MercyCast

Something is shifting.

Not loudly. Not dramatically. But underneath the surface, people are searching for something solid again. In this episode of the MercyCast, I sit down with American Bible Society Chief Innovation Officer and Editor-In-Chief of the State of the Bible research series, John Plake to talk about what the latest research is revealing about faith, Scripture engagement, church culture, and why more people are opening the Bible in moments of disruption, grief, burnout, and uncertainty.

We talk about the “movable middle,” the millions of Americans who are spiritually curious but overwhelmed, exhausted, or unsure where to begin. We also unpack how pastors, ministry leaders, and everyday Christians can stop speaking in Christian clichés and start actually listening to people again.

This conversation is a needed reminder that ministry is not about performing spirituality. It’s about knowing people, listening well, and helping them take the next faithful step toward Jesus.

Key Takeaways

• Millions of Americans are becoming more open to Scripture and spiritual conversations.
• Life disruptions often create openness to faith and deeper spiritual reflection.
• Many churchgoers want to engage the Bible but feel overwhelmed or unequipped.
• Ministry leaders must balance biblical truth with cultural awareness.
• Christian systems and methods should never replace authentic relationships with God.
• Research and data can help churches better understand and serve people.
• Sharing faith is less about perfection and more about faithfully offering the “next link in the chain.”
• People are looking for meaning, purpose, flourishing, and hope—not polished performances.

Memorable Quotes

“Culture doesn’t just eat strategy for breakfast. It eats everything.”

“A lot of times we think we know what people need without actually talking to the people.”

“The goal isn’t making disciples who follow us. It’s making disciples who follow Jesus.”

“God has bigger shoulders than we give Him credit for.”

“People who engage deeply with Scripture begin to flourish in ways the data can actually measure.”

What We Talk About

• The latest findings from the State of the Bible Project
• Why people often reconnect with faith during disruption and hardship
• How pastors can better understand the people they serve
• The danger of performative Christianity and “Christianese.”
• Why do many Christians feel incapable of sharing their faith?
• The connection between Scripture engagement and human flourishing
• How churches can equip people without overwhelming them
• Why listening may be one of the most important ministry skills

Resources Mentioned

• State of the Bible
• Next Step Bible Journey Tool
• Next Step for Church Assessment

Listen to Mercycast

If this episode encouraged you, share it with someone who feels spiritually stuck, burned out, or unsure where to begin again. And if the Mercycast has impacted you, subscribe, leave a review, and help us continue having honest conversations about faith, suffering, justice, and the mercy of God in a broken world.

Learn More about the American Bible Society and their work.‍ ‍

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You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for listening. We want to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected].

For more conversations like this one, check out my book, Vulnerable: Rethinking Human Trafficking.

Two people can sit at the same table, raise the same kids, and still slowly drift apart.

Schedules replace conversations. Logistics replace intimacy. And somewhere along the way, two people stop feeling seen.

In this episode of the Mercycast, I talk with Genee Francis, Assistant Director for Content and Programming at WinShape Marriage. We discuss marriage, emotional connection, faith, and how couples can quietly drift apart over time.

Genee offers useful advice from her years of helping couples reconnect before distance turns into disconnection. We discuss building healthy marriages through regular connection, emotional safety, good communication, identity, sacrifice, and the idea that consistency matters more than perfection.

One idea stood out to me in the course of our conversation: drifting apart can happen gradually, but it does not have to last forever.

That matters because many couples assume distance means failure. Often, it simply means the relationship needs intentional care again.

Key Takeaways

• Healthy marriages require intentional connection.
• Emotional safety creates deeper communication.
• Shared rhythms help couples stay current with each other.
• You can grow individually without growing apart.
• Drift happens slowly, but reconnection is possible.
• Covenant love calls for sacrifice, grace, and consistency.

Memorable Quotes

• “You can still be you in marriage.”
• “The marital drift is a progressive loss of connection, but it is not permanent.”
• “Marriage is a selfless journey.”
• “United goals and vision help navigate tension.”

Healthy marriages do not happen by accident.

They are built on honesty, grace, and the choice to keep showing up for each other.

If you’ve ever felt cut off, unseen, or unsure how to reconnect with your spouse, this conversation will encourage you.

Please subscribe to the Mercycast, leave a review, and share this episode with anyone who could use some hope for their marriage, faith, or relationships.

Learn more about Genee and her work at Winshape Marriage. 

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for listening. We want to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected].

For more conversations like this one, check out my book, Vulnerable: Rethinking Human Trafficking.

What happens when the life you planned slips through your hands?

