The MakeReady Podcast

In this episode of the MakeReady Podcast, we welcome back Todd Wagner—pastor, teacher, author, and founder of Watermark Community Church—for a conversation about discipleship, leadership, and what it really means to follow Jesus in a culture that constantly pulls us in other directions.
For decades, Todd has challenged people to move beyond casual Christianity and embrace a faith that transforms every area of life. His message is simple but demanding: Jesus didn't call us to attend church—He called us to make disciples.
This conversation explores the state of the modern church, the dangers of consumer Christianity, the importance of biblical community, and why spiritual growth was never meant to happen alone. We discuss raising families that love the Lord, investing in the next generation, building authentic relationships, and how ordinary believers can have an extraordinary impact when they intentionally help others follow Christ.
Whether you're leading in your home, serving in your church, or simply seeking to grow deeper in your faith, this episode will challenge you to think differently about discipleship and encourage you to live with greater purpose and conviction.
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The MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
Give today: https://makeready.org/give
00:00 Stop Playing Church01:02 Todd Wagner02:09 Grandparenting03:52 Building a Multi-Generational Legacy08:40 Christianity Is Not a Solo Sport14:59 What Most People Get Wrong About Church16:40 You Don't Go to Church18:02 The Family's First Mission21:00 The Missing Piece of Discipleship31:30 When Leaders Get Better32:11 Depth Over Breadth39:55 Leaders vs. Managers46:55 The Problem With Celebrity Christianity47:24 Clowns Entertaining Goats58:07 Guardrails for a Godly Life01:00:16 Finding the Right Men01:03:00 Final Thoughts

In this episode of the MakeReady Podcast, we sit down with Bill Jack—co-founder and longtime faculty member of Worldview Academy—to talk about liberty, worldview, and what it means to live a faith that refuses to stay private.
For more than 30 years, Bill has trained students to think clearly, defend their beliefs, and apply Scripture to every area of life. From public school classrooms to cultural front lines, his message has remained consistent: bad ideas have real consequences, and Christians must learn to think biblically before they can live courageously.
This conversation explores the danger of compartmentalized Christianity, the difference between freedom of worship and freedom of religion, the confusion shaping the next generation, and why courage begins with the fear of God. We discuss youth ministry, public life, and the urgent need to raise leaders who don’t just inherit faith—but own it.
If you’ve wrestled with how your faith should shape your work, your family, or your role in culture, this episode will challenge you to think deeper, stand firmer, and live more deliberately.
Support the Mission:
The MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
Give today: https://makeready.org/give

In this episode of the MakeReady Podcast, we sit down with Jace Yarbrough—attorney, veteran, father, and a candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’s 32nd District—to talk about vocation, courage, and what it looks like to follow Christ faithfully in contested ground.
Jace shares his journey from a small West Texas upbringing to military service, law school, and the front lines of cultural and legal battles shaping our nation. With clarity and conviction, he reflects on family, education, suffering, and why some men are called to step forward when the cost is high and the outcome uncertain.
This conversation challenges the idea that faith can be compartmentalized from public life. We talk about the role of Christian men in leadership, the formation of families and communities, and why obedience—especially when it’s uncomfortable—still matters.
If you’ve ever wrestled with how your faith intersects with your work, your responsibility to your family, or your role in the future of our country, this episode will challenge you to stand firm, stay faithful, and make ready.
 
Support the Mission:
The MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
Give today: https://makeready.org/give
 

Dave Stotts grew up geeking out over movie soundtracks and imagining himself as a swashbuckling filmmaker—until an eight-year-old boy walked out of Raiders of the Lost Ark forever changed. What hooked him wasn’t just the adventure or the face-melting scene; it was a cool archaeologist treating the Bible like it actually happened in real places, real history.
For over twenty years, Dave has hosted and edited Drive Thru History, taking viewers on fast-paced, on-location journeys across Israel, Turkey, Greece, Rome, and beyond—standing where apostles preached, martyrs died, and early churches endured fierce persecution. From drone shots over ancient ruins to tracing Paul’s footsteps through forgotten roads, he uncovers the unmistakable fingerprints of God in history, showing that Christianity isn’t myth or metaphor—it’s anchored in time, space, and undeniable reality.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Dave shares how visiting these sacred sites makes the Bible leap off the page, confronts modern lukewarm faith with Jesus’ own words to the seven churches, and reminds us that the church has endured 2,000 years of hell trying—and failing—to stamp it out. He reflects on the weight of standing on the shoulders of brave men and women who gave everything for the gospel, and how that perspective makes our petty complaints feel small.
But the deepest moment comes when he tells the story of a Virginia father who heard his special-needs son fall into a septic tank, jumped in after him, and pushed him to safety—going under himself in the process. It’s a raw picture of sacrificial love, heroic manhood, and ultimately what Christ did for us.
Full of adventure, humor, history, and hard truth, this episode is for anyone who loves the intersection of faith and real places, who’s tired of shallow Christian media, or who needs a fresh reminder that history isn’t random—it’s God’s story, and He’s still writing it through ordinary, faithful lives.
One host. Countless ancient roads. One urgent call: see the past clearly, live the faith boldly, and remember that true heroism often looks like quiet, costly obedience no one else sees.
Support the Mission:
The MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
Give today: https://makeready.org/give
 

