You can’t be a good editor unless you enjoy being wrong.
Wait, aren’t editors the people who go around explaining why everyone else is wrong? Aren’t they the people who think they have the world figured out?
Not if they know what’s good for them and their readers.
When you’re first exploring a story, sometimes the facts don’t match your priors. Sometimes you realize your hunch was wrong. Editors have to drop a story, or at least pursue a different angle, when facts don’t match their feelings. They learn from the data provided by their sources and account for it in their next story idea.
Randy Newman was one of my favorite sources. His experience in evangelism didn’t match my priors. He’d tell me stories about evangelistic encounters where I’d say, “That approach will never work!” And the story would end with new faith in Jesus Christ. I loved being corrected by Randy.
We lost Randy this year shortly after he published his final book, Questioning Faith, with The Gospel Coalition and Crossway. I’ll miss him telling me about the unexpected pathways to faith he found. But the point of evangelism, after all, is eternity with Christ, and we rejoice now that our friend Randy sees Jesus face-to-face.
Randy’s final book joins several others—for children to read with their parents, and parents to read about their grown children—published by TGC in 2024. We also published Bible studies and an Advent devotional while adding to our Hard Questions series. We queried TGC Council members, staff, and expert writers to compile the best introductory, preaching, and scholarly Bible commentaries. As if we didn’t already know how much our readers love books, we asked you to help fill a container ship full of 30,000 books for a groundbreaking theological library in Africa—and the school received more than 50,000 volumes and counting!
Your learning style, though, may tend in a different direction, more aural and communal. So for 2025 we have prepared online learning cohorts you can sign up to join. I’m especially excited to offer a new eight-week cohort for writers, “From Pitch to Published.” You can learn from our editors’ mistakes—and maybe even a few of our successes.
Below you’ll see my annual list of the best articles, interviews, conference talks, and podcasts from TGC in 2024. In the last 12 months, more than 30 million users around the world have accessed resources at TGC.org. Thank you for reading, listening, watching, and sharing—we hope sometimes you enjoy being wrong, too, whenever the right answer leads you closer to the Lord.
The Curious Case of the Christian Reformed Church
By Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
Here’s something rarely seen in history: a denomination pulling back from the brink of capitulation to the sexual revolution. Sarah tells a detailed story full of polity and politics, the stuff of effective church leadership.
Understanding the Metamodern Mood
By Brett McCracken
I’m always hunting for essays I can assign to my seminary course on cultural apologetics. In this one, Brett synthesizes one of the most important “vibe shifts” in contemporary life. Postmodernism has passed. Learn how metamodernism compares and contrasts.
Why Liturgy Matters
By Ligon Duncan and Matt Smethurst
Every church has a liturgy, whether or not they use that term. In their popular new podcast, The Everyday Pastor, Ligon Duncan and Matt Smethurst share the benefits of explaining the why behind what your church does.
Courageous Pastors or Overbearing Leaders: How Do We Tell the Difference?
By Andrew Wilson
High-profile church scandals have cast a skeptical light on preachers. As a result, many church members react nervously to strong pastoral leadership—and prospective young pastors stay away from ministry altogether. Andrew reviews biblical qualifications to help us discern those godly shepherds from the wolves who prey on their flocks.
Don’t Be Afraid to Teach Doctrine in Women’s Bible Study
By Stephanie Franklin
Even exegetically grounded, edifying Bible studies sometimes avoid doctrine for fear of boring the participants, or at least confusing them with unfamiliar language. Stephanie explains why it’s worth the trouble to teach the vocabulary and concepts, so our love of Christ might deepen.
The Christian Roots of Speaking Truth to Power
By Chris Watkin
Not many teachers can synthesize mass-scale changes in Western culture like Chris, a fellow at The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. In this essay, Chris explains how we came to value critique from the social margins, a foreign concept to power-oriented pre-Christian and non-Christian cultures.
Why We Pulled Our Kids from Club Sports
Interview by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra with Ross Douma
Hardly a day goes by for me without a conversation with another parent about the rising pressures behind youth sports, or with another pastor about the families who disappear from church due to travel sports. And I guess I’m not alone, because this interview with the Dordt University athletic director turned out to be one of our most-read articles of 2024.
