Soil and Roots

Brian Fisher
  • 5.0 (15)
  • CHRISTIANITY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Soil and Roots digs beneath the surface of cultural Christianity and explores how unconscious ideas in our hearts have a profound and lasting impact on our relationship with God, ourselves, others, and the world around us. Discipleship, or spiritual formation, is far more than memorizing Bible verses and volunteering at church. It's a journey of becoming more like Someone else, from the inside out. Come join us on a guided journey into deep discipleship!

  1. APR 27

    Ep 140: The Most Important Thing About Us?

    What if the most important thing about us is not what we say we believe about God, but the hidden ideas of God that actually govern our inner lives? In this episode, Brian returns to one of Soil & Roots' founding questions: What do we really believe God is like? Drawing from A.W. Tozer’s claim that our actual ideas of God may be buried beneath “conventional religious notions,” this episode explores why deep discipleship requires more than correct doctrine or Bible knowledge. It requires the uncovering of our hidden, often unconscious, ideas about God. Brian walks through several common distorted ideas of God, including God as the Great Taskmaster, God as the cause of suffering, God as a performance-based Father, and God as an angry judge. These ideas may not match our creedal statements, but they can quietly shape our emotions, behaviors, relationships, and spiritual lives. This episode also challenges the common Christian response of “just read your Bible,” reminding us that even our ideas about Scripture itself must be uncovered and discipled. The Bible is deeply formative, but the goal of discipleship is not to become more like the Bible. It is to become more like the One to whom the Bible points. This episode begins an important and intimate mini-series on uncovering our true ideas of God so we can become people of greater depth, honesty, freedom, and love. Join us online!  Web: ⁠⁠soilandroots.org⁠⁠  Substack: ⁠⁠https://substack.com/@soilandroots⁠⁠  YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@soilandroots⁠  Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/SoilAndRootsPodcast/⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/soilandrootspodcast⁠⁠  Spotify: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0kStr423THe8lYQoLwf3J3?si=c79a43c83fa84a4e⁠⁠  #SoilAndRoots #DeepDiscipleship #DiscipleshipPodcast #SpiritualFormation

    24 min

  2. APR 13

    Ep 139: (GH) Don't Get the Wrong Idea

    Dr. Tim comes loaded with insightful questions about the vital role ideas play in our spiritual formation and our quest to become deep disciples. Continuing their discussion from Episode 138, the guys tackle the importance of "the Wall," and how doubt, discouragement, and some deconstruction are a normal and good stage in our discipleship. We've often stressed the importance of "discipling the unconscious self," and Doc pulls research from philosophy and economics that shows we do, in fact, operate from forces we're rarely conscious of. We call them ideas, but they're also known as paradigms or unconscious frameworks. Since any genuine discipleship must start with the Gospel of the Kingdom, they spend some time unpacking various contrary ideas in modern Christianity that actually contradict the Kingdom. Let's dig in! Join us online!  Web: ⁠⁠soilandroots.org⁠⁠  Substack: ⁠⁠https://substack.com/@soilandroots⁠⁠  YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@soilandroots⁠  Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/SoilAndRootsPodcast/⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/soilandrootspodcast⁠⁠  Spotify: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0kStr423THe8lYQoLwf3J3?si=c79a43c83fa84a4e⁠⁠  #SoilAndRoots #DeepDiscipleship #DiscipleshipPodcast #SpiritualFormation

    36 min

  3. MAR 24

    Ep 138: Don't Get the Wrong Idea

    You might believe all the right things about God… and still not trust Him. In Episode 138, we dig into a surprising truth: our lives are not shaped primarily by what we say we believe, but by the ideas our hearts actually assume. These hidden ideas—formed through experience, culture, and even church—can quietly block us from the very life Jesus offers: a secure, intimate, with-God life. So how do we uncover what we really believe about God? And what if your anxiety, your relationships, and even your body are already telling you?

    27 min

  4. MAR 9

    Ep 137: (GH) The Prodigal Son & the Christian Mystic

    Doc, Handsome Kyle, and Brian sit back down in the Greenhouse to further explore the previous episode, which details the Good Life and common obstacles to living it.  We’ve discovered that most people who claim to follow Jesus don’t enjoy the type of inner life He promised!   The Good Life, characterized by abiding peace, relational security, and a deep, intimate, two-way conversational life with God, has become elusive in the modern age. Instead, many experience regular fear, anxiety, and a sense of disconnection from the One who invites us to “know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.”  Because the concept of the Good Life is so rare, the guys spend the first half of today’s episode exploring and explaining it.   Then, using parts of their own stories, they gently touch on four of the obstacles we face that make the Good Life seem distant and unreachable.   Let’s dig in! Join us online!  Web: ⁠⁠soilandroots.org⁠⁠  Substack: ⁠⁠https://substack.com/@soilandroots⁠⁠  YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@soilandroots⁠  Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/SoilAndRootsPodcast/⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/soilandrootspodcast⁠⁠  Spotify: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0kStr423THe8lYQoLwf3J3?si=c79a43c83fa84a4e⁠⁠  #SoilAndRoots #DeepDiscipleship #DiscipleshipPodcast #SpiritualFormation

