Faith & Culture Forums
Every culture runs on stories: about what makes life meaningful, what death means, what we owe each other, what we’re becoming. The Faith & Culture Forums are a series of conversations asking: what stories are we actually living by, and do those stories hold up?
Across a year of gatherings, we’ll take up some of the most pressing questions of our time – politics and public life, mortality and the quest for longevity, artificial intelligence, creativity, and belief itself – not as abstract debates, but as chapters in the larger story we’re all trying to make sense of. Each forum pairs a thoughtful speaker with an opportunity for dialogue, exploring not just what Christianity teaches but how it reshapes the story we tell about death, about art, about our neighbors, about each other and what it means to be human.
Rather than offering easy answers, these forums aim to model honest engagement with the narratives shaping modern life and to ask whether the gospel might be telling a truer, better story than the ones we’ve inherited by default. Regardless of your belief commitments, we welcome you to join us as we listen, learn, and wrestle with the stories shaping our world.
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forums
The Lost Art of Dying | Nov 12
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Since antiquity, human beings have sought the remedy for aging. More recently, medical science, tech bros, and TikTokers have become obsessed with promoting longevity and thwarting death. But is this biblical? Is it wise? Drawing from her book The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom, Dr. Lydia Dugdale will reflect on our modern push to evade death. She’ll offer a historical and scriptural counternarrative that ties an acceptance of human finitude to living well, and even, to dying well.
Dr. Lydia Dugdale
Lydia Dugdale, MD, MAR, is the Silberberg Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center and Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. She also serves as Co-Director of Clinical Ethics at NewYork-Presbyterian’s Milstein Hospital. She edited Dying in the Twenty-First Century (MIT Press, 2015) and is author of The Lost Art of Dying (HarperOne, 2020), a popular press book on the preparation for death. She publishes widely, including in outlets such as The Free Press, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Dr Dugdale attended medical school at the University of Chicago, completed residency training at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and holds a MAR in ethics from Yale Divinity School.
Future of Faith: A Christian Conference on AI | Jan 29-30
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AI is rapidly changing how we work, create, and relate. But beneath the questions about tools and productivity are deeper ones: What does it mean to be human, and how should Christians respond? This conference by Redeemer’s Center for Faith & Work will bring together Christian thinkers, practitioners, and pastors to explore AI with theological clarity, moral discernment, and gospel hope.
The conference runs Friday evening and all day Saturday, with an optional pre-conference for church leaders on Thursday.
Andy Crouch
Andy Crouch is Partner for Theology and Culture at Praxis and a Teaching Fellow with Practicing the Way. His work explores the intersection of faith, technology, culture, power, leadership, and the image of God. He is the author of several widely read books, including The Life We’re Looking For, The Tech-Wise Family, Strong and Weak, Playing God, and Culture Making. Before joining Praxis, he spent more than a decade at Christianity Today, including serving as executive editor. Andy brings a deeply thoughtful and practical voice to questions of how technology shapes human life, relationships, and Christian formation.
Meghan Sullivan
Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and the founding director of its Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. She also directs Notre Dame’s university-wide Ethics Initiative and works at the intersection of virtue ethics, love, faith, and emerging technology. Meghan leads DELTA, a major initiative developing a faith-based framework for human formation and ethics in the age of AI. She is co-author of The Good Life Method and author of Time Biases, and her work has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. Her work asks how ancient wisdom and Christian moral reflection can help us navigate the deepest ethical questions raised by AI and modern life.
Christopher Watkin
Christopher Watkin is Associate Professor at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, where his work explores philosophy, theology, culture, and the ideas that shape contemporary life. He is the author of the award-winning Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture. His writing helps Christians identify the hidden assumptions beneath modern cultural narratives and bring them into conversation with the biblical story. Chris is also a Fellow of the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics and has written extensively on thinkers such as Derrida, Foucault, and contemporary secular culture. His work is especially focused on helping Christians engage culture with both theological depth and practical wisdom.
