Ben Lippen Podcast
Welcome to the Ben Lippen Podcast, where we explore life’s challenges through the lens of Biblical truth and expert advice. We aim to equip families with practical, faith-centered tools for today’s world. Tune in for inspiring conversations that encourage and strengthen your walk in faith!
Ben Lippen Podcast
When I Asked My Dad: Connecting Through Scripture
What happens when a lifetime of theological wisdom gets transmitted from one generation to the next? Mark Ross and Emily Woodard's podcast "I Ask My Dad" offers a compelling answer—and a model for families seeking deeper spiritual connections.
The father-daughter duo never intended to create a podcast. As Emily explains, friends had long suggested that her father's biblical teaching should be recorded, but it wasn't until she needed content for a Bible reading group that the idea took root. What began as a modest plan for "10-minute episodes" quickly evolved into a weekly commitment that has now produced over 75 episodes exploring Scripture chronologically and tackling systematic theology.
Their conversation reveals the beautiful dynamic at the heart of intergenerational faith transmission. Emily's thoughtful questions—often drawn from her experience teaching women at church—push her father to explore Scripture from fresh angles. Mark, drawing on 40 years of pastoral teaching experience, provides insights that satisfy both intellectual curiosity and spiritual hunger. Both admit they've grown through the experience, with Mark noting, "It's been a delight to be pushed in ways that I wouldn't have been pushed had I been left to myself."
For listeners feeling disconnected or intimidated by Scripture, they offer practical wisdom gained from experience. Mark points to the Psalms as evidence that periods of spiritual disconnection are normal, not necessarily signs of failure. Emily encourages those intimidated by Bible reading to remember that even teachers once had to learn, suggesting resources like Bible Project videos alongside trusted mentors. Both emphasize the importance of community in spiritual growth—reaching out to others who might feel equally disconnected often becomes the path to renewed connection.
What started as biblical teaching has unexpectedly modeled how families can discuss faith across generations. As Emily puts it, "I hope it is an example of people being able to talk within their family about faith, doctrine, and how theology impacts what we believe and how we live together." Their closing thought captures the enduring value of Scripture engagement: "The Word of God doesn't return void, so any effort put forth will reap benefits."
Wondering how to deepen theological conversations in your own family? Listen to "I Ask My Dad" on all major podcast platforms and discover how cross-generational dialogue transforms both understanding and faith.
Alright. So we are back with one of our episodes for our summer series. We have Mark Ross with us and Emily Woodard, and why don't you guys just share a little bit about who you are and how you are connected to the Ben Lippen community?
Emily Ross Woodard:So I am Emily Ross Woodard. I'm a graduate of the class of 1999 from Ben Lippen School and a parent of a graduate from 2023 and 2025. And I'm currently serving on the Ben Lippen School Board.
Mark Ross:And I'm her Dad, and I'm the parent of a graduate and a grandparent About to be two graduates.
Erin Kay:So we are recording a podcast here today. However, you two have a podcast of your own, so what inspired you two to start a podcast?
Emily Ross Woodard:You know, I think, well, I think it's, I mean it's you because a lot of people have wanted to have more of your teaching, I think kind of on record and on demand, as it were. And so I think people have posed the idea of a podcast to my dad a number of times over the last number of years and he's I mean he's always been super busy and not super interested in that.
Mark Ross:Not technologically inclined.
Emily Ross Woodard:Yes, but my husband, Robby, had started a podcast of his own and then kind of got into the podcast producing space and, providentially, we also then began living with my parents. So we were all in the same house and I had done a Bible reading plan with a group of friends in 2023. And we were nearing the end of the year and kind of texting and deciding whether we were going to do it again, and I had a few friends that said, well, I'd love to do the reading again. I don't know if I'm going to listen to the podcast that went along with it, and I was sitting at the table we were remembering this yesterday, but sitting at the table with my husband and my dad and I asked my dad if he would be interested in just recording a little bit of content about a Bible reading plan if we read it over.
