The Central Peninsula Church Podcast

Episode 169: Believing Is Seeing

In this CPC Together podcast, Brandon, Rachel, Nico, and Josh trade “see it to believe it” stories before discussing Josh’s sermon on John 5 at the Pool of Bethesda, where Jesus heals a man who couldn’t walk. They explore how the passage functions as a legal narrative in John, describing movements of crime, accusation, and deposition, and how the Jewish leaders’ fixation on Sabbath law blinds them to the miracle. Josh revisits Jesus’ warning to “stop sinning,” frames it as a call to repentance rather than blaming disability on sin, and reflects on how believers can miss God’s activity, using hindsight, daily reflection, and examples of believing before seeing throughout Scripture.

Episode 168: Trust Through Suffering

On this episode of the CPC Together Podcast, Kevin, Brandon, Rachel, and Nico debate whether a baguette or floppy naan can be thrown farther and plan to test it, then discuss feeling misled by “sugar-free” Tic Tacs due to labeling loopholes. They play a “Name That Gospel” trivia game using ChatGPT-sourced questions, with many “only gospel” answers pointing to John, and they talk about synoptic gospels and differences in the passion narratives. The conversation shifts to faith and doubt, noting how some church cultures treat doubt as taboo and portray faith as a currency tied to blessing, echoing prosperity-gospel themes. Kevin outlines faith as three “load-bearing walls”: it begins with reason, develops through trust and volition (chair/tightrope examples), and matures through suffering, with reflections on empiricism, presuppositions, and how hardship can deepen a relationship with God.

Episode 167: Living Water

Central Peninsula Church’s CPC Together podcast welcomes Kevin Sneed, Rachel, and mission partner Bobi (Boban) Jakimovski from North Macedonia to reflect on the recent team visit and the church’s ongoing partnership through an annual family camp that includes believers and spiritually open friends. Bobi explains how meeting Christians from another culture prompts honest conversations about Jesus, and the group discusses the woman at the well, emphasizing Jesus’ boundary-crossing welcome and how shame isolates people from God and community. Kevin unpacks the sermon theme that happiness isn’t found in realizing desires, citing Tolstoy, David Foster Wallace, Camus, and C.S. Lewis to argue that misordered desires and worship of anything but God “eat you alive.” They close with Bobi describing how his family and church practice open-door hospitality as a witness in a shame-influenced culture.

Nicodemus, Tree Nuts, and Chompers

In this CPC Together episode from Central Peninsula Church, Kevin and Brandon banter about favorite nuts, then discuss one host’s appendicitis surgery experience and a detailed “Chomper” dental update involving a difficult root canal, an extra tooth canal, and a buildup after a crown wouldn’t fit. The conversation shifts to spiritual health, using dental avoidance as an analogy for ignoring deeper issues, and explores what “born again” means by letting Jesus define it in John 3 with Nicodemus. They explain the Greek anothen as both “again” and “from above,” connect being born again with repentance and surrender, note the American cultural and political connotations of the term, and consider how Jesus’ teachings confront false visions of the good life, calling for transformed loves and longings through prayer and renewed attention to God.

Episode 165: Camel Hair

On this episode of the CPC Together Podcast, Brandon, Rachel, and Sandy share experiences of being invited into things they wouldn’t have chosen. The conversation then shifts to Sandy’s sermon theme that people both desire and fear being fully known, tracing how insecurity and the need to fit in often start in junior high and show up through bullying, achievement, or hiding perceived flaws. They discuss finding rest in being known and loved by God, releasing pressure to be everything, bringing hardship to church, practicing confession, and living from Christ’s verdict rather than performance, using John the Baptist and Jesus’ interactions with Nathanael and Peter as examples.