The Bridge After Hours

Stories That Shaped Us

This week the boys talk about the twists and turns that quietly shape a life—those ordinary days, hard seasons, and “I might’ve just made a mistake” moments that end up changing everything. Instead of walking through a sermon series or a big theological topic, they swap personal stories: Brock’s unexpected call into a major youth ministry organization, Josh’s formation as a musician and tech wizard, and Mark’s health scare and relocation that altered his entire ministry trajectory. Along the way they touch on calling, career doors that open and close, the messiness behind “dream jobs,” and how relationships and chance connections (or what feels like chance) move them from one chapter to the next.Underneath all the stories is a bigger theme: God quietly weaving a tapestry through both the beautiful and the painful. They reflect on tragic loss, confusing detours, long interview processes, and even COVID disruptions, and how each of those eventually led to new opportunities, new communities, and ultimately to the three of them serving together and even making this podcast. By the end, the conversation lands on hope and sovereignty—how God can bring good out of dysfunction, disappointment, and grief, and how you, like them, might still be in the middle of a story that isn’t finished yet. Have any questions? We would love to hear from you! Please email your questions to afterhours@thebridgechino.org [ afterhours@thebridgechino.org]. Subscribe on iTunes [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bridge-after-hours/id1708939908] or Spotify [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebridgeafterhours] Follow The Bridge on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thebridgechino/?img_index=1] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/thebridgechino/]: @thebridgechino

Navigating Sexuality with Your Kids

In this episode, the boys dive straight into God, sex, and parenting. They answer the question a lot of parents are asking during the God & Sexuality series: *When should I start talking to my kids about this, and how do I do it without freaking them (or myself) out?* Their core argument is: start early and keep talking. Age-appropriate conversations about bodies, desire, dignity, and identity can begin as early as 4–5, long before explicit content or “the talk.” The goal is to form identity—“you are sacred, loved, a temple of the Holy Spirit”—rather than just hand down a list of rules. They warn that if you wait until middle school or a sermon on sex to start, it’s jarring, awkward, and usually too late; kids already know far more than parents think, whether from Christian school, public school, media, or friends. They emphasize open, shame-free communication where questions are welcomed, kids confess without fear of being crushed, and parents share their own journeys appropriately, modeling that nothing is off-limits in conversation.Then they get very practical. They urge parents to be proactive, not reactive: build habits like weekly 1:1 time with each child, teach consent, boundaries, and respect for their own and others’ bodies early, and talk explicitly about pornography *before* kids stumble into it. Underneath it all, they keep coming back to a few non-negotiables: culture *will* disciple your kids if you don’t, comfort can’t be king, secrecy and shame are deadly, and in a Christian home the family motto should be, “No one struggles alone; we talk, we ask questions, and mom and dad—not the internet—are the primary disciplers of our kids’ sexuality.” Have any questions? We would love to hear from you! Please email your questions to afterhours@thebridgechino.org [ afterhours@thebridgechino.org]. Subscribe on iTunes [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bridge-after-hours/id1708939908] or Spotify [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebridgeafterhours] Follow The Bridge on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thebridgechino/?img_index=1] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/thebridgechino/]: @thebridgechino

Navigating Singleness

This week the boys tackle singleness in the Christian life head-on. They argue that Western church culture often idolizes marriage and family, which sidelines singles and treats singleness as a deficiency. In contrast, the New Testament—highlighting Jesus and Paul—presents singleness as a legitimate, often advantageous path for mission, offering freedom that marriage doesn’t. They stress that early Christians viewed this as normal and sometimes preferable, and suggest reframing the core question from “Are you called to be single?” to “Are you called not to be?” with allegiance to God’s kingdom as the primary filter.They also critique how churches segregate people by life stage (married with married, singles with singles), which deepens loneliness and undermines community. Their remedy is integrated, intergenerational life together marked by “deep-spirited friendship,” where singles and couples regularly share meals, support, and mission without stigma. Practically, they encourage normalizing hospitality across relational statuses, strengthening friendships that function like family, and recovering a mission-first mindset where relational status serves the kingdom rather than becomes the goal. Have any questions? We would love to hear from you! Please email your questions to afterhours@thebridgechino.org [ afterhours@thebridgechino.org]. Subscribe on iTunes [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bridge-after-hours/id1708939908] or Spotify [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebridgeafterhours] Follow The Bridge on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thebridgechino/?img_index=1] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/thebridgechino/]: @thebridgechino

Navigating the False Religion of Sex

This week, the boys are back to God & Sexuality and tackled the heavy but super relevant topic of God and sexuality. They dug into how brain science backs up scripture, breaking down how men release vasopressin and women release oxytocin during sex—chemicals designed to bond two people together. They used the analogy of tape: if you keep sticking and peeling it off, it becomes less sticky, just like how multiple casual partners weaken the ability to truly bond. Science, they argued, is circling back to what the Bible’s been saying all along—that sex isn’t just physical, it’s deeply spiritual, emotional, and relational. They also hit culture hard, calling out how sex has basically become a false religion in the West, shaping identity, media, and relationships in ways that leave people empty and anxious. From porn addiction to hookup culture, the guys made it clear that idolizing sex overpromises freedom but underdelivers, leaving people lonelier than ever. They shared personal stories about purity, discipline, and confession, highlighting how shame thrives in secrecy but healing begins with honesty and accountability. At the core, their message was that saying “no” to cultural lies about sex is really about saying “yes” to God’s design—something bigger, more freeing, and way more fulfilling. Have any questions? We would love to hear from you! Please email your questions to afterhours@thebridgechino.org [ afterhours@thebridgechino.org]. Subscribe on iTunes [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bridge-after-hours/id1708939908] or Spotify [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebridgeafterhours] Follow The Bridge on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thebridgechino/?img_index=1] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/thebridgechino/]: @thebridgechino

Navigating Grief with Partisan vs. Kingdom Thinking

This week, the boys stepped away briefly from their ongoing series on God & Sexuality to address the cultural moment following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. They noted how responses to the tragedy quickly became partisan, with people either vilifying or elevating him entirely based on political loyalties. Even simple expressions of grief often carried disclaimers about agreement or disagreement with his politics, revealing how deeply polarized the climate has become. Partisan thinking, they argued, thrives on this binary lens—dividing people into camps of all good or all bad and placing pressure on churches and pastors to mirror political expectations rather than lead with truth and pastoral care.In contrast, they emphasized kingdom thinking, which resists partisanship by holding the full reality of people—their strengths, failures, and complexities—without reducing them to categories. Kingdom allegiance means identifying as citizens of heaven before identifying with a political tribe, which enables Christians to grieve with compassion, love enemies, and reject the dehumanizing impulse to demonize or sanctify leaders. Their call was for Christians to live out this “third way” of the kingdom in a divided culture, offering a witness shaped more by Christ than by partisan identity. Have any questions? We would love to hear from you! Please email your questions to afterhours@thebridgechino.org [ afterhours@thebridgechino.org]. Subscribe on iTunes [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bridge-after-hours/id1708939908] or Spotify [https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thebridgeafterhours] Follow The Bridge on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thebridgechino/?img_index=1] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/thebridgechino/]: @thebridgechino