Prepared to Answer Podcast

What are God’s goals for you in your search for a spouse? Can you date someone who isn’t a Christian? How can Christians even begin to date in a godly way when Jesus didn’t even talk about dating?

In this episode, Scott and Shawn take a look at dating through the mind of Jesus in order to help Christians align themselves with God’s goals and purposes before they start dating.

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Self-care is seen as a necessary part of life, but how can young Christians learn to reconcile a culture that prizes “self-care” while following a Saviour who calls them to “lose their life” for the sake of his kingdom? What constitutes “good self-care” practices vs. “bad self-care” practices?

In this episode, Scott and Shawn use the “think like Jesus framework” to consider how Jesus would think about self-care, and they discover some vital truths that can help you keep your “self-care” from becoming “self-ish care”.

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Many see masculinity as hopelessly “toxic”. Others want to double down on historic “real man” stereotypes. Amidst all the noise and confusion, how are both Christian men and women to think about what makes a man a “real man”?

In this episode, Scott and Shawn return to the ‘think like Jesus’ framework found in Scripture in order to discern how Jesus thought about the essence of true manhood.

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In our culture, identify is seen as something that each person creates for themselves. But is that really where your identity comes from? Does determining your own identity really set you free?

Scott and Shawn bring the critical subject of identity into their continuing journey to learn to think like Jesus. In this episode, they talk through the inevitable difficulties we face when trying to create our own identity and how we can allow the mind of Jesus to inform and shape where true and lasting identity is found.

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Christians often treat singleness as if it is a problem to be solved. But how did Jesus think about singleness? He was, after all, a single man. In this episode, Scott and Shawn work through the four pillars that shaped Jesus’ mind, and they uncover some important and perhaps convicting insights about the place, value, and priority the church should give to living out the Christian life in singleness for the glory of God.

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Scott and Shawn continue their thought journey of learning to think like Jesus about marriage by discussing the principles that Christians need to take to heart in order to think like Jesus — whether they are anticipating marriage or have been married for some time. Specifically, Scott and Shawn take a hard look at the most important question about marriage: what did God create marriage for?

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Scott and Shawn share how Jesus’ love for the Father and the enabling of the Holy Spirit should inform how Christians approach marriage today — whether you’re a young person anticipating marriage in the future, a single adult waiting or longing to be married, or have been married for years.

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When people do everything for their own glory, we often perceive them them as being selfish or insecure. But since God does everything for his own glory, does that mean he is selfish or insecure? Shawn and Scott discuss this question as they learn from Scripture how to think like Jesus about the glory of God.

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The word “glory” is often thrown around in Christian circles. But what is God’s glory? What does the word “glory” even mean? Since glorifying God was and is Jesus’ greatest goal, it is a very important question that we need to answer.

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Scott and Shawn confront a critical question in their journey toward thinking like Jesus: “why?” Why did Jesus think the way that he thought? To what end? What was the ultimate goal toward which every thought Jesus had was directed?

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Christianity, Judaism, and Islam may share similar beliefs about God, but there is an irreconcilable difference between the God that each religion claims to worship. Tune in to this encore episode from the archives as Scott and Shawn bring clarity to the question, “Do Christians, Jews, and Muslims worship the same God?”

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Scott and Shawn dig into the facts about Old Testament slavery laws and share principles for responding to difficult faith challenges in order to answer the question, “does the Bible condone slavery?”

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The Prepared to Answer team and our PTA Go Partners get together to reflect on the year past, the glory of Christmas, and what’s in store for 2025. You can also play along as we hold our own Prepared to Answer version of Family Feud — Scott, Matt, and Mike take on Becca and Julia to figure out the answers to some challenging Christmas themed surveys.

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So Much More Than Sex series
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Scott and Shawn dig into how God’s grand story (that the Scriptures tell) shaped not just WHAT Jesus thought, but HOW he thought about everything. Tune in to hear biblical examples of this in Jesus’ life and how the Bible’s grand story can transform your own thinking as well.

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Scott and Shawn consider the role of the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ life and thinking, and (by extension) they come to some important conclusions about how the Spirit teaches Christians today.

