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Tag: #insideout
Inside Out – Holidays & Dementia – 11/13/24

Inside Out – Holidays & Dementia – 11/13/24

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Holidays and Dementia

Family Life’s “Inside Out” podcast with Martha Manikas-Foster

If someone you love is living with dementia, simplifying how you celebrate the holidays could create a more enjoyable time for everyone. Phil Shippers of the Rochester and Finger Lakes chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association offers practical help in this Inside Out news podcast.

https://www.alz.org/help-support/resources/holidays

One in ten older Americans lives with dementia. Maybe this includes people you love. If so, being flexible and even making a few changes to the way you celebrate the holidays could help everyone feel more comfortable around the table this year.

“We have to realize that due to the changes in the brain, the person is trying to interpret their environment. So, being part of a social event may be upsetting or confusing or stressful,” says Phil Shippers, program director for the Rochester & Finger Lakes Region of the Alzheimer’s Association.

“I think the biggest thing is to be flexible, and perhaps to change our expectations,” he says. “Maybe we try new things. And we want to do this to reduce commotion, to reduce noise and activity, to make the person living with dementia feel more comfortable.”

Even if we’re not organizing the gathering, Shippers says there are practical things we can do to help our loved one living with dementia enjoy the time together. “One of the suggestions that we make is that when people approach the person living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, that they introduce themselves,” he says. “And it doesn’t have to be formal or stuffy. You can just make light of it, saying, ‘Oh, this is your favorite grandson Patrick.’”

We want to preserve each person’s dignity and demonstrate our love. Along the way, Shippers points out, we will make mistakes. “Give yourself some grace as well,” he says. “And just be as positive and really enjoy the moment as much as you can.”

Listen to our Inside Out podcast, where Phil Shippers lists a number of practical ways to make gatherings more comfortable.

For additional help, the Alzheimer’s Association offers support and resources 24/7 through its Help Line at 800-272-3900. You can also contact the Alzheimer’s Association at Alz.org.

That website offers six recommendations for households where the attendees include someone  who is dealing with these types of memory loss and limitations.

 

 

 

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11/13/2024

 
Inside Out – Being a Good Neighbor – 10/23/24

Inside Out – Being a Good Neighbor – 10/23/24

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Being a Good Neighbor

The “Inside Out” Podcast from Family Life News

Americans feel detached and isolated. Pastor Doug Hankins believes we have a neighborliness problem. On this edition of Inside Out, Hankins talks about Jesus’ call to be good neighbors, the topic of his The Gospel Coalition article “Benefits of Being a Good Neighbor.”

 

Americans feel detached and isolated. Pastor Doug Hankins believes we’re suffering from a lack of neighborliness, and Christians are just the people to solve it. But it won’t be easy.

“Neighborliness is costly,” Hankins says. “There’s no shortcut around it. Part of the reason neighborliness is like the fifth level blackbelt of being a Christian is because of the difficulty of it.”

Hankins is senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Winter Park, Florida. He authored the Gospel Coalition article “Benefits of Being a Good Neighbor.”

“I think the way Jesus understood being a neighbor was loving the people who are near you. If there are people around you, there is–if you’re a believer in Christ–a responsibility to consider these people as your neighbors and to ask the Lord ‘what must I do to care for them well?’”.

If you are ready follow Jesus into loving your neighbors–connecting intentionally, compassionately, and regularly with the people around you–Hankins suggests starting with a list. “Think about everybody you interact with: friends, neighbors, co-workers. Write their names on a list. Put it somewhere where you see it regularly and just pray for them.”

But don’t stop there. Ask friends for help.

“I think accountability is going to help. If you’ve got some Christian friends around you, just going to them saying, ‘I think the Lord might be calling me to step up my game in terms of loving my neighbors, could you just pray with me and bring it up once a month and just hold me accountable to this?’”

Hankins believes that not only will God show you who to love, He may overwhelm you with opportunities. “He’s going to bring us probably more than we can handle, but He can handle it. And so, we’ll get to love those people well.”

You can read Doug Hankins’s article “Benefits of Being a Good Neighbor” from The Gospel Coalition website here.

(TGC also published his first-person account of being at the “Asbury Awakening“, the college-centered revival which happened in 2023.)

 

 

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Inside Out – Navigating Election Season as a Faithful Christian – 9/25/24

Inside Out – Navigating Election Season as a Faithful Christian – 9/25/24

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Navigating Election Season

The “Inside Out” Podcast from Family Life News

 

How can Christians show Jesus’ radical love in the social, religious, and political climate? Martha’s guest Jeff Jones reminds Christians that our primary allegiance is to King Jesus, and He’s not up for reelection. Jones is lead pastor of Chase Oaks Church in Dallas, Texas, and coauthor with Mike Hogan of the book Rebranding Christianity.

