US foreign aid is unexpectedly in the news in 2025 as never before. What do Christians need to know, to help us be part of the dialogue?

America's history of foreign aid dates back at least to the Marshall Plan that followed World War II. Many Christians have been involved. How have these believers thought about the appropriate roles of government and of faith-based institutions? What has the US been doing, with what impact? And what is the situation on the ground now?

Three believers knowledgeable about this work join us for this episode to illustrate the scope of how faith-based foreign aid has impacted regions worldwide, share their perspectives on what a Christ-like spirit looks like in this field, and discuss where they see aid is most needed—now more than ever.

• Ambassador Mark Lagon has served as the US Ambassador to combat human trafficking, and is now focused on the fight against malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS.
• Nicole Bibbins Sedaca has held leadership roles in the government, academic and NGO sectors working and teaching on democracy, human rights and religious freedom.
• Myal Greene leads World Relief, the development arm of the National Association of Evangelicals; while serving in Rwanda, he developed its church-based programming model.

This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation from April 2025. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

• A Man Who Changed His Times; William Wilberforce
• This Child Will Be Great; Ellen Sirleaf Johnson
• Out of My Life and Thought; Albert Schweitzer
• Cry, the Beloved Country; Alan Paton
• Sphere Sovereignty; Abraham Kuyper
• Politics, Morality, and Civility; Václav Havel

Related Conversations:

Abraham Kuyper’s Sphere Sovereignty with Vincent Bacote

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.

As we emerge from the Lenten season, freshly renewed by the triumph of the Resurrection, beauty and wonder are particularly present for Christians. In this episode, author and songwriter Andrew Peterson shares his insights about the importance of location and living responsibly and attentively in whatever specific place you inhabit. He discusses how deeper attentiveness to the beauty around us can awaken us to wisdom and wonder.

This podcast is an edited version of our Online Conversation from December 2021. You can access the full conversation with transcript here.

Learn more about Andrew Peterson.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

The God of the Garden, by Andrew Peterson

Tim Mackey, The Bible Project’s Tree of Life podcast series

Jaber Crow, by Wendell Berry

William Wordsworth

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs

The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape, by James Howard Kunstler

Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith, Eric O. Jacobsen

Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

Rich Mullins

10 Resolutions for Mental Health, Clyde Kilby

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Bright Evening Star, Madeleine L’Engle

A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

Babette’s Feast, by Isak Dinesen

Related Conversations:

Practicing Gratitude with Diana Butler Bass

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.

Throughout Lent, we've been releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices.

In the final episode of the series, this Holy Week we're considering the discipline of waiting: how we can prepare ourselves to receive good news.

Our guide today is N.T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop and New Testament scholar. He describes how Jesus invited his hearers into a new way of understanding Israel’s ancient story of waiting, the cosmic significance of its sudden fulfillment, and its meaning for us in this in-between time of preparation to receive good news:

We hope that this conversation will help you as you wait and prepare to receive this good news.

The podcast is drawn from an evening conversation we hosted back in 2016. You can find our shownotes and much more at ttf.org.

Thank you for journeying with us through Lent.

Learn more about N.T. Wright.

Watch The Good News and the Good Life, with N.T. Wright and Richard Hayes.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

Who is this Man? by John Ortberg

Related Trinity Forum Readings:

Devotions by John Donne and paraphrased by Philip Yancey

The Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine of Hippo, Introduced by James K.A. Smith

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

God’s Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

A Spiritual Pilgrimage by Malcolm Muggeridge

Related Conversations:

Liturgy of the Ordinary in Extraordinary Times with Tish Harrison Warren

Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies with Marilyn McEntyre

Invitation to Solitude and Silence with Ruth Haley Barton

On the Road with Saint Augustine with James K.A. Smith and Elizabeth Bruenig

The Habit Podcast, Episode 26: Tish Harrison Warren with Doug McKelvey

The Spiritual Practice of Remembering with Margaret Bendroth

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org, and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, visit ttf.org/join.