Andy Zipf is a singer/songwriter with a poet's mind and prophet's heart that has been writing "rock n' roll hymns" for many years now. He has a new album coming out March 11 called How To Make A Paper Airplane, which was three years in the making. This beautiful collection of songs, recorded "in stolen moments with borrowed microphones" emerged from his family's move from D.C. to Florida, his experiences as a first-time father, the passing of his own father, and trying to make sense of walking the line between solo artist and church musical director.

It was truly an honor to get to speak with Andy about his art and his faith, and we highly encourage you to listen to "Did You Know I Was A Ghost", the new single from his upcoming album.

You can find him here:

Website

https://www.thecowardschoir.com/

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5gj2Ul170gSipbsNQbea37

After an unintentional hiatus, we're back talking about the things in our lives that are sustainable, nonnegotiable, or prunable. What should we actually spend our time doing as followers of Jesus, and how do we make sense of difficulty and a lack of fulfillment?

We may not remember it, but there was a time when each of us was unable to speak - we had thoughts and emotions and even experiences, but no way to give voice to them or articulate them to someone else.

In this episode, we discuss some of our individual experiences of key moments when art and faith met and came alive, and how that combination can give Christians the language of the human experience.

Joshua S. Porter is a musician, songwriter, and author, who is best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist for nigh-impossible to classify art punk juggernaut Showbread. He's also dabbled in a lot of other endeavors musical and otherwise like The Bell Jar, Annihilationism, The Word Virus, Church of Agony, You Hate Movies, and more.

As the primary driving force behind so many creative endeavors, Josh had a lot to say about art - his own and that created by other folks, both inside and outside the Church. We talk weird Bible passages, Christians as holy art critics, and what hope there is for us as we struggle with diminishing attentions spans and biblical illiteracy.

You can take a gander at what Josh has been up to at joshuasporter.com.

In this new chapter of the unBetween Podcast, we're exploring art - specifically, art made by people of Christian faith, and all of the ideas, issues, pitfalls, and mountaintops that go with it.

Throughout Season 2, we'll be talking to lots of artists of all different types about how their faith informs the art that they make, and how they navigate the difficult road between the "church" market on one side and the "mainstream" market on the other.

Be sure to keep an eye out for the next episode - we'll be talking to Josh Porter of Showbread.

It's an old cliche - "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." But it's especially true for followers of Jesus. Because sometimes our ignorance, apathy, lack of mindfulness, and general disinterest in loving God with our minds is just...plain...dumb. It's not all bad news, though!

Join us as we talk through the ways in which Christians sometimes act dumb, and what we as believers might be be able to do about it.

A lot of the talk revolving around loving God has to do with our actions and our emotions, and making sure that they're properly aligned with what He wants from us. But what about our thoughts? And more specifically, what about the mind the creates, stores, and catalogues them?

In this episode, we explore what the Scriptures have to say about loving God with our minds, and why allowing ourselves to be transformed as our minds are renewed by the Spirit is integral to the lives of followers of Jesus.

Lots of us make New Year's resolutions, and that's often not a bad thing. But if we're not careful, our focus going into a new year becomes more about us and what we want than what God wants to do in our lives. We're such buzzkills, we know. We try to land in a balanced spot by the end of the conversation but you'll have to be the judge of whether or not it worked!

We continue the conversation we started last week about leadership, but this time we turn our attention to what it means to be a follower. What kinds of expectations do we have for our leaders? Are they there to serve us, or the other way around? Or both? How responsible are we (if at all) for their mistakes?

We land on the thought that maybe we should be more worried about the planks in our own eyes.

Some prominent Christians have been in the headlines again, and not necessarily because of their witness. But what does that even mean for people of faith trying to live in the spotlight? They may not have sought a platform, but does that mean they shouldn't have one? And what happens when they fall off of it?

As always, we try to navigate these issues with grace and truth, but as you'll hear, it gets complicated.