X Marks the Spot

Joe Carlson can remember the exact times when God called him to Moody Bible Institute, Moody Radio, and then his most unexpected calling of all

by Nancy Huffine / February 25, 2026

 

If you’ve ever had an experience that changed the entire trajectory of your life, you probably remember the day it happened. You might even remember the place and the time of day. You probably don’t know exactly where you were standing when it happened. And X rarely ever marks a spot like that.

Unless you’re Joe Carlson.

“Just a few weeks ago, I thought to myself—I need to go and visit ‘my spot.’ I haven't been there in a while. So I went and stood on my X. That’s where I knew things needed to change.”

Joe’s journey to a life-changing spot on a tile floor began in an unlikely place: a Christian radio station in Milwaukee.

“I was a sophomore in high school when I knew I was going to go to Moody,” Joe says. “I remember as a teenager having a Sunday afternoon shift (at the Milwaukee station), and it was my responsibility to put Moody’s Festival of Praise program on the air. I remember the spot in the studio where I knew the Lord had called me to go to Moody Bible Institute, and I knew radio was part of that journey too.”

Sensing a new direction

In 1982, Joe headed to Moody with a tentative plan to become a pastor. Needing a job as a student, his first stop was at Moody Radio (then called Moody Broadcasting Network). “I knew some radio stuff,” Joe recalls, “but I didn't know how much I didn't know. They said there were no openings and to come back later.

“The next semester I applied again, and there was one opening at the bottom of the rung. It was called ‘tape coordinator,’ and it was just sitting in a closet putting labels on tapes and putting them on the closet shelves. That's where I started. It was as low as you could be.”

With this opportunity, Joe sensed a new direction for the future, so he changed his major from Pastoral Studies to Bible Theology. “I think that served me very well because there's always been this two-footed approach for me,” he says. “I've got this love for radio and a love for the technical, but I also have a love for the Word of God.”

In 1985, Joe graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Bible Theology with a Greek emphasis. “I remember the Bible classes that fostered a love for God’s Word, and I remember some theology. But don't ask me a thing about Greek,” he laughs.

‘God redeems things’

Over the years, one opportunity led to another, and Joe worked his way out of the tape closet and up the radio ladder.

“I started at the bottom rung,” Joe says, “and it’s a true thing—that thing of ‘faithful in little’ and ‘faithful in much.’ After a couple of months of working just with the tapes, someone said, ‘Hey, why don't you answer phones for Open Line (a radio program answering listeners’ questions about the Bible)?’

“So I started answering phones for Open Line. And the next thing you know I heard, ‘Hey Joe, why don't you produce Open Line with Pastor Don Cole?’ As time went on, I was producing all sorts of stuff. Then when I graduated in 1985, I was able to go full time.”

In 1992, Joe married fellow Moody graduate Karen (Kati) Thacker, and the couple has one son, Peter.

Over the years, Joe not only enjoyed new job opportunities with Moody Radio in Chicago, he enjoyed travel opportunities that took him far from the Moody campus. “As audio engineers, we recorded people, we edited and did the final program assembly,” he says. “There were several of us. We worked on the live events, preparing remote studios and recording hours of material that made it on the air.”

Bible education at Moody Radio

Joe was not only a dedicated employee, he remained a faithful Moody Radio listener. Some of his fondest memories revolve around the amazing Bible teachers he came in contact with. “I remember Pastor Cole saying, ‘If you allow it, Moody Radio can give you a world-class Bible education if you just listen.’ I thought—wow—that’s wise, and it is absolutely spot on. Don Cole was brilliant and Godly, and his echo in my soul continues daily.”

But it wasn’t just Pastor Cole, the Open Line host, who influenced Joe. “It was working with Wayne Shepherd, being influenced by Joe Stowell and Crawford Loritts, having access to people like Michael Card, Larry Crabb, and working with Bob Bakke on prayer events. You have access to these people coming through the studios over decades, and your soul just gets full! You've been educated by the wide exposure to the entire global Christian experience.”

Unexpected new ministry

Over the years, Joe’s daily walks between the Moody campus and Chicago’s Union Station to commute to and from his home opened his eyes to another experience: Chicago’s homeless population.

“I started seeing people that I walked past not as ‘them.’ I saw them as people . . . and as people that God loves,” he says. “In the middle of my career I was very satisfied at Moody, but I got involved with what I thought was some pretty ‘out there’ stuff. I was thinking, why was I—a bald, middle-aged guy—talking with heroin addicts? I’m supposed to be in a studio!”

