Family Life Noon Report – 10/03/23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:04 — 42.7MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS
Issues in Education – Unruly fans, Rushed cafeterias – 10/02/23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:31 — 7.6MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS
“Issues in Education” — A weekly Family Life news feature
Are schoolkids getting enough time to eat lunch?
What is the proper role for cell phones during school hours?
How is the new “3 Strikes & Your Out” policy working at scholastic sporting events?
Education watchdog Ralph Kerr offers his insights on this week’s school and classroom topics.
Dr. Kerr is founder and president of the Teaching and Learning Institute. More information on their take on education and school-board topics is available here.
Faith Under Fire – Politics & Faithfulness – 09/28/23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:48 — 13.5MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS
Family Life’s “Faith Under Fire“
A national Christian watchdog is concerned that too many big-name Christian leaders seem to emphasize political positions rather than theological ones — or at least can be perceived that way in the culture. How then should churches — and local church leaders — seek to be faithful to their Biblical callings, while still being socially and culturally active with the public issues of the day?
Christian journalist Warren Smith is our guest on this week’s “Faith Under Fire” interview. He commends the congregations which are visiting the sick, feeding the poor, and caring for neighbors. He also says there are important times for Christians to step into the social ills (and political battlegrounds) which surround the church buildings. Smith contends that some Christians are too easily drawn into supporting or opposing populist demagogues who thrive in chaos. That said, there are some issues in which he sees clear Biblical mandates which lead to a spiritual position which may align with only one of the partisan stances.
He cautions, though, that Christians’ tone and techniques matter. Rather than arguing stridently with people who disagree with you, the most faithful — and successful — action often is to simply ask a few good questions. Have the other person tell you what they have determined and why they hold that stance. (Smith notes that Jesus himself took part in debates by simply asking questions, so that the person or group would come up with their own answers — often the correct ones.)
Ministry Watch is a North Carolina-based ministry which provides donors and philanthropists information about the finances and openness of large Christian organizations, and they highlight faithful ministries and mission agencies carrying out Gospel work in the U.S. and around the world. Warren Cole Smith writes more about this feature’s topic of political stances and positions of Scripture-based truths here in his weekly column online. In it, he urges preachers and congregations to reduce people’s fear, not add to the fear that already is dominating parts of today’s culture.
Issues in Education – Reading matters – 09/25/23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:53 — 8.1MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS
What is happening in classrooms, school buildings and administrators’ offices? Family Life’s weekly “Issues in Education” feature explores what families and taxpayers need to know.
This week:
- Why Reading Matters
- Counting Schoolchildren
- Ways Parents Can Get More Involved In Their Local Public School
Dr. Ralph Kerr, founder of the Teaching and Learning Institute discusses the issues in education this week with Family Life news anchor Bob Price.
The Teaching and Learning Institute and its guides for parental involvement and for becoming a candidate for your local school board are available at www.WhyRun.org.
Real Answers – Seeking Happiness vs. Finding Joy – 09/27/23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:18 — 10.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS
“Real Answers” on Family Life tackles the tough topics facing individuals, couples and families. Licensed Professional Counselor Christopher Anderson joined us this week to talk about the distinctions between happiness and joy.
He says when our goal is to “be happy, hopefully” we base our attitude in reaction to circumstances around us.
The better choice is to focus on Joy, which is best developed in relationship to Jesus Christ.
Anderson notes the benefits of this distinction — his own counseling clientele, as well as the Biblical stories of Joseph and Paul, both of whom found contentment whether they were in crisis mode, a challenging season, or surrounded by happy blessings.
His recommendation is for people to avoid entrapment in self-consciousness about longing for more joy. There is value in talking with a pastor, mentor from a church, a counselor or trusted friend who can help you openly and honestly find joy, amid all things.
Hometown Heroes – more on Ukrainian mission with Jeff Seigworth – 09/26/23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:09 — 7.1MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS
Family Life’s “Hometown Heroes“
This is part 2 of our conversation with Jeff Seigworth about his recent — and upcoming — mission work in western Ukraine.
Today’s segment focuses on how his experiences with people whose nation is at war influenced his own faith — and what he saw about faith and evangelization for the people in the cities and villages he visited.
Seigworth’s first overseas trip ever was his participation with the mission trip created by A-1-8, a mission organization which takes its name from scripture: Acts 1:8, the Biblical mandate to take Jesus’ Gospel to nearby places and to the whole world. A18 had been active in Ukraine multiple years before the current war.
The first part of Mark Webster’s interview of Jeff Seigworth is available here, among all of our “Hometown Heroes” podcasts.
