Trinity Talks Podcast

Pastor Richard recently led a mission trip to Salt Lake City. 20 middle and high school students and 5 adults studied mormonism for six weeks prior to the trip. This preparation paid off as the students had conversations with roughly 200 people in total. Today, Richard is joined by Carstyn, Zane, McCartney, and Dashton to tell stories of the trip. -Learn more about MAVENEpisode 024 | Equipping the Next Generation with Brett Kunkle. https://subspla.sh/xfcxyjb

Perhaps more than any other question that Christians need to thoughtfully engage is the question of sexuality. The culture is a loud voice in saying that your sexuality is equal to your identity, but it is not only culture that is fueling this discussion. Humans are created to be sexual beings, so our sexuality plays a key role in how we express our personality, how we make decisions, what we look like, etc. Because of the Fall, every aspect of humanity (including our sexuality) is broken. One opportunity for the church is to care for those who have same-sex attractions. But how do we do that? Here today is Brady Cone. He runs a ministry called Calibrate Ministries where he speaks on sexuality, and also disciples people with issues related to identity and sexuality. We are excited to have him here to offer his experience and wisdom he has acquired along the way. LinksCalibrate Ministrieshttps://calibrateministries.com

Can Christians believe in evolution? And how do we talk with our friends about the theory of evolution? In this episode, Pastor Richard and Bob discuss what they grew up believing, what Scripture says, and how to use evolution as an evangelistic tool to get to the heart of the Gospel. This episode is a part of the Equip series: a series designed to give practical tips and knowledge to be an ambassador for Christ in tough conversations. Resources:Trinity Talks Episode 19: Science and Faith with Melissa Cane Travis - https://subspla.sh/r388tmnFurther research: Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design - https://www.amazon.com/Creation-Evolution-Intelligent-Design-Counterpoints/dp/0310080975/ref=pd_bxgy_2/145-2203554-4600214?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0310080975&pd_rd_r=9be09f3a-ca6a-4b3c-9138-0deeecde58b9&pd_rd_w=CNLY4&pd_rd_wg=x5dgw&pf_rd_p=fd3ebcd0-c1a2-44cf-aba2-bbf4810b3732&pf_rd_r=P9SK1G39GJ66PV875FTZ&psc=1&refRID=P9SK1G39GJ66PV875FTZ

Last Sunday Pastor Richard preached on the Good Samaritan and how the principles of loving your neighbor and hospitality apply to our current cultural moment. This topic seems to have struck a chord with people. The social media team encouraged Richard to share more of his thoughts! In this episode, he offers a “behind the scenes” perspective on why he chose that topic and shares what didn’t make the sermon because it was left on the cutting room floor. Sermon Link: https://subspla.sh/rj3wcmy

Alisa Childers (A-lee-sa) is a blogger and podcaster at Alisachilders.com where she discusses apologetics, theology, culture, and worship. She perhaps more than anyone else has been following the developments of Progressive Christianity and bringing it to a popular level discussion. Four years ago she wrote a blog called “5 Signs Your Church Might be Heading Toward Progressive Christianity” where she exposes some of the false beliefs of this movement. For our purposes today, we will be reacting to this article to equip you to be watchful of this strand of so-called Christianity with your friends and family. I personally do not see Trinity in danger of adopting this ideology right now, but I am also not naïve enough to believe that we could never fall into it if we are not watchful. This is why Scripture repeatedly warns of false teachers as being “dressed up” to appear like regular old Christianity when in reality it is denying core doctrines and values of the historic faith. Resources Another Gospel - https://www.amazon.com/Another-Gospel-Christian-Progressive-Christianity/dp/1496441737/ref=sr_1_1?crid=332IFYOGB9J0X&dchild=1&keywords=another+gospel+alisa+childers&qid=1594318549&sprefix=another+gospel%2Caps%2C223&sr=8-1 Link to Article: https://www.alisachilders.com/blog/5-signs-your-church-might-be-heading-toward-progressive-christianity

