“The act of confessing our sins to one another is a graced invitation to practice the way of faith, hope, and love. The soul tempted to despair will be particularly allergic to ecclesial confession, but it is here that they will find great remedy for their agonizing condition. For in confessing their sins to one another, they are heard with the faith of fellow saints, they are encouraged by the hope of fellow pilgrims, and they are loved with the charity of brothers and sisters.” - Pastoral Confessions

Confession is not an easy topic - but it is a healthy topic. Oftentimes when the topic of confession is brought up, it’s met with one of two responses: 1. "My walls are now up and I’m tuning out what is being talked about." 2. "This is so true and important and a lot of other people have things to confess." But like I said, confession is healthy. And even more than that, confession is necessary. Now I may be biased, but one of the best books on confession releases one week from today - Pastoral Confessions written by my friend Jamin Goggin. Jamin has been on this podcast a few times in the past. He’s an associate professor at Talbot School of Theology, Director of the Healthy Pastor Initiative for Finishing the Task, and one of the most thoughtful theologians I know. In today’s conversation Jamin and I talk about what led him to write about confession, the real human struggles with sin and confession, some ways we can more normalize confession, and much more. You can find a link to order Pastoral Confession in the show notes. I should point out, and we talk about this in the conversation, Pastoral Confessions is a book primarily written to Pastors, but its deep thoughts and themes of confession are important for all of us.

Doable Discipleship is a podcast produced and hosted by Jason Wieland.

Resources Related to This Episode:
https://store.pastors.com/products/pastoral-confessions-the-healing-path-to-faith-ministry-hardcover-book

Subscribe to the Doable Discipleship podcast at Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/doable-discipleship/id1240966935) or Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1Zc9nuwQZOLadbFCZCmZ1V)

Intro Music:
Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Escape From The Town by SHANTI
https://tunetank.com/track/267-escape-from-the-town/

Outro Music:
Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com
Track: Peace by VictorWayne
https://tunetank.com/track/5040-peace/

Episode Originally Published October 2025

“Why do some of us experience Christianity as a burden and others as a refuge? The answer, I am convinced, has to do with grace. Grace is the Big Relief at the heart of Christianity. When grace is down-played or qualified, faith turns into a project and then a burden. Project religion - the ancient human enterprise of proving ourselves morally and spiritually worthy of God’s love - is everywhere. When anchored to grace, however, Christianity remains good news. More than that, faith becomes a source of energy rather than a drain.” - an excerpt from The Big Relief

Today I’m excited to talk about one of my favorite books of the year. As I’ve mentioned a few times on this podcast, I’ve been on a bit of a grace kick lately. Grace was something I knew about, but honestly hadn’t spent a whole ton of time considering. It’s just the last few months though that I’ve really been sitting with grace and seeing just how beautiful, how important it is. So imagine my excitement when I saw a book about the urgency of grace in a worn-out world - right up my alley! And imagine how happy I was to start reading this book and seeing how good and funny it was. So today I’m thrilled to have on David Zahl, author of many books including The Big Relief. In this conversation, David and I talk about what makes grace stand out, the vertical and horizontal nature of grace, the difference between grace and mercy, how the church can be better beacons of grace, how to start living a grace first life today, and much more.

Doable Discipleship is a podcast produced and hosted by Jason Wieland.

Resources Related to This Episode:
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Relief-Urgency-Grace-Worn-Out/dp/1587435578

Subscribe to the Doable Discipleship podcast at Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/doable-discipleship/id1240966935) or Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1Zc9nuwQZOLadbFCZCmZ1V)

Episode first released August 2025

“For the beauty of a journey is that it doesn’t need to be just one thing but can be many things spread out over time and over the many legs of the adventure . . . The Christian story may have already played out with robed people in a bygone past, but I believe it also continues to move, roll on, slosh, and rise in me each morning and moon.” - The Journey of God

All of history has a central theme: God wants a family. This is why the universe was made - so God could make people. This is the story of the Israelites through the Old Testament. This is redemption story, Jesus living on earth and dying on the cross to make it possible for God’s family to live with him forever. This is the story of the church - spreading the Good News that God wants a family and that family learning how to live together. This is the story of the end, God’s family finally living with Him in perfect relationship forever. This may be a central theme, but there is so much in it to unpack and J.D. Lyonhart does just that in his new book, The Journey of God.

J.D. is a professor of religion and philosophy at University of Jamestown and co-host of the Spiritually Incorrect Podcast. In this episode, J.D. and I talk about why it’s okay to have fun when talking about the Bible, the central theme of Jesus’ presence, how we should think about sin and redemption, current issues facing the church, and much more.

Doable Discipleship is a podcast produced and hosted by Jason Wieland.

Resources Related to This Episode: https://www.amazon.com/Journey-God-Christianity-Six-Movements/dp/1514009242

Subscribe to the Doable Discipleship podcast at Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/doable-discipleship/id1240966935) or Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1Zc9nuwQZOLadbFCZCmZ1V)

Episode first released July 2025