Nate Bargatze: America’s Most Successful Comedian is an Evangelical Christian Who Sees Comedy as a Calling

The comedian from Nashville, Nate Bargatze, is having a moment. For the last couple of years, he’s been
regularly hosting Saturday Night Live, participating in the hilarious ongoing sketch where he’s George Washington crossing the Delaware and musing on American oddities. He was chosen to host the 2025 Emmy Awards. He fills stadiums around the country for his stand up, and his streaming comedy specials are increasingly popular. Esquire said, “Bargatze is, quite simply, the most successful stand-up comedian working today.”

What’s amazing about this success is that the deadpan comic famous for his dry humor is doing all of this while performing “clean comedy.” His approach, he says, is to have a show that he could do in front of his parents. Recently, Bargatze was profiled in The New York Times, he said he considers all of this to be a calling: “It’s a big belief: I am second to God. Second to your family, second to the audience, second to everybody. You live to serve, so it’s very much a calling in that aspect.”

Bargatze grew up as a homeschooled Baptist and is still a committed evangelical churchgoer. His father, who often opens Nate’s shows, made a living as a magician and motivational speaker at Christian events around the country. Bargatze says, “God has a path, and I'm just here to follow the path, so I just kind of wait and see where the doors open. [God] opens the doors that need to be open, and you just point me where you want to go. ... I'm grateful to get to be the one that was chosen to be this vessel," he added.

Bargatze’s rise shows that there is a market for comedy that doesn’t offend families. This kind of entertainment is arguably more difficult. It’s easy to insert cuss words and sexual references into a monologue, but it’s much harder to observe everyday life and get a laugh out of a broad cross-section of the population. His aim, he says, is to make grandmothers laugh. In this endeavor, Bargatze is subtly counter-cultural, redeeming humor for humor’s sake, rather than as a vessel for decadence.

This is more difficult than it seems. Even those of us who believe we have a sense of humor would have a hard time sustaining it over an hour. Comedy writing may be one of the hardest forms of creativity. Jerry Seinfeld said, “A laugh is such a pure thing. There's no opinion to it. Almost every other creative field has to suffer the interpretive opinion culture, but not a standup comic. You may not like this guy, but if he's getting laughs, he's gonna work.” This also works in reverse. If a comic is not funny, there are no laughs.

To laugh is not incidental to being human. It’s a necessary part of the way God created us.

So Nate Bargatze’s secret is not merely that he’s safe and clean, which is often a label given to folks who just happen not to be funny. Bargatze’s secret is that he’s actually getting laughs. He’s funny enough for people to spend time and money to see him perform. He’s funny enough that he doesn’t resort to the easy rhetorical crutch of vulgarity.

For the serious Christian, it is tempting to see entertainment like this as trivial, but to laugh is therapeutic and good for the soul. The wisest man in all the world once wrote that “a cheerful heart is good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22). Scripture promises that God will “fill your heart with laughter (Job 8:21). To laugh is not incidental to being human. It’s a necessary part of the way God created us. Excellent comedy that avoids cruelty or crassness is a mental palate cleanser, a form of rest from the stresses and difficulties of life. In his essay, “Laughter,” G.K. Chesterton observed, “Laughter has something in it common with the ancient words of faith and inspiration; it unfreezes pride and unwinds secrecy; it makes people forget themselves in the presence of something greater than themselves.”

Christianity is a deadly serious mission. But that doesn’t mean we have to take ourselves so seriously. Thankfully, Nate Bargatze believes this and, through his unique calling, is bearing witness with his gift of humor. That should make us smile.

 

Daniel is director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His forthcoming book is Agents of Grace. He is also a bestselling author of several other books, including The Original Jesus, The Dignity Revolution, The Characters of Christmas, The Characters of Easter, and A Way With Words, and the host of a popular weekly podcast, The Way Home. Dan holds a bachelor’s degree in pastoral ministry from Dayspring Bible College, has studied at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Angela, have four children.

