The Well Said Podcast

One of the most complex seasons of our lives is the season of dating and transition into marriage. No two stories are exactly alike. And there really is no perfect formula one can prescribe that will guarantee safe passage to these rough and challenging waters. Quite unfortunately, christians have often done harm by adding unhelpful or even harmful ideas and expectations to dating and marriage. In...

Alright guys so this past month we have officially moved into the mini-van world. This was once again a reminder for my wife and I that life is moving along quickly and we are not the 23 year olds we used to be. We are growing up. We are moving though the 20’s, with the 30’s coming in fast. So this week we pause and think out loud about what it means to be growing up. What it means to be young. Wh...

Following Jesus today means so much more than just reading your Bible and going to church. If God is real, and if he desires to dwell in our hearts and lives through the gospel message, then it is a life that must be full of life. It's supposed to peel back the curtains on reality. It's supposed to show us the world in brighter color. Teach us to feel more deeply. Instill in us a deep sense of hop...

These last few months have been quite the rollercoaster for our family. It's been almost a year now since we started the initial process of getting licensed as foster parents. As you might guess, this was kind of a crazy step for us. A time full of uncertainty, questions and even a bit of fear. The process took a bit longer than we anticipated, but we are in! And now that we are neck deep, we thou...

Where has the magic gone? Why does it often feel like faith in today’s world is like trying to run with weights on your feet? Why do we sense a continual tug of doubt even though we’ve been following Jesus for a long time now? These are just some of the questions that we often ask as we try to make sense of our hearts as followers of Jesus today. The short answer is this: we live in a world that h...

What is fatherlessness and why is it one of the biggest factors that lead to increased crime rates, mental illness and even medical problems? In an individualistic culture, we are very good at prizing the rights of the individual. And yet we are very bad at understanding the importance of the family and the role of men. And yet the cliche that we are all used to is incompetent, absent or withdrawn...

Why You Need to Learn to Fail by The Well Said Podcast

Where have all the good men gone? I understand that it today’s politically charged culture, that question itself can be seen as offensive and controversial. But here’s an observation that I’ve seen lately. For all the ways that christians today seek to stand against the progressive push in sexuality, we are have largely failed to articulate and model and powerful vision of biblical masculinity. As...

After we finally put the kids down to bed, my wife and I decided to sit down and finally put down some thoughts about what we've been learning over the last six years of marriage and family. One of the first things that we wanted to start with is to challenge our modern expectations of the good life. So here's the key question that will shape the most significant portion of your life: what do you...

Dealing with our insecurity by The Well Said Podcast

What does genuine faith look like? This past weekend we had the great opportunity to attend Reality Conference at Word of Grace Bible Church in Battleground WA. Dr. Matthew Jones spent the weekend unpacking this awesome and practical topic. This episode we take a moment to sit down and talk about the highlights and our favorite moments. - Check out the conference Q and A at - https://www.youtube.c...

Living as a follower of Jesus in our modern political storm by The Well Said Podcast

As we open the episode on this dense and complex subject this week, one of the things we try to show is that all politics are merely an extension of the personal world into the public sphere. There is no such thing as a perfect public/private split. The reality is that all politics is a battlefield of the gods - our deepest personal desires and values coming out into the open and colliding head on...

More surrounded than ever. And more alone than ever. That is what we are as a culture. Technology, sexual ethics and personal freedoms all feed into a cultural tide that is hard to shake, even if you say that you believe in a different way. As christians, we are constantly bathed in the mindset of radical individualism, a message that tells us that our greatest joy is found when every possible opt...

In one of his recent songs titled “Family Photo", Andy Mineo recounts the painful experience of his dad not showing up to his wedding. The song goes on to powerfully explore the pain and challenge of emotions that we try to bury with time, only to have them rise up even stronger later in life. This is particularly true in our challenges and tensions in the relationships that we have with our paren...

Is there any aspect of your humanity that has more power to bring either pleasure or pain than your sexuality? I think that’s a tough question to answer. Probably not. Our sexuality is that aspect of ourselves that is inseparably tied to almost every aspect of our life - physical, spiritual, emotional, relational and psychological. This is why when we look at a spiritually broken and confused cult...

Is change possible for me? Is it really possible for me to be like that fruitful tree that stays green even in the raging desert heat? Is it really possible for me to overcome my anger? My insecurity? My anxiety? My fears? My laziness? My self doubt? My weakness in relationships? My impatience? My addiction? According to to the message of Jesus, the answer is a resounding yes. 100% yes. The work t...

Happy New Years guys! As we were sitting around drinking coffee on New Years day, we decided to turn the mic on and record some thoughts on the passing year. Dan agreed under one condition: that HE as the guest would be interviewing ME. He didn't give me a heads up on the questions. And as it always goes, Dan and I had a great conversation that covered everything from Kombucha to the gospel to the...

Welcome back to the Well Said Podcast where we are talking about the joy and the complexity of following Jesus in our ever-changing post christian culture. We are sorry we missed you guys last week. This week we are making it up to you guys with a very special episode. Today I’m over at Grace Church Bellingham and I am excited to be able to talk with Sam Hebert about singing and song writing. Sam...

So sorry we missed you guys last week! This week we dive in the deep end of the pool! In our attempt to jump into our growth and wisdom, we often jump to the assumption that our biggest need is that we fill our mental bookshelf with good information, especially when it comes to the knowledge of God and his truth. And yet, one of the things that we fail to see is the fact that the bookshelf itself...

Often times we get the impression that christians are defined by what we aren’t allowed to do. And in that list we often see things like don’t offend, don’t say and do hard things, and don’t enjoy life too much! Well this week we want to press hard against that grain. And we want to dive headlong into the season of celebration by boiling down the basic christian philosophy of life to three key wor...

Over the last hundred years, movies and television have changed the way that we interact with the world. They have given us a new and powerful avenue to communicate ideas and emotions. The powerful blend of image, story and sound has a potency that seems to be constantly growing. In a world grasping for meaning and fulfillment, movies are a key reference point. And when you look at the current lan...

How do we make sense of the emotional battles that rage in our hearts everyday? How do we react to the seeming powerlessness that we sometimes sense against the waves of high or low that come at us like a tide? One of the key things that the biblical narrative helps us see in the heat of our daily inner termoil that is yes indeed, there as aspects of ourselves that we don’t have direct power to ch...

How does the church need to think about things like depression, anxiety and the church? The short answer is that they need to start thinking about it, rather than jumping to conclusions. We need to start reading our Bibles more carefully, taking seriously the experiences we see describes in many of its characters, and seeing how God gives hope to us even in the midst of our most challenging season...

Welcome back! We are excited to hit the ground running, introduce new plans and my new co-host Max! Along the way you get to know a little bit about him, and about what we both see a fatal flaw in the way that our generation often perceives spirituality.