And Sons

It's a simple concept, that when we experience seasons or days or hours that make us uncomfortable or are filled with pain of some kind we have two choices: we can run and medicate, or we can press in and grow. Easier said than done. Where are you taking your pain these days?

This week: a sneak peek into the young men's session at the February 2018 Boot Camp in Colorado. It's the And Sons message all in one place: naming things about our world and experience, offering some counsel on the day to day, and inviting you to come journey with us.

We go a little deep this week, into the roots of why we are the way we are as a social media society, what philosophies got us there, and how our world is effecting us. Inspired by Matthew Crawford's book, "The World Beyond Your Head," Sam and Blaine dive into how we understand ourselves, how we experience the world around us, and how technology has grown and changed for the worse. Hold on to your seat belts.

John Eldredge, also known as "Padre" around the And Sons world, joins Sam and Blaine as they begin the conversation around masculine spirituality. Why are so many men struggling with the typical "church experience"? Does there seem to be more women than men in most faith settings? Why is that? Finding God in the things you love, in adventure and in battle, are some of the ways to step into a fuller spiritual experience.

It's the phone call, the text, the "mayday" from a friend or family member that changes everything. You jump in the car to meet them, or sit down to talk on the phone and wonder, "What do I do now? What do I offer?" Dan Allender is back on the podcast to offer some simple counsel on how to engage those in your world who have recently experienced trauma of some kind, and how we can learn to walk alongside them.

This episode is not an advertisement. Money and budgeting are usually more complicated than issues of dollars and cents, there's often shame and personal growth right in the middle. In our conversation with Jesse Mecham, founder of YNAB, we get to explore what motivates someone to think about budgeting, and what Mecham would want to change about the way people think about money. While there are lots of budgeting programs, styles, and apps out there it's probably best if you stick to the one you've committed to, and if you haven't committed to one, maybe it's time to think about why.

There are many things that we need in life, Maslow's Hierarchy and all that, but some things stand out on their own. Initiation is one of the big ones. It's something that probably most of us haven't experienced in our life, either in the small and specific or in the sweeping narrative of our stories. Morgan Snyder, of Ransomed Heart and Become Good Soil, takes us in to the ways that it is needed and offered.

After the triathlon nerd-out episode, we realized nobody's story of adventure and exercise begins at the starting line. For most of us, stepping out into adventure means working through sometimes decades-long stories of opposition. We asked Luke to come in and share his story of longtime injury, eventual achievement, and overcoming shame. Enjoy a conversation on starting places, breaking agreements, and entering into an embodied life.

There’s an old line in Tozer we’ve come to appreciate a great deal. It’s this: “God is speaking. He is, by His nature, continuously articulate. He fills the world with His speaking voice.” But the layers in and through which He is speaking aren't always obvious on first glance. Mandy Nelson and Scott Morin have spent their lives teaching and learning more about these layers and the implications for our lives. To find our more about Nelson and Morin you can go here: http://www.empoweringranch.com

There’s nothing like the guys on your own team—Allen Arnold founding the fiction division at Thomas Nelson Publishing, published between 500 and 600 novels as VP of that division, and has a better grasp on story than most people earn in their lifetime. Blaine and Sam jump in to ask about engaging story, how to create while inside conflict, and what it takes to set good stories, lived and read, apart. We like to say that we need to learn to read our lives as stories; that’s well and good, but to be able to do that, we need to learn more about the odd animal that story is.

And Sons had Mark Evans on for and interview several months ago to talk about his leather-craft art, his journey as a creative, and what fuels him. We know you loved it, and we certainly did, so Sam and Blaine jumped at the opportunity to sit down with Evans when he was stateside this summer.

It's no secret that around the And Sons office we love to read and learn from men and women who have gone before us, and that's certainly true of the men and women who step into and out of combat situations. Distilled from the many lessons offered, Blaine and Sam go through some of their favorites and how they can be applied to our lives.

Sam and Blaine reflect on their journey into the world of hunting, how most of the men in their world are first-generation hunters, and how initiation and intention effect our world. Through the lens of hunting stories from this year and those of a decade ago, Sam and Blaine share on their experience of this ancient practice.

In this episode, Blaine and Sam take up the issue of self-knowledge. You’re never going to treat anyone’s heart better than you treat your own, and you’re never going to know anyone’s heart better than you know your own. That being the case, Sam and Blaine share a couple strategies for learning your own heart, and share where they’re growing in their own self-understanding: strengths, action, and relationship.

