Category Archives: Culture

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My new book comes out this month!

I am both humbled and deeply encouraged by the endorsements I have received for my new book Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture (releasing later this month). Our culture is asking significant questions and Christians need to engage well with solid, thoughtful, and distinctively Christian answers. That is what I hope this book encourages pastors, Christian leaders, and churches to do (more on that later).

“As someone who has devoted many years of ministry to teaching Christian worldview. I am thrilled to see dynamic and faithful worldview leaders like Jonathan Morrow stepping to the fore. Think Christianly, in a compelling and accessible way, equips Christians young and old to engage the culture winsomely, intelligently, and with confidence.”

– Chuck Colson,
Founder, Prison Fellowship and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview

“Think Christianly is a remarkable and important achievement. Written in an interactive and accessible style, it covers an exhaustive range of topics. Indeed, I know of no other book like it in this regard, and it it now the first book to which to turn for learning the specifics of how to think Christianly.”

– J. P. Moreland,

Distinguished Professor of Philosophy,
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, and author of The God Question

“We Christians love to lob rhetorical grenades at the surrounding culture from the safety of our holy huddle. What’s far more difficult—and effective—is to engage the issues of our day with intelligence, moral clarity, and biblical wisdom. That’s exactly what Jonathan Morrow does in Think Christianly. Morrow has a knack for elucidating complex ideas and applying timeless truth to contemporary topics. He’s also done a fine job of gathering top Christian thinkers and presenting their ideas on issues ranging from the role of the Bible to bioethics. Think Christianly is a significant addition to the faith and culture conversation and a readable primer for church leaders. It belongs in the library of every thoughtful Christian.”
– Drew Dyck
Managing editor of Leadership Journal and author of Generation Ex-Christian:
Why Young Adults are Leaving the Faith…and How to Bring Them Back (Moody, 2010)

“In a time when truth is distorted and biblical teachings are misunderstood, our commitment to engaging culture must not be compromised. If we are to effectively stand for Christ in a world that is not, we must be equipped. Think Christianly is a much needed resource as we seek to honor God in both what we believe and how we live.”
– Jason Hayes,
Author, Speaker, National Young Adult Ministry Specialist,
LifeWay Christian Resources
“In Future Shock, Alvin Toffler wrote, “Change is avalanching upon our heads and most people are grotesquely unprepared to cope with it.” Toffler wrote in 1970, before personal computers, before the Internet, before 100 cable TV channels! The pace and depth of change has only increased several times over since 1970, and still the evangelical church is unprepared to deal with it. The ideas in Morrow’s book offer hope that we can learn how to bring meaning to today’s dangerous intersection of gospel and culture and view the intersection more as an opportunity than a threat.”

– Andy Seidel,
Executive director of the Howard Hendricks Center for Christian
Leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary

“For several years, Jonathan Morrow has helped me see where my faith and what I read on blogs intersect. He has been an enormous help to me personally, and I’m glad to see that a broader audience can have access to his insights. If there is one thing I have learned as a pastor who works with twentysomethings, it’s this: If we don’t work hard to show how our message intersects with the issues our culture is facing, then they will assume it to be irrelevant. On a large part, that assumption has already been made. Read this book and help reverse that trend.”

– Jonathan Phipps,
Equipping pastor at Fellowship Bible Church, Brentwood, Tennessee

“As a pastor, I know my congregation is both beguiled and beleaguered by Western cultural realities. Neither unthinking assimilation nor unsociable rejection is a biblical option for us. The church must engage culture faithfully, but we must also be shown thoughtful ways how. I welcome any book that helps the church do this, and I am confident my friend Jonathan Morrow’s will.”

– Cole Huffman,
Senior pastor of First Evangelical Church, Memphis, Tennessee

For more about the book and some of the interviews with Christian leaders that are included, click here. Stay tuned!
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The Barna Group Releases Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church

These are fleshed out in the new book You Lost Me by David Kinnaman. Here is one of the six reasons:

Reason #5 – They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity.
“Younger Americans have been shaped by a culture that esteems open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance. Today’s youth and young adults also are the most eclectic generation in American history in terms of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, technological tools and sources of authority. Most young adults want to find areas of common ground with each other, sometimes even if that means glossing over real differences. Three out of ten young Christians (29%) said “churches are afraid of the beliefs of other faiths” and an identical proportion felt they are “forced to choose between my faith and my friends.” One-fifth of young adults with a Christian background said “church is like a country club, only for insiders” (22%).”

You can find the other 5 reasons here.
We need to do a better job of talking about truth in our churches. It is not enough to say that this is the right and answer and leave it at that. As Christian leaders we need to model the process of how to arrive at truth. What are the reasons we hold our views? Why are the slogans and soundbites like “that may be true for you but not for me” mistaken? Narrate the difference between false tolerance and true tolerance. We can no longer assume people (even Christians) accept the Bible as an authority; they don’t. In our feeling culture, we need to recover the ability to think well–dare I say Think Christianly–about the biggest questions in life. I offer some analysis and suggestions here.
I am grateful for the work of the Barna Group and David Kinnaman for helping clarify the assumptions and questions of this generation. Learn more here.

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Religion And Science Can Coexist, Scientists Say In New Survey…Should We Be Surprised?

