Created in the Image of God

Jason Romano is an author, speaker, and veteran media professional who now serves as Executive Producer of Sports Spectrum and host of the widely followed Sports Spectrum Podcast. After spending 17 years at ESPN as an Emmy Award–winning producer and senior manager—helping shape programs like SportsCenter, NFL Live, Sunday NFL Countdown, and First Take—Jason took a leap of faith in 2017 to pursue sports ministry full time. Since then, he has helped build one of the leading platforms exploring the intersection of sports and faith through honest conversations with athletes, coaches, and public figures.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Jason joins Wade for a conversation about calling, forgiveness, and the courage to leave behind a dream job for a deeper sense of purpose. He reflects on growing up in a fractured home, navigating the pain of an alcoholic father, and the long road that led not only to forgiveness, but to reconciliation—a journey he shares in his book Live to Forgive.Together, they explore faith, family, sports, media, and what happens when success is no longer enough. This is a story about halftime moments, holy pivots, and the kind of obedience that rarely makes sense until you live it.

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Vincent Bacote is a theologian, author, and public thinker who serves as Professor of Theology and Director of the Center for Applied Christian Ethics at Wheaton College. His work explores the intersection of faith, public life, race, and evangelical identity, and he is the author of books including The Political Disciple, Reckoning with Race and Performing the Good News, and The Spirit in Public Theology. A regular columnist for Comment and contributor to outlets such as Christianity Today and Think Christian, Vincent is known for bringing wisdom, clarity, and grace to some of the church’s most pressing cultural and ethical questions.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Vincent joins Wade for a searching conversation about what it means to connect faith with life in a way that is honest, discerning, and spiritually grounded. Together they explore why some Christians have been taught to fear politics and culture, why others get consumed by them, and how discipleship can form people to engage public life without making it their god.This is a conversation about discernment, formation, ambition, public responsibility, and the difference between building your own kingdom and serving God in the world as it is.Signposts of the End: How Eschatology informs our Ethics.

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Kendall Vanderslice is a baker, writer, and theologian whose work brings together food, faith, and embodied spiritual formation with unusual depth and warmth. She is the creator of the Bake & Pray and Bake & Rest practices, helping people discover curiosity, joy, and the presence of God through the simple act of baking bread. With studies in anthropology, gastronomy, and theology from Wheaton College, Boston University, and Duke University—and recognition as a James Beard Foundation national scholar—Kendall invites audiences to see bread, meals, and the kitchen itself as places of nourishment, community, and grace.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Kendall joins Wade for a rich conversation about vocation, Scripture, breadmaking, and the spiritual life hidden inside ordinary practices. She reflects on how the kitchen became a place of quiet in her childhood, how a gap year unexpectedly clarified her calling, and how anthropology helped her see food as a lens for understanding culture, faith, and human life.Together, they explore the many meals woven through the biblical story—from Genesis to the Last Supper to the marriage supper of the Lamb. This is a conversation about rest, embodiment, hidden formation, and the mystery of leaven working its way through the whole loaf.

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Rev. Dr. David Gushee is a Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University and a past president of both the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Christian Ethics. Author or editor of more than 30 landmark books—including Kingdom Ethics, Changing Our Mind, and Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies—Dr. Gushee is recognized as one of today’s leading Christian moral thinkers. Frequently featured in global lectures, media, and ecumenical settings, he is known for bringing rigorous scholarship and compassionate insight to some of Christianity’s most pressing social and ethical questions.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, David joins Wade for a rich and sobering conversation about Job in Exile, his new book on one of Scripture’s most difficult and haunting texts. Together, they explore why the book of Job has both repelled and fascinated generations of readers, what it reveals about suffering, and how it challenges the “just world” theology that assumes blessings are always deserved and pain is always explainable. David reflects on Job not only as a literary and theological mountain, but as a companion for people whose lives no longer fit the tidy categories they once trusted.This is a conversation about protest, grief, exile, spiritual disillusionment, and the hard grace of continuing to seek God when old certainties have failed. For anyone who has suffered deeply, questioned honestly, or found themselves spiritually displaced, David offers a wise and compassionate guide into the mystery of Job and the faith that can endure within it.

