Crazy Faith Talk

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...

As they continue looking at where some of our most beloved hymns get their rooting in Scripture, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve look at a classic of the Wesleyan and Methodist tradition, "And Can It Be."  Written by prolific hymn writer Charles Wesley, this text weaves together themes and images from across the Scriptures as a way of expressing Charles' own "conversion" experience that moved him...

As our series exploring the Scriptural roots of beloved hymns new and old continues, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve take a look at a newer hymn by contemporary hymn-writer and poet Ray Makeever, called "Death Be Never Last."  It's a text born out of the personal experience of grief and loss that also points to the church's collective hope, not only of reunion with those who have gone before us, b...

Over and over again in the Scriptures, we discover stories of God's enduring faithfulness and love even in the face of faithless people who flake out.  It's God's repeated mercy on the wayward ancient Israelites.  It's God's unconditional love for Abraham and Sarah, and even scheming Jacob, despite their failures and doubts.  It's the generous father running out to meet the lost son while he's a l...

In their newest series for this summer, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve continue exploring hymns new and old for the ways that their poetry draws from the Scriptures, and how those hymns and songs of our faith help us to put in words what we sometimes struggle to express on our own.  In this episode, we look at the modern classic, "Here I Am, Lord," (also known as "I, the Lord of Sea and Sky") and...

In this first episode of a new series this summer, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve invite you to take a closer listen at some well-known hymns, new and old, to look at where they come from in the Scriptures.  Sometimes we learn the faith by singing it, rather than memorizing Bible verses or listening to sermons.  So what happens in that interplay between the listening ear, the thinking brain, the...

In this final episode of our series on Things the Bible DOESN'T Say, we're looking at something many were sure comes straight from the heart of the Bible--the notion of being able to point to a single moment in your life when you definitively "asked Jesus into your heart" or "accepted him as your personal Savior" by praying some form of a "sinner's prayer" to "get saved."  And even though those ma...

In times of stress and hardship, church folk are often heard to recite like a matnra, "God doesn't give us any more than we can handle." And as well-known a religious cliche as that may be, is that actually what the Bible says?  In this week's episode of Crazy Faith Talk, we'll explore this idea, the original context of the verse from Corinthians that often gets (mis)remembered, and how we face th...

Plenty of people have heard (or caught themselves reciting) the little mantra "This too shall pass," and it's easy to think it's a quote from the Bible.  The truth is a bit more complicated than that, and while a well-known fable connects that slogan with King Solomon, it's not actually contained as a phrase in the Scriptures.  On the other hand, there is a chorus of voices in the Scriptures who w...

As we're discovering in this series, sometimes a phrase or a line that we have heard a thousand times, attributed to the Bible, doesn't actually come from the Bible, or loses some important background context.  That's definitely the case when we hear the line, "Money is the root of all evil," which is really a sort of partially-remembered version of "The love of money is a root of all kinds of all...

In this second episode of our series on things that many have assumed are in the Bible, but actually aren't, pastors Sarah, Erica, and Steve explore a theology of prayer and faith, and what will keep us from thinking God is a genie responding to our wishes or a celestial vending machine obligated to give us what we demand.  Especially when faith is sometimes invoked to criticize people who have su...

In a new series starting this week, pastors Erica, Sarah, and Steve are going to take closer look at things that AREN'T in the Bible, but which a lot of us may have heard, assumed, or believed were there.  Our first conversation starts with a sentiment that actually predates the Bible itself and goes back to ancient Greek philosophers thinking about the "gods" or some generic conception of the div...

In the Scriptures, the Spirit of God is always in the midst of bringing things to life.  From the Spirit brooding over the dark chaos at creation, to the breath of God bringing a lump of clay to life as a human being, to the vision of dry bones being called to life again by the Spirit-led prophet, to the gifts given to the disciples at Pentecost, the Bible often talks about the Spirit wherever peo...

After having to find ways to stay connected without being in the same room together during the initial wave of the COVID pandemic in 2020, many churchgoers rediscovered their appreciation for being together in community.  And if we've learned anything from that experience, hopefully it at least includes the call not to take for granted our opportunities to be together as God's people.  There's a r...