Drew Marshall

Drew Marshall’s personal pursuit to believe in the unbelievable led him to give up his eyesight for an entire week during Lent and in 2016 he took a five-month sabbatical, during which he walked The Camino De Santiago (over 1000 km) and spent time writing in a monastery off the coast of The Sahara Desert – all in a 3 month vow of silence.

Following on the heels of his declaration of a ‘Crisis of Faith’ in late November 2010, Marshall was asked to join the cast of ‘Journey to Christmas’ a documentary about five individuals travelling through Israel during the Christmas season and following the same path Joseph and Mary would have taken. ‘Journey to Christmas’ was a four-part series which aired in November and December 2011. Marshall decided to join the cast. Finding himself even more disillusioned with religion after seeing the circus of holy monuments set up for worship in Israel, Marshall came home from his trip with no ‘God Encounter’ and posted on his Facebook page, “I will no longer share my personal beliefs until my beliefs are radically altered by the Almighty. It is finished”. Marshall resumed his show in January 2011.

September 2009 Marshall embarked on his next contest So You Think God Wants You To Sing (SYTGWYTS). In July 2010 Marshall made it public that he was no longer sure there was a God. During an interview with noted Christian Apologist Ravi Zacharias, Marshall revealed that he was having a crisis of faith. He chose to continue with his spiritual talk show in hopes of opening up a dialogue surrounding doubt and faith. He created DROOGLE, a web page devoted to ‘Drew’s search for God’, as a forum for open and honest discussions on faith and the existence of God. It is possible that this is the only case of a Christian radio host admitting to a crisis of faith and not stepping down or losing their job. Marshall said he would be continuing his search publicly until December 18, 2010. He claimed to be hoping for “an encounter with God” for Christmas.

In January 2008, Marshall hosted the world’s first Preacher Idol Contest. He asked people to “step out of the pew and into the pulpit”. Individuals were asked to send in 10-minute videos of themselves, preaching to non-churched people. The videos were placed on YouTube and GodTube for audiences to view and vote on. The top three finalists of Preacher Idol were offered $2,000.00 in theological training and books and the opportunity to preach at one of Southern Ontario’s mainstream churches. Marshall ran into problems again when the majority of the churches he contacted were not willing to have the finalists preach at their churches, or even tell their congregations about the contest. The Churches did not like the use of the word “Idol” and did not approve of preaching as a contest.

Marshall was interviewed by 100 Huntley Street, Canada’s longest-running Christian television show on January 29, 2007, but was taken off the air and deleted from Huntley’s web archives due to the controversy some of his comments created. He had stated to the hosts, Ronald and Kathy Mainse, “You guys are the ‘Ken & Barbie’ of Christian television…the sign of a good church is how many ugly people there are.” He also stated that he likes to, “find those with holy hand-grenades up their butts and pull the pin,” and expressed his displeasure with, “Cheesy Jesus TV, where straight guys design the sets.” Marshall retains a friendly relationship with the hosts of Huntley Street.

In June 2007, Marshall advertised in the Toronto Star newspaper that he would pay someone $500.00 to go to church with him. Inspired by the book, Jim and Casper Go to Church, and Hemant Mehta’s book, I Sold My Soul on eBay, Marshall was looking to create dialogue about how outsiders view the church. Two university students, “Sabrina the Pagan” and “Taylor the Agnostic,” were chosen to survey five Churches in Southern Ontario: Orangeville Baptist, Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, The Prayer Palace, the Sanctuary, in Toronto, and The Meeting House. During this experiment both Sabrina and Taylor wrote about their experiences at the different churches on Marshall’s blog, entitled, Hoof Hearted. This began an interactive dialogue between the listeners of the show and the two paid outsiders.

After moving back to Canada in 2003, Marshall successfully proposed a spiritually-oriented talk radio programme to CJYE (AM). Since then, he has interviewed numerous celebrities including B.B. King, Kathie Lee Gifford, Chuck Norris, Tim Conway, Alice Cooper, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Randy Travis, Candace Cameron and James Brown.

In 1997 Marshall and his wife moved to Australia. Marshall joined the pastoral team at a church where he was responsible for the development of a contemporary, post-modern style of service, and the provision of practical pastoral counselling. Marshall stayed at Glenbrook Baptist Church for five years before deciding to leave the ministry and move back to Canada.

Drew Marshall (born November 30, 1966) is the host of The Drew Marshall Show, a spiritual talkback radio show. His show airs live on CJYE based in Oakville, Ontario.