Emily Ross Woodard:Actually, I looked back at the GroupMe message and I initially told my friends that we were going to do a 10-minute podcast. Oh, you did, yeah, which didn't happen. But I think the funny thing about all of that is this occurred on December the 29th, which was a Friday, and so we recorded the next episode on December the 30th, a Saturday, and that became the first. We've now done 75 episodes, so we've released an episode every Saturday since then. So we did a year of chronological reading through the scriptures and then this year we've been doing a topical study in systematic theology.
Erin Kay:Now you mentioned that part of the intent was to capture the teaching voice of Mark over here.
Emily Ross Woodard:Yeah.
Erin Kay:So tell me a little bit about that teaching. You must be a teacher somewhere.
Mark Ross:Well, I was 20 years a pastor and most of my work in the church. I was not a senior pastor, I was mainly a teacher, and so I did lots of Bible studies. I'm, in fact, doing a men's Bible study that's now in its 40th year meeting at the same home, etc. So I've done a lot of teaching and the church has recorded a lot of things. This itself began because she already had a group of ladies that wanted to read through the Bible day by day, you know, through the whole Bible on a chronological plan that they had followed the year before. They had been listening to a teacher, and they just wanted to do something a little different this time around, not just go back over the same curriculum they already had. And so they told me I should do this. Well, it wasn't my idea of what I thought I ought to be devoting myself to, but as we got into it more and more, I finally relented and we decided to do it.
Mark Ross:After that, it was just catching up to having thrown your hat over the wall. We never really had the opportunity in that first year to work ahead, and there were a couple of times when she was in Florida and I was in South Carolina and we had to do it over Zoom and things like that. We didn't have the benefit of Robbie every week, but I suppose we only were without Robbie three or four times out of the 52. So there was already a small audience there and I was happy to help these ladies along. I love to teach the Bible and I'd done Bible survey in the church for 10 years, but I'd never done it on a calendar year. My last time through I'd done six years and I was eager to do something that was a bit more concise, that might be a bit more digestible to most people. So that's how we got started.
Erin Kay:And what's the name of your podcast?
Emily Ross Woodard:I Ask my Dad. I have done some teaching at our church as well, in Sunday schools, and that kind of became a phrase that I would use over and over again, because, as I would prepare for a study or some kind of seminar or something, I would always call my dad the night before and ask him all the questions I had about the Bible or different doctrines or that passage in particular. And so, as the idea came up and we were batting things around, that seemed to be the one that kind of stuck.
Mark Ross:That was the attractive thing for me. I just loved those times of sitting with her. She would have already done a lot of study, had questions, she was eager to tie things together, et cetera. I just loved that interaction with her, and so doing that on a weekly basis was very attractive to me. To work with my daughter my daughter being a very eager student of the Bible as well as a very competent teacher of the Bible it's just a great joy.
Emily Ross Woodard:Well, yeah, I think in the pilot episode or maybe I don't know if it was maybe a trailer or something, but I mentioned kind of wanting to share my favorite theological resource with people, which was my dad, and so you know, being able to kind of ask him either questions that I had already asked him years ago that meant a lot to me when he answered them or new questions that came up. Being able to kind of have those and then share with friends was great as well.
Erin Kay:Is there a particular episode that really stood out to you so far, one that you hope that listeners will not miss?
Emily Ross Woodard:I asked him that yesterday he said well, I don't listen to them.
Emily Ross Woodard:Actually, I do have a couple that I think have just stuck out to me One from the chronological plan which was in 2024. And I think it was week 33 of the plan, which covered a good bit of Jeremiah. And so just hearing my dad kind of talk through really just kind of the overarching picture behind Jeremiah and what that prophet is called to go through and then how he kind of related it to struggles that we face and the promises that the Lord gives us through those, I think that was a really meaningful one from that season. And then, along the same vein, I think my favorite one we've done so far this year was part four in the doctrine of God, god, where we talked about God's providence and we spent a lot of time in Job of trial and suffering. To have that wisdom and experience, to kind of explain what Scripture is teaching us in those spots, has been really helpful. So that was one that stuck out to me this year that I kind of shared outside of the normal way that we post it and stuff.
