PODCAST · religion
The Parsonage Files
by Richard Birk
The Parsonage Files is all about bringing the fun back to church! Each week, twin brothers Rick and Rob Birk share fascinating, funny, and sometimes surprising stories from church history, along with quirky and uplifting news from the world of faith. From inspiring moments to unusual tales you’ve probably never heard, it’s a joyful mix of laughter, learning, and a fresh look at the church you thought you knew.
Episodes
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What Happened At Sea?
The Mary Celeste Mystery: What Really Happened to the Ship That Vanished at Sea? A ship drifts empty across the Atlantic with the food still aboard, the cargo untouched, and not a single sign of a struggle. The Mary Celeste should have been on a routine crossing, but instead it became one of...
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Ohio’s Skinwalker Ranch? Bigfoot, UFOs & Shadow People
At 2:00 in the morning, Robert’s dog was crying and desperately trying to crawl under a push mower. When Robert aimed his flashlight toward the barn, he said a huge, hairy creature with glowing red eyes was standing less than 30 feet from his back door. That was only the beginning. During the...
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Aliens Steal Her Bible!
In 1967, Betty Andreasson reported a strange night involving unexplained lights, small beings, missing time, and memories that would remain hidden for nearly a decade. What later emerged under hypnosis included an alien examination, a glowing blue book, a copied Bible, and a message Betty…
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Did a UFO Deploy Robots Against a Hunter in the High Sierra?
Did a UFO Deploy Robots Against a Hunter in the High Sierra?The Cisco Grove UFO CaseHe had three arrows and a few matches. And one choice: jump into the ravine, or stay in the tree while the white vapor rose.That was Donald Shrum's night in 1964 — a bow hunter stranded after dark in the Tahoe...
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The 1965 Alien Encounter That Left a French Farmer Paralyzed
Lavender Field UFO Encounter: The 1965 French MysteryDescription:A French farmer walks into his lavender field to catch a thief.What he finds is a small, dark, rounded craft sitting in the lavender, two strange little figures, and a mystery that still has people scratching their heads nearly…
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The Flatwoods Monster: The Alien That Brought The Stink
What if the strangest part of one of America’s most famous UFO stories wasn’t the monster… but the smell? In 1952, witnesses in Flatwoods, West Virginia reported a towering creature, glowing eyes, burning throats, swollen eyes, and a rotten-egg stink so bad people started blaming each other. Yes,...
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The Most Credible UFO Case Ever? The Lonnie Zamora Incident
Here is the revised Spotify-friendly description: In April 1964, New Mexico police officer Lonnie Zamora chased a speeding car into the desert and came back with one of the strangest UFO reports in American history. He said he saw a white, egg-shaped craft sitting in a dry arroyo near Socorro. He...
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The Wizard Clip Haunting
What if you heard something in your house…and knew it wasn’t anyone you could see? In this episode of The Parsonage Files, we tell the true story of The Wizard Clip Haunting, one of the strangest paranormal stories from early American history. In the 1790s, in what is now Middleway, West…
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The 1973 Ohio UFO Wave
Description:October 1973. Ohio went strange.Police officers, military pilots, and ordinary people across the state reported lights and objects in the sky they could not explain. One of the most famous cases involved an Army Reserve helicopter near Mansfield. The crew said a glowing object...
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Missionaries vs. Monsters
Missionaries vs. Monsters | The Parsonage FilesThe best monster stories aren't on Reddit. They're buried in old missionary reports — tucked between crop notes and prayer requests. Nobody looks there. Which is exactly why the stories are so good.Tonight, Pastor Rick and his brother Rob dig into...
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The Black Dog of Bungay Church
Something entered that church during the storm... and people never forgot it. In 1577, witnesses said a giant black dog with burning eyes ran through a church service and killed people. In this episode of The Parsonage Files, Pastor Rick and Rob break down one of the wildest church legends in...
