Unfiltered Radio is a relevant Christian podcast for the Jesus follower and the skeptic alike — but you probably figured that out from the title. Of course, it’s a relevant podcast. Who would set out to create an irrelevant message that people didn’t care about or find relatable?
And yet, that’s what the church has managed to do with Jesus. In many ways, we’ve made Him irrelevant. He’s either angry and judgmental, with a standard of perfection that is completely unattainable, or He’s cuddly and loving to the point of being useless for anything but a hug and feeling good about yourself. We’ve either created a Jesus that sends us into panic attacks, or we’ve sanitized Him down to the point where He doesn’t really matter at all.
Think about it — there are more than 300,000 churches in America, and yet there are still hundreds of thousands of people who don’t really have an accurate view of who Jesus is. This is the very issue that birthed our entire ministry, and it’s what drives us to continue to create a relevant Christian podcast that can be listened to worldwide.
The need for relevancy in the church
About 10 years ago, Bryant, our lead pastor, was not in ministry. He was working at a corporate office in the Tampa area, where he had developed a friendship with a girl named Lauren. Lauren was a typical girl in her mid-twenties trying to figure out life. Frankly, we’re all trying to figure this life out. Lauren was carrying a lot of baggage full of past mistakes, regrets and a lot of questions about Jesus and how He viewed her.
Over the course of their friendship, Bryant would talk to Lauren about Jesus and life. He knew that he had to get her plugged into a church where she could feel loved and accepted and ask hard questions and wrestle with belief. And this is where it all hit the fan. The only church options he had in the area were either so old-school and fear-based that they would never relate to someone like Lauren, or they were too new-agey and had watered down the Gospel to the point where she wouldn’t really find the gritty answers she was looking for. They had pretty lights and cool music, but no real substance. And certainly no real Jesus.
She needed a place that was relevant. A place where she could belong without having to be a believer. A place that was anchored to the power of Jesus, but also abundant in his radical grace.
And since a place like that didn’t yet exist, Bryant started one. And that’s how this ministry was born.
For as long as God is willing, we will continue to create relevant Christian podcasts that challenge the Jesus follower and the skeptic, encourage the gritty questions and never compromise the truth for the sake of an agenda.
Wherever you are in life and in your faith journey, we created Unfiltered Radio for you.