Neil Tomba has pastored in Dallas for nearly three decades, but the lessons that shaped him most didn’t happen behind a pulpit—they happened on a bicycle. What began as quiet solo rides in the Colorado mountains turned into a cross-country journey from Santa Monica to Annapolis, 100 miles a day, stopping to talk to strangers about their lives, their faith, and their pain. What he discovered was simple and devastating: many men have never been truly listened to.
From a Native American man in the desert handing him a $1,600 piece of pottery because “you listened,” to a businessman weeping while riding around White Rock Lake, Neil learned that men everywhere are carrying invisible weight—comparison, pressure, loneliness, and the gnawing suspicion that their ordinary faithfulness doesn’t matter in a world obsessed with fame and platform.
He opens up about the toll ministry takes on pastors, the cultural boulders they’re expected to juggle, and the quiet crisis happening in church pews where men feel more isolated than ever. He shares stories of Cuban pastors quietly sustaining entire communities, and the way one spiritual mentor changed his life not with sermons, but by seeing him, knowing him, and calling out the heart of a shepherd in him.
This conversation is honest, tender, and deeply practical: why listening is a form of discipleship, why comparison is poison, why ordinary obedience carries eternal weight, and how brotherhood is built not through programs but through presence—walking, working, riding, showing up.
If you’re a man who feels unseen, a pastor exhausted by expectations, or someone wondering what faithfulness looks like in a world that only celebrates the spectacular, this episode is for you.
One pastor. One cross-country ride. One reminder every man needs: God sees what the world ignores, and your quiet faithfulness is not small—it’s sacred.
 
Support the Mission
The MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
Give today: https://makeready.org/give

In this episode of the MakeReady Podcast, we sit down with Abner Wahhab for a testimony that will leave you speechless.
 
A Turkmen raised Muslim in northern Iraq, Abner grew up second-class under Saddam: no rights, no property, no dreams, just daily survival. When the regime collapsed in 2003, he went from pharmacy student to U.S. military interpreter overnight, living behind wire in one of the most hostile regions because working with Americans made him a dead man walking outside the gate.
 
Years of questions, a vivid dream of a robed figure reaching out, and one blunt conversation in Dallas (“Can I do a free-trial of Christianity?”) led him to accept Christ on Good Friday 2011. The cost hit immediately: his mother said she would never forgive him unless he returned to Islam. His father declared, “You are not my son.” Thirteen years later he has not spoken to his parents or siblings.
 
Yet in that same season he discovered a grace Islam never offered, got baptized (it took seven nervous brothers to dunk him), served against ISIS as a cultural advisor, and found a new family that will never disown him.
 
This conversation is raw, unflinching, and loaded with hard-won truth: what real manhood looks like when everything is stripped away, why counting the cost is non-negotiable, and how the same God who turned Baghdad chaos into a path to Texas is still writing redemption stories today.
 
If you’ve ever wondered whether Jesus is worth losing your family for, if you’re a man trying to figure out how to lead when your past screams you can’t, or if you just need proof that grace is stronger than a death sentence for apostasy, this episode is for you. One former Muslim. One irreversible decision. One unshakable hope.
 
Support the Mission:
 
The MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
 
Give today: https://makeready.org/give

In this episode of the MakeReady Podcast, we sit down with Matthew Lopez for one of the rawest, most powerful testimonies you’ll ever hear. Matthew holds nothing back: growing up in violence, molestation as a child, 150+ fights, a double life, suicidal darkness, and the moment he finally fell into the arms of grace in 2016. He shares how God used a devastating fight with his own brother to break him, lead him to Regeneration at Watermark, and begin rewriting a story that once looked hopeless.
Then, just when life was finally beautiful—marriage to an incredible woman of faith, a beautiful daughter and baby son on the way—his wife was diagnosed at eight months pregnant with an orange-sized, “worst-kind-on-the-planet” brain tumor. Matthew recounts the parking-garage prayer where he told God, “Take her if You must—You’ll still have my life,” and how, fifteen months later, there is no evidence of disease in her body.
This conversation is equal parts gut-wrenching and glory-filled: childhood trauma, rage, forgiveness, redemption, miracles, and the kind of unshakable peace that only comes when you’ve been to the bottom and met Jesus there.
If you need hope in the middle of chaos, if you’re wrestling with anger or past wounds, or if you just want to see what it looks like to trust God when the diagnosis says impossible—this episode will wreck you and rebuild you at the same time.
Support the Mission
The MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
Give today: ⁠https://makeready.org/give⁠

