Explore every episode of the podcast Created in the Image of God

Jason Romano is an author, speaker, and veteran media professional who now serves as Executive Producer of Sports Spectrum and host of the widely followed Sports Spectrum Podcast. After spending 17 years at ESPN as an Emmy Award–winning producer and senior manager—helping shape programs like SportsCenter, NFL Live, Sunday NFL Countdown, and First Take—Jason took a leap of faith in 2017 to pursue sports ministry full time. Since then, he has helped build one of the leading platforms exploring the intersection of sports and faith through honest conversations with athletes, coaches, and public figures.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Jason joins Wade for a conversation about calling, forgiveness, and the courage to leave behind a dream job for a deeper sense of purpose. He reflects on growing up in a fractured home, navigating the pain of an alcoholic father, and the long road that led not only to forgiveness, but to reconciliation—a journey he shares in his book Live to Forgive.Together, they explore faith, family, sports, media, and what happens when success is no longer enough. This is a story about halftime moments, holy pivots, and the kind of obedience that rarely makes sense until you live it.

Vincent Bacote is a theologian, author, and public thinker who serves as Professor of Theology and Director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics at Wheaton College. His work explores the intersection of faith, public life, race, and evangelical identity, and he is the author of books including The Political Disciple, Reckoning with Race and Performing the Good News, and The Spirit in Public Theology. A regular columnist for Comment and contributor to outlets such as Christianity Today and Think Christian, Vincent is known for bringing wisdom, clarity, and grace to some of the church’s most pressing cultural and ethical questions.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Vincent joins Wade for a searching conversation about what it means to connect faith with life in a way that is honest, discerning, and spiritually grounded. Together they explore why some Christians have been taught to fear politics and culture, why others get consumed by them, and how discipleship can form people to engage public life without making it their god.This is a conversation about discernment, formation, ambition, public responsibility, and the difference between building your own kingdom and serving God in the world as it is.Signposts of the End: How Eschatology informs our Ethics.

Kendall Vanderslice is a baker, writer, and theologian whose work brings together food, faith, and embodied spiritual formation with unusual depth and warmth. She is the creator of the Bake & Pray and Bake & Rest practices, helping people discover curiosity, joy, and the presence of God through the simple act of baking bread. With studies in anthropology, gastronomy, and theology from Wheaton College, Boston University, and Duke University—and recognition as a James Beard Foundation national scholar—Kendall invites audiences to see bread, meals, and the kitchen itself as places of nourishment, community, and grace.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Kendall joins Wade for a rich conversation about vocation, Scripture, breadmaking, and the spiritual life hidden inside ordinary practices. She reflects on how the kitchen became a place of quiet in her childhood, how a gap year unexpectedly clarified her calling, and how anthropology helped her see food as a lens for understanding culture, faith, and human life.Together, they explore the many meals woven through the biblical story—from Genesis to the Last Supper to the marriage supper of the Lamb. This is a conversation about rest, embodiment, hidden formation, and the mystery of leaven working its way through the whole loaf.

Rev. Dr. David Gushee is a Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University and a past president of both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics. Author or editor of more than 30 landmark books—including Kingdom Ethics, Changing Our Mind, and Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies—Dr. Gushee is recognized as one of today’s leading Christian moral thinkers. Frequently featured in global lectures, media, and ecumenical settings, he is known for bringing rigorous scholarship and compassionate insight to some of Christianity’s most pressing social and ethical questions.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, David joins Wade for a rich and sobering conversation about Job in Exile, his new book on one of Scripture’s most difficult and haunting texts. Together, they explore why the book of Job has both repelled and fascinated generations of readers, what it reveals about suffering, and how it challenges the “just world” theology that assumes blessings are always deserved and pain is always explainable. David reflects on Job not only as a literary and theological mountain, but as a companion for people whose lives no longer fit the tidy categories they once trusted.This is a conversation about protest, grief, exile, spiritual disillusionment, and the hard grace of continuing to seek God when old certainties have failed. For anyone who has suffered deeply, questioned honestly, or found themselves spiritually displaced, David offers a wise and compassionate guide into the mystery of Job and the faith that can endure within it.

Stephanie Rousselle is a Bible teacher, speaker, and the host of the Gospel Spice podcast, where she helps people savor Scripture and discover deeper delight in God. Born and raised in France, Stephanie came to faith from a background of atheism, and that journey now shapes a ministry centered on her life motto: God’s glory, our delight. She is the founder of Gospel Spice Ministries and the author of Awaken Delight: Satisfying Your Soul’s Longing for God, encouraging believers to engage the Bible with both theological depth and heartfelt joy.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Stephanie joins Wade for a rich and personal conversation about atheism, trust, grace, and the God who reveals Himself with both truth and tenderness. She reflects on growing up in a secular French home, arriving in the United States as an exchange student, and encountering a Christian family whose love and intellectual honesty challenged everything she thought she knew about faith. What began as resistance slowly became surrender as Stephanie came to see that Christianity was not the abandonment of reason, but its fulfillment in relationship with the risen Christ.Together, they explore resurrection, belonging, delight, the fatherhood of God, and the difference between knowing about God and actually trusting Him. This is a conversation about what happens when the soul finally stops striving and learns to rest in grace.

Adi Kanda is an intuitive author, spiritual guide, and founder of World Without Fear, where she helps conscious leaders move through fear, shadow work, and deep personal transformation. For more than 25 years, she has guided thousands through a distinctive process that blends spiritual insight, energetic healing, and practical inner work aimed at uncovering hidden patterns and awakening purpose. She is the author of Dear Human Child: Love Letters From the Divine and the forthcoming Monster Most Feared, and her work includes live readings, oracular poetry, and transformational programs shaped by a deeply creative and contemplative vision.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Adi joins Wade for a rich conversation about fear, meaning, suffering, and the mysterious transmissions that have shaped her life’s work. She explains how language can function as frequency brought into form, why certain words can awaken what lies buried within us, and how spoken messages can become tools for healing, clarity, and personal transformation. Along the way, the conversation touches on creativity, leadership, Viktor Frankl, and the question of whether suffering can become a path toward purpose rather than proof of meaninglessness.Together, they explore what it means to live courageously in a world shaped by fear, how hidden inner patterns can be brought into the light, and why purpose may be one of the most powerful answers we have to human pain. This is a conversation for anyone drawn to spiritual depth, honest transformation, and the inner work required to live with greater clarity and courage.

Micha Boyett is an author, youth pastor, podcaster, and Down syndrome advocate whose work invites people into a slower, more attentive, and more grace-filled way of life. With a background in poetry and a voice shaped by motherhood, disability advocacy, and spiritual reflection, Micha writes about rest, limits, ableism, and the deep belovedness of every human being. She is the author of Blessed Are the Rest of Us, a moving exploration of how her youngest son’s disabilities helped her confront the culture of achievement and discover a fuller vision of wholeness and flourishing in Jesus.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Micha joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about slowness, vulnerability, disability, and the ways love resists efficiency. Drawing also from her forthcoming book Advent Unhurried and her Substack The Slow Way, she reflects on how much of modern life trains us to measure worth by output, speed, and performance—and how the way of Jesus keeps calling us somewhere gentler, truer, and more human.This is a conversation about belovedness, limits, sorrow, joy, and the holy work of learning to receive life as gift rather than as something to conquer.

