Our Church Speaks

Our Church Speaks Saints & stories of the church from every era and place. Book 📚, podcast 🎙️ & art prints 🖼️ at ourchurchspeaks.com. A.I. free. By the Rev. Ben Lansing.

Support at https://buymeacoffee.com/ourchurchspeaks

Ben and Dan launch a summer series where they survey the history of the church, starting with Jesus and charting the chu...
06/22/2026

Ben and Dan launch a summer series where they survey the history of the church, starting with Jesus and charting the church’s story up to the 21st century. In this episode, they lay the groundwork for studying church history, including a 20 minute summary of the incredible 2,000 year narrative. Listen on your favorite podcast player.

More about the Our Church Speaks book and the Our Church Speaks project at ourchurchspeaks.com. Please rate, review, and share our podcast - it means a lot to us!

“If we do not bear the cross of the Master, we will have to bear the cross of the world... which cross have you taken up...
06/19/2026

“If we do not bear the cross of the Master, we will have to bear the cross of the world... which cross have you taken up?” - Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)

Sundar Singh was born to a Sikh family in northern India. As a child, he studied with a sadhu, a Hindu religious teacher and was taught from the Bhagavad Gita, one of the Hindu religious texts. At the same time, he learned English at a local Christian school. At age 14, his mother died. In grief and anger, the young boy took a Bible and burned it page by page. He searched for meaning in religious devotion and theological questions but was left in complete despair. He planned to commit su***de and offered up one final plea that the True God would reveal himself. In a dream, Jesus appeared to Singh. This singular event transformed Singh. He announced that he would become a Christian and suffered abuse from his family and community. He was poisoned multiple times and had dangerous snakes thrown into his window. Nevertheless, he survived and was baptized at age 16 and began to undertake missionary journeys across India. He dressed as a Hindu sadhu and wandered without possessions. He ministered and preached throughout India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. He was invited to visit Europe, America, and Australia and concluded that much of Western culture was in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus. During his final missionary visit to Tibet, Singh disappeared while ascending a mountain in the Himalayas. His body was never found and his disappearance and death remain a mystery.

Almighty and everlasting God, you called your servant Sundar Singh to preach the Gospel to the people of India and the world: Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. //

Order the book at www.ourchurchspeaks.com

Art and history by Ben Lansing

“I cannot leave my people now in a time of such darkness.” - Bernard Mizeki (1861-1896), Catechist & Martyr in ZimbabweB...
06/18/2026

“I cannot leave my people now in a time of such darkness.” - Bernard Mizeki (1861-1896), Catechist & Martyr in Zimbabwe

Bernard Mizeki was born in Mozambique and moved with his cousin to South Africa. He worked various jobs but fell into poverty, ending up in the slums of Cape Town. There, he witnessed the darkness of despair and saw his neighbors succumb to alcoholism. Resolving to escape this fate, he refused to drink alcohol and attended night classes at an Anglican school. He embraced the Christian faith and was baptized at age 25. At school, Mizeki proved proficient in languages. He mastered English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and eight African languages and aided the church’s initiative to translate Scripture into native tongues. He attended Zonnebloem College, became a church catechist, and was sent as a missionary to the Shona people in Zimbabwe. There, a community developed around his home where he taught children in the faith and cared for the poor. In 1896, drought and plague unsettled the region and many missionaries fled to avoid civil unrest. Mizeki refused to abandon his people. This decision resulted in his martyrdom. An ally of a local witchdoctor dragged Mizeki from his home and stabbed him to death. Friends of Mizeki saw the stabbing and ran for help. At a distance, they looked back and saw a bright, overwhelming light surround Mizeki’s home and the loud sound of flapping wings filled the sky. When they returned, Mizeki’s body had disappeared. The site of his home in ZImbabwe remains a significant pilgrimage destination, to this day.

Almighty God, you gave your servant Bernard Mizeki boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. //

Art & history by Ben Lansing ourchurchspeaks.com

Order the book - ourchurchspeaks.com

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“Humility is the luxurious art of reducing ourselves.” - Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), Apologist & Writer G.K. C...
06/17/2026

“Humility is the luxurious art of reducing ourselves.” - Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), Apologist & Writer

G.K. Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, cultural commentator, and Christian apologist. Writing from a Catholic perspective from within the Anglican communion and (later in life) the Roman Catholic Church, Chesterton critiqued modern assumptions about progress, reason, and culture. His books “Heretics” and “Orthodoxy” are collections of essays that seek to refute secularist thought. Chesterton was characterized by his cutting wit and ability to turn common phrases inside-out in his analysis. His Father Brown detective novels also challenge secularism from the perspective of a humble Catholic priest who solves crimes by applying a keen grasp of human nature, informed by the great tradition of Christian wisdom. Despite making a name for himself by critiquing modernist secularism, Chesterton developed long-lasting friendships with many of the leaders of secularist thought, most famously with George Bernard Shaw. In response to the secularist re-casting of history in H.G. Wells’ “The Outline of History,” Chesterton wrote his own work of history, “The Everlasting Man,” which places Jesus Christ as the focal point and pinnacle of history. This work has been credited by C.S. Lewis and many others as a pivotal book leading to conversion to Christianity.

