What if the most important things about pastoral ministry are the things nobody tells you? What I Wish They'd Told Me is a podcast from New Geneva Academy hosted by Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock, with conversations from pastors, church planters, theologians, and Christian leaders tackling the unfiltered questions every man in the pew has wondered about — and every pastor wishes he'd heard sooner.
What I Wish They'd Told Me
Claim This Podcastby New Geneva Academy
5.0(4 reviews)
9 episodes
Updated Daily
Accepts GuestsHas SponsorsLocation 🇺🇸
Podcast Overview
What if the most important things about pastoral ministry are the things nobody tells you? What I Wish They'd Told Me is a podcast from New Geneva Academy hosted by Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock, with conversations from pastors, church planters, theologians, and Christian leaders tackling the unfiltered questions every man in the pew has wondered about — and every pastor wishes he'd heard sooner.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
5/5/2026
2 verified contact emails on file for What I Wish They'd Told Me
Pitch yourself as a guest, propose sponsorships, or reach out directly to the host.
Recent Episodes
July 2, 2026
Ryan Denton - Dead Orthodoxy
<p>In our ninth episode, Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock sit down with Ryan Denton, an evangelist in Vanguard Presbytery who wrote Dead Orthodoxy and Its Cure, which is what this conversation is about. You can have the confession and catechism down cold and nothing in the soul. You can trade the musty building for smoke machines and a slick twenty-five minutes and be just as dead. Ryan talks about why so much Reformed preaching has become lecturing, what the redemptive historical method loses when it drops the imperative, and why the Puritans were called painful preachers, men who aimed the word at the backslider, the formalist, the worn-out mother. Halfway through, Stephen reads the post Ryan took heat for. It ends with a prayer: Lord, help us to preach a felt Christ.</p><p>00:00 — Welcome; Ryan Denton joins from Lubbock<br>01:00 — Family, and church plants in Lubbock, Clovis, and Roswell<br>02:18 — A year of filling pulpits; twenty sermons in twenty-four days<br>06:55 — Vanguard Presbytery and the office of evangelist<br>09:31 — Out of the PCA: Vanguard's origins and distinctives<br>16:37 — Dead Orthodoxy and Its Cure: why Ryan wrote it<br>19:42 — Where apathy and formalism come from<br>22:24 — One ditch into another: Ian Murray and Luther<br>24:57 — Head and heart fused: experimental Christianity<br>26:44 — Books: Alexander, Guthrie, Scougal, Edwards<br>32:00 — Stephen reads the Facebook post<br>33:53 — Redemptive historical preaching and the missing imperative<br>38:31 — Painful preachers<br>40:55 — Apply early and often<br>43:30 — Law and gospel, antinomianism, and the New Testament's imperatives<br>47:42 — Preaching to different hearers: real truth to real people<br>53:31 — Preaching to the conscience: Thomas Boston, Nathan and David<br>59:16 — Emotions, stepped-on toes, and the preacher's own conscience</p><p>Learn more about the Frontier Shepherds conference at newgenevaacademy.com</p>
June 24, 2026
Brian Croft - Pastoring the Pastors
<p>In our eighth episode, Aaron Prelock sits down with Brian Croft of Practical Shepherding to talk about what no seminary can hand a man: staying. Staying when the church wants you gone. Staying when no one will mentor you. Staying long enough that your body breaks before the church turns. Brian and Aaron talk about why wolves in sheep's clothing and wounded sheep look alike until you stay long enough to tell them apart, the lonely nature of pastoral work, having no category for shepherding as its own work, and how the celebrity preaching conference circuit can overlook faithful, ordinary work.</p><p>00:00 — Brian Croft, Practical Shepherding, and thirty years in ministry<br>02:03 — From the Christian music world to a call to pastor<br>04:38 — Why eighty percent of pastors don't last ten years<br>06:13 — Four pastors who refused to mentor him<br>09:35 — Taking a dying church at twenty-nine<br>14:17 — Three firing attempts, threats, and a body that shut down at thirty-four<br>15:10 — Year six: the church turns<br>18:37 — Haunted by Hebrews 13:17<br>19:41 — Wolves in sheep's clothing and wounded sheep act alike<br>22:24 — Every pastor needs an older pastor and a younger one<br>24:47 — The isolation of the pastorate<br>26:50 — Lament versus complaining<br>31:20 — How Practical Shepherding began<br>37:54 — The lost art of pastoral theology<br>43:43 — Content to be an ordinary, faithful shepherd<br>49:43 — "Show me the army"<br>53:14 — Stop measuring ministry by numbers and money</p><p>Learn more about the Frontier Shepherds conference at newgenevaacademy.com</p>
