Welcome to the Table

Something shifted when ChatGPT arrived. Not just in the tech industry — in the church, in discipleship, and in the quiet assumptions about what a pastor, mentor, or teacher is actually for. If an AI can answer every theological question, summarize every book, and generate a sermon in thirty seconds, what exactly is the human still needed for?

The question is not whether AI is useful — it clearly is. The question is what it cannot do, and whether the church understands what that means. Khalil, Sean, and Jeff Gowing explore what AI can deliver — information, pattern recognition, content synthesis — and what it cannot deliver, which is wisdom, relationship, and the formation that only happens in community. The distinction between information, knowledge, and wisdom is not a philosophical nicety. It is the load-bearing beam of any discipleship strategy, and AI changes where that weight can actually be supported. This episode explores what AI and ChatGPT mean for the church, discipleship, and Christian formation — and why human mentorship, community, and character development cannot be replaced by technology, hosted by two pastors.

You will learn why critical thinking is not a skill AI can teach you — it is a practice you develop by wrestling with ideas in relationship, and that wrestling cannot be outsourced to a chatbot no matter how good the output is. You will hear the case for why discipleship has always been and will always be a relational and communal project — and why any strategy that replaces embodied mentorship with information delivery, whether a book, a course, or an AI, is missing the thing that actually changes people. And you will walk away with a clear posture: use the tools, but never confuse the tools for the thing they cannot be.

If AI has started to feel like a shortcut to spiritual growth — if you have used it to answer questions you should have sat with longer, or replaced slow formation with fast information — this episode names that drift for what it is. The church's advantage in a world flooded with AI is not better information. It is embodied community, lived mentorship, and the kind of transformation that only happens when people do life together. That is still irreplaceable.

Related episodes: The Spiritual Discipline of Study | The Spiritual Discipline of Journaling

Take the free Spiritual Health Assessment at growgodly.com/health-check.

You have watched someone you love lose their faith. Or you have felt it happening in yourself — not dramatically, just quietly, over years, until the certainty you once had is harder to locate than you remember. Deconstruction is not new. It is not foreign to God. But if nobody helps you navigate it, it can end somewhere you never intended to go.

Charlie, a district youth and children's director in the Assemblies of God and doctoral student, joins Khalil, Sean, and Jeff to do what most Christian conversations about deconstruction avoid: take the phenomenon seriously, trace its roots, and give a practical framework for what healthy navigation looks like. The late nineties, he argues, triggered a perfect storm — church scandals, political disillusionment, and the sudden explosion of the internet — that broke down idealism and flooded people with unprocessed information. Trust in institutions collapsed. And the response, for many, was to trust only themselves. That is not deconstruction. That is pride wearing a searching face. This episode explores how to navigate faith deconstruction in a healthy way, what Christian leaders should know about why people are leaving, and three practical steps for rebuilding a stronger faith through trusted voices and honest community, hosted by two pastors and ministry leaders.

You will learn why separating the ideal of the church from the reality of relationship with actual people in a community is the move that keeps many believers tethered when everything else is shaking — because you cannot deconstruct a friendship the way you can deconstruct an institution. You will hear Jeff's line that may be the most quotable thing in this episode: delight without discipline dissipates, but when delight and discipline learn to dance, relationships thrive — and why that applies as much to your relationship with God as to any marriage. And you will walk away with three concrete steps from Charlie for anyone in the middle of deconstruction: be honest about where you are headed, invite trusted voices who are not impressed by you into the process, and get skin in the game — because you cannot analyze your way into a living faith.

If you or someone you know is in the middle of this process and it feels like the Lego pieces are all over the floor with nothing left to build from, this episode is for you. The greatest moments with God often come right after the seasons when you least wanted to be near him. That pattern is not an accident. This conversation will help you stay in the room long enough to find out why.

