The Arsenal Church

About The Arsenal Church

Welcome to the audio podcast of The Arsenal Church in Southtown San Antonio. We hope that these podcasts encourage you, speak life, and bring hope to you throughout your week. To learn more about The Arsenal Church visit www.thearsenal.church.

Publisher

The Arsenal Church

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

15 Mar 2022

Latest episode

11 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

145 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   11 Oct 2026

   Why the Church Stayed Quiet About Patriarchy | Be Quiet | Chad Belew

   How does a 19-year-old learn to see a woman as less than him? Nobody is born with that. Somebody hands it to him. This is week one of Be Quiet, a two-week conversation on patriarchy, the manosphere, and the part the church has played. It starts with Chad's 12-year-old son, and with research showing how fast a brand-new phone starts feeding boys the manosphere. Then it asks this year's question of the oldest story there is: who told us this was just the way things are? The questions it leans into: if men and women really are different, does that mean one of them was meant to lead? Or is "different" being asked to carry a ranking it never earned? Why does a belief you were handed as a child feel like family, and why can questioning it feel like betrayal? "He will rule over you." Where does that line actually sit in Genesis, and what changes when you notice? What happens to a text when it doesn't fit the story, and to the women in it? Can a compliment be a cage? And what does this story cost men? Chad also talks about his own unlearning, and the story that cracked it open for him. Content note: this episode discusses sexual violence at the level of systems and history, without retelling anyone's story. If it stirs something up, you don't have to carry it alone. RAINN: 1-800-656-4673 · Rape Crisis Center San Antonio: 210-349-7273. In this episode: Why the church usually stays quiet, and why "quiet" is crossed out What a brand-new phone feeds a 12-year-old boy "Be quiet": the oldest word the church gave women What "patriarchy" means here (a system, not a word for men) How a story starts to feel like nature: roles and system justification "What begins as a search for truth can feel like an act of betrayal" "Different isn't the same as ranked" Aristotle: one rules, the other is ruled Genesis 1–3: image-bearers, ezer, and where "he will rule over you" sits Junia, the woman at the well (Photini), and Mary Magdalene Hostile and benevolent sexism, purity culture, and who holds the microphone What patriarchy costs men: bell hooks, the mask, and the man box Jesus walking into Aristotle's world What gets preached changes what happens at home This week's practice: pick one belief about men and women and ask who told you that "Love never ranks the people it was made for" ???? References: Genesis 1:27 · Genesis 2:18 · Genesis 3:16 · Psalm 121:2 · 1 Timothy 2 · 1 Corinthians 14 · Romans 16:7 · John 4 · Luke 8:1–3 · Luke 10:38–42 · John 20 · Galatians 3:28 ???? Mentioned: Jesus and John Wayne (Kristin Kobes Du Mez) · The Will to Change (bell hooks) · The Making of Biblical Womanhood (Beth Allison Barr) · The Creation of Patriarchy (Gerda Lerner) · Men Who Hate Women (Laura Bates) Series: Be Quiet Speaker: Chad Belew Date: 10/11/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

2. 

   29 Sept 2026

   What You Practice Loving Is Who You Become | Unforced | Chad Belew

   What if the thing your faith trained you to pay attention to is the thing that quietly made you who you are? Chad closes the Unforced series with two weeks in Costa Rica — a trauma retreat with 50 veterans, an ant hauling a pink flower petal across a path, and six tattooed men standing in a row staring up into a tree at a macaw. None of that is the point. What happened in his body while he watched is. The questions he's chasing: attention is love's raw material — you start to love what you look at, and you become what you love, so where has the church been training its attention all these years? Jesus pointed at creation like a sermon that never stopped preaching, so why did so few of us inherit any of that? Romans 7 says the law didn't only reveal sin, it *activated* our attention to it — what does a lifetime of scanning for sin do to a person? And "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," except fear doesn't produce wisdom, it produces hiding. What if that word was never "fear" at all? It lands where the series began: a mirror broken in the garden, "who told you that you were naked," and Paul's claim that unveiled faces get to behold — and be changed by what they behold. In this episode: - Costa Rica, a trauma retreat with 50 veterans, and being completely disconnected - The ant carrying a pink flower petal across the path - Butterflies pollinating a rainforest, and six tattooed guys watching a macaw - What his body did — stillness, smallness, a smile he didn't force - The series question turned back on the church: what have WE been practicing loving? - "Attention is love's raw material" - The hammock, the tree, and breathing together - "I can't find the verse where he tells me to monitor my neighbor's bedroom" - People trained to scan for threat became threat scanners - Romans 7:7 — the law activates attention to sin - Yirah — "the fear of the Lord" was awe, not fear - "You don't have to remember the practices. You have to see differently." - The mirror he broke on this stage 11 years ago, and the garden - The mask, and realizing it was the mask that got loved - 2 Corinthians 3:18 — unveiled faces, beholding, being transformed - Back to Matthew 11 and the unforced rhythms of grace - Newborns and the beat — the body already knows the rhythm - The number one way people experience awe is human kindness ???? References: 2 Corinthians 3:18 · Romans 7:7 · Genesis 1–3 · Matthew 11:28–30 (The Message) · Proverbs 9:10 · Matthew 6 (birds and lilies) Series: Unforced Speaker: Chad Belew Date: 9/27/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

3. 

   20 Sept 2026

   Confession Was Never About Getting Forgiven | Unforced | Chad Belew

   What if confession was never about getting back into God's good graces — and was never supposed to cost you your dignity? Chad's back from two weeks away, and the distance made something obvious: every practice in this series has been the same practice wearing different clothes. Noticing. Lament. The table. Rest. All of them are coming out of hiding. This is the week that says it out loud. The questions underneath it: NASA scheduled the course-correction burns before the rocket ever left the ground — so why were we handed a faith where being off course is the emergency? Why does the word "confession" make a whole room's shoulders come up? James says confess to each other *so that you may be healed* — not so that you may be forgiven. What changes if that word was the point the whole time? And what actually makes a person safe to tell the truth to? Chad goes first on this one, including what it costs him to stand up here every week. In this episode: - Back from Costa Rica, and a retreat with 50 veterans - Six weeks of practices, all doing one thing: coming out of hiding - Apollo scheduled the course corrections before launch — "they just called it flying the ship" - The word the church ruined - "Pastoring is a fantastic place to hide" - James 5:16 — "so that you may be healed," not forgiven - Guilt and shame are two different feelings - Metanoia, and why the accusers have to leave the room first - The accuser that sounds exactly like you - Kristin Neff on self-compassion — and why the people gentlest with themselves took MORE responsibility - "But my mess is my own fault — I don't qualify" - Dr. Gary Green: attunement, not atonement - The guitar — detune one string, then play the chord - "The reference note doesn't drift. We do." - Every secret you're managing is a place you can't be loved - The practice: one person, one true thing - What "safe" actually means — and what to do if you come up empty ???? References: James 5:16 · John 8:1–11 · John 3 (Nicodemus) · Genesis 3 · Mark 5 · Kristin Neff on self-compassion · Dr. Gary Green on attunement · Stephen Porges, polyvagal theory · Bill Thrall Series: Unforced Speaker: Chad Belew Date: 9/20/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 72 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

94

Social presence

94

YouTube

0

Engagement

77

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.