Some Tough Talk About Sentimentalism

The Church is not called to be a hospice for sin, but a hospital for sinners. And yet, somewhere along the way, we confused the two.

Modern Christianity has embraced a cheap version of compassion, a sentimentalism that feels holy but fears confrontation. We cry over the brokenness, but we refuse to call it rebellion. We offer hugs where there should be warnings, and coddle what God commands us to confront.

This isn't mercy. It's malpractice.

We live in an age where empathy has become a theology. And like all false gods, it demands sacrifices. Truth. Clarity. Courage. All laid on the altar of "being nice."

But biblical compassion is not passive. It doesn't stand silently while sin destroys a soul. It doesn't affirm what God condemns. Real love tells the truth, even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts.

"Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy." — Proverbs 27:6

Jesus never once confused compassion with compromise. He wept over Jerusalem, but He also warned it. He welcomed sinners, but He never affirmed their sin. His mercy was always married to His majesty. His grace always arrived with gravity.

But too many churches today have turned sympathy into a strategy. Instead of equipping saints, we entertain seekers. Instead of contending for the faith, we curate safe spaces. We treat hard truths like optional extras, and wonder why our people are spiritually starved.

This isn't just weak leadership, it's spiritual sabotage.

This is the age where churches host drag queens in the name of inclusion and call it outreach. Where pastors refuse to name sin but brag about how “safe” their church feels. Where brokenness is platformed, but repentance is buried. Sentimentality has become a smokescreen for cowardice, and too many pulpits are complicit.

True compassion doesn't avoid the wound. It applies the Word. It doesn't just sit with people in their sorrow; it lifts their eyes to the Savior. Anything less is sentimentality disguised as sanctification.

We cannot love our neighbor while lying to him about what God has said. We cannot claim to be merciful if we refuse to warn. And we dare not call it grace when we lack the guts to tell the truth.

"It is not harsh to speak plainly about sin. It is cruel to pretend people are fine when they are walking toward judgment."

The time for soft words and shallow comfort is over. The culture is catechizing the Church. The spirit of the age is sentimental, not sanctified. And the only antidote is truth in love, not love without truth.

We need pastors who bleed conviction. Churches that love enough to confront. Saints who believe that truth still saves, even when it stings.

Compassion is not cowardice. But neither is it compliance. If it is not rooted in conviction, it is not Christlike.

Let the Church rise with tenderness in tone, but steel in her spine. Let us remember that Jesus didn’t die to make people feel better; He died to make them new.

If your Gospel can’t offend, it can’t save. If your church coddles sin more than it confronts it, it’s not a church—it’s a hospice for souls already dying. The world doesn’t need another emotional support sermon. It needs fire in the pulpit and truth in the pews. Sentimental Christianity is a silent killer. It’s time to call it what it is, and preach like souls depend on it. Because they do.

 

by Virgil Walker, a Christian commentator, writer, and podcaster on cultural topics
https://substack.com/home/post/p-163984917

The Great Yogi Berra: King of Malapropisms

As a child of the Fifties growing up in rural Ohio, I was a rabid Cincinnati Redlegs fan. (Why
Were the Cincinnati Reds Called the Redlegs). I was also an avid Yankee “hater” except for one player – Yogi Berra – perhaps because I was a Little League catcher who was also small, wiry and with underestimated talent.

Yogi Berra was a great MLB catcher, manager (Mets and Astros) and Hall of Famer, who died 10 years ago (1925-2015). Among his many accolades, he was an18-time All-Star, appeared in 14 World Series, and helped the Yanks win 10 of them (more than any other player in MLB history.)

For later generations Yogi might be better remembered for his unique humor called malapropisms - nonsensical phrases and expressions that were hilariously memorable such as “90% of the game is half mental” and “You can observe a lot by watching.”

