Win Today: Your Roadmap to Wholeness

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• Why Are You Still Performing for the Applause You Claim Not to Need? Pentatonix's Kevin Olusola and Donovan Dee Donnell on Giving Up the Ghost and Getting Into Alignment. 12.06.2026 1год 14хв

  You already know something is off. The output is there. You're showing up, doing the work, performing at a level other people can see. But underneath all of it, there's a strain you can't quite name — a low-grade exhaustion that has nothing to do with how many hours you slept and everything to do with why you're doing what you're doing. You are working for your identity instead of from it. And no amount of productivity is going to fix a motivation problem. Pentatonix's Kevin Olusola and Donovan Dee Donnell join me today for a riveting conversation. Kevin Olusola, Grammy-winning beatboxer and member of Pentatonix, and Donovan Dee Donnell, life coach, counselor, and co-author of Designed to Succeed, join me for one of the most theologically loaded conversations this show has ever had. Kevin names something with startling precision: he gave up the ghost — not as resignation, but as full surrender to the Father at the Hollywood Bowl in 2022, performing before thousands without needing their applause because his being was finally more secure than his doing. Donovan unpacks the mechanics of fear with the clarity of someone who has lived in both the wreckage and the rebuild, walking us through what he and Kevin call the verify-purify-occupy framework, the three-move sequence for dismantling fear's claim before it ever gains a foothold. Together, they trace a thread that runs from identity through core values, through alignment and its guardrails, to the question every person of purpose will eventually have to answer: What are you willing to die for? This is not a conversation about success. It is a conversation about what happens when your motivation is finally honest enough to be sanctified. It will ask you to do something you have probably been postponing — to go to God with the actual thing, not the acceptable version of it, and let Him work with what is true. Guest Bios Kevin Olusola is a three-time Grammy Award-winning musician and beatboxer best known as a member of Pentatonix, the a cappella group that has amassed nearly five billion streams on YouTube. A Yale University graduate who came within a semester of a pre-med track, Kevin traded the expectations of his immigrant Nigerian-Grenadian family for a music career built on the unconventional combination of classical cello and beatboxing — and paid for that leap in ways that eventually led him to something more costly than a career pivot: a genuine reckoning with why he was performing at all. He is also the founder of Imagine Faith Talk, where his platform merges high-performance principles with a Pentecostal-Charismatic faith, and the author of a solo musical project, Dawn of a Misfit. Donovan Dee Donnell is a life coach, former counselor, and co-author of Designed to Succeed. A self-described introvert with an extrovert's calling, Donovan brings both the rigor of professional coaching and the honesty of someone who has navigated some dark places — including years as a stripper and a long reckoning with what it costs to build a life that isn't afraid of criticism. He is a founding collaborator on the Imagine Faith Talk platform alongside Kevin Olusola, and his coaching work centers on helping people identify the guardrails that protect alignment and do the internal work necessary to keep their motivation honest. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• OCD Is Worse Than You Realize. Patrick Lencioni Exposes the Intrusive Thoughts Nobody Talks About in Church. 10.06.2026 1год 27хв

  You have found ways to make your wound productive. You turned the thing that broke you into the engine that drives you — and somewhere along the way, you started calling that a superpower. You are high-functioning and deeply exhausted, achieving without arriving, performing your way through life while something underneath quietly starves. Patrick Lencioni is the founder of The Table Group and the author behind some of the most influential business books of the last twenty years, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. But this conversation goes somewhere his work rarely takes him. Patrick opens up about his own diagnosis with OCD — the fear-driven, control-seeking, maniacal cycle of obsession and compulsion — and the childhood wounds that fed it for decades before anyone named what was happening. He and Christopher go deep on the real definition of OCD, its subtypes, including scrupulosity, and the specific way anxiety disorders attach themselves to the things of God and masquerade as faith. They also walk through what the dark night of the soul actually strips from a person — and why that stripping is not punishment but surgery. And Patrick makes the case for something the culture cannot stomach: that refusing to speak truth to someone you love is not kindness. It is cruelty wearing a gentler name. If you have been performing your faith without living it, checking instead of trusting, arranging your world in exchange for a sense of safety that never quite holds, this conversation is going to name something you have been carrying for a long time. Patrick is not talking from a safe distance. He is still at work. So is Christopher. And what they both know now is that the wound does not become anything worth having until surrender has gone all the way down. That kind of surrender is not passive. It is the hardest thing a person ever does. This conversation will ask you to begin it. Guest Bio Patrick Lencioni is the founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to helping leaders build healthy organizations, and the author of 10 books on leadership and teamwork, with over 3 million copies sold worldwide. His best-known work, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, has become one of the most widely used business texts in the world, applied by organizations ranging from the Fortune 500 to the military to the local church. He lives and works out of the Franklin, Tennessee area. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• You're Trading Your Soul for Approval. Tyler Staton on Why Your Hurry, Your Limits, and Your Need to Be Loved Are All Connected 03.06.2026 1год 5хв

