For our June episode on books, we, the CPT staff, have been reading:
JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy (2016)
Rémi Brague, Kingdom of Man: Genesis and Failure of the Modern Project, (2018)
Elizabeth Goudge, The Dean's Watch, (2012)
Today on the podcast we are joined by Rev. Dr. Michael Niebauer as he shares about his recent book, Four Mountains: Encountering God in the Bible from Eden to Zion. How can Christians encounter Jesus on every page of the Bible? What can we learn from how the earliest Christians read Scripture, and connect seemingly disparate stories in the text? What is distinct about this style of reading as opposed, for example, to 6-week Bible studies or academic study? This and more on today's episode!
Jason Meyer, lead pastor of Urban Refuge Church in Minneapolis, MN, joins the podcast today to tell us about his journey towards becoming a pastor theologian. After serving eight years as a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist, Jason shares what he learned about his own calling, and the identity of a "pastor." This and more on today's episode!
CPT board member Doug Sweeney joins the podcast today. He previews his topic for the 2025 CPT Conference, Good Shepherds: Pastoral Identity and the Future of the Church. What are good Christian pastors supposed to be like? On the other hand, what malformative models of pastoral identity are common in our culture today? Doug also tells us about his 2024 book, Substance of Our Faith: Foundations for the History of Christian Doctrine. Check it out on today's episode!
Casey Hough joins us to talk about his recent book,When Poets Were Warriors: Retrieving a Biblical Vision of Masculinity (B&H Publishing, 2025). “Masculinity” is an increasingly popular subject for public discourse. Drawing on his experiences as a pastor and father, Hough argues that Christians ought to return to the complex and challenging example of Jesus, instead of relying on cultural stereotypes, to form our vision of masculinity. If we consider Jesus Christ to be a model for masculinity, how do we then think about femininity, and any differences or similarities between the two? What should pastors consider as they shape their discipleship ministries? This and more on today’s episode!
CPT Podcast co-hosts Todd Wilson, Joel Lawrence, and Zachary Wagner reflect on the 2022 CPT theology conference, Reconstructing Evangelicalism. What role can relational connectivity and diversity play in the future of the American church? How do we navigate tension resulting from diversity? How do we define evangelicalism? What historical axis do we use? How does Christian triumphalism intersect with the evangelical movement? What is the place of triumph and cruciformity in gospel ministry?
CPT fellow Doug O'Donnell joins for the second half of his story of faith, education, and ministry calling. What are the differences and similarities between academic and pastoral ministry vocations? Is the pastoral calling a lifelong calling? How do denominational structures and personal wiring relate to our sense of calling and vocation? All this and more in this wide ranging conversation.
In this episode we are joined by CPT fellow Douglas Sean O'Donnell. Doug serves as senior vice president of Bible editorial at Crossway. In this conversation, he shares the first part of his story of faith, family, and education. Doug grew up Irish Catholic and had multiple dramatic life events that set him on a path towards a dramatic conversion experience as a young person. He describes his first experiences in low-church evangelicalism and how he fell in love with preaching, the Bible, and the life of the mind.
CPT Fellow Dan Brendsel joins the podcast to discuss his story of faith and education. How do the pastors we sit under shape our vision for the life of the mind? How can we stay connected and engaged in the life of the local church while studying theology academically? How does the life of the church shape theological reflection? Dan traces his journey from Minnesota to Moody, to Gordon Conwell, to Wheaton, and back to Minnesota.
CPT Fellow Amy Peeler returns to the podcast to discuss some of her journey of faith and education. Dr. Peeler recounts her experiences as a spiritually earnest child who involved herself in ministry opportunities from a young age. She goes on to describe her own wrestlings with biblical texts as a college student. Finally, she shares on some of the theological vision for female identity from her new book Women and the Gender of God.
Author and Journalist Bonnie Kristian joins the podcast to talk about her new book, Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (Brazos, 2022). What are the fractures caused in society by our information overload and our consistent use of social media? How has a crisis of authority contributed to these fractures? What is the connection between Libertarian politics and Anabaptist theology? All this and more in this conversation.
Our September episode on books we, the CPT staff, have been reading:
Robert H. Bork – The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law (1990)
Sinclair Lewis – Elmer Gantry (1927)
Charles Marsh – Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir (2022)
Crawford Gribben – Survival and Resistance in American Evangelicalism: Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest (2021)
CPT Fellow Laurie Norris joins the podcast to discuss her story of life, faith, education, and ministry as a Professor at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. What is it like to grow up and commend the gospel in un-churched communities and regions of the country? How do we integrate multiple spheres of learning in our thinking, theology, and preaching? Laurie also shares the vision behind One-Volume Seminary, which she co-edited with colleagues at MBI.
How do we think theologically about the persuasive aspects of Christian mission and evangelism? How can pastors avoid the manipulative tendencies that have characterized some preaching of the gospel? How can we seek excellence in Christian persuasion without buying into cultural values of growth and success? CPT fellow Mike Niebauer joins the podcast to talk about his new book Virtuous Persuasion, published with Lexham press.
What is leisure? What is the proper end of our intellectual pursuits and the life of the mind? What make the life of a scholar unique? How do intellectual pursuits relate to pastoral ministry? All this and more on this episode with CPT fellow Mickey Klink, featuring conversations on books by Zena Hitz and Luke Timothy Johnson.
ARTICLE: “The Gospel Terrifies Me”
COLEMAN FORD
PODCAST: Encountering God in the Bible
MICHAEL NIEBAUER
ARTICLE: The “This Is That” Character of Pentecostal Preaching
AARON FRIESEN
NEWS: Announcing Two New Learning Cohorts
CPT NEWS UPDATE