Mollie Engelhart is a chef, farmer, entrepreneur, and regenerative agriculture advocate whose work connects food, faith, and the healing of the land. Best known as the founder of Sage Regenerative Kitchen & Brewery and Sovereignty Ranch, she has become a bold voice in conversations about farming, stewardship, sustainability, and the future of our food systems. Her journey from vegan restaurateur to regenerative farmer has challenged assumptions far beyond the kitchen, opening deeper questions about creation, truth, and what it means to live in right relationship with the earth.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Mollie joins Wade for a wide-ranging conversation about nature, ideology, death, abundance, and the hard but necessary lessons that come from living close to the land. Reflecting on her own public change of mind, she explains how farming exposed the limits of abstract moral systems disconnected from the realities of creation. From compost and livestock to reproduction, food, and the cycle of death that sustains life, Mollie argues that real stewardship begins not in fantasy, but in reverence for the world as God actually made it.Together, they explore regenerative agriculture, free will, natural law, religious liberty, and the consequences of losing touch with the “laboratory” of creation itself. This is a conversation about humility, courage, and the costly work of aligning human life with truth rather than illusion.

Andrew Arndt is a pastor, author, and spiritual formation teacher who serves as teaching pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs and lead pastor of New Life East. He is the author of All Flame: Entering into the Life of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and host of the Essential Church podcast, where he explores the life of the church with theological depth and pastoral clarity. Deeply shaped by the Christian contemplative tradition, including the wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Andrew helps modern believers recover a richer, more Spirit-filled vision of life with God.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Andrew joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about pastoral work, spiritual maturity, and what Andrew calls the “second half” of life and leadership. As he reflects on turning 45, the discussion turns to elderhood, discernment, and the shifting vocation that comes with time: what we are no longer meant to carry, what we are finally ready to receive, and how God forms us through seasons of growth we could not have understood earlier.Together, they explore the life of the church, the contemplative path, Scripture, and the deepening work of becoming more rooted, prayerful, and alive to God’s presence over time.

Greg Koukl is the founder and president of Stand to Reason, an apologetics ministry he launched in 1993 to help people think more clearly and confidently about the Christian faith. A longtime radio host, public speaker, and campus debater, Greg has spent more than three decades engaging tough questions about truth, morality, and Christianity on university campuses, in the media, and in public forums across the U.S. and abroad. He is the bestselling author of Tactics, The Story of Reality, Street Smarts, and Relativism, and also serves as an adjunct professor in Christian apologetics at Biola University.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Greg joins Wade for a rich conversation about Christianity, reason, and the long return of thoughtful faith to the public square. Reflecting on the cultural aftershocks of the Scopes Trial, the abdication of serious Christian engagement, and the later rise of a new generation of apologists, Greg explains how believers began recovering the intellectual confidence to address truth, morality, and reality in a skeptical age.Together, they explore public witness, orthodoxy, apologetics, cultural change, and what it means to engage hard questions without surrendering either conviction or grace.

Chase Replogle is a pastor, author, and podcast host who serves as pastor of Bent Oak Church in Springfield, Missouri. He is the author of A Sharp Compassion and The 5 Masculine Instincts, drawing on Scripture, history, psychology, and literature to help readers think more deeply about faith and life. Chase also hosts the Pastor Writer Podcast, where he interviews Christian authors on writing and publishing, and his work has been featured by outlets such as Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, and Good Morning America.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Chase joins Wade for a wide-ranging conversation about Scripture, judgment, masculinity, and the slow work of spiritual formation. Drawing from his expository preaching, his Let’s Talk Bible teaching project, and his own writing, Chase explores judgment as something more than punishment: a revealing, an uncovering, a bringing into the light of what is false and what is true.Together, they also discuss the pressures surrounding modern masculinity and why Christian maturity is not about denying masculine instinct or blindly indulging it, but letting it be shaped into wisdom, character, and compassion. This is a conversation about identity, discipleship, and the hidden leaven of the kingdom working its way through ordinary lives.

Kutter Callaway is a theologian, author, and cultural critic who serves as the William K. Brehm Chair of Worship, Theology, and the Arts and Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Seminary. With two PhDs—one in theology and one in psychological science—Kutter has built his work around helping Christians engage film, television, technology, and contemporary culture with both depth and imagination. He is the author of books including The Aesthetics of Atheism, Deep Focus, Watching TV Religiously, Scoring Transcendence, and Theology for Psychology and Counseling.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Kutter joins Wade for a conversation about culture, art, theology, and the questions that keep faith alive. Raised as a church planter’s kid in a home where doubt and curiosity were welcomed, Kutter reflects on how that freedom to ask “what if?” shaped both his scholarship and his calling.Together, they explore why so much Christian media fails as art before it fails as theology, how ideology can distort storytelling on every side, and what it looks like to ask, in the middle of modern culture, what the Spirit of God is doing. For anyone trying to think more clearly about media, imagination, and faithful cultural engagement, this episode offers insight, challenge, and real substance.

Christopher Benek is a pastor, author, and thought leader working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, faith, and human flourishing. He serves as pastor of First Miami Presbyterian Church, is the CEO of CoCreators, and is the author of Church Leaders Guide to AI, helping churches and leaders think wisely about the ethical and spiritual implications of emerging technology. For more than a decade, Christopher has been a public voice on AI, transhumanism, leadership, and digital culture, with his work featured by outlets such as The New York Times, BBC, NPR, and The Guardian.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Christopher joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about how Christians can approach AI without fear-driven panic or naive optimism. He argues that the real trust issue behind AI is not the technology itself, but the people shaping and using it. That means the church’s role is not retreat, but formation: helping people become wiser, more trustworthy, and more fully human.Together, they explore the church’s long history of responding to new tools, the cultural and spiritual pressures emerging technologies reveal, and what it means to steward innovation in ways that serve human dignity and the common good.

Candace Lynn Talmadge is a U.S.-based author of dark high fantasy and nonfiction on spirituality and emotional healing. She is best known for the Stoneslayer series—a politically charged, spiritually rich saga of demonic warfare, intrigue, and awakening that draws on her own past-life memories. Reviewers have praised Stoneslayer: Book One – Scandal as “excellent high fantasy” and noted its rich blend of mysticism, intrigue, and family drama.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Candace joins Wade to explore the deeper world behind Stoneslayer: Book Four – Outcast. At the center is Helen, a young woman marked by exile and danger, forced to grow into spiritual abilities that may protect not only herself but others around her. Together they discuss reincarnation, the moral cycles individuals and societies repeat, the corruption of institutions, and the clash between domination and compassion in both fantasy worlds and our own.This is a conversation about power, justice, spiritual memory, and the kinds of stories that help us wrestle with realities beneath the surface of ordinary life.

Mark and Jill Savage are authors, speakers, and marriage coaches who are passionate about helping couples and families find hope, healing, and practical encouragement. After decades in church ministry, parenting five children, and walking through a devastating marital crisis that nearly ended their relationship, they now share their story with remarkable honesty and grace to help others pursue restoration. Jill is the founder of Hearts at Home and the author of books including No More Perfect Moms and Empty Nest, Full Life, and together Mark and Jill co-authored No More Perfect Marriages.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Mark and Jill join Wade for a candid conversation about marriage, redemption, and the importance of getting help before it’s too late. They reflect on the pain of broken trust, the slow work of rebuilding, and the kind of hope that can carry couples through dark seasons. They also share practical insight on intimacy, communication, and why so many marriages stay stuck simply because people wait too long to act.This is a conversation for couples in crisis, couples in repair, and couples who simply want something deeper and healthier. With warmth, humility, and hard-won wisdom, Mark and Jill remind us that perfection was never the goal—healing, honesty, and redemption are.

