Pastor Writer: Conversations on Reading, Writing, and the Christian Life

Brian Croft is the former Senior Pastor of Au-burn-dale Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky and is the Founder of Practical Shepherding. He is also Senior Fellow for the Mathena Center for Church Revitalization and an Adjunct Professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.Ronnie Martin is founder and lead pastor of Substance Church (EFCA) in Ashland, Ohio. Before pastoral ministry, Ronnie was an internationally known recording artist, producing and releasing over 15 albums for the Tooth and Nail Records label. In addition to pastoring Substance, Ronnie is also the Director of Leader Renewal for Harbor Network, a church planting collective based out of Louisville, Kentucky. He has authored 6 books, including The God Who Is With Us, and regularly speaks at conferences for pastors and church planters.Brian and Ronnie join me to discuss their new book on the unhurried pastor and how we can redefine productivity for a more sustainable ministry.

Ryan Rush, serves as pastor of Kingsland Baptist Church, in Katy, Texas.He has spent more than 20 years working in ministry, and during that time, he has been on a mission to connect church and home life, becoming a national voice for the “Faith at Home” movement.In over a decade serving as Adjunct Professor at Liberty University, he has taught more than 1,500 students the course he helped to design, “Theology of the Family.” Ryan currently teaches Doctoral students in the Marriage and Family program at Dallas Theological Seminary.Ryan is a graduate of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and holds a PhD in Christian leadership with a ministry concentration from the Cook School at Dallas Baptist University.He is the author of several books, Home on Time, Why Everybody’s Stuck, and his latest book, Restore the Table: Discovering the Powerful Connections of Meaningful Mealtimes. In today's conversation, we'll be exploring the place of tables in the ministry of Jesus and how meals are an important part of the Christian calling.

David Kaywood is a senior pastor at Eastside Community Church in Jacksonville, Florida. He is the author of A Call to Contentment: Pursuing Godly Satisfaction in a Restless World. He is the founder of gospelrelevance.com and a contributor to The Gospel Coalition. He lives in Jacksonville Beach, Florida with his wife and two children.In our conversation, we explore the Christian call to contentment in a restless world. How can Christians experience contentment, and how can we, as Christian writers, do our work without the restless anxiety it often causes?

I'm joined on today's podcast by Editor Todd Hains and Illustrator Natasha Kennedy. Together, they have been working on Lexham's new series of children's books, known as the FatCat series. We discuss the current state of Christian children's literature, Catechism, and Classical Education, and how we can be intentional about teaching our children the language and the theology of our faith. 

Drew Dyck is the author of multiple books, including Your Future Self Will Thank You: Secrets To Self Control From The Bible And Brain Science (2019), and the book he joins me to talk about today, Just Show Up: How Small Acts of Faithfulness Change Everything (2023).Drew is an editor at Moody Publishers and the former managing editor of Leadership Journal. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Christianity Today, Relevant Magazine, The Gospel Coalition, and CNN.com.Drew grew up in Canada and now lives in the Portland area with his wife, Grace, and their three children.

Mark Fugitt has been a pastor for eighteen years and an adjunct professor for a decade. He has a bachelor’s in history; master’s degrees in history, theological studies, and theology; and his PhD in biblical studies and historical theology. He lives with his wife Laura and four children on a farm in the hills of Missouri.He joins me to talk about his new book: Lost Shepherd: What Believers Once Knew About Paslm 23 That the Modern World has Forgotten

Since the beginning of the Pastor Writer podcast, I've dedicated the last episode of each year to a reflection on some of my favorite books. I think it's a great practice for anyone. I looked back through my Amazon orders, my bookshelves, my Kindle and Audible apps, and noted books that stood out. For me, books are never just read, they represent the things I've been thinking about, working on, and areas I'm trying to grow. This year, the books really reflect my ongoing writing project, but hopefully, there are a few that will be interesting to you. Let me know what you've been reading. I'm always grateful for recommendations on books or authors that you think would fit the show. 

Cary Schmidt serves as the Senior Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Newington, Connecticut.He and his wife, Dana, have been blessed with three children and have enjoyed thirty four years of marriage and ministry together. Cary's passion is to love God, love his family, and point people to Jesus Christ through teaching, preaching, and writing. He hosts the "Leading in the Gospel" podcast to encourage Gospel-shaped leadership, and "Growing in the gospel"—a daily devotional on Youtube.He has written fifteen books, including <em>Stop Trying, Live Lighter—Love Better, Off Script, Passionate Parenting, Real Christianity</em>, and others. he joins me to talk about his recently released book, <em>Steady Strength: Reversing Ministry's Dangerous Drift Toward Depletion</em>.

Randall Wallace is the Oscar®-nominated creative force behind the epic storytelling of such critical and box-office hits as BRAVEHEART, WE WERE SOLDIERS, PEARL HARBOR, SECRETARIAT, and HEAVEN IS FOR REAL. Along with his work in film, Randall is the author of nine books, including five original novels, three novel versions of the screenplays of his films, and his first work of non-fiction, LIVING THE BRAVEHEART LIFE.

Harold Senkbeil is executive director emeritus of Doxology: The Lutheran Center for Spiritual Care.His pastoral experience of nearly five decades includes parish ministry, the seminary classroom, and parachurch leadership. He is author of numerous books, including the award-winning The Care of Souls, Christ and Calamity, and Dying to Live.

