Registration fees. Weekend tournaments. Travel teams.

Youth sports in America has shifted over the last several decades. Instead of playing ball in the backyard with friends after school or on Saturday mornings, our kids climb into the minivan so we can drive them to practice, pay for uniforms and court fees, and pick up dinner from the concession stand.

Youth sports, it seems, is a merry-go-round of time and money that we can’t get off, because we know it would never slow down enough for us to get back on.

At TGC, youth sports is one of the top concerns we hear from pastors and youth leaders: they can’t preach to, disciple, or encourage people who miss Sunday after Sunday for basketball or soccer or baseball.

But we know sports is a good gift from God. He created our kids to run and jump and throw, and to delight in doing that with friends. Done well, those things honor him.

So how can we do them well?

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra talked to parents, coaches, and pastors to find out.

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Join Collin Hansen and Melissa Kruger for their annual recap discussion on the biggest stories affecting the church around the world in the last year. This conversation was originally featured on TGC's Gospelbound podcast.

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In this two-part series, we’ll follow the story of Christina and Brian Stanton, who were standing on their New York City apartment terrace when the second plane roared over their shoulders and changed their lives on September 11, 2001.

We’ll hear how pastors like John Piper and Mark Dever handled the tragedy, and we’ll learn how God worked in and through Tim Keller’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, which sat just three and a half miles north of the twin towers.

In these stories of loss, trauma, redemption, and eternal hope, we see that God was, and is, and always will be at work—even in the darkest moments.

Remembering 9/11 will be available wherever you listen to podcasts on Wednesday, September 8.

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Nearly all American teenage boys—97 percent of them—play video games. On average, they spend more than two hours a day maneuvering in digital worlds. 

For two out of five teen boys, that feels like too much time.

They’re probably right. Though  it’s impossible to draw a direct link, it’s hard not to notice that as gaming grows, males are falling farther behind girls in school, in joining the work force, and in starting families. 

As Reformed Christians, we aren’t ready to give up on video games yet. In this episode of Recorded, Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra examines why boys are more likely than girls to be addicted to video games, why playing with people online doesn’t mean you have more friends, and what it looks like to bring video games under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Learn more about The Defender Way mentioned in this episode. 

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When Sinclair Ferguson was growing up in Scotland in the 1950s, the culture was not only Christian but also Reformed. Ferguson memorized Bible passages at his public school, learned nighttime prayers from parents who weren’t believers, and attended church for years before converting to Christianity.

In the years since, Ferguson has written more than 50 books, spoken at virtually every Reformed conference, and taught at nearly all the Reformed seminaries.

Meanwhile, the Church of Scotland membership has plummeted from 1.3 million to less than 300,000—that’s a million people lost in a single lifetime. The denomination has cut pastoral positions and discontinued ministries. Many of her massive granite church buildings are now restaurants and apartments and bars with names like Soul.

Ferguson retired a few years ago. After the career he’s had, he could speak anywhere and write for any publisher. But you won’t find him based in an influential American city or church or ministry. Instead, he’s in a small city in Scotland, writing sermons and preaching the evening services at a church of only 200.

This is a story about why he’s doing that, about why it matters. This is a story about the gospel, about hope, and about coming home.

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In 2009, about a quarter of American high school students said they had “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” By last year it was up to 44 percent, the highest level of teenage sadness ever recorded.

For girls, the rate rose to 57 percent. That means more than half of teenage girls feel persistently sad or hopeless. If you stood a teen from 2009 next to a teen from 2022, what would be the most noticeable difference between them? One of them would be on her phone.

In this episode of Recorded, Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra shares the stories of young women who are being shaped by social media and explores what Gen Z thinks, feels, and believes.

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When Joe Biden announced last April that all American troops would be leaving Afghanistan, those familiar with the country knew it would eventually fall to the Taliban. But nobody predicted it would collapse before the Americans had even left the country.

Caught off guard, Afghans began to run, especially those who feared for their lives—former government employees, American interpreters, and Christians.

The Christians were especially interesting, because while conversion was illegal even under the Afghan government, the number of believers had been steadily growing, from an estimated 2,000 in 2013 to about 10,000 in 2021.

