Pastors in Recovery

Episode 84 - That Slow Drift | + Original Song "Drift"

What if you didn’t fall…

what if you just drifted?

In this episode of Pastors in Recovery, we talk about one of the most dangerous realities in ministry—the slow, almost invisible drift away from God. It doesn’t start with rebellion.

• It starts with distraction.
• Busyness.
• Fatigue.
• Numbing out.
• From King David staying home instead of going to war…to pastors today scrolling late at night, trying to find rest in all the wrong places—this episode exposes how drift really happens. 

Whether you’re a young pastor just starting out, raising a family in the middle years, or feeling the weight of decades in ministry… the truth is the same: Drift doesn’t care what stage you’re in.

It happens quietly.
It happens gradually.
And in today’s world, it can happen faster than ever.

But there is hope. If you’ve been going through the motions…
if your fire has dimmed…
if your time with God has become something you do for others instead of with Him…
You haven’t fallen. You can come back. 

🎵 Includes original song: “Drift”
A late-night, driving reflection on losing focus—and finding your way back. If this podcast is helping you, consider supporting Pastors in Recovery.

For just $2/month, you can help reach other pastors who are hurting and need a safe place to heal. (Link in description)

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This episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode 83 - TSP | Part 9 - So That I May Be Reasonably Happy In This Life

What if the problem isn’t your life… but your expectations? In this episode, we unpack one of the most honest and freeing lines in the Serenity Prayer: “…so that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with You forever in the next.” Many of us expect following God to make life easier. We expect obedience to be rewarded with comfort. And when that doesn’t happen, we quietly begin to feel disappointed—even with God. But the Serenity Prayer doesn’t promise a perfect life.
It invites us into something deeper: realistic expectations, lasting peace, and a shift in perspective. In this episode, we talk about:

• What “reasonably happy” really means
• How unrealistic expectations lead to disappointment
• Why life doesn’t suddenly become perfect in recovery or faith
• Letting go of control—especially with the people we love most
• The difference between peace now and ultimate joy later

Jon also shares a personal story about raising his kids, learning to release control, and finding peace in the middle of imperfect outcomes. If you’ve ever wondered why life still feels hard—even when you’re doing the right things—this episode will help realign your expectations and restore your hope.

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This episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode 82 - TSP | Part 8 - Trusting That You Will Make All Things Right

In Episode 82 of the Pastors in Recovery Podcast, we continue our Serenity Prayer series by exploring the line: “Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will.”

When many of us think about the will of God, we often focus on the big life questions—career, ministry opportunities, relationships, and the direction of our future. But the will of God is not only something we try to discover in the future. Much of it has already been revealed to us through the Word of God.

In this episode we talk about how God guides our lives through Scripture, prayer, the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the wisdom of others. Sometimes the answer we are searching for is not something new at all—it is returning to the last thing God already asked us to do. We also look at the story in 2 Kings 6, where Elisha asks a simple but profound question when the axe head falls into the water: “Where did it fall?” Before anything could be restored, they had to go back to where it was lost. In the same way, God often calls us back to obedience in the place where we first began.

Jon shares a personal story from his early years in youth ministry when discouragement and financial pressure made it tempting to move on to something bigger. Instead, he chose to stay—walking with the same group of students from junior high through graduation. Years later many of those students reached out, sharing how that consistency shaped their faith. Sometimes surrendering to God’s will doesn’t mean moving on to something new. Sometimes it means staying faithful to what God has already placed in front of us.

This episode also features an original song written for this message: “What If I Stay?” A reflection on the struggle pastors face when ministry becomes difficult and the quiet decision to surrender to God’s will rather than run toward greener pastures.

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This episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode 81 - TSP | Part 7 - Taking As Jesus Did This Sinful World + Song "Why Can't the World"

In Episode 81 of the Pastors in Recovery Podcast, we continue our Serenity Prayer series by reflecting on a powerful and difficult line: “Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.”

Many pastors begin ministry with a vision of how the world should be. We dream of healthy churches, healed marriages, honest leadership, and people who respond quickly to truth. But over time, reality can feel very different. Brokenness shows up in places we never expected—sometimes even inside the church.

In this episode, we talk honestly about the tension between our ideal expectations and the real world we serve in. Jesus understood the brokenness of the world better than anyone. Yet His life was not a series of frustrated reactions to disappointment. Instead, He entered the pain of the world with compassion. He wept over the lost, loved the hurting, and took purposeful action without trying to force people to change. Learning to accept the world as it is does not mean we stop caring. It means we stop trying to control what only God can transform.

This episode invites pastors to release unrealistic expectations, trust God in the middle of brokenness, and rediscover the peace that comes from surrender. The episode closes with an original song written for this message: “Why Can’t the World Be Like I Want It to Be” A reflection on youthful idealism, the disappointments of ministry, and the grace we discover when we finally learn to see the world as it is—and trust God within it.

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This episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode 80 - The Serenity Prayer | Part 6 - Accepting Hardship as a Pathway to Peace 

This may be the most difficult line in the entire Serenity Prayer.

In this episode, I share personal stories of real hardship — my sister running away from home, losing my brother to Hodgkin’s disease, the devastating loss of my nine-month-old nephew, and more recent struggles with injury, limitation, and physical decline. Hardship doesn’t feel like peace.

