Youngsters and Hawk Nelson are Bailing on Jesus

Show open from the Pathway Studios

A host delivers the standard show open: live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper, 'you are live from the path.'

Cold open: the leftovers

A host explains that the hosts already had a long, good conversation off-mic before recording and deliberately held some of it back out of sensitivity, so what the listener gets is 'the leftovers' after the main meal. He addresses 'Ben' by name in the audio.

Barna research on pandemic and youth faith loss

• Will the coronavirus pandemic accelerate young people walking away from the faith?

A host reads a Barna Group article (transcript renders 'Barnard Research') reporting that the pandemic could accelerate a loss of faith in the next generation, citing senior researchers and president David Kinnaman: a majority of young people who grew up in the church will walk away from their faith or the church as young adults.

Dan's Jim Bakker PTL Club years

Dan (speaker-1, addressed as 'Dan' in the audio) tells how he worked at Burger King on Sunday mornings through high school to make a car payment, missing church for months at a time, and watched Jim Bakker's PTL Club every single night instead. He says he grasped the God part, avoided the lifestyle of his peers, sent Bakker quarters, and received a little PTL Bible. He had no church community or youth group from junior high on.

Will the pandemic cost the next generation its faith?

• Can a person's relationship with Christ survive outside the institutional church?

The hosts debate the Barna findings. One host argues children are resilient, that the gospel must be authentic at home, and that youth group works by reinforcing what parents start at home; he notes Mike is discussed as an example of a youth leader whose teaching only lands when backed up at home. They discuss Kinnaman's data, argue the researchers are measuring institutional programming rather than relationship with Christ, and push back on exclamation-point catastrophizing about a year of disruption.

Pandemic as opportunity: broadening the definition of church

The hosts reframe the pandemic as an opportunity to broaden, not change, the definition of church: the church meeting in twenty houses is still the church, technology lets community persist without a building, and livestreaming is 'another front door' larger churches will struggle to shut down. They argue the data is geared toward large, building-leveraged churches, question counting attendance as success when young adults leave at high rates, and land on 'just be the church' rather than pandemic-proofing a process.

Hawk Nelson frontman Jon Steingard walks away from faith

A host reads an article about Jon Steingard (transcript renders 'John Steingard'/'Steiningard'), former frontman of the Canadian Christian rock band Hawk Nelson, who revealed he no longer believes in God and said the pandemic quarantine slowing life down led him to go public. Steingard describes deconstruction and reconstruction, peace about hell, and rejecting eternal conscious torment as inconsistent with a loving father.

Feelings are untrustworthy guides

The hosts push back on deconstructing over feelings: feelings routinely mislead (the 2 a.m. plant shadow, the certain-but-wrong dread about a spouse), and Dan says it takes 'an amazing amount of arrogance to think you can deconstruct God and reconstruct him in your image and he's good with that.'

Deconstruction needs a foundation; hell as honored choice

• Why would God send someone to hell?

A host argues deconstruction language is incoherent without a foundation: Christianity was constructed on Scripture's account of God's character, historical witness, and centuries of demonstration, so departing over one hard doctrine means discarding healings, martyrs, and faithful marriages too. On hell, he grants ambiguity past 'eternal separation from God' but reframes it as inclusivity: God invites everyone and honors the choice to say no. He illustrates with an extended pie analogy of a father offering pie to a daughter who refuses it.

Ask your questions; don't trust the feelings

Continuing the pie analogy (no spoons at the pie table; 'I'm gonna deconstruct this pie and make it bread pudding'), a host urges embracing doubts and asking questions: God's people have always done so, from the minor prophets to David's psalms to Elijah's 'God, where were you?' He grants the hell question is answerable, notes much of the Christian bookstore wrestles with it, and closes by correcting that Hawk Nelson is the band's name, not the man's.

Dear LFTP: the smelly-feet husband

• My husband's feet smell horrible and he gets offended when I ask him to wash up — what should I do?

A listener writes that her husband works 10+ hour days outdoors, his feet smell unbearable, and he gets offended when asked to change socks and wash up. The hosts advise she is not being unreasonable: meet him halfway with fresh socks set out or an Epsom salt foot bath so he feels loved in the process. The Secular persona's answer names the condition bromodosis and prescribes a doctor visit plus 'do a search on healthline.com,' which the hosts roast as terrible advice ('I suggest you Google it').

Dear LFTP: lockdown marriage nitpicking

• During lockdown my wife nitpicks everything I do — do you have advice for either or both of us?

A listener married 35 years writes that lockdown has his wife correcting how he cooks vegetables, sorts trash, washes dishes, and even washes his face, and he is torn between screaming and finding an apartment. The hosts advise treating it like the first year of marriage or retirement, giving room for others' ways, and letting small things go. The Secular persona prescribes solo walks, sunlight, and discussing her behavior with her physician, which the hosts mock relentlessly ('I called it Steven,' re: a hypothetical goiter). The episode closes with the complaint line (515) 517-0085, the 'is Ben still talking?' drive-thru game, and the sign-off.