Podcasts about Hopper

It's May 2019, and the medical staff at Treliske (Treh-lisk) Hospital in Cornwall have just received a notice: their colleague, vascular surgeon Neil Hopper, is being rushed to their facility. Following a week in which he suffered from cold sweats and a fever, Neil's feet became septic, and his team thought he would have to lose them. And while his colleagues felt awful for him and expected him to be depressed about the loss, Neil seemed to be in good spirits. He was upbeat, hopeful, and didn't even seem to miss his legs. This shocked everyone, and they thought that he was just making the best of a bad situation. In reality, losing his legs is exactly what Neil Hopper wanted all along. SPONSORSButcherBox: Premium proteins without the premium hassle   https://butcherbox.com/MILEHIGHER for $20 OFF and your choice of steak tips, ground beef OR chicken breast for LIFE!FreeCash: Get more out of your digital services with https://freecash.com/milehigher for a $10 BONUS when signing up!Boll and Branch: Bed sets that will keep you cool all night long with https://bollandbranch.com and use code MILEHIGHER for 15% OFF your first purchase!Stitch Fix: Take the stress out of your wardrobe. Start shopping at https://stitchfix.com/milehigherPrimal Queen: Our listeners get a FREE MONTH of Primal Queen plus FOUR FREE GIFTS at https://PrimalQueen.com/MILEHIGHER #ad Lola Blankets: Wrap yourself in luxury with https://lolablankets.com and enter code MILEHIGHER for 40% OFF select products!SOURCEShttps://pastebin.com/qb5Q6nV9MILE HIGHERWebsite: https://milehigher.com/Higher Hope Foundation: https://www.higherhope.org/Merch: http://milehighermerch.comTopic Request Form: https://forms.gle/gUeTEzL9QEh4Hqz88Official Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/3kQbAxgLISTEN & SUPPORTMHP YouTube: http://bit.ly/2qaDWGfRate & review us on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2H4kh58Follow us on Apple Podcasts & SpotifyMORE PODCASTS FROM USThe Sesh: https://bit.ly/3Mtoz4XLights Out: https://bit.ly/3n3GaoePlanet Sleep: https://linktr.ee/planetsleepFOLLOW US @milehigherpodInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/milehigherpodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MileHigherHOSTSKendall (@kendallraeonyt)IG: http://instagram.com/kendallraeonytYT: https://www.youtube.com/c/kendallsplaceJosh (@milehigherjosh)IG: http://www.instagram.com/milehigherjoshPRODUCERSJanelle (@janelle_fields_): https://www.instagram.com/janelle_fields_/Ian (@ifarme): https://www.instagram.com/ifarme/Tom (@cinematomgrapher): https://www.instagram.com/cinematomgrapher/MUSIC BY MILE HIGHER BOYSYT: https://bit.ly/2Q7N5QOSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0F4ik...Podcast sponsor inquiries: adops@audioboom.comSEND US MAILKendall Rae & Josh Thomas8547 E Arapahoe Rd Ste J # 233Greenwood Village, CO 80112

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Kan je vijftien jaar werk samenvatten in drie minuten? Loek Buter deed het in 2024 op het podium van De Donkere Kamer in Pakhuis de Zwijger, en hij won. In deze aflevering spreek ik hem via Zoom, twee jaar later.Loek fotografeert sinds 2012 het polderlandschap van West-Friesland, waar hij opgroeide als boerenzoon. Zijn project Waar de dijken slapen begon als onderzoek naar de identiteit van de bewoners en werd gaandeweg een zoektocht naar zichzelf. Hij vertelt hoe de voorbereiding van zijn pitch hem dwong om zijn verhaal scherp te krijgen, en wat hem dat opleverde: zelfvertrouwen, een gesprek met een uitgever en de keuze om zijn boek in eigen beheer uit te geven. Wil je zelf pitchen op 16 oktober in Amsterdam? Schrijf je hier in vóór 2 oktober.Wat je leert in deze afleveringWaarom een pitch van drie minuten je dwingt om de kern van je project te vinden, en waarom dat ook buiten het podium waardevol isHoe je als beelddenker woorden vindt voor je werk (van pagina's tekst naar drie zinnen)Welke vraag je jezelf eerst moet stellen voor je een fotoboek maaktWaarom Loek kiest voor eigen beheer, subsidies en voorinschrijving in plaats van crowdfundingHoe hij met externe blikken en printjes aan de muur selecteert uit 2000 negatievenHoe een persoonlijk project over je geboortegrond ook een zoektocht naar je eigen identiteit kan wordenPitch je fotoproject: schrijf je inWil jij je project voorstellen aan een zaal vol fotoliefhebbers en een jury van curatoren, fotoredacteuren en galeristen? Op 16 oktober pitchen drie fotografen in Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam. Deadline om je aan te melden: 2 oktober.Aanmelden via donkerekamer.com/pitchWat de winnaar krijgt:Een cheque van € 200 bij Profotonet voor een fotoboekEen gesprek met uitgever Bruno de Vos van Hopper & FuchsTien scans en tien filmontwikkelingen bij Morilab€ 500 aan prints bij Fotolab AmsterdamEen spread (twee pagina's) in De Standaard, in de rubriek OoggetuigenPrijzen van DuphoEen kwartaalabonnement op de masterclass-pas, met onder meer de masterclass van Peter van Agtmael (Magnum Photos)Zichtbaarheid bij de jury en een flinke dosis podiumervaringLiever komen luisteren? Tickets vind je via donkerekamer.com/shows.Partners van deze afleveringFoto Robyns (Sint-Truiden) Een familiezaak met meer dan zeventig jaar ervaring, die elke dag tussen fotografen staat. Ze begeleiden zowel starters als professionals, en als pro-dealer van Canon, Nikon, Sony en Fujifilm kennen ze hun materiaal door en door. Je krijgt er advies dat vertrekt vanuit hoe jij werkt. Foto Robyns, Sint-Truiden.Profotonet Voor mij begint een foto pas echt te leven wanneer ze geprint wordt. Daarom werk ik graag samen met Pro Foto Net voor fine art prints, fotoboeken en wanddecoratie, met veel zorg gemaakt en speciaal voor fotografen. Wil jij je werk ook tastbaar maken? Kijk op profotonet.com en gebruik code kamer-1010 voor 10% korting op je bestelling.Cameranu Naast creativiteit heb je als fotograaf ook gewoon de juiste tools nodig, of dat nu een nieuwe lens is of een camera waar je op kan vertrouwen tijdens een klantenshoot. De specialisten van Cameranu denken met je mee en geven eerlijk advies. Ga naar cameranu.be en gebruik code DDK10 voor 10% korting.

Kann es Demogorgons mit Spinnenkörpern geben? Wir besprechen heute Stranger Things Staffel 2, Folge 4, 5 & 6: Während Will von einer monströsen Gestalt aus dem Schattenreich besessen wird, verschwindet Hopper in den mysteriösen Tunneln unter der Stadt. Elfi sucht ihre Mama, Lucas entschuldigt sich bei Max und Dustin und Steve bilden einen neuen Demodog-Suchtrupp... #strangerthings #betreutesbingen #st2 Nächste Woche besprechen wir Stranger Things Staffel 2, Folge 7, 8 & 9. Instagram: @aliciajoe und @cashisclay_attitude Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Stoke Space's approach to full reuse is easiest to understand when you can actually see the hardware. During an exclusive post-Series E tour of the company's 168,000-square-foot headquarters outside Seattle, CEO Andy Lapsa walks us through the evolution of Nova—from the Hopper demonstrator that first proved Stoke's second-stage architecture to the flight hardware now being prepared for orbital testing.We cover:- How Stoke is scaling Nova from the three-ton Pathfinder to the 15-ton Block 2- What changes and what stays the same in Block 2's propulsion architecture- How Stoke plans to ramp Pathfinder production while developing Block 2 in parallel- What remains before Pathfinder ships for final testing and its first orbital flight- Why Stoke is expanding its manufacturing and testing footprint following the $1 billion Series E• Show notes •Stoke's' website — https://www.stokespace.com/Stoke's' socials — https://x.com/stoke_spaceAndy's socials – https://x.com/AndyLapsaMo's socials — https://x.com/itsmoislamValley of Depth archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/• About us •Valley of Depth is a podcast about the technologies reshaping industry, national security, and the global balance of power.Brought to you by Arkaea Media, the team behind Payload, Tectonic, Ignition, and Decoding Bio, the show covers space, defense, energy, biotech, and the technologies shaping what comes next.We sit down with founders, investors, government officials, scientists, and military leaders to understand what they're building, why it matters, and where these industries are headed. From new companies and breakthrough technologies to capital, policy, and geopolitics, Valley of Depth goes deep on the forces shaping the future.• Payload: www.payloadspace.com• Tectonic: www.tectonicdefense.com• Ignition: www.ignition-news.com• Decoding Bio: www.decodingbio.com

BEYOND ADVENTURE – SEASON 4: THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUSEpisode 4 – Part 2: “Killing Time Before 5”With their meeting with Skipper set for 5 PM at Moonville Theater, the boys have a few hours to prepare.Instead of sitting around and waiting, Jax, Tony, and Aurie head across town to gather anything that might help them uncover what happened to Hopper—and what the Midnight Circus has to do with his disappearance.Their search takes them through familiar spots around Moonville as they collect supplies, look for useful information, and prepare for whatever might be waiting for them at the theater.What starts as a simple trip around town quickly becomes another piece of the mystery.Every stop could hold a clue.Every item could become important.And with the clock ticking closer to 5 PM, the boys know they need to be ready.Because tonight, they aren't just meeting Skipper.They're taking the next step toward finding out what really happened to Hopper McConnalley.The countdown to Moonville Theater begins.

