Pastor Writer: Conversations on Reading, Writing, and the Christian Life

Jonathan Hardy has a passion for helping local churches reach their communities. He has served in various pastoral roles and now helps lead two online platforms, training and equipping pastors and local churches: Leaders.church and Church University. Jonathan recently released his first book, Arrow Striker: Live with Purpose and Leave an Eternal Impact… Every single Day. He joins me to talk about...

Aaron Damiani serves as the lead pastor of Immanuel Anglican Church in Chicago and is the author of Earth Filled with Heaven: Finding Life in Liturgy, Sacraments and other Ancient Practices of the Church . Aaron writes and regularly speaks about spiritual formation, leadership, and recovering the gifts of the ancient church for today’s challenges. Aaron and his wife Laura live with their four kids...

Jim Cymbala has been a pastor for more than fifty years at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. He has a strong burden for the local church and has been blessed with the opportunity to encourage thousands of pastors around the globe. He is the bestselling author of Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire and several other titles. His next book, Fan the Flame , will release in September 2022. He joins me to talk about the book...

Chris Nye is a doctoral student at Duke University’s Divinity School and the author of Distant God and Less of More . For fifteen years, he has served as a local church pastor. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, and various other publications. He recently released a new book, A Captive Mind, Christianity, Ideologies, and Staying Sane in a Wor...

Jonathan Dodson is the founding pastor of City Life Church in Austin, TX which he started with his wife, and a small group of people. He is also the founder of Gospel-Centered Discipleship.com , which produces resources to help make, mature, and multiply disciples of Jesus. He is the author of a number of books, including Here in Spirit , The Unbelievable Gospel and Gospel-Centered Discipleship ....

Scott Sauls is senior pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Before serving in Nashville, he served with Tim Keller at New York City's Redeemer Presbyterian Church as a lead and preaching pastor. In addition to his books, Scott's work has been featured in Christianity Today, Relevant Magazine, The Gospel Coalition, as well as other publications. Scott Joins me to talk about h...

Trevin Wax is vice president of research and resource development at the North American Mission Board and a visiting professor at Wheaton College. A former missionary to Romania, Trevin is a regular columnist at The Gospel Coalition and has contributed to The Washington Post , Religion News Service , World , and Christianity Today , which named him one of 33 millennials shaping the next generation...

I believe it is a truth that a mother is made over a matter of months, but you always become a father in a single moment. I remember that moment well. The birth of our first child was full of complications. Hours of labor were induced by a rising blood pressure, alternating cycles of magnesium and then Pitocin, and platelet levels too low for an epidural. After being diagnosed with preeclampsia an...

Jessica Hooten Wilson is Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas. She is the author of several books, including Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov, which received a 2018 Christianity Today book of the year in arts and culture award. She writes on the great books and literature, including O’Connor, Doestovesky, and Walker Percy. She has a ne...

Jay Kim serves as the lead pastor at WestGate Church in the Silicon Valley and on the leadership team of the ReGeneration Project . His writing has been featured in Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, Missio Alliance,   and Relevant Magazine. He lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and two children. It’s Jay’s second time on the podcast. We previously discussed his first book, Analog Church...

Daniel Grothe is the associate senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He is a pastor, speaker, drummer, and author of Chasing Wisdom and The Power of Place. Daniel and his wife, Lisa, live on a hobby farm outside of Colorado Springs with their three children and a whole lot of animals. 

Andrew Klavan is an award-winning writer, screenwriter, and media commentator. An internationally bestselling novelist and two-time Edgar Award winner, Klavan is also a contributing editor to City Journal, the magazine of the Manhattan Institute, and the host of a popular podcast on DailyWire.com , The Andrew Klavan Show. His essays and opeds on politics, religion, movies, and literature have appe...

Chris Martin is a content marketing editor at Moody Publishers and a social media, marketing, and communications consultant. He writes regularly in his newsletter, Terms of Service, and just published a book by the same name with B&H Publishing. Chris lives outside Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and their daughter. Chris asks listeners a simple question.  Do we use social media, or are we...

Jason Patterson is the lead pastor of Parkside Church in Fisher, IN. Before founding the church he traveled widely speaking at churches and events. Jason lives with his wife and three children in Indianapolis. He’s also a long-time friend and the author of a new book, From Your Biggest Fan. He joins me to discuss optimism and a pastor's responsibility for believing in people. 

Russ is a pastor and author living in Nashville, Tennessee. His books include Struck , and the Retelling the Story Series . He joins me today to talk about his soon-to-be-released new book, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith. Aside from his books, Russ has written for The Rabbit Room , The Gospel Coalition , Crossway , among other blogs, podcasts, and printed...

This week, The 5 Masculine Instincts is finally released. If you haven't bought a copy yet, it would mean a lot to me if you would consider it. I also wanted to say thanks for your willingness to spend the last eight weeks listening and thinking about The 5 Masculine Instincts. In this final episode, we'll be wrapping things up and discussing the time it takes to grow in character and as...

Having learned about the 5 masculine instincts, you might be wondering, what comes next? What should I do with what I've learned? We'll take a closer look at Paul's advice to Timothy about how to watch your life and doctrine closely. We'll see how the Christian gospel offers a different path to character and why character is best infused into our life by the power of the gospel...

Shakespeare recorded man's fifth stage as a retreat. He uses the phrase, the world now too wide. He captured what is a natural instinct for so many men, apathy.  The longer we live the more we realize how little control we have. The world feels increasingly complicated and ourselves increasingly less capable of fixing it. We naturally begin to disengage and retreat into hobbies and comfort. D...

Shakespeare described this fourth stage as the professionals. The man now dresses the part, cuts his beard, and says what is expected. By this point in his life, he has achieved some success and with it a reputation, a reputation he cares more and more about protecting.  That instinct is central to the lives of both Saul and David as they struggle to live into the expectations of their throne whil...

 Shakespeare described the third stage of man as a warrior, quick to quarrel, given to strange oaths, and determined to change the world. He is a man of ambition. But ambition can be a perplexing experience. One minute, ambition swells us with a sense of divine calling and optimism, the next it leaves us discouraged and disillusioned. Nowhere is that experience more clear than in the life of Moses...

Shakespeare described man’s second stage as the lover. He was describing a romantic view of life that is driven by a need for adventure, quests, and experience. Samson was driven by this romantic need for adventure. Restless and determined to find himself, he constantly wandered off to Philistia.  Through his story, we come to realize how easily we abandon what God is doing looking for our own sto...

Shakespeare described the first stage as the reluctant schoolboy, dragging himself to school. He is you and immature and perhaps worst doesn't realize it. We find his companion in the story of Cain, the firstborn of creation and equally reluctant to take up God's divine lessons. Sarcasm can be funny but often it serves as a tool to mask contempt. We'll take a closer look at the inst...

Shakespeare described the world as a stage and pointed out that a man plays many parts throughout his life. Shakespeare's stages helped me start to recognize some of these unique instincts at work in myself and the men I know. But I also began to recognize them in the men of the Bible.  If you read the Biblical stories carefully, it becomes clear that the men of the Bible don't make for...

In this new 9-part series, we're taking a closer look at The 5 Masculine Instincts. The series will lead us up to the book's launch on March 1, 2022.  In our first conversation, we discuss the question of men and meat, how masculinity has become so controversial, and why men feel a sense of cultural malaise.  If you're interested in the book, you can learn more by visiting the5mascu...