Episodios

  • What can the church do for children with additional needs?

    What can the church do for children with additional needs?
    Apr 1 2026
    For decades now, the number of young people diagnosed with some kind of additional needs – whether it’s autism, ADHD, anxiety or any number of other ailments – has been steadily rising. Coming out of the covid lockdowns, schools saw numbers of those requiring extra support rocket even further. In the UK, the government is wrestling with how to reform a system which is approaching collapse, as local councils are nearly bankrupted trying to pay for the adjustments and support such children need. In this episode, we talk with Naomi Fox, the founder of an expanding network of church-based therapy centres for children with additional needs, about this slow-burning crisis and how her charity Growing Hope is trying to help. Is this an area of outreach the church should prioritise, or is it best left to the state or private healthcare providers? How do you balance providing free therapy to anyone who needs it and also offering out the hope ultimately only found in Jesus? And should believers speak out more for vulnerable children, who sometimes seem overlooked in our political discussions? Find out more about Growing Hope - https://growinghope.org.uk/ • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    50 m
  • Faith under fire: Following Christ in the military, with Maj Gen Tim Cross

    Faith under fire: Following Christ in the military, with Maj Gen Tim Cross
    Mar 25 2026
    Tim Cross joined the British army as a teenager, and served in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Kuwait, the Balkans and eventually commanded tens of thousands during the Iraq war. But how did he reconcile his faith in Jesus with his job to lead men into battle, and, if necessary, to kill? In this episode we reflect with Tim on his time in uniform and his conviction that we need more Christians in the military, not less. And we consider our contemporary volatile and violent world, the current wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East, and what our faith has to say in the face of all of this. • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    56 m
  • Re-enchantment: Why are young people getting back into the weird and the magical?

    Re-enchantment: Why are young people getting back into the weird and the magical?
    Mar 18 2026
    Surveys suggest growing numbers of younger adults in Gen Z refuse the label ‘atheist’ and instead consider themselves to be spiritual in some way, even if not religious in a conventional sense. Some commentators connect this with the increase in interest in everything from crystals, manifesting, mindfulness to astrology, witchcraft and reiki. Post-Enlightenment modernity was said to be ‘disenchanted’ and have lost touch with the magical, mystical and spiritual aspects of the universe) instead grounded in a purely physicalist and scientific view of reality). Are we now seeing the reverse of that trend, as post-modern Western culture becomes ‘re-enchanted’? And if so, is this good news for a church trying to reignite interest from irreligious post-Christians? Or should we as believers stand against this revival in pagan and New Age practices? • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    45 m
  • Are men really coming back to church? with Justin Brierley

    Are men really coming back to church? with Justin Brierley
    Mar 11 2026
    It’s been impossible to miss the growing excitement in some corners of the church in recent years that there is a turnaround in church attendance and interest in faith. After generations of secularism and apathy, lots are convinced things are changing, and in particular younger people and especially young men are coming to church in large numbers. Podcaster and journalist Justin Brierley spent years curating conversations between Christians and non-believers during the height of New Atheism; now he is tracking what he calls the “surprising rebirth of belief in God”. In this episode we chat with Justin about what evidence there is for the so-called Quiet Revival and what might be driving disaffected young men towards traditional Christianity. And, how those of us already established in the church can and should respond to those exploring faith via the unusual intermediaries of social media influencers or right-wing culture warriors. You can find Justin’s writings and podcasts at his website: www.justinbrierley.com • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    1 h y 1 m
  • Rediscovering evil

    Rediscovering evil
    Mar 4 2026
    Both the Old and New Testaments are quite clear that bad things are not simply the result of bad choices by free human beings. There are also personal, malevolent, demonic forces at work, and our lives as followers of Jesus are caught up in cosmic spiritual battles. And yet while we may pay lip service to this, many Christians live as functional materialists, finding talk of Satan and spiritual warfare all a bit confusing and distasteful. In this episode we explore why it is some streams of Christianity have lost sight of the reality of spiritual evil, and how recovering this theology might help us better live faithfully and wisely in our present age. • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    1 h y 1 m
  • Touching grass and witnessing to truth: the church in an era of AI fakery and misinformation

    Touching grass and witnessing to truth: the church in an era of AI fakery and misinformation
    Feb 25 2026
    Tim recently spent a few weeks researching AI misinformation in the church context for a newspaper article, and that serves as the jumping off point for today’s conversation. What are Christian AI experts saying about the way our online world is filling up with AI generated nonsense and fake images and videos? Are there useful ways to use this increasingly powerful new technology for the kingdom? Or is the church’s role to stand against a society losing its grasp on objective reality and the difference between the real world outside and the world on the screen? • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    53 m
  • Psychedelics: Shamans, the philosophy of Harry Potter and the neuroscientific turn

    Psychedelics: Shamans, the philosophy of Harry Potter and the neuroscientific turn
    Feb 18 2026
    Tim is away this week, so we’re dipping into the MOLAD archive for a classic episode from 2024. Culture is increasingly interested in psychedelic drugs. Whether it’s Silicon Valley execs micro-dosing LSD to turbocharge their meetings, Americans doing ayahuasca weekends in Mexico, or rafts of studies suggesting ketamine can really help in treating depression, we’re all taking drugs much more seriously than any time since the 1960s counterculture. But what does this all mean? Should we welcome this as simply another frontier in medical science, or is it occultic and anti-Christian? Have believers been wrong all along in their traditional hostility to mind-altering substances? What is at stake with our spiritual lives when we start to fiddle around with chemicals in the brain? • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    54 m
  • The social media addiction trial: Can Christians use the courts to protect the vulnerable?

    The social media addiction trial: Can Christians use the courts to protect the vulnerable?
    Feb 11 2026
    A landmark trial is beginning in Los Angeles, as a series of people, parents and schools sue major social media giants, accusing them of harming their teenage users through the platforms’ addictive design. While some governments (such as Australia with its ban on under-16s) are taking bold steps to regulate social media, in other places legal action seems the only plausible route. How should we think about these developments as believers? Is trying to shake down tech companies in court a wise way to protect vulnerable teenagers? Can we adopt a ‘harm-minimisation’ strategy or is a blanket ban the only ethical option? What does it look like to be salt and light and prophetically speak for the needy in our secular societies? The BBC News article referenced at the start of the episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c24g8v6qr1mo • You can send in your questions for us to discuss on the podcast, or ideas for future episodes, to molad@premier.org.uk • Subscribe to the Matters of Life and Death podcast: https://pod.link/1509923173 • If you want to go deeper into some of the topics we discuss, visit John's website: http://www.johnwyatt.com • Find some of Tim's journalism and sign up for free to his weekly church news newsletter The Critical Friend: https://tswyatt.com • For more resources to help you explore faith and the big questions, visit: http://www.premierunbelievable.com
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    52 m