Amy Peeler is a New Testament scholar, pastor, and writer who has devoted her career to exploring Hebrews, gender, and the family of God. She serves as Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and is the author of Women and the Gender of God, multiple works on Hebrews, and Ordinary Time: The Season of Growth. Trained at Princeton Theological Seminary and Oklahoma Baptist University, Amy brings together rigorous exegesis and theological reflection on how Scripture speaks about God as Father, Mary as mother of God, and men and women as God’s children.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Amy joins Wade for a rich conversation about gender, holiness, and belonging in the family of God. Drawing from Hebrews, the Gospels, and the wider biblical story, she reflects on why the language of God as Father has been both life-giving and difficult, and why its deepest meaning can only be understood through Jesus. The incarnation stands at the center: we know God as Father because the Son reveals Him, and the Son comes to us born of a woman.Together, they also explore Genesis, spiritual maturity, and the difference between grasping at knowledge apart from God and growing into wisdom with Him. For anyone seeking a more biblically rooted and theologically careful conversation about God, gender, and the church, this episode offers depth, grace, and real substance.

Jared Byas is a writer, speaker, and co-founder of The Bible for Normal People, where he helps people ask better questions about faith, Scripture, and what it means to be Christian. A former pastor and professor of philosophy and biblical studies, Jared is known for making complex ideas accessible and creating space for honest conversations about doubt, belonging, and spiritual growth. He is the author of Love Matters More, Jonah for Normal People, and co-author of Genesis for Normal People.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Jared joins Wade for a rich conversation about how we read the Bible, why so many people inherit rigid systems instead of living questions, and what happens when scholarship is kept out of reach of ordinary believers. Drawing from his journey through charismatic, Baptist, Presbyterian, academic, and pastoral worlds, Jared reflects on the shift from defending faith as a system to encountering Scripture as something more mysterious, human, and transformative.Together, they explore interpretation, doubt, wisdom, community, and the danger of pretending we come to the Bible without lenses. This is a conversation for anyone who still cares deeply about Scripture but suspects there may be a more honest, spacious, and faithful way to engage it.

Kelly Edmiston is a pastor, teacher, author, and speaker who is passionate about helping people break free from shame and move toward deeper healing and flourishing. Raised in a church tradition where women weren’t expected to preach or lead, Kelly now lives boldly into that calling—creating honest, grace-filled conversations around faith, identity, and topics many churches avoid. She is the author of Shame-Free Sex Talks, a practical and hopeful resource for helping families talk about relationships, emotional health, and sexuality without fear or silence.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Kelly joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about spiritual formation, the goodness of the body, and why so many Christians struggle to speak honestly about relationships and sexuality. She explains why everyone is being formed by something, why the church has often treated the body as a barrier instead of a gift, and why healthy conversations have to begin not with panic or moralism, but with a deeper theological vision of what it means to be human.Drawing from her research, interviews, and pastoral work, Kelly offers a more grounded and grace-filled approach to conversations many families desperately need but don’t know how to begin. For anyone longing for a more honest, healing, and faithful way forward, this episode offers clarity, courage, and hope.

Michael Ward is a theologian, literary scholar, and leading voice in C.S. Lewis studies, serving as an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. He is best known as the award-winning author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis, bringing together deep theological insight with a rich appreciation for imagination, literature, and faith. He has also held chaplaincy and research roles at Oxford and Cambridge, and helped lead major public tributes to Lewis, including the memorial in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Michael joins Wade for a rich conversation about Lewis’s theological imagination, the symbolic world behind Narnia, and why Lewis’s work still matters so powerfully today. Drawing especially on Planet Narnia, Michael explores the medieval vision of the seven heavens and how Lewis wove those cosmic meanings into the Chronicles in ways most readers never notice—but deeply feel.Together, they also touch on That Hideous Strength, The Abolition of Man, the Tower of Babel tradition, and the enduring power of stories to reveal truth. For anyone drawn to Lewis, Tolkien, imagination, or the meeting place of theology and literature, this episode offers both delight and depth.

Paul Dafydd Jones is a theologian and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia whose work explores Christian thought, public life, and the enduring questions of theology in the modern world. Educated at Oxford, Harvard Divinity School, Heidelberg, and Harvard University, he has written widely on Protestant theology, Christology, political theology, and the theology of patience. He is the author of The Humanity of Christ and Patience: A Theological Exploration, and co-editor of major volumes including the Oxford Handbook of Karl Barth and Karl Barth and Liberation Theology.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Paul joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about theology’s public relevance in a fragmented age. Drawing on his teaching at a major public university, he reflects on why faith must be able to give an account of itself in the modern world—and why the best theology is never cut off from real questions of justice, freedom, discrimination, and ecological responsibility.Together, they explore Calvin, Karl Barth, Schleiermacher, liberation theology, and the challenge of integrating deep Christian tradition with contemporary moral and political concerns. For anyone wrestling with how serious theology can remain both intellectually honest and publicly engaged, this episode offers depth, nuance, and real substance.

Sarah E. Frazer is an author, Bible teacher, and encouraging voice for women walking through weariness, disappointment, and unexpected turns in life. Through her writing, courses, and Bible studies, she helps readers face fear, stress, and uncertainty with God’s peace and a deeper understanding of Scripture. She is the author of I Didn’t Sign Up for This: How to Rest in God’s Goodness When Your Story Shifts and has been featured by outlets such as Christian Today, First5, and Crosswalk.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Sarah joins Wade for a tender conversation about anxiety, sleeplessness, and the healing power of God’s Word—especially in the dark hours when fear feels loudest. She shares how a season of depression and spiritual struggle during pregnancy led her to the Psalms, and how hearing Psalm 27 read aloud in the middle of the night became a turning point in her experience of God’s peace.That journey eventually gave rise to her Psalms to Help You Sleep podcast and her upcoming book, He Is With Me Through the Night. Together, they explore why the Psalms speak so powerfully to fear, grief, and uncertainty, and how Scripture can become a place of rest when life does not go as planned.

Dan Allender, PhD, is a pioneering therapist, professor of counseling psychology, and co-founder of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, known for his groundbreaking work at the intersection of trauma, abuse, and the Christian story. For more than 40 years, the Allender Theory has helped hundreds of thousands engage their stories of harm in light of the gospel, reshaping how pastors, counselors, and ordinary people think about abuse, sexuality, marriage, grief, and healing. He is the author of influential books such as The Wounded Heart, The Healing Path, To Be Told, Redeeming Heartache, and—with Tremper Longman—The Cry of the Soul and Bold Love.In this deeply unusual episode of Created In The Image of God, the conversation becomes something more than an interview. As Wade describes the recent deaths of two sisters and his father, along with the family conflict and legal burdens that have followed, Dan responds not as a distant expert but as a wise guide into the disorienting terrain of grief, trauma, death, and meaning. Together, they explore what it means to read one’s own life honestly, to face the darkness without comparison or escape, and to ask whether even the most painful parts of our story might still be revelatory.This is a raw, searching conversation about death, family, authorship, suffering, and the possibility that even in the most disruptive chapters of life, something true and beautiful is still being revealed.

Steve Bezner is a pastor, professor, and author who now serves as Associate Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Theology at Truett Seminary at Baylor University. After more than a decade as Senior Pastor of Houston Northwest Church, Steve has become known for helping Christians think more clearly about discipleship, culture, and the ways American values can distort the way we follow Jesus. He is the author of Your Jesus Is Too American: Calling the Church to Reclaim Kingdom Values over the American Dream and has also invested deeply in pastoral training, church collaboration, racial reconciliation, and interfaith bridge-building.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Steve joins Wade for a conversation about the church, the kingdom of God, and why a growing number of people—especially young adults—seem hungry for a vision of life that is bigger than career success, political identity, or cultural tribalism. Drawing on his pastoral experience, Steve reflects on why the church can still offer something deeply compelling in a fractured age: not a partisan platform, but a different way of living in the world.Together, they explore what makes a healthy church, why politics so easily becomes ultimate, and how Christians can recover a vision of discipleship rooted more deeply in the kingdom of God than in the promises of the American dream. For anyone trying to understand faith, culture, and the church’s relevance right now, this episode offers a wise and needed challenge.

