The Cartographers Ashley Hales and Bryce Hales

"Maybe religion, for all of its faults, works a bit like a retaining wall to hold back the destabilizing pressure of American hyper-individualism, which threatens to swell and spill over in its absence.” So writes Derek Thompson in The Atlantic.
In this episode, as part of the series on worship and formation, Ashley and Bryce discuss Thompson's article, trends in churchgoing, the role of technology, and what the church is for.

Resources discussed:
“The True Cost of the Churchgoing Bust” By Derek Thompson in The Atlantic
Kirsten Sanders' substack series, including this article, "My First Advice Column"

The Cartographers is a production of Willowbrae Institute. Find out more at willowbrae.org. Be sure to signup for Willowbrae's newsletter and rate and review the podcast.
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How do things like gratitude and thanksgiving form us? In this conversation with Cornelius Plantinga on his latest book, Gratitude, we talk about the importance of gratitude, sin, confession, and growth in the worshipping life of a church. We also talk about practical next steps and what the global church has to teach North American churches.

Links:
Neal's book, Gratitude: Why Giving Thanks is Key to Our Well-being
Not the Way it's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin

Special Offer: Do you want to invest in your marriage and work out some relationship kinks?
For the month of March, for readers of “Beauty Leads the Way” and Cartographers listeners, we have a code for the Thrive Marriage Lab, a cohort program to get out of relational autopilot from our friends at ReStory Counseling.
Use code “Hales” for $20/ off each month. Last day to sign up is April 7!

The Cartographers is a production of Willowbrae Institute. Find out more at willowbrae.org. Be sure to signup for Willowbrae's newsletter and rate and review the podcast.
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Andrew Wilson, pastor and historian, writes about the context of the WEIRDER world in Remaking the World. We wanted to dig deep on the way this context affects Christian worship and practice. Listen in for helpful terms, thoughtful analysis, and how we might actually believe what we say we believe.

Links:
Andrew Wilson, Remaking the World: How 1776 Created the Post-Christian West
Podcast, Post-Christianity?
King's Church London

Special Offer: Do you want to invest in your marriage and work out some relationship kinks?
For the month of March, for readers of “Beauty Leads the Way” and Cartographers listeners, we have a code for the Thrive Marriage Lab, a cohort program to get out of relational autopilot from our friends at ReStory Counseling.
Use code “Hales” for $20/ off each month. Last day to sign up is April 7!

The Cartographers is a production of Willowbrae Institute. Find out more at willowbrae.org. Be sure to signup for Willowbrae's newsletter and rate and review the podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We all know technology forms us -- but how? How does technology intersect with our spiritual lives? It's tempting to just toss tech out the window, but how do we think more Christianly about the tech we use? Whether as parents or leaders, we have to reckon with the affect of technology on our affections. We end the episode with a few small, practical ways to get started thinking about formation, worship, and technology's affect on our affections.

Links:
Ted Gioia's Substack article, "The State of the Culture"
Jon Haidt, The Anxious Generation and The Coddling of the American Mind
Social Dilemma
Dallas Willard on vision, intention, means.

We've got a limited-time, special offer for you!: What if God has more for your marriage? We're so excited to partner with Restoration Project! They're some of our favorites and now they've started a cohort for married folks called THRIVE. With code HALES you'll get $20 off each month. Go to Restory.life/thrive for details.
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How do our brains grow? What does lasting change look like? Where do things like character and pain fit?
Curt Thompson brings neurobiology and the hope of the gospel together to live out a formationally-minded Christian life in this episode. We talk about how durable transformation happens often through suffering, the reasons for Christian hope, confessional communities, and how we live the life of faithful resilience when it's easier to follow "3 quick steps."
Listen to the end as we've got a fun little surprise for you.
Curt's newest book is The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope.
The Cartographers is a production of Willowbrae Institute. Find out more at willowbrae.org. Be sure to signup for Willowbrae's newsletter and rate and review the podcast.
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Everything we do forms us. How does this apply to the tasks of the church, like worship?
We've considered some of the trends: de-churching, loneliness, and culture wars. What's really happening in worship, why do we do it? Join us as we pull back the curtain as we consider how worship is more than preferences, it's about formation. A formative view of worship differs from a functional view of worship and this paradigm shift affects the resilient fruit that is (or isn't) growing in a Christian's life.
Join us in this new series as we consider how worship forms us both away from secularized narratives and towards goodness, truth and beauty.

The Cartographers is a production of Willowbrae Institute. Find out more at willowbrae.org. Be sure to signup for Willowbrae's newsletter.
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