The Arsenal Church

The Arsenal Church
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Welcome to the audio podcast of The Arsenal Church in Southtown San Antonio. We hope that these podcasts encourage you, speak life, and bring hope to you throughout your week. To learn more about The Arsenal Church visit www.thearsenal.church.

  1. Oct 25

    Did Jesus Feel Everything We Feel? | Emotional Intelligence | Chad Belew

    Was the church right to keep a lid on sadness, fear and anger, or did God build us with them on purpose? A book that shaped a generation of churches called Jesus "Mr. Rogers with a beard," and meant it as an insult. Week one of Emotional Intelligence opens in 1969, when Fred Rogers had six minutes in front of the most hostile room in Washington, and you'll hear the moment he used them. From there: why "I'm fine" isn't neutral, what one Greek word in the Sermon on the Mount actually asks of us, and the road outside Capernaum where Jesus was amazed. The questions it leans into: what if the person next to you pays for your "I'm fine"? Why would God build every human with grief, fear and anger if the church was right to get rid of them? What did Jesus mean by "be perfect"? The Gospels show Jesus amazed exactly twice, so what stopped God in his tracks? And is the opposite of a "soft" Jesus really a tough one? For anyone who learned young to be the master of being okay, and is tired of it. In this episode: Life to the full, and "the glory of God is a living human being"Stained-glass Jesus, tough Jesus, and "Mr. Rogers with a beard"Fred Rogers at the Senate, May 1, 1969Ms. Rachel, the Fred Rogers of right nowSusan David: the master of being okay"Emotions are data, not directives"Your "I'm fine" lands in somebody else's bodyRichard Rohr: relay stations and transformersDan Siegel's river: chaos, rigidity, integration"Be perfect" was never the assignment (teleios)A centurion's trust, and Jesus amazedThis week's practice: one page a dayThe Word moved into the neighborhood ???? References: John 10:10 · Matthew 5:48 · Matthew 8:5–13 · Mark 6:6 · 1 Corinthians 13:11 · John 1:14 · Hebrews 4:15 ???? Mentioned: Why Men Hate Going to Church (David Murrow) · Emotional Agility (Susan David) · Richard Rohr · Dan Siegel · Irenaeus of Lyon · Martin Buber, I and Thou Series: Emotional Intelligence Speaker: Chad Belew Date: 10/25/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

  2. Oct 18

    How to Raise Whole Kids | Be Quiet | Chad Belew

    Which feelings were you allowed to show growing up? Not which ones you felt. Which ones got you comfort, and which ones got you "stop that"? Week two of Be Quiet. Last week was how the church built the old story. This week is the other half: how do we raise great human beings without handing them that baggage? It starts in the car, with a four-year-old's question about where babies come from, and the very Christian answer Chad had loaded and ready. The questions it leans into: babies cry, laugh and get scared the same, so when, and where, do boys and girls learn which feelings are safe to show? What happens when a boy grows up with access to only half his emotions, and a girl to the other half? What if most of what we do as parents isn't about the kid in front of us at all? If strength isn't how much of the room you run, what is it? How do grown-ups actually change their minds when the world, and the church, want us to fall in line? And what does a human being look like with the whole wheel? It ends at the communion table, with the night Jesus knew he had all the power in the universe and picked up a towel. Follow along: the Feeling Wheel Chad hands out is Gloria Willcox's (1982). Search "Feeling Wheel Willcox" to pull it up while you listen. In this episode: - 300 comments on a purity-culture clip - Who's really in charge at our house - A kid's question in the car, and the answer loaded in Chad's head - bell hooks and the marbles - Two lists: what each kid gets handed - 166 studies: when kids learn which feelings are safe - The feelings wheel, and 50 veterans in Costa Rica - Boys got half the wheel, girls got the other half - "Your kid isn't the project. You are." (Dr. Shefali Tsabary) - A faith your kid doesn't have to heal from (Meredith Miller, Woven) - Five sentences to hand your kids - Feeling machines that think (Antonio Damasio) - Precarious manhood, and "give me your man card" - Romans 12:2: don't fall in line - "Not so with you": Jesus and the towel - Jesus had the whole wheel - Next week: The Emotions of Jesus - Communion, and a closing prayer ???? References: Romans 12:2 · Mark 10:35–45 · John 13:1–5 · 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 · Genesis 3:16 ???? Mentioned: The Will to Change (bell hooks) · The Conscious Parent, Raising Conscious Sons and Raising Conscious Daughters (Dr. Shefali Tsabary) · Woven (Meredith Miller) · Descartes' Error (Antonio Damasio) · The Feeling Wheel (Gloria Willcox) Series: Be Quiet Speaker: Chad Belew Date: 10/18/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

