FOLLOW x UP

Episode 011: Why doesn’t God answer every prayer? Prayer often begins with asking—but what if that’s not where it should begin? In the final episode of this five-part prayer series, Steve Carter and Eric Parks explore petition: bringing our requests, desires, and longings before God. Together they wrestle with why asking matters, how naming our desires forms us, and what it means to trust God even...

Episode 010: How do you access the access? Prayer is one of the most common spiritual practices, yet many of us only know one way to do it: asking God for what we need. In this first conversation of a five-part series on prayer, Eric Parks and Steve Carter explore a different starting point—adoration. Before requests, before confession, before thanksgiving, prayer begins by remembering who God is...

Episode 009: What are you still defending? In this episode of the FOLLOW x UP podcast, Steve Carter and Eric Parks explore the prayer of confession—not as shame, performance, or merely admitting what someone already knows, but as a courageous act of vulnerability before God and others. Together, they unpack why confession is one of the least practiced spiritual muscles in many Christian communitie...

Episode 008: Did someone teach you how to grieve? In this episode of the FOLLOW x UP podcast, Steve Carter and Eric Parks are joined by Chad Bruegman, Lead Pastor of River Pointe Church in Houston, for an honest conversation about grief, lament, and the prayers most of us were never taught to pray. Drawing from personal seasons of church hurt, disappointment, and loss, Chad reflects on how forced...

Episode 007: Why is “enough” is so hard to say? In a culture that constantly urges us toward the next achievement, experience, purchase, or milestone, gratitude can feel surprisingly difficult. Why is it so hard to believe that what we have—and where we are right now—is enough? In this episode of the FOLLOW x UP podcast, Steve Carter, Eric Parks, and Michele Cushatt explore the prayer of thanksgiv...

Episode 006: Can getting lost get you found? In this episode of the FOLLOW x UP podcast, Eric Parks and Steve Carter explore the ancient practice of pilgrimage and why movement, disorientation, and embodied faith can become powerful parts of spiritual formation. Steve reflects on walking the Camino, the gift of traveling lightly, and a moment of forgiveness that helped him realize he was carrying...

Epissode 005: What if the story in your head isn’t true? Eric and Steve explore the stories people live inside of—and how those stories quietly shape identity, grief, fear, ambition, and spiritual formation. Through personal reflection on seasons of betrayal, disappointment, rebuilding, and unexpected change, they talk about what happens when the narrative you thought would define your life sudden...

Episode 004: What happens when charisma outruns character? Very few people finish well. That reality is sobering, especially for those in Christian leadership. In this episode of the FOLLOW x UP podcast, Eric Parks sits down with Steve Carter and returning guest Michele Cushatt for a deeply honest conversation about formation, leadership, church hurt, charisma, character, and the systems that can...

Episode 003: What if formation is not about outcomes? In this episode of the FOLLOW x UP podcast, Steve Carter and Eric Parks are joined by Michele Cushatt, author, teacher, and seminary student, for a conversation about formation, suffering, truth, and the long journey of becoming more like Jesus. Together, Steve, Eric, and Michele explore the tension between growth and mystery, the inspired and...

Episode 002: What if following Jesus isn't about arriving? In this episode of the FOLLOW x UP podcast, Steve Carter and Eric Parks are joined by Doug Miller, Lead Pastor of Plum Creek Church, for a conversation about following Jesus over a lifetime. Doug reflects on 20 years of ministry at Plum Creek, the transformation he witnessed in his father, and why he often describes himself not simply...

Episode 001: What is forming you? In the first episode of the FOLLOW x UP podcast, Eric and Steve begin with a simple but weighty idea: your life is always being formed—whether you realize it or not. What starts as a conversation about how their friendship began quickly moves into something deeper. They reflect on shared experiences, the influence of the past, and the ways formation happens beneat...

What does rearrangement sound like? The FOLLOW x UP podcast offers steady companionship in the long, quiet work of discipleship, creating space for honest, unhurried conversation where faith moves from the margins to the center of everyday rhythms and relationships. Spiritual formation is approached as life architecture—through the intentional rearrangement of all of life around the way of Jesus—s...