Netarts Friends Church Podcast

This episode will help you explore your own internal world, how you are thinking about the people you want to judge the most, how you relate to what Jesus has to say, and what Jesus might have to offer that could change everything. Credits & Sources: Steve Cuss, R. Robert Creech, Murray Bowen, William R. Herzog, Gerhard Lenski, Scot McKnight, Craig Keener, Donald Kraybill, Alan Culpepper, Ian...

Transactions are the bedrock of social functions. They are what make the world go around " Buy. Sell. Exchange. Barter. Trade. A Favor for a favor. I'll give you this in exchange for that." What happens when love is reduced to a favor for a favor, and do we even realize when this is happening? This episode explores how immersed our thinking, motivations, behavior and relationships are in transacti...

This episode will stretch you. No matter what you think about whether or not violence should be considered as a potential solution, no matter what you think about all of the problems in the world, if you would engage these words of Jesus seriously-they would change you. Credits and Sources: "Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed" by Philip Hallie, Preston Sprinkle, Holocaust Encyclopedia, Scot McKnight. For...

Notice, there's an asterisk on the title. We come as far as we think we can come, as far as we want to come, as far as we were told we could come, as far as we are able to come. This is where all of the real story telling happens. When we come, we show up with a history, a mess, with very human problems, and with everything that makes us human: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Credits and Sources:...

Life is full of forks in the road and choices. We pray and we choose. Sometimes it seems crystal clear what we should do, and sometimes it doesn't. What do you do when you pray your head off, and then make a choice, you invest, you love, you risk everything; and then everything that could go wrong-does go wrong? What do you do then? What do you tell yourself? Credits & Sources: Vern Hyndman, F...

Everyone wants their interpretation of Scripture to be THE interpretation of Scripture? It's a human tendency that is centuries, even millennia old. Who gets to interpret Scripture and actually has authority to say, "This is what this story means!" Credits and Sources: Edwin M. Yamauchi. D. Instone-Brewer, Ambrose of Milan, Mishnah, Richard Rohrbaugh,Bruce Malina, Justo Gonzalez, Greg Boyd, Fred C...

What do a gardener, a ghost, a distant observer, and a foreigner all have in common? And what does this silly little riddle have to do with the nitty gritty of real life? In what way do we find ourselves living in this silly little riddle all the time? For more information or to support this podcast visit www.netartsfriends.org (04/18/24)

What do you do when things feel too far gone? When you feel blocked from what your heart is thirsting for? When it feels like the snowball has rolled to far down the wrong side of the mountain? When you are just trying to survive, cope, and self-soothe? Credits & Sources: Mark D. Baker, Eric Miller, Robert Linthicum, Sherri Nozik, Moises Silva, Louw and Nida, Brian Ross, Eugene Lowry, Alan Cul...

This Easter episode explores the different kinds of stories that people tell about what's going on in the world. Credits & Sources: Brian Ross, Justo Gonzalez, Francis Spufford, N.T. Wright, Bessl Van Der Kolk, ACE Study, OHCHR,IDMC, The World Bank, World Poverty Clock, Lisa Cron, Kenneth Tanner, Jacopo Pasotti, Elisabetta Zavoli, Worldhunger.org, International Labour Organization. For more in...

Easter mini-series Part Two. We all have blind spots. We can't conceive of anything different. This episode walks you through the ideas about suffering that the disciples of Jesus could not begin to imagine differently, and also invites you to reflect on what you believe about suffering, and how that might be impacting your experiences of suffering. Credits & Sources: Moises Silva, David Stein...

This one includes an Easter challenge/experiment that I hope you will engage. It has been the practice that has opened many people's eyes to see Jesus, reality, Scripture, and this entire world in a whole new way. If you feel like your life story or this world's story isn't going where you wish it was going, this short series and the experiments suggested are worth your time. Credits & Sources...

Have you ever done something with the very best of intentions, but most people think you made a complete mess? Part of the human experience is feeling misunderstood and misinterpreted. Like nobody really gets you. If you have a friend who's super intelligent, but they can't interpret you, how deep can that friendship go? We all long for someone who interprets us, and can see what's under the surfa...

