Together 4 Good: Making Sense of Life and Faith

In hopes of helping equip our listeners with new skills during this Lenten season, we will be recording several of these Spiritual Practice episodes during the next 40 days.  These episodes are designed to provide you with instruction and insight about different spiritual practices that can benefit your walk of faith. This Spiritual Practice episode explores the practice of the St. Ignatius E...

Pastor Gary’s full sermon from 2/28/21, the 2nd Sunday in Lent. This is the first sermon in a 3 part series we are calling “Because You Asked”. This sermon looks at the topic of evil and division in our world and how Jesus calls us to respond.  It is based on reading from Galatians 3:22-29 and Matthew 10:34-39.

In this PRAYER AND STUDY episode, we take time to dwell deeply in God's Word.  Through readings, reflections, prayers, and music we will meditate on Acts 16:19-34.  Take 15 quiet minutes to pray, study, and grow in your sense of God's activity in your life and the world around you.

In hopes of helping equip our listeners with new skills during this Lenten season we will be recording several of this Spiritual Practice episodes during the next 40 days.  These episodes are designed to provide you with instruction and insight about different spiritual practices that can benefit your walk of faith.     This Spiritual Practice episode explores the practice of L...

Pastor Nate's sermon for the first Sunday in Lent is based on Mark 1:9-15 and explores the topics of humility and stillness.  This sermon was preached at Bethany Lutheran Church on 2/21/21

Bethany’s Director of Communication, Laura Eaton-Ortega stops by the podcast to talk about social tithing, a unique concept she’s devised that encourages us all to think about the ways that we can use social media to support the church.

This episode includes further thoughts and insights about the nature of Stewardship from Pastor Gary.   How is stewardship linked to sacrifice and trust?  What does all this mean for our life of faith and relationship with God?  Listen in as Pastor Gary shares some additional insights into our life of generosity and giving. 

This sermon from Transfiguration Sunday was preached on 2/14/21.  We were pleased to welcome Vicky Daub as our guest preacher.  Vicky is a long time member of Bethany and a graduate of Luther Seminary. Texts for this sermon:  2 Kings 2:1-12 Mark 9:2-9 To see video of this sermon (and the image Vicky references) go to https://bethanydevos.tumblr.com/tagged/sermons 

As part of our ongoing exploration of Stewardship, Pastor Gary and Pastor Nate sit down to discuss their respective sermons from 1/31 and 2/7 as well as some further Stewardship themes that were not covered in their sermons.  

This episode is a recording of Pastor Gary's sermon from 2/7/21.  It's the second sermon in our series on Stewardship and is based on readings from 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 and Luke 13:18-19. 

As part of our ongoing discussion on Stewardship, Pastor Nate has a special podcast episode looking closely at 2 Kings 5:1-14.  Listen as Pastor Nate explains many of the subtle details of this strange story and how the overall theme connects to our life of faith and our understanding of how we can be good stewards of God’s gifts.   

Pastor Nate’s full sermon from 1/31.  This sermon was the first in a two-part Stewardship series and was also a special sermon for Confirmation Sunday. The readings used are 1 Peter 2:4-10 and Matthew 25:14-30.

This episode is a follow-up conversation to the sermon from 1/24/21 on The Holy Trinity.  Pastor Gary and Pastor Nate talk through what it means to believe in a God that is 3 yet 1.  

This episode is an audio recording of Pastor Nate’s sermon from 1/24/21.  This sermon was part of our sermon series on “Epiphanies”.  In this sermon, that took place at 4 different moments during worship, Pastor Nate talks about the Holy Trinity and the 3 different persons in the Trinity and many epiphanies that he has had over the years about this theological concept. The readings...

In this episode, Pastor Nate and Pastor Gary discuss biblical interpretation.  This podcast is a follow-up to Pastor Gary’s sermon from this past Sunday (1/17).  

In this episode we feature Pastor Gary's sermon from Sunday 1/17/21.  Pastor Gary's sermon is a part of a 2-week sermon series called "Epiphanies for Epiphany".  This week, Pastor Gary discusses his relationship with Scripture throughout  his life and the many different "epiphanies" he has had while learning about how to read and interpret scripture.  

In this PRAYER AND STUDY episode, we take time to dwell deeply in God's Word.  Through readings, reflections, prayers, and music we will meditate on Jeremiah 29:4-7.  Take 15 quiet minutes to pray, study, and grow in your sense of God's activity in the world.  

In this episode, Pastor Gary's sermon from 1/10/21 based on readings from Psalm 29 and Mark 1:4-11.  

Our worship service this past Sunday (1/3/21) took time to explain some of the elements of a typical Lutheran worship service.  In this podcast, Pastor Gary and Pastor Nate provide additional details about the different elements of a Lutheran Worship gathering and answer the many questions that you sent it through the connection cards this past Sunday.  If you missed the Sunday service y...

Listen to the two biblical reflections from Pastor Gary and Pastor Nate delivered on 12/27/20 Part 1 is a conversation about Hebrews 1:1-4 Part 2 is a conversation about John 1:1-14

Pastor Gary's Christmas Eve sermon for 2020 invites us to reflect on what it might mean to be a shepherd on that first Christmas night.  This sermon is based on Luke 2:1-19. 

John 1 is a passage of scripture often read on Christmas day, so here's a podcast episode where we dive deep into the details of John's Christmas story.  We will be studying John 1:1-18.  Thanks for listening, and Merry Christmas! 

This PRAYER AND STUDY episode looks at John's version of the Christmas story- John 1.   Through readings, reflections, prayers, and music we will meditate on these famous Christmas words and spend time thinking about the significance that we have received the title Children of God.  We hope this time of guided meditation on scripture can provide you with some hope and joy during thi...

This BIBLE STUDY episode is part 4 of our 4 week series on the themes of Advent. Each week of Advent also has a particular theme that connects to our life of faith.  Over the next four weeks we will explore these themes by studying one of Pastor Nate's favorite scripture passages. Advent Week 4 is the Week of Love and today we are looking at the famous passage on love from 1 Corinthians 13.

This episode is an audio recording of Pastor Gary's sermon from 12/13/2020.  It is based on readings from Micah 5:2-5a  and Luke 1:39-55.