As another year winds down, we at The Gospel Coalition are grateful for the opportunity we’ve had to serve you—and 24 million others who have accessed our content in 2022. On behalf of the whole TGC team, thank you for reading, watching, or listening to our content this year.
God has blessed TGC’s ministry in our 17-year history. Our ability to serve churches, leaders, and individual Christians like you has been significant, even as our annual budget has been small relative to similar ministries.
How does TGC serve you? Here are eight ways.
1. Helping You Love and Strengthen the Local Church
TGC is a resource for, but never a replacement for, the local church. We exist to serve and strengthen local churches in part by spurring on individual believers to make local church life not only a priority in their life but a priceless treasure.
Last year we published (in partnership with Crossway) the book Rediscover Church, by Collin Hansen and Jonathan Leeman, in an effort to do just this. In 2022, we’ve published articles by college students calling other students to prioritize church, articles calling parents to prioritize church attendance for their families, articles defending “uncool church,” podcasts on teaching kids to love the local church, and calls for social media warriors to “Stop Throwing Pastors Under the Bus.”
We exist to serve and strengthen local churches in part by spurring on individual believers to make local church life not only a priority in their life but a priceless treasure.
TGC advocates for faithful pastors and church leaders, helping them connect with like-minded, gospel-centered leaders and equipping them to lead healthy, gospel-centered churches. In 2022, the second season of TGC’s You’re Not Crazy podcast helped pastors and church leaders think through everything from sermon prep to friendship to the value of rest. Dozens of articles in our ministry section helped church leaders with topics like navigating political division in congregations, cultivating a praying church, and multilevel marketing in the church. Our free online theological essays, commentaries, and courses continue to be an invaluable treasure trove for pastors seeking help with a topic or Bible passage.
You get the idea. At TGC—where most staff members are local church deacons, elders, or ministry leaders themselves—we’re for the local church. We will continue to fight for her health and flourishing as long as God grants us a platform to do it.
2. Training You to Know the Bible and Help Others Know It
When biblical literacy is low and Scripture’s authority undermined, the church wanes and faith falters. When Scripture is known, loved, and authoritative, churches thrive and faith flourishes. Because knowing the Bible is so foundational, we have and will continue to produce resources that help you understand and apply God’s Word to all areas of life.
Our Read the Bible program is one way we do this. Our theological essay collection and recently launched commentaries library are other ways. Our conferences and events are also places where we model expositional teaching—like our 2022 Women’s Conference this past June, where over 8,000 women heard “Salvation stories in the Old Testament” skillfully unpacked. Our newly launched women’s “How to Teach the Bible” virtual cohort brought together 200 women this fall to learn how to better teach the Bible.
When Scripture is known, loved, and authoritative, churches thrive and faith flourishes.
Whether addressing specific questions about Bible passages (“Is Numbers 5 Unjust to Women?”) or applying biblical wisdom to questions about gender roles (“What Exactly Does 1 Timothy 2:12 Teach?”) or politics (“Can I Vote for a Sinful Political Candidate?”), TGC is about bringing the Bible to bear on all aspects of life—and we always will be. One reader observed in response to our year-end survey, “TGC articles act as a booster during the day to point me to the truths of God’s Word.”
3. Helping You Navigate the News and Pop Culture
A common sentiment we hear regarding TGC’s value is that we provide trusted and timely, biblically sound commentary on the dizzying array of issues and narratives swirling around our fast-paced culture.
In our year-end survey, one respondent said, “TGC is a great resource for issues I don’t have time to research myself but want to understand better.” Another said, “TGC brings me the words of experts, people who have time and knowledge to explain issues that I don’t have the wisdom to interpret myself.”
We’re committed to helping you sort through the complexities of contemporary culture, from articles on transgenderism to reviews of problematic Disney movies, from Supreme Court explainers to reports on church abuse scandals. Also this year, the launch of our Good Faith Debates video series has helped thousands of viewers think Christianly—and not just politically—about divisive partisan issues like gun control and racial injustice.
In addition to helping you think critically about the unhelpful messages in pop culture, we also want to point you to what’s good, true, and beautiful. Whether through curated “quality Christian music” lists, Advent resources, tips about great upcoming movies, or celebrations of Bluey, we want to be a reliable curator and guide, helping you sort through the glut.
4. Giving You a Global Perspective
We believe the gospel is for all of life and for all the world—as true and transformative for the teenager in Tehran as it is for the grandmother in Glasgow. We also believe there’s helpful perspective and encouragement in being connected to believers around the world and aware of what God is doing far beyond our backyard.
TGC has long been a global coalition (46 percent of our total web traffic comes from outside the U.S.), and our network of international affiliates has grown to 17 in 2022. This includes nine geographical chapters (Africa, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Italy, Netherlands, Albania, and Slovakia) and eight language chapters (Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, French, Korean, Russian and Ukrainian). This year we launched TGC India as well as our Ukrainian and Russian websites, which have received more than 9,000 visits and have helped connect Ukrainian and Russian pastors and church leaders amid a difficult war. Through our Share the Joy fundraising campaign, we were able to translate 1,000 crucial questions about Christianity into 11 languages (Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Farsi, French, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, and Ukrainian). We will continue to invest in this area of translating resources to strengthen believers around the world in the gospel.
We’ve also continued telling encouraging stories of God’s work around the world, including Recorded podcast episodes about Christians in Afghanistan and Scotland and encouraging reports about believers in Ukraine, China, Peru, and more. We hope you read or listen to these dispatches and are encouraged about what God is doing among our brothers and sisters throughout the globe.
