Don’t Spit On Folk, Among Other Wisdom

Show open and article-reject preview

The hosts open from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper with balmy-room banter, then preview the episode's premise: the host will list article headlines he rejected and explain why he does not want to cover them. They also preview two Dear LFTP letters: one about a drunk ex the mother-in-law still talks to, and one about anger boiling over.

Michael Todd's spit-on-the-congregant sermon story

• Was Michael Todd's spit demonstration an appropriate sermon illustration?

A host reads a Christian Post article about pastor Michael Todd of Transformation Church in Bixby, Oklahoma, drawing online ire after hawking loogies onto his younger brother's face during a Vision Sunday sermon illustration. Todd had framed the bit around Mark 8:22-26, the blind man at Bethsaida healed when Jesus spat on his eyes privately, claiming God separates people the way Jesus took the man outside the village. The hosts find the demonstration grotesque and note Jesus deliberately did the opposite of a public spectacle.

Failed sermon illustrations and the heresy sniff test

• How can you tell when a teaching elevates humans over God?

The hosts trade stories of sermon illustrations that flopped and argue Todd's real problem is not bad illustration skills but a need for someone to tell him no. A Dante Stewart quote condemning the sermon demonstration's audacity and spiritual abusiveness is read. The segment lands the heresy-detection rule: if a teaching elevates humans it should trip your radar; if it elevates Yahweh it is less likely heretical — applied to Todd's 'subdue, rule, and dominate' church-vision rhetoric.

Critique of personal-vision theology

Continuing on Todd's Vision Sunday rhetoric, the hosts push back on the claim that marriage problems, job dissatisfaction, and everything else reduce to a lack of vision. They argue that a personal 'vision' distinct from general revelation smells like human risk, not gospel furtherance, and that people are hurt by church not because of bad vision but because leaders stop honoring and following Jesus.

LifeWay survey of pastors' greatest needs

• Why does personal prayer rank so low among pastors' stated needs?

A host reads LifeWay Research polling of a thousand Protestant pastors: developing leaders and volunteers (77%), fostering connections with unchurched people (76%), people's apathy (75%), and consistency in personal prayer (72%). The hosts are boggled that personal prayer ranks last — they argue everything else follows from prayer, and nobody they know feels their prayer life cannot be beat.

Prayer-life barometer with Nathaniel and Nick Cox

The hosts take an honest barometer of their own prayer lives. Nathaniel, pinned to speaker-0 by a direct on-air address and answer, says he prays the same things until someone gives him new requests and asks whether praying more for a dramatic need than a grandma's hurt foot is wrong. Nick Cox, pinned to speaker-2 by direct addresses and answers, admits he lacks consistency and depth and sometimes has no words, trying instead to be quiet and listen. The hosts land on prayer as relationship, not a daily checklist — praying what is burdening your heart and not beating yourself up over the list.

Disciple-making flips leadership development

A host argues that developing leaders and volunteers should not outrank personal disciple-making on a pastor's worry list: if you make disciples, leaders will come, since leaders tend to attract people like themselves. The burden of staffing ministries with the right people is God's job to send, not the pastor's to manufacture.

You cannot be the heavy in someone's life

• Can accountability work if you cannot be the enforcer?

The hosts discuss why accountability fails when you try to be the enforcer: one host's story of accountability with a much bigger man he could not intimidate, a parenting analogy about losing authority battles with older kids, and a kid on a bike who knows you cannot touch him. The landing: you can remind a brother what he believes, but you cannot live his life for him — at some point you stop being an accountability partner and become a bully, and if you succeed they met you, not Jesus.

The do-you-fear-God question and the one-need survey results

Nathaniel recounts being asked 'do you even fear God?' during an argument and how it gave him pause about actually implementing God's word. The hosts then read the survey's single-choice results — apathy (10%), personal disciple-making (9%), connections with unchurched people (8%), developing leaders (7%) — and agree these all collapse into one category: care about people in relationships, lead with Jesus.

Take counsel, but beware the expert's pitch

One host advises against setting goals in isolation — you never know what you don't know, so ask around, read, and listen to podcasts. On the survey finding that only 57% of pastors want expert guidance, he is sympathetic: experts often want to sell a book or software, but the core truth stands that there is nothing new under the sun in running a community.

Headline hot takes: stories the show will not cover

• Is it okay to use Jesus's example to back my own cause?

The host rapid-fires rejected headlines with one-line verdicts: Ralph Warnock on MLK (political blowhardiness), a Christian MP on homosexuality prosecution claims (not persecution), MLK controversies (read on your own time), Pastor Taverner Smith's affair leave (repent and leave ministry), celebrity afterlife bandwagoning around Bob Saget, Norm Macdonald, and Betty White (wrong sermon-illustration instinct), the Supreme Court coach-prayer case (genuine religious-freedom question), and Craig Morgan's anti-trafficking work — which prompts a warning not to stretch Jesus's life out of context to back your cause or virtue-signal others into it.

Dear LFTP: the mother who still hangs out with the drunk ex

• Are we unfair for preferring a clean break for everyone from the drunk ex?

Nathaniel reads a letter from a woman whose brother finally broke off a relationship with an alcoholic ex, Jenny, but whose daily-drinking mother keeps meeting Jenny for drinking sessions. The hosts say the writer cannot choose her mother's relationships — she can set boundaries about what gets discussed but must accept that adults make their own choices. The Secular answer agrees it is not her decision and suggests Al-Anon. The segment closes with the hosts' take that relationship drama has an expiration age: 'don't do relationship drama after like 25.'

Dear LFTP: the angry Michigan man's road rage

• How do I get a grip on my temper and stop lashing out at people?

Nathaniel reads a letter from a self-described nice guy in Michigan whose fuse is short — he honked, flipped off, and snapped at his wife and kids. Nick Cox admits his own honking comes from valuing his time over others'. The hosts diagnose a core humility problem: anger at the world says 'all of you are pissing me off and I don't deserve it.' They riff on the horn as an 'instrument of encouragement' rather than aggression, warn that mouthing off to strangers can get you killed, and reject the Secular booklet answer as too light — managing expression is a band-aid; the root is humility before Jesus.

Outro: complaint line and rating ask

The hosts close with the Bob Eisenlauer Live From The Path complaint line (515) 517-0085 for feedback, ask listeners to rate the show in their podcast apps, and sign off with the standard benediction: 'be faithful in the means; God will handle the ends.'