Winsome Conviction

Michael Whitenton (Ph. D.) directs the Bridgebuilding Fellows program at Baylor University, a program that seeks to help students to engage in healthy and virtuous civil discourse. Michael joins today’s episode to speak with Tim and Rick about the origins and aims of the program. Today’s episode helps listeners become aware of other groups and organizations who are responding to issues of polariza...

When we move from influencing an individual to influencing a community or a body of people, the field of communication studies would say we transition from persuasion to rhetoric. In this transition, we often find ourselves in “rhetorical situations.” Tim and Rick unpack the rhetorical situation, including elements and affects of this communication event. They also discuss how skills in rhetoric c...

In this episode, Austin Suter , executive director for United? We Pray , interviews Tim on his recently released book, End the Stalemate: Move Past Cancel Culture To Meaningful Conversations (released by Tyndale House on June 18, 2024), which Tim has co-authored with Sean McDowell . Tim speaks with Austin about the purposes in writing this book, which is less about learning how to win an argument...

Some stories in the Bible are hard to understand, let alone approve. For those who are questioning and finding it difficult to trust the God of the Bible and certain historical events as recorded in the Scriptures, it helps to hear stories from people who have worked through their own questions and doubts to arrive at healthy, more firmly held beliefs and convictions. On today’s episode, History s...

Susan Lim (Ph. D.) is a history scholar and writer who decided to follow Jesus in her teenage years after having grown up in a Buddhist family. Susan joins today’s episode to share her story from Buddha to Jesus, and it’s a powerful story that has reverberated through her family. She also speaks with Tim and Rick on the similarities and differences between Buddhism and Christianity. They discuss w...

What are communication spirals and how do they contribute to the argument culture? On today’s episode, Tim and Rick discuss these patterns of negative communication and what can trigger them. They also draw from research in communication theory to suggest ways to de-escalate situations when we become perturbed, frustration boils, and we want to up the negative communication.  Show notes and a full...

Earlier this year, a convictional firestorm ensued over advice Alistair Begg, a prominent North American pastor and radio host of Truth for Life, gave to a woman about attending her grandchild's gay wedding. Bob Lepine, the on-air announcer for Truth for Life, joins today’s episode to speak with Tim and Rick about how this situation provides us with an opportunity to clarify our thinking arou...

Can principles from law and a legal education help us in our day to day disagreements with colleagues, neighbors, family and friends? Our guest today, legal professor John Inazu, thinks so, and he speaks with Rick about his newly released book, Learning To Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect . They discuss the value of legal education for learning to ge...

Isaac Adams and Austin Suter are back on the podcast to recount a significant disagreement they experienced in their friendship. They go back into the disagreement with Tim and Rick and discuss issues of contempt, interpersonal differences, complexities and wounds, and spiritual battle. They caution against a bulldozer mentality and highlight how to press into hard conversations with gentleness in...

Today’s episode is a joint podcast with the Think Biblically podcast, and we have a great conversation with artist and Connecticut state representative Treneé McGee, who is a pro-life member of the Democratic Party. Rep. McGee has a knack for holding together responsibilities and convictions that don’t often go together in our current political climate - artist/politician and pro-life/Democrat. Sh...

Isaac Adams and Austin Suter join today’s episode to discuss the challenges and camaraderie they’ve experienced in their interracial friendship. They speak with Tim and Rick about the beginnings of their friendship and the importance of having an established relationship when the difficulties and disagreements hit, which inevitably occur. They discuss the relational elbow grease that is required f...

On this segment of Reports From The Front, two of Tim’s students, Helena and Carson, who are studying Communications at Biola University, discuss their recent experience on Unify America. They seized the opportunity to speak with their political opposites on contested issues, including abortion, and they speak with Tim and Rick about what it was like. Over the course of the conversation they also...

