Marc Jolicoeur (aka "Jolly Thoughts")

In less than a month, The Wesleyan Church will be holding their 14th General Conference in St Louis, Missouri (live-streamed across the globe, for anyone interested ), and for some of you reading these words, this is a big deal. For others, you literally couldn’t care less. I empathize with both reactions, even though I’m firmly in the former camp, and my hope is that if you make it through this c...

On this episode of the podcast I finally land a solid excuse to chat with friend and thought-wizard Jeremy MacDonald .  Since he has lots of history working directly with students and now pours out his life working with people who themselves work with students, his perspective on rites of passage for young people and how they learn to “adult” in our current contexts is worth mining.  We open thing...

Will Smith thought what Chris Rock was saying was a joke until he saw Jada’s response . New info caused him to reevaluate… which caused him to slap a man across the face. In this episode of the podcast, I talk about the concept often known as the hermeneutic circle , and how it’s not ONLY important for Bible scholars and philosophers, but also for anyone who’s got road rage or uncouth uncles. I re...

You guys, I am so jazzed this week to present what has turned out to be the first part of a (at least) two-parter with Dr Brannon Hancock from Wesley Seminary. I first stumbled across Brannon’s work via this talk which he gave for Wesley Seminary’s webinar series, a presentation that instantaneously had me enthralled. The types of questions we setup in this conversation centre around the technolog...

“The reader must have patience with me, as I have with myself when writing about things of which I know nothing; for really I sometimes take up my paper, like a perfect fool, with no idea of what to say or how to begin.” (Mansion I, Chapter II) For the last number of years, I have tended to drift off to sleep at night by reading a little from a book.  Depending upon how tired I am, the amount of t...

In this episode of the podcast, we revisit a sermon I preached not that long ago about the Wisdom of Job (as part of Moncton Wesleyan ’s “Finding Wisdom” series). Oh, and I chat about some of the reading I’ve done this week on holiday. First up was Jon Hurd’s Jesus Farted (and Other Uncomfortable Thoughts) , which I was pleasantly surprised by. What I was more so surprisingly surprised by was my r...

FIRST THINGS FIRST: Is my son right? Did God “create” his (current) favourite video game platform, Roblox ? He’s got an argument to try and prove it (which I outline near the top of this pod), but… I’m not convinced. You? Comment & let me know! Beyond that philosophical query, in this episode we also talk a little about Aleksander Solzhenitsyn’s “ Gulag Archipelago ”, specifically this quote: “…le...

Almost two weeks ago, I was fortunate to have had a conversation with interdisciplinary scholar (and hyper-specialist in Canadian evangelicalism) Dr John Stackhouse .  He and I literally live down the road from each other, yet haven’t really chatted before this, and so it was a great opportunity to ask him some questions and get to hear part of his story.  We talk about the university where he cur...

Howdy folks! This episode is a bit of an unusual one, in that it’s a conglomeration of two previously recorded conversations ( this one and this one ) that were recorded as part of an arts fest that we run hubbed out of our local church we’re calling “ Imagine ‘22 ”. This year’s rendition will go “live” on Saturday, Feb 19th, at 7pm AST (and will remain online thereafter), so you should definitely...

On this episode of the podcast I catch up with everyone’s friend, the magnanimous Paul Baloche !  Paul has written worship songs that can now rightly be called “ classics ”, and yet is also still active in the scene.  Not only is he a writer and a leader, though, he is also a pastor, and that shepherd’s heart is on full display in this conversation.  We have a wide-ranging conversation about speci...

On this episode I record an “official” chat with my longtime unofficial conversation partner, Dennis Prescott .  It would not take much Googling to find out who this man is, but an excellent place to start looking for him is probably Instagram (even though he’s got a handy presence on most socials).  He’s a creative in the food space, yet he’s also worked on several humanitarian fronts, and he and...

In this episode of the Jolly Thoughts podcast I’m joined by University president / Biblical scholar / all-around good-guy Dr Steve Lennox.  We talk about “the abyss” of scripture, the double-edgedness of the Reformation(s), when one becomes educated “enough”, and… well, a lot of other things that I found quite interesting, and perhaps you will too! Thank you for engaging with this conversation! Th...

Welcome to Episode Thirteen of the Jolly Thoughts podcast!  On this episode we chat with worship leader / songwriter / neuroscience-enthusiast Elias Dummer about anglocostalism, the chemical effects of group singing, the latin etymology of the word “performance”, and… a heavy handful of other things. If the main kernel of this conversation interests you, I’d encourage you to check out some of Elia...

