Follow Us Across Social Media: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CROSSPOLITIC X: https://x.com/CrossPolitic Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrossPolitic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crosspoliticstudio Join our Email List: https://crosspolitic.com/ (found at the bottom of this page) iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crosspolitic-show/id1523382406 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1LNAL9P0bqodNbw987S3Jp?si=933a5597c836454a Also on Direct TV and Dish on NRBTV and everywhere you can find us.

Pastor Chris welcomes Ethan Duclos, The Cleaner, to the Rebels Podcast, where they discuss such things as Bible Colleges, debating with your father, and cleaning out the church.

In this special Crosspolitic show at AmFest, Knox, Toby, and Gabe welcome Dr. Joe Boot from the Ezra Institute and Virgil Walker from G3 Ministries to talk about the issue of Christian unity in the political sphere and why believers can work together on mission despite theological differences.

Hey, Neighbor! Luke takes a risk and brings a quote to the table for discussion.  He may not do that again after the way he was treated...

"Servant-leaders don't lead by serving, they serve by leading."  Does anyone use the term "servant-leader" anymore?  (Certainly no one in the Fight Laugh Feast network thinks it's a helpful label.) Trends come and go very quickly in the Internet Age!  

THEN:  The Worship Leader doesn't enjoy the prestige he used to!  Aren't most Christian people aware of the stereotype now?...  Do people still need convinced that the worship songs are too shallow, and that lyrics are theologically in error?

LATER: What time is it RIGHT NOW? What does this hour call for?   Do we need to keep talking about the threat of liberalism/Feminism and the trans-ideology?  Or do we need to look ahead and see the ditch that our brothers are careening toward?  (That ditch, by the way, is Conspiracy Theories and racism.)  

Email the Comedian's family at [email protected] . 

Today the Pugs reflect on an essay by Matthew B. Crawford (author of Shop Class as Soulcraft) from his Substack entitled: Craftsmanship in the culture industry. The event that prompted the essay is the bid by Netflix to buy Warner Brothers (the film studio). What particularly interests Crawford is something broader, the decay of craftsmanship in our world, and what "managerialism" has to do with that. If you care about film, or just craftsmanship generally speaking we think you will enjoy the conversation.

Article: https://open.substack.com/pub/mcrawford/p/craftsmanship-in-the-culture-industry?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Support the Theology Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8

Learn more about WPC Battle Ground: https://www.solochristo.org/

Connect with WileyCraft Productions: https://wileycraftproductions.com/

Consider raising your prices. Not arbitrarily. But strategically. Identify the customer segment that values what you do and is willing to pay for it. Then price for them. Yes, you'll lose some customers. That's the point. You're filtering them out.

Stop pricing defensively. Start pricing strategically. Filter for quality, not volume. You get what you charge. Price is a filter, not a barrier.

After looking back at the most (and least) popular episodes from the past year or so, I share the story of almost dying when I lost my brakes (with five South African friends in tow) going down a 14,700 ft. mountain pass in Tibet. Then, we run through a few China stories that have been sitting on the backburner for awhile, followed by the final Pray for China of the year (Dec 29-Jan 4). Check out all the links/details below!

Welcome to China Compass on the Fight Laugh Feast network (Christian Podcast Community)! I'm your China travel guide, Missionary Ben. Follow me on X (@chinaadventures) where I share a new Chinese city or county to pray for every day. Send any questions or comments to [email protected]. Everything else can be easily found at PrayGiveGo.us!

Also, I’m now on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/c/chinacompass), which not only allows for donations, but also lets me sort podcast episodes into various collections, making it easier to find all the episodes on a certain topic or region, like Tibet, North Korea, or Hong Kong. 

