Ed Stetzer on Not Wasting His Suffering, What Happened to the Quiet Revival, and Staying Bullish on Church Planting

Jason talks with Ed Stetzer, Dean of Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and Teaching Pastor at Mariners Church, about ministering through a disorienting cultural moment while navigating his own health crisis. Ed opens up about being six weeks out from major spinal surgery for a rare condition, and what it means to trust God's providence without knowing how much mobility he'll regain. The conversation traces his path from planting a church at 21 in inner-city Buffalo with no theological training, to pastoring a Chinese church's English-language service, to the PhD in missiology that came out of it, and into Talbot Embedded, his cohort-based model for training pastors inside local churches in cities like Chicago, Nashville, and Honolulu. The second half covers church planting, preaching, and small churches, including why Ed still believes in planting, why he preaches for free at churches under 100 people, and how his approach to preaching has shifted toward more depth and a willingness to tackle controversial topics directly. It's a strong episode for pastors in hard seasons, anyone tracking the future of theological education, and leaders wrestling with what's ahead for small rural churches in Canada.