First Person with Wayne Shepherd

Pastor Steve DeWitt, author of Loneliness: Don’t Hate It or Waste It, Redeem It, joins Wayne Shepherd in conversation on this topic.  (click for more…)
Websites:  www.moodypublishers.com/loneliness, www.bethelweb.org 
Steve DeWitt, longtime pastor of Bethel Church in Northwest Indiana, talks about his book Loneliness: Don't Hate It or Waste It, Redeem It. DeWitt shares that he was a well-known "never married" megachurch pastor for over two decades before marrying his wife Jennifer (they connected after she read an article he'd written on loneliness), and he draws on that long stretch of singleness to reflect on loneliness biblically rather than as a book about marriage curing it. He distinguishes aloneness (neutral), loneliness (bad), and solitude (good), and outlines three ways people "waste" their loneliness — isolating themselves, becoming obsessed with unmet expectations, and distracting themselves through things like binge-watching or doomscrolling. He then turns to how to "redeem" loneliness: recognizing it as fundamentally a vertical longing for restored relationship with God (echoing Augustine and Chesterton), and then letting that drive people toward sacrificial, others-focused love modeled on Jesus rather than self-focused pursuit of companionship. The conversation closes with reflections on how social media and constant connectivity paradoxically deepen isolation, and DeWitt encourages listeners to examine their social media habits as part of a healthier response to loneliness.
                                             NEXT WEEK:  Babbie Mason
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Zac Holt, is the founder and Senior Pastor of The Table Ministries whose mission is to saturate their city with the Gospel through community service. He describes this unique church with Wayne Shepherd. (click for more...)  
Website:  https://www.thetableministries.com
The Table Ministries is located in Bristol, VA.  Zach shares his journey from starting drug use at age 13, through years of addiction, incarceration, and homelessness, to a dramatic conversion to Christianity that he experienced in a jail cell. He describes founding The Table Ministries as a non-traditional, raw and welcoming church born out of his seminary internship, one that meets people where they are — in homeless shelters, jails, and recovery centers — rather than expecting them to come to a traditional church setting. Much of the conversation focuses on his theology of recovery: the idea that it's not enough to get people "out of Egypt," but that God must also get "Egypt out of them," and that shame (not just guilt) is one of the biggest barriers people in recovery face. He describes the ministry's practices, including a weekly communion gathering at a Boys & Girls Club, "friendraising" instead of fundraising, and a discipleship model aimed at helping men move from being "takers" to "contributors" — becoming fathers, entrepreneurs, and church planters. He closes with a story about a formerly homeless man named Shane who was eventually reunited with his sons in Idaho, using it as an example of restoration beyond mere sobriety.
                                          Next Week:  Steve DeWitt

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Donnita Travis, the founder of a Chicago after school club called By the Hand, talks with Wayne Shepherd about mentoring students in the name of Christ.  (click for more...) 
Website:  https://bythehand.org
In 1997, Donita Travis—then president of a Chicago advertising agency she'd co-founded with her husband—felt called by God during a prayer retreat to help kids in Chicago live an "abundant life" (John 10:10). She spent the next three years volunteering with kids from the Cabrini-Green housing projects at Moody Church while still running her agency, before leaving the business in 2000, with her husband's blessing, to found By the Hand Club, a Christ-centered after-school program. Starting with just 16 kids in a single room in March 2001, the program has grown to serve 1,800 kids (7,000 total over the years) from kindergarten through college across six clubs in four under-resourced Chicago neighborhoods, partnering with Chicago Public Schools to reach children most at risk of dropping out and caring for them holistically in mind, body, and soul. The results have been striking: a 100% high school graduation rate, 76% of graduates continuing to higher education or the military, 60% on the honor roll, over 80% growing at least a year in reading level, and 87% professing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Running on a $17 million annual budget (which includes $1 million just for busing), the organization has finished fully funded for 23 straight years and holds a four-star Charity Navigator rating. Travis closes the interview with the story of Shacola, a student removed from her home with six siblings as a first grader and raised by her aunt, Miss Alma (now a By the Hand staff member)—Shacola is now a ninth grader reading at a 12th-grade level, on full scholarship at Culver Academy, with her younger sister following in her footsteps with a scholarship of her own.
                               NEXT WEEK:  Zac Holt, The Table Ministries

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Bill Hendricks, President of the Giftedness Center and Executive Director for Christian Leadership at the Hendricks Center at Dallas Seminary, talks about finding God’s purpose.  (click for more…) 
Websites:  www.thegiftednesscenter.com 
www.hendrickscenter.dts.edu
Wayne Shepherd talks with Bill Hendricks—Executive Director for Christian Leadership at the Hendricks Center at Dallas Theological Seminary and President of the Giftedness Center, and son of the late Howard Hendricks. Bill describes taking over his father's leadership center in 2014, and his decades-long work at the Giftedness Center helping people (over 2,000 to date) discover their God-given "giftedness"—the innate design that shapes their calling. He shares his own faith story, from a childhood conversion at age four and a half after hearing the Passion story on a record, to a pivotal career-assessment session at age 30 that clarified his own gifts. Much of the conversation explores why people struggle to see their own giftedness (since we can't step outside ourselves), how storytelling and lived experience—rather than psychometric tests—reveal a person's distinctive pattern of gifting, and how Bill sees giftedness as "incarnational truth": a reflection of God's own image expressed uniquely through each person. The episode closes with references to his father's earlier appearance on the show and info on Bill's books and ministry.
                                             NEXT WEEK:  Donnita Travis
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On this 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, noted historian David McCullough joins Wayne Shepherd for Part 2 of 1776:  George Washington.   (click for more…)
Website: www.simonandschuster.com/p/david-mccullough
Recorded in 2005, this is a continuation of last week’s FIRST PERSON as the late David McCullough talked about his book, 1776, and the experiences of George Washington in that momentous year. The conversation centers on George Washington's leadership during the darkest days of the war. McCullough describes how Washington forgave Joseph Reed's disloyalty and Nathaniel Greene's costly mistake at Fort Washington, choosing loyalty and grace over punishment — a decision that deepened both men's devotion to him. He portrays Washington as a leader shaped more by character than intellect: not a brilliant orator or strategist, but someone who inspired trust through steadiness, humility, and self-sacrifice (leaving behind wealth and comfort to lead a ragged army). McCullough also highlights lesser-known figures — Henry Knox's astonishing winter trek hauling cannon from Fort Ticonderoga to Boston, and ordinary soldiers like Joseph Hodgkins and Jabez Fitch whose diaries, often scrawled on scraps of paper, McCullough treats as the "gold" of his research. The interview closes with McCullough reflecting on why he writes — to understand human sacrifice and courage — and calling Washington "the greatest American of all time," while noting the book deliberately ends with the pivotal victories at Trenton and Princeton rather than covering the full war.
                                              NEXT WEEK:  Bill Hendricks

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