His sayings have been coined “Yogi-isms” and are now countless, even though he never actually said some attributed to him. As he once fittingly explained: "I never said most of the things I said."

[BTW, you might be interested in this recent, excellent documentary about Yogi's life and career produced by his granddaughter - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13840536/?ref_=mv_close 

Here are 50 of our favorites.

1. When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

2. You can observe a lot by just watching.

3. It ain't over till it's over.

4. It's like déjà vu all over again.

5. No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.

6. Baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.

7. A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.

8. Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.

9. We made too many wrong mistakes.

10. Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.

11. You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.

12. You wouldn't have won if we'd beaten you.

13. I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.

14. Never answer an anonymous letter.

15. Slump? I ain't in no slump... I just ain't hitting.

16. How can you think and hit at the same time?

17. The future ain’t what it used to be.

18. I tell the kids, somebody's gotta win, somebody's gotta lose. Just don't fight about it. Just try to get better.

19. It gets late early out here.

20. If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.

21. We have deep depth.

22. Pair up in threes.

23. Why buy good luggage, you only use it when you travel.

24. You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there.

25. All pitchers are liars or crybabies.

26. Even Napoleon had his Watergate.

27. Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.

28. He hits from both sides of the plate. He’s amphibious.

29. It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.

30. I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won twenty-five games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five.

31. I don’t know (if they were men or women fans running naked across the field). They had bags over their heads.

32. I’m a lucky guy and I’m happy to be with the Yankees. And I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary.

33. I’m not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school like I did.

34. In baseball, you don’t know nothing.

35. I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?

36. I never said most of the things I said.

37. It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.

38. If you ask me anything I don't know, I'm not going to answer.

39. I wish everybody had the drive he (Joe DiMaggio) had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I’d never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high catch, and he never walked off the field.

40. So I’m ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.

41. Take it with a grin of salt.

42. (On the 1973 Mets) We were overwhelming underdogs.

43. The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.

44. Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.

45. Mickey Mantle was a very good golfer, but we weren't allowed to play golf during the season; only at spring training.

46. You don't have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it'll go.

47. I'm lucky. Usually you're dead to get your own museum, but I'm still alive to see mine.

48. If I didn't make it in baseball, I won't have made it workin'. I didn't like to work.

49. If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be.

50. A lot of guys go, 'Hey, Yog, say a Yogi-ism.' I tell 'em, 'I don't know any.' They want me to make one up. I don't make 'em up. I don't even know when I say it. They're the truth. And it is the truth. I don't know.

3 Ways the Gospel Changes Every Man's Life

The Gospel and Daily Life

What is the significance of the gospel for Christian men, moment by moment?

Men are given much to look at and listen to every day, literally and spiritually. We are bombarded by messages explicit and implicit from cable news, Internet and radio ads, billboards along the morning commute, magazines in the grocery checkout, bosses and coworkers, and wives and children. 

We are tempted according to our lusts and appetites and shamed over the size of our bank accounts, our standard of living, our level of fitness, the style of our dress, and our achievements (or lack thereof) at work and at home. We never feel done; we rarely feel right. And then we have the Accuser, our old enemy the Devil, eager to capitalize on these moments of weakness with his message of condemnation. It’s a wonder more men don’t refuse even to get out of bed in the morning!

So how does the gospel of grace keep us afloat in the mundane humdrum of an ordinary day in the life of an ordinary man? Well, it’s imperative that we listen early and often to the message of the gospel. When we incline our ears to the good news, directing our gaze to the glory of Christ in Bible study and prayer, we can be changed (2 Cor. 3:18). When we hear the gospel message loudly and clearly, above all rival messages, the truth of grace flashes like lightning into our drab ways of living and thinking, electrifying our souls and thundering with glorious finality, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

And how changed can we be? Consider these three big ways the gospel breathes life into the weary spirit:

1. Freedom from the Past

Every man I know has a wound he carries from his past. I know I do. There are words of judgment, moments of shame, rejections, and embarrassments. And those are just the things done to us. The number of things we’ve done to others, the stuff we struggle to feel forgiven for, the hurtful words and actions, the patterns of disobedience, the secret sins—they all add up, collected like bricks in a sack carried on our backs. Maybe there are people who have not forgiven us. Maybe there are people who continue to remind us of our mistakes.

