USA (MNN) — From “dad bods” to the election season and Christmastime, brothers Doug and Brad Hutchcraft cover a little bit of everything in their podcast “Go MAD with Doug and Brad.”
Part of the podcast’s title “Go MAD” comes from a phrase Doug and Brad’s dad would tell them before leaving for school.
“When we started in junior high and through high school, every now and then when we’d be walking out the front door to go to school public school, [my dad] would yell ‘Go mad today’,” Doug said. “And our neighbors thought maybe he was kind of going insane or something. They’re like, ‘Why are you telling your children to go mad at school and be mad?’ but actually, he was saying go make a difference. Go in, and be Jesus’ ambassador to and be light and salt to everybody that you’re going to meet today”
Their “Make a Difference” podcast involves Doug and Brad chatting about the ways that in everyday life, Christians are always carrying Jesus’ name and always ambassadors for Christ, often without even realizing it.
The brothers hope to make people aware, through their podcast, of this daily ambassadorship for Christ.
“You’re always having some effect on the people around you,” Doug said.
He recalls being at a memorial service for his mother and hearing people repeatedly say that their mother made them feel important.
This made him want to step back and try to realize how he was making the people around him feel. Loved? Important? Stressed out? Ignored?
“We’re all influencers,” Doug said. “And so going back to the MAD thing—make a difference living—the whole point of the podcast, it’s recognizing that we have a decision every day to be intentional about our influence, instead of being accidental about our influence.”
Doug says that even through their podcast, they have had influence on listeners. One listener wrote in and reported that she was able to have a peaceful conversation with her sister about their different beliefs after being encouraged by an episode of “Go MAD.”
But the episodes can cover a variety of topics, Doug said.
“Sometimes, the podcasts are heavy, a little heavier, sometimes they’re lighter, but they always will include practical ways where you can represent Jesus and even be a magnet for Jesus, especially for those around you that don’t know him.”
The biggest point Doug tries to get across is that Christians have influence on those around them.
Nonbelievers have to believe in a Christian they can see before believing in a God they cannot see, Doug said.
“So live in such a way where you just make the people around you feel important and feel valuable,” Doug said. “And they will ask you why you’re different. That’s influence, when you’ve made them hunger for your hope, and then you can share the awesome hope that we all have in God’s Son.”
