In this episode, I explore how faith can unravel without collapsing. I walk through a practical way to tell the difference between the core of Christianity and the packaging around it, offering questions to help you sort through doubt, grief, and uncertainty with honesty. My focus is on what remains when old assumptions fall away—especially the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, grace, and love as the center of theology.
This man. He will be missed. May God raise up another. Well done, good and faithul servant.
Listen to the unabridged sermon here: Abide - Crushing the Myths of Self, Comfort, and Speed
In our household, we have two family mottos that get repeated constantly:
These two principles frame Jesus’ final words to His disciples in John 15 and 16. Sitting in the Upper Room, the disciples were in a state of emotional shock. Communion was over, Judas had departed, and Jesus had just dropped the news that He was about to be executed.
Knowing their grief, Jesus offered them a foundational truth: to truly live, we must abide in His love. But to abide in Christ, we have to dismantle three common myths that poison our spiritual lives.
I resonate with this quote from James Clear, ““Long-term thinking changes short-term actions. Spend a little time today doing things that will benefit you in ten years.”
I bumped into this quote from Simone Weil today. What does it look to be rooted in your life?
What happens when the faith framework you grew up with slowly stops working? In this episode of The Pastor Next Door, I sit down to explore the quiet, unglamorous moments when prayer feels flat, answers no longer satisfy, and emotional certainty fades away.
I think about this quote nearly every day…
Listen to the unabridged sermon here: Not Lost, Not Alone
We don’t live in an easy world.
That’s not a particularly inspirational way to open, I know. But it’s where John 14 begins, and it’s where Jesus begins, so it’s where we need to start.
This season The Pastor Next Door I am exploring de- and re-construction.
Listen here: The Pastor Next Door
This quote from James Clear’s newsletter today resonated:
“The measure of a life is not what you consume, but what you contribute.
Spend less time owning, consuming, taking. Spend more time giving, creating, making.”
This quote from St Bernard of Clairvaux really resonated with me. Perhaps it will resonate with you too.
“Blessed," he says, "are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Mt 5:9). Consider carefully that it is not the people who call for peace but those who make peace who are commended. For there are those who talk but do nothing (Mt 23:3). For just as it is not the hearers of the law but the doers who are righteous (Rom 2:13), so it is not those who preach peace but the authors of peace who are blessed.”
- St. Bernard of Clairvaux, abbot/ theologian
Leg day is diabolical. I can barely traverse the stairs in my home. 😂
Exploring the complexities of faith in our modern world.
Welcome back to another season of honest conversations on the Pastor Next Door podcast. This time, we dive deep into the concepts of deconstruction and reconstruction of faith, a journey many find themselves on when faced with challenging beliefs.
Jesus washed Judas’s feet.
Knowing what was coming.
That’s the whole point of Christian love — it doesn’t wait to be earned.
New post: “The Way Down” (John 13)
Listen to the unabridged sermon here: The Way Down
There’s a scene in The Princess Bride — you know the one — where the pastor stands before the gathered crowd and announces, “Love, true love, is why we are gathered here today.” It’s a great line for a wedding. But it’s also, in its own strange way, the right line for John 13.
Because as we turn to this chapter, we are gathered around something too: love. True love. Except the love we find here isn’t the happy, easy, effortless kind the world likes to sell us. The love we find in John 13 is discomforting. And that discomfort is the whole point.
We tend to measure love by how easy it feels. If the relationship is smooth, we’re “in love.” If it gets hard, something must be wrong. But Scripture tells a different story. The love of Jesus is self-sacrificial. It asks things of us that the world calls shameful. It is not the love of greeting cards. It is the love of a cross.
