Christ Over All has been busy. If you have kept up over the last three months, then it’s possible you haven’t been doing much else. For in May, June, and July, we published around fifty essays on Eastern Orthodoxy, Islam, and America’s Semiquincentennial, respectively. Additionally, we released almost twenty podcasts. In short, we’ve been running hard for the last three months. In August, we are going to slow down and review many of the resources we’ve produced.
When Christ Over All began on September 6, 2022, we aimed to provide evergreen resources on the Bible, Theology, Church, and Culture. And for the last four years we’ve offered a monthly diet that ranges from biblical theology to battling statism and from considering Christian Nationalism to contemplating Christian Platonism.
Understandably, not every month fits the tastes of all our readers; one the month may seem to veer too political, and other months may fail to engage the most viral debates online. Repeatedly, we have learned that our months on the Bible (e.g., Genesis 1–11, Hebrews, and the four Gospels) were some of our less popular months—at least, if we are counting by clicks, visits, and shares. Conversely, our most popular viewed posts and themes are always the spicy ones (e.g., evaluating Eastern Orthodoxy or abolishing abortion).
Yet, our editorial decision-making is not dictated chiefly by numbers. Instead, each year we lay out a roadmap that includes themes that serve the church, confront the world, and articulate the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And for forty-seven months, God has been kind to provide authors, editors, readers, and sponsors. And we are deeply grateful to God.
In August, however, we are going to collect a sample of our best essays and share them with you. If you were an eighties kid, you might call it a “mix tape.”
As I often say on our podcast, all of our themes are available online. And most of them are available for digital download too. One of the reasons we produce more content than any sane Christian can consume each month is because we want this ministry to be a resource for your discipling efforts in the near and distant future.
To achieve the goal, we typically oversaturate our months, knowing that our readers will be selective in their reading and occasionally exhaustive. To employ a different metaphor, we try to put out a buffet each month, from which you can pick the essays that are most enticing.
With an overabundance each month, when the time comes that you need a comprehensive selection of essays on Eastern Orthodoxy (May 2026) or Roman Catholicism (June 2027, Lord willing), we want you to know you can find all these evergreen resources at our website. And equally, if you find yourself returning to our website, employing it for discipleship, elder training, or sermon preparation, we would ask that you might consider giving to this work.
While God has graciously provided for Christ Over All since 2022, we still operate on a shoestring budget. And if our ministry is going to continue in the future, it is safe to say that we will need more sponsors, donors, churches, and individuals who can help the work. We are grateful for all who have given and especially those who gave last year during our birthday month and at the end of the year, but to share a bit of our financials, our ministry has run at a deficit every month this year.
Now, I share that with great confidence that God will provide. But also to ask you to pray for this work. We continue to be amazed at the way God has used Christ Over All to serve local churches in America and across the world. And we are hopeful that this will continue. But it also means that in addition to finding authors to write compellingly, we are in need of friends who give generously. To that end, if you or your church knows of such ministry partners, please have them reach out to us.
For now, as we head into August, you can expect a mixtape of essays and podcasts. If you have been with us since the beginning, you may recall some of the essays we republish this month, as we are taking samples from various themes. But if you are new(er) to COA, this will be a good (re)introduction to older resources—all of which you can find catalogued by theme.
In this way, we hope you enjoy the Christ Over All Mixtape (2022–2026). And if you didn’t get a chance to read all of the articles from July, and you are still in the mood for Patriot-Maxxing, then you can find all the essays linked here.
Additionally, you can find a preview of 2027 at the bottom. Be sure to let us know if you are interested in writing something for one of the months.
- Rights Without a Giver by Andrew T. Walker • Concise Article • Natural law refers to the universal moral order that God as the great Giver has woven into the structure of His creation and creatures.
- What Kind of Conservative Are You?: A Comparison by Brad Green • Longform Essay • Conservatism is no longer a simple catch-all term but a movement fractured into competing streams.
- 5.36 “What Kind of Conservative Are You?: A Comparison” by Brad Green • Podcast Reading • Conservatism is no longer a simple catch-all term but a movement fractured into competing streams.
- Get History, and Whatever You Get, Get History by Michael Longerbeam • Concise Article • What’s the point of studying history when there are so many other things to do? And what does God have to do with it?
- Religious Pluralism, Sharia Supremacy, and the Constitution by John D. Wilsey • Concise Article • America has always been a pluralist nation. But can she survive a tsunami of Muslim immigrants who believe the Quran supersedes the Constitution?
- The Order of Love and a Defense of Biblical Patriotism by Alex Kocman • Longform Essay • On America’s 250th anniversary, the questions Christians keep asking about flags and fireworks all reduce to an older one.
- 5.37 “The Order of Love and a Defense of Biblical Patriotism” by Alex Kocman • Podcast Reading • On America’s 250th anniversary, the questions Christians keep asking about flags and fireworks all reduce to an older one.
- The Five Republics of the United States by Auron MacIntyre • Concise Article • Our republic is not the same as it was at its founding. Though the Constitution remains unchanged, the way it is interpreted has not.
- 5.38 “What Kind of Conservative Are You?: A Comparison” by Brad Green, Trent Hunter, & Stephen Wellum • Podcast Interview • Listen in as Trent Hunter and Stephen Wellum interview Brad Green on his COA Longform “What Kind of Conservative Are You?: A Comparison.”
