Podcast Ep.67: The Pastor and Pornography (Pastor Mark Danzey)
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It’s Interesting how this podcast turned out. I asked around for someone I could interview on the subject of addiction, mainly the issue of addictions to opioids and how the church should understand it and respond and so someone was recommended to me. His name is Mark Danzey. I sat down with Mark and as we began this conversation the addiction we ended up mostly talking about was on pornography. And I agree. This is a needed conversation and one that few are willing to talk about. I sat down with a young man some time ago who said something like this. It’s weird to me that this is probably the biggest struggles guys face, but probably the one struggle no one talks about. So we are talking about it today, with Pastor Mark Danzey. Before we go to the interview let me in introduce Mark.
Mark has been providing pastoral counseling for the last 25 years. Passionate about his work, Mark has spent the last 10 years focused on working with couples in various scenarios from premarital counseling to crisis counseling. Mark is eager to help people looking to make positive changes in their life through personal relationship coaching, career coaching and executive coaching. Additionally, as a Certified Civil, Domestic and Divorce mediator, Mark helps to mediate difficult situations toward a path of peaceful and amicable resolution.
Mark holds a M.A. in Pastoral Ministries, ordination in the United Methodist Church, as well as certifications with the International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals, the International Coaching Federation and the State of Georgia Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Mark and his wife Tammy, have been married for 16 years and have four grown children and one amazing grandson!
Check out the websites that highlight Mark’s different ministry offerings:
Podcast Ep 8: Storms and the Pastor’s Home (with Brett Schultz)
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Brett Schultz grew up in a pastor’s home and he’s actually a normal kid.
Pastors try as best they can to assure their children do not grow up with the common stigmas that come with being a PK (Pastor’s Kid). The pressure to represent the family well can be a heavy burden for any child of a ministry parent. While most pastors and missionaries do a great job protecting their children from these burdens, there are some things that are beyond their control. Brett is my son, and he’s often told me that we did well allowing him to be a normal kid, but there were somethings we could not protect him from. READ MORE
Podcast Ep.64: What Makes for Toxic Churches (Dr. Chris Creech)
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Let me start with a question, maybe a bit tongue in cheek. What if during this Covid 19 season while the church has been fasting from meeting corporately that the antagonist in the church have had a huge change of heart and are now determined to come back fully supporting the pastor and the church leaders?
Well, we hope this would be, but I would imagine that the pastor and church leader will in time be under attack again. I am sure for many pastors this break has been a reprieve from ongoing attack and criticism from what our guest today refers to as hero persecutors. Similar to how Satan left Jesus to tempt him again at an opportune time, I have no doubt that this respite for the pastor from attack, will resume again, at an opportune time. What do leaders need to do and understand when the church becomes a toxic environment? How can the church nurture a climate where the work of the gospel thrives even when there is conflict? I have the privilege in this Before You Quit podcast to look at these questions with with Dr. Chris Creech, author of the book Toxic Church.
Chris Creech and his wife, Faith, have been in ministry for over forty years. During this time they have served in pastoral ministry for over twenty-eight years in five churches, including one church they planted in Toronto. Chris earned an M.Div. and Ph. D. from Southwestern Seminary. He has taught at seminaries in Singapore and Malaysia as resident faculty and as adjunct faculty at other seminaries in Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Currently they are serving Pinnacle Ministries as Directors of Pastoral/Missions/Church Health and as adjuncts in several Asian and US seminaries.
Podcast Ep.63: The State of the Gospel in America (Brandon Kimber)
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During this Covid 19 season (I’m sure it will have a better name down the road) I have been thinking a lot about what this will do to or for the church. Will we be stronger for it? Is this one of those events that God will use to sift the church, from those who are lukewarm to those who are deeply committed? During this time many give testimony of opportunities to reach people they would have never reached before. Online messages have a reach unlike anything else we have seen. READ MORE
Podcast Ep:62 Pastoring During The Coronavirus
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What a time we live. Who would have thought even three months ago that this would be our story. Stay at home. Places closed. People lose jobs. During this time my heart has mostly gone to the pastor who longs to continue shepherding his people who are severely being tested. READ MORE
Podcast Ep. 38: How the Soul Grows Through Loss (Dr. Gerald Sittser)
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Aside from the Bible, one other book served as my lifeline during the hardest period of my life; my wife’s brain surgery and subsequent struggle to recover her speech, reading/writing skills, and my son’s passing to cancer just months after. That book was A Grace Disguised by Dr. Gerald Sittser. I’ve read the book probably four times, and recommended it to many who needed a healthy dose of theological perspective. What a thrill to land an interview with the author of this book, Dr. Gerald Sittser.
Order A Grace Disguised Here
Podcast Ep.25: Leaving A Godly Legacy! (John and Janine Schultz)
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Oh, the great stuff we can gain from the previous generations. But how will we ever do that unless we pause long enough and listen to their stories. When is the last time you sat down with an elderly saint in your church, or even sat down with your parents or grandparents and listened to their stories a
nd the experiences that shaped them? READ MORE
Podcast Ep.61: The Pastor and Good Doctrine (Pastor Dan Samms)
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We live in a day when increasingly people are living in a vacuum, many around us not sure what to believe or even not sure what they believe. This is why it is so important that the pastor and church leaders and even those who are part of the body of Christ own what they believe. READ MORE
Podcast Ep.60: A Theology of Suffering (Michelle Bates)
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Today we’re going to talk theology, especially the theology of suffering. If the church is ever going to become a healing community it needs to have a solid theology of suffering. A pastor who has a theology of suffering prepares his people for times of hardship and also empowers his people to serve one another when one member is hurting. All of this has to come out of a deep and committed understanding of the gospel.
The church committed to the gospel is a church that will understand the role that suffering has in God’s purposes. I have the privilege today to talk to someone who could not have survived deep suffering had it not been for the gospel of Jesus. She talks a lot about the gospel because it’s been her and her family’s lifeline. My guest today is Michelle Bates who in the span of several years faced unbelievable loss. Michelle wrote a book titled Beyond The Shadow, How Suffering Led Me to the Deep End of Grace. It is an excellent book and something we spent a lot of time talking about in this interview. Michelle lives in Humansville,MO where she and her husband Mike and their three children run an Inn.
Podcast Ep.59: The Third Cord in Our Marriage (Our Story-Mitch and Elaine Schultz)
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And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Eccl.4:12
Some have asked me when we will tell our story of loss and recovery in our family. And what was it like on our marriage. If you listen to this podcast enough you know I have made reference to my wife’s struggle in recovering from brain cancer, and my oldest son’s death to cancer. AS it happened, we recently were invited to speak at a valentine banquet for a local church. I decided to record it. So here we are, the two of us, telling our story of how Jesus, that third chord, held our world together during the hardest of times.
Travis always smiling 
Travis during radiation treatment 
Travis holding the FA Cup his team Everton FC 
Brett, Travis and Breanna shorty before Travis went to be with Jesus