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Stephanie Rousselle is a Bible teacher, speaker, and the host of the Gospel Spice podcast, where she helps people savor Scripture and discover deeper delight in God. Born and raised in France, Stephanie came to faith from a background of atheism, and that journey now shapes a ministry centered on her life motto: God’s glory, our delight. She is the founder of Gospel Spice Ministries and the author of Awaken Delight: Satisfying Your Soul’s Longing for God, encouraging believers to engage the Bible with both theological depth and heartfelt joy.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Stephanie joins Wade for a rich and personal conversation about atheism, trust, grace, and the God who reveals Himself with both truth and tenderness. She reflects on growing up in a secular French home, arriving in the United States as an exchange student, and encountering a Christian family whose love and intellectual honesty challenged everything she thought she knew about faith. What began as resistance slowly became surrender as Stephanie came to see that Christianity was not the abandonment of reason, but its fulfillment in relationship with the risen Christ.Together, they explore resurrection, belonging, delight, the fatherhood of God, and the difference between knowing about God and actually trusting Him. This is a conversation about what happens when the soul finally stops striving and learns to rest in grace.

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Adi Kanda is an intuitive author, spiritual guide, and founder of World Without Fear, where she helps conscious leaders move through fear, shadow work, and deep personal transformation. For more than 25 years, she has guided thousands through a distinctive process that blends spiritual insight, energetic healing, and practical inner work aimed at uncovering hidden patterns and awakening purpose. She is the author of Dear Human Child: Love Letters From the Divine and the forthcoming Monster Most Feared, and her work includes live readings, oracular poetry, and transformational programs shaped by a deeply creative and contemplative vision.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Adi joins Wade for a rich conversation about fear, meaning, suffering, and the mysterious transmissions that have shaped her life’s work. She explains how language can function as frequency brought into form, why certain words can awaken what lies buried within us, and how spoken messages can become tools for healing, clarity, and personal transformation. Along the way, the conversation touches on creativity, leadership, Viktor Frankl, and the question of whether suffering can become a path toward purpose rather than proof of meaninglessness.Together, they explore what it means to live courageously in a world shaped by fear, how hidden inner patterns can be brought into the light, and why purpose may be one of the most powerful answers we have to human pain. This is a conversation for anyone drawn to spiritual depth, honest transformation, and the inner work required to live with greater clarity and courage.

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Micha Boyett is an author, youth pastor, podcaster, and Down syndrome advocate whose work invites people into a slower, more attentive, and more grace-filled way of life. With a background in poetry and a voice shaped by motherhood, disability advocacy, and spiritual reflection, Micha writes about rest, limits, ableism, and the deep belovedness of every human being. She is the author of Blessed Are the Rest of Us, a moving exploration of how her youngest son’s disabilities helped her confront the culture of achievement and discover a fuller vision of wholeness and flourishing in Jesus.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Micha joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about slowness, vulnerability, disability, and the ways love resists efficiency. Drawing also from her forthcoming book Advent Unhurried and her Substack The Slow Way, she reflects on how much of modern life trains us to measure worth by output, speed, and performance—and how the way of Jesus keeps calling us somewhere gentler, truer, and more human.This is a conversation about belovedness, limits, sorrow, joy, and the holy work of learning to receive life as gift rather than as something to conquer.

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Mollie Engelhart is a chef, farmer, entrepreneur, and regenerative agriculture advocate whose work connects food, faith, and the healing of the land. Best known as the founder of Sage Regenerative Kitchen & Brewery and Sovereignty Ranch, she has become a bold voice in conversations about farming, stewardship, sustainability, and the future of our food systems. Her journey from vegan restaurateur to regenerative farmer has challenged assumptions far beyond the kitchen, opening deeper questions about creation, truth, and what it means to live in right relationship with the earth.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Mollie joins Wade for a wide-ranging conversation about nature, ideology, death, abundance, and the hard but necessary lessons that come from living close to the land. Reflecting on her own public change of mind, she explains how farming exposed the limits of abstract moral systems disconnected from the realities of creation. From compost and livestock to reproduction, food, and the cycle of death that sustains life, Mollie argues that real stewardship begins not in fantasy, but in reverence for the world as God actually made it.Together, they explore regenerative agriculture, free will, natural law, religious liberty, and the consequences of losing touch with the “laboratory” of creation itself. This is a conversation about humility, courage, and the costly work of aligning human life with truth rather than illusion.