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The Church Trip That Got Sasq-Watched
Christians Keep Running Into Bigfoot | The Parsonage Files A youth group hikes into the Marble Mountain Wilderness and captures something on camcorder they can't explain. A Baptist pastor in Florida grabs an axe and charges toward an 8-foot-tall hairy figure. A church camp in Washington State…
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Did a Pope Really Have a Baby? The Legend of Pope Joan
Pope Joan, a female pope, and a baby born in the streets of Rome. Did a pope really have a baby, or is this Catholic Church legend pure fiction? If it is fiction, why did church writers insist it was true? In this episode of The Parsonage Files, Pastor Rick and his brother Rob tell the Pope Joan...
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The Cape Girardeau UFO Crash of 1941
In 1941, a small town pastor is called out to pray for the victims of an aircraft crash. The thing is, the aircraft that crashed wasn't American. In fact, it wasn't even from this planet.
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Did a Time Slip Happen in Kersey, England? The 1957 Royal Navy Cadets
Three Royal Navy cadets walk into Kersey, Suffolk on a bright Sunday morning in October 1957. It is a simple map-reading drill. They have a checkpoint and a deadline. Then the church bells stop, the village goes silent, and the world feels wrong. In this episode of The Parsonage Files, you hear…
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Before You Try a Ouija Board, Watch This (What I’d Say as a Pastor)
In this episode, Rob and Rick discuss the possibility of contacting "spirits."
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Close Encounters of the Mince Pie Kind
Christmas. 1979. Snow on the ground. A normal morning in a small English council house… until three glowing, winged “gentlemen” float through the back door, trash an artificial Christmas tree like a pack of cats, politely announce “Only one Lord,” and then sprint to their UFO with *mince pies in...
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They Do What?
Ever heard of a Christmas tradition that involves a pooping nativity figure, a log that “poops” candy, 13 sneaky Christmas trolls, and a rap battle with a dead horse head? Yeah… welcome to The Parsonage Files. In this episode, Pastor Rick (Groveport UMC) and his brother Rob dive into some of the...
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Miracle in Nebraska
When is a coincidence just random chance… and when does it start to look like a miracle? In this episode of The Parsonage Files, we head to Beatrice, Nebraska, to revisit the true story of a small church that exploded on choir night—yet every single choir member was mysteriously running late. A…
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The Flying Peanut: The Norwood UFO Incident
Step back in time to 1949 and the strange skies over Norwood, Ohio. In The Flying Peanut: The Norwood UFO Incident, we dig into one of the most intriguing and overlooked UFO cases in American history — a peanut-shaped object caught in a powerful searchlight above suburban Cincinnati. In this…
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Church Festival Gone Wrong
YouTube
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An Alien, A Farmer, and a Pancake!
small-town chicken farmer, a flying saucer in the yard, and… alien pancakes? 🥞🛸 In this episode, we dive into the real (and very weird) UFO case where a farmer says three “Italian-looking” aliens in dark blue turtlenecks landed, handed him a silver jug, and paid him in pancakes cooked on a...
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The Boianai Mission UFO Sighting
In “The Boianai Mission UFO Sighting”, The Parsonage Files revisits one of the most intriguing cases in UFO history: the 1959 Papua New Guinea encounter, where Anglican priest Father William Gill and 30+ witnesses watched a glowing craft with humanlike figures waving back at them. In this…
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St. Columba vs. Nessie - Ep. 11
What happens when a Saint meets a legend? Find out on this episode of The Parsonage Files.
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Ghost Stories! Ep. 10
It's Halloween! This week on The Parsoange Files, we hear some good old-fashioned ghost stories.
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The Chronovisor - Ep. 9
Today on The Parsonage Files, we dive into the wonderfully weird tale of the Chronovisor. Is there really a time machine in the Pope’s basement?
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The Angels of Mons - Ep. 8
Did Angels really help the British army during the First World War? We will find out the answer on this episode of The Parsoange Files.
