The Ryley Heppner Podcast

In part three of our ongoing series, "A Conversation About Church," Ben and I discuss where the local church should fit in our lives in terms of priorities. What should be our commitment level to the church? How involved should we be? Is the church important? Essential? Optional? What if we've been hurt by/in the church?

Today I was privileged to be joined by Biblical Scholar, Dr. Peter Bolt. In my conversation with Dr. Bolt we discussed, among other things, the Gospel of Mark, some of his work in the area of demonology, and a few of his favourite writings from Karl Barth. Dr. Bolt is the Director of Academic Strategy at Sydney College of Divinity, the founding Director of the Centre for Gospels and Acts Research,...

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Today I was joined by pastor, professor and biblical counselor, Dr. Ernie Baker. Our conversation focused primarily on the topics in Dr. Baker's latest book and contribution to the biblical counseling world, Biblical Counseling and the Psychologies.  Dr. Baker (D.Min., Westminster Theological Seminary) serves First Baptist Church as the Interim Senior Adult Pastor. He is also a professor at The Ma...

In Luke 10 Jesus encounters Mary and her sister Martha and it is a powerful picture of the distracting dangers of serving Him rather than sitting with Him.

I am joined by author and theologian, Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim, to talk about her new book "When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness For a More Just Christianity." In our conversation Dr. Kim describes the origins of her new book, briefly unpacks the roots of and the damage done by painting God as a white, and speaks to how the Church can begin to correct the narrative of Whiteness. Grace Ji-Sun K...

When I was four my parents took me into my first skateboard shop and bought me my first skateboard. I tell you all that not for no reason, but because that has a lot to do with how and why I started really following Jesus and then how and why I became obsessed with His Word.

The church that does not know the purpose for which it exists will inevitably misplace its focus, misuse its resources, and miss out on so much of God intended for it. The church has got to know its primary purpose. Thankfully its in Ephesians 3, and it is truly a glorious purpose with mind blowing proportions.

What is God like toward His children? What is the extent of His goodness? How does He give us rest? Psalm 23 has something to say on it!

Before reading the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, one might expect that it would be most boring passage in Matthew's entire book. But nothing could be further from the truth. It is simply incredible how many treasures Matthew packed into just 17 verses, and how he uses a genealogy of all things to so beautifully and poetically setup the rest of the story of Jesus.

More hard words from Jesus, but there is no getting around it. Are we the overeager disciple or the undereager? What are the things that we have not fully surrendered; the costs we have not truly counted? What are the things we use to justify the putting off of following Jesus with our whole hearts?

What is the Gospel? It seems like a simple question, yet how many of us struggle to put the gospel into words?

In our ongoing conversation about the Church, today we were joined by a good friend and brother, Reverend Austin Spry. Austin is a Priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, and as such he brings a unique experience and much needed perspective to the conversation. Our questions for Austin covered topics like liturgy, Anglican church models, children in services, centrality of the Scripture, and more...

What is the Church? How does the Bible describe the Church, and what are the marks of its gatherings?

Are lukewarm Christians saved? I don't know. At the end of the day that is God's decision. What I do know is that either way, the Bible has some difficult things to say to the lukewarm Church.

What does it mean to follow Jesus? A pretty important question for those who would call themselves followers of Jesus. And maybe it is not as complicated as we seem to make it sometimes. After all, Jesus doesn't seem to make it very complicated. What does He say when He calls the disciples? Simply, "Follow me."

With Acts 28 the book of Acts comes to end. As Luke brings brings Paul's journey to a conclusion, he passes the torch of the mission of Jesus to the reader, as if to say, "Now will you go? Will you take the gospel the rest of the way?" So, will you? Or maybe the better question: Will you go all in? Will you give everything to Jesus and hold nothing back?

Today I am joined by my wife, Nicole Heppner, to talk about the basics of biblical counselling. In our chat Nicole helps define what exactly biblical counselling is; she disusses how it is different from other forms of counselling, and even gets into some the specifics of applying biblical counselling principles and methods to our day to day lives. Nicole grew up on Long Island NY and spent many y...

It is easy to think that the gospel will reach the ends of the earth without me. A pastor will do the job, or a missionary, or just somehow God will accomplish it without me having to go. But is that a biblical view of the mission of Jesus and what He calls us to? The question asked in this sermon is simply this, how does the Gospel reach far away places? How will the kingdom of God advance to the...

We are tempted as Christians to at times believe that deeper study will lead to a heady and withered faith. I am convinced that the exact opposite is true. That in fact deeper study, when it is saturated with Christ, will lead us into the most thrilling faith we have ever known.

Three takeaways from Paul's testimony/defense before the rulers.

As both a pastor of a church and a blood bought member of the church I find myself continually living with this tension, that I love where the church is at and I know that there is more. In this first episode of who knows how many episodes, Ben and I begin an ongoing conversation around this tension. We have no real plan or destination in mind, except to start the conversation and to (God willingl...

I was joined today by Dr. T. Desmond Alexander from Union Theological College to chat about, among other things, some of the common mistakes people make in reading the Old Testament, the importance of the Old Testament for understanding the New Testament, and the keys to understanding and interpreting the book of Exodus. Dr. T  Desmond Alexander (PhD, The Queen’s University of Belfast) is senior l...

In this conversation I am joined by Dr. Craig Ott to discuss topics ranging from the need for scholarship in missions, to the parallels between contextualization and Settlers of Catan, to the effects of the increase in short term mission trips. Dr. Ott is professor of mission and intercultural studies, and chair of the mission and evangelism department at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerf...

Mark's gospel ends abruptly, as if to say to the reader, "Now you finish the story." So how will we respond to the evidence of the resurrection that Mark presents? Like the 3 women, in fear and silence? Or with faith that declares through the radical lives that we live, "He has risen from the grave."