Keith Smith grew up on Montford Street in Pacoima — in the San Fernando Valley — during one of the most culturally distinct decades in American history.

His grandfather was a Tuskegee Airman who helped build what became the first African-American suburb in the United States. His grandmother was a Southern hospitality-giver who always cooked enough for company. His neighborhood was multigenerational, tight-knit, and quietly remarkable.

His mom taught Michael Jackson the robot.

And then, when Keith was 12 years old, a murder on his street divided his childhood into before and after.

The Magic of Montford Street: A Love Letter to the Valley in the '80s is Keith's memoir — his origin story, told before he writes the theological books that are coming next. It's a book about a community that formed him, a magic that was stolen, and what it means to grieve something good.

In this conversation, Asher and Keith talk about:

• What made Pacoima one of the most unique Black communities in America — and how it got that way
• The '80s as a bridge generation: still outside until the streetlights came on, but also Atari 2600
• How the Cosby Show gave Keith the first screen representation of the life he actually lived
• The crack epidemic and the War on Drugs — what it looked like from a kid's perspective on the street
• The LAPD battering ram, two blocks from his house, deployed against the wrong family
• How Rodney King was beaten just down the road in Pacoima — and why it wasn't surprising to the people who lived there
• What his grandmother's storytelling and hospitality built in him that he still carries as a pastor
• Why he believes you have to start with your origin story before you can say anything else

This is a rich, warm, personal conversation about memory, community, loss — and the people who form us.

Read the full blog post and show notes here and learn more about the Unfeigned Christianity Membership program at asherwitmer.com/member. Find Keith's book, writings, and soundtracks at www.keithnsmith.com.

00:00 Introduction to Keith Smith and His Journey
05:05 From California to Ohio
08:16 The Impact of Community and Neighborhood
11:14 Processing Trauma and Change
13:59 Nostalgia for the 80s: A Unique Era
16:41 The Day the Magic Ended
19:52 Celebrity Culture in the Valley
22:39 The Influence of Family and Community
25:40 Reflections on Race and Neighborhood Dynamics
35:27 The Legacy of Redlining and Community Building
38:09 Pacoima: The First African-American Suburb
41:02 The Impact of the Drug Epidemic
48:40 Community Responses to Change
55:35 The Evolution of Pacoima Today

Karen Swallow Prior spent 21 years teaching English at Liberty University. She has a PhD in English literature, has taught at a Southern Baptist seminary, and has written extensively about evangelicalism — as an insider who both loves the movement and refuses to look away from its problems.

Her book The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Create a Culture in Crisis asks a question that should unsettle all of us: how much of what we've been taught is "biblical Christianity" is actually just Victorian-era cultural assumptions with a Bible verse attached?

In this conversation, Asher and Karen talk about:

• What a "social imaginary" is — and why every community has one, whether they know it or not
• How the evangelical emphasis on conversion as a dramatic, singular event produced a generation of people who checked a box and never grew
• Why sentimentality — emotion elevated beyond the reality behind it — leaves us spiritually immature and ill-equipped to walk with people in real suffering
• Where our theology of gender roles actually came from (hint: the Industrial Revolution, not Genesis)
• How Victorian self-improvement culture quietly replaced sanctification in the evangelical imagination
• Whether authors and speakers are just monetizing people's desire to improve themselves — and what the honest answer to that looks like
• Why reading great literature actually makes us better at loving our neighbors
• And why Karen — despite everything she's seen and named — is still evangelical

This is a thoughtful, generous, and genuinely challenging conversation. Karen doesn't throw the tradition out. She loves it enough to examine it. And that's the kind of faith worth having.

Read the full blog post and show notes here and learn more about the Unfeigned Christianity Membership program at asherwitmer.com/member. Find Karen's book, writing, and Substack at karenswallowprior.com.

02:08 Understanding the Evangelical Imagination
04:06 The Crisis of Evangelicalism
07:12 Understanding Conversion and Discipleship
09:51 Cultural Influences on Evangelicalism
12:42 The Role of Victorian Sensibilities
15:15 Unpacking Metaphors and Imaginaries
18:14 The Impact of Conversion Stories
21:01 Disentangling Culture from Faith
32:00 The Dangers of Emotionalism in Faith
34:32 Self-Improvement vs. Sanctification
38:56 Navigating the Industrialization of Self-Improvement
41:02 The Power of Literature in Empathy
46:00 Staying True to Evangelical Roots

By now you've likely heard about what's been coming out around Bethel Church in Redding, California — Sean Bowles, the cover-up, the repentance service, Bill Johnson's public comments. Mike Winger and others have done significant work exposing the timeline and the failure of leadership.

