January 7, 2025
I Binged Joe Rogan This Week …
After binge listening to the Joe Rogan podcast, Tyler McKenzie offers a few insights he gained from his listening experience.
Culture & Public Square
Culture & Public Square helps Christians think biblically about life in society and engage today’s issues with conviction and compassion. Explore articles on current events, ethics, justice, race, technology, public life, and cultural trends—grounded in Scripture and shaped by Christian wisdom. You’ll find guidance for faithful witness, thoughtful dialogue, and making disciples in a complex world, while keeping the gospel at the center. Whether you’re navigating challenging conversations or seeking clarity for ministry and daily life, these resources equip you to live and speak with grace and truth in the public square.
October 30, 2024
Who is More Religious, the Left or the Right?
The problem with political religion should be obvious. Politicians make big promises but are bad saviors. Political parties make fanatical communities but bad churches. When politics become religion, Christian unity is poisoned and our more meaningful relationships die.
September 1, 2024
Escaping the Echo Chamber
An echo chamber is an environment where the same opinions are repeatedly voiced and promoted, so that people are not exposed to opposing views. Echo chambers also extend to online groups where people with similar opinions on any topic share their voices and validate each other.
September 1, 2024
Political Engagement that Honors Jesus and Unifies the Body
There is something right and beautiful about grateful, healthy patriotism, as long as it is always subject to our greater citizenship and its responsibilities.
September 1, 2024
Honoring Christ in an Age of Outrage
In a time when so many are drunk with rage, Christians—and leaders in particular—must be sober-minded. Don’t forget that we’ve got essential and eternal kingdom work to do.
September 1, 2024
Political Engagement in the Restoration Movement: An Historical Perspective
Alexander Campbell encouraged Christians to refrain from getting too involved with governmental affairs, but he also encouraged them to use their available political means to promote Christian values in society.
January 26, 2024
YouTube Presenter Profiles Independent Christian Churches
Ready to Harvest, which conducts denominational research, has released a 27-minute video via YouTube profiling and explaining Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ. “What Are Independent Christian Churches?” was posted early this week and is being generally well received. . . .
January 1, 2024
A Society Sick Off Freedom
If you’re looking for relief from anxiety, depression, or something else, stopping the right thing can move you toward the right results.
September 18, 2023
‘I Can’ Movie to Premiere Nationwide on Friday
"I Can," a movie about Katelyn Pavey, a one-armed athlete who became an All-American softball player at Kentucky Christian University, will premiere in theaters nationwide on Friday. Katelyn’s home church, First Capital Christian Church in Corydon, Ind., produced the film. . . .
July 25, 2023
Start-up AI Platform Aims to Help Pastors Make the Most of Their Sunday Sermons
Some laud the potential of artificial intelligence to make life easier for everyone. Some fear how AI could be misused. But like it or not, it’s here—and one company is looking to bring it to the church. Michael Whittle, a California entrepreneur and lay pastor, is the founder of Pulpit AI, a soon-to-be-released platform designed to help pastors make the most of their weekly sermons. . . .
July 1, 2023
What the Restoration Movement Should Learn from Bud Light
By Jerry Harris Earlier this year, it seemed the whole country was caught up in the cancellation of Bud Light, America’s best-selling beer. The turmoil resulted from a promotion that connected the brand to Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender TikTok influencer; Bud Light sent personalized beer cans to Mulvaney celebrating both March Madness and Mulvaney’s yearlong transition to identify as a woman. Mulvaney’s videos on social media triggered a backlash that caused many Bud Light beer drinkers to reject the iconic brand. In just a few weeks, Anheuser-Busch lost $5 billion in market value, 17 percent in sales, and 21 percent
January 1, 2023
Are You a Truth-Teller?
By Kent E. Fillinger A January 2021 Lifeway Research survey found 49 percent of U.S. Protestant pastors say they frequently hear members of their congregation repeating conspiracy theories about something happening in our country. Around 1 in 8 pastors (13 percent) strongly agree their congregants are sharing conspiracy theories. WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS An October 2020 research report found that Facebook users engage with misinformation 70 million times per month on average. Though far fewer than the 2016 peak of 200 million monthly fake news engagements, it still is no small figure. On Twitter, people share false content 4 million
November 4, 2022
‘Mr. OCC’ Meredith Williams Uses Facebook Like Barnabas (and Barney Fife)
Among the 15,000 Ozark Christian College alumni, Meredith Williams is a legend. During his 46 years at OCC, Meredith wore many hats, including admissions director, alumni director, and many others. Nicknamed “Mr. OCC,” he’s been the college’s single best cheerleader, and when he retired in 2013 at age 73, his ministry didn’t stop. He just moved it to Facebook. . . .
November 1, 2022
Peace for All Seasons
By Douglas Redford (This article, reprinted here with minor updates, first appeared in Christian Standard on December 22, 1985.) During the Christmas season in 1984, an event occurred which served as a revealing commentary on the times. Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, an Anglican church leader, was in Oslo, Norway, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. But the presentation was held up for more than an hour after an anonymous telephone caller told an Oslo newspaper that a bomb had been placed in the reception hall and would explode in 10 minutes. Although a careful search turned up nothing,
September 1, 2022
The Growing Influence of Glowing Rectangles
Help Your Children Use Tech Wisely and Limit the Dangers
September 1, 2022
The White-Jesus Myth
The Historical Reality of the ‘Whitewashing’ of Christianity in America and Why It Matters By Jerome Gay Jr. On February 15, 1974, the TV show Good Times aired an episode called “Black Jesus.” Good Times featured a strong Black family with loving parents, creative children, and caring neighbors living in a Chicago housing project. The main character in the show was the flamboyant James “J.J.” Evans Jr. with his rousing signature wail, “Dy-no-miiiite!” In this episode, Florida (J.J.’s mother) became terribly upset when Michael (J.J.’s brother) hung J.J.’s painting of a Black Jesus on the wall next to the family’s
September 1, 2022
What’s the Problem with Politics in the Church?
By Ben Cachiaras Over the last two years I have listened to pastors and witnessed churches across the country share sad stories. They tell of congregations splitting, longtime members leaving, and pastors getting fired. I’ve seen tight-knit small groups blow apart, families feud, and longtime friendships abruptly end. Has this happened primarily because of major scandal in the church or moral failure? Or was it false doctrine—a refusal to recognize the divinity of Christ? Or perhaps a mishandling of Scripture? No. It was politics. We can barely even discuss politics anymore. We polarize over every issue, demonize those with differing
July 8, 2022
Lawyer, Preacher Fred Gray Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
President Joe Biden lauded Fred Gray as “one of the most important civil rights lawyers in our history” Thursday as he awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Gray, 91, is a longtime minister and elder with the noninstrumental Churches of Christ.
How God Plans to Make America (and All Nations) Great Again
Many American churchgoers are asking: “When will God bring revival to this nation and restore our Christian foundations?” The desire for a country based on Christian morality and for revival is not unlike the concern in Jesus’ day for the restoration of Israel, its freedom, and economic prosperity. . . .
July 1, 2022
The Slavery of the Digital World
How to Break the Chains and Build a Tech-Wise Life for You and Your Children By Tyler McKenzie I believe history will remember 2007 as a defining year. Why? In 2007, a nuclear-sized tech explosion occurred. Facebook transitioned from a college to global phenomenon. Twitter went global. “The cloud” took off. Hadoop began expanding the ability of any company to store and analyze enormous amounts of unstructured data (which enabled big data and cloud computing). Amazon released its first Kindle. Google introduced Android. And (drumroll please) Steve Jobs introduced the first-generation iPhone. As I mentioned in my May/June Engage column
