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What if the end of faith isn’t merely obedience, but union — not just serving God, but becoming one with Him?

In this soul-stretching conversation, Tim Churchward returns to walk with us through the wild, often tangled forest of Christian expression. We speak not of buildings or brands, but of ecclesia — the called ones — and what it truly means to gather in Spirit and in truth.

From the tender, flickering intimacy of house churches where hearts are known, to the colossal machinery of the megachurch, pulsing with production yet prone to drift from the breath of the Spirit — we ask: when did church become performance? And what is lost when succession becomes nepotism, when presence yields to programs?

Our path bends eastward, into the deep wells of Orthodox Christianity and its ancient vision of theosis — the transformation of the self into divine likeness. This isn’t salvation as transaction, but as transfiguration — a lifelong pilgrimage toward union with the divine. A journey not of striving, but surrender.

Set against a world racing toward artificial intelligence and transhuman dreams, we ask whether these longings echo a deeper truth: are we trying to become gods without God? Is this our Babel moment, or a misfired hunger for the sacred we were made to reflect?

This episode is for the wanderer, the faithful doubter, the weary churchgoer, and the mystic hidden in the pews. If you’ve ever longed for a church that feels more like a fellowship of the broken than a business of the saved, come with us. There’s grace in the questions. There’s God in the longing.

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What does it mean to pursue the divine across cultures, languages, and spiritual traditions—and can we do so without losing the anchor of truth?

In this rich and reverent conversation, Michael sits down with Johnny Ganta—a man shaped by the soil of India, the skyline of Dubai, the individual freedoms of America, social focus of Cananda and the spiritual tension of East and West. Together, they unpack the mystery of how people seek God across the globe, and how our cultural “watering systems” influence what we expect from the eternal.

Johnny carries a worldview formed not in just theory but in tension—where Eastern mysticism meets Western rationalism, where soul hunger finds different expressions. Rather than judging this hunger by conventional metrics—prayer time, Bible study, church attendance—they look deeper: What is the soul actually seeking? And what are the vehicles people are using to find meaning, peace, healing?

The conversation orbits key contrasts: the Western obsession with certainty, logic, and control, versus the Eastern comfort with mystery, process, and presence. Johnny frames it in archetypes—masculine and feminine, doing and being, theory and encounter.

And yet, this isn’t theological drift. It’s spiritual discernment. Michael reminds us of the promise Jesus gave in Luke 11: that if a son asks his father for bread, he won’t give him a stone. “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

This episode isn’t about abandoning orthodoxy. It’s about remembering that God is bigger than our formulas—and that if we ask Him for truth, He is faithful to give it. Even in unfamiliar spaces, His ability to keep us is stronger than the enemy’s power to deceive us.

Whether you're deeply rooted in the faith or still finding your way, this dialogue invites you to consider what people are really chasing—and how, even in unlikely places, they may be closer to the truth than they know.

Not all who wander are lost. And not all who seek are straying.

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What if your suffering isn’t a detour—but the very road you’re meant to walk?

In this reflective devotional, I share the defining loss of my early life: both of my parents gone by the age of five. That rupture didn’t just take them—it shattered the basic assumption that life is safe, that the world is predictable. While other children grew up under the illusion of stability, I was forced to confront the fragility of existence far too soon.

But here’s the paradox: from the depth of that pain emerged something more than survival. It gave birth to meaning. Not comfort. Not ease. Meaning.

Drawing on voices like Nietzsche, Jung, Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, and Lewis, we explore the brutal but transformative idea that suffering isn’t life gone wrong—it is life. War. Betrayal. Death. Disease. These aren’t interruptions to the human story. They are the story. The real question isn’t whether you’ll suffer. It’s what you’ll do with it.

Pain can destroy you—or it can forge you into something dangerous to despair.

Healing doesn’t look like forgetting or “moving on.” It looks like returning to the site of your wound again and again, each time with a little more strength, a little more clarity. Like chains loosening—one link at a time. That’s not regression. That’s redemption in motion.

Your trauma is not your identity. But it may be the very soil where something eternal takes root.

Some wounds are healed. Others become holy.

This episode isn’t just for those in crisis—it’s for anyone who’s ever stared into the dark and dared to believe that light could still speak. If you—or someone you love—is struggling to find meaning in the chaos, let this be a reminder: grace is not found in spite of suffering, but often through it.