 

 

How can Christians show Jesus’ radical love as we approach the November election? “Really, it’s an incredible opportunity to be distinctive,” says Jeff Jones. “Not to take our cues from the world that is very polarized and angry and there’s a lot of misplaced hope and vitriol.”

Jones is the lead pastor of Chase Oaks Church in Dallas, Texas, and coauthor with Mike Hogan of the book Rebranding Christianity. He points out that a believer’s model is Jesus, and He reached out to those who disagreed with Him. “As Christians we get to show a better way. In fact, it’s not just that we get to, we’re commanded to. We’re Jesus-followers, and so we take our cue from Jesus and how did He relate to the world, how did He relate to people who disagreed?” he says. “If we can just shift from sort of culture war mentality to mission field mentality–that’s a major shift–but it’s shifting from fear dominating us to love dominating us. What would it look like to relate like Jesus, who moved toward people in love, especially those who disagreed with him?”

And it’s especially meaningful to remember Jesus’ prayer for unity among believers, recorded in the Gospel of John.

 “In a divided world, to see a united church where we can remember ‘hey that’s what we agree on–and that’s Jesus and His mission and His truth, and our hope is in Him,’” Jones says. “And what an opportunity to do that this fall and really stand out as believers, if we’re willing to do that.”

Recognizing our primary loyalty can help Christians avoid getting tangled in partisan rhetoric. “Our allegiance is to King Jesus, which is above all this other stuff. And our hope is in Him,” Jones says. “We await a Savior from there, not here. Our hope, our focus–all of that—as we go into these elections: let’s remember who we are, and where our hope is. And then we don’t have to be afraid. Because it really doesn’t matter who gets in or who doesn’t get in. King Jesus is not up for reelection.”

Learn about Jeff Jones and the book he’s coauthored, Rebranding Christianity. He contends that the Christian “brand” is losing relevance and influence in the U.S.  A key reason is that Christians, who represent the brand to the world, fail to display what Jesus wants us to be known for — radical love. Jones says the next five to ten years will either deepen the decline or witness a movement to become more of who Jesus called us to be.

 

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Inside Out – Making Friends, Being a Friend, at Church – 9/11/24

Inside Out – Making Friends, Being a Friend, at Church – 9/11/24

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The “Inside Out” podcast, from Family Life

Making friends at church can be hard, but it’s both important and possible, and we can grow in the process.

 We want to find community at church, but it can be hard.

One of the challenges, according to writer and blogger Paige Pippin, is that many of us show up on Sundays already exhausted. “Getting to church can feel weirdly taxing at times,” she says. “And maybe it’s our personality–maybe we’re more introverted. Maybe we’re in a very hectic season. Maybe we’re getting our gaggle of young children to church. Or, maybe it’s genuinely heavy or life-altering circumstances, like a sickness or disability. So we show up to church and we already feel tired.”

Pippin’s the author of The Gospel Coalition article Help! I Want to Make Friends at Church. Pippin says that in addition to feeling spent when we arrive, we often feel uncertain.

“How do I engage?” Pippin asks. “This feels risky and out of control. Perhaps I’m believing others don’t want to be approached, or maybe it’s too much work, or maybe I believe the lie that it just doesn’t really matter.”

Our reasons for hesitating may be heart-felt, but the opportunity in front of us is a great one.

“We, as believers, are ambassadors of the Gospel, and we have this rich opportunity in front of us,” she says. “Accepting that means I have an opportunity to pray for my attitude–my openness–to others before I even enter the sanctuary. And maybe even to start leaving more margin in my coming and going on Sunday morning.”

Pippin encourages us not only to seek out friendships, but to seek them out with Christians who are different from us. We’ll likely grow deeper as disciples–and more amazed with God.  “Our awe for Him should be expanding as we see Him work in people who think differently than us, or who have walked different roads than us. God is that big, and He’s that able.”

None of this is easy. But God supplies everything we need for His Church to be unified.

“We, as Christians, have a leg up on friendship, because of the Spirit in us,” she says. “This should give us great confidence in pursuing other Christians. Because we know that this is what the Lord has and so we know that it’s not up to us to muster this strength, or to manufacture chemistry. The Lord wants it. He will show us how.”

 

Join us for our 14-minute conversation by listening to the podcast.