Adam opened by asking Fr. Bonaventure Chapman to explain his love of toads, and Father asked back whether this was going to be the essay version. It was. It started with Hopper, a good-looking male toad caught on Mother's Day when Father was a kid, the first real pet in the house. You can tell a male toad by the forearms, which he needs for holding on. But a pet is a deposit, and theology is what you do with a deposit. Every animal exists because it is supposed to, and each one reflects some attribute of God, because God is infinite and nothing finite can carry all of Him at once. So the attributes get spread out. Power goes to the lion. Strength to the ox. Purity to the swan, penetrating sight to the eagle. Mosquitoes remain an open question Father intends to raise personally when he gets up there. Toads carry the hard one: aseity. They look like rocks, but they are alive. You nudge one and it does not flee, does not panic, does not perform. It looks back at you with a plain so what. It is not depending on you. It is fine without you. That is what God is like.Sponsor: Select International Tours When Adam and Dave went looking for help leading their first pilgrimage, every person they asked gave them the same name. Having used Select now, they can vouch for it. Wherever in the world you want to go, whether you are leading a pilgrimage or joining one, go to selectinternationaltours.com and look at what they have ready for you.David countered with the platypus, which he and his buddy Thomas Lackey have decided is the noblest of animals and has to be either the first thing God made or the last. First, because He had been looking forward to creation for all eternity, led with His best material, then realized He had better slow down and give everything after that one good idea apiece. Or last, because He had already made everything else and thought, what if mammal, but with venom in the heels, and it lays eggs, and it has a bill. Then He stopped out of mercy. Michael filed a friendly amendment on behalf of the finite intelligences. Australia went on record as the test lab.Then the topic, and it is a big one. Father's case is that St. Faustina Kowalska should be named a Doctor of the Church, and that the Year of Mercy was the obvious moment to do it. A doctor is not honored for her own sake any more than a saint is canonized for his. Both are given to us, pro nobis. A doctor is someone whose vantage point lights up an aspect of the faith the rest of us were walking past. Augustine gets grace. Bernard of Clairvaux gets the mellifluous tongue. Bonaventure gets the seraphic love. It is not competition, it is refraction, one pure white light through a prism, and the doctors are how we see the colors.Faustina has a doctrine, and the doctrine is mercy. Her work is the Diary, which is not a treatise but a record of a woman talking to Jesus and writing down both halves of it. That is the part Father loves. You are not reading a transcript of revelation, you are in the church balcony listening to a saint pray, and she tells you what she thought about what He said, how the sisters reacted, what she wanted to do next. Bible and the Diary is his desert island list.Here is the objection, and Father takes it seriously because Thomas takes it seriously. Mercy cannot be the greatest attribute of God simply speaking. Mercy is pity toward a sufferer and a desire to heal it, which means it depends on somebody suffering. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do not need mercy from one another. God's greatest attributes have to be the ones He has with nothing else but Himself: intellect, will, love. Deus caritas est. Thomas allows that mercy is greatest secundum quid, for us, because our condition means mercy is the shape His love takes when it reaches us. So when Jesus tells Faustina to proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God, you can start to wonder whether the Diary is reliable.It is a translation problem, and it is the best thing in this episode. Jesus is speaking Polish to a poor, uneducated Polish girl, and Polish does something no other language does here. In Latin, mercy is misericordia, from miser, wretchedness, plus cor, heart. Pity of the heart. English, German, and the rest all run mercy and love back to separate roots. Polish does not. Miłosierdzie sounds exactly like misericordia, but its root is not misery. It is miłość. Love. So the word is not pity of the heart, it is love of the heart. The deeper love. When Christ tells her to proclaim mercy as His greatest attribute, He is telling her to proclaim the deepest love.And she already showed you this, back at Diary 180, where she writes that the third attribute is love and mercy, miłość i miłosierdzie, and the verb is singular. Not two things. One. By the time you get to 301 the shorthand is already established.Which is why it matters. We treat mercy as a second act of the will. I am supposed to love you, and then if you wrong me I have a separate question to answer about whether to be merciful. Two decisions. For God there is only one. He does not love us into being, watch us sin, and then convene a divine moment to decide whether to bother. Mercy is His steadfast love refusing to stop. You love someone, they walk away from you, and you keep going toward them. You just have to go farther. That is not a different love, it is the same love gone deeper, which is what the sierdzie is doing in the word. It is not a lifeguard deciding whether to blow the whistle or go in the water. Going in is who He is.Run that lens over everything else and it starts opening doors, which is Father's actual pitch for what he calls Faustinianism, a school of thought alongside Augustinianism and Thomism. It makes sense of the hard line in the Diary about the greater sinner having the greater right to His mercy. More love for the ones who need more love. That is not scandalous, it is arithmetic.On the podcast, which you should go subscribe to, the guys keep Father for the harder questions. Whether God loves anyone without mercy. Whether Mary is the exception, and why the Immaculate Conception turns out to be an act of mercy too. Whether God loves some people more than others, and what a glass with holes in it is doing under a waterfall. Plus how to actually read the Diary, which is one page a day for about two years, and why Father carries a holy card with her relic in it that Fr. Gregory Pine handed him right when he needed it.Raise your glass.TOPICS COVEREDWhy Fr. Bonaventure loves toads, starting with Hopper, caught on Mother's DayHow to tell a male toad from a female toad, and why the forearms matterTheological biology: every animal reflects some attribute of God because nothing finite can carry all of HimLions for power, oxen for strength, swans for purity, eagles for penetrating sightThe outstanding question of mosquitoes, to be raised in personWhy the toad is the best living image of God's aseity and impassibilityThe toad's "so what," and a God who is perfectly happy whether or not you show upThe platypus as the noblest of animals, and whether it was God's first idea or His lastAustralia as the containment lab, and Michael's friendly amendment on behalf of the angelsCrusius on why there can be no loveless world, and why God could not have made a universe of only toadsWhy non-loving things have no interesting relation to God, and loving things doThe case that St. Faustina Kowalska should be named a Doctor of the ChurchWhy the Year of Mercy was the obvious moment and it did not happenWhat a Doctor of the Church actually is, and why doctors and saints are both given pro nobisThe prism image: one pure white light, and the doctors are how we see the colorsWhy the Diary is unlike other spiritual classics, and what it means to eavesdrop on a saint at prayerBible and the Diary as the desert island listThe early pushback on Faustina, the mistranslations, and why the Church is rightly slow with private revelationAquinas condemned in 1270 and 1277, and why being disliked is not a mark against youLord Falkland's rule: where it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to changeThomas's objection: mercy depends on a sufferer, so it cannot be God's greatest attribute simply speakingWhy the Trinity has no need of mercy, and why intellect, will, and love are the attributes up for grabsMercy as greatest secundum quid, the shape God's love takes when it reaches sinnersThe Incarnation as an act of mercy, which is love for the sinnerWhy misericordia means pity of the heart and miłosierdzie does notThe Polish root: miłość is love, so mercy is love of the heart, not pity of the heartDiary 180 and the singular verb, and why 301 is shorthand for something already saidWhy we treat mercy as a second act of the will and God does notLove that keeps going farther when the person walks awayWhy this is not the lifeguard deciding whether to blow the whistleFaustinianism as a school of thought alongside Augustinianism and Thomism"The greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy," and why that stops being scandalousThe Balthasar translation problem: dürfen is "may we hope," not "dare we hope"Polish as a vowel desert, and the despair of a 7 a.m. Mass in PolishWhat...

Back in the flying pizza van, unknown hero agent guy is bleedingout and Jonathon is like “better go to a hospital” and the dying man is like “nope,don't you know better than to trust the government” And mike is like “but you are the government” and he's like “exactly!here's a pen write this down, A C A B” then he dies. Over in another part of the endless dessert stands a door.And our white rabbit, Owens leads eleven down the rabbit hole to face thejabberwocky aka papa aka Brenner, the true villain behind all the bad thingsthat have ever happened in this show and possibly real life. She sees him and is like “nope” but too bad because theystab her neck with a sleepy needle. Over in Russia, Hopper is getting beaten up like a SteveHarrington and then he beats up Ezno and all the prisoners are like ACAB excepthopper is a bastard cop too so he doesn't kill his new friend. Eddie eats SpaghettiOs out of the pan and needs a six pack,Max draws pictures. Dustin insults the drawings and pisses of Ted Wheeler and Steveand anyone else he can… just you know… for fun.Eleven wakes up with a shaved head in her bare bedroom/prisonat the lab but that's okay because Hermie the elf is here to guide her throughher mental nightmare loop that she's trapped in like her mom. The voice of Brenner also helps focus her on remembering thetorture and trauma that he put her through. Nice dude, real nice. The boys in cali bury a body and Argyle wants to put up a neonsign that says look at the crime we are committing and even Jonathon is gettingtired of his stupidity. Lovable pothead? Even his best friend that you guys arewriting for him doesn't like him. Kill Argyle and leave us Eddie. Hopper is a bastard cop who is also a white male who criesand blames himself for all the things that are his fault, as both of the thingshe is, often do. (joking, it's actually sad I know) The government tells Uncle Wayne he has to leave his trailerwhere his missing nephew murdered a cheerleader while he was at work becausehis ceiling is leaking evil and this exhausted man literally just sighs andstarts packing… give the Munson's a break. Crissy's mom is the biggest hypocrite bitch on earth talkingabout the monster that hurt her daughter and it's like calm your ass JoyceWallace pt 2 (cruel summer) you traumatized her with an eating disorder andcaused some of this and are currently causing more problems by fueling Jason'smurderous rage against someone you don't even know So the real cult is on the hunt again for the cult they madeup in their brainwashed but otherwise empty heads. Murray confesses to beating up minors for fun and hijacks aplane that he then crashes, good job bro… Eddie rows his boat fiercely to sounds of screams. Patrickis pretzeled and okay like we don't know him though. Eleven goes through more bullshit and pretty much dies andgets shocked back to life and instantly smacks the shit out of Brenner's evilface and it's pretty awesome to see. But she's getting some powers back and ofcourse the only way to save everyone is to retraumatize the most innocent lambof a girl, so she relents for now and if anyone can't see what a wonderful pureheart this girl has… I will find you and I will… well anyway it's all getting darkerand more scary for example: there are spiders in Steve's hair nest and Dustinis quoting Sherlock, Jonathon calls a computer and Will SINGS… next stop thescariest state of all…  Utah! YIKES!

Oh boy did we have a ball with this one! For this ep we dive headfirst into the wild and singular world of Henry Jaglom, a true maverick who eschewed conventional narrative and filmmaking techniques to forge his own version of cinema. We traced his early New Hollywood beginnings through his Dennis Hopper starring Vietnam psychodrama Tracks (1976), through his breakthrough crime caper Sitting Ducks (1980), and finishing up with his sublime personal talkfest Someone to Love (1987), which features the final screen performance of Orson Welles. Topics include: how sneezes feel, the strange allure of Michael Emil, and an aborted threesome between Jaglom and Hopper.

A big debut for FC Dallas as they draw nil-nil against rival Austin FC to gain back Copa Tejas for 2026. Sam, Ryan, and Steve break down an off night for the Moose, talk through how Dallas' defense scuttled the Verde and Black's chances of scoring, and how tonight's point matched Dallas' 2025 performance with eight games left in the season.This program originally aired on the FC Dallas Radio Network on September 19th, 2026. 

Thank you for joining us for Day Two of Closer at Crosspoint City Church! We are one church in multiple locations, and we exist to relentlessly pursue those far from God to help them know and follow Jesus.To help support this mission and work, visit https://www.crosspointcity.com/give/ To learn more about all of our locations or what is coming up at Crosspoint City, check out https://www.crosspointcity.com/

This interview is with Hopper Canty of Negociant PDX in Portland, Oregon. In this interview, Hopper discusses his journey from music to the wine industry. Hopper discusses growing up in San Diego, having a very outdoorsy childhood and originally had more interest in music than wine. After moving to Portland at 18, he attended PCC's music production program and later began playing music all around Portland. A trip to Europe after graduating opened his eyes to the stories, history, and artistry behind wine, and he quickly developed a much bigger interest in the industry. While working at New Seasons during the pandemic, Hopper eventually found his way to Negociant PDX. He spent years learning about wine through books, studying maps and French wine, and attending weekly tastings with distributors. Over time, he worked his way up and gained more freedom to explore the wines he was excited about, from natural wines to traditional Burgundies. Today, Hopper helps shape Negociant's neighborhood wine café atmosphere through programs like their glass pour selection, Wine Wednesday, and small wine club tastings. Outside of wine, he continues to play music in dive bars around downtown Portland and plans to release music with his band soon. Hopper hopes to continue growing Negociant, expand its wine education and events, and possibly even start a Youtube channel one day. This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Negociant PDX in Portland, Oregon on September 16, 2026.

Сhopper - Nous Allons Bouger by MixCult Records & Radio

Gerald Hopper v. Garry McFadden

At CLCC we are praying that God will raise up prophetic voices and intercessors to pray for America. I am concerned about the future of this nation. Like Mordecai and Esther, who are a "types and shadows" of intercessors and prophetic voices, we need Divine intervention, in order to see a shift in culture and spiritual renewal in America. https://www.instagram.com/cedarlake_cc/

On this episode of Truth Talk Live, Pastor Andrew Hopper of Mercy Hill Church shares an encouraging perspective on the local church and what God is doing through churches today. He discusses the importance of gospel-centered preaching, biblical leadership, missions, and investing in the next generation while challenging believers to stop criticizing the church and become part of a healthy local church. Pastor Andrew also shares about his book Chosen, which explores the biblical motivation behind adoption and foster care, and encourages pastors to find their identity in Christ rather than ministry success.

