New Garden Church . In this episode we explore how becoming a guest in its own community changed how New Garden Church discerns God at work in Hermitage and how it ministers with its neighbors. What lessons could other...

Bestselling author ( Ghosted: An American Story ) and Church of Christ daughter Nancy French opens up about her new memoir and allegations of childhood sexual abuse by a minister. She talks about how sexual abuse happens in Christian churches and organizations and why they sometimes protect perpetrators and not their victims. And, in Christianity, where forgiveness of sins and redemption are centr...

In our first-ever show before a live audience, we're pleased to present C. Leonard Allen , author of 16 books that explore Christian life, most of all Christian life together in the church. In his latest book, a memoir titled The Bookroom: Remembrance and Forgiveness , Allen retraces the story of his lifelong search for answers to the questions that he first learned to ask as a boy in his fat...

Less than a week after an assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump , three preachers talk about how and what they preach when political violence is on the rise. Featuring: Jerrard Davis , minister, Spencer Church of Christ , Spencer, Oklahoma David Duncan , preaching minister, Memorial Church of Christ , Houston, Texas Robin Gough , preaching minister, Fairfax Church of Christ , Fair...

The attack on former president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania , on July 13 happened less than 24 hours before Church of Christ congregations began gathering for Sunday worship. The Christian Chronicle news team wanted to know if congregations prayed special prayers, elders and preachers spoke of the event from pulpits, and if the assassination attempt and what it means be...

Segment One: Audrey Jackson reports from the Church of Christ in Nazareth, Israel (with Maurice Jadon and Sandro Jadon) The Christian Chronicle's Audrey Jackson reports in from Nazareth, Israel, where she is a guest of the Church of Christ there. Arab Israeli Christians of Palestinian heritage, Maurice Jadon and Sandro Jadon, give their own accounts on the life of Christians and the church in...

Over the last few hundred years, Christians in many different places and times moved to restore the New Testament church. The Church of Christ community emerged from one of those movements that started and spread on the American frontier in the years just after the founding of the United States. In this episode, we explore how the events, ideas, and people that influenced the establishment of the...

On the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization , we explore what is happening now with abortion in the United States, in general, and the Church of Christ community in particular.  Segment One: Tessa Cox, Charlotte Lozier Institute What overall effect has the Dobbs decision had on the number of abortions happening each yea...

Segment One: Dr. Warren Blakney, North Peoria Church of Christ, Tulsa, Oklahoma The North Peoria Church of Christ recently received a $1.6 million federal grant to study the removal of one mile of Interstate 244 through the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa, Oklahoma . Senior minister Dr. Warren Blakney explains why this is the work that God is calling his congregation to do now. Link to a report on...

Segment One: Calling for peace in Gaza (James Michael Crusoe, Arlington Road Church of Christ, Hopewell Virginia) Inspired by the "message of reconciliation" in Second Corinthians 5:18-20 , 13 leaders from Church of Christ congregations in seven states and one South African province recently signed a letter calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza-Israel conflict. Their spokesperso...

Christian Chronicle CEO (and sometimes globetrotting field reporter) Erik Tryggestad calls in live (at recording time) from the street in suburban Kyiv . He reports on how the continuing war to repel Russia's invasion is testing the faith, hope, and love of the Church of Christ community in Ukraine and beyond. A test that the church seems to be more than passing with the help of God. Listen t...

A few months ago, The Wall Street Journal called Dearborn, Michigan, "America's jihad capital," a characterization that the city's mayor called "inflammatory and untrue." The fact is that Dearborn (population 110,000) is America's only major city with a majority Muslim population. Parkside Church of Christ , a congregation that grew up in Dearborn Heights and pea...

On March 3, 2020, an EF4 tornado struck Cookeville, Tennessee, in the middle of the night, taking the lives of 19 people. Among those who died was four-year old Hattie Jo Collins, the oldest daughter of Macy and Matt Collins. In this episode, Macy and Matt tell the story of what happened that night and in the "dark night of the soul" that came over them in the days, weeks, months, and ye...