In early July 2025, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service changed its interpretation of the tax code to give houses of worship more leeway to engage in political speech, which may include endorsing candidates...even from the pulpit.

Is this a good thing for the church and its Great Commission?

Chris McCurley, preaching minister with the Walnut Street Church of Christ in Dickson, Tennessee, and host of the popular Dear Church Podcast, joins us to talk about politics in church. How much energy and time should preachers give to preaching and teaching on the politics of the day? When they do preach and teach on politics, what is the biblical way to do it? And should congregations and their preachers get into the political campaigning and endorsing business?

Link to a Church Law & Tax article that explains, in detail, the IRS's recent re-interpretation of the tax code and what it means to houses of worship in the United States

Link to the Dear Church Podcast

Link to the Journey to Hope Podcast (where Christian Chronicle Podcast host BT Irwin was a recent guest)

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Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Attend the 16th Annual Brotherhood of Men Conference this October 23 - 25 in Dallas, Texas. Click ewhiteministries.com to learn more and register.

On Sunday, June 22, 2025, a gunman armed with an AR-15 assault rifle opened fire on Crosspointe Community Church in Wayne, Michigan, as it assembled for worship. A fast-thinking deacon and two armed members of the congregation's security team killed the gunman before he could enter the church building and take the lives of any members or visitors.

As the frequency of active shooter situations at houses of worship is on the rise, how many congregations are prepared if the worst case happens?

Our guest is Rick Arrington, a security expert who trains houses of worship, schools and law enforcement agencies across the United States. A retired police lieutenant and an elder with the Rocky Mount (Virginia) Church of Christ, Arrington is the founder and CEO of the Crime Prevention Center and author of Securing the Faithful: Preventing and Addressing Crime in Places of Worship from Sunset Institute Press.

In this episode, Rick explains how congregations can better secure themselves against active shooters and other threats without abandoning the compassion, kindness, hospitality and openness that are to characterize the church of Christ.

Link to Crime Prevention Center

Link to Securing the Faithful: Preventing and Addressing Crime in Places of Worship by Rick Arrington

Link to The Christian Chronicle's coverage of active shooters at Church of Christ congregations

Link to a Christian Chronicle story (from March 2020) about Rick Arrington's ministry to help congregations better secure themselves

Listeners to this episode get a 50 PERCENT DISCOUNT on Rick's Securing the Faithful online training course. Click on the link below and enter the discount code PSQ5ZGC at checkout. crimepreventioncenter.org/training-courses/online-securing-the-faithful-course

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Make a monthly donation to support The Christian Chronicle's ministry to inform and inspire. https://christianchronicle.org/donate/

On June 12, 2025, The Christian Chronicle's Bobby Ross Jr. released a story about the Arlington (Virginia) Church of Christ. That congregation removed the pews from the center of its auditorium and replaced them with tables. Now, worshipers leave their seats and gather around those tables to share the Lord's Supper with each other.

The article stirred up strong opinions among Christian Chronicle readers. Some affirm how the Arlington Church of Christ is trying a fresh and purposeful practice of the Lord's Supper. Others, however, believe that the new practice distracts worshipers from a solemn remembrance of the death of Jesus.

The energetic conversation among readers led The Christian Chronicle's opinions editor, Dr. Jeremie Beller, to write a column of his own. He wasn't the only Bible scholar to weigh in. Christa Sanders Bryant, an author, teacher, and PhD student in Biblical studies at Faulkner University shared the article and some thoughts of her own.

In this episode, Bryant shares her own experiences with the Lord's Supper and how her biblical research reveals what 21st century Church of Christ folks may be missing from the church's first century practice.

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Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Make a monthly donation to support The Christian Chronicle's ministry to inform and inspire. https://christianchronicle.org/donate/

Lifeway Research executive director Scott McConnell is back to talk about some new research that sheds light on current events.

For starters, church attendance and sales of Bibles are going up. Not only that, but Americans' regard for the Bible seems to be increasing. Young people, in particular are demonstrating more openness to learning about the Bible. Scott explores what could be driving these trends and what it means for Church of Christ congregations and members.

Next, we turn to Lifeway Research's ongoing research on how evangelical Christians say they feel and think about immigrants and immigration in the United States. On one hand, evangelical Christians say that they are pro-immigrant and pro-immigration by a wide margin; on the other hand, they continue to support politicians that seem to be anti-immigrant and anti-immigration. What explains this?

