Transforming Culture

Time flies when you're having fun... right? We're already at week six of our season of Transforming Culture, and the sessions are getting better and better! Today, we have Paul Martin speaking to us about disability and the church, which is a relevant topic considering that 22% of the Canadian population over the age of 15 experiences a disability of some kind. Paul's mission to work well in this area has already blessed MBC in many ways, including a number of his church members volunteering at Family Fusion: Unique, our retreat for families experience disability. So - he puts his money where his mouth is, and we love him for it! Enjoy this episode. 

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Speaker Bio:
Paul Martin is the senior pastor of Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto, Ontario. After leading the plant in 2000, he was involved in helping three other churches start in the city. He hopes to be involved in launching many more. His passion for training leaders has led him to teach at local seminaries, as well as oversee a long-standing mentoring program for potential future pastors. He has been married to Susan for more than twenty-five years and loves to spend time with her and their four children.

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Resources from this Episode:
Dignity and Destiny: Humanity in the Image of God (John F. Kilner)
Wrestling with an Angel: A Story of Love, Disability, and the Lessons of Grace (Greg Lucas)
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Ethics and the beginnings of human life (Megan Best)
When Disability Hits Home: How God Magnifies His Grace in Our Weakness and Suffering (Paul Tautges)

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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: The Summer 2023 A/V team
Theme Song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic Design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz

Welcome to episode 5 of this second season of Transforming Culture! We've got a great episode for you today that starts out talking about a specific topic (immigration), but also dives deeply into a lot of different areas of how Christians should engage with tough issues. Our teacher, Juan Sanchez, brings personal experience to this discussion, but also a ton of professional experience, and I felt personally blessed by getting to talk with him about it. Enjoy the episode! 

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Speaker Bio:
Juan has served as senior pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church since August 2005. He is a graduate of the University of Florida and holds an MDiv, a ThM, and a PhD in systematic theology from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition, Juan serves as a council member of The Gospel Coalition, co-founder and president of Coalición, and associate professor of Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has authored numerous books, including 1 Peter for You and Seven Dangers Facing Your Church. His most recent book is The Leadership Formula: Develop the Next Generation of Leaders in the Church. Juan has been married to Jeanine since 1990, and they have five adult daughters.

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Resources from this Episode:
Good and Bad Ways to Think About Religion and Politics (Robert Benne)
Authority: How Godly Rule Protects the Vulnerable, Strengthens Communities, and Promotes Human Flourishing (Jonathan Leeman)

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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: The Summer 2023 A/V team
Theme Song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic Design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz

It's episode 4 of this second season of Transforming Culture! Half-way through this season already, but we're really excited for this week of the season, because Dustin Boreland, our speaker, brings a great session on living as exiles in a Canadian context that doesn't really look like it did 50-60 years ago. Dustin is a lot of fun to interview and process this information with, and I love his heart for ministry. 

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Speaker Bio:
Dustin Boreland serves as a pastor at Springvale Baptist in Stouffville, Ontario and is currently completing his Doctorate of Practical Theology at McMaster Divinity College in post-Christendom studies. After several years in Montreal where he planted and revitalized a church, Dustin and his family returned to Ontario in 2022. Before moving to Montreal, Dustin and his wife Racquel served as foster parents to more than 15 teenage boys and worked as church planters. Dustin is passionate about the intersection of the Gospel and culture, equipping the local church for mission, and can be found overindulging on coffee, hip hop, and spicy chicken sandwiches.

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Resources from this Episode:
The Church in Exile: Living in Hope After Christendom (Lee Beach)
Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World (Stuart Murray)
Disappearing Church: From Cultural Relevance to Gospel Resilience (Mark Sayers)

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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: The Summer 2023 A/V team
Theme Song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic Design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz

Welcome to episode 3 of this second season of Transforming Culture! Today, we're welcome Bernard Mukwavi, who is speaking to us about pluralism, and what it's like to live in a world of many beliefs. He's a wonderful man, and is incredibly passionate about this conversation, which we love! Enjoy this episode, and let us know what you think! 

