In this episode, I talk with Dr. Mark Yarhouse and Dr. Julia Sadusky about the rapidly expanding language of emerging sexual identities and what it means for the young people we care about. We explore why new terms keep appearing, how identity forms in adolescence, and what teens are actually trying to express when they use language many of us have never heard before. Rather than reacting with fear or reducing anyone to a label, Mark and Julia help us rethink our posture, moving toward curiosity, presence, and trust instead of anxiety and quick judgments. We dig into discipleship, belonging, and how to walk with teens in a way that reflects the steady, un-fragile heart of God. If you’re a parent, pastor, or leader trying to navigate this moment with wisdom, compassion, and clarity, this conversation offers a hopeful and deeply grounded way forward.

Mark A. Yarhouse, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist who specializes in conflicts tied to religious identity and sexual and gender identity. He assists people who are navigating the complex relationship between their sexual or gender identity and Christian faith. He is a Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College, where he runs the Sexual and Gender Identity (SGI) Institute and the Mental Health Collective. He is an award-winning teacher and researcher and is the past recipient of the Gary Collins Award for Excellence in Christian Counseling. He was a past participant with the Ethics and Public Policy Center think tank in Washington, DC, and he was named Senior Fellow with the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities to conduct a study of students navigating sexual identity concerns at Christian colleges and universities. He has served for over a decade as the Chair of the task force on LGBT issues for Division 36 (Psychology of Religion and Spirituality) of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Julia Sadusky is a licensed clinical psychologist and the owner of a private practice in Littleton, CO. She is also an author, consultant, speaker, and adjunct professor. Dr. Sadusky has done extensive research and clinical work in sexual and gender development and specializes in trauma-informed care. She earned a bachelor's degree from Ave Maria University and a master's degree and doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Regent University. She has authored several books around human sexuality and gender with Dr. Mark Yarhouse and has authored several books herself helping equip parents to teach kids and teens about sexuality in developmentally-appropriate ways.

Mark and Julia's book:

Emerging Sexual Identities

Mark's Recommendation:

The Anxious Generation

Julia's Recommendation:

Tenderness

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In this episode, I’m joined by Faith Womack, known to many as Bible Nerd Ministries, for a deeply refreshing conversation on how to read Scripture with clarity, curiosity, and joy. Faith shares her own story of growing up with mishandled and misapplied Bible teaching, and how learning the basics of hermeneutics transformed everything for her. We talk about context, genre, the big story of God’s redemption, why so many of us default to reading ourselves into the text, and how Scripture becomes truly alive when we allow it to reveal who God is rather than simply serve our needs. If you’ve ever felt bored, intimidated, confused, or stuck in your Bible reading, this episode is a hopeful path back toward awe, depth, and worship. And as Faith reminds us, understanding the Word isn’t reserved for scholars, it’s an invitation extended to every follower of Jesus.

Faith Womack is the founder of Bible Nerd Ministries and a content creator who aims to inspire Christians to get back into the Word of God. Her courses, including “Bible Study Bootcamp” and “Theology Bootcamp,” have reached thousands, and her Bible study content has reached over 10 million people on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Faith aims to empower Christians not only to understand the Bible but also to enjoy it. Her debut book, No More Boring Bible Study: Why Taking Scripture Seriously Is Easier and More Exciting Than You Think releases from Zondervan in November 2025.

Faith has a B.A. in biblical and theological studies from Covenant College and a M.A.T.S. from Erskine Seminary. When she’s not filming or teaching, Faith spends her time with her family going on hikes, crafting and drinking way too much coffee.

Faith's Book:

No More Boring Bible Study

Faith's Recommendation:

The Incarnate Christ and His Critics

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In this episode, I talk with Brian Recker about his new book Hell Bent and the ways fear-based theology has shaped so many of our spiritual imaginations. Brian grew up learning about hell and God in the same breath, and he unpacks how that fusion created a system built on binary thinking, punishment, and spiritual insecurity. We explore his journey from fundamentalism to evangelical ministry to a reimagined faith centered on love, liberation, and a vision Jesus preached. We get into Gehenna, apocalyptic language, why evangelicals cling to certainty, how fear distorts our understanding of God, and what it means to live as people who bring heaven to earth rather than create hell on it. This is a conversation about reclaiming our belovedness, deconstructing fear, and rediscovering a spirituality that looks like compassion, justice, and the radical welcome of Jesus.

Brian Recker, M.Div, is a public theologian, speaker, and writer on Christian spirituality without exclusionary dogma. The son of a Baptist preacher and an alum of the fundamentalist Bob Jones University, he spent eight years as an evangelical pastor before deconstructing his faith to find a more inclusive spirituality. He now speaks about following Jesus without fear of hell on his popular Instagram account and his Substack, Beloved. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and has four children and a rescue pup named Maev.

Brian's Book:

Hell Bent

Brian's Recommendations:

Reason, Faith, and Revolution

Acts

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In this episode, I sit down with Jenny Marrs, author, adoptive mom, and co-host of HGTV’s Fixer to Fabulous, for a tender and deeply human conversation about grief, waiting, restoration, and the steady presence of God in the middle of it all. Jenny shares openly about a season of profound loss, the long and miraculous journey to bring her daughter home from the Congo, and the everyday choice to trust God when life feels overwhelming or out of control. We talk about compassion in a divided world, what it means to “go with the strength you have,” and how the smallest moments, from heart-shaped stones to a stranger’s kindness to a child’s simple confession of faith, can become markers of God’s faithfulness. This is an honest and hopeful look at what it means to live out Trust God, Love People in real time, and I believe her story will be both grounding and deeply encouraging for you.