    46 min

  5. FEB 25

    Ep 136: The Prodigal Son & the Christian Mystic

    What if the abundant, with-God life Jesus describes is real… but rarely experienced? In this episode, we explore one of the most famous parables ever told — the Prodigal Son — through a different lens. What if the younger son’s transformation wasn’t primarily about repentance, but about vulnerability? What if he became what we might call a “Christian mystic” — someone formed by experiential union with the Father? Drawing on research, the Soil & Roots framework, and the six Core Ideas that shape our unconscious lives, we examine four hidden obstacles that keep us from receiving God’s love: Our need for control Our avoidance of pain Our shame and sense of unworthiness Our mistrust of God’s character Only 2–5% of Christians report living with a consistent awareness of God’s presence. Why? Maybe the barrier isn’t information. Maybe it’s vulnerability. If “deep calls to deep,” this episode is an invitation to surrender the unconscious ideas that keep us guarded — and to step into the Good Life Jesus offers. Join us online!  Web: ⁠⁠soilandroots.org⁠⁠  Substack: ⁠⁠https://substack.com/@soilandroots⁠⁠  YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@soilandroots⁠  Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/SoilAndRootsPodcast/⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/soilandrootspodcast⁠⁠  Spotify: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0kStr423THe8lYQoLwf3J3?si=c79a43c83fa84a4e⁠⁠  #SoilAndRoots #DeepDiscipleship #DiscipleshipPodcast #SpiritualFormation

    27 min

  6. FEB 9

    Ep 135: (GH) Rediscovering the Good Life

    Handsome Kyle and Doc are back! In the first Greenhouse episode of Season 7, we continue the conversation from Episode 134, Rediscovering the Good Life, and slow things down to explore what this vision means for our actual formation. Jesus speaks of a “life to the full,” yet many sincere followers experience anxiety, exhaustion, and spiritual dissonance instead of peace and freedom. Why is that? And what does the Good Life actually look like when it is lived from the inside out? Is a life of abundance, mature peace, deep attunement, and a two-way conversational, intimate life with God real? This episode is especially for those who believe the promises of Scripture but struggle to experience them in daily life. Join us online!  Web: ⁠⁠soilandroots.org⁠⁠  Substack: ⁠⁠https://substack.com/@soilandroots⁠⁠  YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@soilandroots⁠  Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/SoilAndRootsPodcast/⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/soilandrootspodcast⁠⁠  Spotify: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0kStr423THe8lYQoLwf3J3?si=c79a43c83fa84a4e⁠⁠  #SoilAndRoots #DeepDiscipleship #DiscipleshipPodcast #SpiritualFormation

    46 min

  7. JAN 27

    Ep 134 (Season 7): Rediscovering the Good Life

    Episode 134 kicks off Season 7 of the Soil & Roots podcast, Deep Calls to Deep, with a simple but unsettling question: What kind of life did Jesus actually invite us into? In this episode, Brian Fisher explores what Scripture and Christian tradition call the Good Life—what Dallas Willard famously named the with-God life. It’s a life marked by deep relational security, inner freedom, and a two-way, conversational intimacy with God. And yet, for many Christians, this life feels distant, unrealistic, or reserved for “spiritual elites.” Drawing on Scripture, Christian mystics, and everyday experience, Brian suggests that the Good Life looks surprisingly like the inner world of a healthy child—secure, present, free to love—and asks why so many of us quietly assume that kind of life isn’t actually for us. This episode sets the stage for the entire season by reframing discipleship not as more effort or better techniques, but as the risky, transformative work of receiving God’s love. If you’ve ever wondered why the New Testament promises feel richer than your lived experience, this season—and this episode—is your invitation to leave the shallows and begin the journey into depth. Web: ⁠⁠soilandroots.org⁠⁠  Substack: ⁠⁠https://substack.com/@soilandroots⁠⁠  YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@soilandroots⁠  Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/SoilAndRootsPodcast/⁠⁠  Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/soilandrootspodcast⁠⁠  Spotify: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0kStr423THe8lYQoLwf3J3?si=c79a43c83fa84a4e⁠⁠  #SoilAndRoots #DeepDiscipleship #DiscipleshipPodcast #SpiritualFormation

    21 min

  8. 11/18/2025

    Ep 133: The Love That Surpasses Knowledge

    In the Season 6 finale of Soil & Roots, Brian takes us on a sweeping journey through the core themes we’ve explored over the past three years—The Great Omission, the tension between the head and the heart, the hidden power of ideas, and the path toward becoming a deep person shaped by divine love. If you’re new to the podcast, this may be the single best place to start; if you’ve been with us from the beginning, this episode connects and clarifies everything we’ve wrestled with so far. Together we revisit the three primary problems of story, community, and purpose, confront the Formation Gap, and rediscover the invitation to a life rooted in the love that transforms from the inside out. A perfect setup for Season 7.

    25 min
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5
out of 5
15 Ratings

About

Soil and Roots digs beneath the surface of cultural Christianity and explores how unconscious ideas in our hearts have a profound and lasting impact on our relationship with God, ourselves, others, and the world around us. Discipleship, or spiritual formation, is far more than memorizing Bible verses and volunteering at church. It's a journey of becoming more like Someone else, from the inside out. Come join us on a guided journey into deep discipleship!

Information

  • Creator
    Brian Fisher
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    140
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Brian Fisher
  • Show Website
    Soil and Roots

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