The Table Briefing: Engaging Issues Of God And Culture

By Darrell L. Bock and Mikel Del Rosario

[Darrell L. Bock is Senior Research Professor in New Testament Studies and Executive Director for Cultural Engagement at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas. Mikel Del Rosario is Project Manager for Cultural Engagement and Adjunct Professor of Media Arts and Worship at Dallas Theological Seminary.]

Over the past decade, we have discussed issues of God and culture on The Table Podcast in order to highlight the relationship of theology to all of life—including areas that can be challenging for believers when it comes to engagement in the public square. In this briefing, we note two key areas that are especially challenging for the church today: sexuality and race. We also suggest a way to begin helping people develop an openness to considering the truth of Christianity—especially when they do not seem immediately interested in questions about the rationality or reasonableness of the faith.

Engaging Conversations About Sexuality

At a cultural engagement chapel celebrating ten years of The Table Podcast, a Dallas Seminary student asked this question: “Based on the conversations you have hosted over the last few years, what do you think is the most difficult challenge to the church today?” Bock responded by mentioning two specific areas of engagement:

Bock: Sexuality and race. Both of them are difficult. [It can be challenging to develop] a sense of empathy for people whose life [stories are] very different than your own . . . at least in regard to sexuality.

Some of those discussions [of] values [that] are very different than your own [are] challeng[ing] and [we must make an] effort to connect with people. . . . One thing we try never to lose sight of on The Table is [that] there’s a mission that we’ve been given by our Lord, which is to go into the world and make disciples. [He] doesn’t say, “Go into the church and make disciples,” which means that we are called to go out into the world and meet people who need what the gospel has to offer, just as we needed what the gospel has to offer. And we’re supposed to never forget that and make an offer to them that says, “God is going to challenge you in the way that you’ve been living on the one hand. But I guarantee you, the life that he’s going to give you is going to be a much better deal.” And to do that in some of these areas, where so much of a person’s identity is at stake, is a real challenge.

To help the church better engage issues surrounding sexuality and gender identity, we have recorded a series of podcast episodes that reveal the diversity of experiences and multiple layers surrounding conversations around this topic. For example, we have featured personal stories, including episodes with Christopher Yuan (“A Gay Son’s Journey to God” and “Coming Out, Sexual Identity, and the Gospel”), which not only share his journey from pursuing homosexual relationships to pursuing Christ—along with the challenges associated with “coming out” to his family—but also suggest how Christians can lovingly engage issues of sexuality with the LGBTQ+ community. Similarly, we released two interviews with David Bennett (“An Atheist, Gay Activist Discovers Jesus” and “The Same-Sex Attracted Christian”). David Bennett was raised in an agnostic home in Sydney, Australia. Part of his story begins with a belief that he, as a gay man, was disqualified from God’s love. This led him to a form of anti-Christian, gay activism until he discovered the love of Jesus. In “The Same-Sex Attracted Christian,” Bennett shares how an encounter with Christ led to a three-year-long journey of considering sexuality in light of his faith.

Bennett: I found myself in a pub in central Sydney, in the gay quarter of Sydney. And I met this girl there. She opened up a conversation about God and Jesus. I had a very . . . negative reaction to her bringing that up. But then she ended up offering prayer to me, and I said, “Yes, you can pray for me, but I don’t think anything’s gonna happen.”

And it was at this point that she laid hands on me and prayed for me, and I had the most incredible encounter with Jesus Christ. . . . Little did I know my family [had been] praying for me over an eleven-year period. The girl at the pub went to my family’s church. . . . God really had set up this kind of conspiracy to save me and has crafted an incredible story from that point of salvation.

It was quite a struggle for me really, especially the first three years of coming to Christ, to reconcile my sexuality and my faith. . . . I read [Wesley Hill’s book Washed and Waiting] and I felt God just speaking to me through his story and through what he was saying in the book. And that’s when I made a reckoning to really follow Christ and to give up my sexuality. . . . Jesus Christ bought us on the cross. He bought our body; he bought the whole being—all of us, everything, [including] our sexuality. If we’re not willing to give up one aspect of our being for God, have we really entered into this relationship with Jesus, if we’re not willing to give everything up for him?” I had to come to that in my own way through a long journey over those three years.

