Netarts Friends Church Podcast

1 Peter 1: 6-13 This episode explores the ways in which we humans are limited in our capacity to grasp the grace of God, and the grace that God in Christ continues to reveal. Credits & Sources: Karen Jobes, John H. Elliott, Dennis Edwards, Craig Keener, Pheme Perkins, Douglas Harink, David Bartlett, Scot McKnight, Peter Davids, Erland Waltner, Lee Camp, Moises Silva, N.T. Wright. Sermon by Aar...

1 Peter 1:3-9 When life turns up the heat on you, what can you do? You want to turn down the heat. You want to manage the heat. You want to escape the heat. The much more difficult task is to get curious about the heat. What is the heat revealing about you? Credits & Sources: Marsha Linehan, Bessel van der Kolk, Karen Jobes, David Williams, Eldon Fry, John H. Elliott, Dennis Edwards, Craig Kee...

1 Peter 1:3-6 God's actions always precede our actions. This one explores how hope is a gift that enables us to live differently: without walls and defenses up. It's not only about actions, but inner narratives underneath the actions. Credits & Sources: Eldon Fry, Casey Gwinn, Chan Hellman, N.T. Wright, Karen Jobes, Adam L. Bean, Rodney Stark, John Elliott, David Bartlett, Dennis Edwards, Phem...

1 Peter 1:1-2 Have you ever felt like a stranger in your own life? Like you are missing a time you can't get back to, a community you can no longer reach, or a version of yourself you've lost? Have you ever needed someone who knows your story and still chooses you? Have you ever needed someone to believe in your process and progress? Have you ever needed someone to include you in their story? Then...

Luke 24:1-49 Have you ever wished you could have amazing spiritual experiences like other people say they have? Have you ever tried to recreate the spiritual experience that someone said they had? Have you ever given up on having an amazing spiritual experience? This episode deals with these angles of chasing and plodding in our spiritual journey. Credits & Sources: Mary DeMuth, Alan Culpepper...

Luke 23:50-54 This episode explores the experience of Joseph of Arimathea (the man who buried Jesus). We are all mixed bags. You may be surprised how much you relate to good old "Joe". Credits and Sources: Amy Jill-Levine, Christian Miller, Raymond Brown, David Garland, Tim Geddert, Justo Gonzalez, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Alan Culpepper, Joel Green, Craig Keener. G.H. Twelftree, D.W. Chap...

Luke 23:32-43 This one is a guided meditation, a prayer exercise that perhaps may open up doors of forgiveness that can be difficult to open, and to keep open. Credits & Sources: Lee Camp, Debie Thomas, Joel Green, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Alan Culpepper, Brad Jersak, Brian Zahnd, Miroslav Volf, Savannah Locke. Music by Tyler Chester and Michael Gungor Sermon by Aaron Carlson For more informatio...

Luke 23:26-31 This episode explores the stumbling way of Jesus from his trial before the governor Pilate, to the place of The Skull, where he was crucified. It explores the way of the cross. Credits & Sources: Henri Nouwen, Craig Keener, Josephus, J. Dennis, Mark Baker, Brian Zahnd, N.T. Wright, Alan Culpepper, David Garland, Justo Gonzalez, Oscar Romero. For more information or to support thi...

Luke 22:54;63-23:25 You may not have spent much time in a courtroom, but you probably know the feeling of being on trial: accused, judged, misrepresented, misunderstood, threatened, pinned down, ganged up on, demeaned, alone, unwanted, scapegoated, experiencing injustice. This episode is about the pathway Jesus opens to navigate these situations from a different place. Credits: P. Gregg Blanton, M...

This one is not a sermon or a talk. It is a guided meditation. More can happen through holy Silence and Centering prayer than may ever happen through words. Enjoy! This one closes with a benediction. For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org (03/29/26)

Luke 22:31-62 This episode explores how Jesus looks at us before and on the days that absolutely everything is falling apart.... even though we are doing our best.... Trying so hard. Meaning well. Wanting to get it all right. Credits & Sources: Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Stephanie Rigg, Casey Gwinn, Chan Hellman, Justo Gonzalez, Alan Culpepper, Moises Silva, Eugene Peterson, Joel Green,...

Luke 22:20-27; 9:46-48 Does this sound familiar? You start thinking about yourself, who you are, your attributes, and your performance. And in almost no time flat you are comparing yourself to someone else. You are using someone else as a measuring stick to evaluate yourself. Does this sound familiar? This episode explores the different way of relating to greatness that Jesus offers in order to fr...

