Announcement: New Podcast Coming!
For all you who are frustrated with the lack of Jesus in American Christianity.
Have you ever seen bumper stickers or yard signs like these?
“Keep Christ in Christmas.” It’s a sentiment many are aware of. It doesn’t require a ton of explanation. Whether or not you agree or like it, I assume you at least get what people are saying.
Recently I’ve been thinking about this phrase.. but not in terms of keeping Christ in “Christmas.”
Rather, I’m much more interested in keeping Christ in Christian.
Keep Christ in Christian
More and more it seems that we can listen to preachers, and read online material from Christians, and it can sound “Christian,” while also not really sounding much like Jesus.
And the fact that such a distinction can be made is tragic.
Back in January this contrast was painfully stark when I heard Franklin Graham give a prayer at the Presidential Inauguration and then not 24 hours later Bishop Mariann Budde delivered a (very different kind of) message at the National Service of Prayer.
Graham’s prayer sounded very Christian.
Whereas Budde’s sermon sounded like Jesus.
And I can’t stop thinking about that.
How in the world can such a distinction exist?
People be out here calling themselves Christian, yet their actual lives (what they say, do, how they treat people) are depressingly absent of Jesus.
As I often write/teach, being Christian isn’t just about believing in Jesus — it’s about becoming like him.
I’ve been bothered by this disconnect for years.
Usually, such bothering is an indication that Spirit is stirring something in me.
And that means… it’s time to make something.
Podcast Time
I love creating stuff.
Putting together articles on Substack.
Writing books.
Producing videos.
Making music.
As I’ve been thinking about the whole “keep Christ in Christian” thing, I kept coming back to the idea of creating a podcast about it. Not one of those indefinite podcasts where you just crank out episodes every week ad nauseam.
No, I wanted a start and stop to this. A limited series, if you will.
My goal was to explore various ways in which Christ has been removed from Christianity.
It’s not about shaming people. It’s about radical honesty. It’s about remembering: If we claim to follow Christ… shouldn’t we look like Christ?
So I started mapping out a production plan and putting some ideas down… but then I had the thought:
Wait, could this project be even better if other people were involved?
Lol.
Of course it would be.
But since I’m an Enneagram Type 3, sometimes it takes me a while to get there. Collaboration doesn’t come natural to us 3’s.
So I reached out to two dear friends who I knew not only felt the same way I did on this, but who are also smarter than me on these topics.
Lucky for me.. and even more so, lucky for you all… they both said yes!
Meet the “Keep Christ in Christian” Co-Hosts: Colby, Jonah, and Josh
Pastor Josh Scott (who writes on Substack here, pastors Gracepointe Church in Nashville, and has a couple books you can find here); and
Rev Jonah Overton (who started and leads Zao Church in Milwaukee and is a badass activist)
The Plan
Keep Christ in Christian is a 10 episode podcast series presented by The Better Fruit Project.
Each episode will have a verse or theme from the life and teachings of Jesus that we feel is missing from western, American Christianity.
The first episode will drop on Tuesday April 29th. After that we’ll release one new episode every Tuesday.
We’ll be hosting the podcast here on Substack, but you can also subscribe/listen on Spotify and/or Apple Podcasts.
Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss a thing!
SAVE THE DATE: Live Podcast Launch Event
On Monday April 28th we are planning a live podcast event to launch Keep Christ in Christian.
The venue is TBD, but we know it will be in Nashville (message us if you have an idea for a space).
But if you’ll be in/around Nashville that night, save the date! Especially all you who are planning to be at the Post-Evangelical Collective Gathering.
Join the Conversation
We want to hear from you!
What does this podcast bring up for you?
Where do you see (or rather, NOT see) Jesus in evangelical Christianity?
What day you hope we address?
Leave your comments below!
 | A guest post by
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 | A guest post by
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I'd like to know what sounding Christian means. Being Christian, following Jesus, those things I think are very different than sounding Christian. I think the problem is that we don't know what being Christian is anymore.