  3. Oct 11

    Why the Church Stayed Quiet About Patriarchy | Be Quiet | Chad Belew

    How does a 19-year-old learn to see a woman as less than him? Nobody is born with that. Somebody hands it to him. This is week one of Be Quiet, a two-week conversation on patriarchy, the manosphere, and the part the church has played. It starts with Chad's 12-year-old son, and with research showing how fast a brand-new phone starts feeding boys the manosphere. Then it asks this year's question of the oldest story there is: who told us this was just the way things are? The questions it leans into: if men and women really are different, does that mean one of them was meant to lead? Or is "different" being asked to carry a ranking it never earned? Why does a belief you were handed as a child feel like family, and why can questioning it feel like betrayal? "He will rule over you." Where does that line actually sit in Genesis, and what changes when you notice? What happens to a text when it doesn't fit the story, and to the women in it? Can a compliment be a cage? And what does this story cost men? Chad also talks about his own unlearning, and the story that cracked it open for him. Content note: this episode discusses sexual violence at the level of systems and history, without retelling anyone's story. If it stirs something up, you don't have to carry it alone. RAINN: 1-800-656-4673 · Rape Crisis Center San Antonio: 210-349-7273. In this episode: Why the church usually stays quiet, and why "quiet" is crossed outWhat a brand-new phone feeds a 12-year-old boy"Be quiet": the oldest word the church gave womenWhat "patriarchy" means here (a system, not a word for men)How a story starts to feel like nature: roles and system justification"What begins as a search for truth can feel like an act of betrayal""Different isn't the same as ranked"Aristotle: one rules, the other is ruledGenesis 1–3: image-bearers, ezer, and where "he will rule over you" sitsJunia, the woman at the well (Photini), and Mary MagdaleneHostile and benevolent sexism, purity culture, and who holds the microphoneWhat patriarchy costs men: bell hooks, the mask, and the man boxJesus walking into Aristotle's worldWhat gets preached changes what happens at homeThis week's practice: pick one belief about men and women and ask who told you that"Love never ranks the people it was made for" ???? References: Genesis 1:27 · Genesis 2:18 · Genesis 3:16 · Psalm 121:2 · 1 Timothy 2 · 1 Corinthians 14 · Romans 16:7 · John 4 · Luke 8:1–3 · Luke 10:38–42 · John 20 · Galatians 3:28 ???? Mentioned: Jesus and John Wayne (Kristin Kobes Du Mez) · The Will to Change (bell hooks) · The Making of Biblical Womanhood (Beth Allison Barr) · The Creation of Patriarchy (Gerda Lerner) · Men Who Hate Women (Laura Bates) Series: Be Quiet Speaker: Chad Belew Date: 10/11/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

