Faithful Bible teaching, delivered well and received well, is a cornerstone of the church's renewal. Too often, our preaching and teaching doesn’t hold the interest of people, either because we failed to deliver the message of the scriptures faithfully or because we failed to construct a bridge from the biblical text to contemporary concerns. And so, we miss the opportunity to bring scriptural truth into the sharp edge of conflict with whatever passes for common sense in the world. Whether you’re a pastor, a Bible study leader, or a faithful church member hungry for truth, if we’re going to be involved in the rebuilding work ahead of us, we’ve got to lean in here. We need sharper sermons that deliver truth, and we need sharper listeners attuned to God’s word above all else. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: How will preaching and teaching enable us to contribute to the renewal of the church?

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Fewer people read books these days, and those who do, read less often than before. For Christians, this trend hits harder. We are people of the Book. Our faith is anchored to the Scriptures. If we want to be people of substance in a world of superficiality, if we want to be spiritually healthy, if we want to embody a fortified faith that can contribute to the renewal of the church, we must begin with Scripture. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: what does faithful engagement with God's Word look like in a world where fewer and fewer people read, not just the Bible, but anything at all?

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Prayer is essential. The absence of prayer exposes and unmasks our self-sufficient spirit. It’s frightening to consider how easily we can busy ourselves in all sorts of activity in the name of a God we rarely invoke. The more we push God to the periphery, the more we take center stage. We lose eternal perspective because the Eternal One plays only a supporting role. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: What if the biggest temptation we face in seeking to restore and rebuild the witness of the church is not despair, or disillusionment, or cultural pressures, or internal corruption? What if the biggest temptation we face is prayerlessness?

Connect with Trevin 

     • on Twitter: @TrevinWax

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Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].  

Prayer is essential. The absence of prayer exposes and unmasks our self-sufficient spirit. It’s frightening to consider how easily we can busy ourselves in all sorts of activity in the name of a God we rarely invoke. The more we push God to the periphery, the more we take center stage. We lose eternal perspective because the Eternal One plays only a supporting role. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: What if the biggest temptation we face in seeking to restore and rebuild the witness of the church is not despair, or disillusionment, or cultural pressures, or internal corruption? What if the biggest temptation we face is prayerlessness?

Connect with Trevin

Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].

Before we can even hope to contribute to renewing the church, we must be rebuilt and renewed ourselves. But here’s the danger: in our zeal for spiritual formation, we might mistake discipline for dependence. There’s no magic formula for spiritual growth and no silver bullet to spiritual renewal. God offers us means of grace—postures and practices his Spirit works through, to transform our hearts so that we become more like Jesus. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks: What are those practices? Why do they matter? What is the promise and peril in seeking habits of holiness?

Connect with Trevin 

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Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].  

Nothing alters a terrain like water. In severe cases, like flooding from hurricanes and storms, or mudslides in the mountains, or a tsunami overtaking everything in its path, water can leave a landscape totally transformed. But even in mild cases, wind and waves can leave behind noticeable changes to the scenery. Waves affect the landscape of the church also. There are subtle echoes of movements that have shaped churches across the country, regardless of denomination. You might not see them, but they’re there, shaping how we worship. Cultural currents carve out different streams. Movements rise and fall, personalities come and go, and ministry philosophies shift, leaving the terrain transformed. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks the question: What waves have shaped the landscape of evangelicalism?

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For two seasons now, we've looked at the credibility crisis facing the church today and some of the challenges that stand in the way of our attempts to renew and restore the church's witness. We've heard guest after guest give us truth and point us toward hope. We've talked about rolling up our sleeves and finding our place on the wall, doing whatever we can for the church to reconstruct, to rebuild, to restore, to renew. On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks the question: What if we're not up to the task of rebuilding the witness of the church?

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Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].  

In the first episode of this season, we looked at the reconstruction of Notre Dame after the fire, the painstaking work of refashioning and rebuilding a place that took centuries to construct. Rebuilding requires sacrifice… a dogged commitment to seeing the task through. If this is the case for churches, it’s also the case for families of churches, for networks, partnerships, conventions, and denominations. In episode two, we looked at the trend of “dechurching.” People drifting away from the church is one of the biggest stories in religion reporting right now. But the other big story is about the shifting landscape of those who do belong to a church. I’m talking about the decline of most denominations in America, and the rise of non-denominational churches in Protestant Christianity.

On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he asks how we look beyond our congregation to the health of the evangelical movement as a whole.

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The iconic family scenes we see in classic TV are not the norm for most people in American society today. Divorce has disrupted more families than ever before in our history. And the ripple effects go beyond the obvious heartache and loss, affecting even the banalities of annual rituals and traditions. Challenges to family life aren’t new. But the challenges in our day have multiplied. And these problems aren’t unrelated to the difficulties we face as God’s people, especially since we see in the New Testament how the church is to be the family of God. We are in relationship to one another as brothers and sisters, as fathers and mothers in the faith.

On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he considers the church’s responsibility in the era of family breakdown.

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In the latter decades of the 20th century, many churches across the country shifted from a formal style of worship, with traditional and classical music, to a more informal style of worship, with praise choruses and rock-influenced instrumentation. These changes in worship didn’t happen without conflict. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, controversies became so heated in some churches that some observers began calling them “The Worship Wars.” Today, we may be well past the worst of the worship wars, but we’re never going to be in a season where discussions over what we do as gathered members of the body of Christ go away.

On this episode of Reconstructing Faith, join Trevin Wax as he considers the formative influence of how we worship and how that will affect what the future looks like.

Connect with Trevin

Have a question you want to ask Trevin? Send it to [email protected].