September 20, 2025 • 28 mins
On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast, Hank interviews Don Simmonds, CEO of Crossroads Christian Communications, and Jerry Johnston, Executive Director of Crossroads USA, about the current cultural climate, which they have dubbed “the Perfect Storm.” The discussion covers many topics, including media dominance, the personalization of technology, and the spiritual storms of our culture.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From the Christian Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. You
are listening to the best of the Bible answer Man
Broadcast with Hank Cantagraph. We're on the air because life
and truth matter. The mission of the Christian Research Institute
is to equip believers to answer life's essential questions soundly
and persuasively, and to give the reason for the hope
(00:29):
that you have with gentleness and respect. For more information,
go online to equip dot org. The following program was
pre recorded and now here's Bible answer Man host Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thank you very much. Randy has always it is great
to be in studio as we answer your questions throughout
the United States and Canada. I thought today I wanted
to talk about a storm with two guests today who
have dubbed this not just a storm, but the perfect storm.
It is the coalescing of factors that has caused an
(01:09):
incredible impact in our culture that we are so often
unaware of. Joining me to talk about this Don Simmons,
he's the CEO and chairman of Crossroads Television in Canada,
and Jerry Johnston, who's the executive director of Crossroads USA.
(01:33):
When I was in Canada on Crossroads Television. Don shared
this story with me. It captivated me and I wanted
you to hear it as well. We're going to discuss
four factors creating the perfect storm. Good to have both
of you with us.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Good to be he Thank you, Hank.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Don. I remember sitting at lunch when you shared with
me these four factors leading to the perfect storm, the
first of which was diluted values, the second failing faith foundations.
Then you talked about media dominance, and then you talked
(02:15):
about the personalization of technology. Want you to cache that
out for us, beginning with diluted values.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yes, now we're in the media side of things, Hank,
as you've said, and what's really driving all of our
activities at the moment is how we see the culture
and the needs within the culture. And this first storm
of diluted values is really a storm that really you
get very little disagreement with. If you could measure some
(02:47):
kind of quotient on people's joy or happiness, or you
could have a quotient that measures relationships or a quotient
that measures morality, those graphs would be heading down. And
we know through measurement, through polling, through surveys, reputable surveys
(03:10):
that the acceptability of certain moral behaviors are creating an
environment of deteriorating values, diluted values, and it's especially pertinent
for young people as they're transitioning from children to adults.
They come into this interesting context where they don't know
(03:30):
right from wrong, and there's lots of models that are
suggesting that confusion. We know, for example, that almost seven
out of ten people in society find it morally acceptable
to divorce. We find that six out of ten find
it morally acceptable to have sex between an unmarried man
(03:51):
and woman, four out of ten people find it morally
acceptable to have an abortion, and shockingly, fifty percent of
people now find it morally acceptable even to take one's
own life. So I call this the door a jar problem.
As we're trying to teach a young generation on what
(04:13):
is right and wrong, the door of diluted values is
wide open.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is not just diluted values you're talking about failing faith foundations?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yes, And in fact, you know it's not the first
generation of diluted values. If we go back in history,
we find different eras, different cultures with this swinging values.
But you know, with the context we have now. Unfortunately,
the second storm really suggests that we haven't put underneath
our young people the type of faith foundations that would
(04:48):
be required to actually face the storms that we've handed
to them. And it's the combination of those storms that
is a concern. In other words, if there's a culture
storm of diluted values, and young people had a foundation
of faith, they would recognize what was right and wrong
and be able to withstand that. Without the foundations underneath them,
(05:14):
then they effectively become casualties of the incorrect thinking that
permeates the culture, and it's the two together. It's interesting
because we blaunched a study in Canada which actually followed
soon after a study that the Barne Group had completed,
where both actually studied Christian young people that regularly attended church,
(05:38):
but measured what occurred in their lives between the age
of eighteen and thirty. And as you know, David Kinneman,
the CEO of BARNA, actually called a book which showed
the results of that study. You lost me representing this
rather disappointing conclusion where the church itself and matters of
(06:01):
faith really didn't impact young people so that they made
it their life choice. In Canada, we've called the study
Hemorrhaging Faith, which is a very ominous sort of a
descriptor for the fact that the survey shows us that
only one in four of young people that believed in
(06:21):
God when they routines went regularly to church between the
age of eighteen and thirty four. Only one in four
continue to pursue faith as their choice in their life.
