Advertise on podcast: 2 Pastors and a Mic

If you could sit down with your 18-year-old self, what would you tell them? In Episode 301 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock reflect on the lessons they've learned over the past 20–30 years and the advice they wish they could give their younger selves. From learning to enjoy life while you're building it and letting go of the pressure to impress others, to investing in meaningful friendships, navigating grief, having more fun, and realizing you don't need an opinion about everything, this conversation is full of personal stories, laughter, and a few things we wish we'd understood sooner. We also talk about how our understanding of God's goodness continues to grow and why looking back on our lives doesn't have to be filled with regret. As you listen, we'd love for you to consider the same question: What would you tell your 18-year-old self? And as always, just know—you're loved, and there's nothing you can do about it. 00:00 - Welcome Back! Episode 301 02:19 - Birthday Celebrations and Halloween Stories 03:41 - What Would You Tell Your 18-Year-Old Self? 06:43 - Why You Should Start Investing Early 08:43 - You Don't Have to Be Impressive to Be Loved 09:50 - Enjoy Your Life While You're Building It 11:27 - Learning to Have More Fun 12:22 - How Grief Changes Your Priorities 13:22 - Pay Attention to the People Who Show Up 14:24 - Appreciating the People Already in Your Life 15:31 - Friendships You Haven't Made Yet 16:21 - The People You'll Love and Lose 16:42 - Looking Back on Young Love and Marriage 20:01 - The Relationships Worth Waiting For 21:59 - You Don't Need an Opinion About Everything 22:57 - Discovering How Good God Really Is 23:58 - What Would You Tell Your Younger Self? 24:22 - Looking Back Without Shame or Regret

Did God really abandon Jesus on the cross? And if God is always good, how do we make sense of the moments when life feels anything but good? For our 300th episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, we're celebrating LIVE from the Netherlands with our good friend Jason Clark from Rethinking God with Tacos! Together with our live audience, we explore some of the biggest questions about God's goodness, including what Jesus meant when He cried, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", the illusion of separation from God, what the future of the church might look like, and how we experience God's love in the middle of suffering, grief, and doubt.  00:00 - Celebrating 300 Episodes Live in the Netherlands 02:14 - Welcoming Special Guest Jason Clark 03:34 - Looking Back on 300 Episodes 04:34 - If You Could Say One Thing About Jesus... 06:31 - What If Following Jesus Was Fun? 08:03 - Did God Abandon Jesus on the Cross? 08:38 - Understanding Psalm 22 and the Cross 11:15 - The Delusion of Separation From God 12:38 - Why Believing in Separation Matters 14:33 - What Does the Future of the Church Look Like? 17:39 - Finding Community Through Your Passions 19:07 - How Do We See God's Goodness in Crisis? 20:43 - Did God Cause the Suffering? 23:02 - Finding Connection and Grace Through Grief 24:22 - Can Faith and Doubt Exist Together? 27:22 - They Worshiped Jesus and Still Doubted

What would you tell yourself if you could go back six years and have a conversation with the person you used to be? As we approach our 300th episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock take some time to reflect on how much has changed since they first started recording. We talk about what we thought we understood about God, what we're more and less certain about today, and how our priorities have shifted when it comes to ministry, relationships, and life. We also share some of our favorite episodes, unforgettable guests, hilarious behind-the-scenes moments, and the unexpected ways this podcast has impacted people around the world. 00:00 - Welcome to Episode 299 01:14 - Looking Back on Six Years of Podcasting 03:05 - What Would We Tell Our Younger Selves? 05:58 - The Unexpected Impact of the Podcast 10:11 - What Did We Care Too Much About? 12:08 - What Did We Think We Understood? 13:39 - What Are We More Certain About? 14:26 - What Are We Less Certain About? 16:41 - What Matters More and Less to Us Now? 18:17 - Why Curiosity and Family Matter More 20:07 - Have We Become the People We Hoped to Be? 21:31 - Our Favorite Podcast Episodes 22:48 - Episodes and Guests We'd Love to Revisit 24:24 - Our Funniest Behind-the-Scenes Moments 28:03 - Our Most Uncomfortable Conversations 29:19 - What Surprised Us Most About 300 Episodes? 29:51 - Looking Ahead to Episode 300

