My guest for The Happy Hour #397 is my dear friend, Christine Caine! Christine Caine is a sought-after international speaker, author and activist. Known for her ability to effectively communicate a message of hope, Christine has a heart for reaching the lost, strengthening leadership, and championing the cause of justice. Together with her husband, Nick, she founded the anti-human trafficking organization, The A21 Campaign.

I always love getting to chat with my friend and I’m so happy she’s joining me today! In today’s show, Chris dives into the shifting currents of our culture and how easy it can be to drift away from Christ. She says “If your anchor is not deeply embedded in Christ, you are going to drift.” For the full summary and links to the show, click the link below!

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Today is our very first episode of our summer series, Encounter! We have so many fun guests coming up this summer and I can’t wait for you to hear these stories. In this episode, I actually share some of my story with you of how I encountered Jesus. I read a bit from my first book, If You Only Knew which talks about how I came to Christ after a life of living for myself. I also got to talk with an incredible young woman, Sidney Runeburg. Sidney is a student at the University of Texas, and the first time I saw her was actually at a baptism service at our church, The Austin Stone. Sidney did not grow up as a follower of Jesus and struggled a lot with performance and perfection. After starting at UT, she decided to join a sorority and girl named Kristen asked her if she wanted to join a Bible Study! They built a friendship and eventually Kristen played a huge part in Sidney accepting Christ and the journey that followed. For the full summary and links to the show, click the link below!

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My guest for The Happy Hour #395 is Dane Ortlund! Dane C. Ortlund is the author of Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers and Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners. Dane and his wife, Stacey, have five children.

In today’s show, Dane dives into the message of his book, and how much God moves towards us rather than fleeing from our grossness and sin - something that no one else does for us so perfectly. It was so powerful when Dane said “All you have to do is collapse to get to Him (Jesus). The way you get to Him isn’t by climbing a ladder - it’s by falling down. All you do is fall into Him, but most of us are too proud to do even that.” For the full summary and links to the show, click the link below!

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My guest for The Happy Hour #394 is Michael W. Smith! Michael W. Smith is a multi-platinum recording artist, has won 3 Grammy Awards, 45 Dove Awards, an American Music Award, and has sold more than 15 million albums. He has also given back to the global community in so many ways, including through Compassion International! He recently released his first book on fatherhood, The Way of the Father!

Y’all, I feel like such a fangirl having Michael W. Smith on the podcast and I’m not mad about it. In this episode, Michael really dives into the message of his new book, which is inspired by his relationship with his late father. Michael shares about how he was raised by parents who loved the Lord, and yet he went through a season of completely walking away from him. After experiencing a near drug overdose in 1978, Michael’s dad was there for him, loving him, and pointing him towards his Healer. Michael truly had such a special relationship with his father, a man who always gave himself to love others. I love when Michael says "Some of the happiest people I know are the ones who give themselves away.” What a beautiful picture of the Gospel. Do NOT miss this episode and don’t miss all the fun things Michael has coming up in the next few months!!

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My guest for The Happy Hour #393 is Mark Clark. Mark Clark is the founding pastor of Village Church in Canada and its passion is to reach skeptics and challenge Christians. He is the author of The Problem of Jesus and The Problem of God, both wonderful books that I would highly recommend!

In today’s show, we talk about things like deconstruction and North American Christianity. Mark also really dives into the problem of people using Jesus as a label to stroll through life with. But Mark shared something that really stopped me in my tracks. He said “The issue isn’t if we’re following Jesus, it’s why.” I started to ask myself “why am I choosing to follow Jesus?” because truly, it’s an answer I should know. We have to know the why, because if we don’t understand that, we may not truly understand who Jesus is. I’m really thankful for the way Mark challenged me in this interview. Don’t miss this one!

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My guest for The Happy Hour today is Pastor Louie Giglio. Louie Giglio is Pastor of Passion City Church and the original visionary of the Passion movement, which exists to call a generation to leverage their lives for the fame of Jesus. He is also the national-bestselling author of over a dozen books including his newest release, Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table!