And so now there are some that are undecided, but
there are also a lot that are turning to atheism
as a matter of fact, as a result of things
(06:41):
that have come into their life during their young adult years.
So it's this concern over a lack of foundation hitting
a context of diluted values that is really messing a
lot of young people up.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So, in other words, what you're saying is there isn't
the infrastructure to withstand not only the storm of diluted values,
but also the storm that you have designated by the
Moniker media dominance.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yes, and now we come to the third storm. And
this media dominance really has two aspects to it. One
are the messages of the media and the other aspect
is the volume of media. So if it was volume
of media that our culture is consuming and the messages
were positive, then one could you know, one could accept that,
(07:34):
But the messages are so destructive and negative and are
in such volume. My goodness, young people now consume on
average seven and a half hours per day of media.
Canadian families use the internet more than watched TV, but
the amount of television they watched increased. So when you
(07:56):
sum up those two categories of media consumption, it's just
such a dominating influence in the lives of most people
in the culture, but especially young people. So you have
this context of diluted values for whatever reason, a weakened
faith foundation under even the young people that we produce
(08:19):
in our churches. And then at the same time they're
enveloped with this dominating media that just pounds them with
messages that are not the truth that we believe.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And as in every storm, there is a silver lining.
We'll get to that in just a moment, but touch on,
if you will, this fourth storm, which has to do
with the whole concept of the personalization of technology. This
to me is not only the greatest of the storms,
(08:54):
but it seems to me to provide the greatest of opportunities,
which I want to talk about after the break but
right now now talk about that storm and the significance
for families, for Christianity in general.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yes. Now, I come from the technology world, Hank. You know,
we made our living in high technology businesses primarily and
wireless up in Canada, and so you know, technology advances
are not normally all that surprising. In fact, we've been
able to spot those trends and take advantage of them.
But this personalizing of technology is a fairly new storm.
(09:31):
We have not yet seen in any way the full
ramifications of this, and it's largely driven by the fact
that most people now can in their own hands hold
all of the horsepower that they would need, which operates
on their iPhone or whatever form of personal communicator they use.
(09:56):
And it is so personalizing life that all of these
negative influences go direct to the ears and direct to
the eyes of our young people. All of this horsepower
is in the hands of very young people. They can
access all of what the internet has to offer. One
of our producers was talking to some church young people
(10:20):
about their habits in terms of looking at pornography, and
the young people said, what do you keep asking us
about this? For we watch it all the time on
the bus we traded around at school, and it is
just so accessible that there's almost not even a reference
that that might be a harmful activity for them.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Sorry, Don Simmons, and we're going to bring Jerry Johnston
into the conversation. In just a few moments, we are
coming to a station break. On the other side of
the break, I want to talk about the silver lining
in the storm, because on the one hand, the personalization
of technology is a blight. On the other it is
a blessing back in just a few moments with more.
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Speaker 1 (13:00):
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Speaker 2 (15:12):
Talking to Don Simmons, CEO and chairman of Crossroads Television
in Canada, and Jerry Johnston, who's the executive director of
Crossroads USA. We're going to bring into the conversation in
just a moment about the perfect storm, four factors, all
related to technology in one way or another, that have formed,
(15:32):
as it were, the perfect in fact, a deadly storm.
But in that storm, as always, there is a silver lining,
and that silver lining is that we either harness technology
for the good of the Gospel or we lose Western civilization.
So we're not talking about a small issue here. We're
(15:55):
talking about Western civilization built on the dna of a
biblical worldview. It hangs in the balance. Is that too
strong or is that a fair statement?
