Church and Main

In John 14, Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus gives him a pained look and answers, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." If we want to know who God is, we look to Jesus, and when we do, we find a vulnerable God. Pastor and theologian Kenneth Tanner joins Dennis to talk about his new book, Vulnerable God: How Jesus Upends Our Assumptions About God and Shows Us How to Be Human...

What if the church's obsession with growth is just modern-day Baal worship? Andrew Root returns to the podcast to discuss his new book Baal and the Gods of More: Rescuing Church Growth from Idolatry (Baker Academic). Root — Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary — unpacks how the pressure to grow (whether through innovation or identity affirmation) mirrors a...

We tend to think of democracy in terms of institutions and procedures — voting, the Supreme Court, Congress. But what if it actually depends on something less visible: the everyday virtues that make shared life with people we didn't choose possible at all? Dennis talks with Jason Edwards, senior pastor of Second Baptist Church in Liberty, Missouri, about his Baptist News Global essay on democracy...

We've all heard of Trump Derangement Syndrome — the caricature of the uber-progressive who can't stop talking about the president. But what about the opposite version? The diehard loyalist who dismisses any criticism of Trump as irrational, even when it comes from people who share their faith? This week, Corey Nathan returns to talk about his  recent essay in The Dispatch titled "Does Trump Derang...

Dennis talks with Australian theologian Graham Joseph Hill about his new book, Ten Movements of the Jesus Way: Shifting from Worldly Self-Interest to Radical Discipleship. They discuss Graham's journey from a legalistic upbringing to planting his first church at 19, the danger of the "sovereign self," and moving past Jesus-as-slogan or Jesus-as-guru toward a third way rooted in the Gospels. Graham...

When JD Vance accused "in this house we believe" yard signs of butchering the Nicene Creed, Methodist pastor Teer Hardy started wondering what creeds are actually for. That question turned into an essay — and this conversation. Teer Hardy, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, and co-host of the Crackers and Grape Juice podcast, returns to discuss his piece "Creeds Are...

Dennis sits down with Jason Swan Clark, theologian, spiritual director, and director of the London Centre for Spiritual Direction, to unpack his article "How Inclusive Church Excludes."  Drawing on his doctoral work on Christian identity formation and consumer culture, he brings a sharp theological lens to a word that gets thrown around constantly but rarely examined. The conversation traces how "...

America isn't breaking apart because people are more extreme. We're breaking apart because our civic relationships are. That's the line from writer and researcher Lura Forcum that sparked this conversation on political polarization, tribalism, and what faith communities can do about it. Dennis Sanders sits down with Lura Forcum, psychologist by training, writer of the newsletter How to Human, and...

In a culture where churches increasingly demand ideological uniformity, is there still room for people who don't fit neatly into a camp? Dennis sits down with Garwood Anderson — former Dean and President of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, now a Senior Fellow at the Lumen Center — to talk about his article "A Place to Land," the story of a woman caught between conservative and progressive chur...

Why bad things happen to good people has always been the classic question of faith. But Gen Z is asking something different: why don't bad things happen to bad people? Jared Dodson — a Gen Z Bible professor at Bushnell University — joins Dennis to unpack the perspective he's seeing in his students and peers, one where anger at injustice, exposure to political violence, and a deep desire for God's...

There's a lot of despair in the world right now, and it seems especially pronounced among Generation Z. Writer, speaker, and podcaster Jake Doberins joins the show to talk about his recent essay "Having Hope in a Hopeless World," exploring why hope feels so scarce for his generation and what makes Christian hope different from mere optimism. Jake shares his own journey from a fundamentalist, know-...

Is now a good time to have kids? For many younger people, the answer is a firm no — climate change, political chaos, economic uncertainty, and a general sense of doom have made the idea of bringing a child into the world feel irresponsible. But theologian and expectant father Griffin Gooch sees it differently. In this episode, Dennis talks with Griffin about why the fears surrounding having childr...

