Just Talkin' About Jesus

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Engineer, painter, entrepreneur, and author Ian Reilly joins Jan to talk about growing up on a sheep farm, building a tech startup at 52, and the two cyclones that shaped his years teaching in Samoa.  Along the way, Ian shares what he learned about cultural Christianity, connecting across language barriers, and the quiet influence of a life lived faith...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Have you ever felt left out? In this episode, Jan Johnson talks with Joanna Immanuel (from Germany) and Angie Clayton, editor of the anthology Chosen , Sacred Journeys with a Faithful God, about how God turns the hard places of our lives into places of calling. Joanna shares how an acorn and Isaiah 61 reshaped her view of the “dirt” in her story, and h...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Pastor and author Dustin Kleinschmidt joins host Jan Johnson to talk candidly about church hurt, ministry burnout, and the process of grieving and healing after stepping away from full-time pastoral leadership.  Dustin shares how he was called back to lead a church in crisis, the "trifecta" of events that nearly destroyed it, the breaking poi...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Stefania Leao came to the United States from Brazil for a one-week visit and stayed almost ten years. As a single mom who didn't speak English, she began each morning reading the Bible and writing a prayer.  Those simple notes became a devotional book now available in five languages, reaching a church in Malawi, the Brazilian national team, and pe...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Before he was a pastor, church planter, and missionary, Ariel Aguilar ran with gangs.  In this conversation with host Jan Johnson, Ariel shares how a medical crisis —  his wife's cancer diagnosis during pregnancy —  became the turning point that led him to give his life to Christ.  From there, his story takes us through freezing mission trips in M...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Erin Zandstra grew up knowing of God but not knowing Him — and spent decades filling that gap with alcohol, broken relationships, and a desperate search for identity.  In this raw conversation, Erin shares her road from a DUI and jail time to radical surrender, and what it really means to find your worth in Christ instead of what you do or what you&apo...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! At 78, retired pastor Jerry Heslinga walked 160 miles of the Camino de Santiago with his son-in-law — and came home with more than sore feet. Jan Johnson talks with Jerry about faith conversations on the trail, a stranger's story of reconciliation, and the lifelong lesson of repentance that met him somewhere between Portugal and Spain.  A conversa...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Brett Knight is a criminal defense attorney, recovery pastor, and author of From Gavel to Grace.  In this episode, he shares his personal journey from a childhood of poverty in rural Illinois to prosecuting criminal cases, and ultimately to a calling in recovery ministry. Brett unpacks the real pattern he's seen behind addiction after walking hund...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Musician, composer, and author Byron Easterling joins Jan to talk about the presence of God in worship, a wild encounter in a London hotel lobby,  the blessing his father spoke over him before passing away,  and the one question that can unstick anyone who feels spiritually stuck.  A conversation about calling, mentorship, and never retiring from the g...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Ordained pastor, life coach, and founder of Redwood Christian Ministries Eric Stephens joins Jan and co-host Marti for a raw conversation about growing up caught between two rejections — one from an absent father, one from a world he tried to fit into by becoming its villain.  Eric shares the prayer that changed everything, the three train horns that a...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Author and Bible study leader Wendy Wall joins host Jan to talk about hearing God's voice in the middle of upheaval — a sudden move to Angola just after a 50-year civil war, the Deepwater Horizon disaster that upended her husband's career, a providential relocation to Trinidad that let her be near her dying mother, and a season of loss that i...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Award-winning Pacific Northwest novelist Cheryl Bostrom joins Jan and Marti to talk about the trauma that shaped her early years, the grandmother who introduced her to God through nature, and the faith that transformed generational dysfunction into a life devoted to storytelling.  Cheryl opens up about her mother's mental illness, the neurodiverge...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Host Jan sits down with her own daughter, Sidney — now Sister Mercy of the Servants of the Lord — to talk about a woman who changed both their lives:  Maria Fix, a Russian Catholic who survived Soviet arrest, a 55-day cattle-car journey, the death of her toddler sister along the way, and nearly two decades in forced labor camps, before spending the res...