  4. Sep 29

    What You Practice Loving Is Who You Become | Unforced | Chad Belew

    What if the thing your faith trained you to pay attention to is the thing that quietly made you who you are? Chad closes the Unforced series with two weeks in Costa Rica — a trauma retreat with 50 veterans, an ant hauling a pink flower petal across a path, and six tattooed men standing in a row staring up into a tree at a macaw. None of that is the point. What happened in his body while he watched is. The questions he's chasing: attention is love's raw material — you start to love what you look at, and you become what you love, so where has the church been training its attention all these years? Jesus pointed at creation like a sermon that never stopped preaching, so why did so few of us inherit any of that? Romans 7 says the law didn't only reveal sin, it *activated* our attention to it — what does a lifetime of scanning for sin do to a person? And "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," except fear doesn't produce wisdom, it produces hiding. What if that word was never "fear" at all? It lands where the series began: a mirror broken in the garden, "who told you that you were naked," and Paul's claim that unveiled faces get to behold — and be changed by what they behold. In this episode: - Costa Rica, a trauma retreat with 50 veterans, and being completely disconnected - The ant carrying a pink flower petal across the path - Butterflies pollinating a rainforest, and six tattooed guys watching a macaw - What his body did — stillness, smallness, a smile he didn't force - The series question turned back on the church: what have WE been practicing loving? - "Attention is love's raw material" - The hammock, the tree, and breathing together - "I can't find the verse where he tells me to monitor my neighbor's bedroom" - People trained to scan for threat became threat scanners - Romans 7:7 — the law activates attention to sin - Yirah — "the fear of the Lord" was awe, not fear - "You don't have to remember the practices. You have to see differently." - The mirror he broke on this stage 11 years ago, and the garden - The mask, and realizing it was the mask that got loved - 2 Corinthians 3:18 — unveiled faces, beholding, being transformed - Back to Matthew 11 and the unforced rhythms of grace - Newborns and the beat — the body already knows the rhythm - The number one way people experience awe is human kindness ???? References: 2 Corinthians 3:18 · Romans 7:7 · Genesis 1–3 · Matthew 11:28–30 (The Message) · Proverbs 9:10 · Matthew 6 (birds and lilies) Series: Unforced Speaker: Chad Belew Date: 9/27/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

  5. Sep 20

    Confession Was Never About Getting Forgiven | Unforced | Chad Belew

    What if confession was never about getting back into God's good graces — and was never supposed to cost you your dignity? Chad's back from two weeks away, and the distance made something obvious: every practice in this series has been the same practice wearing different clothes. Noticing. Lament. The table. Rest. All of them are coming out of hiding. This is the week that says it out loud. The questions underneath it: NASA scheduled the course-correction burns before the rocket ever left the ground — so why were we handed a faith where being off course is the emergency? Why does the word "confession" make a whole room's shoulders come up? James says confess to each other *so that you may be healed* — not so that you may be forgiven. What changes if that word was the point the whole time? And what actually makes a person safe to tell the truth to? Chad goes first on this one, including what it costs him to stand up here every week. In this episode: - Back from Costa Rica, and a retreat with 50 veterans - Six weeks of practices, all doing one thing: coming out of hiding - Apollo scheduled the course corrections before launch — "they just called it flying the ship" - The word the church ruined - "Pastoring is a fantastic place to hide" - James 5:16 — "so that you may be healed," not forgiven - Guilt and shame are two different feelings - Metanoia, and why the accusers have to leave the room first - The accuser that sounds exactly like you - Kristin Neff on self-compassion — and why the people gentlest with themselves took MORE responsibility - "But my mess is my own fault — I don't qualify" - Dr. Gary Green: attunement, not atonement - The guitar — detune one string, then play the chord - "The reference note doesn't drift. We do." - Every secret you're managing is a place you can't be loved - The practice: one person, one true thing - What "safe" actually means — and what to do if you come up empty ???? References: James 5:16 · John 8:1–11 · John 3 (Nicodemus) · Genesis 3 · Mark 5 · Kristin Neff on self-compassion · Dr. Gary Green on attunement · Stephen Porges, polyvagal theory · Bill Thrall Series: Unforced Speaker: Chad Belew Date: 9/20/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