Brett Davis is the founder of Christian Surfers International, and has quite the story to go along with it. As part of the continuing goal to hear from the sages in our world, Blaine and Sam get to hear more of Brett Davis's story.

To better grasp how technology effects us today, we need to understand where the idea came from and what the purpose of technology was originally intended to be, and how it's changed and stayed the same over millennia. Spoiler: the issue is often more about how we use it and how it changes us, than it's inherent "goodness" or usefulness.

Blaine and Sam are joined by Jon Dale and Justin Lukasavige from the team to share stories about who we admire. It's a practice that we don't always think to do, but that can be surprising and helpful. So, who do you admire and try to emulate?

Sara Hagerty is the author of Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World That Loves to Be Noticed, and together with Blaine and Sam she talks about her journey with the church, burnout, discovering God in new ways, her lessons as a mother, and how choosing to tend to the unnoticed places in our lives can be the most rewarding.

Welcome back to Season 3 of the And Sons podcast. To kick things off, Sam and Blaine sat down with Tim Thornton, a friend, mentor, and artist, to talk about the creative process, how it mirrors the story of the gospel, and how we respond to crisis. To read the interview with Tim on And Sons: http://andsonsmagazine.com/19/returning-art-interview-tim-thornton To see more of Tim's art: http://timfthorntonart.com/

In time for the finale of Season 2 of the And Sons podcast, Sam and Blaine talk about rhythm, balance, and how they are (or more often are not) cultivating a life intentionally. The And Sons Podcast will return in late September.

Jon Dale is a member of the Ransomed Heart and And Sons teams, and while his work these days revolves around bringing the kingdom his journey didn't start there. Dale began early as an entrepreneur and has spent his life thinking about how to walk well in business and calling.

In part 2 of the feminism series, Sam and Blaine jump into the history of feminism in the US. Starting with ancient Athens (of course), on through the Blackstone Commentaries and early American legal frameworks, this episode explores the legal, political, and cultural circumstances that gave rise to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd wave feminism. Our aim here is to answer a triad of enduring questions: what, exactly, is going on, where'd it come from, and how should we be responding?

In this two-part series, Blaine and Sam dive into the history of feminism. But before they can do that, they dive into the history of history - the ancient Greek world, Xenophon, the Battle of Cunaxa - to understand a key concept. That's hegemony: the inclination of human beings to create systems that feed their flesh.

We love hearing about the creative journey here at And Sons, something that each of us acts out in our own unique ways. How someone chooses to pursue a calling, what choices they make, and how they keep their passion alive after a decade of plugging away all make up the story of Justin Rizzo. Part songwriter, part worship leader, part director, Rizzo's story of creativity and calling intertwine in this episode.

A longer episode with two parts within it: The first is an exploration of why the body matters, and why it should not be neglected, the second is why Sam and Blaine choose triathlon and lessons they've learned about the sport. We are beings that have multiple aspects: mind, heart, soul, body. To neglect one is to neglect the health of the whole.

We use terms like "God opened a door" or "closed the door" retrospectively all the time, but how do you tell in the moment if you are being invited into something or if God's not in it? How do you know if what you are experiencing is adversity and requires you to keep persisting and fighting through or if you are banging your head against a wall? How do we walk with our choices and relationships with God in unison? Sam, Blaine, and Padre sit down to throw around experiences and moments where these questions rise to the surface, and to give room for new ways of asking what might be the point of it all.

While filming for the latest And Sons project the team sat around in the truck on a cold night to debrief where they were and what what going on, internally and externally. What followed was an honest conversation about Resistance, what it's like to fight for something, and how each member of the team was managing their internal world.

Dan Allender is no stranger in the And Sons world, nor is he a stranger to listening to people's stories. Rather than give the quick steps to better remember names and influence people, the process of learning to be a better listener demands the same intention and commitment that it takes order to use.

How does an introvert in the music industry end up creating and hosting a podcast that gets over 55 million downloads? That's Brian Hardin's story, and it was never one that he would have anticipated. This week, Blaine and Sam get to sit down with the man behind Daily Audio Bible, an app and mission that now reaches millions of people each day, always read aloud by the man himself. From dramatic career shifts, to following the call of the heart, this conversation offers a look inside the success of Brian Hardin to see what makes it all possible.

This episode is an experiment. What happens when you sit three young(er) men around the table and start riffing on life? What stories feel important, what motivators rise to the surface, is it encouraging or intimidating to hear from the lives of those around us? Blaine and Sam sat down with an old friend, Jesse Barkalow, to talk about what's current, what's on the horizon, and what we need to know to become better chefs.