  You've been filling your days to the brim and calling it faithfulness. Every hour accounted for. Every margin eliminated. You pull it all off, too, and you reach the end of the day unable to say why it felt empty. The people you love most were technically present, but you couldn't really see them. You measured the day by what got done, not by who got loved. And underneath the productivity, if you're honest, there was a quieter engine running — the fear that if you slowed down, you'd have to sit with something you're not ready to face. Tyler Staton, lead pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, author of Praying Like Monks Living Like Fools, The Familiar Stranger, and his newest book After Amen, joins me for what I believe is one of the most theologically precise and personally confronting conversations this show has produced. Tyler has walked through a stage-four cancer diagnosis and come through it with a startling clarity about what the soul actually needs. In this conversation we cover the holiness of unfinished things, how to distinguish Spirit-led submission from fear-driven people-pleasing, what it means to absorb the wrongs of another without becoming a doormat, why approval addiction and genuine love cannot coexist in the same moment, and what Jesus's own relationship to human limits reveals about how we were designed to live. What Tyler says about the Kingdom of God is worth stopping on. The Kingdom only comes in the present, he argues, and when you're living in your head, toward the next thing, you cannot participate in it. This isn't a productivity hack. It's a diagnosis of a spiritual condition most of us have normalized. The hurry we've made peace with is the very thing severing us from the people we love, the voice of the Spirit we say we want, and the joy we keep expecting to find somewhere ahead. What you'll find in this conversation is not comfort. You'll find a mirror. Tyler names the lie that high-achievers and approval-seekers share in common: that more urgency and more effort will eventually produce the love and belonging we're chasing, and he tells you exactly why that trade will cost you your soul. This conversation will ask something of you. The question is whether you're ready to slow down enough to hear it. Guest Bio Tyler Staton is the lead pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, and the national director of 24-7 Prayer USA. He is the author of Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools, The Familiar Stranger — a book about encountering the Holy Spirit as a living Person — and his newest release, After Amen: 50 Days of Poetry and Prayer, written in the aftermath of a stage-four cancer diagnosis and the particular clarity that kind of wilderness produces. Tyler lives in Portland with his wife Kirsten, and their three sons. His work sits at the intersection of contemplative prayer, Spirit-led formation, and the kind of pastoral honesty that refuses to separate theological depth from ordinary daily life. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• You've Put God on Trial for Something He Didn't Do. Ryan Maher Unpacks Blame, Sovereignty, and What Trust Actually Costs. 29.05.2026 1год 22хв

  There is something underneath the anger you can't quite name. It sounds like disappointment. It feels like betrayal. And it has God's name on it. You prayed. You believed. You held on as long as you could. And then the thing you were afraid of happened anyway. So somewhere in the quiet, you decided — without maybe ever saying it out loud — that He let you down. That He was responsible. That if He were really good, really powerful, really in charge, this would have gone differently. Ryan Maher joins me for a conversation that goes straight to the root of that wound. Ryan is the founder of The Prayer Channel and Trust God Bro, the most-followed Christian channels on Instagram, and the author of The God Worth Trusting — a book born out of losing his mother to addiction, losing his friend Brett, and losing his faith in the version of God he'd been handed. What he discovered in that wreckage was not a tidy theology but something far more durable: a distinction between a God who controls and a God who is sovereign, and why confusing those two things has done more damage to the church's trust than almost anything else. We cover the difference between sovereignty and control, what it actually means that God is good at the level of nature and not just activity, and why the phrase "everything happens for a reason" is not only unhelpful; it's a theological lie. If you have walked through something that feels impossible to reconcile with a good God, this conversation will not give you easy answers. What it will give you is a more honest starting place — and the invitation to build a history with the Lord that holds when the circumstances don't. The question is not whether you can trust Him. The question is whether you are willing to let scripture define who He is rather than letting your worst moment do it. Guest Bio Ryan Maher is a pastor and evangelist who uses every digital tool available to share the Gospel, reaching hundreds of millions of people each month through the ministries he has founded and leads, including The Prayer Channel — the number one most popular broadcast channel on Instagram. He is the author of The God Worth Trusting: Restoring Faith in a Good God, a book he describes as the resource he wished someone had handed him in his own darkest seasons. Ryan and his wife, Brittany, are based in Michigan. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• The More You Know, the More Cynical You Become. Carey Nieuwhof on Pattern Recognition, Grief, and Finishing Well. 27.05.2026 1год 14хв

