Disenchanted by the atheism she embraced in her teenage years, Ashley Lande turned to the world of psychedelic drugs and Eastern mysticism in search of meaning, satisfaction, and spiritual reality. Though her desires went unfulfilled, and she experienced the very opposite of what she was looking for, she kept returning to mushrooms and LSD. In her book _The Thing that Would Make Everything Okay Forever, _she writes: “Psychedelics made me believe I could have it all. Glory without submission. Transcendence without descent. Knowledge without trauma. Freedom without discipline. New life without death. It was all a lie.” She joined Dr. Keith Plummer to discuss her journey and how the Savior she long resisted found and delivered her.

The velocity with which culture changes challenges evangelism and discipleship—something Brad Edwards, planter and lead pastor of The Table Church in Lafayette, Colorado, thinks about a lot. In this episode, he joined Dr. Keith Plummer to discuss lessons he continues to learn while ministering where people are “open to the idea of God but very turned off to the idea of church.” Other subjects they discuss are anti-institutionalism, spiritual consumerism, and why Christians need to consider the formative powers of our technological practices. Brad also briefly previews his forthcoming book, The Reason for Church: Why the Body of Christ Still Matters in an Age of Anxiety, Division, and Radical Individualism.

Chris Martin, author of Terms of Service: The Real Cost of Social Media, says social media has become so pervasive that not even non-users can fully escape it. He joins Dr. Keith Plummer to talk about how social media is influencing how we think and feel about life in largely negative ways and—most importantly, what Christians can do to resist. His is not a call to totally reject social media but rather, a call to greater awareness, intentionality, and wisdom.

Michael Graham is the program director for The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics and coauthor of The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will it Take to Bring Them Back? In this episode, he joins Dr. Keith Plummer and co-host Pastor Ben Best to talk about the 40 million Americans who have left the church in the last 25 years. They discuss the cultural drivers behind this exodus, the various types of dechurched individuals, and their reasons for leaving. Michael also shares insights from their study on how churches and individual believers can re-engage those who have left.

Faithfully following Jesus in a digital and media-saturated society involves more than not using our devices for explicitly immoral purposes. Forming biblical wisdom requires being aware of how our technological practices might be shaping us in ways contrary to that of Christ. Listen to Dr. Felicia Wu Song, author of Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence and Place in the Digital Age, discuss these important matters with Dr. Keith Plummer.

Cairn University’s Professor of New Testament, Dr. Kevin McFadden is the author of Hidden with Christ in God: A Theology of Colossians and Philemon, in Crossway’s New Testament Theology series. He joined Dr. Keith Plummer to discuss Christ as our hidden hope, his preeminence and sufficiency, Christians’ union with Jesus in death and resurrection, and its profound significance to changed living. They also talk about slavery, which Paul addresses in both letters, and if it is accurate to say, as many do, that the Bible endorses the institution.

“To live with OCD is to be vulnerable to the machinations of your own mind...It is an Affliction that lives in me as a powerful, painful intimidation.” So writes John Andrew Bryant in his award-winning book A Quiet Mind to Suffer With: Mental Illness, Trauma, and the Death of Christ, a book in which he recounts how a mental breakdown, a stay in a psychiatric ward, and being diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder led to a life-changing understanding of who Jesus is and what following him is and isn’t about. He and Dr. Keith Plummer talk about his ongoing journey marked by affliction, mercy, and hope. They also discuss how the church can better serve those with mental illness.

Proponents of physician-assisted death present it as an act of compassion that recognizes the dignity of those suffering from terminal diseases and other illnesses. Dr. Ewan Goligher, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, is a critical care physician who is regularly involved with patients and their families facing end-of-life decisions. In his book How Should We Then Die? A Christian Response to Physician Assisted Death, Dr. Goligher argues that the practice of physician-assisted death actually devalues humans and is an act of secular faith that presumes to know what it’s like to be dead. In this episode, he and Dr. Keith Plummer discuss his reasons for those claims and why the Christian story provides transcendent meaning that enables us to endure suffering with confident hope.