Steve Robinson is an Orthodox Christian living in Phoenix Arizona and owns his own construction company. Prior to becoming Orthodox, he was an evangelical pastor and church leader. More recently, he established one of the most popular Orthodox podcasts on the planet ? Our Life in Christ ? which he hosts with his friend Bill Gould. In this shorter podcast, Steve reflects on the practical side of being an Orthodox Christian working in a secular environment.
How I Am
Steve learns that he and his ego crucified Christ from a ten year old child.
1/18/2021 • 14 minutes, 8 seconds
My God, My God Why Have You Forsaken Me?
Steve discusses his struggle with his recent diagnosis with cancer while caregiving his dying parents. He takes an honest, hard look at the common sayings and spiritual counsels often given to people who are suffering.
5/29/2020 • 27 minutes, 3 seconds
The Mitt
7/16/2018 • 10 minutes, 28 seconds
Where Am I?
Steve discusses physical and spiritual dementia and remembrance in the sacramental life of the Church.
6/9/2018 • 9 minutes, 32 seconds
A Life Update
In this podcast, Steve Robinson brings us up to date on his life, a four-year-old catechist, signing a death warrant and a prison release, and the challenges of caring for aging and dying parents.
1/29/2018 • 8 minutes, 23 seconds
Death, Life, and Love
Steve discusses his death at birth, his life-long desire to be old, his "death wish," and what it means to "live is Christ and to die is gain."
2/8/2017 • 11 minutes, 34 seconds
An Ordinary Christmas
On an ordinary night, like ten thousand other nights the shepherds experience the extraordinary: The transcendent God is revealed in our ordinary flesh.
12/19/2016 • 5 minutes, 23 seconds
Staying Orthodox
Steve discusses the realities of becoming Orthodox, being Orthodox, and staying Orthodox.
8/23/2016 • 15 minutes, 4 seconds
Mediocrity
Steve discusses mediocrity, the struggle with being ordinary, and the reality of what it means to be an "everyday saint."
7/10/2016 • 14 minutes, 19 seconds
The Domestic Monastery
Steve discusses both his desire to be a monk and marriage and family as the "domestic monastery."
5/27/2016 • 9 minutes, 18 seconds
The Domestic Church
Steve begins a series on "the domestic church" and reflects on the liturgy of life, love, and family living with four generations in his house.
5/4/2016 • 11 minutes, 18 seconds
Orthodoxy in the Office
Steve discusses working in an office environment, the disease of being awesome, black robes, fake humility, the illusions of self-employment, and the importance of donuts.
4/13/2016 • 15 minutes, 53 seconds
The Will of God for Our Life
Steve answers listener email and discusses our human fear of free will. Ultimately, we are created FOR paradise, not BY paradise.
3/25/2016 • 15 minutes, 50 seconds
Steve the Builder Awakens: Reflections at 63
Steve returns to podcasting after five years of silence. He reflects on "the will of God for your life" in light of his recent life events.
3/11/2016 • 10 minutes, 57 seconds
On Growing Old
Steve reflects on turning 59, the past, work, family, a change of careers and facing old age.
8/7/2011 • 9 minutes, 13 seconds
Love Wins: An Orthodox View of Salvation
In response to Rob Bell's controversial book Love Wins, Steve ventures into the world of video and gives a short summary of the difference between the mainstream Protestant view of salvation and an Orthodox view. Listen to the short audio introduction below, then watch the video.
6/10/2011 • 2 minutes, 32 seconds
Miracles or Deceptions?
Steve discusses his experiences with miracles as a Protestant and now as an Orthodox Christian.
3/1/2011 • 17 minutes, 11 seconds
Demolition, Canons and Spiritual Direction
Steve reflects on the limitations and dangers of the tools of his trade and how it applies to how we approach the Canons of the Church.
1/31/2011 • 16 minutes, 50 seconds
If I Were a Rich Man… Dadadadada….
Steve the Builder is on the road again and spent a week insulating and remodeling the Abbot's cell, a 60 year old building at St. Michael's Monastery in northern New Mexico.
