Talk for ordinary church faithfulness.
To Be The Church brings conversation into practical questions about how a local church thinks, gathers, teaches, and cares. The tone is relaxed and often playful, but the substance stays close to biblical interpretation, ministry rhythms, and congregational responsibility.
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To Be The Church is a long-running conversation about the habits, decisions, and convictions that shape local church life. It works best when concrete ministry questions become theological case studies. Should church members expect pastors to provide counseling, and what does biblical counseling mean in practice? How should Christians arrive at Easter services without treating the day like a one-off production? What does it take to divide a biblical book into faithful preaching units? These are the show’s natural lanes. The hosts move easily between Scripture, staff meetings, family anecdotes, elder conversations, and the ordinary logistics of ministry. The mood is conversational and lightly comic. A discussion may start with March Madness brackets, a forgotten tablet, or childhood dreams of the NBA, baseball, politics, or acting before turning toward preaching, pastoral care, or congregational identity. That looseness is part of the format. It makes the theological work feel connected to real relationships rather than staged for a classroom. Recent episodes show a consistent interest in expository preaching, biblical interpretation, and the shared work of the church beyond paid staff. Volunteer elders and marketplace elders are treated as serious examples of pastoral service, not side characters. The show also pays attention to how Christians read Scripture, especially when genre, original audience, and difficult biblical literature matter. It is not flashy ministry branding. It is a table conversation for people who care about being faithful in ordinary church life, with enough joking to keep the room human and enough specificity to stay useful.
Made for: For pastors, elders, ministry leaders, and church members who want practical theological conversation rooted in local church life. It especially suits listeners interested in preaching, counseling, Scripture, and congregational responsibility.
What sets it apart: The show blends staff-room candor with serious reasoning, using real church questions as the frame. Its strength is making ministry mechanics feel theological without losing the everyday texture of friendship, family, and local service.
Each Friday, a few NGC pastors Andrew, Tyler, and Ben host a podcast about theology, the Christian life, and what it looks like ‘to be the church’ together.
This is where your awkward church questions meet biblical homework and extremely Baptist punchlines.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear guide to context, genre, and reading Scripture without flattening it.
To Be The Church spends this episode on a basic reading question with real consequences: how much the original audience, their worldview, and the genre of Scripture should shape interpretation.
A practical look at where pastoral care gives way to referral.
The episode treats a practical question many congregations eventually face: what should members expect from their pastor when counseling needs show up?
A grounded conversation on how church size changes relational leadership in youth ministry.
To Be The Church looks at youth ministry through the practical realities of church size, as Jacob Hutchin reflects on early leadership at Northwest Gospel Church in East Vancouver.
What can church members really expect from their pastors when they need counseling or therapy?
In a very large church, youth pastors must focus on equipping leaders rather than just hanging out with students.
The hosts explain their podcast hiatus due to busy schedules, church unification under Northwest Gospel Church, and the construction of a new studio for filming the NGC 101 membership class.
To Be The Church episode 526 asks whether healing and deliverance ministries fit the Bible’s teaching on spiritual gifts.
To Be The Church examines whether men's, women's, singles, Spanish, and older-adult ministries strengthen or fragment a local church.
To Be The Church examines whether children should attend the main Sunday gathering with their parents or receive age-specific teaching in children's ministry.
To Be The Church examines whether Roman Catholics can be Christians and why younger people are drawn toward Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.
To Be The Church hosts Tyler, Ben, and Andrew answer a listener asking when to challenge a preacher who says something inaccurate about Scripture.
This episode explores the concept of biblical counseling as a ministry within churches, discussing its definition, origins, and implementation through examples from specific congregations.
This episode discusses how churches should approach Easter Sunday, emphasizing maintaining normalcy and involving the congregation in welcoming visitors rather than treating it as a special event.
The hosts discuss March Madness brackets and family traditions while introducing their podcast about exploring what it means to be a normal church in today's culture.
This episode discusses how expository preachers determine where to start and stop passages when breaking down a book of the Bible for sermon series.
This episode features an interview with Gavin Hesse, an unpaid pastor and volunteer elder, discussing his experiences and motivations for serving in church leadership while balancing other responsibilities.
The hosts discuss their childhood career aspirations, such as playing professional sports or becoming a pastor, while introducing a podcast episode about envisioning the future of their church in the community by 2056.
To Be The Church episode 506 asks how much the "original audience" and their worldview should shape Bible reading, especially in Genesis and Revelation.
The hosts discuss their week at a pastor's conference, share personal anecdotes about birthdays and a lost tablet, and plan to give Ben a spelling test.
The episode features new youth pastor Jacob Hutchin discussing his transition into leadership at a large church and the dynamics of youth ministry in that context.
This episode features an interview with Kenan Stolls, the local lead pastor of Westside church, discussing his role and the church's location in the Vancouver area as part of a family of churches.