Sorta Sacred
Honest, human, lightly irreverent, grounded in something deeper. This podcast explores stories, reflections, and conversations about life intersecting with faith.
Hosted by Mark Niethammer and Jessica Taylor. Mark is the senior pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport, Iowa. He is a wine enthusiast, enjoys all things outdoorsy, and is optimistically pessimistic by nature. Mark has been in ordained ministry for more than 15 years.
Meanwhile, Jessica is the director of communication at St. Paul. She is a whine enthusiast, enjoys all things indoorsy, and is pessimistically optimistic by nurture.
St. Paul Lutheran Church is a 3,500-member ELCA church located in the Quad Cities.
Sorta Sacred
Latest Episodes
Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
What if the sacred isn't hiding somewhere far away, but sitting right in front of us — in the steam off a coffee cup, a child's offhand comment, the pattern of cracks in a parking lot?In this episode, Mark and Jess sit down with Elaine O...
Behind the Mic: Kicking Off Season Two
We're kicking off a new season of Sorta Sacred! Jess and Mark pull back the curtain on how Season One actually came together — the surprises, the lessons, the moments that stuck with them — and share a bit about what's coming up in the...
In Service to Others
What does it mean to serve something greater than yourself — and what happens to your faith when that service asks everything of you?This week, Jess and Mark sit down with two men who have lived that question from the inside. Rev. Gregor...
How to Be An Ally: Race, Faith, and the Work in Front of Us
In this episode, Jess and Mark sit down with the Reverend Kenneth W. Wheeler — retired ELCA pastor, public theologian, preacher, and author of US: The Resurrection of American Terror.Rev. Wheeler grew up under Jim Crow segregati...