Cabernet and Pray

Ben introduces the idea of the "feral spirit," a way of understanding spiritual encounter that doesn't require institutional scaffolding to be real. He talks about what happens when churches try to manufacture the Spirit's presence instead of simply making space for it, the difference between rituals that help us remember and rituals that help us control, and why a thousand dolphins playing in the ocean off Santa Barbara i...

What do you do when the very people who introduced you to Jesus can no longer recognize the Jesus your faith has led you to? C.E. Jarnagin is a priest, researcher, and author who's asking that exact question in his new book The Congruent Life, and he brings a rare combination of Anglican liturgy, pastoral honesty, and zero tolerance for religious veneer to the conversation. In this episode, Jeremy and Chad work through wha...

Bethany Cseh is a pastor who spent years standing at a pulpit she wasn't sure she was allowed to occupy, internally justifying each sermon as something other than what it actually was. That tension turned out to be the beginning of a longer, stranger education. In this episode, Bethany joins Jeremy to talk about co-pastoring two completely dif...

Beau Stringer spent years as a lead pastor in evangelical spaces. He's on the other side of that now, working in adult discipleship at one of the largest United Methodist churches in the country and making the case that mainline churches are the best thing most deconstruction-adjacent Christians have never heard of. His image for them: public libraries. Quiet, scattered through communities, not selling anything, full of wi...

What does it actually take for a church to be a safe place? Anthony Parrott, co-pastor of Table Church DC, has spent 17 years in ministry and a lifetime accumulating enough theology to know when it stops being honest. In this conversation, he and Jeremy trace a winding path through open and relational theology, trauma competenc...

What happens when a former pastor trades the pulpit for a microphone? In this episode, we sit down with Stuart Delony, host of Snarky Faith and author of The Tribulation Survival Guide, for a conversation that is equal parts hilarious and razor-sharp. Stuart unpacks why fear-based theology is basically a drug dealer's business model, how humor functions as a Tr...

This week on Cabernet & Pray, we sit down with Collin Packer for a conversation that feels as honest as it is necessary. Collin shares his journey from fundamentalist pastor to working in the Texas State House, from not voting for 12 years out of theological conviction to wrestling with what it means to let “justice take a side.” We talk about racial reconciliation, political discipleship, the cost of speaking propheti...

What if the Bible’s most familiar wine stories have been quietly misunderstood all along? In this episode of Cabernet and Pray, Jeremy sits down with New Testament scholar John Anthony Dunne, author of The Mountains Shall Drip Sweet Wine, to uncork what Scripture actually says about alcohol....

What happens when someone can no longer believe in God—but still can’t let go of Jesus, Pentecostalism, or the church that formed them? In this episode, Jeremy sits down with Colten Barnaby, who calls himself an “atheist Pentecostal,” to talk honestly about losing faith without losing integrity. They explore church history, certainty vs. honesty, why pretending belief can feel like a moral failure, and how many people leav...

What if the most sacred spaces in your life aren’t churches at all, but ordinary moments of shared humanity? In this episode of Cabernet and Pray, Jeremy sits down with author and spiritual guide Matthew G. Matson to explore Cathedrals of Connection—a vision of faith that shifts holiness away from institutions and back into the space between people. Over a glass of wine, they talk about decentering programs, resisting perf...

What comes after deconstruction? In this episode, I sit down with James McGrath to talk about what it looks like to move beyond tearing faith down and begin the slower, braver work of rebuilding it with honesty, humility, and curiosity. We wrestle with Bible scholarship, doubt, certainty, an...

What if the real spiritual crisis isn’t disagreement, but how we disagree? In this episode, we explore why certainty has replaced curiosity and why faith so often becomes brittle instead of beautiful. We see what happens when winning arguments matters more than loving people. This isn’t a call to “be nicer,” but a challenge to examine how fear shapes our theology and fractures our communities—and whether following Jesus sh...

What if the faith you inherited isn’t the faith you actually want to keep? In this episode, I sit down with David Hayward—yes, the Naked Pastor himself—to talk about the root systems beneath our beliefs, the fruit they produce in real life, and why so many of us feel torn between what we were handed and what we’re becoming. If you’ve ever wondered whether God can survive your questions… or if your questions might actu...

What happens when a pastor decides the real mission field isn’t inside the church walls… but somewhere between the pulpit and the pub? In this episode, Gavin Linderman and I dive into the beautifully messy overlap of Anabaptist theology, creativity, and craft beverages. We talk about churches that accidentally turn coffee shops into Christian bookstores with bad espresso, bars that become modern monasteries, and the wild i...

What if beauty isn’t something we chase, but something that’s been waiting for us all along? In this episode of Cabernet & Pray, we sit down with author and theologian Diana Butler Bass to talk about what it means to truly live a beautiful year. We discuss how joy, grief, and gratitude can all coexist at the same table. We explore what happens when faith stops being a checklist and starts becoming an experience of wond...

What happens when Christianity gets weaponized for political gain? When culture wars hijack the gospel of love? In this episode, we unpack John Fugelsang's book, Separation of Church and Hate, exploring why following Jesus might actually mean breaking up with some forms of Christianity. Pour a glass, lean in, and let’s talk about what it really means to love God and neighbor in an age of outrage.

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What if doing the right thing still made you guilty? Dietrich Bonhoeffer believed that following Jesus sometimes meant stepping straight into the mess—into what he called “the fellowship of guilt.” But was he right? In this episode, we grapple with one of the most challenging ethical questions in the Christian narrative: Can faithfulness ever necessitate breaking the rules?

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What happens when Christians start rethinking the very idea of hell? In this episode of Cabernet and Pray, we sit down with Brian Recker to ask the questions many of us were told we weren’t allowed to ask. Is hell really eternal conscious torment? What about annihilation? Could universalism actually be more faithful to Jesus? And how do history, culture, and scripture all play into the pictures we’ve inherited? We pour a g...

What if the shrinking of evangelicalism isn’t a crisis to be feared but an opportunity to rediscover something truer, leaner, and more like Jesus? In this episode, I sit down with author Michelle Van Loon to talk about what’s being lost, what’s worth keeping, and why smaller might actually be better for the future of faith. Grab a glass, pull up a chair, and join us as we explore how downsizing could make room for growth t...