Check out this past week’s bonus Christmas episode with my wife and daughter…

Speaking of old episodes, I want to do a sort of Year-End Round Up of the episodes which received the most downloads (and which ones were listened to the least). And since I didn’t do this at the end of last year, I’ll also give the top and bottom three from 2024 (my first year): 

Top 3 Episodes from 2025:

Dec 5: Doug Wilson Joins China Compass (2286)

Sept 13: Charlie Kirk: “America Must Shape Up, or China Wins” (1745)

Virtual Tie- Apr 20: Easter in a Chinese Church │"Ignorant Hillbilly" Vance Insults China's Peasants (1551)

Virtual Tie- Aug 30: Are All Chinese Students Commies and Spies? (Deace Says Yea, I Say Nay) (1548)

Bottom 3 Episodes from 2025: 

Jan 1: More Prostitutes or Pastors in China? / Near Death on New Year's (Prison Pulpit)(967)

Feb 7: In the Face of a Secret Trial, What Will I Do? (Prison Pulpit)(952)

July 24: Syrian Pastor/Family Massacred (They Shot Patients In Bed) (Prison Pulpit) (903)

Top 3 Episodes from 2024:

Aug 24: Tim Walz: China Asset?  + Black Dragon River & Double Duck Mountain (1864)

Aug 17: From Chinese Reality TV to NSA, Chatting with Brent in Moscow (ID) (1743)

Sep 14: Millions of Unadoptable Babies + China's 3 Forbidden "Ts" (& Martyrs of Tianjin) (1680)

Bottom 3 Episodes from 2024:

11-21: Wang Yi on God's Use of China's "Unrighteous Politics" (Prison Pulpit #5) (1077)

11-15: Wang Yi on God Raising Up and Deposing Dictators (Prison Pulpit #4) (1006)

12-5: Wang Yi's Pre-Arrest Family Newsletter (Prison Pulpit #7) (1005)

Bonus: Top 3 States (TX, CA, VA + WA) & Nations (CA, UK, AU) (+ Bottom States (WY, RI, DE) (Obscure stats: Fiji, Vanuatu, Georgia, 100+ total, 16 in Africa, China=WY, Romania vs Bulgaria)

15 Years Ago This Week (Dec 29): Runaway Van in Tibet @ 14,000 Feet

https://chinacall.substack.com/p/runaway-van-14700-feet

Now Available on Amazon (+ free PDF): The Millionaire Missionary (BordenofYale.com)

Borden’s Missed Opportunity?

Borden had a very fruitful ministry both at Yale and Princeton during his tenure as a student, and it strikes me that student ministry in China may have been a better use of his talents than what had been planned for him among the unreached Muslims of NW China. But hindsight is 20/20, and Borden never made it back to China at all (besides his first tour as a teenager). 

Campus ministry in China has been very fruitful for the past 40+ years, but has become much more difficult recently. Here’s a new article from within China that explains the current situation:

Chinese Campus Ministry Troubles

https://chinapartnership.org/blog/2025/12/changchun-reaching-campus/

No Tibetan in Chinese Schools

https://www.rfa.org/english/tibet/2025/01/02/tibet-china-enforces-restrictions-students/

Chinese Refugee Church Planters?

https://chinapartnership.org/blog/2024/12/immigrant-church-in-southeast-asia/

Is China Still a Developing Country?

https://www.voanews.com/a/is-china-still-a-developing-country/7244652.html

Taiwan Survives Another New Year Celebration

https://asiatimes.com/2025/01/note-from-taiwan-the-players-on-the-eve-of-destruction/

Finally, let's take a look at this coming week's Pray for China (PrayforChina.us) cities…

Dec 29-Jan 4: https://chinacall.substack.com/p/pray-for-china-dec-29-jan-4-2025

Thank you for listening! Subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform! Don’t forget to follow me on X (@chinaadventures) and email [email protected] with any questions or comments. Also, I've finally set up Patreon, but my favorite thing isn't the (potential) support, but the ability to create Collections of podcasts by topic, location, etc…

There’s also a Paypal link at PrayforChina.us if you’d like to give to our China ministry. Last but not least, for (almost) everything else we’re doing visit PrayGiveGo.us. Luke 10, vs 2: the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few, therefore ask the Lord for more. Talk again soon!

Author Jay Rogers unpacks the impact the Puritans had on the cultural and spiritual formation of America, and their importance in retrieving their influence. 

https://www.forerunner.com/store/puritan-storm-rising-book