In this episode, James and Nate sit down with Brock Simmons. Brock is the founder of the Always Present Institute. He has many years of experience in executive coaching and organizational development. James, Nate, and Brock discuss the importance of leadership and the various ways of approaching leadership within organizations and within the church. 

Thinking Christian is hosted by Dr. James Spencer, president of the D. L. Moody Center and author of Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press). Each conversation reads the Bible as the final authority for life and faith, questioning the assumptions of our culture, even our Christian culture, so that we don't settle for a narrower vision than God's word offers.

Unsettling convention. Cultivating conviction.
Episodes, articles, and questions: thinkingchristian.org
About James Spencer: thinkingchristian.org/james
The Thinking Christian Framework: thinkingchristian.org/framework
Order Digital Discernment: amazon.com

Subscribe: YouTube · Apple Podcasts · Spotify

Advertising and partnership inquiries: info@thinkingchristian.org

Find out more about Brock and his work at https://www.alwayspresent.institute/who-we-are.

In this episode, James and Nate sit down with Brock Simmons. Brock is the founder of the Always Present Institute. He has many years of experience in executive coaching and organizational development. James, Nate, and Brock discuss the importance of leadership and the various ways of approaching leadership within organizations and within the church.&nbsp;
Thinking Christian is hosted by Dr. James Spencer, president of the D. L. Moody Center and author of Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press). Each conversation reads the Bible as the final authority for life and faith, questioning the assumptions of our culture, even our Christian culture, so that we don't settle for a narrower vision than God's word offers.
Unsettling convention. Cultivating conviction. Episodes, articles, and questions: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/">thinkingchristian.org</a> About James Spencer: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/james">thinkingchristian.org/james</a> The Thinking Christian Framework: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/framework">thinkingchristian.org/framework</a> Order Digital Discernment: <a href="https://amzn.to/4zf0Xsm">amazon.com</a>
Subscribe: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ThinkingChristian?sub_confirmation=1">YouTube</a> &middot; <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thinking-christian-clear-theology-for-a-confusing-world/id1712162582">Apple Podcasts</a> &middot; <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3PCi6K1PjPXzhrNVGAPTLX">Spotify</a>
Advertising and partnership inquiries: <a href="mailto:info@thinkingchristian.org">info@thinkingchristian.org</a>
Find out more about Brock and his work at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alwayspresent.institute/who-we-are">https://www.alwayspresent.institute/who-we-are</a>.

Christians shouldn’t just think. They should think Christian. Join Dr. James Spencer and guests for calm, thoughtful, theological discussions about a variety of topics Christians face every day. The Thinking Christian Podcast will help you grow spiritually and learn theology as you seek to be faithful in a world that is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny Christ.

Find more from James at https://www.thinkingchristian.org/.

Christians shouldn&rsquo;t just think. They should think Christian. Join Dr. James Spencer and guests for calm, thoughtful, theological discussions about a variety of topics Christians face every day. The Thinking Christian Podcast will help you grow spiritually and learn theology as you seek to be faithful in a world that is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny Christ.
Find more from James at <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/">https://www.thinkingchristian.org/</a>.

Christians shouldn’t just think. They should think Christian. Join Dr. James Spencer and guests for calm, thoughtful, theological discussions about a variety of topics Christians face every day. The Thinking Christian Podcast will help you grow spiritually and learn theology as you seek to be faithful in a world that is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny Christ.

Thinking Christian: Clear Theology for a Confusing World

Christians shouldn&rsquo;t just think. They should think Christian. Join Dr. James Spencer and guests for calm, thoughtful, theological discussions about a variety of topics Christians face every day. The Thinking Christian Podcast will help you grow spiritually and learn theology as you seek to be faithful in a world that is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny Christ.
Find more from James at <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/">https://www.thinkingchristian.org/</a>.

The Importance of Leadership (Brock Simmons)

In 1942, Karl Barth was asked to write to Christians in the United States. He didn't know the American context well, so he asked his hosts to send him the questions they were actually wrestling with. James Spencer and Ashish Varma work through the first of them: how can a Christian be a loyal citizen of a national state and a loyal member of a church that transcends national interests?

Barth's answer turns on a distinction between the national state and what he calls the righteous state — the God-instituted order the church prays toward when it prays for God's will on earth. James and Ashish trace what that means in practice: that a state serving only its own interests forfeits any claim to righteousness, that the church is not identical with the kingdom it hopes for, and that protest and resistance are forms of loyalty rather than betrayals of it.

