The Signpost Inn Podcast

Has a book ever jumped off the shelf, interrupted your life and left you forever changed?    On today’s show the gang shares the books that have ambushed them and left them with a new view of life, themselves and God. These books have opened our eyes to beauty, truth, and goodness and we’re eternally grateful! Be warned, Listener, after this episode you will walk away with a “dangerous” reading li...

Do you know a lot about God, but still sometimes feel disconnected from him? What does it mean to love the Lord with your heart, soul, mind, and strength?    Today’s guest, Dr. Reverend Alan Johnson shares about spiritual formation and his journey from knowing information about God to experiencing him relationally. As a pastor, Dr. Alan sheds some light on the unique challenges that ministry leade...

Does your everyday life feel boring and disconnected from a sense of meaning and purpose? What if your boring life is way more holy than you think?   On today’s show the gang tackles the topic of vocation and our desire for meaning and purpose. The question of vocation often feels like trying to find a needle in a haystack, if we miss God’s calling on our lives everything else is pointless! What i...

Is more information about God making you feel further from him? How do we know God more deeply when the only tool we have is mining for more data?   Join us for today’s episode as we navigate the dark woods of information overload. Together, Brandon, Liv, and Peter unpack the crisis of meaning and how the answer that is often presented is to amass greater knowledge about God. The difficulty with t...

Does real rest feel like an elusive dream? Has your rest been turned into just another productivity hack?    Today’s episode examines the nature of rest and why we all feel exhausted. Join Brandon, Liv, Matt and Peter as they unpack our human desire for rest and the obstacles we face to receiving it. A core insight that the group focuses on is that rest is really a trust issue. We can’t receive re...

Does the Christian faith provide real hope for our day-to-day life? Or are we simply suffering here until we die?   In today’s episode, the group tackles the issue of whether or not faith in Jesus provides any real hope for our earthly life. Sure, we understand that one day we’ll be resurrected and live eternally, but what about dealing with all the sin and suffering we face right now? The convers...

Is faith in Jesus more than intellectual assent? What if God meant for food and drink to invite us into the richness of embodied experiences of his love and goodness?   In this episode, Brandon interviews Gisela Kreglinger, co-author of “Wine in the Word,” a Bible study about wine and its place in Christian feasting and fellowship. A through-line in the conversation is the idea that modern Christi...

How are we supposed to survive this crazy world while we wait for God to redeem us and bring us home? In today’s conversation, the gang wrestles through the question of how to endure life in the meantime between the cross and our eventual resurrection. They sit with Psalm 13 and reflect on the relatability in the psalmist’s words, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?” This passage launch...

What is taking a spiritual retreat all about?   In today’s episode, Brandon interviews Niecy LoCricchio on her book Space to Breathe, which is aimed at helping you plan a meaningful retreat for yourself or your group. Together, Brandon and Niecy unpack the fears we often experience as we enter times of silence and intimacy with God. Throughout the conversation, Niecy gives practical advice and tea...

What if spiritual discipline is not about achieving, but about receiving?   In today’s episode, Brandon, Liv, Matt, and Peter explore the role of spiritual disciplines in the Christian life. Although easily twisted into a legalistic means of achieving moral improvement, the spiritual disciplines are actually the practices which help us receive God’s love. They are indeed disciplines, because it ta...

What if spiritual disciplines were intended as rest for the bedraggled believer, not routines for self-driven sanctification?     Join us today for a conversation with author Gretchen Ronnevik about realistic, grace-filled spiritual disciplines. Learn from Gretchen’s experience with spiritual disciplines in the exhausting vocation of full time motherhood. Brandon and Gretchen explore questions lik...

At the heart of the gospel is the idea of freedom. So, what does it mean to be truly free?   In this episode, we had the great pleasure of talking with Fr. Jacques Philippe, the author of one of our absolute favorite books, Interior Freedom. Joining us all the way from France, Fr. Philippe unpacks how true freedom, consenting to reality, is quite counterintuitive to our human perception that freed...

How can I learn to be curious instead of closed off? What if I didn’t need to have all the answers?   In today’s Bonus Episode, Brandon is interviewed by Adam Ormord, president and co-founder of LifePoint Resources and host of the Being Formed podcast. Brandon shares his faith journey and his core desire to be curious, explore the questions of life, and yet to remain rooted in what is true. The co...

