Ronnie McBrayer

"Let's get this over with." That's what Elvis Presley said just before recording the now classic Christmas song, "Blue Christmas." In this talk Ronnie talks about how the holidays can have that exact effect on us, but how we can still find lasting joy for this season and beyond.

This talk fuses the Apostle Paul with Emily Dickinson and the need of all our hearts: Hope. Using Dickinson's image of hope as a bird that sings and Paul's encouragement that God finishes the work that God begins, Ronnie delivers timely words for Advent and beyond. 

Ronnie concludes his talk on the story of Naaman and Elisha from 2 Kings 5, focusing on gratitude - and how it is often the best medicine to cure what ails us.

The story of Naaman and Elisha falls on our ears like a simple Sunday school tale. Yet, it's far more tangled than that. Based on 2 Kings 5, this is the first part in Ronnie's exploration of Naaman's healing, the complexities that surround the story, and the implications for each of us today.

In the second part of his talk, "Sick and Tired" - which could be subtitled, "A Deal With the Devil," Ronnie talks about consequence, shares thoughts on divine punishment, and how we all come to a crossroads with the choice to wipe the slate clean. Legendary bluesman Robert Johnson is featured as well.

Visiting the man at the pool of Bethesda and connecting that story from the Gospels with Fannie Lou Hamer and how we all desire change, Ronnie talks about how we must become "sick and tired of being sick and tired" before real transformation is possible.

In this conclusion to his series of talks on "letting go," Ronnie talks about surrendering the future: "Make your plans - sure. Set some goals. That’s good. Use some common sense and apply some hard-earned wisdom. You’re going to need that. And then, when all your plans are made, your goals have been adapted to melodic slogans and website catch-phrases, and you have wisely and sincerely anticipate...

"One of the hardest things to let go of is the past, because surrendering the past usually involves forgiveness...Forgiveness doesn’t mean that what happened to you is now and suddenly, okay. It means that you are giving up your power to make it, okay. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that justice should not be sought. It means that achieving justice is ultimately out of your hands. Forgiveness doesn’t me...

"God said it, I believe it, and that settles it!” God might have said it - but now God is unsaying it. Or maybe God didn’t say it at all? Maybe we were just told that God said it. Maybe there is more fluidity to belief than foundation. Maybe there is more mystery and movement to our convictions than surety and certainty. Maybe keeping the faith is more about staying on the path - Jesus is the way,...

Ego. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Religious Extremism. Wild Horses. Find out what all these have in common in the fifth installment of Ronnie's current series, "Try Something Different: Surrender."

“Look at me…I am the captain now.” That was the iconic and improvised line delivered by Barkhad Abdi to Tom Hanks in the film, "Captain Phillips." It is a line, an attitude, used by us all - not of personal autonomy or personal liberty. It is a question of control. We all want to be in the captain’s chair. Ronnie explores this theme in his fourth installment of the current series.

This is Part 3 of Ronnie's latest series: Try Something Different, Surrender. In this episode Ronnie confronts our "rights-driven" culture, in light of the self-limiting, self-surrendering Jesus. He concludes that to take the attitude of Christ, we must "give up on all we think you deserve...we stop worrying about reputation...about trying to prove something. We stop clinging to our place at the f...

This is Part 2 of Ronnie's latest series: Try Something Different, Surrender. He answers these crucial questions: What is Jesus after from us? What does God want? What is it that we need to let go and surrender? The answer to all of these questions is ego and pride. Self-centeredness is the biggest barrier to our spiritual development; the biggest roadblock preventing us from following Jesus and b...

Drawing inspiration from Jesus' words to his disciples, the mediations of Meister Eckhart, and an ancient poem by Rumi, Ronnie launches an ambition series of talks entitled: "Try Something Different: Surrender." In this introductory talk, Ronnie speaks to the "how" of surrender and letting go, and the role that suffering plays in our transformation.

Ronnie has a conversation with ethicist, distinguished professor, author, and pastor Dr. David Gushee. David's new book is entitled, "Leaving Evangelicalism." 

Ronnie completes his thoughts from a previous episode, concentrating on the necessity of surrender as the only means to achieve personal peace.

Ronnie returns and relaunches his podcast after months away recovering from Covid-19. He leads with a question, "When you come up against something that undoes you; that hurts you; that knocks you off your game; that pulls the curtains back on your vulnerabilities and your fragility: What are you going to do?"

In his conclusion to the book of Ruth, Ronnie illustrates how hope is the product of God’s work and human will.

In the fourth installment of his series on the book of Ruth, Ronnie uses events from Naomi and Ruth's life to illustrate that after you have done all you can do, you have to do the hardest thing of all: You have to wait - because waiting is as much a part of hope as working. Sometimes the work is the waiting.

In his third installment on the Book of Ruth, Ronnie reminds us to throw ourselves on the providence and possibilities of God. But hope is a verb. It moves you. It keeps us pointed in a God-ward direction. 

In this second installment from the Book of Ruth, Ronnie connects the biblical story to the statesman Vaclaz Havel: "Hope is not optimism. It is a state of mind. It is the certainty that life has meaning, regardless of how it turns out…I am not an optimist, because I am not sure everything will end well. I just carry hope in my heart."

In this creative introduction to his series on the book of Ruth, Ronnie retells her story in a contemporary context, inviting the listener to reimagine her journey. Carry Hope in Your Heart is a five-part series.

With this sincere and earnest talk Ronnie takes on the myth of a Christian nation and the heresy of attempted violence to accomplish some good end.

Beginning with that Southern saying for every occasion and ending with the "Raising of the Hands," Ronnie gives a talk about receiving and extending God's highest blessing.

With a timely appeal given the New Year, Ronnie reminds listeners of how the seasons of our lives are bound to change - and how time and action are of the essence.