TGC Podcast

Discussing Death: A Pathway to Deeper Hope

"Awareness of death weakens our attachments to false hopes." Matthew McCullough delivered a message during a breakout session at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference titled, “Remember Death: The Surprising Path to Living Hope” based on his book by the same name. McCullough focuses on the importance of paying careful attention to death, removing the taboo around the subject, allowing it to deepen our spiritual walk, and encourage us with hope. In a culture that prioritizes pleasu...

Jackie Hill Perry on 'Gay Girl, Good God'

Jackie Hill Perry delivered a message during a breakout session at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference titled “Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been” based on her book by the same name. In it, she addresses same-sex attraction through her own story couched within the larger story of God. She encourages listeners to trust that that the simplicity of the gospel message—even when it seems to bear no fruit—can and does lead people out of sin and into ...

How to Share the Gospel for All to Hear

Sam Chan delivered a message during a breakout session at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference titled “How to Tell Your Friends About Jesus Without Becoming That Guy.” He taught that many of the things that we believe will help to convince others of the truth of the gospel—sovereignty of God aside—such as facts, evidence, and data, are actually the least powerful factors in doing so. Far more powerful are community and experiences, which means that the most effective methodologies...

Sexual Sanctification Is Not the Absence of Temptation

"Change is not the absence of temptations but the raw spiritual ability to be holy even in the midst of temptations." Christopher Yuan delivered a message during a breakout session at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference titled “Holy Sexuality: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story.” Yuan taught that sexual identity has become an idol within our culture, and sexual freedom has become the religion of the land as a result of our hearts being set in defiance aga...

Want to Read Great Literature? Start Here

Karen Swallow Prior spoke at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in a breakout session called, “Why, How, and What to Read.” The relationship between God and his people, she posited, has always focused on the centrality of the Word with a specific emphasis on written words. In fact, it may be said that reading is a supernatural gift from God—one that can be accepted, rejected, or lost. It is therefore incumbent upon all believers to cultivate the ability to read the right things,...

Sovereignty in the Midst of Suffering

Harold Kim delivered a message in a breakout session titled “Bittersweet Sovereignty in Joseph’s Story and Ours” at The Gospel Coalition’s 2018 West Coast Conference. From Genesis chapters 37 and 50, Kim addressed three repeating themes in the life of Joseph: sins, sovereignty, and salvation. Driven by sinful, generational family dysfunction, Joseph’s life spiraled into chaos, yet God was sovereign over and working through it all. In the same way, we find hope in the promise that God causes ...

Trip Lee on the Paradox of Being Human

Trip Lee led a breakout session at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana titled "Incredibly Normal: The Shocking Truth About Who You Really Are." He addressed the identity of believers and what it means to be a Christian on a planet filled with more than seven billion other humans.  The reality is that God made us in his image for his own purposes, knows each of us intimately, and loves us in a way that only he can, making us unique in the world. We are al...

Kingdom Impact Through the Arts

Todd Goranson and Steve Rooks spoke during a breakout session titled “Evangelism in the Arts” at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. In this message, they addressed the efficacy of arts as a tool for evangelism, arguing that art has its own way of conveying and portraying the beauty and the complexity of God's creation. It also provides a means for reaching communities and individuals who might not be inclined to walk into a church on Sunday morning or a...

Christian Formation According to Edwards

Kyle Strobel led a breakout session at The Gospel Coalition’s 2018 West Coast Conference in Fullerton, California, titled Jonathan Edwards, Love, and the Formation of the Christian. He discussed Edward’s understanding of love, Christian formation, theology, and spirituality, arguing that we need to develop a robust spiritual theology to help the church navigate lived existence—actual lived life with God in the Spirit.  As did Jonathan Edwards, Strobel worked to inextricably tie theology and...

The Good News of Romans 8

“No one can thwart God's good plans for us. No one can ultimately turn God's good plans for us against us.” Trillia Newbell delivered a message in a breakout session as part of The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, entitled If God Is for Us. From Romans 8:31-39, Newbell encouraged attendees to trust that the verdict has been determined for believers in Christ, and it is in our favor! By reiterating a series of rhetorical questions Paul laid out in Romans ...

Opening Your Bible? Turn on Your Imagination

Sandra McCracken and Russ Ramsey led a breakout session as part of The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, entitled Reading Scripture with an Engaged Imagination. The songwriter and author, respectively, discussed the role the imagination plays in reading, understanding, and conveying the content of Scripture.  Even for individuals with a high view of Scripture, who believe the Bible is authoritative and reliable, Ramsey and McCracken argue that reading it ...

Kevin DeYoung on Why Grace Is Worth Defining and Defending

As part of The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, Kevin DeYoung led a breakout session entitled Grace Defined and Defended: The Continuing Relevance of the Canons of Dort 400 Years Later. In this session, DeYoung argued for theological precision—the wise measurement of the words used to describe God’s interaction with his people—via a close look at why and how the Canons of Dort came to be. When it comes to the doctrines of our faith, we ought to hunger for...