In this show, Louie talks a bit about Passion being entirely God’s idea and vision, and I share with him how both Aaron and I were saved at the conferences and it completely changed the trajectory of our lives and family. Louie also dives into the message of his book Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table and what it really looks like to reject the enemy’s presence in your life. Rather than being fixated on the Enemy, we should be focused on the Shepherd sitting with us at the table, fighting our battles for us. Louie really gave a powerful statement when he said “Nothing gives God glory more than your enemies watching you be satisfied in Him in the middle of the battle.” For the full summary and links to the show, click the link below!

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My guest for The Happy Hour #391 is Natalia Kohn Rivera. Natalia Kohn Rivera is an Argentine Armenian American, born in Argentina and raised in Los Angeles, California. She's a Bible teacher, writer, speaker, teacher, and coach. Natalia also released a book back in 2019 called Hermanas, a beautiful book written for Latina women to deepen their identity.

This interview has been a long time coming and I’m so thankful we could finally make it happen! In today’s episode, Natalia dives into ethnic identity, and her passion for loving the Muslim community and seeing them come to Jesus. There has been an elephant in the room for a long time about how Christians can be in Christ-loving relationships with people of other religions. It can seem uncomfortable, but Natalia shares that it doesn’t need to be. Wherever we encounter people, whether it’s a neighbor or someone overseas, let’s turn to prayer instead of fear. I love when Natalia says “We don’t need a passport to pray.”

For the full summary and links to the show, click the link below!

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My guest for The Happy Hour #390 is Jon Acuff. Jon Acuff is a New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including his newest release, Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking. He lives just outside of Nashville with his wife and two teenage daughters.

This conversation was such an encouragement to me and I hope it will be the same for you! In today’s show, Jon talks about growing up as a pastor’s kid and how often we can obsess about overthinking. He also dives into the topic of his new book, Soundtracks and how to fight the problem of overthinking and instead use it to drive yourself closer to your dreams and creativity. So often we listen to false thoughts about ourselves and we genuinely believe they’re right about us. But Jon says, “The broken soundtracks will never tell you who you are.” YES. I needed that. This episode is loaded with goodness so don’t skip it!

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My guest for The Happy Hour #389 is Elizabeth Passarella. Elizabeth Passarella is the author of the essay collection Good Apple: Tales of a Southern Evangelical in New York. She has been a magazine writer and editor in New York for more than 20 years. She grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and now lives with her husband and three kids in a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.

So many people told me to read Elizabeth’s book and I’ll admit - I was nervous when I read the subtitle but I’m so glad I went for it anyway. It was wonderfully written and something I know so many of you will enjoy. In today’s episode, she dives into the experiences that inspired her book, and how growing up as a southern evangelical helped shape so much of her current life in New York. There’s definitely a bit of a stigma with how southern evangelicals view new yorkers and vice versa! But I love when she says “I wanted both of those groups of people to challenge their assumptions about a certain type of new yorker, and challenge their assumptions about a certain type of Christian.” For the full summary and links to the show, click the link below!

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My guest for The Happy Hour #388 is the wonderful Toni Collier! Toni Collier is the founder of an international women’s ministry called Broken Crayons Still Color, which helps women process through brokenness and get to hope. She serves alongside her husband Sam who is the Lead Pastor of Hillsong Atlanta. She is a speaker, host, and is teaching people all over the globe that you can be broken and worthy and unqualified and still called to do great things.

Building a friendship with Toni was probably my favorite part of 2020 and I’m SO happy she is joining me on the podcast! In today’s episode, Toni dives into her difficult childhood and overcoming church hurt due to following a pastor instead of focusing on Jesus. We’ve all seen it happen, and the problem of putting pastors and leaders on a pedestal. But I love when Toni says “A pastor is in the four walls of a church. A Savior is everywhere.” For the full summary and links to the show, click the link below!

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