The conversation sets Barth against the German Christian church of his day, the Augustinian figure of the pilgrim, Jeremiah's shock that God would use Babylon, and the question of what any of it means at a ballot box. First of a series on the letter.

Chapters (approximate, from speaker turns — verify against the final cut):

00:00 The backstory: why Barth wrote this letter

02:19 Question one: loyal citizen, loyal to the church universal

03:25 Is the nation state a recent invention?

04:55 The righteous state and the kingdom of God

08:13 The church hopes for the kingdom but isn't identical with it

13:31 Volk, blood, and the purity of the land

19:32 Reading Barth: resist everything incompatible

24:37 Why resistance is loyalty, not betrayal

26:26 The state that serves only itself ceases to be righteous

28:16 Empire, India, and the limits of the good-guy story 34:07 No white hats and black hats

39:26 "Righteous" in scare quotes

41:45 "We shall have our hands full" 

43:57 Jeremiah, Babylon, and God using pagan nations

47:18 Augustine's pilgrim: belonging to a place without being owned by it

51:37 Narrowing, and what the church broadens 54:49 Single-issue voting and playing by the world's rules

Tags/keywords: Karl Barth, Letter to American Christians, Barth 1942, Christian nationalism, church and state, kingdom of God, German Christian church, Confessing Church, Bonhoeffer, Augustine pilgrim, political theology, Christian citizenship, single-issue voting, Christians and politics

Follow and subscribe

Subscribe to Thinking Christian: https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org 

Website: www.thinkingchristian.org 

In 1942, Karl Barth was asked to write to Christians in the United States. He didn't know the American context well, so he asked his hosts to send him the questions they were actually wrestling with. James Spencer and Ashish Varma work through the first of them: how can a Christian be a loyal citizen of a national state and a loyal member of a church that transcends national interests?
Barth's answer turns on a distinction between the national state and what he calls the righteous state &mdash; the God-instituted order the church prays toward when it prays for God's will on earth. James and Ashish trace what that means in practice: that a state serving only its own interests forfeits any claim to righteousness, that the church is not identical with the kingdom it hopes for, and that protest and resistance are forms of loyalty rather than betrayals of it.
The conversation sets Barth against the German Christian church of his day, the Augustinian figure of the pilgrim, Jeremiah's shock that God would use Babylon, and the question of what any of it means at a ballot box. First of a series on the letter.
Chapters (approximate, from speaker turns &mdash; verify against the final cut):
00:00 The backstory: why Barth wrote this letter
02:19 Question one: loyal citizen, loyal to the church universal
03:25 Is the nation state a recent invention?
04:55 The righteous state and the kingdom of God
08:13 The church hopes for the kingdom but isn't identical with it
13:31 Volk, blood, and the purity of the land
19:32 Reading Barth: resist everything incompatible
24:37 Why resistance is loyalty, not betrayal
26:26 The state that serves only itself ceases to be righteous
28:16 Empire, India, and the limits of the good-guy story 34:07 No white hats and black hats
39:26 "Righteous" in scare quotes
41:45 "We shall have our hands full"&nbsp;
43:57 Jeremiah, Babylon, and God using pagan nations
47:18 Augustine's pilgrim: belonging to a place without being owned by it
51:37 Narrowing, and what the church broadens 54:49 Single-issue voting and playing by the world's rules
Tags/keywords: Karl Barth, Letter to American Christians, Barth 1942, Christian nationalism, church and state, kingdom of God, German Christian church, Confessing Church, Bonhoeffer, Augustine pilgrim, political theology, Christian citizenship, single-issue voting, Christians and politics
Follow and subscribe
Subscribe to Thinking Christian: <a href="https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org">https://episodes.thinkingchristian.org</a>&nbsp;
Website: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org">www.thinkingchristian.org</a>&nbsp;

Karl Barth's Letter to American Christians (1942) | Faith and Politics #8

Michael McDuffee — formerly professor of historical theology at Moody Bible Institute, now living in Germany — joins James Spencer and Ashish Varma for the seventh episode in the faith and politics series.

The conversation starts with an essay by Jürgen Habermas. Habermas, a lifelong child of the Enlightenment, found himself after 2001 asking whether reason alone could carry the weight of a public ethics, and began describing modern societies as post-secular. McDuffie uses that as a way into the collapse of secularization theory: the assumption that modernization would inevitably shrink religion turned out to describe Europe, not the world.

His sharper claim is that the secular was never a neutral condition but a strategy — a way of categorizing peoples and ideas that maintained a particular hegemony, and one whose vulnerability has opened room for voices it had kept out.

