Special guests Charlie Hall and Joel Limpic join Autumn on the podcast to discuss their work, their heart for the teams and people they lead, and the necessity of cultivating gospel culture. Charlie serves as the Pastor of Worship and Liturgy at the multi-congregational Frontline Church in Oklahoma, and Joel as the Pastor of Liturgy and Arts at Park Church in Denver, CO.

Charlie and Joel share experience and insight gained through years and years of local church leadership. According to these to seasoned leaders, cultivating gospel culture in staff teams, volunteer teams, and the larger church congregation requires accountability, approachability, honesty, rootedness in God’s story and created world, and humble confession.

Autumn and Hunter are joined by special guest Philip Moore. Philip is a pastor in the Paris area and serves the Acts 29 Network as Vice President for Global and Director of Europe.

They discuss the fact that Western culture (Western Europe, North America, Australia) seems to be going through an “identity crisis.” Philip brings his perspective as a pastor in a secularizing country and points us to two themes he is seeing across Europe, which are also true in America: (1) Hyper-individualism doesn’t just have an impact on individuals and their spiritual well-being. It is also having massive social and political consequences. (2) “Emotional reasoning” has become the main way we think things out, which leads to inconsistency and instability.

Having identified these two themes, we then discuss what it looks like to live in a different way as Christians in this kind of culture.

Resources mentioned in this episode:
"Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0451531604)
"Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages" by Gaston Dorren (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0802147801)

In today’s centennial episode celebration (what?), Hunter and Autumn look back at the five most listened-to episodes:

- Episode 4: How Can Government Promote Good?
- Episode 59: VFL Reads: Glennon Doyle’s Honesty Gospel
- Episode 18: A Redeeming View of Mental Health
- Episode 88: VFL Reads: Why American Teens are So Sad
- Episode 72: VFL Reads: The Case Against the Trauma Plot

What, if anything, are the themes that unit these topics? And what can we conclude about what makes these topics compelling?

Resources mentioned in this episode:
"Habits Of The Heart" By Multiple Authors (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520254198/)

Family Ministry at Fellowship Denver takes shape in three primary ways:
1. Age-Appropriate Teaching
2. Church-As-Family
3. Gospel Renewal at Home

In today’s episode, Frank Trimble and Jenna Hallock of Family Time Ministry join Autumn to discuss the third formative value: Gospel Renewal at Home. The mission of Family Time Ministry is to train and equip parents and grandparents to pass the Christian faith to the next generation in the home. Their encouragement to parents and to all of us is to thoughtfully develop and prioritize regular rhythms of interacting with God through the study of Scripture, prayer, and singing.

Find out more about Family Time Ministries at https://famtime.com

Despite prolific resources on the topic of time management and work-life balance, the ability to manage the many demands placed on our time and to devote ourselves to the worthy pursuits to which we’re called can often feel impossibly out of reach. Author Jordan Raynor offers seven time-management principles, supported by corresponding practices, to help readers thoughtfully respond to the constraints we face and manage our time so that we can be purposeful, present, and productive.

In this episode, Hunter and Autumn discuss principles five, six, and seven offered by Raynor:
- Accept Your “Unipresence”
- Embrace Productive Rest
- Eliminate All Hurry
These principles encourage us to cultivate our capacity to be present where we are and to integrate practices that maximize our time and presence.

Resources mentioned in this episode:
"Redeeming Your Time" by Jordan Raynor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593193075/)
"Getting Things Done" by David Allen (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142000280/)
"Deep Work" by Cal Newport (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1455586692/)
"The Lazy Genius Way" by Kendra Adachi (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525653937/)
"The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry" by John Mark Comer (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525653090/)

Despite prolific resources on the topic of time management and work-life balance, the ability to manage the many demands placed on our time and to devote ourselves to the worthy pursuits to which we’re called can often feel impossibly out of reach. Author Jordan Raynor offers seven time-management principles, supported by corresponding practices, to help readers thoughtfully respond to the constraints we face and manage our time so that we can be purposeful, present, and productive.

In this episode, Hunter and Autumn discuss the first four principles offered by Raynor:
1. Start with the Word
2. Let Your Yes be Yes
3. Dissent from the Kingdom of Noise
4. Prioritize Your Yeses

Resources mentioned in this episode:
"Redeeming Your Time" by Jordan Raynor (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593193075/)
"Getting Things Done" by David Allen (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142000280/)
"Deep Work" by Cal Newport (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1455586692/)

The first-century Ephesian church withstood cultural pressure from numerous external sources and internal pressures toward theological and social compromise. And they managed to maintain biblical fidelity through the melee. Even so, in Revelation 2:1-7, John authors a message from Jesus to the church in Ephesus cautioning them that they had lost their “first love” and the “first works” that flowed out of that love.

Hunter and Autumn discuss the letter to the Ephesian church and consider parallels to our modern context. How might we be tempted to abandon our “first love” and the “first works” to which we are called?