January 9, 2025

This edition is sponsored by Redeeming Babel

weekend reads

This week at Christianity Today, we’re sharing stories of Christian rehab centers around the world. In Portland, Oregon, drug overdose rates are up; the state has the third-highest rate of homelessness in the US. Christian ministries are offering meals, haircuts, and donated novels; running Bible studies and apologetics classes for residents; and trying to make inroads with the local government.

“Addiction recovery and medical detox centers are all over Portland,” writes reporter Maria Baer. “But the programs run by Christians work to really know the people to whom they are ministering. It takes longer, and it’s harder. But they believe—for each man and woman living on sidewalks, sleeping in tents, eating under bridges, brushing their teeth over paper bags—it is what’s required.”

In Vietnam, church-run addiction centers are a rare bright spot in the country’s war on drugs—even though they still aren’t recognized by the government as legal treatment centers. Reporter Angela Lu Fulton tells the stories of people like Nam Quoc Trung, whose “single-minded pursuit of heroin” drove him to theft; he did more than a dozen stints in government treatment centers, relapsing each time.

But after his time in Christian drug rehab, Nam “found himself devouring the Bible and asking God for forgiveness. For the first time, he was free.”

Recovery Ministries Try to Help Portland Get Clean

Finding Sobriety—and Jesus—in Vietnam’s Christian Drug Rehabs

weekend listen

Trauma-care specialist Diane Langberg joins Russell Moore to discuss her new book, When the Church Harms God’s People.

“Part of what Jesus calls us to is to shed light—and sometimes light shows up really ugly, dirty things. But you can’t know they’re there, you can’t clean them, unless you shine a light.” | Listen here.

Harm, Trauma, and Church Abuse

paid content

In a culture obsessed with self-improvement, we rarely pause to ask the deeper questions about transformation. The Good Faith Podcast’s new Reset series dares to do just that.

Launching this month, this four-part series features unfiltered conversations with Christian leaders who aren’t afraid to challenge conventional wisdom. From Ericka Anderson’s perspective on alcohol to John Mark Comer’s insights on spiritual renewal, each episode offers a thoughtful blend of theological reflection and practical application.

Rather than promising quick fixes, these discussions dig deep into the complexities of Christian living. Ready for honest dialogue about real change? Join the conversation now.

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editors’ picks

Mariana Albuquerque, CT Global project manager: James K. A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time has been a thought-provoking start to my year. Smith’s unique blend of theology and philosophy offers profound insights into the unfolding of God’s narrative.

Nathaniel Rabon, editorial project manager, print: J. I. Packer’s Knowing God explores the infinite characteristics of God’s person and practically explains how Christians can intimately know him through a personal relationship. Great for anyone wanting to deepen their knowledge of God and learn how to walk humbly with him.

Ashley Hales, editorial director, print: My husband and I are watching All Creatures Great and Small. It’s been a lovely way to wind down from the constant stress of the news cycle.

prayers of the people

For thwarted clergy-impersonation scams.
For Syrian Christians anxious about a new regime.
For Los Angeles amid devastating fires. “Radical hope,” wrote a science and religion lecturer for CT last year, is what’s needed in our current environmental crisis; it is the “hope that is formed when all our previous hopes are gone.”

Your Likes Are But Dust

Social media leaves us dissatisfied. No wonder, according to Ecclesiastes.

Report: Christians in Europe Face Rising Discrimination and Hate Crimes

Still, rates of faith-based harassment remain higher among the Jewish and Muslim communities.

Jimmy Carter at the Judgment Seat

The former president’s death at 100 has a lesson for the American church.

Christian Colleges Continue to See Enrollment Growth

Making sense of all the data is a challenge, but one in five welcomed a notable increase of new students in 2024.

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IN THE MAGAZINE

In this issue, you’ll read of the piercing light of Christ that illuminates the darkness of drug addiction at home and abroad, as Angela Fulton in Vietnam and Maria Baer in Portland report about Christian rehab centers. Also, Carrie McKean explores the complicated path of estrangement and Brad East explains the doctrine of providence.

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