Creativity in the Age of the Machine: An Evening with Daniel Nayeri | Apr 1
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What does it mean to make something – to imagine, to tell a story, to create – in a world growing more automated and less embodied by the day? We’re thrilled to welcome storyteller Daniel Nayeri, award-winning author of Everything Sad Is Untrue and The Teacher of Nomad Land. Daniel will give a talk on creativity, imagination, and what it means to be human, after which he’ll be in conversation with Elizabeth Passarella exploring these themes further.
Daniel Nayeri
Daniel Nayeri was born in Iran and spent some years as a refugee before immigrating to Oklahoma at age seven with his family. He is the author of several books, including Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story), winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, the Christopher Medal, and the Middle Eastern Book Award, The Many Assassinations of Samir, The Seller of Dreams, winner of the Newbery Honor, and The Teacher of Nomad Land, winner of the Newbery Honor and the National Book Award. He lives in the U.S. with his wife and son.
The Stories We Live By | May 17
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We live inside a culture that never stops talking—about who we are, what will make us happy, what counts as justice, what it means to be free. Like city noise, these stories fade into the background until we stop noticing them at all. But even unnoticed, they shape how we see ourselves and the world.
Join Michael Keller, Rebecca McLaughlin, Sam Chan, and Glen Scrivener as we explore three narratives that have quietly formed Western culture: our stories about self, happiness, science, and progress. Together we’ll ask where these stories come from, why they’re so compelling, where they fall short, and how the Gospel tells a better story.
Sam Chan
Sam Chan (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is the lead mentor and trainer at EvQ School of Evangelism, a ministry of City Bible Forum. Based in Australia, he’s the author of several books including Evangelism in a Skeptical World and How to Talk About Jesus (Without Being That Guy). Sam speaks at conferences around the world on storytelling, apologetics, and the practice of evangelism in a post-Christian culture, and he blogs at Espresso Theology.
Michael Keller
Michael Keller (MDiv, ThM, Gordon-Conwell Seminary; PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is the founding and senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church–Lincoln Square and a Council member of The Gospel Coalition. He is the author of several books, including The Stories We Live By: How Jesus Critiques and Completes What Our Culture Tells Us and Talking to Kids About Hard Things. His PhD is in computational linguistics applied to historical theology.
Rebecca McLaughlin
Rebecca McLaughlin holds a PhD from Cambridge University and a theology degree from Oak Hill Seminary in London. She is the author of several books, including Confronting Christianity, The Secular Creed, Jesus Through the Eyes of Women, and Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Relationships?
Glen Scrivener
Glen Scrivener is an ordained Church of England minister and evangelist who preaches Christ through writing, speaking, and online media. He directs the evangelistic ministry Speak Life. Glen is originally from Australia, and now he and his wife, Emma, live with their two children in England. They belong to All Souls Eastbourne. He is the author of several books, including The Air We Breathe: How We All Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality, and 3-2-1: The Story of God, the World, and You.
location
W83 Ministry Center
150 W. 83rd St. (between Amsterdam and Columbus Ave.)
Nearest Subway Stops
79th St. (1) and 81st St. (B, C)
schedule
Friday, April 24, 2026
6:30 pm | Doors Open
7 pm | Talk 1
Identity and Anxiety | Alan Noble
8 pm | Talk 2
When Jesus Meets Anxious People | Bijan Mirtolooi
Saturday, April 25, 2026
9:30 am | Doors Open; Coffee and Pastries Available
10 am | Talk 3
The Physiology of Anxiety | Ellen Lee
11:30 am | Breakouts Round 1
Tools to Reduce Anxiety in Your Body | Ellen Lee
Reducing the Anxiety of a Medical Crisis | John Alsdorf
The Work of Growing Up: Understanding Teen Anxiety Together | Sandi Taylor
Practicing Sabbath in an Anxious Age | Drew Hyun
12:45 pm | Lunch Break
2:15 pm | Breakouts Round 2
Tools to Reduce Anxiety in Your Body | Ellen Lee
Reducing the Anxiety of a Medical Crisis | John Alsdorf
The Work of Growing Up: Understanding Teen Anxiety Together | Sandi Taylor
Practicing Sabbath in an Anxious Age | Drew Hyun
3:45 pm | Q&A with Speakers
4:30 pm | Concluding Session
Prayer and Anxiety | Panel
5:30 pm | Dismissal
breakouts
In this breakout, we will consider various practical applications of the wisdom gleaned from the physiology of anxiety. The goal is not to fight our anxiety, but to grow as stewards of our bodies. Together, we will experience and discuss practices that help reduce the physiological, external, and internal sources of anxiety, strengthen our calming response system, and respond well when we feel anxious.