Derek Vreeland is a pastor, author, and discipleship leader who serves as Discipleship Pastor at Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri. Known for thoughtful, humorous, and authentic teaching, he is the author of several books, including Centering Jesus: How the Lamb of God Transforms Our Communities, Ethics, & Spiritual Lives, a 2024 ECPA Book Award finalist, and the God in the Neighborhood Bible study series. Through his writing, preaching, and Peaceable and Kind podcast, Derek has become a trusted voice on spiritual formation, peacemaking, and the way of Jesus.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Derek joins Wade to talk about the origins of God in the Neighborhood, a three-book Bible study series built around the unique language and imagination of The Message translation. Inspired by Eugene Peterson’s rendering of John 1:14—“The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood”—the series traces the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the story of God joining us fully in our humanity.Together, they explore how fresh language can reopen familiar Scripture, why discipleship must stay centered on Jesus, and how the gospel speaks not only to personal faith, but to the life we share with others right where we live.

Graham Tomlin is a British theologian, author, and former Church of England bishop who now leads the Centre for Cultural Witness, helping the church speak more clearly and imaginatively into public life. He previously served as Bishop of Kensington in the Diocese of London from 2015 to 2022, where he became a key pastoral voice in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire and its national memorial service. Before becoming a bishop, he spent many years in theological education as chaplain of Jesus College, Oxford, and as dean, principal, and now president of St Mellitus College.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Tomlin joins Wade for a timely conversation about what it means for Christians to offer “cultural witness” in a rapidly changing world. Drawing on books like The Provocative Church, The Widening Circle, and Why Being Yourself is a Bad Idea, he explores how the church can engage a secular, polarized society without surrendering either theological depth or spiritual vitality.Together, they discuss how Christians can listen more carefully, speak more imaginatively, and embody a more faithful public presence in a fractured age. For seekers and believers alike, this episode offers a compelling vision of faith that is intellectually serious, spiritually alive, and publicly relevant.

This special episode of Created In The Image of God is dedicated to the memory of Professor John L. Esposito, the pioneering Georgetown scholar whose work helped generations of students, readers, and leaders think more clearly about Islam, pluralism, public life, and Muslim–Christian understanding. Scheduled to appear on the show, Esposito passed away on July 15, 2026, in Philadelphia as a result of complications from heart surgery. His absence is deeply felt, but so is the enduring influence of his life’s work.Wade Fransson takes this moment to reflect on life, death, and the strange weight of loss when it becomes deeply personal. Having lost two sisters and his father in the last two years, Wade shares thoughts shaped not just by ideas, but by grief, memory, and the reality of saying goodbye.This is a tribute, a meditation, and a personal reflection on what remains after a life ends: the questions, the love, the sorrow, and the legacy. In honoring John Esposito, the episode also opens space for a larger conversation about mortality, remembrance, and how we carry the lives of others forward."In this episode of Created In The Image of God, he reflects on the rise of authoritarianism, the globalization of Islamophobia, and the ways anti-Muslim racism distorts not only religion, but politics, diplomacy, and public life. He shares how Georgetown’s Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding was born out of a concern that Islam would be cast as the next global threat—and why that concern has only become more relevant.Together, we explore Muslim–Christian relations, the fractured legacy of the children of Abraham, and the challenge of building genuine understanding in a world still shaped by fear, rivalry, and inherited mistrust. For anyone looking for a wiser, more historically grounded way to think about Islam, pluralism, and our shared future, this conversation offers clarity, depth, and humanity.

Mandy Smith is a pastor, author, and one of the clearest voices speaking into the need for sustainable, human‑scaled ministry. Best known for The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry, she has spent years exploring what it means to take Jesus seriously in a world that prizes power, polish, and control. Her writing asks a simple but disruptive question: if God really shows His strength in our weakness, what would it look like to live and lead as though that were true?In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Mandy reflects on the deep thread running through all her work—from weakness and dependence, to hospitality, emotional honesty, collaboration, and the hidden life of the kingdom. She shares how God has taught her to stop apologizing for being human, and how some of the very qualities often dismissed as “soft” or secondary can become channels of renewal in leadership, church life, and community.This conversation is for pastors, leaders, and anyone exhausted by performance-driven faith. Mandy offers a hopeful reminder that God’s kingdom often grows like yeast in dough—quietly, slowly, and in places the world has learned to overlook.

Mark Galli is an American Catholic writer, editor, and former Protestant pastor best known for his leadership at Christianity Today, where he served in various roles—culminating in seven years as editor in chief. A California native who moved from Presbyterian ministry into evangelical Anglicanism before returning to the Catholic Church in 2020, he has written widely on evangelicalism, theology, and spiritual life in books like Jesus Mean and Wild, Beyond Smells and Bells, God Wins, Chaos and Grace, Karl Barth: An Introductory Biography for Evangelicals, and With All the Saints: My Journey to the Roman Catholic Church.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Mark joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about faith, conscience, and the long spiritual journey through—and beyond—American evangelicalism. Raised Catholic, shaped by evangelical conversion, formed through pastoral ministry and decades of religious journalism, and later received back into the Catholic Church, Mark brings a rare perspective on the tensions between conviction, tradition, public witness, and political power.Together, we explore what happens when loyalty to Christ challenges loyalty to tribe, how conscience is formed in times of cultural and ecclesial upheaval, and what it means to keep seeking truth with humility across the changing landscapes of Christian identity. This is a conversation for anyone wrestling with belonging, integrity, and the cost of spiritual honesty.

Richard Strilowich is a corporate SAGE coach who helps conscious professionals treat their careers as a spiritual path—integrating inner wisdom with outer success. Drawing on more than 40 years in IT, including leadership roles in small, medium, and global companies, he brings a systems-thinking mindset and practical depth to questions of work, identity, and purpose. Over three decades of spiritual exploration—through mind-body-spirit modalities, energy-consciousness work, somatic therapy, and spiritual direction—have shaped the way he now guides others through StillPoint Coach.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Rich joins Wade for a deeply personal conversation about the long road from Catholic boyhood to corporate leadership to spiritual integration. He reflects on formative moments that shaped him—from singing at the Vatican as a 13-year-old and receiving communion from Pope Paul VI, to finding a quiet, wordless communion with God in nature, to losing himself in software development and later discovering that even debugging code could become a kind of mystical focus.Together, they explore what happens when success no longer satisfies, why inner pain can become the beginning of calling, and how the spiritual path sometimes finds us long before we know how to name it. For anyone trying to reconcile ambition, faith, work, and wholeness, Rich offers a thoughtful invitation: your career may not be separate from your soul’s journey after all.

Brian Adamson is a Kingdom business coach, co-founder of Purpose to Profits, and host of the Believers N Biz podcast. He helps faith-driven coaches, consultants, and experts grow to six and seven figures through scalable business models built on biblical principles rather than hustle, burnout, or constant one-to-one effort. After leaving corporate at 35 and building his own online business to nearly $10 million, Brian developed his “1 to Many” system to help purpose-driven entrepreneurs expand their impact without sacrificing what matters most.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Brian joins Wade for a practical and faith-centered conversation about what it means to grow a business God’s way. Together, they explore how entrepreneurs can move beyond inconsistent income, overwork, and survival mode into models shaped by clarity, conviction, and Kingdom alignment.They also discuss why focusing on the right inputs matters more than obsessing over outcomes, how biblical principles can reshape the way we think about scaling, and what becomes possible when our work is anchored in truth and surrendered to God. For anyone building a business while trying to stay faithful, present, and sane, this episode offers both strategy and encouragement.