In Episode 298 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about the ongoing process of unlearning old beliefs, behaviors, and patterns—even after our understanding of God, ourselves, and other people has changed. 00:00 - Welcome Back & Netherlands Recap 02:36 - A Listener’s Story That Changed Us 05:13 - Revisiting What We Actually Want 07:02 - Wanting More Peace, Fun, and Freedom 12:04 - What Are We Still Unlearning? 13:17 - When Our Beliefs and Behaviors Don’t Match 14:44 - Breaking Free From Performance 16:23 - When Beliefs Change Before Our Behavior 17:24 - Unlearning Fear Around Giving 19:17 - Why Do Old Reactions Keep Showing Up? 23:41 - How Our Faith and Practices Have Changed 26:18 - Deconstruction, Reconstruction, and Unlearning 28:34 - This Week’s Challenge: Practice the New Way

In Episode 297 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock have an honest conversation about how difficult it can be to figure out what we actually want—and how much of our desires may have been shaped by culture, family, church, other people’s expectations, or an earlier version of ourselves. They talk about things they spent years pursuing that don’t matter nearly as much anymore, wanting validation more than the thing itself, feeling guilty for admitting certain desires, and how our definition of success changes as we get older. 00:00 - Welcome to Episode 297 03:16 - A Difficult Conversation About What We Want 04:48 - What Did You Think Life Would Look Like By Now? 06:28 - How Our Wants Change 07:02 - What Did You Spend Years Wanting? 08:03 - Realizing You Wanted the Wrong Things 09:03 - How Our Definition of Success Changes 10:36 - Who Taught You What to Want? 11:05 - Desire, Expectation, and Validation 11:23 - Feeling Guilty for Wanting Something 13:19 - Money, Ministry, and Other People’s Expectations 14:25 - Why Did Jesus Ask People What They Wanted? 15:31 - Your Desires Matter 16:03 - Did Christianity Make Us Suspicious of Desire? 16:21 - What Do You Want at This Stage of Your Life? 18:02 - Three Questions to Discover What You Want 18:19 - I Want More… I Want Less… 19:58 - Closing Thoughts

In this episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about destination addiction, contentment, and how easy it is to romanticize a life we aren’t actually living while missing the one happening right now. They also talk about why joy can feel vulnerable, why we sometimes wait for something bad to happen when life is going well, and whether our hope for the future can actually keep us from participating in the present. 00:00 - Live From the Netherlands 01:40 - Why Do We Romanticize the Future? 02:13 - Life Will Be Better When… 04:40 - Destination Addiction 05:07 - The “When, Then” Trap 05:48 - Learning to Be Content Now 06:13 - Living in the Season You Once Prayed For 07:35 - Are You Postponing Happiness? 08:39 - Why Is It Hard to Express Joy? 09:40 - Does Joy Feel Vulnerable? 10:10 - Are We Protecting Ourselves From Joy? 12:10 - Joy Isn’t Circumstantial 13:37 - Can Hope Keep Us From Living? 15:51 - Enduring Life Instead of Enjoying It 16:23 - Learning How to Live Now 17:13 - What Season Do You Now Miss? 19:37 - What Will You Miss About Today? 20:08 - Recognizing a Season Before It’s Gone 22:44 - Catch Your “When” 23:25 - Name What’s Already Good Today 23:54 - Change Your “When” to “Now” 24:55 - You Are Loved Right Now

In Episode 295 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about the difference between having a full life and living a hurried life—and whether busyness has become something we use to convince ourselves that what we’re doing matters. They talk about why resting can make us feel guilty, what might come to the surface when everything gets quiet, and whether some of our exhaustion comes from constantly consuming instead of simply doing too much. 00:00 - Welcome to Episode 295 02:27 - Why Do We Always Say We’re Busy? 03:18 - When Busyness Becomes a Sign of Success 04:01 - Does Hurry Describe Your Soul? 05:40 - Can You Have a Full Calendar and Still Be Present? 06:13 - When Did Busy Become Important? 07:56 - Learning to Always Be Busy 09:15 - Why Do We Feel Guilty for Resting? 11:45 - Exhaustion Is Not a Spiritual Gift 12:00 - Does Busyness Make Us Feel Important? 12:18 - What Are We Avoiding by Staying Busy? 13:29 - Why Is It So Hard to Be Still? 14:00 - What Shows Up When Everything Gets Quiet? 15:10 - Are We Tired Because We Never Stop Consuming? 16:18 - Jesus Was Never in a Hurry 16:44 - Interruptions or Invitations? 17:32 - How Jesus Handled Interruptions 18:39 - What Does Love Require Here? 19:35 - What Are You Rushing Through? 19:52 - What Will You Wish You Had Slowed Down For? 20:43 - Be Where Your Feet Are 21:13 - Three Ways to Slow Down 23:09 - The Challenge: Do Absolutely Nothing