1/18/2011 • 9 minutes, 14 seconds
Orthodox Evangelism
You'd think by now that people would figure out that what is hip, cool and relevant today will elicit LOL's on YouTube 30 years from now. What does this mean for Orthodox Christians, cultural relevance and evangelism?
10/27/2010 • 13 minutes, 23 seconds
Fr. Meletios Webber on Priesthood and Spiritual Fathers, Part Three
Steve finishes his interview with Fr. Meletios and discusses spiritual directors, accountability groups and obedience.
10/9/2010 • 18 minutes, 48 seconds
Fr. Meletios Webber on Priesthood and Spiritual Fathers, Part Two
Steve continues his interview with Fr. Meletios Webber and they discuss the role of the parish priest as a Father/confessor, confession and counseling, penances, clairvoyance and much more.
9/30/2010 • 36 minutes, 50 seconds
Fr. Meletios Webber on Priesthood and Spiritual Fathers, Part One
Steve interviews Fr. Meletios Webber, the Abbot of St. John's Monastery, on what the "grace of the priesthood" bestows on a man and what the priest's authority and role is in the life of the parish and in his relationship with his parishoners as his spiritual children.
9/23/2010 • 29 minutes, 39 seconds
On The Priesthood
How does someone know they are called to the priesthood? Steve discusses his lifelong "call" and where he was ordained.
8/19/2010 • 14 minutes, 22 seconds
StB Goes to the Movies
Steve the Builder reviews Inception. But after seeing the movie, he's not sure if Ancient Faith Radio is real. Nor is he sure if the idea for the podcast was planted in his head by Leonardo DiCaprio or by a night out at the park with friends in 1969. But maybe the movie is more real than the people who made it intended it to be.
8/16/2010 • 8 minutes, 38 seconds
Orthodoxy and Homosexuality, Part Two
In Part Two Steve answers email from listeners in a Question/Answer format.
8/4/2010 • 25 minutes, 49 seconds
Orthodoxy and Homosexuality, Part One
In this podcast Steve references an article he wrote for AGAIN Magazine on the Orthodox Church and same sex attraction. In it he shares the results of several interviews with Orthodox men and women who shared their backgrounds and experiences as homosexuals before and after becoming Orthodox Christians.
3/19/2010 • 22 minutes, 26 seconds
The Orthodox Chameleon
They say "Clothes make the man"... Steve gives up his Hawaiian shirt and learns a hard lesson.
3/5/2010 • 11 minutes, 51 seconds
The Story of Joe
What happens when someone puts a gun to your head and you don't believe in Jesus?
2/19/2010 • 11 minutes, 28 seconds
Valentine’s Day and Marriage
Listen in on Steve's reflections on learning to love, his marriage and his Valentine's day wish for his wife.
2/10/2010 • 5 minutes, 23 seconds
Ask Me About Jesus
Or, maybe you shouldn't... there are other people who are more authoritative. I'll tell you where to find them.
1/30/2010 • 9 minutes, 23 seconds
The Boat
Join Steve as he stands in line with some fellow shipmates on the economic downturn boat and talks about navigating rough financial waters.
1/23/2010 • 9 minutes, 44 seconds
Ain’t I Great?
Sometimes we ask, "If I die young, how many great things might I have done?" Perhaps we should ask, "If I live long, will I die a human being?"
12/15/2009 • 11 minutes, 44 seconds
Happy Holidays
When Jesus came as The Gift to the world as a stranger, He encountered politics, and it was politics that ultimately killed the Gift. In Houston Texas, politics once again kills the Gift of Christmas.
12/9/2009 • 8 minutes, 59 seconds
A Life Well Lived
Steve has been dealing with friends and family who are facing death for the past few weeks. Listen in as he talks about his father and friends and the difference between a good life and a life well lived.
11/25/2009 • 8 minutes, 46 seconds
Capital Punishment, Final
In the final podcast in the capital punishment series Steve discusses punishment, retribution and hell in light of "God is love". Can Christians legitimately believe in retributive punishment and a loving God? And finally, what is the responsibility of Christians to those on death row?