Link to Lifeway Research's latest findings on the increase in church attendance in the United States

Link to Lifeway Research's latest findings on attitudes about the Bible and Bible-reading habits among Americans

Link to Lifeway Research's latest findings on how evangelical Christians feel and think about immigrants and immigration in the United States

Donate to support this ministry of "information and inspiration" at christianchronicle.org/donate

Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Attend the 16th Annual Brotherhood of Men Conference this October 23 - 25 in Dallas, Texas. Click ewhiteministries.com to learn more and register.

Church of Christ member Brian Bates is one of the cleanest--and hottest--comedians in the country these days. In this episode, he takes us behind the jokes to reveal how a comedian builds rapport and trust with strangers--whether they're in a bar on Saturday night or a church on Sunday afternoon. Could all Christians learn something about the "Jesus way" from stand-up comedians?

Link to Brian Bates's website, including upcoming shows and videos

Link to the Nateland Podcast, featuring co-hosts Nate Bargatze, Brian Bates, Dusty Slay, and Aaron Weber

Link to Ryan Hamilton (a clean comedian that Brian Bates recommends)

Link to Greg Warren (another clean comedian Brian recommends)

Donate to support this ministry of "information and inspiration" at christianchronicle.org/donate

Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Make a monthly donation to support The Christian Chronicle's ministry to inform and inspire. https://christianchronicle.org/donate/

Could eating more pie lead to healthier and stronger churches?

Doug Pell says "yes." A longtime Church of Christ elder and retired senior executive from the U.S. defense industry, Pell recently authored Set in Order the Things That Are Lacking: Lessons in Biblical Leadership (Sain Publications).

In this episode, Pell shares the experience he gained from decades in church and corporate leadership and the knowledge he gained from his intense study of biblical eldership for local congregations.

Pell touches on the following themes:

• Why the corporate management model is not the leadership model that the Lord chooses for his church
• Why biblical leadership is harder than anyone imagines, but perhaps not as hard to attain as congregations might think
• How congregational leadership must happen in living rooms, not elders' meetings
• Why deacons and wives may be the most important people to a congregation's eldership
• And what does pie have to do with congregational health?

Link to Set in Order the Things That Are Lacking: Lessons in Biblical Leadership

Donate to support this ministry of "information and inspiration" at christianchronicle.org/donate

Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Make a monthly donation to support The Christian Chronicle's ministry to inform and inspire. https://christianchronicle.org/donate/

For Christians who are Black, life in the Church of Christ in the United States is an experience that is formed by the experience of being Black. In other words, each human being encounters life (and church) through her or his experiences. Likewise, the world (and often the church) perceives human beings through the assumptions that form about certain groups of people.

Barron Jones (host of the Unfiltered Crossroads Podcast and the preaching team at Holgate Street Church of Christ in Seattle, Washington) talks about why being Black in the Church of Christ in the United States is a unique experience that often leaves Christians who are Black feeling isolation and pressure among their own brothers and sisters in Christ. Jones makes the case that a relentless pursuit of the gospel and the truth will well serve all Christians now.

Read Barron Jones's Christian Chronicle op-ed, "Stuck in the middle with Jesus: Why Black Christians in America feel alienated from cultural camps on either side - and what comes next"

Donate to support this ministry of "information and inspiration" at christianchronicle.org/donate

Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Attend the 16th Annual Brotherhood of Men Conference this October 23 - 25 in Dallas, Texas. Click ewhiteministries.com to learn more and register.

In the United States, the mood about immigration carried a new administration to power in Washington, D.C. Since then, the news media has reported sensational stories of law enforcement arrests around, or in, faith-based ministries and houses of worship.

How does this affect Church of Christ congregations and ministries that are active among immigrant neighbors in their communities? Do they have any reason to fear that law enforcement may target them and their own members and neighbors? What should they do when the law of the Christ and the law of the land seem to contradict each other?

In this episode, immigration attorney Isaul Verdin, former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief counsel Paul Hunker and Bible professor and Church of Christ minister Dr. Jeremie Beller help church and ministry leaders understand the biblical mandate for immigrant care, the laws of the United States, and what to do when the Bible and law enforcement are at odds.

Donate to support this ministry of "information and inspiration" at christianchronicle.org/donate

Send your comments, ideas, and suggestions to podcast@christianchronicle.org

Attend the 16th Annual Brotherhood of Men Conference this October 23 - 25 in Dallas, Texas. Click ewhiteministries.com to learn more and register.