Christian Civics Podcast

An invitation to meet the Christian Civics team in Washington, DC, plus an exclusive prayer from our newsletter and information on how to support our mission this Christmas season.

Last week, the White House signaled support for bipartisan criminal justice reform, a stark departure from the Justice Department's position just a month earlier. The story of how that happened is a long and winding one, but the issue itself is central to how we understand the Christian faith. Pastor Dominique DuBois Gilliard, author of the provocative RETHINKING INCARCERATION, joins us to share a little bit about why this issue seems to frustrate so many people across the political spectrum and what it has to do with our identity as Christians.

For the next few weeks, pundits are going to love discussing the voting patterns of suburban voters, urban voters, rural voters. But all of that analysis is going to be inherently limited unless it takes into account that those aren't just the places we vote—they also might be the reasons we vote the way we do. Author and theologian Craig Bartholomew and pastor William McGee help us get a fuller understanding of our relationships to our towns.

If the only evidence of Christian growth in our lives is that it is changing the way we deal with politics, then we aren't actually experiencing Christian growth—we're impersonating it.

This episode features exclusive content that didn't make it into Christian Civics Executive Director Rick Barry's recent presentation at the Gospel Coalition Mid-Atlantic Conference. The topic of his talk was "Radical Responsibility: Fostering a Culture of Mercy in a Representative Democracy."

For more information or to sign up for a one-night-only Christian Civics event in Washington, DC, visit christiancivics.org.

This week, we welcome Bill Henson, Founder and President of Lead Them Home, to talk about what it feels like to lose to power, lose relevancy, yet still maintain your witness and your confidence.

More information on Bill, on Lead Them Home, and a full transcript of the interview are available online at christiancivics.org.

CONTENTS

00:00-09:15 Introduction, terms of conversation, power.

09:20-27:45 Interview

27:55-32:30 A foreign country

32:32-35:15 Prayer

35:17-37:46 Bonus episode, endnotes

A Virginia pastor shares the story of how his church engaged with a national questions in a personal way.

The latest episode of the Christian Civics Podcast features pastor Chris Sicks of Alexandria Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, VA. Chris shares stories and insights from years of shepherding a congregation that accidentally incubated a robust community of refugees and asylum-seekers, and accidentally witnessed to their town and the world in the process.

00:00-01:07  Intro

01:07-04:35 Personal reflection

04:38-07:33 Why we aren't usually newsy

07:33-12:21 Interview Takeaways

12:26-34:04 Interview

34:09-36:04 Prayer

36:06-38:07 Closing/Notes

Shownotes and more at christiancivics.org

The third and final part of our conversation with Dr. Curt Thompson.

In the first two parts of our conversation with Dr. Curt Thompson, we discussed why it is important to have "embodied encounters" with our civic systems and our political opponents, and what Good Friday can teach us about dealing with the challenges those encounters present. In this third part of our interview, Dr. Thompson gets into what Christian eschatology means for our attempts to deal with political diversity in the church. 

The Christian Civics Podcast explores how the gospel empowers us to think, speak and act differently in the public square. 

Contents

00:00–03:15 Introduction

03:15–23:09 Interview

23:10–25:53 Practicing for heaven

25:54–27:20 Light to the World

27:29–29:15 Prayer

29:15–31:49 Further reading, upcoming episodes, bonus episode

For more information on Dr. Thompson and his work, visit beingknown.com. His books Anatomy of the Soul and The Soul of Shame are both available online.

We continue our conversation with Dr. Curt Thompson, exploring what Good Friday has to do with hard conversations about politics in the church, and why our reaction to our political opponents often has as much to do with our relationship to our families as it does to our parties.

The Christian Civics Podcast returns with an interview with psychiatrist and ministry leader Dr. Curt Thompson. In this episode, Dr. Thompson discusses why it's important for Christians to have face-to-face, real-life conversations with our political opponents, and how we can get better at those kinds of conversations by understanding how God has made our brains to work.

Contents

00:00–03:59 Introduction

04:04–23:40 Interview

23:43–29:28 Assessing our desires, practicing, and sports.

29:30–31:28 Prayer

31:30–35:27 End Notes

Shownotes, including links to Dr. Thompson's books and more information on his work, can be found at christiancivics.org.

Chelsea Geyer, executive director of DC 127, stops by to talk about foster care and what it can teach us about demonstrating our faith in the public square. Then Center for Christian Civics executive director Rick Barry connects those ideas to the Advent season and leads us in prayer.

00:14 Introduction

06:03 Interview

25:34 Restoration is coming

27:18 It's okay to be weird

30:14 Letting yourself be inconvenienced

33:27 Prayer

36:07 Further reading