The recent emergence of in vitro fertilization (IVF) as a legal and political issue is raising new ethical and moral questions among Christians. If life begins at conception, when is conception? What is a soul and when does a human being have one? Advances in science and technology mean that Christians know more about the human body than ever before, but those same advances sometimes lead to questions for which the Bible may seem to have no clear, definitive answers.

So what are Christians to do when life puts them in situations where they need to make choices about, say, whether to overcome reproductive challenges with something like IVF? How might their congregations, elders, and ministers come alongside them as they seek answers that are hard to find?

Christian bioethicists Dr. Vic McCracken and Dr. Cynthia Powell explain how they help their students at Abilene Christian University approach the ethical and moral dilemmas that often arise in health care. Beyond IVF, they also discuss abortion, end-of-life, and...mosquitoes.

Link to Cheryl Mann Bacon's Christian Chronicle feature on how professors and students at Abilene Christian University are working through the moral complexities of IVF

Link to Cheryl Mann Bacon's Christian Chronicle report on how Church of Christ folks are responding to new questions about IVF

Link to Dr. Vic McCracken's CV

Link to Dr. Cynthia Powell's CV     

Link to the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral' referred to in the interview

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LIVE from the campus of Great Lakes Christian College in Lansing, Michigan, we bring you Dr. John Nugent, author of Priestly Presence: A Church for the World's Sake (Fortress Press).

Nugent draws from the levitical priesthood as a pattern for what God calls the church to be and do in the world, most of all during a time when the struggle for power in the world is growing acute.

Link to Priestly Presence: A Church for the World's Sake

Link to Dr. John Nugent's other titles

Link to 'The After Class Podcast' hosted by Samuel Long, John Nugent, and Ronald Peters

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Almost one year before he recorded this episode, Rubel Shelly appeared on Episode 39 of The Christian Chronicle Podcast to talk about his book, Male and Female God Created Them: A Biblical Review of LGBTQ+ Claims. That remains the most popular episode of this show.

Shelly returns to talk about his follow-up work, The Ink is Dry: God's Distinctive Word on Marriage, Family and Sexual Responsibility.

Framing human relationships and sexuality as aspects of Christian discipleship, Shelly explains how biblical and historical sources support his argument that marriage and sex between one man and one woman is God's design and intent.

But rather than try to punish or shun those in the LGBTQ+ community (or legislate against them through government), Shelly makes a biblical case for compassion, friendship, love, and patience.

Link to Episode 39: Male and Female God Created Them: A Biblical Review of LGBTQ+ Claims

Link to The Christian Chronicle's review of Male and Female God Created Them and The Ink is Dry

Link to The Ink is Dry: God's Distinctive Word on Marriage, Family and Sexual Responsibility

Link to Male and Female God Created Them: A Biblical Review of LGBTQ+ Claims

Link to six-part video companion video series to The Ink is Dry

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Church of Christ kid and small-town high school athlete Colt McCoy grew up to be one of the greatest college football players of all time before going on to play 13 seasons in the National Football League.

Just a few weeks before recording this conversation with The Christian Chronicle, McCoy announced his retirement from playing the sport that made him famous.

In this episode, he opens up about what it is like to do something at such a high level for so long, only to wake up one day and recognize that it is all over. He shares how, through the loss of big games (like the 2009 BCS National Championship) and missed opportunities (like being the Heisman Trophy runner-up his senior year), God taught him how to stay hopeful in loss.

McCoy also opens up about how he found ways to lead his teammates, tolerate constant (and sometimes debilitating) pain and see God everywhere he went in college and professional football.

Most of all, he explains how he kept his focus on God and on representing Christ in the bright lights, constant temptations and enormous pressure of big time football. And he lets us wonder with him what God might do next as he enters the second act of his life after football.

Link to The Christian Chronicle's archive of Colt McCoy interviews and stories from his 18-year college and professional football career

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Darcy Todd (Woodland West Church of Christ, Arlington, Texas) is the 2024 Starbucks North America Barista Champion. She recently beat out 17,000 Starbucks baristas for the title.

In this episode, she'll not only tell the story of how she did it, she'll explain how working in a Starbucks is not so different from working in a church (one with exceptional coffee!). She'll even throw in a few suggestions for special (non-menu) drinks you should try next time you're at Starbucks.