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Speaker Bio:
Bernard serves as the Dean of Canadian Baptist Seminary as well as the District Minister of the British Columbia Baptist Conference. He has extensive missionary, teaching, and pastoral experience in Zambia, Holland, and Canada. His passion is to empower churches to fulfill the great commission and the great commandment in their communities and beyond. In his spare time Bernard loves to take walks, hike, golf and read.

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Resources from this Episode:
The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (D.A. Carson)
Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (William Lane Craig)
Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture (Gene Edward Veith Jr. and Marvin Olasky)
Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction To World Religions (Winfried Corduan)
The Reason for God (Timothy Keller)
Spiritual Warfare: Victory over the Powers of This Dark World (Timothy M. Warner)

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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: The Summer 2023 A/V team
Theme Song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic Design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz

Welcome back to our second season of Transforming Culture - we're thrilled to have Paul Carter this week talking about generational gaps and how we can interact with other generations well. It's a lot of information, and Paul is a high-level thinker, but he does such a fantastic job of bringing those high-level thoughts and making them accessible to everyone. PLEASE NOTE: We had a few minutes of awkward audio quality during the presentation, and we didn't want to edit that out, so we've left that in - it's only about a minute, but we are sorry for the weirdness.

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Speaker Bio:
Paul lives in the City of Orillia with his wife and 5 children. He is a self-described “Bible Geek” and has a passion to help people build their lives on the solid rock of Jesus and His Word. In his role as Lead Pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church, he oversees the weekly worship as well as the overall ministry direction and content. He is blessed to provide guidance to an enormously talented and committed group of staff and volunteers. While his heart and passion is for the local church he enjoys many opportunities to serve the wider Bride. He is sits on the Executive Counsel for The Gospel Coalition where he is a regular author and blogger and is the host and Bible teacher for the Into The Word podcast and radio program.
 
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Resources from this Episode:
iGen (Jean M. Twenge)
Generations (Jean M. Twenge)

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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: The Summer 2023 A/V team
Theme Song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic Design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz

We're back! After a summer of great sessions at MBC, we're pumped to have season two of Transforming Culture ready for you all. Our first episode this season tackles one of the most discussed issues around Muskoka Bible Centre and our public Q&A sessions - the education of our kids. It's a massively important topic, as the education and discipleship of our children is a lasting testimony to so many people, and everyone thinks they've got it right.

Todd Morikawa, our teacher in Week 1 at MBC during the summer, brought humour, grace and insight to the topic, and we're so glad he shared his thoughts with us here! 

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Speaker Bio:
Todd was born and raised in Hawaii, and raised in a Christian home. He doesn't ever remember a time where he rejected God, but the Lord seems to have converted me around age 15, which is the year he was baptized in an Assembly of God church. He started pastoring Kailua Baptist Church around 2009, and by God’s grace, is still preaching there. He is married to Natalie, and they have two daughters. He loves Reformed Theology, eating good food, drinking coffee, and sports. He is also currently working on a Ph.D. in Historical and Theological Studies at Southern Seminary.

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Resources from this Episode:
Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham
Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade
You Are What You Love by James K.A. Smith (with a caution to watch out for some liberal leanings, but overall very good and written a few years before he went full liberal)

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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: The Summer 2023 A/V team
Theme Song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic Design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz

Welcome to a bonus episode of Transforming Culture! During our recording sessions last summer, Kevin Wilcox (our episode guest when we talked about Deconstruction) and I discovered that we both had a big passion for the music of Jon Guerra - and it led to the song Citizens being chosen as our theme song for this first season of Transforming Culture. We decided to sit down and talk about that a little bit, and here is that conversation!
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Speaker Bio:
Kevin Wilcox is an Assistant Crown Attorney in the Durham Region with a background in criminal defence. He is a candidate for a Master of Laws at the University of Ottawa where he is currently completing his thesis project on human trafficking within Canada’s pornography industry. He has also served overseas with International Justice Mission assisting with anti-slavery litigation in South Asia. He has served various ministry roles over the course of his life, ranging from inner-city ministry building community with street-involved and homeless populations to camp, youth, and worship ministry across Southern Ontario. Kevin is passionate about “visiting the widow and the orphan in their affliction”, and seeing the Body of Christ respond to the world’s suffering in the name, love, and power of our Almighty God.
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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: Abishek Varghese
Theme song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz

Welcome everyone, to our last episode of Season 1 of Transforming Culture! We're thrilled to have had so many people listening and supporting us over the last two months, and we trust that this season will be a resource to you and your friends as you seek to transform culture for God.

