Upstream

We've heard it before. Someone says he or she grew up in the evangelical church. They speak to credentials they hold inside the church, an evangelical of evangelicals. But then they started asking questions.

What they talk about is that they didn't find good answers. There are likely few specifics given, and after a while they say they start to doubt the faith they were taught. Often their church's sexual ethics factor prominently in their complaints. 

Eventually these followers of Christ may come out with lengthy posts on social media, announcing their de-conversion. They talk about being tired of the culture wars. They share how they're tired of not getting answers to their questions. 

They share that they're relieved when they can finally share their departure from the faith. They join a group of a growing throng of ex-vangelicals. It challenges those following Christ on how to respond.

Samuel James is an associate acquisitions editor at Crossway Books, Editor of Letter and Liturgy, and contributing editor at The Gospel Coalition. He recently wrote on the topic of popular deconversion in what he calls "Country Club Deconstruction"

For nearly all of us the first thing we lay our eyes on every morning is our cell phone. In the course of listening to this podcast it's likely you'll check social media, respond to a text, and do some online shopping. Most of us are desperately aware of the addictive properties of the phone, but we struggle to adjust our life to greater faith formation.

Trevin Wax is managing editor of The Gospel Project at LifeWay Christian Resources, a pastor, contributing editor to Christianity Today. and the author of previous books including Counterfeit Gospels and Holy Subversion. Trevin wrote a review of Netflix's documentary on social media titled The Social Dilemma.

He is the author of the newly minted ReThink Yourself, a powerful book to reorient our identity around Christ. Trevin visits with Shane Morris on the power of social media to orient our loves, longings, loyalties, labors and liturgies around futile things while developing addictive behaviors in our psyche.

Prayer is one of the most basic disciplines of the Christian life. Yet, many Christians are struck with fears and uncertainties as they speak to God. 

A curious thing happens when we turn to the Bible and see Jesus praying. We find anguish and honesty, anger and anxiety. There are times of sharp and pungent expressions of the human condition and emotions. All of this directed to God, as if he could take it.

Praying with honesty can feel irreverent, but what if this is the way God actually wants us to pray. What if we've fundamentally misunderstood prayer. 

Kyle Strobel is a systematic theologian who teaches spiritual formation at the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University. He has co-written a book titled "Where Prayer Becomes Real".

Love just isn't enough to make a family. Congress stands poised to pass the Equality Act which brings on the final stages of a Mrs. Doubtfire view of marriage, family, and childrearing. Adult, and adult desires, are all that seem to matter to us. 

Surrogacy, same-sex marriage, transgender parenting, divorce, donor conception, and intentional single parenting all illicit our self-centered view that is overlooking children. This highlights a lie; that children, not adults, need to accommodate our self-centered desires for meaning and satisfaction. 

Katy Faust disagrees and is standing in the gap for children to share their stories. Katy Faust is the founder and director of the children’s rights organization, Them Before Us. She is the Washington State leader for CanaVox and currently appears in a video series called Dear Katy.

She has written a new book titled "Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children's Rights Movement." Her book flips the script on adult-centric attitudes toward marriage, parenthood, and reproductive technologies by framing these issues around a child’s right to be raised by both their mother and father. Set against a backdrop of sound research, the compelling stories throughout each chapter confirm that a child’s mental, physical, and emotional well-being depends on being loved by the two people responsible for their existence. It’s a paradigm shift that will impact the personal and the political, and reframe every marriage and family conversation across the globe.

Why are Christians so hung-up on Sex? Why does God care who I sleep with? Sam Alberry is a speaker and author who explores this topic in a recently published book titled Why Does God Care Who I sleep With?

Sam provides a biblical perspective on what sex is designed to be, to mean and to do for us. He answers one of the biggest barriers to belief, helping Christians reason through one of the more challenging aspects of following Jesus, where many are increasingly seeing followers of Jesus as outdated, restricted and judgmental. Sam guides us through Biblical reasoning in honoring God with our sexual life because it is more than a physical interaction. 

It's natural for Christians to pride ourselves talking about Christianity. For some there is a level of accomplishment when we can push someone in their thinking, to get them to question their doubts and consider Christ. But once a person has a child all the abilities to guide people in thought seem to dissipate. 

Natasha Crain's Keeping Your Kids on God's Side is a great tool to begin, continue, and process conversations with one's children. Natasha is a speaker, blogger, and author whose guidance emboldens parents to trust God and continue conversations.

