Almost half of self-professing Evangelicals believe that everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature. On this episode, Jay, Ryan, and Matt discuss the witness of the Bible and the church’s tradition on this widespread belief. They also consider why modern people are disposed to this belief, and how the nuance of Scripture allows us to affirm both creaturely goodness and the widespread presence of sin.

Have questions or ideas for a future episode? Email them to [email protected].

Bespoken is a weekly podcast by Pastors, Jay Thomas and Ryan McKee. Each week we cover spiritual topics and issues that will help you grow closer to God and deeper in Christ.

In this new series, Jay, Ryan, and Matt discuss some of the findings of Ligonier Ministries’ State of Theology survey. About one third of self-professing Evangelicals believe that Jesus was a great teacher, but he wasn’t God. Questioning Jesus’ identity as fully God and fully man has deep historical roots. Why might this belief be so prevalent today, especially among those who claim to be Christians? How should Christians who want to stand on the Bible and in the tradition of the church understand Jesus’ identity? Jay, Ryan, and Matt discuss these questions and more in this episode.

Have questions or ideas for a future episode? Email them to [email protected].

Bespoken is a weekly podcast by Pastors, Jay Thomas and Ryan McKee. Each week we cover spiritual topics and issues that will help you grow closer to God and deeper in Christ.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this new series, Jay, Ryan, and Matt discuss some of the findings of Ligonier Ministries’ State of Theology survey. About one third of self-professing Evangelicals believe that Jesus was a great teacher, but he wasn’t God. Questioning Jesus’ identity as fully God and fully man has deep historical roots. Why might this belief be so prevalent today, especially among those who claim to be Christians? How should Christians who want to stand on the Bible and in the tradition of the church understand Jesus’ identity? Jay, Ryan, and Matt discuss these questions and more in this episode.

Have questions or ideas for a future episode? Email them to [email protected].

Bespoken is a weekly podcast by Pastors, Jay Thomas and Ryan McKee. Each week we cover spiritual topics and issues that will help you grow closer to God and deeper in Christ.

Francis Grimke turned down a university presidency to continue pastoring. He helped found the NAACP. And he had some prescient words for white churches in his day and in our own. His message was exceedingly simple – (1) preach, believe, love, share, and treasure the gospel; and (2) obey it with all of your might. Grimke’s understanding of the church’s role in broken hearts and a broken society has much to teach us today.

 For further reading:

• The Negro: His Rights and Wrongs, the Forces for Him and Against Him, Francis J. Grimke. The final sermon in this collection, “God and prayer as factors in the struggle,” inspired a podcast hosted by Isaac Adams, our primary speaker at this year’s H3 Conference. Check out United? We Pray as well (web / podcast).
• Meditations on Preaching, Francis J. Grimke
• “Some Reflections Growing Out of the Recent Epidemic of Influenza that Afflicted Our City,” Francis J. Grimke. This sermon was preached after the devastating outbreak of the Spanish flu. It was republished by 9Marks at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic due to its resonance with our time.
• The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors, Thabiti Anyabwile

Have questions or ideas for a future episode? Email them to [email protected].

Bespoken is a weekly podcast by Pastors, Jay Thomas and Ryan McKee. Each week we cover spiritual topics and issues that will help you grow closer to God and deeper in Christ. 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Francis Grimke turned down a university presidency to continue pastoring. He helped found the NAACP. And he had some prescient words for white churches in his day and in our own. His message was exceedingly simple – (1) preach, believe, love, share, and treasure the gospel; and (2) obey it with all of your might. Grimke’s understanding of the church’s role in broken hearts and a broken society has much to teach us today.

For further reading:
- "The Negro: His Rights and Wrongs, the Forces for Him and Against Him," Francis J. Grimke [https://smile.amazon.com/Rights-Wrongs-Against-Classic-Reprint/dp/0331843307/]
- "Meditations on Preaching," Francis J. Grimke [https://smile.amazon.com/Meditations-Preaching-Francis-James-Grimk%C3%A9/dp/1948102099]
- “Some Reflections Growing Out of the Recent Epidemic of Influenza that Afflicted Our City,” Francis J. Grimke. This sermon was preached after the devastating outbreak of the Spanish flu. It was republished by 9Marks at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic due to its resonance with our time. [https://www.9marks.org/article/some-reflections-growing-out-of-the-recent-epidemic-of-influenza-that-afflicted-our-city/]
- "The Faithful Preacher: Recapturing the Vision of Three Pioneering African-American Pastors," Thabiti Anyabwile [https://smile.amazon.com/Faithful-Preacher-Recapturing-Pioneering-African-American/dp/1581348274/]

Have questions or ideas for a future episode? Email them to [email protected].

Bespoken is a weekly podcast by Pastors, Jay Thomas and Ryan McKee. Each week we cover spiritual topics and issues that will help you grow closer to God and deeper in Christ.

Amanda Berry Smith emerged from slavery and great hardship eager to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. She traveled to Britain, India, and Liberia to do just this: she worked with and supported churches, all the while proclaiming Christ to all who would listen. She later founded the first orphanage for black children in Illinois, funding it partially out of her own pocket. In word, Smith proclaimed true religion; in deed, she exemplified it. 