In this episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about our tendency to fix people, give advice they never asked for, and become more invested in someone’s growth than they are. They also talk about the deeper things that can be hiding underneath our desire to help. What happens when being needed becomes part of our identity? Are we actually offering something to another person, or are we trying to produce an outcome for them? 00:00 - Welcome to the Podcast 02:18 - Why Do We Feel Responsible for Fixing People? 03:52 - Why Is It So Hard to Watch People Struggle? 06:23 - Learning to Have Fewer Opinions 07:41 - When You Want to Coach Everyone 08:52 - What Happens When People Ignore Your Advice? 09:47 - What Do You Need From Me? 12:05 - Are You More Invested in Their Growth Than They Are? 13:40 - You Can’t Do the Work for Someone Else 15:45 - The Addiction to Being Needed 17:21 - Jesus Didn’t Chase People 19:24 - Jesus Didn’t Need to Be Needed 20:54 - Three Questions Before You Try to Help 21:39 - Stop Giving Unsolicited Advice 24:40 - This Week’s Challenge: Don’t Give Advice 25:10 - You Are Loved

In this episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock talk about where our fear of disappointing people comes from, why someone else’s disappointment can make us feel like we’ve done something wrong, and how much of our lives can be spent trying to manage other people’s reactions. They also talk about the pressure many Christians carry to keep God from being disappointed in them—and why they believe it’s impossible to disappoint a God who already knows us completely. 00:00 - Welcome to the Podcast 01:39 - Why Is Disappointment So Hard? 02:44 - Who Are You Most Afraid of Disappointing? 03:04 - Expectancy vs. Expectation 05:25 - The Fear of Disappointing Ourselves 09:55 - What Happens When Someone Is Disappointed in You? 10:57 - Our Knee-Jerk Reactions to Disappointment 11:59 - Why Does Disappointment Feel Like We Did Something Wrong? 12:41 - Can We Disappoint God? 13:34 - What Happens When We’re Trying Not to Disappoint God? 13:49 - Are You Managing Everyone Else’s Reactions? 14:49 - How Fear of Disappointment Shapes Our Decisions 15:23 - Have You Changed a Decision to Avoid Disappointing Someone? 20:32 - How Many People Did Jesus Disappoint? 22:11 - Emotional Health Sometimes Disappoints People 22:21 - When Love Requires a Boundary 23:22 - Whose Disappointment Are You Trying to Avoid? 23:31 - What Is It Costing You? 23:46 - Let People Be Disappointed 25:01 - God Is Never Disappointed in You

In this episode of Two Pastors and a Mic, we talk about the difference between being hurt and living offended, why certain criticisms affect us more than others, and the stories we often attach to someone else’s behavior. We also look at the life of Jesus—someone who was misunderstood, criticized, rejected, falsely accused, and abandoned, yet never seemed consumed with defending himself or repairing his reputation. What would change if you didn’t need everyone to understand you correctly in order to know who you are? 00:00 - Welcome to the Podcast 01:07 - Living the 2:6 Life 01:36 - Why Was Jesus So Hard to Offend? 03:44 - What Offends Us More Than It Should? 08:54 - What Criticism Gets Under Your Skin? 12:02 - Being Hurt vs. Being Offended 12:20 - The Stories We Tell Ourselves 13:00 - What Criticism Is Hardest to Hear? 15:13 - Disliked or Disrespected? 17:18 - Why Was Jesus So Hard to Offend? 19:18 - Offense Might Be More About Us 20:11 - Jesus Didn’t Defend His Reputation 22:32 - Jesus Let People Walk Away 23:50 - Being Hurt vs. Living Hurt 24:02 - Do You Need People to See You Correctly? 24:50 - A Practice for Handling Offense 26:27 - Final Thoughts: Knowing Who You Are

