#InsideOut
As more people appear to be “cutting off” their parents when the relationship grows difficult, Martha Manikas-Foster talks with Vancouver, Washington counseling director—and Rochester native—Dr. Beth Claes about how Christians might negotiate dysfunctional relationships while still honoring their faither and mother.
Claes is counseling director for Vancouver, Washington’s New Heights Church, and author of the Gospel Coalition article "Before You Cut Off Your Parents: 3 Principles to Consider."
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Inside Out/Summary
In this Family Life Inside Out conversation, evangelist and Christian apologist Abdu Murray and host Martha Manikas-Foster discuss reasons for mass shootings, ways Christians can reach across divides, and benefits of both prayer and good thoughts in the wake of tragedy. Murray is the founder of the organization Embrace the Truth and author of numerous books including Grand Central Question, More Than a White Man’s Religion, and Saving Truth.
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Inside Out/Blog
TOPIC: Shootings: The Value of Thoughts and Prayers
Air Date: November 5, 2025
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A lot’s been said about the “thoughts and prayers” reaction to school shootings and mass violence in America.
In this Family Life Inside Out conversation, evangelist and Christian apologist Abdu Murray and host Martha Manikas-Foster discuss reasons for mass shootings, ways Christians can reach across divides, and benefits of both prayer and good thoughts in the wake of tragedy. Murray is the founder of the organization Embrace the Truth and author of numerous books including Grand Central Question, More Than a White Man’s Religion, and Saving Truth.
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God can and does use strangers and even enemies to teach us, says professor and pastor Dr. AJ Swoboda, and he encourages us to grow as believers who are teachable. Swoboda’s new book is titled A Teachable Spirit: The Virtue of Learning from Strangers, Enemies, and Absolutely Anyone.
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Inside Out/Blog
TOPIC: Learning from Enemies
Broadcast date: October 22, 2025
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God can and does use strangers and even enemies to teach us, says professor and pastor Dr. A.J. Swoboda, who encourages us to grow as believers who are teachable.
“The question is: why would we want to learn from our enemies?” Swoboda asks in this Inside Out podcast. “Because Jesus loves to use surprising people to form us into His image.”
Swoboda is a former campus staff worker and current pastor, professor, and urban farmer. His new book is titled A Teachable Spirit: The Virtue of Learning from Strangers, Enemies, and Absolutely Anyone.
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On this edition of Family Life’s Inside Out, Martha Manikas-Foster talks with author Michelle Van Loon who suggests that it’s time to downsize the Evangelical Church so that it more closely resembles the Body Jesus called it to be.
Van Loon’s newest book is titled Downsizing: Letting Go of Evangelicalism’s Nonessentials.
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Inside Out/Blog
TOPIC: Time to Downsize the Church?
Broadcast date: October 1, 2025
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Nothing--nothing--is strong enough to defeat God’s Church. Jesus said so. But what parts of how we “do church” are essential, and what parts have we added on, burdening, burning out, or hurting brothers and sisters with things that are not essential to Jesus’ call on His people in the world?
On this edition of Inside Out, Manikas-Foster talks with author Michelle Van Loon, who suggests it’s time to downsize so that the Evangelical Church again resembles the Body Jesus called it to be.
Michelle Van Loon’s newest book is titled Downsizing: Letting Go of Evangelicalism’s Nonessentials.
On this edition of Inside Out, Martha Manikas Foster talks with author Michelle Van Loon who suggests that it's time to downsize the evangelical church so it more closely resembles the Body Jesus called it to be.
We live in a contentious culture. Author Alexandra Hudson believes it’s up to each of us to reclaim Christian civility by treating each other with the respect we owe and are owed as creations in God’s image. Hudson’s call is to something deeper than being polite--she’s calling us to acknowledge each other’s value even when we disagree.
Hudson worked for the Department of Education during President Trump’s first term and is the founder of Civic Renaissance. Her 2023 book is titled The Soul of Civility. In January 2025 Christianity Today published her article "It's Time for a New Era of Christian Civility."
Read her Christianity Today article here.
Learn about her book, The Soul of Civility, here.
When we’re lonely, we not only feel terrible, but our health suffers. Loneliness has been connected with a greater risk of heart disease, dementia, stroke, depression, anxiety, and premature death. In 2023 the former Surgeon General of the United States compared the health impact of loneliness to the physical impact of smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
We spoke with Glenn Lutjens (Lutch-ens), a licensed family therapist and 29-year veteran on the Focus on the Family counseling team.
Church scandals and political infighting are rocking the American Church. Theologian, pastor, musician, and author Glenn Packiam believes we can find unity and correction the same way the early church did—by using the Nicene Creed as a guide. Packiam’s new book is What’s a Christian, Anyway? Finding Our Way in an Age of Confusion and Corruption.
One way to look at how the US influences other countries is to look at how it uses power—both hard power and soft power.
“We can attempt to use military power to get countries to do what we want, or we can also use economic power to get countries to do what we want,” says Dr. Peter Meilaender. “So things like tariffs or sanctions would be thought of usually as hard power.”
Meilaender says that when a country uses good will to influence another country, that can be called “soft power.” Meilaender is a professor of political science at western New York’s Houghton University, where he is also Dean of Religion, Humanities, and Global Studies.
“All the forms of development aid that we might engage in—whether that is health clinics or education for women, building wells, delivering food, assisting with famine relief, refugee services—all of those things could be forms of economic soft power,” he says.
For decades the US helped people and maintained influence through the relief and development work of the United States Agency for International Development. As the Trump administration’s decision to downsize USAID goes through the courts, many are watching for the effect on American influence in the world. Christians, specifically, may also be watching, as many “soft power” initiatives dovetail with Jesus’ call to feed the hungry, house the homeless, and care for the stranger in the land.
“When we think in particular about development initiatives, those are pretty clearly ways in which we are doing good in the world,” Meilaender says. “And it also happens to win us some good will. And that’s of course a nice side benefit. But it certainly is kind of fulfilling that commandment to feed the hungry, clothe the needy, etc.”
While soft power can come in the form of economic relief, American culture and values have also contributed to American soft power in the world.
“And in particular we would talk about values such as democracy, human rights, liberty, equality—these are things that have a lot of appeal around the world, and people associate them with the United States, or at least have associated them with the United States, and that has been a source of influence for us, also.”
The fate of USAID is expected to have a direct impact on famine relief, refugee education, and disease containment—and also on the way people around the world view the US.
“I don’t think that we should underestimate the way in which this does harm the image of the United States around the world,” Meilaender says. “A country that many people across the globe have looked to for so long as a kind of beacon of ideals for humanity, when it appears to be only interested in sort of doing things where there’s something clearly in it for itself, I think that changes the way people look at us.”
Hear more from Houghton University’s Dr. Peter Meilaender in this podcast.
A special news feature from Family Life focusing on how God changes us from the inside, out. Americans feel detached and Isolated. Florida pastor Doug Hankins believes we have a neighborliness problem. On this edition of Inside Out, Hankins talks with Martha about Jesus' call to be good neighbors, the topic of the Gospel Coalition article "Benefits of Being a Good Neighbor".