Hope for Exhausted Mothers

Aimee Joseph leads a workshop session at the 2018 TGC Women’s Conference on the necessity of the grace of Christ in motherhood. Emphasizing the lack of a “magic bullet,” Joseph encourages mothers from Hebrews 12:12 not to grow weary in their work but to allow God to train and strengthen them. It is Christ who keeps you, and in doing so keeps you from falling into the trap of either simply enduring or enthroning your children.

Shai Linne on the Gospel and Ethnic Unity

Division has plagued the church around this topic, which stands in stark contrast to Jesus’s prayer for unity in John 17. Though there have lately been helpful conversations around this topic, certainly much remains to be done. Linne offers three biblical directives for engaging in these needed discussions. This message was originally given at The Gospel Coalition’s 2019 National Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Alistair Begg on Pressing the Message Home

Alistair Begg addresses the need for pastors to continually “press the gospel message home.” From 2 Timothy 4:1-9, he charges them to focus on the ministry of the Word in a climate marked by moral and doctrinal confusion.

H. B. Charles on Jesus’s Longest Conversation

Jesus is the meeting place of time and eternity. He is the intersection between heaven and earth. When we, like the woman at the well, were in our sin and could not reach up, God reached down to us.

Doing Apologetics Like Augustine Did

A holistic, Augustinian apologetic gives us the resources to offer critiques of other world views and secular idols—paving a path to an eternal love that the human heart has always yearned for.

Michael Horton on the Call to Suffering Witness

In Christ, we are chosen, saved, and kept by the gospel. Therefore, we should not be ashamed of it, even as suffering comes.

Clinging to God in Grief

Danielle Anderson, Nancy Guthrie, and Vaneetha Rendall Risner share their experiences with grief, and the grace they’ve discovered along the way.

3 Facets of Fruitfulness God Desires

In this breakout session, Tom Nelson explores a robust theological bridge from the scriptural text to wise economic thought.

Trip Lee on Faith and Healing

Trip Lee encourages Christians to be faithful in their efforts at evangelism and gospel proclamation.

6 Ways to Watch Your Heart in Ministry

In this workshop, Ellen Dykas addresses both the dangers and also the joys of being poured out into the lives of others, with a focus on Christ-centered practical wisdom for our own hearts.

Jonah and the Mystery of Mercy

When we understand the mercy of God, it will always take us in directions we would rather not go, toward people we would rather not care about, and ultimately into the deepest counsels of God.

How to Witness at Work

As believers called to make disciples of all nations, how do we carry out the Great Commission in our workplaces? What kinds of sensitivities and clarity are biblical and effective? What is the role of the church? How can we shine the light of the gospel in our various places of work—whether an office, a kitchen, an artist’s studio, or a classroom?

John Piper on Racial Unity and the Hope of Glory

We're done with the old self, and we have put on a new nature which bears an ever-clearer insignia of our creator, Jesus Christ.

Why Pluralists Can't Keep the Greatest Commandment

We can have confidence in God's fore-bearing continuance with us, as we love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength.

Breaking Down the Top Stories of 2019

Matt Smethurst interviews Collin Hansen about what happened in 2019

Our Divided Cultural Moment

A talk by Jonathan Leeman

What Does Google Have to Do with the Gospel?

A conversation with Collin Hansen and Brett McCracken

Good News Homes in a Bad News World

How to Become a Tech-Wise Family

Collin Hansen interviews Andy Crouch about putting technology in its proper place

What Does God Think of Women?

A talk by Kathleen Nielson on Women, God, and Hard Questions

Of Reviewing Many Books There Is No End

Collin Hansen interviews Ivan Mesa about books

What God Has Joined Together, Gospel-Centered Churches Don’t Separate

Collin Hansen interviews Kevin DeYoung

Trevin Wax on Signs of Hope for the Next Generation

A talk by Trevin Wax

Don’t Pit Eternal Good Against Common Good

Collin Hansen interviews Stephen Um

Doing Urban Ministry in an Unjust World

A conversation on Urban Discipleship with KB and Ameen Hudson

Thank God It’s Monday

Collin Hansen interviews Tom Nelson

Bumping Our Heads Against a Secular Ceiling

A conversation with Mike Cosper and Alan Noble

Why Churches Don’t Want to Be Diverse

Collin Hansen interviews Vermon Pierre

The High Stakes of Religious Liberty

A workshop with Kristen Waggoner of Alliance Defending Freedom

How Your Church Can Grow in Evangelistic Effectiveness

Collin Hansen interviews Erik Raymond

Evangelizing Youth in a Selfie Age

A panel with Jackie Hill Perry, Cameron Cole, Glen Scrivener, and Stephen Um

The Difference Between Attractional and Gospel-Centered Churches

Collin Hansen interviews Jared Wilson

Studying Scripture with Unbelievers Is Easier Than You Think

Becky Pippert on how to lead a seeker study

How the Gospel Confronts the Secular—and the Religious

Collin Hansen interviews Phil Ryken

Help Your Unbelieving Friends Doubt Their Doubts

A panel with Sam Allberry, Craig Ellis, Bethany Jenkins, and Stephen Um

Where the Gospel Meets Pornography

A collaboration with Love Thy Neighborhood

Discover the Grace of Lament

A talk by Mark Vroegop

Why Matt Chandler Chose to Suffer Publicly