Michael Craven is the director of the Colson Fellows program. He communicates to Shane the importance of living upstream, understanding how Christianity shapes and gives us legitimate answers to how we shall live in this cultural moment.

Michael is an accomplished executive, worldview expert, cultural apologist, and author.Ever since leaving his career as a corporate CEO in 2001, Michael has been working to equip the Church in America with a robust Christian life and worldview.

In 2007, Michael founded the Center for Christ & Culture where his popular weekly commentaries grew to reach more than two million readers through Crosswalk.com, Christianity.com, The Christian Post and numerous other web-based outlets. In 2009, Michael authored his critically-acclaimed book, Uncompromised Faith: Overcoming Our Culturalized Christianity (NavPress). He also contributed to the 2014 book, Same-Sex Marriage: A Thoughtful Approach to God’s Design for Marriage by John Stonestreet and Sean McDowell.

Michael has been a featured speaker at many venues including, the University of California at Berkeley, the National Conference on Christian Apologetics, and numerous churches across the country. He served as an adjunct professor at Western Seminary where he was invited to teach on Cultural Apologetics. He has appeared on Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, and many other national television and radio programs.

Prior to joining The Colson Center, Michael served for five years as the president of BridgeBuilders, an inner-city ministry in South Dallas, where he pioneered a missional strategy for transforming the “culture of poverty” into a culture of flourishing, breaking the cycle of poverty that dominates America’s inner-city communities. Michael lives in the Dallas area with his wife and three children.

Social Justice is making claims that are turning America's streets into war zones. Some of these claims refer to a "color blind upbringing", where an individual raised in a community predominantly homogenous in ethnicity is an example of "white privilege" and therefore a form of racism.

Thaddeus Williams has written an important book, "Confronting Injustice Without Compromising Truth". Dr. Williams is an Associate Professor of Theology at Biola University.

Dr. Williams loves enlarging students' understanding and enjoyment of God while teaching Theology 1 and 2 courses at Biola University. He also teaches History of Atheism, Introduction to Philosophy, and Biblical Literature in the secular college context. He has taught theology internationally, including seminaries in Nepal and Francis Schaeffer's L'Abri ministries in Switzerland and Holland. Dr. Williams is a frequent guest speaker at churches and conferences, in addition to serving as a teaching pastor at a local church. His academic works include Love, Freedom, and Evil (Rodopi, 2011), used in seminaries around the world and currently being translated to German, and his recent popular publication, The Exchange (AIMBooks, 2012). His research interests include the Trinity, divine and human agency, dialogue with atheists and theology of culture.

Josh is equal parts Singer-Songwriter, Anglican/Episcopal Priest, and Licensed Mental Health Counselor.  Shane visits with him on music, guidance, and the way the Lord using lyric and tune to connect with us.

Josh holds an M.Div. and M.A. in Counseling from Reformed Theological Seminary, as well as a Certificate in Anglican Studies from Nashotah House Theological Seminary. He is the Senior Fellow for Music and Art at the Colson Center.

Josh and Shane talk joy and beauty in music, and spend time connecting the power of lament in music. The pair rest in God's grace to communicate powerfully in the midst of grief and trial.

Josh's music has gained a following of fans from all walks of life after recording four diverse albums and touring for more than 15 years. His latest album is a second volume of hymns called “Come Away From Rush & Hurry,” released in 2018. Originally from Chattanooga, TN Josh now lives in Orlando, FL. where he serves as Canon Priest at the Cathedral Church of Saint Luke.

Until recently couples who couldn't have children had only one godly option, to pray. That's what Sarah and Abraham did, recounted in the book of Genesis.

But couples struggling with infertility today are offered a number of high-tech solutions. One of the most common is called In vitro fertilization (IVF), where sperm and eggs are harvested from either the couple who wants to become pregnant or sperm and/or egg donors. The sperm and egg are united outside of the body, in a lab. The resulting tiny humans are then implanted in the embryonic stage, usually one-by-one, into the mother for gestation.

This process creates a problem. The more than $37 billion dollar IVF industry in America has over 1 million left over babies in the embryonic stage, stuck in freezers across the nation. For pro-life Christians, who believe life is sacred and begins at conception, this is a significant problem in our culture. 

Dr. Jeffrey Keenan leads the National Embryo Donation Center. He is a board-certified OBGYN who is saving the lives of the frozen embryos, hoping to educate America and work himself out of a job.