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Exploring how the gospel empowers us to think, speak and act differently in the public square. The Christian Civics Podcast features commentary, interviews, prayers and seminars exploring how we can respond to the civic and political turmoil around us with visible faithfulness. The decisions we make about how to handle our earthly citizenship are an important part of our Christian discipleship. The Center for Christian Civics empowers local churches to be communities where people train one a ...
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Keesha Ceran and Garret Losty, who will be facilitating our upcoming workshop on Talking with Loved Ones About Race, drop in to share why we should stop avoiding conversations about race, and how leaning into them can help the church grow spiritually.Register for the February 22 workshop at christiancivics.org…
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A Christian satirist joins us for a conversation about faith, truth and fake news.Shownotes—including links, videos and slides—can be found throughout the episode transcript at christiancivics.org.Visit christiancivics.org/upcoming-events to register for our next two events: Christian Civics Foundations (beginning January 6) or Talking With Loved O…
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Christian Civics Advisory Council Chair Ben O'Dell joins us for a discussion about one of his favorite books, "Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes," by E. Randalph Richards and Richard James.You can pick up a copy of the book here: https://amzn.to/2YeOWarRegister for the next Christian Civics Foundations cohort: https://www.christiancivics…
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Using one word for five different concepts is confusing at the best of time, but when that one word is controversial and emotionally charged, it makes acting with patience and wisdom even more difficult.Before we launch Christian Civics Foundations, our Executive Director thought it would be helpful to take a few minutes to examine a few very diffe…
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Dr. Doug Trick of the Canada Institute of Linguistics joins us this week to talk about how translating the Bible changes the way he thinks about not just evangelism and discipleship, but communication in general. Our host reflects on Dr. Trick's experiences and an old episode of "Doctor Who" to draw some conclusions about how we can argue more heal…
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You see your elected officials in public, but that doesn't really help you get to know everything that goes on behind the scenes to keep a government running.This week, we welcome Evan Dame, town council member in the city of North Brentwood, Maryland, as he shares the challenges that caught him off guard and the way his church life helps him serve…
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Why do people who share our faith not share our politics? Is it because they're stupid? Wrong? Malicious? Liars? In this excerpt from a 2020 Christian Civics class, we cover why it's not helpful to jump straight to those conclusions, and start looking at a few alternatives that are less dramatic but more useful.…
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This week, we welcome three guests to lead us in prayer for the horrific and deteriorating situation on the ground in Afghanistan. David Shedd, Stephen Rodriguez and Brian O'Day draw on their decades of experience in international intelligence, national defense, and military ministry to provide us with ways to approach God in the midst of this fall…
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At the beginning of 2018, Executive Director Rick Barry sat down with Bill Henson of Posture Shift Ministries (formerly called Lead Them Home) to discuss losing cultural power, grieving alongside the grieving and whether we should think of the US as a Christian nation. Those topics have only become more relevant in the three years since the episode…
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How can a professional recruiter help us think differently about voting faithfully?This week, we welcome Sandra George, an HR professional with over 15 years of experience helping a range of different companies find the right people for the right jobs. Rick Barry talks with Sandra about what goes into making a hiring decision, and what we might get…
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The things we consider to be "prophetic" shape both the way we present our faith to other people and the kinds of behaviors we reward in our brothers and sisters. Our Executive Director offers a brief reflection on how the biblical prophets may challenge our understanding of what prophets are actually supposed to do.Visit christiancivics.org for a …
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In the spring of last year, at the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we talked with Heather Rice-Minus of Prison Fellowship to discuss how they were responding to the pandemic. A year later, we welcome Heather back to talk about the long-term changes COVID has introduced to the ways the Prison Fellowship team does their work.Interview (01:37)Ref…
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How does one Christian Civics leader talk about important topics online without losing patience or hope?Center for Christian Civics
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This week, we share a conversation from May of this year with leaders of a Texas church that was serving as a distribution site for the COVID-19 vaccine. They discussed the history of Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX; how the church's relationship to its mission field has changed over the years; and how making the COVID-19 v…
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To kick off a new season, our Executive Director reflects on whether becoming a Christian means ceasing to be anything and everything else.Center for Christian Civics
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Rev. Charles Garriott joins us to share his experience caring for people in the aftermath of violence. This is a must-listen for any ministry leader who isn't sure how to react to this week's attack on the US Capitol!Center for Christian Civics
