The Intersection with Dr. J + Friends

About The Intersection with Dr. J + Friends

Intersections are high-traffic areas, with people coming from and heading in all sorts of directions. While intersections are places of potential collision and calamity, they are also the very places where we can find direction and learn where to go. The Intersection is a podcast where faith engages the complexities of our modern world. Though intersections sometimes feel risky, they are where real dialogue happens, they are where we find direction and discover where to go next.

Publisher

Justin Detmers

Category

religion & spirituality · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Oct 2024

Latest episode

9 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

46 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   9 Oct 2026

   Honest Art, True Worship with Joshua Leventhal

   Dr. J talks with musician Joshua Leventhal about something Christian often struggles to make room for: honesty. What happens when our songs and subculture leaves little room for anger, grief, doubt, or disappointment? Drawing on Scripture, the Psalms, and his experience as a musician, Joshua explores why honest artistic expression matters—not just for making better art, but for being human and growing in faith. The conversation considers how church culture can subtly sanitize our emotional lives, rewarding certainty and celebration while leaving lament, confession, and vulnerability at the margins. Justin and Joshua explore the biblical case for bringing the full range of human emotion before God, asking what we lose when worship prioritizes what’s smooth and positive. They also examine the influence of market forces on Christian music and the pressure to produce art that fits familiar expectations. What happens when the demands of an industry—or the preferences of a congregation—begin to shape what we're willing to sing, say, and feel? Rather than treating art as a decorative addition to spiritual life, Joshua argues that it can be one of our most formative influences, shaping the stories we tell about God and ourselves. Fortunately, hope doesn't require us to rush past grief; we often have to sit with sorrow before we can discover what hope actually means. For anyone who has struggled to find their own emotional life reflected in Christian worship, wondered whether doubt has a place in faith, or grown weary of spirituality that always seems to put on a happy face, this conversation offers an invitation to embrace a more honest faith—and to make room for the kind of art that helps us get there. LINKS: Website: joshualeventhal.com (http://joshualeventhal.com) (New) Album: Tapiseri (https://www.joshualeventhal.com/tapiseri) Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/0v4Z3oeoImzlsCniDL7em5?si=nPbG3l1KSHqbgVsJevMxmw) YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0S_3i1uhSkVJphd3rK777w) Insta  (https://www.instagram.com/joshualeventhal)

2. 

   25 Sept 2026

   Thinking Theologically about Hurry, Heaven, & Time w Dr. Trevor A. Sutton

   Dr. J talks with Pastor Trevor Sutton about something we all have in equal measure but increasingly seem unable to control: time. In an age of notifications, deadlines, endless feeds, and constant availability, what does it mean for Christians to think theologically about time? Drawing on biblical theology, the history of timekeeping, and the realities of modern technology, Trevor explores whether our problem is simply that we have too much to do—or whether we've lost sight of what time is actually for. The conversation considers how technologies have shaped not only how we measure time but how we experience it, training us for speed, efficiency, and perpetual distraction. Justin and Trevor explore the biblical vision of time, including its horizontal and vertical dimensions, and ask what changes when we understand our lives as moving toward a God-given telos. If we know where we're ultimately going, how should that shape the way we spend the hours we've been given? We may profess that our lives belong to God while structuring them around productivity, achievement, and constant availability. Rather than offering another set of productivity hacks, Trevor points toward practices like prayer, gratitude, community, reflection, and intentional presence as ways of recovering a healthier relationship with time. For anyone whose calendar feels perpetually full, whose phone constantly demands attention, or who has wondered where the last six months went, this conversation offers an invitation to stop merely managing time—and start receiving it as a gift. LINKS: Website (https://atrevorsutton.com/) (Forthcoming) Book: Between Hurry & Heaven (https://heraldpress.com/9781513817767/between-hurry-and-heaven/)by Dr. Trevor Sutton & Jeff Bilbro Church: St. Luke Lutheran Church (https://knowingjesus.org/) Other Writing (https://atrevorsutton.com/writing/) Faith & Leadership (https://faithandleadership.com/authors/trevor-sutton)

3. 

   28 Aug 2026

   A Theology of Sports with Phil Gillespie

   Dr. J talks with Phil Gillespie of Athletes in Action for a conversation about something many of us treat as mere entertainment but may reveal something much deeper about what it means to be human. With more than three decades in sports ministry, Phil brings a theological lens to our fascination with competition, asking why we care so much about who wins, who loses, who gets remembered, and who gets to stand on top. Drawing on C.S. Lewis and the idea that we were made with a deep desire to be desired and approved of, the conversation explores sports as an “iceberg”—with the visible excitement of competition revealing deeper longings for glory, identity, connection, and transcendence. Because beneath our obsession with the scoreboard may be a much more fundamental question: what are we actually longing for? Rather than treating sports as a distraction from discipleship, Justin and Phil consider what happens when we see athletics as a genuine site of spiritual formation. The church has often treated sports as secular territory—something Christians participate in but rarely think theologically about. Phil challenges that assumption, arguing that the fields, courts, locker rooms, teams, rivalries, victories, and defeats of everyday athletic life can become places where relationships are formed, character is revealed, and faith is lived out organically. Along the way, they explore why competition can be both deeply compelling and spiritually dangerous, how our pursuit of glory can become an attempt to secure an identity that only God can give, and why the church may be overlooking one of the most significant discipleship environments in contemporary culture. At the center of it all is a distinctly Christian vision of play: sports aren’t simply about winning, and play isn't simply wasted time. If human beings were made for glory, joy, creativity, community, and delight, then our impulse to play may itself be a clue to the goodness for which we were created. Even in the renewed creation, Phil argues, play will have a place—because the Christian hope isn’t the escape from embodied life but its restoration. For anyone who loves sports, has ever wondered why competition feels euphoric, or suspects that our obsession with athletics is about more than games, this episode offers a different way to see the field: a window into our theology of glory, a laboratory for discipleship, and a surprisingly glimpse of what we were made for. LINKS: MSU Athletes in Action  (https://www.msuaia.org/) Book: Away Game: A Christian Parent's Guide to Navigating Youth Sports (https://www.amazon.com/Away-Game-Christian-Parents-Navigating/dp/B0FDD5T272) by Brian Smith and Ed Uszynski Miracle: Herb Brooks Speech on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy4jp9mMBB4)

Reach and audience

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

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Books guests

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

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