Alex McFarland is a speaker, author, and advocate for Christian apologetics. He is the founder and president of the national apologetic conference, Truth for a New Generation. Alex is the author of over twenty books on apologetics and the Christian faith. For more than a decade, Alex and Bert Harper have cohosted Exploring the Word, a nationally syndicated, live Bible-teaching program heard daily on American Family Radio. He is a graduate of Liberty University and lives near Greensboro North Carolina with Angie, his wife of over thirty years.Alex joins me to talk about his new book, 100 Bible Questions and Answers for Families, and how the work of apologetics is changing.

We’re excited your family is joining us in talking about the Bible. We’re Chase, Ashley, Will, and Charlotte. We enjoy talking about the Bible and the world in which the Bible stories actually happened. We hope our conversations can help inspire conversations in your family. We wanted to create a podcast that the whole family could enjoy and learn from. Too often, kid's content is dumbed down. We think kids are capable of far more than sometimes our Bible conversations reflect. So we’ve aimed high with our conversations. There will certainly be plenty of new words and ideas that might not be familiar to kids, but that’s how you learn. Questions are what always start great conversations. When not talking about the Bible, you’ll find us sailing, reading, and taking care of all our animals (horses, chickens, cats, and dogs).

The EVERY MOMENT HOLY series of books by Douglas McKelvey and published by Rabbit Room Press brings new prayers and liturgies for the ordinary events of daily life. These prayers are ways of reminding us that our lives are shot through with sacred purpose even when, especially when, we are too busy or too caught up in our busyness to notice. The prayers are accented with linocut illustrations by Ned Bustard.Collectively, Every Moment Holy has sold over 300,000 books across two volumes and five editions. DOUGLAS MC-KELVEY grew up in East Texas and moved to Nashville in 1991 to participate in the early work of Charlie Peacock’s Art House Foundation, an organization dedicated to a shared exploration of faith and the arts. In the decades since, he has worked as an author, song lyricist, scriptwriter, and video director. He has penned more than 350 lyrics recorded by a variety of artists including Switchfoot, Kenny Rogers, Sanctus Real, and Jason Gray. He and his wife have three grown daughters and two sons-in-law. 

Tommy Brown is the pastor for spiritual and community formation at Generations United Church in Freeport, Florida. He has a BA in pastoral ministry and master’s degrees in divinity and management, and he is the author of The Seven Money Types: Discover How God Wired You to Handle Money.He joins me to talk about his new book: The Ache for Meaning: How the Temptations of Christ Reveal Who We Are and What We're Seeking.Description:In The Ache for Meaning, Tommy Brown journeys through our questions and temptations into the deeper invitation Jesus offers. In the mindsets and practices Christ embodied, we discover what kept him centered on his identity and purpose—and what equips us to do the same. Because when you know where you’ve come from and where you’re going, daily temptations toward security, approval, and power to control pale in comparison to your most significant reality: You are a child of God.

Austin Carty lives and pastors in Anderson, South Carolina. He holds degrees in literature and divinity from High Point University, Wake Forest University, and a Doctorate of Ministry from Emory University. He is a lover of theology and the arts, and is particularly passionate about good literature.He joins me to discuss his book, The Pastor's Bookshelf: Why Reading Matters for MInistry.

Andrew Root is the Carrie Olson Baalson professor of youth and family ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.Andrew writes and researches in areas of theology, ministry, culture and younger generations.His most recent books are Churches and the Crisis of Decline and the book he joins me to discuss today, When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation beyond More Money, programs, and Innovation.

John Dyer holds a Phd from Durham university. He currently serves as the VP for Enrollment and Educational Technology and Assistant Professor of Theological Studies for Dallas Theological Seminary. He has also been a technology creator for more than 20 years, building tools for Apple, Microsoft, Harley Davidson, the Department of Defense, and Dallas's NPR affiliate, and his open source code is part of the WordPress core. He lives near Dallas, Texas, with his wife, and two children.He joins me on the Pastor Writer podcast to discuss his new book, People of the Screen: How Evangelicals Created the Digital Bible and How It Shapes Their Reading of Scripture.

It’s been over a year since I released The 5 Masculine Instincts. I wrote the book because, as a pastor, I saw the way so many men were wrestling with questions about masculinity and how the broader cultural conversation seemed to be leading to more online debates than actual Christlike growth in the lives of men. That trend continues. There are more books, more articles, and more controversies. Drop the word masculinity on Twitter, and like raw meat thrown into the river, the piranhas swarm. Some do it simply because they enjoy that show (You know, some people keep Piranhas as pets).That’s never been my goal. From the beginning, I wanted to try and carve a way forward. No one is unaware of the problems. And while it’s easy to draw attention with hand grenades thrown back and forth between the trenches, there come moments in each of our lives when we must determine to become better men. I wanted to help individual men grow in character. Online debates have never proved much help in those real-world moments of temptation and discouragement. I wanted to write a book that could guide those moments.Read more at the5masculieninstincts.com

Dr. Sean McGever has a PhD from the University of Aberdeen. He is an Area Director for Young Life in Phoenix, Arizona, and an adjunct faculty at Grand Canyon University. He speaks, teaches, and ministers across the United States, Canada, and the UK. He joins me to talk about his recently released book, Evangelism. It is a part of Lexam’s The Care of Souls Series.The Lexham Ministry Guides, edited by Harold L. Senkbeil, are designed to offer practical, proven wisdom for the church. 

John Meador has served as a lead pastor for 40 years, most recently at Cross City Church, in Euless, Texas since 2006. The church is intergenerational and multi-ethnic.He and His wife Kim have been married for 44 years and are the grateful parents of six grown children. John loves sports—and enjoys working on and driving around in his old Ford truck.He joins me to talk about his new book, God’s Not Done With You: Encouragement from the Bible’s Greatest Comeback Stories.