In this episode of the MakeReady Podcast, we sit down with Klint Guerry—business leader, mentor, and man of faith—to explore what it looks like to follow Jesus wholeheartedly in the middle of success, pressure, and everyday life.
Klint shares his journey from chasing achievement to discovering a deeper purpose that only comes through surrender. With honesty and humility, he opens up about the moment God grabbed hold of his life, unraveled his self-reliance, and began a process of transformation that shaped his leadership, his marriage, and his mission.
We talk about what it means to lead with conviction and compassion in the marketplace, how to recognize when pride is disguising itself as drive, and why true success starts with stewardship, not status. Klint offers wisdom on learning to listen, to repent quickly, and to let faith lead when fear or ambition tries to take control.
If you’ve ever wondered how to integrate faith and work, how to lead others without losing yourself, or how to walk faithfully when God redirects your plans, this conversation will challenge and inspire you to lead where you are—with gratitude, courage, and grace.
Support the Mission
The MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
Give today: https://makeready.org/give

In this episode of the MakeReady Podcast, we sit down with Mario Zandstra—business leader, former Pine Cove president, and lifelong disciple-maker—to explore how God redeems broken family stories and transforms marriages into reflections of His grace.
Mario shares his journey from a rough upbringing in East L.A. to leading one of the most impactful Christian ministries in America, and now mentoring men and leaders across generations. With honesty and humor, he opens up about decades of marriage, parenting seven children, and learning to fight for faithfulness when culture, comfort, and even ministry compete for your heart.
We talk about what it means to build a marriage that lasts—not one built on happiness, but holiness. Mario offers powerful insights on confession, accountability, and the subtle idols that can destroy men long before scandal ever does. He shares stories of redemption, the pain of family patterns, and how choosing to “stay married” becomes a generational decision that echoes for centuries.
If you’ve ever wondered how to lead your family through hardship, how to protect your marriage in a distracted world, or how to walk in grace when you fail, this conversation will challenge and encourage you to be the man God designed you to be—anchored, accountable, and all in.
Support the Mission
The MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
Give today: https://makeready.org/give
 
Chapters:
0:00 – Intro & Welcome
1:25 – Mario’s Early Story & Calling
5:10 – Marriage in the Midst of Brokenness
9:40 – The Power of Accountability & Confession
14:20 – Cultivating Covenant Love
19:50 – Generational Impact of Marriage
24:15 – Handling Temptation & Idols
28:45 – A Marriage That Endures
33:30 – Leading Your Family with Faith
38:05 – Q&A & Final Charge
41:30 – Closing Prayer & Next Steps

In this episode of the MakeReady Podcast, we sit down with Dr. Mike Goddard—longtime educator, former superintendent, and current head of Prestonwood Christian Academy—to uncover how faith transforms education, family, and leadership in a culture that often fractures both truth and trust.
Mike shares his journey from chasing NFL dreams to decades in public schools, and ultimately to leading one of the largest Christian academies in Texas. Along the way he opens up about seasons of brokenness, how a classroom of freshmen “saved his life,” and why discipleship—not diplomas—is the true measure of educational success. He recounts powerful stories of camp, coaching, and community that shaped his calling, and how God uses pain, setbacks, and even lawsuits to forge leaders who stand firm.
We talk about the battle for kids’ hearts in today’s schools, why parents are the clearest model of Christ their children will ever see, and how isolation is Satan’s favorite trap for men. Mike challenges fathers to double down on faith, create ripple effects that last for generations, and model a wholehearted walk with Christ—because every decision echoes in eternity.
If you’ve ever wrestled with the purpose of education, questioned how to disciple your family, or needed hope that God can use even scars for Kingdom good, this conversation will call you to lead boldly, love deeply, and see every classroom, camp, and kitchen table as a mission field.
Support the MissionThe MakeReady Podcast exists to equip men to stand firm in their faith and lead with biblical strength in a culture that opposes it. If this content has encouraged you, consider partnering with us to reach more men with the truth. Your gift helps us create resources, share powerful stories, and build a movement of godly leaders.
Give today: https://makeready.org/give