Guys Like Us

The Guys Like Us Podcast is joined with Shawn Carney, who is author, speaker, husband, father, and CEO and President of 40 Days for Life. His latest hope-filled book, “The Beginning of the End of Abortion: 40 Stories of God Changing Hearts and Saving Lives” released on September 12th. Prayer is the foundational pillar from which they are able to go forward. In the book, Shawn comes from the perspective of women who are in abortion positions, and details the pain and suffering women go through at this critical life or death time for a child. Shawn shares a handful of diversified stories of folks on the team who have made an impact to these women at these critical junctures and also the results of closing down local clinics. Over 750,000 people have participated in a 40 Days for Life Campaign, and its mostly women. However, there are a few good men, and Shawn speaks to the importance of men taking a stand too. If you would like to get involved, you can participate in a campaign and learn more at www.40daysforlife.com.

The Guys Like Us is joined with Gerard Long who is an author, speaker, and executive director of Awakening to God Ministries. Gerard joins us today from California, although, his roots lie in England. Once a young talented track and field athlete to then becoming an HSBC executive in the finance and banking industry, Gerard excelled in his personal and professional life. He was leading Alpha USA and living the high life with his wife, Jeannie. However, things took a turn. He reveals the loss of his first son, and then years later, the loss of his daughter. “In these times, the presence of God was unbelievable.” Gerard found great hope in the midst of this immense suffering. We dig into Alpha, which is a series of interactive sessions that freely explores the basics of the Christian faith. Finally, we discuss Awakening to God Ministries and the work they are doing freeing the captives by bringing light in the darkness. The World Health Organization announced last year that the biggest global illness is depression and the biggest cause of death under 35 is suicide. The way forward is through the cross, the means is hope. Hear a bit more about Awakening to God’s various ministries by visiting www.awakeningtogod.org. Join Gerard and the team at an upcoming conference in the Midwest on October 20th !

The Guys Like Us podcast is joined with Ben Malcolmson who is an author, speaker, mentor figure, and special assistant to head coach, Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks. Ben recently released his book, Walk On: From Pee Wee Dropout to the NFL Sidelines- My Unlikely Story of Football, Purpose, and Following an Amazing God. In this episode Ben details the story of walking on to football powerhouse, University of Southern California (USC), to then competing in the 2006 Rose Bowl National Championship. Truly a crazy story of walking out on faith and embracing his unique purpose in the season. This plays to the greater purpose Ben has developed over time, one that continues to grow. Ben digs into different parts of his purpose puzzle and the alignment to faith in Christ. He shares what it means to have an identity of Christ through scripture broken down into distinct characteristics. Tune in and hear more about Ben’s journey and hope for all to find and live on purpose. You can find Ben at www.benmalcolmson.com and his book wherever books are sold!

The Guys Like Us Podcast is joined with Philip Gulley, a pastor, writer and speaker. His latest book, “Unlearning God: How Unbelieving Helped Me Believe” walks us through his journey making room for new insights, perceptions, and truths to ultimately move him forward. Philip shares more about how different challenges in the church urged him to seek more understanding in the perspectives and interpretations for beliefs. Philip speaks more on empathy and putting yourself in the place of others by directly entering in the particular community. Hear more about his experience-based posture of receptivity and openness to help grow and form his faith. How does you approach the LGBTQ community? How do you approach others who don’t share your views? Philip shares his 34-year pastoral experience in the thick of these questions and offers a biblical example to help understand unlearning God. Sometimes it takes unlearning one thing before you can move on to addressing another concept. Is certainty a virtue? Phil shares a moving story of someone whose world was shook, and not how she expected it to be. Finally, a word of advice and encouragement for those unlearning God. You can find Philip and his book at www.philipgulley.com

The Guys Like Us is joined with Phil Cooke, a filmmaker, author, media consultant, and founder of Cooke Pictures based out of Los Angeles. Phil shares his latest book, “The Way Back: How Christians Blew Our Credibility and How We Get It Back.” Today, Pastors are a little below used car salesman when it comes to trust and respect in America over the past 30-40 years. What words should Christians be called from non-Christians? Phil dug into nationwide statistics (Gallup, Pew, Barna, and Lifeway) on some core elements of the faith; prayer, church attendance, bible reading, and tithing and the results were alarming. In truth, Christians are living a phony, judgmental, and hypocritical lifestyle and it’s been some time since the church as a whole lived a devout and dedicated Christian life. When we go back to the times of early church we are able to see the culture and way of life to then move us forward today. Hear an inside scoop on some Hillsong secrets as Phil worked as the executive producer on their movie, Let Hope Rise. Do you have a story to tell? Discover three great ways to tell a better story. Visit www.philcooke.com if you’d like to find more about him and the book.