In Christ, however, there is no more need to measure up. In Christ, you are no longer merely as good as what you have or have not done. In Christ, there is no condemnation (Rom. 8:1).

Man of God, the gospel means that you are not who you used to be: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). In Christ, you are new! The need to measure up is ended. Jesus has measured up on your behalf. In yourself, you are worse than you think, actually, but—wonder of wonders!—in Christ, you are more loved than you realize. Nothing can separate you from Christ’s love (Rom. 8:39), not your stupid mistakes nor your sordid regrets. The righteousness of Christ is yours.

What’s so better-than-great about the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it ends the scorekeeping by which most of us try to live our lives. We see all the expectations and obligations, both from God and from the world, and in our pride we think we’ve “got” this while in our soberness we realize we’re hopeless. But to believe in Jesus is to put an end to the scorekeeping. His perfection is counted as ours. It is a beautiful day when a Christian man remembers that his past is not counted against him but instead his faith is credited as righteousness. It can make you stand a little taller, breathe a little deeper, relax in the right way, and work hard in the right way. On your worst day, you are no less loved. And the shadow of your past failures is vanquished by the light of Christ’s love.

2. Power for the Present

Sometimes I feel like the Michael Jordan of disappointing people. I don’t even have to try. I am a genius at letting people down. It is easy for me to feel defeated by this reality, to believe that I’m only as good as how approved I feel in the moment. Maybe you feel like that too. Maybe you feel like you just can’t get life right. Maybe you have trouble feeling free from scrutiny, disapproval, even shame and condemnation. The beauty of centering on Christ’s gospel is in the fixation on the foreverness of justification. Think about that for a moment.

If the gospel is true, then Christians are justified. John 1:16 tells us that from the fullness of Jesus comes “grace upon grace.” That means there is grace ready and waiting for you every single moment. Right this very second, grace. And in the next second? More grace. Grace upon grace, cascading down from heaven, bubbling up from the indwelling Spirit of Christ in you, fresh and ready mercies waiting for you in the morning when you get up (Lam. 3:22–23).

How can this not transform the dullest, dumbest, darkest moments of our everyday lives? Eternal glory is granted to us by Christ’s righteousness and the Spirit’s power every millisecond of every hour of every day.

This means we have the power to experience joy amid suffering, hope in the depths of pain, obedience in the face of temptation, and forgiveness in the aftermath of sin.

In every grief, every disappointment, every hardship, and every worry, the Holy Spirit is there to help us, console us, direct us, and empower us. This is enormous security, the kind that every man needs to take on whatever the day brings with both meekness and action, humility and boldness. The gospel calibrates us for each moment.

In yourself, you are worse than you think, actually, but—wonder of wonders!—in Christ, you are more loved than you realize.

3. Hope for the Future

Every man I know is haunted by his past. But every man I know is also in some way anxious about the future. Is he providing enough? Is he securing enough? Is he man enough to get into tomorrow without the bottom falling out? We never know what tomorrow will hold, and we are often preparing for the worst. But the good news of Jesus Christ means that, no matter how bad tomorrow gets (and it’s often not as bad as we fear), it can never get completely desperate. The Lord of the universe who holds the future in his hands holds us too, and he has promised us a great deliverance.

The kind of hope and security God’s grace gives a man puts an end to worry. No more worrying about success, no more stressing about the future, no more fragile belief that the future is what we make of it. God’s kingdom has come and is coming, and we have been ushered into it by the success of Christ’s atoning work. We can’t fall out of it, either by sin or by our own mediocrity. Our future is utterly secure.

