Saving Faith with Eric Sentell of the Backyard Church Blog

Monday was the 22nd anniversary of the 9-11 Terror Attacks. In the years since, many religious and political communities have hardened their beliefs into absolutism: all-or-nothing, in-or-out, right-or-wrong. This kind of absolutism eliminates the room for nuance, complexity, and compromise. But epistemic humility can reverse the trends. Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Chu...

Does American Christianity have some heretical tendencies at its heart? Does it over-emphasize emotion and hyper-spiritualize life to the point of Gnosticism? Those are some of the questions that Jon Ward explores in this episode and in his book, " Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Failed a Generation. " Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Pie...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. For many people, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and holidays are joyful occasions. But for some, these days are very complicated. Eric names this reality and reflects on his struggles and efforts as a father. Learn more about Trinity UMC...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount" is arguably his most famous speech. It's super-familiar to Christians. But has it become so familiar that we overlook what Jesus was really getting at? Learn more about Trinity UMC in Piedmont, MO...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a 2021 study of high school students. 60% of teen girls reported feeling "sad or hopeless." 30% reported "seriously considering" suicide. What can we do? Eric has ideas. Time M...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest protestant denomination in the United States. Yet the SBC has lost half a million members in the last year and 3 million since 2018. Why? Eric has thoughts. Learn more about Trinity UMC in Piedmon...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Eric ruins Genesis 1-3 by describing how he interprets it symbolically, not literally. He describes the history of the literal interpretation of the Bible and explains the strong reasons for a non-literal interpretation. In the second half of...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Eric "ruins" the Bible in this episode. He uses examples from the Bible itself to show that the Biblical authors were inspired, but their writing is not inerrant, infallible, a rule book, or life's instruction manual. Rather, the...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Many people have very strong feelings right now about trans people. But how many trans people do we know? How many trans people have we listened to, read, or learned from? In this episode, Eric interviews Austen Hartke , author of Transforming...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Happy Day After Easter! Last episode, Eric talked about how Christians tend to focus so much on the Crucifixion but not enough on the Resurrection. In this episode, he reflects on how Jesus' bodily resurrection shows that God cares about o...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Atonement theories try to explain how sinful humans can be reconciled to a sinless, holy God. Christian atonement theories center around Jesus' death on the cross. But is the Resurrection of Jesus actually the more significant part of the...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Could it be that half of self-identified Christians don't imitate Christ because too many organized churches don't actually want them to grow spiritually?  Eric shares and comments on an essay from former-pastor-turned-blogger, Dan Foster...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Eric shares and comments on a recent essay by pastor-turned-blogger Dan Foster, called " Research Shows that Following Christ Makes You Less Like Christ ." Research by George Barna, founder of the Christian survey/polling firm The Barna Group...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Randy Knie and Kyle Whitaker, cohosts of the podcast " A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar ," share their faith journeys and their perspectives on Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity.  Randy pastors at Brew City Church in Milwaukee....

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Mark Hackett is the Executive Director of Operation Broken Silence , a nonprofit that helps teachers and healthcare workers in Sudan to provide and improve services. Mark also writes about Christianity. He comes on Metamorphosis to talk about...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. What is Christian Nationalism? What's wrong with it?  Eric discusses a new survey on Christian Nationalism that reveals alarming attitudes about religion, government, and political violence. Then he describes the problems of heresy, idola...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Eric presents an essay by Australian blogger Dan Foster, called " Understanding the Power of Spiritual Intelligence: How It Changes Your Life ." He reads through this thought-provoking, super-helpful essay based on the book, "SQ" by Harvard pr...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Eric interviews Zachary W. Lambert, the lead pastor at Restore Austin in Austin, TX. Zach shares his unique spiritual journey from being kicked out of youth group to becoming a pastor. He describes his church's efforts to reach the "dechu...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Dustin Arand is a writer on Medium who caught Eric's attention with a recent essay in which he mentioned a group called "Recovering from Religion." Dustin and Eric discuss his faith journey, the group, and the dynamics that make such a group (...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. This episode concludes our series on the first five hundred years of church history. Eric summarizes previous episodes to refresh your memory and then discusses St. Jerome's contribution to Biblical translation;  St. Augustine's influenti...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. This episode focuses on the hope Christians have thanks to bodily resurrection. It may seem strange to talk about Jesus' resurrection at a time of year when we focus on Jesus' birth, but Jesus' birth sets in motion the life and ministry that e...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Eric is excited to bring you one of the nerdiest episodes yet. He explores three prominent heresies in the early church, where they came from, and how the church's leaders evaluated them.  The beliefs we take for granted today did not alw...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. In A.D. 64, Emperor Nero blamed the massive fire of Rome on the Christians. Thus began persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Or did it? The reality is more complicated and nuanced than our popular historical imagination.  In A.D....

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. Jesus taught that we would know "false teachers" by their fruit. Paul describes the "fruit of the flesh" as immorality, division, and violence. The "fruits of the spirit" include love, compassion, gentleness, and self-control.  Eric argue...

Metamorphosis is the podcast of Trinity United Methodist Church in Piedmont, Missouri, where we share the unchanging love of Jesus to change people’s lives. In Paul's final missionary journey, he testifies in Roman courts to his experience of Jesus. We learn about the final stage of his ministry and reflect on the whole of his ministry to both Jews and Gentiles.  Learn more about Trinity UMC...