Patrick developed his “shield” or “breast-plate” prayer to help him “put on the full armor of God” (Ephesians 6:12) in the midst of the incredible trials he faced fostering shalom in Ireland. It’s the type of prayer our nation needs today.
My background led me to hold liturgy with a little disdain, and I regret that posture. That day, sitting in a small room not far from the well-known Hollywood sign, I saw something new and fresh.
Why Lent is Less Like Monty Python and More Like Moana
Moana can’t create the wind and the waves, but her sail canoe enables her to catch the energy provided by the ocean. Lent is a lot like that.
by Gary David Stratton
“Don’t you think it’s a little odd to give up something for Lent in order to worship a Savior who told us to remember him by eating carbs and drinking alcohol?” she said. How was I supposed to answer that?
Gary is currently on a writing break completing edits for The Jesus Climb: Journeying from Student to Disciple (Abilene Christian University Press / Leafwood Publishers, 2024)
That Asbury University’s chapel has become a “hot spot of sacramentality” {James K.A. Smith] would not surprise the founders of Christian higher education in America. The integration of revival and moral philosophy in the college chapel helped lead to what Mark. A. Noll calls “the great age of Christian higher education.”
While Asbury University’s current revival appears a modern anomaly, it is very much in keeping with the history of higher education in America.
Will twenty-first century Christian college leaders rise to the challenge of innovation as we have throughout history or will we merely get stuck in the past?
The stunning ‘pause’ forced upon our modern world places an unprecedented challenge before the church: How do we remain faithful to God’s glorious dream of Shalom-making in the midst of a world in crisis?
Gary and Peter Kapsner discuss the greatest Christmas movie of all time and its relation to the struggles of the modern church. Are mega-churches a little too much like Pottersville? (Recorded 12/14/21)
Gary and Peter discuss the message of hope found in the Christmas story for all those still waiting for God to answer their deepest prayer.
Gary and Peter Kapsner Discuss how anxiety is a barrier to spiritual growth as seen in the part of the Christmas story we never tell.
If the stable teaches us anything it’s that you can’t always judge a Christmas classic by its humble beginnings.
Gary and Peter Kapsner recorded these Holiday Podcasts in the pre-pandemic Advent Seasons of 2018 and 2019. Our hope is they help give you hope in this 2021 season.
Preachers love to borrow from each other, but the practice can sometimes lead to plagiarism.
On Episode 2 of the Untangled Faith Podcast, Dr. Gary David Stratton joins Amy Fritz to discuss pastoral plagiarism.
What troubled me most was the unmistakable presence of Christian symbols in the sea of law-abiding protestors, law-breaking rioters, and treasonous insurrectionists. Crosses and Jesus flags mixed freely with Trump banners and Confederate flags. They raise deep questions about what it means to be a follower of Christ in our deeply divided country.
Gary and Peter Kapsner (Ph.D. Edinburgh) discuss Luke 6:42 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not follow my teachings?”
Gary and John C. Lemon discuss the four heart attitudes and the significance of endurance.
John C. Lemon interviews Gary on what it meant to following Jesus as a student in the First Century and today.
John C. Lemon interviews Gary on how we can live devoted to both the Life of the Mind and the Life of the Spirit in this turbulent season of coming to grips with social injustice.
Gary and I have had numerous requests for books (and of course, movies) to help people think through justice, race, and faith. This introductory list might be a good place to start.
What two factors might lead God to “regret” putting a leader into power?
Let us not value a false peace over a righteous justice.
“Shelter in Place” takes on new meaning in the light of an ancient psalm.
No one plans on a volcanic eruption in their backyard, but they’re more common than you think. Especially when there are so many unseen forces at work in the depths of our worldview. Just ask Jeannie and Kevin about their honeymoon…
Our largely subconscious values and belief system grows out of our unique life story and profoundly influences our life strategy. Yet it is so deeply tied to our identity it can be extremely difficulty to detect, even in ourselves. Still, it is possible to at least catch a glimpse… if you know where to look.
The stories, beliefs and strategies we develop to survive life’s most painful experiences inevitably fail us in high stress environments. Here’s why.
By linking the choice of new birth with his audience’s choice of a new American identity, British evangelist George Whitefield provided a common American experience that unified diverse colonists who lacked a common identity
More than a century before the New Deal, Public Education, or the Civil Rights movements, the Second Great Awakening fostered a nation-wide “benevolent empire” of care for the poor, freedom for the oppressed and education for all.
Contrary to popular belief, the drug of choice in Hollywood, the business world, higher education, (and the church) is not cocaine. It’s adrenaline.
“The shaping of our character is, to a great extent, the effect of stories that have captivated us, that have sunk into our bones.” -James K.A. Smith
Whereas Plato and Aristotle interacted with their students as friends, the depersonalized modern university student is often little more than a number. No relationship means no moral transformation, at least not for the good.
