Crazy Radical People
Jonathan talks with Michael Mercier about radical people, end-times scripture, and great progressive theology. What more could you ask for?
Read MoreAdvent Survival Guide
In Advent, we should be thinking about what the incarnation means in our lives and what it means for the world. It is no small thing to say that God is born and becomes one of us in the fullest. In Advent, we should look to live in such a way that sets us apart from the ways in which the rest of our culture engages in the “Christmas Spirit.”
Read MoreMozart Morality
For this deep conversation, Jonathan and Doug geek out on Mozart’s great opera Don Giovanni. Yes, it gets a little music nerdy at times, but they also look at the theological themes that can be found in this classic Don Juan story.
Read MoreLow Brass and Woodwinds
Put a bassoonist with a tuba player and you will get a whole lot of awesome!
Read MoreBreathing Out God
It is one thing to commit to a belief without any question, to blindly accept the tenets of a religious community. Some may say that such a level of belief takes a certain amount of courage. But to let go, to breath out God and to live as if there is no God or divine presence at all takes a different kind of courage. It is living in an isolation that might be liberating for some and terrifying for others.
Read MorePackaged Vacation Spirituality
We get ahead, we succeed in life because of a number of different factors - race, social class, wealth, etc. It is important for us to be aware of the ways in which those factors may help or inhibit one's ability to live and to live well.
Read MoreIdols Being Idols
The words of scripture are speaking to a deeper and greater truth, but many have a tendency to focus on the words, to let the words become an idol and miss the greater truth that those words are speaking towards.
Read MoreGrateful Proust
For this episode we hear conversations about being decent and respectful, about clay jars and scripture, and some radical, uninformed ideas about Proust and the Grateful Dead. You can’t ask for much more.
Read MoreSmall Party Hats
There continue to be many wounds and hurts inflicted by Christians towards the LGBTQ community that individuals live with, and that is not ok. We should celebrate the SCOTUS ruling about Gay marriage, but not for long because there still is much work to do.
Read MoreWeddings and Minotaurs
Jesus notices things - the little things that other tend to miss and that can become a big deal. This can be helpful and lift us up or it can call us out because of whatever it is that we are doing. It is good for God to be involved in our lives, even when we do not want it.
Read MoreLiberation in Verse
Poetry can be prophetic; it can speak to the struggles as well as the hopes that many struggle with.
Read MoreThe Live Show (Part 2)
Churches face many different challenges individually and denominationally and have the potential to overcome them or be overcome by them. But by the grace of God do we all try to do the work that we feel we have been called to do.
Read MoreThe Live Show! (Part 1)
On June 27, in the Sheraton Hospitality Suite Jonathan hosted 11 other American Baptists for an amazing, powerful, not to be missed live show during the American Baptist Churches national gathering. It was epic.
Read MoreDown with Norms
Paul is pushing the cultural norms that many people accept without thinking about them and the shocker is that we need to continue to push the cultural norms that we continue to accept without thinking about them. Questions are important!
Read MoreNot Easy Listening
The arts are not necessarily meant to be a salve for people speaking to the lowest common denominator of experience, but something that can offer a depth of experience drawing the individual into more profound truth wherein one may encounter the divine
Read MoreA "Doritos Casserole" of Suffering
Musicians bring a certain sensibility to a conversation. Composer and professor, Delvyn Case brings a good perspective to the book of Job as well as other things including a nice little bit of classical music about suffering and redemption.
Read MorePut Down the Baby
A community is shaped and formed by the practices and customs that it has embraced. Yet a community that does not have any sense of flexibility can become rigid, alienating, and unwelcoming.
Read MoreA Baptist Rodeo
Keeping with this new and different format, we are listening to the first part of the conversation Jonathan had with Rod Kennedy. Jonathan knows Rod from the time that he was Rod’s associate pastor at First Baptist, Dayton. That church has never been the same since Jonathan has left.
Read MoreHow Flexible Are You?
In this conversation Stacy and Jonathan talk about the difference between technical change and adaptive change. While there is a place for both, the religious landscape of American calls for churches to be more adaptive than technical if they want any hope of thriving.
Read MoreCharleston Shooting - Pastors' Response
Because it is such a timely issue and because so many wonder about how to respond, we are posting this segment out of order. We hope that this conversation offers a platform for reflection. Racism is still a challenge for America and demands our attention on level of the small as well as the broad. Churches should be a place where people can have an honest conversation about racism,
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