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Tag: #insideout

Inside Out – Feeding the Spiritually Hungry – 05/17/23

Inside Out – Feeding the Spiritually Hungry – 05/17/23

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Over 70 percent of Americans say they would like to grow spiritually, according to the Barna research group. That includes Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. 

“When over seven in ten people say they want to grow spiritually, they are not necessarily saying, ‘Hey, I want to meet Jesus,’ ‘Hey I want to become a Christian,’” says Savannah Kimberlin, an Associate Vice President for Church Engagement at Barna. 

The people who are open spiritually, she says, are looking for purpose or inner peace and are willing to consider a spiritual answer. Reaching them with the answer in Jesus will look different from how Christians spread the news of Jesus in previous decades.  

“They care very deeply about knowing and seeing and being taught that Christianity is not only true, but that it is also good,” she says. Christians are the most attractive to spiritually hungry people when their beliefs show through in the way they live even more than in the words they say. 

“If we want to step into these kinds of relationships where we are being salt and light, and where we are facilitating spiritual conversations, we have to make sure that our actions speak louder than our words,” Kimberlin says. 

The Barna Group has been researching faith in America for over three decades. Learn more about Barna here, and Barna’s Rising Spiritual Openness in America research here.  

Inside Out – Teaching Children about Marriage – 05/03/23

Inside Out – Teaching Children about Marriage – 05/03/23

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:37 — 10.5MB)

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Marriage is a signpost pointing to God’s unconditional love.

Marriage is so much more than compatible people with romantic feelings for each other, and we want children to know this. “Marriage is based on a promise. And it’s based on a promise because it’s trying to be a mirror to the love God has shown us in Jesus, which is covenantal love,” he says. “It’s promise-making love.” 

To help parents and caregivers teach this, pastor and author Sam Allberry has written the picture book God’s Signpost: How Marriage Points Us to God’s Love. The story revolves around siblings Ethan and Lila, who learn about marriage as they celebrate their grandparents’ 50th anniversary. 

“What we want a child to know about God’s love is that it is unconditional,” Allberry says in our Family Life conversation. “God loves us because of what He’s like. He doesn’t love us because of what we’re like. And so we can’t perform our way into it, and we can’t sin our way out of it. He loves us because it’s His nature to love.” 

Which is a good thing, Allberry assures us, as even solid marriages don’t always point to God’s love. “Ultimately, our faith is not on whether we get this right, but on whether God Himself is able to love us in this way,” Allberry says. “And He so beautifully is.”

 

Learn about Sam Allberry’s book God’s Signpost: How Marriage Points Us to God’s Love here.

 

Inside Out – Girls & Social Media – 04/19/23

Inside Out – Girls & Social Media – 04/19/23

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 17:18 — 23.8MB)

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Girls and Social Media 

With more girls than ever reporting that they feel sad or hopeless, The Gospel Coalition’s Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra talks with Martha Manikas-Foster about social media’s impact on girls. They also talk about the precautions adults might put in place before approaching social media as a mission field.

 

More girls than ever feel sad or hopeless. Social media may be the reason why.

“In 2009, we know about a third of American high school girls had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness,” reports Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra, senior writer and faith-and-work editor for The Gospel Coalition. “But by last year, so this is about 10 years later, it was up to 57 percent. Which is the highest recorded level of teenage sadness ever.”

Zylstra observes that the increase in sadness tracks with the rise of smartphones and social media. Smartphones make it possible to check on your internet friends more often than when you had to wait until you opened your laptop to get connected.

How we spend our time makes its mark on us, and girls are averaging five hours a day on social media. During those hours girls are comparing themselves with others–often people they don’t know in person—and they repeatedly feel that they fall short.

Disembodied online relationships impact us differently from in-person friendships, Zylstra says, in part because when you walk alongside a friend, you see them on both their good days and bad days. Online you see only the best snapshots of a person’s day. “And if you have 500 friends,” Zylstra says, “every day somebody’s having a good day somewhere. But you’re constantly feeling like, ‘My day never measures up.’”

Listen in on our 18-minute conversation about the impact this is having. You’ll also hear Zylstra’s suggestions for how adults who feel called to on-line ministry might wisely approach social media as a mission field.

Listen to the podcast that inspired this conversation here and read some of her other writings here. 

Inside Out – Avoiding Scams – 04/05/23

Inside Out – Avoiding Scams – 04/05/23

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Scams come at us from every direction—postal mail, email, text, and telephone—and they’re getting harder to identify. 

 “It all comes down to you never know who you’re talking to on the other end of the phone or other end of the computer,” says New York State Trooper Officer Mark O’Donnell. 

 By knowing the characteristics of most scams and thinking things through, we’re more likely to keep our money and personal information out of the hands of con artists. 