I'm not here to re-litigate all of that.

I'm here to talk about the one thing I haven't heard anyone name — and the thing that stood out most when I watched Bill Johnson's portion of the repentance service.

Bill Johnson is a people pleaser. And people pleasing is not a neutral personality trait. It is an emotionally unhealthy state. And when you pair it with the kind of authority Bill Johnson holds — and the theological frameworks around apostleship and honor that discourage confrontation — it becomes genuinely dangerous.

In this solo episode, I walk through Bill Johnson's comments carefully and try to name what's being revealed. Not as a takedown. Not as a theological victory lap. But as a mirror — because the same emotional unhealth that let a leader like Bill Johnson look the other way while a predator operated under his platform is the same unhealth that shows up, quieter and less publicized, in every church community and every one of us.

The episode also covers:

• Why "I didn't want to believe it" is a warning sign, not an excuse
• The crucial difference between mercy and people pleasing
• What Biblical confession and repentance actually require
• How the NAR theology of apostleship and honor creates conditions for cover-up
• What sweeping, non-specific apologies do and don't accomplish
• And the honest question Asher sits with at the end: what do I do when someone points something out to me?

This episode will challenge you. But it's not meant to give you something to say about Bill Johnson. It's meant to give you something to do about yourself.

02:30 — What this episode is and isn't
06:00 — Background on the Bethel/Shawn Bolz situation
12:00 — Who else has covered this well (Mike Winger, Ruslan KD, Remnant Radio, etc.)
18:00 — Walking through Bill Johnson's comments from the repentance service
26:00 — "He didn't want to believe it" — why that's telling
33:00 — This isn't about gifting. Something else is going on.
38:00 — People pleasing vs. genuine care for wholeness
44:00 — What mercy actually requires (and what Jesus actually did)
50:00 — The theology of apostleship and honor in NAR
56:00 — Sweeping apologies and what they reveal
1:02:00 — The question we all need to sit with

Brian Dye grew up in one of Chicago's more impoverished neighborhoods — Puerto Rican and African-American community, a mentally ill mom, an alcoholic dad, and a grandmother who was the spiritual anchor of the whole family.

What changed the trajectory of his life wasn't a conference, a program, or a church event. It was a carpenter named Paul Terry who wasn't paid to do ministry — but who kept showing up on Saturdays to paint houses, move furniture, and bring a kid named Brian along for the ride.

That's the heartbeat of everything Brian has built since.

Brian is the founder of Legacy Disciple, a Chicago-based discipleship ministry that runs annual conferences in 5 cities, reaches 400 kids a year in Chicago's neighborhoods, and is launching Legacy University — accessible online Bible courses for everyday disciples and small groups.

In this episode, I get to talk with Brian about:

• Why Jesus called us to make disciples, not find them — and why that distinction matters more than we think
• The Hebrew educational context that helps explain why Jesus chose fishermen and tax collectors nobody else wanted
• The orphanage vs. family model of church — and why one keeps people dependent while the other releases them
• His practical 3-year discipleship framework: formal Bible study + informal life-sharing with 3-4 people at a time
• Why discipleship doesn't mean adding things to your schedule — it means inviting people into your schedule
• His 20-year relationship with Preston Perry and what the early, unglamorous years of that looked like
• What he's building with Legacy Disciple now and where the conferences are going in 2025

If you've been in ministry long enough to feel the gap between what discipleship sounds like in sermons and what it actually looks like on a Tuesday morning — this conversation will give you something real to hold onto.

Read the full blog post and show notes here
Learn more about Legacy Disciple at legacydisciple.org.

00:00 Introduction to Discipleship and Legacy Disciple
02:41 The Call to Make Disciples
04:34 Brian Dye's Background and Cultural Context
07:36 The Role of Mentorship in Discipleship
10:26 The Importance of Community in Faith
16:31 The Impact of Personal Relationships in Faith
19:22 Jesus' Model of Discipleship
25:21 The Challenge of Long-term Discipleship
31:20 The Need for Depth Over Numbers
40:59 The Importance of Proximity in Discipleship
43:52 Incorporating Life Rhythms into Discipleship
47:35 Vulnerability in the Discipleship Process
53:39 Legacy Conferences and Community Engagement

Carita Witmer has been teaching elementary school in Lancaster City, PA for 10 years. Her school serves a student body that's 50% non-white — kids from immigrant families, unchurched homes, and backgrounds very different from the predominantly white Anabaptist staff that teaches them.

She didn't arrive with a polished framework for cross-cultural discipleship. She arrived with a love for kids, a desire to serve the underserved, and a willingness to keep learning.

