The Crossway Podcast

Our world loves to talk about leadership. We host leadership conferences, write leadership books, and attend leadership training seminars. But what if we had a conversation about followership instead? What makes a good follower? Was Jesus ever a follower? What does it look like for Christians to be wise followers? Joanne Jung and Richard Langer answer these questions and more in this interview.Richard Langer is a professor of biblical and theological studies and director of the Office for the Integration of Faith and Learning at Biola University and Joanne J. Jung is a professor of biblical and theological studies and the associate dean of online education and faculty development at the Talbot School of Theology, Biola University.To hear more about followership from them, check out their book The Call to Follow: Hearing Jesus in a Culture Obsessed with Leadership.Read the full transcript here.If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!Complete this survey for a free audiobook by Kevin DeYoung!

Spiritual authority. In our world today, it's a fraught topic that evokes strong reactions from many different sides. What is it? Who has it? How is it supposed to work, and how should we respond when that authority is abused? Our guest, David Mathis, helps answer these questions.David serves as a pastor at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, as an adjunct professor at Bethlehem College and Seminary, and as senior teacher and executive editor at DesiringGod.org. He's also the author of Workers for Your Joy, The Call of Christ on Christian Leaders from Crossway.Read the full transcript of this episode.If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!Complete this survey for a free audiobook by Kevin DeYoung!

For millennia, Christians around the world have embraced the Bible to be the inspired, authoritative word of God given to his people for their salvation and spiritual nourishment. But where did we get this book that we hold in our hands? What do we know about the original manuscripts? How was the text passed along from generation to generation? And who even decided which books should be in the Bible? In the interview today, two Bible scholars who've spent years thinking, writing, and presenting on these important issues, John Mead and Peter Gurry, provide insight into these questions.To hear more from John Mead and Peter Gurry, check out their book Scribes and Scripture: The Amazing Story of How We Got the BibleRead the full transcript of this episode.If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!Complete this survey for a free audiobook by Kevin DeYoung!

Today, we're excited to share with you an audio essay written and read by Jonathan Leeman entitled 10 Things You Should Know about Church Discipline.Jonathan Leeman is the author of Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus. He is the editorial director for 9Marks and cohost of the Pastors’ Talk podcast. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books and teaches at several seminaries. Jonathan lives with his wife and four daughters in a suburb of Washington, DC, and is an elder at Cheverly Baptist Church. If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!

Have you ever felt convicted by James 1:22?"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."How many of us have read that verse and felt the pangs of conscience? Knowing how often we do in fact content ourselves with merely hearing God's word, but not actually obeying it. And how many of us have asked ourselves or our Heavenly Father, why? Why do we still struggle so much even as Christians? In our interview today, David Gibson talks about this constant struggle that we all face and what it reveals about our sinful hearts, our theology, and our understanding of the Christian life.To hear more from David Gibson, check out his book Radically Whole: Gospel Healing for the Divided HeartRead the full transcript of this episode.If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!Complete this survey for a free audiobook by Kevin DeYoung!

If you spend any time on social media, you know how toxic that environment can be.Every day it seems like someone is being canceled, controversies abound, and trolls run rampant. Seemingly normal men and women, Christian men and women, hurl insults and accusations at one another. What's going on? Where is all this anger division and mockery coming from, and what does it say about our heart?In our interview today, Paul Trip discussed how we, as God's people should think about the reactive culture in which we live and how to make sure that we're not part of the problem. Paul Tripp is a pastor, award-winning author, and international conference speaker. Paul's new book is called Reactivity: How the Gospel Transforms our Actions and ReactionsRead the full transcript of this episode.Also, check out Paul Tripp's other books from Crossway here.If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!Complete this survey for a free audiobook by Kevin DeYoung!

Have you ever struggled with doubt?"Is the Bible true?" How Do I know if I'm actually saved?" "Does God really love me?"If you've asked these questions before you're not alone. Although doubt is a common experience, we were not meant to stay there. God can use our doubts to push us toward a deeper trust in his word and to a more resilient faith in his character. In our interview today, Glenna Marshall talks about our struggles with doubt and what it looks like to fight for faith in the midst of them. Glenna is a pastor's wife, a mother, and the author of Everyday FaithfulnessThe beauty of ordinary perseverance in a demanding world. Read the full transcript.If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!Complete this survey for a free audiobook by Kevin DeYoung!

Who is Jesus?Our world has all kinds of opinions about the most famous person in human history. Some say he was a great moral teacher, a prophet, an advocate for social justice, while others consider him a revolutionary. As Christians, we have an answer - Jesus is Israel's Messiah, God in the flesh, the Savior of the world - but we too sometimes harbor unbiblical ideas about Jesus, viewing and presenting him in ways that don't do justice to the picture that we see in scripture.In our interview today, Rebecca McLaughlin discusses with us common misconceptions that people have about Jesus and why it is futile to try to put him in a box. Rebecca is a writer, speaker, and author of numerous books, including Confronting Jesus: 9 Encounters with the Hero of the GospelsRead the full transcript of this episode.Also, check out Rebecca's first book with Crossway, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World's Largest ReligionIf you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!Complete this survey for a free audiobook by Kevin DeYoung!

In today's episode, Jared Kennedy talks about what it means to disciple your children.Jared is the author of Keeping Your Children's Ministry on Mission: Practical Strategies for Discipling the Next Generation.Read the full transcript.If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!Complete this survey for a free audiobook by Kevin DeYoung!Click here to subscribe to a new podcast by Nancy Guthrie exploring the themes of Revelation!

Today, we're pleased to share with you an audio essay written and read by Peter Williams entitled 10 Reasons Pastors Should Study the Bible in Its Original Languages.Peter served as an editor of the The Greek New Testament, Produced at Tyndale House.If you enjoyed this episode be sure to leave us a review, which helps us spread the word about the show!