Do 21st-century Christian colleges hold the gospel of Rabbi Jesus in as high a regard as 1st-century Jewish educators held the Torah?
For Jesus prayer and education were inseparable, because education and the knowledge of God are inseparable.
The patron saint of Ireland is rarely credited with what was perhaps his greatest achievement. (Hint: It’s not green beer.)
Before we can learn anything from Jonathan Edwards, we first need to humble ourselves as he did on that fateful day in 1734, when he finally admitted that “business as usual” was failing his students.
The inciting event presents the hero with a decision: Shall I continue in the relative comfort of my business-as-usual life, or risk pursuing a new and more dangerous goal? A lot like Lent is designed to do…
Part 9 of series: Hollywood and Higher Education: Teaching Worldview Thru the Stories We Live By “No matter what anyone tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” -Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) by Gary David Stratton The main characters of…
Part of ongoing series: Hollywood and Higher Education: Teaching Worldview Thru the Stories We Live By “Carpe Diem! Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” -Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) by Gary David Stratton Dead Poets Society, 1989 Oscar winner…
Raised in a culture dominated by Hollywood storytelling—from Disney to Tarantino—my students often know Hollywood’s stories better than they know their own.
By changing the foundational story of Rick’s life from that of a “self-centered love-betrayed” to the story of a “other-centered love renewed” Ilsa transforms Rick’s values and rule of life as well.
Like Tevye, the stories of Scripture provide not only fertile soil for nurturing reinterpretations of our philosophy and culture for a new generation, but also irresistible bedrock for grounding the story of our own life in the mind of God.
If imitation is the highest form of flattery, then we are constantly flattering the individuals and communities who have transmitted their “scripts” to us. But how do we change our story if we’re a character in somebody else’s play?
Efrem Smith and Gary David Stratton provided black and white perspectives on Unity and Reconciliation in the body of Christ in Johnson University’s kickoff to Black History Month.
“The only way to know for sure if a decision is motivated purely by good ethics is when it is bad for business.” Warren K. Stratton, University of Washington School of Engineering
As artists and as theologians (for make no mistake, we are all living out some form of theology making us all theologians) we need to be less sure of being “right” and more secure in taking the risk to say, “I don’t know. Let’s explore this.”
Tonight the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will award the 2015 Best Picture, yet the academy missed most of these “Deep Culture” Impact films. Will this year’s winner one day join this august company?
In the past 40 years only three Academy Award-winning films managed to break into the coveted top 60 all-time box office earners. Here’s Why.
One helpful (if imperfect) way to estimate ‘deep culture’ impact is to look for films that have achieved success what at what Hollywood sometimes calls the “double bottom-line.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg recently opined: “I try to vote in a way so that, in 50 years, people aren’t going to go, ‘Huh?!’” Sadly, history reveals that, when it comes to picking a film audiences will recognize as truly great 50 years from now, Oscar voters nearly always miss the mark. Here’s why.
At first glance, the concept of Embodied Cognition looks more like some new whackadoodle academic program than serious research. But could it be scientific evidence for an ancient Christian practice?
Think the fiery Puritan who preached America’s most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of Angry God,” would threaten to dangle celebrities over the pit of hell? Think again.
Spiritual disciplines are designed not so much to “get you somewhere” in your career so much as to keep you alive spiritually in the constantly shifting landscape of success and failure we call “life.”
College professors don’t get calls from Emmy magazine, do they?
Prolific writer-producer Brian Bird is co-founder of Believe Pictures (with Michael Landon, Jr.) with the mission of developing and producing “high quality, entertaining, and life-and-faith-affirming, films and television depicting positive images and compelling moral stories.” Bird and Landon wrote and…
“Christians are routinely taught by example and word that it is more important to be right than to be Christlike. In fact, being right licenses you to be mean, indeed, requires you to be mean.” -Dallas Willard, Renovation of the…
“Love Wins” may be the most ironic title in the history of Christian publishing. No matter how you slice it, love is the one thing that is NOT winning in this advance publication chatter. Gauge the intensity of the battle raging on the internet and it becomes immediately obvious that something else is a stake than asking whether or not Gandhi is in hell.
Sue and I put our heads together over dinner at Outback last night and came up with our own twenty (popular) books on the two themes of Two Handed Warriors—Culture Making and Faith Building.
The goal of Two Handed Warriors is to foster an ongoing conversation seeking to redefine, re-envision, and then reconstruct the relationship between faith and culture. Toward that end, I am posting a few responses to Paparazzi in the Hands of…
The goal of Two Handed Warriors is to foster an ongoing conversation seeking to redefine, re-envision, and then reconstruct the relationship between faith and culture. Toward that end, I am posting a few responses to Paparazzi in the Hands of…