About

The Contend Podcast is a weekly show for people who want the text before the take. Each episode starts with a passage, stays with the words, and only then turns to whatever the week is arguing about.

The name is from Jude 3. Jude sat down to write about the salvation he shared with his readers and found he had to say something else first: contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The faith is not a mood. It is a deposit. It was handed over. The work is to keep it, explain it, and refuse to trade it for a slogan.

“Contend” is an athletic word. It is the effort of a contest, not the pleasure of winning an argument. The show is trying to practice that: slower than the timeline, closer to the paragraph, and willing to let a verse refuse the point we hoped it would make.

How an episode works

We read the passage in its paragraph and in its book. We ask what the words asked of the first readers. Then we ask what that demands of a person living through the present argument. Hot topics are welcome. They do not get the first word.

Who it is for

Pastors, students, and anyone tired of commentary that never opens a Bible. You do not need Greek to listen. When a Greek word matters, we will say it in plain speech and then go back to the sentence.

Write the host at hello@example.com.