Need a ride to the airport? Let us take you

We here at The Christian Chronicle are giving you a ride to the airport.

You may be thinking something like: “I’m not on my way to the airport. I’m at my kitchen table! The only place I’m going today is Walmart. Wait a minute. This is one of those metaphor things, isn’t it?”

Listen to The Christian Chronicle Podcast here.

You’re right. It is one of those metaphor things.

The “airport” metaphor stands for the Chronicle’s mission: inform and inspire members of Churches of Christ around the world. Flip through this issue again, and you’ll see that the news and stories are global. We serve as a link between Christians in Indiana and Indonesia. Churches in Nigeria and North Carolina. Ministries in Ukraine and Utah.

So the “airport” is how we take you to what your Christian family is doing around the world.

Now about that metaphorical “ride to the airport.”

When I was a junior at Harding University, minister Don McLaughlin came to speak. I didn’t know anything about him before then, but I filled a notebook with what he taught. To this day, I circle that weekend as a turning point in my Christian life.

Don McLaughlin is pulpit minister for the North Atlanta Church of Christ.

Years later, brother Don spoke at a conference we hosted at Rochester University. I was on staff and working at the event, but I found a way to make it to his sessions. On the last day, the organizers put out an urgent plea: They needed someone to take brother Don to the airport at 5 o’clock in the morning.

Guess who raised his hand?

So I got to spend an hour in the car with someone whose Bible study and teaching, Christian discipline and practice informed and inspired me for years. I got to ask him questions that people don’t get to ask at a conference or when reading a story about his congregation in the Chronicle.

I got to ask about the events that shaped him, the meaning of what he believed and taught and the stories behind the stories he told. That hour in the car changed my life. I wished I could share it with everyone.

Now I can.

Related: Christian Chronicle launches a weekly podcast

If the stories this newspaper shares with you are the “airport,” then The Christian Chronicle Podcast — just launched — is the “ride to the airport.” In each episode, you’ll hear from those who make and report the stories in our global community of Christian faith.

Except you’ll hear from them as if they’re talking to you while sitting next to you in your car. Our hope, plan and prayer is for these conversations to inform and inspire you in a new way that complements our online and print editions.

So hop in! Your brothers and sisters from around the world are ready and willing to share with you what they are learning as they live in the story of God. A new episode of The Christian Chronicle Podcast drops each Wednesday. Find them on your favorite podcast service or visit christianchronicle.org/podcast to listen online.

B.T. IRWIN is host and producer of The Christian Chronicle Podcast and the Minister in the Making Podcast. He is senior development officer for Rochester University in Michigan, where he is also a graduate student in the Master of Religious Education program. He and his family are members at the Rochester Church of Christ. When he’s not researching and writing for grad school, he preaches and teaches for congregations that are between ministers or cannot afford to have one on staff. He writes at btirwin.com.

Filed under: BT Irwin Opinion podcast The Christian Chronicle Podcast Top Stories Views