Episode 054 – Knowing the Past to Make a Better Future (With Sarah Sanderson) Do you know the hidden history of the place where you live? If we want to be part of God’s work of bringing restoration and liberation, we can’t ignore what’s happened in the past. Telling this truth is the only way to get to healing. Show Notes Get Sarah’s book: The Plac…

Episode 053 – What if the Bible isn’t perfect? (With Zach Hunt) There are many debates and disagreements within Christianity. Behind most of these, you’ll find one very significant issue. How we read the Bible. The way we read the Bible and what we believe about how the Bible came to be directly gets at what we believe about God. Can Christianity w…

Episode 052 – Childlike Faith vs. Childish Faith (With Pastor Mandy Smith) Often the church seems in a panic to avoid the influence of culture, but what if the church is already fully bought into the assumptions of culture? Western culture assumes that strength, leadership, and being right are the way of success. Does the way of Jesus calls us to s…

Episode 051 – Faith when you don’t Feel Faithful (With Ben Stenke & Matt Tebbe) The life of a follower of Jesus is not about assent to an idea, or rigorous attention to a life of religious activity. Matt Tebbe says, “There aren’t two things: faith and action. There’s just one thing: Faithful Action.” We discuss. Show Notes Get the book: Having the …

Episode 050 – Letting God Change Our Minds —or, A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Devotional (With Jonathan Puddle) What do you do with an opportunity that comes your way that isn’t right for you? That happened for Jonathan Puddle, and he turned into something beautiful. Show Notes Jonathan’s new devotional: Mornings With God: Daily Bible De…

Episode 049 – Church, Stop Acting Like a Hot Topic—or, Building a Church People Actually Want To Go To (With Kevin Makins) Why would anyone bother to go to church? I don’t mean why would Christians bother. I mean, if someone outside of the church was thinking about getting involved, why would they? What might it look like to build a church that peo…

Episode 048 – Empathy Is Not a Sin (With Becky Castle Miller) Recently a number of Christian leaders and teachers have been making waves saying that empathy is a sin–or at least something that good Christians need to be very careful with. Why would they say this? What do they get out of it? And why should you be concerned if you hear this line of t…

Episode 047 – Don’t Choose Shallow Formation (With Rich Vellodas) Does our faith enable us to be “a good gift” to our neighbors, even the neighbors we disagree with? Many Christians, it seems, are living in ways that contradict the core ethic of our faith loving our neighbors as ourselves. What is going on? It seems like we are witnessing a mass fa…

Episode 046 – A More Beautiful Deconstruction (With Dr. Bradley Jersak) Deconstruction is everywhere. People are doing it. Some leaders are fighting it. Some people are excited by it. Some people are terrified of it. Is it just a trendy new word for leaving the church? No. It’s a process that’s necessary for spiritual maturity–and how we think abou…

Episode 045 – Let’s Normalize Being Wrong (With Matt Tebbe) I grew up in a faith tradition where being right was essential. It’s what kept us in community. It’s what we thought honored God. For many other reasons–temperament, trauma, and even privilege–being right became an identity issue for me. Then I heard Matt Tebbe suggest that we need to norm…

Episode 044 – Your Suffering is Sacred (With K.J. Ramsey) Are you allergic to happy clappy Christianity? There’s a good reason for thats. Churches that ignore suffering are ignoring Jesus. Many churches are not good at holding suffering. People who find themselves in extended suffering — maybe living with depression or anxiety, other mental health …

Episode 043 – Your Purity & Piety Will Get You Nowhere You want to grow as a person. You want a sense of intimate connection with the Divine. You believe or suspect that the way of Jesus has something to say about this. That’s why you’re here. That’s why I write. But in order to grow in the way of Jesus, we have to unpack some ideas we have about t…

Episode 042 – Can You Imagine Jesus Demanding Sex? – Interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire. Christian teachers notoriously have lots of opinions about sex. Sometimes they even claim those opinions are God’s will. But what if some of those teachings are hurting people and wrecking marriages? In this interview with Sheila Wray Gregoire we talk about th…

Episode 041 – Trust Your Instinct About the Church – Interview with Fr. Kenneth Tanner. After everything that’s happened in the past year, are you wondering about whether there’s a place for you in the church? Are you asking questions like “Where do I fit? What I’m seeing around me doesn’t look like Jesus. What do I do? I love Jesus. I want to foll…

Episode 040 – This IS Us. We Need To Own It. “This isn’t us. This isn’t America. We are better than this.” Have you heard—or said—those words recently? Well, you may not want to hear this, but the only way forward is to let those words go. Show Notes On January 6th, 2021 there was a historic and unprecedented event where people who had gathered in …

Episode 039 – You Need an Architecture of Grief (Interview with James Prescott) Twenty Twenty seems to be the car wreck that just keeps going, and the result is that many of us are experiencing more and more pain and grief. How are we to deal with this? Writer James Prescott and I discuss the ways we structure our lives for either avoiding or enter…

Episode 038 – Would Jesus call you (or your church) Satan? “Get behind me, Satan!” Those are the words Jesus said to Peter. Yikes! But as I survey the current landscape of Christianity, I wonder if Jesus is saying this to us, or to our churches. In this episode, I reflect on what Jesus meant when he said these words to his friend, and what they mig…

Episode 037 – Looking for God in All the Wrong Places – Interview with Paul J. Pastor Do you sometimes feel like your spiritual life is supposed to be in color, but you can only see it in black & white? Do you worry that we might be numb to God’s presence? Are you looking for a goose-bump moment and overlooking God in the process? In this episode, …

Episode 036 – Don’t Avoid Starting Over I like knowing stuff. I like being seen as a good person. I love being an expert. Weird that I became a pastor, right? But here’s the thing. As much as I like this stuff, I’ve discovered it’s not very good for me. Turns out that being an expert doesn’t help you grow spiritually. Consider this: What you think …

Episode 035 – Your Values are Showing! Pain is a terrible thing to waste. At least, that’s what my Trauma Therapist friend says. So, how are we using the pain of this difficult time of pandemic and protests so that we can be better people? This is part 3 of my 3 part conversation with Byron Kehler, a trauma therapist with nearly 40 years of experie…

Episode 034 – The 5 Stages of Pandemic Grief We are going through deep weeds right now — pandemic, protests, unemployment, so many losses — and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better any time soon. But there’s one important factor that will determine how well we deal with all of it. We are all feeling an important emotion we might not even r…

Episode 033 – Why are we feeling so crazy, and what can we do about it – Trauma response in the time of pandemic & protests Covid-19, Masks, Quarantine, and now protests against racial injustice and police brutality? If you’re feeling overwhelmed, or depressed, or angry, or confused, you are not alone. Why are we feeling this way and what can we do…

Episode 032 – Pentecost, Breathing & George Floyd This is the air I breathe! My heart broke open this week as I watched the events unfold around the murder of George Floyd, and the protests and riots that followed. At the same time, I was studying the lectionary passages for Pentecost. This is an edited version of the sermon I preached at Bridge Ci…

Episode 031 – COVID, Suffering & Jesus How are you doing with this COVID-19 thing? Are you afraid? Are you angry? Are you confused by all the different information about what to do? Are you just ready for it to be over? I get it. I’ve been all those things, and my feelings change from day today. Part of that is because this is a big deal, but part …

Episode 030 – Faith Isn’t Certainty Faith is at the very heart of Christianity. It’s crucial. Without Faith, scripture says, it’s impossible to please God. But more than any other part of the spiritual life, faith is misunderstood. When we get this wrong, we set ourselves up for an ugly, painful crash. (And if faith isn’t certainty, then what is it…