Dr. Stephen Mansfield is a New York Times bestselling author and popular speaker best known for his groundbreaking books on religion, history, and contemporary culture. He writes for several leading news organizations, appears regularly on television discussion programs and is an outspoken advocate for a number of social causes. He is known for blending humor, history and a hopeful approach to the challenges of the moment into speeches that entertain and inspire. Mansfield lives in Nashville and Washington DC with his beloved wife, Beverly, who is an award-winning songwriter and producer.

Stephen Mansfield left the pastorate after twenty fruitful years to write and lecture. Not long after, he wrote The Faith of George W. Bush, which spent many weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and won numerous national awards. The book was also a source for Oliver Stone’s acclaimed film, W, which chronicled Bush’s rise to the presidency. This international bestseller led to a string of influential books over the following decade. In recent years, Stephen’s popularity as a speaker has nearly eclipsed his reputation as a bestselling author. Stephen continues to write books about faith and culture.

Mansfield’s book The Faith of Barack Obama was another international bestseller and captured broad media attention in the U.S. during the presidential race of 2008. Disturbed by crumbling moral values in portions of American corporate culture, Dr. Mansfield wrote The Search for God and Guinness, which instantly placed him in demand for corporate gatherings around the world. His book, Killing Jesus, is typical of his approach to faith and history. It is a gritty portrayal of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, which has received praise for being thoroughly researched and movingly written.

Leadership

– What difference has Christ made in your life?
– Who are your heroes?
– You spent a day with legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. What do you remember most?
– What quality of Winston Churchill has impacted you most?
– How did your years as a pastor prepare you for your present work?
– What are some signs of a leadership crash?

How God Uses Our Pain to Bring Hope

– What has been the best experience of your life?
– What has been the worst experience of your life?
– How did God use it to fulfill his plan for your life?
– Of your wife, Beverly, you say that her love heals you? In what way?
– What would you say to someone who is hurting today, right now?

1 Peter 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”

www.tadesselab.mit.edu

How does a girl growing up in Ethiopia discover her intellectual gifts that one day lead her to Stanford and MIT? This is the story of Dr. Loza Tadesse, a story of faith, family, friendship, and a process that led from the Horn of Africa to the upper midwestern region of America, to the sunny west coast and the Northeast. A journey where the tiniest observations may influence the future of humanity.

Dr. Loza Tadesse will join the Department of Mechanical Engineering as an assistant professor at MIT. She is the Principal Investigator for The Tadesse Lab at MIT. She received her PhD in bioengineering from Stanford University and was a medical student at St. Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College in Ethiopia. She is listed as a 2022 Forbes “30 Under 30” in health care, received many awards including the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Career Development Award, the Stanford DARE Fellowship and the Gates Foundation “Call to Action” $200,000 grant for SciFro Inc., an educational nonprofit in Ethiopia, which she co-founded. She is married to Dr. Iwnetim Abate. They have one daughter, Mary.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 8:6 – “For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter,…”

Episode Description Forthcoming.

www.christchicago.org

Bing Nieh is Associate Pastor for University and Missional Ministries at Christ Church Chicago. He was brought up in a Chinese immigrant church and grew up in Silicon Valley. After working a few years as an electrical engineer he transitioned into pastoral ministry. He arrived in Chicagoland to pursue his theological education at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he received his PhD. Married to Christy, they have the joy and privilege of raising four children.

Scripture: Job 5:11 “The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.”

What does it feel like to step over a line and be in another state? How does a physician from America serving in Western Africa cross over from surviving a pandemic with determination to go back into an infected area to save more lives? This is the story of Dr. Rick Sacra, whose service as a missionary doctor at ELWA in Monrovia, Liberia was magnified during the Ebola outbreak of 2014 catapulting him to a media platform that he has used for God’s purposes. Pointing to a future of hope through COVID and trials we all face human beings. As 2 Corinthians 1:9 reminds us of a resurrection hope.

Dr. Richard Amsden Sacra is a missionary physician with SIM working with ELWA in Liberia. He is also a professor at UMass Chan School of Medicine. He earned his bachelor’s in biochemistry at Brown University and his MD from University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed his residency at East Tennessee State University/Quillen College of Medicine. He is married to Dr. Debbie Sacra.

Scripture: Ephesians 6:10 – “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”

How does the glory of God help us in the difficult times of life? Why does God take a man who grew up in Los Angeles, California to Louisville, Kentucky to Baltimore, Maryland? This is the story of Johnson Pang, a biblical scholar and a man with a heart for missions who serves as a pastor. As in Philippians 1:26 his prayer is that God would use him and his family so others will have “ample cause to glory in Christ.”

Dr. Johnson Pang is the Executive Pastor of Discipleship at Community Christian Alliance Church in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. He graduated from UCLA with a degree in Economics, earned his Master of Divinity from The Master’s Seminary and his Master of Theology and PhD from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is married to Emily. God has given them three children and taken one home.

Scripture: Philippians 1:6 – “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

www.jeffkempteam.com

How does a third-string quarterback his junior year in high school and someone who sits on the bench two years for Dartmouth slip into the NFL as an undrafted free agent and play quarterback for more than ten years in the league? This is the story of Jeff Kemp who’s faced life’s blitzes with God’s help.

Jeff Kemp is the author of Facing the Blitz. He grew up in an atmosphere of professional sports, politics, and national leadership. He majored in economics at Dartmouth College and earned his MBA with honors from Pepperdine University School of Business. After quarterbacking at Dartmouth his NFL career spanned eleven years playing for the Rams, 49ers, Seahawks, and Eagles.

John 16:33 Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Have you experienced fear? Ever sense that the world is closing in on you feel trapped? Or, simply put, claustrophobia? Do you feel trapped in a relationship? Is there a sense of panic because of health or finances? How do you get through that? The Lord sends Dr. Marla to join us from Branson, Missouri whose worldwide ministry reminds us of God’s hope in Jesus: All things are possible.

Dr. Marla is an author, radio talent, and TV host for a national Christian program on GEB network, which reaches 38 million households internationally. She teaches at conferences, universities, chapels, churches, and various other meetings. She earned a master of arts in theological studies and doctor of ministry degree with an emphasis in theology including studies at Israel’s Jerusalem University College. She is married to an emergency room physician Dr. Ray Woodmansee. They have four children.

Scripture: Matthew 19:26 “…with God all things are possible.”

What is cultural identity? How do various parts of Scripture work together to tell a unified story of God’s purposes in the collective identity and cultural expressions? Why does a man who spent much of his career in Ethiopia care about these things? This is the story of Dr. Steven Bryan. He has come to appreciate the profound importance of biblical theology to the life of God’s people around the world.

Dr. Steven Bryan is a Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He served as a missionary in Ethiopia for more than 23 years where he taught at the Evangelical Theological College in Addis Ababa and also served as the first Dean of Studies of the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology. He completed his PhD in historical Jesus studies at Cambridge University. Steve and his wife, Dawn, have three young adult sons and a daughter-in-law. He is the author of Cultural Identity and the Purposes of God: A Biblical Theology of Ethnicity, Nationality, and Race.

Ephesians 3:14-15 “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.”