During his time studying at Liberty University, alumnus Ryan Shieh spent plenty of time practicing his faith on the baseball field as a catcher. Now, as a graduate, he dedicates his time to sharing the love of Christ through long-form conversation as a podcast host and writing as an author.
“I wanted to play baseball as a career and came to Liberty not even knowing that it was a Christian school,” Shieh said.
While Shieh might not have found a path to Liberty without baseball, he left with a knowledge and understanding that changed his life and shaped his career path in an unexpected way. Using his own faith journey throughout young adulthood, he writes with the hope of encouraging and bringing others to the faith. Shieh’s latest release is his new book titled “Counterfeit Christianity: 8 Statements to Identify a Lukewarm Faith.”
“Each chapter is inherently different where it talks about a different area of the faith,” Shieh said. “So, some will be like ‘counterfeit faith has a self-centered view of reality’ … or ‘counterfeit faith values what God can do for them.’”
While writing the book, Shieh drew inspiration from his own experiences at Liberty. His vulnerability speaks directly to the progression of his own faith.
“The book is built out of my own experiences of trying to live … counterfeit, which ultimately is never going to succeed,” Shieh said.
Aside from Shieh’s personal experience and testimony, his motivation for writing this book stems from what is happening in today’s culture. It’s Shieh’s hope that the book provides a bit of guidance in a depraved world.
“Everything has gotten more and more spiritual, especially with everything that’s going on in our world,” Shieh said. “Crazy stuff is going on in today’s world and people are trying to get back to uplifting faith messages and the glimpse of hope. But what the book is really pressing is … at the end of the day, the story of Jesus is not just hope — it’s also atonement for your sin.”
As host for “The Refining Flame Podcast” associated with the School of Divinity, Shieh connects with various leaders and pastors. Recently, some of the podcast guests have included familiar faces within the Office of Spiritual Development, such as Wes Franklin and PJ Preston.
The goal of the podcast is to have intentional faith-based conversations, specifically pointing to the unique spiritual lessons that each guest can share, whether they are a pastor or music artist, like Liberty Worship Collective artist-in-residence Judd Harris.
“It’s a fly on the wall conversation, super raw, no editing of ‘this is how God is working in me’,” Shieh said.
Shieh’s experience with writing and podcasting influence each other in the content and wisdom he shares both through written and audio works.
“A lot of us sign up for Christianity, church, Jesus and Liberty,” Shieh said. “I think oftentimes … we get so used to it we drift … and then we look up a couple years later, and it’s like ‘how did I end up here?’”
In having a public presence online, a higher standard of criticism is inevitable. For Shieh, his approach is to balance being open to receiving criticism well, while also being obedient to what the Lord has to say above all.
“The heartbeat of the book is like, obedience at the end of the day does not measure outcome, doesn’t measure what people say, doesn’t measure what the haters say,” Shieh said. “It’s … whatever God tells me to do I’m going to do it.”
Through these passion projects, Shieh’s main focus has been to act in obedience to encourage others in the faith. This calling points back to what the school’s goal has always been for the students who spend their college years on Liberty Mountain: training Champions for Christ.
When Shieh hung up his catcher’s mitt for the last time in 2023, he made room for another dream: a mission to represent the Lord both in conversation and through his words on a page.
Ganoe is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion.