In the opening episode of The Mission and Message of the Ezra Institute, Pastor Nate Wright is joined by Dr. Joe Boot and Dr. Michael Thiessen to explain why the Ezra Institute exists and why Christ’s lordship extends over every area of life.

Originally recorded for Ezra’s new radio program in Atlanta, the conversation explores the false divide between the sacred and secular, the modern tendency to privatize Christianity, and the calling of believers to bring every thought, institution, and vocation under the authority of Jesus Christ.

Where have we accepted the idea that Christ has nothing to say about a particular area of life?

Author and pastor David Forsythe joins the Podcast for Cultural Reformation to discuss his new Ezra Press book, Reformation, Not Revolution: Why God’s Law Matters for Society.

In this episode, David shares how his time in missions, pastoral ministry, and politics shaped his conviction that Christ’s lordship extends to every area of life. He and Nate discuss the difference between Christian reformation and revolutionary politics, the abiding authority of God’s law, sphere sovereignty, the distinction between sins and crimes, and why no society can ever be religiously neutral.

This conversation challenges Christians to reject both retreat and reactionary revolution, and instead recover a biblical vision for faithful cultural engagement under the crown rights of Christ.

On this Canada Day episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Michael Thiessen is joined by Dr. Joe Boot and Dr. Aaron Rock for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of Canada in 2026.

Is Canada a nation to celebrate, lament, or both? They reflect on the spiritual and cultural condition of the country, the continuing relevance of George Grant’s Lament for a Nation, the dangers of progressivism and statism, and the urgent need for Christians to recover a biblical vision of law, liberty, nationhood, and public life.

From church leadership and Christian education to government overreach, surveillance, and the question of whether Canada will live under God’s law or man’s law, this episode calls Christians away from despair and toward faithful, hopeful, generational obedience under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Dr. Joe Boot continue their discussion on the sanctity of human life by tracing the modern culture of death from the sexual revolution to today’s expanding embrace of abortion and euthanasia.

They argue that these are not merely private medical issues or isolated policy debates, but expressions of a deeper religious worldview: the worship of autonomous man and the all-powerful state. From ancient Molech worship to modern abortion clinics and assisted dying regimes, they expose the same underlying logic—the sacrifice of the vulnerable for the sake of convenience, control, and false compassion.

But the Christian answer is not merely opposition. It is the proclamation of the God who is life, who creates life in the womb, sustains it until the final breath, and offers new life through Jesus Christ to all who repent and believe.

In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright and Dr. Joe Boot continue the Think Christianly series by addressing the sanctity of human life from womb to tomb. Working through Psalm 139, they examine the intimate providence of God, the mystery and wonder of life in the womb, and why the Christian defence of life must begin not with public policy, but with the doctrine of God.

From abortion to euthanasia, they trace how the rejection of God’s authority has led to a culture of death, where human autonomy and state power seek to usurp the Creator’s lordship over life. They also consider the often-neglected closing verses of Psalm 139, showing why Christians must learn to hate evil rightly while calling sinners to repentance under the mercy of Christ.

This conversation calls the church to recover a biblical vision of life, worship the God who forms us in the womb, and speak courageously against the destruction of His image.

In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright and Dr. Joe Boot revisit Canada’s Bill C-9, now moving toward becoming law, and explain why its implications extend far beyond Canada. They discuss the bill’s vague definition of “hatred,” the removal of religious protections, and the potential consequences for pastors, churches, Christian schools, and ministries seeking to remain faithful to Scripture.

Nate and Joe also consider how this legislation may affect preaching, church discipline, Christian education, institutional policies, and public witness. Rather than calling Christians to panic or retreat, they urge the church to prepare now with courage, clarity, and conviction—remaining faithful to Christ even when faithfulness becomes costly.

In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Michael Thiessen and Dr. Joe Boot discuss identity from a biblical worldview. They look at how modern culture has detached identity from God and made it something each person must create for themselves.

They trace how ideas from philosophy, psychology, critical theory, transgenderism, and transhumanism have shaped the modern view of the self. In contrast, Scripture teaches that human identity begins with creation: we are made by God, in the image of God, male and female, with purpose and responsibility before Him.

This episode explains why the modern identity crisis is really a worship crisis, and why true identity can only be found in Jesus Christ.

In this episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright and Dr. Joe Boot continue their discussion on Marxism by tracing how traditional Marxist theory shifted from economics to culture, giving rise to critical theory and the modern sexual revolution.

They examine why Marxist economic revolution failed to take hold in the West, how thinkers like Antonio Gramsci, the Frankfurt School, Wilhelm Reich, Herbert Marcuse, and Judith Butler redirected the struggle toward family, sexuality, education, language, and institutions, and why critical theory is not a neutral tool Christians can borrow.

At its root, critical theory attacks the creational structures God has built into the world—marriage, family, male and female, authority, truth, and the cultural mandate itself. Rather than reforming culture under the lordship of Christ, it seeks to deconstruct God’s order in the name of liberation.

Nate and Joe argue that Christians must recognize critical theory as a rival religious worldview with its own doctrine of creation, sin, justice, and salvation—and must answer it not with compromise, but with confidence in Scripture, creation, the family, the church, and the kingship of Christ over all things.

In this episode of The Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Dr. Joe Boot and Dr. Michael Thiessen think Christianly about Marxism — not as a political or economic theory, but as a religious worldview offering a counterfeit vision of salvation, history, and liberation.

Joe traces Marx's roots in Hegel and Rousseau, unpacks dialectical materialism and conflict theory, and shows why Marxism is a fundamentally destructive project. Drawing on Marx's own writings and Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, Joe and Michael expose how Marxism parodies the Christian story — borrowing categories like alienation, reformation, justice, and freedom while emptying them of objective content. The result is a messianic vision driven by envy and resentment, with ordinary people serving as the cannon fodder of an undefined utopia.

Against this counterfeit, Joe sets the true paradigm of liberation: the Exodus. From Passover blood to Sinai law, the biblical story is recapitulated in Christ — the greater Moses, the greater Joshua, the true Passover Lamb — who delivers his people not into lawless utopia but into a kingdom of righteousness, holiness, and dominion.

Marxism offers a savior who covets your stuff. Christianity proclaims the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep.

In this week’s episode of the Podcast for Cultural Reformation, Pastor Nate Wright and Dr. Joe Boot respond to the fall of Sam Allberry and examine what it reveals about Side B Christianity, evangelical accommodation, and the church’s loss of confidence in biblical categories.

Rather than focusing on scandal, they address the deeper theological issues: sexual identity, sinful desire, sanctification, marriage, singleness, and the gospel’s power to truly transform sinners in Christ.