Crossmap Podcast

In a music career that has spanned more than 35 years, Steven Curtis Chapman is the most awarded artist in Christian music history. His musical resume is quite staggering and highly notable: 59 Gospel Music Association (GMA) Dove Awards 5 Grammy Awards 1 American Music Award 49 No. 1 singles 11 Million Album Sales 10 Gold and Platinum Albums 
Yet for all his unbridled success, Chapman found himsel...

Oh no, not I, I will survive Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive I've got all my life to live And I've got all my love to give and I'll survive I will survive, hey, hey Sound familiar? The aforementioned song lyrics serve as the chorus for a song that has become synonymous with finding strength, perseverance, and the ability to move forward despite a past that is sometimes un...

When I was a teenager, one of my best friends was in a horrific car wreck. With numerous life-threatening injuries, medical professionals at our local hospital didn’t think he would make it through the night. He had lost just too much blood and one of his major organs had been severely damaged.  But miraculously, he made it through the night … and then a second night, and then a third. Soon days b...

Millennials. A generation of individuals where everyone gets a trophy.   Beyond being the generation following Generation X and preceding Generation Z, this collection of twenty and thirty-somethings have been described as the first global generation that grew up in the Internet age. The end result is a generation of digital natives who are completely comfortable with mobile devices, social media,...

Uncertainty. It’s a feeling that most of us have experienced at some point in time but would rather run in the other direction than be trapped in a groundswell of not knowing what to do. Due to the global pandemic that has affected every nook and cranny of our lives the last two and a half years, many were left feeling highly uncertain. With no guarantee of an ordinary tomorrow, most, if not all o...

If we are all being honest, we have all had a moment or two where we felt a little less than adequate in our faith. Perhaps you were less than kind to someone in your small group. Or maybe you just flat out don’t like somebody or a situation at your church and you’re not afraid to let everyone know about it. We know that as believers our lives are supposed to reflect Jesus. But let’s be honest, th...

Have you ever been around someone where you thought to yourself, this person is brilliant? They just exude the ability to win you over with their wealth of knowledge in a given area, but even more engaging is that they present themselves in such a manner that you are not threatened by them in the least. It’s their winning personality that draws you in but it is their intellect that leaves you hang...

It seems like the more things change the more they stay the same. Racially-motivated events of the 1960s that for so many decades appeared to be isolated to that era never really went away. That has never been more apparent than the last five to ten years where civil unrest has become a focal point, driven by the highly-justified Black Lives Matter movement. With that said, any dialogue that is de...

I think we have all heard the time-tested adage, “Some things just get better with age." The mind begins to run wild when you think of all the possibilities that fit this phrase: Love Cheddar Cheese Self-Confidence Cast Iron Skillets My Guest Today Pat Boone is a legendary American singer, composer, actor, writer, and spokesperson whose career has spanned seven decades. A number one pop singer in...

For those who saw this summer’s movie hit “Elvis”, one quickly realizes that the entertainer known as ‘The King of Rock and Roll’ had many demons in his life. Fame, fortune, and bad influences fueled a persona of Elvis Presley that was sometimes chaotic, drug addled, and filled with eccentricities. But the Elvis our guest Billy Stanley knew was quite different from the one the world came to love a...

To say the last few years of American politics has been volatile and chaotic is quite the understatement. With mid-term elections just around the corner, and the presidential election cycle looming just beyond that, it seems voters are determined to move beyond the machinations and maneuverings of the last few years. But before that can happen, we must find answers and put closure on some troublin...

Slowly but surely, the world seems to be emerging from its COVID-induced fog that has been hovering over our planet for more than two and a half years. And with that comes many a company’s decision to ask their employees, who have been diligently working from home during this period, to pull the plug on their laptops and come back to the office. But therein lies the rub … a lot of people have beco...

