The Unorthodox Gatherings

Another common story around Lent is what many Bibles call "The Cleansing of the Temple". Understood as removing ritualistic impurities, this aggressive moment by Jesus has always been excused without looking (intentionally or unintentionally?) at the context of Jerusalem's geopolitical climate in this time. In this episode, we not only talk about what the historical Jesus was doing,...

The story of Jesus' last week of life is treated without context. It's understood as Jesus going to Jerusalem to die for this sins of humanity and resurrecting so believers go to heaven after death. No context needed. However, when context is added we see that there's a lot more to Jesus' presence in Jerusalem and perhaps even more to his death and resurrection.

The Gospel story of The Woman at the Well features two people (Jesus and the Samaritan Woman) who grew up hearing stories of why they should hate each other. Yet, both create a bridge of unity that becomes a story of love. How can this help us understand the stories we've been given that tell us to hate or fear others and turn them into stories of love?

Thought of as a time to reflect on our own individual brokenness, does Lent today compare to Lent among the first communities? Today we take a look at how Lent was understood in the 1st century and what implications on our theology this might have.

Dr. Brad Onishi joins us as our guest speaker to talk about his new book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next. This was a riveting presentation highlighting statistics of Christian Nationalism in America and it both views and tries to shape our world a national standpoint all the way down to a municipal one. Dr Onishi captures the present ris...

Care for Creation has led us to primarily understanding ourselves as an interdependent part of God larger creation. Today we talk about that larger creation, the global climate. A relatively new, and complex science, it's been described as a system of systems, which then becomes difficult to explain to the larger population. However, measurable data is vast as well as the consensus by scientists t...

We know there's a climate crisis. We know human activity is contributing to massive changes in our climate affecting life all around us and our own sustainability. Most people don't know Christian Theological contributions that have justified these actions. We need to take seriously our mandate to be stewards of our earth and we need to repent of destructive and incorrect theologies that have led...

If there is anything the modern church does that is NOT a reflection of what's referenced in Scripture, Baptism might be at the top. In this episode we're going to look at how Baptism was understood in the Gospels, through John and Jesus, and by the authentic Paul, which are our earliest writings in the New Testament. Afterwards we'll wonder, "Have we gotten Baptism wrong, and is there a way to re...

It was banned in British-colonized India and in the dictator periods of Guatemala and Argentina, yet the image we have of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a timid, dutiful virgin. Imagine instead a 15 year old, brown skinned, Palestinian girl with fist raised, singing this song at Herod the Great and Caesar Augustus - then you might understand Mary a little better. Today we talk about this powerful s...

People typically treat the Christmas Story like a news report, as though its simply reporting the events of Jesus' birth as it happened. However, when we look at other writings in the Greco-Roman world, we can see the Christmas story wasn't just an accounting of Jesus' birth, but was responding to Jesus' world. This episode looks at what this still celebrated story was responding to in it's origin...

Christ the King has become a ubiquitous title in many Christian circles today. The festival of Christ the King was created in 1925 as a response, not to the rise brutal dictators like Caesar Augustus, but to the rise of secularism by Pope Pius XI. Today, proclaiming Christ as King has become a way for people to insulate their own power, but when we look at the historical context, we find that Chri...

On All Saints Sunday, I gave a presentation on finding hope in the midst of going through grief or loss. I also discussed some of the ways modern Christian Theology has really screwed up the grieving process. 

Most of our Unorthodox folks didn't grow up celebrating Reformation Sunday, so in this episode we went over a snapshot of Luther's reformation, and then looked at some current statistics to wonder both, are we in a new reformation, and if so, how might we be a part of it. 

This is a bit of a convoluted episode as we had a handout to follow along with, but we were utilizing Spiral Dynamics as a way to help us understand the progression of culture throughout time. In such a polarized day, this can be a tool to help us see varying perspectives of people we might disagree with, as well as find hope that we are progressing into a sustainable place. Spiral Dynamics is not...

This series was a pivotal one to understanding the central idea of the historical Jesus movement as a "kingdom" movement. We didn't have a lot of time to think about the implications of trying to live this out so we took some time in this episode to summarize what we went over and to have a conversation about what the challenges are in living this way of life out. 

I've been doing this work for a while and I feel like I've come up with a good definition for what the Kingdom of Heaven is, especially as the Gospels uses the phrase. The Kingdom of Heaven is not about an after life destination, but it's about God's value system breaking into the value system of our world. When Jesus says "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand", he's saying that God's value system is...

Jesus often speaks in parables to both convey a truth he believes in and challenge the current system in which he's working. His parables about the Kingdom of Heaven not only disrupt this idea that the Kingdom of Heaven is not about an afterlife destination, but are a direct challenge to the religious system of his day, as well as our own. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is mostly assumed to be referring to an afterlife destination...however, that's not what's meant when it's used in the Gospels. The best way I've found to define the Kingdom of Heaven is it is a representation of the value system of God, and when Jesus says the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand he's saying God's Value System is breaking into the value systems that dominate our wor...

If you had to ask a random person on the street what they thought the kingdom of heaven meant, they would likely say it has to do with this place that exists after death. We've been so engrained to understand this phrase in this way. But here's the thing: this is absolutely NOT how Jesus or the gospels mean this phrase. Today is part 1 of a new series in which we'll deconstruct the kingdom of heav...

The concept of demons is largely utilized by Evangelical Christianity, but without a contextual understanding of demons and evil in the New Testament. Today we look at the story of the Gerasene Demoniac in Luke 8 as a tool to discuss how demons were understood in antiquity. We touch on the difficulty we have today with our emphasis on literalism to arrest such a human desire on knowing whether or...

Koinonia has become an esoteric word a lot of churches like to use for various types of ministry. It's translated as community, however, most churches today are near perfect reflections of the individualism that has come to dominate American identity. As one of the 3 primary tasks of a faith-centered community, koinonia is essential. Today, we look at koinonia as it's informed by a collective of p...

Continuing our 3 part series on the 3 Primary Functions of a Jesus-Centered Faith Community, today we talk about the Greek word, kerygma, which is translated as proclamation. For many, if not most, churches, this has become the primary function of church. It is proclaiming what Jesus has done for the world and us, and what Jesus promises to do. However, what we say Jesus has done and promises to d...

We're starting a 3-week series on the 3 primary tasks. This might seem mundane, but considering most churches don't engage in this paradigm, it's quite radical, especially because it's centered in radical service to the other. So we go over "service" for our first week. 

It seems almost offensive to simply suggest disconnection to a secure future causes increases in depression and anxiety, yet our society is structured to keep people in these liminal spaces, and solutions are touted as fantastical. This episode not only explores the commonality of this disconnection among so many people, but also the plausibility of some responses that we've been raised to think a...

Today's episode focuses on the human need to have a connection to the natural world. We explore not only this evolutionary need, but how becoming more and more detached from the world has led to the complicit attitude in the destruction of our planet. Renewing connection to the natural world not only helps us individually feel better, it can also have larger ecological benefits.