Thoughtful, Carefully Researched, Vitally Important, Loads of Fun

I love that Dr. Clark (pastor, church historian, seminary professor) posts lots of brief “minicasts” on various topics of current relevance and/or in response to listener emails, texts, and voicemails (which he does, very helpfully, A LOT, and which I really benefit from). But I also love his more sustained series (longer ones every Sunday) that dive deep into the Biblical, theological, and historical data about perennially important but currently hot topics: eschatology (end times views), politics and the Church (Christian Nationalism, etc.), the Holy Spirit’s work and the nature of divine revelation, the message of God’s grace in saving sinners from the wrath to come, the important distinction but necessary relation between Law and Gospel (Law/Works for salvation vs Gospel/Grace for salvation, never negating the goodness and holiness of the Law or downplaying the necessity of obeying it — albeit imperfectly in this life — but relating that obedience to salvation as a response and a consequence and a necessary fruit rather than a cause), and so much more. Despite the heavy topics, and Dr. Clark’s very serious treatment of them (informed by deep and wide and careful reading and scholarship), listening to this podcast always makes me happy. It’s fun. Dr. Clark may take the topics seriously, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously. You’ll hear well timed clips from various rooms in the pop culture mansion. But that stuff’s never overdone. It‘s delightful and everything somehow works together just right. Out of many dozens of podcasts I listen to on all sorts of topics in all sorts of genres, this is THE ONE I come back to most often, always eager to see the latest drop, but always mining the archives for the riches of long multi-part series on important topics I want to know more about and that I sense an urgent need for deeper knowledge of in the church and world today. The quality of content here is really top notch. Seriously, it’s amazing that this is free. Also, very importantly, while it may deal with some heady subjects, Dr. Clark ALWAYS makes things very plain and accessible to a general audience. So no specialized knowledge required. Just jump in and start learning — and prepare to chuckle a time or two.

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