Related episodes: What Is Faith Deconstruction? | 5 Reasons Young People Are Deconstructing Their Faith, Part 1 | What Does It Mean to Be Made in the Image of God?

Take the free Spiritual Health Assessment at growgodly.com/health-check.

Have you been feeling like it got quiet around the table these past few months? Are you wondering what's coming down the pipeline for the podcast?

We're crushing all of those questions and revealing some exciting new opportunities for you to partner with the show and take it to an even higher level!

Listen in to hear the story and look forward to some changes in the new year!

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You have been trying to change your behavior. You know what you should do and you keep not doing it. What you do not always see is that your behavior is the output of your loves — what you desire at the deepest level — and until those are addressed, behavioral change stays temporary.

James K. A. Smith's insight, drawn from Augustine, is simple and devastating: you are not primarily a thinking thing or a believing thing. You are a loving thing. Your daily habits and routines are forming what you love, and what you love is forming who you are. The question is whether you are being formed intentionally or by default.

This episode draws on the framework of "you are what you love" to diagnose why discipleship focused only on information and behavior fails — and what a formation approach looks like that actually aims at the loves, desires, and deep structure of the heart. This episode explains why your loves are the most important thing about your spiritual life, how cultural liturgies are forming your desires without your consent, and what to do about it, hosted by two pastors.

You will learn why behavior change without heart change never sticks. You will hear how to identify the cultural liturgies that are quietly forming your loves away from God. You will walk away with a formation framework that aims at what actually needs to change: the desire beneath the decision.

You will become what you repeatedly do, think, and love. This episode will help you diagnose what you are actually becoming — and decide if it is who you want to be.

Related episodes:
Imago Dei: What Does It Mean to Be Made in God's Image? — EP 50
How to Live a Holy Life When Culture Makes Holiness Countercultural — EP 76
Idols, Abiding, and Contentment — EP 58

Take the free Spiritual Health Assessment at growgodly.com/health-check.

You have heard that God is spirit. It sounds like a doctrinal footnote — something to note and move past. But what God told the Samaritan woman in John 4 was not an abstract philosophical statement. It was an invitation that redefined what worship is, who can practice it, and what it requires.

A God who is spirit cannot be contained by a location, a building, or a set of rituals. This is the God who says the true worshippers will worship in spirit and truth — not in the right place or the right posture, but from the inside out. The implication is radical: your access to God is not limited by where you are or what you have done.

This episode unpacks what it means that God is spirit — the theological depth behind John 4, what it reveals about the nature of true worship, and why this attribute of God is the basis for the believer's constant, unmediated access to him. This episode explores what God being spirit means theologically, why it transforms how you understand worship and prayer, and what it means that the Holy Spirit is available to every believer, hosted by two pastors.

You will learn what the phrase "God is spirit" actually means in its biblical context and why it was shocking when Jesus said it. You will hear why spirit-and-truth worship is a description of transformed people, not a style preference. You will walk away with a deeper sense of what you have access to every time you turn toward God.

The temple is not a building anymore. The access Jesus bought you is unmediated. This episode will help you stop treating prayer like an appointment and start living like someone who already has the Spirit.

Related episodes:
God Is Triune — EP 47
Reclaiming Pentecostalism — EP 54
The Spiritual Discipline of Worship — EP 53

Take the free Spiritual Health Assessment at growgodly.com/health-check.

Most Christians have strong feelings about Pentecostalism — and most of those feelings are based on a misunderstanding of what it actually means. For some, it conjures images of charismatic excess they want nothing to do with. For others, it is a denominational badge tied more to worship style than to biblical substance. Guest Will Caesar thinks both groups are missing something the church desperately needs.