Warum nennt Dustin Lucas "Lando Calrissian"? Und muss er Mike und Elfi bald "Jamie und Cersei Lennister" nennen? Wir besprechen heute Stranger Things Staffel 1, Folge 7 & 8: Eleven steigt in einen salzigen Pool, Nancy und Jonathan (& your Friend Steve) schneiden sich dummerweise in die HAND um den Demogorgon anzulocken, während Hopper mit Flashbacks und Joyce ins Upside Down geht, um Will zu retten... #strangerthings #betreutesbingen #st1 Nächste Woche besprechen wir Stranger Things Staffel 2, Folge 1, 2 & 3. Instagram: @aliciajoe und @cashisclay_attitude Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

CORRECTION: Henry reported that another Mario Party sold for $40K a couple years ago so $35K was NOT a new record!Hopper goes over the Top 10 new records set at Goldin's Pop Culture Elite Auction that ended Sept, 2026.Image owned by Goldin Auctions/eBayEntertainment & Education ONLY

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A respected vascular surgeon, a secret obsession and a dark online world of extreme body modification... This week, Geordie & Michelle from Eavesdroppin' podcast dive into the shocking story of Neil Hopper — an amputations specialist who ended up having both of his own legs amputated, only for the disturbing truth behind his injuries to emerge years later.When investigators looking into Marius Gustavson — the man behind the notorious EunuchMaker website — uncovered links between Neil Hopper and the extreme body-modification community, serious questions began to emerge. And the answers were gruesome. From self-inflicted injuries and insurance fraud to disturbing messages exchanged with the so-called “Eunuch Maker”, this is a bizarre and deeply unsettling story of medicine, obsession, deception and extreme body mutilation. So grab a brown lemonade and settle in as the duo chat WagonWheels, dressing tables, flashers from little lunch and more on Eavesdroppin'. And remember, wherever you are, whatever you do, just keep Eavesdroppin'!*Disclaimer: We don't claim to have any factual info about anything ever and our opinions are just opinions not fact, sooorrrryyy! Don't sue us!Please rate, review, tell your friends and subscribe in all the usual places – it really helps :) Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/eavesdroppinDo write in with your stories at hello@eavesdroppinpodcast.com or send us a Voice Note!Listen: http://www.eavesdroppinpodcast.comorhttps://podfollow.com/eavesdroppinYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqcuzv-EXizUo4emmt9PgfwFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eavesdroppinpodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

15th Sunday after PentecostScripture Lesson: Mark 9:2-8

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' newest hopper dredge, the Donnelly, is taking shape at Eastern Shipbuilding Group's Allanton Shipyard in Panama City, Florida. Built to replace the nearly 60-year-old dredge McFarland, the Donnelly is a ready reserve vessel designed to carry forward the Corps' navigation mission and help keep America's shipping channels open and safe. This video goes inside the build, where steel, sparks and shipyard craftsmanship are bringing the Donnelly to life. Through interviews with the ship's captain, chief engineer and a USACE Marine Design Center quality assurance representative, we explore the design, mission and modern capabilities of a vessel built to support dredging operations alongside private industry when extra capacity is needed. Watch the Donnelly take shape, and see how this modern ship reflects America's ingenuity and commitment to the infrastructure that safeguards our nation's waterways. (U.S. Army video by Daniel S. Marciniak)

Between 1215 and 1211 BCE, Egypt was divided. A rebellion in the south, launched by Amen-messe "Born of Amun" disrupted the succession of Sety II, son of Merneptah. Records from this shadowy period hint at violence and corruption in Waset/Luxor, as the usurper took control and established a new regime. The impact of this conflict would have long-lasting ramifications for the 19th Dynasty... Music: Luke Chaos. Logo: An unnamed statue head from Karnak, probably depicting Sety II or Amenmesse (Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain). Was Amenmesse the Viceroy Messuy? Below are scenes from Amada in Nubia, where Messuy carved scenes of himself before royal cartouches. Prof. Aidan Dodson suggests that the Viceroy has cobra/uraei on his forehead, though other scholars suggest this is mere weathering. What do you think? Photos (high-res) https://www.flickr.com/photos/184518985@N04/ Bibliography Brand, P. J. (2009). Usurped Cartouches of Merenptah at Karnak and Luxor. In P. J. Brand & L. Cooper (Eds.), Causing His Name to Live: Studies in Egyptian Epigraphy and History in Memory of William J. Murnane (pp. 29–48). Brill. http://history.memphis.edu/murnane/Brand.pdf Caminos, R. A. (1974). The new-kingdom temples of Buhen. Egypt Exploration Society. Černý, J. (1929). Papyrus Salt 124 (Brit. Mus. 10055). The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 15(3/4), 243–258. https://doi.org/10.2307/3854120 Cooney, K. M. (2022). The New Kingdom of Egypt Under the Ramesside Dynasty. In D. T. Potts, N. Moeller, & K. Radner (Eds.), The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, Volume III: From the Hyksos to the Late Second Millennium BC (pp. 251--366). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190687601.003.0027 Dodson, A. (2016). Poisoned Legacy: The Decline and Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty (Revised edn). American University in Cairo Press. Hopper, R. W. (2010). The Monuments of Amenmesse and Seti II: A Historical Inquiry [Unpublished PhD. Thesis]. The University of Memphis. Iskander, S. (2002). The Reign of Merneptah [Unpublished PhD. Thesis]. New York University. Kitchen, K. A. (1987). The Titularies of the Ramesside Kings as Expression of their Ideal Kingship. Annales Du Service Des Antiquités de l'Égypte, 71, 131--141. https://archive.org/details/ASAE-71-1987 Krauss, R. (1976). Untersuchungen zu König Amenmesse (1. Teil). Studien Zur Altägyptischen Kultur, 4, 161--199. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25150008 Krauss, R. (1977). Untersuchungen zu König Amenmesse (2. Teil). Studien Zur Altägyptischen Kultur, 5, 131--174. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44324535 Krauss, R. (1997). Untersuchungen zu König Amenmesse: Nachträge. Studien Zur Altägyptischen Kultur, 24, 161--184. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152736 Krauss, R. (2000). Moïse le pharaon (N. Baum, Trans.). Editions du Rocher. Lefébure, E. (1886). Les hypogées royaux de Thèbes (Band 1): Le tombeau de Séti Ier. Libraire de la Societe Asiatique. http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/lefebure1886bd1 Leprohon, R. J. (2013). The Great Name: Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary. Society of Biblical Literature. Schneider, T. (2011). Conjectures About Amenmesse: Historical, Biographical, Chronological. In M. Collier & S. Snape (Eds.), Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen (pp. 445--451). Rutherford. https://www.academia.edu/6374977/Conjectures_about_Amenmesse_Historical_Biographical_Chronological_in_Ramesside_Studies_Festschrift_Kenneth_A_Kitchen_Bolton_Rutherford_Press_2011_445_451 Servajean, F. (2014). Mérenptah et la fin de la XIXe dynastie. Pygmalion. Sourouzian, H. (2019). Catalogue de la statuaire royale de la XIXe dynastie. Institut français d'archéologie orientale. https://www.ifao.egnet.net/publications/catalogue/9782724707571/ Yurco, F. J. (1979). Amenmesse: Six statues at Karnak. Metropolitan Museum Journal, 14, 15--31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1512735.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1 Kings 17:17–24 (ESV): 17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child's life come into him again.” 22 And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.” 24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.”

Warum fotografiert Will Byers Nancy? Wir besprechen heute Stranger Things Staffel 1, Folge 5 & 6: Hopper deckt die Verschwörung im Labor auf, während Nancy und Jonathan anhand von Fotos ein Monster im Wald jagen. Als die Jungs entdecken, dass Eleven die Suche nach dem Upside Down ihre Kompasse manipuliert hat, zerbricht die Gruppe vorerst – bis Eleven Mike vor Mobbern rettet und sich die Freunde versöhnen, während das Labor den Druck erhöht... #strangerthings #betreutesbingen #st1 Nächste Woche besprechen wir Stranger Things Staffel 1, Folge 7 & 8. Instagram: @aliciajoe und @cashisclay_attitude Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of That Annuity Show, Tisa Rabun-Marshall, Ramsey Smith, and Bruno Caron discuss the current trends in the annuity market with Jason Hopper, A.M. Best's Associate Director of Industry Research and Analytics. They explore the recent Best's Special Reports covering industry shifts, market trends and the impact of baby boomers on annuity growth. The conversation also delves into the increasing role of private credit in insurance and the need for insurers to adapt to changing consumer expectations. The episode concludes with insights on the future outlook of the industry and the importance of innovation and adaptability. Listen where you get your podcasts and at www.thatannuityshow.com

La directora de La Brújula ha comparado la situación del Gobierno con los cuadros de Hopper en los que sus protagonistas, pese a estar rodeados de gente, siempre se encuentran solos, aunque intenten fingirlo.

Evan Hopper joins us this week. He has been a longstanding “known associate” of the Horsemen of the Podcasting Apocalyse, EWB collaborator, and the creative force behind QUELL and VENERAL LATRINE.       Intro:    “All the Dark Things” – Mike Hill Outro: “Apostate“- Quell

Pastor Neil Hopper walks us through things that hinder our intimacy (INTO-ME-SEE) with our Father. We sometimes open the doors and allow things in that hinder our relationship with God. And intimacy is the place where the power of God flows freely.https://www.instagram.com/cedarlake_cc/

----- Shout out to all our members who make this content possible, sign up for only $5 a month https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNNTZgxNQuBrhbO0VrG8woA/join Promote Your Music with No Jumper - https://nojumper.com/pages/promo CHECK OUT OUR ONLINE STORE!!! https://nojumper.com NO JUMPER PATREON http://www.patreon.com/nojumper CHECK OUT OUR NEW SPOTIFY PLAYLIST https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5tesvmDS8h50LkjnSAWMOs?si=j6sJD6DkR4mk5NZZWnlK7g Follow us on SNAPCHAT https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_Jumper/4874336901 Follow us on SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/4z4yCTjwXa4an6sBGIe7m5 iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/no-jumper/id1001659715?mt=2 Follow us on Social Media: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/No_Jumper/4874336901 http://www.twitter.com/nojumper http://www.instagram.com/nojumper https://www.facebook.com/nojumper http://www.reddit.com/r/nojumper JOIN THE DISCORD: https://discord.gg/Q3XPfBm Follow Adam22: http://www.instagram.com/adam22 adam22bro on Snapchat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The clash of generations, når det kun er Dennis og Caro i studiet. I denne episode snakker vi om overgangsjakken egentlig er et scam, eller om det kun er for børn. Verdens største dyr er en blåhval, men hvad tror Caro det er? Er du klar til nogle dumme spørgsmål? lyt med når vi snakker om alt fra Tupac til Zara Larsson. Fantastisk dag!

Hopper goes over the Top 10 record sales from the late Aug, 2026 Heritage Signature Auction.Educational & Entertainment ONLYImage owned by Heritage Auctions.

Program for 08/28/26 Jim Wood: Interview with Andrew Hopper, Chosen: Building Your Family the Way God Builds His

