Dewey Bertolini's Podcast

In this week’s PODCAST, I am going to take a great big risk and tell you a personal story. A story that I have on rare occasions shared with individuals. But this will be the first time I’ve ever told this story in a public setting. I tell this story for a number of reasons.  First, of course, because it goes right to the heart of this podcast’s passage. It illustrates precisely the issue to which Jesus was referring here in Matthew 5:33-37, a subject of monumental importance as far as Jesus’ teaching was concerned. Second, because it gives to you a bit of personal context, a piece of the portrait of my life within which my teaching takes place. Third, because if the old adage is true -- Like pastor, like people -- or as the OT puts it, “Like people, like priest” (Hosea 4:9), then this explains why there has evolved a pandemic of phoniness in our churches. Fourth, because this became a defining moment in my life and ministry. It cemented for me an approach to ministry, an approach to life, for which, ove