  6. Sep 13

    Radical Unity | Arsenal Stories | Eric Villalpando

    You don't have to believe what I believe to belong in this space. Eric Villalpando tells his story, and it starts in two rooms on the same morning — a Catholic church and this one. He grew up fully Catholic: Catholic school, every sacrament, a theology degree from St. Mary's. He's careful about what happened next. He didn't deconstruct, exactly. He demystified. The hinge is a summer at Deer Creek Camp — forty counselors from wildly different backgrounds in one room with an open Bible, led by a Calvinist. Nobody liked it. Then everyone walked out and got on the zip line together. What he took from it is that you don't have to believe all the same things to belong in the same place, and that your first experience of God is far more likely to happen in loving the person next to you than in a book. It ends with his father at the hardest moment of his life, and then at the cross with two thieves Eric refuses to sort into good and bad. One of them asks to be remembered, and Jesus doesn't ask about his sacraments or his position on baptism. He just says: you'll be with me. In this episode: - Two churches in one morning, and the question "why is it always one or the other?" - Catholic school, every sacrament, and demystifying instead of deconstructing - Deer Creek Camp: forty counselors, one Bible, and a Calvinist leading the study - Llamas, turkey vultures, and why the people outlasted the positions - "We didn't need to believe all the same things to belong in the same place" - 1 John 4 — no one has ever seen God, but if we love each other - Why your first experience of God probably isn't in a book - Richard Rohr on the Two Incarnations, and "the opposite of faith is not doubt, it is absolute certitude" - Samwise, Frodo, and the stories that stayed with you - His father at absolute zero — and the hug that came back - The two thieves: both hurting, both scared, no clipboard at the cross - "Go love them till they ask why" — the Deer Creek motto, and why it's the same thing Arsenal says ???? References: 1 John 4:7–8, 11–12 · John 17:21 · 1 Corinthians 12 · 1 Corinthians 13 · Ephesians 4:2–3 · Matthew 11:28–30 · Richard Rohr on the Two Incarnations · J.R.R. Tolkien, *The Two Towers* (Samwise's speech) Series: Arsenal Stories Speaker: Eric Villalpando Date: 9/13/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

  7. Sep 6

    Rest Isn't the Reward. It's the Design. | Unforced | Britney Carrasco

    Rest isn't the reward at the end of the design. Rest is the design. Britney Carrasco teaches on Sabbath — and opens by admitting she might be the last person who should. She's a nurse and an Enneagram two, wired to earn love by doing things for people. Hand her a to-do list for rest and she'd dominate it. Two things she won't let you skip. Humans arrive on day six, which makes the first full day of human existence a day off — we rested before we worked, before anyone had done anything to deserve it. And the two Sabbath commands don't say the same thing: Exodus 20 says rest because God rested, but Deuteronomy 5 says remember you were slaves in Egypt, then lists everyone it covers, right down to the foreigner with nobody to advocate for him. That isn't a self-care tip. It's a labor law, and it runs downward. The practice she leaves you with is one boundary — a time that you stop. No prerequisites, and don't earn it back. And if you keep it badly, keep it anyway. ⌚ Chapters 0:00 "Chad asked me to preach on something he didn't want to preach on" 0:57 Enneagram two — earning love by doing 3:40 "Give me a to-do list for rest and I'd dominate it" 6:52 Matthew 11 — unforced, rhythms, grace 9:05 God rested first — Genesis 2 and menuha 10:17 Humans arrive on day six — the first full day was a day off 11:11 Exodus 20 vs. Deuteronomy 5 — two reasons for one command 12:21 "This is not a self-care tip. This is a labor law." 13:55 Rest that stops with me isn't Sabbath yet 14:40 Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance — and what isn't hers to borrow 17:58 Pharaoh's economy didn't end; it started offering benefits packages 19:46 Sabbath isn't finished until it reaches the person with the least power 21:55 "Tired people don't hurt more. They delight less." 23:06 An exhausted nervous system can't tell a sunset from a stoplight 25:16 Brian Zahnd — a heartbeat isn't a skill 27:01 Mark 2:27 — the Sabbath was made for you 27:53 When your body learned that stopping is dangerous 36:17 The practice: one boundary — no prerequisites, don't earn it back 38:28 "Keep it badly. Keep it anyway." Series: Unforced Speaker: Britney Carrasco Date: 9/6/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX ???? Scriptures: Genesis 2:2–3 · Exodus 20:8–11 · Deuteronomy 5:12–15 · Mark 2:27 · Matthew 11:28–30 (The Message) **The Arsenal** — San Antonio, TX. Sundays 11am, 105 Sadie St. ???? thearsenal.church · ???? thearsenal.church/give ???? Download the Arsenal Church app · ???? Instagram @thearsenalsa · Facebook /thearsenalsa #thearsenal #unforced #sabbath #restisresistance #restasresistance