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Jerry, It's absolutely fair, and I think that's why we,
as a believer said, listening to Don Simmons this clarion
call from Crossroads Christian Communications based in Toronto, there is
an unprecedented opportunity for the church today. This technology can
(16:27):
be harnessed by the church for evangelism and for doing, Hank,
what you do so well, teaching the fundamentals of the faith,
so that we don't have this massive fallout of three
out of every four people who become indoctrinated because of
the truth that you present the Crossroads presents. That's why
we're here and that's why we share a common bond together.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
You said something done that was riveting to me. When
we're talking about the perfect storm, you said, this happened
on my watch, and therefore you're saying that we bear
some culpability for this perfect storm.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Well, when we think of the four storms we've just described,
although there's this inclination in the human heart to go
against God's ways, most of what we've just talked about
in terms of the value deterioration and the media dominance
and not putting the right foundation. It's really happened in
the last thirty years or so. And during that time,
(17:25):
I've been a Christian father, pretty dedicated father, a businessman
who believes in exercising my faith in the marketplace, and
actually a Christian leader of various ministries. And so yes,
I without you know, without trying to sugarcoat it, this
has been on my watch the last thirty years is
when this perfect storm has been brewing. And in fact,
(17:48):
being in the wireless industry, we've actually created the infrastructure
for a lot of these messages to be communicated. I
should say, also, Hank, that this has become very personal
to me because I'm a hockey coach in our small
community at the high school, and we only have one
high school in our town. So you can imagine with
(18:09):
a Canadian with a group of Canadians, hockey's big and
the high school team is quite a special aspect of
a community. And earlier this year, one of my hockey
players took his own life, and as we've unpacked that.
By the way, our motto is to win at hockey
(18:29):
and win it life. So imagine being a coach who
carries that motto and for twenty years of coach hockey
in my community, and instead of helping win it life,
one of my players took his life. And it's probably
that experience, more than anything else, that has allowed me
to crystallize these four storms because he was a casualty.
(18:51):
Actually he was sunk in his life by those four
storms all converging on him. So it's become very personal.
But you talked about the opportunity. You see, my fifteen
year old daughter can create a YouTube channel which can
access almost three billion users if they choose to watch it.
(19:13):
So at virtually no cost, a fifteen year old has
command of communications now virtually to forty or fifty percent
of the entire world. It's quite a remarkable thing. And
with the personalizing nature of technology, the very horse power
that is taking a lot of our young people down
(19:33):
can actually be used for good. And so if we
can create the type of content that is relevant, that
carries Christian faith and values in a way that is
attractive and high quality and stimulating to young minds, then
we can use that same power that is impacting them negatively,
(19:57):
use that same power for God, and we can do
it quite quickly because we can get a message out
extremely quickly with today's technology, and we.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Have to harness that technology. Jerry, and we think about
the power of radio. It's a very potent medium today,
as it has been for many years. Both of you
know a whole lot more about this than I do.
When it comes to television, it's a powerful medium, but
you're talking about technology advancing rapidly and if we do
(20:24):
not seize the future. Like Christian leaders at Atzinger at
Salem Broadcasting and Stuart Apperson, they had a vision for
how to utilize Christian radio. David Mains in Canada had
a vision for Christian television. People like that had a
vision for how to harness those mediums in their epic
(20:47):
of time. Again, still powerful mediums today, but we're saying
that if we do not harness technology, social media and
the like in the future, we're going to drift into
relevance as a Christian commuit.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Don Simmons's vision at Crossroads has coined a phrase transmedia.
And what I love about what Crossroads is doing not
just entering the US, the initiative that I have the
privilege to lead, but really creating internet channels twenty four
hours a day to play to that three billion plus
crowd that our internet accessed. Crossroads is doing that now,
(21:23):
harnessing that library of nine thousand interviews that's all being
digitized as we work here today in Charlotte. I mean,
the opportunity now is at a whole new zenith. The
horizon has all changed, and I believe God is raising
up in the church just as we're with a businessman
(21:44):
in Charlotte today, people that are sick and tired of
where the country's going. We're losing this young generation and
they want to do something about it. And Hank, that's
why your ministry is so crucial and your future sure
expansion is so crucial because your voice is needed. And
(22:05):
Don talks about all ages at all stages, multiple media
created content for trans media.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
We think about leaders like Chuck Holsen. I remember coming
back from China and talking about the persecuted church and
the rapid growth of Christianity in China. And I was
talking to Chuck about this and almost hyper ventilating about
the great growth of the church in China and God's
move in the East. And Chuck said something to me.
