Jason Meyer, lead pastor of Urban Refuge Church in Minneapolis, MN, joins the podcast today to tell us about his journey towards becoming a pastor theologian. After serving eight years as a pastor at Bethlehem Baptist, Jason shares what he learned about his own calling, and the identity of a "pastor." This and more on today's episode!
CPT board member Doug Sweeney joins the podcast today. He previews his topic for the 2025 CPT Conference, Good Shepherds: Pastoral Identity and the Future of the Church. What are good Christian pastors supposed to be like? On the other hand, what malformative models of pastoral identity are common in our culture today? Doug also tells us about his 2024 book, Substance of Our Faith: Foundations for the History of Christian Doctrine. Check it out on today's episode!
Casey Hough joins us to talk about his recent book,When Poets Were Warriors: Retrieving a Biblical Vision of Masculinity (B&H Publishing, 2025). “Masculinity” is an increasingly popular subject for public discourse. Drawing on his experiences as a pastor and father, Hough argues that Christians ought to return to the complex and challenging example of Jesus, instead of relying on cultural stereotypes, to form our vision of masculinity. If we consider Jesus Christ to be a model for masculinity, how do we then think about femininity, and any differences or similarities between the two? What should pastors consider as they shape their discipleship ministries? This and more on today’s episode!
What is culture, and what is our relationship to it as Christians? Dennis Greeson joins the podcast today to talk about his recent book The Way of Christ in Culture: A Vision for All of Life (Lifeway 2024), coauthored with Benjamin T. Quinn. In the book, the authors provide a framework for knowing one’s time in God’s story, one’s place in creation, and following wisdom. He also shares about the Alexandrian Institute, a cohort-based model for theological education focused on engaging Scripture and confessional traditions and the wisdom of previous generations of Christians, and sending students to engage their context.
This week, James Arcadi joins the podcast to talk about his latest book, Holiness: Divine and Human (2023). He also shares about his dual calling to both pastoral ministry as a full-time Anglican rector, and to academic theology as a guest professor at Wheaton College. What is the relationship between abstract ideas and practical application? What does it mean for something to be "consecrated" or "holy"? This and more on today's podcast!
Historian and author Kristin Kobes Du Mez joins the podcast to talk about her book, Jesus and John Wayne. How have books shaped our theological and ecclesial imagination in American Evangelicalism? What is the proper relationship and distinction between pastoral ministry and the academic discipline of history? How do the idiosyncrasies of the subculture we inhabit create challenges for discipleship and pastoral ministry?
CPT Fellow Dave Morlan joins the podcast to tell his story of becoming a pastor theologian. He recounts his journey of growing up as a pastor's kid in an impoverished neighborhood in Oklahoma City. He also describes his memory of the Oklahoma City Bombing during his senior year in high school. Dave went on to serve as an apartment complex chaplain with the LGBT community during seminary. Finally, he tells the story of his PhD research at Durham on conversion, as well as his current ministry in Denver, CO.
This week on the podcast we're sharing a presentation from our 2021 theology conference, Confronting Racial Injustice: Theory and Praxis for the Church. This talk was given by Raymond Chang, President of the Asian American Christian Collaborative and a Ministry Associate for Discipleship at Wheaton College.
Visit https://www.pastortheologians.com/conference-media to access this and other presentations from our 2021 conference.
The CPT staff discuss some books we're reading and why we read the books we do. This conversation features CPT President Todd Wilson, Executive Director Joel Lawrence, Managing Director Rae Paul, and Editorial Director Zach Wagner. We discuss books by Michael Sandel, Eugene McCarraher, Andrew Peterson, and Kazuo Ishiguro.
CPT fellow Gavin Ortlund returns to the podcast to discuss his new book Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn't: The Beauty of Christian Theism. We discuss why Gavin became interested in apologetics. What are different kinds of faith crises and unique situations that bring various people to a place where they might find a work of apologetics helpful. What is the role of beauty in apologetics? How can we use our desires and intuitions around transcendence be used in "abductive" arguments for the faith?
We also touch on recent discussions around the term "deconstruction." When can deconstruction be a good thing? When is it not? How does diversity of experience factor into these conversations?
We are joined by CPT fellow Jay Thomas for a conversation about preaching, deconstruction, and the season of Advent. Jay gives a look into his weekly rhythm of preaching preparation, as well as how he anticipates preaching through the season of Advent. We discuss contextualizing the sermon for the season in the life of the church and for individual hearers. We also discuss how theological truth conveyed to the congregation through worship and liturgy. Finally, Jay discusses how he stays pastorally sensitive to those in the audience who feel themselves drifting from their faith or are undergoing a process of "deconstruction."
We're joined in this episode by Dr. Diane Langberg, author of Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church. She discusses her work with both pastors and trauma survivors, and her realization that these worlds sometimes overlap in alarming ways. What are different types of power? How do these relate to pastors and systems of churches and ministries? How can we draw attention to the way systems of power often misdirect and corrupt us and our ministries?
We continue our conversation with Doug Sweeney about his theological education and ongoing teaching, writing, and research. How can we expand our perspective in theological education beyond distinctly Western voices? What ways can professors and students use their gifts to serve people in local church? What are the dangers in using the term "evangelical" in our current cultural moment? All this and more in this far-reaching conversation.We continue our conversation with Doug Sweeney about his theological education and ongoing teaching, writing, and research. How can we expand our perspective in theological education beyond distinctly Western voices? What ways can professors and students use their gifts to serve people in local church? What are the dangers in using the term "evangelical" in our current cultural moment? All this and more in this far-reaching conversation.
Doug Sweeney, Dean of Beeson Divinity School, joins the podcast as this week's guest. Doug is a Jonathan Edwards scholar who serves as a theological mentor and sits on the board of the CPT. He discusses some of his story and how he came to worship in the Lutheran tradition and how he has navigated ongoing theological tensions as an evangelical in historic Protestant denominations.
In part 2 of our conversation with Erin Heim (Lecturer in Biblical Studies, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University), we conclude our conversation about adoption in the Apostle Paul. We then pivot to discussing Dr. Heim's paper on the connections between the #metoo Movement and the death and resurrection of Christ. How did sexual humiliation play a part in Christ's torture and crucifixion? What are the implications of this for the female human experience? How does the New Testament reorient our conversations on sexual violence?
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