Influence Podcast

The death of George Floyd has sparked a nationwide conversation about racism. As our fellow citizens talk about how to reform public policy, it’s also important for the Church to look inward and see how we can better embody the truth of Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Mark DeYmaz about how the multiethnic church offers a solution to the problem of racism. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and your host.

One of the architects of the contemporary multiethnic church movement, Mark DeYmaz is the cofounder, CEO, and president of Mosaix, “a relational network of pastors and planters, denominational and network leaders, educators, authors, and researchers alike, that exists to establish healthy multiethnic and economically diverse churches for the sake of the gospel throughout North America and beyond.” This October, Fortress Press will release a new version of his classic book, Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church.

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According to the International Labour Organizationof the United Nations, over 40 million people around the world are victims of modern slavery. Nearly 5 million are victims of forced sexual exploitation. This exploitation disproportionally affects women and girls, who constitute 99 percent of victims in the commercial sex industry.

How should Pentecostals respond to this particular evil? More generally, how should they speak out prophetically against social injustice? That’s the question Influencemagazine’s executive editor, George P. Wood, explores with Dr. Beth Grant in Episode 171 of the Influence Podcast.

Dr. Grant is coufounder, with her husband David, of Project Rescue, whose mission is “to rescue and restore victims of sexual slavery through the love and power of Jesus Christ.” It ministers to approximately 40,000 victims of sexual trafficking in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Moldova, Tajikistan, Spain, and France. The ministry operates aftercare homes, vocational training, afterschool programs, night care shelters, HIV/Aids and medical clinics, red light district churches and Sunday schools, and awareness and prevention programs for affected women and children.

“Almost Half of Practicing Christian Millennials Say Evangelism Is Wrong,” reads the headline of a story about a new report from Barna Group. Titled Reviving Evangelism, that report details the erosion of support for evangelism among next-generation Christians. In Episode 169 of the Influence Podcast,  David Kinnaman shares the findings of that report with George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine.

Kinnaman is president of Barna Group, a leading research and communications company that works with churches, nonprofits, and businesses ranging from film studios to financial services. He is also the author of several bestselling books, including Good Faith,You Lost Me, and unChristian. He and his wife live in California with their three children.

Racism has been described as America’s original sin. While great strides have been made in the journey toward equality between blacks and whites, there still is much work to do.

In Episode 168 of the Influence Podcast, George P. Wood talks to Jemar Tisby about the history of racism in American Christianity, as well as what steps need to be taken for authentic racial reconciliation to occur.

Wood is executive editor of Influence magazine and the host of the Influence Podcast.

Tisby is author of The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American's Church's Complicit in Racism (Zondervan, 2019). He is president of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, where he writes about race, religion, politics, and culture. He is also cohost of the Pass the Mic podcast. Tisby is a Ph.D. candidate in history from the University of Mississippi.

When compassionate missions stand apart from evangelistic efforts and apart from the work of the local church, the uniquely redemptive role of the church is either diminished or lost altogether,” writes Dr. Jerry Ireland in For the Love of God.

“Therefore, missionaries must find ways to engage in compassion in ways that are more directly linked to the evangelistic calling of the church.”

In this episode of the Influence Podcast, I’m talking to Dr. Ireland about the relationship between evangelism and compassion in the Church’s mission. I’m George P. Wood, executive editor of Influence magazine and host of the Influence Podcast.

Dr. Ireland is chair of the Intercultural Studies and Ministry, Leadership, and Theology departments of the University of Valley Forge, in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. An ordained Assemblies of God minister and former missionary to sub-Saharan Africa, he is author of Evangelism and Social Concern in the Theology of Carl F. H. Henry and editor For the Love of God: Principles and Practice of Compassion in Missions.

My conversation with Dr. Ireland is coming up after a brief word from our sponsor.

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This episode of the Influence Podcast is brought to you by My Healthy Church, distributors of Tru Fire Curriculum:

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