Almighty God, you gave your servant Gilbert Keith Chesterton special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth revealed in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Art & history by Ben Lansing,

Book now available, ourchurchspeaks.com

“Hunger and thirst after righteousness till [you are] filled with it by being made partaker of the Divine Nature.” - Jos...
06/16/2026

“Hunger and thirst after righteousness till [you are] filled with it by being made partaker
of the Divine Nature.” - Jospeh Butler (1692-1752), Bishop & Theologian

Joseph Butler was an 18th century bishop, theologian, and philosopher in the Church of England. During Butler’s day, enlightenment-era Deism became fashionable in European intellectual society. Deists saw God as a “Great Architect of the Universe” or a “divine watchmaker,” who assembled and set his creation into motion, but had since left it to its own devices. This belief system rejected supernatural speculation and the
validity of inspired Scripture and instead elevated the power of empirical reason, logic, and scientific observation. Butler became one of the most prominent critics of this popular belief system, writing his monumental “The Analogy of Religion” (1736) as an explanation of the Christian faith and a rebuttal of Deism. This work, reprinted many
times over the next couple centuries, was so effective in exposing the logical deficiencies of Deism that, more than any other writing, it is credited with the decline of the Deist belief system.

Almighty God, you gave to your servant Joseph Butler special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth as it is in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Art & history by Ben Lansing

the book, listen to the podcast, and more -
www.ourchurchspeaks.com


Launching Season 5 of the Our Church Speaks podcast! Today, I welcome author and spiritual director Lori G. Melton (.gme...
06/15/2026

Launching Season 5 of the Our Church Speaks podcast! Today, I welcome author and spiritual director Lori G. Melton (.gmelton ). Melton invites her readers into a year-long spiritual journey designed to strengthen and deepen their faith as they learn from a spiritual giant in her debut book, Journey with a Giant: Choose Your Guide, Pursue Your Purpose, and Grow in Your Walk with God (WaterBrook; 11/11/25). You can learn more about Lori Melton and her book and her podcast at https://www.lorigmelton.com.

Listen to the Our Church Speaks podcast via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite platform. Please rate, review, and share our podcast wherever you listen - it means a lot to us!

More about the Our Church Speaks book and the Our Church Speaks project at ourchurchspeaks.com.

“The spiritual life of individuals has to be extended both vertically to God and horizontally to other souls; and the mo...
06/15/2026

“The spiritual life of individuals has to be extended both vertically to God and horizontally to other souls; and the more it grows in both directions, the less merely individual and therefore more truly personal it will become.” - Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941)

As a young woman, Evelyn Underhill considered herself an agnostic, but she could not shake the memory of a mystical, childhood experience of a “peaceful, undifferentiated plane of reality…” In the early 20th century, the occult and the psychic were popular curiosities among many in Underhill’s circle in English society. Underhill at first entertained these curiosities, but continued searching for deeper meaning. In time, she became captivated by the catholic tradition of Christian mysticism and came to recognize that the mysterious experience of peace she had received as a child was from Jesus Christ. Mysticism, in a Christian sense, was not about achieving experiences or searching for feelings. “Mysticism,” Underhill concluded, “is the passionate longing of the soul for God.” She became a prominent Anglo-Catholic writer and lecturer, a retreat leader, and a spiritual director to hundreds of people. She encouraged Christians to consider a life of contemplative prayer not as the vocation for just monastic communities, but a practice that was fruitful for any Christian. Her writings influenced many, and had a substantial role in influencing C.S. Lewis. In a 1941 letter to Lewis, she encouraged him, “I feel your concept of God would be improved by just a touch of wildness.” Years later, C.S. Lewis would apply Underhill’s words in his description of the Christ-like lion, Aslan, in his Narnia series. “He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”

Almighty God, you gave your servant Evelyn Underhill special gifts of grace to understand and teach the truth revealed in Christ Jesus: Grant that by this teaching we may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Art & history by Ben Lansing

Order the book đź“š ourchurchspeaks.com


“I know many who fast, pray, sigh, and demonstrate every manner of piety, so long as it costs them nothing.” - Basil the...
06/14/2026

