Plain-spoken talks about Jesus, with no assumptions made.
Beyond Church AU carries a church's teaching messages about Jesus. The talks read the Gospels as ancient biographies and put loaded words like sin and repent into everyday speech. Episodes open with a welcome that promises no pressure and no assumptions, and they close by telling the listener that they belong, wherever they are in their faith.
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Beyond Church AU is the audio side of Beyond Church, a congregation that meets at Griffin State School on Sundays at 10 a.m. The recent episodes are teaching messages credited to Chris Podlich, who introduces the podcast by first name at the start of each one. That introduction sets the terms. The content is meant for someone exploring faith for the first time, someone returning after a long time away, someone simply curious, and someone who has followed Jesus for a while. No pressure, no assumptions. The messages take that promise seriously, and church vocabulary is rarely left to explain itself. Sin, one talk says, means to miss the mark. The speaker counts everyone, speaker included, among the 'miss the markers' who try to be humble or gracious and still fall short. Repent gets the same treatment, with a caution that the stop-sinning picture many people absorbed growing up in church is not the full one. Hosanna is explained as save us, deliver us, a cry for rescue from Roman rule. The talks also lean on history. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are called biographies again and again, four accounts that have survived antiquity. In 'Questions for Jesus, Part 1: No Reason to Panic About the Bible', the case for trusting the New Testament rests on Mark, James and Paul writing without access to one another's work. Historians call this multiple independent source attestation, and the speaker cheerfully says the term can be forgotten as soon as it is heard. The titles keep coming back to Jesus as king: 'The King Who Changes Everything, Part 2: A Dangerous King', 'The King Who Changes Everything, Part 3: A Relentless King', 'Death to the King' and 'Good Friday 2026: Death of A King'. The Easter-season material stays close to the story, following Thomas as rumors spread around Jerusalem that the rabbi from Nazareth is alive. Not everything is doctrine or history. One talk asks a quieter question: whether prayer is making any difference. Recalling a conversation in a life group, the speaker admits to finding it hard to stop and look around. The delivery is loose and conversational, full of 'right?' and 'okay?', with homely images such as Jesus still doing his stretches before the run has even started. The closing is as fixed as the opening. Episodes end by telling the listener they belong, wherever they are on the spiritual journey, and invite them to visit in person. A skeptic might start with the Bible episode. Someone drawn to the story itself might start with the Good Friday message.
Made for: Suits a listener who is exploring Christianity, coming back to it after time away, or already following Jesus, and who wants the language and history behind the faith explained plainly and without pressure.
What sets it apart: It reads Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as biographies and sometimes argues from historical method, and it stops to define church words like sin, repent and Hosanna in plain terms. The tone stays casual and pressure-free from the opening welcome to the closing reminder that the listener belongs.
Welcome to the audio experience of Beyond Church. We're committed to creating a church that unchurched people love to engage with and on this podcast, you'll find a mix of our Sunday messages and Beyond the Message conversations all designed to help you take your next step on your faith journey!
When church rules once outranked you, Andy Stanley's bicycle analogy might feel like a small repair.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A calm episode about faith questions and New Testament source claims.
Questions about faith shape this episode from the start, with Chris framing the conversation around the desire for straight answers. From there, the discussion moves into New Testament source material, describing Mark as writing a biography of Jesus without access to Paul's…
An Easter sermon that lets Thomas's questions open a patient path toward belief.
Easter is framed through Thomas's need for evidence, with Chris tracing the move from absence and rumor to the difficult possibility that Jesus has returned from the dead.
A grief-marked sermon follows Jesus toward Friday through forgiveness, Roman bondage, and hope that does not arrive as expected.
This single-episode review follows a sermon shaped by grief that will not stay neatly put. Chris begins at the funeral of a close friend, where families reach for scripture because they need hope that can hold under pressure.
A practical Easter reflection on Jesus' authority, forgiveness, and faith in ordinary life.
Chris turns an Easter question toward daily life: how does someone actually treat Jesus beyond the language of belief? He moves through Jesus as God in human form, Jesus' authority to forgive sin, and the striking idea that forgiveness can be given even before it is requested.
A church-centered sermon on prayer, perspective, and trusting God's work when results are hard to see.
This single-episode sermon takes the long way into a practical question, opening in the 8th century BC before turning toward the wider story of the global church.
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
Scripture, surrender and faith put into practice.
Andy Stanley discusses the qualities of favorite people and how humility makes them greater.
Andy Stanley discusses the concept of 'fence rules' in parenting and faith, using the example of avoiding certain words to prevent worse behavior.
Chris Podlich opens Beyond Church AU's Questions for Jesus series with more than 45 submitted questions, centered on whether the Bible and the Gospels can be trusted.
Beyond Church AU's Good Friday 2026 sermon centers on Paul's line in 1 Corinthians 15, 'death has been swallowed up in victory.' Chris, the pastor hosting the episode, connects that claim to Nero's Rome, the Appian Way, and Paul's likely death in 67 or 68 AD.
Beyond Church podcast's Easter message argues that the resurrection of Jesus is a historical claim backed by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and James, not by vague religion.
Chris opens Beyond Church AU's "Death to the King" with a question about whether people treat Jesus as a "safety net" or a "guardrail." He then walks through Matthew's Sabbath conflict, where Jesus defends his disciples eating grain, says "something greater than the temple is here," and heals a man with a deformed hand.
Chris uses Isaiah's 8th-century BC promise that every knee will bow and every tongue will swear to frame the whole sermon.
Chris Podlich of Beyond Church AU argues that Jesus should be understood not only as savior but as king, drawing on approximately 500 New Testament references to Christ and around 150 references to Jesus’ kingdom.
Beyond Church AU’s “The King Who Changes Everything, Part 1” introduces Lent as a 40-day period before Easter for reflecting on Jesus’s death, resurrection, and meaning for daily life.
Beyond Church AU’s “From Hello Home, Part 4: The Right Fight” uses the apostle Paul’s 15-plus years of persecution, missionary travel, fundraising, arrest, and waiting to frame a Christian “fight to lose well.” Chris distinguishes “the fight for the faith,” including disputes over COVID-era church restrictions, from “the fight of the faith,” which he defines as loving, serving, forgiving, and returning good for evil.
Beyond Church AU’s “Living with Yourself, Part 3” presents Andy Stanley’s third habit for safeguarding the soul: opening your hands and accepting that “a person can receive only what is given them from heaven.” Stanley connects duplicity to an unhealthy inner life and revisits two earlier habits: surrendering your will and monitoring guilt, anger, greed, and jealousy.
Beyond Church AU hosts John Dickson, who recalls losing a 2008 Sydney debate on whether society would be better without religion.
Beyond Church AU’s “Living with Yourself, Part 2” features Andy Stanley explaining why monitoring outward behavior is insufficient for maintaining integrity.
Jamie Corcoran of Beyond Church AU argues that church leaders can trust God's Word as manuscript, message, and the person of Jesus.
Beyond Church AU’s Andy Stanley argues that neglecting the inner life can widen the gap between public behavior and private character.
Andy Stanley uses Matthew 28, Acts 8, Acts 10, and Acts 15 to argue that churches can become focused on insiders instead of Jesus’ command to make disciples of all nations.
Beyond Church AU’s “Rules for the Road” presents Andy Stanley’s five practical rules for moving through life: travel with wise people, avoid damaging inner-circle relationships, choose a destination, borrow a map, and notice warning signs.
Chris Podlich shares a personal parenting story about praying for his daughter during bedtime, connecting it to universal parental hopes and faith.