Watch
Listen
Click here to listen to the episode on our website
Read
Saying Goodbye to This Studio
This is the last broadcast from the studio that has been called home for the last three years. A move is coming, and for a while, that means some temporary digs while everything gets set up. Just last week, the lights didn't even get turned on right, and the show looked dimmer than usual. So this one is a little brighter once again, but there's no telling exactly what the transition period is going to look like along the way.
Twenty years of radio never came with the burden of a camera. That's worth sitting with for a second. Radio didn't force anyone to watch themselves get older week by week by week. Video doesn't offer that same mercy, and there's real lament in that, along with plenty of jokes about looking older, looking dimmer, getting "thicker and thicker" while trying to work out and just not being able to shake it. It's six of one, half a dozen of the other, honestly, because even the earliest podcast episodes didn't look great either. The equipment was still being figured out. The setup was still coming together.
For years, radio gave this ministry something specific: a whole group of listeners who became more than an audience. They became companions. Companion Christian radio, that's what this was called, and that spirit is still the whole point, no matter how the format keeps shifting underneath it.
And people have shown up in a real way. It doesn't matter whether it's $8 a month or a book purchased for $25 or $50. There was a woman who gave $200, not for any special package or incentive, simply because she said she loved the broadcast and wanted a copy of Bible Sidekick. That gift, notably, was given in spite of one host and not because of him, which got its fair share of laughs. But that kind of generosity is what has funded the growth here. Listenership is growing. Revenue is growing. Nobody is under any illusion about competing with the big boys, and there's no interest in even trying, but the growth is real, and every bit of it gets received with genuine thanks. That growth is also exactly why new equipment keeps getting added and why a new studio is now necessary.
Here's the practical reason behind the move: in the last two years, there have been no checks mailed to the address on the website. A few came in before that, mostly from organizations wanting to help get things started or fund a new microphone, but that's it. This is now a fully digital operation. So once the new headquarters has a confirmed address, it will get shared. But nothing else is changing. The giving stays the same. The access stays the same. Only the location is different, and there may be some funky production along the way while things get sorted out. iPhone episodes got floated as an idea. So did walk and talk segments with a selfie stick, the kind where it feels like going on a walk with someone even from the comfort of home. Whether that survives contact with reality remains to be seen, since the prediction is it would probably just end in an argument (and possibly damage the Christian testimony in the process).
Bible Sidekick: Study Helps for Believers, New and Old
Ten years ago, this book got put together, and the reason it's taking off now is because people need this resource in their life. It's 500 pages, and it takes what would normally require five or six seminary books and merges them into a single volume, written so it's readable at a seventh grade level. Inside, it breaks down key verses, takeaways, historical accuracy, and details about the way the book was written and why it was canonized, all delivered in language built for the common man.
It's available on Amazon right now, or it can be received as a thank you gift for making a donation to the outreach broadcast directly at freshroadmedia.com. Every bit of the author royalties, 100% of them, gets donated back into Fresh Road Media, because that money is what actually helps reach more people. There's no official staff here and nobody on an actual payroll. Funding comes in sporadically, through independent giving, and the entire operation runs for one reason: to help people in their walk with Christ.
Bible Idiots
Sitting over the shoulder in the studio is the movie Bible Idiots, a film that merges stand up comedy with Bible apologetics. It runs 92 minutes plus credits and defends Scripture's inerrancy, its historical accuracy, and the reasons for believing it's inspired, with real depth behind all of it. Not everyone still has a DVD player, so a digital copy is always an option for anyone who needs it.
Made in 2015, the film came out of a real frustration: a lot of the documentaries defending the Scriptures at the time were kind of boring, so the decision got made to spruce things up. The bigger frustration underneath that was simpler still: being tired of getting called idiots for believing the Bible.
The original plan was 70% comedy and 30% teaching. That ratio flipped in post production, not by design but because God sent so many compelling people into the project. Jim Daly from Focus on the Family. Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Joni Eareckson Tada. Dr. Frank Turk. Al Robertson. And Abdu Murray, who by all accounts came in and stole the show.
Joni Eareckson Tada's part in this deserves its own weight. Her ministry helps people get equipment for whatever ailment or malady they're dealing with, which is described simply as a loving thing to do. And she, too, spent time chasing the word of faith teaching for a while, and it ended in disappointment for her. But God showed himself so merciful, sufficient, and loving to her that it's described as amazing.
That's really the root of why charismatic faith and word of faith teaching get brought up so often on this show. It's not meant as an attack or a bash, even if that's how it can land for some listeners. It comes from having watched so many people get hurt. Counterfeit Christianity comes in many forms, not just that one, and the whole aim is to show people the original as clearly as possible.
Burden Stone
This one is described as an actual, based on a true story account of walking across Spain on the Camino de Santiago, a Catholic pilgrimage. The idea to walk it came from watching Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen's 2010 film The Way, and the walk itself was undertaken to testify that Jesus paid it all.
There's a specific prayer Catholics pray when they reach Cruz de Ferro, laying their burden stone down and asking that their effort on the Camino be counted for good when the balances are weighed between good and evil. The testimony carried through this book takes that image and turns it toward the gospel: the burden stone got laid down not to earn anything on those scales, but because Jesus already paid it all. All to Him is owed, and all to Him is where the road leads.
Colors of Character
This is the story of artist Steve Skipper, whose paintings now hang in every hall of fame in the country. He's a former Crips gang member and former drug addict, and Jesus totally transformed his life, taking him from that life of addiction and gang involvement to now creating paintings, many of them religious, many of them sports related, that reach people far beyond where his story started. Skipper is out of Birmingham, Alabama, and he personally asked for his story to be told and directed, which is how this project came together in the first place. It stands as an incredible story of God's grace.
Looking Ahead
This is described plainly as a transition summer. The podcasts may get more sporadic. The production may get a little more funky, whatever that ends up looking like. The topics may keep wandering rather than sticking to one focus, the way the last couple of episodes already have. But the format itself is staying the same. Salvaged by God will keep bringing in teaching. No Apology with Emilee and Chris will keep being the variety talk show it has always been.
There's also something building beyond just this one show. Conversations are already underway with about five other content creators who are either just getting started on a podcast or working with a smaller following, and the idea is to help them by merging together and introducing listeners to quality content providers. It doesn't require knowing every detail of what someone else's show will be about. It just requires trust that the person is trustworthy and committed to staying with the gospel of Jesus Christ and making His name great. As it's put directly: it's not about us, it's about Him.
That is, in the end, the whole point of Fresh Road Media. People get on a fresh road. They get a new start. They become a new creation in Christ, and then they grow through that sanctification process, one step at a time.
Final Thoughts
For anyone just now coming around to Fresh Road Media and No Apology with Emilee and Chris for the first time, that is genuinely appreciated, and there's real gratitude for the time spent here. This is a transition summer, so the ask is simple: stay with it. A gift of any amount at freshroadmedia.com comes with resources sent back as a thank you for anyone interested.
The shows may be a little more sporadic. The locations may get a little funky. But the commitment stays the same: keep doing this by the grace of God, and keep being thankful for the people who make it possible. So get into the Word of God today, and go and serve your King.
Don't forget the website: freshroadmedia.com.