Fifteen&: A Podcast Experience

Chris kicks off a new series, 7 Humilities That Make You Great, by walking through the seven woes of Matthew 23 and flipping each one into a humility. Part 1 starts with the first woe in Matthew 23:13, where Jesus says the religious leaders shut the door of the kingdom in people’s faces. Drawing on Matthew 18:1-4 and Mark 10:43 to reframe what greatness means, Chris shares the story of shutting th...

What do you say when life is stuck in between? Most of us say “it’s fine.” In Part 5 of Limbo Moments, Chris shows why that kind of denial keeps us stuck and how honesty opens the way out. He walks through Isaiah 6, where Isaiah admits he has unclean lips, a burning coal makes him clean, and he answers God with “Send me.” Along with Luke 4 and 1 Corinthians 2:16, this teaching shows how God gives...

When we are stuck in between, we reach for shortcuts: the confident plan, the quick move, the power play that gives us back a sense of control. Chris McAlister shows how those shortcuts comfort our insecurity and cost us the new thing God is doing. Drawing on Isaiah 43:15-21, Jesus reading Isaiah in Luke 4, Romans 12:2, and James 1:13, Chris walks through three ways to recognize a shortcut: it res...

Part 3 of Limbo Moments: Mastering the In-Between. When life does not go the way we planned, we often feel owed. Chris shows how that feeling points to a hidden deal: if I do this, then God will do that. Drawing on Isaiah 40:27-29, Isaiah 44:9-20, Isaiah 49:14-15, and Jesus reading Isaiah in Luke 4, Chris explains why an if-then is not faith. The second move in a limbo moment is to investigate. Fi...

A limbo moment is a stretch of life you did not choose and cannot control. Something ended, nothing new has started, and the hardest part is not the circumstance itself. It is the story you tell yourself about what it means. In Part 2 of Limbo Moments: Mastering the In-Between, Chris McAlister opens Isaiah 6 and 11 to show what God is doing when the tree gets cut down. The stump of Jesse looks lik...

A limbo moment is the space where something has ended but nothing new has started. It isn't working, and it isn't over. You didn't choose it, you can't undo it, and you can't control it. It might be a marriage that is neither healed nor finished, a parent who is here and already fading, or a business whose old direction collapsed before the new one arrived. In Part 1 of Limbo Moments, Chris names...

In the finale of The Rescue AI Isn’t Bringing, Chris brings the whole series together. He reads Babel (Genesis 11) against Pentecost (Acts 2) to show that real community is not sameness. It is many different people held together in love. He names three lies that fake connection: that we connect by meeting a need, by earning respect, or by staying protected. AI can reveal us, but it cannot be a sou...

At Babel the builders grabbed for a name so they would not be scattered, and the grab is exactly what scattered them. In Part 3 of The Rescue AI Isn’t Bringing, Chris unpacks phronesis, the gut level wisdom the Greeks named and modern neuroscience confirmed, and shows why AI cannot form it in us. He names the three wrong moves we make under uncertainty: trusting the crowd, grabbing the first move,...

In Part 2 of The Rescue AI Isn't Bringing: Name , Chris opens in Genesis 11 where the builders of Babel reach for a name through the work of their hands, then moves through Paul's argument in Galatians 3 about the Law as a diagnostic that reveals the need for validation without satisfying it, and lands in Acts 2 where Peter's Pentecost sermon declares the reversal: the Spirit poured out, a people...

"Part 1 of The Rescue AI isn't bringing goes back to the Tower of Babel, where people reach for the newest technology of their age to make a name for themselves out of fear of being scattered. Chris makes the case that technology never rescues us, it reveals us. The reversal comes at Pentecost, where the Spirit comes down and God gives a name we could never build for ourselves. Anchored in Genesis...

In the final teaching of the Heaven Now series, Chris unpacks the last fruit of the Spirit — what the Greek calls enkrateia , energy governed from within — and why the English translation "self-control" collapses when placed next to who God actually is. Anchored in the story of John the Baptist and the opening of Genesis, this teaching traces the difference between a proving identity and a receive...

In this episode of the Heaven Now series, Chris walks through one of the most uncomfortable leadership case studies in Scripture — King David’s silence after Tamar’s violation, and the hidden-agenda coup that silence produced in Absalom. Drawing on 2 Samuel 13–15 and Jesus’s encounter with the woman at the well (John 4), Chris unpacks the identity fear of vulnerability — how it shows up as proving...