“It can be confusing,” O’Donnell says, “and again, these people are professionals, and that’s what they do. They prey on people, and they try to get them confused and scared and nervous for them to open up their bank accounts.”

Learn what to look for in this Inside Out conversation, and then pass the word along, especially to members of older generations. “Talk to your parents. It’s like talking to your kids about stuff in school when they’re growing up. You’ve got to talk to your parents about this and your grandparents. It’s kind of a full circle of life,” says O’Donnell, the Barracks E Public Information Officer. 

Inside Out – Confidence in Barren Seasons – 03/22/23

Inside Out – Confidence in Barren Seasons – 03/22/23

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:48 — 10.7MB)

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If your prayers seem unanswered, or you feel the wait for God to act has been long, author and speaker Dena Dyer encourages confidence that God uses the barren seasons for His purposes. Dyer is the author of the recent blog post “Confidence in Barren Seasons: What Elizabeth Can Teach Us.”

Have you prayed for healing, a new job, a spouse–or children–but you’re still waiting? If so, you join the people of the Bible, like Elizabeth and Zechariah, who lived through barren seasons. Their lives, says author Dena Dyer, show us that we can be confident that God uses these times for His purposes.

“A barren season is one in which our prayers don’t seem to be answered,”? Dyer says. “Maybe our dreams are deferred, or we’re just—impatiently—waiting on something that’s important to us.”

Dyer wrote a recent Christianity Today/Better Samaritan blog post titled “Confidence in Barren Seasons” and is the author of the book Wounded Women of the Bible. She says not only does the Bible introduce us to people who know the ache of waiting, even God knows that ache.  

“Isaiah 30:18 is one of my favorite verses. And it says, ‘So the Lord must wait for you to come to Him so He can show you His love and compassion. For He is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for His help.’” 

Barren seasons can tempt us to drift from God. But Dyer urges us to remain confident that God is using these seasons for His purposes. “Be honest with God,” she says. “He already knows how we feel. And He’s merciful and kind.  And I’ve learned over the years that He wants a relationship with us all day, every day, no matter  what our mental state, our spiritual state, our physical state.”

And even when we’re weary of waiting, or disappointed in God, He wants us to reach for Him. “Even in the midst of barrenness, even in the midst of our lack of faith, He’s not going to condemn us in the moment, but embrace us,” she says.

Read Dyer’s blog on this topic here.

Inside Out – Engaging Generation Z – The “Open” Generation – 03/08/23

Inside Out – Engaging Generation Z – The “Open” Generation – 03/08/23

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:03 — 11.1MB)

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Good news!

America’s 13- to 17-year-olds are, by and large, hopeful about the future.    …And there are ways the adults in their lives can help them hold onto their optimism.

“Despite the current social climate and current challenges, teens are optimistic and they’re open. They long to see change in our world,” says Ashley Ekmay, a Barna Group research specialist and the author of a blog post on Barna’s “Open Generation” study.

These youngest members of Gen Z, the subject of the Barna study, have navigated some of their formative years during a pandemic and could feel discouraged.

“They’ve lived through a unique experience that no other generation before them has faced,” she acknowledges.

The teens will encounter difficulties that could dampen their optimism. Listen to our eight-minute conversation to hear ways adults can help them remain optimistic, curious, and engaged. “The more teens are invested in and in community with adults in their lives, the more engaged they are with the Bible,” Ekmay says. “Also, the more engaged they are with the Bible, the more likely they are to report they are hopeful and optimistic about the world’s future and that they can make a positive impact on the world.”

Read the Christianity Today’s “The Better Samaritan” blog post that inspired this conversation here: “3 ways to help today’s young people stay Optimistic, Curious and Engaged”

Inside Out – Secular campuses are open to faith – 02/22/23

Inside Out – Secular campuses are open to faith – 02/22/23

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:11 — 20.9MB)

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Before heading off to university, Daniela Angulo was sure that her on-campus conversations about faith would require all the apologetics knowledge she’d ever learned.

“We saw secular college as a battlefield. That was what we expected,” she says. “We were expecting to go in with our weapons in hand.”  

What she found instead surprised her. Angulo, a student at Miami’s Florida International University, has written for The Gospel Coalition about the receptivity of her professors and classmates to learning what she, as a Christian, believes.   “I had classmates who, upon finding out I was a Christian, were more curious than anything else, and would ask me to have lunch with them,” she says.

She spends more time sharing her faith and less time defending it than she expected.

“While I still made sure to hold onto that foundation of apologetics that I needed, because I knew it would come in handy and there have been times where I have needed them, I also started approaching each class with a renewed excitement for the opportunity that God might give me to share the Gospel.”  

Her perspective today is quite different from her expectations. “At the end of the day it’s not a battlefield as much as it is an evangelistic ground of mission work,” she says. 

