Faith, Friends & Leadership - Visual Gospel Podcast Interview with Zach Roberts

November 13, 2026

Faith, Friends & Leadership - Visual Gospel Podcast Interview with Zach Roberts

I recently sat down with my friend Zach Roberts for his podcast, and we ended up talking about the real reason I wrote The Visual Gospel: A 30-Day Devotional Exploring the Good News of Jesus.

I shared the moment that started the whole project: even with seminary degrees and years of pastoring, I would sometimes hit a word like “propitiation” and have to stop and think, “Which one is that again?” It struck me that if I struggled to recall it, most people sitting in church probably did too. An Einstein line kept coming back to me “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough" and that became the heart of the book. I wanted simple pictures that would make these essential gospel words stick.

On the episode I walk through a couple of those pictures. One is the lightning rod shaped like a cross for propitiation, Jesus absorbing the wrath we deserved. Another is the father running to embrace the prodigal for the word “love.” I also told the story of testing early flashcards on vacation with a house full of boys. At dinner they started competing to name the previous day’s word, and that was the moment I thought, “This might actually work.”

We talked about the writing process too, the long editing, the reordering, and the temptation to keep polishing instead of finishing. I shared that the pursuit of perfection almost became the enemy of progress, and that learning to release the book as a snapshot of where I am (not a perfect final product) was part of the journey.

Zach asked what’s next, and I mentioned the idea of a possible follow-up that looks at Old Testament stories pointing to Christ, pictures like Abraham and Isaac that already carry the gospel. Nothing is scheduled, but the conversation reminded me why those pictures matter.

If you’ve ever felt the gap between knowing a theological word and being able to explain it to someone else, I think you’ll enjoy the full conversation. Zach was kind enough to let me talk about both the book and the process behind it.

You can watch the episode below or listen here.