(22:35):
That was very sobering. He said, yes, that is wonderful,
but we cannot lose Western civilization. Western civilization has a heritage,
It has a heritage of thousands of years. In the East,
people are coming out of syncretistic religions. They're coming out
(22:57):
of ancestor worship and a whole conglomeration of belief structures,
and therefore they come into Christianity. They have a lot
of vibrancy, but not deep roots. We have the deep
roots in Western civilization. We can't lose that. And that's
really what your vision entails. It's saying, on the one hand,
(23:18):
you can curse the darkness. On the other hand, we
can build a lighthouse in the midst of the gathering storm.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
And we must build a lighthouse in the midst of
gathering storms, the perfect storm as a matter of fact,
because the nature of a perfect storm is the convergence
of storms, which creates such a multiplying effect that usually
people that get caught in it are casualties. And that's
why this we're just we're not just applying rhetoric to
(23:45):
our conversation here. We must enter the heart of that
storm directly, and we'll do that with the power of God.
It's a giant we're facing, but we face it with
the power of God, and so he can take He
can take resorts and multiply them, and I believe he'll
use technology to multiply his message of love to people's
(24:07):
It's interesting you mentioned the Chinese culture because the problem
we're talking about is not just protecting our own Western civilization,
either because the Internet is a great level or globally.
As a matter of fact, we had a delegation I
won't say what country, but from an Asian country, not
necessarily a Christian country, who came to see us to
(24:32):
ask how or what we would have to be an
antidote to the messages from Western culture that we're impacting
their culture and their young people. This is not just
something that's geographically limited, Hank. The Internet carries these messages
globally and more and more the antidote here in Western
(24:54):
culture will be used around the world also, because that's
really the type of messages that need to be counteracted.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I'm Don Simmons, CEO, Chairman of Crossroads Television and Candida
Jerry Johnston, executive director of Crossroads USA. Thank you very
much for your contribution.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
And Hank, we need you and I want to say,
on behalf of the Body of Christ, just how important
you are to all your listeners. I want to just say,
not a greater ministry that's standing and apologetics worthy of
our support, and we on behalf of Crossroads, just say
keep on keeping on.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
We're with you all the way.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Thank you, my friend, and thank you Hank. You got
it done. Love your clear, clear and call. That's a
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(25:52):
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From the Christian Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. You
are listening to the best of the Bible answer Man
Broadcast with Hank Cantagraph. We're on the air because life
and truth matter. The mission of the Christian Research Institute
is to equip believers to answer life's essential questions soundly
and persuasively, and to give the reason for the hope
(00:29):
that you have with gentleness and respect. For more information,
go online to equip dot org. The following program was
pre recorded and now here's Bible answer Man host Hank Canagraph.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Thank you very much. Randy has always it is great
to be in studio as we answer your questions throughout
the United States and Canada. I thought today I wanted
to talk about a storm with two guests today who
have dubbed this not just a storm, but the perfect storm.
It is the coalescing of factors that has caused an
(01:09):
incredible impact in our culture that we are so often
unaware of. Joining me to talk about this Don Simmons,
he's the CEO and chairman of Crossroads Television in Canada,
and Jerry Johnston, who's the executive director of Crossroads USA.
(01:33):
When I was in Canada on Crossroads Television. Don shared
this story with me. It captivated me and I wanted
you to hear it as well. We're going to discuss
four factors creating the perfect storm. Good to have both
of you with us.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Good to be he Thank you, Hank.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Don. I remember sitting at lunch when you shared with
me these four factors leading to the perfect storm, the
first of which was diluted values, the second failing faith foundations.
