Somehow Christmas is a week away, which means 2019 isn’t far away. Here’s a look at some of my favorite things from 2018.

Music—Albums

1. Leon Bridges “Good Thing” 

Try as I might to pick another album I loved more, I keep coming back to this one. So good.

2. Lord Huron “Vide Noir”

I largely avoided Lord Huron’s past releases because it had too much of a hipster vibe, but their latest release is just great music, no matter what vibe they put off.

3. Beach House “7”

Sometimes you just love the vibe a whole album gives, and this album is that for me.

4. The Paper Kites “On the Corner Where You Live”

Previously The Paper Kites were just an easy listening band, producing tender acoustic guitar tracks, but their latest ventures into new territory, and it’s great.

5. The Gray Havens “She Waits”

I’ve always enjoyed the more simplistic arrangements by The Gray Havens on earlier releases. This is definitely more a studio production, but it’s still wonderful.

Honorable Mention: Darlingside, Liz Vice, Brandi Carlisle, Sho Baraka, Le Voyageur, Johnnyswim with Drew Holcomb, Death Cab for Cutie, Father John Misty, Madison Cunningham, Gregory Alan Isakov, Maggie Rogers, New Harvest Worship

Oh, and if you missed my review of Sandra McCracken’s 2018 lament album for Lent that I loved, you can read that HERE.

Here’s my playlist featuring all of my favorite songs of 2018, over 200 tracks strong.

Books

1. Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen

You can read my favorite quotes from the book right here. Timely, provocative, needed.

2. All That’s Good by Hannah Anderson

Also a timely book, this book on discernment is so helping in framing discernment as pursuing good things instead of only avoiding bad ones.

Listen to my podcast episode with Hannah Anderson here.

3. Subversive Sabbath by A.J. Swoboda

Also a podcast guest, check out that episode here. A.J. does an excellent job of highlighting the spiritual significance of sabbath rest but also how it pushes against the cultural tide of constant connectivity.

My other favorite 2018 reads that were before this year: Grit, A Failure of Nerve (read my favorite quotes here), Building a Storybrand, As Kingfishers Catch Fire, The Shallows.

Podcasts

1. This Cultural Moment

Essentially anything that Mark Sayers puts out I am going to listen to or read. He’s the best cultural commentator for Christians today. John Mark Comer does a great job of distilling Mark’s depth into understandable points for listeners.

2. Serial

I wasn’t crazy about Serial’s second season, but their fall 2018 series on the criminal justice system in Cleveland, Ohio was phenomenal.

3. Parent Cue Live

This always sharpens by parenting abilities (which are obviously lacking).

4. Word Matters

It’s difficult to find podcasts with substantial Biblical depth and palatable episodes, but Trevin and Brandon bridge that gap with Word Matters.

5. Am I Called?

So much wisdom on this.

If you haven’t listened to Called Out yet, your loss!

Movies

I’ve got children, no time for movies.

Music—Songs

1. “She Waits” by The Gray Havens

2. “Beyond” by Leon Bridges

3. “Give Me Your Fire Give Me Your Rain” by The Paper Kites

4. “Last Boat to Freedom” by Madison Cunningham

5. “Nothing Stands Between Us” by John Mark McMillan

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I recently finished reading Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen. The book came highly recommended by several for understanding our current times. I found it provocative, timely, and necessary for people all on sides of the political and economic spectrum.

Despite what you might assume from the title, this is not a pro-conservatism or pro-Republican party book. It looks at liberalism as an ideology, which both political spectrums embrace to a point.

Deneen’s assessment, though critical, is quite accurate in regards to many aspects of life in liberal societies. His points regarding the environment and economy were especially strong, as the bill from living outside our means continues to get passed to each successive generation. Eventually, it all falls apart.

His short, but helpful encouragements of how we overcome this failure are focused on the importance of locality, place, and community bonds. I believe the local church is set up to uniquely meet this need.