My guest today is Dr. Louis Markos. He is a Professor of English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University. He is the author of nineteen published books and has also published 300 articles and reviews in such journals as Christianity Today and the Christian Research Journal. He specializes in topics such as C.S. Lewis, early Christianity, and pagan thought. One of the strengths of evangelicalism is its insistence on the primacy of Scripture and leaving behind unbiblical traditions. The weakness, though, is we don’t think further back than the reformation. And for most people, we don’t read further back than 50 years. So today, we will be discussing the value of reattaching ourselves to a thought and spiritual heritage, and what that would produce in the evangelical church.Dr. Markos’s New Book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VPVLVZC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

Today I am joined by Bob Florell and Tammy Epp to discuss new research put out by Barna in partnership with Impact 360. Sean McDowell, a Christian apologist and one who focuses lots of energy on influencing the next generation, put out a summary of what he saw are seven key insights from the study. We will be reacting to and discussing those seven insights today while making applications to parenting and discipleship. 7 Key Insights1. Positive Pessimists 2. Most Gen Zers feel bad about how much time they spend on smartphones 3. Dark/cynical humor 4. Spiritually curious 5. Moral relativism is now the majority opinion 6. Torn between groupthink and cancel culture 7. Lost trust in most institutions; look to older generations for advice and wisdom. LinksBarna Gen Z Part 2: https://shop.barna.com/collections/gen-z?_ga=2.147320503.1464126081.1612363598-2021324192.1611344697 Sean McDowell Article: https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/7-new-insights-about-gen-z?fbclid=IwAR3GzxAjzxqYUWc7KBg7rzz0vkHFnLwzYx7NwPHpksj1RBT3OiU3OW2MSuo Like, share, and subscribe to this podcast!

Because we live in a post-Christian culture, I believe the western church no longer has the luxury of spending its time debating on secondary, yet important, issues. Because while we debate the age of the earth, how Jesus will return, and the like, our core doctrines are being abandoned as outdated, toxic, or irrational.Today we talk about one of the most central doctrines of the church — the atonement of Jesus.

Today we are joined by Eric Hoehn who recently accepted the call to come to Trinity Church as the Senior Pastor. He and his wife Caren moved to Holdrege in the middle of last week. Eric started a series yesterday on 1 Peter that you can watch on our website or on Facebook, where he talked about the common feeling Christians have as feeling like outsiders. Today we will focus our time on getting to know him and hearing his heart for why he obeyed the call to come to Trinity.

Our guest today is Brett Kunkle. Brett Kunkle is the founder and president of MAVEN (www.maventruth.com), a movement to equip the next generation to know truth, pursue goodness and create beauty. He has more than 25 years of experience working with junior high, high school, college students and parents. A dynamic communicator who engages both heart and mind, Brett has spoken to thousands of students and adults at churches, seminars, conferences, and college campuses across the country. He has developed a groundbreaking approach to mission trips, creating a one-of-a-kind training experience that immerses participants in real-life engagement in worldview, apologetics, theology, and evangelism. MAVEN creates customized interactive missions experiences to Berkeley, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah, equipping participants to engage skeptics atheists, Mormons, university students, and other non-believers with the truth of the gospel.In addition, Brett is a Teaching Fellow at the Impact 360 Institute. He was an associate editor for the Apologetics Study Bible for Students, authored The Ambassadors Guide to Mormonism and co-authored A Practical Guide to Culture: Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today's World. Brett received his bachelor's degree in Christian education from Biola University and he earned his master's degree in philosophy of religion and ethics at Talbot School of Theology.Brett lives with his wife and five kids in Southern California.LinksVisit Brett's website at maventruth.com A Practical Guide to Culture: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Guide-Culture-Generation-Navigate/dp/0830781242/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=a+parent%27s+guide+to+culture&qid=1610381271&sr=8-1 A Student’s Guide to Culture: https://www.amazon.com/Students-Guide-Culture-John-Stonestreet/dp/0830778772/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/145-2203554-4600214?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0830778772&pd_rd_r=d3fe7540-5a4a-4fa0-82a0-768fbd2ba271&pd_rd_w=HaxKJ&pd_rd_wg=PdHFZ&pf_rd_p=f325d01c-4658-4593-be83-3e12ca663f0e&pf_rd_r=M7ET13Y6H2PYHZYR69AG&psc=1&refRID=M7ET13Y6H2PYHZYR69AG Richard Eng’s review of A Student’s Guide to Culture” https://freethinkingministries.com/a-students-guide-to-culture-a-review/