5. Pointing You to Good Books (and Books to Avoid)
If you’re an intellectually curious, theologically conservative Christian who needs guidance on what to read (or what to avoid), we want to be your most trusted resource.
This is why TGC prioritizes book reviews in our regular editorial output. Whether it’s Kevin DeYoung reviewing The Case for Christian Nationalism, Maria Baer reviewing Rethinking Sex, or Steven Bateman reviewing Letter to the American Church, our timely reviews engage books we know are on your radar (or should be). In addition to our reviews (and reviews in Themelios), we regularly curate lists to help you prioritize books on your reading list. This year we shared lists like “50 Short Books Packed with Wisdom,” “What We’re Reading This Summer,” and “Recent Books to Gift Kids (and Teens) This Christmas,” not to mention our just-published annual TGC Book Awards, in which judges award the best new-release Christian books across 12 categories.
TGC is also a book publisher. In 2022, we published 12 books, including Rebecca McLaughlin’s Jesus through the Eyes of Women and Social Sanity in an Insta World, edited by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra. In 2023, we’re excited to publish The Gospel and the Modern World: A Theological Vision for the Church by D. A. Carson, You’re Not Crazy: Gospel Sanity for Weary Churches by Ray Ortlund and Sam Allberry, and more.
6. Strengthening the Faith of the Next Generation
One of TGC’s focuses in recent years has been addressing the deconstruction trend happening across Western culture—especially among younger people. Through books like Before You Lose Your Faith and Rebecca McLaughlin’s The Secular Creed, as well as through countless resources on deconstruction, LGBT+ issues, abuse, race, hell, and other topics contributing to growing skepticism toward Christianity, we’ve been diligent in seeking to shore up the faith of the next generation and equip the pastors, parents, and teachers who disciple them.
Data shows TGC’s reach among young people is significant. The largest age group of TGC’s website audience—representing 22 percent of our total audience—is users between the ages of 25 and 34. A close second is the age group between 18 and 24 (20 percent of TGC’s total audience). We saw 6 percent year-over-year growth in this youngest audience segment in 2022—an encouraging sign that while many faith institutions are losing relevance with young people today, TGC is gaining some ground.
While many faith institutions are losing relevance with young people today, TGC is gaining some ground.
In addition to producing content to serve Gen Z (and Gen Alpha), we also asked them to produce content for us in their own words. Our Essay Contest for Young Adults received nearly 200 submissions, and we’ve enjoyed publishing the winners this year, as well as working with talented young writers who emerged in the process. In 2023 and beyond, we’re committed to developing young writers who bring their perspectives to TGC readers and help their generation grow in articulating and defending the Christian faith in a secular age.
7. Helping You Stay Faithful in the Digital Chaos
Even though—or perhaps because—we’re a mostly online ministry, TGC editors like me are highly attuned to the internet’s inherent dangers. Mindful of this, we remain committed to providing you wise, biblical perspectives on the challenges emerging with new technologies. In 2022 we published the book Social Sanity in an Insta World, accompanied by a “book club” video series on YouTube, to help you think Christianly about social media. We’ve also helped you think through everything from memes and misinformation to stats about teen digital media habits and screen time for kids—a topic we also addressed in a new children’s book by Betsy Childs Howard, Polly and the Screen Time Overload, released earlier this year.
The internet search bar is a spiritual battleground, and the inertia of secular influences online pulls many believers off track. TGC exists to be a beacon of light and truth in the landscape of digital media. We want to equip you to have a ballast in the wobbly online world, traction in the quicksand of secularism, hope in the wilderness. One survey respondent said, “I attended the 2022 Women’s Conference and was introduced to TGC’s resources and was profoundly helped. I was losing my footing and drifting into liberalism, but the clear, intelligent, faithful teaching I received [has] restored the joy of my salvation.”
In years to come, we hope this woman’s testimony will be echoed by many.
8. Serving You in Multimedia Formats
Even as there are plenty of challenges with digital technology, there are also ample opportunities. One of TGC’s core values has always been leveraging emerging communications platforms to spread gospel-centered resources. And we’ll continue serving you resources in formats and on platforms that work for you.
In addition to written articles, we uploaded more than 200 videos on our YouTube channel in 2022, gaining over 25,000 new subscribers and amassing 4.7 million views and 650,000 hours of footage viewed—up 10 percent over 2021. Some video highlights this year include a popular Holy Week devotional video series and the Good Faith Debates. Watch for five more Good Faith Debates to be released starting in February 2023.
For podcast lovers, this year we released stellar narrative podcasts from Sarah Zylstra’s Recorded podcast, as well as 31 new episodes of Collin Hansen’s Gospelbound, featuring guests like Daniel Nayeri, Tim Keller, and the late Jonathan Tjarks. In early 2023 we’re looking forward to debuting a brand-new pastor’s wives podcast and a podcast featuring perspectives from the global church.
Support The Gospel Coalition
Whether you listen to TGC podcasts on your commute to work, read our books in a small group, or scroll through our articles on an Instagram carousel, we are honored to serve you.
As a nonprofit, however, we rely in large part on generous supporters who benefit from our resources and want others to benefit too. If you’ve been blessed by any of our content in 2022, would you consider making a tax-deductible year-end donation? We want to continue serving the church in 2023 and beyond, but we need your support.
Thanks for being part of The Gospel Coalition. May the Lord bless you and keep you—and your local church—as we begin a new year and continue the old mission.
Soli Deo gloria.