This episode challenges the modern obsession with platforms and "ministry success" and asks whether followers of Jesus have quietly replaced real service with a pursuit of visibility, funding, and fame. Drawing from years of case work, tentmaking ministry, and mentoring aspiring apologists, J. Warner Wallace contrasts the quiet, often unseen work of everyday Christian service with the drive to build brands, launch organizations, and chase numbers in the name of the gospel.​

You'll hear why Scripture calls believers to serve without needing applause, income, or a 501(c)(3), and how simple daily acts—loving your local church, discipling a few people, posting faithful content, caring for the hurting—can have more eternal impact than any "big" platform. The conversation also addresses the real dangers of pride, comparison, and monetization, and offers a practical vision for using gifts, tools, and even book sales as fuel for generosity and ministry rather than as measures of personal worth.​

To go deeper on these ideas about motives, identity, and calling, check out J. Warner's book The Truth in True Crime here: https://amzn.to/3LNWxp6

If this episode encourages or challenges you, please follow/subscribe to the podcast and take a moment to rate and review it in your app—your feedback helps more people discover this content and rethink what real Christian service looks like.

This episode looks at why humility is the one trait that can quietly destroy our obsession with celebrity, platform, and approval—and why it may be the key to saving your soul in a culture built on self-promotion. Drawing from cold-case investigations, Scripture, and decades in ministry, J. Warner Wallace shows how the pursuit of fame, followers, and influence so often leads to moral compromise, spiritual shipwreck, and deep dissatisfaction, even when it "works" on the outside.​

You'll hear how both secular and religious "doing worldviews" tend to fuel pride by making everything transactional and comparative: do more, get more, be more than the next person. In contrast, the Christian worldview begins not with achievement but with repentance and grace, received through an act of humility before God. By walking through biblical teaching—from the words of Jesus about the last being first, to the letters of Paul and Peter on humbling ourselves under God's mighty hand—this episode highlights why only a cross-shaped, humility-driven faith can free us from the tyranny of image, success, and celebrity.​

To go deeper on these ideas, check out J. Warner's book The Truth in True Crime here: https://amzn.to/3LNWxp6

If this conversation helps you, please follow/subscribe to the podcast and take a moment to leave a rating and review in your app—your feedback helps more people discover this content and rethink what true greatness looks like in light of the gospel.

This episode explores why your identity is the most important thing about you and how Scripture calls followers of Jesus to root who they are in Christ rather than in changing roles, emotions, or cultural labels. Drawing from social research, biblical theology, and real-life examples from law enforcement, ministry, and family, J. Warner Wallace exposes the lies that say you are what you do, what you desire, or what others say about you—and contrasts them with the unshakable identity offered "from above" in the gospel.​

You'll hear about the three main ways people form identity (outside-in, inside-out, and top-down), how trauma and life transitions reveal what you've really been trusting, and why only an identity in Christ can provide lasting stability and peace. By walking through key passages like John 3, Ezekiel 36, 2 Corinthians 5, and Galatians 2, this conversation will help you diagnose where your identity actually rests today and how to relocate it to the only foundation that will never shift.​

To go deeper on this subject, check out J. Warner's book The Truth in True Crime here: https://coldcasechristianity.com/the-truth-in-true-crime. If this episode is helpful, please take a moment to rate and review the podcast in your app, and be sure to follow/subscribe so you never miss a future episode. Your engagement helps more people discover this content and begin thinking carefully about their true identity in Christ.​