The Angry Christian Podcast released it’s first episode on September 9, 2019 and has run for a full 4 seasons. Over those 4 seasons we have released 43 episodes reaching nearly 20,000 downloads and being heard on nearly every continent in the world. This is amazing and we couldn’t have done it without our listeners.
As many of you may already be aware, the show was birthed from a painful place where I (Brad) came to the realization that I had become the stereotypical angry Christian that many unbelievers can’t stand to be around. The podcast was created to explore anger and the typical Christian response to current events and other topics where anger typically is the first response. I reached out to some friends that I have known a very long time that I wanted to invite on the journey with me – and thankfully they said yes!
Over the last 2 years we have covered topics ranging from politics to church division and church hurt. We have agreed with one another and disagreed with one another. But in all of it we have made it a point to be respectful and honoring of one another and show that we can talk about difficult topics without devolving in to what we see today as your common “discourse”.
And I think that all of the hosts (Brian, Jonathan, Michael, and myself) can say that we have grown in various ways both through the podcast and outside of it.
This growth also meant that each of the hosts began to explore other areas in their own lives. Things like starting their own media businesses, joining a band and playing music, starting a new job, joining forces with another Christian organization as a key role for their evangelistic efforts, and more.
Growth is important. Not just looking at the numbers of our listeners and where they come from, but also looking at the podcast and ourselves and asking the hard questions. Questions like “How much further can we take this particular angle down the road? Are there other topics we want to cover that we are limited by because of the angle our podcast comes from? Are there other interests the hosts have that may or may not involve podcasting and how will this impact our ability to consistently provide content?” And a whole lot more questions than that…I assure you.
I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that the podcast has served it’s purpose for it’s season. And now we stand at a cross roads trying to determine what the next stage of the journey will look like.
So where do we go from here? Is this the end of the Angry Christian Podcast?
In a way – yes, it is the end of the podcast. But not the end of our desire to continue to bring content and influence to the world around us for the better.
But what this really means for the team as a whole, and for you our listeners, is that this will look radically different from what you’ve grown accustom to. But that isn’t a bad thing. That’s…growth.
The first noticeable thing you’ll find is that we will be REBRANDING!
It’s true, the show is going to be fully rebranded. We are changing our name, logo, theme song (you have to admit, we have a very cool theme song), website, and more. Branding is a difficult thing. You want your brand to reflect your purpose and direction, and The Angry Christian Podcast has done just that for 2 years now. But, we feel that the brand may be limiting us in many ways because we have to align all of what we do with…well…anger.
We are still tossing some ideas around as to exactly what the new show will be called. But in order to come to a final decision we have a few other areas we have to define outside of branding. Which leads me to the next thing we are doing…REFOCUSING!
A new direction must be defined, which will ultimately set in place the focus we will take with the show. The difficulty here is that the podcast market has become quite saturated with content creators all trying to break to the surface and be heard. We would be remiss if we said we didn’t want to be heard. We do. But we want to be heard on things that matter to our listeners, and that matter to us. There is a lot more out there than anger. There’s more than politics. There’s more than church hurts and frustrations.
So we are asking ourselves these questions –
What matters to us?
What matters to our listeners?
What do we bring to the table that others aren’t?
Over the coming weeks we will begin to hash this out and you, our current listeners, will be the first to find out exactly what focus we will be taking. We hope that our show will continue to speak to you, and that you will continue to find value in what we bring.
Finally, we are REVAMPING!
As mentioned before, many of the hosts have begun to take on new adventures outside of podcasting. This is exciting! And we welcome this. We are not “angry” about it at all. But it does impact how and when we release content. So we will be rethinking our release schedule (twice a month has been our typical until this last season where we tried weekly), our episode structure (round table like we’ve done, interviews, monologues, a combination of these things or none of these things?), and more.
As the founder of the podcast, I want to ensure both our listeners and our hosts are getting the most out of what we are doing. So trying to find a structure and schedule that works for us and for you is high on our list.
What this means is that any future episodes that we release as “The Angry Christian Podcast” will be to help set the stage for the next leg of the journey. We want to ensure that you, our listeners, are fully prepared for the next step as much as we are.
Beginning in June we will do our best to provide updates as we finalize our brand, our focus, and our layout. And ultimately, my goal is to relaunch in September. After all, that’s when we first kicked off the show. It only seems right that this would be when we relaunch.
Thank you for being on this journey with us. We promise, the next stage journey will be just as if not more exciting than the last. Change can be good. We know we’ve changed. We know you’ve changed. So let’s embrace the change and make the most of it!!
Don’t be angry. We love you!!
Brad | Michael | Brian | Jonathan