Why Therapy Can’t Replace the Church

38 snips

May 5, 2026

Brad Edwards, church planter and author of The Reason for Church, reflects on church life amid anxiety and rampant individualism. He examines how social media, marketplace thinking, and therapy culture shape trust and accountability. They dig into church planting in Colorado, technology’s toll on formation, AI’s cultural effects, and why institutions matter for multigenerational faith.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ADVICE

Bring People Into The Body First

Prioritize giving people an actual experience of the church; experience with the body of Christ changes minds more than verses or sermons.
Edwards says Christians explaining their lived church experience is the next most persuasive factor.

ANECDOTE

Boulder Kills Many Church Plants

Boulder County functions like a church-planting graveyard where dozens of plants close before gaining traction.
Edwards attributes this to newcomers valuing lifestyle over existing community and explicit anti-evangelical sentiments.

INSIGHT

Therapy Fills Institutional Gaps But Has Limits

Therapy complements but cannot replace church; therapeutic culture sometimes fills institutional gaps left by de-churching.
Edwards notes therapy succeeds when not treated as a spiritual priest but that many clients expect transcendent mediation.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

You will find many books on the biblical and practical importance of the local church. I wrote one myself a few years ago with Jonathan Leeman called Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. But few books can match the way Brad Edwards shows us the need for the church amid rampant anxiety, division, and individualism. Not only our churches but even whole societies would be transformed by implementing the wisdom found in this book, called The Reason for Church.

Brad is the church planter of The Table Church in Lafayette, Colorado. His debut book has been justly acclaimed. He won the 2025 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award and also finished first in the Church and Pastoral Leadership category. He was the winner of The Gospel Coalition's award for First-Time Author that year as well. I’m grateful that he joins me now to talk about everything from authority and institutions to anxiety and whether unity should be the goal for a church.

In This Episode:
00:00 – Opening: power, trust, and the temptation toward conformity
00:26 – Introducing Brad Edwards and The Reason for Church
01:41 – Ranking the causes behind declining trust in church authority
04:05 – Accountability, social media, and the limits of online justice
08:25 – Churches, institutions, platforms, and marketplace logic
11:17 – What changes people’s minds about the need for church?
13:27 – Church planting in Boulder County and Colorado’s anti-institutional culture
17:01 – Therapy culture, spiritual abuse, and what the book could not fully address
22:19 – Institution building, movements, and building a remnant
26:30 – Technology, schedules, and the challenge of spiritual formation
29:09 – Individuality versus individualism
34:39 – Should unity be the goal of a church?
37:49 – What surprised Brad most about becoming a pastor
39:21 – AI, agency, and the future of formation
43:07 – Hartmut Rosa, resonance, gambling, and the desire for control
46:55 – AI, education, responsibility, and authorship
52:05 – The church as remnant and refuge in a changing world
53:19 – What pastors want their congregations to know
56:41 – Closing and Gospelbound outro

Resources Mentioned:

The Reason for Church by Brad Edwards
Rediscover Church by Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman
Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam
Yuval Levin’s work on institutions
Bully Pulpit by Michael J. Kruger
GIRLS® by Freya India
The Reason for God by Tim Keller
Center Church by Tim Keller
Dominion by Tom Holland
Habits of the Heart by Robert Bellah
The Uncontrollability of the World by Hartmut Rosa
PostEverything, Brad Edwards’s podcast with John Homsher
Harper’s Magazine article on young AI founders

— — —

📫 SIGN UP for my newsletter, Unseen Things:

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/gospelbound

🎁 Help The Gospel Coalition build up a renewed church for tomorrow. Let's Build Together: Donate Today at https://www.tgc.org/together

🎧 Don’t miss an episode of Gospelbound with Collin Hansen

▫ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gospelbound/id1499898207

▫ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0kRYr5FTKr5ru1N7MR65Br

✅ SUBSCRIBE:

▫ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thegospelcoalition

▫ TGC Updates: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/newsletters

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.