MyBLVD Podcast

What happens when the Church becomes more concerned with preserving its institutions than advancing its mission?
Dhati and Missie sit down with longtime mentors Carl and Karen Ellis, founders of the Center for Christian Endurance, for a conversation about faithfulness in a changing world. From the persecuted Church overseas to the challenges facing Christians in America, they explore what it means to follow Jesus across cultures, endure difficult seasons, and keep the mission at the center.
They also reflect on decades of marriage and ministry, the danger of confusing cultural Christianity with the gospel, and what the global Church can teach us about staying faithful.
Learn more about the Center for Christian Endurance and subscribe to MyBLVD for more conversations on faithful ministry in our cities.

Some of us have gotten very good at carrying things. Family. Work. Ministry. Expectations.
We carry what belongs to us, and after a while, we start carrying what belongs to everybody else too. Their needs. Their emotions. Their disappointment.
And because we can carry it, we assume we should. There are things we have learned to live under that God never asked us to hold. And sometimes freedom looks like finally knowing the difference.
In this episode, we sit down with Deana Hamilton of SafeHope Collective to discuss how we can find freedom by finding alignment between our true identity and the life we choose to live.

What does faithfulness look like when the culture shifts, the work gets harder, and you may never see the outcome you hoped for?
In this episode, Dhati sits down with BLVD missionaries Yonas and Morgan for an honest conversation about ministry on the West Coast, changing cultural realities, vulnerability, community, and the cost of staying committed to the mission.
They talk about what it means to keep going when success looks different than you imagined, why leaders need people who truly know them, and how to remain hungry for God’s will even when the finish line feels out of reach.
Would you still go if you knew you might never get there?

We’re back! We kick off season 7 with two of our favorite people, Anthony and Morgan Allen. Ministers, artists and leaders in their community, The Allens help us identify some key ways they have seen the mandate of leadership change as they work to mentor young adults through their faith journey. How do you lead a generation so aware of their own shortcomings? What do you do when your voice, as a leader, is drowned out by the sea of influence on social media? We hope you’ll be blessed and encouraged as you yourself seek to make disciples where you live, work and worship.
 
As always, please subscribe and share this conversation with someone who you think it would bless.

In the final episode of Season 6, Dhati and Missie reflect on the central themes that emerged from the story of Esther: identity, influence, courage, formation, humility, and faithful presence.
Throughout Esther, the gate was more than a physical location. It was where information traveled, decisions were made, power was exercised, and public life took shape. Our gates may look different today, but they still exist—in classrooms, boardrooms, churches, studios, businesses, neighborhoods, and around kitchen tables.
Dhati and Missie discuss why Christian faith cannot remain merely private, how public witness must grow out of private formation, and why building cities that reflect Jesus requires pastors, poets, practitioners, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and ordinary believers working together.
Your gate may not look like Esther’s gate, but God has placed you somewhere for such a time as this.
Thank you for walking with us through Season 6. Until next season, keep showing up at the gate.

What do you do when you know God has called you, but you can’t quite feel Him?
In this episode, Dhati and Missie sit down with Dhati’s brother, Reggie Lewis, for a deeply personal conversation about faith, calling, suffering, and the providence of God. Through Reggie’s story, we’re reminded that God is often working most powerfully in the places that feel ordinary, delayed, unseen, or even silent.
The book of Esther never mentions God by name, yet His fingerprints are everywhere. In the same way, our lives may go through seasons where God feels hidden—but His hand is not absent.
This conversation is for the tired missionary, the unseen leader, the faithful parent, the discouraged believer, and anyone trying to keep showing up when the outcome is unclear.
God is still alive.God is still active.God is still moving.

What does it look like to follow Jesus in places that feel complicated, compromised, or even broken?
In this episode, Dhati and Missie sit down with Erica Ngwolo for a rich conversation on faithfulness, calling, discernment, and courageous presence in flawed systems. Through the lens of Esther’s story, they explore what it means to lead with honor in spaces that do not always value honor, and how believers can remain present without becoming compromised.
Erica brings wisdom from her own work and calling, especially in spaces where systems, leadership, and justice intersect. Together, the conversation wrestles with the tension of proximity to power, the difference between honoring people and endorsing everything they represent, and the importance of discerning what God has actually called you to carry.
This episode is for anyone trying to live faithfully in the workplace, in ministry, in institutions, or in environments where conviction and complexity sit side by side. Sometimes faithfulness does not look like escape. Sometimes it looks like staying present with wisdom, courage, restraint, and joy.
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Some people think courage means saying the hard thing as soon as they feel it. Others mistake wisdom for staying silent.
But Esther gives us a different picture.
In this episode, Dhati and Missie sit down with Traci Byrd to talk about conflict, courage, discernment, and what it means to confront hard things without becoming reactive. Together, they look at Esther’s example of boldness with timing, conviction with humility, and leadership that is anchored before it speaks.
For urban missionaries, pastors, practitioners, and disciple-makers, conflict is unavoidable. It shows up in teams, churches, neighborhoods, institutions, and relationships. The question is not whether conflict will come. The question is whether we can walk through it in a way that still reflects Jesus.
This conversation explores the difference between peacemaking and peacekeeping, the temptation to react quickly, the cost of damaged trust, and the possibility of restoration when things have gone wrong.
If you are navigating tension, leading through disagreement, or trying to stay faithful in a difficult conversation, this episode is for you.
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What does Esther teach us about timing, courage, and hard conversations? In this episode of the MyBLVD Podcast, Dhati and Missie continue through the story of Esther, looking at the wisdom of the banquet scene—not as avoidance, but as Spirit-led discernment. Sometimes faithfulness means speaking quickly. Sometimes it means preparing the table first. Together, they talk about prophetic witness, relational trust, confrontation, reconciliation, and what it means to follow God when the outcome is still uncertain. Because difficulty does not always mean you missed God. Sometimes the Lord is producing something in the middle of what you would have never chosen. Watch the full conversation and join us as we continue asking what it means to live faithfully “for such a time as this.” Like, subscribe, and share this episode with someone learning to lead with courage, wisdom, and presence. #MyBLVD #ForSuchATimeAsThis #BookOfEsther #UrbanMission #ChristianLeadership #Discipleship #FaithAndCourage #MyBLVDPodcast

In this episode of the MyBLVD Podcast, Dhati and Missie continue the Esther conversation by exploring what it means to advocate with wisdom, courage, and Spirit-led discernment.
Esther didn’t rush into the room simply because the moment was urgent. She paused. She fasted. She called others to pray. She moved with courage, but also with timing, strategy, and dependence on God.
In a culture that rewards quick reactions, public outrage, and constant noise, this conversation invites leaders to consider a different way: one marked by prayer, truth, wisdom, grace, and a faithful gospel witness.
Dhati and Missie talk about the difference between reacting and responding, the danger of advocacy becoming tribal noise, and why leaders must go to God privately before they speak publicly.
This episode is for urban missionaries, pastors, leaders, and disciple-makers learning to speak into real tensions without being shaped by the spirit of the age.