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} } Dupree Financial Group Podcast Show Notes & Blog The Tom Dupree Show Episode  ·  8-29-26 AI Chips, a Sneaker Stock Shock, and the Fed’s Inflation Reckoning: What Retirees Should Watch This Week The Tom Dupree Show | Dupree Financial Group | dupreefinancial.com | 859-233-0400 Episode Description This week’s Financial Hour covers a lot of ground — and nearly all of it matters if you’re managing retirement income right now. Tom Dupree, Mike Johnson, and Michael Dawahare start with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s interview with Jim Cramer, (https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/08/26/watch-jim-cramers-full-interview-with-nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang.html ) which Huang argued that AI chips are becoming a revenue-generating financial asset rather than a depreciating one — and why that shift is already showing up in the bond market. From there, the conversation turns to Dick’s Sporting Goods, which slashed its earnings forecast just 90 days after raising it, wiping out two-thirds of its shareholder base in a single trading day. The hour closes with Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole remarks, where he laid the blame for “65 months of elevated inflation” squarely on his predecessors and signaled what that means for interest rates heading into September. AI Infrastructure Investing: Are Chips Becoming the New Barrel of Oil? Nvidia just turned in another blowout quarter — by Tom’s count, the 15th straight quarter the company has beaten expectations. But the more interesting story, in Tom and Mike’s view, is what Jensen Huang said afterward: AI compute is starting to behave like a financial instrument with a real return on capital, not just an expense. That’s the logic behind the $500 billion GPU financing and securitization discussion involving BlackRock and Blackstone that the show covered a few weeks ago — essentially the same slice-and-dice structure used in auto loan securitization, applied to data center hardware. Even more surprising: chips built back in 2023 are holding their value instead of depreciating, partly because Nvidia keeps improving the software and firmware that runs on them. Tom’s analogy: picture Hopper and Blackwell chips coming down the conveyor belt the same way a barrel of oil became a globally monetized commodity in the 1970s. He also shared a personal note on Jensen Huang’s Kentucky roots — Huang spent time as a teenager at Oneida Baptist Institute in Clay County, a detail Tom knows firsthand from doing energy infrastructure work in the area. On the energy side, the team also discussed Emerald AI, a private company using software to shift data center power loads in real time — throttling usage in one location (say, Phoenix during a heat spike) while ramping it up elsewhere, which can actually improve grid reliability rather than strain it. The Dick’s Sporting Goods and Nike Earnings Shock: A Lesson for Long-Term Investors Dick’s Sporting Goods just had, in Tom’s words, the biggest one-day stock drop in company history — despite decent core earnings. The culprit was its newly acquired Foot Locker division. In late May, Dick’s raised guidance on Foot Locker, projecting roughly $50 million in profit. By late June, Nike’s business had also weakened everywhere except at the newly relaunched Foot Locker stores. Then, just 60 days later, Dick’s reversed course entirely — that projected $50 million profit is now expected to be a $50 million loss. Mike and Michael’s read: a flood of casual sneakers shipped ahead of the World Cup created a sales spike followed by an inventory hangover, compounded by a new Nike CFO (recently hired from Pfizer) who had every incentive to reset expectations low before his first earnings call. Nearly 40 million Dick’s shares traded in one day — roughly two-thirds of the entire shareholder base turned over — on a stock that had hit an all-time high just 90 days earlier. The Dick’s family, which owns about 25% of the company, took a $250 million hit in the selloff, which the team sees as strong motivation to fix the Foot Locker integration quickly. [COMPLIANCE REVIEW — Hudson: this segment discusses DFG adding to client positions in Dick’s Sporting Goods after the selloff, and references the stock’s current dividend yield and free cash flow. Please confirm these figures and the trade description are appropriate for publication.] As stated on air, this discussion is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security — please consult a financial professional before making investment decisions. Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole Speech: “A Discipline, Not a Decision” New Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole speech didn’t move markets much on its own — Mike Johnson called it “a nothing burger” — but it confirmed a generally hawkish read: the market-implied odds of a September rate hike moved to roughly 55–60%, up from where they’d been previously. Two lines stood out to Tom and Mike. First, Warsh directly criticized his predecessors for “65 months of elevated inflation,” making clear that responsibility sits with the central bank, not external events. Second, his framing that the Fed is “committed to a discipline, not a decision” signals a move away from forward guidance and toward data-dependent policy. The team also walked through household debt trends: delinquencies on mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards remain fairly stable, while student loan delinquencies have risen now that pandemic-era forbearance has ended. Oil prices remain a major swing factor — Tom estimates roughly half the cost of goods in daily life traces back to the price of a barrel — so a calmer oil market could reduce the pressure on Warsh to raise rates at all. “Markets do not always go up. Prices don’t always go up. So when you have weakness in prices for some esoteric reason, that is when you get an opportunity to buy — and add.” — Tom Dupree Topics Covered Jensen Huang’s interview with Jim Cramer following Nvidia’s 15th consecutive earnings beat Why AI infrastructure may be shifting from a depreciating cost to a “monetizable” financial asset, similar to a barrel of oil The push toward securitizing AI infrastructure and data center financing Jensen Huang’s Kentucky roots at Oneida Baptist Institute in Clay County How AI energy demand and data center efficiency (via Emerald AI) affect the power grid Dick’s Sporting Goods’ guidance reversal, 90 days after raising it, tied to the Foot Locker relaunch What a 40-million-share trading day and a 25%-family-owned stake signal to long-term investors Fed Chair Kevin Warsh’s Jackson Hole remarks on “65 months of elevated inflation” and September rate-hike odds Household debt and delinquency trends across mortgages, credit cards, and student loans Why the price of oil remains a key driver of the Fed’s inflation outlook Key Takeaways AI infrastructure is starting to look like a financial asset, not just a tech expense. Jensen Huang’s argument — that AI compute now generates a measurable return on capital — is why data centers and GPUs are being discussed in securitization terms usually reserved for auto loans or real estate. Some AI chips are appreciating instead of depreciating. Chips manufactured in 2023 are reportedly holding or gaining value as demand grows and ongoing software updates improve their efficiency — a break from the usual electronics depreciation curve. A sharp earnings-driven stock drop isn’t automatically a reason to sell. Dick’s Sporting Goods’ core business remained healthy even as its Foot Locker guidance collapsed. Separating a temporary supply-chain problem from a permanent business problem is central to how DFG evaluates opportunities like this. Watch the shareholder turnover, not just the headline. When two-thirds of a company’s shareholder base changes hands in a single trading day, it often reflects overreaction as much as fundamentals — something patient, income-focused investors can use to their advantage. The Fed’s new chair is putting inflation accountability front and center. Kevin Warsh’s “65 months of elevated inflation” line was a direct message to his predecessors — and a signal that he’s more willing to raise rates if inflation readings don’t stay in check. Household debt looks broadly stable — except for student loans. Delinquencies on mortgages, autos, and credit cards remain near longer-term norms, while student loan delinquencies have risen since pandemic-era forbearance ended. Nearly everything right now is tied to interest rates and oil. From long bond yields (pushed up partly by AI infrastructure financing) to utility and technology stocks, this week’s moves are a reminder that diversified, income-focused portfolios are built to weather single-headline swings. About The Tom Dupree Show The Tom Dupree Show is hosted by Tom Dupree, founder of Dupree Financial Group and a veteran of the investment business since 1978. Each episode covers the financial topics that matter most to retirees and those approaching retirement — in plain English, without the Wall Street spin. Dupree Financial Group is a fee-only, fiduciary Registered Investment Advisor based in Lexington, Kentucky, managing separately managed accounts built around income-generating, dividend-paying holdings. The firm’s approach centers on personalized investment management and direct access to the people managing your money — a contrast to mass-market investment firms, where clients are often assigned to a rotating investment counselor rather than working directly with a portfolio manager who knows their specific situation. Read more about that approach on our Investment Philosophy page. For more on building a retirement income strategy in Kentucky, see our related post: Kentucky Retirement Planning: Your Complete Guide to Dividend Investing and Retirement Readiness. Past episodes are available in our Market Commentary archive. Schedule a Complimentary Portfolio Review If you’re not sure how AI-related holdings, sudden earnings swings, or Fed policy shifts are actually affecting your retirement income, let’s take a look together. We’ll walk through what you own and why you own it — no charge, no pressure. Call: 859-233-0400 | Schedule Online: Personalized Portfolio Analysis | Visit: dupreefinancial.com Dupree Financial Group  ·  Fee-only. Fiduciary. Lexington, KY  · dupreefinancial.com  ·  859-233-0400 This document is for reference and internal use. Not for public distribution. All investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Nothing in this content is a recommendation to buy or sell any security; consult a qualified financial professional before making investment decisions. The post AI, Earnings Shocks & the Fed: What Retirees Should Watch Air Date 8-29-26 appeared first on Dupree Financial.

Your smartwatch says you slept great—but you feel exhausted. So who's right: your wearable or your body?We're surrounded by sleep scores, readiness scores, HRV, heart rate, recovery data and stress metrics. But Dr. David Hopper says there's a problem: we may be getting better at reading our devices while getting worse at reading ourselves. In this episode of the Crackin' Backs Podcast, Dr. Hopper joins us to explore how to use wearable technology without becoming controlled—or overwhelmed—by the data.We get into:The one wearable metric Dr. Hopper believes deserves the most attention: HRV Why your sleep or recovery score may disagree with how you actually feel What HRV can tell you about stress, recovery, sleep and your autonomic nervous system Why constantly checking health data may actually create more anxiety How to use an Oura Ring, Apple Watch, WHOOP or other wearable to better understand your body instead of replacing your instincts  The overlooked roles of breathing and sleep in health and recovery  What you might discover if you took your wearable off for an entire week Dr. Hopper explains that HRV can provide useful insight into how the autonomic nervous system is responding to stress and recovery—but emphasizes that wearable data needs context.  His approach starts with something remarkably simple: before checking your watch in the morning, ask yourself how you actually feel. Then use the technology to help confirm and understand those signals rather than dictate them. Because the future of health may not be about collecting more data.It may be about learning which data matters—and knowing when to trust your own body.WATCH TO THE END: Dr. Hopper shares the three things he would teach someone to pay attention to if every wearable disappeared tomorrow.QUESTION FOR YOU: Have you ever felt great—then looked at your watch and suddenly questioned your recovery because of what it told you?

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With Cho operative Grant Holliday firmly in custody, Team Meatbag looks for a safe location to engage in a little interrogation. Hopper presents an idea. It's an interesting idea. It's a concerning idea. We cannot stress enough that it's an idea that leads to a potentially distressing series of events that make words like salsa sound downright wholesome. This one might be more of a tomato paste situation. Anyhoozle, let's all sit down to a nice bowl of gazpacho as we enjoy this week's Astronomica!Cast ListStardaddy: StanGrace/Hopper: GeoffCommodore Macdonald (Mackie) --burn: ColinDr. Hildegarde Hypatia Cade (Hilde)/ C. B. : KristenAugustus Novus (Auggie): ChrisSend us a message through this weird thing that didn't exist before but exists now.Support the show

Here's the one where Hank and Kevin talk about a bunch of stuff like Henry Winkler, baseball, fly fishing, Hank's football career, setting the idle on a Skeeter 2 stroke and so much more. Enjoy! 

Gal 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. This freedom is ours to receive by faith. We must seize, and take hold of what Jesus has already paid for at the Cross. https://www.instagram.com/cedarlake_cc/

Kyle Buchanan joins Katey and Chris Rosen to look at what the major streamers have in store for this year's Oscar race, how Amazon MGM is equipped to push a major contender like Project Hail Mary, and why Kyle has been so high on Netfilx's La Bola Negra ever since its Cannes premiere. Then Katey talks to David Harbour about the years he spent trying to get DTF: St. Louis into production, what he learned about the business in the process, and how it felt to dance in his underwear in front of the same Atlanta crew that had seen him fight creatures as the heroic Hopper on Stranger Things. 00:00 Intro 00:19 Coming Up... 02:07 Can Streamers Compete This Year? 03:49 Apple's Thin Two-Film Slate 06:56 Why Best Actress Is Wide Open 09:45 The Ingenue Pendulum Swings Back 12:58 Tenzing And Genden Phuntsok 14:26 Digger Skips Venice 16:10 Project Hail Mary Vs. Dune 3 19:19 Is Anything Stopping The Odyssey? 24:55 Lord And Miller's Director Shot 25:29 Sandra HÜLler's Shot 26:28 Anne Hathaway: Lead Or Supporting? 27:15 Amazon's 'Dudes Rock' Slate 30:13 What A Tiff Premiere Really Means 32:11 Verity And Anne Hathaway's Year 34:19 Netflix And La Bola Negra 36:47 Was Roma Really Divisive? 39:20 Penelope Cruz's Second Oscar? 42:10 Netflix's Number Two Priority 44:20 The Cliff Booth Question Mark 47:10 Possible Love And A Thin Venice 50:45 Next: David Harbour 51:53 The Origin Of Dtf St. Louis 53:30 Making Tv He Actually Wants To Watch 56:24 The Sweetness Beneath The Sadness 58:47 Avoiding The Flyover State Trap 01:02:07 Lessons From First-Time Producing 01:04:47 The Argument He Lost With Steve Conrad 01:07:48 Walking The Tonal Tightrope 01:11:26 Is Dtf Actually Heartwarming? 01:12:40 The Male Loneliness Epidemic 01:13:57 What Harbour Is Building Next ⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe today⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to Prestige Junkie After Party bonus episodes. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to the Prestige Junkie newsletter.  Follow Katey on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Letterboxd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow The Ankler. 

Today, Cam and Jen are thrilled to share a special episode from our friends at The Final Trace, a true crime podcast that digs into chilling disappearances, cold cases, and mysteries that still leave us searching for answers. You might remember Hopper from when he joined us on Our True Crime Podcast. We absolutely loved having him on, and we know you all did too! Hopper and his co-host, McKenzie, have built a great show together, and we want to make sure you get a chance to listen to it. The episode you're about to hear covers the tragic story of Lisa McCracken. Kind, outgoing, and only 19 years old, Lisa McCracken had her entire life ahead of her when she was murdered inside her North 6th Street apartment. For decades, her killer remained in the shadows while the case went cold. Science eventually brought the truth to light years later, but even a name couldn't answer every lingering question about what really happened. Hopper and McKenzie release new episodes every True Crime Tuesday. Once you've listened, head over to your favorite podcast app, search for The Final Trace Podcast, and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Jen and Cam will be back this Wednesday with another brand-new, listener-requested episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we bring delicious island flavors and home hacks to your kitchen. First, Puerto Rican home cook Omi Hopper joins us to talk about her love letter to Puerto Rico and the journey that started it all. She teaches us her secrets, aka the key seasonings to delicious traditional Puerto Rican dishes like her Mofongo, mashed plantains with garlic and pork cracklings. Omi's latest book is Cooking con Omi: A Love Letter to Puerto Rican Home Cooking. Then, we take a trip to another island with Top Chef finalist Sheldon Simeon to explore the global flavors of Hawaii. Sheldon shares his favorite home cooking hacks and the family recipes he learned from his dad. He leans on everyday pantry items to create family-style meals that are easy to whip up and delicious, like his over-the-top Loaded Mandoo recipe. Sheldon is the author of Cook Real Hawai'i, and his latest book is Ohana Style: Food from Hawai'i, for Your Family.Subscribe to @TheSplendidTable on YouTube for full podcast episodes and full-length video interviews!Broadcast dates for this episode:August 14, 2026 (originally aired)Your support is a special ingredient in helping to make The Splendid Table. Donate today

Scotty is a busy husband & father of two girls. For years he pursued high volume competition training that included "heavy lift + metcon" style workouts. After two years in Linchpin he had his best placement in the CrossFit Open. He later decided to leave Linchpin & try a "masters athlete" specific program. Scotty eventually decided to stop that program & come back to Linchpin. This is his story. 

