Netarts Friends Church Podcast

Luke 9:57-62 This episode will help you explore the layers and complexities of your deep desires for a happy life, a secure life, a successful life, a connected life, a life lived to the full, an abundant life, a life that brings the best out of you, a life that truly works in the long run. It won't answer all your questions, but it may help uncover conversations you need to have with yourself, wi...

Luke 9:51-56 We were all born into a set of stories that affect the way we interpret reality. The affect the way you ask and answer the question, "Am I safe, or am I in danger?" Sometimes we get stuck in a cycle of playing and replaying stories that cause us to rehearse and replay negative emotions. The feelings amplify. We double down. Our thinking becomes distorted. Our ability to think creative...

Luke 9:37-50 You mean well. This world means well. We really do. And yet the good news that Jesus declared for the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, and the oppressed does not always arrive. Desperate people beg for help, and sometimes no help comes. The path of love gets stopped up, much like a twisted hose. What is it that can reopen the path of love? Credits & Sources: Kenneth Tanner, Donald...

Luke 9:23-37; 2 Corinthians 3:13-18 History is littered with stories where atrocities of every kind were justified with Christian language and even by quoting the Law and the Prophets. We may want to distance ourselves from these stories, but we easily slip into seeing people and events in our life without any thought of the face of Christ. Credits & Sources: Greg Boyd, Brian Zahnd, Jonathan K...

Luke 9:18-27 We spend so much of our life not living in the now. We are stuck thinking about our past and reacting to right now out of old wounds, old fears, and old pain. We are paralyzed not only by what bad things could happen in the future, but also by our dreams. When life doesn't look the way that we had dreamed that it would look, we aren't sure how to live in the now. Credits & Sources...

Luke 9:1-6;10-17 Wouldn't it be wonderful if every time life presented us with opportunities to do something good and noble, or to help with something crucial-those opportunities were completely uncomplicated, calm, convenient, and aligned perfectly with all of our other life priorities and goals? Wouldn't that be nice? But so often, that's not the way it is. This episode wrestles with this realit...

This Christmas episode is an exploration of the family of Herod (father and son) and the family of Jesus (village and relatives). It's an exploration of the things that haunt you, and what Jesus may or may not have to say in the midst of it all. Credits & Sources: Malcom Guite, Fred Craddock, Alan Culpepper, Craig Keener, Justo Gonzalez, Helen Bond, Kenneth Tanner, Brad Jerzak, N.T. Wright, Br...

Luke 9:1-6;10; 10:1-17 The title is a quote that Bilbo says in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. There's a kind of learning that simply cannot be accessed by books or by thinking harder. It happens on adventures. Sometimes the adventure you find yourself on is a journey OUTSIDE of yourself into vulnerable territory. Sometimes the adventure you find yourself on takes you INSIDE yourself into vulnerable...

Luke 8:40-56 An extraordinary story of two different people from the same community, whose lives could hardly have been more different...and the Jesus who met them both where they were. This is one of those stories that causes folks who don't believe in Jesus at all to say...."I wish it was true because that story is beautiful." How can you not love Jesus? Credits & Sources: David Garland, Cra...

Waiting is what happens when life doesn't look the way you want it to look.... until the time that it is remedied. Waiting can be excruciating. It is so hard to not know what's going to happen. How long? When you have no idea if you are running a sprint or a marathon you have no idea how to pace yourself. This episode offers hope for those who find themselves waiting. Credits & Sources: Alan K...

John 17:13 & Hebrews 12:2 Have you ever noticed that when you are taking yourself, and everything very seriously that your joy and gratitude diminish and go away? Have you ever noticed that some of your most joyful moments and thankful moments are also moments when you were caught up in being playful? This episode explores the relationship between these things and considers the way that joy co...

Luke 8: 26-39 Why is it that every time we seemingly defeat an enemy, we have not defeated the fear that infects humanity? Is every enemy real, or an illusion? What is it that elicits fear and hatred within humanity? What is it that seems to have a diabolical genius at knowing what everyone fears the most and creating mascots of that fear in ways that turn humans against one another and against cr...

