The Loft LA - Progressive Christianity in Podcast Form

That human beings are created in the image and likeness of God (imago Dei) has been a fundamental theological pillar in the history of Christianity. However, who images God and to what degree do they reflect God's image has been a consistent point of contention. This Sunday millions of folk will celebrate Juneteenth as a way to commemorate the struggle and remember the joy of Black people as they...

Christian apologetics is an ancient form of Christian speech that developed as a way to respond to "pagan" Romans who were skeptical of certain Christian beliefs. Similarly, apologetic strategies in queer theology start from theological disagreements about sex and sexuality and move towards places of theological agreement, such as all humans are created in God's image. While this strategy has prov...

June is Pride month and our sermon series, Queer Theology, will center the thought and work of LGBTQ+ theologians, activists, and scholars. As Pastor Molly notes, we are "a congregation that sees the image of God in all people, including people of every gender identity or sexual orientation, and we are committed to celebrating the gifts of our LGBTQ+ members and neighbors. Yet, some of you may be...

" Where Do We Go From Here, UMC? " is a weekly podcast featuring conversations between Rev. Molly Vetter and denominational leaders about the challenges ahead as we live toward a United Methodist Church that is fully inclusive of our LGBTQ+ siblings. Despite the anti-gay policies that remain in our UMC Discipline, more and more of us continue to move forward with the work of full inclusion. Still,...

Joy doesn't wait for our struggles to be over. This Sunday, we dig into our Advent scriptures, drawing out Mary's song: Mary "rejoices" in this iconic scripture passage during her pregnancy, a state of affairs that would have put her in a position of dishonor among her people. Instead, she sings out powerfully because she knows that this turn of events will usher in the Presence of justice for the...

Howard Thurman penned an essay titled "Joy is of Many Kinds" where he discusses the various ways in which we experience joy. After reading his essay, I wonder how he would have categorized the type of "joy" we see on Instagram? To be sure, there is a kind of faux, toxic, type of joy that can be found within our nicely curated Instagram accounts. However, the joy that we see embodied in Jesus, Tutu...

With all that is going on in our country and in the world, it is understandable if we feel like there is little to be joyful about. In these moments I find it helpful to remember the struggles and suffering of other people who made a way out of no way AND cultivated joy in the midst of their struggles. Leaning into their full humanity and expressing the joy they had for their lives became one way...

How do you define joy? In a country designed to offer instant gratification to those who can afford it, joy could be understood as something that we all can acquire if we work hard enough. However, once our basic needs of food, shelter, security, and sense of purpose are met, does the acquisition of more "things" truly bring us joy? Rather than "joy" being yet another word for "happiness," the spi...

Rev. Molly Vetter with Rev. Kevin Kim Wright On this Sunday after Easter, we will spend some time with St. Thomas the Apostle, patron saint of all of us who have our doubts and ask good questions. What if his doubts were faithful curiosity, a posture and practice that are companions to a belief that is in search of deeper understanding? Especially on Earth Day, Thomas's hunger for evidence is a he...

In Modern culture we are taught that for something to be "real" it must be something that we can see, touch, taste, hear, or smell. Anything that is beyond the level of our physical senses cannot be scientifically validated and must be approached with caution. There is wisdom in this caution. And yet we know there is more to life than what we can physically sense. www. TheLoftLA.org

We often have a "cast of characters" living inside our heads that love to carry on endless conversations — each from their own perspective. The chatter of our minds can sometimes keep us from a deeper listening and it is often difficult to decipher exactly what constitutes a mystical connection to God. How might we ground ourselves, tune out our distractions, and listen for the prompting of the Sp...

Our sacred texts connect the breath of God with our own aliveness—God blew breath into us at creation and we continue to breathe all of creation in and out of our bodies constantly. The early church also believed that breath and Spirit were one and the same. How might the meditative practice of paying attention to our breath be, in and of itself, a prayer of connection to God? Message by Pastor Mo...