In Episode 291 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock continue the conversation around changing our minds, being wrong, and what happens when the people we love don’t change with us. They talk about why we often assume more people think like us than actually do, why certain people’s disagreement affects us more than others, and how our need for validation can hide underneath our need to convince someone that we’re right. They also explore the connection between agreement and belonging, why disagreement can feel like rejection, how political and theological differences can strain relationships, and what it looks like to stay connected without requiring someone else to see the world exactly the way we do. 00:00 - Welcome to Episode 291 02:13 - Why Do I Need You to Think I’m Right? 03:14 - The False Consensus Effect 04:31 - We Assume More People Think Like Us 06:41 - When Someone Close to You Disagrees 07:33 - Whose Disagreement Bothers You Most? 09:18 - When a Friend’s Disagreement Hits Different 10:50 - Learning to Live With Theological Tension 12:03 - Why One Person’s Disagreement Can Wreck Your Day 12:48 - Social Verification & the Need for Validation 15:03 - Why Disagreement Can Feel Like Rejection 15:59 - When Did Agreement Become Connected to Belonging? 17:12 - What’s Harder: Changing or Watching Others Stay the Same? 20:10 - Losing Friendships Over Politics 20:33 - Does Relationship Require Agreement? 21:40 - What Do We Actually Disagree About? 23:20 - Friendship Can Survive Disagreement 26:22 - Where Do You Need to Stop Needing Agreement? 26:31 - The Challenge: Let a Disagreement Stay Unresolved 27:18 - Choosing Relationship Over Agreement

In Episode 290 of Two Pastors and a Mic, Cory and Channock continue their conversation from last week by exploring what’s underneath our need to be right. They talk about why admitting we’re wrong can feel so uncomfortable, how church culture can turn certainty into a measure of faithfulness, and why disagreement doesn’t have to lead to disrespect or disconnection. They also unpack research on intellectual humility and why people who are willing to consider that they could be wrong are often more curious, more open to opposing evidence, and more capable of maintaining relationships with people who see the world differently. The goal isn’t to stop having convictions. It’s learning to hold those convictions without needing everyone else to agree with us. 00:00 - Welcome to Episode 290 01:27 - Why Do We Care So Much About Being Right? 02:11 - What Are We Really Protecting? 04:54 - When You Can Feel Yourself Needing to Win 06:22 - Would You Change Your Mind If You Had To? 08:19 - What Does Being Right Give Us? 10:18 - What Does Being Wrong Make Us Feel? 11:18 - When Being Wrong Feels Threatening 14:35 - Letting People Believe Differently 17:11 - When Being Wrong Becomes a Spiritual Issue 19:51 - When Certainty Becomes Faithfulness 20:01 - Why Does Disagreement Become Disrespect? 20:52 - Can You Respect Someone You Think Is Wrong? 22:58 - What Research Says About Intellectual Humility 24:06 - The Problem With Staying in Our Own Camps 25:18 - Rapid-Fire Questions About Being Wrong 27:38 - Who Changed Your Mind Without Fighting You? 30:04 - Ask One More Question 31:59 - What’s That to You?

Why is it so hard to change our minds? We like to think our beliefs are simply based on facts, evidence, and what makes the most sense. But changing our minds is rarely that simple. Our beliefs can become connected to our identity, our relationships, our sense of belonging, and even our need to feel safe. In this episode, Cory and Channock talk about what actually happens when we begin questioning something we’ve believed for years. They share some of the significant ways their own minds have changed—especially around theology—and why curiosity, safe relationships, and becoming comfortable with “I don’t know” have been so important along the way. 00:00 - We’re Back! 02:25 - Summer Updates 05:38 - Why Is It So Hard to Change Our Minds? 07:10 - The Power of Curiosity 10:11 - When Was the Last Time You Changed Your Mind? 12:02 - Why Our Brains Resist New Beliefs 13:21 - Changing Our Minds About Theology 14:31 - When Beliefs Become Part of Our Identity 15:12 - Confirmation Bias and Scripture 16:16 - Beliefs We Can’t Believe We Once Held 19:33 - What Are We Really Protecting? 21:41 - Our Need for Certainty 23:11 - What Makes Changing Your Mind Possible? 26:35 - Is Changing Your Mind a Sign of Maturity? 27:56 - Why Do We Shame Adults for Changing? 29:10 - What Belief Made Your Life More Beautiful? 30:14 - Stop Asking “Am I Right?” 31:42 - Finding Safe People for the Journey

