Crazy Faith Talk

In the third episode of their series on books that have shaped their ministry, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve take a look at a book entitled, "Part Time Is Plenty," by G. Jeffrey MacDonald, that offers a vision for how congregations can not only survive, but thrive, in situations where they have part-time pastoral leadership supplemented by empowered members of their congregations.  We'll explore...

In their new series, "Books That Shaped Our Ministry," pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve are taking turns, show-and-tell style, to highlight books that have been important for their ministry in some way.  Today, Steve shares a book that is now nearly thirty-five years old, but which still offers a provocative take on being the church as a minority voice, like salt, light, or yeast, rather than as a...

In our latest series, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve each get a chance to play "show and tell" to highlight a book that has been important or somehow formative for their ministry, theology, or work as a pastor.  Starting off this series, Erica presents a book called, The Bible Told Them So: How Southern Evangelicals Fought to Preserve White Supremacy, by J. Russell Hawkins, that takes a look at h...

In this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at a part of the Epiphany story that often goes overlooked, unspoken, or deliberately ignored: the role of the puppet king Herod who kills the infants of Bethlehem and tries to deceive the Magi who come, following a star, to find the Christ-child.  Where is there good news in a story like this, and how do we de...

There are countless ways to observe the birth of Jesus at Christmas, from beloved songs and carols to Christmas pageants to nativity sets.  And we aren't lacking for ways to mark the new year, too, from New Year's Eve parties to the making of resolutions for the year ahead.  But just on the heels of both of those is the traditional remembering of the visit of the Magi following the star to meet th...

In the second half our Christmas special for this year, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at how much of even "traditional" Christmas lore and celebration has been imported from wider culture over time and different places.  From the date of December 25 itself, to the evergreen wreaths and trees, to our connection of Christmas with snow, it turns out that a lot of what many people "expect" from...

Merry Christmas!  For this year's Crazy Faith Talk Christmas special, we're going to take a look at how pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve engage with pop culture Christmas phenomena, from movies to songs to Christmas specials on TV and the like, that are "Christmas-adjacent."  Plenty of sermons have been preached about how Christmas is really about Jesus' birth, and there are plenty of Christmas-the...

In this last episode of our Advent 2023 series on being "a waiting church," pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve look at how to practice Advent-waiting (that is both active and patient) in times that feel like decline.  As congregations change or shrink, as communities and neighborhoods change, and as the needs of each context develop over time, how do we walk through those times with hope?  How can ev...

This Advent, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are looking at what it could mean for us to practice intentional waiting as as the church.  How do we reclaim the idea of "waiting" from passively sitting on our hands to something active and on-call--ready for God's next thing, but also using the time that looks fallow to be thoughtful, reflective, and to listen?  How can waiting times also be times fo...

As the church year turns to a season of waiting and hopeful watching with the beginning of Advent, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are starting a new series on what it means to be a "waiting church."  The Christian community has a unique calling as people who both wait for Jesus' coming and God's new creation, on the one hand, and who are active in loving and serving to anticipate God's "new thing...

In this short series this November, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve have been exploring those times when God showed up to people who weren't looking, in times or places that were unexpected.  And in the Bible, those experiences happen pretty often--the voice out of the blue, the burning bush, the divine voice "calling in the night," and so forth.  But in our own lives, what could it look like for...

Every time people met Jesus, they were brought face to face with God-in-the-flesh in a way they weren't expecting.  In sense, Jesus' life and ministry was one big, long, unending example of serendipitous faith: those times we find God's presence in our lives when we weren't looking for it.  But beyond the story of the Gospels, the community of Jesus' followers kept having moments where God interru...

Sure, sometimes the line between our seeking God's help and God's response is clear and obvious, and people hear a voice answering them in direct answer to their clear request for God's assistance.  But a lot more often in the Bible (and in our lives), God shows up unexpectedly and surprises people with encounters, blessings, directions, and callings that people weren't looking for.  That's what w...

In this final episode of our series on how we relate to God beyond the spoken word or printed page, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore how we circle back to community in our experience of God.  That includes the present-day community of our congregations, small-group gatherings, and things like Bible study groups, but also the community of voices that make up the Scriptures themselves.  And a...

At one level, it seems easy to say you find God in nature--we can talk about the beauty of sunsets and butterflies all day long.   But are there limits to what kinds of things we can say about God from the world around us?  And are there signs of God's presence and goodness even among the things we don't think are lovely or useful, too?  In this episode of Crazy Faith Talk, pastors Erica, Sarah, a...

Any time people dare to make claims about God, we should do it with a healthy dose of humility: after all, we're talking about Mystery beyond our comprehension.  And it turns out that there's a long-standing approach to theology that can be helpful in keeping us from thinking we can dissect God like some kind of high school biology experiment.  It's sometimes called the "via negativa" or "apophati...

In their ongoing series exploring the ways we connect with God beyond the spoken word or printed page, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve now take a look at how Christian tradition has used intentional silence as a practice of faith.  Whether it's in the disciplined vows of a monastery or the hermitages of the ancient Desert Fathers and Mothers or the practice of intentional silence in the midst of o...

In a new series, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore ways we connect and communicate with God that go beyond words, whether spoken or written.  In the Bible, sometimes God appears and speaks to people one-on-one, but then again, the biblical writers can talk about God's glory being revealed in creation, and God's presence being knowable in the stillness of silence.  And of course, nobody in th...

In this final episode of their series on the Mandela Effect in the Bible (when we collectively mis-remember something), pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at figures who are definitely in the Bible, but maybe not the way we recall: the Magi.  These are the star-watching travellers who find the Christ-child and present him with gifts before going home "by another way," but beyond that, the...

Simon Peter is often considered to be the leader of Jesus' inner circle of disciples, and he's remembered as a pillar (even the "Rock!") of the early church.  In some branches of Christianity, he is seen as an archetype of church leadership and a role model for clergy.  Oh yeah--and the gospels tell us that he had a mother-in-law... which sure does sound like he's married!  How does it change our...

In our latest episode looking at the "Mandela Effect" in the Bible (those times we were sure we remembered a character, event, or story one way, only to discover we had mis-remembered it together with a lot of other people), pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at the figure called "antichrist" in the Bible and in Christian history and theology.  And while pop religion (like the not-very-biblical ...

In their ongoing series about characters we all assume we remember one way from the Bible that turn out to be VERY different (or even non-existent), pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve take a look at a complex figure in the Old and New Testaments: the adversary figure sometimes called "Satan," "Lucifer," or "the devil."  And in the course of the conversation we'll unpack how three different ideas and...

In their new series, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve explore characters we would have SWORN were in the Bible, but turn out to be fictions, mistaken recollections, or all-out mash-ups of other biblical characters into something new.  That phenomenon of collectively misremembering and event or person is sometimes called the Mandela Effect, and it turns out we do it quite a bit with the Bible.  That...

In a brand-new series for this fall, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are exploring what is sometimes called "the Mandela effect"--those times when people collectively believe they remember things a certain way, only to discover they have all misremembered, forgotten, or embellished how things are.  (The name comes from a classic example, where many people around the world believed they remembered...

In this concluding episode to their series looking at well-loved hymns and the Scriptures underneath them, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at a relatively recent hymn from writer John Bell, entitled, "Will You Come And Follow Me" or sometimes know as "The Summons." They'll look at how the actual life of Jesus becomes a pattern and a model for our lives of faith: offering healing and he...