Recently, Craig was excited about taking his family on a vacation to what he perceived to be the happiest place on earth. But as he was going through the process of researching and booking the trip, he began to uncover some things about his vacation destination that he didn’t exactly care for or agree with. Specifically, he didn’t appreciate this company’s opposing stance on many of the issues tha...

Hope is at the heart of every journey … so says the tagline of a powerful new movie releasing in theaters soon as a Fathom Event.   When we break that sentence down to its truest essence we find that if this feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen didn’t exist, our lives would be empty and literally void of all the goodness that life affords us.   Hope is what gets us throu...

What makes a great movie? Some would say it’s all about the acting! Others point to the script saying great writing is the cornerstone of all communication. Or perhaps you are like most of us who would just simply say, “Them special effects are fantastic!" Our guest today, entertainment executive Michael Scott, would say it’s not so much about the movie but more importantly it’s all about the mess...

Has there ever been a time in your life where you felt that everything was going so well that you just sort of cruised along thinking nothing would ever go wrong? Perhaps it is a succession of job promotions and salary increases that are based on some innovative idea you came up with. Or maybe you are in a relationship that just seems perfect. You are the ideal compliment for each other. You find...

We are not being careless when we say that our guest today, Jerry B. Jenkins, is one of the most prolific authors of this generation, or any generation for that matter. Penning more than 200 books, including 21 New York Times bestsellers, Jerry has sold more than 72 million cumulative copies worldwide.   Best known for his end times “Left Behind” series, a collection of titles that spawned several...

An active father is the single most important factor in a young woman’s development. From cradling his newborn to walking her down the aisle, a father must enjoy his paramount responsibility … guiding the course of his daughter’s life. Many books have been written on this topic but none more practical or vital than Dr. Meg Meeker’s 2017 release, “Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters". So imperative ar...

Prayer is a subject that is sometimes hard to quantify. How many times have we heard someone say, “I will pray for you?" While these sentiments are well-received and heartfelt, one can wonder whether this is what God truly intended for us when it comes to prayer. Furthermore, it begs the question, is there a right way or a wrong way to pray? While author and pastor Chad Veach agrees that God liste...

Imagine for a moment that it’s the late 1990s and you are a rising comedian in Los Angeles. You are good enough that you have been on The Tonight Show five times.  Life is good and getting better … or so it seems. While your professional life is good, your personal life is … how shall we say … complicated. That’s because you are trying to lose your religion so that you might become famous for the...

This is shaping up to be a momentous summer for contemporary Christian music artist Tauren Wells. Fresh from co-hosting the K-LOVE Fan Awards in late May, Tauren is set to perform at the legendary outdoor concert venue, Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado later this summer, before embarking on a headlining tour in the fall. And if that’s not enough, last month he released his third album, Joy in th...

Our guest today may not be a household name but you certainly know his work. A self-described Idaho farm boy, at 11 years old, Neal Harmon purchased a cow and wrote a business plan to create a million dollar dairy, then take the money he earned to become a missionary. An industrious youth, Harmon believed that he would become the next J.R. Simplot. For those of you scoring at home, Simplot was and...

A silent killer. That has long been a catchy way to describe someone who has high blood pressure but doesn’t realize it. Unfortunately, the same can be said for Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. With more than six million people living in the United States with an Alzheimer’s or Dementia diagnosis today, this horrible disease affects 50 percent of Americans over the age of 55. If this...

Recent polling from the McLaughlin Group and Summit Ministries reveals that nearly 80% of voters believe that people who adhere to the values found in the Bible have the right to express their religious beliefs publicly. Going a step further, the same polling showed that 42% of Americans say they are hesitant or careful to share their opinions on important cultural or political issues for fear the...

Admittedly, there are some great comedians out there today who don’t see the need to drag their audience through the cesspool of profane language, lurid themes, and naughty innuendo. The names Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, and Jeff Foxworthy come to mind.  But for every Jerry, Jim, or Jeff, there is a litany of blue comics named Eddie, Louis, or Steve. There are those comedians who seem to delight...