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What happens when the map you’ve been following leads you astray?
This meditation explores the unsettling experience of being lost not just physically, but on a much deeper level: spiritually and emotionally. We confront that quiet, creeping realization that despite all our efforts, we’ve been heading in the wrong direction.

For much of our lives, we rely on mental maps shaped by external forces family expectations, societal norms, our own wounds and triumphs. These maps help us navigate relationships, success, purpose, and identity. But what happens when we discover these maps contain fundamental flaws? The shame, the fear, the temptation to deny our own missteps these forces can trap us, keeping us from acknowledging the truth.

There’s a distinct parallel between being lost and being deceived by others. Both involve a distortion of reality that often remains unnoticed until the truth insists on breaking through. Yet within this painful awakening lies an extraordinary gift. Like the shepherd who abandons ninety-nine sheep to find the one, we come to see that nothing in our journey is truly wasted. Even the detours and disappointments those moments of feeling lost become the very wisdom that guides us forward.

This is the first in a series of spoken journal entries that will invite you to slow down, sit with your thoughts, and wrestle with profound questions. The questions here are not meant to be answered in an instant. They are meant to settle into your soul, to shift something inside you over time.

Three questions to meditate on this week:

1. Who will you trust to lead you home when you can no longer trust yourself?
2. Will you still choose truth when it costs you everything?
3. When life collapses, will you rebuild what was—or dare to become someone new?

Listen deeply. Reflect. And return to these questions as the week unfolds. They are not mere thoughts to consume, but invitations to transform.

#SpiritualJourney
#SelfDiscovery
#TruthAndTransformation
#DeeperQuestions
#SelfReflection
#CSLewis
#FaithAndWisdom
#LifePurpose
#PersonalGrowth
#MeditationOnTruth

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What happens when the Church trades the slow, sacred work of forming souls for the quick, efficient business of managing consumers?

In this episode, we wrestle with a pressing question: how has the industrial spirit  once meant to build economies  crept into the heart of the modern church, reshaping worship, community, and even our understanding of faith itself?

Tim Churchward and I trace the deep consequences of industrialization: how churches, once centered on covenant and family, have come to mirror factories producing branded experiences, segmenting congregations by age and preference, and measuring success not by lives transformed, but by numbers counted.

The individualism that characterizes modern Protestant culture stands in stark contrast to the ancient wisdom of Eastern Orthodoxy, which sees faith not as a solitary journey, but as life lived in and through community.

The conversation confronts the painful truth: in chasing relevance and scale, many churches have fractured the family, weakened the bonds between generations, and commodified the sacred into the consumable. Worship music, ministry programs, even community itself are marketed like products and souls starve while churches grow fat on attendance metrics.

Yet, there is hope, but it is the old kind of hope: hard-won, disciplined, and rooted in reality. True discipleship demands presence. True community demands sacrifice. Men and women today are not crying out for spectacle; they are yearning for belonging, for truth, for the kind of relationships that weather storms, not just fill pews.

We must ask ourselves: will we continue to adapt to a culture of consumption, or will we return to the hard, beautiful work of covenant? Will we choose the broad road of industrial faith, or the narrow path of slow, costly, authentic community?

The future trajectory of the Church and the shape of the soul of the next generation depends on the answer.

#FaithAndResponsibility
#SpiritualFormation#CounterculturalFaith
#CovenantOverConsumption
#FaithfulNotFamous
#ReclaimingCommunity
#DiscipleshipOverNumbers
#FaithInTheModernWorld
#ChurchAfterIndustrialization
#BuildRealCommunity
#OrthodoxFaith
#FaithfulLiving

#FaithAndCulture
#ChurchLeadership
#ModernChristianity
#Deconstruction
#ChurchCommunity
#FaithJourney
#ChristianPodcast
#SpiritualGrowth
#FaithOverFear
#AuthenticFaith

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Click here to give us feedback! What do you love or hate about the show? What topics should we go more narrow and deeper on?

What if your charity is doing more harm than good?

In this honest and unsettling conversation, Michael Pursley and Ethan Bricker take a hard look at poverty—not just as an economic condition, but as a deeply human struggle shaped by broken systems, generational patterns, and misunderstood virtues.

