Is the Non-Denominational Church Even A Church? What do you think? If you love Jesus and hunger for something older, deeper, and steadier than the non-denominational scene, this conversation is for you. Cloud of Witnesses hosts Jeremy Jeremiah, Mario Andrew, and first time, special guest host Michael, weigh the spectacle of modern worship against the historic shape of the church and ask a hard question with charity: are non-denominational congregations churches, and are they the churc...
A man climbs a ladder to hang drapes and slips into a lifetime’s truth: he’s been decorating emptiness. We sat with Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich and asked hard questions about status, ritual, and the kind of love that only shows up when it costs. Quick story snapshot (Tolstoy): Ivan Ilyich, a successful judge with a “proper” life, suffers a fatal illness after a trivial accident. As pain strips away his self-deception, society’s politeness rings hollow—only the servant Gerasim meets him...
Jeremy Jeremiah, Orthodox Christian, and host of today's Cloud of Witnesses episode, reacts and responds to Dillon Baker of The Protestant Gentleman podcast (https://www.youtube.com/@theprotestantgentleman) testimony that he, Dillon, is leaving the Non-Denominational church, and why. What if the Sunday you know has drifted far from the church you need? We follow a thoughtful journey out of a non-denominational megachurch toward a rooted, reverent, and sacramental vision of Christian life. Th...
What if the church you’ve been searching for all along is the one you didn’t know existed? Kyle David shares how a lifetime of sincere belief still left him split between Sunday performance and weekday drift—until a medical collapse forced brutal honesty about faith, pride, and the limits of self-reliance. The story begins with restless church-hopping across megachurch stages and traditional pews, and moves through a pandemic-era return to the sanctuary that felt more like rebellion than rout...
Truth That Burns, Love That Heals (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) What if the most loving thing you can do is tell the ugliest truth? We gather the crew: Jeremy Jeremiah, Bri, James St. Simon, and Mario Andrew, to sit with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and pull apart the mendacity that keeps a family polished on the outside and starved on the inside. With literature professor James St. Simon and the team, we unpack Maggie’s raw persistence, Brick’s calculated indifference, and Big Daddy’s denial, tracing how...
Icons, Conversion, And A Life Reframed We trace Sdn Michael Roeder’s path from ministry and publishing to iconographer and the deaconate, exploring how a single purchase grew into a collection, a craft, and a new spiritual home. Along the way we unpack technique, tradition, and why icons feel like windows that also watch. Join us for this Cloud of Witnesses exclusive, a presentation on an iconographer’s journey from faith, to art, to transcendence, to Orthodoxy, given only once at Point Loma...
A man on a shaky ladder, a fall that leaves a bruise, and a life that suddenly tastes bitter—Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich gives us one of literature’s clearest X-rays of modern emptiness. We gather with friends to unpack why a story written in 1886 speaks uncomfortably well to status-chasing, curated lives, and the quiet neglect of the people closest to us. Along the way, we ask hard questions about sacrifice, spiritual participation, and what it really takes to make a home feel like a ...
Christian community is the antidote to self-deception. • orthodoxy as structure that resists delusion • self-justification versus truth-telling in love • humility in fraternal correction without judgment • gratitude and compassion when others fall • response to “just me and Jesus” objections • unity, sacraments, and commandments as lifelines • returning after failure and rising “from glory to glory” • church as hospital and mission to make earth heavenly What if anger is less about others an...
Stop Waiting to Be “Ready”—Build a Holy Marriage Now. The Patristic Nectar Marriage Conference 2025 was not a moment too soon - see real reactions! What if marriage isn’t just a contract, but a calling from God that shapes who we become? In this story-driven recap from a vibrant Christian marriage conference, we follow the journey from culture’s delay tactics—“wait until you’re perfect, richer, or have seen the world”—to a Christ-centered vision that treats marriage as the works...
Learning to See as Christ Sees: Phronema, Sacrament, and the Healing of the Whole Person When friends tear open a roof to lower a paralytic, Jesus forgives because of their faith—and the room’s understanding of God, sin, and healing is turned inside out (Mark 2). What if the Christian life is, at its core, learning to see as Christ sees? In this conversation, Deacon Anthony (St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church, San Diego) joins us to unpack the Orthodox phronema—the Church’s way of seeing a...