Jen Pollock Michel is an author, speaker, and writing mentor whose work circles around desire, time, home, and the ordinary practices that shape a life with God. She has written six books—Teach Us to Want and In Good Time (both award‑winners), Surprised by Paradox, Keeping Place, A Habit Called Faith, and her forthcoming A Rule for the Rest of Us. With degrees in French, literature, and an MFA in creative writing, she now mentors writers in Whitworth University’s MFA program and pens a popular Substack of “Monday letters” from her near‑empty nest in Cincinnati.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Jen and Wade trace the story beneath those books: a childhood spent moving around the Midwest and South as her English‑teacher dad pursued a PhD in communications; a home where poems were written for birthdays and words were the family currency; and a church life rich in Bible drills and doctrine, but—at least at first—thin on joy. As a teen, Jen assumed she’d follow Jesus “later,” once she’d had her fun. Then, at 16, a youth camp encounter shifted everything, turning faith from cramped rules into a spacious path of joy, obedience, and grace.From there, the conversation dives into how we misunderstand God’s law as mere restriction, why “choose to sin, choose to suffer” is more about reality than lightning bolts, and how being re‑storied by Scripture helps us love rightly—God, neighbors, children, and even our own desires—in proper proportion.For anyone who grew up in church but quietly wondered if a life with God would be too small, Jen’s story is an invitation into a bigger, truer way of being human: one where limits are gifts, obedience leads to joy, and every ordinary day can be woven into God’s surprising, spacious grace.

Vinoth Ramachandra is a Sri Lankan theologian, writer, and international lecturer who has spent decades helping Christians engage the university and public life with intellectual rigor and social integrity. Trained in nuclear engineering at the University of London, he returned to Sri Lanka rather than pursue an academic career in the West, helping to build an inter-denominational Christian university ministry and later serving on IFES’s Senior Leadership Team as Secretary for Dialogue & Social Engagement. His work has also included civil rights advocacy in Sri Lanka, global networks for development and justice through Micah Network, creation care with A Rocha, and advisory roles with the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Vinoth joins Wade for a searching conversation about cultural witness shaped not in comfort, but in the midst of conflict. From Sri Lanka’s long civil struggles to the wider myths of nationalism, secularism, and Western modernity, he explores how Christians can resist shallow narratives and recover a more faithful, globally aware discipleship. Drawing on books like Gods That Fail, Subverting Global Myths, and Sarah’s Laughter, Vinoth brings theology into conversation with suffering, doubt, politics, and hope.Together, they ask what faithful public presence looks like in a fractured world—and why genuine witness must be courageous, dialogical, and deeply attentive to the humanity of every person.

Jay Kim is a pastor, author, and cultural observer who serves as lead pastor of WestGate Church in the heart of Silicon Valley. He is the author of The Pace of Peace, Listen Listen Speak, Analog Christian, and Analog Church, where he explores what it means to follow Jesus with depth, attention, and embodied presence in a distracted digital age. A contributor to outlets like Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, and Relevant, Jay also hosts IVP’s Digital Examen Podcast.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Jay joins Wade for a searching conversation about faith, technology, church hurt, and the pressures of modern life. Born in South Korea and raised in Silicon Valley after his mother’s dramatic conversion to Christianity, Jay grew up in the world of the immigrant church—where faith, belonging, and community were deeply intertwined. But when that world fractured through betrayal and pain, he walked away, only to find his way back through the patient love of friends who embodied Jesus differently.Together, they explore what it means to pursue peace in an anxious age, why digital life so easily fragments our attention, and how a more faithful Christian presence begins not with speed or performance, but with slowness, depth, and love.

Jennifer J. Wiseman is an astrophysicist whose journey runs from a childhood in rural Arkansas to labs and observatories connected with MIT, Harvard, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. As an undergraduate she discovered the periodic comet Wiseman–Skiff and has since become a leading expert on star‑forming regions, studying interstellar clouds, protostars, and stellar outflows across the Milky Way.Beyond her research, Jennifer is widely known for her work at the intersection of science, faith, and public life—directing the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion, and serving with organizations like BioLogos and the American Scientific Affiliation. In this episode of Created In The Image of God, she and Wade explore what our rapidly expanding picture of the universe means for life on Earth: from galaxies, dark matter, and black holes to the emerging science of astrobiology and the search for life beyond our planet.Together they ask how cosmic discovery can deepen, rather than diminish, our sense of wonder, ethics, and responsibility. What does it mean to speak of being created in the image of God on one small world in a vast, ancient cosmos? How might the possibility of other worlds and other lives reshape the way we think about God’s creativity, human humility, and our call to care for this planet and each other?

Tremper Longman III is one of the world’s leading Old Testament scholars, serving as Distinguished Scholar and emeritus Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College after nearly two decades there and eighteen years at Westminster Theological Seminary. Trained at Ohio Wesleyan, Westminster, and Yale (PhD in Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern studies), he has written influential commentaries on Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Daniel, Jeremiah, and more, and co‑edited the award‑winning Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings. As a senior translator for the wisdom books in the New Living Translation and author of works like Confronting Old Testament Controversies and The Bible and the Ballot: Using Scripture in Political Decisions, he is known for combining rigorous scholarship with accessible guidance for Christians wrestling with Scripture and contemporary issues.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Tremper and Wade ask what our “Judeo‑Christian heritage” really means. If the Bible helped shape Western law, notions of justice, and the very idea that humans bear God’s image, is it still relevant for public life today? How should Scripture inform political decisions without becoming a partisan weapon—or being pushed to the margins as merely “private” belief?Together they explore how the Old Testament speaks into questions of justice, power, character, and community, and how believers can engage culture and politics with humility, wisdom, and a deeper respect for the text at the heart of their faith.

Born in Vietnam and forced to flee as a child after the fall of Saigon, David Truong’s life traces a modern Exodus—from war, displacement, and refugee camps to rebuilding in America and discovering a deeper freedom in Christ. After escaping by boat and surviving the uncertainty of camp life, he and his family eventually resettled in the United States, an experience he recounts in his memoir Escape to America, featured on NPR and in regional media.Today David is a husband, father, corporate attorney, and deacon at Dulles Church of Christ, a Bible‑based congregation he helped plant more than 20 years ago. In this episode of Created in the Image of God, he reflects on how God met him in trauma and transition, reshaped his understanding of freedom, duty, and opportunity, and turned a family’s desperate escape into a story of redemptive love and purpose.We talk about memory, migration, and gratitude—what it means to honor the life you narrowly escaped, the life you were given, and the responsibilities that come with both. For anyone wrestling with hardship, origin stories, or the meaning of “promised land” in their own journey, David’s story offers a sober, hope‑filled look at providence, perseverance, and thankfulness.

Jason Heinritz grew up in a conservative Christian home in Waukesha, Wisconsin—church on Sundays, sports and good grades through the week. But underneath the wholesome exterior, he learned to draw his worth from performance: being liked, being captain, winning. In college, that drive found a perfect outlet in direct sales with Cutco Cutlery, where he quickly became a top producer and then a successful office owner.Through his twenties, Jason lived the classic “work hard, party hard” script: binge‑drinking weekends, achievement‑driven hustle, and a faith life largely reduced to an hour on Sunday. He still called himself a “Jesus guy,” but his real priorities were trips, trophies, and building his own kingdom. The breaking point came when he got engaged in a relationship built on chemistry and convenience more than shared calling—and realized, just months before the wedding, that he couldn’t honestly bring God into a future he was already compromising.In this episode, Jason unpacks that wake‑up call and the year of reset that followed: calling off the wedding, stepping back from dating, diving into Scripture, morning routines, and wholehearted surrender. We trace how God led him from divided loyalties into a life of “holy habits”—launching the Wake Up Jesus People movement, the 40 Forge Challenge, and the journal and practices now helping believers move from hustle to sustainable rhythms with Jesus.If you’re tired of living split between your public success and your private soul, Jason’s story is a practical, hopeful invitation to let God reorder your days—so you can live with deeper peace, purpose, and joy in a noisy, distracted world.

