Deeper

We are back from summer vacation, and ready to dive back into things! Today, Dan and Austin talk about the ways we may find ourselves in the role of the Crowds that surround Jesus, instead of being the "main characters" that we often think of ourselves as. They also discuss the similarities of this story with the stories both preceding and following in Mark 5. 

Dan is on vacation this week, so we will be hearing instead from Skye Jethani- an author, pastor and commentator on themes we've discussed here in the Deeper podcast. Skye breaks down ways that we as Christians are tempted to take worldly tools to accomplish God's goals, how that's not biblical, and what our calling is instead.  We will be back with new episodes of Deeper on August 6th! Enjoy your...

As we roll into our summer series, Dan and Austin talk about what we do about inserting ourselves into God's plan- When do we act? When do we trust and obey? And how do we know if we've put our plans in the position God's plans should be? 

Our view on diversity is broken. The "Babel" mindset that we have as sinful humans is so persistent, but we are called to live with a more "Pentecost" perspective. Dan and Austin discuss diversity and how being made in the Image of God changes our attitude towards different people. 

The word "Blessing" is a fairly common one we hear in church circles. But what does it actually mean to be a blessing, or to receive one? 

Our society is one that is increasingly more individualistic and isolated, and lonliness is rampant in our society. How are we as believers supposed to combat that trend? 

We have hope that there will be a total renewal of our decaying world. But what does renewal look like, and how can we cling to that hope before it comes to be? 

While our modern society imagines the dead coming back to life as a very brutal, violent affair - which we see throughout our media in the Zombie context - our faith views the resurrection of the body to be entirely different. Our new lives are supposed to be life-giving, rather than life-taking. What does that mean for our advocacy or the people we dislike? 

We all are made to serve our community. From our local church to all of those made in the image of God, we've got a calling to be active and engaged in acts of service. But what if we aren't gifted to serve in the areas that we see immediately around us? Is there any difference between serving financally or with our time? And when do we say "no" to service? 

Because of Easter, and Christ's ressurection specifically, we are living in a new reality that totally upends the old ways of interacting with God, our neighbors and even ourselves. How do we live wisely in this new reality? 

As leaders, we are supposed to emulate Jesus' form of leadership- one that embraces peace, gentle subversion and service as a model instead of the Alexandrian domineering, powerful, iron-fist model. However, the latter seems to be the only type of leadership we see around us, especially in the public sphere. How do we navigate our call to humility when that's not the way society does things? 

While we work to prepare our spiritual gardens, we often fall into the pitfall of assuming things have to be fully done ourselves- or, on the other side, that we don't have to do anything and our spiritual gardens will grow just using "Fairy Dust". How do we build a helathy dependence on the Lord while also putting in a healthy amount of effort on our own? 

God set some pretty clear boundaries for us in scripture. What do we do when we can't agree on what those are?

After closing up our series on prayer, we move into the season of Lent. Fasting is a common practice during this time, but not one we are often familiar with. How do we fast well? How do we remain accountable without "going public"? And how do we know what we should fast from? 

We've talked a lot about WHY we pray. But when the rubber meets the road, practicing prayer is really important. How does practicing prayer resemble working out at a gym? And what can we do to de-center ourselves in prayer? Dan and Austin discuss this and more in this week's podcast. 

In this special episode of Deeper, Dan and Austin talk about the brand new "branch" of the Deeper podcast- a segment we will be calling Elevated. In the Elevated podcast series, Dan and Austin will bring a birds-eye view of important theological concepts, church history, and answer some of the "why does the church do this" questions that we, and all of you, may have.  (September 2025 Edit: The new...

Now that we know WHY we should pray.... what even is prayer? How does the Trinity complicate (or simplify) our prayers? There's a lot of mind-bending questions to ask, so buckle in and enjoy!

Often, we find ourselves wanting to want to pray- or rather, we know we should desire prayer, but can't bring ourselves to do that. How can we cultivate a healthy desire for prayer? 

We all are very broken people, and often are not equipped to be healthy conduits of Christ's love and grace. How can we make sure that Christ is on the throne of our lives, and that we are acting as His conduit instead of our own? 

We get so caught up in having orthodox theology that sometimes we lose sight of how we are supposed to practice our faith. What can we learn from the church of Laodicea in regards to our "Orthopraxy"? When do we get to "Spit out" a fellow believer? And what actually happened to all of these churches after they got the letters? 

Complacency is one of the biggest challenges that the church in America faces right now. We After centuries of Christian dominance in government and culture, our influence (Like the church in Sardis) is declining. What are ways we may still be a little complacent? How do we grow out of that? And how do we influence our culture when our culture doesn't want to listen to us anymore? 

We as humans have an absolutely corrupt view of power. We want it, fear it, don't know how to use it. How can we recognize when we are living in fear of it? How do we know if we are using our power poorly? And what role does empathy have in our need to combat fear in ourselves and others? 

If Jesus is the Prince of Peace, what does that mean for our interaction in the world?  How do we deal with the chaos of the world and still keep our heads on our shoulders? And what on earth can we do during a Christmas season with no snow? 

We are a part of a global flock following our Good Shepherd. How do we make sure we keep ourselves safe from division and discord? 

Christ says He is the light, and helps illuminate the paths we are supposed to take. Sometimes it can be tricky to see what it is we are actually supposed to do, though. As we start our Advent season, Dan and Austin look at the importance of waiting and trusting God, even when we have no idea what we are supposed to be doing with our lives.