Kicking off Season Two, Bo Zivcak joins Sam and Blaine via the workings of technology from Slovakia, wherein he tells his story of growing up behind the Iron Curtain and his journey after its fall. Secret priests, Church partnership with laymen, and radical life shifts are but a taste of the wild story of Zivcak. Yet, despite the radical shift in politics and world events, his story is more about the heart and relationship with the Holy Spirit than anything on the surface.

Bringing the season to a close, Padre joins Sam and Blaine to talk about the mission of the podcast, what episodes they loved, and where we go from here. The And Sons Podcast will return with Season Two on June 6.

With Luke in town, the three brothers talk about the experience of life in the wake of college and all of the spoken and unspoken expectations of what it will be like. It's rare that our visions of the future pan out no matter what the season, but the transition from modern education to the modern job market and economy can feel more like a belly flop than a graceful dive. How we interpret this dichotomy and how we respond are crucial, not only for our work, but for our hearts as well.

This week, Blaine and Sam sat down with Jeff Vanderstelt, a longtime apostle/teacher/church-equipper. We know that for many young men, it’s a big and often tricky jump from living a life with Jesus to living life in a community with Jesus. Fortunately, there are folks like Jeff, whose insights on community, mission, and church offer a pretty darn good framework to begin operating with another level of intentionality and vision in your relationships, community, and your city.

In this conversation, Blaine and Sam nerd out on the history of Postmodern ideas, which like people or places have very specific stories that help inform where they came from and what they really are. From a solar eclipse to the demolition of a St. Louis neighborhood, Blaine explains five events in our past that helped shaped our understanding of our current world. Which is all to say: it's time And Sons unpacked just what we mean when we say "Postmodernism."

Ever heard that the same convictions that help you handle scarcity also help you handle plenty? Turns out it’s true. In this episode, we sat down with two men on our team, Bart Hansen and Jon Dale (who have at times led companies and at other times lacked two nickels to rub together) to ask a simple question: what do you wish you had known about money as a young man? From living simply to taking risks to choosing when not to lead, this conversation is full of gems for every man.

Sam Jolman is a councilor who in the last issue of And Sons Magazine explained that men need romance, not just sex. That was worth following up on, and in this conversation, Sam and Blaine dove in to hear about Jolman’s story with romance, the development of his masculine soul, and the need to understand sexuality as a capacity dependent on a man’s maturity. Men do need romance, but the ability to be a romantic and handle a relationship is developed over time, as a man chooses to engage his own heart and story, ask questions, and grow his relational capacity in his life with God.

Sam and Blaine challenge each other to make three choices this week that will effect change in their worlds. It's easy to want to change big things, or to get crippled by the pressure to do something dramatic, but to effect lasting change we need to understand our "circle of influence" and strategically make choices that will impact the things that we can control. If we do that, over time our circles of influence will grow to include things we never dreamed of.

These days getting married in your 20's is considered strange, with plenty of social and financial reasons to hold off. Whether you're one of the folks to take the leap, you're dating someone and wondering, or you're single and thinking about the road ahead, this conversation is for you. Sam and Blaine explore their experience in young marriages, with only a few years under the belt, it's amazing what has already surfaced.

Craig DeMartino is a record-holding adaptive rock climber with a powerful story. In this interview, we dive into his journey through trauma and suffering and ultimately back into doing what he loves. DeMartino offers thoughts on navigating pain, being a father, and the impact of choice on our lives.

It turns out, becoming a dad shows you which way you're headed as a man. Sam and Blaine talk about rhythms that sustain your heart, prioritizing the core elements of your calling when your time is limited, and increasing your capacity to sacrifice for others. Whether you are a father or not, massive shifts in our lives can help reveal areas of needed growth.

Mark Evans is an internationally-renowned artist and a pioneer in the craft of leather microsculpting. In this interview, we tease out his thoughts on the role of the visionary, the need for God in the creative life, resisting the tumult of technology, and tips for keeping your heart alive while you’re trying to communicate a vision no one else can see.

If we haven’t defined success for ourselves, the world will define it for us, and a misunderstanding of success can cripple a young man. Too often, we think of success as achievement, applause, and a reasonable cash prize. In this conversation, Sam and Blaine look at the roots of success, virtue, and mastery, in order to uncover some coordinates a man can use to understand his work.