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Uzzah and the Ark - Ep. 7
On this episode of The Parsonage Files, Rick and Rob dig into the story of Uzzah. Was he a good guy trying to help, or did he cross a line God had made clear? We unpack what happened, why it matters today, and then go hunting for the Ark of the Covenant. No whips or fedoras required.
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The Merkel Incident
This Week: “The Merkel Incident”Pastor Rick shares an old Irish story about a church and a sky-sailing ship that drops an anchor where no anchor should be. And here’s the twist: this strange little story keeps popping up across the centuries.Along the way we ask:Do churches need to worry about...
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The Secret of Holy Fire - Ep. 5
Step inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with us on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. The church is packed with believers from many nations. Under the great dome sits the Aedicule, a small stone shrine over the tomb of Jesus. A chant rises. Drummers sway on the shoulders of dancers. Then...
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The Spectre of Newby Church - Ep. 4
In this episode of The Parsonage Files, Dale—the retired custodian with a flashlight and a sense of humor—asks Rob and Rick what they’d say if a single photograph could prove a ghost is real, then guides viewers through the strange history of spirit photography (from Mumler to modern skeptics),...
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The Talking Donkey
In this episode of The Parsonage Files, Dale shares one of the Bible’s strangest and funniest stories—the day a donkey outsmarted a prophet. Hired to curse Israel for a big payday, Balaam sets off on a reckless journey, blind to the danger ahead. But his donkey sees what he can’t: an angel with a...
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The Miracle Staircase
In this episode of The Parsonage Files, Rick and Rob hear one of the custodian’s favorite stories—the mystery of the Miraculous Staircase. Long ago, in Santa Fe’s Loretto Chapel, the nuns had a big problem: their choir loft was 22 feet in the air, and no one could build stairs to reach it. Then a...
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The Ghost and Mr. Wesley
The Ghost and Mr. Wesley | The Parsonage Files PodcastWhat happens when the father of Methodism’s founder decides to pick a fight with a ghost?In 1716, Reverend Samuel Wesley shouted into the dark: “Thou deaf and dumb devil… come to me! I am a man!”The spirit answered.Doors slammed. Chains…
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Preview 2 - The Ghost and Mr. Wesley
The Ghost and Mr. Wesley | The Parsonage Files Podcast What happens when the father of Methodism’s founder decides to pick a fight with a ghost? In 1716, Reverend Samuel Wesley shouted into the dark: “Thou deaf and dumb devil… come to me! I am a man!” The spirit answered. Doors slammed. Chains...
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Preview - "The Ghost and Mr. Wesley"
The Ghost and Mr. Wesley | The Parsonage Files Podcast What happens when the father of Methodism’s founder decides to pick a fight with a ghost? In 1716, Reverend Samuel Wesley shouted into the dark: “Thou deaf and dumb devil… come to me! I am a man!” The spirit answered. Doors slammed. Chains...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The Parsonage Files is all about bringing the fun back to church! Each week, twin brothers Rick and Rob Birk share fascinating, funny, and sometimes surprising stories from church history, along with quirky and uplifting news from the world of faith. From inspiring moments to unusual tales you’ve probably never heard, it’s a joyful mix of laughter, learning, and a fresh look at the church you thought you knew.
HOSTED BY
Richard Birk
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Parsonage Files have?
The Parsonage Files currently has 36 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Parsonage Files about?
The Parsonage Files is all about bringing the fun back to church! Each week, twin brothers Rick and Rob Birk share fascinating, funny, and sometimes surprising stories from church history, along with quirky and uplifting news from the world of faith. From inspiring moments to unusual tales you’ve...
How often does The Parsonage Files release new episodes?
The Parsonage Files has 36 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Parsonage Files?
You can listen to The Parsonage Files on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Parsonage Files?
The Parsonage Files is created and hosted by Richard Birk.
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