Curated topics for a disillusioned church
All of the resources that address church history.
What can we learn from the saints in history? Were they people that were on a higher spiritual plane? Did they know something we do not? In Vintage Sinner and Saints Karen Wright Marsh profiles 25 brothers and sisters of the faith in short digestible chapters telling a humanizing antidote or two about a saint while seamlessly exploring ways the saint pushes her to examine her own life and walk with God.
A four-part docuseries that begins with the investigation of the resignation of Hillsong NYC pastor Carl Letnz in November of 2020 following the revelation of an extramarital affair, but pivots into the incarnation of the Hillsong empire and its founders Brian Houston and his father Frank Houston. This is a cautionary tale that churches should not be run like corporations putting profit and power over people and that if we put our faith in humans, instead of Christ, it is bound to fail.
Loyalty above all else. Money before integrity. Lawyers deployed to silence dissenters. An egotistical leader that doesn't tolerate dissent. This doesn't describe a Fortune 500 company but rather CEO Dave Ramsey and the culture at his company Ramsey Solutions.
From Hillsong's Carl Lentz to Liberty's Jerry Falwell Jr., including local scandals most of us never hear about, there has been no shortage of pastors, churches, and organizations that have been exposed using power and influence to cover up sexual misconduct, toxic work environments, and other assorted sins. In interviews with former Mars Hill church members, ex-evangelicals, pastors, journalists, authors, and all of those in between The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill tells the story of a church culture that drifted from being a church about Jesus to a church about the pastor.
To this day church services across the nation are some of the most segregated times of the week. Is this by random chance or was this intentional? Author Jemar Tisby details the sordid history of the American church and its complicity with racism in the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller The Color of Compromise.
The color of one's skin is a driving force in how one experiences the world. A brown person's experience is distinctly different from that of a white person. With this lens professor Robert Chao Romero tells the history of the exploitation of his people on multiple continents while incorporating the birth of the brown church.
Author Jemar Tisby traces the intertwining of race, the church and politics from the 1400's into the 21st century in his 12-part study series with episodes ranging from 5 to 26 minutes. Tisby clearly shows how racism has been woven into the fabric of American life with the church's explicit and implicit support.
Sunday to Saturday 