- Islam’s Hostility toward First Amendment Rights by Mark Coppenger • Concise Article • Can a good Muslim celebrate all that America stands for? When is the last time you saw an adherent of Islam celebrating the freedom of speech enshrined in the First Amendment?
- Prophetic Immigration Foresight or Banned Racist Black Pill? A Look at Jean Raspail’s Camp of the Saints by Joe Holland • Concise Article • Jean Raspail’s highly controversial book, Camp of the Saints, contains a shocking message about immigration and the decline of Western society.
- 5.39 “The Five Republics of the United States” by Auron MacIntyre, David Schrock, & Stephen Wellum • Podcast Interview & Reading • Our republic is not the same as it was at its founding. Though the Constitution remains unchanged, the way it is interpreted has not.
- Will the American Republic Survive Multiculturalism? Part 1 by Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • For more than fifty years, “diversity is our strength” has been governing America’s policies.
- Will the American Republic Survive Multiculturalism? Part 2 by Ardel Caneday • Concise Article • Can America be redeemed, or will it be replaced by cultures fundamentally opposed to the principles that built this country?
- Weak Kings Make Hard Times: A Parable in Passivity from King George III by William Seabolt • Concise Article • The American Revolution wasn’t about a tax on tea. It was about replacing a government—and a king—that refused to protect and care for its people.
- Retrieving the Christianity of America’s Founding by Ryan Helfenbein • Longform Essay • Americans have grown increasingly unfamiliar with their own founding documents, and as a result, our country has grown increasingly less Christian.
- 5.40 “Retrieving the Christianity of America’s Founding” by Ryan Helfenbein • Podcast Reading • Americans have grown increasingly unfamiliar with their own founding documents, and as a result, our country has grown increasingly less Christian.
- Don’t Be Afraid of Patriotism (Part One): What Is Patriotism? by Andrew Dionne • Concise Article • American patriotism has been labeled as racist and fascist by liberals, and has even been called idolatrous by some Christians.
- Don’t Be Afraid of Patriotism (Part Two): The Virtues and Dangers of Patriotism by Andrew Dionne • Concise Article • Knowing what patriotism is and that it should be embraced, why is it beneficial to practice patriotism, and what should we be wary of?
- 5.41 “Retrieving the Christianity of America’s Founding” by Ryan Helfenbein, David Schrock, & Trent Hunter • Podcast Interview • Listen in as David Schrock and Trent Hunter interview Ryan Helfenbein on his COA Longform Essay, “Retrieving the Christianity of America’s Founding.”
- Actually, Thank God for the American Dream by Trent Hunter • Concise Article • We’ve been told that it’s a distraction from faithful Christianity. But what if the American Dream—rightly understood—is the outworking of a godly life for Christians in the United States?
- Isaac Backus and the State Church: A Change in the Stars, Conscience, & American Politics by Jon Kammeraad • Concise Article • Who changes the nation? Some say it’s the politicians, but in reality, it is normal citizens committed to Christian convictions, liberty, truth, and a free conscience.
News and Notes
First, the 2027 calendar is here. Lord willing.
The big news this month is that we are releasing our schedule for 2027. As I mentioned above, we attempt to provide a balanced diet of themes that consider the Bible, Theology, Church, and Culture. And in 2027, we will look at each. So here’s the list, which is subject to change.
January: Christian Spiritual Disciplines
February: Dating, Marriage, Sex, and Procreation
March: Cross-Cultural Missions
April: Christ’s Ascension
May: The Christian Mind: Thinking Our Thoughts After God
June: A Protestant Critique of Roman Catholicism
July: The Doctrine of Salvation
August: COA Mixtape (2027)
September: The Psalms
October: Got Health? Assessing Modern Medicine
November: Leadership: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
December: Christmas Buffet: An Edifying Assortment
If you are interested in contributing for a given month, please email us at Ch*************@***il.com. Or if you know someone who would be perfect to write for a month or someone we should interview, share that too.
Second, here is the rest of 2026.
While we have begun making plans for 2027, we still have five great months in 2026.
August: A Sabbath Rest: A Collection of COA’s Best Essays . . . So Far
September: The Ten Commandments
October: Pastor, (Should You) Be Political(?)
November: Economics 101
December: Christmas Carols to the Glory of God
While our contributors are locked in for August–November, December is still wide open. And specifically, we are looking for short stories (under 5,000 words or so) that (1) engage the theme of Christmas and (2) provide some kind of moral lesson. Taking our cues from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, we are looking to foster many edifying “Christmas Carols to the Glory of God.”
So, if you are a storyteller, or have a story to tell, or know someone who does, we are going to have a competition where winners will have their story published during December. And depending on the numbers, we will also read some of these stories on our podcast, and even do some interviews with the authors. Plus, we are raising funds to offer cash prizes too.
If you are interested, the submission deadline is November 15, 2026. Questions and submissions can go to Ch*************@***il.com. And Lord willing, all winners and runners-up (whom we will publish too) will be announced throughout December.
That’s all for now. Until next time, let’s remember that because Christ is Lord over all, we ought to exalt Christ in all things.