  You have more knowledge than you've ever had, and somehow you're more tired. More guarded. More prone to walk into a room and see everything wrong with it before you see anything right. You used to believe things would get better. Now you believe you've simply seen enough to know they probably won't. You call it wisdom. But it might be something else entirely.   Carey Nieuwhof joins me for a conversation I've been looking forward to for years, and he opens up in a way I did not expect. At 61, in the wake of 29 simultaneous external stressors, a rare blood disorder that nearly took his life, aging parents, the death of a father-in-law, and the loss of the physical sanctuary that had been his refuge, Carey is navigating what grief actually looks like for a leader who spent two decades not grieving anything. The phrase that has stayed with me since this conversation is one his mentor gave him 25 years ago: ministry is a series of ungrieved losses. We cover what that means in practice, why cynicism is not a character flaw but a predictable outcome of accumulated knowledge without adequate grief, how the shift from fluid to crystallized intelligence changes what leadership should ask of you in your 40s and beyond, and what Carey and his wife Toni are actually doing, not just saying, to finish well. There is something here that will not comfort you the way you're hoping to be comforted. Carey is too honest for that, and this episode is too important for that. If you have been running at a pace that leaves no room to feel your losses, this conversation is going to cost you something. Sit with it. Let it do its work. Guest Bio Carey Nieuwhof is a former attorney and pastor who leads one of the most listened-to leadership podcasts in the Christian space, with more than 800 episodes and over 36 million downloads. He is the author of several books, including the bestselling At Your Best, and the founder of the Art of Leadership Academy, a growing community of more than 20,000 leaders. He spent over a decade as a lead pastor north of Toronto before stepping away to focus on helping leaders at scale. He has studied burnout, cynicism, moral failure, and the patterns that separate leaders who finish well from those who don't. He brings to this conversation more than two decades of pattern recognition built at the intersection of personal suffering and serious study. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Christian Self-Help Is Lying to You. Dr. Henry Cloud on What Real Change Actually Requires. 20.05.2026 1год 1хв

  You have tried harder. You have read the books, made the commitments, restarted the plan, and believed — genuinely believed — that this time would be different. And yet, five years later, you are looking at the same patterns, the same walls, the same version of yourself you were trying to leave behind. The failure is not a motivation problem. It is not a willpower problem. It is something deeper, something that the self-help industry cannot name because naming it would dismantle the entire enterprise. Dr. Henry Cloud joins me for his third conversation on Win Today, and what he brings to the table this time is a confrontation with one of the most quietly destructive lies inside Christian growth culture: that knowledge is enough, that effort is enough, that the right tips applied with sufficient sincerity will eventually produce the life you want. Cloud dismantles that lie at the root. He explains why strength always begins in weakness, why your limitations are not obstacles to your growth but the very doorway through it, and why the passage everyone quotes — "the truth shall set you free" — has been systematically separated from the condition that precedes it. We also go deep into the relational patterns that quietly destroy families, churches, and teams: the victim-rescuer-persecutor triangle and how triangulation turns ordinary conflict into a cycle of division no one can escape from the inside. And Cloud offers one of the sharpest cultural diagnoses I have heard in years — on what the word "triggered" has come to mean and why its inflation is itself a sign of something unhealed. If you have been doing the work but not getting anywhere, this conversation will name what is actually going on underneath the surface. But it will not let you stay comfortable in the naming. Something is required of you: not more effort, but a different kind of openness — the kind that begins with admitting you cannot do this alone. Guest Bio Dr. Henry Cloud is a clinical psychologist, leadership consultant, and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author whose books have sold nearly 20 million copies worldwide. His work integrates psychological science and biblical wisdom to address the deepest patterns that keep people and organizations from genuine growth. He consults with CEOs, Fortune 500 companies, and high-net-worth family offices, and he is the founder of drcloud.com, which hosts his personal growth platform. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Jamie Winship: "You Don't Know What Water You're Swimming In." The Separation Worldview and the Scarcity Lie Running Your Life. 13.05.2026 1год 17хв

  You can feel it, even if you have never named it. The tightness around not having enough, not being enough, not doing enough. The reflex to protect what you have before someone takes it. The way your relationships quietly become negotiations, your faith quietly becomes performance, and your inner life quietly becomes a war zone — all while you are calling it prudence, discernment, stewardship, responsibility. You have been living from a worldview. And you probably have no idea which one it is. Jamie Winship returns to Win Today, and this conversation cuts deeper than most Jamie is the founder of Identity Exchange and author of the new book The War of Worldviews, and for decades, he has brought peaceful, identity-rooted solutions into some of the most dangerous conflict zones on earth. What he has learned in war-torn regions, maximum-security prisons, and international diplomacy is this: every conflict, without exception, is a worldview problem before it is a behavior problem. There are only two worldviews. The separation worldview, which is built on scarcity, runs on fear, and always ends in self-protection and self-promotion. And the connection worldview, which is grounded in abundance, operates from love and produces self-emptying, other-focused transformation. We also dig into why identity alone isn't enough if the worldview carrying it is toxic, the staggering difference between influence and production, what Moses was actually warning Israel about through the story of Joseph, and why Daniel's refusal to bow to the empire changed three dynasties while Joseph's compliance led to his own people's bondage. If you have been calling your fear something else — and there is a good chance you have — this conversation is going to name it. You will have to decide what to do with what you hear. That decision will shape everything else. Guest Bio Jamie Winship is the co-founder of Identity Exchange and Identity Impact, training and consulting agencies that have helped leaders across professional sports, government, law enforcement, business, and international diplomacy discover their true identity and operate from it under pressure. After a distinguished career in law enforcement in the Washington DC metro area, Jamie earned a master's in English and spent years working in some of the world's most dangerous conflict zones — Indonesia, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, and Israel — developing his Identity Method, a process of identity transformation that resolves inner conflict and opens new levels of creativity and resilience. He is the author of Living Fearless and the new book The War of Worldviews. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Some People Like You Better Broken. Tim Ross on Dysregulation, Curated Narratives, and the Peace That Actually Holds. 06.05.2026 1год 38хв