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Recorded live on a retreat on the Oregon coast, host Jan Johnson talks with new friend Trisha Nix about wilderness seasons — the ones we sometimes walk into ourselves.  Trisha shares the quiet, undramatic moment she gave her life to Jesus as a child because of a teacher who cared enough to bring her to church, the season she calls her own wilderness af...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! What happens when grief changes everything? In this heartfelt episode, Jackie Baker joins Jan Johnson to talk about losing her son Sebastian to suicide and the long road of learning how to live again. Jackie shares the realities of traumatic grief, the stigma surrounding suicide loss, the pressure grieving parents often feel, and how her faith carried...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Joy coach, author, and dietitian Nicole Roth spent decades chasing achievement, applause, and the approval of everyone around her — and didn't realize it was breaking her until a brave woman pulled her aside and said the truth out loud.  In this conversation with host Jan Johnson, Nicole unpacks the four patterns she calls the 4 P's — perform...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Recording artist and former X Factor contestant Juliet Dawn joins host Jan Johnson for an unflinching conversation about thirty-five years of trauma — abuse, miscarriages, the loss of her twin sons, two nervous breakdowns, and chronic illness — and the faith that carried her through every layer of it.  Juliet shares how a prayer she prayed at twenty-on...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Wilderness seasons are real, and they are rarely fun — but they are never wasted. In this episode, Jan, Marti, and guest Jessica DeYoung pull back the curtain on what it actually looks like to walk through a spiritual wilderness: the silence, the confusion, the doubt, and yes, the breathtaking encounter with God on the other side. Jessica shares vulner...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Forty years in prayer ministry will teach you a few things. But what Liz Holtzman has learned goes far beyond what to say — she's learned WHY it works, and that knowledge changes everything. Liz is a retired special education teacher, intercessor, Bible study author, and longtime leader in Moms in Prayer International. Her new Bible study, Stand i...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Alicia Barr grew up in a small town, built a career, and loved Jesus deeply — until church hurt left her numb and vulnerable.  What followed was a four-year affair she didn't know how to escape.  In this episode, Alicia shares her unfiltered story: the seduction of sin, the slow spiral, and the supernatural moment that finally broke the cycle.  Sh...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Jai Roza was an ordained deacon at 14 — and planning his suicide at 17.  In between, he was channeling spirits, drowning in demonic voices, and watching his faith collapse along with his family.  In this episode of Just Talking About Jesus, Jai shares the midnight phone call that pulled him back from the edge, what happened when his Bible started glowi...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! What if your pain had a purpose?  Jan welcomes Hadassah Treu, a Christian author and speaker from Bulgaria, for an honest and hope-filled conversation about grief, depression, and the surprising blessings that can be born from our hardest seasons.  Hadassah shares how she found Jesus in communist Bulgaria, survived multiple battles with depression, los...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! What if you could use NASA eclipse data and ancient Babylonian star charts to verify that God has been orchestrating human history for thousands of years? That’s exactly what this week’s guest, John Zachary, has spent half a century doing. A former aerospace engineer who worked on fighter pilot ejection systems, John discovered that the Bible contains...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! David Ebel was born dying — subject to a medical experiment at one day old, carrying 21 birth defects, and living in chronic pain from age 6. By 20, he had made five suicide attempts. Then he walked into a church because a girl was cute, found Jesus, and nothing was ever the same.  In this episode, David walks us through an extraordinary life shaped by...

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! Jan, Marti, and Kyle celebrate the International Day of Laughter by exploring something you might not expect — humor in the Bible.  From Balaam arguing with his donkey (Numbers 22) to Jonah stomping around like a toddler (Jonah 4),  to the prayer group that wouldn't open the door for the very person they were praying for (Acts 12),  the Bible is f...