In Part 7 of Heaven Now, Chris traces the arc of Nicodemus — from a nighttime visit driven by fear, to a public act of burial loyalty before the resurrection. The fear of a bad outcome leads leaders to control every variable or avoid real commitment. The answer is faithfulness — the same Greek word (pistis) Paul uses for faith — a covenant loyalty that holds across time, especially when things go...

In this teaching from the Heaven Now series, the fear of being a bad person gets traced back to its root: trying to get your goodness from moral categories instead of from God. Using Paul's story — from Saul the coat-holder at Stephen's stoning to the apostle who writes Romans 14 — this episode explores how identity shifts when you stop earning your goodness and start receiving it. Anchored in Rom...

In this episode of the Heaven Now series, Chris walks through the fruit of the Spirit of kindness and the identity fear that makes it hardest to access: the fear of poor performance. Using Solomon — the builder of the temple, the writer of Proverbs, and the author of Ecclesiastes — as the central biblical anchor, Chris traces how a divided heart turns a gift for achievement into a burden no scoreb...

Heaven isn’t a future promise we’re waiting on, it’s something we can experience now. In this episode, we look at Moses and the fear of inadequacy: the wiring that drives us to either prove ourselves through competency or hide from anything we might not be great at. Trained in Pharaoh’s house, Moses tried to be the deliverer on his own terms and spent forty years in the wilderness being unmade. Ye...

In Part 3 of Heaven Now, we explore the deeper meaning of peace—not as the absence of conflict, but as the grounded presence that makes honesty possible. Through the story of King Saul, this episode exposes the hidden cost of leading for belonging instead of obedience, and why the fear of not fitting in quietly corrupts even the most capable leaders. True peace isn't found in the room agreeing wit...

In Part 2 of Heaven Now , we explore the deeper meaning of joy—not as a reaction to success or momentum, but as something rooted beneath it. Through the story of Elijah, this episode exposes the hidden cost of always moving, achieving, and pushing forward, and why those patterns eventually lead to burnout or despair. True joy isn’t found in the highs of breakthrough moments or the avoidance of pai...

Heaven isn’t just a future promise — it’s something we can experience now. In this episode, we explore the tension between Martha and Mary and what it reveals about how we live, lead, and relate to others. Many of us build our identity around being needed — stepping in, fixing, and over-serving — but that often leads to anxiety, frustration, and disconnection. Through the lens of the Fruit of the...

In this episode, we revisit Revelation through the lens of the ascension and the throne. Rather than reading the book as a prediction about escaping a disposable world, we explore how the coronation of Jesus reframes everything. The Lamb is reigning now, the Spirit has been poured out, and the “last days” began with authority, not collapse. This teaching challenges us to shift from survival mode t...

In this episode, we explore Revelation 19 and the surprising contrast it presents: not a war to fight, but a wedding feast to join. Rather than fueling outrage against the culture around us, Revelation reframes power through worship, identity, and alignment with the Lamb on the throne. This teaching challenges us to examine whether we are trying to win battles Jesus never asked us to fight and inv...

In this episode, we explore how Revelation exposes the hidden systems that shape our thinking and behavior. Using the imagery of Babylon and empire, we examine how cultural narratives influence identity, loyalty, and power — often without our awareness. This teaching clarifies how followers of Jesus can resist being formed by the spirit of the age by living as witnesses, remaining faithful in miss...

In this episode, we look at the book of Revelation as an unveiling of what is truly at the center of reality. Rather than a code for predicting the future, Revelation reveals how power actually works, why accusation feels so pervasive, and what it means to live as if the Lamb—not empire, fear, or control—is on the throne. This teaching reframes Revelation as a formation story, helping us resist em...

In this episode, we explore Be The Tree: RENEW and why growth is not linear but cyclical. Using the metaphor of seasons, we examine how renewal happens through cooperation rather than control, why forcing progress leads to burnout or avoidance, and how Scripture invites us to respond wisely to fall, winter, spring, and summer moments. This teaching offers a grounded framework for recognizing your...

In this episode, we explore Be the Tree as a repeatable process of transformation under pressure. Using Luke 3–5, we examine how identity is named before action, why wilderness moments reveal whether we’re proving or hiding, and how insecure leadership looks for validation instead of alignment. This teaching offers a practical template for formation. Helping us recognize what is naming us, settle...