Category: Faith

Before I jump into the podcasts I listen to, I’m going to describe how I use podcasts. First, my podcasts currently fall into two categories: things that I want to learn about and things that help me escape. Essentially, you could call these categories “educational” and “just for fun.” An interesting note is that currently all of my educational podcasts are audio and all my just for fun podcasts are video.

I listen to audio podcasts at home and in the car. I have three audio podcasts that I generally try to keep up with all the time. The other podcasts I like to follow are saved for as time allows. I find that listening to a good podcast makes a car trip go faster than listening to music, so these podcasts keep me company when I’m on the open road.

Click on the name to get the subscribe link.

Here’s the list of audio podcasts in order of listening priority:

• NLCF at Virginia Tech
  This podcast is the top of my list, but deceptively so. I don’t keep up with it over most summers and only listen if I’ve been out of town for a Sunday and we’re in a multi-part series.
• McLean Bible Church
  I listen to this podcast every week. Lon Solomon, the senior pastor of McLean Bible Church is the regular speaker. While I consider MBC my home church, Lon and I disagree on some theological issues (Lon is a dispensationalist, I am not), so some of his sermons have me reaching for my Bible and digging deeper, looking at whether I should agree with him or not. Lon is an outstanding speaker, and I’ve adopted some elements of his style into my speaking. Also, the other speakers are a diverse and top notch crowd.
• GodPod
  A podcast from Saint Paul’s Theological Centre at Holy Trinity Brompton in the UK. The podcast is hosted by Graham Tomlin (Author of The Provocative Church–a must read), Jane Williams (theologian and wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican communion), and Mike Lloyd. People email theological questions to GodPod, which are answered by the hosts in a panel fashion. This podcast is unquestionably Anglican and surprisingly charismatic.
  
  
• Frontline Podcasts
  The young adults church within a church at MBC. I know several of the frontline staff, and I’m an active part of frontline when I’m in the DC area. The current team structure at vtONE borrowed largely from how the frontline team is set up. Teaching pastor Todd Philips is the primary speaker, with frequent appearances by worship pastor Will Pavone and college pastor John McGowan. Solid teaching that ranges from dispensational to Calvinist.
  
  
• Kairos Los Angeles Live
  Kairos is an inner city church planted by JR Woodward, who also planted NLCF. JR is huge on the kingdom of God. He’s constantly focusing on how we can bring more of God’s shalom to our immediate surroundings. I don’t listen to every message on this podcast, but try to catch up on most of the ones that JR gave when I’m traveling in the car. Warning: these messages tend to be close to an hour long. JR is postmodern, yet orthodox.

Here’s a wish list of podcasts:

• The Gathering
  John McGowan is an outstanding speaker who never fails to challenge me through his teachings. He is one of the people that I know who best understands what college ministry should be. I’d be a weekly listener if his current teachings were available online.
  UPDATE: John is now podcasting!  Click the link above to subscribe.
• NorthPoint Community Church
  Andy Stanley knows how to preach in order to change lives. NorthPoint is also full of other outstanding communicators: Louie Giglio and Tim Elmore come to mind. Too bad that NorthPoint only sells or streams their teachings.

Here’s a list of video podcasts:

• Strongbad emails and more
  Homestarrunner stuff, mainly the Strongbad emails. What more can I say? Fhwbgads.
• Ask a Ninja
  People write in and ask a ninja questions. Usually very random. Sometimes barely funny, other times you fall out of your seat from laughing.
• Hope is Emo
  From the creators of Ask a Ninja. On the verge of getting dropped, since I don’t find most of them funny. A relatively new podcast that I thought might go somewhere, but has been getting worse instead of better.

This semester is shaping up to be my busiest yet, but I’m working on a series of posts. The primary intent of these posts is going to be to help equip other college ministry leaders with some of the resources that I’ve found particularly helpful in personally preparing me to do ministry and also resources that have helped me lead vtONE. I’m planning to break this series into one post each about several mediums. I’m going to cover books, podcasts, and blogs for certain. I’m debating three more posts, one covering websites, one an index of theologians who have somehow influenced me, and one about my theological biases (or, what I believe).

The last post is the one that I’m really conflicted about. On one hand, it might make the other posts more helpful if I expose my bias. On the other hand, I am all about unity, and I am always afraid that if I write publicly about a theological gray area it could come back and bite me. Also note that if I do the last post, I will post a quiz first about myself to see how much of a mystery my opinions really are. Feel free to leave me a comment and let me know what you think about that potential post.

Not into theology or spirituality? I’m planning to include all the podcasts I listen to in the podcast post, not just the ones that relate to ministry or theology. I’m also in the planning stages for a series of posts featuring my favorite photographs from the thousands I’ve taken over my lifetime.