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Andrew Arndt is a pastor, author, and spiritual formation teacher who serves as teaching pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs and lead pastor of New Life East. He is the author of All Flame: Entering into the Life of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost and host of the Essential Church podcast, where he explores the life of the church with theological depth and pastoral clarity. Deeply shaped by the Christian contemplative tradition, including the wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, Andrew helps modern believers recover a richer, more Spirit-filled vision of life with God.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Andrew joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about pastoral work, spiritual maturity, and what Andrew calls the “second half” of life and leadership. As he reflects on turning 45, the discussion turns to elderhood, discernment, and the shifting vocation that comes with time: what we are no longer meant to carry, what we are finally ready to receive, and how God forms us through seasons of growth we could not have understood earlier.Together, they explore the life of the church, the contemplative path, Scripture, and the deepening work of becoming more rooted, prayerful, and alive to God’s presence over time.

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Greg Koukl is the founder and president of Stand to Reason, an apologetics ministry he launched in 1993 to help people think more clearly and confidently about the Christian faith. A longtime radio host, public speaker, and campus debater, Greg has spent more than three decades engaging tough questions about truth, morality, and Christianity on university campuses, in the media, and in public forums across the U.S. and abroad. He is the bestselling author of Tactics, The Story of Reality, Street Smarts, and Relativism, and also serves as an adjunct professor in Christian apologetics at Biola University.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Greg joins Wade for a rich conversation about Christianity, reason, and the long return of thoughtful faith to the public square. Reflecting on the cultural aftershocks of the Scopes Trial, the abdication of serious Christian engagement, and the later rise of a new generation of apologists, Greg explains how believers began recovering the intellectual confidence to address truth, morality, and reality in a skeptical age.Together, they explore public witness, orthodoxy, apologetics, cultural change, and what it means to engage hard questions without surrendering either conviction or grace.

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Chase Replogle is a pastor, author, and podcast host who serves as pastor of Bent Oak Church in Springfield, Missouri. He is the author of A Sharp Compassion and The 5 Masculine Instincts, drawing on Scripture, history, psychology, and literature to help readers think more deeply about faith and life. Chase also hosts the Pastor Writer Podcast, where he interviews Christian authors on writing and publishing, and his work has been featured by outlets such as Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, and Good Morning America.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Chase joins Wade for a wide-ranging conversation about Scripture, judgment, masculinity, and the slow work of spiritual formation. Drawing from his expository preaching, his Let’s Talk Bible teaching project, and his own writing, Chase explores judgment as something more than punishment: a revealing, an uncovering, a bringing into the light of what is false and what is true.Together, they also discuss the pressures surrounding modern masculinity and why Christian maturity is not about denying masculine instinct or blindly indulging it, but letting it be shaped into wisdom, character, and compassion. This is a conversation about identity, discipleship, and the hidden leaven of the kingdom working its way through ordinary lives.

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Kutter Callaway is a theologian, author, and cultural critic who serves as the William K. Brehm Chair of Worship, Theology, and the Arts and Associate Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Seminary. With two PhDs—one in theology and one in psychological science—Kutter has built his work around helping Christians engage film, television, technology, and contemporary culture with both depth and imagination. He is the author of books including The Aesthetics of Atheism, Deep Focus, Watching TV Religiously, Scoring Transcendence, and Theology for Psychology and Counseling.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Kutter joins Wade for a conversation about culture, art, theology, and the questions that keep faith alive. Raised as a church planter’s kid in a home where doubt and curiosity were welcomed, Kutter reflects on how that freedom to ask “what if?” shaped both his scholarship and his calling.Together, they explore why so much Christian media fails as art before it fails as theology, how ideology can distort storytelling on every side, and what it looks like to ask, in the middle of modern culture, what the Spirit of God is doing. For anyone trying to think more clearly about media, imagination, and faithful cultural engagement, this episode offers insight, challenge, and real substance.