If you ask Steve Chalke why Oasis exists—a network of churches, schools, housing projects, youth work, anti‑trafficking initiatives, and community hubs serving tens of thousands across the UK—he’ll take you back to a teenage boy walking home in South London. The son of a South Indian railway worker and a white English mother, Steve grew up in poverty, watching his father passed over for jobs and literally watched people cross the street to avoid him. At school his nickname was “half‑caste,” and teachers in his “dump” of a secondary school told students people like them weren’t worth educating; they’d work with their hands, not their heads.At 14, Steve started attending a Friday‑night youth club at a local Baptist church because he was infatuated with a girl named Mary. One evening her friend walked across the hall to inform him, in front of everyone, that Mary thought he was “ugly.” Crestfallen, he trudged home—only to realize that, whatever Mary thought, the story he was hearing at that little church was radically different from the one he heard at school. There, he was told he’d never amount to much. At church, he heard that he was made by God, that his life had meaning and purpose. On that walk home, he made a decision that would mark the rest of his life: he would keep going to the youth group even if Mary never spoke to him again; he would follow Jesus; he would become a church leader; and when he grew up, he would start a school that was worth going to, a house for kids who had never been loved, and a hospital.In this episode, Steve tells how that teenage vow slowly became reality. After training for ministry at Spurgeon’s College and serving as a youth pastor, he and his new wife Cornelia did something most would call reckless: they left the security of a large church job and, with no money, launched a 501(c)(3)–style charity from scratch. In 1985 they opened a sixteen‑bedroom house for 16–18‑year‑olds who had been abused, neglected, and passed around the care system. Cornelia named it “Oasis,” because that’s what they wanted it to be—a place of shelter and life in a desert of indifference. From that single house, Oasis has grown over four decades into a family of charities employing more than 6,000 staff, educating 35,000 children in some of the UK’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods, and running churches, youth work, housing projects, and justice initiatives—including work in the criminal justice system and anti‑trafficking efforts.Along the way, Steve has become one of Britain’s most outspoken public Christians: fronting national TV and radio broadcasts, serving as a UN special adviser on human trafficking, launching the STOP THE TRAFFIK coalition, and writing over 40 books that challenge the church on issues like atonement, racism, inclusion, and LGBTQ+ affirmation. In conversation with Wade, he unpacks his conviction that Christian faith is always personal but never private—that the gospel must show up in concrete action for justice, reconciliation, and the common good, or it has betrayed Jesus. He reflects on how his own story of exclusion fuels his passion for radically inclusive communities, why he believes churches must be embedded in their neighborhoods as “hubs” of holistic care, and how theology, sociology, and psychology all have a role in reimagining what it means to love our neighbors.For listeners wondering what it looks like to take Jesus’ call to love the least of these seriously—not just in words but in structures and systems—this episode offers both inspiration and provocation. Steve’s life is a testimony that a 14‑year‑old’s kitchen‑table decision, rooted in the simple belief that every person bears God’s image, can grow—through risk, failure, perseverance, and grace—into an oasis for thousands.

Miroslav Volf’s theology was born not in an ivory tower, but in the cracks of a fractured world. Raised in post–World War II Yugoslavia by a Pentecostal pastor father and a Bible‑soaked mother, he spent his earliest years in a tiny apartment shared with a Serbian nanny, Milica Branković—“the angel of my childhood,” as he calls her. In a country still marked by violence between Croats (largely Catholic) and Serbs (largely Orthodox), that little household quietly embodied a different possibility: people from groups taught to distrust one another living together in love, prayer, and mutual care. It was, in hindsight, a living parable of reconciliation.As a teenager, Volf resisted the weight of his parents’ faith, only to encounter Christ for himself at sixteen—unexpectedly, in a Swedish tent meeting where he barely understood half the sermon. The change was profound enough that when he returned home, his emotionally astute mother simply looked at him and said, “What happened to you? You’re a different person.” From there, his path wound through underground theological study in communist Yugoslavia, philosophy at the University of Zagreb, a master’s degree at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, and advanced work in Tübingen, Germany on the deepest questions of God, self, and other. All of it unfolded against the backdrop of a homeland sliding into ethnic war.In this episode, Volf and Wade explore how those experiences gave rise to the themes that now define his work: exclusion and embrace, identity and otherness, and the possibility of a life “worth living” in a deeply divided age. Volf explains why he sees the gospel’s heart not in withdrawal or domination, but in the crucified Christ who absorbs enmity and opens his arms in welcome—a pattern he famously unpacked in Exclusion and Embrace, and has continued to develop through the Yale Center for Faith & Culture’s work on flourishing and public faith. They discuss how theology must be tested in the “laboratory” of real life—war, injustice, politics, and everyday relationships—and why cheap calls to reconciliation that ignore justice are as dangerous as justice pursued without any hope of reconciliation.Drawing on insights from Flourishing and Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, Volf invites listeners—believers and skeptics alike—to wrestle with questions modern life often pushes aside: What is a good life? What are we for? How do we live with our enemies, our neighbors, and even ourselves without being consumed by resentment? Throughout, he returns to the conviction that a truly Christian vision of life is both deeply realistic about evil and radically hopeful about God’s power to create a future of joy, justice, and embrace.For anyone struggling to make sense of faith in the face of violence, culture wars, or personal hurt, this conversation offers more than abstract answers. It traces the journey of a man who has seen exclusion up close and still dares to imagine—and work for—a world shaped by reconciliation rather than revenge.

Many Christians live with a quiet, relentless pressure: be everywhere, know everything, do it all—then feel guilty when they can’t. Kelly Kapic has spent much of his life gently dismantling that lie. A theologian and long‑time professor at Covenant College in Georgia, Kelly was raised in a Catholic home in northern California, drifted from church as a kid, and then came to a lively faith through a Baptist youth group. Over the years his path took him from Wheaton College to seminary, then to doctoral work in London on the 17th‑century theologian John Owen and the doctrine of the Trinity. Since 2001 he has taught courses in doctrine, the Trinity, Christology, and faith and suffering, helping students see that theology is not an abstract hobby but a way of understanding how to live well before God.In this episode, Kelly and Wade explore themes from his books You’re Only Human, Embodied Hope, and Christian Life: what it really means that God is God and we are not. Kelly points out that when Scripture calls us to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,” the word “perfect” has more to do with fullness and maturity than sinless performance. Hebrews can say that Jesus “was made perfect” through suffering—not because He was ever sinful, but because, as truly human, He entered the full range of human experience, including pain, loss, and obedience under pressure. That same passage opens up the mystery of a God who, in Christ, doesn’t just know our temptations in theory, but has borne them experientially from the human side.From there, the conversation turns practical: How do we distinguish God’s attributes—omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence—from our own calling as limited creatures? What happens to our souls when we try to imitate the wrong things about God, living as if we, too, must be everywhere, know everything, and fix everyone? Drawing on his work with college students and his collaborations with psychologists and pastors, Kelly argues that learning to accept our finitude—our need for sleep, our local bodies, our incomplete knowledge—is not a lack of faith but an act of trust. It frees us from frantic busyness and perfectionism, and it changes how we respond to suffering: not as a glitch in an otherwise “normal” life, but as a place where God meets us, matures us, and knits us into community.Throughout the episode, Kelly keeps theology tethered to everyday reality: burnout, family expectations, church life, and the quiet shame many believers carry about their limitations. He and Wade also touch on ritual and practice—why even informal churches are full of habits and “liturgies,” and how those can either help or hinder real intimacy with God.For anyone who feels crushed by spiritual to‑do lists, confused about how a perfect God relates to imperfect people, or hungry for a more humane vision of the Christian life, this conversation offers both clarity and relief. Kelly’s message is simple and liberating: you were never meant to do it all—and your limits, received in faith, can become places where grace, joy, and genuine holiness take root.

