Guy Man Dude

Show open: Jeff Arendelle and the band return

Ben opens the show, notes an internet commenter who used obscenities on the show's Facebook reel, and lays out the evening's docket: Jeff Arendelle and the band are back in the studio for the first time since before COVID, to catch up and play tunes.

The thrift store priest and the complaint line

Ben fields listener inquiries about the mysterious 'thrift store priest' wooden statue, asks Mike to show it on camera, and opens the Bob Eisenlauer complaint line (515) 517-0085 for sightings, background, or buyouts. A side riff on whether the statue is Saint Matthew and whether disciples count as saints follows.

Catching up with Jeff Arendelle

• What keeps a Christian band motivated to keep playing music for the Lord year after year?

The hosts catch up with Jeff Arendelle on the band's summer: the state fair, Dallas County Fair, churches, a Missouri listening room, and a fourth appearance at Nehemiah Fest, plus the recurring drummer soap opera. Asked what keeps the band going, Jeff points to pointing people to Christ through music, the previous morning's packed Newton church service, potlucks, and co-writes ahead of a December Nashville trip.

First song: 'Jesus guy'

Jeff introduces 'Jesus guy,' a song about being put into storms for a purpose — mixing the disciples' boat and Jonah's running — and the hardest part: when God doesn't let you out of the storm but tests your love and dependence. The band performs the song live in studio.

Is it hard to keep writing songs for God?

• Is it hard to write new songs for God when people have been following him for centuries?

Ben asks whether it's hard to write songs after centuries of people following God. Jeff credits teaching he's under, Scripture, and the Holy Spirit's leading; Ben marvels that gifted people can articulate what others feel but can't say. The conversation ranges through Paul Miller's 'A Praying Life' (come to God like children, broken and without the right words), Paul McCartney's 'songs are in the air,' and one host's story of writing a hymn in his twenties that bombed at church, after which he went back to preaching.

Second song: 'Running Man'

Jeff introduces 'Running Man' as autobiographical: giving his life to Christ and being baptized, then moving away and running from God, thinking he could figure things out alone — while God kept pursuing him. A verse also nods to a woman running away; the song lands on redemption. The band performs it live.

Leaky vessels: staying close to the redemptive moment

Reacting to 'Running Man,' Ben reflects on how distance from the moment you knew God's love was real drains its power and lets rule-based Christianity creep in. He tells of a caller who knows the truth but is being overwhelmed by lying moments, and urges 'raising an Ebenezer' — keeping memories of God's sovereignty and goodness, because 'we're leaky vessels' that empty unless they stay close to the source.

Band promo and third song: 'Am I Man'

Ben plugs jeffarendale.com, CDs, socials, and house concerts, joking that streaming pays pennies so fans should listen 780 times. Jeff introduces 'Am I Man,' a lament inspired by a changed man at the previous day's church service who came from a long line of sin and now recognizes Jesus as both man and God, alive at the right hand of God as advocate. The band performs it; the hosts say goodbye as the band slips out before the break.

The worst Christmas gifts for dudes

Back from the break, the hosts roast a Christian gift catalog: scripture screwdriver kits, $25 multi-tools, ties, and Roman-soldier armor-of-God statues. They brainstorm joke alternatives — a rock engraved 'on this rock,' Christian cologne, a flight of scents from Bible stories (Jonah smelling sea-breezy, valley of dry bones) — and land the point: the farther you drift from the redemptive moment, the more you grasp at cheap reminders of it.

Elisha's bones and the song 'Rattle'

• When the man thrown onto Elisha's bones came back to life, was he healed of whatever killed him or did he just have to die again?

The cologne riff detours into Scripture: the worship song 'Rattle' and the story of the man tossed onto Elisha's bones who came back to life. The hosts clarify the burial was accidental, not a resurrection scheme, then riff on the follow-ups — did the man come back healed or still dying, and would people start bringing all their dead relatives to the cave like a pet cemetery?

Tattoos, biblical playing cards, and the Secular-vs-Solomon card game

The gift brainstorm continues: a host's teenage plan for an Isaiah 'here am I, send me' full-back tattoo (scrapped), Matthew 7:7 as the alternative, temporary Christian tattoos as a trial run, and a deck of biblical playing cards (Satan as joker, Jesus as king, Moses over Hezekiah, Queen of Sheba). They note the still-pending Secular-vs-Solomon card game and invite listener ideas for non-cheesy Christian gifts.

Ask the pastor: what was 'church' in Matthew 16?

• What did 'church' mean when Jesus said 'on this rock I will build my church' in Matthew 16?

Boova brings the week's ask-the-pastor question from Matthew 16: 'on this rock I will build my church' — what could 'church' (ecclesia) have meant to Peter when the word appears for the first time and the Old Testament had no such concept? One host answers from context: Jesus had been preaching the kingdom, and they were standing amid temples to Pan, so the kingdom was coming to blow all of that up. Ben adds that Israel needed no word for it as a nation, but Jesus was naming a distinct new community bound by Peter's confession, the fundamental split with Judaism.

Dear LFTP: the book-club friend who doesn't fit

• How should I handle a childhood friend who does not fit in with my long-standing book club?

A listener writes that her 13-year book club of twelve close friends admitted her childhood friend, who talks too much, brags, and called their upcoming cruise tacky and claustrophobic. The hosts diagnose a closed circle that never really welcomed her, compare it to small churches whose body language repels newcomers, and advise talking to both sides: give the friend a real chance to adjust ('if you do not give someone a chance to change, it's not a friendship, it's an audition') and call the group to introspection. The Secular answer: be completely honest — brag less, talk less, no insensitive comments.

Dear LFTP: judging versus holding accountable

• Where is the line between not judging someone and holding them accountable for their behavior?

A listener asks where the line is between not judging someone and holding them accountable. The hosts land on posture and permission: accountability is permission-based and works through encouragement, not force — you can't make anyone change. 'Judge not' forbids writing people off as unchangeable (looking at people without hope); discernment plus hope is the goal. A stark warning about the natural consequence of choosing separation from God — darkness and torment in the absence of his attributes — can shake someone awake, but Jesus offers glory, not threats. The Secular answer: judging implies holding yourself above someone; accountability is a boundary, not a verdict.

Outro: heaven buffets and the benediction

The accountability discussion dissolves into Boova's childish theology of a McDonald's all-you-can-eat buffet in heaven with a Fanta fountain. Ben closes with the usual asks — rate the show, catch Jeff Arendelle live and say you heard him on the show — and the standing benediction, 'be faithful in the means, God will handle the ends,' over a bout of goofy outro music the hosts narrate in real time.