For generations, many of us have been taught that God's wrath is His anger directed toward sinful people. But what if we've misunderstood it? In this final message of the Reframe series, Cory explores one of the most misunderstood themes in Scripture and asks a simple but profound question: If Jesus is the perfect revelation of the Father, what does that mean for how we understand God's wrath? Looking through the lens of Jesus, this message challenges the idea of an angry, punitive God and presents a different picture—one where God's wrath is His relentless love confronting everything that distorts, enslaves, and dehumanizes us. Rather than destroying people, God's passion is aimed at destroying the lies that keep us from knowing who we've always been. Together, we explore: • What the Bible actually means by "wrath" • Why Romans 1 says God "gave them over" • How Jesus redefined God's character • Why the cross reveals reconciliation, not divine retaliation • The difference between fear-driven religion and love-driven transformation • How God's consuming fire purifies instead of punishes 00:00 - Introduction & Why We're Revisiting Reframe 02:35 - My Journey of Unlearning and Relearning 06:20 - Week 5: Reframing God's Wrath 09:28 - From Fear-Driven Thinking to Peace-Filled Living 12:25 - What If Wrath Isn't God's Anger? 15:35 - The Church's View of Wrath Changed 16:19 - God Is Love, God Is Light 17:52 - The Meaning of "Wrath" in Scripture 19:10 - Romans: Wrath as Natural Consequences 21:32 - Jerusalem, 70 AD & Rejecting Love 24:00 - God's Fire Purifies, Not Punishes 25:11 - Jesus Corrects the Old View of Wrath 29:01 - The Cross Reveals God's True Heart 32:04 - The Old Lens vs. The New Lens 33:29 - Living From Love Instead of Fear 38:09 - Closing Prayer & Final Encouragement

In this message from our Reframe series, we tackle one of the most foundational beliefs many Christians have never questioned: Were you actually born with a sinful nature? For many of us, the Christian story began in Genesis 3—with sin, shame, and separation. But what if the biblical story actually begins in Genesis 1—with blessing, identity, and belovedness? Together, we explore the history of the doctrine of original sin, the biblical case for original blessing, what the Greek word hamartia (sin) really means, and why your understanding of your identity shapes the way you experience God, yourself, and others. This conversation isn't about minimizing sin. It's about asking whether we've misunderstood its origin, its purpose, and ultimately the good news of the Gospel. In this episode we discuss: - Why the biblical story begins with blessing before brokenness - Original blessing vs. original sin - What hamartia actually means in the Greek - Did Adam pass down a sinful nature—or a distorted story? - Why Romans should be read as one complete argument - The difference between "flesh" and "sin nature" - How identity, not shame, becomes the starting point for transformation - Why Jesus came to reveal who you've always been 00:00 – Welcome & Introducing the Reframe Series 02:26 – You've Always Been in Union 04:29 – Why This Series Is Challenging 06:08 – Learning to Think, Not What to Think 08:31 – The Purpose of Reframe 10:35 – You Were Not Born Sinful 12:28 – Does the Bible Begin with Sin or Blessing? 14:06 – Original Blessing vs. Original Sin 16:35 – What Does "Sin" Actually Mean? 20:03 – Adam Didn't Pass Down a Sin Nature 22:28 – Understanding Romans Correctly 27:47 – Adam's Story vs. Jesus' Story 28:38 – What Does "Flesh" Really Mean? 30:03 – Scriptures Supporting Original Blessing 35:27 – Living from Blessing Instead of Shame 39:15 – Prayer & Final Encouragement 40:10 – The Ministry of Reconciliation 41:44 – Church Announcements & Closing