Then you talked about media dominance, and then you talked
(02:15):
about the personalization of technology. Want you to cache that
out for us, beginning with diluted values.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Yes, now we're in the media side of things, Hank,
as you've said, and what's really driving all of our
activities at the moment is how we see the culture
and the needs within the culture. And this first storm
of diluted values is really a storm that really you
get very little disagreement with. If you could measure some
(02:47):
kind of quotient on people's joy or happiness, or you
could have a quotient that measures relationships or a quotient
that measures morality, those graphs would be heading down. And
we know through measurement, through polling, through surveys, reputable surveys
(03:10):
that the acceptability of certain moral behaviors are creating an
environment of deteriorating values, diluted values, and it's especially pertinent
for young people as they're transitioning from children to adults.
They come into this interesting context where they don't know
(03:30):
right from wrong, and there's lots of models that are
suggesting that confusion. We know, for example, that almost seven
out of ten people in society find it morally acceptable
to divorce. We find that six out of ten find
it morally acceptable to have sex between an unmarried man
(03:51):
and woman, four out of ten people find it morally
acceptable to have an abortion, and shockingly, fifty percent of
people now find it morally acceptable even to take one's
own life. So I call this the door a jar problem.
As we're trying to teach a young generation on what
(04:13):
is right and wrong, the door of diluted values is
wide open.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Is not just diluted values you're talking about failing faith foundations?
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yes, And in fact, you know it's not the first
generation of diluted values. If we go back in history,
we find different eras, different cultures with this swinging values.
But you know, with the context we have now. Unfortunately,
the second storm really suggests that we haven't put underneath
our young people the type of faith foundations that would
(04:48):
be required to actually face the storms that we've handed
to them. And it's the combination of those storms that
is a concern. In other words, if there's a culture
storm of diluted values, and young people had a foundation
of faith, they would recognize what was right and wrong
and be able to withstand that. Without the foundations underneath them,
(05:14):
then they effectively become casualties of the incorrect thinking that
permeates the culture, and it's the two together. It's interesting
because we blaunched a study in Canada which actually followed
soon after a study that the Barne Group had completed,
where both actually studied Christian young people that regularly attended church,
(05:38):
but measured what occurred in their lives between the age
of eighteen and thirty. And as you know, David Kinneman,
the CEO of BARNA, actually called a book which showed
the results of that study. You lost me representing this
rather disappointing conclusion where the church itself and matters of
(06:01):
faith really didn't impact young people so that they made
it their life choice. In Canada, we've called the study
Hemorrhaging Faith, which is a very ominous sort of a
descriptor for the fact that the survey shows us that
only one in four of young people that believed in
(06:21):
God when they routines went regularly to church between the
age of eighteen and thirty four. Only one in four
continue to pursue faith as their choice in their life.
And so now there are some that are undecided, but
there are also a lot that are turning to atheism
as a matter of fact, as a result of things
(06:41):
that have come into their life during their young adult years.
So it's this concern over a lack of foundation hitting
a context of diluted values that is really messing a
lot of young people up.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
So, in other words, what you're saying is there isn't
the infrastructure to withstand not only the storm of diluted values,
but also the storm that you have designated by the
Moniker media dominance.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yes, and now we come to the third storm. And
this media dominance really has two aspects to it. One
are the messages of the media and the other aspect
is the volume of media. So if it was volume
of media that our culture is consuming and the messages
were positive, then one could you know, one could accept that,
(07:34):
But the messages are so destructive and negative and are
in such volume. My goodness, young people now consume on
average seven and a half hours per day of media.
Canadian families use the internet more than watched TV, but
the amount of television they watched increased. So when you
(07:56):
sum up those two categories of media consumption, it's just
such a dominating influence in the lives of most people
in the culture, but especially young people. So you have
this context of diluted values for whatever reason, a weakened
faith foundation under even the young people that we produce
(08:19):
in our churches. And then at the same time they're
enveloped with this dominating media that just pounds them with
messages that are not the truth that we believe.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And as in every storm, there is a silver lining.