  You have been managing something for a long time. Maybe you don't call it that. Maybe it shows up as a low-grade restlessness, a reflexive reaching for the phone, a fullness in your chest that never quite resolves. You've done the spiritual things. You've prayed, you've worshipped, you've pressed through. And underneath all of it there is still something unresolved, something unnamed, something you have quietly agreed to just carry. And the most confronting possibility in the world is that the people closest to you have gotten comfortable with you carrying it, because a version of you that is fractured and functional and never-quite-well is a version of you they know how to manage. Tim Ross joins me for a conversation that is equal parts pastoral and surgical. Tim is the host of The Basement podcast and the author of The Missing Peace: How to Be Held Together When You're Falling Apart, and what he brings to this conversation is not theory. In 2019, Tim's life was simultaneously at its most visible and its most misaligned, and what cracked the surface was not a catastrophic failure but something quieter and stranger than that, a spray-paint can and six cans from Home Depot on a Saturday night, and elders kind enough to hold a mirror up. We trace that inflection point all the way to a theology of nervous system regulation grounded not in Polyvagal theory alone but in Mark 4, in John 14, in the peace that Jesus left as a Person and not a feeling. We talk about dysregulation as detachment from peace, about why a regulated person can discern between the agitator and the agitated when a dysregulated one can only rebuke everything, about the narratives we have fallen in love with because the work of changing them is simply too much to want to face. We talk about what it costs to get free, and why some of the people in your life are quietly counting on you not to. The free you will not tolerate what the bound you did. Tim said that near the end of our conversation, and it's the kind of sentence that doesn't settle quietly. This episode will not let you stay comfortable with a curated peace. It will ask whether what you're calling maturity is actually avoidance, whether what you're calling faith is cowardice dressed up, and whether you're ready to throw off the outer garment and run. Guest Bio Tim Ross is the host of The Basement podcast, one of the most widely followed voices at the intersection of faith, mental health, and honest human experience. Tim has spent more than 27 years in the work of formation, and his shift from the pews to podcasting has extended his reach to millions. His newest book, The Missing Peace: How to Be Held Together When You're Falling Apart (Thomas Nelson, 2025), is a theology of peace rooted in the person of the Holy Spirit and grounded in the lived reality of nervous system regulation. He lives in Dallas with his wife, Juliette, and their sons Nathan and Noah. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Review the Podcast Click here to read the ratings, or even better, please leave me a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Your rating will help the podcast get noticed and positioned on Apple Podcasts. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• This Is Why You Keep Having the Same Argument. Jason VanRuler on the Wound Behind Every Fight You Can't Escape. 01.05.2026 48хв

  You have already tried the conversations. You have tried slowing down, choosing better words, waiting for the right moment. And still something derails it — the same wall, the same disconnect, the same feeling that you are speaking into air. What you have probably not tried is understanding why you communicate the way you do, and more importantly, where that pattern came from. Jason VanRuler is a licensed psychotherapist, author, and nationally recognized speaker whose new book, Discovering Your Communication Type, names a truth that changes everything: your communication style was not chosen — it was formed, shaped by the environment you needed to survive as a child. In this conversation, Jason introduces the PATHS model (Peacemaker, Advocate, Thinker, Harbor, Spark), but the framework is only the surface. Beneath it is something more confronting: most heated arguments are not about words. They are about wounds. And the same survival instincts that protected you then are likely the ones sabotaging your closest relationships now. What does it cost a relationship when secrets corrode it slowly, the way carbon monoxide fills a room — undetectable until real damage is done? What happens when you lead with your explanation instead of your apology, and why does that single inversion invalidate everything that follows? If you have been in survival mode so long that dysregulation feels like Tuesday morning, this conversation names the path out — and the grief that comes with it. The question Jason puts to you, whether he says it directly or not, is this: do you actually want connection, or do you want validation for remaining exactly as you are? Only one of those is available here. Guest Bio Jason VanRuler is a licensed psychotherapist, author, and nationally recognized speaker based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, specializing in communication, attachment, and relationships. He is the author of Discovering Your Communication Type: The 5 Paths to Deeper Connections and Stronger Relationships and founder of a thriving private practice. Jason leads retreats, workshops, and intensives for couples and organizations, and hosts his own podcast, Ok, What's Next? He lives with his wife and three children. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Your Jesus Is Too Small. Kyle Idleman on the Domestication of Jesus, Weird Subculture Christianity, and Why a Comfortable Savior Can't Save You. 29.04.2026 58хв