Now he discusses a commitment to celibacy with believers who continue to experience same-sex attraction.

The Table also featured a conversation with Wesley Hill in an episode called “Homosexuality and Christian Faithfulness,” which discusses same-sex attraction and spiritual friendship, focusing on how these topics intertwine. He shared his journey to Christ as well as a discussion about sexuality based on 1 Corinthians 6 and Romans 8, ending with practical advice on how the church can better minister to singles and same-sex attracted people.

Beyond sharing the personal stories of our guests, we discuss the truth of Scripture, which grounds our Christian convictions. We joined Dallas Seminary professors Robert Chisholm (department chair and senior professor of Old Testament studies), Jay Smith (department chair and professor of New Testament studies), and Joseph Fantin (professor of New Testament studies) to examine biblical texts that often come up in conversation when engaging people in conversation about homosexuality in two episodes focusing on texts that have been reinterpreted in a 2012 publication called the Queen James Bible (QJB) over the course of two episodes: “Queen James Passages in the Old Testament” and “Queen James Passages in the New Testament.”

We also feature conversations on topics like “Understanding Gender Dysphoria” and “Navigating Transgender Issues” with associate professor of theological studies Timothy Yoder and professor of counseling ministries Gary Barnes at Dallas Seminary, focusing on how to understand and minister to people who are of mixed gender background. We also explore “A Biblical View of Sex, Love, and Marriage,” where assistant professor of apologetics Sean McDowell (Talbot School of Theology) noted that Jesus’s sexual ethic brings true freedom, contrasting the way the hookup culture damages God’s design for sex. All this is important to understand as we seek to minister to the cultures around us. For example, these conversations remind us that acceptance is not identical to agreement. Research pastor at Shepherd Church (Los Angeles, CA) and founder of The Messy Grace Group, Caleb Kaltenbach was raised by three activist gay parents and grew up in the LGBTQ+ community. He shares this insight on an episode of The Table called “Grace and Truth in LGBT Engagement.”

Kaltenbach: We’re called to accept everybody as an individual. That doesn’t mean we approve of every life choice somebody makes. . . . Parents of [gay] teenagers who “come out” to them sometimes think, “If I accept my child, that means that I’m approving of a same-sex relationship.” My point is, no. Anybody should be able to walk through the doors of my church when I preach. . . . I shake hands every Sunday with people that made life choices that I wouldn’t approve of. But that doesn’t mean that I accept them any less. . . . It isn’t our job to change somebody’s sexual orientation. It is our job to speak the truth into people’s lives.

Indeed, the gospel challenges the way we live our lives and points us to the most efficient, effective, authentic way to live. We must be reminded that the very people whom we challenge with God’s standards are the same people we must also lovingly invite into a new experience with God.

While the church must be quipped to better engage conversations about issues of sexuality, the church must also be equipped to engage conversations about issues surrounding race.

Engaging Conversations About Race

Many Christians feel uneasy hearing political leaders and commentators entreating the public to join conversations on race. While some say this issue has been neglected, others grow weary of what they perceive has been an ongoing discussion with less than ideal results. Still others shy away from engagement altogether for fear of being misunderstood.

To help the church better engage issues surrounding race, we have assembled a series of interviews that highlight a range of multicultural experiences. For example, African American experiences are featured in the stories of DTS students like Jurrita Williams, whose family history illustrates the impact of slavery, segregation, and other injustices. She also spoke about African American challenges in the academy and the challenge of developing unity amid diversity in the church. Williams was the first woman to serve as DTS student council president (2017–2018), and her episode is titled “An African American Story.” Another student and Hendricks Center intern Milyce Pipkin also shared her journey to faith, along with challenges facing African American women in the workplace. Prior to her studies at Dallas Seminary, Pipkin spent thirty years hosting a television program called “Aware” on WSRE, a PBS member station. Her episode of The Table is “An African American Life.”

