Deeper

Crowns display a person's importance, role in cociety, job, and family lineage. Though we might not have actual crowns, we all have roles in society and in our families that are worth celebrating. How do we balance those crowns with our "crown" of salvation? What takes precedence? 

For quite a while, it was very "in" fashion to wear punny t-shirts identifying us as believers. Is that a good practice, or do we run the risk of being performative? Dan and Austin ask that question as well as others about encouraging others with our faith, ways we can get more battle-ready when the enemy finds a crack in our faith, and how to tell if we are using our faith as a bartering tool wit...

After debuting a new, "fun" segment of the podcast, Austin and Dan dive again into the concept of Shalom peace- a mindset and goal as opposed to our common understanding. They then discuss the prevalance of modern day idols and ways we can be more intentional with our self-reflections. 

Righteousness is a big topic... what does it mean to live righteously? What roles do gratitude and justice have in our desires to live in a righteous manner? And is Deeper officially a sponsored podcast (spoilers: we are not, despite it maybe looking like it)

Christians believe that the Bible is our main source of truth... so what do we do when people disagree on interpretations? Dan and Austin discuss the challenge of living by a standard the world doesn't need to hold itself to, as well as the issues around interpersonal disagreements about truth. 

After a few weeks spring break, Deeper is back and more ready than ever! Austin and Dan today delve into what it means to wear the full armor of God, as compared to the partial armor of God. We also talk about the lack of spirituality in the American Church, and prepare for the upcoming sermon series. 

What does it mean to grieve as a church? What about as a country? We are very familiar with grief, how do we give space for other people to grieve something that we just genuinely don't feel as strongly about? Important questions to be asked, and Austin and Dan attempt to give some answers. 

When is reformation ok? How do we reform well? And is it important to read "apocryphal" texts? Dan and Austin address these questions and more on this episode of Deeper!

It's natural to want to fight or flee when we are faced with challenges. Neither response is christlike, though. What can we do when we fear that people are working against God's plan?  We don't fight OR flee.  We Trust. 

Pastor Tim is finishing up his time as one of the pastors here at Friendship. This week, Austin asked him about the upcoming transition, expected highs and lows of the new experience, and ways that we can continue to support Tim and his family through this new season.  Also, we noticed during editing that Austin's mic sounds very harsh and fuzzy. That should be addressed by next week, but until th...

Shame is a pervasive element of our lives as humans. How do we balance our desire to be better with the identity-crushing weight of shame? Is there an amount of shame that is healthy? And how on earth do we practice submission and vulnerability in real life?

When you're on a committee, it tends to be the case that everyone has a different idea for what needs to be done and how to do it. We as believers are on the welcoming committee for Jesus' return... so what does that actually mean we need to do? How can we prepare ourselves and the world for His return? Dan, Tim and Austin ask all these questions and more on this episode of Deeper. 

What does it mean to sing through anxiety? Can we focus on being gentle if gentleness doesn't "win" people for Jesus as fast as we would like? And how can we get better at accepting help when we need it? 

The Hall of Faith is a well known concept in the Christian faith. What would it look like if your name appeared in this list? What would you want it to say? Austin, Dan and Tim wrestle with faith and its place in our changing world. 

Today, Dan and Austin delve into the presence of God. What are some ways we can experience the presence that we don't normally think about? Do we need to reframe what it means to be a church community in order to help other people experience this presence? And how do we know what's worth "surrendering" when it comes to how we worship comunally? All this on more on this episode of the Deeper podcas...

Anxiety is everywhere - so what do we do about it? Austin and Dan talk about the many people in the bible with anxiety, how we can recognize if our lives are anxiety-driven rather than anxiety-informed, and how we can interact with "threats" to our historic way of doing things.  Listen to the Amplify episode with Michele Phoenix here: https://bit.ly/48HCCOy

When we try and steal the divinity of Jesus and live as though we have His authority, we get into trouble very quickly. Is that what's happening with people who claim that living according to the sermon on the mount is "ineffective"? Dan and Austin look at the Humanity of Jesus, our appropriation of His divinity and our false assumptions about people who come from Columbus. 

To many of us, our ancestry is a fascinating bit of history. We often search to see when and where we immigrated, what notable feats and what notable names show up in our history. Sometimes, though, we uncover troubling facts, things that do not reflect well on our family name. How do we study our spiritual ancestry? What do we do when we uncover troubling faith-family history? 

When we talk about the apocalypse we often think of the literal end of days. However, the biblical genre of apocalyptic literature is very different, offering encouragement to oppressed and marganilized believers more than offering a game plan for the end times. What is apocalyptic literature, why (and when) is it useful, and does context matter? Spoiler alert: it super does. 

Much like Pastor Tim's old pickup truck, the old covenant needed to be remade into something that actually worked. Austin, Dan and Tim talk about what we can scavenge from the old covenant, the role of ordained pastors under the new covenant and what to do about christians who don't live up to their name. 

When we hear the word Idol, we often think either of ancient statues or celebrity singers. What role did idols play in the daily life of people in the Ancient Near East? Austin and Dan talk about the importance of recognizing our intangible idols today, how we can guard against them, and how to balance things that are "good" with our God that is Great.

What can we do when we are in the middle of chaos and cannot see yet how God is providing for us? This question keeps being more and more significant as tragedies seem to abound. Dan and Austin talk about the importance of praying for wisdom and for the impossible, discuss the frequency of immediate callings, and the continued significance of women in scripture as examples to follow. Also, Austin...

There are many, many examples of leaders in scripture "passing on the torch" to someone better equipped to finish their ministry. Today we look at David and Solomon, and the ways that David's warlike personality disqualified him from temple building. We examine the ways that we might need to re-evaluate how we look at people in need around us; and glance again at prophecies we misappropriate. 

In so many cultures, people have given arbatrary value to people based on their gender, family, race or age. That's super clear to see in the Hebrew inheritance system and culture. Firstborn men were given all the inheritance, social benefit, and status- so why does God so often pick leaders who were NOT firstborn? How can we learn from the people God puts in front of us as leaders? And how can we...

On the 26th episode of Deeper we dive deeper into the local gods of the Ancient Near East. What is the significance of the god Dagon, and what is the connection he has to Sampson's punishments? How does Sampson's story give us hope for deconstructed friends and family? And will Austin ever correctly remember what episode we are on? (Spoiler: he will not)