Lessons We Learned in a Turbulent Year

For today’s podcast, we did something a little different. I talked with four TGC editors about their jobs and what they’ve learned in 2016. I hope these conversations will give you better insight both into our editorial processes and into us as fallible people who nonetheless seek to be faithful, with God’s help.

The Gospel Coalition has no central office, so our editorial staff is spread around the country. I live in Birmingham, Alabama, and I talked via Skype first with Bethany Jenkins, director of TGC’s Every Square Inch, in New York City. After that I spoke with one of our newest editors, Jason Cook, a pastor in Memphis. Joe Carter talked with me from his home in Virginia about the 2016 election, and I talked with Matt Smethurst in Louisville about one of our most controversial articles from 2016.

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Mentioned in this podcast:

The Most Revolutionary Thing a Woman Can Do by Bethany Jenkins
Sisters, Jesus Is Not Your Cheerleader by Melissa Kruger
Turning 40 While Single and Childless by Bethany Jenkins
The Southern City that Lies Forgotten by Jason Cook
A Controversial Article and What We Can Learn by Jason Cook, Isaac Adams, and Jemar Tisby
Is Black Lives Matter the New Civil Rights Movement? by Mika Edmondson
Ugly Stain, Beautiful Hope: My Response to Mika Edmondson by Albert Mohler

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Collin Hansen serves as vice president for content and editor in chief of The Gospel Coalition, as well as executive director of The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. He hosts the Gospelbound podcast and has written and contributed to many books, most recently Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation and Rediscover Church: Why the Body of Christ Is Essential. He has published with the New York Times and the Washington Post and offered commentary for CNN, Fox News, NPR, BBC, ABC News, and PBS NewsHour. He edited Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor and The New City Catechism Devotional, among other books. He is an adjunct professor at Beeson Divinity School, where he also co-chairs the advisory board.

Bethany L. Jenkins is vice president of media at The Veritas Forum, a contributor at The Gospel Coalition, and a senior fellow at The King’s College. Prior to working with faith-based non-profits, Bethany worked in Congress, at the State Department, on Wall Street, and in Big Law. She received her BA from Baylor University and her JD from Columbia Law School. She is an active member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. You can connect with her on Twitter: @bethanyjenkins.

Jason Cook is associate pastor of preaching at Fellowship Memphis. He earned his MDiv from Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama, where he helped to build Iron City Church, a multi-ethnic ministry in one of America’s most segregated cities. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi on a football scholarship. He is married to Courtney, and they have two children, Charlie and Cager. You can follow him on Twitter.

Joe Carter is a senior writer for The Gospel Coalition, author of The Life and Faith Field Guide for Parents, the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible, and coauthor of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History’s Greatest Communicator. He also serves as an associate pastor at McLean Bible Church in Arlington, Virginia.

Matt Smethurst serves as lead pastor of River City Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. He also cohosts and edits The Everyday Pastor podcast from The Gospel Coalition. Matt is the author of Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel (Crossway, 2025), Before You Share Your Faith: Five Ways to Be Evangelism Ready (10Publishing, 2022), Deacons: How They Serve and Strengthen the Church (Crossway, 2021), Before You Open Your Bible: Nine Heart Postures for Approaching God’s Word (10Publishing, 2019), and 1–2 Thessalonians: A 12-Week Study (Crossway, 2017). He and his wife, Maghan, have five children. You can follow him on Twitter/X and Instagram.