And if you’re wondering, posting this on the same day as the mid-term elections of 2018 is 100% purposeful.

Here’s my list of the best 13 quotes from the book (in no particular order):

“How many of us can sit for an hour reading a book or simple thinking or meditating without an addict’s longing for just a hit of the cell phone, that craving that won’t allow us to think or concentrate or reflect until we’ve had our hit? The same technology that is supposed to connect us more extensively and intimately is making us more lonely, more apart” (15).

“The Greeks especially regarded self-government as a continuity from the individual to the polity, with the realization of either only possible if the virtues of temperance, wisdom, moderation, and justice were to be mutually sustained and fostered” (22).

“Among the greatest challenges facing humanity is the ability to survive progress” (29).

“Individualism and statism advance together, always mutually supportive, and always at the expense of lived and vital relations that stand in contrast to both the starkness of the autonomous individual and the abstraction of our membership in the state” (46).

“For liberal theory, while the individual ‘creates’ the state through the social contract, in a practical sense, the liberal state ‘creates’ the individual by providing the conditions for the expansion of liberty, increasingly defined as the capacity of humans to expand their mastery over circumstance” (49).

“Preserved in discrete human inheritances—arts, literature, music, architecture, history, law, religion—culture expands the human experience of time, making both the past and the future present to creatures who otherwise experience only the present moment” (77).

“Properly conceived, community is the appropriate setting for flourishing human life—flourishing that requires culture, discipline, constraint, and forms” (79).

“Liberation from the confinements and limitations of local market cultures brings not perfect liberty but the expansion of Leviathan. The destruction of culture achieves not liberation but powerlessness and bondage” (87).

“We need to understand that ever-expanding individual liberty is actually the creation of a sprawling and intricate set of technologies that, while liberating the individual from the limitations of both nature and obligation, leave us feeling increasingly powerless, voiceless, alone—and unfree” (108).

“We have endless choices of the kind of car to drive but few options over whether we will spend large parts of our lives in soul-deadening boredom within them” (186).

“Elections provide the appearance of self-governance but mainly function to satiate any residual civic impulse before we return to our lives as employees and consumers” (195).

“Perhaps there is another way, starting with efforts of people of goodwill to form distinctive countercultural communities in ways distinct from the deracinated and depersonalized form of life that liberalism seems above all to foster” (197).

“What we need today are practices fostered in local settings, focused on the creation of new and viable cultures, economics grounded in virtuosity within households, and the creation of a civic polis life. Not better theory, but better practices” (197).

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How do you determine what’s good? In our day of fake news and biased media and endless marketing ploys, deciding what to buy into is getting more difficult all the time. On this episode of Called Out, hear from Hannah Anderson as she walks us through how we can know whether something is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable (Philippians 4:8).

We often think of discernment in the negative (knowing what to avoid), but Paul in Philippians 4 encourages us to focus on good things. Learning how to develop our lives around good things is vital to our growth as Christ-followers, and those around us.

Listen to the full episode below:

You can also find this episode anywhere you listen to podcasts, including:

Apple Podcasts || Spotify || Google Podcasts || Overcast

Links from the episode:

—Hannah Anderson’s newest book All That’s Good just released a few weeks ago.

—Also, check out Hannah’s previous books Made For More and Humble Roots.

—If you’re interested in reading Hannah’s Twitter threads, follow her here.

—The debut album from New Harvest Worship is available everywhere, including Spotify and iTunes/Apple Music.

New episodes for Called Out will be back in the new year. In the meantime, please rate/review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Thanks for supporting this show.

Called Out is a podcast focused on areas of misunderstanding and brokenness in both society and the church. With a variety of guests, each episode tries to paint a picture of how Christians can navigate these areas differently to help you be a source of healing and light despite the darkness you see around you.

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We cannot avoid the mistakes of the past without learning from those who have gone before us. Listen to Kyle Strobel share about why he’s devoted much of his life to studying the work of Jonathan Edwards, and what we can learn from him.