You can also read Paige Pippin’s article “Help! I Want to Make Friends at Church”.

Paige Pippin is a Christian author, blogger. and stay-at-home mom.

Inside Out with Martha Manikas-Foster is one of the Wednesday news features on the air and online. Hear it during our Noon Report, 5 O’Clock Report, and our “Family Life News” podcast feeds.

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Inside Out – Loving the Christian Nationalists – 8/28/24

Inside Out – Loving the Christian Nationalists – 8/28/24

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“Loving Christian Nationalists”

The “Inside Out” Podcast from Family Life News

What are the best ways to love our Christian nationalist friends? Martha talks with pastor Caleb E. Campbell about the topic Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor

 

Christian nationalism promises both security at a time when many Americans feel insecure and powerless. But Phoenix Pastor Caleb E. Campbell points out that only Jesus Christ holds real power and offers true security. That means that people who follow the crucified and risen Christ have good news to share with their Christian nationalist friends.

“The means of American Christian Nationalism are in direct conflict with the teachings of Scripture which call us to love our neighbor as our self, to take up our cross, not the sword, to practice the fruit of the Spirit and First Corinthians 13 love,” Campbell says. “And the fruit of that is that we bear witness to the Kingdom of God not as culture warriors, but as ambassadors to the Kingdom.”

“What they claim that they want is a righteous country. They want a place where justice rules. Those are good ends. But the means by which they’re arguing we should pursue those ends is not a cross-centered posture, but a sword-centered posture,” he adds.

This doesn’t make Christian nationalists the enemy, Campbell says. This makes Christian nationalists the mission field. “We are to set the table of hospitality, study the culture, and show the inconsistencies of their currently-held convictions.”

But we must go on mission knowing that loving, listening, and talking with Christian nationalist friends may not change their minds and hearts. “We can’t change anybody. Only God can do that. So my job is not to bear the responsibility of changing someone. Rather, my invitation is to be faithful to Jesus in the conversations that I’m invited into, or that I invite others into.”

Campbell reminds us that at the core of the Christian faith is this hope: change is possible.

“I firmly believe that there are people that the Spirit of the living God will use our words, our relationship or our hospitality to bring about the fruit of repentance in their life,” he says. “The frustrating part is, sometimes it’s going to take a long time, and oftentimes I won’t be there to see it,” Campbell says. “And so I’m going to entrust that to God’s hands not mine.”

Caleb E. Campbell is the author of the new book Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor.

 
Inside Out – Revenge: Getting even? or Getting it right? – 8/07/24

Inside Out – Revenge: Getting even? or Getting it right? – 8/07/24

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Is Getting Even Getting It Right?

The theme of seeking revenge weaves through entertainment and politics. It seems baked into the culture. In this Inside Out podcast, Martha talks with therapist Paula Rinehart.Her recent article in The Gospel Coalition is titled Gospel Hope for a Culture Fixated on Getting Even.

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 The theme of revenge weaves through our entertainment and politics, and seems baked into the culture. It’s presented as the inevitable option when someone suffers loss, humiliation, or betrayal. “Perhaps the most primal inclination is to get back at the other party, and I think the illusion is that that will stop it in some way, shape, or form, or it will prevent another hurt,” says therapist and author Paula Rinehart.

“Getting even just seems to drive the nail deeper, that great irony to it all,” she says. “I think, as we move about in the world, the possibility of offering people what could be the possibility of forgiveness really stands out in a culture that has decided revenge is the only option.”

“The first step out of that is bringing something into the light so it can be thought through or prayed through or talked through,” she says. “And that tends to step us out of the kind of knee-jerk reaction of just getting back at the person.”

 She points out that Jesus asks us to live in opposition to our instincts and open ourselves to the work of God in us. “Forgiveness of really significant things takes a power that’s greater—it’s not just something I’ve conjured up myself,” Rinehart points out. “It’s really based on the power of the cross and the power of God to bring something quite unexpected and redemptive from things that seem like kind of the end of the story to me.”

No one is saying forgiveness is easy. But the surprising thing is that when we go through the work of forgiving others, we benefit.  “What we don’t want to miss in our need to get even with someone is the real freedom that God can bring in our life in very deep places in us through forgiveness—forgiveness and the light of knowing that God is going to deal with this,” she says.

 

Read Paula Rinehart’s article Gospel Hope for a Culture Fixated on Getting Even. She writes for The Gospel Coalition and lives and works in Raleigh, North Carolina.