We need another great awakening.https://www.instagram.com/cedarlake_cc/

What if you could easily fill your kitchen with the comforting aromas of sizzling sofrito, fluffy rice, and tender stews?This week, we're talking to Omi Hopper, TikTok creator and runner-up on Next Level Chef, and author of Cooking Con Omi: A Love Letter to Puerto Rican Home Cooking.She's sharing her favorite weeknight dinners, meal-prep strategies, and the techniques she uses to build big Puerto Rican flavor at home.By the end of this episode, you'll discover:How fresh sofrito and homemade sazón can transform even simple weeknight mealsHow to meal prep for flexibility, instead of a fridge full of repetitive leftoversFlavor-packed shortcuts to get dinner to taste special without starting from scratchPress play to hear Omi's approach to making flavorful, satisfying food that works for real home cooks!***For more recipes and cooking inspiration, sign up for our free Substack here. And join us on our live monthly calls by upgrading your subscription to paid!***Links:Omi Hopper's new book – Cooking Con Omi: A Love Letter to Puerto Rican Home CookingYou can find more inspiration from Omi on her TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and her site: Cooking Con OmiOmi's Recipes:SofritoAlcapurrias Roast pork shoulder Homemade Sazon spice blendPotato salad with apples One pot macarone con carne (macaroni with beef)Other dishes mentioned:Bacalao (Puerta Rican Salt Cod Stew) from Simply RecipesHer winning pineapple jalapeno salmon dishSome of Omi's favorite recipe developers;King Rey CooksTiniMichelle DislaCassie Yeung****Got a cooking question? Leave us a message on our hotline at: 323-452-9084For more recipes and cooking inspiration, sign up for our Substack here.Are you a local to Portland or planning a visit? You can now book a private farmers' market tour with Sonya through Airbnb Experiences! Or order Sonya's cookbook Braids for more Food Friends recipes!

