Risks in the Christian Life on this edition of Truth and Love.

I'm Heath Lambert and you're listening to Truth and Love, a podcast of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, where we seek to provide biblical solutions for the problems

that people face. This week on the podcast, we are talking about the Christian life and risk.

And I am thrilled to welcome to the podcast, Dr. Owen Strayan, a professor of theology at Midwestern

Baptist Theological Seminary, and the author

of the book, Risky Gospel, which is a really good book. And Dr. Strayan is not just those things,

but he's also a friend of mine. We've worked together on a number of projects, taught together,

and all sorts of things, love his family. So grateful that he's here. Thank you for joining us this week on the podcast, Dr. Strayan. And here is the first question I want to ask. Why do we need to talk about risk in the Christian life? I mean, we live in a culture, we live in a time where you're supposed to play it safe. I mean, you're supposed to play it safe, not take risks. So why do we need to talk about risk? Yeah, I really appreciate it.

Heath, thank you so much for having me this morning. It's great to see you again and see you thriving

here. I guess I would say to start out, the phrase that stands out to me that kind of frames

why we need to risk in the evangelical world

or broader Christian world is that famous phrase, that book title of Joel Osteens,

your best life now. So I guess we're starting, we're starting heavy right out of the gate.

But you know, you think about what that kind of book, even just that title, is promising the average Christian man or woman.

And it's basically selling them a vision of Christianity that means that life is going to be

nice and pleasant and full of favor, as Osteen says.

Even people, though, Heath, who don't necessarily buy into prosperity theology of the kind that Osteen is selling,

even people who don't buy it wholesale are going to be influenced by that kind of mindset.

I think American evangelicals are pretty comfy in general.

I'm not here to, you know, throw stones at anyone, but I'll even say of myself, you know, we lead nice lives in 21st century America.

We don't have many terrible security needs or something like this. You know, our lives are pretty

comfortable by and large, and if we're not careful, that can affect our view of the Christian life. That can affect our daily practice

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