The Common Good Podcast

Brian From opens with a study linking walking to better mental health in teens, a good reminder for all of us. In a vulnerable moment, he admits that hearing about a hardship faced by someone who hurt him brought him a flash of satisfaction, and he reflects on what that reveals about unfinished forgiveness. He wrestles with senseless tragedies, including a father killed on a roller coaster and a W...

Brian From sits down with Susana Sharp of Impact Latin America, an interdenominational ministry that partners with more than 35 denominations in about 20 nations to train ordinary men and women to share the gospel outside church walls. Susana explains the ministry’s model of prayer-led outreach and “Houses of Peace,” informal gatherings in homes, gardens, basketball courts, and e...

Brian From catches up with his former college roommate Ben Reaoch and Ben’s wife, Stacy, about their new book, The Word in Our Home: A Family Plan for Exploring Every Book in the Bible . The project began as a vision of Ben’s mother, Barb, a Bible Study Fellowship children’s curriculum writer who had a book proposal ready when she was diagnosed with cancer. Before she died two ye...

Brian From comes off a beautiful homecoming weekend reflecting on his church’s Bible reading class, where the cycle of judgment and hope in Isaiah pointed him to the grace of Ephesians 2 and a God who doesn’t give up on us. He encourages married couples never to stop dating each other. He discusses a Christianity Today review of the PBS documentary Christianity at the Crossroads , incl...

Brian From talks with Pastors Warren Schilf and Donald Antor of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Palatine. Warren shares how he grew up in the church and its school, spent 20 years in business, and then answered a call to ministry. He returned as associate pastor before becoming senior pastor. He describes the joy of baptizing and marrying the children of families he’s known all his life, along w...

Brian From kicks off the weekend with a report that Halloween candy prices have jumped 71 percent in five years, along with near-$5 gas, and reminds listeners that contentment is found in Christ, not a bank account. He shares a study finding that sleeping with a dog doesn’t disrupt owners’ sleep, and Canada’s decision to exclude mental illness from its Medical Assistance in Dying...

Brian From talks with Tre Moore, who became senior pastor of Lakeland Church in Gurney, Illinois, a few months ago after years as a member and elder there. Tre tells how his predecessor asked him three times to consider succeeding him before he felt God’s call into ministry. He describes the best part of the job, a front-row seat to God changing lives, which he records on note cards to rerea...

Brian From talks with Dr. Deana Thayer, parenting and marriage specialist at Focus on the Family, about raising resilient kids. Deana argues that resilience isn’t bouncing back right away. It’s the ability to work through big feelings and come out more mature, even when that takes time. She explains why “snowplow parenting,” which clears every obstacle from a child’s...

Brian From talks with pastor, nonprofit leader, and spiritual director Bobbie Schaeperkoetter about her new book, With God Every Day: A Flexible Framework for Spiritual Practice . Bobbie explains what a spiritual director actually does: less a counselor or problem-solver than a spiritual companion who helps people notice what God is doing in their lives. She walks through the book’s seven-st...

Brian From opens with a real-life Parent Trap : two Montana teens, adopted as babies by different families, discovered they were biological sisters when a teammate noticed how much they looked alike on opposing softball teams. Brian connects their story to our adoption into God’s family. After a failed lethal injection made headlines, he walks through Dale Chamberlain’s Church Leaders...

Brian From starts midweek with an embarrassing story about taking a volleyball to the face while looking at his phone, and a reminder to stop living distracted. He applauds Padres closer Mason Miller for leaving the playoffs for the birth of his first child, despite criticism from fans. Brian scrolls through a week of scandal headlines on Church Leaders and calls again for putting character first....

Are automakers quietly phasing out AM radio to control what you listen to? In this episode of The Common Good, host Brian From sits down with Troy Miller, CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), to uncover the real story behind the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act. While car manufacturers have pointed to electric vehicle interference as the reason for removing AM radio from newer models, T...

With the midterms approaching, Brian From asks whether Christians can vote differently and still worship side by side. He highlights Pastor Robert Jeffress telling David French that a church member who votes their conscience in the Texas Senate race is still welcome in church on Sunday, and later pushes back on campaign-season rhetoric suggesting all faithful Christians must vote the same way. Bri...