"I thought I could trust you. I was counting on you. Relying on you.....and then....I couldn't. It really hurt." Betrayals come in all shapes and sizes. Some are small. Some are massive. Some are intentional. Some are unintentional. Friend drama, workplace drama, family drama, marriage/romantic partner drama, business drama, and neighborhood drama. This episode explores how Jesus treats betrayers....

Luke 21:5-38 Under stress some of us over-function, some of us under-function. It doesn't work to tell us to, "Stop it." We need something that releases us from the stress and strain. This episode looks at what Jesus does it release us from the inevitability of keeping on over-functioning or under-functioning. Credits and Sources: Murray Bowen, Michael E. Kerr, Roberta M. Gilbert, Edwin H. Friedma...

Luke 19:47-21:4 We all know what it is like to face options, categories, and choices that leave us stuck because there is no way to move forward without violating a core part of who we are. None of the options or categories work. It is a stalemate, a double-bind, an impasse, a lose/lose. This episode is about navigating these kinds of situations with Jesus. There is a way through, and Jesus is the...

Luke 19:28-44 "Peace" and "peacemaking" are words that get thrown around a lot. People have very different ideas of HOW we achieve peace. So many people say that they want peace, and yet we live in a world so lacking in peace. This episode extends the conversation from simply saying that we want peace, to ask what does Jesus show us that we can do that makes peace possible and actual? Credits and...

Luke 19:11-27 We are living in a time when the names "God" and "Jesus" are claimed by all different kinds of people who either claim or truly believe that their angle, actions, and agendas truly reflect the kingdom Jesus declared. This is nothing new. It's something Jesus dealt with as well. This episode explores what Jesus had to say to people who presumed that his kingdom would function in the s...

Luke 19:1-10 Underneath their hard exterior, how many wish they could find their way to a different life but are uncertain of what it might mean to let go, to take a leap into that new life. If I make this change, am I still just going to end up alone? Will there be enough? Am I enough? Can my web of broken relationships ever be whole? Credits and Sources: Kenneth Bailey, Louis Schotroff, Donald K...

Luke 18:35-43 None of us like the feeling of living differently than we said we were going to live, and yet we all know this feeling. This one isn't only about New Year's Resolutions. It's about the moments you live through without realizing that this is your moment to shine, to practice what you preach, to have integrity. It's about the importance of being connected to a Jesus who stops and recog...

Christmas 2025 This episode explores how it changes the Christmas story when we remember that none of the characters knew what was going to happen next. Sermon by Aaron Carlson For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org (12/21/25)

Luke 2:8-18 (Advent) This episode explores your experiences of joy. It helps you stop beating yourself up when you aren't experiencing much joy, while also helping you open yourself up to receive joy. Credits & Sources: Kenneth Bailey, Joel Green, Moises Silva, Tim Geddert, Richard Rohrbaugh, Bruce Malina, Craig Keener, Raymond Brown, C.S. Lewis. Sermon by Aaron Carlson For more information or...

Luke 18:31-34 You could say that this one is about death and dying and so nobody wants to listen to it. But it is much more than that. It's about how underneath all culture warring, underneath all worldview defense lies a sheer terror: We are all enslaved to the fear of death. That fear infects everything. What does it mean to follow Jesus and walk towards an inevitable death without being enslave...

Luke 18:15-30 So many people see the rich in the powerful in one of two ways. They either see them as the posterchild of success and they secretly envy them. Or they villainize them as corrupt oppressors. Neither view looks through the eyes of compassion. Jesus sees what few others see about what riches and power are doing to them. This one explores the way that Jesus speaks out of compassion for...

Luke 18:15-17 This episode explores why reconnecting with your younger self is crucial to healthy spirituality. Credits and Sources: Eugene Peterson, Andrew Root, Kara Root, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Hartmut Rosa, Lacy Finn Borgo, Ken Shigematsu, Justo Gonazalez, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, Alan Culpepper, Tim Geddert, David Garland. Sermon by Aaron Carlson For more information or to sup...

Luke 18:9-14 Do you know that part of you that dearly wants to be right? Do you know that part that doesn't want to need any fixing, any correction, any help? Do you know that part with a chronic need to impress others. Do you know that part of you that known that you can't fix you? It's the part that knows that you keep trying to make it better and solve things, but somehow you have stuck pattern...