Peter Greer grew up on a historic street in Concord, Massachusetts—home of the “shot heard round the world”—in a house where faith, hospitality, and global curiosity were simply normal. His dad pastored a local church, his mom served in the schools, and Sunday lunch almost always included an extra guest at the table. Those early lessons in welcoming the stranger and learning from other cultures became the quiet foundation for a very public vocation.In this episode, Peter shares the pivot moment that shaped his life’s work: a college trip studying international business across Europe and the former Soviet Union, capped by a lunch in Moscow with a man doing economic development as Christian mission. In that conversation, faith, global poverty, and business snapped into a single calling. From there, Peter went on to serve with World Relief in Cambodia, lead a microfinance institution in post‑genocide Rwanda, wrestle with hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, and eventually become CEO of HOPE International, a global ministry that equips families in poverty to start and grow businesses.Together we explore how to rethink charity, why dignity and partnership matter, and what it looks like to hold together Jesus’ warnings about “serving two masters” with a robust, hopeful vision of business and entrepreneurship as tools for justice, restoration, and honoring the image of God in the poor.

Before he was writing fantasy novels, founding the Rabbit Room, or penning modern hymns, Andrew Peterson was a pastor’s kid who felt like he didn’t belong. Born in Illinois while his Southern parents were in seminary, his early years looked like a Norman Rockwell painting: John Deere tractors, cornfields, and an Andy‑Griffith innocence. At seven, everything shifted. His family moved “home” to North Florida—a place he describes as “like South Georgia, but weirder”—and the cultural whiplash left him feeling like an outsider overnight. In a town where everyone belonged to one of a few extended families, the kid with the non‑Southern accent was “the yankee,” and a low‑grade ache to find home settled in.Through all of it, stories and songs were his refuge. He devoured comic books (especially Batman), drew constantly, and soaked up everything from hair‑metal ballads to Jim Croce, Pink Floyd, and the quiet singer‑songwriters his dad piped in through the easy‑listening station: James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, Van Morrison. He believed God was real—but in the Southern church world he knew, the gospel felt mostly like bad news. God existed, but He was mostly angry and disappointed. Heaven seemed reserved for the people who behaved; Andrew knew he wasn’t one of them.Everything began to change when he stumbled into the music of Rich Mullins. Learning “If I Stand” for a friend cracked open a door he didn’t know was there. Here was someone writing honestly about doubt, sin, grace, and a Jesus who actually loved people like him. Rich’s wonder‑soaked lyrics gave Andrew permission to see the created world—not as disposable fuel for the end times—but as his Father’s world, pulsing with God’s presence and goodness. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the God who’d felt cold and condemning began to look more like the God revealed in Jesus: holy, yes, but also kind, patient, and full of affection.In this episode, Andrew and Wade wander through that journey—the dislocation of childhood, the haunted beauty of the South, early bands and batman sketches, and the slow healing of his imagination. They touch on how those experiences eventually gave rise to the Wingfeather Saga, Adorning the Dark, The God of the Garden, and the Rabbit Room community: all born from a desire to help others see that faith and art aren’t enemies; that stories can carry truth in ways arguments can’t; and that our longing to belong is, at its core, a longing for Christ.For anyone who grew up in church afraid of God, for artists wondering how their gifts fit in the Kingdom, or for those who quietly feel like they’ve never quite belonged anywhere, this conversation offers gentle, grounded hope. Andrew’s story is a reminder that God often meets us in the very places we feel most out of place—through songs, stories, and the slow realization that the world, and our lives, are more haunted by grace than we ever imagined.

Some people talk about spiritual warfare in theory. Eric Davis had to live it. A lifelong lover of antiques and old homes, he visited a plantation in South Carolina, fell in love with the idea, and asked God for one of his own. In 2016, that prayer seemed to be answered when he acquired Springhill Plantation. The joy didn’t last long. Almost immediately after moving in, Eric and his family began to encounter unnerving phenomena: strange noises, flashes of light, and, most chillingly, a fog‑like form taking shape outside that carried a palpable sense of evil. The house, they realized, was haunted.In this episode, Eric recounts how what began as a dream quickly became a test of faith. He could have run. Instead, he stayed—and discovered that survival would require more than casual Christianity. He talks about the escalating oppression, the fear that pressed in on his family, and the ways he initially responded that, in hindsight, left doors open to the enemy. Then, step by step, he describes how God began to teach him his true identity in Christ and the authority believers have in Jesus’ name. Over the course of several years, through prayer, repentance, wise counsel, and persistent spiritual warfare, Eric learned to stand his ground, confront the entities in the house, and see his home and family set free.With humility and raw honesty, Eric doesn’t just tell ghost stories; he unpacks the spiritual lessons behind them—how bitterness, occult curiosity, generational sin, or unexamined compromises can create footholds for darkness, and how the cross and resurrection of Jesus provide real power to close those doors. For anyone battling unexplained fear, oppression, or a sense that “something is wrong” they can’t quite name, this conversation offers both sober discernment and solid hope. Eric’s story is a reminder that the unseen battle is real—but so is the authority of Christ to bring peace, protection, and freedom.

Jocelyn J. Jones grew up in Catholic school, watching her mom convert so the kids wouldn’t be left out—and quietly learning how to perform faith without ever really meeting God. She remembers sitting bored in Mass, inventing sins for confession, and treating church as ritual rather than relationship. That began to shift at a Kairos retreat in high school, but the real turning point came in college, when a friend invited her to a women’s Bible study and a worn VHS tape—Juanita Bynum’s “No More Sheets”—brought soul ties and sexual trauma into the light.In this episode, Jocelyn shares how God met her in that “ugly cry” on the living room floor, walked with her through years of wrestling, and eventually led her from journalism and TV into full‑time ministry at 23. Today she’s an ordained minister, author of Breaking the Power of the Mask, founder of Faith on the Journey Counseling, and a Master Facilitator with the Trauma Healing Institute, helping people heal from trauma, grief, and shame through a Christ‑centered lens.Together we talk about religion versus relationship, judgment versus love, and why taking off the mask is the first step toward emotional freedom and a life of purpose in Christ.

