Shifting Culture

In this episode, Charles Martin and I explore the crucifixion of Jesus and its profound impact on his life and faith. Charles shares a powerful personal experience encountering the site of Jesus' scourging in Jerusalem, which gave him new insight into both God's wrath towards sin and his limitless love shown through Christ's sacrifice. We talk about struggling to comprehend the dept...

In this episode, Craig Detweiler and I have a great conversation around creativity, faith, and storytelling. We talk about how creativity reflects the nature of God and is a godly activity, the differences between humans and AI, and the importance of recognizing humanity. We talk about perceiving inspiration through openness to God's spirit and finding quiet moments, the role of criticism and...

In this episode, Irwyn Ince and I talk about hope in the context of race, oppression, community, and lament. He inspires us to persevere in hope through difficult times. We explore the roots of hope in Christ despite past rejections, detangling oppressive actions from the gospel message, and the importance of fixing one's gaze on Jesus and enduring through suffering by looking to his example....

In this episode, Wai Jia Tam shares her incredible story of discovering Jesus and following Him despite facing many obstacles and setbacks along the way. Wai Jia grew up in a Buddhist home in Singapore but had a powerful encounter with God as a teenager that set her on a journey of faith. She shares about her experiences serving in Nepal as a young woman and how God provided in amazing ways. Wai J...

In this episode, Alan Fadling talks about his journey with anxiety and how he has learned to manage it through deepening his faith in God. Alan shares practical tools like meditation on scripture and spiritual disciplines that have helped redirect his anxious thoughts and feelings towards peace. Joshua and Alan discuss how communities can come together through practices like communion to collectiv...

In this episode, Andi Andrew and I have a conversation around transition and change. We dive into hearing God’s voice, discerning the Holy Spirit, paying attention to the signs, and knowing when to jump and be brave in the midst of change. We build our foundation on the rock as we reflect on the story at the end of the sermon of the mount that Jesus tells about the wise and foolish builder. And we...

In this episode, Preston Sprinkle and I have a great conversation around being exiles in the shadow of the empire. He wants us to know that this nation that we are living in – no matter what nation in the world it is not my primary political identity – the Kingdom of God is. The church is a political entity itself. We dive into Romans 13, examples of the church being faithful to Jesus while taking...

In this episode, Joy Clarkson and I have a great conversation around the metaphors that shape our faith. We talk about rootedness when we are on the move. We get into bad metaphors we like to use that are harming the way we view ourselves – like we are a machine and cancer is a battle. We talk about paying attention to the season that we are in and the fruit that comes in time and in season. We ta...

In this episode, Nijay Gupta and I go back to the first century. In the Roman-Greco culture there were gods everywhere, blood and smoke from their sacrifices filled the air, icons of gods were on every corner. And here come the Christians – believers in the unseen, in the supremacy of Jesus, in the finished sacrifice of Jesus, meeting in homes instead of temples and the culture around them thought...

In this episode, Emily P. Freeman and I have a great conversation around decision making, discernment and how to know when to stay and when to go. We walk through a four step discernment process telling stories of how it works: pointing and calling, remember your path, acknowledge presence, and yield to the arrows. Our decisions are made in the moment, but our character is formed along the way, so...

Sarah Bessey's latest book is Field Notes for the Wilderness. And telling you that it is my favorite book I’ve ever read is no exaggeration. I love this book. It’s full of grace and love and welcome. I could go on and on. You need to get it. Like right now and then pull up a chair in front of the fire with a warm cup and go deep into the beauty and wonder of Sarah’s writing. In this episode,...

In this episode, Lance Ford discusses the need to re-examine traditional views of Christian leadership and put Jesus back in his rightful place as head of the church. He traces the evolution of modern leadership theory and its influence on churches. Ford and host Joshua Johnson explore biblical models of servant leadership and equipping others. We emphasize distributing responsibility throughout t...