“I know many who fast, pray, sigh, and demonstrate every manner of piety, so long as it costs them nothing.” - Basil the Great (330-379)

Basil was born in Asia minor to a family of wealthy Christian leaders who had shepherded the Asian church during the years of the Diocletian persecution. Basil was born after the legalization of Christianity and aspired to become an attorney and orator. He went to school in Athens and met Gregory of Nazianzus, who would become his lifelong friend. Returning home from school, he was convinced by his sister, Macrina, to abandon his career ambitions and become a monk. Basil sold his family’s estate and possessions to provide food for the poor and to build public hospitals, homes for the poor, and hospices for travelers. He insisted that care be available to all, whether the recipient be Christian, Jew, or pagan. Basil’s hospitals are the earliest examples of public hospitals in the history of medical care. During Basil’s day, the heresy of A***nism (the belief that Jesus Christ was not the eternal Creator) threatened to undermine the leadership of the church. A***n clergy sought to suppress the teaching of the Council of Nicaea and the Empire’s political establishment reinforced this error. Basil, with his sister Macrina, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and his friend Gregory of Nazianzus, served as a bulwark of defense of Nicene Orthodoxy. Together, these figures are known as the Cappadocian Fathers & Mothers. At his funeral, Jews, Christians, and pagans mourned and remembered the steadfast love he exhibited to all.

O God, our heavenly Father, you raised up your faithful servant Basil the Great to be a Bishop and pastor in your Church and to feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Art & history by Ben Lansing,

ORDER the Our Church Speaks Book đź“š ourchurchspeaks.com

“Just as the root feeds the tree, so humility feeds the soul. The spirit of humility is sweeter than honey, and whoever ...
06/13/2026

“Just as the root feeds the tree, so humility feeds the soul. The spirit of humility is sweeter than honey, and whoever is fed by this sweetness produces fruit.” - Anthony of Padua (1195-1231), Priest & Friar

Anthony of Padua was born in Portugal and at age 15 joined the Augustinian religious order where he became a devoted student of Scripture and Augustinian theology. When Anthony was in his 20’s, the first Franciscan martyrs gave their lives for Christ while preaching Christ at mosques in Morocco. The remains of these martyrs were carried to Anthony’s monastery and the event had a deep impact on the young man. Inspired by their devotion, Anthony became a Franciscan and journeyed to Morocco to preach the Gospel of Christ to Muslims. While in Morocco, Anthony became seriously ill and was forced to leave. On his journey back to Portugal, his ship was hit by a storm and he landed in Sicily. While in recovery in a monastery in Sicily, his gifts in preaching and study became evident to all and St. Francis himself sent Anthony to northern Italy and southern France to preach. For the rest of his life, Anthony traveled and preached relentlessly and his profound theology and holiness of life brought revival and faith to many. After his death, the church canonized Anthony a saint almost immediately and today he is considered a Doctor of the Western church.

O God, our heavenly Father, you raised up your faithful servant Anthony of Padua to be a pastor in your Church and to feed your flock: Give abundantly to all pastors the gifts of your Holy Spirit, that they may minister in your household as true servants of Christ and stewards of your divine mysteries; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Art & history by Ben Lansing

Order the Our Church Speaks - www.ourchurchspeaks.com

“My fellow chiefs and warriors, come! Come with your whole hearts! let us worship the only true God - God who so loved u...
06/12/2026

“My fellow chiefs and warriors, come! Come with your whole hearts! let us worship the only true God - God who so loved us as to give us his dear son.” - Enmegahbowh (1820-1902), Priest

Enmegahbowh (meaning “He that prays for his people while standing”) was born among the indigenous Ojibwe in the Great Lakes region. He was raised with the influence of the native spiritual tradition of his grandfather and the Christian faith of his mother. After meeting the Episcopalian missionary James Lloyd Breck, Enmegahbowh asked to be baptized. While sailing on Lake Superior, Enmegahbowh’s boat was caught in a violent storm. Enmegahbowh promised to dedicate himself to the work of Christian missions and ministry. He was ordained a priest in 1867, one of the earliest indigenous Americans to receive Christian ordination. He became known as an advocate for peace, building bridges of understanding, respect, and compassion between indigenous groups and settlers in northern Minnesota.

Almighty God, who led your pilgrim people of old by fire and cloud: Grant that the ministers of your church, following the example of your servant Enmegahbowh, may lead your people with fiery zeal and gentle humility; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Art & history by Ben Lansing
Order the “Our Church Speaks” book at www.ourchurchspeaks.com

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