Link to The Christian Chronicle's announcement of Darcy Todd's big win in the Starbucks barista competition

Link to the Starbucks company magazine story about Darcy

Link to Nehemiah Coffee Co. (referenced by Darcy in this episode)

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In 2010, Ose Ehimare and her four(!) unborn children faced poor chances of survival unless they could get special medical care not available where they lived in Abuja, Nigeria. God made a way for Ose to come to the U.S. to get the care she needed for herself and her children at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

But she was 6,000 miles from home and all alone in a strange land. That's when the Northlake Church of Christ in nearby Tucker, Ga., gave her and her children a home and surrounded them in extraordinary care until they were all healthy and strong enough to return to Nigeria.

Fourteen years after their birth, Ose's four children, Alyssa, Bibiana, Noah and Valencia, asked to return to Northlake Church of Christ to be born again. On August 25, all four of them went down together into the waters of baptism.

In this episode, we hear from Ose Ehimare and Bibiana Ehimare, one of her daughters who returned to Northlake Church of Christ for her baptism. We also hear from Cathy Hendrick, the Northlake member who, along with her husband, Jeff, made their own house a home for Ose and her babies in 2010.

The closing song is the Northlake Church of Christ singing "Great Things".

Link to The Christian Chronicle's Erik Tryggestad's original 2010 report on Northlake Church of Christ coming alongside Ose Ehimare and her quadruplets

Link to Erik Tryggestad's Christian Chronicle report on Alyssa, Bibiana, Noah, and Valencia coming back to Northlake Church of Christ for their baptisms in 2024

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How much should you trust the people in your own congregation to not steal money? This may seem like an almost offensive question, but in this episode we explore the astonishing increase in embezzlement in congregations and ministries around the world. According to data from our guest, 1 in 3 churches will become victims of embezzlement at some point and 6 percent of all Christian giving worldwide is lost to internal theft.

Churches of Christ are not immune. In the last few years, several trusted members and ministers stole enormous amounts of money from congregations in several states.

What is at the root of this problem and what might congregational leaders do to prevent their own members from succumbing to the temptation to steal from the church and its ministries?

Our guest, Dr. Todd Johnson, co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, shares the latest research on financial crimes among Christian congregations and organizations and what the future may hold. He explains how congregations often make themselves prone to financial crime and offers suggestions for closing the lapses and loopholes that tempt Christians to steal.

Click here for access to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity research on embezzlement (and other facts about Christianity worldwide)

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S.J. Dahlstrom is one of the most award-winning and critically-acclaimed authors of youth fiction. He is the creator of the "Wilder Good" series of nine books that follow the adventures of a 12-year old boy growing up in the American West. Dahlstrom is a four-time winner of the Wrangler Western Heritage Award, five-time winner of the Will Rogers Medallion, four-time finalist for the Lamplighter Award, and two-time finalist and one-time winner of the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. He's also a lifelong member of Churches of Christ and the son of a Church of Christ preacher.

In this episode, Dahlstrom talks about the crucial role the church and its men play in forming and training boys for Christian manhood.

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Rochester Christian University, founded in 1959 as North Central Christian Junior College, has deep roots and strong ties to Churches of Christ. Like other colleges and universities in this tradition, Rochester Christian built itself around its school of ministry and theology so that its graduates would become leaders and ministers in churches around the world.

In June 2024, Rochester Christian made history as the first university associated with Churches of Christ to appoint two women, Dr. Naomi Walters and Dr. Beth Bowers, to lead its graduate and undergraduate ministry and theology programs.

In this episode, Dr. Walters and Dr. Bowers survey the landscape of congregational ministry now and the horizon of what it may become in the future. And they cast their vision for educating, forming and training ministers for the congregations of tomorrow.

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In front of a live audience at Sycamore View Church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee, we interview Josh Ross, author of Coreology: Six Principles for Navigating an Election Season Without Losing Our Witness.

So many things that Christians hear, read and talk about these days have to do with how they get along with political opponents or how they use their political power. In this conversation, however, we focus on how the church of Christ protects and upholds its unique witness in times of political strife. How does the church hold onto its story, maintain its credibility and integrity, rise above the discord and noise and proclaim good news that is truly good?

Link to Josh Ross's book, Coreology: Six Principles for Navigating an Election Season Without Losing Our Witness

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