Are you living in a ‘stupid normal’? Here’s the long and the short of it: we, as human beings, are created for God. Because of this, we long for significance and joy. However, today’s culture has removed “God” from their thinking, resulting in a ‘stupid normal’ lifestyle that doesn’t acknowledge God at all. The irony is, we’re only going to find our significance and joy when we find it in God through Christ. Jonathan Parnell, author of Never Settle for Normal: the Proven Path to Significance and Happiness, joins us this week to help us get from ‘stupid normal’ to living in the satisfied life of the Gospel.

 

Who’s Our Guest?

Jonathan Parnell is the lead pastor of Cities Church in Minneapolis–St. Paul, where he lives with his wife, Melissa, and their seven children. He is the author of Never Settle for Normal: The Proven Path to Significance and Happiness. 

Episode Links

Jonathan’s book is Never Settle for Normal: The Proven Path to Significance and Happiness.

 

Also, be sure to check out Jonathan’s articles on desiringGod.

Read It

*Below is an edited transcription of the audio conversation.

With me today is Jonathan Parnell. Jonathan is a pastor and an author, and he’s been closely affiliated with the ministry of desiringGod, which many of you have heard of. Thanks for being here today Jonathan.

Hey Isaac. Good to be here. Thanks.

What we love to do, and many interviews start like this because I think it’s just good so people get to know who you are – how did you meet Jesus?

Yeah. Great question. I was blessed to grow up in a family who just believes the gospel, a family that is very involved in the local church. So I grew up, that was just a part of life. Heard the gospel at an early age. At the early age of about eight years old, I believed, and then was baptized. Then went through high school and kind of the ups and downs of trying to learn how to take my faith seriously. Then I was 17, 18, is when I got into a car accident. God used that to really wake me up, get my attention. That really just changed my life, so I began to read the Bible and pursue God.

That’s where I really began to experience the transforming power of the gospel.

I was about 18 when God began to do that. From there, I sensed a calling to vocational ministry. Ended up moving to Minnesota, and yeah here we are 10 years later.

Now, is vocational ministry run in your family, or were you sort of the pioneer of that?

Yeah, you know, it doesn’t. There’s definitely a Christian heritage that runs in my family on both sides, my mom and my dad’s, and I grew up close to both sides of my family, but I’m one of the first to really sense a calling to vocational ministry.

What does your life look like day-to-day? I saw on your little mini bio on desiringGod that you have seven children, and that’s a lot of children. You’re a pastor, and you’re an author, so yeah what does your life look like right now?

Yeah. I’m glad you asked that because I should say for context,