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're joined by Spence Shelton, Lead Pastor of Mercy Church, a rapidly growing multisite church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since launching in 2015, Mercy has expanded to multiple campuses while maintaining a relentless focus on reaching people, developing leaders, and sending them into ministry. In this conversation, Spence shares how churches can intentionally build a culture of multiplication by developing leaders from within, creating healthy sending pathways, and stewarding opportunities for church revitalization. Stop “plucking” leaders. Start growing them. // One of Spence’s biggest challenges to church leaders is resisting the temptation to solve leadership shortages by hiring talent from elsewhere. Just as churches prioritize reaching lost people rather than simply attracting Christians from other churches, they should approach leadership development the same way. Instead of constantly recruiting experienced leaders, churches should intentionally identify, disciple, and develop people already sitting in their congregations. This approach takes longer, but it creates leaders deeply shaped by the church’s culture and mission. The power of the shoulder tap. // Many future ministry leaders never consider vocational ministry simply because no one asks them. Spence encourages pastors to intentionally “tap people on the shoulder” when they observe leadership potential. Some of Mercy’s key leaders—including executive pastors and campus pastors—came directly from marketplace careers like banking, manufacturing, and physical therapy. Rather than waiting for seminary graduates to apply, Mercy helps people connect their existing gifts and experiences to ministry opportunities. Create a clear leadership profile. // To make leadership development intentional, Mercy created a “Lead Pastor Profile” built around three categories: character, competency, and calling. While designed for future church planters, the framework serves as a roadmap for developing leaders throughout the church. By clearly defining what healthy leadership looks like, staff members know exactly what qualities to identify, cultivate, and reproduce in others. Character matters before charisma. // Within the character category, Spence believes self-awareness is one of the most overlooked leadership traits. Effective leaders understand both their strengths and limitations and are secure enough in their identity in Christ to build teams around areas where they are weaker. Without self-awareness, talented leaders can make excellent first impressions while creating long-term organizational damage. Character requires observation over time and not just impressive interviews. Multipliers build movements. // When evaluating leadership competency, the ability to multiply is critical. Can this person develop other leaders? Have they demonstrated the ability to move beyond accomplishing ministry personally and instead equip others to lead? Churches often unintentionally hire capable “doers” rather than leader-builders, limiting long-term growth. Multipliers create healthy ministries because they reproduce leadership instead of accumulating responsibility. Alignment creates unity. // Calling isn’t simply about theological agreement, but also includes ministry philosophy. Spence stresses the importance of ensuring leaders share the church’s convictions about how ministry is carried out. When someone consistently wants to reshape the church into something fundamentally different, the healthiest response may be helping them pursue the ministry God is calling them toward elsewhere. Clear alignment creates healthier teams and stronger long-term partnerships. Let people discover their gifts by leading. // Churches shouldn’t expect to know someone’s leadership potential before giving them opportunities to serve. Mercy intentionally creates pathways where people can lead community groups, coach leaders, and gradually assume greater responsibility. Some will flourish as long-term small group leaders. Others will demonstrate broader leadership gifting and eventually plant churches. The key is creating a culture where trying, learning, and growing are celebrated rather than feared. Revitalization begins with humility. // Spence also shares lessons from Mercy’s experience helping revitalize struggling churches. Successful partnerships require patient relationships, deep humility, and genuine respect for the legacy of existing congregations. Rather than viewing church buildings as opportunities to expand Mercy’s influence, the team approaches every conversation as the stewardship of Kingdom resources. By honoring the faithfulness of previous generations, Mercy has seen older congregations joyfully become part of new seasons of ministry fruitfulness. Faithfulness compounds over time. // Spence closes with an encouragement for church leaders: don’t underestimate what God can do through long-term faithfulness. Leaders often overestimate what can happen in five years while dramatically underestimating what God can accomplish over twenty. Healthy multiplication isn’t built through shortcuts. It grows steadily through consistent obedience, patient leadership development, and a commitment to stay the course. To learn more about Mercy Church, visit mercycharlotte.com or follow Spence Shelton or the church on social media for additional leadership resources and updates. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Risepointe Do you feel like your church’s or school's facility could be preventing growth? Are you frustrated or possibly overwhelmed at the thought of a complicated or costly building project? Are the limitations of your building becoming obstacles in the path of expanding your ministry? Have you ever felt that you could reach more people if only the facility was better suited to the community’s needs? Well, the team over at Risepointe can help! As former ministry staff and church leaders, they understand how to prioritize and help lead you to a place where the building is a ministry multiplier. Your mission should not be held back by your building. Their team of architects, interior designers and project managers have the professional experience to incorporate creative design solutions to help move YOUR mission forward. Check them out at risepointe.com and while you’re there, schedule a FREE call to explore possibilities for your needs, vision and future…Risepointe believes that God still uses spaces…and they're here to help. Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. So glad that you have decided to tune in. You know, this week is a great conversation and was recommended by one of my favorite church leaders in the country. And so you’re going to love this conversation. It’s going to be super helpful. And I do think it’s going to challenge you and provide you some steps forward. Rich Birch — Excited to have Spence Shelton with us. He is from Mercy Church, a multi-site church with three locations, if I’m counting correctly, in Charlotte, plus Church Online. God is leading Mercy Church into a season of a bunch of expansion and investment in ministry facilities and outreach over a two-year discipleship initiative called All to Him. They have a goal to launch the Mercy Family of Churches in in late 2025, which I think is maybe launched, or we’ll see where that goes, and is aiming to form their own collective within the next five years. Super excited to have you on the show today, Spence.Spence Shelton — Man, such an honor to be with you, Rich. Man, this is, I’m a big, going to say it, I’m a big fan of yours, man… Rich Birch — That’s kind of you to say. Spence Shelton — …because you have produced so much helpful content for me as a leader to lean into and grow little by little. And I can only hope that I can contribute a little bit more to the great work you’ve been doing, man.Rich Birch — Come on, that’s amazing. Honored to have you with us and to learn from you today, Spence. And mutual friend in Andrew Hopper…Spence Shelton — That’s right.Rich Birch — …who I love, fantastic leader. And so shout out to Hopper. Thankful for what God’s doing in his church as well. So Mercy Church started in 2015. Give us a picture of kind of where things are at today. If we were to come to the church, what would we experience? Kind of talk us through the last season, kind of the last couple of years. What’s that look like?Spence Shelton — Yeah, man. So if you came to Mercy today, what you’d find is a church, you might be surprised to learn how big it actually is because the church is, you know, a couple thousand people, but it’s across seven services and three campuses. And there’s some of some of that’s intentional. Some of that is, hey, we’re just kind of following the Lord where he’s led in this. And we didn’t really plan for it, you know, so. Spence Shelton — Our average service size is not that big, but we’ve the Lord’s been really gracious. If you came what you’d find is especially at our broadcast campus you’d find an old church building that you’d be thinking: wait are all these people how are they you know filling in here, you know. Rich Birch — Right. Spence Shelton — And you’d see cars parked uh all through a neighborhood and everything else and you’d see a retrofitted old church building, and that’s just the story of God’s grace on us – a building that was given to us and a church family that decided, hey we want to join you guys and they gave us their building. Really cool moment that like a legacy moment of faith in our church. And a couple other spots where we’re seeing similar sorts of things and it’s just it’s awesome, man. Spence Shelton — So we feel blessed. We feel like we are um doing what God has called us to do because we’re seeing that kind of momentum in the ministry that we’re doing. But none of our facilities are going to wow you, I promise. I actually love training church planters because, you know, so many times they come in and they’re like, Oh, ah we can do this. Rich Birch — Right. Spence Shelton — I’m like, yeah, you can do it. You know? Rich Birch — That’s normal like us.Spence Shelton — So we are praying and asking the Lord for better wins. Yeah. But you can do it, man. If you can do it here, you can do it anywhere kind of thing. So Lord’s been really gracious to us. And it’s a, it’s been a real joy these past 10 years.Rich Birch — It’s so cool. It seems like you guys are in a bit of a pivotal season or an inflection point season where you’ve got a bunch of things on the horizon, launching Mercy Family of Churches… Spence Shelton — That’s right. Rich Birch — …the 50 Missionary Goal by 2030, a collective. Talk me through those. What is the future look like? What’s driving the urgency? Help us understand kind of what the future looks like.Spence Shelton — Yeah, man, I think this happens for any church, both leader and in just the life of a church. You come to those milestone moments. We hit it last year with 10 years, and it was not only a milestone in terms of age. There was some just real growth that had been happening to the church that was forcing some good conversations around long-term you know expansion so that we can continue to facilitate what we believe God, actually, I should say we could steward what God is doing in our church.Spence Shelton — And so we launched an initiative that we called All to Him. I was teaching through the book of Romans all year last year. And so it comes out of Romans 12:1 and 2, because Christ gave his all for us, we give our all to him. That is our living sacrifice that we do. Spence Shelton — And so we said, we got some goals as a church, man. We want to see our church, we got some reaching goals. We got some training up goals. We got some sending out goals. Because when I planted Mercy Church, one of the things that was on my heart: if we’re going to come to Charlotte, North Carolina, we were going to be a sending church. Which means we’re going to build a sending hub here where this thing’s going be like an aircraft carrier that just sends out missionaries all over the place into the battles that the Lord has for us across the world.Spence Shelton — That was just on my heart. Instead of going to, you know, a place that might be, might have a, I don’t know, like a north Pacific Northwest or Northeast, something like that. If we’re coming to the Southeast to the Bible Belt, we’re doing so intentionally. Very intentional.Spence Shelton — So that’s been on our heart um ever since day one and this All to Him initiative. You know, we were hoping that by 2030, we double the size of our church. That’s because Charlotte is growing by 150 people a day.Spence Shelton — So like, we’ve got to, you know, this isn’t like it’s just because it’s something we want to do. It’s a calling, a good stewardship of the moment that we’re in. And we want to we’re launching a seminary certificate program for our members of our church because we want to train them up. Right.Spence Shelton — And we got a goal to see 50 missionaries go on the mission field by 2030. We just planted a couple of weeks before the recording of this, we planted our next church here in Charlotte, and we’ve got plans for several more.Spence Shelton — We are a large family of churches about to become a collaborative. We’re, we’re ah you know, 2028, 2029, somewhere around there, we’ll officially form that collaborative if the Lord continues to do what he’s doing. All because, man, we are convinced that God has brought us here to reach people, train them up, send them out, which I hope does not sound novel to any church leader listening to this.Spence Shelton — I hope it just sounds like, yeah, man, that makes sense.Rich Birch — Right.Spence Shelton — It’s like, well, then what’s the the magic or what’s the the secret sauce? It’s just putting your hand to the plow. And now here we are 10, 11 years in, and we’ve been steadily doing that same work. And I think the Lord is, um you know, our buddy Andrew would use the flywheel. That’s his favorite version of that illustration. But you keep putting your hand to the same thing and eventually the Lord starts to bear fruit. And that’s what we’re seeing now.Rich Birch — Yeah, so good. And yeah, you know that and you’re a kind leader, you know that for some leaders, the reason why we’re talking to you today is unfortunately, that is more novel than it should be. And so we want to dig into that a little bit.Spence Shelton — Sure..Rich Birch — Particularly, let’s maybe start with that middle section, this training goals, you’re working on trying to train people up. When you’re thinking about the kind of leadership vision you have as a church, you’re thinking about, hey, we’re going to raise up leaders both you know here to and then also sending.Rich Birch — I think we we can fall into this dichotomy around, okay, so do we find these leaders from other places and attract them to come here? Or, do we grow them up internally?Rich Birch — Do we find a way to develop them internally? So it’s this idea of plucking talent rather than developing it. Talk to me through why is training so hard in so many churches? Why do we struggle with that? And we seem to default towards, let’s just find somebody from over there and have them come and help us here.Spence Shelton — Yeah, man, I think that mentality starts all the way down to the idea of reaching people that don’t know Christ versus just sheep swapping from one church to the other church. Right.Spence Shelton — So you can grow your church by transfer growth. Um, which I actually am one who, Hey man, if somebody on the sideline in one church and then they plug into your church, I I’m all for it And if the same thing happens with Mercy, all for it. Spence Shelton — But our aim, what we all know as pastors and ministry leaders is our aim is man, let’s reach lost people and then disciple them. Right. Rich Birch — Yes.Spence Shelton — The same thing I think should be true with leadership development. For some reason, when it comes into developing leaders, we tend to go a different direction and think, well, let’s just go find where some leaders are and get them to to plug in.Spence Shelton — It’s like, we don’t do that even with discipleship. Why are we switching our mindset? And so I want to just kind of, I have to, I was convicted and wanted to call our church and I would call others to the same mindset that you have with discipleship. Let that carry over into your leadership and your leadership development as well.Spence Shelton — And I think that’s how we’re going to grow, just as how we’re going to grow the kingdom by reaching lost people, how we’re going to grow the leaders in the kingdom, the number of leaders we have, it’s going to be developing them in our church. And I just… I don’t know that we’re even thinking that way and asking the question, is the guy who’s a 27-year-old physical therapist in my church, has anybody ever bothered to tap him on the shoulder and ask, hey, man, could God be calling you into ministry?Rich Birch — That’s good.Spence Shelton — Because I watch you and no we’re not doing the shoulder tap, man. And so um right now, I just I love it. Just a little bit of the story of our church… Rich Birch — Yeah. Spence Shelton — …our executive both of our executive pastors and two of our three campus pastors were all in the marketplace. One of our executive pastors was in banking. Another was a plant manager. We have two campus pastors who were both, I use physical therapists because they’re both former physical therapists. And you know, we’re sitting there having these conversations.Spence Shelton — You know what makes a great pastor is someone who has sat with person after person told them, hey, you should do this to feel better. And then they come back to you later and say, hey, I don’t feel better. And you say, did you do the thing I told you to do? And they say, no. And you say, well, you should have done that.Rich Birch — Right.Spence Shelton — And a patient, long suffering physical therapist turns out to be a great pastor, but somebody’s got to tap him on the shoulder and say, hey, man, I think God might be calling you into this. And so my my encouragement to anybody who’s a in ministry right now, kind of in that leadership development role, and you’re like, I don’t know, we’re gonna have to go outside to find some talent.Spence Shelton — I promise it’s going to take longer the way I’m talking about. But if you will seek the Lord, ask the Lord, and then start shoulder tapping and giving some opportunities for guys to lead, for men and women to lead there in your ministry and whatever the leadership roles might be, I think there might be more people in there than you realize. Because I believe that God provides for the church that he’s growing, that he’s called you to lead. Rich Birch — Yeah, I love that. Spence Shelton — And so I think the same thing is true with leaders as well.Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s so good. I love that. And I you know I love the even the vision for, hey, maybe there are some people within your church. We see this statistically, like even if you’re thinking about campus pastors, 9 out of 10 campus pastors are coming from within, which means we’ve got which means we’ve got to get good at this. Spence Shelton — Yeah.Rich Birch — And yeah, if your church has any kind of unique slant on the world, you’ve got to find people who have come up through that culture to ah to ultimately push that culture forward.Spence Shelton — Yes.Rich Birch — I love this this marketplace to ministry transition. How do we help people do that? That’s a real key transition. I would imagine on your end, you’ve got to help connect the dots for somebody. I love that there, how you even with the physical therapist, we’re able to connect the dots between, hey, here’s what you’re doing. Let me talk to you about the kind of role that we’re thinking about. How do you make that transition? Have you developed anything to try to help make that, you know could you know, connect those dots for people as you’re having those conversations?Spence Shelton — Yeah, I would say we don’t I don’t have a conversational map that I’m doing.Rich Birch — Sure.Spence Shelton — I don’t have that yet, though I think that’s just like many things, trial and error, and I’m still in the still cooking to formulate that map.Spence Shelton — But what I do have that we’ve worked through with our staff is something we call, it’s interesting, we actually call it the lead pastor profile.Rich Birch — Okay.Spence Shelton — The reason we call the lead pastor profile is because everything we’re doing, we’re building towards, developing towards planting more churches. And you’ve got to have a lead pastor to go and plant those churches. Rich Birch — Yeah. Spence Shelton — Now, the thing is actually when you when you look at it, it’s actually just a ministry leader profile, you know? Rich Birch — Right. Spence Shelton — Everything on there, but there may be a couple of things that are nuanced specifically to lead pastors, but it’s kind of like when you go into Timothy and you see what are the characteristics of an elder? Well, every single one of them is just a good Christian, except then you got this thing able to teach. You know what mean? Rich Birch — Right, right.Spence Shelton — So it’s a similar thing is like most of our profile, nine points on it and divided into three buckets, it’s mostly just what makes a good ministry leader. Well, then what I’m doing is what we are doing is we’re taking that and we’re training our whole staff through it and saying, Hey, here’s what we are looking for. Here’s what we’re trying to develop. And then here’s everything. So I do a training monthly with our staff on these points. Rich Birch — Right.Spence Shelton — And then I do it and I say, yeah, I have to verbally say it, never underestimate or never overestimate, I guess just that it’s going to happen without you saying it, always say what you want them to do, you know, just good old preaching point there. But man, Hey, I want you guys to take what I’m teaching you and go teach your volunteers. Rich Birch — That’s good. Spence Shelton — And go teach those that. And I want you to teach your leaders. And then I want your leaders to be able to teach them. And if it doesn’t work, I want you to come back and tell me so that we can get better at making this a multiplying thing. Right. Spence Shelton — So we just got to have a lot of checks and balances along the way. So we’re hopefully training. And it took a while to pull this together in a way that it makes sense to all of us. And now that we’re kind of running it, we can see the value in it of, hey, this is what we’re looking for. And now you can go shoulder tap and say, I know what I’m looking…So the the kids director can go, I know what I’m looking for.Spence Shelton — Now I can go and start shoulder tapping because I know what, you know what i mean? Now that know what I’m looking for, it’s…Rich Birch — Totally.Spence Shelton — Those are probably the the beginnings of a conversational map to to walk somebody through, but at least you know what you’re looking for. You can start to have those conversations. And if you have the relational equity, those conversations can really go somewhere.Rich Birch — Love it. I’d love to double click on that. I love this lead pastor profile idea. I think working to get the clarity I think is in is a great, you know, a great task for all of us to wrestle through.Rich Birch — We think, well, we want to develop our leaders, but then we don’t have any definition of what do we mean by a leader, like at its more most basic level.Spence Shelton — Yes.Rich Birch — So we don’t need to get into all nine, but are there a couple of them that are either counterintuitive or maybe we miss, or you find yourself coming back to time and again, that are like real dividing points or like ones that kind of stick out to you in the in the framework?Spence Shelton — Yeah. All right. So obviously all nine matter to me or I wouldn’t have had them all. So I’ll do my best.Rich Birch — Yes, exactly.Spence Shelton — I’ll do my best.Spence Shelton — So we divide him into three buckets, character, competency, and calling. So each one of those has three points under it. And I’ll click on one of them, maybe in each, and you can tell me if you want to go further.Rich Birch — Sure. That’s great. Yeah.Spence Shelton — But in character, the one that I find to be the most overlooked is self-awareness.Rich Birch — So true.Spence Shelton — I find that to be the most overlooked characteristic of a good leader is one who is aware of their strengths and aware of their weaknesses and is settled in their identity in Christ so that their weaknesses don’t crush them.Rich Birch — That’s good.Spence Shelton — You know, they can instead build a team around them, you know. Because the classic thing with a lead pastor is to say, well, I’m good at vision and bad at details. It’s like, OK, man, maybe we need to do something a little more thoughtful than that, because that resonates with me for sure… Rich Birch — Right. Right. Spence Shelton — …that you ask the guys around me for sure. But what what? what about are you better at vision casting or vision creating? And what are the evidences of that in your ministry? You know, so for me, I’m better at vision casting than I am vision creating. That’s probably my my 9 to 10 is actually sharing it.Spence Shelton — But I got to have some help and and love having help in the other side of that. And so there are plenty of other things like that. But when we have someone who’s not aware of their strengths and weaknesses, usually that’s that’s like a stop point for us.Spence Shelton — And so if we’ve got someone we think, oh, man, they they come across because here’s the thing. Unless you have these points, somebody will can make a great first impression and a lot of long term damage in your ministry. Rich Birch — That’s good. Spence Shelton — Not because they have bad intent, but because they’re not aware of what they’re… And you give them a lot of responsibility and maybe they’re not actually, they don’t have the eyes of Jethro in Exodus 18 to know how to build out a ministry.Rich Birch — Right. Right. Spence Shelton — You just thought they did because they gave off a good first impression.Rich Birch — Right. Spence Shelton — So that’s my biggest biggest one in that character, or not biggest one, but that’s a key one, I think, in the character is…Rich Birch — Right. A key one that sticks out.Spence Shelton — …man, are you self-aware? And so whatever we use, we love different, whether it’s the personality assessments, leadership assessments, but we also, and we just, we wanna develop from within because that gives us the ability to see.Rich Birch — Right.Spence Shelton — We can see what their strengths and weaknesses are. Rich Birch — Yes. Spence Shelton — Because we’ve had people eyes on them for months and years and you can’t really trade that out.Rich Birch — Yeah, and character takes a long time of up-close observation to really get a sense of where where people are at.Spence Shelton — Yes.Rich Birch — Because, and you know we know this is, this is you know we don’t have to think long. There are lots of examples of leaders who—and all look great—but there’s like a 2% you know, problem in their character that ended up showing itself in the most kind of ugly of ways.Spence Shelton — That’s right.Rich Birch — So I know all nine are super important. I get that. appreciate that. But we can’t be here for three hours. So competency, what was what’s one in there that that that tends to say we’re just trying to whet people’s appetite to kind of help them think through it a little bit.Spence Shelton — Yeah, man. For competency, the one that I would, the the one that, yeah, that spend a lot of time on when it comes to competency, what I would say is the multiplier. Rich Birch — That’s good.Spence Shelton — I want someone who is a proven multiplier before I move them into an increased um level of leadership and responsibility. I want to see it, man. And if we, otherwise, again, what I’m trying to weed out is someone that talks a good game or someone that just has a, there may be someone I think a lot of leaders that might actually be really strong in the gift of hospitality have found themselves in the arena of administration simply because they are, like generous, kind, easy to talk to people. And they’re great. You want to be around them. They’re probably encouragers, that kind of thing. Spence Shelton — And it’s like, wait a minute, have they multiplied? Do they actually understand what it takes…Rich Birch — That’s good.Spence Shelton — …to take someone from leading self, to use the old Ramsharan leadership pipeline, from leading self to leading others, have they actually, do they understand what it takes? Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.Spence Shelton — And do they understand what it takes to go from leading others to leading leaders? And have they, let’s let’s just look behind them. If you wanna go the the Bible route, you just take 2 Timothy 2:2…are they able to train up faithful teachers who can then teach others also? That to me is, especially when we get into who’s going to go out and plant a church…Rich Birch — Right.Spence Shelton — …and I’m not sending somebody out that’s not a builder. Another way to say multiplier would be builder, but I say multiplier because I’m specifically thinking around leadership and leading those who will lead others. Rich Birch — Yeah. Spence Shelton — If we want to build a movement of churches for the sake of the glory of God, and we want these churches to go and continue to build, there’s got to be multipliers leading this. Rich Birch — Yes. Yes.Spence Shelton — You know, gotta be. So when it comes to competency, that’s like a a deal breaker for me for who we’re going to send out the plant. And so I want to develop it starting in our student ministry, you know, and working our way through or starting in our college ministry, working our way through.Spence Shelton — I don’t want to wait until we just try to, otherwise we’ve got to go pluck out from the, you know, ether, somebody that we hope is a multiplier. And I don’t want to do that. I’d rather raise them up.Rich Birch — Well, and we see this temptation in churches when they get to, say, 1,000, and then they’re they’re growing you know they’re they’re eyeing 2,000 beyond. There’s a there’s a dangerous temptation that can come in, particularly for our staff teams. I know we’re talking broader than just staff teams, but particularly for our staff teams, we can ah we can forget the Ephesians 4 call to equip others to to ministry.Spence Shelton — That’s right.Rich Birch — And we just become doers. We hire doers rather than multipliers… Spence Shelton —Yes. Rich Birch — …because they get stuff done. And we’re like, oh man, they’re solving problems for us. But that is can then erode a church long-term very quickly. I’ve seen that so many times where they end up with, you know they slow down.Spence Shelton — That’s right.Rich Birch — They’re like, why are we slowing down? It’s well, because you’ve stopped multiplying. You’ve stopped doing what we’re called to do. I love that. Rich Birch — So then the third category calling anything in there that would, that steps that kind of is similar. Again, I know all nine are are really important, but, but any of those that that kind of jumped to the, to the front.Spence Shelton — Maybe I’ll give you one that has we’ve learned through some some painful trial and error, Rich Birch — Okay. Sure. Spence Shelton — And that is, we call it alignment. And what we mean by that is: as you develop a leader, when it comes to their long-term place in your church and leading maybe even beyond your, so in our case, beyond our church to going in and leading ah a church that’s going be a part of the family of our churches, it’s really important that not only are they theologically aligned, but they are philosophically aligned in terms of how we do church.Spence Shelton — So no shade on any other way of doing church. What I’m saying is so that we can continue to be united in one voice internally, so at Mercy Church with how we do discipleship, and then so that we can be united in how we can help and train one another as a family of churches, we got to be aligned not just around our theological convictions, but on our ministry convictions, how we do it.Spence Shelton — I would say to those of you out there who have a promising young leader, but it seems like they just don’t want to do, they want to change your church into their, a different kind of church.Rich Birch — Right.Spence Shelton — The best thing you can do is set them free. Rich Birch — Yes. Spence Shelton — And I don’t mean like, that’s not like code for firing, by the way, that genuinely that genuinely is like, help them find a way, an off ramp to whatever it is they sense God calling them to. If they’re not, you know, they might be just, they need more season of development. That might be all it is. But when it comes to appointing people towards and, and, setting people into key leadership. So take an elder role at Mercy Church, community group coaching, shepherding, that kind of thing where you’re in now, you are shaping, not just participating. You’re really shaping the DNA of our church. Spence Shelton — We’ve got to be aligned with what we’re doing. It also makes for a much more enjoyable experience. I’m not saying we’re not thinking. We’re always thinking over here about how to do it better and trying to be faithful and everything else.Rich Birch — Yes.Spence Shelton — Of course. But I’m saying, man, you want to feel like you’re locked arm and arm going together. And when conviction comes that goes a separate way, it’s like best to separate. So we’ve we’ve learned that the kind of the hard way. I think a lot of lessons are hard.Rich Birch — Sure.Spence Shelton — And so I offer this as our missions pastor likes to say, we have paid some dumb tax. Rich Birch — True. Spence Shelton — And so wherever we can save another person from paying it, we’d love to do that for you.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. I love that. and And yeah, I think alignment’s a massive deal and and calling it out. And I would think being in a church that is um so focused on sending, you’re you’re hoping that that’s a big part of what’s kind of the outcome of the church. Spence Shelton — That’s right.Rich Birch — That, you know, having an an outlet for that sending in a way that makes the most sense. Hey, here’s a leader who seems to have the skills and, you know, and and and then you can celebrate, hey, they seem to have some unique ideas that they want to go and see happen somewhere else.Spence Shelton — Yes. Yes.Rich Birch — That’s fantastic. Rather than having to like fight that. I think that’s cool. That’s really good. Rich Birch — So, you know, help me ah pick this apart a little bit. So one of the interesting things I find in this whole kind of leadership pathway, leadership pipeline conversation is there are, so I think we all can be influential. I think in one way we are all called to be leaders, but not necessarily everyone that we’re discipling is necessarily going to be a lead pastor. They’re not all necessarily going to. Rich Birch — Now I understand we’re kind of discipling towards that, but help me understand what are you doing internally with folks that you’re like, I just, they’re just not going to make that jump eventually. How do you have that conversation? I know that’s a hard conversation. What does that look like?Spence Shelton — Right.Rich Birch — Or am I just looking at this wrong? Which could be the case too. Happy to be wrong. Help help me think through that.Spence Shelton — Well, we’ve got to have some freedom that comes from distinctive categories. This will help us a great deal. Helps me in pastoring a great deal. First, we got to have the category of spiritual gift. The Lord has given everyone a spiritual gift… Rich Birch — Yep. Spence Shelton — …and we got to celebrate that. Rich Birch — Right. Spence Shelton — And we got to be careful not to turn the leadership pipeline into, or that concept of leader development, turn that into a a grading of gifts. Like you’ve got a, you know, you’re, you need to graduate from one gift. Maybe that’s a better way to say it. Graduate from one gift to the other, to the other. It’s like, no, no, no. Rich Birch — That’s good. Spence Shelton — What we’re not talking about is graduating out of your gift set. God has given you that. And the best thing for you and for his church is to get really good at how he’s given you or how he’s gifted you. Rich Birch — That’s good. Spence Shelton — And when we when we conflate those, when we only talk about just you know getting better, it’s like, man, we got to watch out. Instead, let’s say, how can we get better at the giftings God has given us so that we can steward it really well?Spence Shelton — And then we find ourselves able to say, and when it comes to leadership, and here we are as church leaders, we’re now inside of a category. We’re inside of a category of leadership. And how can we develop leaders who are gifted by God as leaders? Well, the good news is maybe take some pressure off everybody, you’re not really going to know if someone’s gifted in leadership until you let them try to lead. Rich Birch — True, yes. Spence Shelton — So you got to let them try to lead, man. And then as they lead and you give them a couple of swings, two, three, four, whatever, and you coach them along the way, hey, here’s what we’re looking for in a leader. Here’s how you can grow from leading self leading others. Take the pressure off. Spence Shelton — This might be how God has gifted you, we don’t know. But the best way to see, based on what we’ve seen so far, is to let you try. So here’s a community group, and here are the things you’re gonna need to be a good community group leader, and we’re gonna coach you and support you.Spence Shelton — Let’s go. And let’s see what the next six months brings, right? Rich Birch — Yep, that’s great.Spence Shelton — Hey, this went really well. We wanna take you out of this community group leader seat and put you in as a coach. Now there’s a different set of skills you’re gonna need to be a coach, but man, it seems like your people responded to your leadership. What do we think about you as a coach? Spence Shelton — Each set of the way, man, do I have the, the way I always say it to our staff—they’re sick of me saying this, so it’s great to talk to you because…Rich Birch — I’m not sick of it. Yeah.Spence Shelton — …[inaudible] fresh person to say this too—is that clarity in expectations creates confidence in execution. The clearer you are with what you are asking someone to do, the more confident they will be in doing it. Another way to say it.Rich Birch — That’s good.Spence Shelton — So that’s just my my big thing there on on this. Let’s get over now that we’re, and what we’re going to find is some people are going to lead a community group faithfully for 20, 30 years at our church. Rich Birch — Right, right.Spence Shelton — Praise the Lord. What we can’t see is that we can’t see that a failure. Rich Birch — No. Spence Shelton — Others are going to lead for six months to two years. And we’re going to man, this, this person’s a leader and, and we’re seeing it. They already, they’re planting. Spence Shelton — I had someone come up to me the other day at church and tell me, Hey man, I just wanted to tell you, we’re so excited. You challenged me about five years ago to lead a community group. And we just planted our fifth group. And I went, like I went, I was, my mind went so far. I didn’t even have time to be, to be celebrating. Rich Birch — Right. Spence Shelton — Cause I was like, does anybody know that there’s a guy out here… Rich Birch — Right. Yes. Who’s just cranking out groups. Spence Shelton — …with the with an apostolic gift just planting groups every year what’s going so so. Rich Birch — Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. Spence Shelton — I was like hey, but so that that was a a great moment the Lord gave me just of, hey this is this is going really well and there will be some that will lead a group and things won’t go well and they won’t go well and you’ll keep trying different efforts. So to my community group leader friends, hey once someone tries and tries and tries, would you maybe tap their shoulder and say hey can we try something else. You know. Rich Birch — Good. Spence Shelton — Like you are not a failure. We just got to find the gift that God has given you. Rich Birch — Right. Spence Shelton — And the more that’s in the conversation of your church, that’s in the atmosphere of your church—We’re just looking for the way God’s gifted you. And we’re going to try and make you the best you can be at how he’s gifted you.—The easier the conversation is going to be of, I don’t think it’s community group leadership. I don’t think it’s this. I don’t think it’s that. Because we have a culture of, Hey, trial and error, you know?Rich Birch — Right. That’s good. That’s so good. I love that. And I love this has been a great kind of look under the hood of this whole multiplication issue. I think a lot of church leaders out there have the desire. They have the like, oh, we, man, I would love to be a church that has that kind of vision. But then what are the mechanics underneath of that? How do we actually do that?Spence Shelton — Yeah. Yeah.Rich Birch — Super helpful. Pivoting in this totally, well, it’s a related but different direction. Your church has been involved in a number of revitalizations. You talked about on the you know top end, you had a you know facility given to you. And I this is like a super inappropriate, with just a few minutes left, curveball to throw in there. What’s your shorthand thing for us to learn about that? Rich Birch — You know that we’ve seen, particularly from a multisite point of view, this area has grown hugely in the last 10 years. It was 10 years ago, 5% of new campuses came about because multiple revitalization. The most recent study showed showed it was 40%. Spence Shelton — Wow.Rich Birch — I suspect Warren’s out talking right now. I suspect the number is even going to be higher. What are the few things that you’ve learned about, you know, those kinds of conversations and relationships that have allowed it to work for you? And it’s been helpful. It’s been a joy giving part of the story at Mercy. Talk us through that.Spence Shelton — I’m going to do so using another point in my lead pastor profile just to have some fun here.Rich Birch — Love it.Spence Shelton — So one of the things we look for in a leader is confident humility. Rich Birch — That’s good. Spence Shelton — Confident in terms of, man, they believe God has called them to something. You know there’s a there’s a settled confidence there. But the humility to be patient and wait on the Lord and see what he has and to consider others, Philippians, to consider others more important than yourself. Right? This matters a great deal when it comes to this area of revitalization.Spence Shelton — What a leader needs to know that there’s this temptation, and I had it, of why would you not give us your church building? Rich Birch — Right.Spence Shelton — Things are going well for us and struggling for you. Why would you not do that?Rich Birch — Yes.Spence Shelton — Well, it’s that there’s an unintentional, I’m call it a holy ambition that may be a little bit creating some blinders. Okay, let’s use the positive side of that. The the negative side would be there’s some arrogance there. Rich Birch — Right. Yeah.Spence Shelton — But the positive would be holy ambition. But what you gotta know is, man, often these facilities that are housing these churches, the ones that are remaining, a lot of the times that there are people that have been there for decades and for a generation or two, and they put blood, sweat, tears and money into where they are. Spence Shelton — And we had to take the the approach of slow by my standards, still fast by theirs… Rich Birch — Yes. Spence Shelton — …slow by my standards. Conversation after conversation that began with , in both of these cases, began with the church that needed revitalizing coming to us. We didn’t go to them. Spence Shelton — They came to us and said, hey, we’re trying to figure out what’s next. We hear you might be able to help. How can you help?Spence Shelton — And we had to present them. We had to consider that a stewardship process. of a kingdom resource, not a how do we advance the name of Mercy Church.Spence Shelton — And so it’s happened two different ways for us right now. One is a campus of our church. You know, we it took months and months, but they wound up voting to hand us the keys, join our congregation, and we held their hand the whole way through. And it was a really beautiful thing. And it’s where our broadcast campus meets today. Spence Shelton — There’s another one that happened where we decided the best thing was for that to be a, because of the neighborhood it’s in in East Charlotte, to be a church planting incubator where we could plant a church every 18 months to two years. Rich Birch — Love it. Yeah.Spence Shelton — And so that’s what we’re doing right now. And there’s a church plant in there. And that was the best stewardship of that building. And after the conversation with their people, but we kind of, we basically put that with them and say, I had a lot of lunches and dinners that I just I’m going to tell you, if you want to get into this game and you want to do it in a way that’s going to honor the Lord, you got to be ready for the patient handholding that I would say is honoring a legacy of faith these folks are are taking.Spence Shelton — In many ways, the greatest step of faith taken in our church has been a couple of other churches handing us keys…Rich Birch — Yeah, 100%.Spence Shelton — …to something that the Lord was an outpost for the gospel at one point. And now in both of those cases for us and in the others that we’re starting to see that are still too soon for me to talk about, it’s just, man, now there’s an outpouring happening in both of those places. And you got like, man, there’s a couple of folks that are from the original congregation of what is now our, where our broadcast campus now is. And they, they, they’re greeters. They have tears more mornings than they don’t on Sunday mornings.Rich Birch — Yeah, yeah, for sure.Spence Shelton — It’s beautiful, man. Rich Birch — Yeah, it is.Spence Shelton — I mean, they’re all in. They are way bigger fans of Mercy Church than I am. And I’m the lead pastor of the church. Rich Birch — Yes, right. Spence Shelton — You know what I mean? And they just, they are like, they love, because what they actually are is they, they took a step of faith, a huge step of faith, trusting the Lord. And the Lord has blessed them and renewed a a vigor in their ministry. Spence Shelton — I saw a couple of them, mid 80s, and it was about 11 a.m. weekday and they were leaving the church building. I was pulling up. I just put windows down. Hey, what are you doing? It’s like, well, we just finished prayer walk in the neighborhood a couple of times…Rich Birch — Wow.Spence Shelton — …and it’s getting too hot now. We’re going inside. And I’m like, these are the people I want, man. Rich Birch — Yes.Spence Shelton — Like just they’re retired and they have chosen they’re going their day prayer walking. It’s like, well, you told us to pray. And I’m like, yeah. Yeah. Rich Birch — That’s amazing. Yeah, that’s incredible.Spence Shelton — Thank you for leading the way you have the time and this is what you do with it. So, man, there are if if all we see is just, Oh a facility to advance my cause. And we miss what has actually been the sweetest thing for our church has been our very young church got some grandparents.Rich Birch — Yes. Spence Shelton — It’s beautiful, man. Beautiful. Rich Birch — Yeah. Yeah. That’s so good. Spence Shelton — So that’s just a little bit I learned from that ah from those couple of runs we’ve had. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s amazing. And yeah, that underlines, so it’s definitely the majority—I think it’s three quarters, if I remember the most recent statistics on these sort of revitalizations—are coming about because the joining church is coming to the lead church, not the other way around.Spence Shelton — That’s right. That’s right.Rich Birch — And so you have to position yourself in a way that that confident humility is a great kind of benchmark to be thinking about, friends. How do we you know hold ourselves in a way that we’re here to serve other people, we’re here to care for them in a way. And I say to church leaders when we talk about these things, I’m like, you have to handle these relationships well enough so that then they’ll tell other people, hey, wow, we loved working with Mercy Hill.Rich Birch — Man, there we love working with Mercy Church. Well, we love working with mercy Mercy Hill too. Spence Shelton — Sure. That’s right.Rich Birch — We love working with Mercy Hill, Mercy Church, too many Mercies. Wow, what a great you know interaction that was been. And wow, that’s a life-giving thing.Spence Shelton — That’s right.Rich Birch — And I loved that. That is what ultimately we’ll see more of these happen long-term. Not because you did some, you know, so too many people have these like, You know, like they use merger and takeover and like this kind of aggressive language, which just doesn’t help in the conversation at all.Spence Shelton — No, it doesn’t help at all. Yeah, that’s exactly right. You got to have that humility. And if somebody’s sitting there wondering, okay, man, well, how do I how do I wait on that without, I want to go get it. I want to get started. I’d say two or three things to do if you’re looking and you believe your church might be a good church candidate for helping another church revitalize, whether that’s being a campus of yours or or something to that effect. Spence Shelton — I’d say first start praying and asking the Lord. And that if you’re not fasting, then you’re not praying yet. Rich Birch — Yeah. Love it.Spence Shelton — So I don’t want to hear that you’re praying if you’re not fasting on this. Secondly, man, this is why networks matter. So I would say whatever your denomination or stream is, whatever, however you’re kind of tied to other churches in your community. If you have no relationships with other churches in your community, and then you want to go and be the revitalizer, that’s going to come, that’s probably going to come across a certain way.Spence Shelton — So There are a number of—years and years and years—of meetings that I’ve gone to, conversations I’ve sat in, in order to genuinely try to say, how can we help? How can we help?Rich Birch — Yeah.Spence Shelton — Whether that’s sending a worship leader to go serve at a church one Sunday morning or helping one church with a a building fundy kind of like thing they got to upfit or something, you know.Spence Shelton — Basically, I’m trying to be a team player in the Kingdom here in our little corner of the world in Charlotte. And then that’s going to earn the respect and the trust for when those conversations can happen in the relational network, those conversations can happen. Spence Shelton — So I am one who just in my nature, I do not like meetings. I don’t like them. Rich Birch — Sure.Spence Shelton — They feel like necessary evils. Rich Birch — Love it.Spence Shelton — And I’m trying to get better about that. But they are actually what I do love and value is trust and relationships. And again, confident humility. I have to be more about the Kingdom than I do about my own church. And a rising tide lifts all boats, you know.Rich Birch — Yeah, it’s so good. Well, this been a great conversation today, Spence. I really appreciate that. And thanks for going with me there with that little you know detour at the end.Spence Shelton — Of course, the joy.Rich Birch — That was fantastic. But anything you’d love to share just as we wrap up today’s conversation?Spence Shelton — I would say too—I don’t know what’s spurring this, but something that has helped me so much in my ministry to the leader out there, especially the young leader, but maybe to all of them—you will always overestimate what you can do in five years and you will drastically underestimate what you can do in 20. Rich Birch — That’s so true.Spence Shelton — And there maybe a way to say it is you will overestimate what God will do and underestimate what God will do. So this is a little plug of me saying, stay the course, stay the course where you’re at. The Lord is going to do a work in honor of your faithfulness to the work. Stay in it, man. Stay in it.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. Just to add to that, I’m doing some research on working on a book on churches that break the 2000 barrier. And one of the interesting telltale signs are senior leaders and senior leadership teams that have been in the same church or the same community for 20 plus years. Spence Shelton — There you go. Rich Birch — So going into their third decade, it just takes time. Spence Shelton — There it is. Rich Birch — You know, it’s not it’s it’s not you know’s not overnight. Rich Birch — Well, I really appreciate this. This has been a great a great conversation. Spence, if people want to track with you or with the church, where do we want to send them online? Spence Shelton — Yeah, man, you can go to probably social media is the the day and age that we live in. So @SpenceShelton is my social media handle. It’s Instagram and and those kind of things. Our church is just @MercyCharlotte. And you can go on our website, mercycharlotte.com. Find everything you need there. Spence Shelton — We’re launching a podcast. Praise God, let’s go. You can find all of it, though, just through our Instagram handles, which is usually a good first landing point for folks. And however we can help, man, feel free to reach out. Nothing super shiny about what we got going on over here, but we love being in the game for the Kingdom. However we can help.Rich Birch — All the best as you serve in Charlotte. Thanks so much, man.Spence Shelton — Thank you, brother.

