What happens when our desire to be safe becomes greater than our willingness to follow Jesus? We live in a culture obsessed with safety. We want safe homes, safe neighborhoods, safe schools, safe churches, and safe futures for our children. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of that. Safety is a good thing. But […]
What does it mean to be a faithful Christian in a world increasingly divided by politics? Have we placed too much hope in elections, political parties, and ideologies to accomplish what only God’s kingdom can? On this episode of Ministry Deep Dive, Travis Michael Fleming sits down with political scientist and author David Koyzis to […]
What if one of the greatest problems facing the church today isn’t that we don’t know enough about love, but that we haven’t learned how to love well? In this episode of Ministry Deep Dive, I sit down with Michael Hendricks to explore why the church needs a relational reformation—one that places love back at […]
Takeaways: Joy is the essential prerequisite for spiritual growth and discipleship to function. Joy is the brain’s fuel, like a gas tank that enables learning and character change. Attachment, called hesed, creates deep bonds that shape character more than mere information. There are simple practices such as giving our face and eyes and using gratitude […]
What if the gospel is bigger than we’ve imagined? In part two of my conversation with Michael Goheen, we wrestle with a vision of the gospel that is deeply personal but never merely private. Jesus saves sinners—absolutely. But the good news is bigger than individual salvation. In Christ, God’s kingdom has broken into the world. […]
What story is actually shaping the way you see the world? We may say that the Bible is our story, but the truth is that all of us are being shaped by other stories too—stories about freedom, success, politics, sexuality, technology, money, and what it means to live a good life. And most of the […]
hospitality evangelism, listening-based witnessing, home-based discipleship, opening your home for ministry, building healthy churches, forming missional leaders, missioholism, Nick Ripken interview, Ministry Deep Dive podcast, persecution and suffering in the church, praying for neighbors by name, sharing meals for outreach, family worship at home, discipling children at home, community-based evangelism, cross-cultural hospitality, missionary stories and […]
In this conversation, Nik Ripken and I wrestle with the difference between the Christianity many of us have experienced in the West and the faith of believers who follow Jesus, where doing so may actually cost them something. What does it mean to make disciples in a culture built around comfort, safety, and avoiding suffering? […]
In this conversation, I sit down with Nik Ripken to talk about missions, persecution, and what it actually means to follow Jesus when following Him costs you something. Nik has spent decades working among believers in some of the hardest places in the world, and he shares stories from places like Somalia and North Korea […]
In this episode, we reflect on Zack Eswine’s The Imperfect Pastor and a truth that many of us in ministry need to hear: we are human, and God never asked us to be anything else. There is tremendous pressure in ministry to do more, reach more, grow more, and somehow rise above the limitations that […]