Maybe God Podcast

New podcast episode out now!

What happens when you start questioning the teachings of your church you’ve grown up with? In this conversation, we sit down with to discuss dangerous doctrines to be wary of in the Church, including prosperity gospel, speaking in tongues, words of faith, and the powerful influence of charismatic leaders. Allen shares his own journey of wrestling with these teachings and the fear that comes with challenging them.

This is a conversation you won’t want to miss, click the link in our bio to be one of the first to tune in!

“I had this idea growing up that all the young people I saw in church were forced to go every Sunday. So meeting Gary was revolutionary for me. The way he loved people was different, but he still looked like the average dude on the South Side of Chicago. I’d never seen anything like that. I’d never seen anybody in the urban context who loved Jesus and loved people who still looked like they might go in your pockets and take some stuff, you know what I’m saying? I think that God in His sovereignty knew that I needed that type of representation. I trusted Gary immediately.

I tried to mimic his life for a while. I stopped smoking w**d. I stopped fornicating with women. I was a mini Gary in a lot of ways, but it wasn’t until Gary failed that I became a Christian. Basically, we were at a bank drive-through when a girl flirted with him. And for the first time, I saw Gary, my mentor, flirt back. He ended the conversation abruptly, drove off, and then about 10 minutes later, pulled the car off the road and apologized to me. He was like, ‘I wasn’t being a good example to you. My thoughts were lustful, and what makes me even more convicted is that you were in the car. Can you pray with me?’ I was like wow...the things that he had said weren’t overtly sinful. But he explained to me that the problem was his heart.

When he started to pray, all these thoughts raced in my mind. I was like, yo, I don’t love God like this. I’m not a Christian. It’s like God spoke to me and said, ‘This is what it means to love me.’ I went home, repented in my room, and gave my life to the Lord that day.

You know, there’s a story in the scriptures where Jesus is walking past the river and John the Baptist and his disciples begin to follow Him. They say, ‘Rabbi, where are you staying?’ They weren’t asking because they wanted to see His house. They were saying, ‘Jesus, we want to see how you live.’ And we should do the same: find somebody younger in the faith and invite them into our lives, so that they might be changed.”

Head to our YouTube channel to catch this phenomenal conversation between Maybe God guest host .brierley’s and beloved apologist and author . 📺

“By the end of my college experience, I was burnt out on alcohol. I was really burnt out on that. I didn't necessarily have any moral boundaries or limitations… I was just more or less open to anything. So when my friend said he had psilocybin mushrooms, I thought, well, why not? And after that first psilocybin experience, I certainly wanted more.

Six months to a year after that first psilocybin trip, I had my first L*D trip. And that was actually not a fun experience at all. It was devastating in many ways. It was…gosh, how can I describe it? It was existentially and spiritually shattering. I remember thinking, ‘I don't know if I'll ever do that again.’ And then it was two weeks later that I was starting to call around and look for L*D.

I got to the point where I was doing it by myself at least once, if not twice a week. I became increasingly disconnected with reality and the world around me. When I look back on my writings from that time, which are strange to read, [I see that] I was being spurred on by something. Looking back now, I think it was a spirit or a demon.

On the one hand, I see the winding path that God took me through. Psychedelics were the first step on my journey from becoming a crusty atheist at the age of 21 to being open to the idea of the transcendent realm, to the idea of spirituality. The irony was that I became open to anything except for Christianity. But I look at that now through the lens of Romans 8:28: ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’”

How did artist Ashley Lande eventually find her way to faith in Christ? Catch her full interview with Maybe God guest host Justin Brierley on our YouTube channel, or listen in on your favorite podcast platform!