Beyond the Country

Produced show-open voiceover

A produced opening voiceover plays over the opening of the show: 'Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper. You are live from the path.'

Cold-open banter: the food-sourcing fat guy

The hosts riff on candy and saltwater taffy, landing on a comedy bit about an overweight snob who still eats everything as long as it is ethically sourced: cage-free eggs by the dozen, heritage-breed pork, even asking the pig's nickname before eating it.

Ten-year anniversary and the 'how to run a radio show for ten years' event

The hosts realize the show's first broadcast was in early March ten years earlier (2009) and joke about having nothing to show for a decade: they buy their own shirts and most of their million YouTube hits are the 'Caps for Sale' video, which they republished. They pitch a live event on 'how to run a radio show for ten years and not succeed' plus a mock awards ceremony, and a host announces Mike as 'best scorekeeper of all time.'

Recommendation: The Bible Project and Tim Mackie's sermons

A host credits teacher-led Scripture teaching, most recently Tim Mackie of The Bible Project, for deep shifts in his relationship with Jesus. He recommends Mackie's 'My Strange Bible' sermon podcast (especially the Jonah series) and tells the story of Francis Chan calling The Bible Project to fund their videos while Chan built a network of house churches needing laypeople who could teach the Bible well.

Article: the nonprofit 'parking tax' hits churches

A host reads a Christianity Today article about the 2018 tax-code provision making nonprofits pay 21% on employee benefits like parking and transportation stipends, projected to cost nonprofits $1.7 billion over ten years. Evangelical groups, including the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission under Russell Moore, lobbied to repeal it.

Discussion: should churches keep fighting tax exemption, plus parking-sign jokes

• Is the original philosophical ground for church tax exemption still true today?
• Should churches stop fighting tax exemption and trade it for the government staying out of their business?

The hosts debate the philosophical ground for church tax exemption ('God's property,' the church as beyond the country), which one host argues the New Testament undercuts; the broad stance lands on: Christians should just let it go, pay the tax, or park farther away. A host predicts churches paying taxes is inevitable within about thirty years, driven by the appearance of government favoritism (the Johnson amendment problem) and fringe groups gaming the exemption, and suggests churches put it in their twenty-year plan. The bit closes with jokes about evading the tax by removing reserved-parking signs, proposing signs that don't technically reserve a spot.

Article read: real impact happens on the fringes, not the mainstream

• How does a Jesus follower find the place where they can actually make a difference?

A host reads an article arguing the more popular something is, the less likely you are to make a difference in it, so anyone wanting impact should 'go narrow, not wide' and work the fringes. The hosts' first free associations are hammer pants, ice cream, a video game, and carnies. The article cites the Great Commandment and Great Commission, warns against loving mainstream things like MCU movies as identity, and calls listeners to find a forgotten corner of need, worship, or ministry and fall in love with the people there.

Discussion: circles of influence vs. niche ministry, Easter egg hunts

• Is ministry about finding a niche market, or working within your existing circles of influence?

A host pushes back that witnessing needs no niche market: speak as an authority figure within your actual circles of influence — family, work, the stores you frequent — rather than starting a novelty group. Another host argues a church can only do a few things well, so the fringe encouragement is personal: don't write off the odd corners of your circle; not everyone wants the homogenous church-service bucket, and churches all running the same Easter egg hunt just trade crowds. The segment drifts into a tangent about long car trips, Def Leppard, and settling on the Garth Brooks satellite channel, plus a call-out to a listener named Kyle to show up.

Pope mix-up story; Jesus' habit of praying alone

• How can someone pray honestly and without distraction?

A host recounts that a man mistook him for 'pope' in a text thread and demanded papal advice; reflecting on it, he realized how often Jesus goes off to pray alone for long stretches — Mark 1 (after healing the leper he vanishes to a mountain to pray while the disciples mount a search party) and Luke (Jesus praying alone even with the disciples nearby). He confesses he has no pull to talk to God for even an hour, that his mind wanders at home because everything he is responsible for is within twenty feet, and that nature works because nothing out there is his responsibility. Prayer, he argues, is simply spiritual communication between a person and God; when you have nothing to say, be quiet and let God talk, or pray the Lord's Prayer. Jesus models both the thirty-second prayer and the all-night prayer, and neither is holier than the other.

Honest prayer: conversational prayer, David's justice psalms, prayer circles

Another host agrees the corporate prayer list (thankful-fors, then needs) blocks real conversation, and says his best prayers were simply talking to God as Father. The first host cites New World Son's song 'What You Wanna Do Today?' — letting God take the lead — and contrasts whitewashed modern prayer with David's Psalms, where David asks God to smite his enemies ('a man after God's own heart'), urging honesty about wanting justice versus repentance. He admits prayer circles feel performative to him — praying to the circle, waiting for 'the ender' — and says approaching God honestly, away from one's whole life, would fix his prayer life.

Intentionality: stop floating through life; Jesus walks ahead of the disciples

A host picks up the prayer-isolation thread: getting real solitude requires extreme measures like early mornings or late nights, and it is easy for six months of a settled job-family-church life to pass with nothing intentional done. The others riff on Jesus slipping away from the disciples — joking he skipped out of Martha's house to avoid making the bed, and picturing him ducking behind things Scooby-Doo style while the disciples fret about upsetting people he left behind.

Game: ten-question 'prayer in the Bible' quiz

The hosts take a ten-question Bible quiz on prayer: Abimelech (he would live), Isaac prayed because Rebekah was barren, Eli thought Hannah was drunk, Elisha's servant saw horses and chariots of fire, the Shunammite woman's child (they wrongly pick 'count the sneezes' — the answer key says 'call the Shunammite woman'), Elisha prayed blindness on the Arameans, Hezekiah was healed, Job's fortunes were restored double, Gabriel answered Daniel's prayer of confession, and Jonah prayed from the belly of the fish. They score 9 of 10; the quiz page says it has been taken 32,000 times since October 2004 with a 69% average. The 'sneeze' miss becomes a running joke about trusting Boova's intuition.

Dear LFTP: married forty-five years to 'Catfish' — what can she do?

• Besides asking nicely, what can a woman do about her husband's bad table manners, poor English, and disrespect for others after 45 years of marriage?

The hosts read a Dear LFTP letter from a woman married forty-five years to Joe, who 'calls himself catfish,' asking what she can do besides asking nicely about his table manners, English, and disrespect for others. The hosts' comedy verdict: the ship has sailed — after forty-five years he is not changing; one suggests she has dementia for noticing now, another pitches 'out catfish the catfish.' The segment closes with the Secular answer: after forty-five years you should have realized you cannot change another person — change how you react instead.

Closing: complaint line, anniversary thanks, sign-off

A host jokes that unlike the Tim Mackie podcast, they have not given up after ten years, and reads the show's complaint line number for texts and calls. They thank listeners who have hung around for the full decade, float a Chinese-buffet night for listeners, and sign off: 'be faithful to me and God will handle the ends.'