In this episode of the MercyCast, I sit down with author, speaker, and autism advocate Brigitte Shipman, host of The Mother’s Guide Through Autism podcast and author of A Mother's Guide Through Autism. Together, we talk about grief, letting go, self-compassion, and the long road of learning how to love without conditions or expectations.

Brigitte shares the quiet moment that changed everything after her son Joseph’s autism diagnosis, and how decades of caregiving, exhaustion, pain, and grace reshaped her understanding of love. We explore what it means to stop white-knuckling life, to listen to your body, to practice gratitude, and to embrace grief rather than outrun it.

This conversation is honest and deeply human. It’s about the stories we lose, the people we become, and the healing that happens when we finally let go.

Key Takeaways

• Why unconditional love grows deeper through hardship
• How caregiving can disconnect us from ourselves
• The importance of self-regulation and gratitude practices
• Why grief wears many hats beyond death alone
• How awareness and acceptance create lasting change
• What it means to “know better, do better.”
• How pain can become a teacher instead of an enemy
• Why letting go is often the beginning of healing.

If you’ve ever found yourself on the floor wondering how to stand back up, this episode is for you.

Listen, subscribe, and share this episode with someone walking through grief, caregiving, or uncertainty. Your support helps us continue learning the art of compassion through the adversity of life.

Learn more about Brigitte’s podcast, A Mother’s Guide through Autism. Also, don’t miss her book!

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for listening. We want to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected].

What do you do with pain that you can’t fix?

In this episode of the MercyCast, I sit down with Rebecca Taguma from the American Bible Society to explore how God meets us in the middle of trauma, grief, and suffering. From refugee camps to local churches, we talk about how Scripture doesn’t avoid pain—it steps directly into it, offering real healing through truth, grace, and community.

Rebecca shares her journey from serving vulnerable communities in Zimbabwe to leading trauma healing efforts around the world. We discuss how “heart wounds” impact our lives, why many of us struggle to face our own pain, and how God uses ordinary people to become safe, healing presences for others.

I also reflect on how easy it is to isolate when life gets hard—and how the Gospel calls us back into community. Healing isn’t something we achieve alone. It happens when we bring our wounds into safe spaces and allow God to work through His people.

This conversation is a reminder that you don’t need to be an expert to help—you just need to be willing, present, and rooted in God’s Word.

Key Takeaways:

• You don’t need professional training to care for others—just a willingness to listen and be present.
• Trauma often isolates us, but healing happens in a safe, Christ-centered community.
• “Heart wounds” affect every part of our lives and need to be acknowledged, not ignored.
• Scripture provides a framework for understanding suffering, grief, and lament.
• God uses our own stories of pain to help us walk alongside others.
• Emotional resilience grows through vulnerability, not avoidance.
• Healing is a process—there are no quick fixes, but there is real hope.

Listen, subscribe, and share the MercyCast—because what you’re facing isn’t the end of your story.

Learn more about Rebecca’s work with Trauma Healing Institute and Restoring Hope.

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram. Thanks for listening. We want to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected].

The work seems small: hands in the dirt, neighbors gathered, scraps transformed into new life. But this care needs more than good intentions—it needs presence and staying power.

In this episode of The MercyCast, Brendan McClanahan, Church Engagement Manager at Plant With Purpose, discusses creation care as living discipleship—not just environmentalism. His words challenged how I view mentoring, community, and even the earth. Brendan starts not with programs, but with people, identity, and the conviction that God restores all things and invites us in.

Through stories of composting, shared meals, and daily faithfulness, we explore how creation care heals land, relationships, and the Church. This is not theory—it is gospel with dirt under its nails.

Key Takeaways

• Discipleship is more than an idea; it is practiced tangibly with our hands, with our neighbors, and with the land.
• Creation care restores more than the environment. Tending the earth also means tending what is broken, whether systems, communities, or hearts.
• Community takes shape through practices like composting, shared meals, and being present with others. These foster a sense of belonging and enable personal change.
• The gospel reconnects what’s fractured. God’s mission is restoring all creation—including our relationships with one another and the world.
• The life you long for lies beyond discomfort. Invitation, vulnerability, and presence may cost you, but they lead to Jesus’s abundance.

Call to Action

If you feel disconnected—from God, others, or yourself—start small. Invite someone over, take a walk, or share a meal. Notice the ground beneath your feet. Want to go deeper? Explore Tend by Plant With Purpose and practice a faith that stays.

The work may look small. But this is where restoration begins.

Learn more about Brendan’s work with Tend.  Follow Tend on Facebook and Instagram

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for listening. We want to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected].