Erin Kay:Now, Emily, have you learned anything new or have any new appreciations for your dad through doing this podcast?
Emily Ross Woodard:Yeah, oh yeah, of course I mean Scripture, you know, is an unending place to mine treasure, and so I think I've definitely learned new things. I think I've relearned things that I thought I knew before, and then to come across them again and ask the same question again. And you know, just remember that we're our fallen minds can't contain everything that we learn. And yeah, and I think, just learning too to kind of see how my dad will organize his thoughts and we do kind of a run-through before we approach an episode, so that's been helpful as well, just to kind of see what the highlights are, especially this year, I think, as we're doing doctrines and systems in theology, to see, okay, what are the main points in this that people should know about, and that's been really helpful for me. What about you?
Mark Ross:Well, as I said, she comes with very good questions by the time we sit down to talk through an episode. She has really worked over the passage quite a bit, and so I'm sometimes struck by the fact that she's asking a question that I might not have been asking had I been, you know, starting in on the task and I hadn't been thinking along that line. But you know she comes out of her experience, especially teaching in a women's context. It's been a delight to be pushed in ways that I wouldn't have been pushed had I been left to myself.
Erin Kay:Yes, I love that and thinking about how, no matter what season we are in our lives, we always have room to continue to grow and grow in our understanding of the living word. So what encouragement would you give to students who may feel disconnected or uncertain in their faith journey?
Mark Ross:Well, first of all, there's many causes as to why students might feel disconnected, and some are feeling disconnected because they are. They haven't really put themselves into the place where they can connect. They've held back, maybe they don't attend regularly, etc. So to be connected they've got to be coming and putting it in. But at the same time, the book of Psalms would let us know that there are oftentimes people of God don't feel connected to God or to others round about them. We have many, many Psalms that speak of the struggles of the faith, and I think one of the lessons that you learn from the book of Psalms and reading through the book of Psalms is that those times do come. They're not always an indication that you've messed up in some way and you have yourself to blame. God may be taking you into that territory quite deliberately to teach you new things.
Mark Ross:So the second thing is to persevere. You trust God. You trust God. He tells you that, in connectedness with other Christians, he will be at work because they bring gifts into your life, as you bring a gift or two into their lives, and it's only, as Paul says in Ephesians, chapter 4, when each part of the body of Christ does its part that the body is able to build itself up in love.
Mark Ross:So it's important for us to be connected, to be connected to other Christians in the life of the church, and if we're not feeling that, then, in trust before God, we continue to persevere after that, giving ourselves to it, prayerfully, approaching it and looking for it. And sometimes one of the best ways to make a connection with a body that we are feeling disconnected from is to look very closely, because there's probably other people who are feeling in the same way. And if you reach out to make somebody else feel connected, who seems to have been pushed to the side, you'll often find times that that's the way that God begins to connect you is reaching out to meet the need of another, rather than always sitting back and thinking that your need is not being met. Look for someone else's need to meet.
Emily Ross Woodard:Yeah, I think I would add too and thinking specifically of Ben Lippen's students to lean into the training and the education that they've gotten, about the importance of being in the Word and reading their Bibles and going through with the spiritual disciplines.
Emily Ross Woodard:I mean, my daughter was in a class this year a Bible class that walked through the spiritual disciplines, and I think a lot of the students can understand, I mean, exactly what you were talking about, dad, with just continuing to do the things that the Lord has set out for us to do, to feel connected to the body of Christ in fellowship and prayer and reading scripture.
Emily Ross Woodard:And you know, our faith is certainly not only an academic exercise or, you know, an intellectual ascent to doctrines, but it is also that, and so I think our students have been trained really well and where our feelings and our emotions may vary and change, you know to continue walking in the path that has been shown to them by their parents and their pastors and their teachers here.