Does knowing this change today? You bet it does! Now, we may intuitively think that if we know that the future is certain, we will tend to coast. But that ignores the counterintuitive power at work in the gospel. Somehow, by God’s great grace, men who experience freedom in Christ feel more compelled to live for him, not less. Perhaps the best parallel we can think of is how a man plays in a game he is winning. No matter how much energy he is expending, if a winning outcome seems certain, the energy seems limitless. By contrast, you frequently see teams that are losing by an enormous margin lose their gusto. When all seems hopeless, the players act like it. But the gospel that gives us the certain outcome of Christ’s victory and our final deliverance from sin and death also gives us the power to live in ways that give God glory. The victory yet to be fully seen activates Christian men to live like they are “more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37).

I have a friend who says he’s never met a man who felt too free. I think he’s right. The naysayers of the gospel fear all this talk of freedom will make for lazy men, but the Bible shows us the opposite is true. Men who taste gospel freedom can’t get enough of it, and they will push through, run, chase, and endure to the end to get to that prize already promised them before time began.

So, men, let’s pursue it! Let’s chase after this freedom in Christ. Because the truth of the gospel means that the power of the gospel that has laid hold of us is right there for us to lay hold of it. When Christ sets you free, you are really, truly, eternally free (John 8:36). This means that right this very second grace upon grace is yours for the joyful taking.

This article is written by Jared C. Wilson and adapted from the ESV Men’s Study Bible.

Jared C. Wilson is assistant professor of pastoral ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and director of the Pastoral Training Center at Liberty Baptist Church in Kansas City, Missouri. He is a popular author and conference speaker, and also blogs regularly at Gospel Driven Church, hosted by the Gospel Coalition. His books include Gospel Wakefulness; The Storytelling God; and The Wonder-Working God.

 

Are Churches and Men's Ministries Becoming Like the Airlines?

If you’ve flown recently, you have probably observed that no one pays attention to the pre-flight safety videos. There may be the occasional uptick in interest after a well-publicized crash or near-disaster, but soon old habits return—people stuff their AirPods into their ears and stare at their phones rather than watch the briefings.

The airlines appear to have responded to this apathy by trying to make their videos eye-catching and clever. Air Canada no longer shows passengers on a plane but actors outdoors in a variety of Canadian locations. Lufthansa does something similar, though with more of an international feel. United follows some strange Rube Goldberg contraption across a bunch of green-screened locations. The videos are longer than ever and rather abstract. And as far as I can tell, people aren’t any more interested in them than their predecessors.

Many Christians and many churches, and ministries to men, have essentially done what the airlines have done. Seeing that people are either not interested in the message or are not understanding it, they try to repackage it. They dress it up. Instead of delivering the plain truth, they deliver something that is attractive but opaque, something that is meant to catch eyes but actually leaves people further from actual comprehension. But that’s no solution, for the problem is not with the gospel but with the one hearing it.

As we share the good news with others, we all eventually witness the truth of 2 Corinthians 4:4: “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” They don’t see because they can’t see and they can’t see because God has not yet removed the veil that keeps them blind.

Our task is not to dress up the gospel and not to change the message to make it more attractive or palatable. Sure, we can express that same truth in fresh ways and speak in words appropriate to a specific listener. But we cannot change the message and must not fail to speak it. Our God-given task is to preach and plead—to continue to preach the truth lost men and women need to hear and to plead with God that he would do what only he can do—that he would remove the blinders from their eyes and give them eyes to see the wonders of his beauty.

By Tim Challies is a pastor, noted speaker, author of numerous articles, and a pioneer in the Christian blogosphere. Tens of thousands of people visit Challies.com each day, making it one of the most widely read and recognized Christian blogs in the world. Tim is the author of several books, including Visual Theology, The Next Story, and, most recently, Epic: An Around-the-World Journey through Christian History. He and his family reside near Toronto, Ontario.