An Interview with Paul Dirks
Everyday Conversations Podcast
The 2020 COVID pandemic proved to be a watershed for the entire world. Suddenly, it has become much harder to dismiss fears that a worldwide anti-Christian totalitarianism lurks just over the horizon, and western Christians have new questions. How, for instance, are we to respond to government shutdowns of churches, or live as Christians in a digitized world where governments can follow your every move? And how do Christian parents raise godly children in a world that promotes the grossest forms of immorality to kindergartners? To answer these questions, and more, Vancouver pastor-writer...
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Audio Blog 060: Necessary Medicine: but No One Wants to Take It
Everyday Conversations Podcast
Doug Wilson has never written an inconsequential book, and Gashmu Saith It: How to Build Christian Communities that Save the World, is no exception. As FBB writer Shafer Parker blogs through Wilson's book, he comes this week to Chapter 6, in which Wilson argues that any hope of saving the world depends on Christian parents giving their children a truly Christian education. The challenge for today is heightened as Wilson proves from history that many of our present cultural problems stem from the principles built into public education at its beginning! There can be no saving the world, he...
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Audio Blog 059: The Critical Need for Christian Community
Everyday Conversations Podcast
Christians often look back with longing to a time when their faith was truly influential, shaping the laws of nations and guiding societal decisions. But those days are long gone and Idaho pastor/author Doug Wilson (Gashmu Saith It) warns they are not coming back---unless Christians relearn the value of forming Christian communities for hospitality and service within the larger community of man. As FBB writer Shafer Parker continues blogging through Wilson's book, he points out that it is only in those moments of direct contact with the Christian community that people see the value of the...
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Audio Blog 058: Does Shame Get a Bad Rap?
Everyday Conversations Podcast
It should surprise no one that unbelievers proudly boast of perversions and habitual sins that in the past would have embarrassed the most decadent. And some of our readers may be old enough to remember when "shameless" was one of the worst criticisms you could aim at someone. This decline in public life is bad enough, but in her most recent blog FBB Executive Director Julie Lane points out that shamelessness is too often lauded among Christians. It is time, she says, for God's people to realize that He designed us to feel shame for sin, and that we do nothing less than our Christian duty when...
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Audio Blog 057: Blogging Gashmu: From Whence Cometh Love and Justice?
Everyday Conversations Podcast
This is our fifth installment of "Blogging Gashmu," a chapter-by-chapter look at Pastor Doug Wilson's book Gashmu Saith It: How to Build Christian Communities that Save the World. In it Pastor Wilson argues that before we can "save the world" we must first be certain the church is truly a Christian Community. And there's the rub. As Wilson explains in chapter 4, the problem is that Christians want the blessings of Christ without rendering Him the total obedience He requires. In other words, we have to live the Lordship of Christ before we can successfully preach the hard truths of Christ to a...
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Audio Blog 056: Thoughts Toward the Next Pandemic
Everyday Conversations Podcast
To the great relief of most, it's been a year since COVID was tacitly, if not officially, acknowledged to be over. But amidst signs that government authorities are anticipating another crisis, FBB board member Murray Lytle offers a very personal blog mourning the divisions that afflicted the people of God last time and pleading for serious thought on how to avoid even worse divisions in the future.
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Audio Blog 055: Blogging Gashmu: Three Necessities for Christian Community
Everyday Conversations Podcast
Most followers of Jesus give lip service, at least, to the need to "preach the gospel to every creature." But in the last decade many have awakened to the reality that if Christians don't do something, much could be lost--maybe forever. But what to do, was never quite clear, until, that is, when Idaho pastor Doug Wilson wrote his book Gashmu Saith It: How to Build Christian Communities that Save the World. To find out what Christians must do before saving the world, read FBB writer Shafer Parker's fourth installment as he blogs his way through Wilson's book.
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Everything is Surprisingly Better: The Dobbs Decision One Year On
Everyday Conversations Podcast
Approximately a year ago, on June 21, 2022, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ("Dobbs" for short) that restored to the 50 states their constitutional right to determine their own abortion laws. In this podcast Faith Beyond Belief host Shafer Parker interviews Gabrielle Johnson, executive director of the Alberta Life Issues Education Society (Alies) to examine the changes wrought south of the Canadian border by this momentous decision. Parker and Johnson also discuss Alies' unique ministry and touch on the need for...
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Audio Blog 054: Blogging Gashmu: Will Christians Pay the Price to Save the World?
Everyday Conversations Podcast
Christians instinctively realize that we have failed to maintain the "Faith" in the West. But for most of us, how to address this state of affairs remains a mystery. Read part three of FBB writer Shafer Parker's blog of Doug Wilson's book "Gashmu Saith It: How to Build Christian Communities that Save the World." Discover how Wilson challenges us to examine ourselves and to find out if we are willing to pay the price our forefathers paid in order to have any hope of recapturing our world for the kingdom.
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The Connection Between Biblical Doctrine and Effective Ministry
Everyday Conversations Podcast
Many observers are aware that something is wrong with the modern church, especially when compared to previous centuries. Unlike previous centuries, it lacks the power to impact society in any specifically Christian way, it wins few souls to Christ, it cannot hold its members' children, and the members it does hold are increasingly like the rest of the world in practice, if not in belief. Worst of all, it has no idea where to turn for solutions. But now, in this podcast FBB speaker/writer Shafer Parker suggest there is a tried, but true solution, a return to God through repentance and...
info_outlineIn this week's Everyday Conversations Podcast, Jojo Ruba and Shafer Parker discuss popular Youtube hosts, Rhett and Link. The hosts are known by many young people for funny bits, video game commentary and popular culture references. What many didn't know was that the two best friends used to be Evangelical Christians who even worked for Cru formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ. This month, their podcast took a serious note as Rhett explained how he and his family left the faith because of doubts that the Christian story was true. In this week's podcast Jojo and Shafer use Rhett's testimony to explain how we can respond in everyday conversations, to those thinking of leaving the faith and give some advice if you find yourself in the same shoes as Rhett.