They apply this to America, which McDuffee argues was post-secular before the term existed. The last stretch takes on 1776 and 1619 together, arguing both frameworks share a blind spot, and ends on coveting, idolatry, and Francis of Assisi as a model for finding a voice.

Go deeper: Christians & Politics

Thinking Christian is hosted by Dr. James Spencer, president of the D. L. Moody Center and author of Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press). Each conversation reads the Bible as the final authority for life and faith, questioning the assumptions of our culture, even our Christian culture, so that we don't settle for a narrower vision than God's word offers.

Unsettling convention. Cultivating conviction.
Episodes, articles, and questions: thinkingchristian.org
About James Spencer: thinkingchristian.org/james
The Thinking Christian Framework: thinkingchristian.org/framework
Order Digital Discernment: amazon.com

Advertising and partnership inquiries: info@thinkingchristian.org

Chapters:

00:00 Introductions

01:19 Habermas and an awareness of what is missing

06:21 Durkheim, France, and the durability of religion

08:38 Why secularization theory described Europe, not the world

11:43 Liberalism, neoliberalism, and the sovereign individual

17:47 Post-secular doesn't mean the secular is over

21:28 The secular as a deliberate strategy

25:00 From Hellenized being to deism to history to ideology

31:44 What post-secular opens up

37:31 Postmodernism gave voices the chops

45:50 A nation with the soul of a church

51:20 1776 and 1619 share a blind spot

57:17 Creation, not nature

1:00:27 Coveting, idolatry, and the inclusio of the Decalogue

 

Michael McDuffee &mdash; formerly professor of historical theology at Moody Bible Institute, now living in Germany &mdash; joins James Spencer and Ashish Varma for the seventh episode in the faith and politics series.
The conversation starts with an essay by J&uuml;rgen Habermas. Habermas, a lifelong child of the Enlightenment, found himself after 2001 asking whether reason alone could carry the weight of a public ethics, and began describing modern societies as post-secular. McDuffie uses that as a way into the collapse of secularization theory: the assumption that modernization would inevitably shrink religion turned out to describe Europe, not the world.
His sharper claim is that the secular was never a neutral condition but a strategy &mdash; a way of categorizing peoples and ideas that maintained a particular hegemony, and one whose vulnerability has opened room for voices it had kept out.
They apply this to America, which McDuffee argues was post-secular before the term existed. The last stretch takes on 1776 and 1619 together, arguing both frameworks share a blind spot, and ends on coveting, idolatry, and Francis of Assisi as a model for finding a voice.
Go deeper: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/series/christians-politics">Christians &amp; Politics</a>
Thinking Christian is hosted by Dr. James Spencer, president of the D. L. Moody Center and author of Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press). Each conversation reads the Bible as the final authority for life and faith, questioning the assumptions of our culture, even our Christian culture, so that we don't settle for a narrower vision than God's word offers.
Unsettling convention. Cultivating conviction. Episodes, articles, and questions: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/">thinkingchristian.org</a> About James Spencer: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/james">thinkingchristian.org/james</a> The Thinking Christian Framework: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/framework">thinkingchristian.org/framework</a> Order Digital Discernment: <a href="https://amzn.to/4zf0Xsm">amazon.com</a>
Advertising and partnership inquiries: <a href="mailto:info@thinkingchristian.org">info@thinkingchristian.org</a>
Chapters:
00:00 Introductions
01:19 Habermas and an awareness of what is missing
06:21 Durkheim, France, and the durability of religion
08:38 Why secularization theory described Europe, not the world
11:43 Liberalism, neoliberalism, and the sovereign individual
17:47 Post-secular doesn't mean the secular is over
21:28 The secular as a deliberate strategy
25:00 From Hellenized being to deism to history to ideology
31:44 What post-secular opens up
37:31 Postmodernism gave voices the chops
45:50 A nation with the soul of a church
51:20 1776 and 1619 share a blind spot
57:17 Creation, not nature
1:00:27 Coveting, idolatry, and the inclusio of the Decalogue
&nbsp;

The Secular Was a Strategy | Faith & Politics #7

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/5e27a451-e6e6-4c51-aa03-a7370003783c/clips/9fc78f27-a08f-45be-ac8d-b4b3014d0ee0/transcript

James Spencer and Ashish Varma debrief their conversation with William Cavanaugh, and work out what he was and wasn't saying.

They start with a tension: Cavanaugh sounded gentler in conversation than his books read, and both men try to account for it. The answer they land on has to do with audience — that Torture and Eucharist and Being Consumed are written to people who need to resist, while the broader project is aimed at those of us sitting near the center of a global economic order who don't notice we're being formed at all.

