Vision For Life

Regular, personal time with God spent in Scripture and in prayer connects us relationally to our Father and allows us to experience His presence. Building the habit of daily life with God requires a regular time and a regular plan. Hunter and Autumn discuss how to craft a plan to connect with God personally, and they share their own anticipated Bible reading, Bible study, and prayer plans for 2024.

Hunter and Autumn share some of the books that challenged, informed, encouraged, inspired, and delighted them during 2023.

--Spiritual Life--

Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin Hansen (AG & HB)

Outgrowing the Ingrown Church by Jack Miller (HB)

--Theology and Bible--

The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory by Abigail Favale (AG & HB)

Love Thy Body by Nancy Pearcey (AG)

--Biography and History--

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume 1: Visions of Glory by William Manchester (HB)

The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church by Matthew Barrett (HB)

--General Interest--

10x is Easier than 2x: How World Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy (HB)

The Art of Loading Brush by Wendell Berry (AG)

--General Interest On Helping Us Understand the Modern, Western Culture in Which We Live--

Conservatism: A Rediscovery by Yoram Hazony (HB)

The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality by Glen Scrivener (AG - Apologetics / Evangelism)

Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West by Andrew Wilson (HB)

Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl Trueman (AG)

--General Interest On Sexuality and Gender--

The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry (AG)

Feminism Against Progress by Mary Harrington (AG)

--Children’s Literature--

A Little More Beautiful: The Story of a Garden (picture book) by Sarah Mackenzie, illustrated by Breezy Brookshire (AG)

Hotel Oscar Mike Echo (middle-grade novel) by Linda MacKillop (AG)

The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad, a compilation of stories by various authors (AG)

--Fiction and Literature--

Finding Time Again: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 7 by Marcel Proust (HB - Content Warning)

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle (AG)

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James (HB)

Family gatherings, holiday parties, music about joy and peace, and images of smiling people holding gifts fill the days leading up to Christmas. And yet, “all is merry and bright” rings hollow for many people experiencing grief and loss during this season. In religious communities, we sometimes jump directly to the “hope” portion of the story without lingering in the waiting, the longing, and the loss woven into the story of Christ’s birth.

Dave and Emily join Autumn to encourage those suffering, exhort those walking with sufferers, and discuss how Christmas uniquely welcomes in all who are grieving.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

“Every Moment Holy, Volume II: Death, Grief, and Hope" by Douglas Kaine McKelvey

Adam and Autumn discuss the music that characterizes the season of Advent and examine its purpose and central themes. The songs of Advent give us language to live out of the past reality of God’s promises fulfilled in Christ’s first coming and look toward the future hope of Christ’s second coming. The songs of Advent encourage us to prepare our hearts for the coming King and invite us into the waiting and longing experienced by the people of God throughout history.

“Forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past 25 years. That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history.” Religious abuse, moral failure of church leaders, and the pressures of culture that lead to deconstruction of faith all contribute to “dechurching.” Surprisingly, research reveals a less apparent reason driving the statistic cited above: a slow drift away from church participation.

In this episode, Autumn and Hunter discuss an Atlantic article by Jake Meador that examines this slow drift. Meador suggests a response to waning participation in American churches. He states that churches in our cultural climate must call their people to a more committed, robust, interdependent way of being the body of Christ.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

"The Misunderstood Reason Millions of Americans Stopped Going to Church" by Jake Meador

"The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?" by Jim Davis, Michael Graham, et al

Hunter and Autumn discuss “Outgrowing the Ingrown Church,” a book that has impacted Fellowship Denver’s leadership team and led to the development of a new rhythm in the corporate life of our church that we call “Pursuit.” Miller, the author, challenges churches to ask whether they have become “ingrown” and are existing according to their own means rather than the power of the Spirit.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

"Outgrowing the Ingrown Church" by C. John Miller

Hunter and Autumn continue their discussion of the conflict in Israel by considering Israel’s historical context and the origins of the modern nation-state. They also ask how present-day Christians might understand and relate to the modern nation-state of Israel.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

"The Decolonization Narrative Is Dangerous And False" by Simon Sebag Montefiore

"Jerusalem: The Biography" by Simon Sebag Montefiore

"Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two" by David Holwerda

Autumn and Hunter discuss articles that have helped them understand the war between Israel and Hamas and the fractures it has also revealed in American culture.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

"Israel’s 9/11 - The Need for Moral Clarity" by Bernard Howard & Ivan Mesa, The Gospel Coalition

"‘Bothsidesism’ About Hamas Is a Moral Failure" by Russell Moore, Christianity Today

"The Progressives Who Flunked the Hamas Test" by Helen Lewis, The Atlantic

"On Israel, Progressive Jews Feel Abandoned by their Left-Wing Allies" by Jennifer Medina & Lisa Lerer, The New York Times

"Israel: From the Six-Day War to the Six-Front War" by Thomas Friedman, The New York Times