Unfinished Community Podcast

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a br...

Welcome to "Get Thee Behind Me," a new series from Unfinished Community where we explore the objectively terrible theology and somehow even worse writing of the "Left Behind" novels from the late 1990s. These books (and other media) were a massive hit in their time, but they didn't come out of nowhere; they're the evolution of centuries of heresy and cultism made manife...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a br...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a br...

This is the sermon delivered by Rev. Don Van Antwerpen to the congregation of the First Reformed Church of New Brunswick, New Jersey, on Sunday, May 21, 2023. Drawing from Micah 6:6-8 and 1 Peter 4:12-19, join us for an examination of what it really means to "suffer" for Christ, and how many of us - even progressive, mainstream Christians - sometimes get caught up mistaking suffering for...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a br...

This is the sermon delivered by Rev. Don Van Antwerpen to the congregation of the First Reformed Church of New Brunswick, New Jersey, on Sunday, May 24, 2023. Drawing from Acts 17:19-28, join us for a difficult but necessary conversation on the silence of the church, the idolatry of our own imagined ideas of who Jesus is, and the hard truth of our own progressive culpability in the religious radic...

Welcome to "Get Thee Behind Me," a new series from Unfinished Community where we explore the objectively terrible theology and somehow even worse writing of the "Left Behind" novels from the late 1990s. These books (and other media) were a massive hit in their time, but they didn't come out of nowhere; they're the evolution of centuries of heresy and cultism made manife...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a br...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a br...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a br...

"Casual Sermons" is a new series wherein Pastor Don either dusts off some older sermons from the archives (all from the pre-YouTube days), or just brings out something new, so we can all get a little bit of the Word in our week! Today's sermon comes from John 19:40-20:18, and focuses on the divinity of critical thinking. Why was it that the male disciples missed actual angels in the...

Welcome to "Get Thee Behind Me," a new series from Unfinished Community where we explore the objectively terrible theology and somehow even worse writing of the "Left Behind" novels from the late 1990s. These books (and other media) were a massive hit in their time, but they didn't come out of nowhere; they're the evolution of centuries of heresy and cultism made manifest with all the polish and s...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a br...

This is the sermon delivered by Rev. Don Van Antwerpen to the congregation of Unfinished Community (in-person and online) in Ashiya, Japan, on Sunday, April 2, 2023. Drawing from Matthew 21:1-11, we talked very briefly about what it means to truly follow Jesus for who he is, rather than who we expect him to be for us. Just like the citizens of Jerusalem cheering for Jesus as though he were a conqu...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a br...

"Casual Sermons" is a new series wherein Pastor Don either dusts off some older sermons from the archives (all from the pre-YouTube days), or just brings out something new, so we can all get a little bit of the Word in our week! Today's sermon comes from 1 Samuel 16:1-13 and Ephesians 5:8-14, and deals with the surprising origin of the kingship of David of Bethlehem. We spend so much...

"Casual Sermons" is a new series wherein Pastor Don dusts off some older sermons from the archives (all from the pre-YouTube days), and fixes them up for our Community, today.  Our first sermon of the series comes from John 11:1-44, and digs into the death and resurrection of Lazarus. The global church is in decline, Christianity becoming a shell of its former power and glory, fewer people in...

This is the sermon delivered by Rev. Don Van Antwerpen to the congregation of the First Reformed Church of New Brunswick, New Jersey, on Sunday, March 23, 2023. Drawing from John 4:5-28a, and Romans 5:1-11, join us for an exploration of what it truly means to stand with oppressed and marginalized communities, and how that typically means that we need to shut up, listen carefully, and take the hit,...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a brief exploration of the n...

Welcome to "Get Thee Behind Me," a new series from Unfinished Community where we explore the objectively terrible theology and somehow even worse writing of the "Left Behind" novels from the late 1990s. These books (and other media) were a massive hit in their time, but they didn't come out of nowhere; they're the evolution of centuries of heresy and cultism made manifest with all the polish and s...

This is the sermon delivered remotely by Rev. Don Van Antwerpen to the congregation of Ashiya Christian Church on Sunday, February 26, 2023. Drawing from Isaiah 58:5-8, 12, and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21, join us for a conversation about what it means to truly follow Christ as a community, and how that often involves pulling away from the things that make us look good, polished, or even church-like. (Ma...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a brief exploration of the n...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a brief exploration of the n...

Welcome to our "new" series, "Back to Basics!" (Well...by new, we mean...repurposed. This isn't the same as the previous series by the same name!) In this series, Pastor Don and Courtney Fraley are going to explore the Bible, one story at a time, starting at the beginning, and working our way forward until we either get bored or run out of Bible! Tune in every week for a brief exploration of the n...