Brian From welcomes back Bishop Dr. Michael Love, founding senior pastor of Trinity Baptist Community Church in Crystal Lake. Michael tells how a corporate transfer brought him and his wife to Chicagoland 36 years ago, where a small Bible study of 13 people, children included, grew into an independent church with a four-acre campus, built debt-free. He describes the church's commitment to exposito...

Brian From opens the week by calling a perfect Midwest fall day a reminder of the Creator's goodness. He shares how the podcast Ctrl+Z: Rewritten got him thinking about regret and the fresh start we have in Christ. He reads from Russell Moore's Christianity Today column "Yes, Jesus Loves You," which pushes back on the idea that the gospel is a loophole protecting us from a God who wants to condemn...

Brian From talks with Emily Washburn, issues analyst and writer at Focus on the Family's Daily Citizen, about the rapid growth of sports gambling. Emily explains how the 2018 Supreme Court decision letting states legalize sports betting, followed by online and mobile betting, created an industry that profits when its customers lose. She describes micro-betting, round-the-clock wagering, targeted a...

Brian From starts the weekend with a reminder about the work it takes to build adult friendships once the kids leave home, and why we need people who point us to Jesus. He takes on the Portland Trail Blazers' firing of new broadcaster Braden Bell over posts he made at 13 to 15 years old, asks where grace fits, and warns parents that what kids post online lives forever. He covers two AI stories: a...

With Adam Holz out, Brian From welcomes fellow Plugged In reviewer Bret Eckelberry for the weekly entertainment check-in. Bret warns families that this week's biggest releases aren't kid-friendly. One is Digger , an absurdist political satire starring Tom Cruise as a megalomaniacal oil tycoon. The other is Verity , a sexually charged thriller based on Colleen Hoover's novel. Brian and Bret reflect...

Brian From talks with John Brennan, national recruiting coordinator for Angel Tree, a Prison Fellowship ministry that works through local churches to deliver Christmas gifts to children of incarcerated parents on their parents' behalf. John shares how his family got involved in 2001, when a church delivered Angel Tree gifts to the four grandchildren he and his wife were raising while their father...

Brian From welcomes back Michael Woolworth of Bible League International for the final push of their month-long campaign to put Bibles in the hands of believers who have never owned one. Michael explains how a study with Voice of the Martyrs, Open Doors, and other Bible agencies found 125 million Christians without a Bible, many of them in countries where religious freedom is limited. He gives an...

Brian From opens October with an attempted mid-air attack on a commercial flight and the passengers and off-duty pilots who stopped it. He then recaps his church's first book club, on C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity , and reflects on Lewis's point that people need reminding more than instruction. Brian looks at new Lifeway Research data showing one in three churchgoers say some biblical truths "don...

Brian welcomes back former co-host Ian Simkins, now lead pastor of The Bridge in Tennessee, to discuss his new book, Every Table and Altar: Reclaiming Connection in a World of Division, Distraction, and Loneliness . Ian shares how the book grew out of his church's own journey — after moving to town, six months of listening to people revealed three recurring themes (division, distraction, and...

Brian talks with Rabbi Kirt Schneider, host of Discovering the Jewish Jesus , about a remarkable ministry development. Rabbi Schneider shares an unusual nighttime experience in September 2023 pointing him to Acts 22:2, which he felt called him to confront the Jewish community more directly with the message of Messiah. After an initial billboard campaign in Israel fell flat, his team was unexpected...

Brian talks with Nathan Walton about his new book, Embodying God's Multiethnic Kingdom: Live Out the Diversity of Heaven Every Day . Nathan shares the story behind the book — a conference attendee's observation that even in diverse churches, congregants often retreat to segregated daily lives after the service ends — and argues that racial reconciliation must extend beyond Sunday into...

Brian talks with Adriel Sanchez, senior minister at North Park Presbyterian Church in San Diego and author of the new book Why We Worship: Experiencing Heaven on Earth at Church . Adriel addresses declining church attendance — with regular attenders now averaging just one to two Sundays a month — and makes the case that Sunday worship is a unique, Christ-ordained gift rather than just...