Is artificial intelligence a threat — or a tool for love? Episcopal priest Cathie Caimano thinks it's the latter, and she joins Dennis in making the case that most church conversations about AI are missing the point entirely. Drawing from Pope Leo's encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, Cathie argues the question isn't whether AI is good or bad, but how each of us chooses to use it. While headlines focu...

What happens when a local church closes? More than a building goes dark — something essential to the fabric of community disappears with it. Trygve Johnson, executive director of the Preach For Foundation, joins Dennis to talk about why the local church matters more than most people realize and what is lost when congregations vanish from our neighborhoods. Drawing from his three-part Substack seri...

What does it mean to trust God in an age when trust itself feels almost impossible? In this episode, Dennis sits down with pastor, author, and Christian Century contributor Katherine Willis Pershey, who opens up about her journey from secular skepticism through ordained ministry to a renewed and deepening faith in the God who acts. They talk honestly about the decline of progressive mainline denom...

What does artificial intelligence reveal about what it means to be human—and what does faith have to say about it? In this episode, host Dennis Sanders sits down with the Reverend Michael DeLashmutt, Senior Vice President, Dean of the Chapel, and Associate Professor of Theology at General Theological Seminary in New York City, for a wide-ranging conversation about theology, technology, and the age...

In an era of social media influencers and viral hot takes, the word "prophetic" gets thrown around constantly — but usually it just means "someone saying things I agree with."  Dennis Sanders sits down with writer and communications professional Ryan Self to dig into what the biblical prophets actually looked like, and why today's version often falls dangerously short. Ryan, who writes the Substac...

The term "Christian nationalism" is everywhere — but is it actually helping us understand our political moment, or making things worse? Princeton Theological Seminary professor Heath Carter joins host Dennis to make a provocative case: the term has become so broad and loosely applied that it's lost its usefulness, and may be deepening the very polarization it aims to diagnose. Carter argues that w...

What if communion was more than a ritual squeezed between the offering and the sermon? I sat down with the Reverend Dr. Jarrod Longbons, pastor of Peachtree Christian Church in Atlanta, to explore what it means for the church to be a Eucharistic community. Jarrod makes the case that the Lord's Supper isn't just a worship practice — it's a social imagination that can reshape everything from how we...

What do you really know about Anne Boleyn? Most of us remember her as Henry VIII's ill-fated second wife — and not much more. But according to Martha Tatarnic, Anglican priest and author of Anne Boleyn: Reputation, Revolution, Religion, and the Queen Who Changed History, we've been missing the bigger picture entirely. Martha returns to the podcast to explore Anne Boleyn as a serious religious refo...

Many progressive and moderate Christians are passionate about justice, inclusion, and showing up for their neighbors. But what if in pursuing all the right causes, we've quietly set aside the message that makes us Christian in the first place? Jackson Campbell Walker knows this tension firsthand. As a gay pastor who has navigated both conservative evangelical and progressive Baptist spaces, he has...

What does it mean to "submit to governing authorities" — and does that command require Christians to accept whatever their government does without question? I sat down with Chris Nye, lead pastor of Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon, to take a closer look at one of the most frequently cited — and frequently misused — passages in political discourse: Romans 13:1. From immigration enforcement...

In this candid and wide-ranging conversation, I sat down with my friend and media commentator Andrew Donaldson to wrestle with one of the most uncomfortable questions facing American Christianity today: Is the public display of faith we're seeing from figures like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth genuine witness — or just performance? This is a conversation about our failings, the danger of chasi...

Jerry Mitchell comes to the podcast to discuss his Christian Chronicle article. Jerry argues that America's deepest crisis isn't political — it's spiritual. From the erosion of humility and kindness to our growing inability to honestly confront our own sins, Jerry makes the case that the nation is sliding toward collapse for one simple reason: we have traded godliness for gaslighting, and piety fo...

Dennis Sanders sits down with Michael Baharaeen, chief political analyst for The Liberal Patriot, to explore the growing crisis of political polarization in America. Drawing on data, history, and his own experience working in national politics, Baharain examines how Americans have increasingly sorted themselves into politically homogenous communities, fueled by the decline of shared public spaces,...