A Christian Mid-Life Crisis

Show open, docket, and guest introduction

• What kinds of questions occur to a person having a Christian midlife crisis?

Ben opens the live show from the Pathway Studios and frames the episode's big question: what kinds of questions occur to a person having a Christian midlife crisis? Mike joins in the cold-open banter. The docket includes a Christian Post article on rising Bible engagement among men and two Dear LFTP letters. Ben plugs '1,000 Balloons,' the steampunk novel written by the hosts' oldest daughters, and introduces special guest Simeon Clawson.

State of the Bible 2025: men reading more, and the three-times-a-year bar

• Does the State of the Bible 2025 report show real Bible engagement growth among men?

The hosts react to the American Bible Society's 2025 State of the Bible report: nearly 10 million more Americans engaged the Bible than in 2024, with men closing the engagement gap across every generation. They roast the report's definition of a 'Bible user' (Scripture engagement outside church as few as three times a year) and debate causes: proof-texting around political figures, the saturation of faith-friendly media like The Chosen and the King of Kings film, and a cultural 'rubber band' swing away from dark, divisive entertainment toward wholesome content.

Church cliques, hospitality, and why liturgy can lower anxiety

• Are cliquish small groups a legitimate barrier for church newcomers?

Prompted by a listener aside about church cliques, the hosts discuss whether tight-knit small groups are a legitimate barrier for newcomers, the tension between organic and forced hospitality, and why some younger people find structured liturgical services less anxiety-inducing than come-as-you-are formats. Dan notes that clear expectations help people rise to them, illustrated by the 'read through John this week' discipleship example.

Midlife-crisis faith questions: when suffering gets close to home

• Which of God's promises can I count on as mine when people are free to refuse them?

The hosts name the first cluster of midlife-crisis faith questions: when the broken world's weight lands close to home, believers ask whether God is really good even when they cannot see it. Ben describes the shift from declaring God's light from outside the cave to sitting inside it for two days, two months, two years. They wrestle with which of God's promises can be personally claimed when people remain free to refuse what God offers, concluding the tension does not diminish God's goodness but makes the crisis real.

Stephen's martyrdom, hospice peace, and the book of Job

Dan, drawing on his years as a hospice chaplain, points to Stephen being stoned in Acts 7 and to the Holy Spirit-given peace he has seen in dying believers versus the anger he observed in the dying without faith: 'people die the way they live.' Simeon adds the book of Job as his go-to answer for friends asking why bad things happen, while the hosts joke about Job's replacement children.

Wrestling with hard Scripture: Amalekites, Paul, and 'you know I can't leave, help my unbelief'

The second cluster of midlife-crisis questions comes from actually reading the Bible past the headlines: conquest passages like the Amalekites, slavery, divine judgment, and Paul's harder teachings. Mike shares how a Wren Collective lyric change at a concert summed up the posture for him: 'you know I can't leave, help my unbelief.' Ben warns against childhood 'Genesis rainbows and Moses staves' faith that cracks when critics are right about what the text says, and argues wrestling with the text is healthy rather than dangerous.

Crises caused by people, not claims: COVID walkaways and Jesus-plus-stuff

Ben argues many midlife faith crises have nothing to do with God's claims and everything to do with disappointed expectations of people: believers who walked away over COVID-era church behavior or who bundled Jesus with politics, patriotism, or lifestyle causes. The hosts agree that bailing on Jesus because someone bundled him with something else is bailing for the wrong reason, while also refusing to abandon fellow believers over their entanglements.

Dan's own dips: 'what if we're not the only one?'

• What if another religion is right and we're not the only one?

Asked which crisis questions he has lived, Dan describes his generally strong faith as a pastor and then his periodic mini-crises: seeing other religions' zeal and wondering 'what if we're not the only one,' and fear after a cancer diagnosis. Studying the resurrection around Easter and returning to the evidence of Scripture restore his confidence, and he notes he cannot recite the evidence on demand — he has to look it up again.

Ben's dips: sympathy for people and who gets to judge

Ben locates his own dips in sympathy for people rather than distrust of God: looking at loving gay couples or kind people of other faiths and feeling the tension between God's design and genuine care for them. He argues Christians are not given the office of judgment — humans cannot handle it — and that the one responsibility is to reflect the light of Jesus, while acknowledging God's design still requires real alignment, including in areas like sexuality and identity.

Simeon's question: 'what made God?' and the case against scientism

• What made God? How can a being have no beginning?

Guest Simeon Clawson names his recurring faith question: what made God, and how can a mind process a being with no beginning? The hosts respond that the leading scientific alternative — something from nothing — is arguably harder to believe than a Creator, using the airplane-parts analogy, and note the humility faith requires. Ben adds that human consensus has been spectacularly wrong before (flat earth, moon myths, 1950s medical advice), so being an informed outlier on human confidence is reasonable.

Ethnocentrism, global commentaries, and the 1925 CPR handbook

Simeon connects the discussion to ethnocentrism from his sociology class. Ben notes that Bible commentaries from oppressed cultures celebrate passages like the destruction of the Amalekites while Western readers write apologetics against them, that two centuries of commentary carry a German flavor, and that cultures depict Jesus in their own image — which he calls righteous. Mike's story about a 1925 electrician's handbook CPR method lands the point that experts once confidently taught absurd things.

Dear LFTP: Kurt and Jared, the feuding comedian brothers

• Dear LFTP: How should we handle our two grown sons' year-long feud?

Mike reads a Dear LFTP letter from parents of three grown sons: middle son Kurt (29) and younger son Jared (26) are in a year-long conflict after both took up stand-up comedy, with name-calling and holiday boycotts. The hosts advise that parents cannot force adult reconciliation: keep one invitation, do not cater the holiday around the feud, and be willing to be the bigger person who gives the other an out rather than demanding a full reckoning. Simeon shares his aunt's forced-family-meeting story. The Secular answer counsels detente and letting the best comedian win.

Dear LFTP: ending a 30-year relationship with the house cleaner

• Dear LFTP: How do I end a 30-year relationship with my house cleaner, and what do I owe her?

Mike reads a second Dear LFTP letter from a retired listener who wants to end a 30-year house-cleaning arrangement and asks what she owes her loyal cleaner. The hosts debate heads-up time (two months vs six), gift versus cash (flowers, 30 roses, jewelry, a company watch), and whether a large sum would feel insulting, landing on keeping the door open relationally while being honest the employment is ending. The Secular answer says to offer several months' salary and keep her on monthly — which the hosts roast as wishful thinking. The question of the right parting gift is punted to the complaint line.

Outro: the complaint line and the sign-off

Ben closes the show with the Bob Eisenlauer complaint line number, (515) 517-0085, asking listeners to report midlife-crisis questions the hosts missed and to settle the debate over the right parting gift for the 30-year house cleaner. The show ends with the standing sign-off: be faithful in the means; God will handle the ends.