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We close out our mini-series on the scariest passages of the gospel with a look at why bearing fruit and fitting the description of a Christian isn't enough.Center for Christian Civics
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Christian Civics Executive Director Rick Barry shares how Jesus' promise to bring a sword prompts him to ask himself uncomfortable questions about his friendships and his church life.Center for Christian Civics
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Executive Director Rick Barry continues this miniseries of reflections on the passages of the synoptic gospels that frighten him the most. This episode also includes a guided prayer, and information on how to support our work ahead of and following a divisive election.A full transcript is available on our website, christiancivics.org.…
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Jesus' warning not to cause even a single child to stumble is a lot scarier than we give it credit for—and should lead most of us to be a lot more cautious about how we respond to politicians.Executive Director Rick Barry continues our miniseries of personal reflections on the most intimidating passages of the gospels.…
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Executive Director Rick Barry shares a reflection on his favorite book of the Bible, and shares a prayer request for an unexpected challenge that came up in our work today.Center for Christian Civics
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A couple weeks before accidentally falling into a month-long social media fast, Rick Barry talked with Jeff Porter about the challenge of navigating social media in a Christlike manner and what secularization can teach us about White Supremacy. In the end, Rick leads us in praying through and praying in response to John 17.…
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A conversation about public shaming, private shaming, and growing in maturity turns into a conversation about race, repentance and shared responsibility. Steve Park of Little Lights Urban Ministries joined us last week for what turned out to be a very different conversation than the one we expected.Shownotes will be available at christiancivics.org…
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In the first installment of The Christian Civics Book Club, we discuss Jonathan Haidt's "The Righteous Mind." Christian Civics co-founder and Executive Director Rick Barry is joined by Christian Civics teaching faculty Rev. Charles Drew and Executive Board members Nathan Leamer and Thomas Turner.The next book club episode will cover Soong-Chan Rah'…
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Our Executive Director shares a personal reflection on the protests that have sprung up over the past week, and leads a brief prayer for how we respond to them.A full transcript of this episode and this prayer will be available at christiancivics.org beginning June 3.Center for Christian Civics
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Interview (1:55)Small Group Bible Study Guide (25:07)The Lord's Prayer Challenges Conservatives and Liberals (26:35)Prayer Exercise (28:31)Christian Civics Executive Director Rick Barry sits down for a revealing conversation with Rev. John Onwuchekwa, pastor of Cornerstone Church in Atlanta, Georgia, and author of Prayer: How Praying Together Shape…
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Christian Civics executive director Rick Barry's keynote address at the 2020 Montgomery County National Day of Prayer Virtual Prayer Breakfast.The prayer and reflection exercise mentioned in the talk is available at: https://christiancivics.org/blog/getting-out-of-the-blame-game/Center for Christian Civics
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Rev. Charles Drew offers a homily and prayer for those of us worn out by news about the novel coronavirus and the effect it is having on our communities.If you are in a position of formal or informal leadership, the Caring Connections Knowledge Base provides up-to-date, easy-to-use resources for navigating the new challenges presented by the COVID-…
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Our guest this episode is Talitha Phillips, CEO of Claris Health, a women's and reproductive health clinic with multiple locations in Los Angeles, California. Talitha shares how the COVID-19 pandemic is compounding the difficulty of providing social services and medical care to a vulnerable community—and what it's like to try to do this work out of…
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Our guest for this minisode is Marian Hutchins, Executive Director of Father's Heart Ministries in New York City. Marian shares with us the effects COVID-19 emergency measures are having on soup kitchens, food pantries and programs that serve at-risk youth. She also shares some encouragement about how Christians who care about those issues can cont…
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Dr. Amanda Eckhardt of RestoreNYC joins us to talk about how COVID-19 is re-shaping anti-trafficking work and how we can pray against trafficking in an informed way.This is the first in a short series of "minisodes" covering how several issue areas that are common passions for people in the church are being re-shaped by the Coronavirus pandemic.…
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Our guest this week is Heather Rice-Minus. She's vice president of government affairs and church mobilization for Prison Fellowship. Prison Fellowship is in a rare spot where some of the work they do is responding in a simple, direct way to simple direct commands in scripture—to not forget those in prison and to visit prisoners. But another part of…
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For the 2020 election season, we are going back to our roots, bringing you weekly podcasts featuring prayers for the public square. We begin this series with a prayer for our response to the coronavirus pandemic, based on Psalm 46. Look for a transcript and shownotes on our website later this weekend!…
