The Christian Chronicle Podcast

Few changes in popular culture are causing more discomfort and raising more questions in the church than how the LGBTQ+ lifestyle is going mainstream in North America. It's not just outside the church. Over the last 20 years, Christians who accept and even approve at least parts of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle increased from next to none to almost one in three today. For this reason, prominent biblic...

On September 6, 2018, off-duty Dallas police officer Amber Guyger entered the apartment of Dallas West Church of Christ member and Harding University alumnus Botham Jean. Mistaking his apartment for her own, she came through the unlocked front door, found Jean eating ice cream and watching TV on the couch, and shot him with her service weapon. Jean died and a jury later convicted Guyger of murder,...

It's been two full years since most congregations tried to "get back to normal" after COVID turned the world outside in in 2020 and 2021. Our first guest, Aaron Hill, headed up a nationwide study of how COVID is still affecting congregations and what those lingering effects portend for the future. Our second guest, American missionary Brandon Price, reports "from the ground&quo...

Few articles that The Christian Chronicle published over the last year got more comments and more buzz than a report that the Mayfair Church of Christ in Oklahoma City is becoming part of Crossings Community Church, a 9,000-member multisite congregation with roots in the non-Pentecostal Church of God. Mayfair Church of Christ was once one of the "flagship" congregations in Oklahoma City,...

New York Times columnist David French grew up in the Church of Christ, graduated from Lipscomb University (a school with deep roots and strong ties in the Church of Christ tradition), and shaped his political mind in the conservative Republicanism of the 1980s and 1990s. He began and built his legal career litigating institutions that threatened religious liberties, mostly of Christians. His exper...

When Dan and Mary Huber (NorthWest Church of Christ) found out that thousands of Afghan refugees were coming to their city of San Antonio, Texas, they chose to extend extraordinary hospitality to their new neighbors. But they soon found themselves to be not the hosts, but the honored guests of their new Afghan friends. What happens when Christians and Muslims from different cultures and faiths gat...

Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer, authors of the popular 2020 book, 'A Church Called Tov,' talk to us about their follow up book, 'PIVOT'. They answer questions about how congregations can tell if toxic traces taint their cultures, what it takes to "detox" a church, and practical steps congregations can take to start the process of culture change. Link to  PIVOT: The...

This episode picks up the "Sacred Calling" special series that covers the "minister shortage" among Church of Christ congregations in North America. We ask: Does a tradition that claims to believe in the "priesthood of all believers" (1 Peter 2:5) really have a minister shortage...or a shortage of imagination? The six guests in this episode all dared to think outside...

For 65 years, Harding University's School of Theology in Memphis, Tennessee, has been a global hub of Bible and ministry education in the Church of Christ tradition, but the school announced that it is closing the campus and moving its programs to Searcy, Arkansas. Why ...and why now? Meanwhile, a congregation is growing and the Gospel is bearing fruit in one of America's toughest neighb...

On August 7, 37 players on the Faulkner University football team gave their lives to Christ in baptism. Hear the story from coaches and a player who were there (in the water). Personal spiritual direction is emerging as a new kind of minister and ministry among both believers and seekers. What is it? How does it work? Is it right for you or members of your congregation? Two certified spiritual dir...

'The Sound of Freedom', a small-budget independent film about an agent who fights child trafficking, is the box office surprise of the summer, nearly beating out Indiana Jones. In this episode, Pam Cope, who fights child trafficking in real life, talks about what the work is like and how you can help. The Christian Chronicle's Erik Tryggestad interviews three leaders at Heritage Chr...

In his wildest dreams, Lee Camp could never imagine this! Many years ago, the professor of theology and ethics at Lipscomb University had a crazy idea: A live stage show that mixes entertainment and interviews with thinkers who address the "big questions" of life. The 'Tokens Show' first appeared on a Lipscomb University stage in 2008 and then grew until Camp moved the producti...

Even regular churchgoers skip Sunday morning worship sometimes. Scott McConnell of Lifeway Research reveals the latest survey on the top reasons folks skip church. Jeff Dye, a lifer in the Christian Church (instrumental), talks about what it was like to join an a cappella Church of Christ congregation. Dr. Dale Underwood of King's Crossing Prison Ministries tells the story of how so many pris...

