My Seminary Life

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. In today's episode, we are making one last stop on memory lane as we go back to Year Four, episode 150, The Eyes of the Ranger are Upon You. This was originally a part of the Celebrate March series which focused on people born in March that made an impact on religion, faith, or pop culture. Contact: emailseminarylife@gmail.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Stu...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. Today, I take us back down memory lane to Year Three of the show with Of Monsters and Luther (Part 1). This episode features Joshua Noel and I discussing Santanism, the affect of the Satanic Panic on our view of Satanists, and what Martin Luther had to say about Satan and Demons. Plus poop jokes and a dated reference to kick off the show. Contact: emailseminarylif...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. This week we are taking another trip down memory lane as we revisit the most downloaded episode from Year Two of the show. This is episode 55, Smashing Pumpkins; that time my friends and I pulled off the biggest pumpkin heist in history. Contact: emailseminarylife@gmail.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StudioTwoOneNine

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. Over the next few weeks we are going to take a trip down memory lane as I revisist the most downloaded episode from each year of the show. This week I head back to Year One during the Spiritual Formation series to talk about a book that at the time I did not care much for but my opinions have changed on it since. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StudioTwoOneNine...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. In today's episode, I am joined by Joe Dea and Christian Ashley of Friday Night Frights to discuss the identity of the Sons of God and Nephilim in Scripture. As we look at various takes on this debate, we get down to the TRUTH of the matter...sorta Friday Night Frights: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/773e85f2-7f7d-45d2-9835-2773f8dafc7a Contact MSL: emailsemi...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. In today's episode, I sit down with our good friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer to discuss his views on the existence of God...sorta. The year is 1930, Bonhoeffer is visiting Amierca, and he has some thoughts on how places like Union Seminary is doing theology. This episode brings us back to basics on how Bonhoeffer views Scripture, but also on how we cannot neglect the u...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. We are picking things up after the break with ReOrientation; the special where we strip everything down and get back to basics, our pursuit of Jesus. For this year's edition, I sit down to look at Judges 3:12-31 at how Ehud delivered Israel from Moab and from it I challenge the common said phrase that "God works in mysterious ways." I think that statement does not...

" O GOD, in Your Wonderful Providence, You have chosen Justus Takayama Ukon to be a singular promoter of Your Kingdom, and an undaunted witness to the Catholic Faith —REWARD, we beseech You, his zeal for Your Glory..." Welcome to my dojo, this is Kung Fu Pizza Party. Today, we keep the samurai talks going as I walk through a brief history of Dom Justo Takayama, a former samurai, and a potential fu...

This episode was originally ran during the Systematic Theology 1 series. In this episode I run down the five views on who "the sons of God" are in Genesis 6:2 and why this passage matters to our Christian life.

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. In today's episode, I sit down to discuss one of the books that have made the biggest impact on me in my pulpit supply ministry, Autopsy of a Deceased Church by Thom Rainer. I start off by talking about the odd circumstances around how I first found out about this book, I highlight some of the marks Rainer has of an unhealthy church, and finally, I discuss the one...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. Today is the annual Schoolz Out special, and nothing says that more than the iconic song by Alice Cooper. Yes, we're talking Alice Cooper on My Seminary Life today; who would have guessed that? We dive into the cultural impact of the song, check out the lyrics, and talk about the inspiration behind the song as well. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StudioTwoOneNi...

Happy 200th episode of My Seminary Life! Going back to back on retrospecitive episodes focusing on how I'm finding healing in a divided church world, I talk today about Love In the Name of Christ. This nonprofit is focused on bringing churches of different backgrounds together to love their communities more effectively. I also briefly talk about my role as a newly voted member of the Board of Dire...

"To injur an opponent is to injure yourself. To control aggression without inflicting injury is the Art of Peace." Welcome to my dojo, this is Kung Fu Pizza Party. Today, I talk about how I fulfilled one of my Challenges by spending the day meditating on peace inspired by my reading of The Art of Peace by Morihei Ueshiba. In the episode, I discuss why I chose peace as the focal point of my day of...

