PODCASTS

Category: Family Life News

News features from a Biblical perspective.

Inside Out – Responding to Criticism – 11/29/23

Inside Out – Responding to Criticism – 11/29/23

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“Inside Out” on Family Life

How do you respond when coworkers tell you they’ve been hurt by Christians, or say that Christianity is offensive? Kaitlin Miller Febles talks about how believers led by the Holy Spirit can live out the most powerful response.    

“I think when we first respond with just defensiveness, we can come across as callous toward what this person’s experienced by someone maybe even in the name of Christ,” says Kaitlin Miller Febles. “And if they don’t feel heard and understood, I think they’re far less likely to hear us, or even want to understand us back. But humility has a way of disarming people.”  

Febles counsels us to listen well and mourn behavior in the name of Christ that is not at all Christlike. “Just even as we denounce un-Christlikeness, we don’t denounce Christ. Christians may act shamefully, we need to acknowledge that, but we’re not ashamed of Christ.” 

 We have an opportunity to speak the actual message of Christ with words, and also with our lives, when the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit shape the way we live. “For each hateful or selfish or greedy or manipulative Christian example that an unbeliever has experienced, we can be a counter example, as a Christian that they also now have to explain,” Febles says.  

Kaitlin Miller Febles writes on this topic and other issues for The Gospel Coalition.

Hometown Heroes – Arctic League Charity – 11/28/23

Hometown Heroes – Arctic League Charity – 11/28/23

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“Hometown Heroes” on Family Life

An organization which will provide gifts for 3,000 children in the month ahead has a goal to assure that every child in their county receives a gift at Christmastime.

This year’s president of the Arctic League is Scott Heffner. He gives us the impressive history of the organization — this is its 111th year! He also talks about the logistics and fundraising which happen throughout December and throughout the year, to raise its budget of $175,000.

 

A Family Life Interview – Ron Hutchcraft on Church-Leader Burnout – 11/27/23

A Family Life Interview – Ron Hutchcraft on Church-Leader Burnout – 11/27/23

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Ron Hutchcraft has spent decades as a Christian broadcaster, a ministry leader, a mission worker, and a sought-after speaker at religious conferences.

In October, he was featured at the Family Life Pastor’s Conference, providing inspiration to well over 200 pastors from Pennsylvania and New York. In conjunction with his visit to our listening area, he was interviewed by Family Life News, seeking his recommendations for clergy and for congregations.

In light of today’s difficult trends where 42 percent of congregational pastors are ready to quit, there is much which needs done to strengthen the church and reverse that reality.

In our conversation, Hutchcraft looks at the Big Three challenges identified by that research, offers practical steps to reduce stresses and loneliness, and warns that church fights over politics or social issues are against the Bible’s calling. He points to the impact of Covid shutdowns and mandates and disagreements, and gives a movie-plot parallel. You also will hear reminders that the church’s shepherds also hold responsibility to address their own misguided motivations and unhelpful mission drift.

Ron Hutchcraft leads Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, which works to provide spiritual rescue, bringing hope to unchurched people in the language of the listener. RHM also operates “On Eagles Wings”, an evagelistic and training outreach to Indigenous young people.

His daily radio story, “A Word With You”, airs multiple times each weekday on Family Life broadcasting, plus our online streams.

 

A parallel Family Life Podcast is also available:  Check our pastors’ first-person stories on “The Calling” with Steve Smith. Episodes can be found here.

 

A Family Life Special – Previewing this holiday season – 11/24/23

A Family Life Special – Previewing this holiday season – 11/24/23

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:29 — 72.1MB)

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Various angles today, about how the “holiday season” affects various people.

It’s an insightful half-hour with four special guests:

  • Financial expert Rachel Cruze offers her personal stories and professional recommendations on shopping and budgeting between now and Christmas. It’s OK — it’s even good — to be generous at this time of year. She cautions, though, that overspending and reliance on “stuff” to bring joy is misguided and harmful.
  • New York Pastor Dave Bretch offers those of us in America a perspective of what Christmas will be like in the Holy Land. He has led tours of the region where Jesus was born, as well as offering glimpses of U.S. and world history of Christmastime during wartime. For 2023, because of the war and terrorism in the region, the town of Bethlehem has already announced that all Christmas celebrations and events there for 2023 have been called off, to keep locals and visitors safe.
  • Another pastor in the Family Life listening area, Eric Johns, has first-hand insights of living on the streets as wintry weather begins to set in. He wraps up a 25-year string of spending Thanksgiving Week abiding with neighbors who are homeless for the holidays. Johns is involved with a congregation which has a heart for reaching out to those without a family, without a home, and (sometimes) without hope. Like many other churches, this congregation emphasizes how to share food, clothing and other items with people in need around them.
  • Jessica Meade, a Christian counselor in Pennsylvania, talks about personal and family expectations of what we think December and Christmas “should” be like. When it has been a hard year, or the circumstances of a family changes, people can drag themselves down when their holidays don’t feel like the happy Christmas movies or the stereotypical Christmas cards — let alone our own memories of good old days. She offers advice and practical steps to let loose of some traditions, find camaraderie with others who are living out a “Blue Christmas”, and ways to rediscover true wonder and joy, in anticipation of the Gospel story.

Please feel free to share this Family Life Special with others in your family, congregation, social circles, and other spheres of your influence.

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