We say children belong in families—but our actions tell a different story. Nearly 90% of Christians believe kids thrive in a home, yet billions are still poured into orphanages.

There’s a gap… between what we believe and what we build. That gap matters—and it’s shaping the lives of vulnerable children around the world.

In this episode, I sit down with Elli Oswald, Executive Director of Faith to Action, an organization equipping churches to move from institutional care to family-based solutions. Elli brings data, theology, and real-world experience to a conversation the Church can’t afford to ignore.

Here’s the tension: Nearly 70% of believers acknowledge that institutional care can actually hinder a child’s development, yet we keep supporting it. Why? Because it feels like the easiest way to help. But there aren’t silver bullets. Orphanages may meet physical needs—but they can’t replace family, connection, and belonging.

And the reality is more complex than we think. Eight out of ten children in orphanages have a parent. Poverty, lack of access, and broken systems—not lack of love—are often the real drivers. Which means the solution isn’t separation. It’s support.

“We’re not called to keep an orphan an orphan.” We’re called to restore families.

This episode reframes orphan care, challenges outdated models, and offers practical ways the Church can lead in global child welfare—through family reunification, community support, and sustainable, faith-based solutions.

So here’s the invitation: rethink what you’ve been taught, realign your mission, and take one step toward family-based care. Because children don’t need better institutions—they need families.

If this episode speaks to you, subscribe to MercyCast for more stories about how we learn compassion through adversity. Share it with someone who cares about vulnerable children. You never know how one story can change a life. Leave a review to help others find these conversations.

Learn more about Elli’s work at Faith to Action. Here is the book mentioned in the episode by Bryant Myers. We also referred to the MercyCast episode with Nabs.

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for listening. We want to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected].

Sometimes it feels like your past mistakes have already determined your future. But what if the place you thought was the end is actually where God starts something new?

In this episode, I talk with Jermaine Wilson, whose journey moves from prison to purpose, rejection to leadership, and ultimately to impact. Early on, he reframes his story: “I lost my freedom, but God helped me discover my purpose.” What seemed like an ending became the foundation for everything after.

After prison, Jermaine faced rejection. He couldn’t find a job or a place to live, and doors kept closing. Still, he kept going: “No does not mean you’re not qualified. N-O simply means next opportunity.” That way of thinking helped him keep moving forward, no matter what stood in his way.

He embraced each step of the process. Whether janitor or dishwasher, he chose faithfulness: “If you become too big to swing a mop, you’re too small to serve at the top.” Even when questioned, he stayed grounded, repeating, “You don’t know where I came from—so you’ll never understand where I’m going.”

That focus helped him avoid distractions. Step by step, he stayed faithful. Over time, because he was ready, doors opened. In other words, the process prepared him for his purpose.

What happened next is remarkable: leadership, public service, and prison ministry. At the heart of it, surrender means letting go of what holds us back. As Jermaine says, “Your scars will either reflect shame… or strength.”

His story shows that real change happens when you bring your past into the open. For anyone weighed down by regret, remember his words: “Just because you have fallen does not mean you are a failure.”

• Your lowest place doesn’t disqualify you—it often prepares you.
• Rejection isn’t the end—it’s redirection.
• Faithfulness in small things leads to bigger opportunities.
• Community changes everything.
• You can’t transform your community without first confronting yourself.
• Surrender isn’t weakness—it’s release.

If this episode speaks to you, subscribe to MercyCast for more stories about hope and new beginnings. Share it with someone who might feel stuck. You never know how one story can change a life. Leave a review to help others find these conversations.

You are not disqualified. You are not forgotten. And what feels like the end might actually be the place where everything starts.

Learn more about Jermaine’s work at Prison Fellowship.

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for listening. We want to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected].

When the world goes quiet at night, most of us feel safe.

But for many women and children, that’s when the hardest questions begin:

Where will I sleep? Who will protect me? Will tomorrow be any different?

In this episode, I sit down with Telicia Maxwell, director of My Sister’s House at Atlanta Mission—and her perspective will challenge the way you think about service, faith, and people.

This conversation isn’t just about homelessness.

It’s about what it means to truly see someone.

Telicia shares how real transformation doesn’t begin with programs or quick fixes—it begins with presence. With trust. When choosing to show up in someone’s life, not as a solution, but as a person.

Because often, the moments that change everything aren’t big at all:

It’s remembering a name.

It’s offering a small act of kindness.

It’s simply sitting with someone long enough for them to feel safe.