 

 

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Inside Out – “Elder Isolation” -7/24/24

Inside Out – “Elder Isolation” -7/24/24

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“Elder Isolation”

Family Life’s “Inside Out” News Feature

Nearly a quarter of adults 65 and older are socially isolated. In today’s Inside Out podcast, author and speaker Jen Pollock Michel talks about some of the causes of elder isolation, and encourages Christians to help prevent elderly friends and loved ones from feeling alone.   

Martha talks with Jen Pollock Michel about elder isolation

Nearly a quarter of adults 65 and older are socially isolated, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And social isolation, studies show, increases the risk of hospitalization and a host of serious health conditions, including dementia and depression. “I think there are a lot of reasons why older people get isolated, and one thing I’ve really grown to appreciate is just how devastating it is,” says author and speaker Jen Pollock Michel, whose family moved to live closer to her aging mother.

Michel points to a number of reasons elderly people can grow isolated. Michel’s mother, for instance, became more isolated when her husband’s Parkinson’s Disease made it difficult for the couple to leave their apartment. Others find that the inability to drive isolates them, especially when there’s no accessible public transportation to fill in the gap. People can also withdraw socially when hearing or memory loss make it hard to participate in conversation.

“All of these capacities that enable us to get out of our house, or maybe invite people into our homes–when those diminish, isolation follows” Michel says.

Michel offers encouragement to those who care for and regularly visit the elderly people in their lives.  “It is good work,” she says. “And I think if you know it’s good, you know it’s valuable, and most importantly, you know it’s God-honoring, then that provides the motivation that you need to keep doing it when it’s hard. And you have to lay hold of that.”

 And it can be hard. So Michel suggests that caregivers ask for help. “Getting a network of support, I think, is one thing that I would say, because you can’t do everything all alone,” she says. “I allow myself to just be very human in the task. Depending on God as much as I can. You know, abiding in Christ—the foundation of the Christian life.”

God is the stamina giver and also the model. When we spend time with someone who has been isolated, we are imitating Jesus.  “God clothed Himself with flesh and took up the loving act of presence,” she reminds us. “That’s where we discover God’s heart for us and live out of His love for other people.”

Learn more about Jen Pollock Michel at JenPollockMichel.com.

 

“Inside Out” — and all of Family Life’s podcasts and features are available — to download, share or subscribe. Visit FamilyLife.org/newspodcasts.  You can also hear them during the Family Life Noon Report on the air and streaming online.

 
Inside Out: Be Present and Active — We “worship”, we don’t “attend worship” — 5/22/24

Inside Out: Be Present and Active — We “worship”, we don’t “attend worship” — 5/22/24

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“Inside Out” : Come Ready to Worship

Ever find you’ve gotten to church, but your mind is someplace else?

“We want to urge people: get your heart and your mind ready before worship so that you can be spiritually engaged when you get there,” says the Rev. Alex Mark. He’s the senior pastor of First Scots Presbyterian Church of America in Beaufort, South Carolina.

He encourages us to focus on the privilege we have when we gather to worship God. “The most fundamental thing we need to realize is how important worship really is,” he says. “Our worship today is actually even more awesome than what they saw at Sinai. Because instead of having Moses as worship leader, we have Jesus. Instead of being kept at a distance, we are commanded to draw near.”

 

Mark is the author of The Gospel Coalition article “Ready for Church: 5 Ways to Be Present in Worship.” Family Life’s Martha Manikas-Foster talks with the pastor about actively engaging in worshiping God.

Foundational to our worship is remembering who deserves our focus.  “We are meeting with the living God. We are being led in worship by the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit is with us. And then I think the practical things flow from that. That’s one of the things sin does—it just distorts our whole worldview. We become more concerned with whether we’re satisfied than whether God is glorified,” he says.

 “The goal of worship isn’t to worship in a way that costs us nothing,” he adds. “Worship should cost us, because it’s a display from our hearts to the world of the incredible value and worth of God.

 He suggests several ways we can engage spiritually while at church. 

“We want to fight distraction,” he says. “My attention span has to be an offering to God. I want to give it to Him. Sing heartily in worship. I am tone deaf and musically illiterate. It is not a good combination. It’s not the quality of our voices that make our worship acceptable to God. It’s what Jesus has done for us.”

 He also points out that we can only apply the lessons of a sermon when we’ve listened to it.

 “Engage with the sermon. You know, Satan doesn’t mind us being under the Word, as long as we’re not paying attention to it. And so we’ve got the duty to really listen carefully to the ministry of the Word and then make it our goal for the week to put our preacher’s words into action.”

