Lisa Harper's Back Porch Theology

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is the second to last in our series The Theology of Worship, and it’s a really special moment for Alli and me because we get to share two dear friends with y’all for the first time here on BPT, Jeremy and Adie Camp. Of course, many of you are probably already familiar with Jeremy because while he’s only 46, he’s already a legend in Christian music with o...

Today's conversation on Back Porch Theology is the fourth in our series on worship and is part two of last week's episode with Darlene Zschech, who many consider to be the mother of modern day worship music. Brooke Ligertwood ~ who's one of the most anointed people I've ever had the pure joy of being led to the throne room of Jesus by and whose songs are also beloved by millions of Christ follower...

Okay I really need your help during today's conversation on BPT ~ which is part of a new series we started this year called "The Theology of Worship." And I'm playing my phone-a-friend card with all of you amazing backporchers because I have the wildly undeserved privilege of hanging out with one of my heroines of the faith and while I'm going to do my very best not to fan-girl since that's tacky...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology in our on-going series on the theology of worship is a continuation of last week because we had such an awesome time leaning into all that Scripture reveals Jesus to be, learning from each other’s stories – especially the difficult chapters - and laughing that we simply had to have a part two of this conversation! Aren’t you grateful that being serious a...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, Alli and I are both bouncing with enthusiastic expectancy because we’ve gathered a phenomenal foursome of wise women whose hearts, minds, and ministries have been shaped by worship. Hope Darst has been leading worship – both in her home church and on stages around the world for decades, although unlike most artists she signed her first record dea...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is all about the contextual biblical scaffolding for a series we’re calling the Theology of Worship. But lest you think we’re going to be talking about the three or four songs before a sermon or our preferred style of music, let me assure you this conversation isn’t just for people who can carry a tune or for those who know how to navigate their Apple mu...

Today's Happy New Year conversation is akin to dancing with a 500-pound gorilla with balance issues because most of us are going to get our proverbial toes pinched! The reason why is we're going to get real about how our daily digital gluttony ~ from scrolling through social media, Googling down one rabbit trail after another, perusing the pretend aisles of Amazon Prime, and reconnecting with old...

During today’s Christmas-is-here-y’all conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re talking about the unlikely gift of waiting. Now if you’re anything like me and you got the gift of waiting this season, your first reaction would be to hope it came with a receipt so you could return it! It’s taken me a really long time – no pun intended – but I’m finally learning that when God authors a pause in my s...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology Alli, Dr. Howard and I will exploring a few of the awesome ~ albeit often overlooked ~ theological truisms in the Christmas story. Because while Jesus is of course the main point and the unmistakable Hero of Luke’s heartwarming birth narrative, if you read between the lines, you’ll find a distinctive trinitarian motif as well. And the Incarnation...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re talking about how to cultivate a more relaxed, trusting, and intimate relationship with Jesus. My first time, guest co-conspirator on the porch is Megan Fate Marshman, a Bible teacher and theological scholar who spews joy with the same effervesce that a shaken bottle of Coke spurts soda when you unscrew the cap. And her joy is especially com...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re diving into a rich, nuanced and deeply encouraging theme that Dr. Howard recently preached on at his church, Dillon Community in CO, called, The Joy of Being Human. The fact that Ally and I are getting to dialogue with Doc H about the joy of being human here at DCC, which is located high in the Rocky Mountains seems especially fitting becaus...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is going to be a huge helping of gratitude. Whether or not you practice the traditional American holiday called “Thanksgiving” which takes place this week – it’s always celebrated on the last Thursday in November - I believe image bearers the world over can benefit from a generous serving of gratitude on a regular basis. In fact, there are multiple secul...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology, we’re going to honestly explore how Christians can do better caring about and caring for the precious people who are leaving mainstream churches. It’s a given that some are walking away from communities of faith for sinful reasons but what about the saints who are leaving our sanctuaries because they’ve been deeply betrayed by a spiritual leader...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology I’m basically peeling off my emotional Spanx and revealing my proverbial cellulite, stretch marks, and wobbly bits because we’re diving deep into the subject of rest, which doesn’t come naturally to me because more often than I’d like to admit, my default setting gets stuck on go. I know cognitively that God modeled rest when He crashed out on a c...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology was actually recorded in Montana with my dear, dear friends, who are actually more like siblings now, Pastor Levi and Jennie Lusko. We’ve been friends for a while now, but after doing a Christmas tour on a bus last year with our kiddos, we morphed into kind of a blended family and began calling ourselves the Huskos! When you spend weeks together in the e...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology Alli and I have the pure joy of asking Dr. Howard – whose PhD is rooted in the New Testament so he’s a smarty-McTarty when it comes to Pauline theology - all kinds of questions about the more complex points and passages the book of Romans. Questions like, How can we reconcile Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith in Romans 3-4 with his view on...

On today's special episode of Back Porch Theology, I'm hanging out with my dear friend Christine Caine. You'll love listening to her because she has this Australian accent. I always tease her and say she could read the phone book and I'd rededicate my life to Christ. But Chris and I are focusing on Advent, the marvel and the miracle of Advent. You know, for more than a thousand years, Advent has b...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re having the biblical equivalent of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest that takes place on Coney Island every July Fourth. Because while we won’t be trying to gobble 62 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes like world champion Joey Chestnut did last summer, we are going to attempt to digest some of the major doctrinal themes found in the book of...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re getting granular about the divine, salvific grace Paul riffs on early in his letter to the Romans. We’re going to take a long pause in our collective amble down the Romans Road so as to marinate in the concept of justification. We’re going to do an in-depth review of how the sinless life and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ made it possible...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re going to mess with your beautiful minds just a wee bit by flipping to the end of the book of Romans before reading the beginning. But we’re not just messing with y’all to exasperate you like my nephew John Michael loves to do when he teases Missy. I promise there’s a redemptive method to our madness! We’re going to read Romans in reverse bec...

Apostle Paul’s letter to the fledgling Christian church in Rome - which he wrote during the second half of the First Century - has often been hailed as the hub of Christian theology because in it he establishes the foundational walls of biblical orthodoxy. In fact, all you have to do is read the statement of faith listed on a few of your favorite Christian church or ministry websites to discover t...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is part travelogue, part exegesis, part confessional, and part pinky swear because while we were visiting Ephesus on our trip tracing the missionary journeys of Apostle Paul this summer, I couldn’t help thinking about the Ephesians’ sad, downward spiritual trajectory recorded by John in Revelation chapter two when he describes those early Christians as “...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology Alli and I are delving into a facet of Christoformity – that is being shaped like Jesus – which doesn’t come naturally to either one of us and that is the art of waiting. Now if your wiring tends to be more high-speed like ours and you’re prone to cram a week’s worth of work on your daily to-do lists, please don’t skip out on this episode because...

Today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology is a vulnerable one y’all because we’re tiptoeing into the theology of tears. Crying used to make me uncomfortable. There was so much anger and chaos and sadness in my early childhood before my parents divorced that I subconsciously began using my blanket as a mini cape and tried to be Little Miss Sunshine. The way I figured it, my poor Mom and Dad alrea...

During today’s conversation on Back Porch Theology we’re stepping into some seemingly foreboding biblical territory that we’ve yet to venture into on this podcast, which is the Old Testament book of Daniel. If Daniel was on a geographical map, it’d probably be punctuated with huge mountains and treacherous rivers and volcanos because Daniel is one of the more complex books of Holy Writ. It takes p...