12-Years Later: The Very First Salty Believer Unscripted Podcast

It was on January 26, 2012, that I sat down with Jared Jenkins and recorded the very first episode of Salty Believer Unscripted. Will filmed it as well as recorded it in an audio-only fashion so we could determine if it would be a podcast with or without video. Just looking at the work the video required, we opted for audio-only. The topic of that first podcast was seminary, chiefly Jared Jenkins experiences as he had just completed his Masters of Divinity (M.Div). I was a semester away from doing the same. The title of our first podcast is "Seminary with Jared Jenkins." That first episode became the anchor and format for our long-running, online of weekly podcast

In that episode, Jared discussed his experience at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Bryan at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. At one point, they even mentioned Golden Gate Baptist Theological seminary (now Gateway Seminary of the Southern Baptist Convention). Twelve years later, I’ve earned a DMin and Jared a PhD. I’ve planted a church which I still pastor and Jared is likely to become the Senior Pastor of the church were we recorded that podcast. Jared has also had many other ventures in his academic endeavors, starting the Salt Lake School of Theology (a teaching site of Gateway Seminary) were he teaches as an adjunct professor, he’s published in journals and books, and he’ll probably end up a seminary President one day. I’ve also done some seminary teaching and lecturing, served a doctoral committee and been a field mentor for doctoral candidates, and published. We’ve both served two terms at the president of the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention. It’s been a remarkable 12 years.

We’ve also had the pleasure of recording many amazing Salty Believer Unscripted episodes with tons of interesting guests—both well know and obscure. Guests have included folks like Al Mohler, Jeff Irog, Jason Allen, Jim Hamilton, Doug Wilson, Becket Cook, George Guthrie, Bobby Jamieson, Jonathan Howe, Temper Longman III, Rick Melick, Jeremy Meeks, Alvin Reed, J. D. Payne, Robert Plummer, Robert Kinney, Jimmy Scroggin, Trevin Wax, Lynn Wilder, Malcom Yarnell, Jim Wilson, Travis Kerns, Nik Ripken, Randy Stenson, Vance Pitman, Will Mancini, and so many others. (See the complete list here.)

We’ve had multiple interns, one of which went on to become a host—Josiah Walker. Brett Ricley also joined for along season hosting the podcast with me.

It’s been a great 12 years. We’re hoping for another great 12 years of podcasting, should our Lord tarry. We’re hoping to make a return to having guests on and we’re praying for some highly interesting conversations. It’s our prayer that this podcast blesses our listeners and edifies the Church, however God may determine to use our feeble efforts. We also hope to bring back a SBU Rewind post now and then to draw some attention to some of the outstanding discussions we’ve had. Keep an eye out for those. (You can find all of our episodes here.)

In the meantime, if you’ve never listened to the first episode of Salty Believer Unscripted, you can listen here:

You can also watch this episode on YouTube. It was originally posted on my personal YouTube account. In 2017, we moved it over to our Salty Believer YouTube Channel when we decided it was time SaltBeleiver.com needed a channel.

Find all our past podcasts on our website, SaltyBeliever.com and hear new podcasts by subscribing to Salty Believer Unscripted wherever you get your podcasts.