  You have configured Jesus to fit your life. Not consciously, not maliciously, but you have done it nonetheless. The algorithm of your preferences, your comfort thresholds, your political loyalties, your financial anxieties — they all quietly shape the version of Jesus you bring to church, to prayer, and to your decisions. The result is a Jesus who agrees with you more than he challenges you, who blesses your plans more than he disrupts them, and who functions, if you are honest, more like a life coach than a Lord. Kyle Idleman, Senior Pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville and author of the new book The Missing Messiah, joins me for a conversation that will do exactly what you are afraid this kind of conversation will do: poke the box. Kyle draws a precise and unflinching distinction between Christian culture and kingdom culture, between a transactional faith built around what Jesus can do for you and a transformational discipleship built around following him wherever he goes. We cover the algorithm Jesus keeps breaking, the compartmentalized faith that lets him rummage in your "religion drawer" but not your finances, your politics, or your relationships, and the specific consequence no one wants to name: that a domesticated, comfortable, cushy Jesus is not going to hold you when the hardest seasons of your life arrive. If your faith has never asked you to count the cost, that is not evidence of grace. It is evidence of a missing Messiah. This conversation will not make you feel better about where you are; it will make you want to go further. That is the invitation, and it requires something of you. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Everyone Is Spiritual. Very Few Are Discerning. Dr. Joel Muddamalle on The Unseen Battle of Deception. 22.04.2026 1год 10хв

  You have a vague, unsettled sense that something is off—in the culture, in the church, maybe even in your own spiritual life—but you cannot quite name it, and so you keep moving, hoping it will clarify on its own. It will not clarify on its own. What you are sensing is real, and there is a name for it: you are living in the middle of a war you have not been trained to see. Dr. Joel Muddamalle, theologian and Director of Theology and Research at Proverbs 31 Ministries, joins me for a conversation that is as theologically rigorous as it is pastorally urgent. Joel makes the case that the church in the West has been slowly desensitized to the spiritual climate it is swimming in—not through a dramatic assault, but through the gradual repositioning of our dependence, our loves, and our identity. We cover the three rebellions embedded in Genesis and what they reveal about the enemy's enduring strategy, why the surge of spirituality in our culture is not an opportunity but a crisis of discernment, and why the doctrine of Christ consciousness—is not an enlightened reading of Scripture but a doctrine of demons that hijacks the name of Jesus while quietly displacing him from his own story. We also walk through what deliverance actually looks like for believers, practically and biblically, without sensationalism and without the misplaced authority of any human administrator. The most important line in this conversation is not about cosmic powers or exorcisms. It is this: the enemy does not gain ground by overpowering you—he gains ground because you are withdrawing. Every time you step back, he steps forward. That truth will require something of you. Come ready to receive it. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• You're Betraying Your Future Self Every Time You Do THIS. Jon Acuff on Why Procrastination "Protects" You and the Permission to Finally Start. 15.04.2026 1год 12хв

    You know what you're supposed to do. You've known for a while. And yet here you are, on the other side of another day that didn't deliver what you intended, wondering why you keep choosing the version of yourself that never has to be tested. The uncomfortable truth is that you're not failing because you're lazy. You're failing because procrastination is solving a problem for you—the problem of having to find out who you actually are when the pressure is on. Jon Acuff joins me for a conversation that is equal parts diagnostic and liberating. Jon is one of the sharpest thinkers working in this space—a New York Times bestselling author whose new book, Procrastination Proof, makes the case that your delay is not a discipline problem. It's a fear problem. And until you understand what procrastination is actually protecting you from, no system, no strategy, and no surge of motivation will hold. We cover the lie that one breakthrough will change everything, why you keep giving advice to your past self while ignoring your future one, the pre-decision framework that removes the daily negotiation with yourself, and what it actually means to build a motivation portfolio instead of chasing a feeling. What Jon names in this conversation is something most productivity content never gets close to: the invisible cost. Every day you delay is not a neutral act. It is a vote for the version of you that never has to be exposed, refined, or tested. And that version of you has been winning long enough. This conversation will not let you stay comfortable. It will invite you to take an honest look at what you are actually protecting, who you are actually becoming, and what it would cost you to finally give yourself permission to start. Guest Bio Jon Acuff is a New York Times bestselling author of twelve books, including Soundtracks, Finish, and Procrastination Proof, which together have sold more than one million copies. Named one of Inc.'s Top 100 Leadership Speakers, he delivers keynotes to companies including Microsoft, Walmart, Comedy Central, and Chick-fil-A. He hosts the podcast All It Takes Is a Goal and lives outside Nashville with his wife and two daughters. In this conversation, Jon brings his signature combination of humor, forensic self-awareness, and hard-won practical frameworks to the question most productivity culture refuses to ask honestly: what is your procrastination actually protecting? Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• You Don't Want Freedom as Much as You Think You Do. Alex Seeley Confronts Why We Like to Stay Stuck in Error and Delusion. 08.04.2026 1год 10хв

