2 Pastors and a Mic

If you could sit down with your 18-year-old self, what would you tell them? In Episode 301 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock reflect on the lessons they've learned over the past 20–30 years and the advice they wish they could give their younger selves. From learning to enjoy life while you're building it and letting go of the pressure to impress others, to investing in meaningful friendships, navigating grief, having more fun, and realizing you don't need an opinion about everything, this conversation is full of personal stories, laughter, and a few things we wish we'd understood sooner. We also talk about how our understanding of God's goodness continues to grow and why looking back on our lives doesn't have to be filled with regret. As you listen, we'd love for you to consider the same question: What would you tell your 18-year-old self? And as always, just know—you're loved, and there's nothing you can do about it.

00:00 - Welcome Back! Episode 301
02:19 - Birthday Celebrations and Halloween Stories
03:41 - What Would You Tell Your 18-Year-Old Self?
06:43 - Why You Should Start Investing Early
08:43 - You Don't Have to Be Impressive to Be Loved
09:50 - Enjoy Your Life While You're Building It
11:27 - Learning to Have More Fun
12:22 - How Grief Changes Your Priorities
13:22 - Pay Attention to the People Who Show Up
14:24 - Appreciating the People Already in Your Life
15:31 - Friendships You Haven't Made Yet
16:21 - The People You'll Love and Lose
16:42 - Looking Back on Young Love and Marriage
20:01 - The Relationships Worth Waiting For
21:59 - You Don't Need an Opinion About Everything
22:57 - Discovering How Good God Really Is
23:58 - What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?
24:22 - Looking Back Without Shame or Regret

Did God really abandon Jesus on the cross? And if God is always good, how do we make sense of the moments when life feels anything but good? For our 300th episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, we're celebrating LIVE from the Netherlands with our good friend Jason Clark from Rethinking God with Tacos! Together with our live audience, we explore some of the biggest questions about God's goodness, including what Jesus meant when He cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", the illusion of separation from God, what the future of the church might look like, and how we experience God's love in the middle of suffering, grief, and doubt. 

00:00 - Celebrating 300 Episodes Live in the Netherlands
02:14 - Welcoming Special Guest Jason Clark
03:34 - Looking Back on 300 Episodes
04:34 - If You Could Say One Thing About Jesus...
06:31 - What If Following Jesus Was Fun?
08:03 - Did God Abandon Jesus on the Cross?
08:38 - Understanding Psalm 22 and the Cross
11:15 - The Delusion of Separation From God
12:38 - Why Believing in Separation Matters
14:33 - What Does the Future of the Church Look Like?
17:39 - Finding Community Through Your Passions
19:07 - How Do We See God's Goodness in Crisis?
20:43 - Did God Cause the Suffering?
23:02 - Finding Connection and Grace Through Grief
24:22 - Can Faith and Doubt Exist Together?
27:22 - They Worshiped Jesus and Still Doubted

What would you tell yourself if you could go back six years and have a conversation with the person you used to be?

As we approach our 300th episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock take some time to reflect on how much has changed since they first started recording. We talk about what we thought we understood about God, what we're more and less certain about today, and how our priorities have shifted when it comes to ministry, relationships, and life. We also share some of our favorite episodes, unforgettable guests, hilarious behind-the-scenes moments, and the unexpected ways this podcast has impacted people around the world.

00:00 - Welcome to Episode 299
01:14 - Looking Back on Six Years of Podcasting
03:05 - What Would We Tell Our Younger Selves?
05:58 - The Unexpected Impact of the Podcast
10:11 - What Did We Care Too Much About?
12:08 - What Did We Think We Understood?
13:39 - What Are We More Certain About?
14:26 - What Are We Less Certain About?
16:41 - What Matters More and Less to Us Now?
18:17 - Why Curiosity and Family Matter More
20:07 - Have We Become the People We Hoped to Be?
21:31 - Our Favorite Podcast Episodes
22:48 - Episodes and Guests We'd Love to Revisit
24:24 - Our Funniest Behind-the-Scenes Moments
28:03 - Our Most Uncomfortable Conversations
29:19 - What Surprised Us Most About 300 Episodes?
29:51 - Looking Ahead to Episode 300

In Episode 298 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about the ongoing process of unlearning old beliefs, behaviors, and patterns—even after our understanding of God, ourselves, and other people has changed.

