American Idol: Worship Leader Edition. In the past two decades, worship music has dominated the Christian music charts, bringing churches like Hillsong into the evangelical mainstream and making millions through licensing and sold-out concerts. Worshipers come seeking a profound encounter with God and an ecstatic experience. That is often true for the performers as well. But when ministry, commerce, and relationships are blended, it can be hard for industry insiders to stay true to their craft –...
Aug 24, 2022•52 min
Is there any hope for toxic celebrity pastors? Stories abound of pastors who started to believe their own hype – and ended up capsizing their church and hurting a lot of people. There are spiritual and relational costs to putting leaders on pedestals. But celebrity dynamics also are bad for pastors themselves. Many find themselves “alone at the top,” without real friendship and accountability, which can foster various addictions and abuses. In the second episode of our summer series, Roxy and Ka...
Aug 17, 2022•47 min
On booty photos followed by Bible verses… It’s never been easier for women with massive talent to share their work and build a community around it. Social media have democratized the work of teaching and preaching. Instagram, with its aesthetic, aspirational vibes, has proven to be the most popular social media platform for Christian women influencers. In the first episode of a four-part summer series on celebrity in the church (also the topic of Katelyn’s new book), Roxy and Katelyn are joined ...
Aug 10, 2022•42 min
Because we all need to eat. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy explore the role of the dinner party in family, friendship and the resistance. Sure, fixing food can be tedious and eating it entirely unglamorous but good food and good drink can also be a spark — a spark for creativity, for reflection, for the best kinds of rich conversation. We are joined by film critic, author and dinner host extraordinaire Alissa Wilkinson for lessons on eating well and living loud. GUEST: Alissa Wilkinson is a f...
Jun 15, 2022•46 min
We are one week away from the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting and it promises to be an interesting time. Aside from another contentious presidential election, the nation's largest Protestant denomination must also reckon with the explosive findings from a sweeping sex abuse investigation. On this week's episode, Roxy is joined by her good friend and a son of the Southern Baptists, Jonathan Merritt. The two discuss their own SBC upbringings and how it feels to watch your childhood de...
Jun 08, 2022•56 min
At the end of 2021, the NY Police Department reported a 361 percent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes since the year prior. New York City is the first place we've lived among so many Asian American neighbors — and the place we've been introduced to the rich diversity of the Asian American experience. Yet, it's also been the place that's opened our eyes to the violence, harmful stereotypes and erasure our AAPI neighbors face. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy talk with Nikki Toyama-Szeto about h...
May 31, 2022•42 min
Recycle. Upcycle. Bicycle. Look, most of us really want to be good, ethical people. We want to make the world a better place. We want our clothes to be sustainably made by people receiving fair wages. We don't want the ocean to be full of plastic islands. And we'd rather chickens roamed free of cages. But the complexities of our modern, globalized world make being a good person more difficult than ever. Honestly, it can feel overwhelming! And discouraging! Katelyn and Roxy talk with Sandra Maria...
May 25, 2022•47 min
Over the weekend, news broke of another mass shooting, this time in Buffalo, New York. The shooting took place at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood. 10 people were killed and three others injured. The 18 year old gunman had a racial slur written on the barrel of his gun and livestreamed the shootings. Later, his 180 page manifesto was discovered, which was filled with white supremacist conspiracy theories. Just the day before, we had sat down with historian Jemar Tisby to dis...
May 18, 2022•49 min
[acf field="sbtc-embed"] [acf field="podcast-link-buttons"] Lift your hands up to the sky. Whether "Shout to the Lord," gives you nostalgic warm fuzzies or sends a chill up your spine, if you've ever owned a WOW CD, this episode is for you. For many who grew up in evangelical spaces, the music was as defining as any sermon or youth group Bible study. There was the worship music on Sundays, the Christian ska for Friday nights and, if you like REM, maybe check out Newsboys? Katelyn and Roxy grew u...
May 11, 2022•55 min
We need to stop playing hit and run with people's faith. Deconstructing. Dismantling. Decolonizing. The last several years have felt like all the Ds all the time. It's, well, disorienting, destabilizing, dismaying ... OK, you get the picture. The point is: we're all feeling a little shaky as we try to navigate tough questions that often cut to the heart of what we thought we believed. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy talk with author and theologian Candice Marie Benbow who has some strong words...