How were so many hearing about Jesus? With everybody keeping their faith a secret, how were they connecting with each other? And how on earth were they going to get out?

This is their story.

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“It’s time for American troops to come home. We’ll do it responsibly; deliberately and safely and responsibly,” announced President Biden last summer.

Instead, we watched panicked Afghans swarming the tarmac of the Kabul airport and hanging off the fuselages of departing jets. 

In August 2021, before American soldiers had even cleared the airport, Taliban troops overran the entire country. You know that story, but we want to tell you another one of what God was doing—and what he’s still doing—in Afghanistan.

“Escape from Kabul” is the latest episode from Recorded, The Gospel Coalition’s storytelling podcast. Tune in to hear the whole story on Friday, April 29.

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Last month, Mark Dever and Ligon Duncan announced that the T4G conference planned for April 2022 in Louisville would be the last. The successful pastors' conference spanned 16 years, gathering Reformed pastors from a range of denominations. The last in-person conference, in 2018, drew more than 12,000. Attendees loved the preaching, the music, the books, and the fellowship. So it was a surprise to hear it was coming to an end.

Sarah Zylstra explains how T4G got started, why it was a risk, and what has changed since then.

In this episode:

• 2:42 How Ligon Duncan met Mark Dever
• 6:23 Meeting Al Mohler and C.J. Mahaney
• 9:55 The birth of T4G
• 12:04 Designing the conference
• 13:32 The first T4G
• 14:33 Growing T4G and becoming T3G
• 18:41 The growth of the Reformed resurgence
• 20:36 The splintering of unity in America and the Reformed fellowship
• 23:58 Memories
• 26:00 What T4G’s end means for the Reformed resurgence
• 26:46 T4G’s legacy
• 28:28 Looking ahead

Resources:

• T4G site
• T4G playlists
• The Reason for God by Tim Keller
• *Young, Restless, and* Reformed by Collin Hansen

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On September 11, 2001, Christina and Brian Stanton were blown back into their apartment and knocked unconscious by the impact of the second plane hitting the south World Trade Center tower.

Four miles north, the staff of Redeemer Presbyterian Church climbed out a window onto a balcony. From there, they saw both towers collapse. Four hours south, the staff of Capitol Hill Baptist Church could feel the reverberations of the plane slamming into the Pentagon.

Half a country away, John Piper looked at the staff of his Bethlehem Baptist Church and told them, “This changes everything.”

In these stories of loss, trauma, redemption, and eternal hope, we see that God was, and is, and always will be at work—even in the darkest moments.

Resources and references from this episode: 

• "Truth, Tears, Anger, and Grace" (Tim Keller's sermon delivered to his congregation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 16, 2001)
• "A Service of Sorrow, Self-Humbling, and Steady Hope in Our Savior and King, Jesus Christ" (John Piper's sermon response on September 16, 2001)
• "Terrorism, Justice, and Loving Our Enemies" (article by John Piper on September 12, 2001)
• "21 Ways to Comfort Those Who Are Suffering" (article by John Piper on September 12, 2001)
• "Boatlift, An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience" (video documentary on the boat rescue evacuation September 11, 2001)

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In this episode, you'll hear how God worked in and through the tragedy of September 11, 2001 to draw Christina and Brian Stanton into a deeper faith. 

Pastors Tim Keller, Mark Dever, John Piper, and Bert Daniel, along with several Redeemer Presbyterian Church elders and staff, also share their stories of how this particular collective suffering changed their lives, their ministries, and their churches, forever. 

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Over the last few decades, church music has shifted. Congregations sing fewer hymns and more praise songs. We hear fewer organ chords and more guitar riffs. We read lyrics that are less theological and more generic.

The move toward quicker and more casual songwriting means new music hits our Spotify—and CCLI—lists more quickly. But it also means Christians are sometimes singing repetitive choruses, nonsensical lyrics, or wrong theology.

That matters, because we sing those songs so often that we memorize them. We hum them in the car. We play them while we’re making dinner. We lean on them when hard times hit.