This isn’t about easy answers or feel-good solutions. It’s about the moral complexity of helping others. Why do some families remain in poverty despite decades of assistance? Can generosity, untethered from wisdom, actually harm the very people we’re trying to help?

Drawing from real stories in ministry—where food trucks meet entitlement and third-generation reliance on handouts challenges our idea of progress—this episode explores the limits of charity and the need for something deeper: relationship, responsibility, and spiritual clarity.

Pursley and Bricker navigate the tension between unconditional love and boundaries, between grace and accountability. They explore how churches sometimes compete rather than collaborate, and how our need to feel virtuous can overshadow the actual needs of those we serve.

Whether you're weary from compassion fatigue, frustrated with ineffective systems, or simply trying to live out your values with more discernment, this conversation doesn’t flinch—and it might just reshape how you think about helping others.

Check out the fellowship Ethan pastors and subscribe to the youtube channel here: 

https://www.theclearing.net/

https://www.youtube.com/@theclearing1

#PovertyMindset #GenerationalPoverty #HelpingWithoutHurting #ChurchAndCommunity #FinancialStewardship #EmpowermentOverCharity #CommunityCollaboration #SocialResponsibility #TransformativeGiving #NuancedConversations #MoralComplexity #FaithAndAction #CompassionWithWisdom #PodcastEpisode #BuzzsproutPodcasts #ChristianPodcast #SocialImpact

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Have you ever grappled with the idea that forgiveness might hold the key to your own liberation? In this episode, we set out on a journey—one part introspection, one part revelation—to untangle the deep truths of forgiveness, trust, and the fragile architecture of human relationships. With the ever-curious and delightfully enigmatic Tim Churchward as our guide, we wade into the murky waters of pain and redemption, discovering along the way that freedom often lies just beyond the courage to forgive.

Forgiveness is no soft virtue; it is a battle waged within the soul, where the scars of past wounds meet the relentless call to let go. Boundaries, on the other hand, are the walls we build—not to keep others out, but to preserve the sanctity of our own becoming. Trust? Well, trust is the leap of faith that carries us across the chasm of human imperfection. Together, these ideas form a kind of alchemy, transforming the chaos of our lives into something resembling grace.

Themes We Explore:

• Forgiveness as the painful but necessary path to freedom.
• Trust as a dance between risk and reward, vulnerability and strength.
• Boundaries as the art of protecting what is sacred without losing what is human.
• The delicate interplay of rights and responsibilities, reframed as gifts rather than entitlements.
• Stories of extraordinary forgiveness, where grace triumphs over vengeance.

We also take a hard look at the roots of modern human rights, tracing their lineage back to the soil of Christian thought. Here, rights are not mere conveniences but divine gifts, calling us to steward them with reverence and courage. And at the heart of it all lies the resurrection—a moment that embodies the ultimate reconciliation of justice and mercy, offering a blueprint for healing in a broken world.

As we close, you’ll hear tales that defy cynicism: a father’s improbable forgiveness in the face of unspeakable loss, the quiet power of grace to transform the human heart, and the perilous weight of resentment when left unchecked. This isn’t just an invitation to think differently—it’s a call to action, a challenge to reflect on your own life and take the first steps toward freedom, healing, and meaning.

So, beautiful people, lean in. Join us as we navigate the hard truths of the human experience with a dash of humor, a measure of wisdom, and more than a little faith. 

And when you’re done, share this episode with someone who needs it. We’re on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever the road of discovery takes you. Don’t forget to subscribe, review, and—if you’re feeling generous—help spread the word.

Here’s to the journey, and a very Happy New Year.

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Thank you for joining The Mapp. If this resonates with you, don’t forget to subscribe and share it with others who might find it meaningful. Subscribe, leave review, and follow us on social media to stay updated and join our community of explorers. Together we navigate life’s pathways.

Click here to give us feedback! What do you love or hate about the show? What topics should we go more narrow and deeper on?

What if unlocking the full scope of human potential means embracing the great paradox within us: the delicate dance between logic and intuition, the left and right hemispheres of our minds? Join Johnny Ganta and Michael Pursley in a rich, thought-provoking dialogue from 2020 that transcends borders—both cultural and cognitive—as we explore the fascinating interplay between German and American perspectives. Here, the cold precision of structure meets the wild vitality of emotion, revealing how societal forces like healthcare systems subtly shape the soul’s contentment, while the unseen machinery of the mind drives our choices.

