Lisa Harper's Back Porch Theology

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, Alli and I are hanging out with one of my dear friends, DawnCheré Wilkerson, who’s really gifted at something I really struggle with, which is waiting. The first time I met DawnCheré – about ten years ago – she and her husband, Pastor Rich Wilkerson, were in the midst of a very long season of infertility. And yet she was somehow pregnant with hop...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology Alli and I are diving deep into the swirling waters of gender discrimination disguised as biblically-sound exegesis. Recent polls have revealed that for the first time in American church history, young women are leaving mainline Christian congregations at a higher rate than young men and one of the main reasons cited is their observation and/or pe...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is the part-two sequel of An Antidote to Self-Centeredness Disguised as Spirituality. The bottom line is, it’s more important than ever to embrace the gospel story as the ultimate lens through which we understand life or pretty soon everything’s going to become blurry. Which underscores the new for a new kind of catechism – a fresh way to understand and...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology Alli and I are diving into the swampy waters of ideology with Dr. Trevin Wax. Trevin will help us understand and learn how to better practice what some have called counter-catechesis – that is sorting out our Christian belief system in a thoughtful way that effectively says, “You’ve heard it communicated like this on a popular podcast or Instagram...

You know that old, familiar ice-breaker question, “If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?” Well, during today’s episode of Back Porch Theology – which was taped live at our 2025 Kerygma Summit a few weeks ago. And yes, we happen to be hugely biased, but y’all this bevy of Bible scholars could aptly be described as Wonder Women. Dr. Lynn Cohick is the Distinguished Pr...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is a part two, so if you haven’t listened to last week’s conversation with our friend Katherine Wolf, I encourage you to do so. Now before we dive in, I’d like to read a brief excerpt from Katherine’s latest book titled, Treasures in the Dark: “David taught me that laughter and worship aren’t so different. In fact, they are simply two of the shapes that...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is with my friend Katherine Wolf about God’s compassionate purpose with regards to our pain. Many of you have probably heard or read some of Katherine’s story – she suffered a massive stroke when she was 26 years old, not long after giving birth to her and her husband Jay’s first son, James. Her story is riddled with debilitating physical and emotional s...

Today is a red-letter kind of day here on Back Porch Theology because Alli and I have the undeserved privilege and absolute delight of having a conversation with one of the world’s foremost experts on the New Testament canon, specifically the Gospels, Dr. Craig Blomberg. It’s not every day you get to sit down with a brilliant saint with a PhD from the University Aberdeen, read an excerpt from his...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology after the initial belly laughs we dive pretty deep – as is often the case with BPT - into a theme that’s been my heartbeat for the last several years, which is what it really means to live a Jesus-shaped life. To imitate Jesus authentically, not just with religious language and ethical ideology. Theology is anything but sterile subject matter, y’a...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is an encore with Natalie Grant and Bernie Herms because we simply could fit all the wisdom bombs they dropped regarding hanging onto hope when the miracle you prayed for seems delayed into one episode! Plus, since we’ve had lots of DM’s and e-mails from y’all requesting content on how to have more Jesus-shaped relationships, we thought it’d be a good id...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, I have the absolute delight of diving deep into some real-life stuff with two dear friends, Natalie Grant, and her husband, Bernie Herms. Unless you’re living off the grid and are listening to BPT through a coconut and dental floss, you’ve no doubt heard Natalie’s stellar voice because she’s been a recording artist for over twenty years and has m...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re wrapping up a 3-part series on Zephaniah in a series we called “The Theology of Compassionate Consequences”. It may initially sound like an oxymoron – a contradiction in terms - to pair the words “compassionate” and “consequences” together, kind of like “jumbo shrimp” or “act naturally” or “climb down”. It begs the question, “If God really i...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, the second in a series on God’s severe mercy – which is kind of like saying His divine discipline ALWAYS takes place under a canopy of grace - we’re swimming in the deep end of a colorful, albeit very concise book in the Old Testament called Zephaniah. His overarching theme regarding how our crooked hearts will consistently lead us off cliffs wit...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology – the first in a series of three – we’re going to delve into some pretty spicy subject matter in the colorful Old Testament book of Zephaniah regarding the overt rebellion of God’s people. We’re going to examine how our spiritual ancestors effectively thumbed their noses at God’s holiness, turned their backs on His kindness, and went out and did w...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to bring this 4- part series on prayer to a close, which is kind of like taking the very last bite of the very last brownie in a pan. It’s left me wanting more. A few nights ago, I found myself rereading some of the material I’d studied on prayer in preparation for this series and got lost in an old book my dad gave me many years ago b...

Today's episode on Back Porch Theology is really special. I mean, all of them are really special. It's kind of like choosing your favorite ice cream flavor, but this feels more like a real family episode, because I get to bring in some friends from the Found Collective. Found Collective is a new event for women to lean more fully into Jesus with Bible teachers and worship leaders. I've got three o...

What happens with the supernatural starts to become more natural? During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re peeling off whatever emotional Spanx are left and getting totally vulnerable in the praxis of prayer. This is our third conversation in a 4-part series we’ve titled The Theology of Prayer. Our fervent hope and prayer is that the time we get to spend on the porch today will hel...

How do you pray? During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, we’re rolling up our sleeves in this second of a 4-part series on prayer and getting practical because we’re going to talk about the awesomely vast and varied praxis of prayer. In my experience, far too many of us have been taught - overtly or tacitly - that there’s one “right” way to pray and unfortunately the implication we per...

Ever wonder why do we pray? Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is the first of a four-part series we’re really excited and passionate about called The Theology of Prayer. Alli, Dr. Howard and I have talked and dreamed and pondered and of course prayed about doing a series on prayer for years, and I think the main reason it’s taken us so long to finally record this series is because the gl...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, the very last stop in our topsy-turvy tour through Judges, we’re going to hang out with a hot mess of a man who was my favorite character in biblical narrative – apart from Jesus, of course – when I was a little girl. His name was Samson and I’m not sure why I was so captivated by him when I was a kid because for most of his life, he was a rebel...

During today’s podcast on Back Porch Theology we’re exploring one of the greatest leaders in the history of God’s people who just so happens to be a chick named Deb! She was both a judge and a prophetess. Which means she was kind of like a president and pastor rolled into one - the entire prone-to-wander nation of Israel turned to her for leadership, wisdom, and spiritual guidance. And another unl...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re diving into our second in a series called The Theology of ROAR that explores the cyclical, increasingly damaging nature of unconfessed sin. Unbridled rebellion is like a hoard of hungry termites on a piece of damp wood, it eats away at our emotional and relational integrity until there’s nothing left but dust and regret. But here’s the great...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re diving into a new series called The Theology of ROAR – that’s an acronym for Rebellion, Oppression, Asking for God’s Forgiveness, and Restoration. And you’re going to need to buckle your seat belts for this one because we’re taking an exegetical tour through a really tumultuous time in redemptive history when there was no king on the throne,...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to dive deep into a miraculous, modern story that highlights how God can take what seem to be the absolute ruins of a life and restore them into a spiritual leader. Sometimes we forget that Abraham was a lunar worshipper before God tapped him to be the father of a theocracy; that Moses was guilty of homicide before God tapped him to le...

We can hardly believe we’ve come to the end of this series called the Theology of Worship! I hope it’s encouraged you as much as it’s encouraged us. Sometimes I found myself white-knuckling it in order to hang onto love, joy, peace and hope during all the public discord and rancor of 2024, so it’s been really lovely to start out 2025 with this deep dive into worship. It’s been like an oasis, where...