On today’s episode, I read excerpts from an article I just republished about the similarities & distinctions between a church and The Church, and I talk about why that might matter now as much as ever, if not even slightly-more-than at some times in our past. If you’re tracking along with this conversation at all, I would really value hearing from you: In what ways does the definition of a church...

As we move into 2022, I muse on the idea of what you’d want to distract yourself with on your deathbed (and whether or not it should be the morally questionable antics of Jerry & his gang), I read an article I just typed out , and I give you a micro-heads-up for what’s comin’ down the pipe… all in FIFTEEN MINUTES!!! Get full access to Marc Jolicoeur (aka Jolly Thoughts) at marcjolicoeur.substack.c...

Merriest of Christmases to you!!! On today’s episode I open up a little about why this Christmas is extra-bitter-sweet, I provide some background as to why “O Holy Night” is a little extra-saucy as far as Christmas songs go, and I play another one of the ol’ Christmas classics I’ve been able to retackle over the years. Link to the video version of this “Songs We Pray” — Link to The Silent’s “O Com...

Greetings my friends! On this week’s episode I wax ineloquently on the rhetorical effectiveness of sharing inflammatory memes online. Below, you will see the meme I reference in the pod. Also, here’s the link to Schenck’s exhaust ive (not exhaust ing) look at logical fallacies , here are the links to the Outpost Theology pod and the Conversation On Contemporary Worship pod I reference, and since M...

Y’all, we got a wide-ranging and exciting conversation on this episode with none other than Marc Martel, a fellow French-speaking Canadian with a “c” where the “k” so often goes.  Marc spent a long time as the co-frontman for the band Downhere , and now he travels the world wowing audiences with the Ultimate Queen Celebration.   He’s got at least one video on YouTube with like 50 million hits … oh...

This week, I had the opportunity to connect with author, podcaster, and esteemed professor over at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, sir Josh McNall . My partner in crime ( Mike Tapper ) and I were being interviewed for his excellent podcast , and so I seized the chance to turn the tables and ask him a few questions about his most recent book, Perhaps , one of the few books I’ve ever “pre-ordered”......

Happy American Thanksgiving! Hey, what better way to celebrate than by assessing just how much we can trust our educational institutions??? In today’s episode, I converse with my friend and mentor, Dr Ken Schenck , about a few things, but primarily about Tom Nichols ’ book “The Death Of Expertise” … and Ken does NOT mince many words ‘bout it. I found this book to be quite generative, such that I d...

Guys, episode five (?) features a ranging conversation with fellow Maritimer, Tanya Nace , about her experience and research into the state of senior female leadership in our home denomination, The Wesleyan Church… and it’s a doozy. Hope you find it enlightening, challenging, and encouraging. In it, I reference this article I wrote about Beth Allison Barr’s “ The Making Of Biblical Womanhood ”, if...

In this episode of the podcast I reflect a little on why I think Dr Aaron Perry’s new book ( Kairos Care ) is important for all of us, then I chat with him briefly about it, and close off by reading an article I wrote a few weeks back about the fragility of retrojectivity. Fun! Get full access to Marc Jolicoeur (aka Jolly Thoughts) at marcjolicoeur.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s episode is an interview with Dr Steve Dunmire, who is a teaching pastor at (what is, at the time of publication called) Watermark Wesleyan Church in Hamburg NY, and has done adjunct professor work in several avenues, including Houghton College (which is where we met). He’s a father of 4, a husband of 1 (Tammy)... and a Eugene Peterson super-fan, thus today’s conversation.  He’s on Twit...

Here’s a 2nd kick at the podcast can, looking at an ooooooldie but a strangie, “The Shepherd of Hermas”. For the accompanying article, check out this link . Oh, and I mention Halloween, but nothing about my favourite candy… what’s YOUR favourite candy??? Get full access to Marc Jolicoeur (aka Jolly Thoughts) at marcjolicoeur.substack.com/subscribe

I hesitate to call this an “episode”, but since it’s the label most often thrown around for podcastery, here we are! Consider it a bit of an intro on “Why podcast?”, a bit of a rambling about “What ‘podcast’?”, and then a trial of a format of me reading through a post I wrote last week, reflections on Douglas Murray’s Madness Of Crowds . Leeeeeet me know y’all’s thoughts! Get full access to Marc J...