In this episode of Courageous Crossroads, host Jeff Johnson sits down with Dr. Douglas Groothuis, Distinguished University Research Professor of Apologetics and Christian Worldview at Cornerstone University, author of over 20 books, including Christian Apologetics and Masking the New Age, and host of The Truth Tribe Podcast. With nearly 50 years of defending the Christian […]

In this powerful episode of Courageous Crossroads, we meet Justin “Boyd” Baker a former NASCAR body fabricator turned power grid engineer, comic book collector, motorcycle enthusiast, and devoted family man. Raised in a Midwest farming town, Boyd shares his journey from chasing perfection in high-octane race shops to finding purpose in fatherhood, faith, and craftsmanship. He opens up […]

In this powerful episode of the Courageous Crossroads Podcast, Keith Mercer shares his remarkable journey from growing up in the violent streets of Southeast Washington, D.C.—once known as the murder capital—to becoming a first-generation college graduate, athlete, leadership coach, and motivational speaker. Faced with extreme adversity from a young age, including witnessing a murder at […]

In this deeply moving episode, Eric Voelker—educator, former pastor, coach, and two-time NCAA wrestling champion—opens up about what true courage looks like at this stage in his life. Far from the spotlight of athletic victory or public ministry, Eric shares how the most courageous thing he’s ever done is simply showing up, day after day, […]

Jeff Johannesen is a retired CPA and former Chief Strategy Officer at RSM, where he spent over four decades transitioning from client service into high-level leadership, helping shape the firm’s national and global direction. In this episode, Jeff shares his journey from a small-town Iowa farm to the boardrooms of a major professional services firm, […]

Francis Collins isn’t just a brilliant scientist—he’s one of the most influential geneticists of our time. As the director of the Human Genome Project, Collins helped map the 3 billion letters of human DNA, advancing medicine and biology in ways once thought impossible. But perhaps even more compelling than his scientific achievements is his personal […]

Alister McGrath didn’t stumble into Christianity through emotion or crisis—he reasoned his way there. Born in Northern Ireland in 1953, McGrath began his academic life as a scientist, studying chemistry at Oxford. A brilliant scholar, he would go on to earn not one, but three PhDs from Oxford—in science, theology, and intellectual history. Today, he’s […]

For over 50 years, Antony Flew stood as one of the world’s most influential atheist philosophers. Long before Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens became household names, Flew was the go-to figure for arguments against the existence of God. But in a surprising turn late in life, Flew publicly changed his mind—shifting from atheism to belief […]

Larry Sanger, best known as the co-founder of Wikipedia, spent decades as a committed skeptic. With a Ph.D. in philosophy and a deep background in analytic thought—where atheism and agnosticism are the norm—Sanger approached life with intellectual rigor and an unwavering commitment to reason. He wasn’t hostile to religion, but for over 35 years, he […]

Allan Sandage spent his life studying the cosmos—but it was that very pursuit that led him to Christ. Born in 1926, Sandage was one of the 20th century’s most respected astronomers. A protégé of Edwin Hubble, he carried on Hubble’s work and published the first reliable measurement of the universe’s expansion rate. Over a career […]