9/11/2009 • 14 minutes, 51 seconds
Capital Punishment, Part 7
Is the death penalty really a deterrent? Is there a need to kill evildoers if we can keep society safe through the prison systems? Is punishment a primitive concept not fit for modern enlightened society?
9/4/2009 • 14 minutes, 14 seconds
Capital Punishment, Part 6
This week Steve discusses the woman taken in adultery, would Jesus "flip the switch" on the electric chair, and should evildoers be given life in prison in hopes that they will eventually repent?
8/27/2009 • 16 minutes, 2 seconds
Capital Punishment, Part 5
Why does God allow imperfect and fallen human beings make life and death decisions? Have Christians permitted the atheists to define our doctrines? Who has a greater problem justifying being against the death penalty, the Christian or the atheist? What does iconography have to do with the death penalty? All this and more...
8/21/2009 • 18 minutes, 12 seconds
Capital Punishment, Part 4
What are the pitfalls of a "Christian State"? Can or should the State govern according to the Gospel? Can "forgiveness of enemies" be a valid principle of civil order? What do the Fathers of the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches say about the relationship of Church and State in regard to civil order and capital punishment?
8/14/2009 • 16 minutes, 12 seconds
Capital Punishment, Part 3
In Part 3 of the series, Steve begins a discussion of the Church and State. How do we view Judaism as a theocracy? Is Jesus anti-death penalty? What is the purpose of civil authority? Is the State constrained to function on the level of the Gospel and should it?
8/7/2009 • 15 minutes, 27 seconds
Capital Punishment, Part 2
In the second part of the series Steve discusses the Flood as the dividing line in human history in regard to the meaning of death, fear and capital punishment. Did the Mosaic Law abrogate the covenant with Noah? What do the atheist and the Christian have in common in regard to capital punishment?
8/1/2009 • 15 minutes, 38 seconds
Capital Punishment, Part 1
Steve begins a four part series on "Capital Punishment". In Part One he chronicles his work with emotionally disturbed children and the beginning of his shift from radical pacifism to a reconsideration of the death penalty.
7/23/2009 • 10 minutes, 30 seconds
Cleaning House
What REALLY happens when the wife is gone for ten days and the husband realizes he has 24 hours to prepare for her homecoming? Listen to Steve give away the "man secrets" and why cleaning house is a part of our salvation.
7/16/2009 • 7 minutes, 50 seconds
All Dogs Go to Heaven
I had to put one of my dogs to sleep. He was young, healthy but had been abused. He started biting visitors to our home. I was confronted with the question, "What does love demand?" When our pets die, or we have to kill them, what do we tell our kids? What do we do for closure? Do our pets go to heaven?
7/3/2009 • 13 minutes, 12 seconds
The Theology of Work, On the Road with Steve the Builder
In the seventh podcast from the road trip to St. John's monastery, after a long day Steve reflects on the meaning of work, family and death and their relationship to our salvation.
6/26/2009 • 10 minutes, 42 seconds
Monasticism or Marriage? On the Road with Steve the Builder
When a married man spends three weeks at a monastery, sometimes delusions can begin to set in. Who is more holy, the monk or the married man (or woman)?
Listen in on Part Six of the "On the Road" series as Steve reflects on the monastic life and married life during his recent stay at St. John's Monastery.
6/19/2009 • 15 minutes, 47 seconds
Man as Meat, On the Road with Steve the Builder
In part five of the "On the Road" series, I stopped in front of whore house in the middle of the Nevada desert. Sex and death are inextricably intertwined in the human being. That is why the Playmate Ranch is the perfect icon of our fallen humanity.
6/12/2009 • 13 minutes, 25 seconds
Sin, Slots, Church and Death, On the Road with Steve the Builder
This is the fourth podcast of the "On the Road" series. As I was driving through Las Vegas I saw two billboards, one for a Church and one for a casino, but they were really saying the same thing.
6/5/2009 • 10 minutes, 9 seconds
Death Valley, On the Road with Steve the Builder
This is the third podcast in the "on the road" series while I'm travelling through the desert on my way to St. John's Monastery. In this episode I make a stop in Death Valley. What I find in the desolate desert of Death Valley is a metaphor for the fallen human being in the image of God.