In this episode, Pastor Richard and Bob discuss videogames. Do they have value? Should we stay away from them? How should Christians approach the subject from a Biblical Worldview? Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review!Link: https://axis.org

We are here again with Tim Stratton. Last week we talked about a ministry that he partners with, MAVEN. This week we will discuss Tim’s own ministry, Freethinking Ministries.

I have a very special guest with us today. He grew up in this church, was a youth pastor for 10 years, and now is the founder of an apologetics ministry that we support called Freethinking Ministries. He recently got his Ph.D in theology, and is the author of his new book called Human Freedom, Divine knowledge, and Mere Molinism.

My guest today is Melissa Cain Travis. Dr. Travis serves as Assistant Professor of Christian Apologetics at Houston Baptist University, where she teaches courses in science and faith, philosophy, and ancient culture. She is the author of Science and the Mind of the Maker: What the Conversation Between Faith and Science Reveals About God (2018) and a contributing author for The Story of the Cosmos: How the Heavens Declare the Glory of God (2019). She is a member of the Contributing Writers team for Christian Research Institute and co-host of the Faith – Reason – Culture podcast. Follow Dr. Travis’ work.https://melissacaintravis.com Science and the Mind of the Maker

My guest today is Melissa Cain Travis. Dr. Travis serves as Assistant Professor of Christian Apologetics at Houston Baptist University, where she teaches courses in science and faith, philosophy, and ancient culture. She is the author of Science and the Mind of the Maker: What the Conversation Between Faith and Science Reveals About God (2018) and a contributing author for The Story of the Cosmos: How the Heavens Declare the Glory of God (2019). She is a member of the Contributing Writers team for Christian Research Institute and co-host of the Faith – Reason – Culture podcast. Follow Dr. Travis’ work.https://melissacaintravis.com Science and the Mind of the Maker

My guest today is Dr. James Eckman. Dr. Eckman is Church Advisor and Teaching Pastor at Steadfast Bible Fellowship Church Omaha, and previously President Emeritus and Professor in Bible and History at Grace University in Omaha, Nebraska.Today we will be discussing something that is on everyone’s minds: politics. Though the discussion usually centers around who Christians should vote for and why, that is precisely not the discussion we will have today. Why? For many of us, we skip to the political discussion before asking ourselves key foundational questions. Foundational questions do not give us the exact answer for who to vote for. However, they do provide the basis for how to engage with politics. Connect with Dr. Eckman’s Workhttp://issuesinperspective.com Christian Ethics in a Postmodern World: https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Ethics-Postmodern-World-Eckman/dp/0910566798/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=James+p+eckman&qid=1603123059&sr=8-2

My guest today is Dr. Mike Licona. Mike R. Licona is an American New Testament scholar, Christian apologist and author. He is Associate Professor in Theology at Houston Baptist University and the director of Risen Jesus, Inc. Licona specializes in the Resurrection of Jesus, and in the literary analysis of the Gospels as Greco-Roman biographies. Resources- Dr. Licona’s website: https://www.risenjesus.com- The award-winning The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus with co-author Gary Habermas. - Why Are There Differences in The Gospels? What We Can Learn From Ancient Biography.

