My Ministry Mission

In episode 4 of Read It Again, I look at Revelation 3:20, the verse behind that famous painting of Jesus knocking at a garden door. For over a century that image has shaped how we read this verse, Jesus patiently waiting outside a heart that has never let him in. But the actual text was written to a church, the wealthiest and most self sufficient of the seven churches in Revelation, and the only o...

What does it mean to build your life on God's Word? In this episode, I sit down with pastor and author Jacoby Jordan, a former atheist and touring punk musician who came to faith on a pastor's driveway in LA in 2011, to explore the sufficiency of Scripture. Jacoby shares how the Bible's authenticity, its manuscript evidence, and the clarity of the gospel finally broke through his skepticism, and h...

In episode 3 of Read It Again, I look at Romans 8:28, the verse we reach for at hospital bedsides and gravesides. God works all things for good, we say, and we usually fill in what good means with our own hopes for how the circumstance resolves. But Paul defines the word himself, one verse later, and it is not the definition most of us are carrying. I walk through the three groanings of Romans 8,...

In episode 2 of Read It Again, I take on Philippians 4:13, the verse on the sneaker, the eye black, the tattoo. It shows up everywhere strength is being claimed for a win, but Paul wrote it chained to a guard in a Roman prison, not knowing if he would live or die. I trace the verses right before it, where Paul says he learned contentment through hunger and plenty alike, and I dig into the word he...

In this first episode of Read It Again, I take on the most quoted, most printed verse in modern Christianity: Jeremiah 29:11. It is on coffee mugs, wall prints, and graduation cards everywhere, but almost nobody has read the verse before it or after it. I trace the letter back to where it actually started, a prophet writing to a people who had just watched their city fall and their temple burn, ex...

In this episode, I sit down with Alex Lopez, a former high school teacher, Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach, and author of A Father's Forge , a 365-day devotional system built to help fathers raise strong sons. Alex's journey started with a single question at a leadership conference: if you've read every personal development book on the shelf, why haven't you read the Bible? That question sparke...

Have you ever heard someone drop the phrase "seven deadly sins" and just assumed it was straight from Scripture? In this episode, I unpack the full story behind both the seven deadly sins and the seven virtues -- where they actually came from, who wrote them, and how they hold up against the Bible. We go sin by sin and virtue by virtue, testing each against passages from Galatians 5, Proverbs 6, C...

In this episode, I take on something that's quietly reshaping churches across the country: political division in the pew. I look at why political identity has fused with religious identity for so many believers, what the research reveals about pastors losing credibility and leaving ministry over this exact issue, and what real church splits are costing congregations right now. Then I turn to Scrip...

Have you ever read your Bible, understood it, and still felt nothing change in your life? I sat down with Reverend Kimberly Braxton, a speaker, teacher, and ordained minister based in Boston, who has lived that question from the inside out. We talk about what happens when ministry becomes a performance, when seminary knowledge crowds out the Holy Spirit, and why pride is so much harder to see in y...

In this episode, I sit down with Rebekah Van Natta, author of The Growing Christian: Two Paths of the Christian Belief , to explore a question that stops a lot of believers in their tracks: what is the difference between believing in God and truly following him? Rebekah grew up in church, never doubted God's existence, and still found herself living almost entirely on her own terms. Her turning po...

In this episode, I take on one of the most heated debates inside the church — young earth creationism versus old earth creationism — and try to do something that does not happen nearly enough: lay out both positions fairly. I walk through what each view actually claims, survey where the major Christian denominations land, and then answer the question that really matters. Does what you believe abou...

In this episode, I tackle one of the stranger cultural conversations of our time: what should Christians think about UAPs and the question of alien life? With the government confirming things in our airspace that nobody can explain, and Christians all over the map on what it means, I thought it was time to stop avoiding it. I look at what the government has actually confirmed, honestly examine whe...

Why are so many people deeply unhappy, even when they have everything they ever wanted? In this episode, I explore what the research is telling us about America's growing unhappiness crisis, what Solomon discovered after running the most ambitious experiment in human satisfaction ever attempted, and what Jesus offered a thirsty woman at a well in Samaria that changed everything. Drawing on Ecclesi...