I Am the Light of the World (John 8:12–30)
By Jen Wilkin
This summer’s women’s conference was one of the largest events in TGC’s nearly 20-year history and among the most encouraging I’ve attended. Jen is in her element as she shines a light on the sweeping biblical theology behind Jesus in John 8.
We Can’t Build Political Solidarity from Cultural Rubble
Review by Bob Thune
The most important books return to mind when we’re searching for explanations of the world. James Davison Hunter’s latest landmark work shapes how I understand our current cultural and political predicament. I agree with Bob: “It’s a book we’ll be arguing about for years to come.”
Richard Hays Thinks God Changed His Mind About Same-Sex Sex. Is He Right?
Review by Rebecca McLaughlin
I knew evangelicals wouldn’t agree with this book from one of the most influential living Christian ethicists. But until this review by Rebecca, I didn’t realize how far away from orthodox theology Richard Hays would veer to justify his new views.
James Isn’t as Strange as You Think
By Brandon D. Crowe
Martin Luther didn’t do the book of James many favors with his criticism. In this essay published by The Carson Center for Theological Renewal, Brandon offers five “familiar faces” that help orient us around this strange-sounding book.
Lessons from Mark Dever’s 30 Years at Capitol Hill Baptist Church
By Caleb Morell
I don’t know a more influential pastor than Mark Dever in the church today. Caleb will join me for an episode of Gospelbound next season to discuss his new book on the history of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, including its flourishing under Dever’s leadership over the last 30 years.
How an Australian Church Is Changing Christian Songwriting
By Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
If you didn’t already know and appreciate CityAlight, just look at the big response to this Recorded podcast as Sarah takes us behind the scenes of the Australian church worship band. Turns out I wasn’t the only person who didn’t know these talented musicians work regular jobs.
To, For, With: A Brief History of Children’s Sunday School Curriculum
By Jared Kennedy
How many resources make a bigger long-term difference in churches than the curriculum used in Sunday school? Experienced children’s minister Jared Kennedy guides us on a tour through three phases of curriculum development in Reformed churches. I’m raising children in the third “with” stage, and our family cherishes evening devotions with the Biggest Story curriculum.
A Christian Response to Polygamy, Incest, and Pedophilia
By Noah Senthil
Try to find this article in Google by pasting the title in your search bar. Now you’ll see why this article is so important to be written and published in a time of rampant sexual confusion.
‘Her,’ ChatGPT, and Fiction’s Reality-Making Power
By Brett McCracken
I’ve been waiting a decade for someone to write this essay, and Brett came through with a review of one of the most important artistic artifacts of our time. Sometimes fiction anticipates reality, as in this 2013 Spike Jonze film about a man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his AI virtual assistant (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Let’s hope this film also warns a new generation not to abandon the real world for chatbots that can only simulate relational intimacy.
David Brooks Explores the Amazing Power of Truly Seeing Others
Interview by Collin Hansen
David Brooks tops bestseller lists because he channels his curiosity into books that help us attend to what’s important in this world and the next. And he relates to readers because, as you can see in this interview for the Gospelbound podcast, he doesn’t always write from a position of personal strength.
How Hellion Teenagers Sparked Revival in a Small West Virginia Town
By Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
How can you not love a few good conversion stories? It looks like revival when young adults are so freshly and dramatically converted to Christ that their friends and neighbors can’t help but be a little bit skeptical and a whole lot intrigued.
Modernity Makes Us Spiritually Sick: Or Why You Should Read Byung-Chul Han
By Samuel James
This year, I dove into reading Byung-Chul Han’s works, and Samuel explains why you should too. He’ll give you categories for understanding some of the most confounding experiences in our changing culture. Even better, with this understanding you’ll gain the ability to resist some of what makes us moderns spiritually sick.
Why Church Planters Are Thriving in New England
By Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra
I dare you to read this article and not walk away inspired by what God’s doing outside your immediate awareness. Who could have expected such an encouraging movement of the Spirit in a region long considered a graveyard for church plants?
The Gospel Coalition