Shifting Culture

Pastor and author Mark Batterson joins me to talk about his new book Gradually, Then Suddenly, a powerful invitation to dream God-sized dreams, start small, and stay faithful long enough to see legacy take root. We explore what it means to move from imagination to action, how to live with long vision and long obedience, and why true success often looks like quiet persistence over time. Mark shares stories of transformation from Washington, D.C., turning a crack house into a coffeehouse, a dream into a citywide ministry, and faith into a generational story. This conversation reminds us that what looks like slow progress may actually be sacred preparation. Join us for an inspiring look at how to live, lead, and love with purpose over the long haul.

Mark Batterson is the New York Times bestselling author of two dozen adult and children’s books including Win the Day, Chase the Lion and A Million Little Miracles. His newest book is Gradually Then Suddenly, How to Dream Bigger, Decide Better, and Leave a Lasting Legacy (Multnomah; on sale 11/4/25).  He’s also the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. One church with multiple campuses, NCC owns and operates Ebenezers Coffeehouse, the DC Dream Center and the Capital Turnaround—a 100,000-square-foot city block that includes an event venue and child development center. Mark holds a doctor of ministry degree from Regent University. He and his wife, Lora, reside on Capitol Hill. For more information, visit markbatterson.com and https://twitter.com/markbatterson & Instagram.com/markbatterson 

Mark's Book:

Gradually, Then Suddenly

Mark's Recommendation:

The River of Doubt

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Sara Billups returns to Shifting Culture to talk about her new book Nervous Systems: Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics. Together we explore the anxiety running through our lives, our churches, and our culture and what it means to find peace that’s deeper than control. Sara shares how Ignatian spirituality and the practice of “holy indifference” can help us let go, stay present, and love well in a restless world. We talk about caregiving, community, mental health, and how the embodied way of Jesus leads us toward healing, trust, and wholeness.

Sara Billups is a Seattle-based writer and cultural commentator whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Christianity Today, Aspen Ideas, and others. Sara writes Bitter Scroll, a monthly Substack letter and co-hosts the podcast That’s the Spirit. She earned a Doctor of Ministry in the Sacred Art of Writing at the Peterson Center for the Christian Imagination at Western Theological Seminary. 

Sara works to help wavering Christians remain steadfast through cultural storms and continues to hope for the flourishing of the Church amid deep political and cultural division in America.

Her first book, Orphaned Believers, follows the journey of a generation raised in the 80s and 90s of evangelicalism reckoning with the tradition that raised them and searching for a new way to participate in the story of God. Her second book, Nervous Systems, will be released November 4, 2025, from Baker Books.

Sara's Book:

Nervous Systems

Sara's Recommendations:

Slow Horses

Semi Permanent by Molly Parden

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Fr. Ronald Rolheiser joins me to talk about his new book Insane for the Light, the final part of his spiritual trilogy that began with The Holy Longing and Sacred Fire. Together, we explore what it means to live faithfully through every stage of life from getting our lives together, to giving them away, to finally giving our deaths away. Fr. Rolheiser shares profound insights on the difference between resignation and surrender, how helplessness can become holiness, and why love is sustained not by emotion but by fidelity and presence. We talk about aging as a spiritual practice, the call to move from bitterness to gratitude, and the deep grace found in letting go. This is a conversation about surrendering in love, learning to live with open hands, and allowing the light of God to shine through us, even as everything else fades.

Ronald Rolheiser, O.M.I., is President-Emeritus of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio Texas, where he remains a full-time faculty member and Professor of Spirituality. In 1982, he began writing a column “In Exile” which is carried in Catholic newspapers worldwide. He is the author of many award-winning books including The Holy Longing and Sacred Fire, and his newest book Insane for the Light releases in 2025.

Ron's Books:

Insane for the Light

Sacred Fire

The Holy Longing

Ron's Recommendations:

All the Way to Heaven

Rachel Held Evans

Richard Rohr

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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In this episode, Carmen Imes joins me to explore her new book Becoming God’s Family: Why Church Still Matters. We look at why the church, despite its failures, divisions, and imperfections, remains central to the way of Jesus. Carmen traces the story of God’s people from Abraham and Sinai to the early church, revealing how God has always chosen to work through community. She offers a compelling vision of what it means to belong to one another, to wait together on God, and to become a family formed by grace. This conversation is a reminder that church isn’t a perfect institution, it’s a gathering of people who need God and one another. In a world of disconnection and individualism, this is an invitation to rediscover the beauty of life together.