Eric Redmond joined us to share “A Glimpse of the African American Church,” focusing on key distinctives, including worship, preaching style, and the importance of tradition. We also tackled difficult conversations around the issue of race with Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship pastor Dr. Tony Evans at a cultural engagement chapel called “Unity and Diversity” and on an episode called “Biblical Racial Reconciliation.” In this episode, Bock and Evans discuss how the Scriptures reveal God’s heart for challenging societal systems of worth based on race. In contrast to the way society can often highlight tensions that further divide people, God brings people together in love and compassion.

Further, The Table featured insights on “The Church’s Role in Racial Reconciliation” from Concord Church (Dallas, TX) senior pastor Bryan Carter, Epiphany Fellowship (Philadelphia, PA) founder and lead pastor Eric Mason, and Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship (Dallas, TX) singles coordinator Elizabeth Woodson. This episode included a demonstration of how an authentic collaboration between an Anglo-American and African American helped many people move from mere conversation to action. Carter shares:

Carter: One unique [thing] with our situation is the partnership with my friend in the city Jeff Warren—a white pastor who’s leading [Park Cities Baptist Church] into this space. . . . One of the things we’re discovering is that it really calls on the white pastor . . . when that white pastor steps up and preaches a series and challenges his church and engages them. . . . We need that kind of leadership. . . . We brought together our men [from black and white churches]. We sat down around round tables . . . and we talked. [Jeff] taught a lesson on systemic racism, and then we had discussion . . . about “What does that look like in our city?” [We] talked about the poverty, the lack of opportunities, and then we talked about “Okay, what are our next steps?” We identified about ten key next steps, and we’re going to commit . . . around those, one being around the economic issues, one developed around the mass incarceration system, and one around just deepening our relationships.

It’s not that we’re dealing with politics . . . [we’re] with gospel issues. We can’t disconnect. In the black church, you can’t be disconnected from the social issues. They’re all around us—poverty, the lack of quality education, all of those issues are a part of who we are, but sometimes in the white church because of the communities that they live in they may not have those issues really around the church. So for us, it’s to make sure we don’t disconnect those two [things], to make sure it’s a gospel issue for quality education, opportunities for those in poverty, and helping to provide economic opportunities.

Recognizing a range of multicultural experiences also means paying attention to the concerns of a variety of groups, such as those in the Asian American community. We have explored various Asian and Asian American experiences on The Table, including a conversation with Ben Shin “Ministering in Asian American Cultures,” which revealed four common values often shared by Asian cultures: relationships, honor, collectivism, hierarchy. We also hosted cultural engagement chapels—featuring panelists from both our student body, our faculty, and our staff—which highlighted diversity within Asian, Hispanic, European, and other contexts. Del Rosario also hosted a discussion on “Diverse Views on Multicultural Conversations,” featuring DTS students in cross-cultural marriages, Elijah Misigaro, Sam Lee, and Nancy Frazier, focusing on creating a culture of inclusion in the church—even within minority communities. In short, episodes highlight experiences from a wide array of cultures and races, including many podcast episodes with international connections and guests.

Demonstrating The Goodness Of Christianity

Cultural engagement means interacting with people from not one, but a variety of different cultures, representing a variety of concerns, struggles, and yearnings. Del Rosario responded to the question asked at the cultural engagement chapel celebrating ten years of The Table Podcast: “Based on the conversations you have hosted over the last few years, what do you think is the most difficult challenge to the church today?” Del Rosario notes:

Del Rosario: Part of loving people well is working to understand them and the issues that they face so that we can have better spiritual conversations and ultimately people can be invited into this life-giving relationship with God, which is actually the only thing that brings lasting human fulfillment. And so this whole idea of cultural engagement that we model on the show is important.