June 16, 2026
Michael Clary - On Christian Courage
<p>In our seventh episode, Stephen Baker and Aaron Prelock sit down with Michael Clary to talk about the lesson eighteen years of ministry kept pressing on him: courage. The courage to preach Genesis 19 as it stands. The courage to father a congregation and preach the sharp truths of God's word rather than simply befriend it. The courage to keep a clean conscience while half his church walked out. They talk about the winsomeness he built a ministry on and later repented of, the liberalism that signs every formal confession but fights for the heartbeat of none of it, and why conscientious men bury their gifts for fear of a God they take to be a harsh taskmaster."</p><p>Pastor Clary will be speaking at the Frontier Shepherds conference. Learn more at newgenevaacademy.com</p><p>00:08 — Introductions: Michael Clary, Cincinnati, and the Frontier Shepherds Conference<br>00:58 — Planting in 2010: inner-city Cincinnati to a building in Northern Kentucky<br>03:30 — Seminary at Southern, and a love for the Old Testament<br>05:37 — Crew, parachurch ministry, and learning the church is plan A<br>09:00 — Why Cincinnati, and meeting Michael Foster<br>12:42 — Three eras of ministry, and the turn from a neutral world to a negative one<br>16:16 — Preaching Genesis 19, and the backlash that followed<br>17:41 — Sitting with Tim Bayly: be the father of this congregation<br>19:20 — The 2022 split that cut the church in half<br>22:06 — Holding the church together with a clean conscience<br>24:58 — Courage as the one indispensable lesson<br>27:09 — The new liberalism: ethical, not doctrinal<br>28:57 — What Young, Restless, Reformed got right, and where it went off the rails<br>31:22 — Intellectual respectability, and Iain Murray's Evangelicalism Divided<br>36:56 — The September conference, and the problem of fragmentation<br>41:23 — Loser Theology: piety shrunk to inner-heart religion<br>47:00 — The parable of the talents and the buried gold<br>53:34 — The fear of a slave versus the fear of a son</p>
9 total episodes available
Similar Podcasts
Discover related shows you might enjoy
Out of Our Minds
Warhorn Media
Church of the King
Church of the King, Evansville, Indiana
Sermons from Trinity Reformed Church
Trinity Reformed Church
The Patriarchy Podcast
Pastor Joseph Spurgeon
This is Foster
Michael Foster
The Theology Pugcast
The Theology Pugcast
Blog & Mablog
Canon Press
Stories Are Soul Food
Canon Press
Plodcast
Canon Press
Home Fires
Home Fires
The King's Hall
Brian Sauvé & Eric Conn
Bright Hearth
Brian Sauvé, Lexy Sauvé
The Sword & The Trowel
Founders Ministries
The World and Everything In It
WORLD Radio
The Tucker Carlson Podcast
Tucker Carlson Network
Deep-dive analytics for What I Wish They'd Told Me
Frequently asked questions
Have a different question and can't find the answer you're looking for? Reach out to our support team by sending us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
- What is What I Wish They'd Told Me?
- How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
Legal Disclaimer
Pod Engine is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected with any of the podcasts displayed on this platform. We operate independently as a podcast discovery and analytics service.
All podcast artwork, thumbnails, and content displayed on this page are the property of their respective owners and are protected by applicable copyright laws. This includes, but is not limited to, podcast cover art, episode artwork, show descriptions, episode titles, transcripts, audio snippets, and any other content originating from the podcast creators or their licensors.
We display this content under fair use principles and/or implied license for the purpose of podcast discovery, information, and commentary. We make no claim of ownership over any podcast content, artwork, or related materials shown on this platform. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
While we strive to ensure all content usage is properly authorized, if you are a rights holder and believe your content is being used inappropriately or without proper authorization, please contact us immediately at hey@podengine.ai for prompt review and appropriate action, which may include content removal or proper attribution.
By accessing and using this platform, you acknowledge and agree to respect all applicable copyright laws and intellectual property rights of content owners. Any unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or commercial use of the content displayed on this platform is strictly prohibited.