Two Podcast Interviews: How Improvement in Writing Is Like Bench-Press & How Our Church Stayed “Front-Edge of the Middle” During Covid
Recently I was a guest on two different podcasts to talk about writing and pastoring.
I have two podcast interview updates to share. One interview was about writing and the other about pastoring.
First, the podcast about writing. I was a guest on Amy Simon’s podcast, The Purposeful Pen. The episode released yesterday. It’s a podcast to encourage Christian writers.
On the episode we talk a little bit about what makes for good writing, the article submission process, and some specifics to writing for Gospel-Centered Discipleship, the website I help manage. You can find it here, “Episode 63: Improving the Craft of Writing with Benjamin Vrbicek.”
A piece of advice I give is that finishing one piece of writing often develops a writer more than starting five pieces of writing but not finishing any of them. My metaphor for this comes from the gym. Something about finishing a last set of bench press, especially if you go until failure, produces more physical gains than simply doing a few sets and not going to failure. Pushing individual pieces of writing to the final, public form forces authors to identify problems and find solutions in a way that merely jotting down the “good stuff” and moving along doesn’t do.
Second, the podcast about pastoring. The other week I was a guest on the MemeLord Monday podcast, which often takes a humorous (and sometimes serious) look at the Christian subculture. You can find it here, “What Happened to the Post-Pandemic Church?”
The podcast actually released a few years ago, but the host and my friend, Matt Matias, just released the interview to the public. Previously, the episode was only available to his paid subscribers.
Now, you probably have a legitimate question coming to your mind: Why in the world would I want to listen to a podcast about churches and Covid, especially when it’s so old? I get it. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to listen to it either—and I was the guest! Who wants to relive that era, I thought. Let’s forget about Covid and move on.
But I did listen to the interview, and I found it fascinating.
I know, I know, you could say I’m an egomaniac and just love listening to my own voice. I don’t think that was the reason I enjoyed the interview so much. Listening to the interview felt like opening a strange time capsule. I had honestly forgotten all we went through as a church. Our church even had a malicious hacker ruin our online “reserved seating” by signing up fake names. Crazy weird and super aggravating. We had our guesses who hacked us, but we could never confirm it.
You probably remember, too, how there was something of a bell curve regarding how churches handled Covid. In the interview, I explained our unsophisticated guesswork about how to keep our church on the “front edge of the middle” regarding the “uncautious-to-cautious” spectrum. This involved prayer reading the Bible, arguing among ourselves, and talking to doctors, church members, and other pastors—as well as doing exactly whatever the government told us to do without question. Oh, we also cast lots a few times.
Well, maybe we didn’t do all of those. I’ll let you listen to figure it out. But our “front-edge of the middle” strategy was our version of the Goldilocks approach, our plan to hit the bell curve just right. This proved challenging as the backdrop matrix of Covid, culture, and churches kept shifting, and not always in the same direction. Alas, we did our best to be faithful to the Lord. He knows our hearts.
In the interview we also discuss pastoral abuse and why our church has a plurality of pastor-elders, rather than “the guy.” And we tell a few jokes.
If you listen to either podcast, let me know what you think. I’d love to hear your best tips to improve at writing and what your church did that was helpful during Covid.
The Purposeful Pen: “Improving the Craft of Writing”
MemeLord Monday: “What Happened to the Post-Pandemic Church?”
* Photo by ConvertKit on Unsplash
Porn: The Killer of Missions
I was recently interviewed about the effects of pornography on missions and how the gospel helps us change.
I’d love to share with you an interview I recently did on a podcast about the topic of pornography and how to struggle against it. The Missions Podcast is hosted by Scott Dunford and Alex Kocman, who both work for ABWE, an international missions organization. Scott has also been one of the pastor-elders at our church for the last few years and has become a good friend.
You can listen to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play. Or you can simply listen below.
One thing to note: A few times in the interview we reference my new book about this topic. Well, it’s so “new” that it’s not even out yet! Bummer. Please be patient and stay tuned. It’s in the publication process now!
Here’s what Alex wrote for an intro to our conversation:
In our culture, sexual temptation is hitting the church like a tidal wave, and those serving overseas as missionaries are far from immune. Porn is a fatal undercurrent that Satan uses to eliminate gospel workers sniper-style and cripple missions efforts, and overseas workers separated from accountability and friends are particularly vulnerable.
What factors drive a person in full-time ministry to pornography for comfort, control, or stress relief—and what gospel hope is there for someone struggling? This week we sat down in-studio with Benjamin Vrbicek, teaching pastor at Community Evangelical Free Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and author of the upcoming book Struggle Against Porn: 29 Diagnostic Tests for Your Head and Heart.
* Photo by Tom Ritson on Unsplash
Reflections on The Pursuit of Writing: My Interview on The Pastor Writer Podcast
It’s funny how God works. There were three reasons I first became an engineer; one of them was hating to read and write.
It’s crazy to me that I spend 10 hours a week before my family wakes tinkering with words. Crazier still is that I enjoy it. I didn’t always feel this way. In fact, there were three reasons I first became an engineer; one of them was hating to read and write.
Last week I had the privilege of being interviewed by Chase Replogle, the host of one of my favorite podcasts, The Pastor Writer. And when I say privilege, I mean it. I’ve listened to all forty episodes and would do so again regardless of whether I ever squeaked into the roster myself. I’m happy to just tweet about the show. Golly, he’s interviewed Zack Eswine, Tim Challies, Russ Ramsey, Karen Swallow Prior, and a bunch of other all-stars. It’s his monologues, though, that are some of my favorite episodes (e.g., 7: “Burn the Book: Obsessed with Getting Published”, 14: “Why Poor Writing Comes So Naturally”, and 17. “Your Clichés Are More Dangerous Than You Think,” and 34. “There’s No Sentence Like The First Sentence”).
In the interview I share how I became interested in writing. I also imagine for a bit what it might have been like to write (or do any work) before sin entered the world in Genesis 3 and what it will be like when sin is no more in the new heavens and the new earth.
Below are some of the questions Chase and I discuss. I’d love for you to listen to the interview, and if you enjoy it, to subscribe to his show.
How did you first hear of Pastor Writer?
Tell me about the church where you serve?
When did you first sense a call to writing?
What do you enjoy about the writing process?
What’s the most frustrating part of the writing process?
How has writing shaped you as a pastor?
The struggle with getting published?
Self-publishing?
Getting endorsements?