Though Edwards is most known from his mid-1700s sermon titled “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God,” his library of work has had a lasting influence, even greatly shaping the evangelical community of Christians today. Edwards’ understanding of who God is and how the Christian can be shaped to reflect more of Jesus, are vital for us to know about today.

Listen to the full episode below:

Links from the episode:

• Kyle Strobel’s book *Formed For the Glory of God*: https://amzn.to/2q5bhT2
• Kyle’s book co-written with Jamin Goggin *The Way of the Dragon or The Way of the Lamb*: https://amzn.to/2CZHR18
• Kyle also recently announced the new Master of Arts in Classical Theology program at Talbot School of Theology: https://www.biola.edu/classical-theology-ma
• The debut album from New Harvest Worship is available everywhere, including Spotify
  (https://open.spotify.com/album/6BStFdRBpom26ASg97zfeG) and
  iTunes/Apple Music (https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-way-of-the-cross/1436674978).

Called Out is a podcast focused on areas of misunderstanding and brokenness in both society and the church. With a variety of guests, each episode tries to paint a picture of how Christians can navigate these areas differently to help you be a source of healing and light despite the darkness you see around you.

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You know you fear failure if your motivation to avoid failure exceeds your motivation for success. This is the crippling reality many face today because past failure has led them to believe they are failures entirely, and the grip of shame from failure never relents.

Though failure is a reality in life for everyone, few are equipped with handling it and knowing how to move forward. If that sounds like you, this episode was made with you in mind.

On this episode, you’ll hear from musician Scott Ryan, who I grew up with, and J.R. Briggs who runs Kairos Partnerships. They not only have their own stories of failure to share, but you’ll get to hear about how they learned to embrace their past failure as a catalyst into life today.

One of the aspirations I had for my podcast was to take on larger subjects with a variety of voices to help provide clarity on tough subjects. Following my episodes on mental health and #metoo, here’s my latest on failure, which is aptly titled #Fail.

Listen to the full episode below:

You can also find this episode anywhere you listen to podcasts, including:

Apple Podcasts || Spotify || Google Podcasts || Overcast

Links from the episode:

- Scotty’s solo music under the artist name Scott Ryan.
– Scotty’s music with the Spokane-based band Super Sparkle (they’re awesome).
– Check out the great work of Songs for Kids.
– J.R. Briggs leads Kairos Partnerships, an organization helping equip leaders.
– J.R.’s book Fail (such a helpful book).
– The debut album from New Harvest Worship is available everywhere, including Spotify and
iTunes/Apple Music.

Called Out is a podcast focused on areas of misunderstanding and brokenness in both society and the church. With a variety of guests, each episode tries to paint a picture of how Christians can navigate these areas differently to help you be a source of healing and light despite the darkness you see around you.

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Following Jesus can often feel so overwhelmingly sacrificial that we end up playing the part without joining the mission. Listen to Andi Andrew share about the moment when she realized she had done a good job faking a life of following Jesus, and how her life has changed since then.

Andi is a mother, a writer, and along with her husband Paul, helped plant Liberty Church in New York City. What we often call post-Christian society is right outside her door, and her insights into what following Jesus can look like today are so helpful.

Listen to the full episode below (click here to listen email readers).

You can also find this episode anywhere you listen to podcasts, including:

Apple Podcasts || Spotify || Google Podcasts || Overcast

Links mentioned in the episode:

—Andi’s new book Fake or Follower just released last week.

—Andi and her husband Paul help lead Liberty Church in New York City.

—You can find Andi on Instagram.

—The debut album from New Harvest Worship is available everywhere, including Spotify and iTunes/Apple Music.

Called Out is a podcast focused on areas of misunderstanding and brokenness in both society and the church. With a variety of guests, each episode paints a picture of how Christians can navigate these areas differently so they can be a source of healing and light in the face of darkness.

The end of the episode featured the song What Wondrous Love is This. Here’s the lyric video we created for that song:

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