Pod Have Mercy

Dr. Rick Ngo is a private practice general surgeon with Southwest Surgical Associates. Dr. Ngo maintains clinics in Houston’s Memorial community, southwest Houston, and Katy. While people may assume we would have Rick on our podcast to discuss medical issues, Rick has an amazing life testimony that is timely as we see all that is happening in Afghanistan.  Rick's father and mother brought his...

Pastor Michael Gienger has a vision of building a community at Galveston Central Church, where all are welcome, regardless of socioeconomic status.  Today, Michael joins us in studio to talk about the work he is doing in Galveston. We talk about the state of the church, Aphasia and how Michael has led during the pandemic.  http://galvestoncentralchurch.com

Amir Safi is from College Station and is based out of Houston, Texas. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University. He is the co-founder of Mic Check 501(c)3, the Texas Grand Slam Poetry Festival and the founder of Write About Now. He is a 2017 Houston Poet Laureate Finalist, a 2013 and 2015 Southern Fried Poetry Slam Champion, a 2013 National Slam Poetry semi-finalist and his work has been featur...

Today Xach Blunt is the guest host of the podcast. John and Xach discuss the idea of waking up to God and finding him in everyday life. Xach shares how he creates his poetry and what it means to look at scripture with a creative lens. 

This week John gets an update from Dr. Marc Boom on the current state of Covid cases in Houston. John and Matt discuss some of the data points from the Texas Medical Center and their personal thoughts on the resurgence of positive Covid cases. 

Today we are joined by Donna Wotkyns!  Donna has worked with CIS for 19 years, serving students on high school campuses for many years before becoming Director of Development. She attended Southern Methodist University for her undergraduate studies and then graduated with her master’s from the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Donna’s dedication to CIS comes from her love...

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie is a retired Bishop of The United Methodist Church. She is a former president of the Council of Bishops. She serves with the Texas Methodist Foundation in the area of Leadership Formation, following twenty years as a bishop of the United Methodist Church. Previously, she served as bishop of the Texas Annual Conference and the Arkansas Conference. This week the guys talk w...

This week we invited kids to come up with their toughest questions for John and Matt! The guys discuss ways we can debrief the pandemic with our children and some helpful questions we can ask each other.  https://www.grwhealth.com/post/debriefing-the-pandemic-with-your-kids-how-to-approach-the-new-normal https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/joyful-parenting/202103/simple-ways-debrief-the-p...

Rudy Rasmus is a pastor, author, and humanitarian. He co-pastors the St. John’s United Methodist Church located in Downtown Houston with his wife Juanita. St. John's began with 9 members in 1992, and is now one of the most culturally diverse congregations in the country. Today's podcast comes to you from Rudy's coffee shop, Throughgood Coffee, located in the Heights.  Rudy and the guys discus...

Matt Miofsky is the Lead Pastor of The Gathering in St. Louis, Missouri. Since Matt founded The Gathering in 2006, it has grown into a thriving multi-site congregation with three locations scattered throughout St. Louis and a vibrant online presence. The Gathering was recently named the 3rd fastest growing United Methodist Church in the U.S.  The guys talk to Matt about vulnerability, how he...

Robert Hilliker, LCSW-S, LCDC received his Master’s degree from the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work. Following graduation Robert pursued additional training working as a Post-Graduate Social Work Fellow at The Menninger Clinic. He then completed a two-year fellowship at the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies. Currently, Robert is a doctoral candidate at the Institute for Cli...

Melanie Russell was a victim of domestic abuse for many years before she encountered an organization called Care Net in Waco, Texas. Our paths crossed with Melanie's recently and she immediately began to tell us about Care Net and how God has radically transformed her life. In this conversation she explains how God spoke to her through an unexpected source and how she escaped her abusive relations...

We kick off season 3 with a special episode on location in Waco, Texas. John and Matt are joined by the new Director of Student Ministry at Chapelwood. We talk about the work that Chapelwood is doing in Waco, pastoring youth in 2021 and some special moments from the Summit missions trip. 

This week John and Matt talk about the ladder of inference and leaps of abstraction. First proposed by Chris Argyris, way back in 1970, the ladder of inference is a way of describing how you move from a piece of data (a comment made to you, or something that you have observed to happen), through a series of mental processes to a conclusion. We discuss how this method can be used in our culture to...

This week John and Matt talk about the Derek Chauvin case, racial inequities and practicing peace amidst the fear of change. 

This week John and Matt look at some statistics around church attendance during the pandemic and the importance of spiritual and mental health. 

Mark Labberton was named the fifth president of Fuller Seminary in 2013, after four years as Fuller’s Lloyd John Ogilvie Associate Professor of Preaching and director of the Ogilvie Institute of Preaching. He holds an MDiv from Fuller and a PhD in Theology from Cambridge University. Today we continue to dive into conversations around change within the church on a local and global level. As the pre...

This week John and Josef talk about the resurrection story ahead of Easter weekend. They touch on current struggles in Texas and our world and how the graves in our lives usually exist within a garden.  Easter At Chapelwood

This week we are joined by Bishop Cynthia Harvey. Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey is the Resident Bishop of the Louisiana Area, which includes the Conference in the South Central Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church. We talk about the future of the United Methodist Church and Bishop Harvey's experience leading during this time.  Bishop Cynthia Harvey

Adam Hamilton is senior pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. The Church Report named Hamilton’s congregation the most influential mainline church in America, and he preached at the National Prayer Service as part of the presidential inauguration festivities in 2013. Hamilton is the best-selling and award-winning author of The Call, Making Sense of the Bible...

For most of us, captivity can be a physical experience. But more likely for us, captivity is an experience that is based in the spiritual, emotional, psychological, or relational aspects of life. This week John and Matt talk about lent and the feeling of captivity during COVID. 

Today we are joined by Justin Posey. Justin is the Creative Director for Jesus Culture. He is a photographer, graphic designer and social media content creator. We discuss how the church can use social media to spread the gospel and how Jesus Culture is focusing on personal connections instead of celebrity christianity.  Justin's Website Justin's Instagram 

John and Matt reflect on one year of podcasting, the origins and their hopes for the next year. 

Today we welcome Tod Bolsinger to the podcast! Tod Bolsinger is the Vice-President for Vocation and Formation and Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary. For seventeen years, he was the Senior Pastor of San Clemente Presbyterian Church in San Clemente, California, after serving for ten years at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood. He earned a Ph. D. in Theology...

John's brother, Pastor Matt Stephens, joins us on this week's podcast. Matt Stephens is the pastor of The Fort in Columbus, Georgia. John and Matt talk about their childhood, answer some brotherly trivia questions and discuss what it's like to pastor during a pandemic.