This episode explores many dimensions of the experience of ancient lepers. It also explores the ways that we think of "lepers" similarly to how we think of "leopards" or other zoo animals (as something exotic, endangered, or extinct) rather than thinking of them as the kind of person we will probably see every day of the week. In what way does this way of seeing the Gospels and the world cause the...

This isn't only Simon Peter's story. Your story is wrapped up in this story. Over and over in a hundred different ways the Spirit of Jesus beckons you: "Follow me." What does this mean to you? This episode isn't meant to "tell you what to do." It is intended to help you find your place in this story and listen to Jesus calling you to follow him today. Whatever happens next is up to you. Credits &a...

We all assess threats. We all have a limbic system. We all struggle to regulate our emotions and our bodies at times. We move into attempts to escape reality, or control reality. Either way we chose, the farther we go into these tendencies, the more our life happens at the expense of others. What way does Jesus show us out of this vicious cycle? Credits & Sources: Kenneth Tanner, Leonard Sweet...

Our world can explain almost anything. It doesn't matter whether you are wrestling with an addiction, a parenting struggle, financial struggle, weight loss, relationship struggle, or something else; you hear in a million different sound bites every day that whatever help you need can be found in yourself. "Just access these tools. You just need this information." Information is so important, and s...

If you could receive a heartfelt apology, an expression of genuine remorse, and real efforts to repair the situation from anyone; who would you choose? What happens when you long for that apology, but there is no apology? How do you cope, and does it help? Credits and Sources: Brian Zahnd, Brennan Manning, Jean Anouih, R.B. Chisholm Jr., Joel Green, Craig Keener, John Delahouse, Alan Culpepper, Ti...

Nobody wants to think of themselves as gullible. But what if the most difficult temptation to face and often the most destructive, is the temptation that you don't recognize as a temptation at all? This episode explores the final temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, and how we encounter aspects of this same temptation in everyday life. Credits & Sources: Donald Kraybill, Tim Geddert, Alan Cu...

What if there was a magic button you could push and suddenly people saw things your way? Everyone has people they wish they could change. Their goals for change can be "oh so good" and they fail to even realize that their method of pursuing those good goals is "oh so diabolical." This is the temptation on the mountain that Jesus encountered and rejected. Credits & Sources: William R. Herzog II...

Life is full of difficult, bizarre, and dark experiences and we wonder, "Is God testing me? Is this a temptation or dark attack? Or is this just all happening because of natural causes?" This episode explores your experience, and Jesus' experience of all three of these. Credits & Sources: Ilene Strauss Cohen, Marva Dawn, William Stringfellow, N.T. Wright, Greg Boyd, Joel Green, Alan Culpepper,...

This episode asks how Jesus was able to endure the amount of rejection he endured while staying true to his sense of identity. It explores what happens to our sense of identity when we experience rejection. Underneath every identity question there is another question that every person is ultimately trying to find the answer to. Listen to explore further. Credits & Sources: Sanjana Gupta, Henri...

Nobody wants to admit that they might be entitled. But how good are we at recognizing when we are thinking or acting in entitled ways? This episode explores the ways we might not be aware of our own entitlement. It traces ancient paths of staying open to God and not giving entitlement a place to root in our hearts. Credits and Sources: Aine Doris, Stephane Stéphane Côté, Jennifer E. Stel...

What happens when you are doing your routine, doing the same old, same old but you come to a dawning realization: somehow you have lost touch with the sacred, with the Divine, with your Creator? You've lost Jesus. How do you regain connection, restart, rekindle? Credits & Sources: Eldon Fry, Scot McKnight, Brian Zahnd, Thomas Kelly, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Justo Gonzalez, Tim Geddert, David...

What do you do with your experiences that feel spiritually significant, but don't make sense? This episode looks at how you process those experiences that are deeply moving, disturbing, strange, odd, or just plain weird. When you don't know how to make sense of those experiences, what do you do with them? Credits & Sources: Scot McKnight, Kenneth E. Bailey, Austin Kleon, Tim Geddert, Justo Gon...

We all carry strong drives and urges to be in control. Sometimes our grasping for control only leaves us feeling more out of control. This episode uses Zechariah's experience of month of silence to explore the ways we all try to control things that are outside of our control. In what way does God want to bring healing to your relationship with control? Credits & Sources: Stephanie Pappas, Eddi...