May 04, 2022•45 min
What the holy heck is happening at Hillsong? The last six weeks have seen a seesaw of scandalous revelations between Hillsong U.S. and Hillsong Australia. The resignation of global senior pastor Brian Houston after revelations of sexual indiscretion. The discovery of allegations of rape by a junior staffer against a former pastor. The departure of several prominent U.S. pastors and Hillsong affiliated churches. A not-so-flattering documentary. And then the leaked report of the Hillsong NYC inves...
Apr 27, 2022•35 min
When did you last feel really alive? Chances are you weren't holding a phone at the time. Maybe it was the pandemic. Or maybe it was inevitable. But we've started to notice, with increasing alarm, that our attention spans are shrinking, our imaginations feel parched, scrolling has become the default during any downtime. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy take an honest look at the ways life has begun to feel diminished — even as our devices offer more and more. We are joined by Andy Crouch, a lon...
Apr 20, 2022•47 min
It's rough out there. It might be twitterpated season, but we're not feeling the love. We've spent most of our adulthood single and, truth is, we're kinda settling in. Life is full and meaningful. We've got plans. Is it worth holding space for the possibility of love? On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy gauge our hope-o-meters when it comes to romance, find them rather on the low side and go in search of a hope infusion. Enter: Faitth Brooks. Faitth gives us a glimpse into her pandemic rom-com — a...
Apr 13, 2022•42 min
Not your therapist either. It's been said (by A.W. Tozer) that what you think about God might just be the most important thing about you. But where do our ideas about God come from? In this episode, Katelyn and Roxy do a little prodding at our conceptions of God and where we got them (a harder task than you might think!). And we're joined by a therapist, of course. Krispin Mayfield is a licensed professional counselor who explores the intersections of faith and attachment science. Krispin explai...
Apr 06, 2022•47 min
We're not looking for a rebound. We've talked a lot — both on and off the podcast — about purity culture. We've critiqued the way it treated our bodies, our sexuality and even our futures. It's taken work (and some therapy!) to untangle many of the deeply toxic lessons of purity culture from our views on sex. But here's the thing: after purity culture, we're not totally sure where to turn for a better alternative. Mainstream sexual ethics are confusing, without a script and quickly changing. On ...
Mar 30, 2022•42 min
Et tu, CT? Nary a week seems to go by these days without revelations of leaders behaving badly in Christian organizations. Last week, the headlines hit close to home when a new report came out from the the flagship evangelical magazine — and our former workplace — detailing a history of sexual harassment going unchecked within Christianity Today's leadership. The report was heartbreaking to read — and yet not entirely surprising for either of us. In this episode, we react to the report and refle...
Mar 23, 2022•40 min
I can't go in. Nobody is wearing a mask. Look, pandemic polarization was a real thing. We all saw it: school board blow ups, fist fights on air planes, anti-vax protests at state capitols. But for most of us, the fallout was more personal, closer to home. We felt conflicted over whether to attend a friend's wedding. Our parents cancelled Christmas — or didn't. An aunt is no longer on speaking terms with a cousin over vaccine differences. But do you ever worry ... maybe all those judgment calls y...
Mar 16, 2022•40 min
Philip Yancey was deconstructing before deconstructing was cool. Much ado has been made in recent weeks about deconstruction — particularly from pastors and leaders who decry it as "trendy" or a slippery slope to sin. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy discuss their own experiences questioning the Christian faith, the evangelical church and the teachings handed down to them from both pulpit and pen. They are joined by author Philip Yancey, something of an evangelical darling himself, whose books ...
Dec 22, 2021•49 min
It's an age-old question for transplants the world over — at what point does your chosen city become home? It's that time of year — when the holly is hung and the carols are sung and the wayward wanderers return from places far flung. There's nothing like going home for the holidays to make a person wonder where they really belong. In this week's episode, Katelyn and Roxy discuss how New York City has come to feel like home ... but so too does Ohio and Colorado. How do we create a new home as ad...
Dec 15, 2021•38 min
Mary did you know we'd soften all your hard edges? Temper your anger? Moderate your radicalism? To be a woman has always meant being caught between expectation and reality — between all that society says you should be and all that you believe you are not. In this episode, Katelyn and Roxy ask themselves what they like about being women — and how embracing those qualities can be revolutionary. They are joined by author Kaya Oakes to talk about how women — past and present — are so often being sha...