Emily Ross Woodard:You know that can reap benefits when we discipline ourselves, and so I think that's really one of the benefits of kids coming here and having not only Bible classes but teachers that reinforce that in any discipline as well. I think it's important for students to remember to do what they've been taught and, while they may not feel the same excitement all the time about their faith journey, when they stay in the Word, when they're praying, when they're fellowshipping with others, when they're attending worship, that feeling will come question how would you encourage a student or a group of students who they feel intimidated by reading the Scripture, whether it's in its entirety, or they get to the big section with all the names and the lineage and they can't pronounce the people's names and they just get lost.
Erin Kay:What would be your encouragement to that student?
Mark Ross:Well, I think being a part of a group in study helps that quite a bit. I think that's God's intent for us. He has some people in the body of Christ who are more gifted at teaching the Bible, helping others to understand the Bible, than others. Others have other gifts and theirs are just as important to the body of Christ, but God intends us to learn and to grow corporately, so to get involved in a good Bible study, to be in a good Bible class here at Bentlip, and my wife and I have just been very thankful to God. We had the opportunity for Emily to come here and now for our grandchildren to come here. We have seen great fruit in their lives for that.
Mark Ross:I think, frankly, the need for Christian students to be in a place like this is probably more urgent now than it was.
Mark Ross:I mean, emily was eager to get here to get out of the public school that she was in at the time and we're thankful to God.
Mark Ross:A board member here took a special interest in us, was a member of our church and made that possible for us to make that move. But I think the cultural climate, the spiritual warfare that's going on, I think it's much more intense today we're just worlds apart between the Christian church and where the world is, and that shows up in public education etc. So I think it's critically important to have our kids in a place where they can be nurtured in their faith, where what is being taught in the home will be reinforced in the school and they'll have the opportunity to participate in athletic teams or drama events or things like that with kids who come from the families that are also committed to that same thing. There's infinite variety in the body of Christ. Not everybody is cut from a cookie cutter that is here, but that's part of the beauty of the church and the body of Christ. But it's wonderful to have a unity in Christ, that there's a common ground upon which we are building as we try to raise our children together.
Emily Ross Woodard:I think for students that are intimidated too and certainly I mean we all run across this, whether it's somebody that shows up at church that doesn't have a church background, or students that come here and really haven't been exposed to a lot of what they're going to learn in their Bible classes and that kind of thing I mean I think maybe it's more of an encouragement for the rest of us to remember that we all had to learn that too. You know, I think just thinking back to our podcast, the first few episodes, I think I was really unsteady because I kept thinking well, I don't want people to think I'm asking this question for the first time, I know this, but I'm asking this question. But then I thought but I did ask this question at the first time, I know this, but I'm asking this question, but I did ask this question at some point. And we all have had to learn, whatever it is we know about Scripture, and the more we learn, the more we want other people to enjoy that knowledge as well. And so I think for students that are intimidated, I mean you just have to ask and if you come across somebody that you really admire what they know about the Bible, maybe ask them how they learned it.
Emily Ross Woodard:Plus, I think there's so many wonderful tools out there now like podcasts or even like the Bible Project video. I mean, that's something we've both used in preparation before, and so there's so many great things out there that can be helpful. There's also so many things out there that are not helpful, so that might be another direction to kind of talk to a trusted teacher or a friend or a parent. What's your favorite resource? What's a commentary that would help me with this, or where can I find an answer to this question? So lots of options.
Erin Kay:So I'm hearing a theme here of connection points and not doing things alone and having that unity which is very important. And you're exactly right, the body of Christ. We're all created different. We all have different gifts and talents, but together it just makes this beautiful symphony. So, yeah, All right. So how has reading the Bible together as a father and daughter, shaped your understanding of discipleship across generations?
Mark Ross:Well, I think one. The reading through the Bible steadily puts you in contact with the story of the Bible. And as you're reading the story of the Bible, as has been mentioned, you're discovering there are many points of contact between what's going on in your personal story and in your life that are coming out of the Holy Scriptures. You're able to find yourself in it.
