Alex has been through the church-plant ringer a few times. These days when I hear him say something like "*My wealth is in my relationships*" it's always startling because I know a little bit about what he's been through and what it has cost him to uncover that idea. Yet today he keeps plugging away, quietly leading a small church in north Seattle in "*Faithful presence*" to God, self, and others, and doing so with his seeming relentless relational energy. His career arc as an author is following the unique path of Fr. Robert Capon: a couple books on Christian living followed by...a cook book (the book he's working on now). He is one of very few evangelical pastors I'm aware of who is willing to wade deep into the racial issues confronting North American evangelicalism without granting conservative political talking points as the default position. Alex believes God speaks to the particulars of life, and that's why he's as at home in a seminary as he is at a George Floyd protest or a kitchen. He doesn't believe sermons are enough to change the world. Not to sound too cheesy, but I wish there were more pastors like Alex.

Did I mention his wife Jana is an amazing photographer? She did all the photography for Halflight. Needless to say, The Early's have had a big impact on this project.

So, when it came to the last song of the album and the final episode of the podcast, it was important to me to have someone who can speak with credibility on the topics of hope and healing. For those of us who have experienced spiritual trauma, where do we go from here? What does healing look like? How do we make sense of where we've been and where to go?

If you're asking those questions, this conversation is for you.

Use the code PODCAST to Get 20% off Halflight vinyl on my bandcamp page.

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When my faith began to unravel, Mike Cosper was one of the people I reached out to. We'd known each other from afar for long enough that I knew he'd have both context and perspective that few people would have. And he did. What I didn't know at the time was that as I shared my story with him, it was in that moment he begun to think "this story needs to be told" and started thinking about making a podcast about it. Specifically the human impacts and effects on the lives of the people who were there. Crazy!

We chat about how I ditched church to write Return My Heart to my Chest, what he saw in the song that made him want to use it in the podcast, and Bruce Springsteen's writing process.

You can listen to the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill anywhere you get your podcasts.

I had always imagined the guest for Don't Let The Fear Capture Your Heart should be the songwriter Sandra McCracken because she strikes me as someone who lives in hope. Not the sanitized, rote cliché, influencer wearing a HOPE T-shirt on an Instagram reel hope. The kind of hope born in the trenches of real life where shit gets messy and hard. Failure. Unmet expectations. Cancer. Divorce. A hope that can find light in those places.

Don't Let The Fear is a song about looking for hope when it can't easily be found. I wrote it with my kids in mind, hoping that maybe the words Hold onto the light, it ain't here yet, but the morning is nigh might find them in some future moment of need. But anytime you write a song for someone else, you also write it for yourself. Turns out, I needed this song as much as they did. I kinda thought Sandra would get that. I was so stoked when she agreed to have this conversation.

The day came, the call started, the video turned on, and there was Sandra McCracken in a HOPE t-shirt. What followed was not influencer wearing a HOPE t-shirt on an Instagram reel conversation, but ended up being one of the most memorable conversations I had with anyone in 2022. I'll just say this: listen to the episode. Sandra's the real deal.

Check out her podcast Steadfast, and her latest album Light in the Canyon.

Use the code PODCAST to Get 20% off Halflight vinyl on my bandcamp page.

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Tim Wilson doesn't always quote Def Leopard songs spontaneously, but when he does, he does it with a seriousness and gravitas that transports statements like I'm hot, sticky sweet, from my head to my feet. Yeah! into fodder for a serious discussion on the existential patience required while enduring the long everyday mundanities that occur between life's few mountain-top moments. It's true. He does it in this episode.

If you don't know Tim, he's the lead singer and songwriter in Seattle indie band Ivan & Alyosha. We chat about I&A's new record, the many months of waiting, waiting, waiting that happen between when an album is written/recorded, and when it is released; how When Will My Day Come might be the least rock & roll concept ever, and how living in the Halflight necessitates a sort of deeper waiting for all things to be made well.

Use the code PODCAST to Get 20% off Halflight vinyl on my bandcamp page.

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Jeremiah Webster’s happy place is a giant Hogwartsian library. Domed ceiling, multiple levels, the coziest light, and teeming with curious people pouring through the pages of poets and philosophers looking for magic. The kind of magic that animates the imagination in the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful. Talking with Jeremiah, you'll see what I mean. He's always ready with a poem, recited (or more accurately, relished) from memory, to elevate the conversation. I asked him once how he has all these poems committed to memory, and he gave me a simple answer I wasn't looking for, "It makes for a rich inner life." I believe him.

We chat about the difference between being jaded and cynical, the importance of language in songs intended to be sung by many, and he sends us off with the last two stanzas of Auden's September 1, 1939.

Check out Jeremiah's book of poems After So Many Fires, and read his latest works at Mockingbird.

Use the code PODCAST to Get 20% off Halflight vinyl on my bandcamp page.

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Sara Billups new book Orphaned Believers is coming out soon, but it has been in the works her entire life. Growing up in an evangelical family the 90s in Indiana didn't quite prepare her for living in Seattle. It took time for her to figure out how to own her faith and be able to talk about it freely. That happened in 2016 as she watched fringe, nationalistic beliefs become mainstream in Trumpy evangelicalism. Since 2018 she's been writing about Orphaned Believers, creating space for Christians who feel increasingly estranged from their churches and pastors who either outright put on the red hat, or did nothing at all.

We talk about how she found her voice, how a simple faith might be the medicine for our inflamed moment, and how finding other orphaned believers can be so hopeful and refreshing. Get your copy of Orphaned Believers today.

Use the code PODCAST to Get 20% off Halflight vinyl on my bandcamp page.

To stay in the loop and be the first to know about shows, tours, new music, and everything else, join my mailing list.

Use the code PODCAST to Get 20% off Halflight vinyl on my bandcamp page.

To stay in the loop and be the first to know about shows, tours, new music, and everything else, join my mailing list.

Brent James Driscoll (no relation to that other Driscoll) drove into my life in a teal green Prius. It was a borrowed teal green Prius. John Van Deusen & I were on day 1 of our northwest tour and had ran out of gas on Dead Man's Pass on our way to Boise, ID. Brent stepped out of the Prius and instantly jumped into tour manager mode, asked everybody parked at the rest stop if they had gas to spare, and then hopped in the Prius to drive back to Pendleton to fill a gas can. He returned with fuel, offered me a Topo Chico, and we were on our way. He's that kind of person whose kindness has a certain intensity to it. Stripped of pretense, open to anyone, and ready to move. He made an instant impression. Mostly, I was just glad he was with us. We followed that teal green Prius back onto I-84 and made it to the show.

We talk about how the lyric fear and love why can't I tell you apart? struck him, how we often get fear and love mixed up, how we long for more humility and less tribal posturing, and how he's managed to hold onto faith after his own church trauma.

Brent is one of the creators/producers of the Emmy-winning Sessions in Place.