We'll get to that in just a moment, but touch on,
if you will, this fourth storm, which has to do
with the whole concept of the personalization of technology. This
to me is not only the greatest of the storms,
(08:54):
but it seems to me to provide the greatest of opportunities,
which I want to talk about after the break but
right now now talk about that storm and the significance
for families, for Christianity in general.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yes. Now, I come from the technology world, Hank. You know,
we made our living in high technology businesses primarily and
wireless up in Canada, and so you know, technology advances
are not normally all that surprising. In fact, we've been
able to spot those trends and take advantage of them.
But this personalizing of technology is a fairly new storm.
(09:31):
We have not yet seen in any way the full
ramifications of this, and it's largely driven by the fact
that most people now can in their own hands hold
all of the horsepower that they would need, which operates
on their iPhone or whatever form of personal communicator they use.
(09:56):
And it is so personalizing life that all of these
negative influences go direct to the ears and direct to
the eyes of our young people. All of this horsepower
is in the hands of very young people. They can
access all of what the internet has to offer. One
of our producers was talking to some church young people
(10:20):
about their habits in terms of looking at pornography, and
the young people said, what do you keep asking us
about this? For we watch it all the time on
the bus we traded around at school, and it is
just so accessible that there's almost not even a reference
that that might be a harmful activity for them.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Sorry, Don Simmons, and we're going to bring Jerry Johnston
into the conversation. In just a few moments, we are
coming to a station break. On the other side of
the break, I want to talk about the silver lining
in the storm, because on the one hand, the personalization
of technology is a blight. On the other it is
a blessing back in just a few moments with more.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Every Bible answer Man broadcast such as the one you're
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(11:23):
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return shortly with more from Hank hanagraph.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Truth Matters, Life Matters More by Hank Hannigraph is essentially
two books in one because Truth Matters Part one equips
Christians to defend the essential truth of the historic Christian faith.
In part two, Hank explains why life matters more and
how we can experience the height of human existence union
with God in Christ. Simply put, the map is not
(12:24):
the territory. The menu is not the meal. We cheat
ourselves of authentic union with Christ when we elevate the
message above the Messiah. Truth Matters, Life Matters More is
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Speaker 1 (13:00):
Anyone who's been paying attention knows there's a war going on,
not just on traditional morality, civility and decency, but even
more fundamentally on historic notions of truth, and the enemy
isn't just the onslaught of fake news, facilitated by a
post truth culture and turbocharged by growing legions of ideological
spind Doctors note the real enemies of truth range from
(13:24):
postmodernist convictions that there is no objective truth to militant
scientism that claims that only science can determine truth and
religion is little more than primitive superstitions. But CRI Support
Team members are not waving a white flag of surrender.
They're holding the fort by undergirding everyone of Christian Research
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Institute's mind shaping and life changing outreaches twenty four to seven.
To learn how you can make a difference and enjoy
all the benefits of Support Team membership, simply visit equip
dot org. The Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition is
the comprehensive collection of the most often asked questions Hank
(14:07):
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The Bible answer Man broadcast. With more than half a
million copies already in print, this newly revised and expanded
Collector's Edition helped seekers and skeptics alike sort through the
truth on topics such as reliability of the Bible, religions
and cults, the resurrection and afterlife, and many more issues
(14:31):
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(14:51):
eight eight seven thousand CRII or visit us at equip
dot org. Now back to the Bible answer Man broadcast
and your host and canigraph.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Talking to Don Simmons, CEO and chairman of Crossroads Television
in Canada, and Jerry Johnston, who's the executive director of
Crossroads USA. We're going to bring into the conversation in
just a moment about the perfect storm, four factors, all
related to technology in one way or another, that have formed,
(15:32):
as it were, the perfect in fact, a deadly storm.
But in that storm, as always, there is a silver lining,
and that silver lining is that we either harness technology
for the good of the Gospel or we lose Western civilization.
So we're not talking about a small issue here. We're
(15:55):
talking about Western civilization built on the dna of a
biblical worldview. It hangs in the balance. Is that too
strong or is that a fair statement?
