{"id":31664,"date":"2025-05-06T06:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/?post_type=podcast&#038;p=31664"},"modified":"2025-05-05T22:01:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T02:01:34","slug":"jeff-mikels-how-pastors-like-me-have-failed-the-people-of-god","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/es\/podcast\/jeff-mikels-how-pastors-like-me-have-failed-the-people-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Mikels: How Pastors Like Me Have Failed the People of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We talked with former evangelical pastor Jeff Mikels about the evangelical church&#8217;s embrace of cultural and political idols, and his regret of his complicity in this trend. Jeff&#8217;s book\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/75288\/9780802884664\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Evangelical Idolatry: How Pastors Like Me Have Failed the People of God<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is both a confession and a call to repentance. Reflecting on his twenty-year pastoral ministry with candor and humility, Mikels acknowledges the ways he enabled parishioners to develop destructive loyalties to cultural and political idols. As he works to reform his own worldview and embrace allegiance to Christ alone, he urges evangelical pastors and laypeople to join him in reforming their faith and living out the good news of the true gospel.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Mikels holds degrees from Wheaton College and Denver Seminary. He has over 20 years of pastoral experience, leading a church in Chicago for five years before planting one in Lafayette, IN. There, he was involved in the Pastors&#8217; Alliance; he also helped establish the Greater Lafayette Gospel Association, which is a network of gospel-focused ministries, and served as its president.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Connect with Gravity Commons:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/gravityleadership.com\/message\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Leave us a message or ask a question<\/a>\u00a0about this or any other episode and we&#8217;ll answer it on a future episode.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/es\/community\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">\u00danete a la comunidad Gravity<\/a>\u00a0to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Podcast?<\/strong>\u00a0Contact us at podcast@gravitycommons.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We talked with former evangelical pastor Jeff Mikels about the evangelical church&#8217;s embrace of cultural and political idols, and his regret of his complicity in this trend. Jeff&#8217;s book\u00a0Evangelical Idolatry: How Pastors Like Me Have Failed the People of God\u00a0is both a confession and a call to repentance. Reflecting on his twenty-year pastoral ministry with&hellip;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":31604,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"https:\/\/stream.redcircle.com\/episodes\/7c261fb2-e257-421b-a9aa-b61530ce72b2\/stream.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/gravity-podcast-jeff-mikels.jpg","cover_image_id":"31604","duration":"","filesize":"50","filesize_raw":"50","date_recorded":"2025-05-06 06:00:15","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":""},"tags":[],"series":[65],"class_list":["post-31664","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","series-the-gravity-podcast"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/gravity-podcast-jeff-mikels.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/gravity-podcast-jeff-mikels.jpg","download_link":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/podcast-download\/31664\/jeff-mikels-how-pastors-like-me-have-failed-the-people-of-god","player_link":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/podcast-player\/31664\/jeff-mikels-how-pastors-like-me-have-failed-the-people-of-god","audio_player":"<a class=\"wp-embedded-audio\" href=\"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/podcast-player\/31664\/jeff-mikels-how-pastors-like-me-have-failed-the-people-of-god\">https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/podcast-player\/31664\/jeff-mikels-how-pastors-like-me-have-failed-the-people-of-god<\/a>","episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/gravity-leadership-podcast\/id1356585852","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/1ukzQzQjNTeoXoJoP9OAaq?si=Y9ahiyCySUiZsxRDnuDMRw","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/es\/feed\/podcast\/the-gravity-podcast","embedCode":"<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"ugyTWXukOJ\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/es\/podcast\/jeff-mikels-how-pastors-like-me-have-failed-the-people-of-god\/\">Jeff Mikels: How Pastors Like Me Have Failed the People of God<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" src=\"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/es\/podcast\/jeff-mikels-how-pastors-like-me-have-failed-the-people-of-god\/embed\/#?secret=ugyTWXukOJ\" width=\"500\" height=\"350\" title=\"&#8220;Jeff Mikels: How Pastors Like Me Have Failed the People of God&#8221; &#8212; Gravity Commons\" data-secret=\"ugyTWXukOJ\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\"><\/iframe><script>\n\/*! This file is auto-generated *\/\n!function(d,l){\"use strict\";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&\"undefined\"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!\/[^a-zA-Z0-9]\/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret=\"'+t.secret+'\"]'),c=new RegExp(\"^https?:$\",\"i\"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display=\"none\";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute(\"style\"),\"height\"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):\"link\"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute(\"src\")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener(\"message\",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll(\"iframe.wp-embedded-content\"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute(\"data-secret\"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+=\"#?secret=\"+t,e.setAttribute(\"data-secret\",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:\"ready\",secret:t},\"*\")},!1)))}(window,document);\n\/\/# sourceURL=https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/wp-includes\/js\/wp-embed.min.js\n<\/script>\n"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jeff Mikels: How Pastors Like Me Have Failed the People of God - Gravity Commons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gravitycommons.com\/es\/podcast\/jeff-mikels-how-pastors-like-me-have-failed-the-people-of-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jeff Mikels: How Pastors Like Me Have Failed the People of God - Gravity Commons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We talked with former evangelical pastor Jeff Mikels about the evangelical church&#8217;s embrace of cultural and political idols, and his regret of his complicity in this trend. 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