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Christopher Benek is a pastor, author, and thought leader working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, faith, and human flourishing. He serves as pastor of First Miami Presbyterian Church, is the CEO of CoCreators, and is the author of Church Leaders Guide to AI, helping churches and leaders think wisely about the ethical and spiritual implications of emerging technology. For more than a decade, Christopher has been a public voice on AI, transhumanism, leadership, and digital culture, with his work featured by outlets such as The New York Times, BBC, NPR, and The Guardian.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Christopher joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about how Christians can approach AI without fear-driven panic or naive optimism. He argues that the real trust issue behind AI is not the technology itself, but the people shaping and using it. That means the church’s role is not retreat, but formation: helping people become wiser, more trustworthy, and more fully human.Together, they explore the church’s long history of responding to new tools, the cultural and spiritual pressures emerging technologies reveal, and what it means to steward innovation in ways that serve human dignity and the common good.

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Candace Lynn Talmadge is a U.S.-based author of dark high fantasy and nonfiction on spirituality and emotional healing. She is best known for the Stoneslayer series—a politically charged, spiritually rich saga of demonic warfare, intrigue, and awakening that draws on her own past-life memories. Reviewers have praised Stoneslayer: Book One – Scandal as “excellent high fantasy” and noted its rich blend of mysticism, intrigue, and family drama.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Candace joins Wade to explore the deeper world behind Stoneslayer: Book Four – Outcast. At the center is Helen, a young woman marked by exile and danger, forced to grow into spiritual abilities that may protect not only herself but others around her. Together they discuss reincarnation, the moral cycles individuals and societies repeat, the corruption of institutions, and the clash between domination and compassion in both fantasy worlds and our own.This is a conversation about power, justice, spiritual memory, and the kinds of stories that help us wrestle with realities beneath the surface of ordinary life.

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Mark and Jill Savage are authors, speakers, and marriage coaches who are passionate about helping couples and families find hope, healing, and practical encouragement. After decades in church ministry, parenting five children, and walking through a devastating marital crisis that nearly ended their relationship, they now share their story with remarkable honesty and grace to help others pursue restoration. Jill is the founder of Hearts at Home and the author of books including No More Perfect Moms and Empty Nest, Full Life, and together Mark and Jill co-authored No More Perfect Marriages.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Mark and Jill join Wade for a candid conversation about marriage, redemption, and the importance of getting help before it’s too late. They reflect on the pain of broken trust, the slow work of rebuilding, and the kind of hope that can carry couples through dark seasons. They also share practical insight on intimacy, communication, and why so many marriages stay stuck simply because people wait too long to act.This is a conversation for couples in crisis, couples in repair, and couples who simply want something deeper and healthier. With warmth, humility, and hard-won wisdom, Mark and Jill remind us that perfection was never the goal—healing, honesty, and redemption are.

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Amy Peeler is a New Testament scholar, pastor, and writer who has devoted her career to exploring Hebrews, gender, and the family of God. She serves as Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and is the author of Women and the Gender of God, multiple works on Hebrews, and Ordinary Time: The Season of Growth. Trained at Princeton Theological Seminary and Oklahoma Baptist University, Amy brings together rigorous exegesis and theological reflection on how Scripture speaks about God as Father, Mary as mother of God, and men and women as God’s children.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Amy joins Wade for a rich conversation about gender, holiness, and belonging in the family of God. Drawing from Hebrews, the Gospels, and the wider biblical story, she reflects on why the language of God as Father has been both life-giving and difficult, and why its deepest meaning can only be understood through Jesus. The incarnation stands at the center: we know God as Father because the Son reveals Him, and the Son comes to us born of a woman.Together, they also explore Genesis, spiritual maturity, and the difference between grasping at knowledge apart from God and growing into wisdom with Him. For anyone seeking a more biblically rooted and theologically careful conversation about God, gender, and the church, this episode offers depth, grace, and real substance.