In this episode, Jessica Hooten Wilson and I go deep in her ten year project of reckoning with Flannery O’Connor’s unpublished and unfinished 3rd novel Why Do the Heathen Rage? Jessica shares insights into Flannery’s writing process, themes in her fiction, her perspectives on race and social justice. She talks about reading O’Connor with charity and how that can provide new insights. We get into l...

In this episode, Brian and I have a conversation around the cross of Jesus and his latest book The Wood Between the Worlds. It’s a deep conversation around suffering and putting to shame the powers and principalities. We talk about the multi-faceted meaning of the cross and view it through a kaleidoscope, so we can uncover more and more depth of meaning. We talk about the Kingdom, galvanizing arou...

In this episode, Curt Thompson and I have a great discussion around his book The Deepest Place. We talk about how secure attachment to God and others can help root and ground us in a place that enables us to move through suffering and find hope. We need to be in loving relationship with one another because we are the embodied presence of Jesus to each other. We have hope because we have a God that...

In this episode, Peter Greer and I have a great conversation around the book Lead with Prayer. We dive into the gift that prayer is. We talk through group discernment through listening and prayer, new postures that can aid our prayer life, carrying the culture of prayer, so we can help transform others. We marvel at the joy and hope that comes through suffering and the embodied presence of Jesus w...

In this episode, Terry Crist and I have a great conversation and tell a lot of stories of engaging others in a way that brings dignity, relationship, curiosity, and hope. How can we love our enemies? How can we follow the better way of Jesus that brings hope? How can we in our fractured world have conversations of truth full of grace, seasoned with compassion? How do we pursue the way of peacemaki...

In this conversation, Cameron Doolittle and I have a conversation around leading with prayer, getting organizations to not just slap on a prayer before and after a meeting as an after thought, but to actually implement a culture of prayer that produces fruit that is only possible if we abide in the vine. Because if we aren’t praying, we can’t multiply prayer because you can’t multiply by zero. We...

In this episode, Ingrid Faro and I try to demystify evil. Ingrid shares her harrowing story of abuse from her first husband, how the church wasn’t helpful in the midst of it, how her second husband died, how she lost everything and was even homeless for awhile. As evil invaded her life, so much so that she didn’t want to go on living, she went on a journey to discover the goodness of God? Is He go...

In this episode, Ryan Skoog and I have an incredible conversation about leading with prayer. As Ryan and his teams go to the toughest places on earth, they have to rely on prayer. It’s crucial. But prayer isn’t just for the people on the front lines in hard places. It’s for us all. We learn from the global church what an intentional prayer life looks like. We talk about wasting our time with Jesus...

In this episode, David Fitch and I reckon with power in this conversation. We talk about worldly power versus Godly power. What’s the difference? Why do we need a new relationship with power? We talk about mutual submission, engaging the table for reconciliation and justice, non-coercive evangelism. We even engage in a conversation around power dynamics and the Middle East. It’s a fantastic conver...

In this episode, Meghan Larissa Good and I have a great discussion around themes from her latest book Divine Gravity. How can we enter into a new reformation that helps the body of Christ look more like Jesus? Jesus can lead us into this new place and time. We can disagree with each other and still have unity. We can follow the discernment of the Holy Spirit. We can have a cross-shaped power which...

In this episode, Blaine Eldredge and I look at the Bible in a new light, so we can see the stories come alive and we can fall in love with them once again. Blaine is a fantastic storyteller and he helps us see how we can follow Jesus in a time of decline, what we can learn from history for our time and place, and how we can eliminate the familiarity with which we read the Bible. Join us as we disc...

In this episode, Nadya Williams and I talk through her book Cultural Christians in the Early Church. Did you know that cultural Christianity has been a problem from the beginning? Giving in to worldly power and praise, apostasy and divisions in the church, Christian Nationalism, celebrity culture. All of these things and more are problems the early church dealt with and we still deal with them tod...

It’s the best of 2023! We are going to count down the most listened to episodes of the past year and I am going to countdown my favorite books of the year.  But before we dive in, I just have to say thank you – thank you to you, the listener. I have so enjoyed making this podcast and having the conversations I’m having, but without you there wouldn’t be a podcast. So keep listening. Keep spreading...