As anxiety, depression, and loneliness continue to rise, fewer people are attending church than ever before. But what if we've overlooked a powerful connection between faith, community, and human flourishing?

In this episode of the Truth Changes Everything podcast, we sit down with Rebecca McLaughlin—author of How Church Could (Literally) Save Your Life—to explore the surprising research behind church attendance and well-being. Study after study shows that those who regularly attend religious services tend to be happier, healthier, and even live longer. Why is that? And could church be part of the solution to today's mental health crisis?

We tackle some of the biggest questions surrounding faith and community:

• Why are millions of Americans walking away from church?

• Is church really different from any other kind of community?

• Do the benefits of church attendance apply to young people—or just older adults?

• What about those who have been hurt by the church?

• How do you stay committed to a church when you don't agree with everything?

Rebecca also shares powerful insights on the impact of church on children, teens, and families—and challenges the idea that church is just a "nice add-on" to life rather than something essential.

If you've ever wondered whether gathering together in worship actually matters—or if it could even change your life—this conversation is for you.

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Many of our listeners know that apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith, but did you know there are multiple ways to do it? Different conversations call for different approaches. How do you engage an atheist who doesn't believe God exists? Must you first establish God's existence before talking about Jesus? And what about the biases we all bring into these discussions? Can the Church itself still serve as a compelling testimony to the truth of Christianity?

In this episode, Timothy Paul Jones walks us through five key apologetic methods—classical, evidential, presuppositional, cultural, and ecclesial—and explains how to apply them wisely and winsomely in real-life conversations.

Timothy is a professor of Christian apologetics at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and pastor at Sojourn Community Church. He is the author of award-winning books including Church as It Is in Heaven, How We Got the Bible, and Christian History Made Easy. He holds degrees from Manhattan Christian College, Midwestern Seminary, and Southern Seminary, and is completing a Ph.D. at Stellenbosch University. Timothy frequently lectures and appears in various media platforms.

🎧 Tune in and discover how to defend your faith thoughtfully, confidently, and with grace.

Please send us your feedback and questions to: podcast@summit.org

If you went back in time and you had the opportunity to be involved in an attempt to remove Adolf Hitler from the scene before WWII, would you do it? How you answer this question may determine your position on war, peace, and violence. Is violence sometimes necessary to produce good? Or is war and violence always wrong, no matter the circumstances? How does the Christian worldview best answer this predicament, and how should we as Christians view war in general? Jesus calls us to be peacemakers, so we need to be able to define exactly what that means.

Our guest today is Paul Copan, Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He's a Christian theologian, analytic philosopher, apologist, and author, having written or edited around 45 books and contributed chapters to over 60 more. Paul is perhaps best known for tackling tough questions about God and the Old Testament in books like Is God a Moral Monster?, Is God a Vindictive Bully?, and Did God Really Command Genocide? He's also served as president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and currently chairs the Philosophy of Religion Group for the Tyndale Fellowship in the UK.

We may think that since the election of President Trump, we are living in a post-woke world. But this is a mistake. Wokeness remains the prevailing worldview in secular culture. So how can Christians thoughtfully engage with the ongoing challenges of wokeness⎯ in the church and everyday life? How do we accurately define wokeness, and why does it remain influential? And how can believers respond with clarity, courage, and compassion? It's vital for us to be equipped with practical steps for conversations, parenting, workplace pressures, and loving our neighbors well. We must stand firm in the truth.

Our guest today is Dr. Neil Shenvi, co-author of the book Post-Woke: Asserting a Biblical View of Race, Gender & Sexuality, which we will be discussing in today's conversation. Neil has an A.B. in chemistry from Princeton and a PhD in theoretical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. He worked as a research scientist at Yale University and Duke University and has published over thirty peer-reviewed scientific papers. In addition, his writings on critical theory have been published by the Journal of Christian Legal Thought, the Gospel Coalition, Ratio Christi, & the Liberty University Law Review, among others. Let's dive in!

Welcome to the Truth Changes Everything podcast! Today, we're taking a slightly different turn—we're talking about the Colson Center Fellows Program, a rigorous, faith‑shaping program that equips Christians to think deeply, live faithfully, and engage culture thoughtfully. The Fellows Program is designed to help participants develop a biblical worldview, wrestle with big questions about life, faith, and society, and then take that learning into their families, communities, and workplaces.

Today, we're thrilled to be joined by a few graduates of the program. They'll share what they've learned, how it's shaped their parenting, mentoring, and leadership, and how they've applied those lessons in real life. Whether you're a parent, mentor, or just someone curious about growing in your faith and thinking biblically about the world, this conversation is packed with insight. Let's welcome our guests, Kimberly Ford and Kelly McMullin, and dive in!

Please send us your feedback and questions to: podcast@summit.org

In a world full of confusion, where truth feels optional and identity seems up for grabs, how can young Christians stand firm and live out a faith that actually makes sense of reality? For decades, Summit Ministries has been helping students do just that—training them to think biblically, defend truth, and engage culture with courage and grace. Today, we're joined by John Stonestreet, President of the Colson Center and long-time Summit faculty member, to talk about how Summit shapes the next generation of Christian leaders, what challenges students are facing today, and how Jesus still changes everything.

John is a sought-after author and speaker on areas of faith and culture, theology, worldview, education and apologetics. He is the daily voice of Breakpoint, the nationally syndicated commentary on the culture, founded by the late Chuck Colson. He is also the voice of The Point, a daily one-minute feature on worldview, apologetics, and cultural issues. He also helped create the documentary, Truth Rising, and has been a member of our Summit team for some time now.

Please send us your feedback and questions to: podcast@summit.org.

Today, we're talking about something every follower of Jesus should consider carefully—influence. Whether we notice it or not, we're constantly shaping the people around us. But what does Christlike influence actually look like, and how do we steward it well? We'll explore how faith reframes our understanding of persuasion, leadership, and everyday impact—and why influence becomes most powerful when it flows "from above."

My guest today is Brian Ahearn. Brian is the Chief Influence Officer at Influence PEOPLE and a faculty member at the Cialdini Institute. He's an international speaker, coach, and consultant, and one of only a dozen people worldwide to hold the Cialdini Method Certified Trainer designation, as well as the Pre-suasion Trainer certification. He's written four books on influence, including Influence PEOPLE, named one of the Top 100 Influence Books of All Time. His LinkedIn courses have reached more than 800,000 learners, and his TEDx Talk on pre-suasion has surpassed one million views.

Please send us your feedback and questions to: podcast@summit.org.

Our world is being re-educated. Universities once devoted to truth and reason have become centers for ideology and activism, shaping a generation to believe that truth is relative, morality is subjective, and power is all that matters. But what happens when a culture loses confidence in truth itself? And how can Christians think clearly—and live faithfully—when the classroom becomes the battlefield of ideas? Today we'll be talking about how truth changes the way we think, the way we live, and the way we stand in a culture that's forgotten what truth even is.

Our guest today is Corey Miller. Corey grew up in Utah as a seventh-generation Mormon. He came to Christ, and later became a pastor, philosophy professor, campus minister, and now serves as the president/CEO of Ratio Christi (RatioChristi.org). He has authored or edited five books, including his latest book, The Progressive Miseducation of America: Confronting the Cultural Revolution from the Classroom to Your Community. He holds three master's degrees, along with a PhD from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. His thinking centers on the intersection of faith, reason, and culture.

Please send us your feedback and questions to: podcast@summit.org.