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Scott and Shawn continue to discover what it means to think like Jesus, but run up against some objections to how Jesus could be fully human if he was divine at the same time. If he was truly human, how could he perform miracles or know the future? And if he was God, can he really relate to our human weaknesses and the temptations we face?

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Since Jesus was fully human, that means he needed to learn just like we do. But how could he learn what he needed to know in order to become God’s Messiah and the Saviour of the world? The answer isn’t controversial, but it may surprise you. Join Scott and Shawn as they discover Jesus’ foundation for thinking and why it affects how Christians should think about everything.

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Catch a rare glimpse at some of the exciting things happening in the ministry of Prepared to Answer and hear our vision for what's next in our goal to help the next generation to THINK LIKE JESUS. This is recorded LIVE at our ministry celebration banquet.

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Scott and Shawn sit down to consider Jesus as our perfect model for how to think and how it could be that learning to think like Jesus is a key to living a transformed life — no matter what questions or uncertainties our changing world may bring our way.

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Scott and Shawn discuss the distinctions, merits, and hidden worldview assumptions behind democracy and socialism in order to ask and answer which way Jesus would vote were he living among us in the world today.

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Have we in the church allowed tradition and culture to inform us about singleness and marriage rather than Scripture? In this episode, we welcome Dr. Dani Treweek, a post-doctoral theological researcher, author, and speaker with a focus on biblical singleness, sexuality, theological retrieval, and worldview formation. By discussing her application of biblical theology in her research on the biblical meaning of singleness, Dani not only challenges us to re-think our understanding of singleness, but also supplies a real-life illustration of how to think biblically about any topic by viewing it through the lens of the Bible’s grand story.

Did you know it is possible for you to follow biblical principles about money (tithing, paying off debt, etc.) while still idolizing money in your heart? In this episode, Shawn shares how, in order to honour God with our money, we need to think like Jesus by looking deeper into our heart’s motivations behind how we manage our finances.

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Christians can fall into error when thinking about happiness — either adopting a worldly view of happiness that is self-centered or falling into the belief that God doesn’t care about our happiness at all. So, which is it? Does God want you to be happy, or not?

In this episode, join Scott and Shawn as they discover the answer to this question by uncovering:

Do you ever wonder how to hear from God? And if you think you’re hearing from him, how do you really know? Scott and Matt meet up to talk about the ways we can know God is speaking to us, and how we can train ourselves to hear him better. 

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Special guest, Matt Bellefeuille from Doubters Welcome, joins us to talk about the four types of doubts Christians can experience and how identifying the root cause of those doubts is a critical step in finding faith-satisfying answers.

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Our special guest, Mike McGarry of Youth Pastor Theologian, shares what he thinks today’s Christian teens need most — sound, theological teaching. Mike explains how knowing theology helps teens grow into a faith that will endure the struggles they will face and also responds to common objections to teaching theology in youth ministry.

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In this episode from the archives, Scott and Shawn examine our culture’s prevailing ideas about justice and uncover what lies at the root of true justice, according to God and the Bible.

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Why should God get to decide what’s just? And how can God be just if he simply forgives people for their sin when they place their faith in Jesus? How is that fair? 

Scott and Shawn dig into the challenging subject of God’s justice and discover that the key to understanding God’s justice is to begin with the question, “What does God deserve?”

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If God is completely sovereign over all of his creation, can human beings be free to make real choices? Or, if God does sovereignly determine our choices as well, how can we be held responsible for those choices? Scott and Shawn dive into these difficult questions in an attempt to hold together the tension of these two apparently irreconcilable truths: God’s sovereignty and man’s free choice.

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Scott and Shawn tackle the question of why God allowed evil from three important angles. First, what’s a good ‘elevator’ response when someone confronts you with such a challenge but really aren’t giving you the time for a fully developed response? Second, what’s a quick response that’s often given that you should probably avoid? And third, what is the best biblical response to this question that, while maybe not resolving the tension, leaves the questioner to consider the truth about God’s ultimate purpose and destiny for his creation.

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The first commandment God gave Israel was this: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). And the rest of God’s commands and revelations throughout the Bible are consistent with this. God, and only God, is to be worshipped. Only God can get the glory.