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The coronavirus and its economic, social, and mortal fallout are obviously dominating the news and changing the way many of us are ordering our lives for the next few weeks. For our first episode back, we welcome Dr. William Petri, a UVA public health researcher, to share with us what this outbreak looks like to a Christian who works in public heal…
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Pastor Charles Drew shares where his concern for the church in the face of political polarization comes from, and why he thinks Christians shouldn't let fear of excess prevent them from learning to engage politics responsibly.We also share the first of several upcoming events, and how you can join us for that event even if you aren't in the DC area…
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How often does a quarter of a church get laid off simultaneously?We talk with Pastor Matthew Watson of Christ City Church in Washington, DC, about how the body of Christ reacts when a city's major industry grinds to a halt.For more information on Matt, his church and other upcoming events, visit us online at christiancivics.org. Shownotes for this …
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In politics, people usually double down when they're afraid they might be wrong. Joshua Harris, author of "I Kissed Dating Goodbye," discusses withdrawing his most well-known book and shares what it was like to say he was wrong in a very public setting.Center for Christian Civics
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An invitation to meet the Christian Civics team in Washington, DC, plus an exclusive prayer from our newsletter and information on how to support our mission this Christmas season.Center for Christian Civics
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Last week, the White House signaled support for bipartisan criminal justice reform, a stark departure from the Justice Department's position just a month earlier. The story of how that happened is a long and winding one, but the issue itself is central to how we understand the Christian faith. Pastor Dominique DuBois Gilliard, author of the provoca…
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For the next few weeks, pundits are going to love discussing the voting patterns of suburban voters, urban voters, rural voters. But all of that analysis is going to be inherently limited unless it takes into account that those aren't just the places we vote—they also might be the reasons we vote the way we do. Author and theologian Craig Bartholom…
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If the only evidence of Christian growth in our lives is that it is changing the way we deal with politics, then we aren't actually experiencing Christian growth—we're impersonating it. This episode features exclusive content that didn't make it into Christian Civics Executive Director Rick Barry's recent presentation at the Gospel Coalition Mid-At…
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This week, we welcome Bill Henson, Founder and President of Lead Them Home, to talk about what it feels like to lose to power, lose relevancy, yet still maintain your witness and your confidence.More information on Bill, on Lead Them Home, and a full transcript of the interview are available online at christiancivics.org.CONTENTS00:00-09:15 Introdu…
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A Virginia pastor shares the story of how his church engaged with a national questions in a personal way.The latest episode of the Christian Civics Podcast features pastor Chris Sicks of Alexandria Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, VA. Chris shares stories and insights from years of shepherding a congregation that accidentally incubated a robust c…
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The third and final part of our conversation with Dr. Curt Thompson.In the first two parts of our conversation with Dr. Curt Thompson, we discussed why it is important to have "embodied encounters" with our civic systems and our political opponents, and what Good Friday can teach us about dealing with the challenges those encounters present. In thi…
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We continue our conversation with Dr. Curt Thompson, exploring what Good Friday has to do with hard conversations about politics in the church, and why our reaction to our political opponents often has as much to do with our relationship to our families as it does to our parties.Center for Christian Civics
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The Christian Civics Podcast returns with an interview with psychiatrist and ministry leader Dr. Curt Thompson. In this episode, Dr. Thompson discusses why it's important for Christians to have face-to-face, real-life conversations with our political opponents, and how we can get better at those kinds of conversations by understanding how God has m…
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Chelsea Geyer, executive director of DC 127, stops by to talk about foster care and what it can teach us about demonstrating our faith in the public square. Then Center for Christian Civics executive director Rick Barry connects those ideas to the Advent season and leads us in prayer.00:14 Introduction06:03 Interview25:34 Restoration is coming27:18…
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This autumn has pummeled us with so much bad news that just thinking about what our responsibilities might be to the wider world has to feel intimidating and exhausting. This week, we welcome Steve Park, head of Little Lights Urban Ministries, to talk about how he's managed to stay active and motivated to do some very hard, dispiriting work for ove…
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If you couldn't join us for Q Commons in Washington, DC, last week, we want to share some of the highlights with you. This episode features two presentations recorded at last week's event, along with commentary and prayer from Center for Christian Civics executive director Rick Barry.Shownotes will be available at christiancivics.org later this wee…
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We share excerpts from one of our workshops, translate those ideas into prayer, and let our DC-area friends know about a major upcoming event!Center for Christian Civics
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