Pentecostalism was never meant to be defined by a style of worship. It was meant to be defined by a lifestyle of witness — every believer, filled with the Spirit of God, empowered for mission Monday through Saturday, not just Sunday morning. Will Caesar, a youth and children's ministry leader in the Assemblies of God, joins Khalil and Sean to make the case for reclaiming what the Pentecostal movement was always about: a fully biblical, Spirit-led life that looks like Acts 1:8 played out in ordinary days. This episode explains what Pentecostalism actually means biblically, how the Holy Spirit gifts every believer for witness, and why the fruit of the Spirit is the diet while the gifts are what God gives you to share, hosted by two pastors and a national ministry leader.

You will learn the critical difference between the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit — and why Will says your gifts will make room for you, but your character is what will keep you there. You will hear a frank conversation about why the next move of God may look nothing like what came before — and why both charismatic excess and cessationist dismissal are standing in the way of something this generation is genuinely hungry for. And you will walk away with a practical challenge: take a spiritual gifts test, actually learn what your gifts are, and find someone to help you walk in them — because you cannot be a Spirit-led witness carrying gifts you have never identified.

Whether you grew up Pentecostal and have questions, or you have always kept this theology at arm's length, this episode will help you encounter the Holy Spirit not as a source of confusion but as the power God designed to make you an effective witness. The Holy Spirit is not weird. People are.

Related episodes: What Is the Gift of Tongues? A Biblically Grounded Answer

Take the free Spiritual Health Assessment at growgodly.com/health-check.

For most Christians, worship is something that happens on Sunday. There is music, maybe some hands raised, a moment of feeling — and then the week begins and worship disappears into the background. If that is where worship lives for you, the issue is not your attitude. You are missing a discipline.

Worship is not primarily a feeling. It is a practice — something that can be cultivated, scheduled, and grown. The key to it is simpler than most people think: proximity to God leads to worship of God. What you draw near to is what you will become like, which means the discipline of worship is the discipline of drawing near. Khalil and Sean trace the word “worship” back to its root meaning, show you what it looks like in Scripture’s most vivid scenes, and help you understand how both your private and communal worship rhythms either form or deform your soul. This episode teaches the spiritual discipline of worship — what it truly is, why proximity to God is the key, and how to cultivate it in secret and in community, hosted by two pastors.

You will learn why “what you pay attention to gets your worship” — and how to redirect that reality toward God rather than the competing things quietly demanding your affection. You will hear Khalil and Sean unpack two worship rhythms you cannot afford to neglect: the communal discipline of gathering with the body of Christ, and the secret discipline of private daily worship — and why neglecting either one leaves you spiritually malnourished. And you will walk away with a clear diagnostic for when worship feels dry, stale, or routine — and a specific path back to the fire.

If worship has started to feel like a performance you put on rather than a relationship you inhabit, this episode will change how you think about drawing near to God. The creatures closest to God’s throne have declared his worthiness for all of eternity — not because they are required to, but because proximity to him makes anything less unthinkable. This episode will help you get closer.

Related episodes: The Spiritual Discipline of Biblical Meditation | The Spiritual Discipline of Reflection | The Spiritual Discipline of Silence and Solitude

Take the free Spiritual Health Assessment at growgodly.com/health-check.

Faithful Christians who love people in the LGBTQ community often get caught between two responses that both fail: silence born of fear and arguments born of certainty that produce only distance. There is a third way, and it requires rethinking everything from the ground up.

Drew Berryessa has spent twenty-three years in ministry to the LGBTQ community through Living Letter Ministries, walking alongside over eight hundred men and women. He speaks as a former gay-identified man himself, and as someone with a gay identical twin who is still married to a man. His credibility is not theoretical. It is the product of decades of costly, embodied love.

In this conversation, Drew and the WTTT team work through the biblical framework for sexuality and faith, why the category of "sexual orientation" is not found in Scripture, the difference between behavior and identity, and what genuine pastoral engagement with the LGBTQ community actually requires. Drew Berryessa joins three pastors to discuss Christianity and homosexuality, same-sex attraction, and biblical sexuality with pastoral depth.

