Shifting Culture

In this episode, Chuck DeGroat joins me to talk about how people actually change. We talk about how therapy language and spiritual practices can become performance, and why so much of our formation sits on top of anxious, dysregulated bodies. Chuck walks through the four conditions for maturing: safety, an elder, community, and a sacred story. We also explore integrity as wholeheartedness rather than moral perfection, the slow work of discernment, and what it means to stay rooted in a place. We ask why transformation so often runs through the wilderness, and how character is formed slowly, rarely the way we expect.

Chuck DeGroat is a professor of pastoral care and Christian spirituality at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, where he also serves as founding executive director of the clinical mental health counseling program. He is a licensed therapist, spiritual director, author, retreat leader, and founder of the Soul Care Collaborative, a network of practitioners offering spiritually attuned and trauma-informed care. As a therapist, he specializes in navigating issues of abuse and trauma, pastoral (and leadership) health, and doubt and dark nights on the faith journey. He and his team also facilitate five-day soul care intensives. He trains clergy in handling issues of abuse and trauma, and he conducts pastor and planter assessments. Before transitioning to training and forming pastors, Chuck served as a pastor and counseling center director in Orlando and San Francisco. He and his wife, Sara, have two married daughters. Visit Chuck online at chuckdegroat.net and soulcarecollaborative.com.

Chuck's Book:

Who You're Becoming

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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In this episode, Matthew Kaemingk joins me to talk about Can Religion Save Democracy?, the book he co-wrote with Shadi Hamid. As religious participation in America has declined, our politics has become more apocalyptic, and Matthew argues that's no coincidence: when we stop looking to faith for meaning, we start looking to politics. We talk about political idolatry, congregations as training grounds for democracy, prayer as civic formation, and why our culture knows how to cancel people but has no language for atonement. Disagreement isn't going anywhere. The question is what kind of people it makes us.

Matthew Kaemingk (PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is professor of public theology at Theological University Utrecht, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is the author of Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear.

Matthew's Book:

Can Religion Save Democracy?

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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In this episode, Kayla Craig joins me again to talk about her new devotional, Our Daily Breath, a year of breath prayers, Scripture, and short reflections for anxious people living in anxious times. We talk about breath as a recurring thread through Scripture, from Eden to the valley of dry bones, and what the science says about how breathing shapes a body under stress. Kayla describes prayer as noticing more than performing. Together we explore spiritual direction, anger, and waiting rooms, and how the inner life turns outward into love of neighbor.

Kayla Craig is a former journalist who brings deep curiosity and care to her writing. Now an author and spiritual director, Kayla helps others slow down and reconnect with God through her writing and speaking.
She’s the author of the brand new Our Daily Breath: 365 Prayers and Practices that Whisper Peace in a Shouting World, along with the bestelling books Every Season Sacred and To Light Their Way. Her relatable reflections appear in books, devotionals, and commentaries. Her work has been featured by Christianity Today and Hallmark’s DaySpring. Her weekly newsletter reaches readers in all 50 states and more than 100 countries. With a poetic, prophetic voice, she created the popular Liturgies for Parents Instagram account.
With a background in journalism, Kayla brings curiosity and depth to everything she creates. Studying contemplative spiritual direction and formation at Columbia Theological Seminary, she’s learning to companion others on their faith journeys with deep listening and care.
Kayla lives in Iowa with her husband, Jonny, and their four children in an 115-year-old former convent, where she’s discovering that a meaningful life with God doesn’t require perfect silence—just a willingness to pay attention.

Kayla's Book:

Our Daily Breath

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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In this episode, Kutter Callaway joins me to talk about his new book, Be Afraid, and why horror might be one of the most spiritual genres in film. We explore the difference between managing fear and fearing rightly, what happens when fear goes unresolved, and how Scripture, from Eden forward, can be read as the long work of redirecting our fears. We talk about what Frank Peretti got wrong, why the best horror doesn't let its heroes off the hook, and how the horror stories in our own Scriptures might meet a culture looking for somewhere to put its fear.

Kutter Callaway (PhD, Fuller) is the William K. Brehm Chair of Worship, Theology, and the Arts, associate professor of theology and culture, and associate professor of psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary. He writes and speaks on the interaction between theology and culture—particularly film, television, and online media—in both academic and popular forums. Callaway holds two PhDs, one in theology and the second in psychological science. He is the host of the Be Afraid podcast, and is author of Deep Focus, The Aesthetics of Atheism, Watching TV Religiously, and Scoring Transcendence.

Kutter's Book:

Be Afraid

Kutter's Recommendation:

Undertone

The Odyssey

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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In this episode, Jen Pollock Michel and I talk about A Rule for the Rest of Us and what Saint Benedict might offer people who will never live in a monastery. We start with the anxiety of optimization and the strange burden of unlimited freedom, then ask what happens when we're left to manufacture our own meaning. Jen explains what a rule of life actually is, why small daily habits can do what ambitious goals can't, and how we learn to hear God's voice through Scripture and community. We also talk about keeping a rule from becoming self-help, and about discipleship that fits the life we actually have.