Mark Ross:There's a man who taught at Princeton Theological Seminary for many years he's featured in one of the books I require in my theology class now and that man was an atheist and he had grown up with no exposure to the Bible. He'd never seen a Bible but hostility to the Christian faith. But he went through a war, he had seen many of his friends killed, etc. He had studied philosophy. He was trying to build a worldview that made sense of the world that he was experiencing. But increasingly over time that was just falling apart.
Mark Ross:And then one day his wife brought a Bible home just out of the blue, and he had just finished trying to put together the book that he was trying to write and make by clipping pieces out of here, there and elsewhere. It just didn't come together. Out of here, there and elsewhere, it just didn't come together and finally he opened the Bible just spontaneously and fell on the Sermon, on the Mount and on the Beatitudes, and he described it then as, finally, a book that understands me. A book that understands me. So I think, as we've read it together, as we've studied together, as people interact with us who are listening to the podcast a number of them at our church and talking to us about it I think you just get a fresh sense, over and over and over again, that God is at work in these things. We're not just reading about what God did at one point in time. We're living through it right now.
Emily Ross Woodard:God is still doing these things and God is still drawing people to himself.
Emily Ross Woodard:Yeah, I've really enjoyed talking through things with my dad that maybe we talked through 10 or 15 years ago or even more, but now kind of knowing him from a different gleaned from Scripture, over his history with it and seeing how that has impacted his life and his ministry, and that's been neat.
Emily Ross Woodard:And going back to what you were saying about people at the church too, I think something I didn't consider when we started the podcast was people hearing us as father and daughter talk. I mean, of course it's called I Asked my Dad but for me it was more about sharing someone with great biblical knowledge that I had personal access to and just sharing that resource. But a lot of people have commented to me like, oh, this has really been an encouragement to me about how to talk to my kids or how to talk to my parents and I never really thought about that. So that's been kind of a sweet, just bit of feedback that we've gotten and so I hope that it is an example of people being able to talk within their family, within generations, and just have that conversation of faith and doctrine and life and how theology impacts what we believe and how we live and how we live together in community.
Erin Kay:Emily, have you found it to impact your conversations with your children?
Emily Ross Woodard:Yeah, I think I don't know that either of my kids have listened very much to the podcast, but they may in the future, which would be great, just so they can hear more of their granddad. But they definitely. I mean we talk about it at dinner, we talk about what episode we're doing next, we talk about high points to hit, and so they've definitely been involved in some of that. And yeah, I mean, I think every conversation I have with my own dad kind of reinforces things that are important to pass on to my children, whether it comes up that day or five, ten years from now when they may be facing something different in life. But it helps me to kind of have somebody that's taught personal application of Scripture and then to be able to live that out and hold on to those things to share with my kids and grandkids. I guess maybe at some point Come sooner than you think.
Erin Kay:How can schools help nurture this kind of spiritual connection that you're speaking of, whether it's a school like Ben Lippen, where we're able to openly talk about our love of Christ and how he works in our lives, or in a public school, where that voice is dampened a little bit more?
Mark Ross:Well, I think any school ought to keep in mind that the primary tool for the equipping of the younger generation to take their place in the world, you know, as a functioning adult the primary way is actually through the family and not through the school, and the schools ought to seek to build on that. I think you know I've seen Emily working with her children in the home as they have assignments, particularly assignments on the Bible, where she herself has been a teacher of the Bible and is teaching the Bible now, but even on the other things. So when schools give assignments that kind of require that interaction with the parents, it can bring about conversations that might not otherwise come about. You know, when a part of the assignment is you got to talk to your parents, that helps open a door that might otherwise be a little hard to open for one reason or another. In this that and the other family, emily's older brother. He would come home from school and I'd say, well, how was your day today?
Erin Kay:Fine.
