Faith & Formation

Real estate droughts, regret, and marital strain push Matt into a deeper dependence on God. He and Brenton unpack gratitude as a spiritual discipline, why praying with thankfulness changes everything, and how Matt believes God used both success and scarcity to reshape his heart for his wife, kids, and work. 

This episode traces Matt’s long faith journey — from growing up in a Christian home, through rebellion and distance from God, and eventually back to a reordered life grounded in faith. He speaks candidly about the role of a praying mother, the weight of fatherhood, and the moment he realized that anxiety, ambition, and control had to be surrendered rather than carried alone.

Faith here is not inherited, refined, or admired — it is encountered at the edge of survival. This conversation traces belief emerging in prison cells, desperation, and moments of utter moral collapse. Formation begins not with understanding God, but with realizing that self-rule has failed completely. 

Faith here is not coercive or performative—it is lived. The episode explores how belief was formed through action before theology: helping others, giving without expectation, and learning—slowly—that service changes the heart. Formation is revealed as something discovered through obedience, not argument. 

Through a candid conversation about grief, expectation, gratitude, and God’s nature, this episode examines how faith is formed before suffering — not after. We discuss how spiritual practices, prayer, worldview, and theological honesty shape a faith that can endure loss without denial or bitterness.

Faith isn’t only practiced in sermons or crises—it’s formed through everyday traditions, symbols, and stories passed down in the home. This episode explores how Christian meaning has been woven into holiday rituals, generosity, and shared memory, shaping belief not through force, but through consistency, joy, and lived example. 

Faith shaped how duty was carried, loss was processed, and responsibility was owned. This conversation explores how belief provided moral grounding in moments of death notifications, trauma, and leadership—forming a man who could act with clarity, humility, and accountability across decades of service. 

Faith in this episode is expressed through presence rather than proclamation.

Elizabeth reflects on a belief shaped through caregiving, prayer, and trust in seasons where control was limited and outcomes were uncertain. This conversation explores spiritual formation as attentiveness—learning to remain faithful through quiet obedience, restraint, and compassion when answers are scarce. 

Faith in this episode is stripped of abstraction and tested in lived reality.

Mark Renick reflects on belief formed not through certainty or success, but through confrontation with failure, conscience, and consequence. This conversation explores how faith matures when it is forced to move beyond words and into accountability, humility, and truth-telling. 

Faith, here, is expressed through humility and obedience to the process.

Rather than presenting certainty, Brenton shares the internal posture required to learn publicly: acknowledging blind spots, accepting correction, and trusting that growth comes through faithful action over time. This episode explores formation not as confidence, but as willingness to submit to learning. 

Faith in this episode is practiced through patience, restraint, and respect.

Denise Cook reflects on how belief shapes the way she treats people at their lowest—not as problems to fix, but as humans to honor. This conversation explores formation through daily moral choices made quietly, without recognition, in systems where compassion is often strained. 

Faith, in this episode, is not sentiment—it’s alignment.

Rebekah Grindstaff describes a belief shaped through prayer, discernment, and costly action, where devotion means responding to suffering rather than spiritualizing it away. This conversation explores faith as formation of conscience: learning to see people clearly and act when prayer alone is not enough. 

Jean Thomas’s story centers on a faith formed through prayer, study, obedience, and long responsibility rather than certainty or ease. From sensing a call to ministry as a young woman to navigating seminary, ordination, motherhood, and cultural pressure, this episode explores how belief is shaped over time through discernment, humility, and sustained devotion. 

Faith is not proven in ease—it’s formed in long obedience.

Gigi shares how belief was shaped through hardship, unanswered questions, and the slow work of trust. This conversation explores a faith that isn’t performative or simplistic, but rooted in surrender, prayer, and a willingness to remain faithful when outcomes are unknown. 

This episode wrestles with faith beyond slogans—where imagination, prayer, and the unseen are not dismissed as fantasy, but understood as ways of perceiving reality. David articulates a faith formed through tension: between science and belief, doubt and devotion, spiritual tradition and honest questioning. 

What happens when faith becomes fear—and devotion turns into compulsion?

In this episode, Debra Peck shares how religious scrupulosity distorted her understanding of God, conscience, and obedience for decades. This conversation explores how true spiritual formation isn’t built on certainty or rule-keeping, but on trust, humility, and a faith that can survive healing.