Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is a part two, so if you haven’t listened to last week’s conversation with our friend Katherine Wolf, I encourage you to do so. Now before we dive in, I’d like to read a brief excerpt from Katherine’s latest book titled, Treasures in the Dark: “David taught me that laughter and worship aren’t so different. In fact, they are simply two of the shapes that hope takes. Both laughter and worship are most powerful when offered from full brokenness of body or...
Jun 16, 2025•52 min•Season 3Ep. 180
Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is with my friend Katherine Wolf about God’s compassionate purpose with regards to our pain. Many of you have probably heard or read some of Katherine’s story – she suffered a massive stroke when she was 26 years old, not long after giving birth to her and her husband Jay’s first son, James. Her story is riddled with debilitating physical and emotional suffering – which she endures to this day – and yet she honestly oozes hope. Because she learned to f...
Jun 09, 2025•52 min•Season 3Ep. 179
Today is a red-letter kind of day here on Back Porch Theology because Alli and I have the undeserved privilege and absolute delight of having a conversation with one of the world’s foremost experts on the New Testament canon, specifically the Gospels, Dr. Craig Blomberg. It’s not every day you get to sit down with a brilliant saint with a PhD from the University Aberdeen, read an excerpt from his classic book called: “The Historical Reliability of the New Testament” – which, by the way, is just ...
Jun 02, 2025•47 min•Season 3Ep. 178
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology after the initial belly laughs we dive pretty deep – as is often the case with BPT - into a theme that’s been my heartbeat for the last several years, which is what it really means to live a Jesus-shaped life. To imitate Jesus authentically, not just with religious language and ethical ideology. Theology is anything but sterile subject matter, y’all – it was meant to be lived, not simply learned - because God isn’t a proposition to be examined, ...
May 26, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 177
Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is an encore with Natalie Grant and Bernie Herms because we simply could fit all the wisdom bombs they dropped regarding hanging onto hope when the miracle you prayed for seems delayed into one episode! Plus, since we’ve had lots of DM’s and e-mails from y’all requesting content on how to have more Jesus-shaped relationships, we thought it’d be a good idea to ask Nat and Bernie a few questions about what they’ve learned from 20+ years of marriage, espe...
May 19, 2025•41 min•Season 3Ep. 176
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, I have the absolute delight of diving deep into some real-life stuff with two dear friends, Natalie Grant, and her husband, Bernie Herms. Unless you’re living off the grid and are listening to BPT through a coconut and dental floss, you’ve no doubt heard Natalie’s stellar voice because she’s been a recording artist for over twenty years and has more awards – including multiple female artist of the year awards – than you could fit in the back of...
May 12, 2025•41 min•Season 3Ep. 175
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re wrapping up a 3-part series on Zephaniah in a series we called “The Theology of Compassionate Consequences”. It may initially sound like an oxymoron – a contradiction in terms - to pair the words “compassionate” and “consequences” together, kind of like “jumbo shrimp” or “act naturally” or “climb down”. It begs the question, “If God really is unconditionally loving, then why do we have to suffer consequences at all?” Here’s the deal y’all,...
May 05, 2025•40 min•Season 3Ep. 174
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, the second in a series on God’s severe mercy – which is kind of like saying His divine discipline ALWAYS takes place under a canopy of grace - we’re swimming in the deep end of a colorful, albeit very concise book in the Old Testament called Zephaniah. His overarching theme regarding how our crooked hearts will consistently lead us off cliffs without God’s compassionate intervention reminds me of something one of my favorite authors, Brennan Ma...
Apr 28, 2025•44 min•Season 3Ep. 173
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology – the first in a series of three – we’re going to delve into some pretty spicy subject matter in the colorful Old Testament book of Zephaniah regarding the overt rebellion of God’s people. We’re going to examine how our spiritual ancestors effectively thumbed their noses at God’s holiness, turned their backs on His kindness, and went out and did whatever nasty, selfish stuff their crooked little hearts desired. Plus, they did so despite His grac...
Apr 21, 2025•50 min•Season 3Ep. 172
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to bring this 4- part series on prayer to a close, which is kind of like taking the very last bite of the very last brownie in a pan. It’s left me wanting more. A few nights ago, I found myself rereading some of the material I’d studied on prayer in preparation for this series and got lost in an old book my dad gave me many years ago by a saint named, E.M. Bounds. He was an attorney and Civil War soldier, who then became a pastor aft...