  Many people say they want freedom. They pray for it, talk about it, and surround themselves with language that sounds like transformation. But beneath the surface, there is often resistance. Patterns persist. Mindsets remain unchallenged. And responsibility is quietly avoided. This week on Win Today, Alex Seeley joins me for a direct and necessary conversation about the work of sanctification and what it actually requires. We examine why so many believers remain stuck in cycles they claim to want to leave, how unchallenged thinking reinforces spiritual stagnation, and why true freedom demands more than awareness. It requires participation. Guest Bio Alex Seeley is the co-lead pastor of The Belonging Co. in Nashville, Tennessee, a global church community known for its emphasis on worship, discipleship, and the presence of God. Originally from Australia, Alex has spent years leading, teaching, and equipping believers to grow in spiritual maturity and live lives marked by freedom and purpose. Through her leadership, speaking, and writing, she challenges individuals to confront limiting mindsets, embrace the process of sanctification, and walk in the fullness of what God has for them. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• MercyMe's Bart Millard on Why Suffering Isn't Your Core Problem and What God Is Actually Doing in Your Pain 01.04.2026 56хв

  You may be walking through disappointment. You may feel tempted to withdraw. You may not know how to trust God again. This conversation with Bart Millard from MercyMe will help you understand what it means to stay present, stay honest, and allow God to form something deeper in you through what you are facing. You'll learn: Why suffering can deepen rather than destroy your faith How isolation quietly hinders the healing process Why vocalizing your struggles reduces their power The difference between giving up and true surrender How to trust God beyond specific outcomes Guest Bio Bart Millard is the lead singer of the multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated band MercyMe and a songwriter whose work has shaped modern worship music for decades. Known for the hit song "I Can Only Imagine," Bart has shared his story of pain, redemption, and faith through music, film, and writing. His journey—from a difficult childhood marked by abuse to becoming a voice of hope for millions—continues to inform his message about healing, resilience, and trusting God through adversity. Through his music, books, and storytelling, Bart invites people into an honest and grounded faith that holds both grief and gratitude. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Your Soul Is Fragmented. Now What? Heath Hardesty on Why You Can't Receive God's Love and the Lie of Self-Improvement Christianity 25.03.2026 1год 9хв

  Many people today feel scattered. Attention is fractured, emotions are unsteady, and spiritual life feels more like survival than formation. We move from one demand to the next, one distraction to another, and somewhere along the way, the soul begins to splinter. This week on Win Today, Heath Hardesty joins me for a deeply clarifying conversation about what it means to live with an integrated soul in a fragmented world. We examine why so many believers struggle to actually receive the love of God, how discipleship has often been reduced to a subtle form of self-improvement, and why attempts to short-circuit suffering often delay the very formation God is trying to produce. Heath offers a compelling vision of apprenticeship to Jesus—not as a program to become your best self, but as a way of life where union with Him becomes the starting point, abiding and obeying Him becomes the essence, and reflecting Him becomes the aim. If you feel spiritually scattered, if your faith feels more performative than relational, or if you've realized you don't actually know how to receive the love of God, this conversation will help reorient what true discipleship is meant to form. Guest Bio Heath Hardesty serves as the lead pastor of Valley Community Church and is a founder of Inklings Coffee & Tea in downtown Pleasanton, California. Raised in a blue-collar home, Heath began his vocational journey as a plumber's apprentice in Colorado before transitioning into pastoral ministry on the edge of Silicon Valley, where he now lives with his family. He holds degrees in literature, leadership, biblical studies, and theology from the University of Colorado Boulder and Western Seminary in Portland. Through his teaching and writing, Heath invites people into a reimagined vision of apprenticeship to Jesus—one that cultivates wholeness, resilience, and a deeper experience of God's love. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• You Can't Bubble Bath Your Way to Wellness. Jennifer Breheny Wallace on Absorbing the Lies of Useless and Worthless, Why Self-Esteem Has a Short Fuse, Mattering vs. Validation, Toxic Success, and Why Hyper-Visibility is Fake Connection 18.03.2026 46хв