  8. Aug 23

    The Prayer You Were Never Allowed to Pray | Unforced (Week 3) | Chad Belew

    A third of the Psalms are lament. Church gave grief one sentence. Week three of Unforced opens with a confession: Chad is not good with grief. Not his, not yours. He traces where that comes from — personality, a nervous system trained over deployments in Iraq, and mostly how he was raised, including and maybe especially in church. Nobody taught him to grieve. He was taught to get past it. They're in a better place. God needed another angel. Everything happens for a reason. Sentences you reach for like a light switch in a dark room, because the dark is uncomfortable and the switch is right there. There's a name for it: spiritual bypassing, coined by psychologist John Welwood in the 1980s — using spiritual language to step around pain instead of through it. It sounds holy. It's a trap door out of the room before the grief finishes its sentence. And bypassed grief doesn't resolve. It waits. Then the turn: the book we built that curriculum on never did this. Roughly a third of the Psalms — the prayer book Jesus grew up singing — are lament. And Psalm 88 ends in the dark. Almost every lament Psalm turns; somewhere near the end there's a "but." Psalm 88 has no but. Its last line is "darkness is my closest friend." Someone looked at that prayer and said: that goes in the book. Which means there's a page in Scripture for the day your sentence doesn't get better. From there it widens. Job's friends, who did the best pastoral care in the Old Testament for exactly seven days of silence — then opened their mouths, and were told at the end that they had not spoken rightly. Dacher Keltner finding small moments of awe inside the grief of losing his brother, and the research that puts death on the list of things that most reliably produce awe, right next to the night sky. Brené Brown and Stanford's James Gross on why you cannot selectively numb — suppression doesn't reduce the pain, it reliably reduces the joy. And Walter Brueggemann's claim that only grief permits newness: the prophets wept in public first, because a system runs on nobody feeling anything, and public grief is the crack in it. Chad is careful with the guardrail — he is not saying your pain has a purpose. The claim is narrower: the door grief opens and the door awe opens are the same door, which means the faith that taught you to slam one shut closed the other too. It lands on the first page of the Bible, where there is darkness over the deep and the first thing God does is speak into it. In this episode: - A confession: "I'm not good with grief" - The sentences we were handed — "they're in a better place" - Hope is a discipline, not a feeling (a clip from Dr. Ulcca Joshi Hansen) - "You're not out of hope. You're out of practice." - You cannot train imagination on a numbed heart - The grief nobody threw you a funeral for - Spiritual bypassing — naming what we were taught instead - A third of the Psalms are lament - Psalm 88 — the prayer with no "but" - Job's friends: seven days of silence, then they spoke - Keltner, his brother, and awe found inside grief - Guardrail: your pain does not have a purpose - You cannot selectively numb - Empire wants to colonize your imagination - "Only grief permits newness" - Genesis 1 — God speaks into the darkness - The practice: write the prayer you were never allowed to pray ???? References: Psalm 88 · Job 2:13 and Job 24 · Genesis 1:1–3 · John 11 (Lazarus) · John Welwood on spiritual bypassing · David Gushee on Job · Dacher Keltner on awe · Brené Brown · James Gross on emotional suppression · Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination · Rob Bell, How to Be Here Series: Unforced Speaker: Chad Belew Date: 8/23/2026 Location: The Arsenal, San Antonio, TX — The Arsenal | San Antonio, TX ???? thearsenal.church ???? Download the Arsenal Church app ???? Questions or need prayer? hello@thearsenal.church ???? Give: thearsenal.church/give

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

Welcome to the audio podcast of The Arsenal Church in Southtown San Antonio. We hope that these podcasts encourage you, speak life, and bring hope to you throughout your week. To learn more about The Arsenal Church visit www.thearsenal.church.

Information

  • Creator
    The Arsenal Church
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Church
  • Show Website
    The Arsenal Church