We dive into the depths of behavior’s roots, unraveling its neural underpinnings and drawing uncanny parallels to the artificial networks in technology—machines inspired, perhaps, by the mysteries of their creators. The conversation swells into a meditation on the uncelebrated legacies of past innovators and the quiet power of resourcefulness, drawing wisdom from timeless archetypes like Moses. It is in the murky waters of intuition, the whispers of the subconscious, where revelation waits. From the endocrine system’s shadowy influence on emotional responses to the enduring wisdom of stories like *The Matrix*, we challenge listeners to strip away the illusions of a fixed identity and awaken to a more authentic self.

This is a hero’s journey—not just a story, but a challenge. Batman, Neo, and the great seekers of myth and reality all teach us that growth lies at the edge of fear, in the face of chaos. Through cultural reflection, personal anecdotes, and the alchemy of mentorship, we explore the courage it takes to engage in truly diverse conversations. To step into the unknown is to court transformation, where old belief systems crumble and adversity becomes the furnace for growth.

This episode is an invitation—to wrestle with complexity, to reimagine art and life as a singular conversation, and to meet the dynamic, unpredictable truth of your own potential.

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What does it mean to lose the people you love most—and to find meaning in the aftermath? This episode is a raw and reflective conversation with my long-time mentor and a spiritual father, Jim Kelly. Jim, a retired United Methodist minister who has walked alongside me for years, joins me to explore the depths of grief, faith, and the intricate dance between suffering and transformation.

Our dialogue is unflinching and deeply human. Together, we navigate the shadowy waters of loss—the kind that strips away certainty and forces you to confront your own soul. With the recent passing of my brother and Jim’s reflections on losing his mother, we delve into what it means to face life’s inevitable pain not with avoidance, but with courage.

This is a conversation about the architecture of the soul. We unpack the mysterious, almost alchemical power of prayer—not as a tool to escape suffering but as a means of embracing it. We examine forgiveness, not as a moral checkbox, but as an act of liberation for both the forgiver and the forgiven. We explore the sacred tension between the individual and the collective, asking how our personal faith journeys intersect with the broader call to build authentic, healing communities.

Jim’s wisdom reminds us that faith isn’t a linear path; it’s a spiral staircase, drawing us deeper into mystery with every step. And while the church as an institution may falter, the power of genuine relationships—rooted in love and shared struggle—remains unshakable.

This episode isn’t just a conversation; it’s an invitation to wrestle with life’s great paradoxes: how loss can illuminate purpose, how brokenness can lead to wholeness, and how the darkest nights of the soul often reveal the brightest truths. If you’ve ever searched for meaning in the chaos or wondered how to transform suffering into growth, this journey is for you.

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What happens when a top-performing salesman trades his commission checks for a life of service? Meet Ethan Bricker, a man who stepped off the fast track of professional success to plunge headlong into full-time ministry. In this episode, we follow Ethan’s remarkable journey, peeling back the layers of identity and ambition to explore what it means to truly live. From his thriving church in Michigan to intimate reflections on faith, resilience, and family legacy, Ethan’s story challenges the modern obsession with careerism, offering instead a vision of authenticity rooted in service.

But this isn’t just about one man’s story. It’s about all of us. We take a hard look at the hyper-individualism running rampant in the West, dissecting how it distorts relationships, healthcare, and spirituality. By contrasting it with Japan’s communal ethos, we reveal what other cultures can teach us about confronting pain, embracing discomfort, and growing stronger together.

And if you think you’re stuck with the genetic hand you’ve been dealt, think again. We dive into the groundbreaking field of epigenetics, uncovering how lifestyle choices and habits can reshape your genetic expression, shattering the myth of predetermined destiny.

This episode doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff. Using the biblical story of David and Bathsheba, we explore the raw power of confession and the role of community in finding healing and forgiveness. Along the way, we tackle how technology is rewiring our lives—and why setting boundaries with our devices might just be the most spiritual act of all.

Packed with deep insights and fiery conversations, this episode invites you to wrestle with the big questions: How do we grow? What defines us? And how can we live with more grace and grit in a world pulling us in a thousand directions? Tune in, reflect, and let’s grow together.

Check out the Church Ethan Pastors: https://www.theclearing.net/

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