• People don’t need to be fixed—they need to be seen.
• Trust is built through consistent, genuine presence.
• Healing often starts with small, human moments.
• Vulnerability creates connection—not weakness.
• Community is essential—we were never meant to do life alone.

So here’s the challenge:

Don’t just listen—act.

The next time you encounter someone in a vulnerable place, pause.

Look them in the eyes.

Learn their name.

Because that moment might be where healing begins.

Listen now—and start seeing people differently.

Learn more about Telicia’s work, My Sister’s House, and the Atlanta mission at Atlantamission.org.

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for listening. We want to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected].

In this episode, I sit down with Cally Logan to talk about something I think we all wrestle with—how God actually works in our lives. Not just in the big, obvious moments, but in the quiet, unseen ones beneath the surface.

We get into calling, identity, and what it looks like to trust God when you don’t have clear answers. Because if I’m honest, most of my life hasn’t been marked by burning bush moments—it’s been shaped in the slow, ordinary steps.

We talk about surrender, about learning to listen, and about how God reroutes us—even when we think we’ve gone the wrong way. We look at stories like Jonah and reflect on how God uses even our resistance and mistakes for something bigger.

This conversation is really an invitation—to slow down, to trust God’s timing, and to believe that even the small moments are forming something deep in you.

The hidden work of God beneath the surface

I talk with Cally about how most of what God does in us isn’t loud—it’s quiet. It’s beneath the surface. And if we’re not paying attention, we’ll miss it.

Trusting God when clarity isn’t there

We unpack what it looks like to trust God when you don’t have a clear answer. Not every moment is dramatic or obvious—sometimes it’s just taking the next step.

Surrender as a daily practice

Surrender isn’t a one-time decision. It’s something I have to come back to every day—letting go, little by little, and trusting God with what I’m holding.

When God reroutes your life

We talk about how God uses detours—how even when we think we’ve messed things up, He’s still at work. Nothing is wasted.

What Jonah teaches us about obedience and resistance

Jonah’s story reminds me that even when we run, God still pursues, redirects, and works through us in ways we couldn’t plan.

Embracing the “side quests” of life

Some of the most meaningful growth happens in the things that don’t seem connected. Those side paths? God uses those too.

Taking the next small step

We end with something simple but powerful—don’t try to figure everything out. Just ask God to show you one thing, and take that step.

Learn more about Cally’s work at her website, callylogan.com. Buy her new book.

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

Ambition isn’t the enemy. But we can reframe it.

This week on MercyCast, I sit down with Ryan Tinetti, author of The Quiet Ambition. We talk about the quiet line from First Epistle to the Thessalonians that has haunted him for years: make it your ambition to live quietly.

That verse doesn’t trend.

It won’t grow your platform.

It won’t help you build a brand.

But it might change your life.

Ryan shares the moment early in ministry when ambition pushed him to the edge—literally landing him in the ER with what he thought was a heart attack. It wasn’t. It was a panic attack. The kind that shows up when you believe everything depends on you.

We talk about the lie that louder equals faithful. About the subtle pressure—even in ministry—to build something impressive for God. About how the Kingdom often moves more slowly than we want. And how God usually works through small obedience rather than big moments.

We also talk about falling. Not failing—falling. Ryan tells a story about learning to cross-country ski in Michigan and a friend telling him, “That was a good fall.” It stuck with him. Because the Christian life isn’t about never falling. It’s about learning to fall into the arms of Christ.

We wrestle with the tension between ambition and humility. Scripture doesn’t call us to laziness. But it does call us to a different kind of ambition—the kind aimed at pleasing God rather than elevating ourselves.

A quiet ambition.

One that looks like:

• faithfulness in your vocation
• carving away at your small corner of the Kingdom
• trusting that God is doing more than you can see

We talk about why verses like “Be still and know that I am God” from the Book of Psalms can feel threatening in a culture built on striving.

Because if we stop striving…

What if we’re forgotten?

And yet the gospel tells a different story. God meets us not in spectacle but through ordinary means—Word, water, bread, and wine.

In the quiet.

In the mundane.

In the places we usually overlook.

By the end, Ryan offers two simple practices that resist the culture of hurry:

• Use the crockpot. Let something take time.
• Take a walk without earbuds. Just you and God.

No platform.

No applause.

Just faithfulness.

And maybe that’s where the real work of the Kingdom happens.

If you want to learn more, check out Ryan's substack and his new book, The Quiet Ambition.

You can follow MercyCast on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

You can follow Raleigh on Twitter and Instagram.

Thanks for listening. We want to hear from you!

Email us at [email protected].