Dec 08, 2021•46 min
Seven is a holy number, after all. Growing up evangelical in the 1990s meant purity rings and teen study Bibles and focusing on the family. But it also meant participating in activities and events that were part of larger cultural forces we were very unaware of at the time. Katelyn and Roxy reflect back on the seminal moments of their own evangelical journeys in the late 20th and early 21st century — and examine how those events not only shaped them, but evangelicalism writ large. GUESTS: A whol...
Dec 01, 2021•52 min
Let's rewind. Thanksgiving may still be a favorite holiday, but its origin myths have long since been revealed to be just that: myths. But those myths are more than just cute children's stories, they are dangerous erasures of people groups, cultures and the violent atrocities committed against them. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy reflect on what they did — and did not — learn about the Indigenous people groups who have populated the places they've called home. Terry Wildman joins the episode ...
Nov 24, 2021•40 min
"Every day someone asks me for money. And I never know what to do." Living in a big city offers daily encounters with those who are experiencing homelessness. Seeing neighbors who are sleeping on the streets, pleading for something to eat and taking refuge on subway trains is an ever-present heartbreak — and one that can lead to despair as the situation feels so beyond our ability to help. Homelessness is on the rise around the country, and in this episode, Katelyn and Roxy ask: What can we actu...
Nov 17, 2021•47 min
There's an art to being alone in a crowd — that doesn't mean it's always pretty. New York City may be jam packed with people, but it's also been referred to as "The Lonely City." In this episode, Katelyn and Roxy talk about living alone — the good, the bad and the ugly cries. But loneliness isn't just for the single folks out there — survey after survey has observed an uptick in people describing themselves as lonely. Ekemini Uwan joins to discuss the difference between solitude and loneliness —...
Nov 10, 2021•44 min
Pick up the phone. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Angry tweet. Delete. Repeat. The name of the game in public discourse these days seems to be "outrage." The polarized language from pulpit to podium to facebook post underlines just how divided our society has become. Is it possible to stay centered in an age of extremes? On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy are joined by political analyst Kirsten Powers. No stranger to conflict and not one to shy away from a debate, Kirsten began to wonder if constant imm...
Nov 03, 2021•41 min
Don't panic ... but it's Satan's holiday! A parade of ghouls, ghosts and ghastly horrors, Halloween is viewed as more trick than treat by many evangelicals. It's the devil's play day, after all, and the demonic is no joke. Katelyn and Roxy take a spin down memory lane, recalling childhood fall festivals, teenage Hell Houses and the ever present threat of The Rapture. Oh, and what was up with that whole Satanic Panic thing? Tyler Huckabee joins in on the nostalgia, dredging up a few of his own gh...
Oct 27, 2021•39 min
What is it about church wounds that hit so hard? Toxic church cultures. Spiritual abuse. #ChurchToo. Religious trauma. The last few decades have given us a new language and a new awareness for an ancient sin — wielding the power of religion for unholy ends. Over a lifetime spent in the church, Katelyn and Roxy have experienced and witnessed their share of unhealthy spiritual cultures. And as religion journalists, they've heard countless stories of spiritual abuse, toxic leadership, racism in the...
Oct 20, 2021•42 min
I finished a book! Where's my personal pan pizza? Katelyn and Roxy are certified bookworms — and that particular inclination goes back a long ways. In this episode, the two hosts talk about the books that shaped them as children. How reading turned into a lifelong love affair. And why reading is more than a hobby; it's a powerful worldview-shaping exercise. You are what you read, after all. Voracious reader Danté Stewart explains how reading widely — and far outside his own perspective and exper...
Oct 13, 2021•40 min
"That's what she prayed." Who doesn't love a good inside joke? Even better when a couple hundred, or a couple thousand, people are in on it. Welcome to Weird Christian Twitter: a group of evangelical and exvangelical misfits who share a lifetime of common memories and cultural touchpoints — from sword drills, to youth group lock-ins, to CCM crushes and True Love Waits pledges. On this episode, we do a deep dive into #WCT and the online community that's formed via a collective, albeit mostly good...
Oct 06, 2021•39 min
Oh baby, baby it's the Queen of Christian pop. Saved By the City returns for season two! So grab your leopard print blazer, roll down your windows and get ready to be all up in your feels. It's been 30 years since Amy Grant released Heart in Motion – the chart-topping album that marked the musician's crossover from contemporary Christian artist to mainstream pop icon. Katelyn and Roxy catch up with the artist at her Nashville farm and talk to their childhood icon about living life in the public ...
Sep 29, 2021•40 min