Max Lucado – A Special Family Life Interview – 09/22/23
Max Lucado says people who think that God has given up on them need to discover the divine promises demonstrated in the Biblical story of Jacob.
The prolific writer’s latest book is entitled “God Never Gives Up on You“, and he joined Family Life for an extended interview about the topic of his Scriptural encouragement for people whose self-image leans more toward struggler or fumbler. He tells our Greg Gillispie about how he was motivated by Jacob’s story to offer reminders of God’s perfect plan to use imperfect people to do great things.
In this conversation this master storyteller speaks about the Biblical story, but also focuses on how people today can find transformation by claiming God’s love and grace, God’s mercy and relentless love. Lucado offers his take on what pastors and congregations could do, to speak truth into a surrounding culture full of discouragement and divisiveness.
Lucado and his publishers have also created a free video Bible study for individuals and churches to use, exploring how Jacob’s story emphasizes how the Lord redeems our stories.
Max Lucado has been called “America’s Pastor”. In addition to decades of congregational leadership in Florida, Brazil, and Texas, he also is a renown author of books and Bible studies and devotionals — even as he says he “writes books for people who don’t read books.” He speaks at major Christian events, has advised presidents, and offers a podcast for “the hurting, the lonely, the guilty, and the discouraged.”
Faith Under Fire – Pastors Summit highlights – 09/21/23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:26 — 7.5MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS
A week ago, some 1200 pastors gathered in San Diego, a year after the first Pastors Summit sponsored by Turning Point USA.
Although others of the workshops and presentations were more politically-oriented, today’s “Faith Under Fire” feature gathered highlights from speakers who spoke more directly to the Church and its leadership. A consensus was that too many pastors and preachers cautiously water down their preaching and teaching, in order to avoid controversy. The evangelical pastors who have gathered at these summits were challenged to step into the cultural divisions over truth and righteousness that the millions in their congregations, broadcast audiences and podcast subscribers need to hear.
These speeches might make valuable conversation starters for local congregations and regional clergy groups.
Greg Gillispie narrates these excerpts.
Also available: A recent guest on Family Life, pro-life obstetrician Ingrid Skop, was interviewed at the California conference. In her presentation, she said national surveys have found that fully 2/3s of women involved with abortions did not want to end their pregnancies. Her comments are online here.
Inside Out – When your friend is hurting – 09/20/23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (155.5MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS
When a friend is suffering, we want to help, but so many of us just don’t know how, or feel inadequate for the task.
Vaneetha Rendall Risner is familiar with suffering. She also knows how it can draw us to God. Her first suggestion for those of us who don’t know how to support a hurting friend is to pray. Risner grew closer to God through her own suffering: polio, partial paralysis, bullying, the death of a child, an unfaithful spouse, and an unwanted divorce. She knows the value of friends showing up.
“We should pray for their needs—like their spiritual needs, their emotional needs, their physical needs–that they would turn to the Lord and find peace. That’s the biggest thing: just that they would find God in their suffering,” she says. “Show up at their doorsteps, go to the hospitals, sit in the waiting room, ask them if they want company to go somewhere. Just be there,” she says. “Jesus, we see Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He just wanted His disciples with Him, so presence is such a powerful thing.”
And if your friend has been hurting for a while but you’ve never known how to help, Risner says showing up even now has value. Show up, encourage, and listen.
“I would also say, ‘It’s never too late.’ If something really hard happened to a friend and it’s been months, even, you can still reach out. Don’t think, ‘I wasn’t there in the middle of the crisis, I can’t be there now.’ It’s never too late to reach out.”
Risner’s Desiring God article that inspired this conversation is titled “S.L.O.W.: How to Love Suffering People.” Learn more about Vaneetha Rendall Risner here.
Hometown Heroes – Jeff Seigworth in Ukraine – 09/19/23
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:20 — 7.3MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | RSS
Family Life’s “Hometown Heroes“
Multiple mission organizations are active in war zones in Ukraine and southern Russia, bringing Christian healing and Christian hope to those caught in the crossfire.
One of those agencies is A-1-8, named after Acts 1:8, the Biblical mandate to take Jesus’ Gospel far and near, into all the world. A18 had been active in Ukraine multiple years before the current war.
Pennsylvania native Jeff Seigworth recently returned from a mission trip to Ukraine. He was part of a team that was actively interacting with children in Ukrainian towns. They saw the explosive damage to the cities and villages, the costs of war in deaths and physical injuries, but also the emotional toll and chronic anxiety of daily life within a daily war. In this Family Life interview, Seigworth tells about how the mission workers saw how the message of Jesus released children from much of the fear and the mental health strain that non-Christians constantly face.