In this episode, I sit down with my oldest sister to talk about:

• Her winding road into teaching (including a few false starts and one embarrassing sibling story)
• What it actually looks like to build trust and mutual respect across culture and ethnicity
• Why she's become more hesitant to demand eye contact from students
• What teaching in a public school taught her about what Christian education offers that secular SEL curriculum doesn't
• The quiet privilege most of us don't notice we carry
• And why she's become more and more convinced that "we all need Jesus" applies just as much — maybe more — to the church kids

This isn't a high-energy interview with a platform-building influencer. It's a conversation with a faithful, thoughtful woman who has spent a decade doing the quiet, unglamorous work of discipleship in a classroom.

Read the full blog post and show notes here.

02:52 Carita's Journey into Teaching
09:43 Early Teaching Experiences
14:05 Transition to Pennsylvania and Way of Jesus Academy
21:49 Understanding Student Diversity
25:11 Fostering Respect and Kindness in the Classroom
37:07 Building Trust with Diverse Families
41:10 The Role of Faith in Education
48:21 The Importance of Community Support
52:18 The Journey of Personal Growth in Teaching

It’s easy to react to headlines.
It’s harder to listen.

In this episode, I talk with my cousin Sonya, who lives and works in Minneapolis, about the recent ICE activity and what it looks like from someone actually there.

We discuss immigration enforcement, fear within immigrant communities, how local churches are responding, and how Christians can navigate these conversations without living in an echo chamber.

This isn’t about outrage.
It’s about proximity.

If we want to love others well, we have to understand their lived experience.

Also, if you would like to help provide rent support for people affected by the activity, you can do so through this GoFundMe campaign.

Grace and peace.

00:00 Introduction and Context of Minneapolis Events
04:49 Sonya's Journey to Minneapolis and Counseling Career
07:48 Life in Minneapolis: Community and Environment
10:43 Involvement with Immigrant Families and Community Support
13:39 Understanding ICE Activities and Community Impact
16:36 Personal Stories and Experiences with Detention
19:45 Legal and Ethical Concerns Surrounding ICE Operations
22:32 Fear and Anxiety Among Immigrant Families
34:06 Understanding the Hostility of Immigration
35:41 Demographics of Immigrants in Minnesota
37:29 Fraud Cases and ICE Presence in Minneapolis
42:05 Protests and Community Response to ICE
45:58 Christian Community's Involvement and Support
50:37 Misconceptions About Immigrants
52:32 The Human Rights Crisis and Community Support
57:17 Ways to Help Immigrants in Minneapolis

Some teachings sound biblical.

They use Scripture.
They feel familiar.
They often come from trusted voices.

But when you look closely… they aren’t rooted in Jesus as revealed through the Scriptures.

In this episode, I walk through seven dangerous teachings quietly shaping the church right now—from Christian nationalism and Zionism to the Jezebel spirit, same-sex marriage, head coverings, racial myths, and how we address habitual sin. (You can read the article version here.)

This is not about policing pastors.
It’s not about hunting heresy.

It’s about becoming theologically anchored.

Because anything that distracts us from becoming like Jesus—
even if it sounds spiritual—
is dangerous.

Grace and peace.

00:00 Introduction to Unfeigned Christianity
02:19 The Importance of Theological Anchoring
09:45 Seven Dangerous Teachings in the Church
10:33 The United States as a Christian Nation
22:02 The Head Covering and Submission
29:12 Accountability to Christ
29:15 The Curse of Ham Myth
34:40 Consequences of the Curse of Ham Myth
36:45 The Jezebel Spirit
48:00 Understanding Rebellion and Authority

I almost quit.

After a long season of health challenges, burnout, and disillusionment, I came close to walking away from writing, podcasting, and this work altogether. In this episode, I share what brought me to that edge—and what pulled me back.

This episode marks a reset for Unfeigned Christianity as we begin 2026.

We talk about why the church desperately needs to be theologically anchored, why emotional health is essential for discipleship, and how we are often being formed more by media and politics than by the way of Jesus.

This isn’t a polished manifesto.
It’s an honest conversation.

If you’re longing for a faith that is grounded, emotionally healthy, and capable of loving others well—this journey is for you.

*You can read the written version of this episode here.

00:00 Welcome Back and Personal Updates
01:18 Introducing Zara Aurielle
02:47 Reflecting on the Past Year
04:40 Upcoming Interviews and Themes
09:06 The Importance of Theological Anchoring
17:54 The Need for Emotional Health
27:10 Loving and Discipling Others Well

If you’re tired of shallow faith, reactive Christianity, or pretending everything is fine—this space is for you.

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Grace and peace.