00:00 - Welcome Back & Netherlands Recap
02:36 - A Listener’s Story That Changed Us
05:13 - Revisiting What We Actually Want
07:02 - Wanting More Peace, Fun, and Freedom
12:04 - What Are We Still Unlearning?
13:17 - When Our Beliefs and Behaviors Don’t Match
14:44 - Breaking Free From Performance
16:23 - When Beliefs Change Before Our Behavior
17:24 - Unlearning Fear Around Giving
19:17 - Why Do Old Reactions Keep Showing Up?
23:41 - How Our Faith and Practices Have Changed
26:18 - Deconstruction, Reconstruction, and Unlearning
28:34 - This Week’s Challenge: Practice the New Way

In Episode 297 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock have an honest conversation about how difficult it can be to figure out what we actually want—and how much of our desires may have been shaped by culture, family, church, other people’s expectations, or an earlier version of ourselves.

They talk about things they spent years pursuing that don’t matter nearly as much anymore, wanting validation more than the thing itself, feeling guilty for admitting certain desires, and how our definition of success changes as we get older.

00:00 - Welcome to Episode 297
03:16 - A Difficult Conversation About What We Want
04:48 - What Did You Think Life Would Look Like By Now?
06:28 - How Our Wants Change
07:02 - What Did You Spend Years Wanting?
08:03 - Realizing You Wanted the Wrong Things
09:03 - How Our Definition of Success Changes
10:36 - Who Taught You What to Want?
11:05 - Desire, Expectation, and Validation
11:23 - Feeling Guilty for Wanting Something
13:19 - Money, Ministry, and Other People’s Expectations
14:25 - Why Did Jesus Ask People What They Wanted?
15:31 - Your Desires Matter
16:03 - Did Christianity Make Us Suspicious of Desire?
16:21 - What Do You Want at This Stage of Your Life?
18:02 - Three Questions to Discover What You Want
18:19 - I Want More… I Want Less…
19:58 - Closing Thoughts

In this episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about destination addiction, contentment, and how easy it is to romanticize a life we aren’t actually living while missing the one happening right now.

They also talk about why joy can feel vulnerable, why we sometimes wait for something bad to happen when life is going well, and whether our hope for the future can actually keep us from participating in the present.

00:00 - Live From the Netherlands
01:40 - Why Do We Romanticize the Future?
02:13 - Life Will Be Better When…
04:40 - Destination Addiction
05:07 - The “When, Then” Trap
05:48 - Learning to Be Content Now
06:13 - Living in the Season You Once Prayed For
07:35 - Are You Postponing Happiness?
08:39 - Why Is It Hard to Express Joy?
09:40 - Does Joy Feel Vulnerable?
10:10 - Are We Protecting Ourselves From Joy?
12:10 - Joy Isn’t Circumstantial
13:37 - Can Hope Keep Us From Living?
15:51 - Enduring Life Instead of Enjoying It
16:23 - Learning How to Live Now
17:13 - What Season Do You Now Miss?
19:37 - What Will You Miss About Today?
20:08 - Recognizing a Season Before It’s Gone
22:44 - Catch Your “When”
23:25 - Name What’s Already Good Today
23:54 - Change Your “When” to “Now”
24:55 - You Are Loved Right Now

In Episode 295 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about the difference between having a full life and living a hurried life—and whether busyness has become something we use to convince ourselves that what we’re doing matters.

They talk about why resting can make us feel guilty, what might come to the surface when everything gets quiet, and whether some of our exhaustion comes from constantly consuming instead of simply doing too much.

00:00 - Welcome to Episode 295
02:27 - Why Do We Always Say We’re Busy?
03:18 - When Busyness Becomes a Sign of Success
04:01 - Does Hurry Describe Your Soul?
05:40 - Can You Have a Full Calendar and Still Be Present?
06:13 - When Did Busy Become Important?
07:56 - Learning to Always Be Busy
09:15 - Why Do We Feel Guilty for Resting?
11:45 - Exhaustion Is Not a Spiritual Gift
12:00 - Does Busyness Make Us Feel Important?
12:18 - What Are We Avoiding by Staying Busy?
13:29 - Why Is It So Hard to Be Still?
14:00 - What Shows Up When Everything Gets Quiet?
15:10 - Are We Tired Because We Never Stop Consuming?
16:18 - Jesus Was Never in a Hurry
16:44 - Interruptions or Invitations?
17:32 - How Jesus Handled Interruptions
18:39 - What Does Love Require Here?
19:35 - What Are You Rushing Through?
19:52 - What Will You Wish You Had Slowed Down For?
20:43 - Be Where Your Feet Are
21:13 - Three Ways to Slow Down
23:09 - The Challenge: Do Absolutely Nothing

In this episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about our tendency to fix people, give advice they never asked for, and become more invested in someone’s growth than they are.