But the skeptic looks at this and asks: “If anyone else acted the way God acts, we’d call them a narcissist and accuse them of outright selfishness. Isn’t his demand for worship just a sign of selfish egotism?”

In this episode, Scott and Shawn sit down to talk throug...

No one can escape the reality of pain and suffering, but, as Christians, Jesus actually promised we’d suffer (John 16:33) and face persecutions for his sake (Mark 10:30). Whether it’s experiencing pain because of the brokenness of sin upon the world or hardships due to our loyalty to Jesus, we will all face suffering in this world to one degree or another. So, how do we ensure our faith endures through them?

In this episode, Scott and Shawn tackle this difficult subject of pain and suffering, but from the standpoint of Jesus’ own experience. Specifically, they probe the Sc...

Out of necessity during the global COVID pandemic, most churches in countries with mandated restrictions needed to learn how to “do church” online. But even after COVID, this widespread experience of online church has caused many to ask if doing church online presents Christians with a viable alternative to in-person gathering. Could it be that technology presents us with a new way of doing church in which we gather as the church online?

In our final episode of our Dechurching Series, Scott and Shawn see if Scripture can shed some light on an answer, and what that answ...

In this episode, Scott and Shawn dive into the question of whether or not Christians need to belong to a local church. 

People feel the need to leave church for many reasons. Most often it is because the church, as they’ve experienced it, has not measured up to what they expect it to be. Sometimes this is due to churches not being what the church should be, and sometimes this is due to churches not being what we feel they should be. In either case, this is due to the church not measuring up to an ide...

The data over the past several years confirms a steady decline in church attendance and participation, even among committed Christians.

 In this episode in our Dechurching series, Scott and Shawn raise awareness about some of the cultural assumptions that may be skewing our perspective about church. For those wondering if being part of a church is necessary, rather than giving reasons for or against, Scott and Shawn take a dive into Scripture to answer a necessary first question: “What is the church?” 

If you’re thinking of leaving church behind, tune into this episode to learn ab...

Is the church in Canada disappearing? Data collected by StatsCan  over the past thirty years shows a steady decline in church attendance among Canadians. And the years over COVID accelerated that trend even further. But what is driving this trend? Who are the people foregoing church? And what does this indicate for the future of Christianity in Canada?

In this episode, Scott and Shawn begin looking at this de-churching phenomenon that is transforming the religious landscape of the west. They look at who are de-churching, and what reasons are being given by those who used to regularly a...

For decades now, church attendance has been in decline. And after COVID, many people are not returning to church.

But let’s face it. Most churches now do a great job of delivering Sunday service online. And through the internet we have easy access to a super-abundance of worship, teaching, and discipleship resources that we used to only get from church.

There is also the reality for many who, for one reason or another, have had negative or even hurtful church experiences. For these, church has become a very negative thing.

This raises th...

In 2015, The Pew Research Center reported that for every individual who becomes a Christian four leave (source).

More recently a chain of very public and prominent Christians has emerged, declaring that they too have decided to leave Christianity. 

What are we to make of such phenomena, and how should we react to them?

In this encore episode pulled from our podcast archives, Scott and Shawn discuss the seemingly growing trend of “deconversion” stories, asking some pointed and important questions:

We invite you to our annual Christmas Wrap-up. Meet our team and listen in as we talk about the highlights of 2023, share our favourite parts of the Christmas story, and challenge each other with some Christmas Story Trivia.

As Christmas approaches, we remember that Jesus is the hope of the world. Forgiveness of sin and peace with God is for everyone who puts their trust in him. This is why we do what we do to help Christians stand firm in their faith and witness for Jesus!

From our PTA family to yours, we wish...

Why does the Bible give us so many warnings about sexual immorality? Does God truly care? Scott welcomes Dr. Kirk Durston to delve into this critical topic. Dr. Kirk's expertise in biophysics, education, and Christian ministry provides profound insights into the biblical discussion surrounding sexuality.

This captivating discussion explores the intertwined relationship between the body and the soul. Dr. Kirk unveils how lust and passion have the power to turn the body against the soul, leading to spiritual warfare within ourselves.

Dr. Kirk suggests that what we witness in our culture today may be the...