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Jerry, It's absolutely fair, and I think that's why we,
as a believer said, listening to Don Simmons this clarion
call from Crossroads Christian Communications based in Toronto, there is
an unprecedented opportunity for the church today. This technology can
(16:27):
be harnessed by the church for evangelism and for doing, Hank,
what you do so well, teaching the fundamentals of the faith,
so that we don't have this massive fallout of three
out of every four people who become indoctrinated because of
the truth that you present the Crossroads presents. That's why
we're here and that's why we share a common bond together.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
You said something done that was riveting to me. When
we're talking about the perfect storm, you said, this happened
on my watch, and therefore you're saying that we bear
some culpability for this perfect storm.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Well, when we think of the four storms we've just described,
although there's this inclination in the human heart to go
against God's ways, most of what we've just talked about
in terms of the value deterioration and the media dominance
and not putting the right foundation. It's really happened in
the last thirty years or so. And during that time,
(17:25):
I've been a Christian father, pretty dedicated father, a businessman
who believes in exercising my faith in the marketplace, and
actually a Christian leader of various ministries. And so yes,
I without you know, without trying to sugarcoat it, this
has been on my watch the last thirty years is
when this perfect storm has been brewing. And in fact,
(17:48):
being in the wireless industry, we've actually created the infrastructure
for a lot of these messages to be communicated. I
should say, also, Hank, that this has become very personal
to me because I'm a hockey coach in our small
community at the high school, and we only have one
high school in our town. So you can imagine with
(18:09):
a Canadian with a group of Canadians, hockey's big and
the high school team is quite a special aspect of
a community. And earlier this year, one of my hockey
players took his own life, and as we've unpacked that.
By the way, our motto is to win at hockey
(18:29):
and win it life. So imagine being a coach who
carries that motto and for twenty years of coach hockey
in my community, and instead of helping win it life,
one of my players took his life. And it's probably
that experience, more than anything else, that has allowed me
to crystallize these four storms because he was a casualty.
(18:51):
Actually he was sunk in his life by those four
storms all converging on him. So it's become very personal.
But you talked about the opportunity. You see, my fifteen
year old daughter can create a YouTube channel which can
access almost three billion users if they choose to watch it.
(19:13):
So at virtually no cost, a fifteen year old has
command of communications now virtually to forty or fifty percent
of the entire world. It's quite a remarkable thing. And
with the personalizing nature of technology, the very horse power
that is taking a lot of our young people down
(19:33):
can actually be used for good. And so if we
can create the type of content that is relevant, that
carries Christian faith and values in a way that is
attractive and high quality and stimulating to young minds, then
we can use that same power that is impacting them negatively,
(19:57):
use that same power for God, and we can do
it quite quickly because we can get a message out
extremely quickly with today's technology, and we.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Have to harness that technology. Jerry, and we think about
the power of radio. It's a very potent medium today,
as it has been for many years. Both of you
know a whole lot more about this than I do.
When it comes to television, it's a powerful medium, but
you're talking about technology advancing rapidly and if we do
(20:24):
not seize the future. Like Christian leaders at Atzinger at
Salem Broadcasting and Stuart Apperson, they had a vision for
how to utilize Christian radio. David Mains in Canada had
a vision for Christian television. People like that had a
vision for how to harness those mediums in their epic
(20:47):
of time. Again, still powerful mediums today, but we're saying
that if we do not harness technology, social media and
the like in the future, we're going to drift into
relevance as a Christian commuit.
Speaker 5 (21:00):
Don Simmons's vision at Crossroads has coined a phrase transmedia.
