Preachers, Sneakers, a Guy Named Ben, and Asking Questions
Episode description
Kristina invites one of her genuine friends on the podcast - Ben Kirby, the man behind the overnight viral success of his Instagram account, Preachersnsneakers. Kristina and Ben have known each other a few years and met in LA when him and his wife visited Los Angeles to record his own podcast episodes. Just a normal guy pointing out the obvious, they talk about the mental struggles of commenting on the dynamics of how power and money have impacted modern evangelical church culture. Still a normal guy but now with a newborn son, Ben discusses how his life has changed after announcing his identity on the account, and how he's wrestled with the number of vocal opinions about his account. They mention the difficulty in navigating how to comment on things that propose discomfort, and the ways people assign motive if you do speak out. Moral of the story is even when it's hard, it's important to use your voice however you feel God has positioned you to do so.
If you want to know about Ben's process and perspective, make sure to buy his recent book!
and be sure to checkout his youtube channel with commentaries, guests, and podcast episodes -
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXYGKqddTHijz1ANAAOWsLQ
Ben Kirby is the creator of the viral social media sensation PreachersNSneakers, where he caused an uproar after showing the values of what clothing preachers were wearing on stage across the globe. Along with growing from zero to hundreds of thousands of followers in just a few weeks, his work has been featured in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wallstreet Journal, Buzzfeed, Fox News, Complex, and many more. He also hosts the popular podcast with the ultra-creative name The PreachersNSneakers Podcast.
His background is unconventional for this type of movement. He served as a Marine Corps logistics officer, serving tours in Eastern Europe across Romania, Kosovo, Bosnia, Italy, and Spain, leading hundreds of Marines and Sailors to protect the United States and its allies. After his time in the Marines, Ben served as vice president of operations for a tech-enabled services firm, where he not only served in a leadership role but also helped manage a multimillion dollar operation. He holds his BSBA in marketing management from the University of Arkansas and his MBA in strategy and entrepreneurship from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University. He now works full-time as a business owner, podcaster, and author in Texas, where he lives with his wife, Stacy (with a baby on the way), and two Labrador retrievers, Gumbeaux and Roux. When not making Christians feel uncomfortable, Ben spends his time fly-fishing, playing drums, flipping sneakers, writing comedy, eating all the foods, smoking exquisite meats, trying different libations (responsibly), and looking for new entrepreneurial endeavors.
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