Ronnie McBrayer

Using the Twelve Disciples as a guide, in the talk Ronnie shows how unity is possible - not because everyone simply decides to get along - but because of how the way of Jesus becomes the primary identifier for those who follow him.

Start at home. Practice Healing. Travel Light. Don't waste time where you are not welcome. These were the words of instruction Jesus gave his first disciples centuries ago. In Ronnie's latest talk, discover that they hold up just as well today.

In this talk Ronnie agrees with the calls from all quarters that, "Love is all we need" to solve the most pressing issues of our day - so long as we know what love is. Using 1 Corinthians 13 as a guide, Ronnie talks about actual, factual, tactical, and practical love for this summer of 2020.

In this talk Ronnie wraps up his thoughts on Paul's thorn in the flesh, sharing a deeply personal story. In the conclusion, especially the last several minutes, he speaks directly to the unrest in the US today, and the opportunity we all have to learn from it.

The "Achilles heel" has always been the place of weakness that people protect, hide, or fear will be their undoing. For the Apostle Paul, this was a "thorn in the flesh," but rather than something to worry over, he saw weakness as the pathway to grace and strength. Part 1 of 2.

In this timely talk, Ronnie takes a realistic, practical view of hardships, saying, "The only way out is through - the only chance we have is to press on - the only path is day by day - and sometimes the most defiant, faith-filled thing we can do is get up in the morning and put on our shoes. Sometimes life boils down to survival, and then survival is enough."

Using the Preacher of Ecclesiastes - and the Preacher of Willie Nelson's "Red Headed Stranger" - Ronnie creatively talks about the "meaninglessness" of life. He plots a course for finding purpose and fulfillment in chaotic times.

In this timely talk, Ronnie talks about the different understandings of hope, from Pandora to the Apostle Paul. He equates hope with "meaning" - finding necessary purpose and significance for living.

The word "apocalypse" gets thrown around a lot these days. It's appropriate, as the word doesn't mean, "the end of the world." It means, "to reveal...to unveil...to unmask." Listen to Ronnie's talk about how the current crisis reveals our true character.

Turning to the Psalms for this year's Easter talk, Ronnie picks up a tradition from the Eastern Orthodox Church: One of telling jokes in the aftermath of the resurrection, as Easter will always get the last laugh.

Jesus wept twice in the New Testament: 1) At the grave of his friend, Lazarus; 2) And on Palm Sunday as he approached the city of Jerusalem. Ronnie challenges the listener to embrace this gift of grief for Palm Sunday, 2020. This year, while the celebration of Holy Week continues, it is also a time to take inventory of our world and our own hearts.

"Broadcasting" from the Upper Room (aka Ronnie' office turned studio during these days of quarantine), Ronnie speaks on Jesus' willingness to take on the wounds and sufferings of others. He challenges listeners to take up the wounds of the healers and helpers who are working so hard in the face of the Coronavirus outbreak. The text from Matthew 8 is read by Anna Balfour. 

Taking words spoken to Joshua in Joshua 1, Ronnie McBrayer delivers honest, heart-felt encouragement for these unprecedented days. 

Adapting the title of Gabito Marquez's masterful novel, Ronnie speaks directly to the fears, concerns, and opportunities to serve and love others during these days of unprecedented disruption. Quoting Gabito: "Think of love as a state of grace - not the means to anything - but the end unto itself. For it is love and life - not death - that has no limits.”

In this second part of Ronnie's telling of the Prodigal Son, he focuses on the "older brother" in Jesus' story. He too was lost, though he never left home.

In this telling of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Ronnie takes an emotional dive into the steady, unyielding grace of God that will always welcome us home.

A follow-up to an episode entitled, "Go to Jesus," Ronnie returns to Jesus' Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, focusing on how love is a practical expression of who we can be, not something we do.

In the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Jesus makes clear that he comes to the world in the "least of these" - the weak, poor, downcast, and marginalized. Thus, we meet Jesus "out there" not within a church or even "in our hearts," not taking him to the world, but meeting him along the way.

In this talk, Ronnie turns much of today's obsession with prophecy and the imminent return of Christ on its head, inviting us to consider faith for the long haul, rather than seeing it as an any-second-now escape pod.

Borrowing a legendary title from a legendary author, Ronnie explores Jesus' Parable of the Banquet Feast and how it defies the setting of all boundaries.

In this exploration of what Jesus called "The Kingdom of God," Ronnie talks about how the love of Christ can indeed change the world.

In this post-Christmas edition, Ronnie talks about exchanging - and rejecting - certain gifts that are offered. Particularly, the gifts of anger, troubling-making, and toxicity: These must be left unopened, as setting boundaries with poisonous people is an act of well-being and spiritual health.

In this timely talk, Ronnie talks about the lack of peace in our current society, and its source as the lack of peace within each individual. There is so little peace in the world, because we have so little peace within us.

In the Advent talk that focuses on John the Baptist, Ronnie address how we must wait - sometimes a long, long time - for God's purposes to be fulfilled. While we wait, we work, doing all we can until the Kingdom of God arrives. (Sorry this took Ronnie "forever," but technical difficulties and travel prevented him from posting new material.)

Taking the Lectionary reading from the book of Job, Ronnie speaks on the faith of the patriarch, a faith unlike what most of us have today. Job's was a faith in complete darkness, a faith untamed.