Alex and Macon are back after a seven-week hiatus. Alex is preparing to fly out for his first corporate management training gig. Macon and Alex trade notes on what actually makes for good management, why most people in every profession are just figuring it out as they go, and (again) whether the word “culture” is even useful. Along the way: Torrance on relationships as constitutive of personhood, the Real Question for genuine management wisdom, Jesus washing feet as a model for authority, and why hiring might be the hardest job on the planet.

Show Notes

* Alex’s life vibes right now

* Eastertide: all the way to Pentecost

* Shane Arthur

* Getting Things Done by David Allen

* The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney et al.

* Holacracy by Brian Robertson

* Lean / 5S

* Gary Deddo shout out for the “no” that serves the “yes”

* John 13

* Boundaries for Leaders by Henry Cloud

* Critical Realism

* What would you say you do here?

Alex and Macon check in on Atonement reading and then discuss what it’s like to preach on money and Jesus’ declaration that you can’t serve both God and Mammon.

Show Notes

Atonement, our Lenten Reading project.

turns out it’s a New Orleans tradition: pinning dollars

Andy Crouch: The Life We’re Looking For

The Affluenza defense

telos

Actually all Firstfruits were all for the Levites. Other sacrifices like Peace offerings or Covenant-Making offerings were partially eaten by those making the offerings. Management regrets the error.

Alex helps Macon think through what are the mechanisms available to Christians who disagree on how to “cling to what is Good” and “abhor what is Evil” when those Christians live in a nation whose decision-making structure is a form of democracy?

Show Notes

TF tells pastoring stories

wreath etymology

Jordan Peterson and the Scriptures

ICYMI: S4E08 on Christian Nationalism

ad hominem

Telos

Whew! Doug Wilson isn’t from Texas, he’s from Idaho. It all makes sense now.

Alex and Macon talk about Buddhist Monks walking through his town and the various reactions from Christians along the way. Is this going to be a good sermon illustration?

Show Notes:

A Way Into Till We Have Faces

My (Still) Messy Beautiful Family Series

Monks Walk for Peace

Baptists and Bootleggers

Dukes of Hazzard

Atonement ← Read this for Lent with Macon! (The Sequel to Incarnation!)

Macon and Alex talk about “Christian Nationalism.” Macon is unimpressed with the coining of the term and the general pearl-clutching. Alex is concerned that there are deep problems when Christianity and Politics combine in bad ways. They talk about it.

Show notes:

Cedar Season

Flying the Missing Man Formation

Shabat Hallelujah

Parallel Play

The Protocol

The Kata

the Dead Marshes

Rickets

Clutching your pearls

et, tu, IVPress?

to fisk

“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

It’s the 19th Amendment

Polemicist

AYFKM

I have a pen and I have a phone.

The Nuclear Option is Godwins’ Law

Atonement by T.F. Torrance for Lent!

Alex explains to Macon and Marsh how and why he chose to preach on Matthew 2:13 - the murd3r of the children 2 and under in Bethlehem.

Show Notes:

MST3K

Macon on LinkedIn : 1934 by now

Veriflex Ramp Rat

Powell Peralta Tommy Guerrero

Dinosaur Train

K&W Closing

Lectio Divina

a surd

Evil and the Cross

Kirk Franklin & God’s Property

Pardon the Interruption

Macon and Alex talk through the first couple days of the Incarnation reading, orienting us to what Torrance is up to in the second chapter, which is the first chapter we’re reading.

Macon, Alex, and Marshall catch up on Demon Hunters, Marathons, and Advent Readings.

Show Notes:

KPOP Demon Hunters

Golden

The Wild Robot

You Snuck Your Way Right Into My Heart (Ninja Of Love)

Phineas and Ferb

One of these is not a real place:

* Spain

* Japan

* Andor

Alex will never be on any broadcasts here.

Sin Inspired Hit Song ‘Your Idol’

Marathon No. 7

Polar Vortex

Key Differences between a Motel and a Hotel

Incarnation - An Advent Reading Plan

Are you going to correct it to Three Wise Men? So Traditional.

Let us know in the comments (here or on the Advent Invitation post) if you are joining us this Advent in the reading.

Alex and Macon discuss the general increase in church attendance in 2025 along with the general turn towards conservatism and discuss whether and how those two trends might be related.

Show Notes

Marshall’s Path

Advice on Wars in Asia

AWS Outage

Advent Reading Plan Invitation

Barna: Young Adults Lead a Resurgence in Church Attendance

Barna: Decline of Women or the Rise of Men?

Clarifying: On The Incarnation is by Athanasius

It’s just “Incarnation” that is by TFT.

Charles Taylor

Social Imaginaries

How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor

Epiphenomena

Robert Conquest’s First Rule of Politics

The Great Divorce ← your Friendly Neighborhood Producer cannot recommend this highly enough

The Velveteen Rabbit

The Righteous Mind

Precogs

Krauthammer’s Observation of Liberals and Conservatives

Alex wonders why Marshall and Macon do such difficult things for their fitness and their work.

Show Notes:

Spinal Tap II

I am a runner, I must run.

Eugene Peterson, Marathon Runner

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

That Kettlebell protocol

Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on growing up in Christ