The Drama of Discipleship: Re-Narrating Our Lives in God's Story
Episode 79
Dr. Greg Perry—New Testament scholar, President of Thirdmill Seminary, and author of The Drama of Discipleship—joins John Houmes fresh off a teaching tour across Asia. Their conversation moves from what the global church is actually asking (and how different it is from the West) to a fresh vision of discipleship: not a curriculum to master, but a drama to perform together inside God's story.
Greg unpacks the six "episodes" of the biblical story—Creation, Rebellion, Israel, Jesus, Church, New Creation—and the practices that flow from them. The conversation covers integral mission and the holding together of word and deed, the church as an embassy of Christ's kingdom in a host culture, the improv principle of "no blocking" as a posture toward our neighbors, the difference between fieldwork and heartwork, and why the small stories on offer from consumerism and politics can't bear the weight of a human life.
A rich, hopeful conversation for pastors, ministry leaders, and anyone longing to live inside a bigger story.
Greg's book: The Drama of Discipleship. His next book, Grace with Skin On: What Deacons Do (with Chris Sicks), releases Fall 2026.
"All the little stories on offer—consumerist, political, about physical beauty—they cannot bear the weight of being an image-bearer of God." — Dr. Greg Perry
The Drama of Discipleship (Greg Perry) • Grace with Skin On: What Deacons Do (Perry & Sicks, Fall 2026) • Third Millennium Ministries / Thirdmill Seminary • Adoniram Judson • The Lausanne Movement / integral mission • Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be • Dorothy Sayers • Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God • Trevin Wax, The Thrill of Orthodoxy & Eschatological Discipleship • René Girard • Aaron Renn ("negative world") • Covenant Theological Seminary • New City Fellowship, St. Louis
discipleship, Greg Perry, The Drama of Discipleship, spiritual formation, evangelism, integral mission, global church, missions, Thirdmill, gospel, re-narration, meaning crisis, church as embassy, reconciliation, worship, witness, shalom, Christian discipleship, Post Everything
#PostEverything #Discipleship #GregPerry #DramaOfDiscipleship #SpiritualFormation #IntegralMission #GlobalChurch #Evangelism #Thirdmill #ChristianPodcast #Missions #Discipleship #Worship #Reconciliation
CHAPTERS
00:00 🎭 Witnesses, Not Mere Messengers
01:21 👋 Meet Dr. Greg Perry
02:51 🌏 The Asia Tour Begins
04:27 🏙️ Singapore's Affluent Pressures
07:30 🙏 Myanmar's Extraordinary Prayer
09:59 💰 Rich, Poor, and Mission
10:46 ✋ Gospel Show and Tell
12:06 📖 Reading Luke 4 Whole
14:06 🏛️ The Church as Embassy
18:31 🔄 Power and the Powerless
20:02 ❓ Our American Blind Spots
21:30 🎬 Why Discipleship Needs Drama
24:17 🎟️ Six Episodes, Not Chapters
30:36 🍂 Naming Our Broken Places
32:22 🚫 Unpacking "No Blocking"
34:30 🎹 The Pianist and Girl
36:00 🌮 From Strip Club to Tacos
37:13 👂 Evangelism as Listening
39:51 🌱 Fieldwork and Heartwork
43:42 🪐 Liturgy Pulls Life's Orbit
45:09 📚 Stories Too Small
49:05 🛂 Immigration and the Embassy
52:12 ✨ Celebrating Little Restorations
56:18 📕 Greg's Next Book
58:09 💭 John's Closing Reflections