At any age—from 20 to 100—you could find yourself unexpectedly in an ER or ICU, or receiving a challenging diagnosis. These are moments of high anxiety, not only for the person in the crisis, but also—maybe even more so—for loved ones called on to speak on behalf of the patient, to choose for or against various medical procedures. In this workshop, we’ll identify some of the very practical actions you can take now to reduce anxiety when that crisis arises.
Adolescence is a season of rapid growth, and anxiety often emerges alongside the physical, emotional, and brain changes teens experience. This session helps parents, caregivers, and teens understand what anxiety is, what’s developmentally typical, and when it may signal a deeper concern, while also exploring how God meets tweens and teens in their fears. Participants will learn practical ways to support and strengthen adolescents as they grow in resilience, faith, and trust in Christ through life’s expected challenges. This session is meant for teens (ages 12-19) and adults.
This workshop explores the Biblical practice of Sabbath-keeping, inviting participants to slow down, delight in God, and resist the cultural pressure to constantly produce. By embracing a weekly rhythm of rest, worship, and renewal, we create space to confront the roots of anxiety—overwork, control, and performance—and relearn trust in God’s faithful provision. Participants will leave with practical tools to establish a life-giving Sabbath rhythm that nurtures emotional health and deeper intimacy with Christ.
registration
Join us! Register here for Redeeming Anxiety.
Early-bird rate:
Available through Monday, April 6 at 11:59 pm
Standard rate:
$40
Student rate:
For students currently enrolled in a university or another educational program, we’re glad to offer a 50% discount. Teens (ages 12-19) may register for free by choosing the Teen Ticket when registering.
Scholarships:
We never want cost to be a barrier to participation. Financial assistance is available upon request.
To request a student discount or scholarship, or if you have any other questions about registration, pricing, or accessibility, please email conferences@redeemerws.com. We’d love to support you in joining us.
To help us plan well, registration is required in advance. Registration closes at 11:59 pm on Wednesday, April 22.
frequently asked questions
At this time, there is no plan to provide a video recording. An audio recording will be made available to anyone who has registered.
No, the conference will not be livestreamed. This is an in-person event only.
Please register here in advance, as day-of registration will not be available. Registration closes two days before the event, at 11:59 pm on April 22, 2026.
Coffee and pastries will be provided Saturday morning. Lunch will be on your own from 12:45 pm to 2:15 pm on Saturday. Information about nearby food options and places to gather can be found at this link.
Childcare will not be available.
Given this conference’s subject, we encourage high school students (ages 12-19) to attend, but we ask that younger children not attend. The Teen Ticket option is free. Each person attending must be registered.
No, you do not have to be a congregant of a Redeemer Network Church to attend. Given the relevance of this topic for everyone in our city, we invite all to attend.
Yes. We never want cost to be a barrier to participation. Please email conferences@redeemerws.com, and we’ll be glad to connect with you.
Yes! Teens (ages 12-19) may register for free by choosing the Teen Ticket when registering. For students in college or at any other accredited educational program, we’re glad to offer a 50% discount. Please email conferences@redeemerws.com for details.
Yes! The early-bird rate (20% off) is available through Monday, April 6 at 11:59 pm.
We’re happy to help. Please email conferences@redeemerws.com, and someone from our team will be in touch.