The books on the podcast studio shelf sparked a wide-ranging conversations on the Shock Absorber this week. John Stott's Issues Facing Christians Today (the 1984 edition, the same one Tim read as a teenager) and Winky Prattney's Revival set the scene for the discussion on revolution.
Joel, Stu and Tim work through why John Stott mattered so much to a generation of evangelicals who'd been told they had to choose between preaching the gospel and caring about social issues. Why Stu gave up his first PhD at a Winky Prattney rally. What Billy Graham sitting on a rock has to do with everything. And what it looks like to be a faithful disciple in 2026 when the issues facing Christians are AI avatars, digital isolation and a world where your clone can attend a meeting for you.
Plus: the top ten movies of 1984, Shaun the Sheep as a response to AI slop, and why the analog premium makes the church more valuable, not less.
Discussed on this episode
John Stott - Issues Facing Christians Today
Winky Prattney - Revival
Billy Graham - The Jesus Generation
George Marsden - Fundamentalism and American Culture
Graham Stanton
The Clapham Sect
Scopes Monkey Trial
YMCA history
Timestamps
00:00 Stu writing till 2am, Ethan’s bookshelf upgrade and the smell of wisdom
04:00 John Stott’s Issues Facing Christians Today
05:00 Why Stott mattered — refusing the gospel vs social action divide
08:00 British vs American evangelicalism — the Clapham Sect and the heritage of social conscience
11:00 Stu on John Stott’s influence in Sydney — and meeting him at a traffic light in Amsterdam
13:00 Winky Prattney’s Revival — the Jesus movement speaker who came to Sydney in the early 90s
15:00 Stu gives up his first PhD at a Winky Prattney rally
19:00 Why Stu didn’t want to build on someone else’s foundation
21:00 Billy Graham on a rock — the moment that shaped 20th century evangelicalism
24:00 The Scopes Monkey Trial and the fundamentalist movement
26:00 YMCA as a cautionary tale — from thoroughly Christian to completely secular
29:00 The social environment of 2026 — AI, not nuclear war or industrial relations
32:00 AI avatars, digital clones and the coming premium on analog experience
36:00 Shaun the Sheep, handcrafted art and what the church offers for free
40:00 Can revolution be found in the church? Graham Stanton on the conservative centre and the fringe
42:00 Holistic gospel proclamation and the fallibility of the church as God’s plan A