The Intersection with Dr. J + Friends

Dr. J talks with Pastor Trevor Sutton about something we all have in equal measure but increasingly seem unable to control: time. In an age of notifications, deadlines, endless feeds, and constant availability, what does it mean for Christians to think theologically about time? Drawing on biblical theology, the history of timekeeping, and the realities of modern technology, Trevor explores whether our problem is simply that we have too much to do—or whether we've lost sight of what time is actually for.The conversation considers how technologies have shaped not only how we measure time but how we experience it, training us for speed, efficiency, and perpetual distraction. Justin and Trevor explore the biblical vision of time, including its horizontal and vertical dimensions, and ask what changes when we understand our lives as moving toward a God-given telos. If we know where we're ultimately going, how should that shape the way we spend the hours we've been given?We may profess that our lives belong to God while structuring them around productivity, achievement, and constant availability. Rather than offering another set of productivity hacks, Trevor points toward practices like prayer, gratitude, community, reflection, and intentional presence as ways of recovering a healthier relationship with time.For anyone whose calendar feels perpetually full, whose phone constantly demands attention, or who has wondered where the last six months went, this conversation offers an invitation to stop merely managing time—and start receiving it as a gift.LINKS:Website(Forthcoming) Book: Between Hurry & Heaven by Dr. Trevor Sutton & Jeff BilbroChurch: St. Luke Lutheran ChurchOther WritingFaith & Leadership

Dr. J talks with Phil Gillespie of Athletes in Action for a conversation about something many of us treat as mere entertainment but may reveal something much deeper about what it means to be human. With more than three decades in sports ministry, Phil brings a theological lens to our fascination with competition, asking why we care so much about who wins, who loses, who gets remembered, and who gets to stand on top. Drawing on C.S. Lewis and the idea that we were made with a deep desire to be desired and approved of, the conversation explores sports as an “iceberg”—with the visible excitement of competition revealing deeper longings for glory, identity, connection, and transcendence. Because beneath our obsession with the scoreboard may be a much more fundamental question: what are we actually longing for?Rather than treating sports as a distraction from discipleship, Justin and Phil consider what happens when we see athletics as a genuine site of spiritual formation. The church has often treated sports as secular territory—something Christians participate in but rarely think theologically about. Phil challenges that assumption, arguing that the fields, courts, locker rooms, teams, rivalries, victories, and defeats of everyday athletic life can become places where relationships are formed, character is revealed, and faith is lived out organically. Along the way, they explore why competition can be both deeply compelling and spiritually dangerous, how our pursuit of glory can become an attempt to secure an identity that only God can give, and why the church may be overlooking one of the most significant discipleship environments in contemporary culture.At the center of it all is a distinctly Christian vision of play: sports aren’t simply about winning, and play isn't simply wasted time. If human beings were made for glory, joy, creativity, community, and delight, then our impulse to play may itself be a clue to the goodness for which we were created. Even in the renewed creation, Phil argues, play will have a place—because the Christian hope isn’t the escape from embodied life but its restoration. For anyone who loves sports, has ever wondered why competition feels euphoric, or suspects that our obsession with athletics is about more than games, this episode offers a different way to see the field: a window into our theology of glory, a laboratory for discipleship, and a surprisingly glimpse of what we were made for.LINKS:MSU Athletes in Action Book: Away Game: A Christian Parent's Guide to Navigating Youth Sports by Brian Smith and Ed UszynskiMiracle: Herb Brooks' Speech on YouTube

Dr. J talks with author and cultural commentator Brett McCracken for a conversation about something most of us treat as an inconvenience, but Scripture treats as a gift: sleep. Rather than framing rest as a productivity hack or a wellness trend, Brett resists the impulse to treat sleep as merely biological maintenance. From the strange, fascinating facts of what our brains do while we're unconscious to what he calls the deeper trouble with a culture that prizes hustle over rest, the conversation explores how our discomfort with sleep often reveals a deeper discomfort with dependence. The result? We treat rest as a weakness to manage rather than a truth to receive.Viewing sleep not as downtime but as doxology, Dr. J and Brett draw on Scripture, theology, and everyday habits to explore how sleep mirrors God's own design—his rest, his sustaining care while we're unaware, even Jesus asleep in the boat during a storm. Because if trust in God's provision is at the heart of the gospel, why wouldn't our nightly surrender to sleep be an embodied rehearsal of that same trust? Along the way, they tackle the pride and overwork baked into modern culture, the way technology and constant attention erode our capacity for rest, and practical habits for reclaiming healthier sleep in a distracted age.At the center of it all is a distinctly Christian claim: creation matters, embodiment matters, and because God meets us in our weakness and unconsciousness alike, sleep can become a physical, embodied ritual of faith. As Brett puts it, "entering God's rest is the point of life"—and sleep, far from a wasted third of our days, is a nightly invitation to practice it. For anyone running on empty, suspicious of hustle culture, or longing for a faith that meets them even in their most vulnerable, unconscious hours, this episode offers both a diagnosis and an invitation: recover a vision of rest as worship.LINKS:New Book: The Wisdom of Sleep by Brett McCrackenBrettMcCracken.com || TwitterThe Wisdom Pyramid Scrolling Ourselves to Death The Gospel Coalition

Dr. J sits down with Chris Richards to explore a provocative question: What if our divisions are rooted in something deeper than politics, and what if beauty is part of the cure?Rather than reducing polarization to bad ideas or bad actors, this conversation examines the broader economic forces that have reshaped modern life. Chris argues that self-interested economics and the attention economy have not simply changed our politics—they have altered how we understand identity, community, and even ourselves. As wealth, power, and influence become increasingly concentrated, many experience a growing sense of dislocation, making outrage, consumerism, and politics attractive substitutes for belonging.Yet this episode is not an exercise in cynicism. Instead, it offers a hopeful vision rooted in the Christian imagination. Beauty, hospitality, music, and the shared experience of creation can cultivate deeper forms of love, community, and spiritual formation. They also consider how Christians can recover the practice of discerning authentic beauty in an age where nearly everything is commodified. How might recovering wonder and pursuing the common good become acts of resistance against outrage and consumption? And what would it look like for Christians to become people who don't merely criticize, but create?For listeners interested in public theology, polarization, sociology, and the relationship between beauty and discipleship, this episode offers a thoughtful and hopeful vision for healing a divided world.LINKS:The Secular Age by Charles TaylorCitizens United Supreme Court Case

In this short bonus episode, Justin gives some insight about the podcast’s journey and desire to create meaningful dialogue between society and Christian faith centered around thought leadership. Highlights: The Intersection now has over 40 episodes and thousands of downloads from over 40 countries.Ask: Holler with topic and guest suggestions for future episodes by emailing: [email protected]. Thanks for listening and sharing!