And what I love about what Crossroads is doing not
just entering the US, the initiative that I have the
privilege to lead, but really creating internet channels twenty four
hours a day to play to that three billion plus
crowd that our internet accessed. Crossroads is doing that now,
(21:23):
harnessing that library of nine thousand interviews that's all being
digitized as we work here today in Charlotte. I mean,
the opportunity now is at a whole new zenith. The
horizon has all changed, and I believe God is raising
up in the church just as we're with a businessman
(21:44):
in Charlotte today, people that are sick and tired of
where the country's going. We're losing this young generation and
they want to do something about it. And Hank, that's
why your ministry is so crucial and your future sure
expansion is so crucial because your voice is needed. And
(22:05):
Don talks about all ages at all stages, multiple media
created content for trans media.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
We think about leaders like Chuck Holsen. I remember coming
back from China and talking about the persecuted church and
the rapid growth of Christianity in China. And I was
talking to Chuck about this and almost hyper ventilating about
the great growth of the church in China and God's
move in the East. And Chuck said something to me.
(22:35):
That was very sobering. He said, yes, that is wonderful,
but we cannot lose Western civilization. Western civilization has a heritage,
It has a heritage of thousands of years. In the East,
people are coming out of syncretistic religions. They're coming out
(22:57):
of ancestor worship and a whole conglomeration of belief structures,
and therefore they come into Christianity. They have a lot
of vibrancy, but not deep roots. We have the deep
roots in Western civilization. We can't lose that. And that's
really what your vision entails. It's saying, on the one hand,
(23:18):
you can curse the darkness. On the other hand, we
can build a lighthouse in the midst of the gathering storm.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
And we must build a lighthouse in the midst of
gathering storms, the perfect storm as a matter of fact,
because the nature of a perfect storm is the convergence
of storms, which creates such a multiplying effect that usually
people that get caught in it are casualties. And that's
why this we're just we're not just applying rhetoric to
(23:45):
our conversation here. We must enter the heart of that
storm directly, and we'll do that with the power of God.
It's a giant we're facing, but we face it with
the power of God, and so he can take He
can take resorts and multiply them, and I believe he'll
use technology to multiply his message of love to people's
(24:07):
It's interesting you mentioned the Chinese culture because the problem
we're talking about is not just protecting our own Western civilization,
either because the Internet is a great level or globally.
As a matter of fact, we had a delegation I
won't say what country, but from an Asian country, not
necessarily a Christian country, who came to see us to
(24:32):
ask how or what we would have to be an
antidote to the messages from Western culture that we're impacting
their culture and their young people. This is not just
something that's geographically limited, Hank. The Internet carries these messages
globally and more and more the antidote here in Western
(24:54):
culture will be used around the world also, because that's
really the type of messages that need to be counteracted.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I'm Don Simmons, CEO, Chairman of Crossroads Television and Candida
Jerry Johnston, executive director of Crossroads USA. Thank you very
much for your contribution.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
And Hank, we need you and I want to say,
on behalf of the Body of Christ, just how important
you are to all your listeners. I want to just say,
not a greater ministry that's standing and apologetics worthy of
our support, and we on behalf of Crossroads, just say
keep on keeping on.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
We're with you all the way.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Thank you, my friend, and thank you Hank. You got
it done. Love your clear, clear and call. That's a
call to action. Thank you for tuning in to this
edition of the Bible answer Man Broadcast. Do remember our
information as we close the broadcast via the mail It's
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(25:52):
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Speaker 1 (26:04):
We appreciate you tuning in to the Bible answer Man Broadcast.
Before we sign off today, here's our contact information by
phone dial eight eight eight seven thousand CRII, which translates
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(26:26):
You can also write CRII at Post Office Box eighty
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eight two seven one. Our prayer is that today's broadcast
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(26:48):
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Speaker 4 (27:01):
Truth matters, Life matters. More details Hank Hanigraf's personal pilgrimage
from his long defensive truth to his discovery that life
matters more. Essentially, two books in one. Part one equips
Christians to defend the essential truths of the historic Christian faith.
Part two explains why truth is necessary but hardly sufficient.
(27:22):
That the map is not the territory, the menu is
not the meal. We are created to experience life to
the full through union with God in Christ. Is there
more to the Christian life than what you are experiencing?
Truth matters, Life matters More unveils the unexpected beauty of
an authentic Christian life. To receive Truth matters life matters
(27:42):
more for yourself or as a terrific gift to a
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