Apr 14, 2025•50 min•Season 3Ep. 171
Today's episode on Back Porch Theology is really special. I mean, all of them are really special. It's kind of like choosing your favorite ice cream flavor, but this feels more like a real family episode, because I get to bring in some friends from the Found Collective. Found Collective is a new event for women to lean more fully into Jesus with Bible teachers and worship leaders. I've got three of my dear friends from the Found Collective, Hosanna Wong, amazing Bible teacher, spoken word artist...
Apr 10, 2025•44 min
What happens with the supernatural starts to become more natural? During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re peeling off whatever emotional Spanx are left and getting totally vulnerable in the praxis of prayer. This is our third conversation in a 4-part series we’ve titled The Theology of Prayer. Our fervent hope and prayer is that the time we get to spend on the porch today will help demystify the glorious sacrament of prayer and serve as an encouraging catalyst for all of us to b...
Apr 07, 2025•46 min•Season 3Ep. 170
How do you pray? During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, we’re rolling up our sleeves in this second of a 4-part series on prayer and getting practical because we’re going to talk about the awesomely vast and varied praxis of prayer. In my experience, far too many of us have been taught - overtly or tacitly - that there’s one “right” way to pray and unfortunately the implication we perceived is that we’re a square peg in the round hole of prayer and don’t know how to “correctly” comm...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 169
Ever wonder why do we pray? Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is the first of a four-part series we’re really excited and passionate about called The Theology of Prayer. Alli, Dr. Howard and I have talked and dreamed and pondered and of course prayed about doing a series on prayer for years, and I think the main reason it’s taken us so long to finally record this series is because the glorious rich, nuanced, profound, practical and transformative experience of communing with our Creato...
Mar 24, 2025•53 min•Season 3Ep. 168
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, the very last stop in our topsy-turvy tour through Judges, we’re going to hang out with a hot mess of a man who was my favorite character in biblical narrative – apart from Jesus, of course – when I was a little girl. His name was Samson and I’m not sure why I was so captivated by him when I was a kid because for most of his life, he was a rebel without a clue. Although Sam’s birth announcement was engraved by an angel, and he was doted on by g...
Mar 17, 2025•48 min•Season 3Ep. 167
During today’s podcast on Back Porch Theology we’re exploring one of the greatest leaders in the history of God’s people who just so happens to be a chick named Deb! She was both a judge and a prophetess. Which means she was kind of like a president and pastor rolled into one - the entire prone-to-wander nation of Israel turned to her for leadership, wisdom, and spiritual guidance. And another unlikely heroine makes her debut during Deborah’s timeline, too. Her name was Jael and let me tell you,...
Mar 10, 2025•57 min•Season 3Ep. 166
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re diving into our second in a series called The Theology of ROAR that explores the cyclical, increasingly damaging nature of unconfessed sin. Unbridled rebellion is like a hoard of hungry termites on a piece of damp wood, it eats away at our emotional and relational integrity until there’s nothing left but dust and regret. But here’s the great news, throughout human history God has consistently interrupted the chaos of our rebellion with His...
Mar 03, 2025•51 min•Season 3Ep. 165
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re diving into a new series called The Theology of ROAR – that’s an acronym for Rebellion, Oppression, Asking for God’s Forgiveness, and Restoration. And you’re going to need to buckle your seat belts for this one because we’re taking an exegetical tour through a really tumultuous time in redemptive history when there was no king on the throne, the Word of God was not being taught in the land, and people were doing whatever their crooked litt...
Feb 24, 2025•55 min•Season 3Ep. 164
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to dive deep into a miraculous, modern story that highlights how God can take what seem to be the absolute ruins of a life and restore them into a spiritual leader. Sometimes we forget that Abraham was a lunar worshipper before God tapped him to be the father of a theocracy; that Moses was guilty of homicide before God tapped him to lead His people out of captivity; that Elijah had a massive meltdown under a broom tree after witnessi...
Feb 17, 2025•40 min•Season 3Ep. 163
We can hardly believe we’ve come to the end of this series called the Theology of Worship! I hope it’s encouraged you as much as it’s encouraged us. Sometimes I found myself white-knuckling it in order to hang onto love, joy, peace and hope during all the public discord and rancor of 2024, so it’s been really lovely to start out 2025 with this deep dive into worship. It’s been like an oasis, where much like the woman at the well I’ve encountered Living Water and have experienced renewal that I w...