A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, Jen Pollock Michel is an award-winning author, speaker, and podcast host living in Cincinnati. Her sixth book, A Rule for the Rest of Us, releases on September 8th. Jen holds a B.A. in French from Wheaton College, an M.A. in Literature from Northwestern University, and an M.F.A from Seattle Pacific University. Her writing has appeared widely in print and online publications, and her popular weekly Substack posts publish most Mondays. Jen also serves as the first-year writing mentor in the Whitworth University low-residency MFA program in Creative Writing. You can find out more about Jen at jenpollockmichel.com.

Jen's Book:

A Rule for The Rest of Us

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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In this episode, Wes Crawford joins me to talk about his new book, One Nation Over God, and why faith and patriotism have become so tangled in American life. We explore Robert Bellah's idea of American civil religion, how a nation without an established faith came to treat its flags, anthems, and founders as sacred, and why that stirs so much anger in our churches and families. We trace the roots of the religious right, question the myth of a Christian nation, and consider what it looks like to love our country while keeping our allegiance to Jesus first. When those loyalties collide, which one wins?

Wes Crawford is the Vice Provost at Abilene Christian University. He also is an Associate Professor of Church History. His research interests center on American religion generally and the intersection of race and religion specifically. His books, Shattering the Illusion: How African American Churches of Christ Moved from Segregation to Independence (2013) and Courage in the Sheer Silence: Challenging Racism in 20th Century Churches of Christ (2025), examine the relationship between white and black members of Churches of Christ throughout the twentieth century. His forthcoming book, One Nation Over God, explores the implications of American civil religion. In addition to his academic pursuits, Wes also served twenty years as a Preaching Minister within Churches of Christ and maintains a passion for local congregational ministry. Through his work with the Siburt Institute, he spends most weekends preaching for various congregations across the country. Wes has been married for twenty-nine years to his wife, Kim, and they have four children.

Wes' Book:

One Nation Over God

Wes' Recommendations:

From Bible Belt to Sun Belt

Theo of Golden

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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In this episode, Kenneth Tanner and I contemplate the human face of God. We talk about why we split Jesus into a divine half and a human half, and what we lose when we do. We get into the story we've been told about strength, survival, and success, and how a God who takes the lowest seat overturns it. We talk about serving as a way into the permanence of God, the cross as the foundation of creation, the dignity of the body, and a resurrection already at work in the world. What would change if we believed God is like Jesus?

Kenneth Tanner is pastor of Church of the Holy Redeemer in Rochester Hills, Michigan, where he has served since 2005. He is the author of Vulnerable God: How Jesus Upends Our Assumptions About God—and Shows Us How to Be Human (Brazos Press, 2026). His writing has appeared in many outlets, including Huffington Post, Sojourners, Mockingbird, National Review, Christianity Today, Clarion Journal, and more. He and his wife, Debbie, have seven children and four grandchildren.

Kenneth's book:

Vulnerable God

Kenneth's recommendation:

The Wound of Unknowing

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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In this episode, Dave Nienhuis joins me to talk about his memoir, And the Sea Was No More. We explore the deep, the chaos waters that run through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, and what happens to faith when anxiety and trauma take away your ability to control your own mind. Dave shares how Scripture gave him language for drowning, why Jesus enters death rather than destroying it, and how the body, community, and liturgy carried him through. We also talk about shame, a generation leaving the church, and why we don't have to explain suffering before we cry out.

Dave Nienhuis is a teacher, writer, speaker, and Professor of New Testament Studies at Seattle Pacific University.

Dave's Book:

And the Sea Was No More

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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This is The Good, The True, and The Cinema, a film podcast in pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful. Join Joshua Johnson, cultural critic and host of Shifting Culture, Craig Detweiler, filmmaker, author, and president of Wedgwood Circle, and John Dougherty, writer, educator, and film critic for America Magazine. Together, they review new releases, revisit the classics, and have a lot of fun along the way.

Follow The Good, The True, and The Cinema anywhere you get podcasts.

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below

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In this episode Annie F. Downs joins me to take John 10:10 apart. Steal, kill, destroy — we tend to read them as one sentence, but Annie treats them as three different losses asking three different things of us. Something stolen still exists somewhere. Something dead doesn't come back. Something destroyed has to be cleared before anything gets built there. We talk about courage borrowed from artists, grief that never fully resolves, why resurrection never looks like restoration, and why none of this can be worked out alone. Don't let that hold you back.

Annie F. Downs is a New York Times bestselling author, sought-after speaker, and successful podcast host based in Nashville, Tennessee. Known for her engaging and honest style, Annie makes readers and listeners feel like long-time friends. She is the co-founder of the That Sounds Fun Network, home to her flagship podcast, That Sounds Fun and host of the television talk show I Gotta Ask.

Annie's Book:

Don't Let That Hold You Back

Annie's Recommendation:

Calamity Club

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.

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Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below

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