Dr. Carmen Joy Imes is associate professor of Old Testament at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, in Southern California. She is the author of Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters, Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters, and Becoming God’s Family: Why the Church Still Matters. Her primary areas of expertise are Exodus and the Psalms. Carmen has a YouTube channel where she releases weekly Torah Tuesday videos and you can find her writing on various websites, including Christianity Today, Substack, The Well, and The Politics of Scripture blog. Carmen has appeared on over 150 podcasts and radio outlets. She enjoys traveling to speak at churches, schools, conferences, and retreats. Carmen is passionate about equipping the church to engage the Old Testament well and to see its relevance for the Christian life.

Carmen's Book:

Becoming God's Family

Carmen's Recommendations:

All Creatures Great and Small

Single Ever After

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Andrew DeCort joins me to explore what it means to love our neighbor — not as a vague ideal, but as a radical way of living that can heal our divisions and reshape our world. Drawing from his own story in Ethiopia and his new book Reviving the Golden Rule, Andrew shares how the practice of neighbor love dismantles fear, ends cycles of othering, and calls us into a deeper belonging rooted in the very heart of God. We talk about how love becomes courage in the face of violence, how Jesus’ teaching to love even our enemies abolishes exclusion, and how the Neighbor-Love Movement is helping people embody this ancient command in practical, everyday ways. This is a powerful conversation about faith, reconciliation, and what it means to live as people who see every human being as a reflection of God’s image.

Andrew DeCort founded the Institute for Faith and Flourishing and cofounded the Neighbor-Love Movement in Ethiopia, which have reached over twenty million people with the invitation to nonviolent spirituality. He holds a PhD in religious ethics from the University of Chicago and has taught ethics, public theology, peace and conflict studies, and Ethiopian studies at Wheaton College, the Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology, and the University of Bonn. He is the author of Reviving the Golden Rule, Blessed Are the Others, Flourishing on the Edge of Faith, and Bonhoeffer’s New Beginning. His words have appeared in Foreign Policy, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Economist, Christianity Today, and numerous other platforms.

Andrew's Book:

Reviving the Golden Rule

Andrew's Recommendation:

Grief is Love

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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What happens when “biblical parenting” becomes more about control than compassion? In this episode, I talk with Kelsey McGinnis and Marissa Burt, authors of The Myth of Good Christian Parenting, about the rise of evangelical parenting culture, from James Dobson and Bill Gothard to today’s influencer economy, and how these ideas have shaped generations of families. Together, we explore how fear and hierarchy took root in the church’s imagination, why so many parents feel trapped by formulas and shame, and what it might look like to recover freedom, grace, and mutuality in our homes. This is a conversation about rethinking authority, rediscovering gentleness, and learning to see our children as people to love, not projects to manage.

Marissa Franks Burt (MTh, Columbia International University) is a novelist, editor, teacher, and cohost of the At Home with the Lectionary podcast. She lives in a small town in Washington’s Snoqualmie Valley with her husband, six children, and heaps of books.

Kelsey Kramer McGinnis (PhD, University of Iowa) is a musicologist, educator, and correspondent for Christianity Today, writing on worship practices and Christian subculture. She is an adjunct professor at Grand View University in Des Moines and previously worked at the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights.

Marissa & Kelsey's Book:

The Myth of Good Christian Parenting

Kelsey's Recommendations:

Celebrities for Jesus

Monsters

Marissa's Recommendations:

The Justice of Jesus

The Thursday Murder Club

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Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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What if God really looks like Jesus? Not partly loving and partly wrathful, but fully revealed in the crucified Christ. In this conversation, Greg Boyd helps us reimagine everything - our picture of God, how we read Scripture, and how we live in the world. We talk about what it means to see the cross as the center of revelation, how to wrestle with violence in the Bible, and how the way of Jesus invites us into nonviolence, humility, and love for our enemies. Greg also reflects on what it means to be kingdom people within an empire, to follow the Lamb instead of the sword, and to build communities that look more like Jesus.

Greg Boyd is the Founder and Senior Pastor of Woodland Hills Church, Maplewood MN. Former professor of theology at Bethel University (St. Paul, MN) and Northern Seminary (Chicago, iL). Author or co-author of 22 books and numerous articles. He and his wife Shelley have been married for 44 years. They have three adult children, six grandchildren, and an adorable though highly eccentric dog. His hobby is drumming in a rock band.

