You don’t have to be a jerk to be an apologist. In fact, if you’re being a jerk, you’re not doing apologetics in a biblical way, because biblical apologetics calls Christians to defend the faith in “meekness and fear” (1 Peter 3:15b). So how can you be an apologist without being a jerk? One of […]
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Timothy Paul Jones: We Are All Apologists Now
A faculty address is given only once in a lifetime of academic research, and it becomes part of the institution’s permanent record of a professor’s scholarship. I had the privilege of delivering my faculty address “Brothers and Sisters, We Are All Apologists Now” in Broadus Chapel on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. This address is my […]
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A New Plan for Reading through the Greek New Testament in 2023
A language that you don’t use is a language you’ll lose—which is why so many pastors who labored so hard over Greek vocabulary and verb paradigms in seminary end up losing most of what they learned. The only way to maintain your knowledge of another language is to use that language regularly. And so, my […]
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Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones: How the Life of the Church Defends the Truth of the Faith
In an act of heroism of a sort that hasn’t been seen since the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame, Garrick and Timothy bravely prevent the end of apologetics. Also, they show how Live Aid would never have happened in 1985 if it hadn’t been for the rise of Christianity nearly two thousand years earlier.
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Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones: Good Times with the End Times (Part 2) + “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” (R.E.M.)
Welcome to the stunning conclusion of this two-part series about the end of time! This episode focuses on four truths about the end times that matter far more than any particular perspective on how God will fulfill his eschatological promises. In the process of exploring these four truths, the dynamic duo considers how different views […]
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Food Trucks in Babylon: Moral Apologetics, Prayer, and the Impassibility of God
A few months ago, one of our most faithful listeners and favorite supporters Tanner Billson asked a question about apologetics and the impassibility of God. It was a difficult dilemma, so Garrick and Timothy headed to the best place in the world to determine how to deal with difficult dilemmas: superhero comics. That’s because, in […]
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Urban Ministry Podcast: Sharing the Gospel in London and Beyond
Jacob Boss is Affinity Leader for European Peoples with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Prior to his current role in London, he served two years as the Vice President of Global Training for Meridian University. At Meridian, he implemented a series of simple and reproducible tools that have helped to develop […]
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: Seeking a Sense of Place in Global Cities
Michael Crane serves as a director of Radius Global Cities Network, a think tank for urban missions research. Passionate about church planting, he helped to launch a church planting network in Southeast Asia called Gospel City Network. Michael also serves on the faculty of two graduate schools. He has authored or co-authored several books, including […]
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: Urban Church Planting in Africa
Stephen Dinkins and his family moved to East Africa in 2013 to serve with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Stephen now serves as the Nairobi City Team Leader in Nairobi, Kenya. In this episode, Stephen and Timothy discuss the distinct dynamics of urban church planting in sub-Saharan Africa. For more information […]
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: Replanting and Revitalizing Urban Congregations
Thousands of churches in urban contexts are ripe for revitalization—but church revitalization isn’t easy! James Fields has spent nearly two years working with a congregation near Churchill Downs in Louisville, seeking to revitalize a once-thriving church. He joins Timothy Paul Jones to discuss what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what he’s learned. For more information about […]
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: Church Planting in the Inner City
Brian Davis serves as a pastor at Risen Christ Fellowship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He completed a church planting internship at Imago Dei Church in Raleigh, North Carolina as well as a pastoral internship at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Brian joins Timothy to discuss the distinct dynamics of planting a church in the […]
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: The Role of the Pastor’s Wife
What is the role of the pastor’s wife? Amber Williams and Karen Cheong serve faithfully as members of Sojourn Church Midtown in inner-city Louisville, Kentucky, and they join Timothy Paul Jones to discuss the unique role that the pastor’s wife plays in the urban church. For more information about Sojourn Church Midtown, please go to […]
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Garrick Bailey and Timothy Paul Jones: Job, Jesus, and the Existential Problem of Evil + “You Found Me” (The Fray)
If you’re a Christian who’s suffering or if you want to help people who are suffering, this episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast—“Job, Jesus, and the Existential Problem of Evil”—is the most important installment in this entire series about the problem of evil. This time around, the focus is the existential problem […]
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Urban Ministry Podcast: Revitalizing Churches in Urban Contexts
Raymond Johnson serves as senior pastor at Christ Church West Chester in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and he’s also the author of I See Dead People: The Function of the Resurrection of the Saints in Matthew 27:51–54 (P&R). Christ Church in West Chester has experienced a profound revitalization under Raymond’s leadership. In this episode, Raymond Johnson […]
[Read More...]Urban Ministry Podcast: Working with Local Businesses to Empower Urban Communities
Nathan Ivey is president and founder of Seed to Oaks, a non-profit organization that brings real and lasting change in communities through collaborations between local churches, businesses, and civic agencies, filling the space between the three. These initiatives are proven, strategic and straight forward to implement; designed as a sustainable means for community change that […]
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Sean McDowell: Getting the Gospel to Generation Z + “Baba O’Riley” (The Who)
“Generation Z.” “iGen.” “Centennials.” Whatever you happen to call this generation, the children who drew their first breaths in the years between Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” and Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” are the first generation of digital natives in human history. But how secure is the faith of these teenagers and young adults? And how […]
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Russell Moore: The Search for a Satisfying Story + “He Went to Paris” (Jimmy Buffett)
Sometimes, the best defense of the gospel isn’t a better argument but a better story. That’s why the previous episode about Josh Chatraw’s book Telling a Better Story and this episode with Russell Moore both focus on narrative apologetics. Also: after an episode in which your intrepid cohosts dredged the depths of some of the […]
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Family Ministry: What Should We Do with Children in Community Groups?
One question that I frequently receive from churches runs something like this: “There are so many children in our community groups! We want to do something with them, but we can’t figure out what to do. Right now, groups are just hiring babysitters, but there’s got to be a better way. What do we do […]
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Family Ministry: Leaving Behind the One-Eared Mickey Mouse Model of Youth Ministry
In the late 1980s, one student minister depicted the relationship between his ministry and the rest of his congregation as a “one-eared Mickey Mouse.” To understand this analogy, imagine with me the most basic depiction of Mickey Mouse in three circles—the two smaller circles represent his ears, while the larger circle is his head. Now, […]
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Family Ministry: Pursuing Diversity in Your Church
Pursuing the Discipline of Diversity “It gets you out of your solitary conceit.” That’s how C.S. Lewis described the impact of worshiping and cultivating Christian community alongside people who are different from us. And yet, in too many local churches, authentic diversity in which people from dissimilar sociocultural and ethnic backgrounds pursue Christ together remains […]
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