One Right Church

Shame can be the central tool of a group. That tool is used to control or shape the behavior of members. Some entire cultures are known as Shame/Honor cultures. When a group exercises shame, it looks like the threat of being cast out, publicly censured, or humiliated. This becomes a powerful means of control. In Galatians 5:1, Paul writes: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm...

We all experience shame in some form or another. In this episode, we discuss how shame turns us into people pleasers. We become overly concerned with other people's acceptance and approval. When we fail, we cannot truly recover. Shame haunts us and makes us look over our shoulder, wondering if we'll be rejected again. Jesus knew shame. He took our shame on the cross that we might be free from sham...

"Shame on you." That's something many of us heard growing up. Unhappily, shame follows us throughout our lives. Shame breeds in family systems and churches. We have been thinking about shame and would like to discuss it here. We believe it will take several episodes to discuss, and we will begin in this episode. We hope this will help you recognize the role shame plays in your own life and motivat...

That God knows your situation can be a wonderful comfort. God knows your situation, and that can be an excuse not to take responsibility. This episode discusses how people use the phrase "God knows" differently. I hope it helps you think about how trusting God makes a difference in your life and in your church.

Our church is looking for a pastor. Like passing a baton in a relay race, the transition is critical. The Followers of Christ did not make the critical transition, and the baton never got passed. Everything about the church has been affected by the lack of leadership. In this episode, we will discuss why a pastor is important and why the transition between them is so important.

You can bet on being a good person and going to the right church, or you can bet on Jesus. In this episode, we maintain that Jesus is a better way. Jesus makes promises that are better than what you can hope for from your own effort. Jesus offers a better way to salvation.

Wisdom is, among other things, the ability to predict consequences. Wise people know decisions have consequences. Choose first where you want to end up, then make your decision. In this episode, we encourage listeners to choose the consequences and then choose the decision that leads there.

In this episode, we interview William Hughes. Bill, as he asked us to call him, is a retired pastor in England. His call to the ministry and the gentleness of his character will be evident as you listen to this interview. We were introduced to Pastor Hughes through SermonAudio , which has an archive of over 600 of his sermons. One of our favorite messages, " Blessed are the Meek, " is a good place...

Preaching has been around since the beginning of the church; one could even say the prophets did it before that. Yet, it is viewed with suspicion. In this episode, we encourage you to listen to preaching. We recorded this episode because we are having a special guest next week. He is a preacher who is so warm-hearted and truthful that he was influential in leading many to Jesus. Stay tuned...

"I'm not superstitious...I'm just regular-stitious." It is easy for your beliefs or religion to cross over into superstition if you are not careful. In this episode, we discuss the difference between faith and superstition. One of my key takeaways is that God loves you, and you don't have to do certain things to ensure you stay in his favor. I hope this is an encouragement to you.

Is leaving the church the same as leaving the faith? Have you left the faith if you've left Followers? Is there only one church that can get you to heaven? In this episode, we talk about the relationship between the church and the faith. Are they necessarily the same thing? We hope this helps you find freedom in Christ.

We hear the same question about grace over and over. It may be worded differently. Is grace too easy? Will grace let you off the hook? Does grace mean you can do anything you want? In other words, can you abuse grace? This is a great question because it recognizes God's generosity and kindness, but misses the effects of grace. Grace itself works in someone's life and will change the person who rec...

Call it a hunch. Call it a bad feeling. Can you, should you trust it? Can you trust something more reliable than your intuition? Can you trust your feelings? Does God work through our feelings? That is our topic in this episode. I hope this helps you make good decisions.

We've talked about the characteristics of the One Right Church before. This episode addresses why you might want to reexamine continuing in a church with those characteristics. What might be the problem with continuing in the One Right Church? After all, why not One Right Church?

Bible study ended up being a big part of Mark's story. Several people are afraid of studying the Bible. They fear that studying the Bible might lead you away from the One Right Church. In this episode, we talk about why Bible study is a good thing. When other people join you in Bible study, you end up hearing from God in ways you wouldn't have by yourself. We do hope you will find people to study...

In this episode, we discuss the difference between grieving with hope and without hope. Mark recently lost his nephew, Jake, in a tragic motorcycle accident. He and many others are grieving the loss. Jake had a strong faith in Jesus. As we reflect on it, his faith makes a huge difference in how we process our grief. We grieve with hope and find this to be another reason to commend genuine faith in...

In this episode, we answer two listener questions. One question is about parenting; the other is about what it means that a believer might make another family member holy.

A listener asked us to talk about propitiation. It's Christmas party conversation material, but propitiation is a very important word. In short, it means the satisfaction of wrath. Propitiation means Jesus has satisfied God's wrath and you don't need to. We hope this helps you trust Jesus.

This episode is a special one because Cindy joins us to reflect on what the past five years have held. They have been out of The One Right Church for five years. Mark and Cindy found several things to be thankful for and sad about as they reflected on the five years since they left the Followers of Christ church.

In this episode, we talk about an important verse that was misused in Mark's past. More than that, we talk about how to tell if a verse is being used correctly. The verse in question is Jesus' teaching that if you want to save your life, you must lose it (Matthew 10:25). We really do hope you save your life...by surrendering it to Jesus. To properly understand a verse in the Bible you have to figu...

We take a page from Fiddler on the Roof and ask about traditions! Mark grew up with all kinds of traditions, some good, some bad. How do you discern whether you should keep your tradition? What makes a tradition a good tradition? These are important questions, especially if your traditions are religious ones. P.S. We are sorry not to send an episode last week. We had a tragedy in the family. Thank...

Is joy different than happiness? How do you know which you have? How can you have true joy even in you are suffering? These and other questions are ones we explore in the episode. Some of the Bible verses that are central to this episode come from Romans 5:1-5: [1] Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [2] Through him we have also o...

We have attempted to define some important terms in the Christian faith. One of those terms we need to get clear on is sin. What is sin? Should we distinguish between sin and sins, between the principle or nature of sin and the acts that spring from it. This is especially important if you are keeping track of sins in order to balance out your sins with good works. These are some of the things we t...

In this episode, we discuss the difference between repentance and merely saying sorry. We all grew up being told to apologize and say we're sorry. If we didn't do it right, our parents would tell us to be even sorrier. Is that repentance? Repentance is an important piece in our relationship with God. I hope this points you in the direction of heartfelt repentance.

Many people have suggested times and dates for the end of the world. Walter White was one of those people. In this episode, we talk about the dream that was the basis of his prophecy as well as some of the downstream effects of that prophecy. We hope you will be prepared for the coming of the Lord, even though it didn't happen as Walter predicted.