Restoring Our City

One hundred episodes. Jobbin and Jeswin celebrate by ranking their top five brown church experiences: the back row communion strategy, a baptism procession that took longer than the walk, Santa Claus at a Delhi mission service, youth meeting trophies that look like fishing awards, and the cottage meeting goodbye that lasts an hour. Then they tell the story they have never fully told on the pod: how a church conflict, a 40 day fast, and a Thursday night prayer group in Chicago became Restoring Our City. Plus how Jeswin went from campus ministry to cohost, why this podcast should never replace your local church, and a prayer for the next hundred from Philippians 1:9‑11.

Share your church core memory with us on Instagram @restoringourcity.

Church fundraising sits in a strange place. Everyone knows the money has to come from somewhere, and everyone has a story about the ask that felt wrong. Locked doors, platinum sponsor tiers, songbook ads, plaques on the wall.

Jobbin and Jeswin work through the tactics, the Google review that keeps showing up under every church, and what 1 Chronicles 29 and Haggai 1 actually say about how leaders should ask and why people should give.

Follow @restoringourcity for more.

Every year it comes back around. The general body meeting. The nominations, the bylaws, the budget nobody agrees on, and somehow the mango pickle that ends up on someone's head.

Jobbin and Jeswin sit with the meeting our community loves to dread, and the church splits, lost friendships, and quiet exits that follow it. They trace where the conflict really comes from, what Scripture actually models for resolving it, and why peace was never meant to be the absence of conflict but the presence of flourishing.

If you have ever thought about walking away, start here.

Massive budgets. Packed ballrooms. A spiritual high that fades by Monday morning. Are church conferences actually worth it?Jeswin is back on the pod after a brief break, fresh off PCNAK in Chicago, and he and Jobbin get honest about what these gatherings actually give us. The community. The shared culture. The anonymous questions that revealed what our people are really wrestling with. And what they get wrong too: the budgets, the politics, and the "conference high" that disappears the second real life sets back in.They also bring it back to Scripture, from Peter wanting to build tents on the mount of transfiguration, to Jonah sulking on his own mountain, landing on one real question: how do you carry a mountaintop moment into your actual daily walk with God?Whether you have been to a dozen conferences or none at all, this one will change how you show up to the next one.

You can have the best worship team in the city, a packed house every Sunday, and a pastor who preaches straight fire. And people will still leave because nobody learned their name.

In the final episode of the Church Complaint Box series, Jobbin gets honest about the complaint that hits the deepest: the lack of love. Not theological error. Not bad production. Just a church full of people who never made room for you.

Anchoring in 1 Corinthians 13, Jobbin unpacks why Paul wrote this passage as a confrontation to a spiritually active but relationally broken church, and why it lands the same way today. He also gets into church cliques, platform politics, "church royalty," and what it actually looks like to be a connector instead of a complainer.

What happens when Scripture is used to justify power, silence criticism, or support our own personal agendas?

In this solo episode of the Restoring Our City Podcast, Jobbin continues the Church Complaint Box series by unpacking one of the biggest reasons people feel frustrated with the church: twisted Scripture.

Anchored in 2 Timothy 4:2–4, this conversation explores how verses can be pulled out of context, weaponized in politics, misused in church leadership, or even applied in family and cultural settings in ways that hurt people instead of pointing them toward Christ.

This episode is not about criticizing the church for the sake of criticism. It is about honestly addressing the complaints people have, learning how to read Scripture faithfully, and rediscovering sound doctrine that is healthy, life-giving, and rooted in the truth of God’s Word.

Drop your thoughts in the comments:
Have you ever heard Scripture used out of context in a way that pushed people away from the church?

Listen, subscribe, and join the conversation as we continue opening the Church Complaint Box.

