Advertise on podcast: Ministry in a Secular Age featuring Dr. Andrew Root

Andy and Derek discuss what it means when human-created AI goes out of control.  From Noah’s flood to Silicon Valley’s dreams of immortality, are we facing something new?  Or are we retelling the oldest story in the book?

Andy walks Derek through James Loder's The Logic of the Spirit — the roadside accident that shaped his whole project, and the two questions Loder thinks press on us from our first breath to our last: what is a lifetime, and why do I live it? This, surprisingly, also has a lot to do with modern children's ministry and the existential humans of every age face.

Andy and Derek discuss passage from Jim Loder on ministers who callus over after getting hurt in ministry. Derek and Andy dig into whether pastoral care is really a "helping profession" at all, turning to Bonhoeffer's idea of the pastor as permanent place-sharer — more parent than therapist — and why the office, not the personality, is what holds a pastor through disappointment.

Andy sends Derek a screenshot of a Jim Loder passage he's frantically highlighted and it sparks a conversation about "convictional neurosis," the tendency in mainline churches to bury real encounters with God.

Andy and Derek discuss the complexities of ministering in communities, transparency, and whether the minister's personal life is the business of the congregation

Most churches talk about how they "want more young people".  Andy and Derek dive into why age has become the metric for whether a church has a future and how this isn't really what holds churches together.

Andy answers a listener e-mail about "being as becoming", the difference it makes for those in ministry, and how it shapes and transforms our understanding about how God moves and acts in the secular age.

What does a private baptism request have to do with your podcast feed? More than you'd think. Derek and Andy unpack what happens when we try to optimize faith, remove friction and obligation, and whether what's left can still be called community at all. Andy's new book "Baal and the Gods of More" is out now!

Andy and Derek explore “post-human” ministry, AI, the future of vocation, and the meaning of life.  Derek also shares his strategy for the coming robot apocalypse.

Andy and Derek discuss Andy's new book "Baal and the Gods of More".  They discuss the trappings of resources and wanting more, and how the God of the Israelites calls us to grow into relationship rather than resources.

Derek texts Andy in the middle of the ICE raids in Minneapolis asking how the he's supposed to pastor through this. Andy thinks the answer has everything to do with Bonhoeffer — and nothing to do with heroism.

Andy saw Hamnet and wept in the theater. When he told other people, they called it "grief porn." Andy now thinks our culture has engineered away the spaces where feeling too much is the whole point. Andy and Derek dig into Byung-Chul Han, Shakespeare, and the ancient human need to mourn together in community. Meanwhile, Derek watched Hamnet alone and cried on his couch.

Andy has thoughts about thoughts and prayers. This is our season finale.   We'll be back in April of 2026 with episodes twice a week until November 2026.  Stay tuned for more and thanks for listening!

Andy thinks ideas from Charles Taylor's recent works about resonance, poetry, and beauty can be found in the zombie show "The Last of Us".   And it says a lot about what ministry looks like in a Secular Age.

Andy has returned from traveling abroad with news of a Quiet Revival happening in European churches.  Andy and Derek discuss reasons for this and what it could mean for ministries in this secular age.