Luke 8:22-25 & Acts 27-28:10 Have you ever found yourself on a ride you didn't want to be on. It's any experience where things take a sudden dip, twist or turn and you realize, "I didn't sign up for this. This isn't what I thought it was going to be. I want off this ride. I didn't choose this destination." But there is no magic button that gets you off the ride. You just have to hold on for de...

Luke 8:19-21 Family. Your strongest emotions. Your highest highs. Your lowest lows. The people with the most capacity to hurt you or support you. Your most complicated but important relationships. The memories you play the most. Your identity, values, traditions, physical health, development as a person, and resources and all so deeply connected to family. As you live your life connected (or disco...

Luke 8:16-18 When you find yourself in the darkness would you rather try to SEE your way through the darkness, or LISTEN your way through the darkness? You strain your eyes to see your way through the problems and questions of your life. The episode explores the parable (paradox) of Jesus that invites us to redirect all of that problem solving energy from our EYES to our EARS. What does it mean to...

Luke 8:4-15 Recent data says that on average a thought only lasts 9.2 seconds before you are on to the next thought. What is it that causes a tiny little thought to grow and become something life-changing? What challenges and hurdles does a tiny little thought have to overcome to actually become life changing? What's going on when a tiny little seed of a thought becomes so much a part of who you a...

Luke 8:1-3 Who am I? What does it mean to be me? People wrestle with this question when they are young, in adulthood, through midlife crises, in retirement, and even at the end of life. We find ourselves trying to be someone we are not. Copying someone else. Believe our inner critic. Riddled by anxiety and self-doubt. Slaves to ego and pride. Bombarded by voices telling us that we are what we own,...

What do you do when your heart is in the right place despite your deficiencies, brokenness and flaws, but it isn't enough? Others are focused on your past. They only see the negative and what you are currently “getting wrong”. What do you do when your best isn’t enough? Credits & Sources: Kenneth E. Bailey, Craig Keener, Bruce Malina, Richard Rohrbaugh, David Wenham, Luise Schottroff, Edwin M....

But what about "goodnewsing"? There are a myriad of reasons that a lot of Christians don't intentionally practice any kind of evangelism, and there are many non-Christians who hope a Christian won't try to evangelize them. This episode explores the ways that regular people actually come to faith in Jesus. Credits & Sources: Brian Ross, Leonard Sweet, Brian Zahnd, Tim Geddert, Dallas Willard, S...

A lot of people want God to prepare the way for them. They want God to lead them. There is a kind of knowing, a kind of wisdom that God wants you to catch, but you can't catch it by standing still. This episode explores the way God prepares the way for us, and how we respond and catch what God is doing. Credits & Sources: Leonard Sweet, Justo Gonzalez, Fred Craddock, Walter Brueggeman, Alan Cu...

Why is it that we say one thing, but if we could peel back the layers of the onion, if we could look for the thing underneath the thing, if we could get to what is actually going on- We would find something else. Our deeper questions are often much more simply and much more vulnerable. Why is it so hard to say the thing underneath all the layers to begin with? What does Jesus do when you are prayi...

You long to be seen. You long for someone to feel the way that the world hits you. The way it hits your body. But people only partially see you. You end up having to explain yourself. You have to tell people what happened. You have to tell people how it feels. All of that can be so exhausting. Words fall so short of capturing the way it actually hits you. You can end up feeling like you have to ju...

Are there moments in your life that take Jesus' breath away? Are there moments in your life that cause Jesus' jaw to go slack, and cause him to marvel in the wonder of your faith? And...are any of those moments the times that you would expect Jesus to be impressed, or are they completely....other? What might it do within you to hear Jesus say, "You have such incredible faith!" Credits and Sources:...

The storms that knock you down come from unexpected places. Sometimes you are flooded by circumstances. Sometimes by emotions. There are storms you never imagined and weren't prepared for. Sometimes they are big. Sometimes they are small. Sometimes they pile up. Everyone gets the storm they weren't prepared for. This episode explores what Jesus has to say about your experiences of getting flooded,...

What do you do when the way you are showing up in the word is putting a bad taste in other people's mouth (and even in your mouth)? What do you do when the same struggle or problem keeps on coming up in your life over and over again? This episode helps you explore the things you are storing up in your heart and how they are affecting you. Credits & Sources: Steve Cuss, Bessel Van Der Kolk, Elv...