About 10 years ago, a church in Australia noticed these problems. They tried a different songwriting process. It was slow and clunky and never should have worked—and yet it did.

Odds are, you’ve sung their good theology in your church, in your car, or in your kitchen.

Help The Gospel Coalition build up a renewed church for tomorrow. Let's Build Together: Donate Today at tgc.org/together

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Over the past few years, we’ve been hearing rumblings of revival on college campuses. To chase down the story, Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra headed over to Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, to see what was going on with the largest campus ministry you’ve never heard of—the Salt Company.

Salt Company does a lot of things you’d expect—large worship gatherings, small group Bible studies, and summer mission trips. But they also do some things you wouldn’t anticipate, such as talking about sin, taking kids through Wayne Grudem’s systematic theology (the abridged version), and requiring student leaders to be members of a local church.

In today’s sensitive, selfie-obsessed culture, you might wonder if discussions of sin or of robust theology would be a good on-ramp to Christianity. But over the last 40 years, Salt has grown to 12,000 students on 33 campuses (and churches!) in 16 states.

What is drawing the most anxious generation to the gospel?

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Join Collin Hansen and Melissa Kruger for their annual discussion as they look back on the top theology stories of 2024. They also share their favorite books from 2024, updates on personal projects, and what they're each looking forward to in life and ministry in 2025. 

They discuss: 

• The rise in Bible sales in 2024
• Declining fertility rates worldwide
• Big changes for the United Methodist Church and the role of the Global South
• The advance of assisted suicide in the UK
• The Cass Report and the truth about transgender treatments
• Encouraging signs among Gen Z
• Trump’s election victory and a GOP shift
• Anticipating the 2025 Gospelbound season
• Book highlights from 2024
• Personal projects and updates
• Don Carson’s legacy and an important update about his life and ministry

Mentioned on this episode:

"My Top 10 Theology Stories of 2024" by Collin Hansen (article)

Help The Gospel Coalition build up a renewed church for tomorrow. Let's Build Together: Donate Today at tgc.org/together

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Can you trust AI?

Mike Graham, program director for TGC’s Keller Center, decided to find out. He asked seven major AI platforms seven basic questions about the gospel. Since AI platforms largely rely on the same technology and draw from the same body of information, he figured the answers would be similar.

He was wrong.

Not only were the answers different, but only two platforms nudged a searcher toward Christianity.

In this episode of Recorded, Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra asks Mike, Keith Plummer, and Gavin Ortlund what the experiment revealed, why it matters, and whether Christians should be concerned.

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Thirteen years ago, pastor Alton Hardy planted a church in an underresourced African American community near Birmingham, Alabama. Alton worried about the crime, poverty, and lack of education he saw around him. But more than that, he worried about families.

And most of all, he worried about fathers.

In 2023, the CDC recorded that 70 percent of African American babies were born to single mothers. Overall, 40 percent of all births in the United States are now to unmarried moms, a number that doubled between 1980 and 2010.

Alton got to work, preaching the gospel, teaching God’s design for our lives, and calling young black men to become strong leaders of their churches, homes, and communities.

I can’t tell you he's witnessing a wholesale revival. But Alton’s church is growing. And for the first time in decades, couples with baby strollers are walking the sidewalks in his community.

This is the story of how the gospel can change a life, a family, and a neighborhood. But it’s also a story that can change the way you think about your parents, your kids, and why God loves you.

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Two and a half years ago, a plane went down in a Texas pasture. On board were five men—the lead pastor, the executive pastor, an elder, and two faithful members of Harvest Church near Memphis, Tennessee.

Four of the men were killed instantly—experts later determined the chances of survival were zero percent. But one of the men—lead pastor Kennon Vaughan—lived.

This is his story. But this is also the story of what happens when a church of disciple-makers walks through their darkest hours together. And this is the story of what God can do when lives—and deaths—are surrendered to him.

—

• This episode includes audio provided by StoryTellers Live, Harvest Church, and Gracepointe Church. We're thankful for their generosity and support in telling this story.

• This episode is sponsored by Dordt University. To learn more, visit dordt.edu

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