Send us Fan Mail

"I Care About Where You're Going, Not Where You've Been" — Pastor Mark Lantz of Christian Center Church

What do you do with a past full of mistakes, regret, and shame? According to Pastor Mark Lantz of Christian Center Church in South Bend, Indiana — you use it as a platform.

In this episode of B.A.S.I.C. Conversations, Brother Boston sits down with Pastor Mark for a raw and Spirit-filled conversation about grace, calling, and what it really means to build a church for people who think they don't belong. Pastor Mark shares how God ordered his steps from a youth camp altar call at 17 to leading one of South Bend's most diverse and welcoming congregations — and why he believes your past doesn't define you, but the grace of God does.

They dig into what it takes to deliver an uncompromising, soul-stirring message every single week, why the altar call is one of the most missing elements in today's church, and what advice Pastor Mark would give to any ministry venturing out to reach the forgotten and overlooked.

If you've ever felt too broken, too far gone, or too ashamed to be used by God — this episode is for you.

In this episode:

• How Pastor Mark answered the call to ministry at 17
• Building a church that looks a little like heaven
• Preparing a message that feeds the heart, not just the head
• Why your testimony is your greatest ministry tool
• Psalm 37:23 and the scripture that has anchored Pastor Mark for decades
• His closing word to his younger self — and to you

"I care about where you're going, not where you've been." — Pastor Mark Lantz

Connect with Christian Center Church: https://www.christiancenter.org

Subscribe, leave a review, and share B.A.S.I.C. Conversations with someone who needs to hear it.

Send us Fan Mail

Episode 3 | Billie Edison — "For Such a Time as This"

What do you do when you're surrounded by US Marshals, guns pointed at your head, and you've already told yourself you'd never go to prison alive?

Billie Edison did the one thing she never expected — she listened.

In this episode of B.A.S.I.C. Conversations, Brother Boston sits down with his friend and fellow Last Mile alumni Billie Edison — a mother of seven, a woman of faith, and one of the most remarkable transformation stories you'll ever hear. Billie opens up about growing up surrounded by drugs and alcohol, working in the medical field for 23 years while fighting addiction, and the chain of events in 2016 that led to her arrest on charges of felony murder and robbery.

But this isn't a story about what Billie lost. It's about what she chose.

Behind bars, she picked up a Bible she had no interest in reading — and encountered a peace she had never felt from any drug, any relationship, or anything in this world. Then came the decision that changed everything: with early release on the table and her attorney ready to go, Billie told God she needed a sign. She asked Him specifically — if you want me to stay, someone has to tell me I was brought here for such a time as this. The very next day, at a seminar, a woman on the screen said exactly that.

So she chose to stay.

She completed The Last Mile Program, came home, and within two years landed a job in the IT department of the Indiana Pacers. She has since purchased her own home, her own car, and is actively going back into prisons across the country to bring hope to those still inside.

God didn't just change her circumstances. He gave her a purpose she couldn't have planned for herself.

This one will stay with you.

Key topics: addiction and recovery, finding faith while incarcerated, The Last Mile Program, reentry, restoration, purpose after prison

Send a text

Episode #2: "We're Gonna Be Okay" — Molly Kelly

In this powerful conversation, Brother Boston sits down with Molly Kelly, Executive Director of Upper Room Recovery Community — who also happens to be his wife.

Molly shares her raw, unfiltered journey from 20 years of meth and heroin addiction to nearly three years in Indiana Women's Correctional Facility, where she found something unexpected: joy. She opens up about the day before her arrest when she was already looking for a way out, how prison became the place where she truly met God, and the leap of faith that brought her to California to marry a man she'd only known through letters and phone calls.

Now leading transitional housing and recovery programs in South Bend, Molly breaks down the brutal reality of the overdose crisis, the emotional toll of helping others while protecting her own sobriety, and why she believes recovery is 110% possible — even when it's hard.

If you've ever felt like you're too far gone, this episode is for you.