Wine tastes like people. It tastes like the soil, the weather, the altitude, the years—and the hands that tended it. Because wine doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes from a particular place, at a particular time, made by particular people. We’re like wine.
We come from places, from times, and from people. Families, friendships, traditions, neighborhoods. We’re shaped by the ground beneath our feet and by the people who have known us and loved us. But in a world where it’s increasingly possible to be connected to everyone and belong to nothing, what does it mean to actually put down roots?
My guest Adam Russell is a pastor, songwriter, and amateur winemaker who has spent a lot of time thinking about place, friendship, hospitality, and the slow work of becoming a person. We talk about why friendship might be a spiritual practice, why discipleship happens in community, what wine can teach us about belonging, and Adam’s beautifully simple answer to one of the biggest questions we can ask: What are people for? To watch, to tend, and to care.
IN THIS EPISODE
- What wine can teach us about people, place, and belonging
- Why Genesis describes human beings as creatures who watch, tend, and care
- How what we give our attention to slowly shapes who we become
- Why friendship may be the foundation—or container—for discipleship
- Why modern life requires us to develop intentional friendship practices
- How beauty, fun, and friendship restore our creativity
- Why Adam chose to stay rooted in rural Kentucky instead of chasing a bigger platform
- What can only happen when you stay with a place, a person, or a craft for a long time
ABOUT ADAM RUSSELL
Adam Russell is the Lead Pastor of Vineyard Campbellsville and a wine maker. He is a pastor, songwriter, worship leader, and producer whose work has helped shape the Vineyard movement for decades. Adam and his wife Heather live with their family on a small farm in rural Kentucky, where they grow grapes and make wine. His work and life are deeply rooted in questions of place, community, creativity, and what it means to faithfully tend the life right in front of you.
RESOURCES & LINKS — Adam’s church in Campbellsville, Kentucky. by Wendell Berry — The collection containing the essay Adam references when answering the question at the heart of this conversation.How Music Works by David Byrne — Referenced in our conversation about the way environments and places shape what artists create.Beholding by Strahan Coleman — Referenced in our conversation about attention, contemplation, and what it means to truly behold.