Are science and faith really in conflict? Huffington Post writer Jaweed Kaleem has posted an interesting article discussing a new survey that has been released on how scientists view religion. Here’s a portion of the article:

“A majority of scientists say religion and science don’t always conflict, according to new survey results released by Rice University.

The study, conducted over five years through in-depth interviews with scientists at universities whose fields range from biology and chemistry to social sciences like political science and economics, dispels the widely held notion that religion and science are incompatible.

“When it comes to questions about the meaning of life, ways of understanding reality, origins of Earth and how life developed on it, many have seenreligion and science as being at odds and even in irreconcilable conflict,” said Rice sociologist Elaine Ecklund. Yet, a majority of the scientists Ecklund and her colleagues interviewed saw both religion and science as “valid avenues of knowledge” she said.

Ecklund and her team interviewed 275 tenured and tenure-track faculty members from 21 research universities in the United States. Only 15 percent of respondents said religion and science were always in conflict, while 15 percent said the two were never in conflict. The majority, 70 percent, said religion and science are only sometimes in conflict….(read the rest)

Science is not the issue; worldviews and philosophies are the issue. Everybody works with the same facts. What makes all the difference is which interpretations are allowed to compete (in principle), what counts as knowledge (only scientism?), and which worldview best explains all the relevant data. (Notice again that these are all philosophical questions and not scientific ones.)

As Sean McDowell and I point out in our book, Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists, Naturalism is a scientifically oriented worldview that denies the existence of God and the soul. Richard Dawkins put it this way: “An atheist in this sense of philosophical naturalist is somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking be- hind the observable universe, no soul that outlasts the body and no miracles—except in the sense of natural phenomena that we don’t understand yet.”

Theism holds that there is a personal creator and sustainer of the universe who is omnipotent, omniscient, essentially good, omnipresent, and eternal. Christianity believes that the Creator has revealed himself to humankind in the person of Jesus Christ, a member of the Trinity, who was resurrected from the dead in confirmation of his deity. Thus, Christians believe in the supernatural world, including God, the soul, angels, and miracles.

There is no inherent conflict between Christianity and science. Defining these two worldviews shows us the root problem: naturalism and theism are at odds, not science and Christianity. Naturalism is intrinsically atheistic because it sees nothing outside the natural or material world. Here is what’s interesting about the foundational beliefs of naturalists: naturalists place enormous trust in nature’s order and their powers of reason, but their worldview ultimately undermines any basis for such confidence. Science is only possible if the world is ordered and if we can trust our senses and reason.

You can learn more about the history of the relationship between science and Christianity by reading The Soul of Science.

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The God Quest DVD Curriculum by Sean McDowell

I am excited to tell you about (and endorse!) a new DVD curriculum for youth by author, apologist, and teacher Sean McDowell. Having had the pleasure of co-writing a book with Sean defending the existence of the Christian God, I know his heart is to reach this generation with the good news of Jesus Christ. And this top notch, accesible video study will be a great tool for youth pastors and parents to use to engage today’s students. Sean invites students on a God Quest and offers six signposts (six 15 minute sessions) that point down a path where if a person is seeking God…they will find him. The message of the God Quest is intellectually satisfying and emotionally compelling. It answers the biggest questions in life. The kit is affordable and comes with a well designed guide that students can use during the week as they explore these critical questions. I hope you will consider taking your students on a God Quest!

To find out more about the God Quest and to purchase a copy for your church, click here. “Like” the God Quest Facebook page and share it with others here.
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Why college students leave church – @washingtonpost @stickyfaith

Last friday I was interviewed for an article by Piet Levy that ran in the Washington Post. We had a great conversation about this important topic and I was grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts. Students walking away from their faith was a big reason that I wrote Welcome to College: A Christ-follower’s Guide for the Journey and it also prompted Sean McDowell and I to write Is God Just a Human Invention? to deal with the toughest intellectual objections to the Christian faith raised by the New Atheists. We must do a better job equipping the next generation so that they are prepared for the opportunities and challenges of college life and beyond.

“Millions of college freshmen are overwhelmed right now trying to make new friends, adjusting to more rigorous school work and learning to live away from home. Whether they also find time for church during their first two weeks on campus will set the mold for the rest of their college years, according to new research.

These findings come from a six-year study of approximately 500 Christian youth group members, conducted by Fuller Theological Seminary’s Fuller Youth Institute in Pasadena, Calif.

The study’s results will be released Sept. 17 in “Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids.” The book examines why, according to a 2006 report by Christian research firm Barna Group, 61 percent of 20-somethings who regularly attended church as teenagers later left the pews….” (Read the rest of this article)

In my forthcoming book Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture (October with Zondervan) I offer suggestions as to what we can do to reverse this trend among students and help them cultivate a mature faith. One thing we must do is help students realize that Christianity actually rises to the level of being of true or false. It is capable of being rationally investigated and defended (1 Pet. 3:15 cf. Jude 3).
To read more on the new research this article is based, see Sticky Faith by Kara Powell and Chap Clark:

When all is said and done, may we be like the Psalmist who prayed, “O God, You have taught me from my youth, And I still declare Your wondrous deeds. And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come” (Psalm 71:17-18). That’s as missional as it gets.