The Wisdom tradition within Christianity invites us to love knowledge, especially the self-knowledge that comes from examining ourselves in relationship to the liberating Word of God. But all too often we can conflate knowledge of a text with the wisdom that the writers of scripture intended to convey. How might prayer and meditation help us unearth the wisdom within our sacred texts? What will we...

This Sunday, we finish our sermon series "Love Never Ends" by discussing how love is not only a spiritual gift but also the greatest gift that we can give to ourselves, others, and to God. Love is notoriously difficult to define because it is as much a feeling as it is an action. We all have "common sense" definitions of what constitutes love. However, it is not until we sit down and discuss what...

We welcome Mandy McDow back to the Loft this Sunday; Senior Pastor at Los Angeles First UMC (a church without a building), Mandy brings fresh depth and insight to the prophetic proclamation Christ speaks, as he takes up the ancient scroll that declares a mission to "let the oppressed go free." In her words and in conversation with Pastor Molly, Mandy will invite us into conversation about what thi...

We encourage you to join Pastor Molly and Ryan Parker in conversation this Sunday, as we attempt to make sense of what all it means for us that we are given varieties of gifts. We're excited to let this idea push back against ideas we've been taught by a church and culture more interested in conformity.

What does it mean to claim an identity as God's beloved children? And how does it change us to believe that God finds pleasure in us? Join the conversation and spiritual practices as we contemplate this good news.

One of the words New Testament writers use to describe Christ's gift to the world translates pretty literally as "mystery." I treasure how this description honors that there's something transcendent, and not fully understood, about how divine love works. Even as we celebrate Epiphany this Sunday, we honor that there's more to see, learn, and understand about God.

This Sunday we finish our sermon series "Housing the Holy." This series used the "Innkeeper" from the Bethlehem narrative as its starting point and asked us how we could make the most of our resources, personal and congregational, to best "house the holy" among us? Celebrating the birth of new life is a beautiful, joyous occasion. I can only imagine the overwhelming emotions that Mary, Joseph, and...

This Sunday, Pastor Molly will join me in the center as we continue our advent worship series "Housing the Holy," and we will also be joined by the Singers of Soul Gospel Choir! Our sermon series takes the "Innkeeper" from the Bethlehem narrative as its starting point and asks us how we could make the most of our resources, personal and congregational, to best "house the holy" among us? I can only...

This Sunday we continue our advent worship series "Housing the Holy" which will culminate the Sunday after Christmas. This series takes the "Innkeeper" from the Bethlehem narrative as its starting point and asks us how we could make the most of our resources, personal and congregational, to best "house the holy" among us? . Many imaginative tales have been spun about "The Inn" and the people who m...

This Sunday, we continue our advent worship series "Housing the Holy" which will culminate the Sunday after Christmas. As I noted last week, this series takes the "Innkeeper" from the Bethlehem narrative as its starting point and asks us how we could make the most of our resources, personal and congregational, to best house the holy? Some scholars have wondered if "The Inn" and its "Keeper" were p...

This Sunday, we begin our advent worship series "Housing the Holy" which will culminate the Sunday after Christmas. Interestingly, rather than Jesus, Mary, or Joseph, this series takes the "Innkeeper" from the Bethlehem narrative as its starting point. You see, the Innkeeper was confronted with a huge problem and they had to figure out something, anything, to help this family. So they used the res...

This week, we will be finishing our series "Saints Who Were Sinners" with an exploration into the work of Fannie Lou Hamer through the lens of the story of Jesus feeding the (more than) 5000. Hamer is mostly known as someone who caused "good trouble" through her political activism during the civil rights movement. However, Hamer also grew up on a farm and she understood the important role access t...

We continue our series, Saints Who Were Sinners, with a focus on Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman. Each of the figures in our series were known for causing "good trouble," yet despite the justice oriented work they did they were often viewed with contempt by many within traditional church communities. Howard Thurman's Christian faith was formed in the midst of institutionalized white supremacy and segregat...