Episode Overview
What if the Christian hope isn’t about escaping this world, but about God renewing it?
Dive deeper with the Season 3 Episode 1 Episode Guide
Season 3 of The Missional Leader opens in Oxford, where Rob Hoskins sits down with two leaders he deeply admires: renowned New Testament scholar N.T. Wright and Jesse Stone, a theologian with One Hope who studied under Wright. Together they ask what the Holy Spirit is actually empowering the church to do, and what it means to live as citizens of God’s kingdom now rather than simply waiting for heaven.
Starting from the beloved hymn “I’ll Fly Away,” the conversation explores the heart of Wright’s newest book, God’s Homecoming. Coming from different traditions, Tom and Jesse find remarkable harmony around the Spirit, the kingdom, and the church’s witness in the world. They cover the Spirit’s work in forming us to look like Jesus, why Paul ties God’s power to weakness and suffering, and why our hunger for certainty and control so often pulls the church off course.
Whether you’re a pastor, a ministry leader, or someone longing to understand the Spirit’s work in your own life, this conversation will expand your imagination and renew your hope.
Key Takeaways
- God’s promise is to renew creation, not to rescue us from it.
- The Spirit is given not only to multiply believers, but to transform them into the likeness of Jesus.
- Heaven and earth meet in the church, God’s new temple, which is called to stand at that intersection as His image-bearers.
- The gospel is bigger than saving souls. It is the invitation to become a new-creation person now.
- In Paul’s vision, divine power is revealed through weakness, and hope is deepened through suffering.
- The longing for certainty and control often leads to the pursuit of power, but the Spirit leads us into truth as a Person, not a formula.
- A church united across every ethnic and cultural divide is one of the strongest signs of new creation the world can see.
Memorable Quote
“For Paul, divine power is manifested in apparent weakness. The advancement of the church’s mission is realized not in continual works that look like victory and triumph, but in acts that actually appear like suffering and loss.”
— Jesse Stone
Listen Now
Join Rob Hoskins for the Season 3 premiere of The Missional Leader, a rich conversation recorded in Oxford with N.T. Wright and Jesse Stone about the Spirit, the kingdom of God, and the hope of new creation.
To go deeper, pick up Wright’s God’s Homecoming, a companion to Surprised by Hope. Follow The Missional Leader wherever you listen so you never miss a conversation, and share this episode with a leader who needs fresh hope today.
