Trevin Wax

1 week ago | thegospelcoalition.org | Trevin Wax

Every time I read Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, I walk away with fresh insight into the human heart and new applications for contemporary challenges. This year, reading through Michael Katz’s new translation, I was struck by Kolya Krasotkin—a 13-year-old on the precipice of manhood whose past history and present insecurities result in outward bravado. Kolya is a minor character in Dostoevsky’s towering work of Christian moral vision.

1 week ago | thegospelcoalition.org | Trevin Wax

For several years, the world has been buzzing about artificial intelligence and the peril we face if large language models (LLMs) slip past human oversight or evolve into autonomous entities that outperform humans at nearly everything. Industry experts are alarmed, with some acknowledging we already struggle to understand these machines’ reasoning processes. Others warn of frightening scenarios that resemble science fiction: sentient robots engaging in deception or sabotage, for destructive ends.

2 weeks ago | thegospelcoalition.org | Trevin Wax

That may be the single most crucial advice I can offer leaders my age and younger. We’re living in turbulent times—with church leaders rising and falling all around us, shifting tides that unsettle congregations, and a relentless stream of challenges surging in from every side. When the sea is tempestuous, the most countercultural presence we can offer the world is single-mindedness. Steadiness. We can be consistent. Predictable. Stable.

2 weeks ago | thegospelcoalition.org | Trevin Wax

A core value of the seeker-sensitive movement of the 1980s and 1990s—and still an underlying principle in many prominent megachurches—was the conviction that the way to reach people was to get rid of the stuffy, old-fashioned elements of church. Worship services were reimagined to help non-Christians feel at home. Old hymns gave way to contemporary worship anthems (and sometimes secular songs). Big pulpits were replaced by tables or music stands.

3 weeks ago | thegospelcoalition.org | Trevin Wax

More By Trevin Let Kingdom Expansion Encourage You ‘Live My Truth’: The Gospel in an Age of Privatized Faith Is Your Church Countercultural? A Lesson for American Evangelicals from the Global Church Find the Edge in Your Preaching Regular readers of this column know I’m a frequent traveler to England. My wife’s brothers live near Portsmouth, and since 2016, we’ve made several trips to visit them—either all of us together, or my wife on her own or with a couple of our kids, or just me, or me...