  We are living in a moment where the language of self-care is everywhere. Protect your peace. Take a break. Treat yourself. But beneath the bubble baths and wellness rituals, something deeper is breaking down. People are absorbing quiet but powerful lies that they are useless, replaceable, or fundamentally unimportant. This week on Win Today, journalist and bestselling author Jennifer Breheny Wallace joins us to examine what she calls the modern crisis of "mattering." Drawing from extensive research and deeply human stories, Jennifer explains why the need to feel valued and to know that we add value is not optional—it is a core human need. When that need goes unmet, the consequences show up everywhere: fragile self-esteem, burnout, toxic achievement culture, and a constant search for validation that never quite satisfies. We explore why self-esteem alone cannot sustain a healthy identity, how success-driven cultures quietly erode a sense of worth, and why the hyper-visible world of social media often produces the opposite of real connection. Jennifer also introduces the concept of a "mattering core"—the conditions that help people know they are valued and capable of contributing value to others. When those elements are present, resilience grows. When they disappear, people begin to doubt their place in the world. If you've ever felt the pressure to prove your worth, if success has started to feel strangely empty, or if you've wondered why validation never seems to last, this conversation will help reframe what human flourishing actually requires. Guest Bio Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an acclaimed journalist and bestselling author whose work focuses on the intersection of mental health, achievement culture, and human flourishing. She is the author of Mattering: How to Create a Life of Meaning, Empathy, and Impact, a groundbreaking exploration of why the human need to feel valued and to add value is essential to well-being. Jennifer's writing has appeared in outlets including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post, where she examines how modern pressures around success and validation shape the mental health of both adults and young people. Through her reporting and research, she helps readers understand how restoring a sense of mattering can strengthen resilience, deepen relationships, and restore purpose in an achievement-driven world. Show Partners SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Are You Prepared for Chaos? Paige Collins on the Necessary Posture in Shaking, The Cost of Surrender, and the Exploration of How God Speaks to People in Dreams 13.03.2026 59хв

  Every generation eventually faces moments when stability disappears, and the ground beneath our assumptions begins to shake. Cultural chaos, personal uncertainty, and unexpected upheaval have a way of revealing what our faith is actually built upon. In those moments, the question is no longer theoretical—it becomes deeply personal. This week on Win Today, my good friend Paige Collins joins me for a thoughtful conversation about preparing our lives for seasons of shaking and why surrendering to God is often far more costly than we expect. We explore the posture required to remain steady when circumstances become unpredictable, the spiritual maturity that grows through relinquishing control, and how God often forms resilience in environments that feel uncomfortable or uncertain. We also touch on the intriguing and often misunderstood topic of dreams and whether God can still speak through them today. Scripture includes moments where the Lord communicated through dreams—from Solomon's encounter in 1 Kings to Joel's prophetic declaration that in the last days people would dream dreams. At the same time, we make an important distinction: dreams are never equivalent to Scripture, never authoritative revelation, and never a replacement for the Word of God. Instead, if they occur at all, they must be tested, weighed, and submitted to the authority of Scripture and the wisdom of the Church. If the cultural moment feels unstable, if you sense the Lord inviting you into deeper surrender, or if you're wondering how to remain grounded when life becomes unpredictable, this conversation will help clarify the posture that prepares a believer to endure seasons of shaking. Guest Bio Paige Collins is a lifelong dreamer and visionary, and the founding partner of Icon Media Group, a premier PR firm specializing in faith and family entertainment. She has led high-impact publicity campaigns for major faith-based films and Kingdom-driven brands, helping shape the public conversation around faith in media and culture. Paige also serves as a producer, screenwriter, and founder of Honeybee Entertainment, a company dedicated to elevating stories of women of faith across film, television, and other creative platforms. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Selective Obedience is KILLING Your Faith. Hosanna Wong on Confusing the Practices of Jesus with Jesus Himself, Selective Obedience, How We Make Legalism Cool, The Role of Hiddenness and Crushing, and the 6 Roadblocks to Connecting with God 11.03.2026 1год 14хв

