Reticent Theology

In this episode, I talk about a season of major transition in my life, losing my job unexpectedly and looking for new work. I share some of the small but meaningful changes I’ve been making, like cutting back on caffeine, baking bread for my kids, and trying to model a life of responsibility and compassion by serving people in our local homeless community. I also reflect on the importance of emoti...

In this second part, I explore the  hidden weight teens carry every day —questions about God, family fracture, the future, identity, stress, media, and substances. Drawing from pediatric and mental-health research alongside lived pastoral experience, the episode names doubts without shaming them and acknowledges brokenness without idealizing quick fixes. Rather than trying to “solve” teenagers, th...

In this episode, I walk through some of the most common, and most misunderstood, issues teenagers are navigating today. My goal isn’t to shame. It’s to foster curiosity, compassion, and hospitality. So often faith leaders present themselves as bouncers keeping people at a distance with their postured position of hostility…instead I want to be a good table guest with good table manners recognizing...

In this episode of Reticent Theology , I begin by sharing a song called “Paradise,” which I wrote for a student while on a mission trip. The song wrestles with a tension I think all of us feel, the deep longing for paradise and the quieter truth that so often the thing standing in the way is our own desires. Drawing from the book of James, I reflect on how those desires pull us in different direct...

In this episode I focus on how to build a positive class culture through relationship. The first day, "Kindness and Words," emphasized the power of words (Proverbs 16:24; 18:21) to either bless others, who are made in the likeness of God, or to tear them down. This lesson was vividly illustrated by asking students if they are "barfing up" curses or "sweet things" (like honey/insect barf) onto othe...

In this first episode of  Reticent Theology , I reflect on what it means to walk with God again after a season of trauma, loss, and rebuilding. I talk about the meaning of “reticent,” how the wilderness becomes a spiritual landscape, and why I now think of myself as a “failed admirer” of God...yet still someone who reaches for Scripture with hope. Along the way, I draw inspiration from  Beneath a...