God is alive and working in the world. This episode proves it. First, hear from Julia, a Russian immigrant who is ministering to hundreds of Ukrainian refugees in Houston, Texas. Then listen to Danny Mills and his wife, Heather. Danny got COVID so bad he almost died and only lived after a double lung transplant. Hear their story of survival through the grace of God, grit, and the prayers of the ch...

If the jobs section of The Christian Chronicle is any proof, more Church of Christ congregations in North America have open ministry positions than there are ministers able, ready, and willing to fill them. What is the cause of this "minister shortage"? In this episode, Christian Chronicle correspondents Cheryl Mann Bacon, Jeremie Beller, and Calvin Cockrell plunge into the "ick&quo...

For almost 40 years, Mike Cope preached in Church of Christ congregations from North Carolina to Arkansas to Texas. Now at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, he directs the annual Bible lectures, leads church relations efforts, and takes on the challenge of educating and forming a new generation of ministers and preachers. In this episode, Cope talks about the state of preachers and prea...

When the U.S. Supreme Court decided the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case on June 24, 2022, it overturned two cases, Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), that established the federal right to an abortion. For decades in the United States, many, if not most, Church of Christ members prayed, volunteered, and voted in hope that the Supreme Court would do wha...

For generations, churches in Texas passed down the tradition of Juneteenth, sometimes called "America's Second Independence Day." In this episode, Karl Berry and Curtis Phillips, elders from Cedar Hill Church of Christ in Cedar Hill, Texas, talk about how their congregation is keeping and sharing the Juneteenth tradition. The Christian Chronicle's globetrotting CEO Erik Trygges...

Jordan Coss (Redwood Church of Christ, Redwood City, California) shares his research on Church of Christ ministers and retirement. What keeps so many Church of Christ ministers from retiring (if they even finish out their ministry careers)? What can congregations and their ministers do about it? Dr. Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, an expert in contemporary Christian music and a writer for Christianity Tod...

Capt. Victor Glover, a longtime member of the Church of Christ, will pilot the Artemis 2 mission to the moon in November 2024, but it will not be his first trip to space. Capt. Glover spent 168 days in space, including 167 days aboard the International Space Station in 2020 and 2021. Few human beings know what it's like to hold to the beliefs and practices of Christianity anywhere other than...

For National Church Planting Sunday (May 21), church planters Caleb Borchers, Ron Clark, and Brendin Williamson talk about why church planting is what America (and the world) needs now and why existing congregations should be glad to see church plants come to their neighborhoods. Barry McDonald of the Caruso School of Law at Pepperdine University talks about the abortion pill and "sabbatarian...

We remember the life and work of Sister Ruth Wyrick of the Marsalis Avenue Church of Christ in Dallas, Texas. Born in the segregated South of the 1930s, Sister Wyrick used the power of hospitality and kindness to forever change politics and public service in Dallas. Shay Wyrick Cathey and Christian Chronicle board member Taneise Perry reveal how Sister Wyrick's faith, hope, and love inspired...

"All of this started when they took prayer out of schools." This is a line that host BT Irwin heard many times over the years from Christians trying to explain bad things that seem to be getting worse in the United States. While their opinion has elements of truth about it, is their solution--to restore Christianity to a preferred place of power and privilege at the center of American in...

Church and school security expert Dwayne Harris (Full Armor Church) talks about the most effective (and surprising) way to keep congregations safe. The growth of the Texas Bible Bowl reflects how young people are more interested than ever to know about Jesus. Audrey Jackson reports and we interview Texas Bible Bowl organizer Lisa Kirkwood and elementary division contender Melanie Mitchell. A cappe...

Christian Chronicle contributing editor Cheryl Mann Bacon responds to those who criticized or questioned her op-ed on defending libraries. How much control should Christians have over public institutions like libraries? Christian Chronicle intern Gabriel Grant Huff, a certified "young person," gives his take on the kind of revival young Christians seek now and how they will know when rev...