They had a dream: a God-ordained dream. After years of service in a foreign land, where they met and married and learned to speak the language fluently, they were ready to establish themselves in one area that would become their home, perhaps for the rest of their lives. They would raise their kids, start a business, establish a church, and win souls to Christ. Their goals were admirable and honest, and all the early obstacles were overcome. Surely the Lord’s hand was on this enterprise—until it failed.

Trevin Wax is a book publisher (Lifeway Christian Resources) and the author of a new book, This is Our Time: Everyday Myths in Light of the Gospel. Here are edited excerpts of an interview in front of students at Patrick Henry College. (For more from this interview, see “Millennial mission” and “Battering the gates.”)

WASHINGTON—Thousands of evangelical leaders are asking President Donald Trump to reconsider his executive order pausing the United States refugee program and barring travel from seven Muslim-majority countries.

The first time Dr. Nomura Takuyuki decided to put on a Christmas meeting at his 19-bed hospital 20 years ago, he feared what others would think of him and if it would hurt his business. Christians make up only 1 percent of Japan’s population, and most Christians stay quiet about their faith in a society where social cohesion trumps all.

Darrell Bock is a professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary and a past president of the Evangelical Theological Society. I spoke with him at a meeting of that society just one week after the November election.

Thomas Oden, the Methodist theologian known for his study of classical Christianity, died Thursday at age 85.

Oden authored numerous books, articles, and essays on Christian thought and teaching, but he was best known as a proponent of paleo-orthodoxy, a theological approach relying heavily on early Christian writers.

Cliff Barrows, the man who brought the melody to Billy Graham’s worldwide crusades for six decades, died Tuesday. He was 93.