5/28/2009 • 10 minutes, 39 seconds
Death in the Desert, On the Road with Steve the Builder
This is the second podcast of a series recorded while travelling through the deserts of Arizona and Nevada to St. John's Monastery. Something caught my eye and I stopped.
This is what I found about 80 miles from civilization.
5/22/2009 • 12 minutes, 50 seconds
The Will of God for My Life, On the Road with Steve the Builder
Steve the Builder is on the road. Join me on my trip to St. John's Monastery in Manton, California, where I will be working on their new church for the next few weeks. I just traveled through about 1,000 miles of desert and stopped at a lot of interesting and sobering places along the way. Companion pictures for this podcast and more from the trip are on my blog at http://pithlessthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-desert-of-sorrow-and-sin.html.
5/15/2009 • 16 minutes, 53 seconds
Fear of Silence
In the movies when we hear silence in a darkened house, something dies. Spiritual silence is entering a dark place...but what happens if we are brave enough to shut off the noise?
5/8/2009 • 11 minutes, 48 seconds
Hope, a Paschal Reflection
The Resurrection and the events that led up to it confronts the world with a reality that both the atheist and the Christian agree upon. Christians would do well to listen to the atheists who preach half the gospel more faithfully than some Christians do. But whose faith, in the end, brings hope?
5/2/2009 • 11 minutes, 24 seconds
Betrayal
In Holy Thursday's afternoon liturgy, we promise in the prayers before Communion, "Neither will I give Thee a kiss as did Judas". And that evening we hear the Gospel. The sum of our life says we've lied.
4/16/2009 • 10 minutes, 45 seconds
The Thief
When you have no choice, what will you choose?
4/10/2009 • 8 minutes, 12 seconds
Abandoned
Is the sign of being a good Christian a chipper personality, a happy "gladness in the Lord", and a positive outlook on life? The answer is in Matins and the Song of Solomon.
4/3/2009 • 16 minutes, 34 seconds
In the Company of Sinners
How does a seminary graduate end up owning a construction company and what happens when you take the gospel into the "real world" of business?
3/27/2009 • 14 minutes, 42 seconds
Philosophical Ketchup Part Two
What do 1959 Cadillacs, dog houses, rabbits and Congress have to do with the philosophical spirit of the age? Find out as Steve discusses ten things you cannot say as a moral relativist... but wait! THIS podcast goes to ELEVEN!
3/20/2009 • 15 minutes, 33 seconds
Philosophical Ketchup
The gospel of relativism is preached everywhere, at all times, and by all. It shows up in the most inconspicuous and subversive places.
3/13/2009 • 11 minutes, 21 seconds
The Present Moment
How we close a door is a measure of our spiritual life.
3/6/2009 • 8 minutes, 11 seconds
Fairy Tales
Science and Hans Christian Anderson have one thing in common: They both deal in fairy tales...except one of them tells us the truth.
2/27/2009 • 15 minutes, 30 seconds
Homeless, Hungry, God Bless
Who do you see on the street corners? Or do you even look at them? When we avoid eye contact with the homeless, we are avoiding looking into the face of Christ and at our own faces.
2/20/2009 • 8 minutes, 6 seconds
The Man in the Mall
When we look at human beings what do we see? More importantly, are we willing to see ourselves?
2/13/2009 • 11 minutes, 21 seconds
The god Called “Earth”
With all the discussion of carbon footprints and the human impact on our planet, has environmentalism become the new paganism of the 21st Century?
2/6/2009 • 14 minutes, 37 seconds
Toyota Changes Everything
Toyota's latest ad campaign claims that their new dealership changes EVERYTHING. Perhaps it could have, but someone beat them to it a long time ago.
1/30/2009 • 7 minutes, 33 seconds
Dining Out Like a Christian
In this podcast Steve gives a simple way to get to know someone quickly: take them out for dinner. He discusses how both CEO's of international corporations and the scriptures tell us that how people treat waiters and waitresses says volumes about their personality, ethics and spiritual life.
1/23/2009 • 11 minutes, 21 seconds
Circle of Life
In his first episode, Steve reflects on fish, turtles, Disney, life and death.