They also talk about the deeper things that can be hiding underneath our desire to help. What happens when being needed becomes part of our identity? Are we actually offering something to another person, or are we trying to produce an outcome for them?

00:00 - Welcome to the Podcast
02:18 - Why Do We Feel Responsible for Fixing People?
03:52 - Why Is It So Hard to Watch People Struggle?
06:23 - Learning to Have Fewer Opinions
07:41 - When You Want to Coach Everyone
08:52 - What Happens When People Ignore Your Advice?
09:47 - What Do You Need From Me?
12:05 - Are You More Invested in Their Growth Than They Are?
13:40 - You Can’t Do the Work for Someone Else
15:45 - The Addiction to Being Needed
17:21 - Jesus Didn’t Chase People
19:24 - Jesus Didn’t Need to Be Needed
20:54 - Three Questions Before You Try to Help
21:39 - Stop Giving Unsolicited Advice
24:40 - This Week’s Challenge: Don’t Give Advice
25:10 - You Are Loved

In this episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about where our fear of disappointing people comes from, why someone else’s disappointment can make us feel like we’ve done something wrong, and how much of our lives can be spent trying to manage other people’s reactions.

They also talk about the pressure many Christians carry to keep God from being disappointed in them—and why they believe it’s impossible to disappoint a God who already knows us completely.

00:00 - Welcome to the Podcast
01:39 - Why Is Disappointment So Hard?
02:44 - Who Are You Most Afraid of Disappointing?
03:04 - Expectancy vs. Expectation
05:25 - The Fear of Disappointing Ourselves
09:55 - What Happens When Someone Is Disappointed in You?
10:57 - Our Knee-Jerk Reactions to Disappointment
11:59 - Why Does Disappointment Feel Like We Did Something Wrong?
12:41 - Can We Disappoint God?
13:34 - What Happens When We’re Trying Not to Disappoint God?
13:49 - Are You Managing Everyone Else’s Reactions?
14:49 - How Fear of Disappointment Shapes Our Decisions
15:23 - Have You Changed a Decision to Avoid Disappointing Someone?
20:32 - How Many People Did Jesus Disappoint?
22:11 - Emotional Health Sometimes Disappoints People
22:21 - When Love Requires a Boundary
23:22 - Whose Disappointment Are You Trying to Avoid?
23:31 - What Is It Costing You?
23:46 - Let People Be Disappointed
25:01 - God Is Never Disappointed in You

In this episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, we talk about the difference between being hurt and living offended, why certain criticisms affect us more than others, and the stories we often attach to someone else’s behavior. We also look at the life of Jesus—someone who was misunderstood, criticized, rejected, falsely accused, and abandoned, yet never seemed consumed with defending himself or repairing his reputation.

What would change if you didn’t need everyone to understand you correctly in order to know who you are?

00:00 - Welcome to the Podcast
01:07 - Living the 2:6 Life
01:36 - Why Was Jesus So Hard to Offend?
03:44 - What Offends Us More Than It Should?
08:54 - What Criticism Gets Under Your Skin?
12:02 - Being Hurt vs. Being Offended
12:20 - The Stories We Tell Ourselves
13:00 - What Criticism Is Hardest to Hear?
15:13 - Disliked or Disrespected?
17:18 - Why Was Jesus So Hard to Offend?
19:18 - Offense Might Be More About Us
20:11 - Jesus Didn’t Defend His Reputation
22:32 - Jesus Let People Walk Away
23:50 - Being Hurt vs. Living Hurt
24:02 - Do You Need People to See You Correctly?
24:50 - A Practice for Handling Offense
26:27 - Final Thoughts: Knowing Who You Are