My guest today is Dr. Mike Licona. Mike R. Licona is an American New Testament scholar, Christian apologist and author. He is Associate Professor in Theology at Houston Baptist University and the director of Risen Jesus, Inc. Licona specializes in the Resurrection of Jesus, and in the literary analysis of the Gospels as Greco-Roman biographies. Resources- Dr. Licona’s website: https://www.risenjesus.com- The award-winning The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus with co-author Gary Habermas. - Why Are There Differences in The Gospels? What We Can Learn From Ancient Biography.

Today we wrap up our series on How to Study the Bible by looking at the last step in interpretation - Application. 1. Step 4. Grasping the Text in Our Town. a. Question: How should individual Christians today apply the theological principle in their lives?i. There will be a few principles in each passage, but there will be numerous applicational possibilities. ii. Each of us will grasp and apply the same theological principle in slightly different ways, depending on our current life situation and where we are in our relationship with God.

In our last episode, we talked about the cultural and historical differences that exist between our modern context and the context out of which the Bible was written. Now we turn to the next step in our interpretive journey – crossing the principlizing bridge. 1. Step 3: Crossing the Principlizing Bridge.a. Key Question: What is the theological principle in this text?i. In this step you are looking for the theological principle or principles that are reflected in the meaning of the text you identified in Step 1. 1. The principle should be reflected in the text.2. The principle should be timeless and not tied to a specific situation.3. The principle should not be culturally bound. 4. The principle should correspond to the teaching of the rest of Scripture.5. The principle should be relevant to both the Biblical and the contemporary audience.

In our last episode, we talked about the difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible. We emphasized the importance of making observations of the text. The grammar, the language, the context, the original language, etc. As good students of the Scriptures, we are to look, look, and look again at the text before we can begin to draw conclusions. Now we must be armed with the right tools to look at the historical and cultural context of the Bible. The Bible was not lowered down from a cloud, free of cultural influences. No, it was written, read, and understood in the context of culture. This is not good or bad, it just is. With this in mind, we need to move to step two of the interpretive process, measuring the width of the river. 1. Step 2: Measuring the Width of the River to the Cross.a. Key Question: What are the differences between the Biblical audience and us?i. “The Christian today is separated from the Biblical audience by differences in culture, language, situation, time, and often covenant. These differences form a river that hinders us from moving straight from meaning in their context to meaning in ours.” 1. The width of the river varies from text to text.2. Some passages have lots of differences between us and them, and some passages do not. ii. This step is focused on looking for significant differences between our context and theirs.1. Important questions to ask in order to identify differences between our culture and theirs: Who was the author? What was his background? When did he write? What was the nature of his ministry? What kind of relationship did he have with his audience? Why was he writing? Who was his biblical audience? What were their circumstances? How was their relationship with God? What kind of relationships did they have with each other? What was happening at the time the book was written? Are there any other historical-cultural factors that might shed light on the book?

As we’ve mentioned many times, we are in a time of transition. The search team is in the process of finding the next senior pastor of Trinity church. But before the next senior pastor comes, we are following conventional wisdom to bring in an interim pastor. This past Monday, Bill Patterson made his way to Holdrege Nebraska where he will serve as our interim pastor. He joins me this morning to serve two purposes: first, to provide a “get to know you” platform for the church, and second, to discuss his role as the interim pastor.

Bible reading plans are everywhere. Every January we feel the pressure to start a year-long plan, yet many of us lose momentum toward the end of the month. Maybe many of us even continue those plans and have read the Bible cover to cover. But how many of us have not just read the Bible but studied it. We intuitively know that those two are not the same. Yet, we may not know what it looks like to study the Bible as contrasted with merely reading it. In this series, we will explore the four steps to study the Bible.

Allie Stuckey is known by some as "the conservative millennial." She, like many, weighed in recently on how our country, in particular Christians, are responding to the riots occurring in some of the major cities in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer.Here is what she wrote,"What we hear is that black Americans are targeted by white police officers. That there is systemic racism in teh police system. That, as Lebron James said, black people are being hunted by white people. And Christians repeat these talking points because we want to be empathetic. We want to "mourn with those who mourn." But compassion at the expense of truth is not compassion. You are not loving people, you are lying to them. This is a sin (Colossians 3:9)Colossians 3:9 says, "Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds."

