In this episode we continue our occasional conversations with folks from a variety of backgrounds on their thoughts and experiences around ethnic harmony. We interview Nathan and Catherine Gin, whose Chinese/Swiss/American backgrounds have given them a distinct view on how to think about ethnicity and culture. As a bonus we get stories about Nelson Mandela and bowling at the White House.

In this episode we talk about a topic that is a passion for JT and a chore for Andy.  That’s working out.  If you want to see generational differences at work, check out this episode.

In this episode we try to get a handle on how we get our news and how we make sense of what we get. This isn’t a ‘hot takes’ debate. It is two guys who want to stay up to date with what’s going on, but who don’t want to be buried under an avalanche of information and opinions in the process.  

In this episode we interview Jorge Pardo, a man from Puerto Rico of Spanish and Cuban descent. Jorge talks about his cultural heritage and being a Latino in non-Latino spaces, and how he navigates that experience as a follower of Christ. 

JT and Andy talk about crying - why we do it and what it does for us.  This isn’t a conversation about sorrow or grief - it’s a conversation about the crazy ways our bodies work that produces the experience of crying. Paradoxically, we laugh a lot in this episode.

JT and Andy catch up after a break in recording episodes to talk about what they've been doing, what they are currently listening to and reading, and they drop into a conversation about the value of friendship for those who are in ministry.

Andy and JT discuss the practice, challenges and glories of prayer and how they have been inspired to pray by the experience and words of others.

Quotes:

C. S. Lewis:  "Well, let’s now at any rate come clean.  Prayer is irksome.  An excuse to omit it is never unwelcome.  When it is over, this casts a feeling of relief and holiday over the rest of the day.  We are reluctant to begin.  We are delighted to finish.  While we are at prayer, but not while we are reading a novel or solving a cross-word puzzle, any trifle is enough to distract us."

Tim Kerr:  “To pray in the Spirit is to pray when the Spirit moves in our hearts and helps us to desire and seek God’s will. It is the Spirit imparting the heart of God to us in the moment. When we pray in the Spirit, as John Owen says so compellingly, ‘we see a sight of God as on a throne of grace’ and we know He welcomes our prayers to Him.” 

Corrie Ten Boom: ”Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden."

E.M. Bounds:  "Prayer….is simply making known our requests to God for things agreeable to His will in the name of Christ….Prayer is infinite ignorance trusting to the wisdom of God."

Timothy Chester:  "Here is the test of whether you have grasped the radical simplicity of the gospel.  Do you think your prayers are more likely to be answered if you are living a more godly life or if you are also fasting or if you bind demons in your prayer or if you pray for two hours rather than one hour?  If we are inclined to answer yes to any of these questions then we have not grasped the sufficiency of Christ’s mediatorial role."

Timothy Chester: "It is sometimes said that good private prayer is the foundation of good corporate prayer, but it may be more biblical to say that that corporate prayer is the foundation of private prayer.  Our experience of God in Christ is corporate.  Western individualism has made the individual alone with God the centre of spirituality.  For the people of the Bible it is the relationship between God and his people that is central.  Personal prayer revolves around this common experience-not the other way around."

Charles Spurgeon:  “The throne to which we are called is the throne of grace.  It is a throne set up on purpose for the dispensation of grace and from which every utterance is an utterance of grace.  The scepter that is stretched out from it is the silver scepter of grace.  The decrees proclaimed from it are purposes of grace.  The gifts that are scattered down its golden steps are gifts of grace, and he who sits upon the throne is grace Himself”.  

"I find it wise to sprinkle a few words of prayer between everything I do" - Charles Spurgeon

"I find this a tremendous truth and a rather uncomfortable challenge ,my prayers, whether I pray, how much I pray, about what I pray—reveal my priorities, and they reveal how much I really think I need God, or whether I am—deep down, in fact self-assured and self-righteous. If Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God knew that he needed to bow my knees before the Father, what of us? If Jesus Christ, the greatest teacher in the world followed up his instruction by prayer what of us, if Jesus Christ who was sent on a mission that changed not just world history but all of eternity, knew that he needed to pray—what of us?" - Alistair Begg

"Then came the reading of the scripture, that was time enough no hurry, how those English people did love the word of God. The second prayer followed. that was my prayer because it was everybody’s cry. His prayer was greater to me than his sermon. In his sermon, he talked with men, in his prayer, he communed with God. When he described the coming of Christ to the soul it seemed to me I saw for the first time I saw the King in his beauty—the suppliant was forgiven, with his face streaming with tears and his tone so full and rich that it swept through every heart —as a breath of perfumed air flows through the halls of a palace. This divine air possessed our hearts when he cried, we love Thee, Thou knowest it. Not because Thou art great but because of the inestimable gift of the only begotten Son.  Lift us up, O God. Take us out of the dust. Let us by faith come to the fountain and be washed. We come. We feel Thou hath washed us. We are clean. Yes,  we are clean. Blessed be the Lord our God. Make us young again. Wake us up. Let us not sleep. We thank Thee for our troubles…for all that makes us conscious of our alienation from Thee, bless our orphanage, our college, our retreat…and so on he went enumerating every claim and presenting the request so naturally, that every heart joined in the upgoing petition. We close our prayer. As to the words we have been with Thee. We know it that thou hast heard us and blessed us. We feel it. We retire from the mercy seat, and we thank Thes for audience, and pray for a blessing on us all" —Spurgeon the Pastor by Geoffrey Chang

Books:

Pray Big: Learn to Pray Like an Apostle (Inspiration from the Apostle Paul on how to pray and what to pray)

Spurgeon the Pastor: Recovering a Biblical and Theological Vision for Ministry

Recently we had a chance to sit down with pastor, author and urban entrepreneur John Onwuchekwa for a conversation about building healthy church communities in urban areas and a bunch of other things that came up.

This is the second part of our interview with Eric McAllister, Director of Music and Liturgy at High Point Baptist Church in Austin Texas. In this episode, Eric walks us through his vision for creativity and theological depth as we gather to worship as the church. 

In the next two episodes we interview Eric McAllister, Director of Music and Liturgy at High Point Baptist Church in Austin Texas. Through his ministry Sunday Morning Songs, Eric is also creating modern hymnody to help churches experience richly theological and culturally diverse congregational singing as the gathered church.