As an apologist, I say we’re often trained to demonstrate the rationality or reasonableness of the Christian faith. But many people are looking for the relevance and the goodness of Christianity first, especially in areas like race and sexuality. [People think, “I want to know,] ‘Is Christianity even good?’ before I care to investigate the question, ‘Is Christianity true?’ ” So that’s another challenge that the church faces right now—how to demonstrate the goodness of Christianity before making a case for its rationality or reasonableness.

While most evangelism and apologetics programs have trained believers to demonstrate the rationality of the faith, fewer have focused on helping Christians demonstrate the relevance, goodness, and beauty of Christianity. This is an area in which the church and such programs must grow.

Associate professor of philosophy (Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, FL) Paul Gould agrees. On an episode of The Table called “Cultural Apologetics,” he observes, “For many years, apologetics . . . has focused . . . on defending the rationality of our faith. But I think many objections to our faith today have to do with the desirability or the attractiveness of our faith.” Assistant professor of apologetics (Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, CA) Sean McDowell explains, “Whether people realize it or not, the question of whether Christianity is even good or not is at the forefront . . . of their minds, and [it impacts] how they filter and even process Christian claims” (“Truth, Love, and Defending the Faith”).

Kenneth Samples is vice president of philosophical and theological apologetics with Reasons to Believe. In an episode called “Is Christianity Rational, Relevant, and Good?” he shares how he has seen common questions change on college campuses over the last fifteen years.

Samples: In those days, when I would go to the colleges and universities, I would say virtually all the questions were “truth questions.” Does God exist? Is Jesus the Son of God? Was he raised from the dead? How can Christianity be true in light of all these religions? . . . About fifteen years ago, when I went to the colleges and universities, I noticed that there was a change in apologetic questions.

I still get truth questions. But students were often interested in whether Christianity has been a good force in the world. And they have particular questions about whether God was good. Whether the God of the Old Testament was compatible with the person of Jesus . . . we’ve moved from questions [of] modernism to postmodernism. And I think in our culture today, we not only have to give reasons why Christianity is true. I think we also have to give reasons why Christianity has been and is a good force in the world.

In order to help the church better engage in evangelism and spiritual conversations, we have recorded a variety of podcast episodes on general apologetics, evangelism, and cultural engagement topics, including how Christians extend common grace for the common good. For example, we recorded a series on a variety of ways Christians, motivated by the Scriptures, are contributing to efforts to reduce human trafficking:

1. “The Fight against Human Trafficking,” featuring Hendricks Center fellow Christina Crenshaw, focuses on her ministry and ways that individuals and churches can help reduce human trafficking.
2. “Fighting Human Trafficking in Your City,” featuring DTS assistant dean of students Rebecca Jowers and Poeima volunteer Taylor Ann Weaver, describes their work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, how people are exploited, and how Poeima ministers to them.
3. “Fighting Human Trafficking in America” with Mike Bartel, discusses F.R.E.E. International’s ministry to people being trafficked and those freed from trafficking.
4. “Fighting International Human Trafficking” with Irving Bible Church (Irving, TX) senior pastor Barry Jones and My Refuge House director of engagement Kim Jones, looks at international issues and ways to help combat human trafficking.
5. “Fighting Human Trafficking in the Digital Age” with Marinus Analytics president and cofounder Emily Kennedy, focuses on how her start-up company uses artificial intelligence to help law enforcement.

The Table podcast is an outgrowth of our cultural engagement initiative and demonstrates our seminary motto—the last words heard on each of our episodes: “Teach Truth. Love Well.” Over the past decade, we have released 500 podcast episodes to equip Christians to better engage challenging issues, including sexuality and race. We also created apologetics, evangelism, and theology episodes, which equip Christians to help people develop an openness to considering the core claims of Christianity. In addition to these, we have a series of episodes on respectfully engaging world religions and understanding the Nicene Creed. We invite you to explore these and other helpful resources at: hendrickscenter.dts.edu.