As the nation begins to reopen one of the challenges many are facing is trying to find the balance between acting responsibly vs. acting out of fear. I think this is an incredibly important topic for us as believers to be wrestling with as we are now trying to flatten the fear curve.In light of this new curve involving fear, I wanted to invite a group of guys to join the podcast today to think through the question – How do you know you are being fearful vs. responsible?

If we can have church online, why should we gather? Is church the worship music andthe sermon? If so, we can easily “go” to many churches all across the United States and beyond. Yet many of us may be sensing that something is missing. This has caused me to ask myself, “what is the purpose of gathering?” Philip Jenkins comments on how this crisis will affect the church by thinking through the idea of secularization,“Do recall that secularization does not necessarily mean a decline or destruction of faith or belief as such. Rather it means a decline of religious institutions, and a decisive shift in religious practice to individual and privatized forms. It means the loss of belonging, not necessarily believing – although in the long run, it is very difficult to maintain the one in the absence of the other.”The crisis has not caused the thinking that faith is private, it has simply enabled it. This is was what John Stonestreet called a “preexisting condition” of the church before Covid-19. In order to shift back to the values of believing and belonging, we must recapture the purpose of gathering.

The Day of judgment is when Christ will judge the quality of His servants’ work (2 Cor. 5:10). It is not a question of salvation which is a gift (Rom. 6:23), or a matter of individual deeds (Eph. 2:8-9), but of service which is judged on the basis of quality, not quantity. Considerable apparent success can be had by hint of human effort and wisdom (cf. 1 Cor. 2:4), but unless it is empowered by God in accordance with His plan it cannot last (Ps. 127:1).

It seems whenever there is a global catastrophe, a political movement, and many kinds of large-scale events, Christians begin wondering if this is the end times? This is the study of eschatology (Two Greek words: eschatos, “last,” and logos, “the word,” meaning, the doctrine of the last things.) As Jesus says, we are to keep watch. Other than the fact that Jesus will return, Christians disagree on when and how He will return. These various views affect the way Christians approach suffering and how they interpret world events. Passage: Matthew 24:42-44

Christians tend to swing between two extremes; to credit all bad events to the direct work of the devil, or to explain bad events through natural causes. The current pandemic has brought those two extremes to the forefront. The enemy is very much at work in the world right now, but we may struggle with how much credit to give him.

In the current pandemic, many Christians may find themselves struggling with two Biblical principles: 1) the Biblical command to submit to the governing authorities, and 2) when it is civil disobedience appropriate? This tension cannot be resolved easily, and it requires thought and prayer. Scripture brings insights into this conversation that will bring light into a grey area. Bible Passage:Romans 13:1-7Links:https://www.heritage.org/civil-society/report/the-limits-and-dangers-civil-disobedience-the-case-martin-luther-king-jr.

How can parents be intentional to infuse Christ-centered values int the culture of their homes? Join Pastor Richard and Pastor Paul as they discuss this important topic.Bible Passage: Deuteronomy 6:4-9Links: The Art of Parenting - https://www.familylife.com/parenting/ The Cure for Parents - https://amzn.to/3c644Z0

Richard, Paul, and Nate continue to discuss the proposed covenant/constitution for Trinity Church.This podcast is a publication if Trinity Church in Holdrege, NE. Our vision is to make disciples like Jesus did by creating an environment where all people can find acceptance, love, and truth without the fear of failure, rejection, or judgement.

Richard, Paul, and Nate discuss the proposed covenant/constitution for Trinity Church.This podcast is a publication if Trinity Church in Holdrege, NE. Our vision is to make disciples like Jesus did by creating an environment where all people can find acceptance, love, and truth without the fear of failure, rejection, or judgement.