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441: The Idol of Image Is KILLING You. Tauren Wells on Burnout, Performative Christianity, and Why Influence Without Intimacy Always Implodes

Podcast · May 21, 2025

We’ve mistaken platforms for purpose. We’ve idolized influence and sacrificed intimacy. And we’ve called it success, when in reality, it’s just burnout in disguise. This week, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Tauren Wells joins Win Today for a brutally honest conversation about the danger of exposure growing faster than character. Together, we explore how influence without intimacy leads to insecurity, how image management becomes spiritual performance, and why pathologizing our struggles has kept us from doing the real work of healing.

In this episode, Tauren shares:

  • Why our obsession with platform is choking out intimacy with God
  • How to recognize when your gift is outpacing your growth
  • The subtle ways we pathologize pain instead of transforming through it
  • What happens when we label dysfunction as “personality”
  • How to develop character deep enough to carry influence well

This episode is a fire alarm for the performance-driven. A call to stop putting Band-Aids on bullet holes. And a prophetic invitation back to the secret place. Listen now—and trade performance for presence.

Guest Bio

Tauren Wells is a Grammy-nominated recording artist, speaker, and pastor known for blending powerful artistry with rich spiritual insight. A former frontman for Royal Tailor and now a solo artist and communicator, Tauren leads Church of Whitestone in Austin, Texas, and travels globally to equip the Church with truth, identity, and integrity. His voice calls this generation to trade influence for intimacy, performance for purpose, and burnout for healing.

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Guest Links

Website | Instagram | YouTube

Resources Mentioned This Week

  • Joy Bomb: Unleash Jesus’s Explosive Joy for an Extraordinary Life
  • Healing What You Can’t Erase: Transform Your Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Health from the Inside Out

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The Latest Content

  • 441: The Idol of Image Is KILLING You. Tauren Wells on Burnout, Performative Christianity, and Why Influence Without Intimacy Always Implodes
  • 440: Stop Being Triggered! Rita Springer on The Link Between Obedience and Your Mental Health, and the Stories Keeping You Stuck
  • 439: Break the Toxic Cycle. Manny Arango Unpacks Emotional Manipulation, Generational Chaos, and Dethroning the god of Self
  • 438: Facing Midlife: Ian Simkins on Success, Loneliness in Your 40s, Spiritual Abuse, and Why Efficiency Is a Terrible God
  • 437: Dave & Ann Wilson on Why Your Wounds Are On Display in Marriage, The Power of Words to Crush Your Spouse, and How Intimacy Becomes Manipulation

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