Our last episode is about unity in the Church, and if we're being honest, it wasn't a topic that we would have considered a controversial culture issue until about March 20, 2020. The pandemic certainly highlighted a lot of ways that even Christians can differ from one another, and it has caused a lot of pain with denominations, churches and even families. We're grateful that Sean Sheeran is tackling such an important issue as we close out our first season. 
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Speaker Bio:
Originally from Scotland, Sean moved to Canada as a teenager in 2001. A non-Christian at the time, he was invited to attend Hespeler Baptist Church in Cambridge, Ontario. Through the preaching of the gospel and the friendship of Christians, God showed him his need to repent of his sin and trust in Christ for salvation. This was an altogether different experience and message from his Roman Catholic upbringing. From there Sean attended Heritage Bible college, graduating the same year he came on staff full-time at Hespeler Baptist as Associate Pastor. In 2013 he made the transition to serving as Lead Pastor. He has been married to his high-school sweetheart, Meredith, for fifteen years and together they have four children. When not reading or chipping away at his MDiv at Heritage (almost finished!), you’d find Sean and his family hiking, biking, rock climbing, paddle-boarding, making music, or playing board & video games.
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Resources from this Episode:
The Six Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism (Michael Graham)
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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: Charles West and the Summer 2022 A/V team
Theme song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz

Welcome back to Transforming Culture. This is our second-to-last episode, so if you're tuning in for the first time, check out our archive of episodes - the first episode in particular helps explain what this podcast is all about. This week, we're interviewing Steve West, a pastor and professor, about how to have conversation about social justice. He's a great speaker, and brings his unique blend of wisdom and humour which is both incisive and disarming. Social justice can be a tricky thing to talk about these days, because it feels like getting it "wrong" on social justice can be a friendship ending move, but Steve gives good insight into how we can examine the roots of justice for clues about how to move forward together with others. Enjoy!  
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Speaker Bio:
Steve West (PhD) serves as the pastor of Madoc Baptist Church in Madoc, Ontario. In addition to pastoral ministry, Steve serves as an adjunct professor at Heritage College and Seminary in Cambridge. He has preached and taught courses in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. Steve is the author of several books and a frequent contributor to a variety of publications. Recent books include Resurrection, Scripture, and Reformed Apologetics (McMaster Theological Studies Series), Head, Heart, Hands: Life-Transforming Apologetics, and published sermons in A Contemporary Handbook for Weddings & Funerals, and Other Occasions. His ministry focuses on biblical preaching, theological engagement, and exploring and defending the Christian worldview.
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Resources from this Episode:
Leaf by Niggle (JRR Tolkien)
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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: Charles West and the Summer 2022 A/V team
Theme song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz

Welcome to our first all digital episode of Transforming Culture! Because of some COVID hiccups this summer, Scotty Smith recorded his session over the summer, and then we got the chance to talk about social media during an online interview last week! Scotty is a deeply rooted, well aware pastor, and brings so much depth and knowledge to his conversation about how to manage the tricky online world that we live in. 
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Speaker Bio:
Scotty is founding pastor and pastor emeritus of Christ Community Church, Franklin, TN. He currently serves as Teacher in Residence at West End Community Church, Nashville TN. He has written 10 books, is a mentor, coach, ministry consultant, seminary professor and vocational discipler. Among his joys are his wife of 50 years (Darlene), two children and four grandchildren, fly-fishing, baking, walking 7 miles a day, and encouraging God’s people in the riches of the Gospel.
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Resources from this Episode:
Making Faith Magnetic (Daniel Strange)
Plugged In (Daniel Strange)
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Show Credits:
Transforming Culture is a production of Muskoka Bible Centre.
Producer: Luke LaRocque
Editing, Sound Design and Mixing: Abishek Varghese
Audio and Technical Support: Charles West and the Summer 2022 A/V team
Theme song: “Citizens” by Jon Guerra
Graphic design: Christina te-Bokkel Hotz