Deeper

Shame is a pervasive element of our lives as humans. How do we balance our desire to be better with the identity-crushing weight of shame? Is there an amount of shame that is healthy? And how on earth do we practice submission and vulnerability in real life?

When you're on a committee, it tends to be the case that everyone has a different idea for what needs to be done and how to do it. We as believers are on the welcoming committee for Jesus' return... so what does that actually mean we need to do? How can we prepare ourselves and the world for His return? Dan, Tim and Austin ask all these questions and more on this episode of Deeper. 

What does it mean to sing through anxiety? Can we focus on being gentle if gentleness doesn't "win" people for Jesus as fast as we would like? And how can we get better at accepting help when we need it? 

The Hall of Faith is a well known concept in the Christian faith. What would it look like if your name appeared in this list? What would you want it to say? Austin, Dan and Tim wrestle with faith and its place in our changing world. 

Today, Dan and Austin delve into the presence of God. What are some ways we can experience the presence that we don't normally think about? Do we need to reframe what it means to be a church community in order to help other people experience this presence? And how do we know what's worth "surrendering" when it comes to how we worship comunally? All this on more on this episode of the Deeper podcas...

Anxiety is everywhere - so what do we do about it? Austin and Dan talk about the many people in the bible with anxiety, how we can recognize if our lives are anxiety-driven rather than anxiety-informed, and how we can interact with "threats" to our historic way of doing things.  Listen to the Amplify episode with Michele Phoenix here: https://bit.ly/48HCCOy

When we try and steal the divinity of Jesus and live as though we have His authority, we get into trouble very quickly. Is that what's happening with people who claim that living according to the sermon on the mount is "ineffective"? Dan and Austin look at the Humanity of Jesus, our appropriation of His divinity and our false assumptions about people who come from Columbus. 

To many of us, our ancestry is a fascinating bit of history. We often search to see when and where we immigrated, what notable feats and what notable names show up in our history. Sometimes, though, we uncover troubling facts, things that do not reflect well on our family name. How do we study our spiritual ancestry? What do we do when we uncover troubling faith-family history? 

When we talk about the apocalypse we often think of the literal end of days. However, the biblical genre of apocalyptic literature is very different, offering encouragement to oppressed and marganilized believers more than offering a game plan for the end times. What is apocalyptic literature, why (and when) is it useful, and does context matter? Spoiler alert: it super does. 

Much like Pastor Tim's old pickup truck, the old covenant needed to be remade into something that actually worked. Austin, Dan and Tim talk about what we can scavenge from the old covenant, the role of ordained pastors under the new covenant and what to do about christians who don't live up to their name. 

When we hear the word Idol, we often think either of ancient statues or celebrity singers. What role did idols play in the daily life of people in the Ancient Near East? Austin and Dan talk about the importance of recognizing our intangible idols today, how we can guard against them, and how to balance things that are "good" with our God that is Great.

What can we do when we are in the middle of chaos and cannot see yet how God is providing for us? This question keeps being more and more significant as tragedies seem to abound. Dan and Austin talk about the importance of praying for wisdom and for the impossible, discuss the frequency of immediate callings, and the continued significance of women in scripture as examples to follow. Also, Austin...

There are many, many examples of leaders in scripture "passing on the torch" to someone better equipped to finish their ministry. Today we look at David and Solomon, and the ways that David's warlike personality disqualified him from temple building. We examine the ways that we might need to re-evaluate how we look at people in need around us; and glance again at prophecies we misappropriate. 

In so many cultures, people have given arbatrary value to people based on their gender, family, race or age. That's super clear to see in the Hebrew inheritance system and culture. Firstborn men were given all the inheritance, social benefit, and status- so why does God so often pick leaders who were NOT firstborn? How can we learn from the people God puts in front of us as leaders? And how can we...

On the 26th episode of Deeper we dive deeper into the local gods of the Ancient Near East. What is the significance of the god Dagon, and what is the connection he has to Sampson's punishments? How does Sampson's story give us hope for deconstructed friends and family? And will Austin ever correctly remember what episode we are on? (Spoiler: he will not)

After a week away due to illness, Dan and Austin are back in the studio to talk about Rahab. There's so much to learn from her boldness, her faith and her humility. How can we, with our priviliged lives, emulate her faith? Austin asks about the Purity Death Spiral and how it effects the practice of enfolding. Can we be too stringent on less meaningful things to a point that excludes people from fi...

Everyone we know has a tendency to make God comfortable, to change His personality to something that fits how they want him to look. That probably means we are guilty of the same thing! Today, Austin and Dan continue to revisit the ways we make God in our own image; and learn how to healthily confront people who may have done the same. 

We often find ourselves in a cultural soup, where it can be tricky to discern what is cultural and what is scriptural. Tim, Dan and Austin talk about ways to discern what is biblical and what is cultural, and the different ways we can "see outside of our own soup". They also talk about the promises of the old testament and how to tell if we are interpreting through our own lenses rather than that...

It seems like we all have a habit of thinking we are the main characters in the world, and sometimes even in scripture. But we aren't the main characters in the world's story, God is. How can we cure ourselves from our main character syndrome? 

In today's episode, Dan and Austin delve into community engagement. What is our role as believers when we lack the power to fix big issues in society? Also, Austin has some strong opinions on Prosperity Gospel and Dan talks about how to "recover" from teaching or living bad theology. 

There's a lot of discussion about equality and justice in the world today, but often we only care about it when it effects us personally. In today's episode, Dan and Austin look into ways to expand our framework of justice to include more people and perspectives while remaining faithful to scripture. 

With the rise of social media and the easy access to a wide variety of leaders, it's become ever easier to fall into a cult of personality. How do we recognize if our leaders have taken the place that Jesus should have in our life? What does it mean to be humble, and how is it different from being humiliated? Hear some discussion on these questions and more in this week's episode of Deeper! Listen...

As believers, our calling is to tear down walls- not build them. Dan and Austin spend time today looking at what it means to have internal "walls" that allow us to categorize people as "us" or "them". We examine our personal walls, our strategies for seeing the image of God in people we are different from, and our need to just listen to people we differ with. 

What traits do a successful businessman and an exiled king share? In today's episode, we look at David's pride and Nabol's greed; and the ways we might accidentally emulate them in our modern context. We examine social media fights, our responsibilities as a wealthy society and the humbling challenge of learning from our enemies. Also, we spend some time admiring Abigail's strength, wisdom and dip...

It's so easy to get caught up in tunnel vision in our faith walk, but also in "real life". How can we recognize tunnel vision in ourselves? When is it ok to hyperfocus on something? And are we ever excused from helping people in need simply because they have already been helped? Join Austin, Pastor Dan and Pastor Tim in our 16th episode of Deeper! Link to previous sermon: https://bit.ly/3OhGRsL  ...