Jenny Marrs is a designer, author, and passionate advocate for community transformation, family preservation, and orphan care around the globe. She is the author of House + Home = Love, and co-hosts Fixer to Fabulous with her husband, Dave. She and Dave live on a small farm in Bentonville, Arkansas, with their five kids and too many animals to count.

Jenny's Book:

Trust God, Love People

Jenny's Recommendation:

Heartland

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In this episode, I talk with Diana Butler Bass about her new book A Beautiful Year and the deeper story that sits beneath our experience of time. We explore how the Roman calendar still shapes us with the imagination of empire - militarism, consumerism, and control - and how the Christian calendar offers a counter-formation rooted in love, hope, peace, and a circular sense of time that keeps drawing us deeper into God. Diana walks us through Advent’s darkness and silence, the meaning of waiting in an age addicted to noise, the subversive beauty of St. Martin’s Day on November 11, and the power of saying “no” to imperial narratives through the ordinary practices that shape a life. We talk about storytelling, grief, Candlemas, the parables of Jesus, and how the Christian year can help us embody a different kind of presence in the world - one marked by compassion, courage, and light. This is a conversation about time, but really, it’s about learning to live a better story.

Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D. (Duke University) is an award-winning author of eleven books, a speaker, preacher, and a trusted commentator on religion and contemporary spirituality. Her bylines include The New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, CNN Opinion, On Being, and Readers Digest. She has appeared on CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, and other global news outlets. She currently writes The Cottage, one of the most widely-read Substack newsletters. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Diana's Book:

A Beautiful Year

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In this conversation, I talk with Justin Giboney, cofounder of the AND Campaign and author of Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around, about how we can follow Jesus faithfully in the midst of the culture war. Justin shares how the civil rights generation embodied both conviction and compassion, and what it looks like to recover that kind of moral imagination today. We talk about seeing the sin in ourselves and the image of God in our opponents, moving from blind certainty to humble conviction, and bearing the cross in the public square. This episode calls us to reimagine public faith beyond partisanship and to embody the way of Jesus with courage, truth, and love.

Justin Giboney is an attorney, political strategist, and civic leader based in Atlanta, GA. As the co-founder and president of the AND Campaign, a Christian civic organization, Justin focuses on the intersection between faith and politics. In 2012 and 2016 Georgia’s 5th congressional district elected him as a delegate for the Democratic National Convention. He’s the co-author of Compassion (&) Conviction – The AND Campaign’s Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement and the forthcoming book – “Don’t Let Nobody Turn you Around: How the Black Church's Public Witness Leads Us out of the Culture War.” His work has been featured in publications such as including the New York Times and Christianity Today.

Justin's Book:

Don't Let Nobody Turn You Around

Justin's Recommendation:

Believe

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In this episode, I talk with Dr. Chris Hoklotubbe and Dr. Danny Zacharias about their book Reading the Bible on Turtle Island and how Indigenous wisdom invites us to see Scripture through a different lens. We explore how the Bible, written by tribal people deeply connected to land and kinship, calls us back into right relationship with Creator, creation, and one another. Chris and Danny share stories that connect the Trail of Tears to the exile in Babylon, the teachings of Jesus to the call of Jubilee, and how truth-telling and reconciliation are part of our ongoing discipleship. This conversation challenges the transactional faith that has shaped so much of Western Christianity and reclaims a relational vision of faith grounded in love, harmony, and gratitude. It’s a reminder that reading the Bible through Indigenous eyes doesn’t just reveal something new about the text, it helps us remember who we are and how to walk the bright path of Jesus together.

H. Daniel Zacharias (PhD, Highland Theological College/Aberdeen) is a Cree-Anishinaabe/Métis and Austrian man originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba (Treaty One territory), with ancestors also residing in Treaty Two, Treaty Three, and Treaty Five territories. He lives in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia) with his wife, Maria, and four children in Wolfville, NS. He is associate dean and professor of New Testament studies at Acadia Divinity College, where he has worked since 2007. He also serves as an adjunct faculty for NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community.

T. Christopher Hoklotubbe (ThD, Harvard) is a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He is the director of graduate studies of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, the first accredited Indigenous designed, developed, delivered, and governed theological institute. He is also assistant professor of classics at Cornell College (Mount Vernon, Iowa). He is the author of Civilized Piety: The Rhetoric of Pietas in the Pastoral Epistles and the Roman Empire, which was awarded the Manfred Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise. He and his wife, Stephanie, have two daughters and live near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Chris & Danny's Book:

Reading the Bible on Turtle Island

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Glen Henry, the creator of Beleaf in Fatherhood, shares his story of how resistance turned into calling - how learning to father himself helped him become the father his children needed. We talk about the inherited baggage we carry, the control we try to hold, and the grace that grows when we choose presence over perfection. Glen opens up about fatherhood as a form of cultural resistance, the power of family to heal generational wounds, and the daily work of creating a home rooted in love and faith. It’s a conversation about wholeness, Black fatherhood, and the beauty of learning to be fathered by God while raising children in a complicated world.

Glen Henry is the creative force behind the beloved YouTube channel Beleaf in Fatherhood, where he blends humor, honesty, and heart to uplift and inspire families around the world. A devoted father and visionary storyteller, Glen uses his platform to champion positive parenting and redefine what modern fatherhood looks like. Beyond
YouTube, he connects with audiences through social media, workshops, and speaking engagements — encouraging dads to show up with love, purpose, and presence. With his relatable voice and unwavering passion, Glen has become a leading advocate for strong families and meaningful father-child relationships.

Glen's Book:

Father Yourself First

Glen's Recommendation:

Successful Failure

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