#RestoringOurCity #ChurchComplaintBox #ChristianPodcast #SouthAsianChristian #TwistedScripture #SoundDoctrine #BibleContext #ChurchHurt #FaithAndCulture #ChristianCommunity

Are smoke machines, basketball-dribbling pastors, and maple syrup on Bibles ruining the Church? Jobbin and Jeswin tackle one of Christianity's biggest complaints: performative worship and celebrity pastors. From megachurch spectacles to hypocritical worship leaders in brown churches, they discuss why Gen Z is fleeing to traditional churches, what the Bible says about honoring God versus entertaining crowds, and the dangerous gap between Sunday mornings and everyday lives. If you've ever walked into a service and thought "this feels more like a show than a sanctuary," this episode is for you. Plus: hot takes on Mike Todd, John Crist, and why communion might be the answer we're all missing.

Topics Covered:

• Why performative Christianity turns people away
• The celebrity pastor problem (we're calling out names)
• Hypocrisy in worship leadership
• Gen Z's surprising shift toward traditional churches
• The difference between excellence and excess
• How the gospel gets distorted when holiness is minimized
• Practical steps: Should you stay or go?

This is Episode 2 of the Church Complaint Box series—where we address the biggest grievances about modern church culture with candor, conviction, and a commitment to Jesus over the show.

Is it possible to love the Church while also acknowledging its deep-seated flaws?. In the Season 7 premiere of Restoring Our City, Jobbin and Jeswin begin a series dedicated to the major complaints that cause people to turn away from Christianity.

We aren't here to "trash" individuals, but we are here to have candid, unfiltered conversations about the business of church, the character of leadership, and the way the gospel is often distorted by cultural or political labels. Join us as we look at 1 Corinthians 5 to understand why internal accountability is essential for the reputation of the faith.

As we close out 2025, Jobbin and Jeswin take a reflective (and hilarious) look back at the year—starting with one of the most iconic traditions in the South Asian Christian church: Watch Night Service.

From midnight worship songs and testimony time, to feet washing, holy communion, and the infamous “if I offended you, please forgive me” line, the guys rank their Top 5 Watch Night traditions and unpack why these moments still resonate so deeply.

But this episode goes beyond nostalgia. The conversation turns reflective as they look back on a year of podcasting—highlighting listener feedback, global reach, viral clips, and episodes that sparked the most engagement (including the Sunday Scaries and Fear of the Holy Spirit series). They also dive into Spotify Wrapped stats, what their audience is actually listening to (yes, Drake made the list), and what it all says about the community forming around the pod.

The episode closes with gratitude, scripture, hopes for 2026, a (slightly butchered) Malayalam benediction, and a reminder of why this podcast exists—to help us feel our way toward God together.

Whether you grew up with Watch Night or have no idea what it is, this episode will make you laugh, reflect, and feel deeply seen.

🎙️ New episodes drop every other Wednesday.

📲 Subscribe, share, and tell us—what’s your favorite Watch Night tradition?

What if the traditions we were taught to ignore are actually the very things shaping our faith?

In this episode of Restoring Our City, Jobbin and Jeswin dive into a candid, honest, and surprisingly fun conversation about Christian traditions, Christmas, and church history—through the lens of growing up as South Asian Christians in America.

From midnight Christmas services and fruitcake debates to Advent, Lent, and the tension between ritual and relationship, this episode wrestles with a big question many of us carry:
👉 Do Christian traditions actually matter—or are they just empty rituals?

Drawing from Scripture, church history, and personal stories, the guys explore:

• Why some of us grew up skeptical of traditions

• How practices like Advent and Lent can shape spiritual maturity

• When traditions become idols—and when they become anchors

• Why repetition, even without full understanding, can plant lasting seeds of faith

Whether you grew up deeply traditional or completely allergic to anything “ritualistic,” this conversation invites you to rethink how God uses memory, discipline, and shared practices to form His people—across generations.

🎄 Merry Christmas from ROC. Let’s talk about the reason, the rhythms, and the reminders that point us back to Christ.