Most of us use GPS—the Global Positioning System—on a daily basis: to find our location when we're driving, running, shopping, dating, and so much more. But GPS is even more important, and more vulnerable, than you think.In the last few years, GPS interference has been reported all over the world, from war zones to shipping routes to public squares. What was once the fanciful plot of a Bond movie—bad guy manipulates GPS to start World War III—is increasingly plausible. How did the world come to rely so heavily on such an unreliable system?In this episode of Decoder Ring, host Willa Paskin talks to journalist Katherine Dunn, author of the new book Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World. You'll learn how GPS works, why it was created, how it became so ubiquitous, and why it's now under attack. You'll also hear from Dr. Todd Humphreys, an aerospace engineer who manipulated GPS to trick an $85 million superyacht into following his direction—for science, of course.This episode was written and produced by Max Freedman. It was edited by Willa Paskin and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Our intern is Phoebe Mulder.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Sources for This Episode Burgess, Matt. “When a tanker vanishes, all the evidence points to Russia,” WIRED, Sep. 21, 2017.Dunn, Katherine. Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026.Dunn, Katherine. “How to Hack a Superyacht,” The Walrus, Jun. 13, 2026.Hopper, Nate. “The Thorny Problem of Keeping the Internet's Time,” The New Yorker, Sep. 30, 2022.Hopper, Nate. “The Timekeeper of Ukraine,” The Atlantic, Sep. 21, 2024.Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most of us use GPS—the Global Positioning System—on a daily basis: to find our location when we're driving, running, shopping, dating, and so much more. But GPS is even more important, and more vulnerable, than you think.In the last few years, GPS interference has been reported all over the world, from war zones to shipping routes to public squares. What was once the fanciful plot of a Bond movie—bad guy manipulates GPS to start World War III—is increasingly plausible. How did the world come to rely so heavily on such an unreliable system?In this episode of Decoder Ring, host Willa Paskin talks to journalist Katherine Dunn, author of the new book Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World. You'll learn how GPS works, why it was created, how it became so ubiquitous, and why it's now under attack. You'll also hear from Dr. Todd Humphreys, an aerospace engineer who manipulated GPS to trick an $85 million superyacht into following his direction—for science, of course.This episode was written and produced by Max Freedman. It was edited by Willa Paskin and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Our intern is Phoebe Mulder.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.Sources for This Episode Burgess, Matt. “When a tanker vanishes, all the evidence points to Russia,” WIRED, Sep. 21, 2017.Dunn, Katherine. Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026.Dunn, Katherine. “How to Hack a Superyacht,” The Walrus, Jun. 13, 2026.Hopper, Nate. “The Thorny Problem of Keeping the Internet's Time,” The New Yorker, Sep. 30, 2022.Hopper, Nate. “The Timekeeper of Ukraine,” The Atlantic, Sep. 21, 2024.Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most of us use GPS—the Global Positioning System—on a daily basis: to find our location when we're driving, running, shopping, dating, and so much more. But GPS is even more important, and more vulnerable, than you think.In the last few years, GPS interference has been reported all over the world, from war zones to shipping routes to public squares. What was once the fanciful plot of a Bond movie—bad guy manipulates GPS to start World War III—is increasingly plausible. How did the world come to rely so heavily on such an unreliable system?In this episode of Decoder Ring, host Willa Paskin talks to journalist Katherine Dunn, author of the new book Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World. You'll learn how GPS works, why it was created, how it became so ubiquitous, and why it's now under attack. You'll also hear from Dr. Todd Humphreys, an aerospace engineer who manipulated GPS to trick an $85 million superyacht into following his direction—for science, of course.This episode was written and produced by Max Freedman. It was edited by Willa Paskin and Evan Chung, our supervising producer. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Our intern is Phoebe Mulder.If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, email us at DecoderRing@slate.com or leave a message on our hotline at (347) 460-7281.Get more of Decoder Ring with Slate Plus! Join for exclusive bonus episodes of Decoder Ring and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Decoder Ring show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus for access wherever you listen.Sources for This Episode Burgess, Matt. “When a tanker vanishes, all the evidence points to Russia,” WIRED, Sep. 21, 2017.Dunn, Katherine. Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026.Dunn, Katherine. “How to Hack a Superyacht,” The Walrus, Jun. 13, 2026.Hopper, Nate. “The Thorny Problem of Keeping the Internet's Time,” The New Yorker, Sep. 30, 2022.Hopper, Nate. “The Timekeeper of Ukraine,” The Atlantic, Sep. 21, 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.