Mark Ross:You know anything happen today? No, and that you know that was typical. And then there came a year where he went off to a new school and so, particularly early on in the year, well, how was school today, anything interesting happen? And then one day he stopped me. He said oh yeah, he said there was something that was interesting today. He said did you know that God making the world was a myth? I said, no, I didn't know that. Tell me more about that. And suddenly we had something to talk about. Yeah, to see what was going on there, and led to a conversation with a principal later on.
Mark Ross:And so I really think schools ought to try to make that connection as much as they can.
Mark Ross:And you know, I happen to think I'm involved in educating ministers right now and one of the challenges we're going through as we evaluate our curriculum and we're trying to redesign it for the future, as more and more of our students are online, they're not in residence, etc.
Mark Ross:We've lost a place in their lives where we can actively shape them, you know, by living together, eating together and things like that. We meet on Zoom calls and things like that. So we're trying to find ways to connect more with the churches in the education and preparation of their students to serve churches. But the churches themselves will need help to know how to help their students become ministers. So we can't just say, well, why don't you do this. We've got to find a way to help the church to do that. So the students aren't just given jobs to do, they're given training, they're given help along the way. So I think trying to create closer partnerships between the home and the school is the way in which the schools can build upon the providence of God, which makes families to be the chief shaping instrument for the growth of students into adulthood.
Emily Ross Woodard:I mean I agree with that.
Emily Ross Woodard:I do feel like schools have a very important I mean they do spend so much time with the students that are there, and so to have that idea of intentionally partnering with the family and I think Ben Lippen does that really well intentionally partnering with the family, and I think Ben Lippen does that really well.
Emily Ross Woodard:Certainly it's a difficult task as students aren't coming from equal playing fields in terms of their family situations and what they have at home, and so I know schools have to kind of figure out who may need more attention in that area or something. But yeah, I've really enjoyed the assignments my daughter had back to the class where she had spiritual disciplines. Every time they went through a discipline then they had to explain it to someone on video, and so she did that with me a number of times, and so that was neat just to hear her kind of summarize something she had learned and for me to get an insight into that class as well. You know, I think as my kids have gotten older I've spent less time kind of looking at the assignments and the syllabus and, you know, just trusting that the kids will come if they have questions and so but anything that, yeah, that kind of encourages interaction with your parents or your grandparents or whatever it is, is helpful.
Erin Kay:I have two children in the middle school this year, one in fifth grade and one in sixth grade and something this young does is requires the students to interview a member of their family that is one generation removed.
Erin Kay:So my children have had to go and interview someone and learn about them, learn about their life, learn about how the Lord came into their lives. So I agree with what you're saying Ben Lippen does present those opportunities for that, and in the lower school, with Grandparents Day and how they incorporate those sorts of things. I know this year, the second grade, one of their projects or their service projects this year was collecting names of family members who are veterans, and so they spent the year mailing letters, mailing art, mailing scripture to different veterans that are connected as family members to our community. So those are just a few other examples of how this idea, it transcends high school all the way down to the lower school here at Ben Lippen. Yeah, so, as we wrap this up, are there any closing thoughts that you have for our listeners, whether it's about your podcast or about diving into the Scripture or challenges they might be going through?
Mark Ross:Well, the Scriptures are living and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword, they're able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. There's just nothing that will ever take the place of an active engagement in reading and studying the Scripture, and doing it not just personally but corporately in our churches, sitting under the preaching each week, attending Bible studies, et cetera. This is the bread of life.
Emily Ross Woodard:And the Word of God doesn't return void, so any effort that's put forth will reap benefits. I think I don't know that we have any other words to add.
Erin Kay:Those are wonderful words, so thank you both for being here with us today, and if people want to listen to your podcast, they just go to any of their favorite players.
Emily Ross Woodard:Yeah, I think we're on all the platforms. I Asked my Dad, I Asked my Dad.
Erin Kay:It's a great podcast. Y'all should check it out. All right, Thanks everyone. We'll see you on our next episode of the Ben Lippen Podcast.