If your college search includes secular universities,  Angulo recommends three ways to prepare. “Know the Bible,” she says. “Whether it be a conversation, or defending your faith, you need to know what you believe. And so that foundation of just understanding what it is we believe and why is so important.”   

She also counsels that we view professors and fellow students as people God longs to be in relationship with. “Don’t view your secular classmates, your atheistic classmates, your  agnostic classmates, your liberal classmates—don’t view them as your enemies. View them as people who are lost and who we pray that God will reveal Himself to, and that  you will be able to be a tool for Him.” And lastly, pray for opportunities to talk about Jesus. God will give them.  “I started praying for that opportunity and it came,” she says. “The opportunity came.”

Read Daniela Angulo’s The Gospel Coalition article that inspired this podcast here.

Inside Out – Children Win When the Marriage Takes Priority – 02/08/23

Inside Out – Children Win When the Marriage Takes Priority – 02/08/23

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:00 — 38.5MB)

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Parents can be tempted to make the children the family’s highest priority. But giving our children the best of our time and attention is not actually what’s best for them, according to Dr. Greg Smalley.  

Smalley is an author and speaker who serves as vice president of Marriage at Focus on the Family. He says that your children benefit when you make your marriage the priority.    

“When our marriage is healthy, everybody wins,” Smalley says.

Giving the marriage priority status means taking the time to stay up to date on your spouse’s hopes and feelings.  “We have to continually be rediscovering our spouse,” he says. 

It also means making a habit of talking through the times you hurt each other along the way.   “We have to repair when we have arguments and when we have conflict and when we hurt each other,” Smalley says. “We’ve got to be willing to repair.” 

Everyone in a family benefits when spouses commit to the work of deepening their marriage.  “I think if couples are pursuing each other, keeping current and re-discovering each other and then repairing when those conflicts happen, man, those two things alone are going to take us so far as far as staying connected in our marriage,” he says. 

Learn more about Dr. Greg Smalley here. 

Inside Out – All Will Be Well – Lacy Finn Borgo – 01/11/23

Inside Out – All Will Be Well – Lacy Finn Borgo – 01/11/23

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:47 — 16.2MB)

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From the loss of school connections during the pandemic to the death of a grandparent, sometimes well-meaning adults misstep as they try to help grieving children.   

“I think we can get a little clouded around making ourselves feel more comfortable rather than kind of accompanying the child where they are,” says Lacy Finn Borgo. Her 2022 children’s picture book “All Will Be Well: Learning to Trust God’s Love” is written to help children face loss and grief. “So we might say things that make us, as adults, feel better, but it might not meet the child where they actually are.” 

Borgo emphasizes that, with God, we can know that all will be well even when someone we love dies. But how do we help children see that “all will be well” does not mean that “everything will be the same as it was”? “Children and even adults, we can’t sort of get our minds logically around that. We learn it and we live it a little bit every day.” Borgo says. “We can know it in our heads, but learning it in our souls and our bodies are something else.”  

What we can do for children—and this helps with adults as well—is to help them feel secure right now as they express their emotions, long before it feels like “all will be well.”  

“So making space for them to have a place to talk about how they feel, and accepting the emotions, and giving them a place and a way to process them, helps them to know that all will be well,” she says.   

Learn more about Lacy Finn Borgo’s book “All Will Be Well: Learning to Trust God’s Love.”  

22-1214_Inside Out_ Avoiding Holiday Discord  

22-1214_Inside Out_ Avoiding Holiday Discord  

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:17 — 11.4MB)

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Are you dreading the big family Christmas get-together because of the potential for conflict?

“Our love for Christ makes a great difference,” Dr. Chet Weld says, “so we remember the Scripture that says: ‘love triumphs over judgment,’ and we want to be filled with the love of Christ and love everyone unconditionally as Jesus does.”

Weld draws from 42 years as a Christian therapist to suggest several strategies to keep our focus positive and our attitude encouraging.

“My first point is to be in prayer in the weeks and days before a family occasion,” he says.

There really is a lot on the line.

“Entire family dynamics revolve around these get-togethers such as weddings, or memorial services, or Christmas,” he says about big family gatherings. “These gatherings are so important because the effects of them can last for years and years and years.”

Because of that, it’s good to also include prayer on the day of celebration.

“This sort of sets the tone,” he says. “I think it’s very important.”

And how we engage in conversation that day can make a difference for good, too. Weld recommends focusing on others: on how they’ve overcome difficulties over the past year, what they’re thankful for, and how knowing what they have control over could make for a smoother new year.

Weld’s recommendations could make for a more joyful gathering and warmer connections moving forward.

“You’ll get to build the relationships if all goes well,” he says.

Dr. Chet Weld’s upcoming book is titled “God is in the Crazy.”

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