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What if hope isn’t tidy or instant, but slow and stubborn—something that holds you when outcomes don’t? In Matthew 11, John the Baptist asks a big question about Jesus. "Are you the one, or should we wait for another?" John's question is really our question. Is Jesus deserving of our faith, hope, and following?

In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about the ache for a savior who will make it all better, especially amid Christian nationalism and culture-war politics. It’s human to want a rescuer, but it’s risky to confuse charisma with character. The kingdom’s pattern is quieter: reversal at the edges, healing without spectacle, and justice in motion. Advent brings the hard edge of timing. God is not a magician, and the “already and not yet” of the kingdom asks us to live with tension—trusting that change has begun while admitting it is not complete. This is mature faith: patient, honest, and, grounded in the long arc of God’s work. Listen in for the full conversation.

Read For Faith, the companion devotional.

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How do we bring spiritual practices into our everyday working lives? This adaptive challenge requires a new path—one where risk becomes stewardship, attention becomes a sacred resource, and everyday tasks turn into a living conversation with God.

In this episode, Bishop Wright has a conversation with Dr. Chip Roper, founder and president of the VOCA Center. Chip’s journey from profit-chasing ambition to seminary and back into the marketplace as an executive coach gives him rare range: he understands performance pressure, pastoral care, and the hard realities of modern organizations. Bishop Wright and Dr. Roper dig into the quiet epidemic of workplace loneliness and the surprising data showing how few professionals tap spiritual resources when the heat is on. From Jesus’ words about doing only what the Father is doing to the easy yoke that lightens our overwork, Chip maps out a way to lead with courage and calm. Listen in for the full conversation.

Dr. Chip Roper is the Founder and President of the VOCA Center, a faith-based organization driven to equip Christians to approach their daily work with God’s wisdom and power. With an Executive Coaching Certification from Columbia University and a Doctorate of Ministry from Missio Seminary, Chip tackles client challenges from 30+ years of P/L leadership responsibility as a small businessman, a pastor, a career coach, and a business consultant. Chip's clients are found at Blackstone, Sunrise Brokers, JP Morgan, Randall-Reilly, Goldman Sachs, Nielson, Knopman Marks, and CNBC.

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What if the kingdom of God becomes visible not in our theories but in our steps? Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology reframes discipleship as embodied obedience—showing up in prisons, sharing real mutuality, and trading religious privilege for humble responsibility.

In this episode, Bishop Wright has a conversation with The Rev. Dr. Jenny M. McBride, Associate Rector of All Saints' Atlanta and president of the International Bonhoeffer Society. Jenny shares how reading Bonhoeffer at an urban house of hospitality opened a door from evangelical ideas to lived formation. That path led her into prison classrooms where fashion small talk mingled with raw theological questions, and where “helping” gave way to being helped.

They discuss Luke 10’s sentness, why belief grows when we go where Jesus intends to go, and how visiting the incarcerated unmasks our craving for superiority. Responsibility becomes the antidote to Christian nationalism’s power hunger, and repentance becomes a daily practice that forms courage and tenderness. Listen in for the full conversation.

The Rev. Dr. Jennifer M. McBride (Ph.D. University of Virginia) is Associate Rector at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Previously she served as an Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and held the Board of Regents Endowed Chair in Ethics at Wartburg College in Iowa. After a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Religious Practices and Practical Theology at Emory University, McBride directed a theology certificate program for incarcerated women through Emory's Candler School of Theology.

McBride is author of You Shall Not Condemn: A Story of Faith and Advocacy on Death Row (Cascade, 2022), Radical Discipleship: A Liturgical Politics of the Gospel (Fortress, 2017), The Church for the World: A Theology of Public Witness (Oxford University Press, 2011), and is co-editor of Bonhoeffer and King: Their Legacies and Import for Christian Social Thought. In addition to book chapters and scholarly articles, her work has appeared in popular publications like The Christian Century and CNN.com and has been featured in the New York Times.

McBride is the recent past president of the International Bonhoeffer Society – English Language Section, an organization made up of scholars, religious leaders, and readers of German pastor-theologian and Nazi-resister, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. She serves as co-editor of the T&T Clark book series, New Studies in Bonhoeffer’s Theology and Ethics.

She is married to Dr. Thomas Fabisiak, who is the co-executive director of the Georgia Coalition for Higher Ed in Prison and Associate Dean at Life University, where he runs a college degree program for women in Georgia prisons.

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