The Vine Church Podcast

Today Warren speaks with McKinley. McKinley has only been at The Vine for less than six months, but she has become a valuable and active member during that short time. In this episode, she discusses her personal history and how she has encountered faith, deconstruction, reconstruction, disconnection, and wholeness, all while dealing with issues of mental health and the normal challenges of emergin...

[NOTE: This is part 2 of a 2-part episode that was recorded at once. The first episode was released on January 22, 2024, and Part 2 is released on January 29, 2024.] On November 30, 2023, Pope Francis gave brief comments about the need “to make the Church less masculine” and to understand how “the Church is woman.” In this episode Warren welcomes Karen Smith and Jennifer Jones, and the three of th...

[NOTE: This is part 1 of a 2-part episode that was recorded at once. The first episode is being released on January 22, 2024, and Part 2 will be released on January 29, 2024.] On November 30, 2023, Pope Francis gave brief comments about the need “to make the Church less masculine” and to understand how “the Church is woman.” In this episode Warren welcomes Karen Smith and Jennifer Jones, and the t...

This is an episode that was originally published on December 14, 2020, but we thought it was time to share it again. In this conversation about Advent, Warren and Jason are thrilled to have a special guest on this episode, John Hatfield. John is Director of Contemporary Worship at Clear Lake Church United Methodist Church in Houston Texas. (He was at Ecclesia Church Clear Lake at the time of recor...

Warren speaks with Vine member, Timothy Noble. Timothy is deaf, but he treads his own path in the liminal space between the hearing and non-hearing world, which also parallels his faith journey between what he has been taught and what he had come to believe. Warren and Timothy discuss identity for him as a deaf person and how his identity has contributed to his faith development. This is the lates...

Study and understanding of attachment styles is a branch of psychology that helps therapists and parents understand how children bond with parents. It can inform our understanding of the freedom and safety children feel as well as the dangers and anxieties. But the implications do not end in childhood. Attachment lessons learned early in life inform the relationships we develop and nurture through...

Jessie Castro has only been a member of The Vine for less than a year, but he and his fiancé, Derek, have been faithful Christians for most of their lives. In today’s episode, Warren interviews Jessie about his story of faith. It includes love, loss, grief, anger, alienation, and redemption. His is a story that many can relate to in good ways and bad, but Jessie also provides inspiration for other...

After a long hiatus, Warren and Jason are back on the podcast. This week's discussion is about one of the more enigmatic parts of Jesus's teachings: parables. While some seem straightforward in their lesson, other are difficult if not impossible to understand, confusing even the audiences of Jesus's time. After an opening discussion about the challenges of parables, the conversation turns to a spe...

Today Warren talks with Bridget Jarrett about her ongoing faith journey, including how her life-long doubt has actually made her faith stronger. They also talk about the profound impact that her brother’s death by suicide affected her and continues to affect her. [Note: While there is no discussion of his manner of death, in case there are listeners sensitive to that topic, Warren & Bridget do...

We often take time for granted. We assume that time simply marches on in a linear fashion; everything is past, present, or future, and we merely float along. During the Advent season, however, as Christians prepare for the coming Christ that is already here, as well as not yet, the concept of time becomes more ambiguous. Continuing on the theme of time that Warren discussed in his December 11 serm...

In early October 2022, The Vine Church was proud to host author and speaker Justin Lee for the Illuminate Series. Begun in 2019 Illuminate is The Vine's (potentially) annual invitation to a noted Christian speaker to speak to the church and community for a couple of days. We were blessed by Justin Lee's message, Praying on Empty. The 3 sessions that he led (including the sermon on Sunday morning)...

This fall season, The Vine Church is engaging in a series titled "Affirming" in our adult class, with a parallel class for high school students. This series is an exploration of the theology of an affirming view of sexuality and Scripture. Thomas Nichols, Tom Clark, Jason Martin, and Warren Gray are each teaching different class sessions. In this 4th part of the Affirming class, Jason discusses so...