Eventually, as Joe sought advice on helping people with addictions who were also experiencing homelessness, he crossed paths with Corey Buchanan, a Moody graduate who currently serves as executive director of Chicagoland Prison Outreach (CPO). Joe would occasionally call CPO and consult with some of their staff about how to help homeless people who ended up in jail or who were recently released from prison.

But one day, CPO called Joe.

“I got a call from Corey out of the blue, and he said, ‘Joe, the Holy Spirit told me to invite you to come and work with us on the inside at Cook County Jail. Think about that, OK?’ What do you say to an invitation like that? It was clear this was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to. So I went through the process of getting my security clearances, and I started training with Corey at Cook County Jail.”

Eye-opening experience

In 2015, while still working full time at Moody, Joe jumped into prison ministry with both feet. His first Bible study was with a group of inmates at Cermak, Cook County Jail’s hospital unit. These men were not only incarcerated but also had serious health issues.

“Those first couple of weeks were scary, but then I settled in a bit,” Joe says. “I could see how God was at work. After a few weeks, we did a study in Mark’s Gospel on the feeding of the 5,000 and how Jesus saw the people as sheep without a shepherd. The discussion was engaging, and I could tell they really got it. Jesus is their Good Shepherd!”

Afterwards, Joe walked in the elevator to leave for his afternoon shift at Moody Radio.

“When the door opened up in the lobby, it was like a scene from those television shows Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med at the same time. There were doctors, nurses, officers, and people on gurneys. I thought—should I stay in the elevator? Someone motioned me out, and I walked through this scene. I saw that there were two detainees in handcuffs standing in the middle of the lobby. They called out to me, ‘Are you a chaplain?’ And I said, ‘No.’ (Joe was still a trainee at the time.) Then they said, ‘Are you a priest?’ And I said, ‘No.’ ‘Are you a pastor?’ Again, ‘No.’ ‘Well, who are you?’ they asked. And I just said, ‘I’m Joe!’”

The men asked Joe to pray for them.

“I remember thinking I should pray what I just taught. I asked that the Good Shepherd would shepherd these men, even though I don't know why they are in this lobby. That's all I prayed. I said ‘Amen,’ and they moved off to wherever they were going.”

Joe then made an amazing discovery.

“At the place where we were standing, the pattern in the square terrazzo floor tiles makes an X shape where the squares come together,” Joe says. “Right there I knew I am not a just radio person anymore, and I know exactly where that spot is on the floor that put me on a very different path.”

Helping set prisoners free in Christ

In 2019, after 33 years, Joe—the former radio tape coordinator—retired from his position as senior producer at Moody Radio and began working with Chicagoland Prison Outreach. Now officially a chaplain with CPO, Joe still leads Bible studies, but he also spends one-to-one time with the inmates.

“I'm in almost every division at Cook County Jail, doing my rounds, seeing lots of people every week, and hearing stories from people facing dark circumstances and uncertain futures,” Joe says. “Most of my time is spent on my rounds passing out Bibles and devotionals or speaking with people who request to see a chaplain during very serious times. I also get to teach every week with CPO’s Bible training program called ‘The Life Learning Community.’”

Joe sees his chaplaincy as pointing men to God’s will for their life.

“In my role as a chaplain, I am not a detainee’s judge. I let the legal system be the legal system,” he says. “I am not their therapist. I let the mental health people do their thing, and I let the medical teams do their work. That leaves this middle ground where all of it intersects.

“If somebody is in crisis, I tell them, ‘The trouble you find yourself in could be God's calling card for you to find Him. Let's find out what Jesus wants to say to you, how the Good Shepherd can find you in this wilderness. Don't push against it. Ask the Lord to find you in it.’”

Moody’s preparation for a powerful new calling

Joe’s heart for these men and his love for the Word of God fuel his desire to listen and to lead with compassion and to share biblical truth that changes lives. His years at Moody as both a student and a Moody Radio employee laid a foundation for a new calling he never saw coming.

“I could not do what I do now—I would not be prepared for it—without my years working at Moody Radio, without Moody Bible Institute providing the foundation, without the people that I met at Moody who discipled me and mentored me as a student, and without all of those people that I worked with for decades,” he says. “The Holy Spirit tells you what to say in the hour you need it. Someone will ask me a question, and I'll remember something from Crawford Loritts or something that Henry Blackaby said or something that I heard on one of Chris Fabry’s shows.

“When you’ve been fed and taught, at some point it starts flowing out when the Lord gives you the opportunity. I think that's the most important thing with any of this. Any Moody Radio listener that gets serious about what they're hearing can ask the Lord, ‘How can I put feet to the things that I have learned?’ At some point He's going to tell you to go, and when you go, you get to see the glory of God in some incredible circumstances.”