“I’ve built my own faith from spare parts.” If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Our guest calls it “Frankenstein Christianity”—picking what feels good, discarding what doesn’t. After years of debates and burnout, he unplugged from church, Bible studies, and Christian content altogether… until one unexpected YouTube video on Orthodox church architecture broke through. For the first time, he saw a faith that engages all five senses—where every line, light, icon, and hymn points to Chris...
Do Orthodox Christians “worship icons”? Is Orthodoxy “works-based”? If you’ve heard those claims and weren’t sure how to respond, this episode is your Bible-and-history reality check—clear, charitable, and straight to the point. What Protestants Often Miss About OrthodoxyA surprising witness: Martin Luther once described Greek Orthodox believers as “the most Christian people and the best followers of the gospel on earth.” That startling line sets the stage for a serious, Scripture-anchored l...
“Never Orthodox.” Famous last words. “I will never become Orthodox.” And he meant it. He was days away from getting Sola Scriptura tattooed on his kneecaps—ink as conviction—when his closest friend, James St. Simon, entered the Orthodox Church. The line he’d sworn by began to wobble. What changed him wasn’t a debate or a takedown. It was prayer. Join Cloud of Witnesses discussion between Jeremy Jeremiah, Mario Andrew, James St. Simon, and special guest, Orthodox Catechumen, Eddi...
From Platform to Pilgrimage: Pastor Ben, Cleave to Antiquity, and a Journey to the Apostolic Faith Faith over fame. Conviction over career. What would you give up to follow truth where it leads? These questions sit at the center of Pastor Ben’s move from Protestant ministry into Eastern Orthodoxy—a decision he announced on his YouTube channel, Cleave to Antiquity. For years, Cleave to Antiquity was a thoughtful Protestant apologetics channel engaging Catholics and Orthodox Christians. So when...
When the Beat Stopped: The One Who Found His Faith Again Before the hospital gowns and machines, Kyle David kept time for a living—a professional drummer and percussionist whose life moved in rhythm. Then a hurricane evacuation from New Orleans spiraled into a fight with COVID pneumonia, and the beat of everyday life stopped. What followed was a grueling medical odyssey: three hospitals, 50 days in ICU, a month-long coma, and moments when he was declared clinically dead—twice. Doctors said ...
Finding Authentic Christian Worship: A Journey Through History, Tradition, and Faith The search for authentic Christian worship often begins with a simple but profound question: “Is this how the apostles worshipped?” In this special Cloud of Witnesses (https://www.patreon.com/c/CloudofWitnesses) mini-episode, our guest hosts, Ben and Ashley Langlois—Ben known online as Orthodox Luigi—invite us into their personal journey of wrestling with that very question. As a husband-and-wife team, their ...
When Evangelical Zeal Meets Ancient Christianity: A Conversation Between Friends What happens when two long-time friends—one a passionate evangelical content creator, the other a devout Eastern Orthodox Christian—sit down inside a church filled with ancient icons to talk about faith, history, and what it means to follow Jesus? In this compelling and heartfelt dialogue, David Latting and Ben Langlois (Orthodox Luigi) offer something rare: a conversation marked by both conviction and deep mutua...
What Happens When Believers Take Different Paths Toward Jesus? What happens when one follower of Christ finds deep joy and purpose in a vibrant Protestant church, while another discovers a sense of awe and sacred history in the ancient traditions of Orthodoxy? This honest and heartfelt conversation between David Latting, a well-known evangelical influencer, and Ben Langlois—better known online as Orthodox Luigi—dives into that very tension: the pull between contentment in our current spiritua...
What Does Femininity Look Like in the Orthodox Church? In a culture that often misunderstands tradition, Orthodox Christianity may seem, at first glance, like a “Christian fraternity” — rigid, exclusive, or overly male-centered. But as Ben and Ashley Langlois (popularly known as Orthodox Luigi and his wife) reveal in this heartfelt conversation, nothing could be further from the truth. Orthodoxy offers women a deeply rooted spiritual home—one that honors the unique dignity, strength, and call...
Can a gender-swapped character point us toward deeper truths rather than distract from them? That’s the question Jeremy Jeremiah and James St. Simon explore in our latest conversation on Marvel’s Fantastic Four 2025 and its bold reimagining of the Silver Surfer as a woman. At first glance, many believers might brace for another heavy-handed cultural message—but what unfolds is something far more interesting, even spiritually resonant. In an age where entertainment often leads with ideology ov...