The Future of the Church and Gender Dynamics: With Dr. Joy Qualls"
I talk with Dr. Joy Qualls, a Biola communications professor and author of God Forgive Us for Being Women, about what drew her into studying gender and the church and why the gap between what we claim theologically and what we practice creates hardship. We discuss Pentecostal history of women’s leadership, how movements often lose egalitarian practice when they institutionalize, and how seeking broader evangelical acceptance can weaken distinctive Pentecostal theology and hermeneutics. Dr. Qualls also shifts to “next generation” theology, arguing kids, youth, and young adults are the church now, not just the future, and that language shapes who is heard and seen as a leader. She critiques segregating children’s and youth ministry from the gathered church and warns the church is losing women by limiting their callings, urging intergenerational worship and space for Spirit-led voices.
1 Oct 2026
Pastor-Theologian Insights on Faith Journeys: with Dr. Andrew Ray Williams
I return from a short hiatus and talk with Dr. Andrew Ray Williams, a pastor theologian who serves the church while also teaching in the academy. We discuss his book Reconstructing Prayer and how deconstruction isn’t monolithic or the same as deconverting; it can be a faithful, generative process that leads toward reconstruction involving both theology and spirituality (head and heart). Andrew describes reconstruction as “mature dependence,” where Christian maturity means deeper reliance on God, and he highlights faithful doubt, lament, and protest as biblical practices that keep questions turned toward Jesus (like Job, the Psalms, Mark 9, and John the Baptist). We explore suffering and theodicy through “God is great, God is good,” arguing the “answer” to evil is ultimately a person—Jesus—not a tidy idea. We also warn pastors not to play savior, to listen well, and to use resources like the Psalms and Beyond Doubt.
15 Aug 2026
The Joy and Discipline of Liturgical Worship: with Reverend Dr. Sam Hole
In this episode, I talk with Reverend Dr. Sam Hole from Durham University about theology, liturgy, and why he wrote Nourishing Prayer: A Handbook on Holy Communion. He explains liturgy as a structured, sensory, often repetitive way of worship, and notes even “non-liturgical” churches have patterns. His book aims to help newcomers understand what’s happening in Anglican services—like “The Lord be with you / And also with you”—and to see communion as a whole act of prayer that can feel different across seasons like Lent. He argues liturgical worship is deeply biblical, rooted in Scripture and early Christian order, and frames communion through meal images (communion, thanksgiving, sacrifice, wisdom’s feast, nourishment). We also connect this to St. John of the Cross, especially emotion, God’s seeming absence, and spiritual formation. The book is published by Canterbury Press.
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