(Episode 82)
Acts 16 is usually read as a travel log — Paul crossing into Macedonia, planting a church at Philippi. Missiologist Daniel Yang reads it as the record of an impossible coalition: a businesswoman, a trafficked girl, a Roman jailer, held together by nothing the ancient world would recognize as common ground.
John Houmes and Yang trace that same tension into the present: the homogeneous unit principle and its costs, what the pandemic exposed about the American church's capacity to hold disagreement, and Yang's discipline of asking whether his convictions are formed by scripture or borrowed from a movement. The conversation closes on trauma as mission field — the body as a spiritual vehicle, and where the therapeutic and the theological pull apart.
Key Quotes
"Good theology, if it's truly good, will certainly end up doing good."
Resources MentionedBecoming a Future-Ready Church — Daniel Yang, Adelle M. Banks, Warren Bird (Zondervan, 2024) · Yang's forthcoming book on the church and displacement (World Relief / InterVarsity Press, expected spring 2027) · Divided by Faith — Michael Emerson & Christian Smith · Understanding Church Growth — Donald McGavran · The Anxious Generation — Jonathan Haidt · Resisting Therapy Culture — Matthew Loftus · Diane Langberg (trauma/mission field) · Tim Keller, Matt Chandler (Acts 16 commentary) · Barry Henning (reconciliation/justice quote) · Greg Perry (previous guest) · Pastor Serve · Spanish River Church counseling center · Pew Research, 2013/2025 Religious Landscape studies (58% of U.S. immigrants are Christian)
Keywords — future-ready church, oikos, homogeneous unit principle, Jerusalem to Antioch, embodied gospel, trauma-informed ministry, World Relief, Churches of Welcome, meaning crisis
Tags: Daniel Yang, Post Everything, John Houmes, Becoming a Future-Ready Church, Acts 16, World Relief, Church Diversity, Christian Nationalism, Immigration and Faith, Tim Keller
Chapters
00:00 🎙️ Cold Open
01:06 📖 Meet Daniel Yang
02:33 ⛪ Acts 16's Unlikely Cast
06:48 🏠 Oikos, Not Synagogue
10:15 🎯 The Homogeneous Unit Principle
14:27 💜 Inside a Purple Church
16:49 🔥 Antioch Was Born From Conflict
18:05 👪 Salvation Isn't Just Individual
20:31 🐺 When the Tribe Eats the Church
23:14 🪞 Am I Proof-Texting My Politics?
26:34 🛂 Immigration Justice Under ICE
29:16 🌍 A Vision for the Nations
34:17 🍇 Communion in a Divided City
35:52 🧭 Jerusalem to Antioch
38:54 🤝 Partnering With Minority Churches
46:50 ⚖️ Reconciliation Without Justice
49:10 🌾 McGavran and the Masses
51:48 🧠 Trauma as Mission Field
58:26 💎 Glory Outweighs the Trauma
1:02:03 📜 Psalms and a Breaking Point
1:07:14 📗 A Borderless Church, Coming 2027
1:08:14 🎬 Solo Reflection Begins
1:10:40 🕊️ Mothered in Jerusalem, Modeled in Antioch
1:15:28 🫂 A Word for Burned-Out Pastors
1:17:54 👋 Outro
