From Babylon, With Love

This week we’re changing it up a bit, sharing a sermon I preached at Generation Church in South Oceanside earlier this year. Generation Church is pastored by Tim Parlier–friend and guest of the pod! Many thanks to Tim and his crew for the invite. I am blessed by the good work the Lord is doing in our brothers and sisters in South O (shout out to Nicole and Christiaan!). Wherever you ha...

You are riding in a trolley without functioning brakes, headed toward a switch in the tracks. On the current track stand five people who will be killed if the trolley continues on its path. You have access to a switch that would make the trolley change to the other track, but another individual stands there… On today’s episode I am joined by Dr. Craig Hovey, Professor of Christian Ethi...

How does the contemporary Christian church recover its witness in a post-Christian society? How does the church resist falling prey to a futile and misguided culture war as well as the failed-but-well-financed McDonaldization of contemporary church forms (re: passive church *attendance*, performance-based “worship experiences,” therapeutic programming, niche small groups, and personali...

This is the second part of my convo with the man himself, Daniel Leetch, wherein we head to Afghanistan, think through fatherhood, and grapple with living a faithful, ordinary life in suburbia.

How does a soldier and survivalist stomach suburbia?  To find out, dive into this two-part conversation with human swiss army knife, Daniel Leetch, as we talk discipleship from Christianland to Afghanistan and back again.  Let’s pod!

On the newest episode of the pod, I am honored to talk with my friend, Maurice Woods, Field Director for Prison Fellowship in Southern California. This is Maurice’s story. But it’s so much more than that, as Maurice would say. This is Jesus’ story. Let’s pod!  

Recently, we have begun to experience the cultural and ecclesial reckoning of a certain kind of masculinity and the fallout of a spiritually fatherless generation. A fatherless generation is many things at once: hurt, needy, suspicious of authority, desperate for approval from authority, passive, aggressive, given to all manner of extremes. On the podcast today, I am joined by Pastor Tim Parlier f...

On this episode we conclude our four-part series on C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves with a discussion of agape, the love that moves the sun and other stars. Agape is the goal of all human love, but it is also a love demands our complete vulnerability and surrender to experience it. I hope you’ll join Rev. Hayden Butler and I for this important conversation. Let’s pod!

“Eros ceases to be a demon only when it ceases to be a god.”  Join resident Anglican Priest of the Pod, Rev. Butler, and myself as we continue our series on C.S. Lewis’s The Four Loves with a conversation on Eros. Lets pod!

Laura returns this week as we continue our conversation on C.S. Lewis’s, The Four Loves , tackling the challenges and joys of Friendship. Let’s pod! * * Photo: The Inklings

Season 3 is here, my friends! Join Laura and I as we begin our series on C.S. Lewis’s, “The Four Loves.” And I gotta say . . . it’s good to be back. If you like what we’re doing please rate and review us on iTunes so more people can discover the pod! All the love(s).

Thinking well is not easy. And it is coming at a premium these days. I hope you’ll join the inimitable Laura Hashimov and I for this season-ending pod as we chat about Alan Jacobs’ book “How to Think” and the joy of Summer reading!  Once more into the breach, my friends!

Millions of Christians in America are living in alternate realities.  The church has been contaminated by tribalism and individualism.  How do we move forward in a moment like this without losing touch with what’s real?  On this second to last podcast of our second season, Pastor John Hallowell offers us a four-fold approach to finding God and living a real life in a land of alternate realit...

Sometimes it’s just good to take a moment to be thankful.

My friends, this is such an honest and important conversation I think many Christians will be able to resonate with and draw encouragement from. Ms. Laura Batstone (now Mrs. Hashimov!) gives us a candid tour-de-force about life being a single Christian woman into her 30s who is about to tie the knot! Listen in, my friends, there are pearls of wisdom here that every Christian needs to hear. Let’s p...

Trained as voyeurs, consumers, and addicts of images from ever-younger ages, how do we (re-)learn how to see one another and the Lord Himself in a way that deepens our loves and attachments rather than obliterating them?  Rev. Hayden Butler joins us once again on the pod to think through this very challenging set of issues.  Let’s pod!

Easter is the hinge of all reality.  But how do we enter into a deep observance and transformative remembrance of Easter (and Holy Week itself) when we have, we often feel, “heard it all before.”  On this episode, resident Anglican priest of the pod, Hayden Butler, is going to help us think through what it means to truly enter into holy week this year–a year that has been like no...

Self-awareness. Self-improvement. Personal growth. Personal development. Personal progress. Personal productivity. What happens when the paradigms and strategies of self-improvement that have saturated our culture find their way into the church? On this episode, Rev. Butler and I discuss the goal and shape of spiritual growth in an age of self-reflection.

“In spite of the pain and its failures, I love the church.” On this episode of the pod, I am joined by my friend, Pastor Cole Beshore, a third-generation pastor who grew up in one of the largest megachurches in the country and now pastors Ranch Church in South Orange County. Here Cole talks honestly about growing up as a pastor’s kid and how he’s navigated the call of Jesus to love and serve His c...

In lieu of some technical difficulties with our previously scheduled episode this week (don’t worry, it’s still on the way!), I am rolling out an episode that was released previously on our patrons-only channel, Love in the Ruins.  It is just me chatting about the poetry of John Donne.  Hope you enjoy it!  And if you would like to support the podcast with a few bucks and become a patro...

Every year, Rev. Hayden Butler teaches Dante’s Divine Comedy to teenagers. Why? What does a 14th-century poem that very few adults have ever read in full have to teach teenagers–or anyone else for that matter–about life? I’m thrilled to have Rev. Butler back on the podcast to guide us as we journey from earth to hell to heaven and back again.  Say it one more time for the p...

“Here am I, Lord, send me.” Many have read these words in Isaiah, others have imagined their implications, or even said them aloud, a precious few have actually followed through and surrendered everything to the Lord’s call on their lives. It was my great privilege to sit down with Pastor Ray Clancy, one of my true “anamchara” (the old Gaelic word for “soul frie...

A new year has dawned . . . and it’s already off to a rocky start.  How should Christians approach and understand time and its passing?  How do we resist falling into a consumer/productivity experience of time?  What would it mean to experience time as a gift and creation of God?  In this episode, I sit down with Rev. Hayden Butler to think more deeply about a Christian sense of time and how...

“Are we primarily formed by the community of the church or the community of the nation?” As we are poised on the tense precipice of Jan. 20th, I hope this question and the topic of “Christian” Nationalism and the witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in particular, is of interest to many. I am so pleased to be joined by the very thoughtful and winsome Dr. Joel Looper to navigate these waters...