The Guys Like Us is joined with Aaron Niequist, who is a liturgist, writer, and pastor coming to us from Chicago, Illinois. We dig into his latest book, The Eternal Current: How a Practice-Based Faith Can Save Us from Drowning. In this episode you’ll hear more about his book, and a foundational image that we can imagine and furthermore, experience in our life. This approach shifts the intention and emphasis away from an agreeance-based faith that some may know and rather seeing the end goal from a different lens. Aaron shares on liturgical practice and the manifestations of the spirit through this avenue. What’s the difference maker between the in-person practice and an online sermon? How can I take this practice-based faith wherever I go? Visit Aaron at aaronniequist.com for his latest book and some videos on A New Liturgy, recordings that create holy spaces through liturgy.

Ben Higgins, President and Co-founder of Generous International, an organization bringing life change by designing specifically to create and multiply good in the world. Ben comes with a fresh light, and focuses on seeing the importance of people. No matter your role, whether as the customer, employee in the USA or an employee in Haiti, we see commonalities in supporting a greater cause, loving one another. In this episode we hear more about Ben’s story, his faith upbringing in Indiana, and the rise to the Bachelor and Bachelorette as of recent. We discuss the story of the Bible and looking at several character narratives. What is your impression of Paul? What did he speak about? When we enter into love by seeing through the eyes of one another, it changes the perspective, and that’s good. Here more about belief system and operating outside of what we think is right and leaving room for the world outside of what we know. Check out what Ben has to say about questions like “what it means to be a Christian?” or “Does there have to be a death and resurrection of Jesus?” You can find Ben at [email protected]

Jonathan Malm, an author, entrepreneur, speaker, and creator of all things he does! In this episode we dig into this latest book, The Comeback Effect, How Hospitality Can Compel Your Church’s Guests to Return. We explore how we create a good church experience, which starts with the feeling of being welcomed, comfortable, and understood. Jonathan shares biblical scriptures highlighting the importance of this task. How can we take the walls and barriers down so God can speak to guests and through others? Jonathan takes us through his times in Texas to then picking his bags and moving to Guatemala as a missionary family. Jonathan has always been gifted and passionate about church staging, design, and the creative elements that bring new light in the space, which was taking off in 2008 when Jonathan was getting up and running. Now, we are seeing other shifts in the worship experience. Tune in to hear more about how “the feeling” can lift up the church, provoking desires for smart purposes, and how we can harness this emotion to bring others in for the journey.

Jonathan Merritt, an award-winning writer on religion, culture, and politics. He currently serves as a contributing writer for The Atlantic and contributing editor for The Week. He has published over 3,500 articles in respected outlets and is an author of several critically-acclaimed books. Jonathan shares his move from the deep south, the Bible belt, to New York City. He was whiplashed by the use and meaning of sacred words. It lead Jonathan to question his own interpretation of sacred words, and further explore how this manifests across the country in collaboration with the Barna Group. We discuss tough questions like, “what it means to be a Christian?” Furthermore, where must come together in baseline? What are secondary or tertiary elements of faith? How do linguistics play into sacred words? We explore more about his book, “Learning to Speak God from Scratch” The less we speak about faith, the less we think about, the less we experience it, and the less our culture welcomes it! In this podcast you’ll hear more about evangelism, linguistics, Christianese, the background story of Jonathan. Jonathan encourages us to wrestle with the right questions, that allows us to take the pressure off, and enter into what we may find as truth. Finally, what has Jonathan learned over the past year and a half since the inauguration of Donald Trump? Tune in for the full story.

Neil Ahlsten, CEO and Co-founder of Abide, the world’s number 1 Christian mediation app. Neil comes to us today from Silicon Valley where he is in the thick of the technology world, previously working for Google before making the move with Abide. Neil shares more about how a small idea completely changed and impacted the launch and direction of the business. “It turns out the Bible is really good for getting people to sleep!” The research driven process proves to be beneficial, even in the spiritual world! When’s the first, or the last time you heard about a Christian ministry doing heavy research and development (R&D)? Neil shares some insight into the future of Abide and advice for listeners and entrepreneurs! Join the experiential journey and be guided to Biblical truth and personal reflection with Abide. You can learn more about the organization at abide.is