Much of the episode turns on Cavanaugh's remark that he couldn't answer a question about the midterms without sounding partisan. James and Ashish read that carefully: not as a coded endorsement, but as a recognition that theological convictions will sometimes land incidentally on one side of a two-party ballot without originating there.

From there they recover the older sense of politics — the life of the polis — through a piece of litter on the ground, a squirrel in the road, and Hebrews on efforts that matter without being ultimate.

Go deeper: Christians & Politics

Thinking Christian is hosted by Dr. James Spencer, president of the D. L. Moody Center and author of Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press). Each conversation reads the Bible as the final authority for life and faith, questioning the assumptions of our culture, even our Christian culture, so that we don't settle for a narrower vision than God's word offers.

Unsettling convention. Cultivating conviction.
Episodes, articles, and questions: thinkingchristian.org
About James Spencer: thinkingchristian.org/james
The Thinking Christian Framework: thinkingchristian.org/framework
Order Digital Discernment: amazon.com

Advertising and partnership inquiries: info@thinkingchristian.org

Chapters:

00:00 Why he sounded softer than he reads

02:23 The nation state as an ideology, not a neutral container

04:33 Why Cavanaugh reaches for idolatry

07:14 Formation, identity, and voices from the periphery

10:16 "I'm not sure I can answer that without sounding partisan"

16:52 Incidental alignment isn't partisanship

20:52 Recovering the polis

26:26 The litter on the ground

29:35 Creation care and the squirrel in the road

36:00 Amazon, Target, and picking your poison

40:13 Politics as art rather than science

44:16 We don't fix the world; we live faithfully in it

48:15 The fall as an optimistic doctrine

51:04 Hebrews: effort that matters without being ultimate

James Spencer and Ashish Varma debrief their conversation with William Cavanaugh, and work out what he was and wasn't saying.
They start with a tension: Cavanaugh sounded gentler in conversation than his books read, and both men try to account for it. The answer they land on has to do with audience &mdash; that Torture and Eucharist and Being Consumed are written to people who need to resist, while the broader project is aimed at those of us sitting near the center of a global economic order who don't notice we're being formed at all.
Much of the episode turns on Cavanaugh's remark that he couldn't answer a question about the midterms without sounding partisan. James and Ashish read that carefully: not as a coded endorsement, but as a recognition that theological convictions will sometimes land incidentally on one side of a two-party ballot without originating there.
From there they recover the older sense of politics &mdash; the life of the polis &mdash; through a piece of litter on the ground, a squirrel in the road, and Hebrews on efforts that matter without being ultimate.
Go deeper: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/series/christians-politics">Christians &amp; Politics</a>
Thinking Christian is hosted by Dr. James Spencer, president of the D. L. Moody Center and author of Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press). Each conversation reads the Bible as the final authority for life and faith, questioning the assumptions of our culture, even our Christian culture, so that we don't settle for a narrower vision than God's word offers.
Unsettling convention. Cultivating conviction. Episodes, articles, and questions: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/">thinkingchristian.org</a> About James Spencer: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/james">thinkingchristian.org/james</a> The Thinking Christian Framework: <a href="https://www.thinkingchristian.org/framework">thinkingchristian.org/framework</a> Order Digital Discernment: <a href="https://amzn.to/4zf0Xsm">amazon.com</a>
Advertising and partnership inquiries: <a href="mailto:info@thinkingchristian.org">info@thinkingchristian.org</a>
Chapters:
00:00 Why he sounded softer than he reads
02:23 The nation state as an ideology, not a neutral container
04:33 Why Cavanaugh reaches for idolatry
07:14 Formation, identity, and voices from the periphery
10:16 "I'm not sure I can answer that without sounding partisan"
16:52 Incidental alignment isn't partisanship
20:52 Recovering the polis
26:26 The litter on the ground
29:35 Creation care and the squirrel in the road
36:00 Amazon, Target, and picking your poison
40:13 Politics as art rather than science
44:16 We don't fix the world; we live faithfully in it
48:15 The fall as an optimistic doctrine
51:04 Hebrews: effort that matters without being ultimate

Politics as an Art, Not a Science | Faith & Politics #6

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/5e27a451-e6e6-4c51-aa03-a7370003783c/clips/50bfa863-2370-465a-bee2-b4b301433dad/transcript

The Importance of Leadership (Brock Simmons)

In 1 playlist(s)

Thinking Christian: Clear Theology for a Confusing World

Social links

Follow podcast

Recent clips