Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world on January 9, 2007. Since then, Apple has sold more than 2.2 billion units. My iPhone 11 has more computing power and runs more sophisticated apps than my first computer, which was … Continue reading The Life We’re Looking For | Book Review
Jay Y. Kim’s Analog Church had the misfortune of hitting bookstores at the precise moment American churches were rushing to go digital due to COVID-19-related shelter-at-home orders in many places across the nation. Bad timing aside, the book’s message is … Continue reading Analog Church | Book Review
“AI is changing everything about our world and society. And we aren’t prepared.” So writes Jason Thacker in The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to him about … Continue reading What Christians Should Know about Artificial Intelligence | Influence Podcast
Popular thinking about artificial intelligence (AI) alternates between the utopian and dystopian. Will our future be like the 1999 film Bicentennial Man, in which a robot becomes human over the course of 200 years? Or will it be like the … Continue reading The Age of AI | Book Review
Sixty-three percent of U.S. adults “agree somewhat or strongly that the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life,” with 38 percent “strongly” agreeing. That seems like a good thing, right? Unfortunately, the “data shows a continuing downward trend from the previous year (42% who agree strongly) and the all-time high of 53% in 2011.” For the past decade, the American Bible Society, in conjunction with the Barna Group, has released an annual State of the Bible report, surveying what Americans believe about and how they use the Bible. In this episode of the Influence Podcast, … Continue reading Trends in Bible Engagement | Influence Podcast
Every New Year, millions of Americans take time to write resolutions about who they would like to become or what they would like to do in the next 365 days. Researchers at the University of Scranton suggest that only 8 percent of people keep their resolutions. According to U.S. News & World Report, 80 percent of those resolutions fail by the second week of February. What if we’re chasing the wrong thing? What if we need new habits, not New Year’s resolutions? That’s the question I asked myself as I read Justin Whitmel Earley’s new book, The Common Rule: Habits of … Continue reading Eight Purposeful Habits for a Spiritually Focused Life | Influence Podcast
My wife Tiffany could tell something was wrong with me. We had just spent a day with the kids at the local amusement park, Silver Dollar City. (Tiffany calls it “Steal Your Dollar City.”) The weather was perfect, the ride lines were short, the food was delicious, and the kids had a great time. And yet, my face gave away my inner turmoil. “What’s wrong, honey?” Tiffany asked. “My emotions are off,” I replied. “I’m not responding emotionally as I should.” The immediate cause of my unease was an exchange on Facebook. A friend posted about a national tragedy that … Continue reading 5 Lessons I Learned by Fasting Social Media | Influence Magazine
To be a Christian is to bear witness to Jesus Christ in the place and time in which you live. Every age presents unique challenges to, as well as unique opportunities for, Christian witness. In this episode, I talk to Prof. Alan Noble about how Christians can bear witness to Christ in the midst of a distracted, secular culture. Alan Noble is assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University, cofounder and editor-in-chief of Christ and Pop Culture, and author of Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age, published by IVP Books and hitting bookstores on Tuesday, July 17. P.S. This podcast is … Continue reading Speaking Truth in a Distracted, Secular Age | Influence Podcast
The first computer I ever owned was an Apple Macintosh Classic II. Released in October 1991, my Mac Classic boasted a 16 megahertz CPU, 2 megabytes of RAM and 40 megabytes of memory — 80 if you splurged. It weighed … Continue reading Review of ‘The Tech-Wise Family’ by Andy Crouch
Today, over at InfluenceMagazine.com: Chris Railey offers three helpful insights about the importance of delegation. We interview Brian Schmidgall about how MiddleTree Church is building bridges between racial and socioeconomic divides in North St. Louis, Missouri. I review Andy Crouch’s new book, The Tech-Wise … Continue reading Friday’s InfluenceMagazine.com Articles
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