This fall season, The Vine Church is engaging in a series titled "Affirming" in our adult class, with a parallel class for high school students. This series is an exploration of the theology of an affirming view of sexuality and Scripture. Thomas Nichols, Tom Clark, Jason Martin, and Warren Gray are each teaching different class sessions. This past Sunday, Tom Clark led the adult class about the "...

This past Sunday during class at The Vine Church, Thomas Nichols sharing his journey as a gay man searching for his role in the Kingdom of God. Thomas's journey begins as a young child, raised in the faith but also raised with strong heteronormative beliefs about scripture. From an early age, he struggled with how his own nature conflicted with what he was taught, and he searched the scriptures an...

The Vine returned to Sunday classes this week with a class for adults and older teens taking part in "Affirming: An Examination of the Theology & Paths Toward an Affirming Faith." We originally planned to record the class session, but that did not happen, so Warren and Jason are back this week to discuss some of the ideas, concepts, and scriptures that were discussed in class. They discuss why...

This summer has brought a lot of changes to The Vine! As was reported in the previous podcast episode, The Vine Church in Temple, TX decided to move forward as a completely open and affirming church towards LGBTQ individuals. In the months since, a number of close friends have left to worship elsewhere, but The Vine has also welcomed many new individuals and families who had been looking for a chu...

After a year of discussion, study, and discernment, The Vine Church on June 15, 2022 announced that it would be taking a completely open and affirming stance towards LGBTQ individuals. That means that such individuals will be welcomed as full members, able to engage in all activities and positions at The Vine, and they will be affirmed in their identity. As expected, the decision was not met with...

In December 2019, The Vine Church had the pleasure to welcome Dr. Richard Beck to speak about how our identity as Christians can change the way we think about the self. Over the next three weeks, we will be reposting the three sessions on the podcast. This is the final of the three episodes. This session is the sermon he delivered on Sunday, December 8, 2019, bringing the ideas discussed on Saturd...

In December 2019, The Vine Church had the pleasure to welcome Dr. Richard Beck to speak about how our identity as Christians can change the way we think about the self. Over the next three weeks, we will be reposting the three sessions on the podcast. This is the second of the three episodes. This is Part 2 of 3: An Alternative Plan For a generation or more, our culture has told us that building a...

In December 2019, The Vine Church had the pleasure to welcome Dr. Richard Beck to speak about how our identity as Christians can change the way we think about the self. Over the next three weeks, we will be reposting the three sessions on the podcast. This is the first of the three episodes. Part 1: The Self Esteem Trap For a generation or more, our culture has told us that building a healthy self...

What was it like to actually BE there? That's a question we have all asked at one point or another. So many moments and events throughout history that we learn about and are amazed about what happened. But most of human history didn't have video cameras or instant replay. But what must it have been like to be there? In this week's podcast, Warren, Rachel, and Jason draft the top 5 moments in the N...

In an episode that coincides with our current Sunday morning sermon series, Warren and Terry discuss authorship possibilities regarding Genesis and give some thoughts on the book’s first chapter. Along the way they talk about reasons we conversations about authorship matter (and why to a certain extent they don’t as it relates to our faith), the importance of being open-minded in our approach to S...

This past Sunday, Warren concluded the "Standing Firm" sermon series, looking at the Armor of God from Ephesians 6:13-17, but there were a few pieces of the armor that were not addressed in the series. In this week's podcast, Warren, Rachel, and Jason discuss the meaning and implication of the shoes of readiness, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...

There is great value in exploration, discovery and understanding something from someone else’s perspective. These types of experiences can happen from the comforts of our own home or while riding a bus across Israel. In this episode Warren talks with Terry and Zoe Rascoe about their recent trip to Israel and Jordan, where they were able to explore and discover a part of the world they have read ab...

We all have beliefs: religious beliefs, political beliefs, social beliefs, and many more. But we do not always examine why we believe what we believe. As we grow and learn more about ourselves, our beliefs may grow as well. But mindful are we about how our beliefs may change? How do we reckon with the ways our beliefs may impact others, often in ways we do not want? Dr. Jude Austin from UMHB and V...