You will hear why Drew insists the Bible addresses behavior rather than orientation and what that distinction changes about how you engage. You will learn the one principle he considers non-negotiable: listen to understand before you speak. And you will walk away with a model of costly discipleship drawn from Sam Allberry, Jackie Hill Perry, and Drew's own story that prioritizes relationship over argument — including his conclusion: "I have never met a person who walked out of the LGBTQ community because they lost an argument."

If you love someone who identifies as LGBTQ and feel the weight of wanting to hold truth and love together without losing either, or if you lead a community trying to navigate this faithfully, this is the conversation you have been looking for.

Related episodes: What Is Faith Deconstruction? A Biblical Framework for Questioning Without Losing Jesus | Incarnational Living: How to Be a Witness Without Being Pushy (EP 77)

Take the Spiritual Health Assessment at growgodly.com/health-check

When people say they want to know God more, they usually mean they want to feel him more — more present, more real. But knowing God more deeply requires understanding who he actually is, not just what we imagine him to be.

The classical doctrine of divine simplicity states that God is not made of parts. He is not partly love and partly holiness — he is wholly and entirely each of his attributes at once. He does not merely have love. He is love. This distinction changes everything about how you approach him, pray to him, and understand the gap between what he says and what you feel.

This episode explores the doctrine of divine simplicity — what it means that God is not composed of parts, why this protects against a reduced or domesticated view of God, and why understanding it leads to deeper worship. This episode teaches the classical doctrine of divine simplicity, why God's attributes are not separate components but a single undivided whole, and what this means for your relationship with him, hosted by two pastors.

You will learn what divine simplicity means and why theologians throughout church history considered it essential. You will hear how a God who is composed of parts would be limited in ways that undermine trust and worship. You will walk away with a richer understanding of what you mean when you call God "good" or "loving."

A small God produces small faith. The God revealed in Scripture is larger than any single attribute, more unified than any category. This episode will expand your vision of who you are actually dealing with.

Related episodes:
God Is Triune — EP 47
God Is Eternal: Why God's Eternity Changes How You Live Today
God Is Infinite: How God's Boundlessness Changes Prayer, Trust, and Faith

Take the free Spiritual Health Assessment at growgodly.com/health-check.

You have heard the phrase Imago Dei. You may have even used it. But if someone asked you right now what it means for how you actually live, you might struggle to answer. Most Christians carry the phrase without carrying the framework.

The doctrine of Imago Dei is not a piece of theological trivia. It is the foundation for everything the Bible says about identity, sin, and redemption.

Khalil unpacks what it actually means to be made in the image of God, starting with a distinction that changes everything: we do not bear the image of God the way you carry a wallet. We are the image. Genesis 2 shows this in how God reaches personally into the dust rather than speaking humanity into existence the way he spoke everything else. The episode walks through the communicable attributes God shares with humanity, compassion, mercy, and love, and the incommunicable attributes that belong to God alone. It explains why sin is most accurately understood as a failure to be the image we were made to be, captured precisely in the shadow analogy: a shadow attempting to live independently of the person casting it. Romans 5 closes the episode with the contrast between Adam and Christ as the two models of humanity. This episode teaches what it means to be made in God's image and how Imago Dei shapes Christian identity, hosted by three pastors.

You will learn the biblical difference between being made in God's image and being like God in his incommunicable attributes. You will hear why sin is not primarily a rule-breaking problem but an image-distortion problem. You will leave with a formation prayer and a clearer vocabulary for your own identity in Christ.

If you have been living from a distorted identity shaped by failure, performance, or what others think of you, this episode gives you the theological bedrock to stand on instead.

Related episodes: Feeling Like an Outcast: The Bible's Story of Exile (EP 75) | How to Live a Holy Life When Culture Makes Holiness Countercultural (EP 76) | Why Do I Keep Messing Up? Winning the Daily Battle Against Sin (EP 78)

Take the free Spiritual Health Assessment at growgodly.com/health-check.