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Jared Byas is a writer, speaker, and co-founder of The Bible for Normal People, where he helps people ask better questions about faith, Scripture, and what it means to be Christian. A former pastor and professor of philosophy and biblical studies, Jared is known for making complex ideas accessible and creating space for honest conversations about doubt, belonging, and spiritual growth. He is the author of Love Matters More, Jonah for Normal People, and co-author of Genesis for Normal People.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Jared joins Wade for a rich conversation about how we read the Bible, why so many people inherit rigid systems instead of living questions, and what happens when scholarship is kept out of reach of ordinary believers. Drawing from his journey through charismatic, Baptist, Presbyterian, academic, and pastoral worlds, Jared reflects on the shift from defending faith as a system to encountering Scripture as something more mysterious, human, and transformative.Together, they explore interpretation, doubt, wisdom, community, and the danger of pretending we come to the Bible without lenses. This is a conversation for anyone who still cares deeply about Scripture but suspects there may be a more honest, spacious, and faithful way to engage it.

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Kelly Edmiston is a pastor, teacher, author, and speaker who is passionate about helping people break free from shame and move toward deeper healing and flourishing. Raised in a church tradition where women weren’t expected to preach or lead, Kelly now lives boldly into that calling—creating honest, grace-filled conversations around faith, identity, and topics many churches avoid. She is the author of Shame-Free Sex Talks, a practical and hopeful resource for helping families talk about relationships, emotional health, and sexuality without fear or silence.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Kelly joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about spiritual formation, the goodness of the body, and why so many Christians struggle to speak honestly about relationships and sexuality. She explains why everyone is being formed by something, why the church has often treated the body as a barrier instead of a gift, and why healthy conversations have to begin not with panic or moralism, but with a deeper theological vision of what it means to be human.Drawing from her research, interviews, and pastoral work, Kelly offers a more grounded and grace-filled approach to conversations many families desperately need but don’t know how to begin. For anyone longing for a more honest, healing, and faithful way forward, this episode offers clarity, courage, and hope.

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Michael Ward is a theologian, literary scholar, and leading voice in C.S. Lewis studies, serving as an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. He is best known as the award-winning author of Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis, bringing together deep theological insight with a rich appreciation for imagination, literature, and faith. He has also held chaplaincy and research roles at Oxford and Cambridge, and helped lead major public tributes to Lewis, including the memorial in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Michael joins Wade for a rich conversation about Lewis’s theological imagination, the symbolic world behind Narnia, and why Lewis’s work still matters so powerfully today. Drawing especially on Planet Narnia, Michael explores the medieval vision of the seven heavens and how Lewis wove those cosmic meanings into the Chronicles in ways most readers never notice—but deeply feel.Together, they also touch on That Hideous Strength, The Abolition of Man, the Tower of Babel tradition, and the enduring power of stories to reveal truth. For anyone drawn to Lewis, Tolkien, imagination, or the meeting place of theology and literature, this episode offers both delight and depth.

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Paul Dafydd Jones is a theologian and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia whose work explores Christian thought, public life, and the enduring questions of theology in the modern world. Educated at Oxford, Harvard Divinity School, Heidelberg, and Harvard University, he has written widely on Protestant theology, Christology, political theology, and the theology of patience. He is the author of The Humanity of Christ and Patience: A Theological Exploration, and co-editor of major volumes including the Oxford Handbook of Karl Barth and Karl Barth and Liberation Theology.In this episode of Created In The Image of God, Paul joins Wade for a thoughtful conversation about theology’s public relevance in a fragmented age. Drawing on his teaching at a major public university, he reflects on why faith must be able to give an account of itself in the modern world—and why the best theology is never cut off from real questions of justice, freedom, discrimination, and ecological responsibility.Together, they explore Calvin, Karl Barth, Schleiermacher, liberation theology, and the challenge of integrating deep Christian tradition with contemporary moral and political concerns. For anyone wrestling with how serious theology can remain both intellectually honest and publicly engaged, this episode offers depth, nuance, and real substance.

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