America was founded on prayer, but somewhere between 1776 and today, the Church seems to have quietly set that down. In this episode, I look at what the founders actually did before every major act of the founding, what Scripture says about interceding for the nation you live in, and why passages like Daniel 9, Jeremiah 29:7, and 2 Chronicles 7:14 are more relevant right now than most of us realiz...

In this episode, I sit down with Pastor Sheldon Lee Stovall, a pastor, licensed counselor, and author who has built his ministry at the crossroads of scripture and mental health. Sheldon opens up about losing his brother and the grief and depression that followed, and what that season taught him about God's care for our emotional lives. We talk about why Christians shouldn't hide their pain, how f...

In this episode, I sit down with Kim Harms, a two-time breast cancer survivor, speaker, and author of Carried Through Cancer: 70 Days of Spiritual Strength from Cancer Fighters, Survivors and Caregivers. Kim was first diagnosed in 2016 and again in 2023, and rather than letting that story stay in silence, she has spent the last decade turning her pain into something that points others to Christ. W...

In this episode, I want to talk to anyone who said yes to Jesus and then woke up the next morning wondering if anything really changed. That quiet question (why don't I feel different?) is one of the most common things new believers wrestle with, and I think the church has done a poor job of answering it. So I walk through what actually happened at salvation, why feelings are not a reliable measur...

In this episode, I sit down with a question many Christians are afraid to ask out loud: when is it time to step back from a friendship with someone whose influence is pulling you away from Christ? I work through 2 Corinthians 6:14, Matthew 18:15–17, and Proverbs 4:23 to build a biblical framework for one of the hardest relational decisions a believer can face. We talk about the difference between...

In this episode, I sit down with Stephen Landis, a Christian poet and author from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and founder of Dust Bunny Poetry, for a deeply honest conversation about what it means to use the creative gifts God has placed in us. Stephen shares his faith journey, from rededication at sixteen to a defining moment at nineteen when the truth of Ephesians 2:8-9 anchored him in grace over w...

What if the miracle you have been waiting for already happened, and you slept right through it? In this episode, I want to invite you to slow down and look at your everyday life through the lens of Scripture. We explore what I call miracle blindness, the quiet spiritual nearsightedness that causes so many of us to miss God's constant presence in ordinary moments. From Elijah's still small voice in...

In this episode, I sit down with author, publisher, and co-founder of Skinny Brown Dog Media, Eric Reid, for an honest and deeply personal conversation about what happens when faithful people quietly drift from abiding in Jesus to performing for Him. Eric shares from his own story of confusing closeness to God with usefulness to God, and how Jesus has been reforming him around something better: pr...

In this episode, I explore one of the most important questions in all of Scripture: why did forgiveness require blood? Before the cross, God established a sacrificial system that taught His people something profound about the weight of sin and the cost of atonement. Drawing from Leviticus 17:11, Hebrews 9 and 10, and Romans 6:23, I walk through what God was communicating through animal sacrifice,...

In this episode, I sit down with Lindsey Tanoff, a brand manager from the Dallas-Fort Worth area who turned a season of grief and uncertainty into something beautiful. When her mother was diagnosed with cancer, Lindsey found herself turning to Scripture for answers, and that search eventually led her to write Connected, a 28-day devotional designed to help everyday believers build a meaningful hab...

In this episode, I sit down with Felicia Hurd Johnson, author of Count All Joy: Including the Broken Pieces, for a conversation rooted in James 1:2–4. Felicia has walked through breast cancer, divorce, job loss, and seasons of deep uncertainty, and she shares how God met her in every single one of those broken places. Together we talk about the difference between joy and happiness, what it really...

In this powerful episode, I get to welcomes back John P. Boyle, Harvard-educated engineer, entrepreneur, and survivor of childhood trauma, to discuss his new book Invisible Wounds: Understanding and Healing from Complex PTSD. John shares his remarkable journey from a violent home in the mountains of West Virginia to a life transformed by faith, and unpacks how unresolved trauma silently shapes our...