Soil and Roots

Why do many Christians find support for learning about God but little guidance when faith becomes difficult, disorienting, or deeply personal? Brian is joined by spiritual director Rhonda Jenkins and pastor and coach David Smith to discuss the previous episode (The Story Beneath), performance-based Christianity, the Wall, double knowledge, spiritual friendship, and the need for communities that ca...

In this bonus episode, Brian steps away from the usual Season 7 format to share the personal story behind Soil & Roots. Episode 144 traces the last five years: betrayal, loss, the dark night of the soul, chronic Lyme disease, financial uncertainty, and the slow emergence of a deeper calling. Brian shares how Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, A.W. Tozer, C.S. Lewis, the Critical Journey, and the...

What do we do when we find ourselves doubting God’s goodness? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 142 by exploring one of the most difficult tensions in deep discipleship: how to affirm God’s goodness while honestly grieving the pain, injustice, and suffering of the world. Doc brings his own struggle into the conversation, naming the friction between ex...

Is God good, and do our hearts actually experience Him that way? In Episode 142, Brian continues Season 7, Deep Calls to Deep, by exploring one of the most powerful hidden ideas many followers of Jesus carry: the suspicion that God may not actually be good. We may consciously affirm God’s goodness, love, mercy, and faithfulness, yet our lived experience can tell another story. Drawing from the Soi...

What if your view of God shapes everything? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 140 on what God is really like and why our deepest ideas of God matter so much. Season 7, Deep Calls to Deep, is exploring how we become people of depth — people who are increasingly attuned to God, others, themselves, and the world. The conversation begins with Richard Fost...

What is God really like? In Episode 140, Brian returns to one of the founding questions of Soil & Roots: what do we actually believe God is like? Not merely what do we say in our creeds, statements of faith, or Bible studies — but what do our hearts assume about Him? Drawing from A.W. Tozer’s claim that our real idea of God may be buried beneath “conventional religious notions,” this episode e...

What if your hidden ideas about God shape your life more than your stated beliefs? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 138 on ideas, beliefs, and the unconscious forces that shape our discipleship. Season 7, Deep Calls to Deep, is exploring how we become people of depth — people who naturally and unconsciously think, act, relate, and lov...

What do you really believe about God? In Episode 138, Brian continues Season 7, Deep Calls to Deep, by returning to one of Soil & Roots' central ideas: our lives are not shaped primarily by what we say we believe, but by the ideas our hearts actually assume. Ideas are the unconscious assumptions, conclusions, and experienced realities that our hearts are rooted in. They sit beneath our bel...

Why do we resist the very love that could heal us? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 136 on receiving God’s love, vulnerability, and the Good Life. Season 7, Deep Calls to Deep, is exploring how we become people of depth — people increasingly formed by the love of God from the inside out. The conversation begins by revisiting the Good...

Why is receiving God’s love so hard? In Episode 136, Brian continues Season 7, Deep Calls to Deep, by exploring one of the central questions of the journey into depth: if God is constantly inviting us into the Good Life, why do so few of us actually experience it? This episode suggests that the doorway into the with-God life is not more striving, better behavior, or additional information. It is v...

What is the Good Life with God? In this first Greenhouse episode of Season 7, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 134, Rediscovering the Good Life. Season 7 is called Deep Calls to Deep, and it asks the central Soil & Roots question: how do we actually become people of depth? This episode begins by clarifying what the Good Life is — and what it is not. The Good...

What kind of life did Jesus actually invite us into? Episode 134 launches Season 7 of Soil & Roots, Deep Calls to Deep, by asking a simple but unsettling question: how do we become people of depth? Before exploring the path, Brian begins with the destination — the Good Life, or what Dallas Willard called the with-God life. The with-God life is not merely being saved, learning more theology, at...

What is deep discipleship? In the Season 6 finale of Soil & Roots, Brian takes a sweeping journey through the core themes we’ve explored over the past three years: The Great Omission, the tension between the head and the heart, the hidden power of ideas, and the invitation to become deep people shaped by divine love. If you are new to Soil & Roots, this may be one of the best episodes to s...