So how can it possibly be the pathway to it? Drawing from James 1, Hebrews 12, and the words of Jesus Himself, we explore how pain becomes training, how suffering forces surrender, and how surrender leads us to the Prince of Peace.

This is not about pretending hardship is good. It’s about discovering what it produces when it is surrendered to God. Peace is not the absence of suffering. Peace is the presence of Christ in the middle of it.

If you are carrying something heavy right now, this episode is for you.


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This episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode 79 - The Serenity Prayer | Part 5 - Living One Day At A Time

Are you living in yesterday’s regret… or tomorrow’s anxiety?

In Part 5 of our Serenity Prayer series, we explore two powerful phrases: “Living one day at a time.
Enjoying one moment at a time.” Many pastors and ministry leaders struggle with replaying conversations from the past or rehearsing fears about the future. Shame and insecurity quietly shape how we lead, speak, and show up in relationships.

In this episode, we imagine the same pastor in three different mental locations:


• Living in the past
• Living in the future
• Living fully in the present

We unpack how worship and prayer realign the heart, expose hidden idols, and restore peace. When we seek God’s face, shame loses authority. Fear loosens its grip. And clarity returns.
Scripture anchors this conversation in: Isaiah 43:18–19, Matthew 6:34 and Psalm 118:24
If you are tired of spiraling thoughts, insecurity, or mental over-rehearsing, this episode will gently guide you back to what matters most — today. 

🎶 At the end of the episode, Jon invites listeners to enter into worship through the new Stone and Mercy album, Greater Still, available wherever you stream music under “Crashing Lyrics.”

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Episode 78 - The Serenity Prayer | Part 4 + Original Worship Experience with Stone & Mercy

In Part 4 of our Serenity Prayer series, we focus on one of the most overlooked — and most powerful — lines: “…and the wisdom to know the difference.” As pastors, many of us are wired to fix things. We carry responsibility. We step into chaos. We try to help. But what happens when we confuse what is ours to do with what only God can do?

• In this episode, we talk about discernment born from closeness to Christ.
• About the sin of omission.
• About fear, comfort, insecurity, and self-deception.
• And about how wisdom comes not from trying harder — but from staying nearer. God will not do what He has clearly given us the power and responsibility to do.

And we cannot do what only He can accomplish.

We end this episode differently — with an invitation into extended worship. If you’d like to stay and sit with the Lord, the final 25 minutes include music from the Stone & Mercy album, created as a space for reflection, surrender, and listening. You can listen, pray, or simply be still. Sometimes wisdom begins in silence.

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This episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode 77 - The Serenity Prayer | Part 3 + Original Song "When It's My Turn"

This week on Pastors in Recovery, we move into the hardest part of the Serenity Prayer. Not accepting what we cannot change. But owning what we can. As pastors, we preach that the Holy Spirit does the cleaning. We say, “God changes hearts.” And that’s true. 

• But what happens when God has already shown us something… and we haven’t obeyed?
• Where have we prayed for deliverance when we needed repentance?
• Where have we blamed God for our lack of discipline?
• Where have we said, “God hasn’t changed me yet,” when we haven’t taken the step He already asked for?

In this episode, we talk about the partnership between God’s power and our responsibility. About how obedience isn’t passive. About how growth requires courage. And about the quiet, personal work that no one else sees. This isn’t condemnation. It’s clarity. Because sometimes the prayer isn’t “God change this.”

Sometimes it’s “God, I’m ready to change.”
Take a deep breath.
Let the Holy Spirit speak.
And ask yourself… what’s mine to own?

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Episode 76 - The Serenity Prayer | Part 2 + Original Song "When God is First"

What happens when God is first… but nothing changes?

In Week 2 of our Serenity Prayer series, we slow down and sit with one of the hardest realities of faith and recovery: accepting what we cannot change. Many of us were formed to believe that obedience should be rewarded—and that if we’re doing the right things, life should get easier. But what happens when it doesn’t?

This episode explores the quiet disappointment pastors often carry when surrender doesn’t lead to relief, and how the Serenity Prayer invites us into a deeper reframe—not changing reality, but changing our relationship to it. Drawing from Paul’s “thorn in the flesh,” we reflect on faithfulness without resolution, obedience without relief, and peace that doesn’t depend on outcomes. Acceptance is not giving up—it’s learning how to trust God inside what remains.

If you’ve ever prayed, surrendered, and still found yourself standing in the same pain, this episode is for you. “This week on Pastors in Recovery, we stayed with the Serenity Prayer and sat with what it means to accept what we cannot change—and still find peace.”

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Episode 75 - The Serenity Prayer | Part 1 + Featuring the song "The Serenity Prayer"

In this episode, we begin a new short series by slowing down and looking closer at the Serenity Prayer—starting with the very first word: God. Before we ask for serenity, courage, or wisdom, we acknowledge who God is. This prayer begins by placing God at the center, not as a vending machine or last resort, but as the greatest and highest power—worthy of our trust, our surrender, and our praise.

We talk honestly about control, pride, and the tension between the things we desperately want to fix and the things we simply cannot change. From chronic illness to other people’s choices, from global problems to personal limits, this prayer invites us into a posture of humility and dependence on God.

This episode sets the foundation for the weeks ahead, where we’ll break the Serenity Prayer into four clear sections—one piece at a time—so it stays practical, meaningful, and livable, not overwhelming.

 If you’ve ever felt exhausted trying to control what was never yours to carry, this episode is for you.

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This episode includes AI-generated content.