Happy birthday My Seminary Life! Welcome back to the show. Often here on MSL I say the phrase "I reserve the right to change my mind later." Well, the celebrate four years of My Seminary Life, I sit down to talk about one thing that I have changed my mind on from since the beginning of the show. Turns out, dispite recent frustration I've aired here on the show, I am not as anti-denominational as I...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. In today's episode, we revisit one of our favorite theologians, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We go back to 1930 when Bonhoeffer gave a eulogy for the prominent German theologian, Adolf Von Harnack. I start things off by briefly expalining who Von Harnack was, the three things that stand out to me from this eulogy, and how these things impact how we worship God and make di...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. Today, in our ongoing Rabbit Trail series, I sit down to talk about the complication that is thelogical labels. After briefly recapping my sermon on reading Scripture from Psalm 119:9-16, I transition into this very complicated topic. Contact: emailseminarylife@gmail.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MySeminaryLife

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. In today's Experiential Preaching episode, I sit down to talk about my recent sermon on the Spiritual Discipline of taking Communion with regular intentionality. Though I do not have much to say on how I lead Communion or distributed the elements, because I find those logistical conversations tedious, I spend most of this episode walking through my sermon on John...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. Today, we return to our ongoing series Experiential Preaching where I talk about a sermon I recently preached and what element I used to bring the congregation into the sermon in the moment. Today's message was out of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 with the focus on prayer. In the episode, I talk about how I preached a short message so I could get out of the way and let...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. Today's episode is a rebroadcast of the Deconstructing Discipleship from the Discipleship Methods series. Back in January, I preached a series on Spiritual Disciplines, and one of the sermons was on dsicipleship. With the importance of understanding what discipleship is, I thought it would be helpful for us to go back and breakdown what we have often turned discip...

The concluding episode of our "Whole Church Job Fair" series presents a compelling dialogue between Joshua Noel and Brandon Knight, who serves as a "Ninja Coach" at the YMCA. The primary focus of this discussion is to explore the relevance of theological topics typically debated within ecclesiastical and academic circles to the everyday experiences of individuals engaged in non-vocational ministry...

Welcome to My Seminary Life. In today's final epsidoe of Fish FryDays, I sit down on this Good Friday to briefly reflect on the totality of the cross; the totality of death. Death is an all consuming thing, like burnt offerings, or even new life. The vine and its branches are so intwined it's hard to tell when one starts and the other ends. Being united in Jesus' death and resurrection is a total...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life, and to another edition of Fish FryDays. In today's episode, I share the abridged version of a recent sermon I preached on Luke 3:7-14 on John the Baptist's call to repent by loving your neighbor. Here I breakdown that spiritual priviledge and abuse of authority do not look like people who worship and believe in Yahweh, or that they are following His Son Jesus. Ins...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life and another edition of Fish FryDays. In today's devotional, we circle back to the concept of being content and seeking a glorious God by having nothing. I reflect on Matthew 5:1-3 and a quote from AW Tozer on that verse. I also bring up the spiritual benefit of minimalism and how Lent is more than just fasting but acts of charity as well. YouTube: https://www.youtu...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life and to another edition of Fish FryDays. In today's episode, I briefly share my reflections on knowing God, making Him known, enjoying God, fearing God, keeping His commands, and enjoying life. I also wrestle with the question of what if the gospel isn't supposed to be centered around sin but around the opportunity to know a glorious God. YouTube: https://www.youtub...

Welcome back to My Seminary Life. In this week's edition of Fish FryDay's I sit down to talk about being content. Fasting is an acknowledgement of our contentment with our situations as they are. Being content does not necessarily mean being happy. Being content however does show our contentment in God, the giver of all good things, and shows our desire to not be content with where we are at in ou...