Wait, what?? The reality of our sin nature is good news!?   In today’s episode, Brandon, Liv, and Matt tackle the topic of original sin and how the Bible paints an accurate (and freeing) picture of our slavery to sin. Pulling from chapter 2 of Not Home Yet (Brandon and Liv’s book), the group unpacks the truth that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. Interestingly enough, part of ou...

What even is spirituality and what is Christian spirituality?   Brandon and Matt sit down to explore the modern emphasis on spirituality as opposed to religion. They connect the question of spirituality to the meaning crisis and how modern spiritualities all claim to have the answer for a holistic, fulfilling life. Is this analysis true of Christian spirituality as well? How does Jesus answer the...

What is scripture’s primary purpose?   On today’s show, Brandon, Matt and Peter further the conversation from last episode about obstacles to reading scripture. We take a deep dive into how we each come to scripture with expectations that impact how we receive its message. The guys discuss how the main objective of God’s self-revelation in the Bible is to show us his character, who he really is. B...

Is God truly present in his word?   Today’s conversation is centered around our shared desire to read more scripture and some of the common obstacles that get in our way. Brandon, Matt, and Peter tackle questions like, “How do we experience God’s presence through the Bible?” and “Is academic study the best way to encounter God in the Bible? We wrap up with thoughts about what it means to “stand un...

Why is the present moment so important? Inspired by a chapter from C.S. Lewis’s, The Screwtape Letters, Brandon, Matt and Peter discuss the importance of the present. Satan wants nothing more than to distract us with anxious thoughts about the future or trap us in unhealthy rumination upon past events. But God only ever invites us into the present, where we can encounter his presence and grace. Th...

What does it mean to practice gratitude?   In today’s episode, Brandon, Matt and Peter explore the topic of gratitude and how we become grateful people. The conversation centers around the idea that “you see more of what you attend to.” With some wisdom from Kurt Thompson to further guide the discussion, the gang then wraps up with how to practice gratitude and teach it too!   Thanks for listening...

What is the way of Jesus and how can we practice it?   In today’s episode, Brandon and Rachel sit down to talk about John Mark Comer’s book, Practicing the Way. The conversation is guided by the book’s subtitle, Be with Jesus, Become like him, Do as he did. After sharing some of the helpful insights from the book, Brandon and Rachel note a few key distinctions that need to be unpacked. What makes...

Is there any hope for connection in this isolated world?   Today Brandon sits down to chat with his long time friend, Luke Wall, Executive Direction of Only7Seconds, a non-profit addressing the loneliness epidemic. Together they discuss the status of our collective social health in this modern era and why we feel so lonely. A central truth soon emerges: no one person, or organization can fix the l...

What can we learn about Christian discipleship from The Chronicles of Narnia?   In today’s episode, Brandon and Matt interview Joe Rigney, author of the book, Live Like a Narnian: Christian Discipleship in Lewis’s Chronicles . Joe shares his perspective on Christian discipleship as whole person formation and how he believes C.S. Lewis’s books directly further this formation. The conversation then...

How do we fix our attention? What’s wrong with it anyway?   Today Brandon and Peter talk about the human faculty of attention, how and why it’s often hijacked, and what needs fixing. At the core of the problem with our attention is our human need for security and significance. The world is like a chaotic carnival that distracts and overwhelms us with many loud voices all trying to bend our attenti...

What does forgiveness feel like?   It’s Christianity 101: Jesus died on the cross to forgive you all your sin. But how often do we brush past this foundational truth in our daily walk with Jesus? What would it look like to sit with the truth that “I am forgiven”?  Join us on the back porch today as the guys do their best to sit with the truth of forgiveness in Christ. Psalm 103 guides us through t...

How do we change? In today's episode Brandon and Peter discuss a theory for change and how skillful listening is a major factor. We all need change, a change in how we experience and view God. We need to deconstruct our bad/wrong images of God and rebuild a true picture of who Jesus is. The question is, "How?" We often get caught in the weeds of trying to change through behavior modification or am...