RDC06A. Getting Idolatry Right

With this episode we begin another two part Rainy Day Conversation. These are quarterly conversations with smart and gracious people whose wisdom is brought to bear upon life and ministry and the church.  The focus of this conversation, with Dr. Trey Martin, is...

146. Are You My Father?

This last episode of 2025 lands just a few days before Christmas. And while the content may not seem very Christmas-y, it actually is.  With the incarnation, God sets the trajectory that leads to the cross. The two are linked, and are both motivated by the same...

RDC02B. Pastoral Sustainability, Part Two

Hey, welcome to another “Rainy Day Conversation around Greatheart’s Table.” Unlike the normal short episodes, these are longer conversations in which I invite men and women with insight into issues of concern for pastors and those who care for them to talk about their...

145. Worship Is Boring

Hi, and welcome to Greatheart’s Table, the podcast for baseball lovers and those who care for them.  Wait. That’s a bit skewed. But let’s run with it. Having grown up with baseball, I often see parallels between the sport and the Christian life. People tend to...

Reset 25. Run, Pastor, Run (or Walk, or Whatever)

Hi. Thanks for pulling up a chair around Greatheart’s Table, a community of pastors and others considering life in general, and life in the church particularly. This episode, a reset of one first aired four years ago, applies widely to men and women in all stages and...

144. Double the Joy

Hello everyone. Welcome to Greatheart’s Table. I’m Randy Greenwald. And welcome to the week of Thanksgiving, in the U. S. at least. This has put me in a playful mood. Perhaps you will judge this to be trivial. It may be. But I think Thanksgiving is a good time to back...

RDC02A. Pastoral Sustainability, Part One

I’d like to welcome you to another “Rainy Day Conversation around Greatheart’s Table.” This episode first aired just after Christmas in 2024 and addresses those factors that help pastors persevere for the long haul, and those challenges that can cut that short. This...

143. Randy’s Happiness Machine

This post applies far beyond the pastoral office. We are a technological people. “Applied science,” as C. S. Lewis names it, has so shaped us that we never question it. We tend always to baptize it as good. It has been welcomed into our churches and homes and schools,...

142. Smaller, Simpler, Slower

Today the words and voice that follow will not be mine, but that of a wise friend of mine. Mike Osborne and I have known each other since seminary. For the past fifteen years we’ve pastored churches in the same town. He’s a gift. Over lunch a few months ago, Mike, who...

141. Pastor, You Are Not Not Impotent

The triple negative in the title of this episode is more than a gimmick. We have power, we are not to seek power, and we revel in our weakness. And that can be confusing. Pastors for the past forty years, in my experience, have been battered and attacked by vocal...