  It is possible to practice the rhythms of faith and still miss the Person those rhythms were meant to lead us to. We can read Scripture, attend church, adopt the language of discipleship, and build entire spiritual lives around the habits of Jesus—while quietly drifting from intimacy with Jesus Himself. This week on Win Today, Hosanna Wong joins me for a clarifying and deeply confronting conversation about the difference between performing Christianity and actually knowing God. We examine how selective obedience slowly erodes intimacy with Him, why legalism has learned to rebrand itself as passion for holiness, and how seasons of hiddenness and crushing are often the environments where authentic discipleship is formed. Hosanna also unpacks six roadblocks that frequently prevent believers from experiencing genuine connection with God, revealing how easy it is to substitute religious activity for relational transformation. The invitation of Jesus has never been behavior management or spiritual performance—it is repentance, surrender, and relationship. If you've been doing the practices of faith but still feel distant from God… if you've sensed the quiet conviction that something deeper is being asked of you, or if you're realizing that obedience in some areas has been selective rather than surrendered, this episode will bring needed clarity. Guest Bio Hosanna Wong is an international speaker, best-selling author, and spoken word artist known for helping everyday people know Jesus in a real and personal way. Widely recognized for her viral spoken word piece "I Have A New Name," Hosanna shares her message in churches, conferences, prisons, and ministries around the world, reaching across denominations, cultures, and backgrounds. Raised in an urban ministry on the streets of San Francisco, she later spent years traveling throughout the United States speaking and sharing the gospel through spoken word poetry while living out of suitcases. Through her speaking, writing, and creative work, Hosanna equips believers to deepen their relationship with God and pursue authentic discipleship. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Let's Talk About Sex (Addiction). Jay Stringer Unpacks the Anatomy of Sexual Addiction, Predicting Destructive Lifestyle Choices, Why Healing Addiction Requires Curiosity, and Why Grief Has the Power to Change What You Desire 04.03.2026 1год 23хв

  Sexual addiction is often treated as a behavior problem. Stop the behavior. Remove the temptation. Try harder next time. But what if the behavior is not the real issue? What if the patterns that bring shame, secrecy, and self-sabotage are actually revealing something deeper about the story you carry? This week on Win Today, therapist and researcher Jay Stringer joins me to unpack the anatomy of sexual addiction and unwanted sexual behavior. Drawing from research involving more than 3,800 men and women, Jay explains why these patterns are rarely random and how the unresolved parts of our past often shape them. We talk about why shame keeps people trapped in destructive cycles, why curiosity is often the first step toward healing, and why grief has the surprising power to reshape what we desire. Sexual struggles are not simply moral failures to suppress. They can become a roadmap that leads us toward the healing we have avoided. If you are stuck in patterns you cannot explain, if shame has kept you silent, or if you've tried to manage the behavior without understanding the story behind it, this episode will help you see why real freedom begins with honesty. Guest Bio Jay Stringer is a licensed therapist, minister, and researcher who helps men and women understand and outgrow unwanted sexual behaviors. He is the author of the award-winning book Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing, based on a multiyear research study involving more than 3,800 men and women exploring the roots of sexual addiction and compulsive sexual behavior. Jay is also the creator of the Sexual Behavior Self-Assessment and The Journey Course, a five-month program designed to help individuals identify and transform the deeper drivers behind destructive patterns. He holds an MDiv and a master's degree in counseling psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology and completed post-graduate training under Dr. Dan Allender while serving as a Senior Fellow at The Allender Center. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• God Won't Force You to Heal. Debra Fileta on The Reason Most People Aren't Emotionally Healthy, How "Trauma-Informed" Has Been Taken Too Far, and Why You Can't Be Spiritually Mature if Your Mental Health is in the Trash 25.02.2026 1год 3хв

  We talk about healing as though it's inevitable. As though proximity to Scripture, therapy language, or Christian community automatically produces transformation. But God does not force anyone into wholeness. He invites. He confronts. He calls. And too many believers confuse awareness with growth. This week on Win Today, Debra Fileta joins me for a sober conversation about emotional health and spiritual maturity. We examine why so many Christians remain emotionally immature while sounding spiritually fluent, how "trauma-informed" has in some circles become trauma-defined identity, and why you cannot become spiritually mature if your mental and emotional life is neglected. Healing is not passive. It is participatory. If your faith is sincere but your reactions are volatile… if you know the right language but keep repeating the same patterns… or if you've mistaken self-protection for self-awareness, this episode will clarify what real growth actually requires. Guest Bio Debra Fileta is a Licensed Professional Counselor specializing in relationship, marital, mental, and emotional health. She is the author of five books, host of the Love + Relationships Podcast, and founder of TrueLoveDates.com, a widely read relationship advice platform reaching millions worldwide. Known for her candid yet compassionate voice, Debra integrates clinical insight with Christian faith to help individuals and couples pursue emotional health and stronger relationships. Her work has been featured in outlets including Christianity Today, Focus on the Family, Relevant Magazine, Crosswalk.com, Charisma Magazine, and more. Show Partner SafeSleeve designs a phone case that blocks up to 99% of harmful EMF radiation—so I'm not carrying that kind of exposure next to my body all day. It's sleek, durable, and most importantly, lab-tested by third parties. The results aren't hidden—they're published right on their site. And that matters because many so-called EMF blockers on the market either don't work or can't prove they do. We protect our hearts and minds—why wouldn't we protect our bodies too? Head to safesleevecases.com and use the code WINTODAY10 for 10% off your order. Episode Links Show Notes Buy my book "Healing What You Can't Erase" here! Invite me to speak at your church or event. Connect with me @WINTODAYChris on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.