 The Rev. Alex Mark reminds us that worship isn’t always led from the front of the church. It includes supporting and cheering on others in the pews. 

 “One of the reasons we gather together is to encourage each other,” he reminds us. “Encouraging each other, I think, really means we’re intentional to care for one another’s souls, and to make it our purpose to help one another love and savor Jesus Christ more.”

 

Listen to our 17-minute conversation in this Family Life Inside Out podcast.

Read the article that inspired this conversation on the Gospel Coalition website
Inside Out: What do people mean when they say “Christian Nationalism”? – 6/26/24

Inside Out: What do people mean when they say “Christian Nationalism”? – 6/26/24

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What do people mean when they say “Christian Nationalism”?

 

Christian nationalism is in the news, but what is it?

Nationalism is different from feeling patriotic or making sure to vote every November. Part of what defines nationalism in general is its goal to reserve privileges for only one group in a country that has many groups. Christian nationalism, to be specific, aims for the government to privilege Christians.

Dr. Paul D. Miller believes Christian nationalism is a danger to the Church. That’s because it makes a Christian’s citizenship in a country a higher priority than a Christian’s citizenship in God’s Kingdom.

“If we start to orient our hearts towards America as if it were an ultimate thing, well, that’s actually idolatry, and we misunderstand the entire Gospel, as if the Gospel is all about making America great. And that’s just not why Jesus came,” Miller says. “He said very clearly, ‘My Kingdom is not of this world.’ I’m grateful for America, but it’s really important that I don’t confuse America for Jesus’ Kingdom.”

He believes that Christian nationalism not only threatens the Church, but also our democracy.

“It is a danger, I think, in a more mild sense of being in tension with the principles of liberty and equality for all citizens, Christian and non-Christian alike.”

And while not all Christian nationalists are violent, some are. Those waving Christian symbols and calling on God as they broke into the nation’s capitol on January 6, 2021 are an example of the movement’s violent minority. “That kind of mixing of religious rhetoric with a violent assault on the citadel of democracy is, I think, clearly dangerous for American democracy,” Miller says. “Again, that’s a small minority, but it is there, let’s not ignore it.”

 Miller wants the Church to be aware of the danger of Christian nationalism, even as he points out that it’s not the only threat.

 “This is part of a much bigger conversation. While we’ve talked about the dangers on the Right, there’s dangers on the Left as well.”

– – –

Dr. Paul D. Miller is Martha’s guest for this Inside Out discussion on Christian nationalism. Dr. Miller is a former member of the National Security Council staff who has served as an intelligence analyst for the CIA and as a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army. Currently Dr. Miller is a professor of the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University. Read a more detailed biography of Dr. Paul D. Miller discover more about his book The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism.
Inside Out: Christian Accountability and/or Cancel Culture – 6/12/24

Inside Out: Christian Accountability and/or Cancel Culture – 6/12/24

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Cancel Culture

A Christ-centered vantage point, from the “Inside Out” podcast

In a culture without agreed-upon standards, people across the faith and political spectrum sometimes hold others accountable by “cancelling” them. Christian attorney and apologist Abdu Murray believes the impulse to correct a wrong is natural and biblical.

“What Cancel Culture has become is the–I think a quite biblical–act of holding people accountable, but run amok,” he says. According to Murray, Cancel Culture and Christian accountability have different goals.  “Cancel Culture is public erasure. There’s almost nothing redemptive in it. It’s an act that looks a lot more like revenge than it looks like accountability.”

Murray is the founder of  Embrace the Truth, a non-profit dedicated to Christian apologetics and evangelism. He reminds us that when you feel that the wrongs of others should be addressed, cancelling is not the only choice.

“If you refuse to cancel them,” he says, “you can still hold them accountable.”

We need to know our motivation: do we want wrongdoers to take responsibility and repent, or do we want to ruin them?

“We always have to think redemptively,” Murray says. “How can this be redeemed? A good friend of mine once said this, ‘that I always want to make it easier for someone to sincerely apologize rather than harder.’ And sometimes Cancel Culture makes it harder for someone to sincerely apologize.”

Cancelling, of course, goes both ways, and it is possible that you could be cancelled and feel that it is because of your faith in Jesus Christ.

“The phrase that’s been repeated many, many times: ‘You can’t always control your reputation, but you can control your character.’ And as painful as it can be to be rejected, the real issue is: are we looking to Jesus to say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant’?”

 

 

Learn about Abdu Murray and Embrace the Truth here.

Learn about his books here.

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