How do young adults become like Jesus in a distracted, anxious, hyperconnected world? In this bonus episode near the close of Season 6, Brian invites his two young adult sons, Caleb and Zach, into a conversation about spiritual formation across generations. Both grew up in church, but both describe a deeper awakening in young adulthood — through hardship, relationships, service, community, and the...

What are you still clutching? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 130 on being rested and relaxed like Jesus. If Jesus is remarkably calm, present, unhurried, and at ease with the Father, then what does that reveal about the kind of people we are becoming? The conversation begins with a simple image: a raccoon trapped because it will not...

What does it mean to be relaxed like Jesus? In Episode 130, Brian continues Season 6, The Object of Our Formation, by exploring one of Jesus’ most surprising characteristics: He is deeply relaxed. Dallas Willard once described Jesus with one word: relaxed. He is not rushed, frantic, controlling, anxious, or hurried. Even in storms, conflict, pressure, confrontation, and suffering, Jesus remains re...

Would Jesus talk to you the way you talk to yourself? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 128 on the gentleness of Jesus by focusing on one often-neglected area: self-gentleness. Most of us would never speak to a friend, spouse, child, or fellow disciple the way we speak to ourselves. Yet our inner talk tracks run all day, quietly shaping how we relate...

What does it really mean to be gentle? In Episode 128, Brian continues Season 6, The Object of Our Formation, by exploring the gentleness of Jesus. Gentleness is often misunderstood as weakness, passivity, softness, or simply being nice. But in Jesus, gentleness is something far stronger. It is power restrained, strength refined, and love expressed with precision. Drawing from Andre the Giant in T...

What does it mean to judge others as a Christian? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 126 on Jesus as judge. Judgment is unavoidable. We judge situations, actions, ideas, motives, culture, and one another every day. The deeper question is whether our judgment reflects the heart of Jesus. The conversation begins by revisiting the larger S...

What does it mean to judge like Jesus? In Episode 126, Brian continues Season 6, The Object of Our Formation, by exploring one of Jesus’ more uncomfortable traits: His role as judge. We all judge, and we all get judged. The question is not whether judgment exists, but whether our judgments are rooted in the ideas of the Kingdom or the hidden ideas and desires of our own hearts. This episode wrestl...

What does relational discernment look like in real life? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Doc, and Reverend Pastor Handsome Kyle continue the conversation from Episode 124 on Jesus’ relational shrewdness. Jesus did not relate to people as categories, problems, projects, or generic members of a crowd. He saw people. He listened beneath the surface. He discerned motives, wounds, hunger, resistance...

What does it mean to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves? In Episode 124, Brian continues Season 6, The Object of Our Formation, by exploring the relational shrewdness of Jesus. Jesus did not relate to everyone the same way. Sometimes He was cryptic. Sometimes He was candid. Sometimes He withdrew. Sometimes He confronted. But He always saw beneath the surface. This episode explores Jesus’ re...

What do we do with the enigmatic Jesus? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 122, “The Mystery of Jesus.” Season 6 is exploring Jesus as the object of our formation, and this episode presses into one of His most fascinating and unsettling traits: Jesus is often mysterious, puzzling, and hard to pin down. The conversation asks whether Jesu...

Why was Jesus so mysterious? In Episode 122, Brian continues Season 6, The Object of Our Formation, by exploring one of Jesus’ most intriguing and often overlooked qualities: His enigmatic nature. Jesus did not always speak plainly. He did not always answer questions directly. He taught in parables, riddles, stories, and sayings that confused even His closest followers. This may feel strange to th...

What does it mean to experience God’s love, not merely believe in it? In this Greenhouse episode, Brian, Handsome Kyle, and Doc continue the conversation from Episode 120, “Beloved by God.” Season 6 explores Jesus as the object of our formation, and this episode delves deeper into one of Jesus’ most foundational realities: He lived from the experience of being beloved by the Father. The conversati...