Greg's Book:

God Looks Like Jesus

Subscribe to Our Substack: Shifting Culture

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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Phil Sokell-Miles has spent nearly two decades helping students encounter God in the most ordinary of places - schools. As part of the 24-7 Prayer movement, he helped pioneer Prayer Spaces in Schools, a global initiative inviting children and young people of all faiths and none to explore prayer, reflection, and life’s big questions in safe and creative ways. In this episode, we talk about how the movement began, why creativity can open us to the Spirit in ways words sometimes can’t, and what it means to serve schools as places of blessing rather than mission projects. We explore how prayer becomes a way of belonging, how the Holy Spirit meets us in quiet spaces, and how creating room for presence can transform lives. A conversation about childlike faith, holy imagination, and the God who meets us right where we are.

Phil Sokell-Miles (formerly Togwell) lives in the North of England with his family (wife, daughters, foster-mums/babies, lodgers and dogs). Phil trained and worked in all sorts of Youth & Community settings before joined the 24-7 Prayer movement as it’s first UK National Director. He now leads 24-7’s Prayer Spaces in Schools initiative, and he recently published 'Sticky Note Prayers', which tells the story of Prayer Spaces in Schools. Phil runs (a lot), and he still plays Pokemon Go.

Phil's Book:

Sticky Note Prayers

Phil's Recommendations:

Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools

About the Voice of God

Subscribe to Our Substack: Shifting Culture

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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We live in what Heath Hardesty calls the age of disintegration - a world marked by fragmentation, distraction, and disconnection. I feel that deeply. So many of us are trying to hold our lives together in a culture that constantly pulls us apart. In this conversation, Heath joins me to talk about how apprenticeship to Jesus offers another way - a way toward coherence, union, and wholeness. Heath is a pastor in the Bay Area and the author of All Things Together: How Apprenticeship to Jesus Is the Way of Flourishing in a Fragmented World. We talk about what it means to move beyond simply knowing about Jesus to actually living with Him - to abide, obey, and become people who image His love in a fractured world. We explore practices like unhurried presence and compassionate gentleness, and how they reveal a kind of power that’s rooted not in control, but in love. If you’ve felt scattered, weary, or disoriented in your faith, this episode is an invitation to slow down, breathe, and remember that in Christ, all things hold together.

Heath Hardesty is the author of All Things Together: How Apprenticeship to Jesus is the Way of Flourishing in a Fragmented World (WaterBrook; on sale 10/14/25) and he serves as the lead pastor of Valley Community Church and is the founder of Inklings Coffee & Tea in the heart of downtown Pleasanton, California. Heath grew up in a blue-collar home and was a plumber’s apprentice in Colorado before becoming a pastor on the edge of Silicon Valley where he, his wife, and four kids now reside. He holds degrees in literature, leadership, biblical studies, and theology from the University of Colorado Boulder and Western Seminary in Portland. Visit him on IG@heathhardesty

Heath's Book:

All Things Together

Heath's Recommendations:

God is On Your Side

The Poems of Seamus Heaney

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Subscribe to Our Substack: Shifting Culture

Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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Justin McRoberts weaves together art, prayer, and spiritual direction to help others find their way through seasons of loss, disappointment, and hope. In this conversation, Justin shares how letting go of outcomes opens us to God’s presence, why beauty is often discovered in the low places of life, and what it means to companion one another with compassion instead of control. We talk about depression, shame, and the cultural pressures to optimize and perform, and Justin offers a vision of faith that embraces reverence, honesty, and presence. Along the way, he reflects on his collaboration with Scott Erickson, the creation of In the Low, and how art can become a companion in our hardest moments. This is a conversation about finding God’s gifts in grief, learning to receive help, and discovering beauty in unexpected places.

Justin McRoberts is an author, coach, speaker, and songwriter. He is the author of many books, including In the Low. For over 20 years, Justin has helped artists, ministers, and entrepreneurs find their way. From the stage, through his stories in books or during coaching sessions, he leans on his years of work and expertise as a minister and artist to help individuals and teams solve problems in their creative processes. When hes not writing, speaking, or coaching, you can find him as the host of the At Sea Podcast. He lives in the East San Francisco Bay Area. 

Justin and Scott's Book:

In the Low

Justin's Recommendations:

In the Absence of the Ordinary

True and False Magic

Subscribe to Our Substack: Shifting Culture

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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