Feb 10, 2025•55 min•Season 3Ep. 162
Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is the second to last in our series The Theology of Worship, and it’s a really special moment for Alli and me because we get to share two dear friends with y’all for the first time here on BPT, Jeremy and Adie Camp. Of course, many of you are probably already familiar with Jeremy because while he’s only 46, he’s already a legend in Christian music with over 6 million albums sold, 44 #1 singles, and more than 2 billion streams. And many of you probably ...
Feb 03, 2025•51 min•Season 3Ep. 161
Today's conversation on Back Porch Theology is the fourth in our series on worship and is part two of last week's episode with Darlene Zschech, who many consider to be the mother of modern day worship music. Brooke Ligertwood ~ who's one of the most anointed people I've ever had the pure joy of being led to the throne room of Jesus by and whose songs are also beloved by millions of Christ followers around the world ~ was mentored by Darlene in Australia and Brooke not only refers to her as a mot...
Jan 27, 2025•46 min•Season 3Ep. 160
Okay I really need your help during today's conversation on BPT ~ which is part of a new series we started this year called "The Theology of Worship." And I'm playing my phone-a-friend card with all of you amazing backporchers because I have the wildly undeserved privilege of hanging out with one of my heroines of the faith and while I'm going to do my very best not to fan-girl since that's tacky and biblically indefensible, I can assure you I'm about to be discombobulated. Plus, when I'm around...
Jan 20, 2025•52 min•Season 3Ep. 159
Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology in our on-going series on the theology of worship is a continuation of last week because we had such an awesome time leaning into all that Scripture reveals Jesus to be, learning from each other’s stories – especially the difficult chapters - and laughing that we simply had to have a part two of this conversation! Aren’t you grateful that being serious about our faith and being serious about ourselves aren’t synonymous? I thoroughly enjoy getting to sp...
Jan 13, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 158
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, Alli and I are both bouncing with enthusiastic expectancy because we’ve gathered a phenomenal foursome of wise women whose hearts, minds, and ministries have been shaped by worship. Hope Darst has been leading worship – both in her home church and on stages around the world for decades, although unlike most artists she signed her first record deal at the age of 39 in 2019. Since then, she’s penned several singles that have blessed millions of b...
Jan 06, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 157
Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is all about the contextual biblical scaffolding for a series we’re calling the Theology of Worship. But lest you think we’re going to be talking about the three or four songs before a sermon or our preferred style of music, let me assure you this conversation isn’t just for people who can carry a tune or for those who know how to navigate their Apple music ap! Frankly, our tendency to associate worship solely with music is like limiting ourselves to o...
Jan 01, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Today's Happy New Year conversation is akin to dancing with a 500-pound gorilla with balance issues because most of us are going to get our proverbial toes pinched! The reason why is we're going to get real about how our daily digital gluttony ~ from scrolling through social media, Googling down one rabbit trail after another, perusing the pretend aisles of Amazon Prime, and reconnecting with old high school flames who slid into our DMs ~ is making us heartsick. Multiple highly regarded scientif...
Dec 30, 2024•53 min•Season 3Ep. 156
During today’s Christmas-is-here-y’all conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re talking about the unlikely gift of waiting. Now if you’re anything like me and you got the gift of waiting this season, your first reaction would be to hope it came with a receipt so you could return it! It’s taken me a really long time – no pun intended – but I’m finally learning that when God authors a pause in my story, there’s redemptive purpose in it. Ancient theologian and beloved pastor, Charles Spurgeon expl...
Dec 23, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 155
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology Alli, Dr. Howard and I will exploring a few of the awesome ~ albeit often overlooked ~ theological truisms in the Christmas story. Because while Jesus is of course the main point and the unmistakable Hero of Luke’s heartwarming birth narrative, if you read between the lines, you’ll find a distinctive trinitarian motif as well. And the Incarnation ~ that is when divine grace was embodied in a baby boy born to an unmarried teenage mom in Bethlehem...
Dec 16, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 154
During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re talking about how to cultivate a more relaxed, trusting, and intimate relationship with Jesus. My first time, guest co-conspirator on the porch is Megan Fate Marshman, a Bible teacher and theological scholar who spews joy with the same effervesce that a shaken bottle of Coke spurts soda when you unscrew the cap. And her joy is especially compelling when you find out it coexists with heartbreaking loss. I’ve wanted to meet Megan since a mut...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 153