R. J. Snell likes to say he’s a farm boy from nowhere. Growing up in Carbon, Alberta—a town of about 360 people—he learned early what it meant to belong to a place where everyone showed up for your little league game and honked the horn, regardless of which church they attended or whether they believed at all. When his parents suggested he probably wasn’t cut out to be a farmer and should “keep going to school,” they set him on a path that would eventually lead through philosophy, teaching, and into his role today as Director of Academic Programs at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton and editor‑in‑chief of Public Discourse.In this episode, Snell reflects on how those small‑town lessons—rootedness, responsibility, and community—shape his work with students at one of the world’s most prestigious universities. He points out that while places like Princeton excel at technical excellence, they often hesitate to ask the deepest normative questions: What is the purpose of life? What is a human person for? What may we reasonably hope in? That’s where his work with Witherspoon comes in. Just off campus, he gathers students into seminars and reading groups designed to make space for those questions, and to model what he calls “intellectual friendship”: a community where people with differing beliefs can pursue truth together without collapsing into either relativism or rage.Snell describes his approach as putting the emphasis not on having the cleverest answers, but on learning to ask better, more honest questions—and sustaining a culture where that is valued. He talks about helping young adults navigate a fragmented age without losing their capacity for wonder or moral seriousness, and about how real community can “turn down the boil” in a society where every disagreement feels like a crisis. Along the way, he draws on decades of teaching, writing, and lecturing across North America and Europe, unpacking why philosophy, ethics, and a rich understanding of the human person still matter in a world dominated by technology and speed.For parents uneasy about sending their kids into today’s campus climate, students longing for deeper conversation, or anyone hungry for a more sane, humane way to think and live, this episode offers a grounded vision: that friendship, truth, and responsibility to a particular place and people are not luxuries, but the very conditions for flourishing in our time.

When wars are told in history books, the focus is usually on generals, presidents, and borders. Chinyere Emmanuel Egbe insists the real story lies elsewhere. A Nigerian‑born economist and long‑time CUNY professor who has spent decades teaching statistics and finance in Brooklyn, Dr. Egbe is also the author of Elephants, the Grass and the Teacher, a memoir of growing up during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970). In it, he uses a simple image to describe what he saw: the “elephants” — ruling establishments and military elites — decide when wars start and end, but it is the “grass,” the masses of ordinary people and low‑ranking soldiers, that is trampled.In this episode, Dr. Egbe walks through his early life under British colonial rule, the disciplined, justice‑oriented home shaped by his London‑educated teacher father and deeply prayerful mother, and the way that upbringing gave him a rigid sense of right and wrong. He then traces how Nigeria’s negotiated independence in 1960, followed by flawed elections and political crises in the mid‑1960s, spiraled into a military coup and eventually civil war. From his vantage point as a boy in Eastern Nigeria, he witnessed firsthand how decisions made by distant leaders translated into hunger, fear, displacement, and death on the ground.Along the way, he returns again and again to what he calls “divine interventions”: the improbable escapes and narrow misses that kept his family alive when, as a statistician, he now sees the odds should have gone the other way. He reflects on ancient voices like Plutarch and reformers in Rome who also saw commanders treating soldiers like expendable coins, and connects that insight to Paul’s blunt question in the New Testament: “From whence come wars and fightings among you?” For Dr. Egbe, the answer is clear — greed and the struggle of powerful “elephants” over resources God has already provided in sufficient measure for all.The conversation then bridges to his later work: why those wartime experiences drove him toward economics, why he believes education is a moral calling, and how his efforts in Central Brooklyn — from launching degree programs in financial economics to creating a Wall Street‑style trading lab and leading HUD‑funded community projects — are part of the same lifelong response to injustice he first sensed as a child.For listeners who have only known war through headlines, or who wonder what faith and justice look like when you’ve seen conflict up close, this episode offers a rare combination: rigorous economic insight, vivid personal story, and a clear-eyed moral critique of power that still leaves room for gratitude, purpose, and hope.

Gregory Coles is a writer, speaker, and language scholar whose life sits at the crossroads of faith, identity, and words. The author of Single, Gay, Christian, No Longer Strangers, The Limits of My World, and the forthcoming Sexuality Beyond Sex (IVP, 2026), Greg has spent years asking what it means to follow Jesus as a single, gay Christian who loves the church and takes Scripture seriously.In this episode, we talk about why language matters so much—how the labels we choose can shape our sense of self, our expectations of God, and even who feels welcome in the body of Christ. Greg shares how his own story has been formed by Scripture, prayer, and community, and why surrendering our desires and identities to God doesn’t mean pretending our questions or longings don’t exist.From memoir to theology to literary scholarship, this conversation invites us into a more honest, nuanced way of talking about sexuality, discipleship, and the image of God in every person—especially those who don’t fit our assumptions.

On paper, Steven Ferrara had the kind of life many people dream about. Born into a poor but tightly knit Italian family in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood, he grew up surrounded by Sunday dinners, grandparents in the basement kitchen, and a home full of love. A spiritual seeker from his teens—studying universal principles, practicing Transcendental Meditation, and devouring teachings on consciousness—he went straight into business at 18, eventually building one of the largest privately held financial services firms in the Northeast. By mid‑life he had a thriving career, a beautiful home, a loving wife, and three children.Then, in 2004, his world collapsed. His 23‑year‑old son Christopher, with whom he shared an unusually deep bond as both father and business partner, died suddenly in a car accident. Five years later, his wife—the emotional cornerstone of their family—was diagnosed with a rapid illness and passed away within weeks. Despite decades of spiritual practice, Steven found himself undone: running through his neighborhood shouting at God, questioning everything he had ever believed, and wondering how life could possibly go on.In this episode, Steven shares how his long habit of journaling—begun the day after his son’s death and continued for twenty years—became the unlikely container for his healing. Only after retiring and handing his firm to a successor team did he begin to reread the shelves of journals he had filled. As he did, he started to see the quiet “life lessons” that had been forming in the middle of his pain: invitations to accept what he could not control, to see death through a different lens, and to discover that gratitude and grief can coexist. Those insights eventually became his book From Grief to Gratitude: A New Paradigm on Death, a roadmap for others walking through loss.Drawing on spiritual influences from his Catholic childhood to universalist teachings, contemplative authors, and his own direct experience with God, Steven talks about what it has meant to move beyond fear, anger, and guilt into a genuine, hard‑earned gratitude—for his parents, his children, his late wife, and even the “curve balls” he would never have chosen. He speaks candidly about parenting his daughters through the loss of their mother, the ongoing nature of grief, and how he now understands death not as the end of relationship, but as a change of form within a larger, loving reality.For anyone who has lost a child, a spouse, or simply finds themselves afraid of death and undone by sorrow, this conversation offers no clichés—only the voice of someone who has lived through the fire and found a deeper peace on the other side. Steven’s story is an invitation to consider that even in life’s hardest seasons, a grateful heart is still possible.

For years, many knew Michael Gungor as a worship leader and the creative force behind the band Gungor. Today, he’s just as likely to call himself a “creative mystic,” experimenting with ambient soundscapes, podcasts, and a forthcoming book, The Shape of Things. Underneath the changing forms, one question has stayed constant: What is the real shape of reality—and how do you live in tune with it?In this episode, Michael reflects on a theme he sees running through Jesus’ teaching and the wider mystical tradition: “You’ve seen it this way, but it’s actually upside down.” For him, the shape of things is bent toward love, being, and a deep “yes” at the heart of existence, not the anxiety, division, or fear we often assume is normal. He uses the image of a bonsai artist working with a tree’s natural growth—observing the flow of life and then gently cooperating with it—as a picture of what he’s trying to do with music, words, and art.The conversation also touches the “tortured artist” stereotype. Michael talks about the real tension and pain that can come with creating—birth pangs, dissonance, the gap between what exists and what you sense is possible—while questioning whether suffering has to come from isolation and ego. He explores a both/and path where creating is simultaneously for the joy of others and for his own joy, collapsing the false divide between giving and receiving. Throughout, he and Wade circle around the trees in Genesis, non‑dual spirituality, and how art can carry spiritual insight without being trapped in old religious boxes or in shallow self‑expression.For listeners who have deconstructed, feel caught between faith and doubt, or simply sense there is “more” than the usual religious arguments, this episode offers an honest, imaginative window into one artist’s attempt to cooperate with the shape of love at the center of things.