Today on the podcast we have another segment of Reports From The Front, a positive story of someone who is doing things right. Tim and Rick speak with Abby Ferguson, Director of Partnerships with Unify America, on the challenges of communicating personal convictions to people we disagree with as well as progress Unify America is seeing with students who participate in the Unify Challenge College B...

Jim Davis, pastor and co-author of the recent book, The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back , is back on the podcast to speak with Tim and Rick about some of the reasons why people are leaving churches. They talk about the role incivility, poor communication, “clustering,” and online habits play in the process of dechurching. They also ref...

Through our connections with CRU, a ministry that engages students and faculty on college campuses across the U.S., the Winsome Conviction Project received an invitation to provide training for a student group at UC Berkeley on how to have winsome conversations with people who hold opposing views. Tim and Rick reflect on this learning experience and the key questions and issues discussed among the...

In 2 Corinthians 5:20, the Apostle Paul tells Christians they are “ambassadors for Christ.” Ambassadorship is part of our Christian identity. Paul wrote these words a long time ago, so what does it look like to be an ambassador today? On this episode, communication theorist Tim Downs returns to the podcast to discuss this question with Tim and Rick. They discuss the difference between citizenship...

Conflict in relationships is unavoidable. Healthy and successful relationships know how to counteract unhealthy communication styles and adopt alternative forms of discourse to work through the conflict. On this episode, Tim and Rick discuss John Gottman’s famous metaphor for unhealthy communication styles that lead to failure in relationships, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They unpack each...

American psychologist John Gottman has a knack for discerning healthy arguments from unhealthy ones, and he is known for identifying pattern markers that spell doom for a relationship. On this episode, Tim and Rick draw key insights from Gottman’s body of research on disagreement in relationships and patterns of healthy communication and discuss application for civility and unity in disagreement,...

Culture changes, and rapid shifts in culture generate challenges in communication. Although the truth of the Gospel is timeless, Christians should do their homework on changes in culture and figure out how to shape the Good News so that it is hearable. On today’s episode, Tim and Rick are joined by Tim Down, author, cartoonist and communication theorist. They discuss both timeless and changing met...

Jim Davis, pastor and co-author of the recent book, The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back , comes on the podcast to talk about the current and fastest religious shift going on in America. Tim and Rick speak with Jim about a comprehensive study he help conduct looking at people who are leaving churches and the reasons why they are leaving...

We’re revisiting a question we frequently get: “Why bother talking to somebody if you aren’t going to change their mind?” Especially in the argument culture, conversing with someone who won’t change their mind can seem pointless, an exercise in futility. While persuading someone to change their mind is a good and worthy goal in a conversation, and sometimes people’s opinions need to be changed, it...

Tim Keller was a pastor in New York City who had enormous influence far beyond the city limits. He died of pancreatic cancer in May 2023. One of his many influences that is sure to endure will be on how engage public life with faithful Christian witness. On this episode, Tim and Rick share lessons they have learned from Tim Keller on representing the Christian faith and Christian convictions with...

Why bother having a discussion if the other party isn’t going to change their mind? Fair question, and it’s one we get a lot. So, let’s consider what makes the struggle of sticking with it worth it. On this episode, Tim and Rick discuss what to keep in mind when a disagreement appears pointless and going nowhere, and they highlight that appearances of futility oftentimes yield fruitful learning an...

It can get messy when you seek to have a faithful presence in your community and love your neighbors while holding to your theological convictions. Greg Stump, pastor at Redeemer Church in La Mirada, CA, is back on the podcast to talk through how he navigated having faithful presence when presented with a great ministry opportunity in his neighborhood. Greg, Tim and Rick then shift gears and have...

“Can we love our neighbors if we don’t even know them?” This question helped to kickstart a summertime series on interfaith conversations at Redeemer Church in La Mirada, CA, to engage people and leaders of different faiths in the community. On this segment of Reports From The Front , Greg Stump, executive pastor at Redeemer Church discusses these Redeemer Conversations with Tim and Rick . Greg sh...