One of my life quotes is from Philip Yancey, who says, “Faith is believing in advance what only makes sense in reverse.” And as I look back on 200 episodes of Browncroft’s “Why God Why” podcast, I am so thankful God gave leaders faith several years ago to pursue such an excellent tool now.
Like many ministries we’re constantly working to share the timeless message of the Gospel in the places where many 21st century people are. With that in mind our church took several significant steps in 2019 to engage people online. We set up a Sunday livestream, we launched several Facebook groups and other social media efforts, and we started “Why God Why.”
Now fast forward to 2020. Little did any of us know that the world would in many ways shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. Imagine going into that crisis having to create all those digital resources from scratch! Again, I am thankful God faithfully walked with us to begin investing in these platforms before we ever knew we needed them.
Our goal for the “Why God Why” podcast has always been to provide a place for questions people don’t feel comfortable asking in church. Each episode is based on a “Why?” question, and we work to interview leaders in our church, as well as local and national influencers, to engage matters interesting to those who are wrestling with their faith.
During the last few years I have heard remarkable stories about how people are engaging our podcast. A husband and wife listen to it weekly and discuss each episode. A father and son do the same. And a woman from the Rochester area messaged me to let me know that after she moved to Pittsburgh she continued to tune in and decided to start following Jesus.
But you might still be wondering though why we have this podcast. After all we have a weekly sermon podcast, too (find that one here). Let me share a few statistics that may help:
- 62 percent of Americans age 12 and older (an estimated 177 million people) have at some point listened to a podcast
- 50 percent of monthly U.S. podcast listeners are between ages 12 and 34, 43 percent are between 35 and 54, and 22 percent are older than 55.
- According to Listen Notes, a search engine that rates podcasts, “Why God Why” is in the top 5 percent of the world’s roughly 3 million podcasts.
I want to encourage you to listen to “Why God Why” not only for your own personal growth but also as a tool to help you share your faith. When you think of your family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances who engage on faith, share an episode with them and have a conversation.
Want an idea on where to start among our 200+ episodes? Click the button below for a playlist of recommendations from our team. Let me know what you think!
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
