"Talk in the Park"

“where we think out loud about what it means to follow Jesus in our world”

That’s the tagline for our new podcast, “Talk in the Park.”

That tagline really does tell the story of what we hope to accomplish with both this blog and the podcast. We want to think together about what it means to follow Jesus in our increasingly complex world.

We’ve been publishing “Discipleship Weekly” since 2018, but last year we decided to expand our publication platform to include a podcast to reach young adults (many of whom love to listen to podcasts but don’t have much time for reading, or so I’m told).

We were aiming the podcast at the young adult audience, but we’ve been surprised and delighted to hear of the age range of folks who have told us they’re listening, all the way from a boy with his mother to some of our senior saints.

When we first began to think about a podcast, I spoke with a man who was then serving on our custodial staff. He told me that in his duties he frequently got to talk with ministry leaders. He told me that as he listened to our leaders speak of their heart and vision for their ministry, he wished others could have listened in on those conversations. The podcast gives us the opportunity to invite our people to do just that.

PPC is blessed to have a deep reservoir of gifted people. All of the talent involved in “Talk in the Park” is in-house. Jason McClurg wrote, performed and recorded the intro music. John Ambro, PPC’s multi-media manager, provides the audio engineering and editing, and one of our elders, Noel Burke, produces the podcast and co-hosts with me.

The format includes not only interviews with ministry leaders but also discussions of books and blog posts. We’ve published twelve podcasts so far.

• We’ve interviewed several of our pastors and elders (Nick Boucher, Joey Turner, David Boucher). Noel interviewed me and I interviewed him (and we discovered that our life stories could not be more different).
• We reviewed a couple of excellent books, Impossible Christianity (available on our Discipleship Resource shelf) and New City Catechism (available on the Family Resource Shelf).
• We interviewed the executive director of Hope Rising (a crisis pregnancy center PPC has long supported) and Walt Price, one of our elders and a board member for Hope Rising, about the passage of Issue 1, which enshrined abortion rights into the Ohio constitution.
• We’ve discussed some of the blog posts: “Why God Cannot Be My Co-pilot,” “Genuine Repentance,” and “Voting with My Feet.”

Upcoming podcasts include a similar variety of topics and guests:

• an interview with Lee-Ann McKay, PPC’s Director of Women’s Ministries and Outreach (Sept 9)
• an interview with Bill Glenning, one of our elders (Sept 23)
• a discussion of an important document that guides the PPC ministry philosophy, “Portrait of a Maturing Disciple” (Oct 7)
• an interview with John Mohler, our Worship Pastor (Oct 21)
• a discussion with Matt Hardy (who works with Athletes in Action) on four ways to start a spiritual conversation (Nov 4)
• a review of an Advent booklet by Paul David Tripp we’ll be distributing free to the congregation (Nov 18)
• an interview with John Paul, co-chair of the elder council (Dec 2)
• a discussion of a blog post on the sadness of Christmas carols (Dec 16)
• an interview with Joe Godwin, our teaching pastor (Dec 30)
• a discussion of a blog post on the role of boredom in spiritual formation (Jan 13)
• an interview with Janet and David Boucher about our Special Connections ministry to families with special needs children (Jan 27)
• an interview with Walt Price, one of our elders (Feb 10)
• a discussion of a blog post on the mindset of the disciple (Feb 24)

You can find “Talk in the Park” on our newly-designed website, the PPC app, or other podcast streaming platforms.

Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Pastor of Discipleship