For further reading…

• An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith the Colored Evangelist, Amanda Berry Smith
• Jasmine Holmes is an author and educator. She is writing a book on the lives of a few remarkable Christian, black women that is coming out in the fall. It has been announced only informally and I can’t find its title, but you can check out her work at her personal website/blog, or see her most recent book project, Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope.

Have questions or ideas for a future episode? Email them to [email protected].

Bespoken is a weekly podcast by Pastors, Jay Thomas and Ryan McKee. Each week we cover spiritual topics and issues that will help you grow closer to God and deeper in Christ. 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Amanda Berry Smith emerged from slavery and great hardship eager to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. She traveled to Britain, India, and Liberia to do just this: she worked with and supported churches, all the while proclaiming Christ to all who would listen. She later founded the first orphanage for black children in Illinois, funding it partially out of her own pocket. In word, Smith proclaimed true religion; in deed, she exemplified it.

For further reading…
- "An Autobiography: The Story of the Lord’s Dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith the Colored Evangelist," Amanda Berry Smith [https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Dealings-Evangelist-Schomburg-Nineteenth-Century/dp/0195052617]
- Jasmine Holmes is an author and educator. She is writing a book on the lives of a few remarkable Christian, black women that is coming out in the fall. It has been announced only informally and I can’t find its title, but you can check out her work at her personal website/blog [https://jasminelholmes.com], or see her most recent book project, "Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope." [https://mothertosonbook.com]

Have questions or ideas for a future episode? Email them to [email protected].

Bespoken is a weekly podcast by Pastors, Jay Thomas and Ryan McKee. Each week we cover spiritual topics and issues that will help you grow closer to God and deeper in Christ.

Charles Octavius Boothe was born a slave. He learned to read, was converted, and turned his able mind to the “uplift” of African Americans living under the post-Reconstruction, Jim Crow regime. He planted churches, started schools and colleges, assembled churches’ resources to send missionaries, and much more. His work displays his keen attention to the weak, the powerless, the “foolish” (1 Cor. 1); his efforts betray his conviction that all people ought to have access to the beauty of God via the study of him.

Let us know how Charles Octavius Boothe is challenging or encouraging you at [email protected].

For further reading…

• Plain Theology for Plain People, Charles Octavius Boothe (with an introduction by Dr. Walter R. Strickland II, Assistant Professor of Systematic and Contextual Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) – the Works Cited section at the end of Strickland’s preface provides other resources for further reading
• The Cyclopedia of the Colored Baptists of Alabama: Their Leaders and Their Work, Charles Octavius Boothe. See this work if you want to get a glimpse of the growth of African American institutions in the post-Reconstruction era. It is amazing to read the story that unfolds in these pages—a people with nothing grows into a robust community under the most adverse circumstances.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Charles Octavius Boothe was born a slave. He learned to read, was converted, and turned his able mind to the “uplift” of African Americans living under the post-Reconstruction, Jim Crow regime. He planted churches, started schools and colleges, assembled churches’ resources to send missionaries, and much more. His work displays his keen attention to the weak, the powerless, the “foolish” (1 Cor. 1); his efforts betray his conviction that all people ought to have access to the beauty of God via the study of him.

Let us know how Charles Octavius Boothe is challenging or encouraging you at [email protected].

For further reading…
- "Plain Theology for Plain People," Charles Octavius Boothe (with an introduction by Dr. Walter R. Strickland II, Assistant Professor of Systematic and Contextual Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) [https://smile.amazon.com/Plain-Theology-People-Lexham-Classics/dp/1683590341] – the Works Cited section at the end of Strickland’s preface provides other resources for further reading
- "The Cyclopedia of the Colored Baptists of Alabama: Their Leaders and Their Work," Charles Octavius Boothe [https://archive.org/details/cyclopediaofcolo00boot/page/n5/mode/2up]. See this work if you want to get a glimpse of the growth of African American institutions in the post-Reconstruction era. It is amazing to read the story that unfolds in these pages—a people with nothing grows into a robust community under the most adverse circumstances.

In the second episode of our series investigating the lives of overlooked witnesses to Jesus Christ, Matt introduces you to Phillis Wheatley, the first published African American poet, a significant contributor to the abolitionist cause, and a faithful disciple of Christ. This brilliant sister was a master with words; we encourage you to read some of her poetry and consider her witness to Christ.

For further reading…

• Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage, Vincent Caretta
• Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, Phillis Wheatley
• You can find individual poems published simply by Googling them. Those I mentioned in the podcast include “To His Excellency, George Washington,” “An Elegiac Poem, on the Death of that Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Servant of Jesus Christ, the Reverend and Learned George Whitefield,” and “On the Death of General Wooster.”
• The Collected Works of Phillis Wheatley, edited by John C. Shields

Have questions or ideas for a future episode? Email them to [email protected].

Bespoken is a weekly podcast by Pastors, Jay Thomas and Ryan McKee. Each week we cover spiritual topics and issues that will help you grow closer to God and deeper in Christ. 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.